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An uncontrollable shiver ran down from the ranger's shoulders at the sound suddenly at her ear.

"I didn't say anything about stopping you." His words were already worming their way through her steadfast front though as she began to second guess what kind of being this "Kiru" was. Vampiric human? Tainted dragon? No matter what this fellow was, if he was comparable (if not better) than what Micheal was physically, chances were her bow wasn't much good here, at least less so in Kiru's current, smaller form.

In an odd show of standing down, the ranger slipped the bow in its holder at her back - though the odd-tipped arrow never left her other hand.

"Fine. I defer," she said with a straight low tone, taking up Dulcimer's reigns in the hand of her bad arm. "We'll move on as you request." With a slight tug of the reigns, she had Dulcimer pointed once again in the direction she was originally traveling before crossing Kiru.

He came to the same conclusion about Micheal's interests that she did, the cunning bladeshard. She had underestimated the man-dragon's foresight there. Micheal had left at least knowing the direction that she would be heading which would made it less than difficult for him to catch up if he chose to, something she had been betting on.

"You don't trust me; I don't trust you... sounds much like the same song we've been playing since you've arrived," she said as she clenched her jaw against the ethereal cold that pressed in behind her even through her cloak. "I'm sorry you have a preference for the screaming kind though," the ranger said through her teeth as the direction of the arrow flipped around in her palm so the arrowpoint was now at the base of her fist which was pointed behind her.

No.

"Like the fires you are!" the ranger growled at the voice as she swung at the air behind her with the arrow in closed fist just in case he had been bluffing and was just invisible at her backside.

Three pricks of blood appeared at the base of her fist matching directly with the three back points of the arrowhead. When Kiru grabbed and snapped the arrow shaft and fletching, the points had had dug into her hand as she continued to swing it around behind her.

... hitting nothing.

She wasn't sure what bothered her more, the fact that she could swear that he was back there or that the arrowhead could have dug into her hand much farther, making this entire situation worse. At least she wasn't a dragon or worrying about the arrowhead would have taken a much higher priority over Kiru.

She wondered what he would think of that if he knew.

"What do you think?" the ranger snapped at the empty air around her when Kiru asked if she was "happy". She wanted very much so to make a comment about Kiru making a lot of threats and not carrying them out, but something told her that was not wise. She was already wary that he might do something more than just talk in her head.

"As I said before, talk if you're going to talk."

"More than simple. Human vs vampire. Right," the ranger said trying to undermine her own standing, using the extra bravado in her voice to cover up the fact that she already knew how she'd take out Micheal if she had to do it. "Sounds like a better match for you, but you don't seem interested in taking that fight yourself. Why's that?"

Her hand curled carefully around the arrowhead trying to keep it from site as she tried to decide what to do with it, if she could do anything with it at all that is.

That was exactly how she'd end up doing it - with a few less details.

"Can't kill the pet, I see," the ranger nodded to Kiru, though she turned her face away when she saw the red eyes. She was sure she would have stared at them otherwise. "Then his dragon will come and tear me to shreds and no one would be the wiser about who was really behind it all... assuming he does tear me to shreds."

The ranger took a shallow breath and clenched the hand holding the arrowhead. There was a second of metal biting into skin before she bit back a curse and opened her hand back up. Two red lines crossed her palm with a minor cut along her thumb.

"Going to have to fix that," she muttered aloud in a half grumble as she flipped open the nearest saddle bag and dropped in the arrowhead before digging around in the bag.

Even at it's low level, the sudden switch of light had partially blinded the ranger and she instinctively pulled back on the reigns with her left hand while the vial of holy water had slipped from her fingers in her right.

Prying her eyes open to what seemed to be morning, she sat there in almost a daze at both what time it suddenly was and the sudden overview of the land in front of her. Quietly she sat there unmoving, half expecting Kiru's voice to return and mess with something else in her head.

When the cuts on her hand began to tingle, the ranger finally gave in that her current surroundings were what was real.

"You were suppose to be the distraction for the water," she muttered to her hand. "Didn't think you could be the solution." This time she dug around for a smaller bag, pulled out a thumb-sized vial with a reddish-brown, opaque liquid in it and a small length of cloth. Pulling the stopper out with her teeth, she poured some of the liquid into the cuts on her hand, letting the unusually cool drops mix with the blood before wrapping her hand.

After stoppering the vial and putting it away, the ranger looked up at the sky for the position of the sun and looked around for other landmarks.

She had been traveling in the completely opposite direction for a quarter day.

Could have been worse as she had been considering stepping off Dulcimer earlier to dig through her pack. Had she gone and done that, she would have stepped onto ground that didn't exist and fallen into the forest far below. There wouldn't have been much to tell after that.

Jay leaned forward to rub her hand along Dulcimer's neck for a moment in gratitude for not walking them both off the ledge. With that, she turned Dulcimer around and corrected her course, choosing a path that would take her around where she met the vampire Kiru.