The paths of love

They had cleaned things up around the cave as much as possible, leaving what they couldn’t clean up to the animals. Using the stolen clothes that Chiku had taken they dress. None of the clothes truly fit, but with the thought of retrieving Chiku’s money and being able to buy new clothes, they set off.

They travel by night, neither one able to be out in the sunlight for any length. They travel like that for over a week, spending each day’s rest in each other’s arms. They pick an abandoned home, or a cave, each time they settle in for the day to wait out the light. During this time they do not run into any trouble, their travel is free of disturbances.

It’s when they finally reach their destination that the trouble begins.

“Damn it!”

Chiku exclaimed, with feeling, as he stops suddenly. He stops so suddenly that Ivan nearly runs into him.

“What?” Ivan rubs his eyes, trying to get the sleep out. They hadn’t slept much the day before and are both worn out from a lack of food, or at least a good quantity of it. They had managed to find a little food along their journey.

“It’s a town…”

Ivan looks up and, sure enough, a town stands before them. It’s nothing big, he can almost make out the end of the town from where he stands.

“What about it, Chiku?”

Chiku turns around, running a hand through his hair in agitation.

“I buried my money here. We’ll start searching around the damn place before we even venture into the town.”

“You know, you never said how we are suppose to find it after all these years.”

Chiku walks over to Ivan, smiling, though his eyes are still blank.

“I put a few drops of my blood on the container and placed a spell over it. I will be able to locate it, it will merely take time. I just don’t understand why someone would want to put a town here. Back when I buried the money there was nothing here but natural forest.”

Chiku looks around wistfully, remembering his younger days. He allows himself a moment of reminiscing before returning to the business at hand, finding the money. Ivan follows him. They haven’t gone far when they hear some noise off to the right, away from the town.

They turn and share a look before both move silently towards the source of the noise. The sight that awaits them is sickening and sad. A young girl with deep brown hair is curled up on the ground, hidden by a large bush. Her hair is long enough to cover most of her upper body, but leaves from the waist down exposed.

She is making sad whimpering sounds and looks as if she’s been beaten. Not only that, she is naked and it’s obvious what had happened to her.

Chiku accidentally steps on a small limb laying on the ground, it’s dry and makes a loud crack sound as it breaks. The girl turns to look at them, moving on all fours and crawling backwards, away from them. Ivan puts a hand out, signaling to Chiku to fall back, and moves closer to the girl.

She seems calmer with Ivan, if only by the fact of his long hair as a point of fascination for her. Ivan carefully pulls out an over sized shirt from the bag he’s started carrying and holds it out to her.

“Don’t be afraid, we’re here to help. I have something for you to put on, if you wish.”

She jerks the shirt from Ivan and quickly slips it on, wincing as she does so. That’s when the boys notice that her face is swollen and multicolored. Someone had had some fun with her, at her expense.

“Do you want us to take you home?”

She shakes her head and tries to stand. She stands for a moment, the shirt coming down long enough to be a dress, showing just how short she is. Her eyes roll in the back of her head and she faints, the pain from just standing too much on her all ready abused body. Ivan catches her before she hit’s the ground and pulls her into his arms.

“We should take her to the town, see if they know who she is. She seems so young, too young to of experienced something like this.”

Chiku nods his agreement, his outward appearance is calm but inside he’s seething. The girl looks to be little more than fifteen, maybe sixteen. For someone to of taken advantage of her, to of abused her so, is wrong. He plans to find out who did it this to her and killing them, slowly.

“Yes. We’d better hurry, too, or we won’t get to search around the town before sunrise.”

Ivan shifts the girls weight in his arms as they make their way towards the town. They look like street rats, walking into the town, with their clothes at least one size too big and skin dark from traveling the dusty roads.

Every eye turns to them when they walk into town, or at least every eye that is still awake at this hour. Not long after they enter the town a man walks over to them, he has a bade on his clothes that proclaims him as the Enforcer for the town, a person to protects the people.

Three other men come up behind them, each one tall and broad, muscle broad.

“What have you done to Renka?”

Two of the men restrain Ivan and Chiku while the third takes the girl from them and steps away. The fourth, who is older than the other’s by at least twenty years, with shirt graying hair, looks to be in outrage. Both Chiku and Ivan can tell that these emotions are merely a mask, one that hides his true feelings.

“Lock them up. We will take Renka home, to her parents. I want you boys to make certain our ‘guests’ are comfortable.”

By the way their grips tightened on Ivan and Chiku, they know exactly what kind of treatment they’ll be getting. They are dragged away. Ivan turns around to see the old man and his muscle walking in the opposite direction with the girl, Renka.


**
I know it\'s not a very large chapter. I\'m just happy that my muse did this much. My mind has been going blank lately. Too much writing and lots of writers block. heh
[renka] (n) love song/love poem
I forget what Chiku means and am too lazy to look it up. :p Maybe later.
Also, thanks everyone for their reviews.
(forgot to fix paragraphs)
Who wants another chapter?