a bit of a change from the normal me, but i actually like this chapter. i went back through it and edited a lot of the sentences so that they sounded more intelligent and meaningful. it's not shakespeare, but hey, it can pass as something written by a smart person.

the beginning is shaky though. just a warning.

p.s. that langaugekana isspeaking is al bhed. if you don't what that is, try the fucking internet because i am not going to go back through and translate it. dunno why i used it in the first place. guess it looked kind of elvish.

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Chapter 4: Tohru's Pain

As the sun began to rise, Hatori shook everyone awake. Despite having serious trouble with getting Yuki up, he still managed to wake everyone up in an early enough time to set off before the sun had completely come over the hills.

As the band of six hastily traveled through the forest, the sounds of hungry stomachs quickly put everyone at an annoyingly slow pace. Hatori kicked himself mentally for not thinking about traveling with five teenagers and said, "If we must."

Hana and Uo's eyes lit up instantly as they scampered off to find some fruit to eat for breakfast. Tohru collapsed on a small nest of grass as Yuki and Kyo continued to stand, their heavy packs strapped tightly to their tired shoulders.

"How the hell is our bag so much heavier with only clothes in it? That other bag has clothes, food, and supplies and it still isn't as heavy as this one is." Kyo complained.

"Maybe you're simply weak." Yuki said, staring off into a distant clump of trees.

"Whatever, you know your frail body isn't stronger than mine. You did something to this thing. Don't even try to deny it, rat." Kyo slipped the bag from his shoulders and began rummaging through it to find the source of the heavy weight.

Hatori looked around, waiting for the two girls to finally return from their quest for food so that they could continue on. He silently hoped that this would not continue happening on their way to Rivendale, otherwise they would fall prey to the wraiths before they even reached the glamorous city of the elves. Tohru sat silently on the grass as Yuki joined her, a small smile forming on his lips. "What troubles you Miss Honda?"

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes and smiled. She leaned her head forward and sighed, "I'm just a little worried, that's all."

"What about?" Yuki said concerned.

"It's just that, I don't know what is supposed to happen to all of us. We know so little, even though so much has happened already. I don't want anyone to get hurt. If anyone did, it would be my fault…"

She trailed off as tears began to well in her soft brown eyes. Yuki pushed the pack off of his shoulders and faced Tohru. He tucked a small strand of hair behind her ear and helped her to her feet. "Nothing will happen to anyone. I will protect you from anything and everything, no matter what happens."

Moving slightly closer to her, he placed his hand on her chin. With only a few inches between their faces, Tohru could feel his warm breath on her forehead and she could see the look of deep concern in his beautiful gray eyes flutter to a gentler expression. "Yuki…"

"Shh," he whispered. "Our journey will be hard but you will be protected, I will see to it myself." He squeezed her hand for a moment, picked up his bag, and walked over to Hatori.

Tohru's cheeks felt hot as she watched Yuki walk away and thought about what just happened. She smiled at the thought of knowing that she was surrounded by so many caring people and that they were all willing to so eagerly protect her.

As Yuki walked back towards Hatori, he noticed a distraught Kyo still sifting through their bag in annoyance. He sighed in relief that he had not seen the exchange between Tohru and himself, for he would have certainly intervened on their private moment together. Kyo finally gave up looking after a few minutes then returned the heavy sack onto his shoulders, standing up in disgust.

"Are they back yet?" he said, joining Hatori and Yuki.

"Oy!" Hana's voice said from behind them. They all turned around to see Hana and Uo carrying sacks of apples and jogging toward them. "These will be our breakfast for the next week!" Uo said proudly.

"We will be in Rivendale by tomorrow evening." Hatori said.

"Damn." Hana and Uo said in unison.

Hatori managed a chuckle as he motioned for everyone to follow him again. They trudged on through the day at an almost breakneck pace, not stopping for anything but lunch and bathroom breaks. As the day progressed into afternoon, and the afternoon into night, the tired group of travelers decided to make a camp for the night on a large rock formation.

Hatori informed all of them that he would keep watch for the night and search the area for anything suspicious. Giving them several swords and shields and making sure that all of them were safely hidden among the structure of the rocks, Hatori set out into the night. Tohru was so tired that she fell asleep almost instantly, the cat and the rat following right behind her. Hana and Uo on the other hand were surprisingly chipper despite walking all day and hastily built a fire to warm themselves as well as cook the bacon that they had brought with them for reasons unknown.

As they happily cooked their food, their fire's light and smoke carried for miles, giving their position away to several hooded creatures. Their mission was simple: secure the ring and eliminate those who carry it.

No more than an hour later, Tohru woke up to the smell of bacon cooking in the evening wind. As she sat up, the sight of the fire made her blood run cold. "You must put it out!" Tohru yelled standing up.

The sound of her voice woke up the slumbering Yuki and Kyo to see Tohru looking around for a pail of water.

"You fools," Yuki hissed.

"They'll find us!" Kyo stamped out the fire with his foot, ignoring the heat of the flames.

"What in the hell were you thinking? Oh, wait, you were thinking with your stomachs again!"

Tohru's eyes darted around in worry, scoping the ground for those things that had attacked them at the docks. And to her horror and dismay, five hooded creatures glided slowly above the smoky land naught but a hundred feet below them. She motioned for the others to come and see the frightening figures that drew maddeningly near. Upon the sight of them, Yuki and Kyo both grabbed swords and called for the others to follow their lead. Hana and Uo nodded, grabbed their own swords and followed the two boys up the side of the cliff. Tohru was frightened, more frightened then she had ever felt possible in her entire life. Through all of her fear, she grabbed the last of the swords and headed up after the others, away from the creatures that were following deathly close behind them.

When they finally reached the top of the cliff, they circled up and waited for whatever would come from below the rocks. As they waited for a painstakingly short amount of time, a flood of fear racked over all of their bodies. They all felt frightened; it felt like they had no more time left. And they truly didn't; for the creatures soon mounted the cliff and began to edge closer to them, their sharp swords pointed straight at them.

Yuki and Kyo charged at two of them and managed to keep them at bay as Hana and Uo kept a barrier between Tohru and the creatures that threatened to kill her. Their efforts were in vain, for the remaining creatures easily pushed them aside as Kyo and Yuki continued to fight two of the five other wraiths. The apparent leader of the five stepped ever closer to Tohru as she fell backward and crawled into a corner of rocks.

A million thoughts raced through her head as the wraith closed in on her: the fates of Yuki, Kyo, Hana, Uo, and the others that she had met on her so far ominous journey, as well as the fate of the world if the power who sought to destroy the Sohmas was to succeed. She began to panic and grab anything that she could find to defend herself, but to no avail. The creature was now upon her, so she did the only thing that she could think of: she reached for the golden chain around her neck and slid the ring around her finger.

In an instant, she was enveloped in a white light and before her stood the creature, though slightly changed. It was white rather than black, and its face was in clear view. It was a human; his eyes hollowed and his cheeks sunken. He suddenly began to reach for the ring around her finger as she felt a white wind whip around her body, the feeling it brought feeling colder than death.

The ring gravitated to the man as it was still around her finger. With all her strength, she pulled the ring to her chest and fell back on the hard surfaces of the rocks. The creature, taken aback by her actions, reared his weapon and plunged it into Tohru's left shoulder. A morbid cry escaped her lips as the blade sent searing bolts of pain through her entire body. The man removed his blade, just in time for a mysterious figure to head him off from his right side.

Tohru screamed in agony as she wrenched the ring from her finger and the world became clear again. She clamped onto her shoulder with her opposing hand as she watched Hatori, sword in one hand, a torch in the other, fend off the creatures with his power.

The wraith that had stabbed her charged him head-on, but only felt the sting of Hatori's blade straight through his head as Hatori counterattacked. As the wraith fell to the ground, so did the other two that Kyo and Yuki had been fighting for almost ten minutes without rest. They quickly looked around and saw Hatori finishing off the other two.

Hatori threw a dagger at one of them, but it continued to charge, callous to his attempts to deter his assault. The other reached him sooner, only to be set aflame by the torch that Hatori wielded. Whipping around to see the last of the wraiths about to swing his sword down onto him, Hatori parried the attack in time for the combined forces of Yuki and Kyo to subdue the fiend from behind. As Hatori gathered himself, he swiftly plunged his blade into the wraith's backside, sending it sprawling onto the ground between Yuki and Kyo. The creatures, beaten but not dead, flew off the cliff side it a blackened blur; their soulless robes fluttering down into the depths below.

Yuki and Kyo fled to Tohru's side with grief, fatigue, and fear racking their young faces as they propped Tohru's head up on their cloaks.

"Hatori!" Kyo yelled in panic.

Hatori rushed to the young girl's side. Her eyes were bloodshot and the pupils were slowly changing to an unearthly, milky white. The area on her shoulder that was exposed revealed a grotesque-looking purple-veined gash that seemed to be getting worse by the second. Tohru's hands were shaking and her eyes began to roll into the back her head.

"She's been stabbed by a Wraith Blade." Hatori said, kicking the creature's unattended sword off to the side.

"She will pass onto the other side and become just like them if we don't cure her in time. But I cannot cure her myself, she needs to be in the care of elves now. We must take her to Rivendale." Hatori hoisted Tohru onto his back and proceeded to climb down the rocks.

After an hour of traveling through the dark of night, Tohru's condition was steadily declining. Her skin was paler than snow and ghastly cold. Small gasps of pain emanated from her throat as she bounced up and down in Hatori's arms. Hatori slowed to halt and set her down, sensing that his jarring movements were the casue of some of her discomfort. His eyes widened as he saw her writhe on the ground in shear pain and agony, her mouth contorted into a heart-aching clench.

"Uo," Hatori said suddenly. "Do you know what kings foil is?"

Uo shook her head. "It's a weed."

"Help me find some. It may help to slow the spread of the poison in her body." Hatori said, walking off into the forest. Uo nodded her head and continued off into the other direction.

"I'll help too." Hana said, following Uo.

"As will I," Yuki nodded, as he turned to Kyo. "Watch over her until we get back."

Yuki took off in Hatori's direction, leaving Kyo and Tohru in his wake. Kyo grabbed Tohru's freezing cold hand and attempted to warm it with his own. The sight of her face in pain made him cringe and curse himself for not preventing this from happening. She looked so helpless and frail, it was all he could to keep himself from yelling out in anger.

For a moment, Tohru's body relaxed a little and her breathing became slower and calmer. It was literally painful for him to see her in such a fragile state. He wanted to hold her in his arms, make her feel safe in his embrace, but he knew that he would never be able to. Her lips were cracked dry and icy blue. And Kyo, being the hormonal teenage guy that he was, couldn't help but think that if he could just warm them up somehow, then maybe it would help her recover. He leaned his head closer to hers and stopped right before their lips met.

What am I doing?

Kyo shook his head and sat back up. He removed his cloak and covered Tohru with it. Grasping her hands once more, he waited for the others to return with something that would hopefully help Tohru recover from whatever it was that was poisoning her body.

Hatori's eyes searched the ground for any sight of the clover-like plant that he was searching for. He sighed in relief as he saw a small patch of the plant growing by his foot. As he bent down to pull a sprig from the patch, he felt a thin blade catch him from underneath his chin. A warm breath blew into his ear as a sultry voice whispered, "What's this? A man caught off his guard?"

Tohru was slipping in and out of consciousness through the pain of the poison. She could feel Kyo's hands in her own as she tossed and turned on the hard ground. She twisted around and suddenly found herself staring at a blindingly white light. All of her common knowledge about bright white lights told her that it probably wasn't a good idea to follow it. But before she turned her head away from what she thought was death staring down at her, she paused.

If this was death, then why did the light feel so warm?

She soon got her answer.

A woman, the most beautiful and elegant woman she had ever seen, road silently on a white horse towards her body. The woman's voice sounded through her head in a language that she had never heard, but she was somehow able to understand. Tohru, I am Kana. Do not stray, come back to the light. You cannot lose your way or all will be lost.

With the fading sound of the women's voice in her head, Tohru slipped out of thought once more.

"She's fading." Kana whispered as she dismounted the white horse. "We need to get her to Rivendale so that she can be healed by the elders."

With the help of Hatori, she hoisted Tohru onto the horse and prepared to mount herself when Hatori stopped her. "No. You can't go by yourself, it's too risky. I will go while you stay here and protect the children."

She climbed onto the horse with Tohru in the front of the saddle. "I am the faster rider. We will be safe once we pass the river." She leaned down within in inch of Hatori's face and smiled.

"I do not fear them."

Hatori breathed in deeply and looked Kana in the eye. "Make haste."

Kana nodded and kicked her horse. With one last look at Hatori, she rode off into the night and into the thick of the forest. "Who was that?" Hana asked.

"A girlfriend, perhaps?" Uo chimed in.

"Like that would ever happen. To Hatori? Please." Kyo smirked.

"Not to cut into the conversation, but is this really the time to be inquiring about Hatori's love life when Miss Honda is so close to death?" Yuki asked, a look of sheer disbelief on his face.

"Maybe not, but I would kind of like to know myself who we just allowed her to ride off with." Kyo said, crossing his arms belligerently over his chest.

Hatori sighed, his hazel eyes following the fading white obscurity weaving through the dark forest.

"She's an elf."

The wind whipped past Kana's hair as she rode silently through the forest, the small bundle that was Tohru slouching forward in her lap. Sharp branches of low hanging trees cut her arms and her face as her horse galloped fluently through the thicket of vegetation, but it would take more than mere surface wounds to distract her from her goal: get Tohru to safety.

Her horse trotted on through the night and into the morning; she would be able to reach the elders by noon if all continued well. But fate was set against her. Within half an hour after sunrise, she sensed something approaching at an alarming speed. Without warning, eight necrotic black wraiths flooded the empty space around her, smothering her from all sides.

She was not afraid of course, but it didn't change the fact that their presence made it difficult for her to ride quickly. She hoped that her horse had enough left in him to speed up and hopefully give her a comfortable amount of space from the creatures to make it across the river in time.

With a tight squeeze of her heels, the horse lurched ahead of the eight black riders. Kana was a bit relieved, but she knew that the race was not over yet. There was still a ways to go before she reached the river. Once she got past the river, the power of her people would protect herself and Tohru from all.

With the river in sight and the wraiths hot on her tail, Kana charged across the plains and into the cool water. When she reached the other side, she turned to find the creatures had halted before the opposite side of the river. Their horses reared and whinnied as the creatures hissed across the water. "Give us the girl!"

"If you want her," Kana sneered, pulling out a silver sword. "Come and claim her."

The remark sent the wraiths into hysterics, and with a final cry budding from their dark hoods, they proceeded to cross the river's waters. Kana closed her eyes and began to chant the words of her ancestors in her native language:

Cbenedc uv dra nejan

Bnudald ic fedr ouin fydanc

Kieta ic du uin tacdehydeuh

Cbenedc uv dra nejan

Bnudald ic fedr ouin fydanc

Kieta ic du uin tacdehydeuh

Cbenedc uv dra nejan

Bnudald ic fedr ouin fydanc

Kieta ic du uin tacdehydeuh

With the final word, the river began to stir. Foamy white rapids crashed into rocks and rolled dangerously around the other objects in their path. Kana felt the ground beneath her rumble, and she smiled dismissively. Unaware to the huge wave that was now roaring towards them at a frightening rate, the wraiths rode across the river only to be pummeled by the water and sent reeling downstream in a shadow of black robes and kicking horses.

Kana's body relaxed for a moment. She was relieved that they wouldn't interrupt the rest of her ride to Rivendale. As she prepared to ride again, the sound of Tohru's deep rasping breaths stopped her in her tracks. She quickly dismounted and laid Tohru's body down next to the river. Kana could see that she was slowly passing to the other side. "No, Tohru! No! Hold on!"

Kana hugged Tohru to her chest. What grace has given me, let her life be spared.

Tohru's eyes fluttered open to the sight of a wonderfully crafted Victorian marble ceiling and the shine of the mid-afternoon sun. Her skin felt sweaty and warm under a long cotton gown and thick wool blankets. Trying to remember what happened, she found herself wandering out loud, "Where am I?"

"You are in the master bedroom in the grand chambers of Rivendale. And it is past noon on the sixth of September, if you would like to know." A voice said from a nearby chair.

Tohru sat up and found herself staring into the eyes of a calm and collected looking Haru.

"Haru!" Tohru exclaimed. "Why didn't you meet us?"

"I'm very sorry Tohru. I was…delayed."

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well, you can kind of guess where the next chapter is going. i hate being so predictable, but it can't be avoided.

chapter 5 should be up soon. but don't count on it. i'm very unreliable.