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"You don't think I consider the things she's done and the things she's seen before asking these things?!" Blaise roared to the trees before her, still not turning around, "YOU DON'T THINK I CONSIDER IT?! That's not something yo--"

Booker thought he saw a strange flash before Blaise as her words caught short and she stopped dead in her tracks. He looked to her curiously, watching closely, an alarm bell going off in his head -- why did this place seem so familiar? Blaise swayed a bit, her head turning as she gazed wildly in front of her. He saw another flash and her body gave a strange jolt before she fell on her back.

Blaise was now lying on her back with two arrows in her left shoulder. With a jolt of adrenalin Booker realized where they were and what was going on. Running for Blaise and huddling over her he pulled the small shield from his back, moving it accordingly as a few more arrows shot out and stuck to it. He could see one of the attackers in a nearby tree, staring at him with beady eyes before shooting another arrow. Imps.

"Run, Azmaria! Run back!" He bellowed. Imps were nasty creatures; not good, nor evil, but extremely territorial. The three of them had just traipsed into their land unknowingly. They obviously weren't too happy about the intruders.

Blaise looked up at Booker in a state of bewilderment. He put one arm behind her back and hoisted her up, careful to avoid the arrows in her shoulder at the risk of pushing them in any farther. The small onslaught of arrows increased a great ammount as he ran with Blaise. He hoped he wouldn't get hit as well.

But Blaise was already taking care of it. She looked over his shoulder, bending the air to her will and stopping the arrows dead. But he wouldn't stop running, if he did they'd advance on them. Imps were also very good at holding grudges and would chase you down with every chance.

"Keep running, Azmaria! Don't stop untill you've caught up with the others!"

Booker was nearly sprinting, trying to get away as quickly as possible so they could help Blaise. He could already feel something warm and sticky beginning to coat his front and he knew well it would be nothing other than her blood.

~ * ~

Annalise nodded a little, ". . . what was your sister's name?"

Booker could only watch helplessly as Azmaria was pulled to the ground. There was one thing that would stop their attacks, one thing they feared. Oh, but what was it?! Whay couldn't he remmeber?! Then it struck him like flint on steel; fire. ((I thought that was funny XD))

"Blaise!" Booker said to her as he ran for Azmaria. He could already feel her weakening in his arms. "Blaise, cast fire at them! They fear it, they'll retreat."

He could feel her give a small nod and turn slightly so she could see ahead of them. Conjuring a flame in her hand she sent it out in small spheres at the little creatures. It hit each one individually, all giving a painfully high pitched cry and running away. Soon they had all dissapeared and Blaise let the flame die in her hand. But Booker still ran.

He was able to successfuly pull up Azmaria as he ran by her but carrying two people wasn't easy. He prayed he could find the others soon. The elf ran into a clearing near the bank of a river. This was where the woman Satella had origionally told Azmaria to land, they should be there. With great relief they were and Loque was soon pulling Blaise off of him and lying her down, Booker following suit with Azmaria.

Booker had fallen back on the grassy bank, unable to speak and unable to move. His breathing was rapid and jaged and his legs burned from the intensity and distance of his run. All he could do was pull one of the arrows stuck in his sheild and show it to Loque.

"Imps." he said right away, "Rosette or Chrono, you're going to have to take the arrows out of Azmaria. It's going to hurt, but you have to do it."

Kaden was kneeling next to Blaise by this time. Her face had completely drained of all color and she wasn't moving.

"Blaise? Blaise!" Kaden said, worry gripping him.

"She's fainted." Loque said, gently trying to work the arrows out of her shoulder. The ammount of blood on her was beginning to scare him. There was at least one major artery in the shoulder, easy to miss, but Loque was sure one of the arrows had hit it. Even Booker was nearly covered in her blood.

Booker had caught his breath somewhat and sat up, "How are we going to help them?"

"I can heal them." Kaden said right away, looking a bit surprised that the words had jumped out of him so fast.

Loque nodded slightly and set the first bloody arrow off to the side and started working on the second. The pain was beginning to wake Blaise up and she winced, opening her eyes. She seemed completely devoid of words and Kaden was okay with that, he'd rather her save her trength. Loque got the second arrow free and she groaned, looking about ready to pass out again.

"How are you guys coming along with Azmaria?"

Kaden took a deep breath and went over to Azmaria first. He willed himself to calm down and try and think of when he had done this before. He had been trying to practice and figure out how it worked ever since the battle, but there had been nothing to heal, so it wouldn't come. Holding one hand over Azmaria's abdomen and one over her arm he willed the feeling to come back. At first it wouldn't come, then it felt as if something warm was traveling down his arms.

Once it reached his hands they emitted a blue glow and he could see her wounds receeding beneath the small tears in her clothes. He held it there for as long as he could to make sure she was completely healed before pulling back. With no time to make sure she was alright he moved directly to Blaise. She had fainted again and was lying completely motionless, her breathing short and shallow.

Kaden gently held his hand over her wound and concentrated. He wasn't sure why, but it felt almost harder to heal Blaise than Azmaria. He wasn't sure if it was the fact that the first one had tired him or because Blaise's wound was deeper. Whatever the reason, he pushed himself to get the job done and after an agonizing moment every mark on her shoulder had dissapeared.

Kaden quickly scooped up Blaise and Loque helped Booker up. The two of them already had their bows out, shooting the creatures assaulting them from the trees. They never missed a mark, but soon there would be too many.

"Hurry!" Kaden urged Satella as they all began heading down the river bank, "We need to get out of here quick."

To Kaden's surprise, Loque was a Mage, as Blaise was, and conjured a fire in a line below the trees the Imps hid in.

"That will keep them at bay, but won't work for too long."

"Hey!" Kaden shot back, "She's no more a child than any of us! How dare you?! Controlling her temper was what she was doing! I can see that she was angry and she'd rather give herself time to cool off rather than shout back and make things worse! It takes a lot more controll to drop it and leave before things get worse than to stay and shout about it. One thing I've learned about Blaise is that she knows herself well enough so she knows what comes next even if her emotions are unpredictable. She hates the person she becomes when she's lost her temper and she never wants it to happen again because of what she's done before!"

Kaden was absolutely livid, holding Blaise to his side tightly. Satella should have been the last person to say anything, she'd barely even spoken to Blaise before and didn't know her at all. He would argue with her untill the end of time about it because he'd never let someone speak about her like that, he's never leave her undefended. Loque saw this in his eyes and intervened before it continued.

"I reccomend dropping the subject." He said sternly, "We have much more important things to be worrying about."

Booker was Near Azmaria, looking at her worriedly. "I'm sorry . . . I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked you to run, I should have kept you with me. I should have made sure you stayed close to me and you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

Bane foolwed the trail of the smoke, bowing to it deeply and respectfully as it vanished out the nearest window. Things were working out quite nicely from his point of view.

~*~

"I vill drop it," Satella began, "But zhat girl should do better to use zhat mind she was blessed vith."

"It's alright..." Azmaria replied to him,"You could have know... It was just good we had Kaden to help. You did do a good job protecting Blaise. I'm just happy we're all alive..."


"Just leave her alone." Rosette told him,"She needs to rest."

Rosette said nothing as the flew along to their destination. Too many things were passing through her mind now. She was too torn now. She still didn't want to go back to that place, but after what happened she was too ashamed to even open her mouth again. And akward silence had fallen over them all. The once happily engaged couple were not even glancing in the others general direction, before was just a short lived feeling.

"I am afraid ve vill 'ave to land soon. Ve vasted time vhen ve stopped." Satella informed them about an hour. "I know of a small place...