Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade, I only own Aikane and William II.

Chapter 2: Soldier

When Aikane arrived at the camp, only Kai was left. There was a scowl scribbled across his face. "Everyone's gone, Tala said I had to stay behind to escort you to the next camp."

"But I thought we were training here." Aikane said in confusion, dropping her bag to the ground.

"No, we're stopping at different places, to collect more soldiers. Our final destination is where Lord William will meet us." Kai rolled his eyes and gave a long sigh, "Do you ride?"

"Of course," she said, wrinkling her eyebrow.

"Good, otherwise it's going to take a hell lot longer." Kai said, pulling on the reins.

"How long will it take?" she asked as she packed some more supplies she had found around the camp.

"Well, pending we don't meet anyone, it'll take us two days, if we meet someone, maybe three. If we're really unlucky, and we lose our horses and meet an enemy, it'll take longer." he said as Aikane mounted the brown horse.

"Great, I get to spend two days with Captain Cold." Aikane muttered to herself, but apparently not quiet enough.

"What?" Kai turned around, and his horse walked on.

"Nothing."

They rode in silence, cantering till they came to the foot of the forest. It was just a blur of green and brown, it was thick with leaves. They entered the forest, the horses at a walking pace. They kept to the path, and didn't utter a word.

I wonder if he's always like this. Doesn't he have family or a girlfriend or something?

"Stop." Kai said shortly, drawing his horse to a halt. "I heard something."

He drew out his sword, but as soon as the metallic sound of the blade scraping against the cover, a band of goblins jumped out. Their skin a putrid green, with black eyes filled with greed. They had poor armour, just a few scraps of lizard skin covering their chests. They gave a war cry as they advanced toward the pair. The war cry had startled the brown horse, and it bolted. It started so suddenly, Aikane was thrown off. Her shoulder came into contact with the ground first. Kai turned around, only to see the flicker of brown through the thick forest, and Aikane lying on the ground. He faced the goblins as they advanced. Aikane slowly stood up, an expression of pain across her dirt smudged face. She quickly took her bow and loaded an arrow. She stood with her back to the mounted Kai, the arrow pointing at each of the goblins in turn. The goblins gave a final war cry and leapt toward the pair. Kai had to manoeuvre his horse and fend off the goblins. Aikane started shooting, each arrow aimed perfectly, piercing their hearts without fail. More goblins appeared from various bushes. The goblins had obviously planned this. Raids by various magical creatures were common in forests such as this one.

"Aikane! Get on! We'll never be able to fight them all!" Kai yelled behind his shoulder as he shook a goblin of his bloodstained sword. She didn't need telling twice.

She took one last shot, and ran toward the horse. She climbed on with much difficulty due to all the goblins surrounding the horse. Once she had climbed on, Kai squeezed his legs and urged the horse into a canter. She kept her bow loaded, shooting at advancing goblins attempting to stop the horse. She then swung her bow over shoulder and held onto Kai, with the fear of falling off again.

They came to a halt by a river. Kai unmounted first, and left Aikane to get off the horse herself.

How chivalrous.

He walked toward the river and cupped his hands. The dipped his hands into the water and splashed his face with the water. When he turned around, he saw Aikane sitting on the grass, rummaging through her pack. She looked up, and gasped.

"You've been injured!" She took out an ointment and a bandage and ran to Kai.

"It's nothing!" Kai said pulling his arm away roughly as she touched it.

"No, just let me bandage it!"

"I said, it's FINE!"

"NO IT ISN'T! YOU MIGHT NEED TO GET YOUR ARM CUT OFF IF YOU DON'T DO SOMETHING!" she shouted. Kai looked at her with his cold amethyst eyes.

She uncorked the bottle and dabbed some the cut on his arm. He flinched slightly, but Aikane persisted. She's a fighter, she's tougher than I thought.

She wrapped the bandage around his upper arm, his large muscles tensing at the touch of her hand. She looked up. "It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you." He knew that, but it was the fact no one had ever cared for him, no one had touched him. He seemed untouchable, until now.

When she had finished bandaging his arm, he pulled away. "I'm going to go look for food, we're camping here tonight." he said gruffly.