Ronins Interrupted
By: Ghost of the Dawn
Chapter Four: Keeping Chapter Three Short
The unidentified body slammed squarely into Kento and the momentum was still strong enough that both of them went flying into a nearby tree. The width of it was about a foot. But even then, the two bodies still carried enough power to snap it before they crashed to the ground. Ryo lifted his head to see where his companion had gone, but Kento had flown farther than the fog allowed him to see. Robyn trembled in his arms. The shock from everything that had been going on seemed to have overwhelmed her.
Sailor Uranus groaned as she came to a stop. Her head was still spinning from the collision. She remembered flying through the air and then vaguely recalled hitting into someone else. She slowly dared to move her limbs and soon found a few nasty bruises; but luckily no broken bones.
By the way Sailor Uranus figured, she was lucky to even be alive; let alone in one piece. Especially after crashing into that tree. Oh no! The tree! The person she collided with must have taken the brunt of the hit. She quickly scrambled off of the body under her and inspected it. It was a young man. He had dark skin and hair. But what Sailor Uranus noticed the most was the orange and white metal that wrapped around the shape of his body. She could have sworn he wasn't wearing it in the split second when she hit him. Where did it come from?
The young man lay sprawled out motionlessly on his back like he was dead. Was he? Sailor Uranus reached out to feel the pulse on his neck when his eyebrow twitched. She instantly pulled back when the young man showed signs of life. He let out a small groan as his eyes fluttered open.
"Oh man, what happened?" Kento moaned. He turned his head to look at the blonde woman by his side. "Who are you?"
"Never mind me, are you okay?" Sailor Uranus said with concern. "You broke that tree when we hit it. Can you move at all?"
Kento blinked and then propped himself up on his elbows. His body looked in tact. He lifted a leg and then sat up. Sailor Uranus watched in awe as Kento got to his feet easily, looking like nothing even happened.
"Everything looks good here," he said, inspecting his armor. Not even a scratch. His smile fell when he saw Sailor Uranus staring at him. "What?"
All the blonde woman could do was blink. "How--how did you--"
"Kento!" Ryo called as he appeared through the fog. He had Robyn by the wrist who followed obediently after him, a blank expression on her face. "Are you okay?"
"As good as ever Ryo," Kento replied with his usual charisma.
Sailor Uranus looked over at the other young man. He had dark skin and black hair and even though he was dressed normal, he didn't seem surprised at all to see the other young man in his strange metal armor. He did, however, manage to gawk at the taller, blonde woman dressed in the short skirt and bows.
"Who...?" he started to ask.
"LOOK OUT!" called a female voice from somewhere above.
Out of nowhere, another woman in the same odd outfit with wavy green hair appeared and lunged at Ryo and Robyn, tackling them out of the way. Sailor Uranus did the same for Kento in the opposite direction. Microseconds later, a large and powerful energy beam completely vaporized the entire spot they were standing on. Even from the places they had taken cover in, the fallout still rattled their bodies as the energy subsided.
"Oh man," Kento cried. "What the heck did that come from?"
"Just wait," Uranus muttered under her breath.
Kento watched. Out of the fog dropped......something. Something not as big as Kento expected it to be. It crouched and growled like an animal, though its mass couldn't even compare to White Blaze's if he were there. All Kento could see at first was a thick bushel of shaggy, silver hair. Long, pointed ears protruded from the mass and twitched excitedly. The thing growled and paced around like a jungle cat. And while its facial features were very much feline, its body--HER body looked quite human.
She was even dressed much like a person. Light black leather pants hugged the bulging muscles of her powerful legs as she crouched. A sleeveless top, deep red like blood, showed off her mid drift and strong shoulders. And while Kento gawked in confusion at the strange creature, Sailor Uranus jumped to her feet.
"Come on and fight!" she challenged. "You're no match for me!"
The creature's yellow eyes glowed with power and rage. Sailor Uranus readied her sure kill as she expected her adversary to let loose another energy blast at her. But she was quite surprised when the cat-like creature, instead, pounced at her with a blood-thirsty cry, claws outstretched.
"Uranus!" Sailor Neptune called as her partner froze, eyes wide in fear.
"Not this time!" Kento announced as he stood and knocked the beast aside with a powerful arm.
The creature yelped, but managed to land on her feet, looking a bit stunned at the unforseen attack.
"Uranus, get her now!" Sailor Neptune called.
The taller woman nodded. "Stand back," she told Kento; who surprisingly did what he was told.
Power gathered into her closed fist as she raised it to the air.
"URANUS GROUND SHAKING!"
Like lightning through earth, a surge raced beneath the surface in a zig-zag towards the would-be victim. But the creature lunged high into the air before the ground could explode beneath her feet. Uranus cursed the growling figure now crouched up in the trees. The fog almost covered her location completely.
"Ryo!" a voice called from somewhere in the fog, catching everyone's attention. "Kento, where are you?"
"Over here, Cye," Kento called back.
Mere seconds later, the forms of three more young men appeared through the fog. They arrived just in time to see the growling figure in the trees before she suddenly jumped away to parts unknown.
"Wow, she's fast," Sailor Neptune said worriedly as she approached her partner.
"Yeah, but so are we," Sailor Uranus replied. "Let's go."
Before anyone could call them back, the two leapt higher than was humanly possible and disappeared into the fog as well. The ronins were left in a state of befuddled silence.
"What was that?" Sage finally asked. "Who were those two women?"
"Hookers," Rowen announced with confidence.
"They weren't hookers Rowen," Kento argued. "The taller one with the short hair--she had my powers."
"Your powers?" Cye repeated. "What do you mean by that?"
"She had an attack like we do with our armors," Kento tried to explain. "I could feel a tingle down deep in my armor. We have the same element."
Sage scratched his jaw in thought. "So were they good or evil then Kento? Could you tell?"
The bearer of Hardrock shook his head. "I couldn't tell. But they seemed good. Both of them saved Robyn, Ryo and me from looking like that." He pointed to the large burn mark in the ground.
Rowen stared at the size and intensity of the burn. "And that thing in the tree did that?"
"Yeah," Kento nodded. "It was some kind of cat creature or something."
"Could it be from the Dynasty?" Rowen questioned again.
"I don't know Rowen," Sage answered this time. "We can usually sense if a Dynasty presence is anywhere near and I didn't feel anything from that creature."
"But we are going after it, right?" Kento asked, now looking a bit more excited.
"We probably should," Rowen agreed. "Even if it's not from the Dynasty, that creature is still dangerous. We need to make sure that no innocent people get hurt."
"Right," Sage put it. "We're going after it."
"Guys?" Ryo suddenly spoke up softly. "You can go on without me. I'm going to take Robyn back to the hotel."
All eyes were instantly on him. In the midst of the excitement, one thing was forgotten. Cye was instantly at Robyn's side, suddenly regretting they all had to leave after what she had just been through.
"Are you sure Ryo?" Sage asked skeptically. "We don't know exactly what we're going against. We may need the white armor."
Ryo just smiled his usual lopsided grin. "Hey, the way I see it, we won't be able to create the Inferno if any one of us is missing. So why not me? Besides, if you do need help, you can just send me a signal and I'll be right over, alright?"
"Okay buddy," Rowen answered for then. "We'll let you know if we need you. Let's go guys."
Rowen and Sage summoned their subarmors while Cye lingered at Robyn's side.
"Are you going to be okay?" he said to her.
Robyn smiled weakly back. "I'll be fine, just go. You know where to find me when you're done."
Cye smiled at her, summoned his sub armor, and the four ronins took off into the fog. Ryo looked down at Robyn when they were left alone and put an arm around her shoulder.
"Come on," he said kindly. "Let's go."
Robyn leaned against him and let him lead the way back to the motel.
"Do you realize that we have never gone into battle without Ryo before this?" Rowen announced as they ran through the fog.
"There's a first time for everything," Sage replied as their surroundings changed from trees to buildings.
"Looks like we'll finally get to see how well we can do in battle without our fearless leader," Kento announced wistfully.
"And speaking of battle," Sage said as he pointed up.
Flashing lights could be seen through the fog on top of an old warehouse about four stories up.
"How did they get up there?" Kento demanded.
"I suppose this isn't the best time to mention how much I hate cats," Cye quipped.
"We'll discuss it at the next board meeting," Rowen called back. "For now, get ready for the fight. If that burn mark is any indication of the power we're going against, I say we armor up."
The others nodded and readied for battle.
Up above on the roof top, the powerful cat-like creature was giving the two outer senshi a run for their money. She was so fast! The beast would never stay in one place long enough for them to unleash their attacks on her. And at the same time, the creature was letting loose attacks of her own whenever she could. But somehow, Sailor Uranus and Neptune managed to corner the growling animal against the roof exit door.
"We've got it now Uranus," Sailor Neptune said hopefully.
But to their surprise, the cat creature stopped growling and from her throat came a low chuckle. The two scouts looked on in surprise as her crouching and voice became more human-like than animal.
"You think you've got me?" the creature taunted.
"You--you can talk?" Uranus exclaimed.
"More than that!" A high voice exclaimed behind them.
Sailor Neptune hardly knew what was happening before she heard the snap of a whip and the end of it instantly wrapped around her neck. Uranus spun around while Neptune tried to prevent herself from choking. Cruelly holding the other end of the whip was another of those cat creatures, standing upright on the balls of her feet like a human. She had the same color of fur as the other one though she was a bit smaller and her bushy hair was pink instead of silver. But she had the same powerful physique which was wrapped in a dark blue body suit.
"You'll never defeat us!" the new creature continued, tugging on the whip harder and causing a strangled cry from the green haired woman.
"Neptune, I'm coming!" Sailor Uranus cried.
"I think not," the silver haired cat woman growled as she stood upright as well and sent a large energy blast at her.
Sailor Uranus was hit by the brunt of it and sent flying across the roof. Her attacker calmly walked after her as she struggled to get back onto her feet.
"You humans are so gullible," the creature said. Her voice was deep and sultry, yet dangerous. Like poisoned honey. "I can't believe you fell for that. How can you possibly hope to win anything when you always underestimate your opponent?"
Sailor Uranus only glared at her and rubbed away the trickle of blood that ran from her lip.
"Well, I'd say you'll do better next time, but I doubt there will be one," the cat woman continued with a sneer. "Make no mistake about it, we will take over this little planet of yours and our mistress will rule it all. We will conquer this world and get rid of all your pathetic species one by one--starting with...her."
She motioned to the other creature holding Sailor Neptune captive.
"No!" Sailor Uranus cried hoarsely.
The pink haired creature was about to give the death blow when there was a flash of steel and green and then the whip went loose. The cat villain looked down at her whip which had been cut. Her victim was no longer there. A few yards away, Sage held a gasping Sailor Neptune as he freed the binding from her throat. He glared at the two creatures with his intense, stormy eyes.
"Not in this lifetime," he vowed lowly.
"That goes double for us!" Kento announced as three more armored figures landed on the roof.
He and Rowen landed between Sailor Uranus, the latter aiming his arrow at the silver haired villain. Cye touched down between Sage and the pink haired one who was starting to look a bit miffed at the destruction of her weapon. Sailor Uranus, suddenly feeling like she was being attacked on both sides now, backed away from the armored heros.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
"We're the ones chosen to protect this world," Rowen announced proudly. "We're the Ronin Warriors!" At least most of them anyway, he added to himself.
"Yeah, and we've promised to rid the world of evil like you," Cye took his cue.
"It's our job to protect the innocence," Sage continued.
"And we're glad to do it, too! Even if we don't get paid," Kento finished.
Cye slapped his palm on his forehead. Leave it to Kento to spoil a good dramatic moment.
The silver haired cat creature didn't seem too impressed either.
"Well Ronin Warriors," she announced with Cheshire grin. "You should count yourselves lucky to be able to fight the famous Amazon Duo. I am the oldest, Katana. And of course, my sister Katara."
"And I am going to make you pay for this one, pathetic green human," announced Katara, the creature with the pink hair.
Still glaring at Sage, she snapped her broken whip. The weapon glowed red and assembled itself together again.
"Now," Katara announced. "You DIE!"
Sailor Neptune got out of the way just in time as the whip wrapped around Sage, pinning his arms and sword to his side. The bearer of Halo cried out as the whip glowed red again. The red light consumed his whole being and Sage could do nothing to block out the pain that surged through his senses. Rowen, whose bow was still drawn, turned to the scene with a wild glint in his eye.
"Hey! That's my friend you're messing with! ARROW SHOCK WAVE!"
Katara instantly ceased her attack as a bolt of energy shot in her direction. The creature gave up her prey and jumped high into the air to avoid the attack.
"And this one's for you!" Cye announced, aiming his yari at Katana. "SUPER WAVE SMASHER!"
The two scouts, Uranus and Neptune, watched the sure kills in awe. Neptune was paying extra attention to Cye as she felt a tingling in her own soul when the bearer of Torrent used his power.
The two cat sisters landed on their feet next to each other. The expressions on their faces told that they weren't expecting so much resistance as this.
"Those armored humans have powers, too," Katara said to her older sister. "We were not told of creatures such as these."
"Perhaps," answered Katana. "But our powers are still greater--even with their numbers. We can still win."
"Not so fast!" a new voice echoed through the fog and the growing darkness.
Everyone present looked up to see a row of five girls dressed similarly to the other two sailor scouts who were already there. They stood on a roof top above as the fog revealed them. The other four stared downward self-righteously while their leader with the long pig tails continued her speech.
"How dare you two fur balls come out and terrorize our fair city! You thought you could hide from us? There's not enough fog in the world to conceal your misdeeds from the eyes of righteousness! So I suggest you crawl back to whatever hole you came from before we make you sorry. I stand for love! I stand for justice! I am SAILOR MOON!"
"And we're the Sailor Scouts!" chorused the others.
Rowen looked at his wrist as if a watch of some sort had been fashioned onto it.
"Yup," he announced to no one in particular. "My mom always told me this was the time all the weirdos came out in the city."
"Did we stumble onto a movie set or something?" Kento wanted to know. "Because this is just too weird for real life."
The two cat sisters looked on at the ever growing group of enemies.
"Hm, we weren't told there would be this many of them," Katana hissed to her sister.
"No matter! Come on, let's get them!" Katara insisted in her high, excited voice.
"No," Katana stated. "Why waist energy on something that isn't necessary? We still have time. Come on, let's go."
Her younger pink haired sister looked less than happy about it. But nonetheless, both sisters disappeared into a puff of black smoke, leaving their adversaries twin gazes of vengeance. They left the entire group standing in befuddled wonder, but otherwise, not a trace. Now without a foe to fight, the silence drifted slowly through the warriors and scouts.
"Okay, was I the only one who found that just the slightest bit weird?" Kento announced to the stillness.
"For once Kento, I agree," Cye nodded.
"So what do we do now?" Rowen asked. "Anyone have a clue as to what just happened?"
The Ronins, for the most part, turned to the two young woman who were first in the fight. Sailor Neptune looked away, the guilt clearly on her face. She knew. Sailor Uranus refused to reveal anything. She gazed up defiantly at the young woman with the long pig tails standing above her. The other Sailor Scouts looked just as anxious to hear what she might have to say.
"Let's go Neptune," were the only words she spoke.
The other outer senshi looked hesitant, but followed nonetheless. With one last regretful look--thrown to Cye more than anyone--Sailor Neptune took off after her partner as both jumped away and vanished in the fog.
Silence fell again. Almost ignoring the other remaining scouts, the ronins looked at each other questioningly. Ryo wasn't here this time. Who was going to decide for them where they should go from this point?
"Let's go back guys," Sage announced. "There's not much more we can do here."
The other ronins seemed to agree. Even more so when they recalled what they were heading back to and realized they were probably needed there more anyway. The four of them started off when a voice called from above.
"Wait!"
They stopped and turned as the girl who announced herself as Sailor Moon jumped down to their level. Her ever present scouts followed right behind her.
"Tell me," Sailor Moon continued. "Who are you? What on earth were you planning to do here with all those weapons?"
Kento was quick to reply before anyone could stop him. "What were you planning to do here hardly wearing any clothes?"
The scouts couldn't help looking a bit indignant after that remark while Cye took it upon himself to knock Kento one in the head with the butt of his staff.
"Hey, who do you guys think you are anyway?" Sailor Jupiter suddenly announced as she stepped forward. "And how do we know who's side your on? You could be working with those creatures as far as we know."
The ronins looked at each other, obviously not taking anything Sailor Jupiter said very seriously. None of them cared what these girls thought about them.
"Wait a minute," Kento suddenly announced. "Haven't I seen you guys somewhere before?"
Rowen heard the accusation and studied the scouts.
"Ami?" he finally announced, recognizing the one most familiar. "Is that really you?"
"Rowen?" Sailor Mercury replied with equal surprise.
The other scouts gasped in recognization.
"You know these guys?" Sailor Mars demanded.
"Yeah," Sailor Moon replied in awe. "We met them earlier at the restaurant."
Sailor Mars studied the young men again and gasped when her gaze fell upon Sage's face.
i It's the same guy, /i her mind panicked. i And he's wearing the same armor from that vision. But it looked like they were trying to help. Are they really evil? Or were they just pretending to fight those creatures to trick us? /i
If Sage recognized her at all he didn't show it. He merely started off for the edge of the roof and the other ronins automatically followed.
"Later," Kento called as they left.
"Sorry we couldn't stay longer," Cye finished.
With that, the four young men jumped off the building and disappeared into the fog. Left behind were the five scouts still wondering what to make of the situation--Sailor Mars more than any of them. She still couldn't shake the feeling that something about those young men was wrong.
As the scouts, left with nothing else to do, left to go their own way, a figure stood watching. He was tall and thin, dressed in a sharp black tuxedo with a mask covering his eyes. He had seen the entire battle without revealing himself. He watched the familiar forms of his friends move off in confusion, but he did not plan to join them any time soon. Instead, the silent young man headed off in a different direction with his own ideas in mind.
Ryo sat on the bed next to Robyn with a wet cloth in his hand. She had remained deathly silent all the way back to the hotel room and even now, hadn't spoken a sound. She was covered with all kinds of scratches from her earlier flight through the forest and Ryo was doing his best to patch them up. He had cleaned up the blood on her arms and legs and was now working on a cut across her cheek.
"You're doing it again," Robyn stated out of the blue.
Ryo pulled back and just blinked at her. Robyn turned her head around to look him in the face.
"This is the second time you've had to patch me up."
Ryo smiled slightly. "Anytime."
Robyn sighed heavily and her body suddenly came to life again. "I'm sorry for what I did," she said as she took the cloth from Ryo and applied it herself. "I'm sorry you guys always have to look after me. If it wasn't for me, you would be out there with them right now."
Ryo studied Robyn's profile before nudging her chin with one finger, making her look him in the face.
"Robyn," he said gently. "It's okay. You can let us take care of you. We gladly do it because you're worth it. We all think you're worth it."
In response, the young red head just stared at him. Never had she heard such a baffling statement. Her large, green eyes searched his deep blue ones and looked at him as if seeing him in a brand new light. She then blinked several times as her mouth moved while her brain tried to formulate some kind of appropriate response.
Lucky for her, Ryo wasn't about to make the situation worse than it already was. After giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder, he promptly hopped onto the bed and picked up the remote.
"Do you know if anything good is on tonight?" he asked as he leaned against the head board and started flipping through the channels.
It took Robyn a minute to recover from the sudden change of conversation. "Uh, no, I can't think of anything."
"Okay, we'll just see what we can find then."
Robyn watched for a moment as the different shows flipped by. Ryo finally came upon the last half of a movie he had already seen but decided to watch it anyway. Robyn remained sitting on the edge of the bed for several minutes longer as Ryo got into his movie. But after a while, Robyn crawled onto the bed and curled up on her side facing Ryo. She lay there silently, watching him as he watched the tv. Her mind wandered as she thought about him and about the others and about all that had happened that day. The movie was over when she finally brought herself out of her mental meanderings.
"Ryo," she said softly, still managing to capture his attention.
He looked down at her questioning face, his eyes intense and deep as always.
"Tell me about your father, please?"
"My father?" Ryo clarified. "Why would you want to hear about him?"
"Cye said you and your dad used to fight a lot. I just want to hear a little bit about him, and about you. I really don't know much about you at all Ryo. Will you tell me?"
Ryo looked down at her face and something in her expression made a foreign emotion rise up in his soul. She wasn't asking much. He could give it to her.
"My dad was the only family I had while growing up. My mom died when I was really young. I don't even remember her at all. And even though it was always just me and my dad, I never felt like I really knew him. It was like there was this invisible wall always between us that stopped us from reaching each other. It just got worse when I got older. We were like two strangers living in the same house."
Ryo looked away as a strange smile played on his face. "He's a wildlife photographer you know. All the kids thought it was the coolest thing. But I thought it was, too. So it was okay for him to leave me alone for weeks at a time to do that. Plus I always had White Blaze to keep me company. I think I was thirteen when I got my armor and that's when things really started to change."
The smile disappeared and Ryo stared hard at his lap as he went on. "I suddenly had this huge responsibility I had to tend to. It was okay in the beginning because he was always gone. I didn't have to explain to anyone if I came home late. It was when he did stay home then it became a problem."
Robyn furrowed her brows as a different expression covered Ryo's face. It looked almost as if he were fighting some internal battle now.
"I couldn't explain it to him," Ryo went on in almost a strained voice. "I tried several times to tell him. I don't know if he couldn't understand or if he just didn't want to. To this day I'm still not sure how much about my armor and myself he really knows. The day I met the others was the day I had to run away from home because I knew he wouldn't let me go if I asked.
"That was the time Talpa came out and tried to take over the mortal world--our world. I was gone for several months during that. When it was all over, he wanted me to come back." Ryo gave a humorless laugh at that statement. "It was the first time he didn't want any explanation; didn't want to hear where I had been or what I had done."
Ryo clenched his fists as his anger started to suddenly bubble up inside him. "He didn't care what I had gone through during that. He didn't care if it was the hardest time in my life--that I had never felt so lost like that before. He didn't care that I had to watch my friends suffer time after time for his sake; for everyone's sake. It didn't matter to him that we almost died to save this world."
Ryo was on the verge of loosing himself in the memories when he felt a hand close gently around his wrist. He looked down at Robyn whose expression was a mixture of sympathy and admiration.
"You five really did save this world?" she asked in awe.
"We did," Ryo answered truthfully.
i And how many people on this earth have gone on not knowing their lives have been spared by the sacrifices of these? /i Robyn wondered to herself.
"How did you end up with your grandma?" she asked out loud.
"It was shortly after the battle was over. My dad wanted me to come back to our old home and live with him way out in the mountains. But I couldn't do that. I couldn't live so far away from the others. The greatest thing my dad ever did for me was let me live with my grandma."
Robyn smiled. "And you're lucky to have her Ryo, you really are. She's so cool."
Ryo suddenly smiled. "Yeah, she is. I am lucky, aren't I?"
With her head still resting on her pillow, Robyn smiled and nodded. Ryo breathed out deeply as he leaned back and rested his head against the wall, gazing up at the ceiling. For a stretch of time he was blinded to the real world as his memories swam through the years and he counted up and weighed the different hardships and blessings he had experienced throughout his life. Ryo wasn't sure exactly how long he had been thinking, but he finally looked down again when he realized Robyn's hand was still resting on his wrist. Further investigation found that Robyn was fast asleep.
Ryo blinked several times as the full reality of what was going on hit him. His gaze lingered on the small hand touching him. His fingers twitched slightly as he thought about removing his hand from the sleeping girl's grasp. But when he tried to raise his arm, something stopped him. It was a feeling more than anything else. An emotion he never expected to be there. A small twinge in his head and another in the corner of his heart made his hand stay still and revel at the touch of another human being which he got so seldom. For a split second he felt he would be on the verge of tears if anything were to cause the touch to be broken away from him.
"Hey Ryo, you still up?" Kento called as the door suddenly opened.
Ryo's hand moved away instantly as the other four ronins came in.
"Yeah, I'm still awake," he said as he got off the bed and stood to greet his companions. Perhaps he stood up too fast.
"How's Robyn?" Cye asked, looking down at the slumbering form.
"Asleep," Ryo replied. "I think she'll be okay. So how was the fight?"
"In a word--bizarre," Rowen answered for them all.
"Oh yeah, you gotta hear about this Ryo," Kento added as he put an arm around Ryo's shoulders. "Come into the other room and we'll tell you all about it."
The bearer of Wildfire listened carefully as he was relayed the night's events. When the story was finished, he was just as lost as those who were present at the scene. But that couldn't be helped now. It was late and everyone needed rest.
The sleeping accommodations weren't the best, but it was all they had. Rowen gave up half of his bed to share with Sage while Ryo crashed on the small space of open floor left in the room. Kento got the floor in the other room while Cye, after much hesitance, joined Robyn on the bed. Of course, he slept on top of the covers after tucking Robyn in beneath them.
He was the last one in bed and the last to turn off the light. Robyn's back was now facing him as he settled down for the night.
"Good night," he whispered and then closed his eyes.
What he never saw in the darkness was Robyn's worried green eyes were now wide open.