Ok! Next chapter is up. I know you all want more Numair and Daine seens.
But I can't tell a good story if its all Daine and Numair. But there will
be more scenes with those two in the end. I promise. Enjoy!
Complications
Night
His boots where bogged down in mud as he made his way across a mostly dried up creek. His breath came in quick short pants as he pulled his leg up to dislodge it from the sinking mud. From behind came a snap of twigs and a grunt as Buri fell to her knees.
Numair turned quickly, reached down and pulled on her arm. "Get up! Come on, we have to keep going! We have to find the others!" His voice was horse and cracked in exhaustion.
Buri heaved herself up from the mud with Numair's help, grimacing in pain at the pull in her broken and bloodied wrist. Setting her teeth she growled, "I can't BELIEVE this is happening! I can't! We got ambushed in the middle of our own forest, ended up in full out battle with near a hundred men, got SEPERATED, been out here in the blasted cold for two nights, lost five men at least, Onuas in the foliage somewhere BLEEDING to death, AND HOW THE HELL DID THAT MANY ARMED MEN GET PAST THE BORDERS?"
Numair grunted in response. "I don't know." He added dryly. "Maybe they all came in separately and just met up. That doesn't matter now anyways. We still have to find their camp. Daine is there."
Buri froze and stared at him in amazement. "Numair, you don't honestly think she's still alive, do you?" When he didn't answer, she added, "I mean, look what they did to us. I just pray that she went quickly and painlessly."
Numair swung around and pinned her with a dead stare. Raising his hand and pointing at her he growled, "She's still alive. She has to be. And I'm going to find her."
"Well could we concentrate on at least finding the others first? We have a better chance of finding Daine if there are more of us." He didn't answer. "Numair, we need to find the others. We're going to starve if we don't regroup. We haven't been able to set up camp for two nights. In case you haven't noticed, you and I have been living off of berries and moss for two days because we don't want to start a fire and give away are position to that rebel army. We're both injured. You're gift is pretty much tapped out. Come on, the army Alanna called for should arrive soon. We don't want to be caught in the middle of the cross-fire." He continued to trudge along, climbing up a steep incline out of the creek. She followed of coarse, using all fours to haul herself up in her exhaustion, grumbling nonsense about him being more stubborn than Daine.
Numair, despite what Buri thought, had listened to her entire rant with close attention. She was right, they needed to find the others if they were going to have any chance of surviving without being about to light fires. But he needed to find Daine. Something in his gut kept telling him, he needed to find her now. The rebel camp was well hidden, probably by magic. On any normal occasion he wouldn't have had trouble finding a magically hidden camp. But the fight two nights ago had spent most of his gift; and the little food or water and lack of good sleep did little to replenish it. Who he really needed was Justice. She could see through any gift magic without trying. Plus, Buri needed to rest. She had taken a nasty fall when the two of them had been separated from the group. Her wrist was torn up fairly badly. He sighed heavily; about to turn and tell her they would go find the others when he heard a snap of twigs and a grunt from off to the side.
Buri swung around at the sudden noise as well, pulling out her daggers and positioning her feet in the ready.
"Honestly!" Came a voice from the bushes. "I could here you yapping from 50 feet away Buri. I thought we'd rid you of that habit."
From behind a bush stepped out an extremely dirty Alanna. Attached to her hand, and what seemed was her hip, was an equally filthy Justice. They were both caked in dried mud. Alanna's bright hair dulled to an ugly brown. Justice's flaming cascade of silky hair was matted to her head and back.
Buri, with a huge smile plastered on her face, ran to Alanna for a shared embrace. "Thank the Gods you're alright!"
Numair came up to the two red heads as well, patting Alanna on the back in companionship. He bent down to get a better look at Justice. She had attached herself to Alanna's hip. Under all the mud he could see her face was stark white, her eyes open wide in nervousness. "Justice? It's all right. You're ok. It's just Buri and me, Numair." As if taking a great leap of faith, Justice slowly dislodged herself from Alanna's hip and hand to get a better look at him. Then, before he could blink, she had launched herself at him, wrapping her slender arms around his neck tightly, her face buried in his shoulder. He almost fell backwards from the impact, but he managed to keep steady. Standing to his towing height, he wrapped his own arms around her back in a comforting hug. Justice wrapped her legs around his waist and was holding on to him like a lifeline, her entire body shook.
Alanna took a deep breath and sighed heavily, stretching her entire body. Shaking her head at Numair and Buri's worried looks about Justice. "We need to set up camp and get something to eat."
Numair spoke softly and gently into Justice's ear. "Justice, can you tell if there is any rebels around here being hidden by magic? Alanna and I are both tapped out."
Justice shook her head weakly and squeaked a 'no'.
"No, you can't tell?" Buri questioned.
"There's no one around." She said in a shaking voice.
Alanna looked around and pointed to a small clearing surrounded by trees and bushes. "We can set up over there. Buri, would you take Justice over to that creek you just passed and try and clean her up a bit while Numair and I get a fire started?"
"Sure." Buri tuned to Numair who was prying Justice's arms and legs away from him while whispering comforting reassurances. After a few minutes, she finally let go of Numair, and attached herself to Buri who led Justice back down to the small creek.
Numair and Alanna gathered up some wood and began clearing a small area to start a small fire. Alanna ignored Numair's pointed looks as they worked. Finally, Numair broke. "What happened?" It was blunt and commanded an answer.
Alanna sighed and placed another log on the stack and then looked up at him in annoyance. "The same thing that happened to everyone else, Numair. We got separated, chased and attacked."
He grew angry. With a hard, cold voice he questioned, "You're telling me that 'that'," he pointed in Justice and Buri's direction, "is the result of being chased and attacked? I'm not stupid Alanna; don't take me for being stupid! She's been chased before! Mithros! She was dragged across the entire Cathiki and Tortallan lands and didn't act like that! She was practically attached to your hip when we saw you. THAN she was attached to me. And now Buri's probably has to get in the water as well in order to clean her off. Which brings to mind the question of why you two look the way you do. Did you take a bath in the wet dirt or did you just have a mud fight?"
Alanna slammed down the materials she was using to start the fire and glared at him. "She's EIGHT, Numair! She may have seen a lot, but she hasn't seen it all. We were attacked by near 20 men with swords and axes. Twenty against two! Put together how that must have gone. It's a miracle from the God's the both of us aren't dead, yet we both are alive. We had to fight back. She had to fight back. She had to kill men Numair. She's eight and she's killed men. How would you feel? She didn't even have time to deal with it. We had to run through the riverbanks in the middle of the night to get away from them. We couldn't see a damned thing. We couldn't go into the water because it was freezing, and the forest is covered with dried leaves and twigs. We had to go through the mud blind!"
Numair blinked. "She's killed before. She told us so the first day we met her. That isn't new."
Alanna stuck the flint hard, the wood catching and brightening as it grew. Her mud streaked face and hair glowing queerly from the firelight. Her eyes taking on a deep amethyst as she looked up at Numair, she whispered, "She was always being controlled the times before. She could forgive herself in some way because she knew that had it been her own choice, she would not have done it. But now, all that changed. She had a choice back there, and she killed them. It's the first time she willingly killed someone. It's just as if she'd never killed before. And she did it with passion, Numair. I saw her, she didn't hold back. Almost like revenge of some kind. I've never seen anyone move so fast in my life. The men she went after didn't have time to know what hit them. She's not skilled, but she is fast. That gave her the leverage she needed. So now, she can question herself. She willingly killed those men. Does that mean she was capable of killing those from earlier. Maybe she wasn't being that controlled after all."
Numair was in shock. He hadn't thought of that. All the information Alanna had just provided was ringing in his head. "But, she wouldn't have killed those others. We know that."
"Yes." Alanna replied calmly. "We do. But she doesn't."
//////////////
After they had all washed up, Alanna caught some very fat rabbits for them to eat. Numair helped bandage Buri's wrist up. They ate in silence; Justice curled up to herself. They put out the fire before nightfall and headed off.
"So what do we do now?" Buri questioned. "Wait for the army?"
"No," answered Numair automatically. "We need to find the camp and get Daine back."
"Numair," Buri retorted, "if you haven't guessed by now, they used Daine as the bait. They knew we were coming before, they'll know we're coming now. We should wait for the army."
"I've never left Daine behind. I'm not starting now."
"The army should have been here by now." Alanna answered. "Something's wrong. We need to find the camp and get a hold of this mysterious mage. I'm with Numair in finding there camp."
Justice spoke up willingly for the first time. "I'm with Numair too. I want to get Daine back."
Numair turned to them. Looking at Justice's bands he questioned her with his eyes. She answered. "No, he's still not using it. I don't know why."
He nodded and then looked to Alanna and Buri. "So we find the camp."
Buri sighed heavily. But trotted along after the other three grumbling, "I want my headstone to read, 'Buri, courageous, loyal, and stupid enough to follow a crazy mage, a bad tempered Lioness and an eight year old into battle.'" She followed though. She would always follow. That's what friends were for.
///////
Thank you,
Karigan
Complications
Night
His boots where bogged down in mud as he made his way across a mostly dried up creek. His breath came in quick short pants as he pulled his leg up to dislodge it from the sinking mud. From behind came a snap of twigs and a grunt as Buri fell to her knees.
Numair turned quickly, reached down and pulled on her arm. "Get up! Come on, we have to keep going! We have to find the others!" His voice was horse and cracked in exhaustion.
Buri heaved herself up from the mud with Numair's help, grimacing in pain at the pull in her broken and bloodied wrist. Setting her teeth she growled, "I can't BELIEVE this is happening! I can't! We got ambushed in the middle of our own forest, ended up in full out battle with near a hundred men, got SEPERATED, been out here in the blasted cold for two nights, lost five men at least, Onuas in the foliage somewhere BLEEDING to death, AND HOW THE HELL DID THAT MANY ARMED MEN GET PAST THE BORDERS?"
Numair grunted in response. "I don't know." He added dryly. "Maybe they all came in separately and just met up. That doesn't matter now anyways. We still have to find their camp. Daine is there."
Buri froze and stared at him in amazement. "Numair, you don't honestly think she's still alive, do you?" When he didn't answer, she added, "I mean, look what they did to us. I just pray that she went quickly and painlessly."
Numair swung around and pinned her with a dead stare. Raising his hand and pointing at her he growled, "She's still alive. She has to be. And I'm going to find her."
"Well could we concentrate on at least finding the others first? We have a better chance of finding Daine if there are more of us." He didn't answer. "Numair, we need to find the others. We're going to starve if we don't regroup. We haven't been able to set up camp for two nights. In case you haven't noticed, you and I have been living off of berries and moss for two days because we don't want to start a fire and give away are position to that rebel army. We're both injured. You're gift is pretty much tapped out. Come on, the army Alanna called for should arrive soon. We don't want to be caught in the middle of the cross-fire." He continued to trudge along, climbing up a steep incline out of the creek. She followed of coarse, using all fours to haul herself up in her exhaustion, grumbling nonsense about him being more stubborn than Daine.
Numair, despite what Buri thought, had listened to her entire rant with close attention. She was right, they needed to find the others if they were going to have any chance of surviving without being about to light fires. But he needed to find Daine. Something in his gut kept telling him, he needed to find her now. The rebel camp was well hidden, probably by magic. On any normal occasion he wouldn't have had trouble finding a magically hidden camp. But the fight two nights ago had spent most of his gift; and the little food or water and lack of good sleep did little to replenish it. Who he really needed was Justice. She could see through any gift magic without trying. Plus, Buri needed to rest. She had taken a nasty fall when the two of them had been separated from the group. Her wrist was torn up fairly badly. He sighed heavily; about to turn and tell her they would go find the others when he heard a snap of twigs and a grunt from off to the side.
Buri swung around at the sudden noise as well, pulling out her daggers and positioning her feet in the ready.
"Honestly!" Came a voice from the bushes. "I could here you yapping from 50 feet away Buri. I thought we'd rid you of that habit."
From behind a bush stepped out an extremely dirty Alanna. Attached to her hand, and what seemed was her hip, was an equally filthy Justice. They were both caked in dried mud. Alanna's bright hair dulled to an ugly brown. Justice's flaming cascade of silky hair was matted to her head and back.
Buri, with a huge smile plastered on her face, ran to Alanna for a shared embrace. "Thank the Gods you're alright!"
Numair came up to the two red heads as well, patting Alanna on the back in companionship. He bent down to get a better look at Justice. She had attached herself to Alanna's hip. Under all the mud he could see her face was stark white, her eyes open wide in nervousness. "Justice? It's all right. You're ok. It's just Buri and me, Numair." As if taking a great leap of faith, Justice slowly dislodged herself from Alanna's hip and hand to get a better look at him. Then, before he could blink, she had launched herself at him, wrapping her slender arms around his neck tightly, her face buried in his shoulder. He almost fell backwards from the impact, but he managed to keep steady. Standing to his towing height, he wrapped his own arms around her back in a comforting hug. Justice wrapped her legs around his waist and was holding on to him like a lifeline, her entire body shook.
Alanna took a deep breath and sighed heavily, stretching her entire body. Shaking her head at Numair and Buri's worried looks about Justice. "We need to set up camp and get something to eat."
Numair spoke softly and gently into Justice's ear. "Justice, can you tell if there is any rebels around here being hidden by magic? Alanna and I are both tapped out."
Justice shook her head weakly and squeaked a 'no'.
"No, you can't tell?" Buri questioned.
"There's no one around." She said in a shaking voice.
Alanna looked around and pointed to a small clearing surrounded by trees and bushes. "We can set up over there. Buri, would you take Justice over to that creek you just passed and try and clean her up a bit while Numair and I get a fire started?"
"Sure." Buri tuned to Numair who was prying Justice's arms and legs away from him while whispering comforting reassurances. After a few minutes, she finally let go of Numair, and attached herself to Buri who led Justice back down to the small creek.
Numair and Alanna gathered up some wood and began clearing a small area to start a small fire. Alanna ignored Numair's pointed looks as they worked. Finally, Numair broke. "What happened?" It was blunt and commanded an answer.
Alanna sighed and placed another log on the stack and then looked up at him in annoyance. "The same thing that happened to everyone else, Numair. We got separated, chased and attacked."
He grew angry. With a hard, cold voice he questioned, "You're telling me that 'that'," he pointed in Justice and Buri's direction, "is the result of being chased and attacked? I'm not stupid Alanna; don't take me for being stupid! She's been chased before! Mithros! She was dragged across the entire Cathiki and Tortallan lands and didn't act like that! She was practically attached to your hip when we saw you. THAN she was attached to me. And now Buri's probably has to get in the water as well in order to clean her off. Which brings to mind the question of why you two look the way you do. Did you take a bath in the wet dirt or did you just have a mud fight?"
Alanna slammed down the materials she was using to start the fire and glared at him. "She's EIGHT, Numair! She may have seen a lot, but she hasn't seen it all. We were attacked by near 20 men with swords and axes. Twenty against two! Put together how that must have gone. It's a miracle from the God's the both of us aren't dead, yet we both are alive. We had to fight back. She had to fight back. She had to kill men Numair. She's eight and she's killed men. How would you feel? She didn't even have time to deal with it. We had to run through the riverbanks in the middle of the night to get away from them. We couldn't see a damned thing. We couldn't go into the water because it was freezing, and the forest is covered with dried leaves and twigs. We had to go through the mud blind!"
Numair blinked. "She's killed before. She told us so the first day we met her. That isn't new."
Alanna stuck the flint hard, the wood catching and brightening as it grew. Her mud streaked face and hair glowing queerly from the firelight. Her eyes taking on a deep amethyst as she looked up at Numair, she whispered, "She was always being controlled the times before. She could forgive herself in some way because she knew that had it been her own choice, she would not have done it. But now, all that changed. She had a choice back there, and she killed them. It's the first time she willingly killed someone. It's just as if she'd never killed before. And she did it with passion, Numair. I saw her, she didn't hold back. Almost like revenge of some kind. I've never seen anyone move so fast in my life. The men she went after didn't have time to know what hit them. She's not skilled, but she is fast. That gave her the leverage she needed. So now, she can question herself. She willingly killed those men. Does that mean she was capable of killing those from earlier. Maybe she wasn't being that controlled after all."
Numair was in shock. He hadn't thought of that. All the information Alanna had just provided was ringing in his head. "But, she wouldn't have killed those others. We know that."
"Yes." Alanna replied calmly. "We do. But she doesn't."
//////////////
After they had all washed up, Alanna caught some very fat rabbits for them to eat. Numair helped bandage Buri's wrist up. They ate in silence; Justice curled up to herself. They put out the fire before nightfall and headed off.
"So what do we do now?" Buri questioned. "Wait for the army?"
"No," answered Numair automatically. "We need to find the camp and get Daine back."
"Numair," Buri retorted, "if you haven't guessed by now, they used Daine as the bait. They knew we were coming before, they'll know we're coming now. We should wait for the army."
"I've never left Daine behind. I'm not starting now."
"The army should have been here by now." Alanna answered. "Something's wrong. We need to find the camp and get a hold of this mysterious mage. I'm with Numair in finding there camp."
Justice spoke up willingly for the first time. "I'm with Numair too. I want to get Daine back."
Numair turned to them. Looking at Justice's bands he questioned her with his eyes. She answered. "No, he's still not using it. I don't know why."
He nodded and then looked to Alanna and Buri. "So we find the camp."
Buri sighed heavily. But trotted along after the other three grumbling, "I want my headstone to read, 'Buri, courageous, loyal, and stupid enough to follow a crazy mage, a bad tempered Lioness and an eight year old into battle.'" She followed though. She would always follow. That's what friends were for.
///////
Thank you,
Karigan