Edward had been sleeping uneasily. He had learned to always be on alert, because sleeping in the vicinity of the enemy showed weakness. A rustling to his right alerted him and he quickly opened his eyes. A human was right next to him. Slightly delirious from lack of sleep and adrenaline pumping, he pounced on the being; dagger pressed to its neck.

A squeal and a slap to the face brought Edward back to reality. He looked beneath him; the girl from the crater was frantically trying to push him off of her. Edward could now see, in the sunlight, that she was glaring with the forces of hell. Her eyes were brown with golden flecks, and her hair was brown with a bit of red in it. "Hold still, girl. Or the dagger will reach its mark." He warned, with icy coolness.

"Why? You will just kill me anyway, go ahead. In fact, I beg you to." As he looked, the fire in her eyes drained and water slowly built. At that moment, a strong breeze burst through their hiding spot. Both grew silent and still, as a shout was heard on the wind.

"Help Edward! No, Run for yourself!" Michael's distinct frightened voice came from the distance. Edward hissed and rolled off of the woman. She struggled to sit up, and Edward made no move to help her.

She huffed and held out her tied hands to him, "Would you be a dear and untie me?" As she spoke for the second time, Edward noticed that she spoke with a slight accent. It had a lilt to it, and his eye twitched with annoyance. Nothing like a foreign girl, he thought, to ruin my future.

"Stay here. I may return for you, and if you are smart, you will keep your mouth shut." With one last glance at the pale woman who seemed to be trying to kill him with her eyes, Edward lunged out of the bushes with sword drawn. The deeper the woods went, the darker it got. But soon, a green glow emanated from the blackness. Another cry of agony was heard and Edward slowed, walking silently and creeping behind trees. The sounds of a battle grew louder the closer he got. His boots made barely any sound as he sidestepped through the fallen leaves.

"Die! Why won't you die?" Screamed a woman, whom Edward assumed was the witch. He spied her as he crouched behind an oak. She seemed to be older, her hair had greyed and her face was wrinkled. Michael was cowering the best he could, pinned under a broken and fried tree branch. His left are was bloodied and his face was wet with tears.

Edward sprang out when the witch had turned her back to his hiding spot. Just as he was in swinging range, the crazed woman spun, her hand encased in green magic. Edward rolled away from her, but she managed to swipe his hair. He screamed with surprise as he felt his hair give way.

Victoria grinned. She let the ash of his hair drop to the ground. She laughed and readied herself for battling the man. To her surprise, he had slipped past her and was helping the boy with the charm up from under the log.

"Help! Help! Someone help! I'm being held against my will!" The girl was halfheartedly shouting in am attempt to disobey the surly copper headed man, who had so rudely pinned her beneath him that morn. She heard shuffling a few paces to the right from her dwelling. "Who is it?" She kept her voice from trembling, she really hadn't meant for anyone to hear her.

To her surprise, the dark man and the younger man appeared; bloody and torn. The were moving faster than they should have. The horses were fllowing them. "Over here! I'm right here you fools!" She loudly declared.

"Woman, help him stand. Now!" She couldn't do much, so in the end, she let him lean on her sitting form. The man was fixing up the horses and pulled the daze boy up to the saddle, helping him mount. The girl stared with amazement as the man in black partially carried the boy, while dripping blood into the leaves.

He turned back to her, and she gasped. His eyes were half lidded with pain, yet his mouth held an angry sneer, as if pain was an opponent he could defeat. "Give me your hands." She numbly obeyed and he untied her hands, slightly rubbing them before hauling her to her feet. She hissed with pain, but managed to stand. He roughly pulled her towards his horse and mounted, holding his hand out to her. She wavered between trust and hate; and decided that staying with this mysterious man was safer than wandering through the woods.

He pulled her in front of him on the saddle, his arms formed a wall as he grabbed the reins. They were off then, and the dark man kept shouting at the younger man to keep up and to stay awake or he would be killed. She eventually got up the courage to ask, "What happened?"

The man behind her straightened a bit before muttering, "The damn witch ambushed the boy, but I managed to detain her by severing her hand." She gasped and rubbed her hands together. "Who are you?" She turned slightly in the saddle and peered at him with confusion in her eyes.

He seemed confused also. His mouth opened and close, before he spoke the word, "Edward."

She smiled and rested her hand on his arm, "I'm Isabella. Thank you for being warm, or I truly might be dead by now." She managed to laugh quietly to herself by the end of the sentence, and felt him stiffen again. He truly was a strange creature, this Edward. Isabella's eyes widened, and she turned back to him with shock. "What happened to your hair?"

Edward's eyes closed and when he opened them, she noticed they were dark green and were scrunched in pain. "Will you stop squirming? We have a long journey and I'm bleeding, in case you hadn't noticed."

The star glared at his quick anger, and huffing, turned back to the front. She muttered darkly, "I was only going to say it looked better."

Edward managed to catch her mutterings and rolled his eyes. Damn women and their standards of beauty.