A/N: This is the third (and I hope last) time I have revised this chapter. I keep coming back to this series and re-reading it and it's making my eyes bleed. So here is my renovation of a 2 year old piece of writing. It is part of a fic I have not yet posted and I hope you enjoy. I just had this compulsory need to bring this piece up to speed with my current writing ability.
Still In Danger
Fai's thrashing ceased as an unfamiliar weight dropped into his hand. It was a dagger, strapped to the inside of his wrist long ago by their host in this world, also a magic user. He slouched into the ropes, allowing himself to breathe, drops of blood, a red so dark it seemed almost black, falling in time to his inhaling, sizzling as they hit the flames. Her words from that day floated back to him. Mages are forbidden from carrying weaponry, save this. Hide that dagger, it may save you life. And remember, regardless of the circumstance, a mage's life is his and his alone to keep or take.
Kurogane balanced easily, weight shifted forward onto his toes. Throngs of terrified people surged about, a sea of bodies surrounding and engulfing the clearing. With the ease of a practiced warrior, Kurogane wove his way forward, forging a bloodless path towards his victim.
The man fled once he saw him approaching, slamming into bodies left and right, scattering people out of his path. Kurogane accelerated then, not caring who he injured along his path, so long as they didn't die. Three swift stroke of the sword, at once terrible and magnificent, brought him within striking distance. A fourth swing arched upwards; its fall promising death to the recipient.
Kurogane tensed as the man on the ground moved suddenly, reaching for a dagger hidden within his cloak. He sent the sword hurtling downwards, but a sharp pain in his wrist, accompanied by a brief spurt of blood and the grating crack of broken bones grinding together, cost the stroke its terrible momentum, sending the weapon skittering to the side, out of reach. Kurogane pivoted, driving his body away from his now armed opponent.
"Not so tough now, eh?" the man's taunt lost its effect among the strained, panting words, but his stride was swift as he feigned forward and dropped to the side, aiming his weapon in a strike designed to slip between ribs. Kurogane swung to the side again, but he could already see that the pivot left him within his assailants reach. He cast one last glance towards his sword, lying several arms lengths away, and then leapt sideways, left hand clasping the blade, bringing it into a guard position and sinking towards a defensive stance.
The cold man stepped forward, looked left and right, almost furtively, then allowed the blade to elongate into a full sword with merely a flick of his wrist. Smiling at Kurogane's obvious, shocked fury, he said, "You know, I have never hated anyone quite like I hate myself. Except perhaps, that bitch who called herself my mother; she who whelped me infected with the curse of magic."
"You-you," Kurogane struggled, unable to comprehend a term horrible enough to describe his opinion of this man. "You want to kill them because you are one?"
"Precisely. I know the terrible burden of magic, on the user and on the world they live in. I cannot allow one so cursed to survive." With that he leapt forward, raising his sword and bellowing, "Take the strangers! Kill them all!"
"Run!" Kurogane roared towards the hill where the kids stood still, before turning his own blade against his assailant. The men struggled for a moment before the cold man pressed his advantage, twisting Kurogane's left hand to the side and driving forward.
As Kurogane dragged his blade back towards the man, his opponent uttered a strange, convulsing hiss before falling to his knees, then the ground as his body gave way, curled in a pool of ever expanding blood.
Kurogane gaped at his tormentor, lying pitifully on his side, whimpers fading into silence as his eyes rolled upward to stare, blank and empty at the sky. His gaze travelled down the man's body to the dark hilt embedded in his side, thrown hard enough to puncture deep. He turned his gaze to the pyre, disbelief etched across his features.
"Enough was enough." The hoarse, whispered reply answered his unspoken question.
Fai staggered to the edge of the circle surrounding the stake and pulled the dagger from its embedded position in his assailant's side, hand skimming through the other man's robe, and then collapsed into a sitting position, staring at the dagger in his bloodied hands. His blue eyes had a faded, worn look to them, and Kurogane approached, sword in hand, uncertain as to how to defend his friend against this invisible tormentor. He cried out softly as the mage swayed and then tipped forward, eyes sliding shut. He lunged across the distance between them, propping Fai up even as his head lolled from side to side.
A voice behind them spoke, the words cool and calming, "Help me lift him. Swiftly now, bring the mage, the children are safe."
Kurogane spun to find their host from this world, Samantha Umai, a mage in her own right. She sprang forward to drag Fai to his feet, spurring Kurogane into motion. Lifting the smaller man as he had done so many times before, he followed that witch to her home, where the children waited in the sitting room. She instructed Kurogane to set Fai down, and then bent to the task of attending his numerous burns and lacerations.
"I am truly sorry that my neighbors were so unable to live you in peace. You will not be able to rest here. Without Arras to guide them, the mob will likely dissipate, but if anyone searches still, they will look here first," as she spoke Samantha indicated various supplies that Sakura then packed into a small leather satchel, "Everything you need to care for him is in that bag. The path behind the house will take you deep into the forest, where you can leave in peace."
Kurogane simply nodded, signaled to the kids that the time had come to leave, and picked Fai up once more. For the first time that evening, the blond man stirred, then woke. Looking around drunkenly, he smiled and said, "Kuro-wan, you f-forgot something." He held up one shaking hand, clutching Sakura's feather, "How could we leave without this? H-he was carrying it, the whole time. I just slipped it out of his robes."
Sakura snatched up her feather before pushing the mage back into a reclining position and scolding him for moving. They all jumped in surprise and alarm as the door rattled under the pressure of the sea of people behind it.
"Go." Samantha ordered, "Leave them to me, but be quick and quiet."
Kurogane nodded curtly and allowed the children to drape Fai's coat over the mage's still form before leading the group out the back of the house and into the dark night outside.
Torchlight threw ghastly shadow along the walls as what remained of the mob hunted the strangers they had failed to kill. Shouts mingled with the sharp cracks of colliding metal echoing throughout the city's streets.
Samantha had been right, the mob grew progressively smaller, but it remained terrifying, regardless.
Hugging his coat more closely around his burned, bloody clothing, Fai hoped with all of his soul that he never again met with such malice as what permeated this world..
He hissed softly as the ninja's stride bounced him to and fro, sending fresh waves of pain through old injuries. When Kurogane hesitated, he waved the taller man on, swallowing a grimace of pain. He felt sore muscles relax with relief as Mokona's wings spread above them and silence filled the air.
Wherever they were going, it could feel no further from home then this nightmare.
A/N: I hope you liked it. I apologize for the lack of my usual review remarks, but it is late here, and I am tiered. Have a lovely night.
Winterland
I'll kill them. I'll kill them all if he doesn't wake up.
