Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ranae had taken notice that her path had begun to slope upwards and the forest around her had begun to thin. She suspected she was nearing the end of her journey and was almost at the next port city along the coast. She sighed longingly as she thought of the warm beds, hot baths, and good food of an inn. But the shadow that was her worried thoughts of Josh and that damned sword once again enveloped her thoughts and her smile soon faded. They never lasted long these days. She suspected that the evil of the sword was changing Josh, but she had no idea how much. Had he forgotten all about her? Or would he come for her? She sighed and lookd down. She herself had changed a bit over the last week or so. Her eyes had a slightly sunken in look to them caused by the deep shadows beneath them. This was due to her lack of sleep, for her sleep was now often plagued with nightmares of the sword. She had lost all appetite along with her weight, and her already pale skin had lost any touch of color whatsoever, making her look like a ghost. She often found herself short of breath and coughing fits periodically took over her frail body. Ranae refused to admit it, but she was indeed very sick.

The Orcs fortifications had been done quickly and effectively. The walls of the city were repaired, and the many buildings were restored. They had found some bodies that appeared to have been killed in battle. This town had been part of a war at some point in the past year. Now the town looked busier with Orcs going about it, fixing up places, re-doing the four towers on each of the corners of the city. They made them strong and sturdy, and made strong crossbows that shot far.

Matsu stepped about the village, nodding his head in approval to the well-done repairs. In a building that appeared to be abadoned Matsu heard some noise. Taking his staff, Matsu made himself blend in with his surroundings, quietly walking in. Inside they were a collection of about 30 humans, none of them older then 18. They seemed scared, and confused, they had obviously survived for awhile here, and knew about the landscape. A touch of sympathy hit Matsu as he saw the children's scared faces. Making his presence known, a few of them looked up, one of them threw a knife expertly, however Matsu stopped it with his staff. Looking at the knife with interest, he smiled warmly.

"Nice shot" Matsu said sounding amused.

"G-get a-a-away from u-us, d-demon f-filth" One of the older one said fearfully.

"Relax I won't hurt you" Matsu said calmly.

"Y-yeah right" the boy said laughing a little. "D-demons don't help people, they k-kill."

"Obviously you have had traumatic experiences, however, I don't intend to hurt you." Matsu said as he dropped his staff, and opened his arms wide. "If you want to kill me now, go ahead."

The little group looked confused, the stranger had dropped his guard completely, and could be killed fairly easily.

As the humans talked amoungst themselves a little girl walked up to Matsu, and stood right in front of him. Smiling Matsu kneeled down so he was her height. Reaching out quivering hands the little girl grabbed his furry ears, and felt them with her small fingers. Matsu made a funny face, and the little girl laughed. Slowly but surely the group gathered around him and began touching him, as though he was something interesting.

They slowly became comfortable around him. So Matsu went off and got them some food. Eating some himself before giving it to them. They ate it like they hadn't eaten well in a good long time. It took a few more hours before Matsu finally convinced them to come out. They followed him in a tight circle group, and they finally made it to the more now populated parts of town. Matsu led them to a building where he was staying. They settled in quickly, glad to be back in town and not be as afraid, he made sure they had food fresh clothing and bathing water. He had smelled that they hadn't in a good while.

Walking out of his building, Matsu smiled. He would question the older one's later on the enemy that inhabited this land. Perhaps he could find some weakness to them. Four powerful demons guarded this building, each had a different weapon. One used fists, another swords, another one a large axe, and the largest one had a spear. They were highly loyal to AHRIMAN for they had been rescued by Matsu when they were children themselves, that's why Matsu entrusted the safety of them to the guards.

Smiling Matsu felt better at long last, children always made him feel better. He could feel that everyone would soon be arriving.

Kyo sighed and stared at the ground for a moment, before saying,"Very well Rin,"he looked at the Cavalry guard and said,"If anything happenes to the lady Rin I will hold you guys PERSONALL Yresposible. Follow her no matter what happens to me." he rode off to where the Burning Legion (officialy designated the 10th Legion) wa swating. He orderd the signal for the archers to fire to be sent, and he could almost immediatly hear the whistle of thousands of arrows hurtling to through the air. They struck the rebels camp and he could hear the alarms going off, but they were drowned out as the 2 legions attacked screaming like banshees, towards the rebels, who prepared for their attack by forming a battle line. He could hear the next legions attack on the flank. The soldiers of the 10th looked up and him as he rode along their line. He drew his no Daichi and yelled them to charge. He spurred his horse towards the enemy lines well ahead fo his troops, and he engaged the demons, with little support, but the 10th soon caught up with him. Kyo riding like a bat out of hell (no pun intended), saw a rebel officer ahead of him trying to rally his troops to fight the new threats on thier flanks. Kyo rode by him and cut him down, almost in half. However several rebels ran in front of his horse and caused it to rear dangerously and Kyo was thrown from his horse to the ground, and he felt a severe pressure on his left shoulder, and knew he had been hit. He saw the arrow sticking out of it, but he foght his way to his feet still surrounded by Rebels, but by now the 10th had fought their way to his side, and he killed another rebel.

Rayne decided to go back seeing that there was not much interest of arrival of the boats and orcs, since he have dealt with orcs for the pass few weeks. He started to walk back slowly among the crowds and passing several of them who gave him a curious look. Seeing that the sun was alittle higher showing that the day is approaching, Rayne decided to go back to his usually resting spot which was near the pond.

He started to walk in that direction towards the ponds ignoring most of the people that were going to the crowd. He looked around seeing that some people went along with their normal business deciding not to bother with the boats.

Rayne stood there near the pond looking into the morning sun as its pale eerily glow reflects of the pond. He stood there for a moment with his head down and looked around seeing many of the people setting up their shops. He felt refreshed from his resting time and decided to go for alittle walk through the village.It seem to be a cool morning as a chilling breeze pass through the village from the east. Rayne notice that there were none of the Ten Kenkaku members wandering through the area monitoring the area. He kept wandering through the dim-like area of the village.

Ranaes senses prickled as she boarded a boat that would take her to Hokkaido. She didnt know why she was going there, but why not? She really had no business being in Japan at all, so why not visit one of its more beautifull islands. Even the short trek throught the town to the harbor had left Ranae short of breath, and her stomach churned unpleasantly with the rocking of the boat. She suspected soon the water would meet with her recently devoured breakfast and she sighed. But there it was again. The prickling of her sensitive sixth sense. She closed her eyes and concentrated as hard as her weakened state would allow. In her minds eye she saw the blurry figure of a demon man, sitting indian style in the darkness that was her mind. Though her mouth made no sound as she mouthed the words, they echoed through her mind. She heard her hoarse voice speak.

" Whos there?"

Ranae saw the man in her minds eye, though in black and white. This was unusuall, but she expected it from a man with such a strong sixth sense. She flashed him a small smile and cleared her rusty throat, giving a small wave of her dramatically thinned hand. She said in a hoarse voice.

" Im am perfectly fine. I am aboard a ship to Hokkaido." She paused, her body which was back on the ship frowned in concentration, her eyes flickering beneath her eyelids. After a moment, she once again began to speak. " And..you are in Hokkaido.. am i correct? Or have I gotten rusty at this.." She grinned humorously, hiding her stomachs sudden lurch of displeasure a slightly larger rock of the ship.