Welcome to Gaia! ::

Little did they know that there was a little birdie kitty spying on them. The girl had followed the new strangers through the forest, remaining virtually undetected. Stealth was one of her good qualities... Since she needed it to survive out here. Lookit how many of them there were! Sure, it wasn't much to most people, but more people than she could remember seeing in her lifetime! Oh, what joy! The only reason she didn't come out is because of how she had scared the other one... So, she continued to hide in the bushes and underbrush of the forest, not making a sound.

Angered by her lack of response, Neko knelt down and took hold of Mitsu’s shirt and pulled her to him. “Answer me!” His eyes were dangerous as he glared down at her. When in turn all he got was a muffled sob as the tears started to well up in Mitsu’s eyes as well he threw her back to the ground roughly. “Have it your way, we’ll continue this later.” Moving away from her he stepped back over to Yuki and Hitsu and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Shh..shh.” He cooed to Hitsu. “He’ll be fine, he just got a good beating but we made it.” Reaching into a small medical bag he kept on the back of his belt he pulled out a small vile of sulfur salts. Uncorking the container he wafted its contents under Yuki’s nose to bring him to. After that he would go to work tending to his wounds.

Again Mitsu met the ground and stayed put afraid to move. Neko was fuming and she didn’t want to push his anger further. Curling up she stayed where she was laying, keeping an eye on what the others and what they were doing, wanting to ask how Yuki was but afraid to speak at the same time. She opened her mouth a few times but all that came out was a whimper and a short whine as she shut it again.

Well, Neko was certainly not a master of soothing words. At his statement of Yuki's beating, Hitsu only cried harder. Whimpering and whining loudly between her sobs, her body shaking. So much for making her feel better.

The sulfer salts did their work, and the stench of them along with Hitsu's noise brought him to somewhat quickly. His eyes opened slowly at first, but as his ears caught sound of Hitsu's crying they grew wide and Yuki sat up quickly. Well, tried. He grew dizzy just as suddenly, and immediately reached out to take hold of Neko's forearm for support. Then, the stink of the salts, the dizziness, and the lingering pain in his stomach brought along an all new unwanted reaction. Yuki quickly clamped his free hand over his mouth, pulled himself to his feet and made a very uncoordinated and stumbling run toward the fallen tree that Hitsu had rested on many minutes before. Once there, he lurched foreword to lean on the trunk, before vomiting all over the ground.

Moaning pitifully, Yuki slumped over the tree as his stomach ran out of things to reintroduce him to. He remained slumped over the trunk, deflated. Neko got no reply, though Yuki mentally wished he had the energy and physical motivation to bother uttering a smart-aleck reply.

With Yuki's return to the conscious world, Hitsu's sobbing had abruptly come to an end and she was quickly trying to dry her tears, only her quiet sniveling remained. He was moving, and even though he'd just puked all over the place, to Hitsu it was considerably less worrisome than lying lifeless on the ground.

"Uhgn?" Yuki groaned, lifting himself enough to look over his shoulder. Oh yeah, he was very capable of watching them. He seemed not to offer any disagreement, however, and dragged himself back toward them and plopped down on his rear beside Hitsu. "Make it quick." He muttered, "But don't let that weirdo catch you alone. I'm not gonna be trying to save your sorry a** again tonight."

Hitsu rolled her eyes lightly, "Just be careful, Neko." Then, she finally drew her attention to Mitsu. She scooted closer to her, and gently placed a hand on one of her arms. "Mitsu? Are you alright?"

Riyo jumped in shock as the strange man flew overhead. She watched him, blinked, then decided it might be fun to follow. "Nyu!" She let out loud enough for the others to hear as she leapt off behind him. She was pretty good at following, even if she was all scuffed up. She followed close behind, though kept enough distance to where she could hide if she needed to.

Having wasted no time, Neko ran into the market and headed straight for the vendor where he had left his knives trying as much as possible to keep a look out. Seeing the vendor currently talking to someone else over a trade for some of the meat he had brought he came to a halt, nudging the other guy out of the way.

“Hey!” The feline hissed, hair prickling on his tail.

“Neko, I didn’t expect you back so soon.” The vendor stared at him awkwardly. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, yeah. Fine. Listen I need my knives are they done?”

The vendor smiled brushing off the pissed off feline that Neko had pushed aside. “Of course, of course. I finished them a while ago.” Reaching behind the counter the shopkeeper produced a leather cloth rolled up tight and laid it out on the table. Slowly unrolling it he revealed Neko’s newly sharpened steel. Taking up one of the blades Neko examined it closely.

“Good work, these look great.” At least something good was coming out of tonight. Every knife had been sharpened carefully until the blade, he was sure, could split a hair by just pointing it at it. Once he was satisfied from looking them over, Neko started to place them in their designated spots on his person. “Thanks, I owe ya.”

“No trouble at all, that meat brought me some good money.”

-

Back with Hitsu and Yuki, Mitsu continued to cling to Hitsu’s middle as if she might loose her. She had, so far, been the only one truly nice to her. Except well, when Yuki told the strange man that she hadn’t been there and saved her when she had been caught. That’s right! She had forgotten. Lifting her head tentatively, she gazed over at Yuki’s angered form. Apparently the other feline had managed to tick him off. Not really giving it much thought as to whether it would be a good time or not to talk to him she spoke up quietly. “Um..t…thank you for earlier. And for saving me.”

Neko had just put away the last of his knives when he heard Gunnar over the crowd in the market. Irises almost narrowed to tiny dots he turned and started to take off in a run back to the forest. “s**t! Gotta go!” What was this bull’s problem anyway? Why was he so persistent in chasing him down?

Practically pushing people out of the way, Neko jumped over a small fruit cart that a vendor had placed in the middle of the street. Hopefully that would slow him down. Hopefully.