Chapter Three:

I woke up sometime in the morning, the sun warming me. Stretching a bit I sat up. Yawning I crawled over to where Mana was and poked her. She didn't even show realization that I poked her. I frowned and pushed her over onto her stomach. She grunted and turned her head, looking at me. I smiled. "Don't smile at me!" She hissed and sat up. She looked around and realization dawned on her. "Sereg!"

"Left last night, he's fine, I let him go" she gave a worried glance at me. "Lets go find breakfast, ok?" She nodded.

Breakfast was hunted squirrels and such. The carcasses were impaled on a sharpened stick and held over the flames. I occasionally flipped it so it was evenly cooked, every now and then testing it. Finally tired of trying to get it to cook I just ate it how it was, while Mana frowned and continued to cook hers. I just shrugged and threw the stick at the wall.

It clinked off the bricks and bounced back to the fire. Annoyed I tossed it into the flames. "Want to go back to town... see how everything is?" Mana asked. I sighed and nodded. We finished breakfast in silence then started out towards the town.

Leaves crunched under our feet as we tried to follow the trail. Nami hopped along side us as fast as she could. Leaves fluttered down from the tree tops casting ever changing shadows. I smiled inwardly and my skin shivered. My sword tugged at my belt as I walked and I couldn't wait to see if my bow survived. The breeze brushed against my skin. A grin spread across my face and with a burst of speed I took off running.

Mana shouted after me but I just laughed. As I got closer to the town I noticed the trees and grass were charred. I slowed to a walk, then to a stop. Most of the town I could see was a burn crisp. Nami hopped up beside me and into the town. Looking from side to side I slowly walked forward. The houses were black, windows broken, wood splintered. Some housed collapsed, and some still smoldered inside.

Coming to the hill that led to our house I looked up. It was burned slightly, but other words ok. I felt sorry for other houses and trekked up the hill. a window was broken but everything else was fine. Going up the stairs to my room I retrieved my bow and arrows. Finding my gloves I pulled them on and walked back down stairs. Mana stood at the bass of the stairs. I slowed and smiled slightly at her.

"Our house is practically untouched.... How?" She asked and went into the kitchen.

"Maybe sense it was up on the hill... away from everything else... I don't know." I followed her. The bowls were still where we left them, slightly growing mold.

Most of my life was gone now. I never knew my father. I used to wonder when I was younger but I grew to accept it. My mom was great and this was her house. She had friends who lived in a town across the forest. That's where I had met Mana. I remember the trips over there would take a day and we would often sleep in the forest under the stars. The trips over there got more frequent and Mana and I would sometimes meet halfway and play in the forest. But that was the down fall of everything. Mana's town was attacked and her parents killed. She came to live with us, and all was good for a while. Then.. when I was only 13, and we went out into the forest, Mana and I ran off to have fun climbing trees. My mom was attacked, and I still don't know by what. We heard a scream and found her dead. We never have separated sense that day.

I strung my bow and tied that along with my quiver to my back. Sword at my side I went to search the town for anything that we could use. The demons had cleaned up all the dead bodies so it was pretty clean, except for the blood. It covered about everything. I found some good food down by the water and started searching all the houses.

I walked along a line of houses, trying to pick out the ones that were safe to go in. I found one and with curiosity eating at me, walked in. The wood creaked under my feet. Stairs were in front of me and I carefully walked up them. I turned to look at the upstairs and gasped.

The back window was shattered, and there was blood everywhere. It covered the floor and I followed a certain trail with my eyes and it lead out the window. What caught my eye the most was the lump in the middle of the floor.

Sereg laid in the middle of the floor, in the mist of all the blood. I knew not all of it was his, cuse I could tell which blood was older. He was still shirtless, and his sword was impaled in a wall. he was bleeding all over ((a/n: toya comes to mind, no?)) and he was either dead, or unconscious. It looked like he went threw a blender, cuts covered his body, some deeper then others. I ran over and dropped to the floor beside him. My hands hovered over his body, not sure what to do.

I silently cursed and rummaged in a bag I picked up. Finding an old t-shirt I tore it into strips. Gently rolling him onto his back I started bandaging the more damaged areas. Whoever, or whatever, did this, had no mercy. He had cuts ranging from length, and depth starting at his head, and going down to his feet. I shook my head and suddenly realized I had no way of getting him out of here. Pulling off my gloves I popped my knuckles nervously.

He was alive, barley, but alive. I shouldn't have let him go. Thoughts raced through my mind. I have to get him OUT of here! I though desperately and getting up ran out of the house, looking for Mana.

-

I was slowly walking through the town, Nami at my feet. The devastation was massive. I looked up when I heard running feet. Aya ran up and grabbed my shoulders for support. "What?" I asked. She took a few seconds to catch her breath.

"Sereg..." She gulped some air. "He's hurt.. bad" I jerked.

"Where?" I asked. She turned and started running again. A through briefly flew through my head 'she's going to kill herself', then I started after her. She led me down to this house. I was surprised she was still running, and really fast.

She turned the corner so quick I had to turn around. I ran up the stairs and almost fell over. There was blood everywhere. Now, I knew not all of that was probably from him, but it was a little sickening. Eva was on her hands and knees, trying to breathe. I felt like yelling at her for pushing herself too hard, but now was not the time.

"Rest, then maybe we can get him out of here..." I said walking carefully over. She glared at me, but nodded. I went around inspecting the walls. To the side of the room there was a window. It was smashed open and had blood leading to it, and out of it. I poked my head out, avoiding the glass, and looked up. "Ya think this is where he lives?" I asked.

"Yeah, probably, why?" I studied the trail.

"He was determined to get out of here, when he comes to, we have to ask him what happened" I pulled my head back in.

"What did you find?" She asked calmly.

"There's blood leading to the window, on the window, then some splotches leading to the roof...he climbed out the window" She rose an eyebrow. "You rested now?" I asked. She nodded.

"Ya know, I say we throw him down the stairs and take it from there.." Eva said with a small chuckle. I laughed.

It took quite a bit of time, bad language and trying not to kill him, to finally get him outside. We brought him back to our house and put him in the living room, tending to his many, many cuts and trying to keep him comfortable. I was quite happy with him around, but concerned about his health.

-

I ran down the stairs and slid to a halt before dashing into the kitchen. Nami got in the way and I caught myself on the counter as I tripped. I glared at the bunny and grabbed a knife. Nami hopped away quite quickly. I giggled and put the knife back. I was still in a long, long sleeved, tan tunic. Pulling my hair back into a quick pony tail I walked into the living room.

"Hyper are we?" I jerked at the voice and spun around. I scanned the room and found Sereg looking at me.

"Don't DO that!" I yelped, trying to slow my heartbeat. He tried to sit up and yelped. I dashed over. "Whoa! your still hurt!"

"No duh" He coughed. I gave a silly smile.

"Well yeah...h/o Mana wants to ask you a few things" I ran up the stairs and woke up Mana, then dragged her back down. She saw Sereg and snapped out of it.

"OH, yeah I need to ask you something."

"Yeah?" He said propping himself up on one arm.

"What happened?" He laughed.

"Ok...nice question, first... I am STARVING!!!" I shook my head and walked of to the kitchen. I could hear them talking till I got back.

I made a simple soup and returned bearing steaming hot soup. He looked at me with a questioning eye. "its not like we have that much to eat.." I said simply. He accepted the soup and I sat down in a chair next to the couch Sereg was on. I got comfy and watched as Mana tended to his cuts, now that he was awake, and just started thinking.

It was a nice fall day. It was years ago, I am not sure how many though. The breeze was cool, the sun was warm, the wind whistled though the leaves. My mom called for me to follow. I ran after her and we started out trip though the woods. The trip was pleasant, my mom telling jokes, and stories. Half way through Mana met us. She had gone back to her home town to check on something. She told me about this cave system she found and told me to follow. My mom told me to go ahead, she wanted to enjoy the forest. So I went off with Mana. We were in one cave with this scream found its way to us. We ran out, the leaves crunching under our feet. We found my mom, dead, in the middle of the trail..

Standing I walked upstairs. I could hear Mana asking what I was doing, but that picture was burned into my mind. I changed into my pants and shirt quickly. I strung my bow, threw it on my back along with my arrows and tied my sword to my belt.

Mana questioned when I came back down stairs. "They cause a lot of shit, and I am going to end it" I hissed as I started for the door.

"Whoa!?! who's 'they'?" Sereg asked.

"Demons" I answered.

"WAIT!!!" Mana ran over and grabbed my arm. "If your going off to kill demons, let me come too!!" She called.

"If you and her are going, I am going to, yeah demons cause a lot of trouble, and I wanna help." Sereg said sitting up. I sighed and shut the door.

"Fine fine"

the next week was painful. It was spent healing for Sereg, and for us getting ready. Sereg had a sword, I had a sword and a bow, Mana was weaponless. We were her own personal body guards, but when we got money.. that was the first thing to buy.. a knife or something for her!

"ya sure your ready?" I asked Sereg. He winced, but nodded. "your an idiot, but alright, everyone ready?" I asked. Mana nodded quickly. "Then lets move out!" Picking up the white bunny I did a small spin before marching out the door, Sereg and Mana behind me.

We had left a little early, so we stopped in the forest to have lunch. "So where are we going?" Mana asked poking the fire.

"I don't really know WHERE to go, but I know that first.. I am finding the demons that did this to our town, and take it from there..." I said sitting down next to Mana.

"So where are we going?" Sereg asked again. I thought for a moment.

"RoseWood, its the closest and we can buy you a knife there" I said pointing at Mana, she smiled. "besides bandits roam around a lot and we can always get money from them..." Sereg and Mana looked at me with complete horror. "WHAT??? how else are we supposed to get money??"

-

She was all for killing bandits...how strange. "Yeah.. well.. its actually a good idea..." I finally admitted. Eva cheered, Mana glared at me. I shrugged. "And it gives us practice!" Eva nodded quickly.

"Yall are freaks" Mana breathed, petting Nami's fur. I agreed. We were freaks, but at least we admitted it...Mana was just a different class of freaks, she just didn't think so, and we knew so.

That night Eva slept in a tree. I don't know how she pulled it off! She just walked up to a tree and in a few seconds disappeared up it. I still don't see how she's actually going to sleep up there, but that's her problem. Mana curled up with Nami and slept close to the fire for warmth. I was happy with the coolness of the night and stayed up, sitting up against a tree. After a while I got tired and fell asleep.

My eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the light of day. I groaned and sat up. Mana sat next to the small fire, frown set on her face. She looked at me and squinted. "not a morning person?" I asked cautiously. I got a grunt in reply. "Is Eva-" A nod. "ok..." She was a lost cause.

Walking over to a tree I started climbing. Granted, it took a lot longer than Eva had done it, but I got up to the top eventually. When I stood up the wind almost knocked me over. I looked to the right and saw Eva. She was perched on top of the tree trunk, but it looked like part was cut off so it was flat. She was facing the wind, eyes closed, wind whipping wildly behind her. A gust picked up and not ready I started to fall.

A hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. "idiot, don't climb a tree if you cant stand the wind." I opened my eyes . Eva gave a knowing smile before letting go. I was about to thank her when she launched off the tree and landed gracefully on her tree, eyes closed once again. She opened one eye and looked at me. "I will be down in a minuet, you might want to start down now" I snorted and started climbing down.

I dropped to the floor of the forest with a thump. That had taken longer than getting up there. Mana was sitting next to Eva, both singing a song. I looked at her, astounded. "YOUR NOT HUMAN!" I yelped, pointing.

"I'm Not??? REALLY?? YAY!!!!" I glared at her. "If I'm not human, neither are you or Mana" She stated calmly.

"Ya know, she smells blood!" Mana said in a loud whisper. Eva smacked her arm. "And the only reason she want to kill a bandit is becau-" Eva slapped her hand over Mana's mouth and was glaring fiercely at her.

"He does NOT need to know that!" She hissed.

"Know what?" I asked, cocking my head to one side.

-

My mine raced. He had no right to know...i hoped. I sighed and let go of Mana. She glared at me. "actually i already know" My head snapped up. Sereg grinned at me.

"Wha? How!!!???" I yelped.

"Its not that hard...but that's not important right now" He nodded behind me. I turned and sat some dots in the distance. "Seems as the bandits have found us" He crouched and put out the fire. "Lets surprise them"

Swords clashed, letting out a high pitched sound. Blood stained the grass as a head was severed from the body. Sereg and Mana watched in shock as the head hit the grass. I just smiled. I looked at my sword with disgust. "Well.. that was....interesting" Mana said in a small voice, standing behind Sereg.

"If your coming your going t have to get used to these sort-" Sereg stopped in mid sentence. I looked at him from the corner of my eye and smiled. I licked the blade once again before sheathing it. His mouth was wide open, and he had dropped his sword. "that's...."

"Disgusting?" I provided. He nodded. I laughed. "That's why i kill bandits" His eye twitched. "If your coming, your going to have to get used to it"

"That's.. just... gross!" He eeped. I nodded.

"Yeah it is.. cant help it.. come-on" I started walking off. They exchanged glances before following. I hummed a song as i walked along the path. I was aware of Sereg and Mana talking behind me, about me. I ignored them, let them talk.

I came to a halt in front of what looked like a gate thing. I blinked a few times.

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Ryan- what IS your fascination with blood?

Alya- it tastes good, smells good and it gives me a reason to bit people!

Ryan- o.O

Mana- get used to it