Taj and Aero: Advent of the Feather King

"Horses?" Oriana asked, stretching out her arms over her head and she was convinced the girl was hearing things until they were literally surrounded within seconds by some really ugly men who didn't like they were here to play nice. Oriana was about to stand and draw her sword when Alex spread out his wings, effectively blocking her. At first she was angry, knowing full well she could fight as well as any of their group here but she didn't say anything seeing their reaction to Rose.

Demetri wasn't going to stand for that for too long, also stepping in front of Rose and drawing his sword with an icy glare. "Touch her and I will personally kill you all." He warned, though he might not have had the fighting experience to back it up there was a fire in his belly that was oddly fueled him and he was more than ready to bash some heads in at the thought of them touching Rose.

Ryleon had formed a semi-circle with Tristan and Ilario, his weapon drawn and a stern look on his face. It oddly reminded him of the pirates they used to fight back at home and they were easy enough to deal with...so these guys shouldn't be too bad, right?

One of the man grinned, looking at Rose up and down. "Boss, I like this one!" He looked hungrily at Rose, his sword hanging in his hand by his hip. He was dirty and a little less built then some of the men but didn't look any less nasty.

At the group's general sense of resistance, the drunk bearded man lifted an eyebrow in amusement. "Oh ho, look like they're itching' fer a fight boys!" He slurred, waving his sword around and making his horse nervous. "Tell you what! You kids drop your pants and fly away, an' we'll forgive you! But you gotta leave the girls as punishment for bin' upstarts." Laughter and jeers followed his demand of them, cries of "Drop 'em" ringing out over the general mumble and noise.

"You pigs make me disgusted to think that you consider yourselves men." Alex growled, his feathers ruffling with annoyance. "I think these idiots ought to be taught a lesson, what about you guys?"

Ilario grinned, glancing sideways at Demetri who looked about ready to start spitting daggers. "Been looking for a good chance to crack some heads. It's been too boring."

"Please be careful…" Rose whispered to Demetri's back, touching him gently between the wings and flicked her eyes to the bandits who all looked ready to murder at Alex's defiant words.

"It's more fun when they fight back anyway!" The bearded man replied, raising his sword. "Take what you can get! Give nothing back!!" The bandits roared and spurred their horses forward, charging at the avians with hoots and hollers like they were at a rodeo rather than intending to slaughter innocents. Waving their swords around, the bearded man went straight for Alex, a murderous grin on his face.

For his part, Alex crouched and waited until the man was nearly on him then jumped and spun with a powerful flap of his wings, hooking the man in the back of the head with his heel. Unbalanced, the bandit crashed to the ground awkwardly on his shoulder with a cry and then twitched there for a little while. Others were quick to follow up, and Alex was forced to the ground again under the onslaught. Ilario was having entirely too much fun, ducking and dodging at the clumsily swings of the ill-trained mounted bandit, shooting a flare of fire up at anyone that got close enough to warrant a small measure of serious attention.

Demetri smirked slightly when Rose put her hand on his back and when the charge began Demetri jumped forward, running his sword into one of the men riding a horse using the momentum to meet more of the men charging around Rose.

The man previous looking at Rose had crept around Demetri and his onslaught grinning as he came close to Rose. "Yer even prettier up close. Come here kitty." He grinned, holding his sword out in case she got the gall to attack him. Though, she looked far to frail to do anything but scream. The touch of a woman's flesh sounded so delightful he could drool.

Oriana drew her sword, standing on the balls of her feet waiting for the first man to come at her, slashing at anyone who went for Alexs' back. It was oddly like the fighting style her parents used when they fought together on the pirate ship. It was an oddly good feeling and she went ahead on defending his back.

Tristan bent low to avoid getting charred by Ilario's fire and slashed at the back of a mans knees, feeling his blade cut through their tendons and was sprayed with blood as the man came crashing down screaming.

Hearing the voice right behind her, Rose screamed and whipped around, hair flying in all directions and wings flaring out in preparation to fly away. She fumbled for her daggers, getting them in hand and raising them in defense if the man came at her, stepping backward away from the man out of pure instinct with little regard as to who might have been behind her at that moment.

Alex sensed more than saw Oriana at his back. They'd never actually fought together like this, but he could tell that she was adept at back-to-back style of fighting. She followed his movements and covered his weak points, and soon enough they had a ring of dismounted men surrounding them, furious for having been knocked off their horses and having to fight on even ground with the avians now. One man was not content with this arrangement, and from outside the ring of bandits a man still mounted on horseback came barreling toward them screaming at the top of his lungs. There was no chance of stopping him, so Alex turned and shoved Oriana out of the way as hard as he could, jumping in the opposite direction and just barely managed to avoid the flying hooves of the distressed horse. He hit the ground awkwardly though and couldn't roll to his feet fast enough to avoid one of the bandits attempting to decapitate him. The swing went wide, grazing Alex's left shoulder but before the bandit could make up for the mistake the avian was on his feet again and on the defensive.

Recovering from being slammed on the ground at the very beginning of the fight, the bearded bandit rubbed his sore head, noticing that the fight had migrated some away from where he had been sprawled out on the ground from before. He saw the reckless charge of one of his fellow and for the first time noticed Oriana and quickly deduced that the cocky kid with the orange hair had been hiding her. Well, he'd show that punk kid. Getting to his feet, the man charge at the small avian girl, throwing his arms wide for a bodily tackle.

Ilario worked to try and get to Rose especially after hearing the girl's scream of distress. Though Demetri meant well, he knew that the man wouldn't be able to protect their idiot battle-shy sister by himself. "Tristan!" He shouted above the chaos as a man screamed when his face was lit on fire. "We need to go keep Rose out of trouble!" Before he could make a dash to the girl's side, a bandit interfered, hitting Ilario's blade at an awkward angle that sent the weapon spinning out of his hands. The two faced off for a brief second of confusion, then Ilario dove after his sword, tossing an arch of fire at the bandits that had surrounded him in the brief lull in the battle.

"Ooh, kitten can make some noise!" The man advanced on Rose, putting his sword back on his hip and grabbed at her wrists and squeezing hard so as she would drop the daggers. "Come on, you can scream for me later." He hissed, close to her face his grin showing a few missing teeth and the clear odor of not bathing for a week or more.

Oriana felt she was working well with Alex, the men just kept piling up around them. All was well until out of no where she was pushed, and pushed hard out of the way and in a frenzied tumble it didn't make too much sense as to why until she saw the man on the horse. "Alex! You okay?!" She asked standing once more. Her stable state didn't last for too long because before she knew it she was in the arms of the ugly bearded man who had first spoke to them. She had expected to be tackled to the ground or stabbed but she was picked up, and he kept running. "Get off!" She began flailing, her arms wings anything to try and get him off of her. She even bit down onto his shoulder, trying to push as hard as she could away from him.

Demetri continued to fight as he heard Roses' scream and he whipped around to see what was happening and only received and blow to the arm in return for not paying attention. He cursed, turning back and fighting off the men he was before.

Tristan hissed in anger as he saw his sister get cornered, "Damnit all!" He ducked a sword that was coming at his head and starting making his way over to Rose but it was a slow process.

When the bandit lunged for her wrists Rose tried to flinch away but wasn't fast enough. She tried to pull her arms out of his grip, struggling as the pressure tightened until she dropped one of her daggers where the blade stuck fast in the ground. "Let GO!" She screamed, twisting her arms and trying to thrash out of his grip, desperation and panic settling in full over her mind. Every instinct she had now was to flee, and this man was holding her back. The blood rushed in her ears as she continued trying to back away from him, but it was coming to no use. "I said LET GO!" Mustering her strength, Rose kicked her leg up between the bandit's unprotected man-parts.

Alex spun out of the way as three of the smelly grubby men tried to slash at him at the same time, one of the bandits coming away from the attempt one hand short. The now handless man screamed and flailed around, spraying blood all over the others nearby and Alex took full use of the confusion to stab a different man through his kidneys then ripped the blade sideways, disemboweling the man. Over the chaos and confusion he heard Oriana's cry and looked around to see what had happened. The bandit that had tackled her was making a speedy get away, and Alex leapt to pursue but was stopped when the man on horseback intercepted him, charging through the crowd. "Damnit! Oriana!!"

Nearly tripping and falling on his face, Ilario finally managed to grab his sword and righted himself with a flap of his wings, spinning in place and very nearly beheading the man directly behind him. It created enough of an opening that he managed to get to Demetri's side and shoved at the bandit that had flanked the dark-haired avian, knocking the man off balance where he met his end with Ilario's sword through his gut. "You'd think they'd get the hint and run away!" He called grimly over the noise of the battle, hacking at another bandit that still stood between him and Rose, keeping his back to Demetri and an eye out for Tristan.

Cackling, the bandit that had thrown Oriana over his shoulder after disabling her was running for it, taking his prize with him. However, it didn't take long before he started to regret taking her, for the woman was all fire, kicking and biting and generally just being unpleasant. With a roar he lifted Oriana and threw her with all his strength on the ground then planted his knee in her stomach, swinging with a heavy fist at her face to shut her up.

As the grungy man was about to lean in and lick Roses' ear, he suddenly felt a rather unpleasant and horrible sting in his neither regions and a rather unmanly scream was torn from his throat as he fell to the ground in the fetal position in agony. "You bitch..." He growled, unable to unball himself from his current position.

Out of all that was happening, Tristan had to stop and laugh at what Rose had just did. "Well seems some time on the road and out sister has now found a man's family jewels!" In a way, he was proud she was finally starting to protect herself and in another way it was such a girly way to fight he couldn't help but be amused. His amusement didn't last long though as another bandit came his way.

Oriana was slightly less successful however when her struggling earned her a rough throwing to the ground. Stars came to her eyes as she landed hard on the ground and before she even had time to think the man had put his large knee on her stomach, keeping her from moving or breathing further. She tried to put her hands on his knee to remove it but was rewarded with a fist to the face, it felt like she was smacked with an iron bar. She had to lay still, even for a second for she found herself gasping for air and a sudden burning in her limbs that made moving even harder.

Her utter relief when the man collapsed in front of her was short lived, though she did stop to kick him in the side before fleeing to hide behind the defensive wall of her brothers and Demetri, now one dagger short. "I don't know why you're laughing!" She yelled at Tristan, her face still blanched from nearly being abducted by the dirty bandit, practically her whole body quivering with nerves. She looked around at the battle to see that Alex was alone, fighting off a handful of bandits by himself and was taking a beating for it, especially since one of the bandits who still had a horse kept charging him, forcing him to leap away or get trampled.

"Yeah, you stay quiet, stupid bitch." The man grumped, grinning when Oriana finally went still. He pulled out a knife from a sheath on his hip and thrust the blade underneath the hem of her shirt, lifting his knee and gave it a hard yank, shredding the front of her clothes. Laughing, he clapped one of his big meaty hands over one o her breasts. "You got a nice body girly, aside from the wings. Maybe I'll just take those off!"

"Just nice to see you useful, Rose." Tristan teased, looking over to Alex for a moment and decided the fellow might need his help and rolled under the sword of a bandit running his sword across the mans legs and over to Alex's side. He ran his blade through a man going after Alex's back, spinning to face him. "Where is Oriana?" He yelled over the noise, noticing the girl not anywhere around him. Tristan didn't wait for an answer going after the man on the horse and with a half flap of his wing he close lined the man off his horse.

Oriana felt panic well in her chest when he cut her shirt open and roughly grabbed onto her chest. She didn't pay any mind to what he was saying as she tried to fight him off. For the first time in her life, Oriana felt utterly helpless and a cold weight dropped in her stomach. "No!" She refused, refused to be so helpless and began to flap her wings hard, hitting him in the face or body as hard as she could in hopes to district him enough to get him off of her.

She resisted the urge to strike Tristan, but only by the smallest measure. This was not the time or the place. Before she could attempt to curb his flippant ways however, he took off, leaving a hole in their defenses that Ilario moved to block on Rose's behalf.

Alex wasn't entirely sure how many times he'd been cut by now, either through a clumsy mistake or pure dumb luck on the part of his opponents, but it was starting to wear on him, and he was quickly running out of the energy to continue the fight. When Tristan came to help, he breathed a sigh of relief and beat back the bandit that he had previously been engaging. At his words however, he looked around and saw that Oriana wasn't at all in his line of vision anymore. Spitting out a nasty curse, he crouched and sprung from the ground, taking off straight into the sky and scanning around frantically to see if he could spot Oriana's wings. When he didn't see her immediately, his stomach thrilled with worry, and he took off in wide searching circles, looking in the dark to try and pinpoint where she'd gotten off to.

Growling, the bandit covered his head with his hands against her wings then flailed out with his knife, striking blindly in an attempt to get her to stop. Eventually he just grabbed one of her wings with his free hand and drove his knife through the muscle, ripping the knife back out with feral pleasure. He shoved his dagger in the loop of his belt where it came from and closed both of his hands around Oriana's neck, squeezing tightly and lifted her from the ground that way, carrying her to the edge of the cliff. "Now you be quiet girly, or I'll break your wings and toss you over the edge! Nod like a good girl, and take off your pants!"

Oriana was fighting with all her might, feeling like she was making some sort of progress with geting the huge man off of her until she felt a searing pain in her wing from the stab. She bit back a scream, deciding to let the one wing hang limp to slow the blood flow. When he grabbed her throat and held her over the cliff angry tears had already formed falling down her cheeks unchecked.

She would have replied but his hand was closing on her throat so she did the only thing she could as an approrite response, spitting in his face. She would rather die than to lay down like a dog and be raped. Her thoughts flashed to Alex for just a moment, but she wouldn't change her resolve. She kept a hard, angry glare at the man, if he really did throw her off she could at least use the one wing to help her land roughly.

Shaking his head, the grubby man tried to get rid of the spit on his face by rubbing his cheek against his shoulder then squeezed harder on Oriana's neck. "Bitch." He hissed and let go of her neck with one hand, reaching for her wing and gripping it hard to make good on his promise of breaking it.

High above, Alex finally caught sight of Oriana, spotting her light tan wings against the dark landscape in the failing light and dove, his heart in his throat when he saw the bandit holding her perilously close to the edge. He would only have once chance… What happened next was a blue of action and reaction. He wasn't entirely sure what had tipped off the bandit, but the grubby man turned and looked over his shoulder, spotting Alex plummeting from the sky and coming straight for him. He let go of Oriana's neck and held her wing with both hands, wrenching it hard until he hear the bones snap and tossed her over the cliff. A second later, Alex crashed bodily into the man, sending him plummeting over the cliff as well. For a few terrified seconds the bandit tried to hold onto Alex in an attempt to save himself, but Alex rammed his sword through the man's chest and left if there, pushing him away and dove after Oriana, reaching out to grab hold of her.

Oriana figured that her decision to spit in the mans face wouldn't result in a happy ending and she was proven right when he began to hold tighter on her neck. Her lungs burned for air and she could only drag in a few small gasps of air between coughing. She was slightly relieved for a second when one of his hands left her neck, but movement caught her attention in the sky. Alex. Her heart twisted in some sort of happiness, was this the feeling of a damsel being rescued? For a split second, she was slightly disgusted with herself that she was on the same level as Rose but her thoughts were interrupted when the bandit was suddenly holding her by her good wing over the cliff.

In the few short moments she was going to try to save herself, the bandit literally snapped her wing in half and tossed her off the cliff. A pained scream had come from her throat, as she fell, trying to correct her downward fall by flying. Her right wing had a rip and was bleeding from being stabbed and the left had the bone shattered. She could taste the fear in her mouth as she realized there was no way to fly.

She looked up back to the cliff to see the large man fall as well, and then be pushed further down by Alex when he plunged his blade into the mans chest. When he reached out to grab her, Oriana stretched her arm as far up as possible, meeting with Alex's hand.

The second that he felt Oriana's hand slide into his Alex gripped her fingers and pulled her toward his chest, wrapping his arms firmly around her and holding tight then snapped his wings open. Gravity and momentum worked against the drag of Alex's wings as he tried desperately to flatten out their reckless downward dive that would end in a few hundred feet with both of them spattered and very dead on the ground. His wings groaned under the strain that he put them under, threatening to fail under the huge pressure but Alex managed to angle them away from the cliff into a shallower dive and slowed their speed. Hitting the ground however proved to be inevitable. At the last second he folded his wing tightly against his body and hit the ground with his back and shoulder, knocking the wind out of him. His other wing wrapped protectively around Oriana from the crash, and after a moment of painful skidding they came to a stop in a shower of dirt and small pebbles.

For a few seconds Alex was sure that he had blacked out, but the furious pain on his back woke him quickly enough, and he let his wings droop to either side of him, glad that it was all over now. He loosened his death grip on Oriana, and looked down. "Are you alright?" He asked softly, then turned his head and coughed painfully, sneezing twice just to add insult to injury as the last of the dust started settling. His ribs protested the motion, but at least they weren't dead.

Oriana wrapped her arms tightly around Alex as he did the same around her, and continued to feel them fall until they at least slowed enough for Alex to wrap her tightly in a cocoon as they hit the ground. She landed roughly against his chest feeling them skid a few feet before stopping. Slowly but surely Alex released her and asked if she was alright. "I think so. Are you..?" She mummbled, sitting up so he could get his back off the ground and sitting back slightly, the entire last ten minutes hitting her all at once. She had nearly been raped, killed, and nearly got Alex killed along with her. She raised a hand, just now realizing she was shaking like a leaf, how scared she really was. She hung her head as silent tears fell from her cheeks to the ground unchecked.

"Nothing Rose can't fix." Alex replied with a gruff voice, managing to sit himself up despite all manner of aches and pains that he inflicted upon himself in doing so. Hot blood trickled down his back and matted the scraps of his shirt to his shoulder, but that wasn't what had him concerned. Once he had his whits about him a bit he noticed that Oriana was crying. Instantly he felt his heart breaking, and Alex did the only thing that he could think to do; he pulled Oriana against his chest and held her tight. "It's alright." He murmured, not entirely sure of what he was saying but feeling that something needed to be said. "You're safe now, we're going to be fine."

Once she was back in Alex's arms, the flood gates opened and she quietly sobbed against his chest, crying out her fear and helplessness. She never wanted to feel like that ever again, ever. After a short while, she felt like she had run out of tears, and was done to sniffling she pulled back ever so slightly looking up to Alex. Her face was stained with tears, and a dark swollen mark was forming on the side of her face where she had been hit, but in light of it all she managed the briefest of smiles, "Thank you..." She got out, her voice rough from crying and shaking. She pulled the pieces of her shirt together to try to cover herself a bit more with one hand and used the other to touch the side of his face. They were there, and alright. Nothing happened.

Carefully, Alex thumbed away the tears that gathered on her cheeks and slowly placed a kiss on her forehead, accepting her touch gently. His heart was still racing, the dreadful what ifs playing through his head on high-speed, but he pushed that aside. He'd saved her. It was all going to be alright now. When he noticed her trying to pull her shirt over herself to cover her modesty, he stood with a pained groan and peeled off his own shirt, holding it down so that Oriana could take it. "It's a bit beat up, but I think it'll do for now." He said softly, giving her a gentle smile and put a hand on her shoulder. "We need to get your wings looked at right away, though. That rotten bastard did a number on you…" The broken wing was sitting at a painfully awkward angle that made all of Alex's wounds twinge with sympathy pains, the other on still bleeding from where the bandit had stabbed her with the knife. She wouldn't be able to fly up the cliff with those injuries.

Oriana closed her eyes for a second, feeling overwhelmingly tired when Alex kissed her forehead but knew the night was not over just yet. They had to ensure that the rest of the group was safe as well. When Alex handed her his shirt she took it with a mumbled thanks, slipping it over her head carefully and made the softest of cries as it brushed against her broken wing. She looked back up the cliff, seeing how far they had fallen and then back to Alex. He was rather beat up and her heart ached for him. "I obviously can't fly...I can wait here." She let the comment hang in the air, hoping he would go to Rose and get healed before doing anything else himself.

Alex considered simply flying back up the cliff to get Rose and bring the girl back to help out Oriana, but quickly discarded the idea the moment he looked over his shoulder and realized that he would have to leave her alone to do that. "No, I won't be doing that." He mumbled, spreading his wings and testing the damage done in the fall. He was sore, but it didn't feel like anything had broken. His shoulder was a little torn up as well, but after eying Oriana he decided that he could probably carry her weight up the cliff. "If we put you on my back, I can probably get you back to camp." He offered, meeting Oriana's eyes to show her that he was being completely serious about carrying her up.

Oriana titled her head, unsure of what Alex had said so softly and soon figured it out when he made up his mind that he was going to carry her. She took one look at his back and shook her head. "No, it would hurt you." She took a step back, knowing he was going to push it with that determined look on his face. "I can wait here while you get Rose. Alex please." She pleaded not really seeing the issue with it.

~*~*~

Demetri sighed heavily as the last man in front of him dropped and blood dripped from his blade. He looked back to Rose to ensure she was okay and walked over to her. He put in blade in the ground, framing her face with both of his hands and pulling her into a rough kiss. All his emotions, no matter how lacking they normally seem, poured into this kiss. He pulled back for a second and rested his head against hers. "Don't scare me like that." He had not even realized how scared he was when the man had grabbed onto Rose and had gotten so close to her.

He wasn't sure why Oriana was suddenly acting so skittish. Her wings had to hurt, so the quicker they got her healed the better. Gently, slowly, Alex reached out and brushed his palm against her cheek. "I don't want to leave you alone." He replied with all the honesty he could muster, searching her face with his eyes. It was true, it would probably hurt to carry her up, but the alternative… well, it would be worth it in the end, by his estimation. "I'm glad you're worried about me but… I don't want anything else to happen to you. Please."

*~*

With all the bandits either dead, wounded or run off, Rose sighed with relief, though worry gnawed at her for Alex and Oriana. She knew that the two weren't back, and hope that neither of them had wound up dead. Her heart stuttered at the very thought, so she did her best not to think along those lines. She hear Demetri coming before she saw him, and turned in the direction of his footsteps only to try and jerk backwards when she suddenly saw his face up close and personal directly in front of hers. Her stomach flipped when he took her face in his hand, but her body went into utter melt down when he pressed his lips against hers, raw and hungry. She flapped her wings in surprise, eyes wide and not entirely sure what was going on, then her frantic movements ceased and she let him continue to kiss her. It was over far too quickly though, and with a slowness that was normally associated to people waking up out of a long dream, Rose's gaze drifted up to meet Demetri's, his dark eyes filling her vision. At his gentle words, her eyes watered, and she smiled weakly. "I'm so sorry…" She mumbled, then tangled her fists in the front of his shirt and tugged, at the same time rising up on the balls of her feet to capture his lips in needy kiss.

Behind the two love birds, Ilario was busy decapitating a bandit to make sure he was really dead when he caught their movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning, he did a double-take, not entirely sure that he could believe what he was seeing, then chuckled to himself. So, his advice seemed to have panned out after all.

Oriana nearly flinched at Alex's touch but kept herself in check as he brushed his hand against her cheek. He was being so gentle with her that she didn't know what to do with herself. "Okay.." Was all she could get out for the time, there was no denying his wishes when he looked at her like that. She looked down at her wings, knowing full well the moment she moved the dull painful ache would turn into a sharp pain and she could only imagine what kind of pain Alex's back must be in. What a night. "How...?" She wasn't sure what was going to be the best way to go about this.

As much as Demetri was surprised at himself for kissing Rose in the first place, when she gave him that gentle, almost sad look before she pulled him down for another kiss. It felt passionate and almost desperate, something he was not used to feeling in the least bit. He slowly wrapped his arms around her small frame to draw her in closer to him as he returned the kiss.

Tristan stood and looked at the two in a lovers embrace and couldn't help but think he was seeing things. Had the mans balls dropped or something? He didn't know but was pleased enough to see that his Twin was as least as shocked as he was.

He'd made up his mind about the mode of transportation already, but that didn't make it any easier to break the news to Oriana. She was independent minded as a rule, and wasn't sure how she would react to being carried. Oh well, it was that or leave her alone, which he really didn't want to do given the recent events and her state of injury. Too many things could happen between leaving her here and going up the cliff face to see where Rose had gotten off to. Another bandit attack foremost on his list of possibilities. Brushing his thumbs on the underside of her jaw with his palms on her neck, Alex looked at her very seriously, making sure that she knew exactly what he intended. "I'll carry you on my back, between my wings. I'd carry you in my arms, but I'm afraid that my shoulder's a bit weak from the fall."

*~*

Rose was just so relieved… everything felt like it was right with the world again, and she relaxed fully against Demetri's body, completely forgetting that there was an audience to this little display. Then Ilario snorted and started cackling, though obviously tried to smother the sound and the illusion was ruined. Pulling back out of the kiss, Rose reluctantly ended the little moment of bliss, framing Demetri's face with her hand briefly before letting her hands slide to his chest and glared acid over her shoulder at her brothers. "Not a word." She hissed, pointing an angry finger at Ilario, narrowing her eyes at the elder twin. "Or I swear that I will find a way to inflict damage on you."

Grinning, Ilario didn't at all take the threat seriously, but held up his hands in a mock gesture of peace. "Uh-huh, whatever you say sister. My lips are totally sealed."

Oriana leaned into Alex's touch before he spoke and listened to his plan to get them up the cliff. She didn't like the idea of it at all, for herself or him but she knew Alex wasn't backing down and fighting him on it would only make matters worse. She gave him a nod, knowing this wasn't going to be easy. Fatigue and pain was starting to set in as the adrenaline was starting to drain from her body and even standing there was starting to get hard as every little movement shot a lace of pain through her wing and into her back. "Lets get this over with"

Tristan couldn't help the grin on his face, couldn't help the twitch of his lip when his sister spoke to Ilario. Oh no, he was going to say it...how could he not? "Your lips may be sealed, Ilario, but I don't know about Roses'." Well, at least he wasn't within hitting distance of the woman, and he flexed his wings, ready to take off if needed.

Demetri turned to face the twins, and Ryleon giving a dry look to the two as they took their fun out on them. He was a little less bothered by them than Rose was and simply kept to himself unless Rose planned on asking him to do otherwise.

Ryleon walked up to Rose, putting a hand on her shoulder. "He wouldn't be worth trying to kill." He chuckled in warning before Rose could say anything.