The World of Darth [ON HOLD]

[HeadlessKoko]

Kageko waited for Louis and Emilia to go before riding out herself. She preferred staying in the back, where she could keep an eye on everyone, rather than riding in the middle. Her senses were, as usual, alert for any possible signs of danger, no matter what the race was.  

[Zulma san]

Emilia asked more than kicked her horse and the animal seemed to like the treatment or maybe it was just used to following Leon for it started galloping happily after the ranger's horse.

The wolf was relieved, after all maybe that would be an okay ride.

Louis however was not as happy. He tried galloping but his body was soon unable to. So he slowed down to a trot which surprisingly was easier on his back.

Somehow he was relieved that Kageko was with him.
"Sorry I am slowing you down." he said to the young woman.
"Did you get some rest and food?" he asked almost casually.  

[HeadlessKoko]

Kageko simply shrugged then nodded in response to Louis's question. She didn't mind the speed, it was alright as long as she didn't lose the energy signature of the others in the group. As for rest and food, she had enough to keep herself from snapping at every little thing. To her, her wordless reply seemed to be enough to answer Louis's question.  

[Angeles Valentine]

"No," called Leon over his shoulder, "no one has eaten since yesterday. Food should be prepared when we stop."

"Don't count on it," said Angeles to Leon and the rest, "our pursuers have a keen sense of smell. We don't want cooking meat to lure them to our exact position."

Angeles glanced over her shoulder at the two humans and the werewolf, "you can eat when we're 'safe.'"  

[Zulma san]

Emilia had flashed a wide grin at Angeles with a smirking sigh.
There was no way the wolf would find any food to her liking in anytime soon, except if she decided to cross the line and get ride of either Leon or Kageko. But she had not fought during years and years to kill a teammate out of mere hunger...
She would chew meat when she would be allowed.

The notion of her family hunting them was bothering her. Since when would her father ally with humans...?! He would not except if forced to...
For the rest of the family it was another story. The decline of the line could be a reason enough to become stupid. She sighed.

She knew the scent of their trackers and would have to be careful so as to spot them.

Louis nodded back in silence at Kageko. He did not look up when Angeles' spoke. She was right.

His back was not getting any better and with the sun rising he sulked. He welcomed the shade of the woods when the group entered a forest.  

[Angeles Valentine]

The five continued to ride without interruption, though the speed was slower due to Louis' injury. They were definitely not going to make it there in one day, and Angeles was becoming frustrated. She hated being hunted, it was so backwards for her to be the prey, and she had half a mind to turn around herself and kill anyone that was following.

Leon was keeping a sharp eye out for anything coming for them from the distant horizons. For now they were in the clear.  

[Zulma san]

The day passed slowly and with each passing minutes the wolf was getting angrier. The gap between Louis and the rest of the group was getting wider and several time, the woman retraced her steps to check on her former leader.

Louis had put his shirt back on. The fabric against his skin was barely bearable but he needed the protection of the clothe against the hard light of the sun, even through the trees.

The winds picked up and Emilia was glad that they were downwind so that their scents would not be flying away. She was on edge paying attention to each drift coming to her nostrils. She knew her brother to be a great hunter and to avoid making mistake such as revealing their location to their preys.

The werewolf moved up towards Angeles who seemed to be in worse mood than even. The afternoon was getting to a close.
"Angeles, we need to take a break. For the horses...and for Louis."
During the day, the hunters would have to be riding horse for they could not transform under the daylight, but the wolf knew that tonight they would leave their horses and hunt.
"We should take it before nightfall..." she added, her strangely colored eyes looking at the vampire.  

[HeadlessKoko]

Kageko looked at the others from the back, behind even Louis. It was obvious, even without looking at their faces, that they were all stressing out to some extent. Actually, Kageko was starting to stress as well, as could be seen by how she hid most of her face behind her coat's collar. She was hungry and tired and it was starting to show in how she couldn't help but get angry at things she would have normally taken with indifference. the girl thought to herself in an attempt to calm her emotions, Actually, she still had most of the dried rations she had eaten from back at the ranger's house. While it wasn't a feast, it could probably serve as a meal/snack if it was split between the three that needed it. Considering the current situation that she was in, it seemed as if the only way Kageko would be able to eat her food was if she shared with the others. Besides, she didn't want a hunger-crazed werewolf near her when night fell.

Now, the only problem was somehow announcing that she had some dried food, including meat, without causing Emilia to become an anger-crazed werewolf.  

[Angeles Valentine]

Angeles looked over at Emilia then behind her at the rest of the group. She almost sneered, as she felt they had been going at a slow pace to begin with and now they were going to stop. She growled slightly in her throat before she stopped and turned her horse, "alright, let's take a break. You, Leon," the ranger looked up as he stopped his horse, "do something about Louis please."

Leon looked back at Louis who was obviously suffering. Angeles with a similar wound was faring much better, but she had had a couple more nights to heal. The ranger swung his leg over the saddle and landed on the ground, patting his horse's neck before moving over to Louis.

"Let me see your wound," he said simply, offering his hands to help him down/  

[Zulma san]

Emilia was trying very hard not to come at the vampire. But in the current state of their situation, that would have been totally stupid.
The arrogance of the white hair woman was getting on her nerves. She was tired, angry and hungry and she hated how Angeles seemed so strong and not caring about anything nor anyone.

She growled slightly at the vampire and jumped down from her horse. She looked as Leon helped Louis down. The wolf had to admit that she was surprised by Louis's weakness. He had always been their leader and so strong, taking hits which would have killed many.

But today in the last hours of the afternoon, the former leader of the Unit seemed the most pathetic of all vampires. With a sad smile, he even accepted Leon's hand to help him down.
"How pitiful..." whispered the vampire once down next to the ranger.
He did not look in Angeles's direction, too ashamed. This woman was slowly distroying his pride, what kind of pure-blood vampire was he becoming?

Louis refused to sit. He needed to walk a little. Yet he accepted that Leon looked at his back. The flesh was damaged but it seemed that like for the little girl at the funeral, something was slowing down the healing process more than regular blessed water or silver. Could it be that the Blessed and the King had found something new which would kill vampires and werewolf more easily?

Louis's fangs were aching. Leon's blood had been a blessing, without it, he would have probably already attacked one of the humans, yet it was not sufficient. It will be enough for the moment... he repeated himself.

Emilia sighed and detached herself from the group. From the path, she had noticed a rocky hill to the west from which she could have a view of the valley while staying sheltered from the winds. She did not like the fact that she still had not spotted her family. By now, she should have at least smelled them.  

[HeadlessKoko]

Kageko stepped down from her horse as well and watched as Emilia stalked off to who knows where as Louis and Leon went off to the side to examine Leon's back. The girl couldn't help but wonder why the former captain's back was still so heavily damaged. Sure, as a vampire, it was normal for holy water to take a lot longer to heal but he had been able to rest for an entire night. It shouldn't have been as painful as it seemed. the girl wondered to herself as she focused on the rations pouch that she had just untied from her side. She was searching through it with her eyes and estimating how much herself, Emilia, and Leon would be able to eat with the stores that she had.

Admittedly, the amount wasn't much, especially when spread over three people, but they would have to make do with it. Besides, if she was lucky, she might even have been able to refill her stocks partially with some wild fruit. That is, if she was lucky. Picking out a dried piece of fruit and sticking it into her mouth, the girl walked over to Leon and held out the pouch, obviously offering him some. "Eat," she simply suggested, even though the lack of words caused by her attempts to hide her irritation probably made it sound more like an order, "we're probably going to need the energy. Though, save some meat for Emilia." Personally, Kageko wasn't going to eat any of the meat. Unlike the werewolf, she was an omnivore and all she really needed was something to ease the hunger and stop her irritation.

As Kageko offered the fruit to Leon, she began analyzing the energies on Louis's back, a fact that was made obvious by how she stared piercingly at it. There were the expected signs of holy energy on the vampire's back but that wasn't what the girl was looking for. She was looking for something similar to what she felt in the vampire girl and in the shrapnel.  

[Angeles Valentine]

Leon sighed and led Louis to some shade and let him do what he wanted as long as he was out of the sun. He turned and looked down at the bag and did not refuse, it was a tone not to be argued with. He picked out a few slices and chewed on them before taking Kage's wrist.

"Here, help me with this," he said simply and led her to the meat cart, "if we can get this dried, we won't have to worry about us or Emilia.

Angeles gave a careful gaze around at the surroundings, a suspicious gaze to every shadow. She was ignoring her pain, or getting used to it, even she did not know which. She shifted slightly before looking back at Louis. Sitting still was the last thing she wanted, it made them venerable. She tightened her grip on the reigns before checking over her supplies and weapons, moving the deathwhisper from her belt and slid it into her boot.  

[Zulma san]

Emilia was crawling silently up to the rocky hill. She stayed close to the shadows and the ground. The last thing she wanted was to reveal their locations to the trackers.
The sun was slowly going down on the horizon but there were still a few hours before dusk. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of a tiny clouds in the bottom of the valley. She frowned pressing herself deeper against the sun warmed rocks.
"So much for the break..."
She did not have time to count how many of them, all she knew was that they were at least two.
She rushed back as fast as she could.

"We got company." she hissed at the idle group. "About two hours south from us, but they seemed to be traveling fast, very fast."

Louis had risen as the werewolf pounced where they were. He growled and forced himself quickly on his horse.
"Let's go."

Emilia had never jumped so eagerly on a horse before but here she was on her mare, who did not seem to agree with going back so soon on their journey. The wolf cast a glance at the ranger and the kid then looked at the female vampire.

They had barely rested fifteen minutes, she doubted that the horses were rested.  

[HeadlessKoko]

Kageko had been standing in front of the pile of meat when Emilia burst out of the bushes. The girl had sensed the woman's energy rushing back towards them and so she was in no way surprised. However, the news of pursuers was something she had yet to feel. As Emilia and Louis climbed aboard their horses, Kageko felt a pinprick of energy. The distance made the points mesh together but she could verify that there were at least two pursuers after them, maybe three, four if she was really pushing it.

After making sure that Emilia hadn't been imagining the enemies, Kageko picked out several more fruit slices and a couple crackers from her rations pouch before tossing the rest to Emilia as she mounted her own horse. "You'll need energy," the girl simply said in a slightly less irritated tone than before, the food was helping to calm her anger. That, and she was slightly scared of Emilia in a situation like this. The horse that the girl was riding neighed in protest, wanting to rest up a bit more before continuing. The girl simply pulled the reins to quiet it. While waiting for Angeles, she looked with interest at the meat cart. Taking it would most likely slow the group down but it seemed a waste to just leave it there without any traps rigged to it. Not to mention, the horses rigged to it would probably be useful to their pursuers as well.  

[Angeles Valentine]

Angeles cursed and turned her horse before she growled and moved over to Louis, "no," she said almost harshly and she grabbed the vampire and dragged him off of his horse to sit behind her on hers, "you will ride at my pace," she said before she took the deathwhisper and cut the horse with the cart off of Leon's horse.

"Speed is of the essence human you can hunt when we get there," she said to Leon's somewhat angered look. She then turned Alexandria around and kicked her flanks. The horse took off and Angeles slipped the deathwhisper back into her boot and grabbed one of Louis' wrists, forcing him to hold her around the waist. Another kick and Alexandria was then running at top speed, the hooves hitting the ground so quickly that her body did not even bend, making the ride almost as smooth as silk.