The Darkness Wars Rated Teen/Accepting

Doran nodded and mounted his horse. He spoke, "Of course. Forgive me milord."
Inside, he was seething, though he hid it deep in his mind. In his heart, he knew he could never fully follow a tyrant that ruled through fear and intimidation. He would have thought that the king would have some measure of trust for his own men, but it appeared he was mistaken. Still, Zarxs was too powerful to oppose so he'd follow him for as long as his path led beside his.

Vixen was a bit worried. After this she was sure she wouldn't be able to hid her powers. The urge to use them secretly know was strong, but Vixen mounted her horse, shaking her head slightly. No she wasn't going to read her companions mind, no matter how much she wanted to.
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Tifa huffed, beginning to get annoyed with Vladmir. Why the hell did he think he was so superior?

She stayed out in the hall, already ready. She was anxious this morning and so had prepared then. But not everyone was here yet, so she headed outside to see if she could find and brief them.
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Tazer smiled and shook her head.

"Sorry I guess I'm just hungry," she muttered. No way was she going to say that she felt like Ivy was getting a little too close to Nolan. It would do nothing good.

Ivy gave her usual half-smile, placing a hand on the other Wild Freak's shoulder for a moment, "Hey, don't worry about it. We're all a little bit off today." She looked back at the boar again, letting her arm drop back into place crossed in the other, "You'll feel better after we get some food into our systems."

IC: Oeni

Mounting his steed in a single fluid motion, Oeni quickly settled into a comfortable position. The traitor moved his horse closer to Zarxs, although a respectful space behind him, and spoke in a hushed tone so that only Zarxs could hear. "Almost time to cleanse the ranks, Lord?" His eyes drifted over the figures behind them, before returning to Zarxs once more.

"I would be honoured to do it, if you deem it necessary."

Vixen looked at Oeni and the urge to tap into his mind grew stronger. She was sure he didn't know her power, but he was older and wiser than her and so may be more aware as to when his mind is being read. Instead she looked at Doran, knowing he wasn't as aware and allowed herself to fall into a small trance like state as she read his mind.

When she touched the edge of it, she pulled back suddenly. No she couldn't do it.

Izumi Momoko

Izumi was shocked when Tazer snapped out at Ivy like that, but she bought the hunger story, her own appetite brainwashing her own mind. "Is the meal almost ready yet...?" she asked ravenously. The archer was coming close to the verge of drooling.

Koh Kuei

Koh didn't react at all when Zarxs attacked Doran. The Dark Lord's reaction was predictable to the assassin, but only because he had once made a similar error. Instead, Koh merely strided over to his steed, and mounted it. He did sense some slight nervousness from Vixen, but he did not let it affect him, and the assassin remained practically emotionless.

Leit Craeyhorn

Out in one of the palace courtyards, a couple of Royal Guards who were currently off duty, were training the newest appointee: Leit Craeyhorn. The nineteen year old's halberd was currently locked with his sparring partner.

"Alright! So frome here, turn your weapon like this; slam the back blade onto your opponents foot; strike him with the shaft; and then finish him off with an over head strike to the head," the Royal Guard instructed, demonstrating the moves with his own polearm.

"Okay." Leit followed the man's orders precisely, but during the last strike his opponent parried the blade, and thrusted with the halberd's spike. "Whoa!" Leit cried, sidestepping the attack by spinning, and countering with a blow to the neck; the young knight stopped the blade by about a foot away.

"Ha! Excellent! You've got some great potential. Say, weren't you supposed to meet up with those warriors that had been summonned by the Queen?" the instructor asked.

"Oh! Crap, I gotta go!" Leit saluted to his fellow compatriots, grabbed his satchel, and rushed off towards the hall leading to the Throne Room.

Marcus laughed softly at his own thought. The girls were not discussing, but Tazer had used a certain tone of voice that it wasn’t like her, and out of the blue, something stupid popped into Marcus’ mind these girls on their period? Tazer is certainly spicy today! Stupid indeed, yet Marcus was amused a little by it.

“I’m quite hungry” Marcus whined.

“How much time till it’s edible Nolan?” Marcus said out loud trying to change the conversation for everybody.

Tifa saw Leit and waved at him. Still new she sort of knew the people in the castle. It was hard to keep track of everyone, but she was learning. She recognize Leit though, but mainly because she knew he was coming with them.
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Tazer looked at the food, then to the people making it. She was proud that the others were learning wilderness skills easily. She remembered when she and Nolan first started out. It wasn't easy at all.

"It should be done soon. And if we are careful, we might be able to save some for later."

The smell of boar came with a breeze from downstream. It wafted over Rain, eyes closed. He was awake, but simply resting. His mouth began to water at the smell. Rain was famished. He needed to get some food into his system. But he was only half awake, and as he felt a leaf fall gently to the earth fifty feet away he realized what this meant. He was not alone in the forest. This alarmed him slightly. There could be Knights patrolling the forest for him, and he could not allow himself to be caught. So there was one course of action. Rain needed to spy on his new neighbors.

Rain was no fool. He knew that spying on these other forest dwellers dressed as he was would be foolish. His armor would reflect sunlight, and his greaves would keep him from being silent, his coat would be too noticeable, and carrying around reaper would slow him down. So he removed his metal boots, gauntlets, breastplate, and took only his quiver, bow, and knives. He then took his other possessions and hoisted them up into his tree by the river. Then he looked up to the sky, and watched the trail of smoke that reached up into the sky. It, like the scent of the pig, came from downstream. Rain walked beside the water, and decided to check a trap he had set earlier, as it was on the way. By luck he had caught a plump rabbit. He gave a half smile, because at least he would not starve. He continued along the river until he was close by the smoke. It was coming from the opposite side of the river. Crossing the river would be troublesome, because a wet spy was more noticeable than a dry one, so he climbed up a tree on his side of the river, and then sprang from the tree with unbelievable leg strength, and landed on the other side in a roll to reduce impact. Rain then noticed something was odd. The fire was not on the ground, it was in the trees. "Interesting." he muttered. He didn't believe this was the work of any guards. Somebody much craftier was here.

Rain quickly scaled a nearby tree, and moved silently through the branches. He wasn't sure how he could do this with his size, but somehow it was a skill of his. Another gift from his dark past. He followed the smoke, trying to remain hidden. He notched an arrow onto his bow just in case, and then finally moved aside the final branch between him and his possible enemies. He fixed his eyes on a tree house filled with... teenagers.

Rain was out of eyesight as far as he could tell, the young tree people too preoccupied with themselves to notice him. He remained behind a curtain of leaves, only letting his eyes through the vale of foliage. He kept his arrow at the ready as he examined the faces. One boy with a sword, who was cooking the boar, another boy standing to the side, and several girls. Rain focused on the aloof girl who had just dropped her arm from the shoulder of another one of the girls, with a-.

A chill ran up Rain's spine as he recognized the girl, her whip. Her appearance. He felt the dark mist surrounding him, rustling the leaves. His eyes gained a purple tint as faces and names rushed through his mind. "Stop!" He yelled in his mind, as he felt control slipping away with his new found memories. "Stop!" he persisted. in his mind. He unotched the arrow and brought his hands to the sides of his head. "STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!" he commanded, giving one final mental cry. Then, his mind cleared, and he focused once more on the girl. He felt her name on the tip of his tongue, and knew that she held the key to his destiny. "Nala." he said, and stared at the girl through the trees.

Izumi Momoko

The archer's stomach growled once more, it's impatience must stronger than her own. " Hopefully. I'm really starving. It would be nice to eat that for a few more days though...or atleast for lunch tomorrow." Izumi commented, not knowing that the group was being spied upon.

Leit Craeyhorn

The Royal Guard saw someone waving at him, and saw that it was Tifa. Leit had only met her once, but he was pretty good at remembering things, so he recognized her almost instantly. He gradually slowed down his pace, and then walked towards the female knight. "Is everyone already here?" Leit asked, barely panting.

{I think we should wait for Lolx3 for the Knight/Hero parts.}

"Not yet," Tifa said getting a little impatient. "I believe we are missing one more. We could probably find them if we head outside."

Nolan

"Patience," Nolan said, examining the boar with a sharp eye. It was nearly perfect, roasted to the best temperature, when he suddenly shivered. It was a hunter's intuition, he supposed, he felt like someone was nearby. He turned around and scanned the trees, but he couldn't make anybody out. Must be imagining things, he thought, and turned back to the boar. "Ok, all you people who are about to collapse, it's ready," he announced. Really, they couldn't just be patient? Maybe he should just do this alone from now on, without all the whining. Then again, they all seemed to appear just when it got put on the fire anyway, this was nothing new.

Zarxs

"With time, every tree needs pruning. My ranks are no different. Now is not the time, too few branches will weaken the tree, no matter how fragile the lost branches were to begin with. But soon. Soon, I will find more, sprout new branches, and prune the unfaithful. You may be my instrument with which I carry out this task," Zarxs said, his voice so quiet it might as well not be heard.

Marcus felt a cold chill go up his body. He noticed Nolan’s reaction just as he got the chill.

“Nolan…did you also noticed?” Marcus was some times a bit paranoid, but sometimes he got his gut feeling, the one that is 98% of time correct. The feeling of being stared at was the one he felt, and the one Marcus thought Nolan had also felt.

Marcus hands slowly reached under his shirt where he had something like a sash strapped to his belly full of knives. Marcus took out a big hunting knife, he was thinking of an animal to be near by, a bear maybe. It was the one to make more logical sense. A stealthy animal indeed, would be attracted by the smell of the cooked meat not to mention the attraction they have to fires and warm places.

Ivy watched, taking notice of Nolan's hesitation as well as the slight shudder of his body. But he appeared to disregard it, so she too paid it no mind, going back to her own business. Though when Marcus said something and began reaching for his weaponry, she knew something must've been up. Two reactions meant this couldn't be nothing. Even if it was only an animal. The ravenette reached back with one arm, leaving the other to hang at her side, to find the familiar hard wood of the bo staff strapped to her back, her other hand ready to reach down if she needed something even more close-range. Though she didn't pull the staff up, resting her hand there in case it's immediate attention proved necessary. They lived in a forest near multiple small villages, bandits weren't a site to be surprised by among them.

"What's wrong?" She asked, her tone back to it's usual seriousness, any bare traces of warmth gone in a flash.

Cassidy recognized the chill everyone was getting all too easily. She wasn't extremely hungry, so she took a piece of white meat and decided to go over to the river and patrol a bit. She gave everyone a look that meant "Stay here" and she scaled down the trees. Once she hit the floor, she scanned the ground and searched the trees, making it look like she was just taking in nature. She walked for about 300 feet and turned around to make sure everyone was ok.
To her left, she saw a small movement of shadow and quickly and silently dropped her piece of meat and scaled the tree to see what it was. She took her bow and arrow out, thinking it was an animal and, to her surprise, it was a boy... or a man. She shook her head and spoke to him. "What business do you have being here?", her bow and arrow still focused on his shoulder so as to wound and not to kill if it came to that.

Tazer took note of the chills everyone seem to be having and gripped her weapon tightly. She followed Cassidy, not wanting her to get hurt. After all, she was the leader no matter how young.

When she saw the man, she went from worry and curiousity to anger.

"What are you doing here? This forest is ours? We don' like outsiders."

Rain had noticed that people were starting to take note of his presence. This was not good. If he were to be caught here then he may be forced to fight. He did not wish for this. If it hadn't been for his lack of control, then this may not have happened. "Now is not the time to wonder what might have been. You must deal with what you have." He told himself. He watched as Nala, and the other girl left the house in the trees. They would find him soon enough.

Rain adjusted his bow over his shoulder, and his arrow into his quiver. He grabbed the dead rabbit from his belt, and kept a grip on his knife, hearing the two girls climb up the tree. He could defend himself if necessary, but he mustn't let harm come to Nala. His vision had shown him that much. She meant something to his past self. Perhaps she could help him. He listened to the two girls order him around, but did not turn. The first girl sounded much less hostile, and more mature, while Nala sounded ignorant and childish.

"I'm sorry to have trespassed, but I seek only refuge in this forest." Rain replied calmly, and then turned slightly to lock one eye on Nala. "And Nala, you mustn't be so foolish, you cannot own a forest. This forest is as much mine as it is yours. I have hunted in it's kind lands before." he told the girl with the whip.

Izumi was surprised when Cassidy and Tazer had actually found someone. Normally, the girl might have known someone was there, but she was too distracted by her hunger this time.

Because of leafy trees, Izumi's visibility was a bit diminished, but the archer could still make out the bits of gleaming armor the unknown man wore and predict his location. She readied an arrow, and aimed at the stranger's legs, ready to support Cassidy.

She then noticed that the man had replied her comrades, but even with her hearing she had a hard time making it out. 'Sorry...tresspassed...mine as...yours...Nala...hunted...befo--' Wait! Who's Nala...?

Cassidy didn't really get why he was calling her Nala, but she needed to make sense of who he was. She lowered her bow a bit, but still did not let it down. "I don't know who you're talking to, but this is Tazer. I'm Cassidy. We need to know what business you have in the forest before anything else can happen. If you are seeking refuge, this is the place to be. Would you mind identifying yourself?"

Nolan

Someone was there, but Nolan didn't run to back up Tazer. Instead he stood and ran at an angle, jumping to branches around them. He was going to cut off a retreat for the tresspasser. Soon he was on the opposite side of Tazer and Cassidy, waiting to see if they needed help. He heard something about a Nala, and how the forest was everyone's it didn't make any sense to him.

Ivy watched as the mojority of the Wild Freaks left the tree house to the surrounding wood, to face whoever the unfamiliar voice belonged to. She turned to kick over a crudely made table, ushering the much younger of the Wild Freaks behind it, and telling them to stay put. Since she appeared to be a quiet figure among them, at her word they listened. She then drew her bo staff, sitting on the ledge of an opening they used as a window. She brought the staff around a tree branch, testing it with both hands before using the staff as support to pull herself up onto the roof. Here she could see what was going on, but she could only make out parts of it. Ivy thought about leaving to get into hearing range, but she knew she should stay if any danger were posed towards the younger members. So instead the teen crouched down low on the roof, watching with narrowed eyes at the scene that was slowly unfolding, with one thought in her mind.

Who's this Nala he speaks of?

It ain’t a bear that’s for sure. Marcus thought.

Everybody had quickly taken a comeback position, as a method of precaution, but Marcus quickly reacted. Everybody was paying attention to the intruder in the near by tree, and sometimes being a little more careful can be good. This is why Marcus did not react to the stranger but simply stayed at the top of the tree house, looking at all the surroundings areas, because, what if it was a diversion? What if it was a team planning to take out the teenagers? This is why being extra careful is never bad.

Great minds think alike now don’t they? The thought was followed by a smile when he saw Ivy stay behind, like him, in order to do the same, protect the house and the younger teens.

Marcus look to the where the others were pointing from time to time, trying to analyze the intruder, unfortunately, not much could be seen from such a far away distance.

“Are you able to see or hear anything Ivy?” Since she was at a higher location she might read lips, or be able to make out something about the mysterious trespasser.

Ivy turned her head at Marcus's voice, thinking about his question for a moment before looking back. "...Sort of. I can see everything from this point, but it's hard to make out everything they're saying." She set her bo staff back in it's place on her back, so she could climb out further on the ledge of the tree house as she spoke quietly,

"The man said something about someone named Nala. I don't recall ever hearing that name before. We don't have anyone among the Wild Freaks that used to go by that name that you know of, do we?" She knew people changed their names alot when they came out here, some people had named themselves. She knew her name wasn't Ivy, but no one else needed to know that. At the thought, the dagger in her boot seemed heavier, but she ignored the feeling.

Rain spotted the boy who had prepared the meal climbing through the trees, and coming to aid his companions. Soon he was close to Rain. He made eye contact with the cook. He was impressed at the boy's ability to climb around the tree with his size. "It's nice to meet you Cassidy. But I am quite sure that your Tazer is Nala. As for my name, you may call me Rain. I am a hunter on the northern end of the great forest. All you need to know is that I mean you no harm, and that I only spied on you because I was suspicious of the other people residing in the forest." he explained, his eyes never leaving the boy. He grabbed the rabbit he had snared and tossed it to the boy. "A peace offering." he explained, and then he removed his bow, arrows, and knives, and dropped them down the tree. "I mean you no harm." he once again promised.

{Actually, Izumi stayed behind too. She was just aiming at Rain.}




"I don't remember anyone named 'Nala,'" the archer replied, not taking her eyes off the stranger She then noticed that he said something else. "Hey, I think he said something about not meaning any harm or something like that...and I think he just said that Tazer's real name is Nala...!" Izumi reported to the two Wild Freaks that stayed behind.