She had been trailing them for days. Hiding in trees and keeping her distance, she had managed to stay behind them their whole trip, and not once did a single one of the traveling Urgals look back at the girl behind them. She would admit that at times she would be careless in her actions, traveling out in the open and such. She had walked behind the last urgal in the orderly lines, but she found amusement in their lack of awareness. Their survival instincts baffled her.
She had been counting, and it was their fourth day of walking. To where? She had no idea. Their group was coming up upon a forest north of the Edda River by the time the Urgals grew slightly aware of an anomaly; she realized they'd traveled across the country before the Urgals became even slightly aware of a tag along. The day before, she had guessed that they were heading for Ceris, an average sized village known for good and fair trading of furs and the occasional trinket. But earlier that morning, the Urgals leading the large group changed direction abruptly heading towards the other edge of the forest, away from the city of Ceris. They had a different destination, and she was curious to find out what.
Gazing out at the empty patch of desert-like grassland the Urgals had planned to cross, she narrowed her gold-ish green eyes as she noticed the lack of cover in the open flat piece of parched land. There would be some difficulties with her trip after all.
For the first time in her pointless travels, she would have to separate with the Urgals because she didn't want to run the risk of being caught out in the open, even if the likely hood of being seen was very slim, she wouldn't take the chance. She wasn't stupid.
After the large groups of Urgals had headed out into the grasslands and were facing away from her, she swiftly made her way toward the river. If she was fast enough and pushed herself enough, she could make it to the tree line across the flatland before the Urgals and meet up with them on the edge of the forest. With the thoughts, she ran along the Az Ragni River until it flowed toward Hedarth, another modest village. The simple task took much of her time to complete; the sun had set and rose again before she met the turn of the river. She knew as she made the trip, any ordinary person would have no chance making the small trip in the time span she gave herself, but she was far from ordinary. Sleepless and empty of food, she still ran swiftly and low undetected by anyone passing by.
The dimming light illuminated the field she needed to cross to make it to the outskirt of the forest. Gazing into the warm colors, a sighting of the pack of Urgals eluded her. She would have to search again once she crossed the tall expanse of dry grass. The sun was half gone as she crouched between the trees; she peered out again hoping to spot the group. No such luck. She cursed.
Furrowing her light eyebrows in distaste, she put down her brown shoulder pack and scanned the rustic fields for the long line of urgals again unwilling to give up. She looked for a patch of black on the yellowed horizon, anything to show her she made it before them. Remembering the tall grass, she quickly pulled herself up among the thick branches and scaled the tree to its top most leaves and tried again in her search of her previous traveling party. At her new height, a flickering line of life made its way far off to the right of her position. As relief filled her senses she realized how tired she'd become from her swift trip along the river. Her adrenaline had been spent; she concluded slipping back down to the lower branches.
Estimating their time of arrival to the edge of trees the young girl let down her glimmering silver hair and prepared for an extremely needed nap. Fatigue instantly pushed her into unconsciousness, and unwillingly, she slipped into a deep sleep.
The most deafening sound she remembered ever hearing echoed through her head. Her acute hearing abilities made her head spin and she almost fell from the tree she fell asleep in. With blurry vision she slipped from the tree to the ground. Looking up she yet again cursed as the dark sky filled her view, she'd over slept. Her pack had passed and gone by then. Almost as well as she could see during the day she made her way back into the trees to look for her fallen pack. Without the sun she had no reference of how long she had overslept, she had no idea how far ahead the Urgals were.
Pulling the bag over her head to sit on her left hip again, she rubbed the newly formed bruise on her right hip where she fell asleep on her sword. Jolting her from her thoughts, another similar sound rang through the forest causing the sleeping birds to flee from their nests in the dark. Snapping her head in the direction of the rumbling noise her memory broke through her daze and she recognized the sound as the exact thing to wake her. She took off in the direction of the noise, not a doubt occurred to her that she wouldn't find the pack of Urgals at the source of the rumbling noise. Urgals had the tendency to start havoc wherever they arrived. She was convinced her pack of Urgals would be where the numbing noise was originating from, and also be the cause of it as well.
Fully awake and with sharp senses alert, she still couldn't pin the body shaking noise. What did it come from? She couldn't remember hearing it before, and if she didn't hurry, she might never find out what the noise belonged to. With the thought her pace increasingly quickened, her form blurred as she dodged through trees. And in her hurry, she took to traveling in the trees as they got in her way. Her curiosity had always been a force she could not tame. It had urged her to follow the mysterious line of Urgals, and now it was pushing her to find the source of the mind numbing noise.
Jumping from one tree to the other at a break neck speed, she managed one final leap and looped her arm around the trunk of the tree she found herself in. She crouched low to the branch gazing through the leaves at the scene. Her body tensed and her free hand found her sword out of instinct.
Complete chaos. The putrid smell of death wafted her nose dulling her advanced senses to nearly useless tools. The same Urgals she'd been following laid in pools of darkly colored blood, the clash of battle and the cries of death still filled the air. It was all too familiar. A flash of white diverted her gaze from the mass of Urgals attacking at a small point. She nearly fell from her tree in surprise. Tightening her grip on the bark; she never lifted her eyes from what she saw.
The most magnificent beast plowed through the air swooping down and knocking back the cluster of urgals to reveal a tall boy in his late teens panting heavily and holding a long sword tightly in his hand. Her odd eyes swept his form taking in his appearance in interest. Minor scrapes adorned his bare forearms and a few took home on his face. His hair was dull in the lack of light, he looked completely human. She watched wondering how he was able to see. Humans were blind in the dark, yet he was managing to avoid a fatal blow with only the stars to brighten the battle field. Looking back to the beast she couldn't believe what she saw was real. Only one dragon existed and only one rider, but if that was true, who then hell were they?
Again her body vibrated with the deep mind bending noise. She then realized it was the dragons roar making her whole body shake with vibrations. She watched the dragon's long snout curled into a growl; it revealed long fangs gleaming with fresh Urgal blood. Then, amazed, she watched it spit an extended stream of fire out onto the group of urgals now pushed away from the boy. The flow of flame was brightly white, and the entire field was illuminated as if it were daytime. She watched the Rider take the opportunity to disarm and kill the gathered Urgals near him.
The clearing fell dim again as the stream cut from the dragon's mouth. The burning bodies still allowed more light aiding the disadvantaged Rider.
From the tree she observed the boy's movements slow and his energy drop as more and more Urgals filled the places of the fallen. He was gifted with his sword, but his stamina was near non existent, he was tiring, and fast. No more then a hundred Urgals had made the trip, but in their disorganized battle their numbers looked much larger then when they were in their straight and neat lines. And still a quarter of their group burned around the field acting as lanterns for the Rider.
Almost in slow motion the tall boy fell clutching his abdomen, his luck had ran out. She watched him fall to his knees, and the Urgals jumped at his moment of defenselessness. She knew she could make it to the Rider before the dragon, and she leaped from her tree and dashed off toward the battle without second guessing why she wanted to help in the first place. Her speed left her invisible the eye; the Urgals were blind to her movements and location. She easily slipped between their burning and panting bodies reaching the Rider before them with almost ease. Her sleep had done her body good. She never questioned her actions; it seemed natural to help him. Skidding to a stop in front of the boy and finally reappearing to view she caught three short urgal made swords on her long shimmering white and silver sword. The contrast in weaponry was blinding, their appearance combating in their own battle. Dark eyes widened in surprise and anger, her own glared in determination.
She may have been fast but she was hardly as strong in comparison. Unable to hold the Urgals weights much longer, she kicked her foot up a caught an Urgal under the chin, a loud crack resonated through the gathered shocked silence and the receiver of her kick fell dead with a broken neck. At times her ability to kill efficiently even surprised herself.
Twisting the other two swords toward the ground she kicked another in the side of his head and he fell like the other. With her sword free she pulled the metal object through the third and he fell to the ground neatly in half.
More Urgals quickly filled their places but she continued to kill them as the boy deliriously watched through his blurry blue eyes. The familiar vibration waved through her body and twisted through the air again. Surprised, half of the Urgals confronting her liquefied under the intense heat of the dragon's white flame.
Never leaving the boy and not missing a beat, she leaped up and caught another Urgal in the cheek with her foot while stabbing another through its armor. Her long light hair fell over her shoulder in its ponytail as she swung around slicing through two at the same time. Six more fell at her sword before a final stream of boiling flames took out the remaining. She stayed weary not wishing to meet the Urgals same fate by the dragon.
Panting slightly she flicked her sword and watched the dry ground soak up more of the blood that had spilt that night. Sheathing her newly cleaned sword she turned to the boy clutching his stomach in painful desperation. His eyes were dilated trying to see in the dark.
"Ah… thanks." He said through clenched teeth. He looked up at her as she approached and squatted in front of him. Recognizing the dazed look in his eyes she grabbed his chin and turned his face from one side to the other looking for the head wound. He had a concussion. A deep growl again pulsed through her body with less intensity; hot air blew through her hair pushing her loose bangs into her eyes. Turning her head with the boys face still in her hands she looked at the giant beast not six inches from her own face. It was an intimidating beast, capable of tearing her in half before she could move. Its mouth was in a snarl protesting the contact she had made with the young man.
"Hello" she greeted casually turning back to the boy. The dragon could never even hope to stop her from helping the man, why she had to she had no idea. Such things came just as naturally. She continued on with her inspection not understanding a single thing pushing her to help the Rider. The hot breath still pushed her hair forward but she didn't feel another growl. Looking at the boy's left side he had a sizably large bump hidden under his shaggy brown hair. Blood was matted in his thick hair. "You have a concussion." She told him. She observed the bump before meeting his eyes, his face was held gently in her hands. She wanted to see the recognition she hoped for in his eyes, hoping he wasn't falling into the darkness yet. Despite his situation and delirious state, he still blushed noticing how close she was to him. He was awake. His reaction was good enough, she guessed.
"Who are you?" he asked still blushing. And his blood flow seemed completely unharmed by the appearance of his blush, she concluded.
"Kai" she simply said letting go of his face and looking down at the bag still hanging at her side. His face fell without the support. Pulling out a water skin she put it in his free hand and then continued to dig as he gratefully drank the water. The water alone would help him considerably.
With more searching she produced a tangled wad of flexible material strips. Looking to his wound across his abdomen, she tugged a large amount of the material from the ball and, producing a dagger from seemingly no where, she cut the roll. Looking back up at his face she told him to lie down.
He looked at her curiously, not comprehending most of what she said. Sighing she pushed his shoulder down and removed his hand from holding his stomach. She pulled up his shirt frowning at the wound. The dragon made an amused sounding grunt as the boy blushed again. She, of course, could only guess the sound was of amusement. She knew little of dragons, especially what sound meant what.
"I'm Silko" he told her trying to take his mind off his painful wound. His stomach was tender with throbbing pain; it was difficult for him to ignore it.
"Try not to fall asleep." she told him in the same even tone. He snapped his eyes open from his doze.
"Why?" he asked abruptly stopping himself from sitting up as his wound was painfully probed by her hand.
"You might not wake up." Her words scared him; even if he tried he wouldn't be able to fall asleep for a while. Silko felt tugging at his abdomen and saw that Kai had wrapped his wound and he wasn't bleeding anymore. He didn't even remember her finishing. His stomach was only numb, she had rubbed something into the wound, and for it he felt grateful.
"Thanks" he said sitting up by himself and holding his wound as the bindings tightened. She shrugged nonchalantly and gazed out towards the forest quickly as something caught her attention. Standing she took a closer more inspective look but she didn't seem to find whatever it was because she turned back to Silko to help him as he struggled to stand. It could still have been nothing.
"This is awkward…" Silko mumbled as her odd greenish eyes found his best friend. He didn't even know who she was and she already knew his biggest secret, he didn't know if he could trust her. But she'd saved his life hadn't she? He rationalized.
Like someone had called his name, Silko looked toward the dragon adopting a far off look in his eye. Slowly, both dragon and boys stares strayed toward the forest as well. Kai silently worried wondering if he would pass out. But his eyes cleared and he stared out into the trees like she had previously had.
He could trust her if Suoh could. Besides they had problems.
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