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 Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 7:48 am
  { .: Setting :. } On a ride through the forest, Sara finds herself under attack by... Bataar?
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 7:58 am
Sara had always been quite a strong rider and she had been since she was strong enough to mount a horse. It was, to this day, one of her passions; one that she did not spend enough time indulging in as of late. Her favourite horse to take from the temple stables was a large, white, shire stallion by the name of Kim. He was somewhat of a gentle giant, standing a few good hands above the second tallest stallion and his calm demeanour meant his and Sara's relationship was an almost instant love affair.
She was not wearing her usual robes today, instead she was in a pair of cloth trousers, a leather top with the matching gloves and boots. The whole outfit was covered in a large hooded cape and a few belts. It was impossible to ride in a skirt, especially because the conduit much preferred riding like a man than side saddle ( you could go faster that way!). Her hood was up and hiding most of her facial features, the sky was a miserable shade of grey so she expected the heavens to open at any moment, in truth she was quite looking forward to a ride in the rain, Kim was all wrapped up so she doubted he would mind very much either.
Sara always had a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and that statement was never as true as it was today. She kicked the sides of the large stallion, their gentle trot growing into a gallop. His large hooves pounding the uneven terrain flat like it was nothing. Her path followed the river through the forest, it was the easiest way to keep on track, Sara liked to ride fast and sometimes this meant that her and Kim ended up places that even Sara could not navigate too well, despite the vast amount of time she spent here.
Then the inevitable happened, the rain began to fall. Sara looked up towards the sky and smiled, all the animals around her started to flee for shelter. For a moment she slowed down to watch them scatter, they were all so cute and fluffy. How could she not stop to look?
Then it hit her.
At first she did not even understand what was happening, she felt a sharp pain in her side which made her let go for the reins. Her hand quickly went towards the area, fingers feeling... wood? She looked down at the arrow that had gone straight through her leather vest and into her side, was she under attack? Her body tensing spooked Kim and he started to jerk and screech, she tried to grab hold of the reins to settle him and get them both to safety, but she found it incredibly painful to move when she tried.
Instead she felt herself loosing her balance and with one more jerk the horse threw her from it. She fell a good six feet from the back of the stallion to the shallow river, she hit the ground with a thus and splash. Her body half in and out of the water, her face was under and her hair floating on-top like a puddle of oil.
She found herself unable to move for the time being, the air had fled from her lungs and for now she was motionless. She bit her lip from the ache in her side, her brows knitting together. The stallion turned to face her, lowering its head to sniff at her frame, as confused about the situation as she was.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 1:18 pm
The rain was on its way. Bataar crouched behind the large tree in the forest, his lips drawn into a tight line as he clutched his bow. This was not the usual assignment, but he was getting paid quite a lot to ambush the Legionnaire riding the horse whose hooves he could hear just above the gentle patter of the rain. The work seemed effortless enough, and he might even be able to go hunting afterwards if he sedated his victim who was to be interrogated-- in other words, to be brought in alive.
The Mongol knew nothing about the Legionnaire's appearance, but these roads were not well-traveled. His superiors clearly hadn't thought that a description was necessary and he was willing to agree, even before he was able to really get anything done in relation to the mission. The sound of hooves was nearing and the rain was beginning to at a faster pace, crashing into the leaves above his head which served as meagre shelter. His furs were going to be soaked, he knew, and he might even start to smell of wet dog-- not his favorite perfume these days. It would all be over soon, though.
He saw the hooded rider and he shot, smiling grimly as the arrow sank into the Legionnaire's side. He advanced, eyeing the horse indifferent, and knelt in order to pull the hood back. This was not Zhao Yen. That was easy to tell even without any sort of physical description, because that was a man. This was definitely not the person he'd been assigned to shoot.
The burly man's expression underwent a series of changes and he found himself choking on his words as confusion finally managed to take over. "Sara?" he asked quietly, the blood draining swiftly from his face as he regarded the rider he'd just shot. This was not happening. His ambush had been completely ruined and, on top of that, his arrow had buried itself into the side of the human that he was, perhaps, closest to.
"Wrong person." he muttered, biting his lip so hard that it bled. Bataar Jaoret inflicted damage on a daily basis, but he didn't know how to fix it and he had a feeling that at this point Sara might need some fixing.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 2:43 pm
Sara could hear her attacker closing in, she tried to tell her body to move and make a run for it but it did not want to cooperate, all her strength had left her at the same time and she found herself helpless. She closed her eyes and tensed as she heard the feet step into the water, causing ripples to hit the side of her face. Then she felt her hood being pulled off. Maybe if she played dead he would just rob her and go away, the Mongol stayed as still as she could, until she heard her name being called.
"... Hero?" She opened her pale eyes and stared on after it registered who was addressing her. Now she was more confused than ever, had he come to her rescue? That thought was dashed as soon as she saw some very familiar arrows on his back. He was the one who shot her? That can't be right!
"You..." She paused, clenching her fist slightly, pushing against the ground to lean up, she could hardly move with this damn thing in her side; so her movements were slow and slight, still it was enough to stop water from rushing up her nose. "Are such an idiot." She growled slightly, looking to examine her new found accessory, a look she doubted would catch on. Sara was a nice person, but it was hard to be chirpy when you were just shot off your horse.
She lifted her hand and went to touch it, however she could not move her arm like that, what a awkward place to get shot. Despite the obvious discomfort she thought she was handling this well, she had never been shot before... it was not as bad as being stabbed. Close but not quite. She flinched and bit her lip - he was going to fix this. Spirits help her. "So is this the part where you tie me up and dag me back to your cave? Or are you actually going to get this thing out of my side?" She asked, the least he could do was pull it out... and then start sucking up to her relentlessly. This was not something she was going to forget overnight...
He shot her...
WHO DOES THAT!?
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 4:02 pm
The fact that Sarangerel was on the ground in front of him was absolutely astonishing. The fact that he had hurt the one person he was certain he'd never hurt(physically, at the very least) was also downright painful. It was almost too much to directly face at this point in time and Bataar nearly stumbled backward as the realization in and of itself managed to hit him. He simply couldn't fully understand this: not at all. Could it be that this was not the real Sara? That was a possibility, wasn't it?
The possibility withered in a moment as she called him by a name that no one else had ever bothered with. He slumped down onto the ground and briefly tried to calm his breathing; collecting himself was proving to be harder than it ought to have been. "I--I didn't know it was you. You had a hood on!" Bat blustered, his green eyes sparking a little as he tried, for a few brief moments, to argue his point.
"Don't move too much." he cautioned her, wincing as he glanced from the arrow to her face. One thing he did know was that he did not want to pull that arrow out of her side. It would cause a great deal of pain, for one, and that wasn't exactly something that he wanted to witness written upon the other Lunarian's face. "You don't think that you could-- I don't know --pull it out better than I could?" he asked, aware that he had broken out into a cold sweat.
He was only digging himself a hole that was becoming deeper and deeper.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 4:34 pm
Sara stared at him, her brow lifting lightly in annoyance. Clearly he thought that claiming that 'he did not think it was her' would get him off the hook. Was he blind? Who the hell did he think it was? Did he really think that this situation was that easy to resolve? He shot her off her horse! It was not like he had trailed mud into her home, what if it had hit her head? Or pierced a lung? Did he not realize how badly this could have ended?
She looked up at her horse and closed her eyes for a moment, grabbing the reins that were hanging down and pulled herself up onto her feet to rest on the horse - it was the only thing keeping her upright. She looked to her side and knitted her eyebrows, he would have had an easier time pulling it out, but if he was not going to do it...
She grabbed the wooden shaft and pulled, for a moment it did not move - instead her hand trembled as she called on the strength to remove it, soon enough it shifted making the girl squirm and let out a small meep. Her teeth grinned together as it finally broke out of her skin. A small stream of blood running down the now open hole, a wave of relief coming over her smallish frame. At least now she could move without pain, but it did not mean it did not bloody hurt.
She took in a deep breath, and then her pale eyes met his. You might have thought that she might have calmed down a little. Instead she threw the damn thing at him.
"I am sorry. Next time I will remember to ride with my hood down and get wet just in-case my friend gets the random urge to shoot something." She snapped, trying to decide if she had the strength to pull herself onto the horse. She lifted a leg but put it back down quickly, holding her side because of the sudden sharp feeling that came to it when she moved. She just wanted to ride on into the distance to and get out of this situation but he was going nowhere.
So she tried to hide the fact that she could not get on her horse and put on a brave face, or the bravest she could manage. "I swear Bataar, if the next words out of your mouth is the mother of all apologies I am going to run you over with my horse on the way past." She stated, only sounding half serious... yet it was not wise to tempt her.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 5:07 pm
The comprehension of things too terribly out of the ordinary had never been one of Bataar's particular strong points and so it wasn't too surprising that he still hadn't quite registered that he'd shot Sarangerel directly off of her horse. He shifted anxiously, ignoring the continuous rainfall as he kept up gnawing on his lower lip. "I was hunting." he mumbled, feeling chastised as he hesitated, knowing his lie to be rather despicable. Sara knew that he was a captain-- she would understand if he was meant to ambush someone, wouldn't she? All the same, he didn't want the other Lunarian to know. He didn't want to come off as too much of a bloodthirsty warrior to the soul conduit.
The expressions that flitted over his face as she pulled the arrow out of her side were worthy of the pain that Sara herself must have been experiencing. He didn't even want to think about what she was feeling, not because he was particularly squeamish, but because it was Sarangerel-- she was delicate. The pain must have been amplified at least a hundred times with someone like her. He was used to arrows, but there was no way that she could have been.
He glanced at the arrow as it hit him ineffectively and frowned, picking the instrument up and cradling it in his palm for a moment before crushing the wooden shaft in frustration. He was lying and he didn't know why and, beyond that, he'd never seen Sara this damned angry. "Well, you're not supposed to be here. No one comes this way!" he argued heatedly, throwing down the splinters of wood and ignoring those that had chosen to lodge within his palm.
He stood quickly and clasped her gently around the hips in order to steady her after her evident failure to get back onto the horse. "You and I both know that you won't be getting back onto the horse without my help." Bat responded with a frown, still unable to handle the idea of a furious Sarangerel.
This entire situation was just awful! And what was worse was that he was beginning to feel mean. He hadn't meant to argue back, but that was what seemed to be occurring.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 5:44 pm
"What the hell were you hunting?" She asked, had so many girls rejected his advances that he had resorted to shooting them down? She would never vocalize that thought, despite how tempted she was. Maybe the pain was clouding her reason for now, but she was not that stupid. She did not want to make him feel bad she just... she did not know what she wanted. She was just so confused and the shock was not helping. Especially now he was yelling at her! Who the hell did he think he was?
She growled slightly. "I come this way every week, this forest is my home Bataar. Do not tell me where I can and can not go." She was in the wrong for ridding here? He was not going to make her feel like it was her fault and she was not backing down, Captain or no.
When she felt his hands on her hips she felt a small shock run up her, now he had the nerve to waltz over here and grab her? Usually she loved it when he was close to her, however at the moment she wanted to hit him, hard. Her next words were very clear and very confident. "I do not need your help. I was able to get it out myself and God damn it I can get on this horse. I am not twelve years old. I can handle it." She was sure of herself, he had always treated her like some delicate flower he needed to protect, she had not realized it until now, but that was not helping her annoyance. Sara knew she had somewhat or a crush on Bataar, she had for a while even though she knew she should not.
She wanted him to see her as a adult, for once, he wanted him to see she could be strong too.
Sara sighed and turned herself around, leaning her back against the side of the shire stallion. She stared up at him, her eyes not as angry as they were before. She had ranted and she was starting to calm down, she just hated the fact he was still treating her like a child, even now, after so long. "Besides that was not like any apology I have ever heard." She stated, putting a hand on his chest and pushing him back ever so slightly (or trying to), her other hand wrapped around the reins to keep her study. The last sentence was more playful than the other ones, but still, she wanted that damn apology and she was going to get it.
Today... was turning out to be interesting...
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 6:28 pm
Bataar looked taken aback when asked what he'd been hunting. He bit his lip, glanced around a little anxiously, and then shrugged. "Dinner, I guess." the Mongol mumbled, beginning to look a little on the insecure side. He simply didn't want to get found out by Sara in any way, shape, or form. If she knew he'd been attempting to ambush a Legionnaire she might get even more upset than she already was. They were friends, after all, and their sides always tended to be problematic. That was, unfortunately, just the way that things seemed to work when it came to this fairly idiotic war.
The captain was seriously considering pulling out all of his hair over this matter. "I don't care-- consider yourself told." he growled, his eyes narrowing as she pulled away from him to lean upon the horse instead. He knew for a fact that there was no way she was going to get on the horse without hurting herself a great deal more and only hoped that that wouldn't mean that he was in for even more of an argument. If she would just let him help her up onto the horse she could ride away and he could apologize later, when he was less flustered.
"Oh, you can handle it? Because I don't think you can." he declared, raising up his arms smugly, as if inviting her to attempt and climb onto the horse. There was no use in her avoiding his help, or getting any angrier; that was just going to lead to some kind of a living hell for the both of them. He wasn't going to see her as an adult. Not yet.
The well-muscled man bared his teeth as she mentioned his lack of apology and looked away from the other Lunarian quite forcefully. "It's not even safe for you to be out here. What if someone else had been, uh, hunting and actually managed to kill you?" It was true that if it had been another Noble Sara might not have been quite as lucky. She might have been shot fatally or deemed too much of a liability seeing as she wasn't the right victim. Things could have been even more disastrous than they were.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 6:52 pm
"You lying son of-" Sara never swore, never, so coming so close to it was a sign that she was furious. His words were just adding fuel to the fire, he was taunting her, talking down to her. She clenched her fist and bit her lip, trying to control her emotions but never the less she found herself trembling. He was in the wrong here and she was not going to let him treat her like she was a fool. She looked to the side, her eyes narrowing and her brows knitting once more, the annoyance creeping back into her pale orbs. "Think what you want, you will do anyway." He was the most pig-headed man she had ever met, she was not going to win this argument, she would have better luck arguing with a tree because he was so damn stubborn.
She snapped at his protective nature, how did this end up with him treating her like a child? He was the one in the wrong, he shot her for goodness-sakes. "Where is it safe? Life is not safe Bataar and I have not died so far..." Then she stopped, did he mean? Oh, now she understood. For someone six years older than her; he really was stupid at times. The realization was clear in her eyes, he even lied to protect her. "I see, so you were not hunting animals, well you got the wrong Legionary." She stated, turning around to try and pull herself up again, her adrenaline meant she almost got on this time. Yet she ended up with her feet on the ground once again, her hand holding her side, rain pounded her and blood seeped through her fingers. The conduit was not having a good day, not at all.
She looked over her shoulder, back up at his stupid face, still full of smug ignorance. Her pale hair stuck to her back and she found herself drenched from head to toe. "I better go then before your real target comes along. Just make sure its not Yue or Van before you unload your arrows." She pouted, pulling the horse, if she could not ride then she would walk. Either way if he was not going to say he was sorry, she did not even want to look at him.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 7:27 pm
Bataar was still feeling a little shell-shocked and, in truth, his anger was mostly a shield to hide any sort of pained surprise that he might have been feeling. "You--" he sputtered, shocked that the Legionnaire had nearly cursed. He tended to regard her as a child, for better or for worse, and that was part of the reason why he was so effectively surprised. This situation wasn't exactly easy to handle, and it looked as if he'd just been caught. He could hardly see a way out, really.
A few easy strides brought him much closer to the soul conduit and he placed a firm hand upon her shoulder, trying to halt any other action that she might take after her second failed attempt at getting back onto her horse. There was no way that she would be able to walk home and be alright with that wound but riding a horse might also pose its dangers, especially if she were to do something like fall off. His overprotectiveness was certainly at work again, but it didn't seem to be manifesting itself too terribly well. He was going to have to try and find a way around this that didn't involve arguing and a firm hug seemed like a good idea.
Bat did his best to avoid her wound in the process of his embrace, but he was certain that she at least might be able to tell how damned worried he'd been by the rate of his heartbeat. "If I'd been anyone else you could be dead right now, you know that?" he growled, although it seemed as if any genuine anger may have faded. He might fail to treat Sara as an adult, but she needed to understand that, at the very least, he cared.
Besides, it was going to be a problem if they left off on bad terms and he was going to need Sara for the occasional meal or two. Starving to death was not an option.
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 2:45 pm
A few moments later Sara felt a hand on her shoulder, her legs stopped and for a second the teal haired conduit was perfectly still. Then once again she was being pulled around, resistance was not an option. On the best of days Bataar was perfectly capable of picking her up and carrying her off wither she wanted him to or not, the wound in her side had already drained most of her strength so she was pulled over like a doll.
She sighed and closed her eyes, it was too much effort to be angry at the moment. She rested her head on the man's chest and her arms extended to wrap around his sides, she was not going to forgive him jut like that, however a hug was greatly needed at the moment. Even though this embrace felt more like one between siblings than anything else. She supposed she would have to accept the fact that he saw her as a little sister, as a student, as some delicate flower he needed to protect. As much as it annoyed her she appreciated it at the same time.
He cared, there was nothing else she could ask for. Or at least not anything within reason. Nothing within rationality.
Sara opened her ghostly eyes and looked up at his face once more. "I know." Was all she could say to his statement. It was true, if it was anyone else the outcome of this incident could have been very different to what it was now. However she refused to live by that logic, if she did then she would never leave her home. She took risks every day, the two of them knew what risks were more than most people and she had accepted them none the less. Even talking to each other was a risk, holding each other in the forest like this was a risk, feeling any kind of connection was just plain stupid, but she did so anyway.
She did so quite happily.
She tilted her head to look at Kim. "Think you can help me up? I can make it back home, its not too far from here. You have things to do." She stated in a quite matter of fact way, she knew what he did and had come to accept it long ago. She would not spend so much time in his company if she had not. Most of her friends were fighters, some where Legion, some where Nobles. The war was not her business, or at least she tried to have as little to do with it as possible.
His superiors would ask questions if his task was not completed so he would rather leave it at that.
Meet up again when the timing was kinder on them both.
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 3:20 pm
Bataar held onto Sara for a few moments more before responding to her request. He then took the other Lunarian by the waist and lifted her onto her horse with a soft grunt of effort. His illness had passed, but he was still working on his strength at this point in time. The Mongol looked up at the girl and offered her a small, humorless grin. "Just bandage it up and it might not even leave a scar." he advised, briefly running his hand through his hair.
He was still more concerned than he could describe, but there was no use in prolonging this freak-out of sorts. He trusted that Sarangerel understood for the time being but he could also see how they would both eventually be over this. For now, Bataar had a job to do and he was more than willing to do it as opposed to dwelling on this particular situation. His anger had come directly from his surprise and regret and he didn't feel the need to allow his thoughts to linger here and now.
The captain reached up to clasp the soul conduit's hand briefly before turning and stalking back into the better-concealed depths of the forest. With any luck, his target would soon arrive, and he felt comfortable in resuming control of his bow and arrow.
"Now go, before I shoot you again." he told Sara, a more characteristic smirk dominating his expression. At the end of the day he had a job, and there was no hiding it. He was, after all, a captain and he needed to take hold of his role quite firmly. It was entirely necessary to obey his superiors in this capacity, at the very least, and he supposed he'd be able to find a way to make it up to Sarangerel later. At the end of the day, though, they probably both understood more than either of them might like to, and it was becoming harder and harder to protect his friend, especially when he was the one hurting her.
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