A.N. I'm back! And boy is it good to be home

Disclaimer: The usual

Chapter 13

"They didn't notice you, Tezuka." Turning, Fuji watched with a small smile as his companion emerged from the trees. "Looks like your aura's hidden even better than mine, hmm?"

"We should be returning to the others," Tezuka replied, ignoring the question. It didn't sound like the kind of question that was meant to be answered anyway. "It was highly irresponsible of you to go chasing after dangerous strangers at a time like this."

Fuji raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. "A time like what?"

Tezuka's brows furrowed slightly, then he turned and started walking away. Laughing to himself, the brunette followed. The world certainly was filled with so many different types of people. Somehow the thought made him feel lighter inside.

x-X-x

Eiji wasn't entirely sure what he had been expecting to find at the end of his day long march with the prison camp. Jail had been somewhere at the top of his list though, and he had been imaging some tall, hulking monstrosity of a building with tiny, barred windows and maybe a gargoyle or two, so he was somewhere between surprised and disappointed—he'd never seen a real, Empire prison house before and hearing the stories just wasn't the same—when their destination finally came into view. Instead of one, massive structure there were several, and all of them were low, one story affairs of a light, yellowish orange, sandstone color. The few windows he could see were indeed small, but none of them were barred. There weren't any gargoyles either. Guards were hurrying through the streets, all of them with concentrated looks on their faces like they had extremely urgent jobs to attend to. And over it all, circling high in the pale sky overhead, was a huge flock of crows.

Their rough, cawing cries rang through the air, covering all other sounds in a blanket of glossy black feathers and sharp, cruel beaks. The combined rasping of their voices sent a cold shiver down the Speaker's back. There were no words in the cries.

Eyes fixed on the cloud of black, winged shapes, Eiji didn't notice that the rest of his traveling companions had started moving again until a guard prodded him painfully in the back. Yelping, he shot the man a fierce glare—it was the same man he'd stolen the bow from—then hurried after the other prisoners. Something in his chest was telling him that it was better not to be alone in this place.

The prisoners were marched into the strangely quiet settlement and herded into groups of about three or four. That done they seemed suddenly at a loss, their faces nervous as their eyes jumped from side to side as though expecting the ground to explode beneath their feet at any moment. Only the close eyed man appeared to be calm as he leaned against the side of a nearby building, arms crossed loosely before him.

Then, timed just right to make the guards jump, a single crow detached itself from the flock overhead and swooped down towards the prisoners. Eiji squinted at it, catching a brief flash of red in its eyes. Then it was circling directly over him, Kamio, and Shinji, its hoarse cries starkly sharp in the sudden silence that had fallen over its fellows above.

"What in the world—" Kamio started, but he was cut off as the six guards nearest the three grabbed them roughly by the arms and started to haul them down a side street.

"Get your filthy hands off me!" Kamio snapped, jerking ineffectively at his guards. The men only held on tighter though, quickening their steps.

"Where are we going nyah?" Eiji asked, raising his voice above his fellow redhead's angry protests. The guard to his left jumped slightly then glared at him.

"You're going to see the lieutenant," he snapped. "And I suggest you be quiet when you do."

"Why? Is he very mean?"

The guard ignored him.

These people are all too uptight, Eiji mused. No wonder they all look a little ill.

Instead of leading them to a large and impressive building, the guards guided them to the edge of a small, hexagonal courtyard. Scanning the cobbled expanse, Eiji's keen eyes fixed on the figure of a man standing in its center with his back to them. He wasn't particularly tall or intimidating, or at least he wasn't as far as Eiji could tell from where he was standing, but he was wearing an army uniform with a rather shiny badge on the shoulder so he had to be the lieutenant.

A sharp cry from above announced the presence of the crow that had apparently singled Eiji and his companions out earlier. It circled once then landed on the lieutenant's shoulder and the man turned. Eiji started.

'He can't be any older than me nyah!' was the first thought that flashed through his mind. The second was the startled, and oddly chilling realization, that the youth's eyes were red like those of the crow on his shoulder.

"Bring them over here," he barked. The guards scrambled to obey him, pulling Eiji, Kamio, and Shinji farther into the square until they were lined up before the red-eyed lieutenant. Eiji couldn't take his eyes away from those two pairs of crimson orbs. Where the crow's alone had felt oddly empty, together the crow and the man felt…the same.

"You!"

Kamio's sudden, outraged cry made Eiji jump. Surprised, he turned to the other redhead. "Do you know him?"

Kamio wasn't listening though. His face had become contorted with both shock and fury. "You're the one who attacked us!"

Apparently unfazed, the lieutenant only smirked. "I thought there was something familiar about your face. Took me a while to be sure though. It is so hard to remember the weak. There's so many of them after all."

"You bastard!"

"You should be honored," the lieutenant sneered, a twisted grin spreading across his face. "I don't go fetch many prisoners personally."

Snarling, Kamio made a lunge for the man, but the guards to either side of him seized his arms and one of them kicked the back of his knees, forcing him onto the ground.

Dismissing him with another rsneer, the lieutenant glanced at Shinji, who had been silent since entering the settlement and who was now staring coldly at him, before his eyes settled on Eiji.

"My messengers tell me you were spying on my prisoners," he remarked, examining the Speaker with hard, sharp eyes. "Who sent you?"

Eiji cocked his head to one side. "The crow told you? But he hasn't said anything…"

The lieutenant scowled. "Who sent you?"

"Huh?" Eiji blinked. "Sent? What are you talking about nyah?"

Face growing darker by the second, the lieutenant stalked forward until he was standing directly in front of the Speaker.

"I'll just ask one more time. Who sent you?"

"Oh, you meant me! No one sent me! I was just—" He was cut off abruptly as his vision flashed black and red and he stumbled back into his guards. His ears were ringing and he realized with a sort of dazed surprise that he could taste blood.

"Take them to the west prison," the lieutenant's harsh voice was ordering somewhere in the background.

He hit me, Eiji thought, fighting to blink the spots from his eyes as the guards began to move again. And I didn't even do anything! No wonder these guys are all so afraid of him… But those crows…

x-X-x

"Hey! Ryoma!" Momo called out as he hurried to catch up to his small friend. "Do you actually know where you're going?"

The sorcerer gave him a look then snorted. "Of course."

"So um…where was that then?"

"The masked signals."

"Oh…"

They continued in silence for another minute or two before the swordsman opened his mouth again.

"So you think there're magic wielders behind that—uh—shield thing, right?"

"Ah."

"Which means someone has to be hiding them."

"So?"

Momoshiro frowned slightly. "Well, haven't you thought that we might be walking right into a trap? Or least into so Empire cronies? After all, they're the only ones who could be behind this, aren't they?"

"Maybe."

He let out an exasperated breath. "Fine, fine, never mind then."

Ryoma glanced briefly at him. "You're not scared, are you?"

"No! Mo, of course not!" Momo laughed. "What gave you that idea?"

Ryoma just shook his head. It was true that it could be a trap, but it could also be some of the renegade mages the Sorcerien were looking for.

"Um, you guys," Oishi called from his place at the very rear of their procession. "Are you sure we should have left the horses back there?"

"It will be easier for Tezuka and Fuji to catch up to us if we leave them the horses," Inui replied. "There is of course the chance that someone else will find them first. However, I believe the chances of that happening are slim."

"But they'll need water…"

"Fshuu."

Inui hoisted his pack a little higher on his shoulder. "I believe Kaidoh has already seen to that."

"Oh, that's good." Breathing in deeply, the healer ordered himself not to keep looking back over his shoulder. It wasn't as though he would be able to see their missing companions if he looked a little more often. Still…it didn't feel right to be walking away, not when they knew that Eiji at least was a prisoner.

"Never turn your back on a friend who needs your help," his father had said to him once. "Even if you never need their help in return, you will know that you have done something good to pay back for all the bad things we humans have done over the centuries. There are too many people in this world who fend only for themselves already, but that certainly hasn't made anything better."

Recalling the way the older man's kind face had been filled with both solemnity and a sort of deep sadness when he spoke of such things sent a twinge of pain through Oishi's chest. As a healer he had made it his life's work to help others, but nowadays he seemed to be constantly turning to those around him for aid. First it had been for his parents, because he didn't have the power to either free them or get the Elite what they wanted, then he had been caught and had to be rescued himself. Now Eiji was a prisoner again, Tezuka was who-knew-where, and he could only trail after Sadaharu and the Sorcerien messengers.

He glanced up into the wavering green canopy overhead and smiled ruefully. What's the use of a healer when you don't even have enough warriors to win the battle?

His stomach growled.

"Hey." Up ahead, Momoshiro stopped abruptly. "Did you guys hear that?"

"Oh, sorry," the healer said quickly, flushing dark red. "I—I guess I'm still a little hungry—"

"No, not that." The swordsman turned in a slow circle, eyes scanning their surroundings. "I was talking about that shriek—it sounded like someone was in pain."

"Fshuu, you're imagining things."

"I am not! There—you see, there it is again!"

Ryoma tilted his head slightly, brows furrowed. "I don't hear anything."

Kaidoh snorted. "That's because—"

"I heard it too."

The snake eyed speaker blinked, turning to Inui. The Observer was staring off towards their left, a look of intense concentration etched onto his face. Then a high, piercing scream rent the air and they all jumped. Startled eyes turned to each other. There was no doubt now.

"It's this way," Inui said firmly, heading off into the trees.

X

When the forest thinned, all of them tensed, not entirely sure what to expect though most of them believing they would find someone being attacked by either bandits or soldiers. What they didn't expect to see was the massive, gray form of a four story mansion squatting at the bottom of a gentle, grassy slope. It was an old building, its paint long since weathered away and the many glass windows cracked and frosted with dust. The late evening sunlight played over these windows, turning them into luminous fragments of blue tinted gray, but though the effect might once have been pretty now it only seemed to emphasize that the place was clearly abandoned.

Momoshiro swallowed. The shrieking had stopped a minute ago and the air here was deathly still. "Is it…there?"

Adjusting his glasses, Inui nodded. "My calculations indicate that those sounds most certainly emanated from this house."

"Then let's go," Oishi said anxiously, starting down the slope. Those screams had been made by someone in great pain. His jaw muscles tightened and he quickened his steps.

Shrugging, Ryoma followed the healer down the hill followed closely by Inui. Watching them go, Momo cursed himself for mentioning the voice when he'd been the only one to hear it. If he'd only kept his mouth shut…

"Fshuu, coward."

Bristling, he rounded on Kaidoh. "I don't see you running in after them!"

"I wasn't the one who wanted to come fshuu."

"Well—I didn't say I wanted to come either!"

"Excuses," the Speaker snorted in disgust.

"Why you—"

"Are you two coming or not?" Inui's voice floated up to them from the bottom of the hill and they both saw his glasses flash as he looked up at them. "If not, you can keep watch outside."

They stared down at him for a moment then traded looks. A moment later they were both sprinting down the hill.

x-X-x

"It looks like they've already left," Fuji remarked, looking over the deserted camp. The ashes of the fire had been scattered, but the stones used to wall it in were still there.

"I told them not to wait for us," Tezuka said shortly.

"They listened then," the brunette chuckled. A soft whicker from the trees drew both their attention to where two large shapes were emerging into the clearing, long tails swishing over the grass. Eyes opening briefly in surprise, Fuji moved to meet them.

"Triad! Finiko! Did they just left you here to fend for yourselves?" he asked, surprised. Triad tilted his head to one side then dipped his muzzle to a makeshift wooden tub of water at his feet. Fuji smiled knowingly. "Kaidoh, I assume. I wonder where he got such a short log. Do you know which way they went?"

The horses looked at each other, then turned in unison to a particular point in the surrounding trees. They snorted, ears twitching.

The sorcerer laughed. "Good. I guess we can follow them once we've cleaned up then."

"You know," he added conversationally to Tezuka as he busied himself with hiding the evidence of their camp. "Sometimes I have to say they're so much smarter than we humans are."

Tezuka glanced at him skeptically. "The horses?"

Fuji shrugged. "Horses, birds, animals in general."

"…Why?"

"Well, just look, haven't you ever noticed how a lot of them seem to understand what we're saying, but we never understand what they're saying? Those of us that aren't Speakers anyway. But it does make one wonder…"

"Hn…" Tezuka couldn't really see what there was to wonder about—the matter hardly seemed relevant after all. There were a lot of things in the world that could not be explained or understood, and while they could be interesting at times it was what the actions that resulted and what could be done in response that mattered. "We should wait until tomorrow. It's too dark for us to get far if we leave now."

"Besides," Fuji continued as though he hadn't heard, "any creature who knows not to make life as complicated as ours must know something we don't. Should I go get firewood then?"

Taken momentarily aback by the sudden shift in topic, Tezuka nodded. "I'll go see if there is anything we can eat."

TBC

A.N: Hmm, the next chapter might get a little freaky if it keeps going the way I have in mind. Anyways, I should be able to get the next part up soon. Comments, suggestions, etc, all welcome.