Obsidian Fires

Part 6

By Mieren

Rowen lifted one hand to his head, pulling further into the shadows and peering around intently as he tried to figure out where he was.  His head felt like it was packed with cotton and he couldn't seem to get his mind to focus.  Squinting at the light dancing in the open fields, he began looking around for somewhere to hide until nightfall.

Scrubbing his hands through his hair stiffly, he settled back under a stone outcropping in the side of a hill, struggling to hide deeper in his cloak.  For a moment, he could have sworn that he was forgetting something, something important.  Growling angrily, he leaned back against the cool soil and began fighting to remember whatever it was that he had forgotten.  The thoughts teased the edges of his mind while eluding his grasp entirely.

Shrugging in irritation, he squinted towards the trail he had been on for more than a week, wondering how close he was to the main battlefield.  He knew the strategic locations for intensive fighting in this dimension, and was heading towards the most important of them.  The sheer numbers of dark elves he had seen spoke well for the battle being somewhere in this direction.

Wondering what it was that he had forgotten, he slammed his fist into the side of the hill, causing a small landslide to bury him for protection against the harsh sun.  He would be a bit dirty when he woke up, but it was better than being scorched.  Relaxing under the cool soil, he settled back to sleep for a few hours, his mind grabbing desperately at what he had forgotten as he drifted to sleep and giving up as he decided that the only thing that mattered was finding Mieren.

*     *     *

Cye staggered and clutched his head in his hands, crying out softly.  The other six in the group stopped immediately, pushing him to the ground.  He was grateful for the blessedly still ground, the rest of the world seeming to spin wildly in his eyes.

Eyes glazing slightly, he stared blankly ahead, oblivious to the hands shaking him and the voices calling his name.  Everything seemed too bright in his eyes and the air burnt his skin relentlessly.  Whimpering and curling into a ball, he didn't notice when someone lifted him gently and carried him cradled like a small child.

Snapping to awareness suddenly, Cye lashed out viciously, grinning maliciously when his fists contacted something solid and created a startled grunt.  Leaping out of the confining grasp that was holding him, he swung again at the blurred shapes surrounding him, missing miserably as they dodged nimbly.  Blinking sweat out of dull eyes, he gazed around, spitting out something that sent several of the figures around him into a panicked frenzy.  Something solid contacted forcefully with his jaw.  Darkness enveloped him.

Groaning feebly and trying to open his eyes, he batted weakly at the arms holding him, struggling to pull free of the strong grip.  Cye was aware that someone was calling his name softly as he was set down.

"What?" he grated out, squinting in the burning light.

"Are you okay, Cye?"

Forcing his eyes to focus, he peered into Kento's worried face and nodded slowly.

"What was going on?" he muttered irritably.

"Do you remember what happened earlier?"  That was Ryo, he noted absently as he shook his head.  "You were casting the Exodus spell and scaring the piss out of everyone here.  Sorry about hitting you, but I had to stop you."

"All I remember was my head hurting and something trying to pin me," he trailed off, blinking at Kento's bruised jaw.  "Tell me I didn't do that."

Kento shrugged.  "You swing like a girl anyway," he snorted.

Cye rolled his eyes and sighed.  "Okay," he drawled.  "Let me think.  The light hurt both my eyes and skin.  I couldn't remember where I was exactly or what I seemed to be forgetting."

Ryo slumped to the ground wearily.  "Do you know who that sounds like?"

Paling, Cye nodded.  "There's something wrong with him.  We have to find him."

"You said he couldn't remember anything?" Dais asked slowly, eye narrowing.  "Ask Siellon what that means.  I have a bad feeling that he'll know."

"You know something, don't you?" Ryo snapped, rounding on the Warlord.

"I'm not sure.  I want the dark elf to verify it."

Cye groaned at their bickering and turned to their dark elf companion.  "What does it mean to wake up confused and not remembering anything?"

"You're not talking about yourself, I can tell.  You seem to remember everything now.  It could mean a variety of things.  Of them, injury, poison, and dark magics are the most likely."

"I knew about the first two.  Tell me about the third."

"I'm not sure.  It could be that a spell was cast or he's working with something he doesn't understand.  That's all I know.  I don't really like using the dark arts."

Sighing irritably, Cye repeated the little he had gotten out of their companion.

"Well I have no idea either.  How are we supposed to find him?" Dais asked slowly, looking to the others.

Siellon tugged on Cye's arm, murmuring softly.

"You seem to have a mental link with someone.  Tell me about him, and I will see if I can help you find him."

Cye scrubbed his hands through his hair.  "Well, he's looking for Mieren and will only be traveling at night."

Siellon's eyes narrowed dangerously.  "And why is that?"

"He's… well… a vampire," he admitted reluctantly.  The dark elf looked ready to run for cover, looking around wildly.

"If he's one of the dark ones, then why do you seek him?"

"He's a friend and the bearer of the Armor of Strata."

"I thought Mieren had that," he whispered, eyeing the ground uncertainly.

"She did, but she gave it back to Rowen."

The elf's head snapped up to regard Cye suddenly.  "Rowen?" he breathed, eyes bulging.  "We know of him here.  He was brought back by the request of Mieren if I remember correctly.  Ah… the rumors say that he is the descendant of the Hashiba line.  Is it true?"  Cye's nod sent him into a state of mild shock.  He took a deep breath.  "I know where he went.  The information passed along our lines warned of the Child of Hashiba running rampant through our ranks."

Grinning widely, Cye turned to the others.  "Siellon knows where Rowen is," he called out happily.  The others only gaped.  "Lead on, dark cousin."

Smiling uncertainly, Siellon cut sharply through the trees to another trail that ran parallel to the one they were on for the first few miles before coming to several branches and hooking slightly more to the north.

*     *     *

Neris pulled Sage and Kayura off of the trail suddenly, moving into the shrubbery for cover and motioning for them to stay down.  He drew a dagger from his boot and held the tip in his fingers, tensing the muscles in his arm slightly.

A dark elf trotted past them, beginning down the trail they were on from where it joined with a lesser trail.  The knife flashed in Neris's fingers, disappearing in the direction of the dark figure.  The dark elf whipped out two identical short swords and swatted the blade out of the air contemptuously, spinning to face his opponent with swords held ready.

Neris didn't need any encouragement, charging into the reach of the dark elf with a long slender sword in one hand and a foot long blade in the other.  They met in a clash of sparks and weapons slammed into each other with unnerving power.  Surprisingly, the dark elf didn't fight back, merely backing away and repelling the attacks coming from his opponent.  Sage drew his no-dachi and entered the fray, eyes flashing golden in the harsh shadows as he neared the combatants.

The dark elf blanched at the centaur he saw approaching, trying to back away.  He paused in his retreat, rolling to a safer position for a moment and snapping his blades back into their sheathes.  Neris scowled at him but didn't move forward to kill him.

Pointing at Sage, the dark elf grinned, eyes sparkling a deep ruby.  "Sage Date!" he cried out triumphantly, motioning behind him.  Neris scowled and moved forward to finish him, his earlier indecision forgotten.  A sharp command pulled him up short.

Cye stormed over and slapped the dark elf on the back of the head, gibbering wildly and occasionally grinning at Sage.  Neris only stared at him in utter shock.

"Cye Mouri?" Neris asked quietly, eyes bulging as his knees buckled and deposited him roughly to the ground.  Cye grinned in his direction and nodded.

Sage darted over, grin splitting his face.  "Hey Cye, it's good to see you.  Have you seen any of the others?"  Cye looked at him blankly for a moment before a slow grin crept across his face when Kayura came darting out of hiding with a mass of weapons in tow, struggling to wave at him.

"Yea," Cye murmured, eyes sparkling.  "All of the others are with me.  And better yet, Siellon knows where Rowen is."

"Siellon?" Kayura murmured, eyeing the dark elf carefully.  "Why is a dark elf working with you guys anyway?"

Cye shrugged.  "We saved his life and he offered to help us, saying something about a blood debt or some such."

"What the hell is going on over here?" Ryo demanded, storming down the trail with Cale in tow, Sehkmet following a little further behind with something in his hands.  The three came to a dead stop when they saw Sage and Kayura, calling back down the trail loudly and laughing wildly.  Dais and Kento came charging in, hooting loudly and engaging in a quick punching match, which Kento quickly won, before they darted over.

Kayura made a face.  "And Dais is still causing problems."

Dais blew her a kiss and winked his one eye, grinning at her disgusted expression.

Grumbling to herself about idiots with white hair, Kayura started moving around the group, handing out the weapons that they had selected for them.  Dais frowned at the broadsword and belt of knives that she handed him, hefting the weighty weapon with surprising skill considering it was not his weapon of choice and never had been.  Ryo eyed the archaic runes scrawled in the sides of the long twin swords he had been handed, whistling appreciatively as he swung them experimentally.

In playing, Kento 'accidentally' cracked Dais in the back of the head with his blade-tipped staff, grinning as the older man spit out something that caused Cye to redden slightly.  At the blush, their little battle was forgotten as they engaged in a contest of who could piss off Cye the worst.  Sehkmet joined in after the third phrase was tossed out, adding combinations of words that had Ryo blushing and Sage paling.

"How long have you had to put up with that?" Sage asked incredulously.

"Too long," Cye muttered, pegging the nearest offending person with the side of his new yari, grinning at the answering yelp.

Kayura waded into the fray with a snarl, swinging freely with the flat of her swords, creating loud cracking noises and louder squalls.  The other Warlords backed off with raised hands, well aware of her fighting abilities and the bruises they would have if they continued.  Sehkmet wandered over to Sage and grinned slightly, holding up something about the size and shape of a golf ball.

"What is that?" Sage murmured, lifting it carefully into his hands.

"New toy of mine.  The others don't like it, even though it's perfectly safe as long as it isn't broken."

"What does it do?"

"Throw it at a tree and see," he smirked.

Instead of obeying, Sage probed the thing with his mind, face paling when he realized what the thing would do to anything it came into contact with.  He carefully handed the thing back to Sehkmet and stepped back.  Sehkmet snickered wickedly.

"All of us seem to have abilities associated with out armors that we've never bothered to tap into until now.  Your element is light, yes?"

Sage nodded slowly, making a face.  He could manipulate the light?  Interesting.

Concentrating on the rays of light shining down onto a clearing just up ahead in the trail, he sighed and shook his head.

"I can't get it to do anything," he muttered sourly, rolling his eyes at the fireballs Ryo was busy juggling awkwardly as Cye attempted to put them out with small bursts of water while Kento tried to sink them both into the ground.

Sehkmet shrugged.  "Don't worry about it.  Cye didn't figure out how to manipulate the water immediately.  He's been screwing around for the past few hours on the trail, seeing how many of us he could soak with his little tricks.  He mainly tried to get myself and Dais, occasionally pegging Kento with a blast."

"Shall we get moving?" Ryo asked sweetly from where he was buried to his waist in the ground.  Kento grinned and pulled him free, moving over to Cye next.

Looking to the dark and light elves were arguing loudly, Cye made a face.  "I don't think that those two are going to be getting along too well," he muttered, scowling at both of them.

Dais and Sehkmet looked at each other for a moment, grinning slightly.  "Well then, if they won't walk together down the trail, we may just have to do something about that, yes?" Sehkmet smirked, tossing the dark elf across his shoulders while Dais tackled the light elf and boosted him up for a ride.  They both snapped something at Cye.

Cye groaned.  "They both said something to the effect that if you don't put them down, right now, they're going to do something to you that you're not going to like."

The two offending Warlords grinned at each other.  "They weigh about half what we do and they're almost a foot shorter.  What can they possibly do to us?"

"They're smarter than you two," Cye muttered, pushing past them to start down the trail and leaving the others to follow.  He hadn't gone four paces before he stopped suddenly, stepping back and rubbing his face amid a variety of growled obscenities.

Ryo passed by him, looking around carefully.  He stopped precisely in the same area Cye had, fingering his nose and grumbling something that made Sehkmet choke.  Reaching out, he slammed his fist into the air, a resounding pop echoing back to the others as his fist contacted something.

Sage walked forward slowly with his hands in front of him carefully.  His fingers contacted an invisible wall, the smooth surface strangely warm against his fingers.  He grinned suddenly and walked forward, casually passing down the trail.  Ryo looked at him carefully and moved to follow, swearing loudly when he slammed his face into something again.

"Oh fine," Sage chortled.  "I'll take down the wall of light."  He continued to snicker as he stared blankly at the small clearing with golden eyes for a moment, grinning triumphantly back at the others.

Using a rare show of sense, Ryo started forward with his hands leading the way, grinning when he passed by where the wall had been.  Cye started forward without checking, trusting Sage not to screw around like the mentally deficient Warlords.

"Nice trick," Kayura murmured as she passed him, throwing the younger boy one of her best smiles.  Sage blushed slightly and looked at the ground when the others started to hoot wildly.  Cye groaned and shook his head, already tired of the stupidity.

Neris and Siellon exchanged vicious glances as they regarded the two Warlords holding them securely across their shoulders.  Sehkmet and Dais only grinned at their struggling and scowls as they headed down the trail with their unwilling passengers hanging furiously across their shoulders.  The two elves muttered something to one another that caused Cye to choke slightly and turn away, wheezing around his laughter.

"What did he say?" Dais murmured, eyeing the youngest Ronin.

"Nothing that I'm going to repeat."

"And why not?" Sehkmet prompted.

"Because you'll find out soon enough."

The two Warlords exchanged wary looks before regarding their passengers thoughtfully.  Simultaneously, they bent down and lowered their unwilling cargo to the ground and moved back a few paces.  The elves only straightened their clothes, raised their heads imperiously and stormed to the front of the group, muttering softly to one another and occasionally throwing amused glances at the two nervous Warlords.

*     *     *

When they stopped to rest for the night, Sehkmet and Dais made a point of staying well clear of the two elves that had been grinning at them for the last few hours.  Neris waved one milky hand, Siellon darting away from the campsite immediately in response to the gesture.  Cye only snickered quietly, ignoring the others' confused and curious stares.

Neris leapt off of the ground and charged Sehkmet, who squeaked in horror and took off, darting away from the camp with a horrified expression on his face.  He hadn't made it more than a few paces before a snare lifted him clear of the ground, leaving him hanging from a large tree limb by one ankle.  Grinning, the elf turned to Dais, who edged away from him warily, his one eye wide.

The advancing elf froze, face paling and taking on a greenish tinge.  He whimpered and moved back a pace, eyes widening quickly.  Dais looked around frantically, an irritated tick beginning in his cheek when a loop of rope dropped around him from above.  His arms were firmly bound to his sides when Siellon leapt out of the tree above him with the end of the rope in his hands.  Neris gave up his horrified expression and laughed at the dangling Warlord.

"Umm, Cye?"

Cye looked over to Kento, eyes streaming as he fought not to laugh.

"Yes?"

"What are they doing?" he asked patiently.  Cye only grinned.

"That's not an answer," Ryo grumped.

Trotting off into the night with Dais in tow, the elves began another conversation, occasionally ribbing each other and pointing to their captives.  Cale and Kayura looked as though they wanted to help, but feared the consequences of doing so.  They settled on watching with the others as the elves returned to bind Sehkmet and pull him out of the tree, chatting softly.  Cye gasped and went into convulsions, tears streaming freely down his face.

"Cye," Cale began, stopping short when the dark elf turned back to look at him for a moment, a considering look in his ruby eyes.

Mortified cries echoed through the silence of the evening.  The only thing that kept the Ronins and Warlords from moving to help was Cye's unconcealed mirth.

*     *     *

Sehkmet cried out as the dark elf, enveloped in obsidian flames, reached out to grasp his face in clammy hands.  He tried to buck unsuccessfully from where they had bound him, tears threatening to fall from his dark eyes.  He was released after a moment, the two elves grinning at him as the cut the bonds holding him to the massive tree.

He immediately jumped up and darted away from them, afraid to stop to see what they had done.  Wild laughter followed him.  He tumbled to the ground heavily several times, his balance annihilated beyond compensation.  Not bothering to go back to camp, he started for the small pond they had decided to camp near, halfway hoping that there wasn't enough light left for him to see what they had done.

Stumbling into the clearing, he fell to his knees beside the water.  Catching his reflection, his eyes bulged, threatening to roll out of his head.  He slowly raised one hand to the side of his face in disbelief.

Thick, dark scales covered him almost entirely, only abating around his face.  Forest green scales that matched his hair almost exactly rose along the sides of his cheeks, hugging his ears and hairline closely.  The stripes angled sharply to run beneath his eyes, tapering off to nothing just before reaching his nose.  The delicate scales around the two stripes radiated outward in an ever-lightening pattern that slowly melted into the color of the skin on his face.

He ran one taloned hand slowly over the stripes on his face, jaw quivering at the way the scales on his face became thinner so smoothly, so gradually, that it was almost impossible to tell where the scales ended and his skin began.

Tearing his gaze from the greenish yellow eyes of his reflection staring back at him, Sehkmet began to examine the rest of what the two menaces had done to him.  His entire body was covered in heavy scales that swirled through several shades of green as they caught the meager evening light, threatening to blend in with anything he neared.  A tail as thick as his arm at the base brushed the ground as he rose to his feet, the ridges and spikes catching on his clothes as he tried to move it uncertainly.

He ceased fingering his claws and the heavy ridges decorating his arms and back when a mortified shriek echoed through the trees.  Making a face, he slipped into the shadows to see what the two terrors had done to Dais.

It didn't take him long to find his horrified friend, back pressed to a tree as the two elves ribbed each other and wandered off amid muffled laughter.  Slipping out of the shadows, he looked at his friend and blinked.  He blinked again.  Dais was leaning against a tree, face blank.  One of his hands was gripping a low hanging branch fiercely for support.  Another was scrubbing hair out of his face absently.  Two others were crossed across his chest as he hugged himself in shock.

Sehkmet made a face and began counting hands.  There were six total.  The final two, apparently the original, were still bound to the tree.  Rolling his eyes, he moved forward and freed his catatonic friend, noting absently that his friend now had a rather strange upper body build with that many arms lining each side of his chest.  He watched in mild amusement as his friend squeaked and darted behind the tree.

"Don't worry.  We'll get them later," Sehkmet muttered.

"Sehkmet?" a querulous voice asked slowly.  "Is that you?"

"What's left of me."

Dais edged around the tree, a pensive frown on his face.  "At least you're uglier than I am."

"And how in the hell do you figure that?"

"Face it.  I'm gorgeous.  Even with the improvement in your appearance, I look better'n you."

"You're dead."

A race for camp began, Dais fleeing for his life as an enraged Sehkmet charged after him, preparing to pound him into the ground.  Snapping his cloak shut just before entering camp, Dais leapt into the light, grinning maliciously as he spun to face Sehkmet's entrance.

Sehkmet skidded to a stop and backpedaled frantically when five sets of weapons were leveled with him immediately upon his arrival.  Dais, the elves, and Cye were the only ones not preparing to attack him.  Scowling furiously at Dais, he flopped to the ground, the tip of his tail twitching in annoyance as he waited for the others to recognize him.  Cye's muffled laughter quickly led the others to figure out what had happened.

"And what did they do to you?" Cye managed to choke out as he turned to Dais.  The older man only raised one eyebrow slightly before whistling softly and flopping onto his back to stare innocently at the stars.

Sehkmet tackled him, beginning a rough impromptu wrestling match which Dais quickly won once he broke free of the confining cloak wrapped tightly around him.  The Ronins and non-terrorized Warlords could only stare in shock.  His war with Sehkmet forgotten, Dais jumped to his feet and walked over to Kayura, whispering something to her softly, eye gleaming.

Kayura reddened and slapped him furiously.  "I don't care how creative you think you can get with that many hands!  The answer is still no!"

Sage tried not to chuckle as Kayura stormed over and plopped down beside him, her eyes flashing with unconcealed fury.

"I think you need one more hand, Dais," Kento choked out, tears streaming from his eyes.  "That way you would have one for every night of the week."

Dais leveled a furious glare in his direction, fighting the red igniting in his cheeks.  Wrapping his cloak around him indignantly, he muttered something about Kento knowing about such things before turning away from the others.

Neris moved forward slowly, eyeing the two Warlords he had helped torment before turning to regard Cye.

"They're not responding as spectacularly as we had hoped.  Why do they take this so calmly?"

Cye made a face as he considered it for a moment.  "Some of the jokes Mieren played on us involved shapeshifting.  She told us that such spells would wear off after a week or so if not maintained."

"That's if you're joking around with minor spells.  Don't they know that what we did will not wear off?"

Cye choked and began wheezing on laughter as he relayed the message to the others as they waited expectantly.  Dais and Sehkmet paled instantly, jaws hanging slack.

"You cannot be serious," Dais muttered, glaring at the widely grinning elves.

Sehkmet didn't bother to respond.  He rose slowly to his feet and charged Siellon, talons extended as he leapt into the air, missing his target by inches as the dark elf rolled out of his path and darted into the trees.

"Elves are a bit on the vengeful side, I take it," Cale murmured, trying to stay clear of the chaos raging around him as his friend tried to kill the two elves.

"Remind me not to piss them off," Kayura muttered, edging away from the battle, and consequently closer to Sage, who took advantage of the situation and slipped one arm around her comfortingly.  She looked at him strangely but didn't pull away.

"If you need to be reminded, I'm going to have to worry," Cale snorted dryly.

Dais decided to use his brains instead of brute force, like Sehkmet was trying at the moment.  He edged over towards Cye, face taking on a pleading expression.

"You can speak to them and they like you.  Could you ask them to reconsider?" he begged miserably.

Cye called out something to the two elves, who shouted out a response as they continued to dodge the furious Warlord.

Cye shrugged.  "Considered and rejected," he said slowly, struggling to keep his voice steady.

Sehkmet scowled and moved over to his things darkly, having heard the entire exchange.  Siellon and Neris watched him warily when he discontinued his attack, glancing at each other in confusion.  The dark elf squeaked out something and darted into the woods in a full sprint.  Neris paused to glance at the small stone spheres in Sehkmet's hands before following the other elf's example.

*     *     *

Sehkmet and Dais followed the others silently, staying a few paces behind the group at all times.  They each had drawn their cloaks tightly around themselves, hiding in the billowing depths of the dark fabric.

Sage glanced back at them and groaned again.  It had taken all of them over an hour to pin the two and force them to promise not to kill the two elves.  Dais had been nearly impossible to hold down, being at least as strong as Sage in his centaur form.  They had only agreed to allow the elves to live when it was pointed out that they were the only ones that knew how to turn them back.  Grinding his teeth irritably, he slowed his pace to fall in beside the two idiots trailing them.

"Are you two still moping?"

Dais scowled at him darkly from under his hood.  Sehkmet blatantly refused to look up from the ground.

"Like you wouldn't be," he snapped angrily.

Sage made a face.  "Have you two noticed what form I've been wandering around in for the last few days?" he growled, eyes flashing golden for a moment.  Dais's one eye flashed red in response for the moment it took him to realize it and avert his gaze.  Sage pursed his lips thoughtfully.  Arching his eyebrows at the unreceptive glower directed at him, he shrugged and trotted up to walk beside Cye again.

Siellon turned when he approached, muttering something to Cye.  The youngest Ronin blinked and turned to the others slowly, eyeing the surrounding terrain warily.

"Something's flanking us.  It's been watching us for at least an hour now, and its not exactly happy that we're here," he murmured slowly, eyes haunted.

"What is it?" Ryo asked, gripping the hilts of his katanas fiercely.

Cye shook his head.  "We don't know.  It's hiding pretty well."

The Ronins and Warlords joined the two elves in watching the surrounding area as they moved down the trail at a grueling pace.

Sage skidded to a stop and backpedaled frantically, running over Cale, when something jumped out of the shadows onto the trail in front of them.  Dirt and blood smeared a dark greenish brown cloak concealing the eight-foot figure towering over the warriors.  Weapons were drawn and leveled immediately.

Within the first attack, it became apparent why the creature didn't carry any weapons with him.  He didn't need any.  He swatted aside the attacking blades almost contemptuously as he advanced on the group, crimson eyes swirling dangerously.  Sage managed to get in a lucky blow and knock aside the heavy hood concealing his opponent.

Dark bluish black locks fell around a feral scowl on a twisted face.  Every bone in the thing's face was heavily pronounced, the size of the bones leaving lumps and ridges that created a horrifying profile.  The deep blood-colored eyes shifted to an impossible obsidian as every muscle in the eight-foot form bulged and expanded.  He grinned wickedly, flashing a mouthful of dagger-like fangs.

Siellon jumped back and cried out something loudly, ruby eyes bulging.  Cye blanched and moved back quickly.

"That's the thing that attacked the dark elves!" Cye cried out to the others, leveling his yari defensively.  Everyone except Sage, Kayura and Neris blanched and leapt back from the attacking force wildly, motioning for the remaining three to follow suit and stay out of reach.

Moving forward, the towering giant snagged Kento in one thick hand, throwing him into a mortified Cale.  Dais and Sehkmet jumped away from the flying Ronin and shucked off their cloaks to increase their mobility.  Dais drew six of the daggers lining his belt without thinking about it, each hand moving to a different defensive position.

The blue-haired giant paused as the Warlord approached warily, his one eye flashing a brilliant ruby.  Scowling, he slammed one foot into his six-handed assailant to send him careening into Cye.  The two collapsed into an unmoving heap.

Sehkmet used this his friend's attack as a distraction so he could move in, Sage circling around behind the Warlord while Ryo and Kayura shifted behind the unarmed attacker.  Dropping to a crouch, the enormous adversary lashed out with his legs again, kicking Ryo's legs out from under him to send him flailing into Kayura.  Building on his momentum, he rolled forward into Sehkmet, ripping the twin swords out of the man's hands before throwing him into the nearing elves.  He rounded on Sage, a feral grin splitting his face.

Sage blanched and tried to move back to create some room so he could use his no-dachi effectively.  He didn't have the chance, his opponent was too fast.  The entire battle to this point had taken no more than a few seconds, and it looked as though they had lost.

A punch contacted with his jaw, only Sage's demonic strength keeping the blow from being lethal.  As it was, he wilted to the ground, his no-dachi ripped from his hands as his attacker confiscated the weapon and swung it around to hold it at his throat.  Sage froze, eyes glistening in pain and fear.

His blue-haired assailant paused, blinking slowly as his obsidian eyes clouded slightly in the early morning light.  Staring at the blade in his hands uncertainly for a moment, he shrugged and dropped the weapon, spinning lightly to move back into the deeper shadows of the forest.  Sage watched numbly as he lost two feet of his height as he walked, muscles vanishing to leave an almost lank form trotting steadily away, concealed within the deep folds of his now oversized cloak.

*     *     *

Rowen shifted uncomfortably in the early morning light, snuggling deeper into the folds of his cloak and wondering idly what had woken him at this ungodly hour.  Shrugging unconcernedly, he made sure the hood of his enormous filthy cloak covered him completely as he pushed himself deeper into the shrubbery around him.

Closing his eyes, he couldn't help but feel he was forgetting about something.  Something important.  He felt as though there was something he was supposed to do, something he was forgetting or leaving behind, but he couldn't place what it was.  Grumbling darkly to himself about his rotten memory, he peered one last time at the trail just a few paces from where he was hiding, wondering idly how much longer it would be until he found Mieren.  Sighing loudly, he tried to ignore his burning skin as he went back to sleep.  As he drifted off, his mind screamed furiously at him, demanding to know exactly when he had entered the sun long enough to be burnt.  The question was left unanswered as sleep overtook him.

To Be Continued…

Evil computers… Evil…