Autumn's Beginning, Autumn's Breeze [2]

Arabella--

Sighing, I attempted again to advert my eyes.

"Nothing," I replied simply, not able to get my words out.

"Arabella," Ramere said softly, holding my face in place. His eyes locked with mine and I began tripping over words.

"Y...w...I...yes?"

Ramere-

I couldn't help but to laugh.

"What were you going to say? Come on, out with it."

She looked away again, but i forced her to look back, holding her chin lightly with one hand.

"Please? Tell me?"

Arabella--

I began changing shades of red, trying to find something to say that wasn't what I had been thinking.

"No lying," Ramere said sternly. I groaned loudly and he chuckled again. "Please tell me?" he said softly.

"You can't laugh, or act different," I said, looking at him sternly.

"You have my word," he said, nodding.

"I....I....I l..love you," I stammered, burying my face into his shoulder again before seeing his face.

Ramere-

I smiled and kissed the top of her head lightly. "And I you."


Gah, shortness!!! >.<

Kayla

I sighed and fell asleep. Strangely comfortable.


*Sorry that's all that was in my brain* >.<

Arabella--

I smiled, hoping the blush in my cheeks wasn't too noticable.

I lay against Ramere, falling asleep while he ran his fingers thoughtlessly through my hair.

Suddenly, a loud crash came from somewhere a few miles to the east.

I'm gonna bring us all together again.

Ramere-

I turned my eyes to the east, searching. For what, i had no idea. But I had a feeling it wasn't good.

I stood quickly, pulling Arabella up with me.

"What was that?" she asked, her eyes also looking in the direction of the crash. I turned to her.

"I don't know, but I intend to find out. Cover your ears."

She gave me a funny look but did as I asked. I took a few steps away and shouted Caspan's name, using magic to amplify my voice so that he would hopefully hear it. Then I raised my hand, letting a ball of white light rise into the sky.

Moments later I heard a flap of wings and Caspan landed beside us, carrying Kayla. Christian and Cara came next, followed shortly by Storm on the ground with the wolf, Fire.

"Jeez, Ramere, I knew you had a big mouth, but not that big," Caspan snickered. I glared at him.

"Look who's talking."

He crossed his arms but didn't say anything back, thankfully.

"We need to find out what that noise was. It was most likely the mages we're looking for."

"What would they be doing in that direction? I thought they were south. At least, that's what Nathaniel told me." Caspan said.

"That's what we need to find out."

Arabella--

I stepped away from the group.

"What are you doing?" Ramere asked, watching as I slowly rose into the sky.

"Trust me," I said. With a single flap of my wings, I was much higher in the air, out of sight to the others. I looked in the direction of the crash, focusing my vision until I could clearly see a group of mages gathering. There was a large fire, making them very noticable. I focused my hearing next listening carefully.

Once satisfied with my information, I landed next to Ramere on the ground. The change in air pressure was so sudden that I became dizzy, and leaned into him for support.

"It's them. They were discussing the plan...but they...noticed me," I panted, genuinly shocked that they could have noticed a magical creature that was that far away. I watched the others carefully.

Caspan-

"That's Ramere's mouth for you," I said, dodging the hand that swept at me from the darkness. I chuckled and heard Ramere curse.

"If they saw you then they know where we are. We need to get away from here, lead them farther from the town. Once we're far enough away, we can try to ambush them," Ramere said, after he was done swearing at me in a language I didn't recognize. Probably a good thing, too.

"Ambush a group of mages?" I snorted. "Ramere, how exactly do you plan on doing that?"

He was silent.

"Right. That's a great plan. Brilliant. Flaw-less. In-"

"Shut up!"

I grinned. A heard a few chuckles from the others.

"Fine, we won't ambush them. You got any better ideas?" Ramere growled.

Silence all around. Then: "Actually, we might be able to ambush them. What if we lead them away from the town, somehow alert them to our presence without them knowing we meant to, let them come investigate, and then we use the element of surprise?"

All eyes went to Storm.

"It could just work," I said, examining my fingernails nonchalantly. "Though It'd call for some careful planning. I'm in. How about the rest of you?"

Richard

The mages are here? If they can track the girl that fast and spot Arabella that easily, we're in for some trouble, to say the least.

"I'm up for it," I said, letting them know I was still there, "I could try leading them to you, away from the town, of course."

"Why you?" One of the others asked, "Why not one of us?"

I smiled grimly, "I'm easy bait, if they think an archer's all they've got to deal with, they're not all going to come after us. Even if they do, they're not going to be expecting all of you."

Cara-

"Their smart." She said, "They also saw her so they'll know t here is more then just one. They might not want to bother with us unless they know we know what they are doing? Why waste time on random people when they pose no threat to their cause. Of course unless they know we know, or that I"m with y'all."




***Sorry, short***

Caspan-

I turned to the guy who had spoken --Richard, I remembered his name was -- and the girl, Cara.

"Cara has a point. Why would the mages bother with someone who isn't a threat to them? But, we can't reveal that she's with us, or that would put her in even more danger. And to send someone to lure them to us and reveal that we know their plan would be suicide," I said. "Two people wouldn't be so bad, but still pretty dangerous."

"Then what are we going to do?" someone asked.

"Seems we have two options. One: Send two or three of us to try to lead the mages to us. We could meet them at the base of the mountain, whip around so that the mages are trapped between the mountain and us, and then attack them.

OR, we could create some sort of disturbance, alerting them of where we are, as Storm said. We can make it look like it's an accident, but make it look threatening enough so that at least some of them come to investigate. And when they do, we catch them off-guard and launch our attack. Then, that way, when their comrades don't return, the others will come sniffing around, too!"

They were silent, thinking my words over, most likely. They seemed logical enough to me...

"So...what are we going to do?" I asked.

Arabella--

"I think our second option sounds a lot safer. Leading some of them away....seems to risky." I said thoughtfully.

>.< wall

Christian

I wasn't sure which plan I was more comfortable with, neither of them sounded too pleasent, they all called for attacks where they're on their guard, which wasn't smart.

"I don't like those options," the girl Kayla said. Caspan tilted his head at her.

"Nor do I," I said aloud. "we are talking about three experienced mages and calling them to us, where they'll be on their guard."

"I have a suggestion," Kayla said shyly. "What if we take the old idea of ambushing them, but adding a distraction."

"A distraction?"

"Somebody in the camp drawing their attention away from their surroundings," she continued. "Like they're sick and need help or something."

"Preferably a female," I mused, "they're all males and its really hard to not help a woman in need," I squeezed Cara's shoulders lightly.

"Well we can't send Cara, they know who she is," Richard said.

"Nor Arabella," Storm said, "They'll reconize her from earlier."

"Which leaves..."

"Me," Kayla said.

Caspan-

I turned to look at Kayla slowly.

First reaction: Ha, she's got to be kidding.

Second reaction: Wait...is she kidding?

Third reaction: Shit, she isn't kidding.

I blinked. "If you think I'm going to-"

"Please, Caspan, I highly doubt they'll hurt a damsel in distress," she pleaded.

I crossed my arms. "Nu-uh. No way. Kayla, they're mages. You can't trust them!"

I heard Ramere cough harshly behind me. I ignored him.

"Kayla, there's no way of knowing what they'll do to you."

"Do you have a better plan?"

"Yes! I already gave two other options!"

"But they leave too much space for something to go wrong. Caspan, this is a group of highly skilled mages we're talking about here," Christian said.

"Exactly!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms into the air. "And they're also not stupid! They know we're in the area-"

"But aren't expecting her," he said, gesturing to Kayla. Ramere jumped in.

"And we'll all be in the woods around the camp. If anything goes wrong, we won't be but right there. I'll cast a cloaking spell over us so that the mages won't sense us."

"I'm not going to win either way, am I?" I asked defeatedly. I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"No, you're not."

I sighed. "Fine. So be it. But if anything happens to her, I'm holding you two responsible!"