Walking Delusions

a/n: Okay, so my soon update didn't go as planned. But in my defense, I was working like six days straight. In any case, I hope you enjoy! And big thanks to readers and commenters. Especially Miss.Curroption, who left me a wonderful review.

By the way, I have no beta for my original works, if my massive amounts of mistakes weren't already an indication. I try to catch what I can but sometimes, I miss things. Feel free to point out errors to me so that I may fix them. Thanks!

Chapter Fifteen: The Screech of Night

Challenges arise and meet with fear,
Frozen in silence and deceit.
Continuing and seeking elusive fate,
Ghost-like whispers drawing near.
Uncertain earth turns mud in rain,
The painful howl bleeds my ears.
When did sanity lose its way?
In the passions given freely,
Or the nightmares drawn sweetly?

Ryou and I found our way back to the campsite with relative ease. Ivory was beginning to pack up, shoving her belongings into her bag and rewinding her bedroll. Vincent was shoving dirt over the fire and to my astonishment; he actually had cleaned the dishware, throwing them towards Ryou’s pack since it was the monk’s duty to carry them. Melath was sitting on the ground, cross-legged with his back against a tree, fletching a few arrows for his bow. All in all, it seemed peaceful.

Until our approach was noted and Vincent looked up, golden eyes angry as his lips curled back into a snarl. “The prodigal princess returns,” he sniped, jerking harshly on the tie to his pack.

Apparently, the violence had not been enough to sate his fury with me. Which was fine. We had both said some pretty nasty things to each other. I didn’t regret it in the slightest. He deserved every insult.

I never said I was a good person, and at times, I could be particularly vindictive. This was one of them. And I didn’t plan on being repentant.

Melath rose smoothly to his feet. “It is dangerous for you to wander off alone,” he commented softly, slipping each finished arrow into his quiver as he prepared to tuck it around his back.

I expected something more than this, something more like the usual morning after discomfort. Not that he was pretending he didn’t happen, just more like he didn’t consider it anything important to discuss. Which was fine with me. I wasn’t looking for confirmation or a relationship either.

“I didn’t go far,” I protested, shooting Vincent an annoyed look over the elf’s shoulder. He was doing a damn fine job of not looking at me however, which only further served to increase my irritation. My hackles instantly rose.

To my left, Ivory snorted, attracting my attention. “Far enough that Ryou had to come looking for you,” she commented under her breath, though loud enough that I could hear it quite clearly.

I was certain that she meant for me to. Ivory was a mystery I hadn’t yet solved being as she could not decide how she wanted to view me, as either someone she should aid or someone she should hate.

Ryou, typically, was quick to jump to my defense. “I didn’t mind,” he inserted hastily, shoving the cleaned cookware into his pack with an audible clank and rattle.

“Of course you didn’t mind, Ryou,” Ivory sniped in return, jerking a bit too harshly on a tie and tightening it more than was comfortable. “You never mind.” She snorted again, shooting me a glare before turning her back on me with a harrumph.

My eyes narrowed further. This was getting us nowhere and now I had two people to contend with.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Ryou countered, for once sounding just this side of perturbed himself and startling everyone else.

We all turned towards him, myself included, surprise registering on our features. He flushed slightly but doggedly continued, “Just what are you trying to say about me, Ivory?”

She blinked at him, mouth gaping just the slightest before a smile curled up her lips, making her lip all that much more scarier. I think I preferred the scowl. “Perhaps I was wrong after all,” she mused aloud before shrugging. “I am sure that Anne was in dire need of rescuing from all sorts of fearsome foes. She is, after all, quite incompetent.”

I pursed my lips as I folded my arms over my chest. “You’re only half right,” I shot back angrily before shoving a finger in Vincent’s direction, the earlier events spilling out before my irrational and annoyed brain could shut down my mouth. “The only person I need rescuing from is him.”

Icy blue eyes instantly shot to Vincent in accusation even as I felt the full weight of Vincent’s golden glare in my back. “Vincent,” Melath began in a warning tone, sounding in that moment every bit as if he truly owned him. “What have you done?”

Color blossomed to Vincent’s cheeks but his face betrayed no emotion other than the slight narrowing of his eyes in my direction. Melath was angry; I could tell that at a glance. Whether it was protection over me or because he was disobeyed I couldn’t be certain and I wasn’t about to interject and ask. Nor did Vincent seem all too willing to explain either.

Ivory was actually the one to break the tense and stony silence since I was doing nothing more than twitching and fidgeting. I hadn’t meant to blurt that out, especially since I didn’t want anyone else to think I needed problems solved. But as usual, my mouth operated with little to no input from the rational side of my brain.

“Who cares?” Ivory demanded loudly, stepping between the two men. “I am tired of the drama. There’s no profit in it.” Her eyes flicked from one to the other. “Where are we going next?”

I wanted to speak up. Maya’s words prompted me to move fast, urging me to find the truth about what was really going on with my existence. But I held back, waiting to be asked for my opinion. I had more or less been pressed into their group and being as Ryou was the only one truly fond of me and Melath was pretty much indifferent. I didn’t want to push my luck. I didn't want anyone going stabbity-stab on my pathetic ass.

Melath turned towards me. “Anne? Any thoughts?”

Internally, I shivered. He had said my name again, and there was something about the way he said it, as if he were savoring each syllable, able to taste it on his tongue. It made me feel as if I had just been kissed senseless and ravaged completely. I swallowed thickly, trying to stop the irrational trembling in my knees. I barely managed to get the name of the town out past my lips.

“Yesa.”

“Now we head to Yesa?” Vincent snorted, fingers working quickly through his braid and fixing a few stray strands. I had noticed that about him. He was particularly vain about his hair. “What’s wrong with the mountains?”

I shook my head, remembering Maya’s words. My eyes dimmed. “There’s nothing to be found there but death,” I murmured quietly, my gaze unconsciously raised to those mountains.

Maya’s tribe had thought there would be safety in those mountains. But they had been rooted out and slaughtered one by one. For whatever reason, the Rajab had killed them to the last man, woman, and child, leaving nothing behind but shifting spirits and an empty, abandoned village.

“Very well,” Melath responded, cutting through the strange aura of tension once more. “We head North then. Following the course of the river.”

“This was a complete waste of time,” Vincent muttered angrily. He jerked his cloak from his pack and slid it around his shoulders, tying the strings with harsh movements. “I’m going on ahead.”

With that, he stepped into the forest, promptly blending with the shadows. I couldn’t even hear him stir a single branch. Melath watched his exit with impassive eyes, though I thought I caught some sort of thoughtful look in his expression.

Ivory, however, huffed. “He’s moodier than a damn woman with child,” she sniped under her breath before slinging her pack over her shoulder.

She didn’t hardly carry anything, I noticed. Just the bare essentials - that and her valuables, of course. She then muttered something else that I couldn’t quite catch before following after Vincent.

I still marveled at their ability to move without making a sound. I tromped and crashed, cursing as branches smacked in the face and crunching over leaves with enough noise to wake the dead. Agile and graceful I was not.

Ryou appeared at my side as we plunged into the cool darkness of the forest, the entire wood giving off a different feel than the one earlier this morning. It wasn’t melancholy or anything, just there, if you know what I mean. It was pleasant but not overly reactive.

“Vincent’s behavior is unusual,” Ryou suddenly commented, distracting me from my idle perusal of the forest around us.

It was strange. Every time I entered a new wood, each was different in some way. From the colors to the smells to the type of plant that grew there. It was almost as if each were a country unto itself. Rather strange.

I shifted my gaze to Ryou even as I kept one eye on the semi-path that we were wading through into the forest. I didn’t want to fall again. “What?”

Ryou shrugged, brown eyes pensive. They really were rather expressive eyes. “He used to be silent, rarely saying anything at all but now...” His gaze flickered to me as he trailed off, obviously not wanting to complete his statement.

Not that he needed to. I could finish it for him. Vincent was only reacting because of my presence, that much was obvious. Not that I could help it. The man was an ass, a beautiful ass mind you, but an ass all the same.

We fell into silence again, the both of us brooding on our own thoughts. I was a bit surprised by that. Usually Ryou was talkative, trying to pull me into conversation and put me at ease. But now he seemed distracted by something, a dark cloud was hanging over his head and if I squinted, I half-imagined little bursts of thunder and lightning striking over him.

It was a somewhat amusing little daydream that had no place in our current situation. Or in mine for that matter. I had only bits and pieces of information and little of it seemed to make sense. I still wasn’t sure if I was in a dream world or in some twisted reality. Nor did it seem I was trying particularly hard to escape.

Desperate to break away from my thoughts which were leading me in circles, I ventured a question. “Tell me a bit about the land,” I asked Ryou quietly, not too willing to loudly break the silence of our little group. “Where are we headed and stuff?”

Ryou blinked as if coming out of a fog before his face returned to its pensive state. “If I’m not mistaken, on the opposite side of this wood, we should come across a wide, flat plain. Beyond that is Yesa, one of this country’s largest cities for commerce and trade.”

I furrowed my brow. “And the forest, is there anything special about it?”

He shrugged. “Not that I’m aware of. As far as I know, it isn’t even named.”

“What’s beyond Yesa?”

Ryou fidgeted slightly as his eyes fell to the ground, as if he didn’t want to talk about it. “The North is a bit more barren. Towns are scattered further apart and much of the land in between is bandit country. Not that we have anything to fear from them since they are unlikely to bother any of us but...” he trailed off and I didn’t press the issue. It was rare that Ryou looked uncomfortable, but I sensed that something strange was brewing between us.

It wasn’t really tangible and I didn’t have any evidence, but it felt as if a rift was growing. He was getting more and more distant and I was beginning to think I was metaphorically chasing him around. It was worrisome because of those present, Ryou was my closest friend and the only one who had treated me with genuine care. Melath was not exactly cruel to me, but he wasn’t friendly either. Ryou was the only one who cared. I didn’t want to lose his friendship.

Somewhat tentatively, I tried to bring up the topic. “Ryou... is everything all right?”

His gaze shifted to the side, surprise registering in his expression. “Yes. Why wouldn’t it be?” he asked, sounding perplexed. Yet, I could see in his eyes a guilty expression, as if he were hiding something from me. He had never done that before.

I knew then that he wasn’t going to tell me. I changed subjects. “Well,” I began, searching for a response. Then my eyes landed on his side. “Your wound!” I exclaimed, much to his surprise. I quickly toned down my answer. “I mean, it doesn’t hurt, does it?”

He looked at me strangely but gave a laugh. “No, Miss Anne. Not any longer. I have bound it tightly and it should be fine within a couple of days.”

I raised a brow. “Really? That short? But it was a pretty deep gash.” Somehow, it didn’t make any sense to me that it could heal so quickly.

“I’m just as surprised as you. I seem to be a bit touched,” Ryou responded with a light laugh. “I think the goddess is taking mercy on me. Perhaps I have been forgiven.” His voice dropped with the last, belying his inner strife.

I didn’t have anything to say to that. I never was that good at consolation. We fell silent and I dropped into musing, thinking about all that I had learned recently. On the forefront of my mind was Maya and all that she had told me. Something about Ixion’s Jewel and runihura... wait, hadn’t Ryou said that he was a monk of language? Perhaps he could translate that word. It might clear up some mysteries.

“Ryou? Have you ever heard of Ixion?”

He frowned, folding his arms inside his robes. “No, I haven’t. Why?”

I sighed. It would simply be too easy for him to tell me, wouldn’t it? And I couldn’t really tell him where I had heard it because that would sound way too weird. I didn’t want him to think I was hallucinating. Hell, even I thought I was hallucinating.

I ignored the question and switched topics. “What about runihura? Can you translate that?”

He managed a small laugh. “Miss Anne, I might not be a monk anymore but I haven’t lost my training. I think that’s a sacred language. It’s rarely spoken anymore except in divine ceremonies. It means destroyer.”

My heart caught in my throat as my eyes widened. “D-- destroyer?” I stammered, barely managing to repeat the words. My hand clenched at my side as my gaze dropped to the ground. “I am to… destroy everything?”

There was a snort as Ivory appeared on the other side of Ryou, having overheard our conversation. “You? Destroy everything?” she questioned with a disdainful sniff. “You can’t even hit a tree in the middle of a forest.”

I sighed. “No one was talking to you.” I had enough on my mind without her adding in her unneeded two cents.

Ivory sniffed imperiously, having the audacity to look affronted. I promptly ignored her and returned my attention to Ryou. He was frowning and shaking his head, lips pinched in profound thought, deepening the creases in his face.

“I just translated the word, Miss Anne,” he said apologetically, obviously trying to salvage the situation in some manner. He was always trying to comfort me and the thought made me feel both cherished and guilty, despite the fact my fucking Melath had nothing to do with Ryou.

“I am not saying that you will bring ruin to Tears.”

Somehow, I couldn’t find it in me to believe him. Considering all that had already happened and the bits and pieces I had unveiled, something in me was most definitely capable of destruction. I didn’t like that knowledge one bit and fell silent, returning to my broody thoughts. I didn’t want to hear Ivory’s imperious thoughts or face Ryou’s comfort so I let the two of them draw ahead of me, shooing off Ryou’s concerned looks.

I didn’t particularly like the feeling of the forest, either. There was a subtle feeling of danger, or maybe I was just paranoid. It wasn’t as if we were on vacation in the tropics. We were smack dab in the mild of wild forest and I didn’t know the land. All sorts of carnivorous creatures could have been out there in the spider web covered trees and darkness, just waiting for a moment of weakness to swallow anyone of us whole.

I shivered, not enjoying the idea of that in the least.

Vincent slunk his way back to the group a few hours later, unconcerned as usual with his absence. I blinked and he was suddenly there, walking a few steps behind Melath and just in front of Ivory who had finally left Ryou alone. I didn’t catch their conversation and nor was I really interested until Ivory snorted disbelievingly again.

“Screechers?” she repeated loudly, causing Ryou to perk up his ears beside me. “In this forest? Unlikely.”

Golden eyes regarded her with annoyed disgust. “I know their tracks. They are here.”

I turned towards Ryou. “What are screechers?”

He twisted his jaw in thought. “Semi-intelligent beings,” he responded slowly, trying to recall all that he knew of the beasts no doubt. “They are carnivores and like their name suggests, emit these high noises from their mouth that usually makes their prey lose consciousness. For humans, we just get a really nasty headache.”

I darted my eyes around and edged closer to him nervously. “Should we be worried?” I really didn’t want to be anything’s lunch.

“I don’t think so,” Ryou responded, but he sounded uncertain. “They are not native to this area but if Vincent claims to have spotted signs of them, he’s probably right. He’s the best tracker among us.”

That didn’t console me in the slightest. Ignoring Ivory’s amused stares, I edged even closer to Ryou and jumped at the tiniest sound of a twig cracking or a bush rustling. Human opponents I could handle to a certain degree. Strange creatures that liked to chew on things? That was out of my area of expertise.

To ease my fear, I tried talking. The best I could come up with was more questions concerning Maya and all the unexplained things that had happened to me. Maybe Ryou, as a linguist, would know something of history.

“Have you heard of Ixion’s Jewel?” I asked him, flinching when a bird took off above us and skittered away into the surrounding dimness. “It has something to do with the tribe of Anuran worshipers and that village.”

Before I knew what was happening, or Ryou could even open his mouth to answer, Vincent appeared at our side, glowering deeply. “How do you know of that gem?” he demanded in his cold tone, causing me to jump in surprise yet again and yelp like a little priss.

“What does it mean to you?” I shot back, determined to not let him frighten me like he was always trying to do. Never mind that my heart was already racing a mile a minute within my chest. Damn silent bastard.

He glared, eyes narrowing slightly. “Answer my question.”

Above us, the sky gave a very threatening rumble. Through the small breaks in the branches of the canopy, I caught sight of the sky being rapidly overtaken by thick, roiling grey clouds which didn’t look very encouraging. I had the feeling we were all going to be very, very wet soon.

A hand shot out and grasped my forearm, squeezing too tightly for my liking. I whipped my head towards Vincent and jerked free, growling under my breath. “Don’t touch me,” I hissed, my eyes flickering to Melath at the head of our little group before returning to him.

“The jewel,” he repeated through clenched teeth, jaw squared.

I was resolute in standing my ground. He knew something, the bastard, and I refused to let him get out of telling me. “Tell me why you know of it and I’ll tell you why I want to know.”

Between us, Ryou chuckled nervously, probably very aware of the bead of tension that was hanging heavy in the air. The sky rumbled menacingly. “Perhaps now is not the best time for this--” he said placatingly, holding up his hands.

I shook my head. “No. I want to know now.”

Golden eyes bored into my head and I stared stubbornly back. With great effort, the words emerged from behind clenched teeth and I had to stifle my cry of victory.

“That jewel is a curse,” Vincent gritted out. “A dark abomination on the Anura and as far as I know, one of their greater kept secrets. How did you come by knowledge of this?”

A curse? Well, considering that Maya’s people had died to protect it, and Tai as well, that made a lot of sense. It seemed to bring nothing but misfortune to those who had it. Still, that didn’t explain what it was.

“A little ghost told me,” I answered in the same manner. “Why is it a curse?”

But Vincent wasn’t going to offer up anymore. He searched my face for a moment, the lines in his forehead growing deeper before he whirled on his heels and stalked away, heading towards Melath. I sighed and rolled my eyes, throwing up my hands in exasperation. Just when I thought I was going to get some information, it was torn from my grasp.

To add insult to injury, it chose that moment to rain.

Normally, beneath a canopy of trees, bad weather wasn’t really a problem. The leaves caught the rainfall before it would soak a person. But not this rain. No. It was a drenching rain that bent down each branch. Big, fat droplets that we couldn’t avoid and soaked us within a manner of moments. I burrowed deeper into my cloak and pulled some of the fabric over my head, but it didn’t help. It wasn’t long before we were slogging through mud, complaints on the tip of my tongue.

“This trip just keeps getting better and better,” I grumbled under my breath, the complaint turning into a yelp as my feet skid into a slick of mud and sent me pin-wheeling.

Strong arms quickly caught me around the back and steadied my flailing body. I tossed a grateful smile up at Ryou, ignored Ivory’s disdainful sniff, and righted myself. I was really beginning to long for my normal life, locked within my room and playing video games until the sun came up. I really fucking missed normality.

The sloshing of our footsteps through the mud was the only sound I could hear in the silence. No one was really up for talking, which was fine with me. It gave me time to my thoughts, which, as it were, kept going in circle after circle. I wondered when I had stopped trying to decide if this were dream or reality and accepted it. I wondered when, exactly, I had lost my sanity.

Fucking Melath was only part of it all. Though a piece of me was pretty smug about that since it pissed Vincent off and anything that pissed Vincent off was all right in my book. That bastard made me wish I had some skills to kick his ass with. Even if he was hot, that didn’t make up for his personality.

A curse. Ixion’s Jewel was a curse and abomination to the Anura. It was a secret, Vincent had said, that only the Anuran and their worshipers had known. So then, why did he know of it?

The sky thundered and above me, lightning flashed, bright and silver. It had already struck a few trees but thankfully, they were far from our position. Shivering as a particularly cold raindrop slithered down my neck, I burrowed deeper into my cloak, feeling a chill coming on. I desperately hoped that I wouldn’t get sick.

A warm weight settled on my shoulders. Blinking in surprise, I lifted my head and turned it to the side, finding that Ryou was smiling warmly at me. He had placed a new blanket, though still damp, over my form. I managed a thin smile in return and clutched it close, burying my face in the fabric. It smelled good, a lot like the comforting herb scent of Ryou.

“Miss Anne,” Ryou said softly, gathering my attention though I could barely hear it over the whistling wind and pounding pulse of the rain.

Melath had no intentions of making us stop. There was nowhere for shelter to be found anyways. Our best luck was to keep going until we discovered something.

Irritably wiping water out of my eyes, I cut him a glance. “Yes?”

He looked agitated, but not because of the weather, but because of something else. He fidgeted, his hands flexing around the shaft of his staff. An uncomfortable feeling settled in my belly. I had the sudden thought that he was going to ask me something that I didn’t want to answer. I darted my eyes nervously at the backs of the other three, but they were paying the two of us little attention as usual.

Ryou sighed and fiddled with his hood, drawing it back from his face a little. Just enough so that I could see his expression. “I--”

The words never did quite make it from his mouth. A part of me was glad that we were attacked and despite the ugliness of the things, I wanted to kiss them for saving me from the awkwardness. That feeling lasted as long as it took me to scream like a little bitch and pinwheel away, tripping on my feet and landing solidly on my ass.

I first heard the screeching, high-pitched wailing that echoed in my ear and made it feel as if my brain was bleeding from my nose. Then shapes careened out of the darkness, unhampered by the rain, dive-bombing at our little group. I threw up my hands and screamed as claws aimed for my face.

Twisting about on the ground, I tried to writhe away from the flitting creatures, getting vague glimpses of abnormally large eyes and fanged teeth dripping with sticky saliva. I could feel things beating at my body and around me, heard the curses of my traveling companions as they battled against the creatures. Something bit into my flesh, taking a nip of my now exposed neck and I shrieked, flailing my arms frantically.

“Screechers!” I heard someone shout. I suspected it was Melath.

Then the large thing attacking me suddenly disappeared and I looked up to find Ivory hacking away at an overgrown bat, the thing screeching as it reached for her with human-like hands attached at the apex of its wings. I shuddered in horror, nausea creeping into my belly at the disgusting sight, and scrambled to my feet. I knew I should help fight, more of the things were already flooding into the little clearing.

I twisted to avoid one diving towards my head and reached for the bow that I had slung over one shoulder, miraculously surviving my ridiculous tumble to the mud. Ignoring the dirt caking my cloak and with shaking hands, I tried to nock an arrow and aim, but when one screecher careened towards my face, I did what any logical person would do in my situation. I panicked.

The arrow dropped to the ground and was quickly trampled as I squeezed my eyes shut and swung the bow blindly. There was a sharp crack that reverberated up my arm when it connected. I gasped and nearly dropped the bow, looking to find a screecher tumbling to the ground, shaking its head as it stumbled. Bird-like feet clawed at the ground and I freaked, swinging the bow high over my head and clubbing it without a second thought. It made a sound like a dying cow and promptly collapsed, blood splattering in all directions. I was glad for the darkness. It kept me from seeing the color of it.

Gagging on the sickening crunch my attack produced, I sucked in a breath and took an uncertain step back… directly into the path of another beast. I reacted on instinct, whipping the bow around and smacking into its wings. They cracked and crumpled, sending the creature careening in a tight circle. I backed up again and felt my back against a tree, somewhat glad for the safety of the bark behind me.

I took the moment to chance a look around, finding that Ivory was hacking left and bright, gore and bits of screecher pieces flying everywhere. Ryou was doing a pretty good job of knocking them over the heads and Melath and Vincent stood back to back, slicing cleanly through their opponents. The screechers weren’t going to have an easy meal with us if the twitching pieces of more than ten of them on the ground were any indication of their fate.

There was a rustle in the trees above me. I stiffened, prayed to a god I didn’t believe in and very, very slowly, rolled my eyes upwards. I really didn’t want to look but I knew I had to. My gaze encountered a very large pair of eyes, with an incredibly sharp set of teeth opened widely beneath it. My heart leapt into my throat and I whimpered, sinking downwards as the screecher lunged towards me.

‘Somebody save me,’ was the first thought that entered my mind, completely forgetting about the bow that was dangling uselessly in my fingers.

Lightning crackled above, rain splattered into my face and I cringed, fully expecting my eyeballs to be gouged out of their sockets. Something thunked loudly as I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for my end to come.

Several seconds later, I realized I still wasn’t in pain. Cracking open one eye, I chanced a look up and found the screecher pinned to the bark, staring dully in my direction. A sword neatly bisected its body and it dangled in a very dead fashion. I recognized the weapon as belonging to Melath.

Shaking visibly, I heaved a breath of relief and sank to my ass, thunking my head against the trunk. I raised a trembling hand and wiped my face, the wetness there feeling not like rain but a little like-- I drew my hand closer and instantly grimaced, hurriedly wiping off my cheek and forehead. Blood. I was covered in blood.

My stomach lurched and I covered my mouth with my clean hand, trying to keep my paltry breakfast down. At least the rain was finally starting to lessen, though that didn’t stop the thunder from crashing and the lightning from lighting up the sky with bright white fire.

I heard footsteps squelching through the mud and looked up from my gazing of the mud to find Melath standing over me, calmly reaching for his sword. He pulled it from the tree with a jerk, shaking the screecher corpse off of it almost absentmindedly. I could see the garish stains of the creature’s blood on the tip and gagged again, throwing myself to the side away from it.

“Are you well?” he asked, lifting one eyebrow in my direction.

Scrunching my nose in disgust and still trying not to vomit, I managed a dull nod. “I’m alive,” I rasped, shivering slightly. Cold and wet, having barely survived another day. I hated Tears more and more, feeling as if another part of me had just dived a harsh dip into unreality.

“That is always a good thing,” he replied enigmatically before slushing away through the mud, presumably to check on the others as a leader was supposed to do.

I paid him little attention, trying my best to regain my lost dignity. It wasn’t long before Ryou rushed to my side, offering a hand down to me.

I took it gratefully, no fool am I, and let him haul me to my feet. I purposefully avoided staring at the corpses littering the ground. “Thanks,” I muttered, the gratitude reminding me that I hadn’t thought to thank Melath for saving my life.

“You aren’t hurt, are you?”

I shook my head, staring mournfully at the battered bow in my hand. In the midst of battle, it had been used as little more than a club. Bits of hair and blood stuck to the smooth wood and the beautiful, taut string looked frayed. Somehow, I had the feeling that it probably would never be used properly. I couldn’t shoot a damn arrow to save my life. I’d be better off smashing things with a shield or something.

“We should get going,” Vincent announced, calmly wiping down his own sword and resheathing it. “There might be more out there.” He turned and started slogging through the mud in the direction we had been heading, his choice as abrupt as the battle had been.

And that was it. There was no ceremony or discussion, no pondering over the corpses. As a group, we merely shouldered our weapons, wiped the blood from our faces and kept going. I wasn’t injured, thank god, but Ivory had gotten a nasty scratch on her collarbone. Melath had helped her lay one of the soaked bandages over it but other than that, we had emerged unscathed. Just another day in the life of surviving my adventure, I supposed.

With a sigh, I pulled my soaked hood over my face and lifted up an edge of my cloak, wiping away any and all lingering traces of the foul blood. The sky still rumbled, but it grew fainter as the minutes passed, even the rain easing into a light drizzle. I was reminded of the weather back home in the south, where it stormed like hell for all of ten minutes before petering out into nothing. I much preferred the weather of my birth town, where it rained the majority of the time and you went out expecting it to be wet. I liked storms that were storms, not piddly pissing contests between the clouds.

My feet moved through the sludge with evident squelches and the cold, sticky mud seeped quickly into my boots. I cringed, feeling as if I were wading through muck.

“Perhaps in Yesa, moods will improve,” Ryou murmured to himself, his words pulling me from my mental cursing of the forest and its ancestors.

I stepped gingerly over a tree root that was purposefully trying to trip me. “You guys wanted to head there originally. What do you plan on doing there?”

His eyes slipped past me, falling on Ivory who was just as disgusted with the mud as I, cursing under her breath. “Ivory is restless for some action if not coin. I think Vincent is as well. And the both of them combined are a handful.” A slight grin curved his lips as if he were amused by Melath’s plight before he shrugged. “Yesa is a mercenary town. We had planned on finding a job. Whether or not that is still the plan, I do not know.”

Meaning, now that they had to drag my useless ass around, they might not decide what to do. Ryou didn’t have to say it; I knew what he meant. But since I didn’t have anything brilliant to respond with, I just shut my mouth and let it be. I didn’t realize that, thanks to the battle, Ryou never did finish asking me that question. If I had known then what I do now, I would have forced myself to remember.

We emerged from the forest some time later. I couldn’t even begin to guess when because the sky was still grey and overcast no hint of the sun anywhere above me. The rain had drizzled to nothing, leaving behind the usual after-storm silence of living creatures with the continuous dripping as a background noise.

In front of us, trees dotted the landscape in little clumps of vegetation and a wide, flat plain of swaying golden grasses stretched as far as my meager eyes could see. It much resembled the savannah of Africa, which was strange considering it didn’t really fit with the temperate forest I had just exited. Then again, I was locked in a world which may or may not have been real, fighting for my life against a foe I didn’t understand and having conversations with ghosts. There was little that could surprise me anymore.

“Two days,” Ryou explained, gesturing out at the grasses bent over from their recent dampening by the rain. “In two days, we will be at Yesa.”

I groaned, one hand rubbing my lower back which was beginning to ache from combination of battle, continuous walking, and constant sleeping on the hard ground. I longed for a bed, a real one, with fluffy pillows and blankets. And four walls to keep out the elements with my own room that no one could disturb me in. Yeah, that sounded just about perfect.

“We will rest here for the night,” Melath announced, tilting his head slightly and looking upwards. “I do not like the look of the sky. In that prairie, we might easily be washed away.”

I was more than willing to take him up on the offer. Vincent, however, disagreed. “No,” he stated, shifting slightly so that his eyes could look past us and back into the trees before sliding to Melath. “We should keep moving. We are being followed.”

Ivory snorted in disbelief. “I’ve sensed nothing.”

I glanced back nervously, wondering what sort of creature would be out for our blood this time. More from the Rajab? Constance and his men come to finish the job? Some other bloodthirsty beast that was just a bit hungry? I dreaded the thought.

“Senses mean little,” Vincent retorted with a frown, one hand dropping to his sword as if he were nervous about something, which I highly doubted. “I saw tracks and caught sight of a shape flitting behind us.”

She waved him off while Melath watched the argument impassively. “And not but a few hours ago we were attacked by the screechers--”

“- -which you did not believe were present either,” Ryou thought to remind her, though why he was sticking up for Vincent I wasn’t sure.

She shot him a look before continuing, “--therefore couldn’t it stand that perhaps they were the shadows?”

“Or maybe you are in pain and don’t want to admit it,” Vincent countered snarkily, looking pointedly to the wound still seeping blood on her collarbone.

The wet bandages were doing nothing for it and it looked garish in the overcast light. Even I could tell that she needed to pack it with something to make the bleeding stop. And who knew what diseases those creatures had been carrying. I didn’t like Ivory but I was in mind with her. We needed to stop.

I saw Melath’s eyebrow twitch before he spoke, the tensions in the group beginning to grate on his patience most likely. “Enough both of you,” he said with a finality, swiping his hand through the air. “We rest because I, for one, have no desire to get caught in a deluge.”

That look of defiance was back in Vincent’s eyes and he opened his mouth as if to argue before promptly snapping it shut again. He shrugged off his pack and let it slide to the ground with an angry noise, his movements jerky and annoyed.

“They have been following us since Donnil,” he hissed, shooting me a pointed look of loathing that made me instantly rile with annoyance. “I am certain of it.”

With that, he turned on his heels and stalked into the forest, leaving behind everything, including his weapon. It seemed he feared nothing in the wood, not even our so-called pursuers. Melath watched his exit with an emotion I could not identify.

“Moody bitch,” Ivory sniped under her breath, tossing her hair over one shoulder and removing her pack and weapon as well. She dropped them to the wet ground and found a log to perch on.

Unrelieved of her burdens, she began plucking at her wound in distaste, pulling away the sticky bandages and revealing the jagged mark in all its ugly glory. I hastily looked away and took off my own pack, handing it over to Ryou.

“I’ll get some firewood,” I said with as much bravery as I could muster. At least I could be useful in this much. I knew how to pick up dry wood and so long as I didn’t stray too far from the edge of the forest, I could easily find my way back.

Ryou took my stuff with a look of uncertainty. “I don’t think that’s wise,” he began in his usual protective matter.

“Nonsense,” Ivory declared, having overheard me. “The screechers don’t venture this close to the edge. The only danger she’s likely to find is Vincent.”

That wasn’t reassuring in the slightest. However, in a mood to be away from Ryou’s constant mothering, I offered him my best, confident smile. It was kind of shaky and lopsided but managed to sort of convey the effect I had intended.

“See?” I stated. “I think I can manage something this easy, Ryou. No need to worry.”

It was for my pride as well. I couldn’t fight to save my life, or cook, or navigate or anything useful. But dammit, I could find some firewood. Even if it meant slogging through the mud and searching under rocks.

He still looked worried, but seemed to realize that it meant more to me than simply walking around in the forest. His shoulders relaxed slightly. “Seems I can do better good here anyways,” he acquiesced. “Be careful.”

I nodded. That was a given.

Melath didn’t seem to care that I was going and Ivory had already returned to picking at her wound like one would scrape at a scab so I shifted and headed back towards the wood, pulling my cloak tighter around me. The uneasy feeling that crept up my spine was not reassuring in the slightest but I was determined to do it.

For my pride if nothing else.

*****

a/n: I hope you enjoyed and I look forward to your comments! And if you have some free time, I wrote a short story recently that could use a little love and attention. Fallen Angel, Fallen God. It's dark and gritty, a lot like this one, and I debated over where to put before settling for the slash category though it probably fits Darkfic just as much. Anyways, if interested, check it out! Thanks!