Forge (Aida Shihai and Twisted-Indigo)

"You're still out of it, aren't you?" Mynae mumbled, "Well fine then, let's go!"

She grunted as she pulled the boy onto her back and began to take him in the opposite direction to find help for him.

I'll got to that town I passed a little while back, I hope that place isn't 'evil' too.

Mynae continued to trek across the open land with the injured boy on her back, having to stop every few minutes to catch her breath. She knew it would take a while to get there, but the kid must of had a reason to not want to go to that town. Maybe someone from the town was responsible for putting him in that condition.

If so, I wouldn't want to go back there either.

Syn could vaguely recall being carried somewhere, but he couldn't be too sure. Everything that happened to his body felt more than it really was lately. He just realized however, that he couldn't keep lying where he was. He couldn't.

So, using all the strength he had, he forced himself to wake up, it was agonizing, the pain came to him in waves, never seeming to end. It's like everything that had happened to him in his entire life was coming back to haunt him; he wanted to right there.

When his eyes opened however, he saw that he was being carried by a woman, elven by her appearance, she was pretty, he could tell that much, but he couldn't see much of her because his eyes wouldn't open that far. When he finally came completely awake, he felt he should ask her to set him down, so he could walk on his own and so she wouldn't have to carry him.

"Ummm..." he said tentatively, for all he knew he could be a prisoner! "Could you please set me down? I think I should be able to walk from here... to wherever it is I'm going next..."

From an eagle eye view, or perhaps to be better described, a sparrow eye view it would appear that Syn had awoken, agonizingly so, but awake none-the-less.

A flock of the brown-topped, white-undersided birds flew in the strange formations they usually did above the two land bound creatures below. The sparrows swerved and swooped through the sky, for the most part staying in the same general area, it would seem they were looking for worms or food of some sort amongst the large plains they soared above.

"could you please set me down?" one of the bipeds said, "I think I should be able to walk from here.... to wherever it is I'm going next..." he continued with a somewhat unsure phrase.

a few of the small sparrows would land to peck at the ground, seemingly unsuccessfully or they just didn't find anything to taste, but they did take a liking to Syn, as they landed on his shoulders picking at his torn clothing almost playfully yet annoyingly.

the chirps almost directly beside Syns ear would be enough to drive most mad, and he was injured! But these birds shouldn't be expected to know better.

"Could you please set me down? I think I should be able to walk from here... to wherever it is I'm going next..." Mynae heard him say softly.

Her eyes opened widely and she smiled.
"Oh! You're awake, that's good." she cheered.

Mynae slowly knelt down on one knee and gently rolled him over onto the grass. " Are you sure you can walk? I don't really mind carrying you."

"I should probably be able to walk a little ways," he said struggling to stand. Finally succeeding in doing so, he thought of something. He walked up to her and stared out her face, mostly her eyes in truth. There was no smile there, and that eye didn't appear to be there. She wasn't Osore, and that was good. He then noticed something... she was half-blind, just like Osore. One eye had a glazed over look, as if it were... incapable of seeing. One other thing he noticed though was the unusual coloring. Dark red with golden tints to it. He love how they looked, they were beautiful. He decided not to mention her eye, in case it was a tender subject with her. He knew all too well what those were like.

He looked at her for a second and then came to a conclusion; she couldn't travel with him. "You should probably leave now... most people around me tend to die," it was true, everywhere he went death seemed to follow.

There were birds around him now, chirping in his ears and pecking at his wounds and clothing. He didn't mind it, but the wounds were starting to hurt from the pecking. Using ice he froze them over so the birds wouldn't be able to harm him with their pecks. He then looked to Mynae, awaiting her response.

As ice covered the sensitive wounds and parts of clothing the birds continued to peck for a while, each exchanging turns by flying off and allowing others to take their place, it wasn't long before they stopped though.

After a while they simply began to fly around again, only a few remaining on the ground looking at them the casual interests of animals, though some could be considered staring. It almost seemed humorous because of the manner in which they stared: with their heads bobbing up and down, or turning to the sides like an observing pup.

Syn had just admitted or explained to the female at his side that people had a tendency to die when around him, the birds reacted to the sentence by jumping up and down, they had no idea what the words meant but it sounded intense...

"hehehe" a low tone of amusement hovered in the air, strange as it was the birds didn't seem culpable, the main reason being: it seemed they all had eyes...

"You should probably leave now... most people around me tend to die," he said.

She looked at him and frowned.
"Oh please, I can take care of myself. Just being around you won't cause my inevitable death!"

Before he could respond she charged at the birds surrounding them, attempting the scare them off. "Stupid pests," she cried," He's not dieing while I'm around!"

Mynae turned back around to the boy.
"It's funny, I don't even know your name yet, do I?"

Syn sighed, it was obvious that she would not leave him be. Well, he might as well attempt to have a conversation.

"It's Syn," he said, "and yours?"

Most of the birds that where charged by the female flew off, tweeting as they did so, but almost immediately a new group from the larger mass in the sky would swoop down to exchange places with the last few.

The new set of birds whistled there songs as they landed, slightly further away on average now, they seemed to fear the elven woman somewhat except for a few who remained quite close-by.

They cocked their heads to the side and hopped around as the last posse did, but seem to really be interested in Syn for some reason, strange for sparrows to eat carrion though...

"It's Syn, and yours" she heard him ask.

She smiled, "I'm Mynae, please to meet you!" she took his hand, shaking it roughly.

"Oh yeah- and not to break up the little happy-meeting-time we're having here, but we really have got to get going." She put her left hand over one of her eyes and squinted as she looked up at the sky.

"It's going to get dark soon." she stated plainly.

"I'm Mynae, pleased to meet you!" Mynae said shaking his hand roughly. "Oh yeah, and not break the happy meeting time we're having here but we really have to get going," Mynae said squinting up at the sky. "It's going to be dark soon..."

"May I ask where it is we are going Mynae? Not back there right?" he asked while pointing to the village behind him. Just looking at the place made him shiver.

It was indeed near time for darkness to rise, the skies were changing from blue to a slightly purple or pink color, in time it would fade to orange and so on until the black veil would hang in the sky speckled with glowing dust.

The birds realized this fact as well it would seem, as efforts of waiting out Syn himself were aborted and the birds headed off to a resting place before it was too late, navigating at night would be hard for any natural creature of earth or sky.

"May I ask where it is we are going Mynae? Not back there right?" She saw him point to the village that she was originally going to take him to.

"No, I was going to take you to a village that I passed a little while ago, but I don't think we have enough time to get there before the sun goes down."

She closed her eyes and thought to herself for a moment.

"Ah! I think I know what we can do," she announced, "There was a small cave that I passed not too long ago, we can definitely make it there by nightfall!"

"Alright then, you lead the way," Syn said as the birds began to fly off. They were a weird bunch, pecking at him like that.

Oh well, not much I can do...

The cave quickly came into view, it truly wasn't far away at all, but it seemed that the remaining day light would give them no time to relax, the sky was already burnt orange and transforming to red as it where.

A dark entrance came into view, the walls and ceiling made of curved, rugged stone, and a little bit of moisture seemed to be in the air towards the deeper end of the cave where it also became much colder.

It would probably be best to simply use the outer end of this cave as a roof than anything else as temperatures too far into it would prove to make an uncomfortable night.

Within this shotgun house a constant whimper of air hummed from the bowls, it almost sounded alive but that was a subject not on the list of priorities right now.

Mynae nodded and lead Syn to the cave, remembering to retrace her steps. Every few minutes she'd mumbled something like, "I remember where we are now!" or "Almost there!" until she saw the mouth of the cave just a few feet away.

When they arrived she sat on the cave floor and panted heavily.

"Is this good enough?" she asked.

"Is this good enough?" she asked, panting on the floor of the cave.

He looked at her and said, "Yes, thank you for your help... is there something wrong?"

Thanks where given followed by a question from the young man, Syn, but most eerie where the sounds of the cave, though easily ignored they were quite unsettling within the coming darkness as the horizon began to consume the remaining light.

A few small mushrooms where at the end of the cave mouths, and a little bit going into the cave, perfect positioning for eating decomposed plant matter rolling into the cave while remaining in the proper, cool environment.

These mushrooms, in their strangely shaped glory, only added to the wickedness of the cave, but being here was far better than hearing the sounds of nocturnal animals in pure black. Even so the trickles of condensed moisture, turning into water drops, fell from the over head mushroom tops, falling with splashes that echoed through cave.

The situation added with this dark, gloomy, and eerie environment could very well cause a long night.

now sleep you two...

Mynae continued panting dramatically.

"Yes, thank you for your help... is there something wrong?" he asked.

She looked up at him for a moment and then answered, "Oh nothing, I'm just easily tired. That's all." She stood up and stretched her legs then turned back to Syn.

"I don't have any blankets with me, sorry. So we'll have to sleep on the ground."

"It's fine, I'm used to sleeping on the ground," Syn said sitting down on the other side of the cave, back against the wall. It was almost time for him to do more thinking.

Osore... I really wonder what happened to him in the past. It was probably horrible for him to have that... form, AND one eye. I wonder how he was before... The sky was darkening quicker than ever now, it was almost pitch black in the cave.

Why did I have to do those STUPID moves against him? I ended up wounding myself! What an idiot I am! Now... nothing in my control... if Osore had survived that and were to attack now, he'd barely be able to put a fight. He had been stupid in that fight though. He never needed to stab himself in the back, maybe those webs but... why had he done those things?

Looks like I'll just have to hope that I finished him off... for good.