* Guardians of The Sacred Orb

[Dartmoor]

(Yeah, well there isn't too much for the merc to do until we return to Ruby, but I can take care of him.)

Cocking her head to the side, she looked puzzled at Ty. "Umm... I don no what birdy you talking about. But you being a demon twould explain why you die and come back. No demon ever stays dead long."

The phoenix came flying in from one of the other mountain tops. Landing before them, Aitai climbed onto it's back. "You need water? I'll take. It's not too far, but it not close either. Someone once said why there be no well, but I forget."

=====

Fukumi looked down at the boy. "I think he ment all the normal people, Natsu. Some of us have our own methods, so we're a little more self reliant. Plus some healing methods have been known to have unwanted effects that I could do without."

Looking at the Captain, she saw that his eye had not yet returned to normal. Turning, she walked over to Nakhti, even though she had no intention of taking whatever healing he had.

"We could have handled this whole situation ourselves, but the survivors would have been less. Thank you. And a word of advice, stay away from Katan right now. He's even more likely to just kill you for the fun of it right now," she whispered to the neko. "To put it gently, his ancestors never liked humans of any breed. Savages in his eye."

Walking away, she stopped once as her leg acted up. Sitting down on a porch edge, her hands glowed blue from chakra being gathered to them, and placed them on her leg. Fukumi's faced eased up as pain disappeared as bone was mended.

=====

Katan glared at the merc for a moment. The urge to kill the fool was growing, but he was needed as well. Their plan required it. "Stay put, or I just might change my mind. I've got some other things to take care of first."

Not waiting for a reply, the pirate was off, joining up with Aitai just as she was getting on her phoenix. "Going somewhere, are we?"

"Over to da river and back. Why?" The summoner replied cheerfully.

"Don't spend to much time. We're all flying back to Ruby tonight. The ones responsible for this will be spooked for sure if we take too long."

"Okies! We won't play in da water then."

"But the water would sting in these cuts."

"Ooo... Den I tink I shant go in it den."

"Shucks, shouldn't have said anything then. No pain, no fun."

"Whatever. Just don't take all night."

Going in amongst the corpses, Katan began dragging them into a massive pile. He did this all manually, without the aide of his magic. Just before tossing a dead body onto the pile, a blade would extend and the head would be lobbed off. Bodies and heads were made into seperate piles.  

[NakhtiChaos]

((I'll post after work ahhhhhhh life on the night shift. ^_^ I'm an aisle stocker for wal-mart.))  

[zepherion]

(Cool. I know someone who used to be a stocker at wal-mart before.)

Mia remembered something and ran towards Katan. Mia trembled a bit when she saw what he was doing but shook it off.

"Katan! Is that old woman from before here? I hope she survived..." Mia looked towards the survivors. There was quite a few but it was probably much less than half of the original population. All of the surviving villagers were wandering around so it was hard to see exactly who was there and who wasn't.  

[NakhtiChaos]

((Yeah i work grocery and they are grossly undermanned my feet f'in hurt.))

Nakhti listened to Fukumi but did not look to her since he was busy tending to the wounded as apposed to hacking corpses apart. Nakhti calmly accepted what Nakhti felt was a half assed thank you. Katan can think me a savage all he wants but in the end who is doing the more barbaric thing me or him? Lets see me.... I'm healing people. Him..... oh yeah he seems too pissed off at them corpses to care. In my opinion if he can't put the people who sheltered his a** first then he is the 'savage' a civilized person would care for the living before touching the dead. Nakhti stopped buy an old woman. ((This is the one from the house!! xD)) Looking down he saw her left ankle was broken and a deep slice down her right arm. Signaling to a villager he knelt by the woman.

"Can you hold her steady?"

Looking at the woman he explained.

"I need to pull the bone into place so my potion won't heal you wrongly but an hour after you drink it you cannot move or risk healing awkwardly..... understand?"

Looking at Nakhti whom seemed to have the most damage on his person then anyone he was healing bent down and grabbed her ankle as the man held her steady. With a sharp abrubt tug he realigned her bone and pulled out a potion as she tendsed hard trying not to move. Handing the potion over Nakhti spoke.

"Drink up."

Leaving the old woman in the man's care after swearing him to not letting the woman move for a full hour after drinking the potion. Natsu on the otherhand had finished telling all the villagers to go to Nakhti. Nakhti was over halfway done with the villagers and his mediacl supplies were just as depleted. Oh yeah..... I am so going to be buying more ingrediants for potions..... and bottles...... and wrappings.... an salve and....  

[Tiger Tales]

Ty shrugs and turns into a stormwing, her entire body siezes up before she lifts off. "I don't think I can die to many more times, I also don't think Callypso would appreciate me talking about what happened. I think I will swim quickly, it will fix me up. I won't take long, I promise." Tiger says to both of them, hoping it answers both of them. She focuses and creates bald spots near her wounds so more damage cannot be caused.  

[Dartmoor]

There was a grunt to Mia. "Katan? Oh yes, that is the name this one goes by." Another head was lobbed off a corpse. "But to which old woman do you refer? We've seen many in our lives. So many..."

Fukumi overheard how her captain was speaking. She rushed over to the girl talking, and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Mia, I could use your help over here." Turning both of them away from the captain, the ninja lead her over to a slightly smoldering home.

"Ok, I think we're far enough away. He's in a very touchy moment right now and it would be best not to get to close." Releasing her hold of Mia, she looked into the girls eyes before speaking again. "I'm not sure if you've ever heard of the race known as Demens, probably mis-said as Demons in some cases, but Katan and I are a part of that race. We've been hunted before, just because of what we are, and probably for good reason. We're dangerous to others, because we have the knowledge of our parent at the time of our birth. Likewise, we also carry a bit of their personality, and I'm not sure which of Katan's ancestors is manifesting right now. Probably the murderer, Malthazare."

Looking out amongst the town's people, she saw whom Mia was looking for. "Please don't mention that we're Demens to anyone, including your companions. It's always brings trouble for us." She points over towards Nakhti. "I believe she is who you were looking for?"

=====

Aitai was suprised at Tiger's transformation. She patted the back of the bird. "You no need to work hard. Plenty of room for us both."

The phoenix was rather large. Probably being able to carry up to five people if they all sat close together, but three people would be comfortable. As soon as Tiger was in the air, the long wings flapped and brought the summoner airbound. They wouldn't fly too fast, ready to catch the stormwing should she suddenly fall.

Without delay, they headed towards the western woods, for the river at the base of a spring's waterfall.  

[NakhtiChaos]

Nakhti kept working on the wounded more then once people asked if he would help himself first but Nakhti flat out refused each time just saying.

"This is nothing."

Nakhti used antidotes on poisons helped with his ice magic to drop fevers and continued to distribute potions while Natsu sat down on a rock tired from running around. Nakhti kept going through injury after injury rangeing from minor to sever. Nakhti surmised half of the people would have not have survived the night unattended with the ammount of poisons he found.  

[Tiger Tales]

Tiger follows closely by the phoenix, grateful that she did not have to walk any further. She rarely faltered as she flew, only when a gust of wind jarred her sore body. "Flying is like swimming, so it isn't so hard to do. Then I don't have to use my legs you see." She says, her voice slightly raspy due to damaged vocal chords. "
Everything will be good once I hit the water." Ty adds as she turns into a lighter harpy shape.  

[NakhtiChaos]

((*poke* hello?))  

[Tiger Tales]

((Save your potions man! Ty needs water razz ! She is gettin' dehydrated and needs to fill up her water container.))  

[zepherion]

(Sorry I haven't been posting lately. I was really sick but I'm sorta better now! ^_^)

Mia nodded when Fukumi told her not to tell anyone about their race and the looked in the direction of the old woman.

"Oh thank goodness, she's okay. I was worried that she might've been killed." Mia began to walk towards her. "Oh and don't worry. I won't tell anyone, I promise.... Oh, by the way.." Mia ran back to Fukumi and whispered.

"Is Aitai a Demen as well?"  

[Tiger Tales]

Tiger spots the water and zooms ahead, falling into a sharp dive. She tosses her bag aside hits the water, barely making a splash. She sinks to the bottom and picks two things out of the out of the bottom of the muddy earth at the bottom. Ty swims towards the air, kicking her feet gently and her hands clutching the objects. She emerges from the water lacking any cat features and many human ones. Her body softly shimmering in iridecent designs on dark scales.

Ty sighs and drifts to the water side where her bag is. She ruffles around inside and pulls out the water vail and fills it up. She puts it away and washes off the two objects. "Well, its good water you got here. You not gonna tell everyone about my fishiness are you?" She says as she finishes cleaning a rock with a glassy look to it, but is dark and jagged with streaks of red in it.  

[Dartmoor]

"Is Aitai a Demens?" She should have expected such a question to be asked. Not truly knowing the answer, Fukumi shrugged her shoulders. "Possibly, possibly not. The fifteenth year is when all becomes manifest normally. She could be an early bloomer, but her body has yet to undergo any metamorphisis."

Walking away from the village, the ninja was heading up the mountain side. Katan would be angry with her if she delayed on getting that net any longer. Even though she knew well that he wouldn't kill her, having the wrong personality out was dangerous.

=====

The summoner landed next to the pool of water. She was a bit suprised by how quickly the girl dove into the water, but was able to breath a sigh of relief when she came up again. "Why would I tell anyone about your... your..."

"Fishiness..."

"Yeah! Fishiness. Why would I tell?"

"Cause I'll make a fortune by selling that info to the right people!!" She put her foot up on a rock, looking all triumphant.

"But who are de right people?"

"Umm... You know..."

"Yeap, secrets safe with me." Aitai smiled before muttering something inaudible. Her voice never changed while she argued with herself, which often was the very reason others avoided her.

=====

After Katan finished decapitating the slaughtered mercs and barbarians, her began to pull the pile of bodies apart. He was giving each one a space to lay upon the ground, with small gaps between each. "Ah... When the woman returns, this mess will all be over with."

One of the swords was brought out, and then rammed into the back of a corpse. "Cowardly warriors recieve no proper burials. Attack Us in the dark will they."  

[Tiger Tales]

Ty looks at her then offers her the rock. "You want it? It's obsidian. Its one of my favorite rocks. I preffer the type that is all black." She looks at it then swims closer and places it by her rock. "It's a little uncomfy for me. Only Mia seems to know... But she hasn't said anything. So..." She pulls herself out of the water and brushes herself off. As she brushes herself off the scales seem to be both absorbed andfall away as dust. Tiger looks up and smiles at Aitai. "Thank you." She says, then she picks up the other muddy item and pockets it. "We can head back if you want"  

[NakhtiChaos]

Nakhti staggered and put the potions into his bag. It was done. Every last villager had some sort of medical treatment weather they wanted it or not. Nakhti then went down to both knees as he tried to steady himself. His blood loss was in the sever and he was loseing what little energy he had left. Natsu seeming to detect something was wrong and came to Nakhti and crouched down next to him peering at Nakhti's face.

"M-mister you ok?"

"Nope but I will be and i need to ask you a favor...."

Nakhti gave Natsu a look with an arched eye brow before scrunching his eyes as the world seemed to tilt.

"Anything mister."

Nakhti noded to let the kid know he understood.

"Gaurd me as i rest ok? I'm going to change forms so i can do so."

Natsu nodded as Nakhti held the ground tight and began to change. All of his items vanishing as his joints ligaments andf bones popped and snaped loudly with his change as the always did. He may have never been able to revert to being a full human but becomeing a cat was quite easy to him. As the transformation ended a good portion of the villagers had saw the change and watched as a fiery golden red and uninjured cat slouched before outright collapseing before being scopped up by Natsu whom held Nakhti's cat form close as he rested. Natsu stood up as held Nakhti as if the cat was his heart outside of his body.