Greed. Need. Fame. [Full :)]

Nadia

I look back at Ten, eating the meat that has already begun cooking.

"You're very brave to eat that right off the spit. I have to have my meat cooked leather brown." I said to him smiling a little. "And Micah's just teaching me some things. I'm a little to small to defend myself properly so this gentleman is going to help solve that problem. You--you're welcome to watch." I called back at Ten's slowly retreating figure.

I turn back to Micah's lesson. Hoping I didn't hurt his feelings. I just didn't want too many people knowing what I am capable of.

"Just watch. Balance, of course, depends a lot on the make of the knife or dagger in question. Yours, for example, is well-made for both close-combat and throwing, as the weight of the blade is a perfect counterbalance for the handle. Precision is more complicated," He is saying. I nod slowly and position my body towards the tree and throw it with a little too much force, letting my torso follow through. I hit the ground just behind the tree.

"Dammit." I growled stalking over the get the knife. I did it again. Same results. I turned to Micah, face red.

"Could you...show me again?" I ask smiling under the blush.

Micah,

I can tell that she's frustrated, and as I glance at the rest of our group, I can tell that they're stirring, getting ready for the day ahead. Let's get through this quickly.

"Why are you so tense?" I ask, frowning, "Didn't I say you need the relaxation?"

I get behind Nadia, positioning her arms just so, extremely aware of how close our bodies are. Even as I do so, I see the root of the problem: her shoulders are wound as tight as a drum. I sigh.

"You've got to relax, Nadia,"

"But I a-" Before she can finish, I start rubbing her shoulders and back, getting the muscles to release. I hear her small gasp of surprise.

I grin, "Now, doesn't that feel better? Try again."

Nadia

Ten seemed to have stopped for a moment, turning to look back at us. Maybe he would stay. I really didn't want to hurt his feelings. Espessially he was one of the only people I had seen on this island that actually frightened me. He seemed sweet, but I had seen how quickly that could change. I gave him a little wave. Before turning, frustrated back to Micah.

"You've got to relax, Nadia," Micah says, sounding a little exhasperated. I roll my eyes. It's hard when I am trapped on an island with strangers and an opposing team that plans on killing us. But I got myself into this.

"But I a--" I start to argue but before I could finish Micah had come up behind me and started rubbing my back and shoulders. I inhaled sharply but I could feel my muscles relaxing.

"Now, doesn't that feel better? Try again." Micah's says after finishing, sounding a little smug. My face matches my hair and stick out my bottom lip.

"How do you expect me to concentrate when you do shite like that." I mumble. Ten was most definetley watching us now, who else was awake? But we had to get this done quickly. I turned and positioned myself more like he had, eyeing the spot just above the branches on the trunk. More of an easy shot but I needed practice. I threw the knife, now relaxed and concentrated. It hit a little lower than intended, but it still embedded its self in the bark. I cried out and danced over to the knife pulling it out and then tossing it again into the next one. Laughing I pulled it out and walked back over to Micah. Beaming.

" I did it! Kind of. But It still hit!"

Micah,

I smile, "Yeah! You got much better! Now, just remember to relax, even in a fight, and you should be good,"

Nadia smiles back, "I sure hope so."

We gaze at each other for perhaps longer than is strictly necessary, and then I turn away, blushing.

"It looks like the boar's almost done cooking," I mumble, turning away, but Nadia grabs my arm.

"Micah," she says, "I--I--" She stammers.

"Yeah?" I ask quietly, turning back. Which is when an arrow whistles out of the trees, burying itself deep into the sand at my feet. Instantly, we both whirl around.

"We're under attack!" I bellow, drawing my longswords.

Nadia

I smiled and looked up at Micah. He returned the stare and it went on, a little too long. I lowered my gaze and he turned.

"It looks like the boar's almost done cooking." He says turning away and walking towards the smell of food from the shelter. I grabbed his arm, I needed to thank him...at lease. I needed to tell him...something.

"Micah," I stammer, "I--I--" An arrow whizzes over my head and lands in the sand in front of Micah. Another flies and buries it's self in the soft wood of a tree by my side. Maybe being small and hard to hit would be beneficial.

"We're under attack!" Micah screams pulling out his weapons. I draw on the two double edged daggers and hold them firmly. I take shelter behind a tree and watch nervously at Micah. I caught his eye and nodded at him. Not an hour ago we had made a pact to protect each other. And I would keep to that promise. He nodded back.

A man steps out of the bushes near the tree I am behind. I look him up and down and not recognizing him as one of our own I slide the blade into his stomach and draw up sharply. He falls to the ground and I feel a pool of warm fluid gather at my boot. I step back but stay against the tree. I could use my newly developed throwing skills (if you could call them that just yet) when I had to. But now I would stick with the close work.

Micah,

I grit my teeth as I quickly duck behind a tree, in case any more arrows come. Everyone else in the camp is fully awake now, drawing weapons, loading guns, and preparing for what will be the first of many battles to come, I fear. Nadia and I share another look: we will protect each other, whatever it takes. I can see Ten, metal battle-claws glinting on his fingers, Dill, drawing his guns, and Mavrick pulling out his throwing star. Grimly, I turn back to the direction that the arrows were coming from, just in time to see Nadia knife the man coming out of the bushes. Blood spurts at her feet. She looks at me with a hardened expression. I nod, and step out from behind the tree. I will stand and fight.

Quite suddenly, people are streaming out of the trees, at least 10 of them.

"What the hell," I mutter, "Their team is fucking huge!"

I meet the broadsword of a burly teen with both of my blades, causing sparks to fly in the air.

Nadia

I counted quickly. Nine, ten, eleven. Eleven people had come swarming out of our woods and I was tired and grumpy and not in the mood. I could see the people behind us, the people of our camp rousing and coming forward to a fight. All their weapons at the ready. I only hoped these people were as stupid as the last one I had killed.

They aren't people. Just animals, just like animals, just like that boar that was killed I have to defend myself. My first kill on the island had happened so suddenly I couldn't quite comprehend it just yet and I liked it that way. I stepped out from behind the tree, praying that Dill and his gun were close behind. Praying that he had enough ammo. A nasty looking girl whirled towards me and managed to cut my shoulder, clean through my shirt and deep into my skin. I shrieked and lunged at her, the blade of my knife sunk into her thigh. Not a direct kill. Not even enough to kill. If I could get to her neck she could bleed out.

I jumped forward again and this time hit her in the stomach. She managed to clip my side and I hissed in pain but would not let it be as known again. I became lost in my own personal combat. I had to end this girl soon. I promised to protect Micah first but proving my loyalty (at least for now) to the other was imperative. I swung once more. this time relaxing, letting my torso follow through with the arc of the blade.

The sharp metal dragged it's self across nameless woman's throat. She was done. I turned looked for Micah. There he was, his longsword swinging against that of a adolescent boy. He didn't appear to need my help. Not yet. Two down. Nine to go. An

Effy Culpepper

I watched as Micah and Nadia made their "treaty". I nearly fell asleep again until I heard an arrow whiz past by me, and towards a tree. What the hell? I noticed swarms of people coming, fully armed. I resche for the dagger in my boot as one of them slowly approached me, but then started sprinting towards me. I backed up, dagger in arm, and set my eyes on the man.

He whipped out an arrow and ran with it, holding it up. I start getting a bit scared, sice this was the first time dealing with this. He finally reached me and tried to stab me, until I held up my arm, blocking his arm from stabbing me. I exhaled, but noticed how stronger he was again. He knocked my dagger aside, leaving me unarmed and blocked. I watched as he holds up the arrow. It was like it's slow motion, but then I remember Wen's words.

"Put those to good use."

I took a deep breath, hoping he would be right. I kicked his leg, making him fall, and ripped the arrow out of his hands. I noticed that the dagger was right beside him, so he reached out and grabbed it, faster than me. Damn it. He dug the dagger in my arm, causing blood to seep out. I lifted the arm with the arrow and stabbed him in the stomach. I leaned against a tree, holding my arm. God it hurts.

(Sorry I've been away! Schools got me... busy. )

Micah,

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Nadia knifing her opponent, Effy dealing with the man with arrows, and Dill shooting, with Ten slashing someone into bloody chunks. However, I'm fighting for my life, and this guy is good. He's strong, which I'm not, but he's also got a good grasp on parrying and attacking. Well, I've trained since I was five. I can beat that. I parry one massive blow with my right sword, simultaneously slashing at his leg with the left. He almost blocks it, but I give him a major cut on his thigh, probably the femoral artery. Sweat is plastering my hair to my face and turning it dark, almost the color of dried blood.
The guy is weakened from the cut. He staggers now, falling under the weight of both of my swords. I see blind panic in his eyes as my swords come down, instantly severing his life. As I pull my blades out, I stagger. What have I done? I just killed an innocent man, for what? Money? Fame? What the hell? Who is this person I just killed? Did he have a loving family, a girlfriend, a little sibling?

All these thoughts are thrown away when I see another archer, cocking an arrow in our direction. Right at Nadia, to be exact.

"NO!" I bellow, swinging my swords wildly as other people assail me. I knock them aside easily. Rage has sprung out of nowhere. I will not break our pact. I will protect her.
I reach the archer, a guy, probably in his twenties, just as he lets the arrow fly. I run him through, and he falls. As I whirl around, I can see that he missed. Thank goodness.

Dill Rivanni

I should have seen this coming.

If one of the enemies built the shelter then the rest would be coming back to base, obviously. Ten was slashing away at the enemies like they were nothing, I could see a faint smile on his face, but they just kept coming, like roaches.

Everyone was fighting hard and I felt something swell inside of me, I was actually happy. Maybe they wouldn't all die soon, maybe I wouldn't have to use the bag.

I hear a few people cry out in pain and turn to look, but I'm only able to glance as my teammates grip their injuries and fight at the same time because three guys are on me and I can only fight so many people off at once. I opened my mouth in a loud yell as I pushed back three guys and put a bullet in each of their heads and quickly reloaded some more ran up to me.

"How many of these people are there," I yell to no one but myself. I glance over and Ten is smiling wide and cutting people off effortlessly. He's playing with them. "Ten, this is no time for games. Faster, okay!" The smile drops into a serious frown, a sad frown, and I hear him groan.

"But this isn't any fun."

"This isn't supposed to be fun." I turn back towards the enemies and continue fighting.

I don't know how long we kept fighting, I just knew that my limbs felt like lead and it was growing harder to swing my fist and kick out my legs but the people kept coming steadily.

Suddenly a high whistle rang in the air and the enemies stopped. I took that moment to shot down a whole round of them but they soon ran back into the woods. I waited a while until I knew they were gone and fell down onto the sand when the coast was clear. My chest heaved up and I could see Ten walking towards me slowly. He sat down next to me and starred down at me with shining eyes. I could see he was smiling again. He wasn't short of breath of even slightly troubled. I did see one cut on his cheek though, it was leaking blood down his face, but he didn't seem phased by it.

Everyone was around catching their breathe and wiping sweat and blood of their bodies.

"Well, did everyone survive the first attack? No casualties, I hope? Any serious injuries?" I had a few scrapes, bruises, and cuts myself. One particularly painful wound was going across my upper left arm. I could feel the warm blood trickling down my arm but I could worry about that later. Right now I was tired and hungry.

"Please tell me everyone is alive," I breathed.

Nadia

"NO!" I hear Micah call, I turn, praying I wouldn't see him on the ground, bleeding out while the other male walked towards his next victim. Actually I saw just the opposite. Micah running towards a man behind me, a man I had not noticed, holding a bow and an already aimed arrow. Shit.

The arrow missed me, but I felt the air rush past my face as it flew by. I watched Micah collide with the man, finishing him off as he knocked him off his feet.

Suddenly a whistle, if you can call it that, blows. High and shrill and the opposing team leaves as quickly as they had come, some grabbing bodies of their fallen team members and others simply running into the forest. I shake my head, it felt like some kind of bizzare dream. I look around and see my own team brushing sweat off their brows. Many of us are bleeding. Myself included. I press a hand over my shoulder and walk over to where Micah is. Near him are Dill and Ten. Ten not looking the least bit tired, Dill with his gun. I pulled off my shirt, revealing a white bodice type tank top and tear the thin fabric into long thick strips. Wrapping one around my shoulder holding the others tightly in case other would need them. I saw Micah looking at me strangely.

"I've got another thin one. Don't worry." I said smiling through the pain.

After a moment I walked over to where Ten and Dill were sitting in the sand. I pressed a piece of fabric into Ten's hand. "You could use it to wipe the blood off your face." I said gently. "If you wanted to." I eyed Dill's wounds. "And you may want to get some help from some one who knows what they are doing. But you could still use my shirt if you like." I said through gritted teeth. Both the pain and my general dislike of him causing the expression. I turned on my heel and walked back to Micah's side.

I mimed a curtsey. "Thank you--back there. I need to step up my game. You were great." I said keeping my eyes on his face. I laughed a little.

Micah,

As suddenly as it had begun, the battle was over, our opponents rushing back into the woods. Most of us are injured, but not too badly. Mason has some minor scratches, as does Persephone, but the cuts of Dill, Ten, Effy, and Nadia are worse. I'm bleeding a little, too, on my arm. Mavrick and Lire seem okay, though.
I look around to see Nadia taking off her shirt and tearing it into strips. First she binds her own wound, then she offers the rest to the others, including Dill and Ten. They take it numbly. She catches me looking at her, and walks over.

She curtsies, "Thank you--back there. I need to step up my game. You were great." She fixes her gaze on me and laughs.

I laugh too and bow, "You're quite welcome--and you were wicked good with that knife, by the way. Wouldn't want to get in a fight with you!"

She grins, "I've been training in knife combat for a while. I guess it paid off."

"It sure did," I say, looking into her eyes, "Hey, back before the attack, you were about to say something," I whisper, "What were you going to say?"

For those of you that don't know what a Morning Star is, it is a club like weapon they used in the middle ages The club has a spiked head on it and is used in a cmbination of blunt force and puncture attack to kill or wound the enemy.

Mavrick Lock

Mavrick woke to complete chaos. Rolling to his feet he grabbed his Morning star. Taking in the fight, He felt most of himself panic, but a small part of him felt a surge of pride in his team. They were holding their own. He watched as Nadia maked quick work of of figher and even if he didn't like Micah, he had to admit the guy knew what he was doing when it came to those swords of his.

Mavrick's view was suddenly blocked as a teenager boy attacked him. His sword bearing down down on Mavrick in a sreaming arch. Instintivly Mavrick brought up his Morning star, blocking the cut and knocking the boy's sword to the side. Before the teen had time to recover Mavrick curled his free hand in to a fist and delivered a hard uppercut, knocking the lad cold.

Moving deeper into the fight, Mavrick's eye was drawn to Ten. He was force of destruction and Mavrick could see Ten was going to be the turning tide to this battle. And he wasn't the only one who knew that, Mavrick realize as the other team seem to foces its attack on Ten.

Catching sight of a man for the otherside aiming at Ten with a hand gun, Mavrick moved to stop him but before he could reach him, an arrow sprouted from the man's throat. Mavrick didn't need to look for Lire to know she done it and he reach down to retrieve the man's gun.

Just as his fingers touched the handle he felt a prick on the back of his neck and a low voice said.

"Don't move or you're dead."

Mavrick didn't even think about it. Tightening his grip on the gun he spun around and shot the girl who held the blade to his neck between the eyes. The women's surprise permanently frozen on her face as she slid to the ground.

Time seemed to stop and Mavrick stared at the gun in his hand as if he couldn't believe he had been the one to pull the trigger. He shook himself though at the crys of retreat from the other team.

"Should we go after them?" Mavrick asked, tucking the gun behind him, the handle of the gun pressed against the small of his back.
Dill shook his head. "No, we'll take care of our wounds and come up with our own stratergy before we go after them."

"You mean, you'll come up with a stratergy" Mason spoke up from where she was wiping clean her blade, her voice dangerously calm.

Nadia

He bows back to me and I can't help but let a girlish giggle escape from my mouth. I cover it with my hand instinctively and begin walking back toward the shelter. I wanted a piece of that boar, granted it wasn't too battered or blood spattered after the attack. How strange it had been. And how quickly they had gone.

"It sure did," I say, looking into her eyes, "Hey, back before the attack, you were about to say something," I whisper, "What were you going to say?" Micah says, beginning to walk with me. My face goes blank and then I remember. I turn a primrose pink and continue to walk.

"I was just going to say. Thank you for that lesson and...and your hair looks very nice in the sun." I said finishing more quickly than intended.

"What?!" Sputters Micah, his face twisted in an expression, an expression of wanting to laugh and utter confusion.

"Oh, you can just forget about it." I said quietly. I wanted to kiss his nose like a princess in one of my books back home would have done. I wanted to bat my eyelashes and act coy. But I wasn't good like that. And I was too embarrassed. No one had ever treated me as...kindly as he had before. I brushed the hair out of my face with the palm of my hand and looked up at the sky.

"Good sir, you are a true gentleman." I settle for this. After all that thinking and wanting and...acting like a fourteen year old girl with her first crush that is what I settle for. I look around the camp and gave a small wave to Mavrick and Dill and Mason, all conversing. And the Mason girl did not look happy. looks like Dill's done it again. Or maybe she is just bitchy. I thought to my self. So many personalities I had yet to know.

Lire Else

I woke up to shouting, which shouldn't have been a big surprise. We were playing a game. I saw Mavrick run out of the shelter and I was right behind him, bow in hand and arrow ready for launch. I ran out and froze momentarily at what I saw. There were people everywhere, jumping down from trees, running out from the forest. There were too many people actually. This was ridiculous. I shot off an arrow and it landed a man in the throat. I saw that man was also going for Mavrick and I felt good, thinking that I helped him, but I'd never killed anyone before. My heart lurched into my throat but I didn't have time to think about it since an enemy arrow whizzed by my head and I had to throw myself to the ground to get away from it.

I jumped up with another arrow ready and flying instantly, striking another down. There were so many of them it was not easy to miss, you actually had to try hard not to hit one of the enemies. So many...

A high whistle noise rang through the air and the attacks suddenly stopped and the enemies retreated. I didn't realize how long the attack lasted until I put down the bow and my legs gave out of me. There were a few scrapes from a few passing arrows but nothing serious since I stayed far away from the main group of people.

I took a few deep breaths and wiped sweat off my brow. Mavrick walked over and plopped next to me, breathing heavily and sweating just as much as I. The others were all laying around, some badly hurt and others injured but not in any real trouble. The two sisters were doing good, Mason and Seph. Nadia was bleeding bad and so was Effy. Ten had a cut on his face and Dill's upper arm was slashed. I winced at their injuries and gave myself another once over.

"Attacked," Mavrick breathed heavily. "Already?"

"I know," I reply. "That's what I'm saying." I sit up slowly and quickly look over Mavrick, searching him for injuries. "You're not badly hurt, right Mav?"

He smirks and sits up slowly.

"I'm fine, Lire." I smile and stretch out my tired muscles. Mavrick gets up and says a few things to Dill. I get up too and follow him over.

"Should we go after them," Mavrick asks.

"No, we'll take care of our wounds and come up with our own stratergy before we go after them," Dill replies. That seems like a good enough answer to me. I kneel down beside Ten to see his wound more clearly. I didn't know much but Roman got hurt all the time. Ten shuffles back away from me and I try to give him a reassuring smile but he doesn't look at me.

"Do you mind," I ask him, "if I fix that cut for you?" He's still not looking at me, at least not in the eyes, but he nods. I nod and tell him to give me a minute before ripping part of my shirt off. I wipe at Ten's cheek with it and am just turning to go wet it a bit when I realize there's no non-salt water.

I turn to the others, who seem to be talking about something, and clear my throat to get their attention.

"Um, don't mean to intrude, but we don't have any water. We're going to go thirsty soon..."