The World of Darth [ON HOLD]

[Angeles Valentine]

The ranger lead the group away from cave and began to turn and maneuver over more rocky terrain to leave behind no trail. Angeles slumped against her horse hissing in pain and the ranger held onto the back of her shirt to keep her on.

After half an hour he dared to stop them, and slid off his horse, sliding Angeles off and onto the ground, immediately beginning to inspect the wound, moving Angeles' hand and ignoring her snarl of warning.

He made a grunt of displeasure before walking back to his saddle bags and took out a sack and walked over. He laid a cloth on the wound of the vampire and gently pressed on it. Angeles tightly closed her eyes and her mouth opened as if to scream but no sound came forth. He let the cloth alone to soak up the blood and water and pointed at the wolf.

"You, come here," he said indicating for her to come. He then pulled out more supplies from the sack and held up a bottle.  

[Zulma san]

Emilia was closing the group and she could observe how much Angeles was sliding from Alexandria.
I should not have let her go alone...I should have asked someone else...a human...well she would have accepted no one... the werewolf was annoyed at the turn of event, not that she was unhappy that Angeles was still alive, obviously that providential ranger seemed to have arrived right on time.

She had questions for both of them, but she knew better than to speak up now. She followed in silent, cursing several times about that day being the worse day of her life.

When at last they halted, she was glad to jump down her horse who gave her a dark look and tried to n** at her shoulder. She hissed at him and he remained more or less calm and quiet.

She looked with interest as the man took care of Angeles. Providential indeed! Yet she did not believe much in coincidence.

When he called for her, she raised an eyebrow. Her palm was still burning, but there was no way she would let him touch her.
"Why?" she growled as she approached, her eyes on him showing suspicion. "I am fine...you take care of her." she added pointing out the vampire with her chin.  

[Angeles Valentine]

"The cloth will soak up the rest of the holy water and the affected blood and flesh. While that's being done I'll take care of your hand," he reached forward and snatched her wrist, "you are in no position to argue so don't even try," his tone was harsh but his voice was otherwise calm.

He poured a bit of the viscous liquid into the palm of her hand and used a clean white cloth to gently rub the gauze on the wound before he began to wrap it, keeping the bandage tight but not too tight. The pressure would hurt for a while, but it was better than the wound blistering and getting infected.

"Don't use that hand too much," he said in a softer tone, the adrenaline flowing out of his blood as he returned to Angeles who was all but writhing in pain. He lifted the cloth, bits of burned flesh coming with it and the ranger grunted and pulled the cloth away, revealing the raw flesh of her shoulder.

Angeles hissed in pain, her fangs bared at nothing. The ranger then gently spread the gauze over er shoulder as well, watching the vampire relax slightly under the cooling effect and he began to wrap it as well.

"We should get both of you back to the city," he said as he worked.  

[Zulma san]

Emilia was even more angry that she knew very well that she was no match for him at that moment. There was no need for him to remind her of it.

As he grabbed her wrist, she just stared at his face. He was not looking at her concentrating on what he was doing. What a strange feeling to be touched so gently on a wound, she could feel the pain but did not move an inch. It was nothing compared to what Angeles was suffering.

She nodded at his advise, although knowing herself, she did not care. "Thanks." she grunted at him when he was done. She knew he was right and that was getting even more on her nerves.

Emilia came kneed next to the vampire, looking at the wound with a frown. That could be worse, but that did not look good either. Emilia felt the need to say something nice to the vampire, but neither her, nor Angeles were the soft and tender female type so she just gave a pat on Angeles's other shoulder.
She wanted to ask Angeles if she learned anything but not in front of him.
"Yeah...we should get going..." she sighed.

As she stood up, she looked at the man. Before they went any further, she wanted to know who he was.
"But first...what would the name of our savior be?" she asked sarcastically.  

[Angeles Valentine]

The ranger nodded and helped Angeles to her feet and walked her to her horse. The vampire opened her eyes enough to look at Emilia in her eyes before wincing and nearly falling to the ground. The ranger hoisted her up onto the back of the horse before grabbing the reigns of his own and looking at the werewolf as she asked him his name in a mocking tone.

"My name is Leon Walker, I'm a ranger in this area," he said simply before swinging onto his horse, replacing the sack in his saddle bags and tightening the lead rope on his saddle and turned his horse back towards the capital. He looked down at Emilia, "I thought the unit was better than this."

He then kicked his horse and the bay began to walk forward. Alexandria followed with the rope slack and her head low. She didn't need to be tied up, she would have followed on her own, but Angeles could not find her voice to tell him that, so simply leaned her head against the back of Alexandria's neck and bit back against the pain.  

[Zulma san]

Emilia wished she could help Angeles more. But right now, outside of following the ranger and the vampire, there was not much she could do.

When he introduced himself, Emilia's eyes narrowed. She had heard the name before although she did not remember under which circumstances. She was about to introduce herself back when he looked at her from his horse and snapped at her about the quality of the Unit.

What hit her first was that he knew that she was part of the Unit, yet she was not in the usual black attire of the Unit. She was dressed casually. So he knew of her? Was that why he helped her without questioning her?

In any case, she smirked at him. What a delightful man! He knew how to talk with tack and goodwill...
"The Unit is not what it used to be..." she grunted back as she jumped on her horse. There was annoyance and sadness in her voice as she spoke to the brown hair man or maybe was she speaking to herself...
To the werewolf it seemed more and more clear that the Unit had lost some of its qualities. She wondered if Louis was sharing her opinion. After all he had always been the leader...

Emilia moved her horse up to Angeles's level. She looked at the vampire.
"Do you want me to go ahead and fetch Louis?" she asked wondering if the vampire wanted to treat directly with the Leader of her group who happened to be a vampire too. She waited for the vampire to nod or express her wishes.  

[Angeles Valentine]

Leon searched the conversation but found nothing to respond to and so remained silent, glancing at Angeles every now and then to make sure she was not falling off her horse, only glancing only once back at Emilia as she spoke to the vampire.

Angeles shook her head and turned her gaze to Emilia, "anyone but Louis," she growled through her pain, her grip on her shoulder tightening.

"We're going to Louis," said Leon and Angeles' eyes closed tightly, "vampiric pride has cost us more than our share of pain."

Leon glared at Angeles who put her head against Alexandria's neck again with a sigh. The trip was then silent for a moment save for the livelihood of the forest around them. Then suddenly Alexandria took off running, Leon turning just as the roped went slack.

Immediately he gave chase, a look to kill on his face. Angeles held tightly to Alexandria's reigns and urged her to go faster, glancing behind her.  

[HeadlessKoko]

(OOC: I feel kind of awkward posting something so mundane right now but... I figured that I needed to post sometime sweatdrop .)

Kageko was lying down flat on her back on a tree branch, gazing up lazily at the sky. Around her were potholes of various sizes, the results of her training. the girl thought to herself, the slight pain in her newly wounded arm reminding her constantly. She had accidentally used her new technique too close to herself and it just had to work perfectly that one time. With nothing to do, the girl had Kageko had decided to train, as usual. There were no standing order for her from the Unit and if there were any meetings that she had to attend, she had probably forgotten about them. the girl worried and admired at the same time.  

[Zulma san]

The werewolf sighed at Angeles's remark. She looked up surprised at Leon. So that was why he knew about the Unit, he knew Louis. When Angeles unleashed Alexandria, Emilia hesitated for a second which made her lost precious time.

She had to decide quickly. Was she going to help Angeles or be loyal to the Unit? Why was Angeles running away? Did she fear Louis?
The woman kicked her horse strongly soon catching up with Leon. She knew that she had nor the skills, nor the abilities to gallop so fast for an extended period of time.

At last she reached Angeles and without warning the werewolf jumped from her horse to Angeles, casting them both down Alexandria's back rolling amongst the rocks. Emilia had tried to shelter the wounded shoulder of Angeles and as such her left palm hit the ground harshly, rocks tearing apart her bandage and entering her wounded flesh.

The werewolf howled of pain, then the women disappeared in a cloud of dust. Emilia was quick to her feet and she faced the vampire.

"Not that way! Not after I accepted to follow you!" her blue and brown eyes were staring at Angeles.
"If you had asked, I would have let you go, even opposed him if need be." she growled.
She caught her breath feeling some pain on her side.
"If you want to share information with me and then go, so be it. If not, then we'll go to Louis." she hissed the name as if she disliked the man too.

---------------

Louis appeared behing Kageko.
"Good day." the vampire seemed so weak, it was very unique to see him out in the middle of the day.
"Follow me." he said to the young human.
"I might have need of your skills." he added before starting walking away.  

[Angeles Valentine]

Though the wound had been protected the jar of the first impact from her horse then the landing had been excruciatingly painful. She rolled out of Emilia's grasp and came to a crude standing position, knees bent drastically, looking like she was about to fall back to the groun don them, holding her wounded shoulder.

"I don't want you to do anything," she growled back, "leave Louis and his dreams be but I have thus far avoided the Unit and kept my freedom intact I am not about to jeopardize it now," she winced and gnashed her teeth before finishing, "and if anyone will see me like this, it will not be him."

That was all she could take before she sank to one knee. Leon's horse trotted up to where Alexadria had stopped and looked at Emilia's horse off in the distance before looking down at the two women, "can this wait? There's no assurance that we aren't being followed."  

[HeadlessKoko]

Kageko opened one eye and then another, she had recognized Louis's energy from quite a ways off seeing how he no longer had the speed that he usually gained during the night. Picking herself up, Kageko couldn't help but stare a bit at her captain before hopping down to the ground and following after him quietly. This was the first time she had seen him out during the day and it was a bit... unnerving to say the very least. He seemed so weak, much more weaker than the politely intimidating figure that she was used to seeing at the meetings. "What am I needed for?" the girl finally asked after walking a bit with Louis.  

[Zulma san]

Emilia looked at Angeles. She listened to the woman and sighed.
She could somehow understand that her pride would not allow Angeles to face Louis that way. If there was someone she had always faced, and even more a male werewolf, she'd feel humiliated being dragged to him in such a state.

As the vampire felt on her knee, Emilia moved forward and wrapped her arm around Angeles's back, supporting the vampire under her not-wounded shoulder. She helped the vampire up and to her horse. Then the werewolf realized that her horse was gone for good. She hated horse anyway.
She thought a moment about riding with Angeles, but she doubted the vampire would let her.

"You go ahead." she told the man and the vampire.
"I will walk, I know it's the day and all but I should be fine, the city is very close now and anyway we are entering the estate of the werewolf Kridam, so there should not be any problem."

----------

Louis was walking slowly. He could feel the tiny human walking with him.
He did not answer her question, instead, he asked another one.
"Kageko, would you still remain loyal to me if the Unit was dismantled?"
His eyes turned to the young girl as he spoke.  

[HeadlessKoko]

Kageko remained quiet for a long while, feeling Louis's eyes on her as she wondered if this was a trick question of sorts before asking, "Will you continue to carry on trying to foil the plans of the extremist factions?". Her eyes remained staring straight ahead and away from the vampire's eyes. Kageko knew full well that Louis would know that she largely had her own agenda for joining the Unit. At least, he should know from interrogating her mind when she first joined the Unit. For the most part, she and the majority of the Unit had different ideals. For the most part that is. While she could care less about defending the kingdom and only did so because it allowed her a chance to access the information sources of the Unit, she did hate the extremist factions and their high and mighty views of themselves; she sought to foil their plans as much as other members of the Unit.

The way she calculated, she figured that her best bet was to stick to Louis should the Unit ever disintegrate. As the leader, he would have the most information on him, and if he decided to continue going against the extremist faction, then that would just make it more rewarding to stick with him. There was one other reason. Like with Emilia, Kageko respected Louis and for many of the same reasons. Both the vampire and the werewolf were strong, much stronger than Kageko would ever be and stronger than most others of their kind that she saw.  

[Angeles Valentine]

Angeles allowed herself to be put on her horse, this time Leon had the reigns and was holding them tightly in his hand. Angeles growled, "I'll go to the city, but I will not go to the Unit."

She tried to snatch the reigns but Leon jerked them away and she winced and resigned herself to defeat.

Leon circled his horse around Alexandria and reached down with his free hand and grabbed Emilia's arm. With a grunt he hoisted her up and onto his horse, straddling the saddle in front of him before he kicked his horse into walking.

"You're as much a part of this as she is, and I will not be leaving you behind no matter your reason, it's too risky and I don't need Louis on my a** because of it."  

[Zulma san]

Emilia gasped "Do noooooot" as the man almost easily lifted her up and sat her on his horse but it was too late already.
She was sitting in front of him, able to feel his torso against her back.
She growled but did not say anything.

She was remained as straight as possible, staring in front of her, not moving by fear of touching him some more.
This ranger had truly bad manners.
She was furious against him and against herself for having lost her horse. Maybe she should have jumped on Alexandria's back as she first thought, then she would not have to share that horse with Leon.

"Louis does not care about me, so I could very well find my way by foot." she tried without real hope of success.

-----------------

"The extremist factions and their destruction are my only mission, with or without the Unit. I shall not stop my crusade whatever the consequences."
The vampire's steps came to a stop and her turned to face Kageko.
"So, what is your answer?" he waited, he would not go on before he was sure of her loyalty.