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 Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:15 pm
As she walked, Shun had the black horse keep up slowly with her so that he was more or less next to the fin girl. There wasn't much of a chance that she would survive wandering around like this, even if she did keep to the path.
"Well yeah, considering you'll probably not last the next few days out here."
Thinking a bit, he let out a sigh as he figured he might as well do something about this now. He hadn't originally planned to take her along, but he figured she'll be of more use alive then dead. Not to mention he may have a chance of getting a bonus or whatever whenever he returned to this dreaded place. Granted he still had her under his watch.
Still, he was reluctant, so with a grumble he reached down with an open hand.
"Climb on."
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:19 pm
"don't wright me off dead so quickly" poke objected. "I'm sure I can survive by myself...". Although, truth be told she proably couldn't. She had no idea where the next town was, there wouldn't be any plants or animals around she could eat, and it was growing dark.
When he reached out, she took his hand without question and hoisted herself onto the back of the horse. "Thankyou..." she said. She had to wonder when she became so reliant on other peoples help. She didn't like being such a damsel in distress.
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:25 pm
As soon as Riyo heard the man leave, she pushed away from Blade and immediately changed disposition. This one was frustrated. Her eyes were narrow. Her mouth was in a frown. She'd turned around just in time to see Hitsu retreat to the bathroom.
"I'm in a conflict right now. See, I want to slap both of you again because of what just happened, but the fact that I played along would make me a hypocrite. Should I slap myself now?"
*OMGWTFBBQTIMESKIPOUTOFNOWHERE*
A week and a half had passed since that day. Leaving that particular town had been a dozen times easier than their last. Funny. Riyo had no qualms with the forest before. Now she got bored of seeing tree after tree after tree. Pampered? Yes, she admitted to herself that the city life spoiled her a little. Especially those nice hot baths.
Which, sadly, seemed like nothing more than a dream now. Riyo stared up at the treetops out at what little of the dark sky she could see. "Mm. I'm kinda hungry." She mumbled softly. "Who wants to play a game? We all go hunting, and whoever catches the biggest animal gets their meal skinned by the losers."
Atticus, who was a short distance behind her, only sighed. "That sounds like a terrible idea." He gave no reasons why, which probably meant he didn't have any.
Riyo glanced back and raised an eyebrow. "Why? Because the only thing you could catch is a cold? Ahaha, no puns intended doctor."
Here it came. Another bickering match. "I'm not intended to hunt. I'm a raven."
"Oh, right. You're supposed to pick off someone elses kill. Scavenger." The last part was quietly whispered under her breath. Not quiet enough, obviously.
"What was that? Are we playing the ancestry game now? Well, if that's the case, maybe I should give you a rabies vaccination you flea-bitten beast."
Riyo stopped in her tracks, and was about to start puttin' the hurt on her feathered comrade, but noticed something besides trees as she was about to turn around... a structure of some sort off in the distance. "What's that?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:25 pm
"If you're so sure you can make it on your own, you're more than welcome to try."
After all, she had no obligations to accept his offer, nor did he to try and force it onto her. Glancing over his shoulder slightly as she climbed on, he waited to see if she was going to hop right on off. With night falling quickly, there was little doubt in his mind that she was freezing right about now. And if he was going to be bringing her around, he might as well put some effort to making sure she won't freeze to death or anything.
"If you choose to stay, there's an extra cloak in my bag. Take it if you will."
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:32 pm
poke had no intention of getting off the horse now that she was on it. Once asked about making it on her own she shook her head, but said no more then that. She didn't feel like voicing how much of a predicament she was in.
When told about the extra cloak, she carefuly rummaged through his back untill she found it and placed it over herself. It did a nice job of keeping the cold out.
"I have some food and matches, so you shouldn't have to worry about depleating your food rations" poke said at last. She didn't plan on being a burden to anyone.
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:38 pm
Man.. where did the time go? Has it really been a week and a half?
The past week had gone by rather quickly for Blade. Well to some extent at least. The traveling was pretty boring, and slow, so it was a little hard to believe that they've spent as much time in the forest that they did.
Hearing Riyo and Atticus speak ahead of him, he shrugged somewhat. Most likely he would end up losing that type of game. Getting materials from other people was easy enough for him, but actually catching a live animal was a little trickier. At least he thought so.
"Eh... at least it'd get us some food. We're starting to run low on the stuff we got from that city."
Though, he soon glanced up as Riyo pointed out a structure not too far away.
"Maybe the won't be needed... looks like we're near the next town finally."
---
Seeing that the girl was going to be staying, Shun went ahead and ushered his horse to continue on the path.
"Well that's good to hear," he muttered, "I plan on riding for the next few hours before stopping to find shelter if we don't reach town by then. Until we reach that point, there'll be no rest stops between. So if you want a break, you'll have to get off and catch up on your own."
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:45 pm
"stuff the breaks. The faster we get out of this snow and ice the better" poke pointed out and held the coat over her head to stop snow from getting on her hair and face. "There is the possibility that they may send someone after me, so I may have to get off anyway. No sense in draggon you into a fight, and I'm sure that this time, I wont be running away from them this time." Another thought occured to her. "Hey! do you know what that guy has done??" she asked shun.
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:49 pm
"Heh. If any of them attack me, they can consider my contract to them done with. As far as I'm concerned, I'm still doing what I've been hired for."
As they went down the icy path, Shun kept his gaze locked forward. Though, he still was listening to what Poke rambled on about. It was a little irritating in a way, considering he was used to being able to travel in silence. Only time it wasn't quite that case was when he happened to have close allies with him.
"I have some ideas. But it's not my place to ask or really care."
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:52 pm
It seemed like such a long time ago that they were in the luxury of a city. Roof over their heads, warm food, hot bath. When had all that become memories of the past? Neko sighed, never had the forest seemed so depressing. To top it off Riyo and Atticus were starting up on their bickering again. It was almost possible to time a watch by their feuds. Then there was a pause and Riyo pointed out something in the distance.
At first, Neko wasn't sure. This area was so over grown it was hard to see passed the foliage of the brush. But then, there was a sinking realization of where he was. The faint light glinted off the ceramic roof top of the old cottage bringing back memories Neko had long suppressed.
"It can't be," he whispered to himself as he began to tread through the thick of the plant life to get to the cottage. Time had not been kind to the little building. The roof was starting to cave in and the cobble stone that made up the outer wall was completely overgrown with ivy. None the less, it still stood. Proof of Neko's existence before he came to Hitsu and Yuki's village.
Mitsu seemed to be one of the few to be glad to be in the forest again. True the hot baths had been nice and the food tasted different, but the forest was much more peaceful. The city was bustling and always busy, crowded with people from all walks of life. It made her nervous, claustrophobic.
The noise of Riyo and Atticus' feud had barely caught her ears before Neko was making his way toward whatever was in the distance. Tobi, being curious, followed close behind. The little Shiba was barely visible at times but his location was always obvious from the moving brush.
"What do you think it is?" Mitsu asked as she started to walk in that direction.
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:54 pm
"Thats on of a b***h was the starting point for the war!" she wasn't caring right now who knew what she had been told. On the contratry, the more people knew the better. "He told me that he sold some weapons to a bunch of animal hybrids, and they went and attacked one of the cities. Dam, I will kick that guys a** if it's the last thing I do!"
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:01 pm
"Pipe down. Some of his men have good hearing you know..." growled Shun before saying anything else. While it was interesting to hear, he wasn't so much in the mood for thinking about protests of sorts. Especially against his current contractor.
"I don't really care that he started it. Whether he's the epitome of light and good or the damn devil I could care less. If you want to kick his a** go right on ahead and try. I'm sure he's back at the lab waiting for your return."
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:13 pm
Frowning, but netherless poke kept her mouth shut after that outburst. She had forgotten that this guy wouldn't give a dam who's side he was on, and she was only here cause she may be ablt do do something for him. Or, he could take me back to the lab and get paid more money for it. She thought.
Poke settled back into the horse seat and closed her eyes. She didn't realise how tired she had become, and surprinzly quickly feel asleep, even while sitting up.
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:18 pm
Their two days of rest and relaxation were not as any of them had hoped, at least as far as Hitsu and Yuki were concerned. Aside from their worry about Poke, accompanied with the concern that they may very well be blindly traveling in the wrong direction, Hitsu had been in a foul mood toward everyone save Mitsu for the great majority of their journey. Yuki hadn't had it very easy, either, and at this point he was certain that they could have been further ahead by many, many miles had his injuries from his foolish magic attempt hadn't handicapped him.
Thankfully, now all that remained on Yuki's part was a dull ache in his legs and feet, though at this point he was just as ready to blame that on all of the walking rather than the events more than a week before. His sister had decided to speak less hatefully toward he and the others a couple of days before, so he supposed that things were we good as they could get considering the circumstances.
Not that Atticus and Riyo had seemed to share any sort of bonding in this time frame. As soon as the beginning of an argument reached Yuki's ears, he was quick to try and stop it, as vain as he thought it would have been. "Stop, stop... You two arguing with one another isn't going to find us food. I'll go hunting myself if you two just stop your damned jabbing at one another."
Hitsu had looked up in the direction Riyo had glanced, "What's what?" Her gaze settled on the old, overgrown cottage and she frowned a bit. Whoever had lived there must have been gone for a very, very long time. Neko murmured something, Hitsu glanced to see him moving ahead to investigate. Something about it made her uneasy. Not fearful, really, but there was certainly something strange that she had sensed from Neko as he had stepped away. Hitsu looked up to Yuki, who met her gaze with a similar look of concern. Their friend had seemed tormented, but why?
Quietly, the two followed, though both seemed to know better than to approach very quickly.
[I can edit this if you want, Inu.]
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:26 pm
With a better look, Blade saw that it wasn't a town at all, to his disappointment. But at least they had some shelter perhaps. He shot a glance to Neko who seemed a little hesitant about this place. There was no way of telling what it was exactly, but he just followed the others in silence.
The area seemed to have been long abandoned, judging the rather run down appearance of the cottage. It looked as if the roof was going to come down any moment, so maybe it wasn't the best decision to be staying in there to rest.
Also chances were that there were no usable resources in there such as food any longer. Whatever used to be there was probably scavenged or had rotted away into nothingness by now. Still, he was curious of who might have once lived here in the middle of the woods. As well as why it was now emptied.
----
To his relief, Poke had quieted down from there. In fact she fell into complete silence, but that was fine with him. As time went on, he kept up the pace, not stopping for several more hours. He would have liked to go on, but there was still only so much the horse could handle. And with the temperature dropping even more, it wouldn't be too wise to press on.
There were no areas they could use as actual shelter, but at least there were some trees and bushes grouped in one area off the road. Not that the bare branches would do much but it was something in the least.
"We're stopping here for the night," he said quietly while nudging the girl behind him with an elbow.
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:34 pm
"mm...yuki...give me 5 more minutes.." Opening an eye poke almost feel off the horse when she was nudged. She quickly got off the horse and then stood up, rubbing an eye. Her lower half felt sore from where she had been sitting. They must have been traveling for quite some time, though to poke it looked the same as it had before.
She saw the shrubs and trees and blanched. This wasn't going to provide alot of shelter, but it would have to do considering their location.
"soo..I don't suppose you have a tent on you?"
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