* Guardians of The Sacred Orb

[zepherion]

Mia nodded then walked over to the old lady from before. "So, it's finally over. I'm so glad that you're okay. Have you found your husband yet?"

The old woman looked at Mia sheepishly. "No....not yet. I'm still looking." Mia nodded. "Well, I can help you look. Maybe he's out in the village somewhere."

The old woman smiled happily now. She followed Mia at her side as they ventured around the leftovers of the village. "So, Mia, correct? What will you and your friends be doing after your business is done here?" Mia thought about it for a while.

"Well, I guess we'd go back to Ruby Village. 'Cause we went there originally to do something and also, if Natsu doesn't want to stay here for a while, we need to bring him back."

The old woman tilted her head a bit. "Well, what is it that you're looking for. Perhaps I can help. I've ventured down to Ruby village many times before."

Mia started at a sudden rustle underneath some debris and put her hand to her sword. She relaxed when she saw that it was a cat leaping away. "Well, you see, we're looking for a kind of entrance of some sort. The entrance to.....a shrine."

(I guess this rp lost Gothic's and Mr.Ownage's interest, huh?)  

[Dartmoor]

It was good to keep small supply depots around the village, keeping to the saying about not putting all your eggs in one basket. They were well concealed, and no one would notice them without realizing that they were there. Perhaps it was from Fukumi letting them become overgrown. Either way, the contents of this supply was only the net.

Pulling the rope forth, she carefully looked it over for signs of damage. Only dirt. That's good. Folding it hastily, the ninja returned to the village with the bundle. Spotting the bodies all layed out, she had an idea as to what her next orders were going to be.

"Ahh... Jus n tyme, you are. We needn't any delays this evening." Katan had the blades extended out from the gauntlets, which were laying before him. They were a bloody mess and he was cleaning them off with a rag. "Dispose of the bodies first, and I'll help ya with the heads. Bloody b*tches they were."

Fukumi dropped the bundle and then looked to see how many corpses there really were. A lot. "Sir, I will need to rest a bit after this. I'm not even certain if I have enough strength for what you ask. Forgive me." She bowed her head to emphasize her shame at the possibility.

Walking over to her, Katan lifted her head up by the chin till they were looking eyes-to-eye. "No apologies. Just do. We must be returning to Ruby before sunrise for all to work well."

Nodding her head, the kunoichi grasped her hands together to focus her chakra. In the next moment, a huge cloud of smoke burst forth, temporarily masking the entire area. As it was wisped away, there were hundreds of clones of Fukumi standing there.

"Take 'em down as far as you can go," the real Fukumi ordered. Responding, each clone grabbed the ankle of a corpse. Using the earth meld technique, they dragged the bodies down with them into rocky depths. Expending the limits of the chakra granted them, they began vanished sometimes as soon as getting the dead 10ft. down. Only the heads remained on the surface.

=====

"Ooo... Shiny!" The girl immediately grabbed the black, red-streaked stone.

"Hmm... Perhaps it can be turned into a summoning stone. Much like a tail-feather of a phoenix binds one to this plane," she mused over the peculiar rock.

"I'm keeping it." And then the rock was pocketed away. Her bird had never left, as they were there at the river ever so briefly. "Wanna jus ride back?"  

[NakhtiChaos]

Natsu continued to hold Nakhti like only a child could hold a treasure and went to sit upon a damaged porch of a destroyed house that was smoldering but not in flames. Lightly and without thought Natsu began to scratch behind Nakhti's ears.  

[zepherion]

"A shrine entrance you say? Well, I don't know if what I saw is what you're looking for but around the base of the volcano is a sort of stone with an inscription on it that seems to be blocking a path. The inscription was in an odd language so I'm not entirely sure."

Mia nodded. Mia stopped and closed her eyes. It wasn't too hard to pick out survivors since the villagers they'd found earlier were on one side of the village. Mia gasped when she picked up someone close by. She ran towards a burned down house. Mia pushed away pieces of wood and stones. At the bottom she found a man curled up in a ball. She carried him out of the ruins once all the debris was cleared from on top of him. She set him down on the ground.

The old woman gasped when she saw him and sat down beside him. Mia took his wrist and searched for his pulse. He was still breathing but they were shallow breaths. Mia picked him up carefully and carried him on her back and began running towards Nakhti. The old woman followed as best she could.  

[Tiger Tales]

"Well, I am very glad that you like it and can use it. An' I guess I could ride back. You're friend won't mind though?" She says, quickly shaking her hair out and looking at the bird. Tiger walks a bit closer, not wanting to annoy the pheonix. Maybe I can get one of... Then I can... She thinks to herself, her eyes slightly vague.  

[Dartmoor]

(Only Aitai gets a spot this time round. Assume Katan and Fukumi are just taking care of the dead bodies. Sorry for the delays.)

Aitai looked at the pheonix for a moment. "She does what I tell her, so I dunno. Would'n pull any feathers though. Then she no listen to me."

Hopping on, she waited for Tiger to get onto the pheonix's back before taking off into the skies back to the village. "Whooosh!!" Aitai cried out, her arms spread like they were wings as well.  

[Tiger Tales]

Tiger yipes and holds on tightly, but not tight enough to pull on the feathers to hard. For a second her hands become insubstantial and the feathers run through her fingers, but in the space of a heart-beat, her hands were normal. She looks at the girl in front of her and giggles, the weird tickling feelingin her stomach making her laugh. Ty grins happily, happy to be free of her earlier worries for a while. "I have never been flown about by someone else like this before! It feels so weird!"  

[NakhtiChaos]

(I'm playing Natsu mostly untill Zeph gets to me with the corpse.... er survivor. xd )

Natsu glanced out to where he saw a girl carrying what looked like a dark bundle to him at a light run. Wonder whats in there..... Natsu looked curiously as he shifted cat Nakhti in his arms.  

[zepherion]

(Oh, okay.)

Mia slowed down once she reached Natsu. The old woman soon caught up. "Natsu, right? Where's Nakhti? This man needs healing, quick."  

[Dartmoor]

Katan and Fukumi finished throwing the heads into a pile in the net. Most of the blood had already drained from the skulls, staining the ground where they had laid. Laughing a moment, the sky captain made a sarcastic comment. "Perhaps we should have kept the aquamancer alive to clean up this mess. A very beffiting job, me thinks."

Catching the irony of it, Fukumi let out a small chuckle, before recomposing herself. "Yes, it would make it faster. But a couple of rains will take care of it." Taking up the edge of the net, she began working another rope through, to form an encasement.

"Where is that girl? I want to be done with this."

=====

Aitai giggled. "It feels great! Bestest way to fly!"

The pheonix was able to fly faster now, going at a pace it more enjoyed. It made the trip rather short, as the village quickly came back into sight. Gracefully landing, they were in the town square where the other pirates awaited.

"We're back!" the girl squealed as she lept off at Fukumi, who barely had time to react.  

[Tiger Tales]

Ty jumps off of the pheonix, looking and feeling refreshed. She grins and pets the creature "Great way to fly. Thank you.". As she looks around her smile dims into a straight and slightly sad face. "Back... Can I help in any way?" Tiger says as she shifts her bag, still stroking the bird.  

[NakhtiChaos]

Natsu looked down at the cat in his arms then sook it lightly.

"Uhhhh mister Nakhti? If thats your name you forgot a person whom needed healing."

The cat blinked bleary eyed Nakhti sat up in his cat form then hopped off of Natsu andn walked up to pause infront of Mia. Stareing up at her words formed on the ground behind the cat out of frost and the read as follows.

Put the man down Mia i can't switch back forms but i can still help this man before my cat nap.

Natsu's eyes lit up thinking that it was an awsome power to have.  

[zepherion]

Although the situation wasn't the brightest, Mia couldn't help but smiled. She laid the man carefully on the ground before Nakhti. She crouched down beside him.

"Will my husband be okay?" The old woman was strong. She did not cry at all at her husband's state. The only trace of negative emotion was the way her eyebrows creased in worry.

(Sorry if the bottom part of my post sounds a bit weird. My class is doing shakespeare and we just finished MacBeth so I'm kinda....in the habit, I guess.)  

[NakhtiChaos]

The words in frost changed on the ground to respond to the woman.

Its not a mortal blow so i can heal this though this guy is lucky if you guys were five minutes later he would be dead.

Beside Nakhti a single red potion formed on the ground. The cork sealing it covered in frost and was pulled out. Then a hand of ice formed and gently pried the mans mouth open then slowly the potion frosted and floated to the man and was gently and slowly poured into the man's mouth to prevent chokeing. The words in frost changed again.

This man will take three hours to heal. When he wakes up give him water he will be thirsty as hell.

Nakhti continued to give the man the whole potion before discarding the empty potion and falling over cat tail twitching as the ice magic receeded. The words on the ground changed again.

Night night.

Nakhti drifted to sleep and once again Natsu picked up Nakhti gently in his arms and held him close.  

[Dartmoor]

"You want to make yerself useful?" Katan picked up right on the shapeshifter's question. "Then bring over that merc and yer friends so we can be off to Ruby. It's time to make the rich see that their coin isn't all-powerful like their rule of their caravans. Doubtful that it'll give em much more change of heart than that."

Grabbing a rope end, he assisted Fukumi in tying off the opening off the net. With that done, all they had to do was rope a loop that the pheonix could grab onto to haul the fine mess away. There wasn't any room for error, as any flaw would leave the heads spilling away.

Fukumi was relying on her training as a kunoichi to press herself onward. "I'll be glad for when this is over. Enough blood has been shed for a lifetime, yet more will come. Perhaps a stop back at my village is due, if anything, to ensure that my people are still continuing in their diligence."

"And perhaps we can enlist them to protect the mountains. They are swift and ghostly. Never again should rocks rain from the sky as they did tonight. Unless we be making them rain," Katan devilishly grinned.

Aitai stayed upon the bird. She was far to young to push herself like the others. Unlike them, she didn't go through their training. Resting her head on the feathery neck, she began to doze off. As if on cue, the moment she began to sleep, her wounds began to slowly close.