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"Stop it," the ranger said as he started moving away, however, Micheal continued walking just as if he had never heard her. She then started to follow, berating herself for whatever crazy reason that had come up in her head. She couldn't let it all go like this.

"Got a blade on you?" she said grasping for straws as she stopped in place, inwardly wincing at the idea of what she might put herself through if he accepted. "Or maybe it would make more sense to ask if you just have access to one?" She looked Micheal over and didn't see anything looking like a sword. Thinking about it, she didn't recall him ever carrying anything looking like weapon. He was a weapon enough she knew, but it still struck her as odd for some reason.

All Micheal did was half laugh at her question and continue walking.

That did it for the ranger.

She was tired of being up at his hours, trying to understand his game, trying to understand him, and the bottle that was her pent up confusion and patience cracked.

Micheal stopped and narrowed his eyes as he sensed the change but didn't turn around to look at her.

The ranger whirled her dagger around and aimed it straight for Micheal, knowing full well that it wasn't going to do much of anything... if it even hit.

He stepped quickly to the side and grabbed the flying blade out of the air and looked at her. "Tell me, are you upset now?"

"Upset??" Jay opened her mouth to say yes, but a look flashed across her face and the shape of her mouth changed with it. "No. I'm disappointed."

Micheal didn't smile. "Then let's fix that." He turned and looked at her and took a few steps forward towards her though his movement seemed like he was slow and stiff, like he didn't want to really do this.

The ranger's hearbeat picked up as he came closer, her muscles involuntarily tensing up as her eyes darted back and forth from the dagger to Micheal's face and then toward Micheal's other hand. Despite it all, she didn't move, however. Everything was screaming for her to, but her legs remained still.

Micheal took another step forward, not saying a word now, just watching and sensing everything that was in front of him.

"Now you have to ask yourself, was it done on purpose?" she replied, just as bitter.

"No, that was all you. Fear wouldn't be an issue if you truly came across me," he said aloud. "Your movement would seem unreal to you almost dream like as one victim described it to me. Another said you would feel warm with compassion and longing to care."

The ranger's lips shifted as if she was going to say something, but she thought better of it as she wanted to hear what Micheal would say.

Micheal was now picking through his thoughts as he kept each one bottled carefully.

"Another is actually being in a dream where you're unaware what is happening to you," he continued. "I never let any one of them go without some sort of happiness they wanted." He then bit his bottom lip as he just stared at the ground.

It wasn't until then the ranger realized what... or more specifically who Micheal was speaking of. Her sword hand tensed up and she fought the urge to twitch, reach for her belt, or reach for the sword - none of which would do her any good here.

"Is that how you really want this to end?" she said, a sad tone trickling into her voice. "The same way?"

The vampire looked at her and threw the dagger into the tree way out of range. "No. I would leave before I knew I couldn't control it any more."

"Then I propose we find a way to lower the tension somehow," she commented, taking deeper breaths, her eyes looking in the direction of where the dagger went. "And soon."

As Micheal listened to her proposal he began to wonder. Was this his borderline? He had been discussing the ranger's only earlier, it seemed. Slowly he nodded to Jay, not saying anything.

"Normally, blade practice is what does it for me," she said, a slight out-of-hope grin curled up at the corner of her mouth, slightly hinting at what she had been in the middle of earlier before this all had begun. "But for you," she continued, hesitating for a moment about what she was about to say.

"I never practiced blades," Micheal said rather bluntly.

She took that moment to side step what she was going to say. Maybe she could get away without resorting to that. She wasn't certain about such thing even when Micheal wasn't on edge.

He picked up a branch that looked good to him fairly the size she asked as he met up with her in the open patch. "I think this might work."

She returned with her own hacked off branch those it was of smaller length. "Looks about right," she said as she slid the real sword back into its sheath before holding out her hand. "Mind if I have my dagger back? And before you say anything, no, it won't be flying at you any more."

He blinked at her tone in the last statement as it confused him. "ahh... did I say anything?" He then walked with the blade in his finger tips and handed it to her to take from his hands.

With care, she took the small blade and tucked it back into its own place at her belt. "No, but I figured you might," she replied. "Give me a second," she requested as turned, took a few steps away from Micheal, and took a stance different from those she had been using earlier.

Unsure how to respond, Micheal just watched as look of concentration crossed her face while she seemed to play around with the stick for a second. The light twitches then seemed to move into what looked like real swings for a moment. A frown appeared on her face as she stopped though it had lessened by the time she turned back to Micheal.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

"Yeah... just have to get used to the weight," she said more to herself than Micheal at first. "That and I'm using one blade," she answered. "Well, one stick in this case. Figured working with one is the way to go here. Less complicated."

He then mocked her movements with his own stick though it moved more of a blink and then slowed it down much more after a couple swings. "This is a bit slow. Do I need to go any slower than this?"

The ranger thought about it for a moment. "Would you rather just watch me practice for a moment and then jump in? It might be faster for you."

Micheal growled at himself, and he slowly relaxed more, not commenting to what she just said.

The ranger cocked her head for a second, trying to understand what she said that might have brought that reaction... before she realized that that was pretty much what ~exactly~ led to this situation.

"It was my idea, but if you'd like to stop, I'd understand," the ranger said casually. "Probably will have to soon as it is. While you could go on forever, I'll probably pass out if I tried to keep up with you. I mean I can understand how this could be all boring to you and whatnot. Who knows though, maybe it'll come in handy for faking out some human or something."

"I actually feel better, but don't insult me, please," Micheal said in a slight laugh and then closed his eyes.

A brief laugh that sounded like half of a cough slipped from the ranger. "You never know." She tossed her stick off to the side as it looked like they were finished messing with them.

Micheal opened his eyes to catch that smile if there was one, then he tossed his stick lightly to the side as she did. By the time he looked though, any thing that might have appeared was gone. Jay was already half turned away from his view as it looked as if she was going for her backpack at the edge of the clearing. As she walked, she was fidgeting with the bracer on her left arm, working it off.

He raised a brow then tilted his head. "You're hurting?"

The ranger didn't say anything for a moment until she got the bracer off and started to roll up her sleeve.

"I don't heal as fast as you do, Micheal," she answered, rolling the sleeve up all the way revealed a familiar wrap around her left elbow. She dropped the bracer next to her bag as she knelt beside it and began to work the backpack open.

"I forgot ..." Micheal then walked closer. "Need help?"

"Not really," she answered. "Like the swordplay, been doing this for years. Actually, I've been doing this for longer really," she said with a bit of sarcastic humor as she thought about it. "If you want to learn something else, you can come and watch." She dug around in the backpack till she pulled out a small pouch and set it out on the ground beside her.

He sat near her and watched. "Alright."

She herself sat down and unwrapped the cloth from her elbow before holding the arm out in front of her while resting it across her legs.

"Okay, first thing when treating anything is knowing the injury," she said looking over at Micheal. "The problem here is something was torn inside the elbow when it was twisted..."

Jay trailed for a moment as she was about to mention back to the fight with the farmer who had been following the vampire hunter but left it off.

He then took a breath and tried to slow down his talking. "Then Kiru moved near by. I wasn't much of anything to my father since the time she died. He could care less what I did as long as I stayed out of trouble," a slight laugh following his last words.

"Sounds like she was a good woman," the ranger nodded with few other words. She could hardly remember her own mother. "I can't say I didn't wonder where he came in," she added, holding back the displeasure in her tone, after Kiru was mentioned.

Micheal nodded. "He wasn't a vampire when I first met him."

The ranger lifted an eyebrow. "Really now?" she said, apparently surprised. "But didn't you mentioned he's the one that... well... did that whole turn into vampire thing to you?"

Micheal nodded again. "It was in later years where he ran off to fight, the reason is a bliss now. Thought he was dead since he didn't come back with the others that survived." There was a light chuckle. "I was right to say he was dead, but I just loved him more."

"A little creepy, but do go on," the ranger off-handedly comments, still interested. She grabs the small bag she had set aside from earlier and begins to open it up.

"Well, he still treated me the same but with more care. He couldn't let me go even when he turned, so he tried to hide what he truly was from me at first," he said as he turned to watch the ranger. "That's when I started having dreams too good to be real. Us being lovers was already risking our lives, but then I was now in love with a creature -the only person I knew would understand me- who was already dead. Eventually I became missing and not missed."

In the bag she pulled out two small jars and a tiny dish. She opened each jar, one holding a woodsy smelling dark brown powder. The other a grey powder with a fairly strong ash smell. "So, you ended up leaving home with the person you liked, and I got thrown out for not leaving with anyone. The irony," she half scoffed. She tapped about a pebble's worth of the brown powder into the bowl and turned the jar shut before reaching for the other jar.

Micheal closed his eyes for a moment before asking, "You're wondering about the scars aren't you?"

"I can't say that I didn't wonder, but I figured after so many years scars just happen when you're out on the road," she answered. "Those tales are up to you to share or not." There was suddenly an itching feeling coming from the ranger's shoulder, though she ignored it, knowing full well what it was from.

"And does he know this or is he just not all that understanding?" the ranger asked following up, curious as to this Kiru's personality. "Or maybe not all that patient is a better term." She recalled her own brief encounters with Kiru though there wasn't much to gleen off of. The man seemed to do things at whim - at his whim specifically. Her face took on a grim look while putting the second jar away.

"It's hard to talk to something that you love, fear and..." Micheal then looked up and stretched, leaving the line unfinished. "I did confront him about this. He said this since he would die eventually, I need not to worry."

Jay wasn't quite sure what that last part quite meant in terms of vampires, but the ranger didn't push the topic any further. Instead she pulled out a smaller bag of crushed dried leaves and tossed two pinches into the mixture before stirring it with her smallest finger. "And then here we are, it seems," she said, unsure of what else to say without making things more uneasy.

From the vampire slipped a small laugh. "Yes indeed and what a mess," he said, taking the mixture lightly from her hands and looking it over. "How much more are you going to add this? It already smells like it would kill anything that would ill you."

"The common joke is the worse it smells, the better it works," Jay said grabbing the scraps from her wrap and setting them in her lap. She then took two fingers and scooped out some of the mix while Micheal held it and spread it on her elbow. She kept at it until she got what she could out of the bowl and onto her joint before she took the old cloth and began to wrap it around, compacting the chilly mix against her skin. "I suppose I can save the explanations as to what is what for another day," she said, forcing a small grin as she looked up at the sky through the leaves. She had only started to notice how dark it was getting.

...Which meant it was too late to hunt, she thought as she tied off the wrap and pulled her sleeve down. She put the bracer back on and started to put her belongings away, holding out a hand for the bowl Micheal still held.

He lightly handed it back to her after watching her. "Does it feel better now?"

"In a few hours I won't notice it as much. The crunched up leaf parts I threw in last, that's to numb it down. If I don't keep moving the elbow from time to time, it will get stiff as it heals and in the end I wouldn't be able to flex it if it did that." She put away the bowl and everything else in the backpack before getting up. "Going to grab a sleep bag... and a tent. Not sure if it will rain tonight or not."

He looked at her. "Sleeping out here tonight?"

"Tired of sleeping inside," she said, only telling half the truth. The other half was that she felt she had been spending her money way to quickly. "I suppose I've got a fire to get started as well," she says as if it was almost an afterthought.

In the meantime, Micheal was trying hard to remember them as best as he could before he gave up on the fact and accepted that it was impossible to remember them now. He just watched after Jay as she continued setting up and started messing with his hair, trying to detangle it with his fingers.

When everything was put in it's place, including her bow and quiver which she had slipped off her back, the ranger sat outside her tent, picked up a stick and started poking at the ground with it. "I suppose it would be only fair if I described my kinfolk now, though it's not very interesting really."

Micheal looked up at her as he just got a knot out. "You don't have to. It was only fair. I guess you should know something more about me since you shared your nightmares with me."

She made no comment in regards to nightmare and made an effort to keep that and all the other related thoughts from her head. "Nah, it's really not necessarily," she said, though there wasn't any feeling behind the words.

"Sorry. Guess I talk too much then." Micheal lightly pushed off the tree and looked around the forest surrounding them.

The ranger frowned to herself and stabbed the tiny stick into the ground so that it stuck straight up where she left it, like a tiny memorial to something as she stood up. She shook her head as if trying to clear fog away and looked out and around her into the forest as well, judging the speed darkness was setting in.

Micheal eyed the little stick oddly, trying to figure out what was going through her mind right now. Then he spoke up. "I'll be back in a little bit."

She looked at him oddly. She had been about to say nearly the same thing.

"Sure," she replied.

He just lightly nodded and then walked off into the darkness till he wasn't in view any more, his eyes glowing in the darkness that had fallen. "What is she thinking..."

When Micheal was out of sight, she waited some time until she felt more confident that she was alone... or as alone as she was going to be. What was out of sight for her wasn't necessarily out of sight for him, but she would have to make do with that.

She took a pace toward the edge of the clearing and paused on her next half step to look back at her tent considering whether to take her bow and quiver with her. After concluding that her bow would be near useless in the darkness, she looked back toward the edge of the clearing and continued through it. She wouldn't have the visibility for using her bow if she needed to anyways, she thought to herself as she walked in the opposite direction Micheal had left by.