Retro-Dragon Presents- Flycoren: Kausim

Blinking at the arrow still in the fletch she wasn’t sure if she was in shock or in pure panic, but with how fast everyone leapt to there positions, she her lulled was frozen in time.
“Twenty of them?” she leaned a little out of the wagon to watch Hunter disappear into the brush like a ghost. Biting and chewing on her bottom lip, why didn’t she feel like they were safe with the four of them running around in the thicket? Her and Khondis were sitting ducks and she could feel the sweat rolling down her back telling her that there lives were close to forfeit.
She had never been trained with any sort of weapon, sure she could use them in a sense to test there ability and balance but in a real fight, she was useless and fully aware of it.
Standing up quickly in the box of the wagon – making it rock back and forth- she continued to chew on her lip while nimble fingers dug in the small pocket that had been sewn into the top flap of her shirt. Dropping to her knees with the thin picks in her hands, she let out a panicked groan, “I am going to die for this by whose hands I am not sure!”
Not waiting for him to give her permission to touch him, she put her gloved hands on one of his wrists turning the shackle to push the thieves’ tools into the lock. “You had better make sure no one dies other than the men who are apparently chasing you!” she warned working feverishly until she could hear the tumblers of the lock unclasping. One shackle down!
Swatting his freed hand aside to take up the second shackle still clasped around his wrist, Wyllow was just silently gleeful for keeping the ill tools Master Roris hated. It had been a long time since she played with such locks, but she had pried into some Casbael locks before. Though she was lucky that the ones on Khondis were basic mechanics, they were generic and simple. Perfect.
The second shackle dropped off as she looked to the lone center lock that held the pair of shackles to his legs. It only took a moment, before they clattered against the wooden planks of the wagon. Whipping her hair back from her face, she pointed to the carefully wrapped up Tondris under the bench where she and Hunter had been sitting. “Well, you go on about being skilled and all, then go and prove it!”

Khondis stretched his wrists as Wyllow worked at his ankles. “Well,” Khondis blinked slightly impressed, “that’s a promise I can keep.” Suddenly she was very useful. “You’re just a little thief girl, aren’t you? At least you were before Roris came around,” He prodded with a smirk. Reaching over he pulled back the burlap to reveal the glimmering blade. Gritting his teeth he smiled widely. “’Bout damn time I got to make some heads roll, I was starting to think I was being a pansy letting all of you walk all over me.” Leaping out of the wagon he looked back at Wyllow.
“Are you going to stay in there? I doubt you’ll be safe, they’re going to think I’m still in there. But if you’re going to cower, then I suppose it won’t make a difference, your choice.” Khondis knitted his brows together as his flicked the tip of his blade, “Wyllow.”

She blushed some at the statement of truth that Khondis said. “Never mind what I was before master Roris,” she waved it aside as she watched in wonderment as he peered over the sword.
Such a remarkable sword and yet it seemed so desired by everyone. There was a lot to that sword that was beginning to gnaw at her.
Hearing his words about staying in the wagon, she looked around before she frowned sadly at the comment of cowering. What else could she do, he already stated how useless she was.
She turned some before she shook her head. “Go, I’ll be fine.”

Khondis sighed. “I can’t believe this…” He shook his head before chuckling under his breath. “Look, get out here, if I’m going to be stuck with you, you’re going to learn to fight, and you’re only going to learn one way. I don’t need you dying; unfortunately you might be the one person who would make me feel guilty if you weren’t to survive, not to mention I’d have an entire group of people way worse than the knaves on top of me.” Khondis placed a hand on his hip. “If you really want me to live then you may as well help me. The trouble is only just beginning if you stick with me.” Almost choking on his words he couldn’t believe he was asking for help from her. He must have really gone out of his mind.
But he wouldn’t be able to handle it if she wasn’t willing to learn how to at the very least defend herself; he wasn’t exactly feeling energetic enough to save her hide over and over again, especially when he knew that this was going to be far more than a frequent visit from his friends…

Her mouth dropped open as she gawked at him, what did he just said. She was killed, arrow straight to her head, wasn’t she. He didn’t just ask for her help… did he? The man was crazier than she ever thought. Her eyes were unblinking as she couldn’t help but stare agape at him. Her mind couldn’t process the words, but somehow she had heard every word.
Giving herself a firm shake, she pushed herself to her feet to hop out as she inched herself away from him. He was sick or she was sick. Delirious, hallucinating, something!
“Stick with you?” A single eye narrowed while the second was still wide at him. “You licked a toad didn’t you?” she pointed at him before opening her hands some with a pout of a lip. “Alright… I don’t know if I actually heard you say all that, but… what do I have to lose? What’s the plan then?”

Khondis rubbed his chin with the back of his hand. “Don’t read too much into it, alright? You saved my ass, and I’m not a complete jerk. We’re even right now as far as it stands, and I don’t want to save you again and throw that off balance. So you better keep up.” Khondis motioned her out of the wagon. “And who said there was a plan? I’m lucky to know the next second of my life half the time. Though, I’m open to suggestions if you have a plan. I was just going to chop some heads off, and if I happened to accidentally miss and hit Hunter and hurt him, I would accidentally feel sorry for him.” Khondis rolled his eyes.

She stared at him before she slapped a hand to her face, “How can you not have a plan! You can’t simply go about hacking and slashing like some barbarian and especially if you [i]accidentally[/i] hit Hunter. You won’t escape the vengeance of Guardian Rera you fool!” Wyllow shook her head vigorously.

Moving around the wagon as she jumped out, she tapped her foot. “We need to get them in one spot, all of them and since it is clear they want you over anything else.” Wyllow pointed to him, “You can be the bait. Lets round them up like they were nothing more than crazed chickens, and if you can play it cool enough and keep moving through the brush without making them all disperse then we can effectively wipe them all out in one blow.”

She put a fist into her other hand, “One strike less effort. You are a chaos so you should be able to move through the jungle like the wind itself and if I have it correct you can sense them other before they see you. So you can know if they are escaping while knowing where the elites are and now Hunter.” She hummed softly, “I’d say leave one alive so he or she can run back to their superiors to let them know what went down, but I hardly believe that will make a difference. It will be better, gods forbid- that there complete deaths are the only way to bring a mild enlightenment of peace. That way we can get the hell out of Sitra with a head start and perhaps with this, receive a pardon from Guardian Rera that is if you don’t destroy Hunter.”

“I’m not really looking for pardon from the Guardian, she’s just a pain in my ass, and has been for a very long time. But if I must play by your rules, if your plan means pissing them all off so they come after me, I’m very good at that. I can’t be sure that I’ll spare anyone; they caught me on a really bad day. Let’s go.”

Khondis rushed into the bush, his ears peaked as he looked around, bringing up his blade an arrow deflected off of his sword. “So you’re the jerk-off shooting crap at me,” Khondis glanced back at Wyllow. “You really should be shooting at her; she’s got no way of defending herself!” Khondis nodded towards her. As a hooded man studied the two from a great distance, he did in fact seem to change his target. “Wyllow, duck into the bushes!” Khondis grunted. Without hesitation Khondis swooped into the thickets and did a roundabout on a large tree, jumping up onto a low branch he pulled a vine and swept across to another tree, in what seemed an instant he had gone fifty feet and was now on top off the hooded bowman. The sword sliced through him smoothly, and with one fell swipe the man was gone.
Pulling off his hood, and the bow he turned to see if Wyllow had tried to catch up. “Put these on, the other men are headed this way- you’re going to lead them to me- so I hope you can sound manly.” He waited for a response from the bushes, “Wyllow?” He questioned.
“Stop acting like a moron Khondis! Casbael owns damn near everything and you should be looking for a pardon after all this! Rera is the worst of the worst for guardians!” she warned him, “Pain in your ass, you will be nothing more than a meal for her if you keep that up!”
Following headfast into the bushes, she let out a gasp of surprise at seeing the deflected arrow bouncing from his sword only to hear what he spoke up to the man in the tree. “Me!” Wyllow cried as she couldn’t believe he was doing that to her. Though watching the man nock another arrow, she quickly and happily obliged in diving into the bushes, though the thorns she could have done without.
Squirming and trying to fix herself from being jabbed everywhere, she missed the spectacle of Khondis leaping his way upwards into the tree only to dispatch the man as if he was nothing more than air itself.
She had wormed her way out of the brush while picking some of the thorns from her skin as she caught up to Khondis. She looked up to him as he tossed the clothing and bow down to her. “Oh if you come down from there, I am going to plant my foot so far up your ass you will have a nose bleed!” she snapped at him. She didn’t enjoy feeling like a nature pincushion.
She pulled the hood on and strapped the bow over her side as she huffed at him. “Manly you say,” Wyllow doubted she could but she figured she had to try. Swallowing hard, she made a rather pathetic attempt at sound gruff as she wrinkled her nose. “Oh how on earth is this going to work? What do you want me to do in this?” she lifted her hands up in defeat, “Go up to them and be like, Hey man, check it out.” she gave a slide of a shrug, “I seen the smug little bastard of a chaos elf lurking over in them bushes, i think we could ambush him.” she sounded like a prepubescent teenager, before she gave a snort. “Khondis what to you want me to do?”

“Come now, you can sound more convincing than that!” He stated after his boots thumped against the soft ground from jumping off the tree branch. Standing up tall he looked at the hooded Wyllow. “Just trust me, you don’t need to do much, just chase me, you’re so loud through the forest they’ll be able to hear you, if they heard me making noise they wouldn’t really fall for it. They’ve been following me for a long time and would know better. They have no clue as to who you are, nor have they ever seen you. And once they see your hooded disguise they’ll follow. Once they get that close I’ll lure them into the open, I’m sure Hunter and those devil girls won’t be far behind. Now let’s do this before they see me talking to you. My brain hurts from thinking about this already.
Khondis wrapped his hand tight around his blade, pulling it from his scabbard once more. Leaves whistles as he rushed through the bushes, here was going to be a real test for Wyllow, he thought. She may not be a fighter, but she was going to damn well learn before the end of today! Khondis wrinkled his nose as he looked over his shoulder, he could hear her quite distantly now, definitely didn’t have the ability to walk the forest at a quick pace. In no time he found himself having to slow his pace no to lose her. “Come on now…” He mumbled, “This isn’t going to be very convincing at this rate. And exactly why I don’t make plans…” He mumbled under his breath. He could feel the presence of many others around, and some closing in on him and Wyllow. He had no doubt that they could hear the disturbance in the forest. They were all well trained trackers, picking up leads from the smallest foot prints, and able to read broken branches and listening to the birds and other animals as hints.
It was for that reason that he was far from ever shaking them and losing them after all these years. And he knew the only reason he was still alive was because of the sword within his grasp. He didn’t know how many countless times he had to rely on it, but he feared its power. Khondis had no choice; he needed to learn how to control it.
Stopping dead center in a meadow his ears flicked as he waited. The sound of wind rustled the long grasses. Closing his eyes he took a deep breath. He could feel as his sword began to vibrate with anticipation. “Don’t fail me Wyllow,” he whispered.

She huffed to him still feeling very apprehensive to his idea, but she was coming up very short on any better ones, plus she doubted any that she did come up with, would appease his majesty.
Moving through the thick brush put her completely out of her element, she was certain the men that were tracking Khondis were going to see through this guise. Her feet founds more roots, tangled grass and anything else possible as arms flailed wildly at every given chance. She was not built for this! Anything but this, how she was already beginning to miss the thick cling of metal sot and fire touching her skin as slick sweat petered along her neck. This was horrible, who would want to live in a atmosphere?
Keeping her foul mouth at the moment locked up behind gritted teeth, Wyllow huffed hard as eyes of brown seen the tall ecchial male stopping dead in the meadow clearing as she only found her own curiosity sparking. Why was he stopping, after all that this was where he was planning on stopping his [i]chase[i/i]?
Slapping a low hanging branch out of her face, she squared her shoulders in a attempt to make the swagger of a man reach her graces. It was clear she was not meant for the life of play and pretends, even if it meant ones life.
Sensitive tapered ears flicked through the hooded cowl as she turned slightly to see the pilfer of a wooden shaft come barging through the dark cover of the forest, making her heart jump into her throat. Was this really what he wanted!

Ears flicked, time seemed to slow down, the energy wrapped around the arrow as it whistled through the air allowed him to hone in on it’s movement. Fluently without thinking he pulled around allowing the sword to come up over his chest. The arrow glanced off the hardened blade. Before another moment he leapt into the air as at least a dozen more arrows penetrated the mossy meadow.
Landing on the soft ground he spun around grasping the sword with both hands, deflecting another arrow. He could see three hooded beings charging in towards him. He had never had this many people on him at once, he could feel his head pounding from the intensity he could sense all around him. sweat trickled down the back of his neck leaving chills down his spine.
Ducking out of the way just in time he felt arrows whistle over his head, one of the hooded men cast the arrow aside as a dagger glinted in the sunlight. Khondis swivelled around and brought his leg in a fell swoop, the hooded man leapt up over his head and slashed at his neck. Pulling back he felt the sharpened tip graze his forehead. stitching his eyebrows together at the stinging sensation he stood upright once again to block the second attack of the assaulter. The second hooded rival was now upon him as he struggled to deflect both attacks.
His breath was jagged, but the sound of blades ringing through the air was constant and loud. He wasn’t allowing them to break into his venerable zones, despite the two of them and their constant onslaught. All of the sudden the third man came from above in a downwards attack. Khondis pressed hard with his heals to clear out, he moved so quickly his body didn’t have a chance to catch up, and he almost lost balance several feet from the three men.

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