She held her breath as her gaze fell upon the three young men that were ambling through the walkway. Esus stood to the side, by a large tent the city put up for the annual festival. Her cheeks slightly flushed with color, when her green eyes focused on the man that stood slightly behind the other two, laughing happily. She blinked, pushing back the sudden urge to move, and the whisper in her mind that told her she needed to be near him.
She watched as the three men, brothers she came to the conclusion, slowly walked pass her not even glancing her way. She knew they were also Byari, even with their concealment on. Using the Liusuke to conceal ourselves, does not hide our appearances from other Byari, just humans, she silently remembered the words of her father. She slowly let out a staggered breath, as they turned the corner, disappearing into the large crowd.
Esus jumped when she felt someone clap their hand on her shoulder, and she quickly turned around facing her sister, Azer.
“Azer! Don’t sneak up on me,” she said quietly, still flushed.
“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Azer said placing her hands behind her back, glancing around the crowd smiling. Esus blushed even more, and suppressed the feelings deep in her mind.
“Nothing, come on. We shouldn’t be here… And we can’t keep using our concealments,” she said softly glancing around the crowd, making sure no one saw them.
“It’s not fair, I wanna be able to go play games and take part of the festival. Can’t we just use them for a hour or two? Please? Than we can rest before we continue to Nyunotui,” protested Azer.
“You know we don’t have that much time, not when human’s have threatened a war with…our… kind,” Esus said softly.
“But, the concealments will hide us!”
“Than we can’t use them when we need them, you know we are out of practice. It drains too much of our strength to keep up the concealments using the Liusuke.”
“Aw, come on Esus. You can even go talk to that good looking guy back there,” Azer said attempting to convince her sister.
Esus rolled her eyes and grabbed her sister’s hand gently tugging her along behind the rows of tents, making sure that no one noticed them. As Esus paused, waiting for the right moment to go into the crowd, she tugged her dark cloak around her, and slowly pulled the hood over her sun-kissed hair. Azer followed her movements, and they slipped into the crowd quickly. The two young women swiftly glided between the people with out being recognized.
Esus came to an abrupt stop that made Azer ran into her back, but she just ignored her sister’s curses. Her mind and body froze when she saw him again. The young man with dark brown hair, and a shade of green eyes she had never seen before among Byari. Another whisper, deep in her mind, told her to walk towards him. It was like he was calling to her. Just as she was about to take a step towards him, someone ran into her, knocking her down to the ground and her hood fell off her head, revealing her bright, green eyes.
She gasped quickly trying to pull it back on, but it was too late. She looked around, searching for her sister, but all she saw were the horrifying faces of the humans surrounding her. She could hear their gasps and whispers. Her face quickly flushed and felt someone tug on her arm quickly dragging her up, and pulling her away from everyone quickly. She dumbly followed trying to get ride of the suffocating sensation. Somewhere deep in her mind, she felt content. When she realized what her body was feeling, Esus spun her head around to see the dark haired young man pulling her to safety from the crowd. She could not catch the look plastered on his face.
She pulled her arm away from him, and quickly pulled the hood back over her head, shielded her face. He slowly turned to face her with a blank look on his face. He watched her with wonder, not sure what to say.
“Why aren’t you holding up your concealment? You just endangered yourself,” he spoke smoothly after a moment of silence. She had help back a slight blush.
“I am fine, thank you. You didn’t have to do that,” she said stubbornly trying to fix her cloak and picking off the pieces of grass and straw. She had to avoid his gaze, or she felt like she would be lost in the whispers that started to grow louder. His eyes seemed to slightly glaze over and he laughed softly.
“Ah yes, the look on your face was that of pure confidence. A tiny Byari woman like yourself could fend off a anger mob of humans. One without any talent or large Liesu. I would pay a lot of money to see how that would play out,” he said looking off over her shoulder. She slowly turned her head to see what he was starring at. She frowned watching his two brothers make their way towards them.
“I really can’t stay here,” she whispered hoping that he didn’t hear her. She cursed to herself, when she remembered he was also a Byari and could very well hear her. He raised an eye brow at her curiously.
“Did you find someone to keep you company Ry?” the young one yelled out laughing. The man who had rescued her slightly blushed.
“Raff, take Rook back to the festival. I’ll be there in a few,” he yelled back.
Her mind was running fast, and the names she just heard started to register in her mind. Ry, as in Ryker? She frowned even more, that meant that the other two were Rafferty and Rook. When he opened his mouth to speak again, Esus tried to make a run for it. She quickly pushed her mind out against the Liusuke, and disappeared in an instant. The young man had a small smirk on his face as he watched her vanish.
--
She breathed heavily when she finally felt her body touch ground and scattered behind a tree, attempting to hide herself from everything that surrounded her. She could feel her heart beat in her ears, and her flushed faced slightly burned under the palms of her hands as she hid her face into them. She quickly jumped, and flashed out her dagger when she heard a small twig snap near by. She slowly dropped her stance letting her muscles relax when she saw her sister walking towards her.
Esus quickly ran over to her and embraced her tightly. “I thought I lost you in the crowd. Where did you go?” she quickly asked.
Azer squirmed out of her sister’s hug and her eyes darted around the area. “Everyone started to crowd around you, and than these three guys, who were so cute by the way, started to push the crowd back and one of them grabbed you started to walk away. I’m glad you remembered this spot, incase we got separated. I was afraid you wouldn’t be able to make it here.”
Esus silently nodded and slowly slumped against a tree running her hand through her long blonde hair sighing in relief. “So much for getting food…” she whispered.
“It wasn’t a total failure, ya know,” her sister said as she pulled out a lumpy sack.
“You were able to get food!” Esus said happily. Azer nodded her head laughing and put the sack back into her rucksack. “Yes, we better get away from here. Before any of Byari find out we are here.”
“Psh, the Byari aren’t who have to worry about right now,” she said turned around and looked sadly to the road that lead back east. She faintly heard a the voice again in her mind. Esus turned back to her sister. “Did you say something?”
Azer looked at her confused and shook her head. As Esus turned back to glance at the East she saw Ryker standing there with smug look on his face. “Shit,” she whispered.
“If you knew who I was, you couldn’t possibly think you could out run me Getu,” he laughed.
“Do not. Call me Getu,” she spat throwing her hood back. “You have room to speak, you are letting this stupid war break out!” She fumed stepping towards him. She almost didn’t her her sister.
“Esus, who is this man?” she questioned flinching her hand towards her small daggers.
“Hello, I am Ryker,” he said to Azer bowing slightly. Azer quickly blushed and quickly turned her gaze away from his eyes and slowly got down to the ground.
“Azer,” Esus hissed. “Get off the ground.”
“At least someone shows us, Liya Neben, respect,” he said amused.
“Respect? You want us to respect you? You aren’ the only ones th-” she suddenly stopped talked when she looked into his eyes again. She couldn’t help but gaze into his eyes that were a shade of green she had never seen any Byari have.
“Why were you here?” he asked seriously, watching the sisters. Esus was too shocked to answer his question. He paused looking at her oddly, again his eyes slightly glazing over. She noticed that he slightly shook his head and mumbled something under his breath. Esus snapped out of her gaze and slightly bit her lip.
“Esus, I am sorry,” she heard Azer whisper. A gust of wind picked up and Esus quickly felt the weaves of concealments that held her natural Liusu at bay start to break. Slowly Esus’ left eye started to shift shades from a deep emerald to a very pale green. Esus screamed at that moment and suddenly her sister disappeared. Ryker looked bewildered, he did not have enough time to move before Esus’ blade stopped at his throat, just nipping his skin.
He held his breath, muscles clenching waiting for the right moment to defend. But, nothing came. She stared up into his gaze, and confused as he watched her slowly sway and collapse against him.
