Firewing

Senra:

"I wouldn't change my power. I like darkness, I mean no it's not fire or earth, or wind. But in it's own way it's more powerful. People fear the darkness, yet I love it and can control it. I don't know how to explain it, but it's just a part of me." She smiled.

"Huh, good point." He smiled a little as they kept riding.

"Took me a while to see it that way, but I'm glad I finally did." She rolled her shoulders and shifted her position in the saddle. "This is going to be a long day."

Kyle-

I rode along in silence, partly because I had nothing to say and partly because I just wanted to think. Why would someone kidnap the Elites? Or maybe more importantly, how did they kidnap the Elites? The only way I could imagine the kidnappers doing it was somehow neutralizing the Elites powers. And if they could neutralize the Elites powers would they be able to neutralize ours?

Carros, the black horse I was riding on, was also disturbed. He was still going at a constant pace which was good, but his ears were laid back and they would twitch forward ever so often. I looked over Seline to see how she was acting since she was practically an animal herself. She looked troubled also, but she was still calm.

Suddenly she looked over at me.

Seline-

I felt cold chills run down my spine, as I always did when somebody was watching me. I always knew why too: I was an animal, many, in fact, in a human body. In my village I had been branded as a demon for shifting into animals. My skills with them were legend, but it was a legend passed down to scare children into obeying their parents, not to tell a story of heroic deeds.

I lost control for a moment. My head whipped around to the person that was looking at me, my upper lip curled into a snarl.

To my surprise he didn't look away. He kept watching me, almost as if to see how I was acting. It wasn't the same way Vincent watched me, but more like somebody concerned for his own safety. My memory searched for his name. He was Kyle, the Earth mage.

I stiffened and looked ahead once more. It wouldn't make things any easier if I kept losing control like that. Still, more shivers began to run down my spine. Magic. There was magic in the air.

Survival kicked in, and my ears changed to the hyper-sensitive ears of a bat. The whistle of an arrow as it was slid out of a quiver, followed by the soft knock as the arrow was put to the string. The creak of a bow being drawn....

"Look out!" I managed to yell before my body took eagle shape. I managed to knock an arrow out of the sky that had been heading towards on of our group.

I felt the magic from the trainees spread out to fend off any attackers. Still, there was one more....

Seline!

I screeched at the familiar voice in my mind. It was Leena, one of the Animal Elite.

Please, land! If you stay in the air, I'll have to attack you!

I couldn't stand it. I knew my odds were against me, but if I avoided her, how could I ever find out what was causing her to fight against me?

Land! The cry was more frantic now. I could see her coming over the horizon.

I circled, flying slightly higher. No. If I'm ever to find out what's imprisoning you, I'll have to face you.

I could see her clearly now. She was an eagle, like me. You still have time to escape! Her voice was farther now, like she was trying to seal herself off from me.

I knew I had to draw her away from the others. They had their hands full with whoever had tried to capture the Elite.

You want me to escape? I jeered. Then catch me if you can!

With that I put on a burst of speed, louring her away from the others.

Robin

My head snapped up, seeing Seline fly up into the air. An arrow was aimed straight for us, but she knocked it off course. I could see two bird-like silhouettes in the sky, one of them shooting off towards the treeline. The other quickly followed, and soon, the two were lost in the trees.

Turning away from them, I saw a pair of eyes in the bushes. They were red and unblinking, watching us. I gasped; they were just like Jethra's. The dull scarlet gaze swept over the group, and before I could find out what it was searching for, they disappeared. A loud grunt caught my attention, and I saw somebody get off their horse, brandishing a weapon. Who was it? I couldn't tell.

I scrambled off my horse, Fraed, and hastily reached for my knife. At least I wouldn't be helpless if I got attacked. I wouldn't want to be a burden. Again.

Cale

Cale looked shocked as Seline suddenly shot into the air and made for the treeline, drawing an elite with her. It seemed their enemies had anticipated their coming, and had been able to bend the elites in the short time they'd been given. He didn't think any of them was ready for this, they were all just trainees, and the elites had years of experience in combat behind them. With a sense of creeping gloom, Cale found himself thinking that they had no chance of surviving this battle.

But the sudden realisation hit him that this wasn't the same. As Vincent had said, the elites weren't going to attack them unless they had no other choice, and they wouldn't attack with their full powers if they had to. We're more or less on a level playing ground here...

He could still see, which meant Senra's teacher, Keren, couldn't be here yet. Nor could his father or the other Light elite. And if he knew anything about the Light elites, the kidnappers were probably having a hard time getting them to cooperate at all. He imagined Keren was much the same, he'd have to be if he'd argued with Cale's father as many times as the man had claimed.

But there were others here. His training had included recognising the sounds of weapons being drawn nearby, and he heard the ring of metal as swords were being drawn off to his left. He dragged his own long sword free and, with a yell, leapt off his horse and charged towards the source of the sound. Young he may have been, but most adults didn't go through the training of a Firewing swordsman, so he was almost certainly superior to whoever he was about to fight. A solid thirteen years of training assured that.

The first Rasdont soldier he came up against didn't stand a chance, laughing at the boy he was facing. He swung his sword in a lazy arc, only to grunt in surprise as Cale blocked it with ease and forced both swords up, spinning a full turn on his heel and he stepped inside the man's guard and drove a dagger between the plates of the soldier's armour.

Senra

Senra felt her horse shift under her uneasily.

"Hush." She whispered softly. She looked at a group of archers and bit her lower lip.

Think of darkness, then push it towards your target. Momentary blindness for your enemy can give you an advantage that will do you much good. Karen's voice said in her head. She closed her eyes and gathered darkness around just her body then opened her eyes again. In the darkness she could still see clearly, others couldn't. She carefully pulled the small mass of black from around her and slowly moved it towards the archers. It looked like a person gliding across the air towards someone. Don't forget, sense you can make it move fast yet that you better get under cover, once your enemy's see the black, they'll try and take you out.

She slipped off her horse and quickly hid behind it watching the black move a little faster as she concentrated.

Vincent froze. Seline had taken off in a hurry, followed by an elite the same size and shape of eagle as she had become. Senra was willing darkness towards the group of Rasdont soldiers, Cale head on attacking them, and Robin desperately trying to avoid getting hit. But here was Vincent, the new found leader of the group, the top spy in the Firewing's whole entire force, and frozen atop his horse while watching his comrades fight to protect him.

Shaking his head, he reached into his saddle bag and gripped one of his long knives, preparing to jump off his horse as soon as Robin moved out of his way. He wasn't about to let all of these trainee's know of his one, great weakness. And he especially wasn't about to let these soldiers from Rasdont know.

Jumping off his stallion, Vincent bounded towards Cale's side. It wasn't as if Cale needed any help, but Vincent only bore one long knife against thirty some odd soldiers. It would be smart to fight with Cale.

Lifting his knife in the air and cracking the marble hilt of it on a soldiers head, Vincent froze once more as the blow caused the man to fall. Staring down at his lifeless body, Vincent knew this man had a family somewhere. He had someone who loved him, someone who awaited his journey home. Vincent snapped out of his trance as two men came rushing at him, swords high in the air.

In a quick movement he dodged them both, managing to slit the throat of the first, but was soon overcome by the second. Blocking his attacks with his knife, Vincent cursed for having been too preoccupied with silly things. Normally he was better than this.

Cursing even louder as he noticed the distance between he and Cale, Vincent lost control of his knife, and the blow from the sword of his attacker sent it sprawling into the trunk of a tree beside him. Unarmed and without adequate armor, Vincent saw the smug look on the man's face as he thought he had him. Vincent, though, thought otherwise.

Leaping into the air above the swordsman's next swing, Vincent grabbed the branch of a tree above him and swung his legs at his attacker, sending him sprawling backwards. A goods swordsman; he had managed to keep his blade in his hand. Letting go from the branch, Vincent straightened himself and nodded his head towards the plate covered soldier who struggled to get up.

Vincent had become too cocky. From behind him he heard another sword unsheath, and without warning he felt the tip of a steel blade running down his back, forcing his skin open. Grunting in agony, Vincent ignored the searing fury of his newly acquired wound and turned to face the other solider; she was a lady with a devilish grin painted on her lips. Her long sword stood poised, blood dripping from the tip. Grinning, Vincent bent over, pretending his wound was getting the better of him.

"And so, the hunter becomes the hunted," the girl said, lifting her sword to stab him through the heart. Silly girl.

Vincent quickly dropped onto his back on the ground and swung his feet into her legs, knocking her over. Unable to stand back up, he was overply pleased when he saw the darkness rush over her and take her body. It did the same for the other man, who had still been struggling to get onto is feet.

Lying on the ground, Vincent found himself in blazing pain. Unable to get up, he stayed on the ground as the battle still waged around him.

--

Okay, I left it open for the battle to still go on ^_^ I hope I used your characters enough in my post, and to your satisfaction. Also, Robin -- Vincent has a phobia with taking his shirt off in front of people. I'm sure that to heak him, that's exactly what he'll have to do. So you know what to do to make it a very interesting scene

Robin-

I held my hand up to ease the glaer of the sun, also wiping the sweat from my forehead. Maybe a trivial thing to do in a battle, but I was getting quite uncomfortable. I lowered my arm, ready to get back to (attempting to) fight. Just as I was about to leap into thr fray, my eyes caught the spy, Vincent, lying on the ground, a pool of red around him. My eyes widened, and I raced towards him, drawing up my sleeve on the way.

"Vincent, are you okay?" I asked.

"Do I look okay to you?" he grunted. I winced, and looked at his back. The wound was quite deep, and it looks like he needed more than just the stnadard herb and bandages. I grit my teeth.

"Okay, I'm just going to take your shirt off and then-"

"No!" He glared at me, and tried to get away. I restrained a yelp and quickly drew back my hand. He had such a fierce look on his face that it made me want to just sit in a corner.

"Is s-something wrong?" I asked, trying not to back down.

"Don't do it," he said, a dark tone in his voice. I bit my lower lip; I didn't know what to do. Vincent was intimidating, and he seemed to not want to take his shirt off. But at the same time, he needed treatment.

Jethra, what would you have done?

Cale

Cale was in his element, his right hand a blur as he swung his long sword in a mixture of feints and blocks. His left hand was doing most of the real work, however, a short sword he'd taken from one of the soldiers darting about as they directed their attention to what they perceived to be the greater threat.

Vincent had been at his side for a time, but Cale had lost sight of him maybe a minute ago. He couldn't turn to look now either, not in the mess he was in. Soldiers surrounded him on all sides and his arms were starting to get tired. Shifting the focus of his concentration was the last thing he could do now.

And then, mercifully, Senra acted. What appeared to be blobs of shadow moved in around him and attached themselves to the soldiers, blinding them. They became frenzied , lashing out indiscriminately for fear that he might kill them. He dropped to the ground to avoid them as they seemed to fall on each other, the sudden fear that they might be alone with Cale making them forget the presence of their own comrades.

He crawled, avoiding stamping feet and the flashing blades of swords, until he reached the edge of the fray. He could see a woman turning slow circles, sword extended and swinging out every now and again as she tried to pull away the shadow that had attached itself to her face.

Vincent was lying nearby, blood staining his shirt. From what Cale could see, Robin was trying to attend to him, but Vincent was pushing her away. "Need some help?" He asked.

"He won't let me take his shirt off so I can deal with his cuts." She said.

Cale nodded, “I should be able to help with that.” He took a step closer to Vincent, not realizing that the spy might have a valid reason for keeping his shirt on.

*** Sorry that I haven't been posting. I kinda forgot.. Hehe***

Sasha

Eyes shimmering, she pelted each soldier with bullet-like thorns, which went through their armour every time. She wrapped some of them in thorns and squeezed the life out of them.

Suddenly, she heard a screeching as Seline fought with the other eagle. She was doing very well until the Elite eagle used her talons to wound one of Seline's wings. She tumbled downward.

"Guys! She is going down!" Sasha shouted. She used the undergrowth to glide her forward quickly. Deep inside of the forest. Seline had crashed into the middle of a clearing. She knelt down to Seline, who had returned to normal form. She had a deep gash in her arm and she was unconscious. Sasha knelt down and held her in her arms. She had come quite close to her, especially since Sasha was nature, and Seline was animals.

*Uh, Billy? Robin is male*

Robin-

"Uh, I- Thanks," I said, not sure what to say to the Swordsman. His name was Cale, I think. Vincent, still on the ground, was very aware of what we were trying to do. He growled and tried to move out of the way, before exhaustion set in. I grimaced; this was not an ideal situation. "He needs to be restrai..." My voice trailed away as Vincent shot me another glare.

"No problem," Cale said. He deftly grabbed Vincent's arms and held them down to the ground, doing the best he could to immobilize his legs. Vincent still thrashed about, trying to get free. Taking a breath to steel myself, I got ready to remove his shirt. Just as I reached a hand down, I heard a shout from Sasha. I whirled around, trying desperately to keep Vincent from moving.

"What was that?" Cale asked. I bit my lower lip again, almost drawing blood.

"Someone else got injured. But I have to treat Vincent first." I reached down once more, but Vincent kept squirming. I frowned.

"Vincent, you need to stay still," I said. He paid no attention to me and continued to move. I frowned. There was only one solution, and Vincent was definitely going to hate me for it. I opened my pouch, looking for that one- Yes! There it was. Valerian would slow him down for a while. Hopefully, Cale would get him to a safe place.

"Uh, Cale? Could you get him to drink some of this? Not too much," I quickly added, handing him the vial. Cale took the valerian and nodded. I watched as Cale finally got Vincent to drink it, though it took a while. Once Vincent had taken enough, I signalled for Cale to stop. "That's enough."

Waiting for the Valerian to take effect, I tok my knife and made a cut across me palm. The blood bubbled up, nearly spilling over the edges. A drop or two hit the grass, but I paid no attention to it. Vincent's movements were getting more sluggish, so I motioned to Cale that he could let go of Vincent now. He did so, and I could remove Vincent's shirt. He made to swat my hands away, but I managed to do it. The look he shot me told me that I would be in trouble later, but I tried to focus on the task at hand.

The gash was worse than I imagined. Vincent made the situation worse by moving around, so it would be even more difficult to treat it. I glanced at the blood in my cupped hand, and determined it would be enough. Telling myself it was going to be okay, I smeared it across the wound. The pain would be a bit dulled to Vincent, so he would only notice a slight burning sensation. It wouldn't affect him that much, I hoped.

The wound began to close up, and I could see that my job was done. I looked at him, and handed Cale Vincent's shirt. "Uh, if you can dress him again, that would be good. And he'll be a bit dizzy, so he isn't in best condition to fight," I told him. Cale nodded, and he brought Vincent away. Sighing, I looked around. I knew I saw Seline crash down somewhere near here...

Seline-

Strings of memories flooded my mind. I had managed to enter Leena's mind, even though it had been well guarded. By now her mind was more animal the human, and I had managed to make her leave. Leena had had just enough power to wound me before hand, a cut that I figured would go down to the bone in my human form.

I pushed the memories away, aided by pain that spread through my whole body. Thankfully the grass had been long; I couldn't feel any broken bones.

"Over here Robin!" Shouted a semi-familiar voice. I stirred, feeling my upper body above the ground. Still too weary to open my eyes, I could only moan softly as I was lowered to the ground.

"You're okay," the same voice said.

I managed to push through the pain and open my eyes. One of the Nature trainees, Sasha, was kneeling next to me. She was the only one who had ever found me in the forest in my human form. The other trainees had always been too slow. I couldn't remember if I had ever talked to her, but I realized that her presence was the only thing keeping me human. After the fall, my mind was completely open to the animals around me. It wouldn't take me long to close my mind again, but, for now, I needed somebody near me to remember who I was.

Robin soon came into sight. "How is she?" He answered his own question with one look at my arm. I barely felt him touching me, since I was almost numb from pain. I closed my eyes, just wanting it to be over.

Senra:

Senra closed her eyes a little and reached out to more shadows pulling them to her power.

"Senra, watch out!" Cale yelled at her. She looked around and then looked back up. The animal Elite was flying towards her.

She has to. But if you blind her, keep her where she can't move hten they can't take her with them and she can be free. Senra grabbed another shadow throwing it up towards the eagle that was flying at her.

Indio

I had learned, the hard way, that there are places you can use your powers and places you can't. Being a fire trainee in the middle of a dry forest, well, needless to say that this wasn't the place to use my powers. Everything could go up in flames in a matter of seconds and nothing anyone could've done would've stopped it.

But thankfully Jaskar had taught me how to wield a small dagger for times like this. Not that it would've done me much good against trained soldiers of Rasdont with swords, but at least I could heat the blades and use the lone dagger I had as a sort of throwing knife. Once it was hot enough, I flicked it towards the nearest soldier and watched as he fell to the ground, the hilt of the dagger sticking out of one of the small slits in the armor that allowed for easier movement. Then I jumped off my horse and rushed over just in time to see the dark trainee, Senra, ease a few floating bundles of darkness towards the remaining soldiers that Vincent or the swordsman, Cale, hadn't taken out.

Swords began swinging randomly and I ducked out of the way just in time for one to go slicing through the air where my head had been. I looked around for any of the others and saw Cale and the healer, Robin I remembered his name was, kneeling over Vincent, who looked hurt. Senra was busy focusing on blinding the rest of the soldiers and only one or two other trainees were within sight.

A screech sounded from above and both Senra and I turned at the same time to see a lone eagle diving towards the ground. The animal Elite. Senra shut her eyes for a moment before another shadow detached itself from a nearby tree and covered the eagle completely. It screeched again but, unable to see anything, flapped frantically to gain altitude again and get above the treeline.

With Senra momentarily distracted, the shadows blinding the soldiers melted away as through made from a fine mist. They all looked around to get their bearings and the ones who had not fallen to the wildly swinging swords of the others towards the rest of us that still remained. I heated my dagger again so that it was glowing with a soft light and flicked it again into the soldier nearest to Senra. If she lost concentration on the darkness blinding the animal Elite, there was no telling what could happen.

I looked around for any sign of help as I raced over to the fallen soldier to retrieve my dagger. Bending down to retrieve it, I felt the cold metal of a sword force its way under my chin, pressing painfully into the exposed skin of my neck but not hard enough the draw blood. I looked from the shining metal upwards to an armored arm, and from there to the grinning face of a soldier.

Robin-

Seline's cut looked nasty. Thankfully, my palm was still bleeding so I didn't have to make another cut. That'd be wasting time. I tested Seline's arm, but she pulled away. I frowned; the situation just kept getting worse. It looked like the bone had been grazed. If I used just the blood, the skin might close before the inner wounds were healed. Guess the Goldenseal, Jatoba, and Sagebrush would have to do, for the time being.

Grabbing bandages, I prepared the herbs for use. Seline looked to be in bad condition; I might have to give her some Night Jasmine if she had a fever. Once the herbs were in place, I bandaged it tightly, just as Jethra taught me. I wish he were here right now. He could probably handle the situation better than I could. Shrugging off those thoughts for now, I checked the arm once more.

"She should be fine. I need to replace the bandages soon, and maybe seal the wound in a few days," I said. Sasha, the nature trainee, looked up and nodded.

"Right. I'll watch her." Getting up, I nodded. I was pretty sure that Sasha and Seline would be fine; we were in a forest. Sasha would be able to take care of the both of them. Hopefully, Cale and Vincent would be fine. I still felt bad about drugging Vincent, but it was necessary, wasn't it?

Stemming the flow of blood, I looked around for some herbs. I heard that Rasdont had some rare ones growing near it, and I might be able to find those. At the rate we were going, I would probably run out of them soon. A cry of "Look out!" reached my ears, and I turned around, seeing the shadow of a person fall across the grass. Instinctively, I rolled out of the way, but not quick enough. The downward headed sword caught he across the side, and I yelped out. It hurt, but I tried my best to scramble up. My knife, where was my knife!

The soldier wickedly smiled at me, sword glinting in the light. From the reflection, I could see that Sasha was busy with her own soldier, and Seline wasn't in any condition to fight. I knew I was shaking, but I tried my best to control it. Stop shaking, don't panic. Don't panic. Don't panic... My hands reached down, hoping to find the cold metal handle of the oh so familiar knife. It wasn't there. I gulped. And then ran.