Taj and Aero: Advent of the Feather King

As soon as her feet touched the ground and she saw the familiar forms of her older brothers, Rose was in tears. Demetri's steadying hand was all that kept her going, and when he retreated away from the noise and the gooey family reunion, Rose ran straight into Tristan's arms, hugging him tightly as if letting him go would be the end of the world. "Tristan! Ilario! I am so happy that you two made it." When Ilario got closer, she switched grips and hugged him too in the same desperate manner. Normally, the older boy would make a disgusted face and push his younger sister away, but instead he accepted her hug with a gentle squeeze.

"Shh, Rose, it'll be okay." He muttered, patting her head a little awkwardly.

"How, Ilario?" She asked quietly, turning her tear tracked face up at him. "You were not there, you did not see those things. Where is everyone?"

Looking to his brother briefly for help, he turned Oriana slightly so that she would be able to see where Oriana and Ryleon stood, even if she couldn't specifically recognize their forms in the dimming light. "Oriana and Ryleon made it out. There... is no sign of uncle Talos or aunt Lena, though." He looked to his cousins then with eyes that almost pleaded for the two to contradict them. The four... couldn't really be all that was left, could there?

Tristan frowned at his sister and could only give a helpless shrug when his twin looked to him for help. He could only feel angered by the entire thing. Here they were safe, in the woods while their entire family was attacked and he was useless to do anything. Helplessness was not something he was used to feeling and he couldn't say he liked it. He looked around his home, gripping his hands so tight they turned white. Damnit.

Oriana looked at Ilairo when he mentioned he saw no signs of her parents and shook her head sadly. "No, none of our parents made it...none of the little ones either." She sighed and then looked to Demetri. He was being oddly quiet about this whole thing. "What about him?" She stepped forward as sudden anger flared in her eyes. "You mysteriously show up and days later we get attacked." Oriana took a few more steps in his direction and put a hand on the hilt of her sword.

"Oriana...Calm down.." Ryleon tried to put a hand on her shoulder but she roughly pushed it away as she kept her gaze locked on the dark haired man. He had scars everywhere, and while he may not have attacked their family in his time with Rose, he might have brought those things to them. And right now, killing someone (even more so if they were responsible) sounded like a really great plan. Ryleon looked back to his twin cousins for help to calm his sister. Tristan wanted to see how this played out for the time being, so he remained where he was.

Demetri turned an apathetic eye on the enraged woman and scoffed. He didn't want any more a part of those magic warriors than they did. But for now, he wanted to keep his knowledge to himself. Telling them what he knew would only make things worse and their distrust of him would only grow. "What use is directing your anger towards me?" He asked, keeping his tone even and cool.

Oriana could have sworn she heard a growl erupt from her throat. "You can't honestly think I believe you had nothing to do with this." Oriana accused, she knew she was jumping to conclusion, but she was so angry, so mad and he was the perfect target- Prime suspect.

"What proof do you have?" Demetri asked, keeping his gaze level with her. He sure as hell didn't want a fight but he wasn't going to lay down and take a beating either. He had been in such position for too long to take peoples crap any longer. Demetri couldn't help the faint smile that hovered on his lips when Oriana could not provide any solid evidence for her claims. He didn't expect her to either. His presence here was as unexpected to him as it was for everyone else. Damn dragon.

"Stop it!" Rose cried out suddenly, twisting out of Ilario's grip and walking to Oriana's side with a stubborn look on her face. "Please Oriana, just... no more fighting. If he had lead those creatures here on purpose, why would he have saved me and brought me back?" Her voice was pleading, nearly breaking out into tears again as she stood next to her cousin. "I don't want to see anyone else hurt..."

Even though most of the time he was under the impression that his sister couldn't make a logical decision to save her life, Ilario did agree with her for this one instance. Walking forward, he put his hands on Rose's shoulders and glared at Demetri. "For once, agree with Rose. For whatever reason, he's saved our sister from those... things." He looked to Oriana's face, the anger etched there that he felt all too keenly. He and Tristan hadn't been there during the attack and didn't know what sort of fate might befall their parents and younger siblings. "But... If he does know anything about these creatures, then he should help us find their layer, so that we can rescue our family. As a favor, for saving his life from that dragon." He met Demetri's gaze again, eyes hard. Normally, the boy had a rather care-free jovial attitude, but in the face of his whole world being turned upside down, he was a little more serious.

Demetri met with Oriana’s gaze as he leaned against the tree, he made no move to attack her but simply kept a cautious eye on her. Until Rose stepped in, she was a distraught little mess; pleading with whom he could guess was her cousin not to fight with him. Demetri seriously doubted he would be the one getting hurt anyway. He was not an emotional wreck like Oriana; such things really tend to affect your performance in battle. She wasn’t as upset as Rose, but more angry. He sighed, women.

Oriana looked to her cousin and frowned, but stood out of her defensive position and removed the hand that was on the hilt of her sword. “I don’t trust him Ilario.” She mumbled to him but made no further move to cause confrontation. Tristan stood on the other side of Rose and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Ryleon soon joined the group, waiting to see how Demetri would respond to Ilario’s words.

Demetri sighed once more. These people were so uptight and serious, but he supposed he couldn’t blame them. He wouldn’t know what it would be like to lose your entire family in one sitting. He scowled slightly as he pushed down rather painful memories but as soon as the emotion was on his face it has disappeared.

“I couldn’t tell you their exact location…” He paused for a moment to consider his words, weighing how much he should actually tell them. “But I know a general area you could search in order to find them, rumors and such.” He said his words in a nonchalant manner, without emotion behind them. What emotions he really held he pushed down to keep from remembering. He ran his hand across the scar on his neck with an absent mind as what could best be called sympathy pains resurfaced.

“What do you mean, rumors?” Tristan asked, narrowing his eyes. They had heard nothing of this person, but all in all it wasn’t surprising. They lived way up in the mountains and only visited their grandparents down in Turrich. They had never really been out of the area. What was more surprising was that Ryleon or Oriana had heard nothing of it. The two of them traveled a lot with uncle Talos and Aunt Lena so he thought they would have heard whisperings such as the ones Demetri claimed to hear.

Demetri shrugged, “I’ve gotten around, I hear people whisper things. People disappearing and where people keep thinking they were being taken. It was a large area that the people kept saying and they weren’t all consistent but there is a common area.” He kept a level gaze on the twins. Those two were the ones that would keep the others from attacking him it seemed, so they were the ones he needed to address.

A long moment of silence passed between them, Rose eventually retreating back into Ilario's arms as the twins considered Demetri's scant amount of information that he was willing to give them. Ilario didn't believe for one second that he was telling them everything, especially when he reached up to touch that terrible scar on his neck. Sudden understanding dawned on him... Was it possible that he had been captured by those monstrosities before? If that were the case, then he was more valuable (and more dangerous) to them then what Ilario first gave him credit for. "Fine. Take us to this location and we'll see if we can get our family back. But first..." He look over his shoulder to the ruin of their home with the smashed glass and broken in doors. It really was a wreck... "We'll want to stock up on money, clothes, weapons... If we're going to try and get our family back, we'll need every advantage we can get."

Demetri had to stop a snort from escaping him. They would need more than an advantage to save their parents. Demetri causally put his hands behind his head and got comfortable against the tree. It wasn't like he had anything in that house that he owned and the one weapon he had was pretty much always on his hip. He figured he would lead the band of misfits to the region and then say his goodbyes. Demetri looked to the night sky and let a sigh escape him now. It was going to be a long night.

Tristan looked at Demetri once more before walking towards his house. Oddly, it didn't feel like his anymore and that was a disturbing. He stepped over a particularly large piece of rubble and then pulled the door from the last hinges it was hanging on, tossing it aside.

Oriana wanted to punch the smug look from his scarred face but thought otherwise, perhaps he would be useful. She walked over to Ryleon and leaned in to whisper in his ear, "Stay here and watch this one, alert us if he tries to run away. I will grab your stuff." She put her hand on his shoulder before walking in after Tristan.

Rose was led back into the lit halls of her home by Ilario, relieved when she could see again despite the bad lighting outside of their house. A small sigh escaped her as she headed back to her own room, treading over broken glass and pottery as she went. She found her room easily enough and began undressing out of the pretty dress she was in, exchanging the unpractical garb for a more practical set of riding clothes that actually had pants to them. The pants felt uncomfortable on her legs, as used to skirts and dresses as she was, but she dealt with it, walking back out into the main parlor to find that her brothers were already there, talking together with their swords belted on and looking all-business. It was a rare sight to see the boys being serious, and it only managed to highlight just how depressed she was over this whole ordeal. "Are we ready to go?" She called, walking down the stairs to join them.

Ilario looked up, his expression unreadable. "Just waiting on you." He replied tersely. Without waiting, he walked out the front door and into the darkness of the night, disappearing completely from Rose's view.

*~*~*

The morning found the small troupe cold but dry, the predawn light making everything a brilliant white with the new fallen snow that had covered everything, including the tent that the cousins had all crammed into for the night as protection against the cold. Ilario shifted in his sleeping bag, aware that someone's arm was flung over his face. It took a little while to realize that it was Rose's, her and Oriana crammed in the middle of the tent between the boys despite Oriana's protest that just because she wasn't a man she couldn't keep adequately warm. Of course, Rose hadn't had any protest to the argument, apparently too tired to care.

Shoving Rose's arm away, Ilario carefully wiggled out of his sleeping bag and stretched with a small groan, taking quick stock of everyone and the small amount of supplies that they had taken with them. Demetri wasn't in the tent with them, so he stepped outside to see where the man had gotten off to. He half expected the man to have taken off during the night, and was slightly disappointed to see his dark form curled up in the boughs of a tree. Frowning, Ilario began picking his way across the snow, testing the depths of it. "That's got to be the worst way to sleep I've ever seen." He called up to the man once he was close enough.

Demetri looked down to see it was Iilaro calling up to him, or so he thought. It was still hard to tell them apart unless they were together. A small, humorless smile graced his lips. "It's the best place to eye on your surroundings." For as long as he had been free sleeping in tree had been his method of choice. Of course, it didn't always good smooth and the first few times he ended up with a sore back, splinters, and a very sore bum. It was tiring and hard to get used to but it was all worth it to keep an attacker from getting the advantage of being on the ground or a rather hungry animal from nomming off your toes. Demetri was more than a bit cold though, the snow that continued to come down in the night kept piling on him and the naked branches did little to cover him. So, he had no want to move from his spot. The clothes Rose has practically forced on him were actually warm, with no holes or anything. She was a little less annoying than before, at least she had stopped talking, and crying.

Ryleon was the next to wake he was on the opposite side of Ilario, next to Tristan. He carefully slide from the warm sleeping bag and carefully picked his way over the girls and out into the early morning light. He winced as the light bounced off the bright snow and waited for his eyes to adjust. He saw his cousin talking to a tree? No, he was looking up at something. Demetri. Ah. He walked over and greeted him. "Mornin'." He said, not feeling it appropriate to attach 'good' to the front of it. What a terrible mess they were in....

(Feel free to time skip some to where they are all up or...whatever. 8D I can't write anymore.)

"Mornin'..." Ilario replied with a nod of his chin. Normally, he would have waved as well, but his fingers were currently jammed between his arms and body in order to keep them warm. Already, his feet were beginning to feel the bite of winter's chill standing in the snow like he was and pointedly began to realize that Demetri was either immune to the cold, or else a moron. Well, at least they would be heading more or less south... They had to get over the mountains twice, passing over the evergreen valley nestled in the huge mountain range, but after that they were going to be traveling through the lowlands. It would still be winter, but at least it wouldn't be quite so frigid. "Well, whatever you say, snowman. After you lead us to our parents, you can come back here and freeze to death all you want." With an dramatically exasperated sigh, he turned and went to wake up the others, preferably by pummeling them in the face with a handful of snow...


They had pack up and were ready to head over the mountains, each of the avians carrying a predetermined portion of their camping materials and other supplies like food. Even Rose got a fair share of it, and though it tired her to fly with so much gear much quicker than the others she refused to complain about it, reminding herself time and again that this was for her parents.

She had woken up to snow on her face, and thinking illogically that she was drowning and had gone blind for all the white had accidentally punched Ilario in the face. The culprit got what he deserved and everyone in camp got a much needed laugh out of the whole ordeal. Of course, she had healed the developing bruise afterward, but that was just out of good conscience. The brief laughter didn't help the gritty feeling in her eyes that came after having an extended cry however, but she didn't mention anything about that, either. Her brothers would probably make fun of her for being such a cry baby and they had their own issues to deal with, for if they came under attack it would be those two the primarily lead the defense along with Oriana and possibly Ryleon. From what she could gather of Demetri, he didn't seem to have near the amount of training and fighting experience as her brothers and cousins.

They were following the mysterious man now and would probably reach the other side of the evergreen forest valley by the time the sun set and they would have to put down for the night again.

Demetri watched with only the slightest of amusement when Ilario had been decked in the face by his sister. So she had some fight in her, if only it be in her sleep. Shrugging off comments about his sleeping in a tree from the rest of the group, Demetri led them in the direction he had last remembered.

They had flown pretty much the entire day; most of the landscape was the same white tipped ever greens of the forest. As Demetri finally landed in a small clearing the sun was just starting to dip in the sky.

Ryleon couldn’t be happier to be landing; the trip had been cold and unrelenting. Traveling with this new guy as lead wasn’t easy but if it was for his family, Ryleon felt he could deal with it. Stretching his sore limbs he set down his pack and looked around at the white landscape.

Oirana on the other hand thought the flight was good for her. She had been in a bad mood since this whole fiasco has started and the long period in the air had given her time to clear her head. As she landed next to her brother she did the same thing as him, putting her arms over her head and yawning. Oriana didn’t know if she would ever trust this Demetri but for the time she knew it would only slow their progress to their parents if she caused conflict.

Tristan landed and almost instantly felt…something. There was something that didn’t feel right and it set the hairs on the back of his neck to stand. “Ilario… “ He looked to his twin with an uncomfortable glance.

(What a terrible reply. XD)

The high skies had been frigid but being high fliers as they were, the avians were more accustomed to cold than normal people. Still, that didn't make it comfortable. At least by comparison the low-lying evergreen forest that sat between the V of the mountains was relatively warm. It was still snowy down here, but it was a wet snow that would freeze into ice over the night. Not comfortable to be walking around in, but again, not as cold as being up in the mountains. Ilario was glad when they landed in the spongy half-frozen mess that was the forest, letting his bag drop with a soft thump and a rattle of supplies. He stretched his back and wings, a groan leaving him as he did so. It felt so good to not be flying anymore, his legs feeling somewhat like gelatin after having not used them for so long. He rolled his shoulders and looked around what was to be their campsite, scanning the forest quickly. He didn't get the odd feeling that his twin had but was instantly on alert when Tristan spoke. The two knew each other as only twins could and his every expression was like an open book to Ilario. He knew that something was off by the way he spoke and as he looked to Rose he noticed that their sister had stiffened as well, her head whipping around to look at the forest. He couldn't imagine what she hoped to see though, for the sun was beginning to plunge below the horizon and her vision was crap at best during this time of day.

"What is it?" He asked a little belatedly, resting his hand on his sword and scanned the forest as well. Tristan didn't have to answer him, however, for the source of their misgivings came floating through the trees a little less than silently. One of the metal phantoms that had attacked their home before came crashing through the forest. Bits of tree were stuck in the chinks of its armor though it seemed no less determined to capture them all. Ilario's blood ran cold then, his heart stuttering. How could they possibly defeat this thing?! It didn't bleed! Didn't feel pain and didn't die. With a battle cry, Ilario unsheathed his sword all the way and dove for the creature, pelting it with blows from his sword. Maybe they could escape? Though with it being dark like it was and all of them bone tired and chilled through they wouldn't get far over the mountains before they had to stop again.

Demetri felt his own blood run cold. Why? Could he…they never escape these monstrous beings? Never could he figure a way to defeat these floating hunks of metal. Terrible images danced in his mind and he had to shake his head several times in order to regain his senses. Ilario has begun wailing at the thing, senselessly pounding away at the indestructible armor. “What use is it to pound it like that?!” But, when he asked himself what else they should be doing, nothing came to mind. With a snort, Demetri drew his own sword. It was still a slightly foreign feeling to actually wield a sword but when push came to shove, Demetri would be doing the shoving. His glance flickered to Rose for a moment. “Stay back.” He gave her a simple warning; there was no need to him to have to protect her as well if she got in the way.

Oriana frowned at the sight of the creatures. “Great. Just great.” She was hardly in the mood to deal with them after the long flight Demetri made them take. Drawing her duel blades she ran toward one of them. She jumped in the air and making an X with her blades she came down on the thing. There was no point in trying to cut them down but to push them away.

Tristan instinctively went to draw his own weapon and did so but stopped his advance as something clicked in his brain. He did have magic, why in such a time had he not thought to use it? Ilario, like their father could use fire but Tristan thought that would have no effect against such a magical being. A spell…Tristan moaned uncharacteristically as he tried to put his brain in high gear. Thinking of spells was not easy when in the midst of chaos.

Ryleon turned from his peaceful view of the forest when he heard the familiar clang of metal hitting against metal and for a moment he went still inside. The things had nearly captured him if it were not for his sister. He cocked a curious glance in Tristan’s direction when he faltered. Did he have some sort of headache? Drawing his sword, he ran foreword to Rose. Holding his sword in her direction, he pushed himself into a dead run going as fast as he could toward the woman. “Duck!” He issued the warning, praying that she would obey as he jumped in the air, giving a half flap to his wing to ascend a little higher to drop kick the floating warrior behind her.

Tristan put a hand to his head. “Think…think…” Sadly with spells it wasn’t so easy to just throw words together. One false word, annunciation, anything and a spell could backfire twice as hard. He stood still for a moment as the words finally came together his head. Looking down to his blade and holding it before him he spoke the words, hoping that it was work;


For a long moment, nothing happened and then he felt the familiar drain of magic from his body as his sword began to glow a pale blue. Now here was the question; did it work? Tristan ran towards his brother and then in front of him, coming it at the floating monster in the side, between to plates of armor and instead of the smoke he had cut through last time, he had to force his way through something. The thing halted and then after a long moment it split in half, and the armor fell to the ground in a heap. “It…worked.”

It was all too sudden for her, even though she had felt that something was amiss in the evergreen forest. Some innate sixth sense told her to be wary, that something was very direly wrong in this situation and that she should get away from as quickly as possible. Take flight! her senses all but screamed. But she didn’t and the feeling of unease only spread, climaxing in the appearance of the strange floating undying kidnappers. How had they been found?! She backed away from the thing as it hovered into the clearing, Ilario leaping at the thing with a warrior’s reflex. Kill now. Ask questions later. But such was not her way. She had never been in any sort of confrontation larger than who had stolen whose hairbrush. Her father wouldn’t even hear of her doing something so reckless as picking up a sword. So, when Demetri told her to stay away from the creatures, she complied readily, backing away from the floating creature with wide eyes. And why now, of all times?! She could hardly see anymore, and her vision was only getting worse!

Rose was concentrating hard on the first one that emerged from the trees, and was so preoccupied she didn’t even see the second one heading straight for her until Ryleon told her to duck. She did without thinking and heard the crash of her cousin’s foot against the metal hide of another one of those creatures shortly after. Her skin prickled, and she looked up to see Tristan thinking very hard about something. He was trying to compose a spell? In the middle of this? That was dangerous at best, and she was readying herself to attempt to heal him when his sword suddenly glowed blue and the prickling sensation stopped. But, he was not the only one with a glowing sword now.

As Ilario swung for the metal monster he was fighting his sword suddenly glowed a brilliant blue color and much to his surprise cut a deep hole in the chest plate of the damned creature. The creature seemed just as surprised that it had been wounded as Ilario was that he had been able to cut it, and the two paused in their fight for a few seconds, enough time for his twin to come and deliver the finishing blow on the monstrosity. Ilario examined his brother carefully, then their glowing swords. “I suppose that this is your work, eh?”

Tristan just nodded at his brother’s question with his customary grin as he looked from his twin back down to their blue glowing weapons. “Kicking them down wasn’t going to keep them from capturing us for much longer.” He commented feeling like stating some obvious truth was necessary. Tristan looked at the downed creature, the smoky body of it was gone and the only remaining evidence of it was the metal plate of its armor. Tristan looked at his blade once more and frowned, the brilliant blue glow was now no more then a pale dull and was fading with every second. “I’ll have to come up with a better spell once this is dealt with.” Tristan looked to his twin once more and then to the others.

Ryleon would never had thought to draw his sword against the monsters after his drop kick to the floating warrior until he caught the bright blue shimmer from the hilt of where the sword sat on his hip. Counting on that Tristan did something useful with his spells he drew his rarely used weapon and with all the courage he could muster, Ryleon hacked at the creature slamming the weapon in to it several times even after the beast had gone down. Something in him needed to hack at this thing and he couldn’t stop himself.

Demetri on the other hand saw his weapon turn blue, made two stabs at the creature in front of him and contently sheathed the sword away. If he had had this before…a scowl came on his face as he turned from the downed heap of armor to eye the rest of the group. His face twitched into a smile as he counted himself lucky to see Oriana’s spectacle.

Having thrust her entire weight onto the warrior the last thing Oriana expected was to go through the thing. Her careful and graceful leap soon turned into a clumsy fall as her duel blades cut through the floating thing and she fell onto it, nailing herself in the gut with the hilts of her swords. She quickly rolled off of it, coughing, and then turned an angry glare on Tristan knowing it was his doing. “Warn me, will you…” Seeing most of the people who had been the main fighters stop, Oriana was surprised to hear the sounds of a battle still on going. She looked to see her brother whacking and waving his sword, long since the blue light had faded from it, angry tears streaking down his normally calm face.

“Ryleon, enough.” She said in a calm, yet firm voice from where she stood. She didn’t want to get caught up in his blade while he was so distraught. When he didn’t stop his assault on the pile of armor, Oriana frowned and picked up a stone chucking it at her brother’s head. “Enough.” She said more softly this time getting a good look on his face.

Ryleon stood over it; huffing from the workout he had just given himself and roughly wiping at the tears that had fallen. He was so angry and hurt, not having vented from when his parents were kidnapped and seeing the damned things triggered the fresh and painful memories all over again. After a long moment he sheathed his sword and kept his back from the rest of the group.

It was all over. In mere seconds the battle for their very lives had come to an end with Tristan's quick thinking. With sadness written all over her face, Rose quietly watched her cousin hacking away at the metallic corpse of their enemy. She nearly yelled at Oriana for the girl's harsh words but remained silent, wishing she knew a song that could heal heartache. Such a thing would probably have helped them all in this situation.

Ilario sheathed his sword, clapping his twin on the shoulder. "Good thinking. Next time we see those metal heads we'll put them in the ground." For good measure, he kicked the nearest hunk of warped armor and was satisfied with its silence and lack of movement. However, not everything was completely silent. He heard something, a weak thin sound that was something akin to a dying animal. "Shh!" He hissed, holding up his hand for the rest of those in their group to be quiet. Ilario perked up his ears and listened hard, but the noise didn't come again. "Gah, I'll bet these freaks weren't the only ones. Tristan, you and me are going to go check that noise out." He surveyed the group quickly and pointed to Oriana. "You too, come with us. If there's more around here, we'll find 'em and take 'em out. Rose... you uh... set up camp, or something. Gloomy Snowman, you stay here too. Ryleon, keep a look out and give a yell if something comes to attack you while we're away." Though he didn't particularly like leaving Rose with their angsty guide, he couldn't very well take the girl along with them, especially since she was going to be completely blind in a few minuets.
Rubbing his head, Ilario lead them out into the woods in the direction that he'd heard the cry. They didn't have to walk for very long when the found the path that the floating armored nightmares had carved through the forest, barreling down everything in their path. "Well, that doesn't make them hard to find at all..." Most interesting of all, it seemed that the path the metal heads had been carving was paralleling their own path. If these creatures were heading home with their haul, then Snowman was leading them in the right direction. He followed the path that they had made in the woods and found the source of the noise.

Their family wasn't the only one that had been affected by these pillagers, though from the looks of his clothing, this particular victim hadn't been nearly as well-off as his family. The man had dark skin, darker than aunt Lena's even, and his hair was pitch black save for a stripe of vivid orange on his temples. His face, though dirty, had a very aristocratic look to it. A strong jaw with high cheeks and a well-formed brow. His body was cloaked in a ragged and dirty looking bit of cloth that could have once served to haul around vegetables. His pants were in much the same condition and he wore nothing in the way of shoes. The wings sprawled out behind him were black like his hair and marked with the same vivid orange on the insides of his wings, save for a band of white near the primaries. "Looks like our family wasn't the only ones those guys were after..."

Tristan nodded at his brothers compliment, though he was still unsatisfied that the blue light had faded from their weapons. He had not enough time to think about the entire spell, but it had worked so he shrugged it off and was about to say something more when his twins ‘shh’ and a hand held up for the group to remain silent went up. Naturally Ilario had appointed themselves as the group to find the source of the noise and his hand instinctively went to the hilt of his sword.

Oirana wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or an insult that Ilario had wanted her to come along in the mission but thought it was a good idea to give her brother some alone space and made her way over to the twins. She wanted to roll her eyes at the two and their usually antics but kept it to herself. It was no time to kid if they were not out of danger yet. To the rest of his appointments, Oriana couldn’t help a chuckle with Demetri was duly named ‘Gloomy Snowman’.

Demetri merely shot a dark scowl in Ilario’s direction for the new nickname but said nothing more, going to find a tree to sit under. Ryleon however was glad for the chance away from the noisier group of cousins and his sister. He needed a bit of time to think. “Sure.” Ryleon agreed, looking to his cousin who was probably blind by now. “Do you want some help?” He offered, trying to clear the emotions from his throat.

“Gloomy Snowman…I like it.” Tristan snickered to his brother as they made their way into the forest. And Ilario’s statement about the obviously clear trail was no understatement. “It’s like they even aren’t trying to hide where they were going.” He said feeling a small well of anger rising but quickly pushed it back down.

Once they found the rather odd, yet beaten looking man Tristan cocked his head at the weird color of his wings but kept his thoughts to himself. “But they have only taken avians.” Tristan noted with a small hint of worry to his voice. He had no idea if his statement was actually true, but from what they had seen, it looked as if he were right.

Oirana walked up to the man and bent down low to examine him. She couldn’t deny he was handsome, looking as if he was born on a coast somewhere like her mother except a bit more exotic. “Lets take him to Rose, she can heal him…Perhaps he knows something?” Oriana suggested looking back to her cousins. Tristan shrugged his shoulders and bent down to take on of the man’s arms and wrap it around his shoulders. “Got the other side?” He asked his twin, thought he knew he didn’t have to.

With a sigh, Rose went about the task of putting camp back together, but as soon as her brothers with Oriana in tow left the clearing she stood and walked over to the blurry form that she knew to be Ryleon and put a slim hand on his shoulder. "Thank you for saving me Ryleon." She said in her soft melodious voice, squeezing her shoulder. "We all feel that same grief, though my brothers pretend not to and I have never seen your sister express much other than anger. Be strong cousin. We will need your strength before all this is through." She offered him a small smile, her golden eyes meeting his blue ones with a wealth of kindness stored there. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw a dark for that she assumed was Demetri and only just barely kept from sighing. Was he going to sleep outside again tonight? He was going to die of hypothermia out here…

"Demetri, why don't you help start a fire?" She called across the small clearing, trying to sound cheerful. "We could make soup for dinner tonight. I know that Ilario and Tristan will be hungry when they get back." If they came back… But she couldn't allow herself to think like that and instead went back to setting things up. "Thank you for helping Ryleon. You know how useless I can be after it gets dark…"

----

"Seems like it…" Ilario muttered when Tristan voiced his suspicious about the captives of the metal kidnappers. It made sense after all, since their entire family, even the ones down in Turich had been taken and then this fellow out here in the snow to boot. He grabbed the young man's other side opposite his twin and hefted the unconscious fellow on his shoulder. "Of course. Say, you think that Rose will fall for this one too?" He asked with a knowing grin. He wondered just how their sheltered and overly pampered sister would react to another guy hanging around that wasn't related by blood. She had certainly fallen head over heels for the first one, but with two around, he though it would be interesting to see her struggle to decide which one to pick.

Ryleon nodded at her thanks and couldn’t help the humorless laugh that escaped him at the mention of lack of emotions from his sister. It was rather true that Oriana was either calm or angry consistently. She was not as extreme or as fidgety as their mother but the temper was defiantly passed on to his sister. “Thank you Rose.” He said with much gratitude and then followed her gaze to the ever brooding avian under the tree.

“You have odd tastes, my cousin.” He remarked softly as he started to set the tents up for the night. Ryleon didn’t have much of an opinion of Demetri other than the fact the he was rather unsocial. Living out on the coast with his parents and sister he thought was unsocial but this man brought it to a new level.

Demetri sat under the tree and watched the two cousins speak to one another. A slight scowl came to his face, and it only set deeper when the cheery voice of Rose came calling across the field for him to start a fire. That perpetual happy tone grated on his nerves more then he could ever explain. For when Demetri only felt mistrust and pain from his past, this woman who had this entire happening to her still sounded happy. He thought it might be a weakness of his own to fell such anger, but even with a realization of that the emotions didn’t go away.

Standing without a word, Demetri flew up to the tree he was sitting under and started breaking off some of the branches not covered in snow. Ryleon on the other hand nodded as Rose’ thanks and continued to do the work of setting up camp.

Tristan kept pace with his twin as a grin of his own spead across his features. “Of course she will, look at this guy!” He laughed with his brother as they entered the clearing. Oriana kept watch from behind and rolled her eyes this time at the thought of Oriana and the ‘Gloomy Snowman’.

"Right handsome fellow he is." Ilario replied with a sarcastic snort, hefting the unconscious guy a little higher on his shoulder. Light as this strangely colored avian might be, Ilario was still tired from flying all day, battling it out with the metal heads and then not having any dinner as a reward. He figured that Rose would be able to get the guy up and running again, but he was awfully cold and skinny. He looked like he hadn't had a decent meal in a long while. Once they entered the clearing he took stock of what was going on and sighed. No fire yet? Very disappointed. "Ooi! Rose! We've got a job for you!"

Rose blushed fiercely at Ryleon's parting words, fumbling with a tent pole she had been putting together and dropping it into the snow. She sighed heavily and tried her best not to smack her cousin the the shoulder, searching around blindly for the dropped bit of equipment. Asking for a fire wasn't just out of consideration for her older brothers, of course. Rose knew that if they could get a fire going then she could at least see within range of the fire's glow and could help out more with the preparations that they had to make for nightfall. Dark as it was, she missed Demetri's scowl and was therefore completely unaware that pretending to be cheerful was making the man angry. Not that she'd know why even if she did notice the look on his face…

She looked up when she heard Ilario's familiar voice and sighed with relief. Good, they'd made it back, and quickly too. Stepping carefully through the snow, she met them half way and took stock of the new person strung between her older sibling's shoulders. She couldn't tell much about him other than he had very black hair and very orange highlights, but if he wasn't struggling it probably meant that he was unconscious. "Oh dear, where did you find him? Is he badly hurt?"

Ryleon tried to hide his smile, as his cousin couldn’t help but fumble with the tent items and attempted to smack him though she failed horribly. He looked up to see his cousins carrying a man and stopped his work to inspect the unconscious fellow with interest. What part of the world had he come from and how long had he been the floating monsters prisoner for him to look this malnutritious.


Demetri quickly collected the firewood and flew over to the spot where Rose and Ryleon were standing. As he landed snow flew up from under him and softly floated back down to the ground. His glaze flickered over to the unconscious man and his unhappy mood just seemed to get even worse, if that were even possible. Another victim eh? Keeping to himself, Demetri set work to making a fire.

“Seems he was those floating bastards captive.” Tristan commented looking to Ilario for a moment before walking closer to the fire that was starting to come together near Demetri. “We didn’t see any major wounds.” Oriana commented from behind the twins, in her usual stance of her arms crossed over her chest. She walked over to the fire and laid down a blanket for the man to be laid on as Tristan did just that once it was out.

Rose followed her brothers as they set down the man on the blanket Oriana set out, her vision restored to her when Demetri got the fire going. "Thank you." She mumbled to the man, offering him a timid smile. He still intimidated her a little bit, especially out here where everything was as wild and untamed as he was. It was almost like he were more a part of the wilderness than he was a part of society, though in all honesty she shouldn't have been surprised given what little she knew about him. But wasn't that the draw?

With the fire lit she could now see their newest companion for what he was, and extremely thin man who had seen better days. She tried to think of where he might come from given his dark skin and orange spotted wings, thinking over the matter a little as she knelt beside him in preparation to sing the healing words over him. "Oh!" She exclaimed suddenly, inciting a raised brow from Ilario. "He's from the north west coast I think, near the tropics!"

"And how do you know that sis?" Ilario asked, scrounging around in his pack for something to eat. He could probably eat a whole cow right about now…

"Because I read, unlike some boys I know." Rose shot back darkly with a hint of sarcasm, narrowing her eyes at her eldest brother. Clearing her throat softly, she spread her hands out above the young man's chest and opened her mouth to sing.


It was a quick spell, the song simple in composition, but Rose's gift for singing always shined through, even in the simplest of instances. Her hands glowed, the soft white light transferring from her splayed fingers to the man's chest and where it faded as it took effect all over his body. Rose felt her strength draining in a steady stream, though it wasn't nearly as dramatic as the time that she had healed Demetri from his near-death state. When the magic finally stopped drawing on her, the man stirred and took a deep breath, his eyes fluttering open.

At first he simply looked up at the sky, his black eyes unfocused and all of his movements slow. Then he looked first to Rose, examined her for a few seconds, then took in the rest of his surroundings, lighting on anyone's face that was close enough for him to see without moving his head. "Where am I?" His voice was soft and dry and cracking, but had a very peculiar accent to it, not like the ones that she had heard from Turich, something completely different.

"You're in camp with us and safe." Rose replied gently with a smile. "My brothers rescued you from those floating metal creatures that had held you captive."

Tristan shot his sister an incredulous look, “Why would we take the time to read something so boring?” His face scrunched in obvious dissatisfaction at the thought of reading some of the many books the young woman read over the years. He would much rather spend his time sparring or eating. Which brought up the very good point to follow suit with his brother and rummage through his pack to find something to eat.

As Rose sung her soft melody Demetri stopped poking at the fire and locked his gaze on the woman from which it was produced. The waves of warmth coming from her song seemed to gently wash over Demetri like had never known. Well, actually if he were conscious during his first bit of healing he would have felt the wonder of her powers first hand but being half dead tends to keep you from noticing things like that. For the first time since meeting Rose, Demetri felt like he wanted to listen to her speak, sing rather and was almost disappointed to hear it stop.

Oriana listened to her cousins singing and then looked to Demetri who seemed to be frozen from what he was doing. With a sly grin, she nudged Ilario to look from his pack to the man not wanting him to miss the reaction on Demetri’s face. Hearing Rose start to speak to the man she walked closer to the fire. He sounded so…weak. No wonder he was capture, she kept herself from allowing the unlady like snort erupt from the thoughts she was having and kneeled down to go through her own pack and let Rose handle the new comer.

"Did you defeat them?" He asked in that same quietly ragged voice, though there was a hint of panic to it now, his body tensed. Obviously, whatever he had seen at the hands of the floating metal creatures had made him very wary of them and he was in no mood to ever see them again.

"Yes, all of the ones near by have been defeated." She replied in the most soothing tone she could muster, not very difficult given her ability to sing. Rose looked up once and met Demetri's eyes, those dark wild orbs of his seeming to simply burn right through her. Inexplicably, Rose's face heat up to a violent crimson and had to avert her eyes, playing nervously with the hem of her shirt and was thankful for the darkness to conceal some of her blush. Why was he staring at her like that? So intently and with such intensity… She flushed again when her mind was drawn back to that time in the parlor annex when Demetri had pinned her down, the two sharing breathing space when he had been so incredibly close…

Ilario couldn't help but to laugh quietly when he looked up to see Demetri staring at Rose like he had never seen her before and she had just declared that she was actually a dragon in disguise. What made it all the better was Rose's reaction when she noticed. Ahh, this really was better than the theater. Though, he'd have to take care to make sure that they didn't get too friendly with each other. Laughing at Rose's awkward reactions was one thing, seeing those awkward reactions turn into something else that was only more awkward for everyone else would be even worse.

"A-a-anyway, don't worry about anything." Rose stammered, trying to regain some of her dignity. "Just try and rest and heal. We'll take care of you."

When Rose finally looked up at Demetri he didn’t relinquish his stare. Where had this come from? Once she finally had turned a deep shade of red, for which he could see at least some of it from this dark lighting, he looked back down the fire and went about poking it as he did before.

Tristan couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him which he quickly set his eyes back on his bag after seeing his sister turn such a dark red color. Tristan wasn’t as worried as his sister turning this awkward moment into something of romance in the future though. Mr. Gloom and Doom didn’t look like he wanted anything to do with anything let alone a girl, or his sister.

With that the rest of the night past uneventfully. Everyone, save for Demetri had gone to sleep or passed out in the warmth of the tent while their silent guardian snowman sat atop yet another tree to keep a birds eye view at all times.

The bright morning sun woke Demetri from his light sleep and he squinted as his eyes adjusted to the soft pale light. He had not heard any movement from the tent below so he decided to stay in his balled up form to keep any of the warmth from escaping him.

Ryleon was the next up, and had started making some breakfast for the group. This worked as both a meal and an alarm, especially for Ilario and Tristan. The two boys ate more combined then a small country would in a week it seemed. Ryleon shrugged, and looked up to Demetri. “Coming down or are you frozen up there this time?” He teased the man.

Demetri looked Ryleon over, unsure if he was serious or not and then shook the light dusting of snow that collected on his clothes over night. Making his way down he sat next to Ryleon giving a yawn as welcome. Ryleon only gave him a nervous smile in return.

Tristan rolled out of the sleeping bag at the first whiff of food. His senses pulled too strongly for the avian to remain asleep while food was cooking. He stood outside of the tent and gave a large yawn. “You’re a good man, Ryleon.” He grinned happy to see the food was well on its way to being done.

Oriana, however, would not be so easily roused from her sleep. The woman was content to stay in the warm blankets for as long as possible.

Twins as they were, it didn't take Ilario long to force himself out of the warmth of his sleeping blankets and into the chilly morning air, leaning heavily against his younger twin. "Mmm, Ryleon to the rescue." He mumbled, yawning widely. "Have I told you lately that you're a saint?" The usual playful grin was on his face as he straightened, stretching mightily and scratching his back. "I'll be glad to get out of these blasted mountains and into the lowlands… Snow is only great if you don't have to sleep in it."

The noise outside the tent had Rose stirring awake, that, and there was something pointy and hard sticking into her ribs. With a groan, Rose rolled to her feet and sat up, blinking with bleary eyes at the canvas wall of their tent. With a sigh, she adjusted her shirt, brushing out the wrinkles before leaving the tent and looking around. Ryleon had things under control as far as breakfast was concerned, though Ilario and Tristan were blocking the exit of the tent quite thoroughly. Her eyes wandered the morning scene until they lit on Demetri. A flush instantly rose to her cheeks and she ducked her head immediately, stepping back into the tent embarrassed with herself. Now even looking at his back was brining up memories from the night before. It was cruel of her subconscious to be torturing her like this.

She looked over and noticed that there was an extra person in their tent. For a moment she wondered who it could be before remembering that the man they had saved last night was sleeping in the community tent with them. With new purpose and a good excuse to try and calm her nerves, Rose made her way over to the sleeping man and shook his shoulder to wake him.