Chapter 2: A Plan Would Help

Eva snuck up behind Yuhi, and the result was quite hilarious. He jumped, spilling soup all over his pants, then he jumped even more, dropping the bowl, because he just got hot soup all over his crotch. Eva hung her head, I suppressed a laugh, while Sereg let it all out and was rolling on the floor. "Whoever said that all demons could sense everything in their surroundings was sooo wrong!" Sereg said between laughs.

Yuhi found the bathroom and tried to dry himself off (( )). I cleaned up the mess and filled up the bowl with more soup for when he came back. Eva was sitting in my spot, so I leaned against her. After a few minutes, Yuhi came back, looking like he couldn't make it to the bathroom and peed in his pants. That only made Sereg laugh even more and this time Eva joined in. Yuhi (cautiously) grabbed the bowl of soup and started sipping on it again and glared at us over the bowl. After a long, good, hearty laugh, we settled down and I asked Eva to elaborate on what she meant by the whole attacking the demons statement.

"Well," she said, "I'm sick of the demons being, well, jackasses, which is why I left. That's, apparently, also why Yuhi left-"

"You were listening?!"

She glared at him. "No, I just automatically know all this information." Her eyes bulged. "I can read your miiiiinnnnd!!!" That shut him up. "And you two have an alliance with the humans. I'm sure your Mother would like to hear about this new, eh, uprising. We could go to her, let her know, and ask her to send us, let us be in charge, of calming the attack."

That made me think about home, the forest, the palace, all of the people. I actually kind of miss it. I would love to go back again. I still remember the day I left, like it was yesterday…

(-)Flashback(-)

It was a cold, wet day and water was drizzling down and dripping off the leaves. I looked out the balcony in my room at the forest. It was beautiful on a day like this. I'm going to miss it. I love the forest, but I had to leave. I loved my sister, but I couldn't stand the control she and my mother had in my life. I wasn't free to do the things that I wanted to, just because I'm a girl and girls aren't supposed to fight. We're supposed to stay in the palace and sew and cook and learn how to do house keeping things. But I've mastered those a long time ago and I want to fight! I want to train! I spend all the hours that I have to sew making cloaks and fighting clothes. Now my sister has found out that I've been training with Sereg in secret and banned me from it.

Sereg walked next to me and put his arm around my shoulder. I looked at him. "You sure you want to do this?" He nodded.

"I can't let you go out there by yourself. Besides, who's going to train you to fight? Are you ready?" I nodded. We pulled our cloaks around us, strapped our weapons to ourselves, and grabbed our effects.

I walked into my mother's room, and alone. I had to do this alone, even though I was so afraid. She had to understand, though. She just had to. She looked up from her needle work and then dropped it. "Oh my heavens. What are you doing? You can't leave!"

Tears rolled down my cheeks. She stood up and cradled me in her arms. "Mother. I'm sorry. I have to. Please understand. I don't have a choice, I can't stay here, refined, anymore."

"Shhh, it's okay, it's okay. I understand. I knew this day would come, in my heart." She wasn't talking about her gift of foresight, but her mother's intuition. "Sereg's going with you, isn't he?" I sniffed and nodded. "Take care of him, okay? You know he needs all the help he can get." I chuckled.

"Of course." I turned to walk out the door.

"Oh, and Mana?" I turned. "Take care of yourself. I love you."

I smiled and walked out the door. That was three years ago, when I was fourteen Sereg was fifteen.

(-)End Flashback(-)

"I'M JUST FINE! I CAN FIGHT RIGHT NOW! C'MON! I CAN TAKE YOU ON, YOU LITTLE PRISS!!!"

"YEAH, RIGHT! YOU COULDN'T EVEN SENSE THAT I WAS RIGHT BEHIND YOU!!! MR STRONG DEMON. MORE LIKE MR WALKING DISASTER!!!"

Eva and Yuhi were fighting, obviously. Yuhi was standing right up against Eva, yelling into her face, holding up his bowl of soup above her head and she was barring her fangs, getting ready to bite him. Sereg, laughing again, was still sitting in the chair. I'm guessing that they had a fight over when he'd be strong enough to leave. He's saying now. She's saying in a week. I say neither, and I'm the one trained in healing, so it's going to be my word against theirs, no matter how much they did or didn't like it.

I stood up, and high kicked Yuhi in the nose then kneed him in the stomach. He flew back and the bowl of soup plummeted towards the ground and I quickly rolled and grabbed the bowl, without spilling a drop, and set it on the coffee table.

Yuhi was starting to stand up, but I quickly pushed him down again and put my foot on his chest and pointed my finger at him. "LISTEN! I don't care who you are or what you think, but this is MY house, and while YOU'RE staying here, sleeping in MY bed, and eating MY food, you will abide by MY rules, savvy?! You should be fully healed by tomorrow, if you don't piss me off too much! Now shut up, rest, and get everything ready. We're leaving at dawn. Whether you like it or not. And if you don't, you can stop the demons yourself."

Fully fuming (which, by the way, is really hard to get me), I walked off to my room, locked the door, and opened the window, letting the cool air come in and fill my room. Time to pack.

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

I was snickering. "Moron." I muttered. Yuhi sat up and glared at me. "Don't piss Mana off, idiot! That's not exactly the smartest thing to do! She doesn't look it, but she's very powerful and could annihilate you in a split second!" He looked at me, and I knew exactly what he was thinking by the look on his face. Man, he's too easy to read. "Yes, I'm dead serious. She wasn't even using a fraction of her power when she knocked you to the floor. Then, she has her elvish power, which she hasn't even fully found the extent of yet." Now he was staring at me with disbelief.

He shook his head and went outside. Sereg got up and skipped off to the kitchen. I shook my head. He was going to get more sugar. Like he needed any more. I trekked off to Mana's room and knocked on the door. "C'm in." I unlocked the door and walked in. "Hey! Why don't you make yourself useful and help me pack?" I glared at her.

"What do you think we need?" I asked.

She whimpered. "Do you think we could take everything???"

I looked at her weapon cabinet and laughed hysterically. "Sure, we can make the guys carry it all, if they could stand." She laughed with me then sighed.

"Well, help me decide what to take. I already know that I'm going to be bringing all of my weapons, and you probably know what you want, but Sereg only has a few weapons, and Yuhi'll need some, too.

We started sorting through the weapons and pulled out 2 daggers, a long sword, a short sword, a bow and some arrows, a throwing knife, boot swords, bracers, and gloves for each of the guys. That barely even put a dent into her collection. Obviously, she liked to collect weapons.

"We still need a cloak for Yuhi. I'll have to make one tonight." She sighed.

I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her. "What's wrong?"

She contemplated for a moment. "He's going to turn everything upside down, I can sense it. Nothing's going to be the same again."

"I know, I know. I don't like it either." We sat there for a while hugging each other, holding on to the present. We were disrupted by a loud crash downstairs. "Oh, no." I sighed and rolled my eyes. "I better go check on Sereg. I think he's had just a little too much sugar."

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

It felt great outside. It was starting to flurry and snow was covering the blood left on the ground from last night. That made me think about the demon realm and what they were doing now. I scaled a tree and climbed up to the top. Smoke was rising on the horizon. I knew exactly what it was. I scanned to the right, in the general direction of my house on the river. It looked like they had already gotten there. I hoped Natsuki was fine. She should be, but I still worry. She was only a puppy.

My mind was wondering about the past days event and what had to be done, when I felt ice go down the back of my shirts and a voice say "Boo!" I jumped and fell. I was barely hanging onto the branch I was standing on a second ago.

Mana was sitting at the base of the trunk laughing her head off. "THAT WAS SO MEAN!!!! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME!!!! "

"No, I wouldn't have! YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN YOUR FACE!!!! It was all like-" and she imitated me, but I'm sure she looked a lot cuter. I grabbed her foot and yanked her down to where she was hanging on the branch next to me. The next thing she did amazed me, especially seeing such a small girl like her do it; she pulled herself up enough to where her leg was even with the branch, then kicked my arms, making me fall, then she swung up, two branches above where she started, all in the blink of an eye! She was fast, and I didn't expect it at all. She looked down at me and stuck her tongue out at me. "HaHa!!!" She jumped down gracefully to where I was and helped me up. "Anyway, I need you to pick colors for your cloak."

What was she talking about? I looked at her funny. "I'm making you a cloak. You don't have one, it's starting to get cold outside, and we're leaving tomorrow. You'll need a cloak! Pick two colors!"

"You can make it that fast?!" She nodded. "What colors do you have?" She started walking back to the house, and I only guessed that meant to follow her, which I did. She led me to her room and showed me a ton of fabric. So many colors! "Hrm…" I contemplated. "I'll go with black and purple."

She nodded, again. "Okay, one black and purple cloak coming up!" She smiled and set off to work.

"You need help," I asked.

"No, thanks. I'd like for the cloak to come out." I growled and walked out, letting her be.

Mana- YAY! Chapter Two!!! uber excited

Eva- This is the farthest you've ever been, right?

Mana- Shhhhh…. That's not the important part