The groups have been separated! The massive body of water continues to charge through the forest, will the group members survive?

This was bad. All Dancing Shadow could hear was the roar of the water, all he could see was Mother Nature's wrath. Had Mother Nature decided she had had enough of their constant bickering? This was not how Dancing Shadow wanted to go, he was supposed to go in the glory of battle. That was his destiny!

Dancing Shadow forced himself to break through the surface of the water. When he saw a low-hanging tree branch he took his chance, grabbing onto the branch and using the momentum from the water to swing himself up to the branch. He sighed in relief when the branch held his weight. Dancing Shadow had escaped the surge of water.

But as Dancing Shadow looked at the surge, he was shocked to see Tachine. She had apparently tried the same thing Dancing Shadow had done, but she didn't appear to have the upper body strength to pull herself onto the branch. She was going to lose her grip if something didn't intervene!

It never occurred to Dancing Shadow that he and Tachine were from different groups. All that he thought about was the fact that Tachine needed help. He leapt from branch to branch until he was close to her. He frowned as he tried to think this through. Tachine's branch wouldn't hold both of them, so Dancing Shadow couldn't just leap onto that branch and pull Tachine up. He'd need to find a branch that was strong enough to hold both of them up, or else . . .

Soon Tachine's grip failed her. Dancing Shadow cringed as Tachine became little more than another piece of debris, unable to stop the surge of water as it tried to swallow her up. Dancing Shadow looked around frantically, trying to find a way to allow Tachine to be freed of the water's cruel embrace. When Dancing Shadow saw the surge forcing Tachine towards a massive tree he immediately leapt from branch to branch, desperate to reach the tree before Tachine did. If he could get there first, there were many branches just out of Tachine's reach that could easily hold their weight.

Fortunately for Dancing Shadow, he knew how to gain the most speed possible. He had always been trained to be fast, and this was a great time to put that training to the test. He reached the tree quickly, always keeping Tachine in sight. When she was just about to pass underneath one of the branches Dancing Shadow latched onto that branch with his legs and reached down towards the water, grabbing for Tachine's hand.

Dancing Shadow didn't miss a beat when he felt Tachine's hand grab onto his own. Dancing Shadow swung her up to the branch, and Tachine almost immediately sat down on the branch herself. As Dancing Shadow used his own flexibility to get back to a sitting position himself he saw Tachine catching her breath. She was just as soaked as Dancing Shadow was, but at least the two of them were alive.

Dancing Shadow sighed as he looked back at the water. The water was beginning to lose strength now, but as Dancing Shadow looked up at the sky he could see that it was still pouring. "This surge of water will remain so long as the rain continues to fuel it."

Dancing Shadow couldn't help but smile when Tachine looked at him with shock. "Rain can't do this! Just look at this area! The amount of water here is huge!"

Dancing Shadow nodded. "Yes. But you must remember that we are near a mountainous area. The water travels down the mountain in ever-growing streams. Have you noticed how few of the trees are affected by it?"

Tachine nodded, and Dancing Shadow sighed. "This isn't a bizarre occurrence here. It hits so few trees because no trees can grow in the pathway, for they would be uprooted by these flash floods. This is clearly one of the stronger floods, but even so the few trees within its path, such as the one we are currently on, appear to be more than capable of withstanding the assault. We must wait until the rain stops before we go look for our friends."

Dancing Shadow watched Tachine's reaction carefully. She was clearly upset. "Kshtsi could survive this, or at least he could breathe underwater. But what about Sarysi, what about Zacyr?"

Dancing Shadow sighed again. "I believe Kesi and Kshtsi were out of range of the surge. Sarysi's tough, and I must admit that Zacyr's just as tough as Sarysi is. They shall be fine."

Tachine still looked nervous, but Dancing Shadow smiled at her. "Do not be alarmed. You would be surprised what one person can live through."

Tachine did not seem convinced, but she also seemed rather appreciative. Dancing Shadow sighed as he looked back at the water, noticing that it had gone down by a good deal. It could still be a long wait at this point.

(Kshtsi)

Kshtsi sighed in exhaustion as he looked towards the stream. That had been insane. How could such a small stream have grown so powerful? Kesi had been knocked unconscious at some point in their wild ride, and Kshtsi hadn't had the heart to leave Kesi in such a dangerous position. As such, he had pulled Kesi out of the stream the first chance he had gotten. Now he was trying to pull Kesi's limp body over to the trees, but the wound on Kshtsi's leg kept aggravating him.

He was worried. The stream had started out small, but it seemed to be growing larger by the second. The water from the rain and that huge flash flood must have been fueling the stream for it to be so strong now. It took a lot of work, but eventually Kshtsi managed to drag Kesi's body over to the trees. They should be safe here, the trees themselves stood as a marker to how large the stream could get.

Kshtsi sighed in relief as he sat down. He was exhausted. A single question was nagging Kshtsi mercilessly. Could a person survive being swallowed up by a flash flood? He just didn't know the answer, and the only thing stopping him from heading back towards the place the groups had gotten washed away was the fact that he doubted the water was gone yet.

"Oh, my head"

Kshtsi turned around to see Kesi finally getting up, gently rubbing his head. Kshtsi greeted him before going back to watching the stream. There was no longer any doubt, it was definitely growing now. He was surprised when Kesi sat down next to him, smiling at Kshtsi. "Thank you."

Kshtsi smiled back. "I couldn't just leave you there to drown."

Kesi beamed at Kshtsi, although the smile was wiped off of Kesi's face when he saw the blood trickling down Kshtsi's leg. "Oh yeah . . . look, I'm really sorry about that. I didn't . . . I uh . . ."

Kshtsi smiled back at Kesi. "Don't worry about it. I doubt that most people 'fish' by going underwater and just staying there. Kind of embarrassing, there wasn't even fish in that stream."

Kesi nodded, and soon the two of them went back to watching the stream. For a while, neither of them spoke. If Kshtsi had really been paying attention, he may have noticed that he was dozing off. But soon, he ended up falling asleep.

(Edreg)

Edreg's head was killing him. What . . . what had just happened? Why was it so hard to breathe? Why-hey!

The instant Edreg realized that there was a claw around his throat, he woke up immediately. The first thing he noticed was that Sarysi was in front of him, a look of annoyance on her face as her claws attempted to close. The second thing Edreg noticed was that it was apparently morning now, considering the sun was up in the sky.

"Damn it! Why can't I decapitate you?"

Edreg let out a weak growl as he lifted his own clawed hands, and Sarysi immediately let go and put distance between the two of them. Edreg gasped as his brain finally flooded with oxygen, and for a moment he couldn't do more than gulp in large amounts of air. Once he had finally replenished his supply, he glared at Sarysi.

"You can't cut my skin, you bitch! I've got the same tough skin that a honey badger does!"

Edreg was surprised when Sarysi sighed in relief. "And here I thought I was losing my touch."

It was only now that the immediate threat was gone that Edreg looked around, completely astounded to find himself and Sarysi in the plains. "What . . . what happened? How . . . but we were in the forest!"

Sarysi laughed at Edreg, getting him to snarl at her. Undaunted, Sarysi gave her response. "Well, there was this whole thing where we all got assaulted by a HUGE amount of water. Could that have ANYTHING to do with the fact that we are not in the same position as we had been before?"

Edreg growled at Sarysi, how dare she talk to him like that? "What I'm saying is that we were pretty far in the forest, and now we're actually back by the plains! How the hell did we travel this far?"

Edreg was just about ready to try to tear out Sarysi's throat when she smirked at him. "Same response as before. While it's quite some distance, it's not a ridiculous amount. Now, the question is this. Do I force you to come with me to find our groups, or do I just kill you?"

Edreg snarled at Sarysi, honing his claws as he got into a fighting position. "I will never go with you! You murdered Cody!"

Sarysi simply raised an eyebrow, and Edreg snarled again. "Don't you dare tell me that you don't remember! Rudeg told me all about it! You decapitated him!"

Edreg felt his blood boil as Sarysi pretended to go into thought about it. "Let's see here . . . I've decapitated a lot of people, Edreg. You're going to have to be more specific."

Edreg charged at Sarysi. "You don't even remember him? I'll tear you apart!"

Sarysi seemed surprised at Edreg's anger, but as Edreg got close Sarysi immediately held him still, and Edreg couldn't believe it when Sarysi's stinger managed to force its way through his skin. Edreg tried hard to break free, but Sarysi's grip was firm as her venom began to flow. Sarysi grinned demonically when her venom stopped flowing, and she released her grip on Edreg. Edreg immediately attempted a strike. He only had seconds to act before he'd be paralyzed!

Sarysi moved fast, faster than Edreg thought she could. Edreg was soon flying backwards, trying to figure out how and where Sarysi had hit him. He tumbled to a stop, but immediately got to his feet. He could already feel the venom's effects, he still had to hurry! But it was too late. Edreg tried to run over to Sarysi, but his body refused to move. He couldn't feel his legs, and soon fell to the ground. In just a little bit, he couldn't feel his body at all.

"Edreg, now you listen to me!"

Edreg was yanked up into the air, and forced to look Sarysi in the eye. He gulped as he realized how enraged Sarysi was. Sarysi spoke, her voice filled with even more venom than she had put into Edreg. "I was forced into the +Anima fight ring when I was seven. I had to kill a +Anima a day, and on quite a few of those days I was forced to fight MORE than one. I've killed thousands of +Anima. Oh, and guess what? Do you know what got me caught? My brother."

Edreg would have flinched if he had any feeling in his face. Sarysi actually had a few tears coming down from her eyes as she spoke. "He spoke with them, and manipulated me into a trap. They captured me, but do you know what I did? I killed him. I killed my own brother. He was the twenty-first life I had taken. This was on my seventh birthday. Those twenty lives I had to take were before that day!"

Edreg couldn't believe it. Sarysi had killed twenty people when she was six?

"So Edreg"

Edreg cringed, at least as good as he could, when Sarysi forced his face close to hers. "You think it's a good idea to come up to me and tell me to remember one of the people I killed? You want to know why I'm so desensitized to your pathetic tantrums? I've heard it all before. In the +Anima fight ring, they threw new +Anima at me all the time. Each and every one of them pleaded for their life. Some called me a monster for doing what I had to do. Some called me a demon. Others simply screamed. Each and every one of them died. Death is an old friend of mine Edreg. No one will change that, especially not a whiny, simpering, manipulative, and spoiled BRAT like you!"

Edreg could feel the sweat pouring down his face. Sarysi only grinned as she dropped Edreg, who fell to the ground limp. Edreg didn't say a word - not like he could anyways - when Sarysi grabbed him by the leg and began dragging him towards the forest. "We will look for our groups, and I will give you back to them. If you complain about me killing your chameleon +Anima friend one more god-damn time, I'll make you join him!"

Edreg gulped as Sarysi dragged him into the forest. This was going to be a long search.

These are in chronological order, btw. Dancing Shadow and Tachine's part was mere moments after the incident. Kshtsi and Kesi's part was a few hours after. Edreg and Sarysi were the next morning, when the rain had stopped.

So begins the search for each group member! Perhaps the pairs shall learn more about each other as they do?