Brea raised one eyebrow in Rayzial's direction, her sharp, purple eyes traveling from the fire moehog, to Enkou, to Praier...and then settling on the bush that was still letting out unhealthy moans.
"Care to tell me who Seyriff is?" She asked finally, after letting out a soft sigh and shaking her head to clear it from the confusions that were bombarding from every side. Rayzial stared stonily at a rock that suddenly seemed to draw his interest, pawing the ground in fury and shame, and replied in a small voice.
"I've already said to much. Can't believe I broke a promise so easily...what's wrong with me?!" The baby fireball sidled up beside him, rubbing against his short legs as if to comfort him. Brea grumbled unhappily, walking towards the bush with her arm outstretched. Praier gave out a terribly high-pitched screech, but Brea shot him a furious glare and continued on.
She spread apart the thick branches of the bush slowly, bending down to catch a glance at what was inside...as soon as she saw it, one of her hands shot to her mouth and her eyes opened wide.
"He won't make it another night without medical attention!!" She cried, turning to Rayzial quickly. The moehog's black eye's were large and sorrowful, filled with pain for his friend.
"I...I know." He admitted sadly, looking away from Brea. Without another word, Brea reached into the bush and carefully extricated the creature that was concealed there. When she backed away, she held a medium-sized shadow gelert that was absolutely covered in cuts, scrapes and gashes.
"I'm taking him to the Healing Springs." Brea announced, turning on her heels and walking towards the exit to the clearing.
"NO! Once their done with him, they'll take him straight away to the pound!" Rayzial argued, running ahead to block her path.
"Would it be better that he should die?!" Brea's eyes blazed as she looked at the moehog. No doubt he wanted what was best for his friend, but to risk death simply to avoid being in the pound for a few days before finding a family...
"If she finds us again, I don't doubt that we ALL will! Better to die out of her clutches!" Tears were matting the black and orange fur on the moehogs face as he spoke, his voice breaking as he finished. Brea's eyebrows drew together as she looked at Rayzial, trying to decipher what he meant. She was no closer to a conclusion 5 minutes later, when Aerik strode into the clearing, a proud skunk lupess and a tiny tiger-like gruslen at his side. He beheld the scene with curiosity, his eyes betraying a sense of confusion. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, another human stepped into the clearing...a mousy man, bearing a large net and dressed in a white jumpsuit.
His mouth stretched into a grin as he looked at the moehog, and he whispered, almost to himself,
"A pets's withs no owner?"
"He's mine!!" Brea and Aerik snapped simultaneously, drawing the man's attention to them immediately.
"Both of yours's?" He asked suspiciously, his eyes darting from Brea to Aerik and back again. Aerik caught Brea's eye, giving her a nearly imperceptible and rather panicked shrug.
"What we meant..." Brea started, looking at the man with narrowed eyes. "Was that the moehog and the fireball are mine, and the gelert and the horus are his." She finished with a firm nod, passing Seyriff over to Aerik to give the story more credibility. The man still didn't seem satisfied though, and he tightened his grip on the net.
"Whys was you holding hims?" The man asked, glaring at the shadowed gelert.
"I don't think that that's any of your business, sir. Now if you'll please go look for strays elsewhere, it would be ever so appreciated."
The man gave a defeated shrug and walked away slowly, mumbling sadly to himself.
"A high prices thems would have gots at the pound, thems would have." Brea watched after him until he disappeared into the woods, and quite suddenly double over in laughter, pointing in the direction he had left. Aerik's deep laugh soon joined hers, and Rayzial watched them with his mouth opened in horror.
"He nearly kidnapped me, and all you can do is laugh?!" He cried furiously, stomping at the ground and flaring his nostrils. Brea managed to pull a straight face for long enough to reply. Her voice came in a strained whisper, mimicking the NeoCatcher.
"Yeses, its is quites funny." This brought on a new wave of laughter from Aerik, who had just been quieting down. Rayzial gave an unhappy snort and walked over to Aerik, butting him in the leg.
"If you aren't going to help us, at least give me my friend back before some other freak comes along, wanting to take us to the pound. All that shaking probably doesn't make him feel all the great, you know." Aerik's laughter stopped abruptly, and he took a moment to look down at the gelert in his arms. His smile slowly flipped over, turning into a sorrowful frown, as his eyes traced the gashes covering the gelert's body.
"What happened to him?" He asked softly, his green eyes slipping over to meet the moehog's black ones.
"That doesn't matter right now, Aer...we can get answers after we've taken care of Seyriff. Transports to Faerieland run every 5 minutes from the Central Docks...the faster we get there, the better." Though Brea desperately wanted to know why Rayzial and his friend were hiding by the well, and who exactly they were hiding from, she realized that the young gelerts health was much more important then her being well informed. Aerik nodded his head solemnly, and Iomegyn, who had been watching the exchange with sharp, green eyes that matched her masters, turned towards the clearings exit after picking up the gruslen by the loose skin around it's neck. .
They set off immediately towards the nearest Central Dock, usually only a 3 minute walk away from the wishing well...but it was the day before Thanksgiving, and the crowds pressed in dangerously at all sides, blocking their path at every turn. A familiar sense of nausea washed over Brea as she was jostled from side to side by the crowd, rushing to buy Thanksgiving food and surprises, and she hurried forward to walk closely behind Aerik. Rayzial was trotting furiously to keep up with the young man's long strides, Enkou perched precariously on his back as he galloped along.
All of them were in such a hurry that they didn't notice the menacingly tall woman with short purplish-black hair and wings that were tucked behind her. That didn't keep her from noticing them though, and as the walked past her eyes narrowed to slits, her mouth stretching into a diabolical grin.
Author's Notes~ Ok, I didn't get as much in this chapter as I had hoped, and it would have been longer except that it's already taken forever for me to get this out...sorry, but it's been a busy couple weeks, and I'm having another bout of writer's block/my-writing-sucksism, and all the other horribly wonderful things that come along with writing. Hope you like it, and I'll try to hurry up with the next chapter :-)