Riverbank, Ruby's P.O.V.

'RUBY!!'

My Master's mental call wakes me from my nap. We must be outside, he sounded so excited. For some reason the master is lying on the ground so I have to squeeze out from under him after leaving the amulet. As I spiral up all the bright colors distract me, I have never seen so many shades of green and blue.

I want to look at everything! It is so amazing up here, no wonder the master wanted out of the underground so bad. I am about to shift to human form to share all this with my master when human voices distract me.

Hunter says "See, captain, I told you this was where he would come out!"

Captain says "Yes, you have earned your share. When we return with his head we will all be rich!"

I look around and spot a dozen humans standing among the trees further up away from the river. Ten are standing together while the other two are slightly apart, these two are the ones who were speaking. One, wearing fancy metal armor that doesn't look very functional, must be the captain. The other, wearing leather and loading a strange bow, must be the hunter.

Captain says "Sergeant, go collect his head for His Majesty."

I see the captain point at something behind me, and at the same time one of the ten standing together steps forward. As I can judge things he seems older than the others, he only takes a single step before he points up at me.

Sergeant says "What is that blue thing?"

I look around to find the master and see what he is doing, he is still lying on the riverbank. It is only now that I notice the strange arrow sticking up out of his back, he isn't moving, although I can see he is breathing. These filthy humans dared to harm my master?

I assume my human form in mid air and a primal scream escapes me. Before my feet even touch the ground I throw a blue fireball at the group of ten. As my feet hit the ground I draw my swords, I see the sergeant dive forward but the other nine aren't so quick and their short screams tell me I only have three opponents left to deal with.

Captain says "What the hell is she? Kill her!"

I start to charge forward, I see the sergeant getting back to his feet, I also see the hunter raise his strange bow to point at me. I throw up a shield as he fires, the strange arrow hits the shield and pierces it but gets stuck halfway through. What power that strange bow has!

The sergeant charges at me, while the hunter starts to reload again, and the captain turns and runs away. As the human closes with me I twirl in a full circle, bringing both swords around, as I do I activate flame weapon, covering my swords in blue fire. The sergeant brings up his shield, but my first sword cuts through his shield and my second cuts through him.

As he falls I move past him and head towards the hunter, he is the one who hurt Ash. He is almost done reloading as I reach him, I ram both my swords through his chest and lift him into the air with a scream. His scream joins mine but is short lived, I tear my swords free and turn to run to Ash.

The wet thuds of his body hitting the ground behind me don't even phase me as I rush to the master's side. I skid onto my knees next to Ash and am relieved to see he is still breathing. Unfortunately, I am not sure what to do to help him.

The strange arrow is sticking up out of his back surrounded by blood making it hard to see. I rush to the river and come back with my cupped hands full of water. I use it to wash away the blood so I can see the wound.

The arrow hit Ash in the spine, just barely missing the sheath of Blitz. The wound has already started to close, which reminds me that the master is really good at healing himself. And the master is a demon now, he should be even tougher, so why hasn't he woken up?

"Drog!"

Drog says "What do you want blue?"

"Can you help master?"

Drog says "I am a demon, I don't do healing! Besides, if he dies I am free!"

"If he dies, so do you! Have you not taken a good look at the sword you are in? If the master dies the sword will explode!"

Drog says "What nonsense are you speaking?.....What! Why does the sword have part of his soul? Is he insane?"

"See, so help him or you die too!"

Drog says "Like I said, I don't do healing. Besides, he should be fine."

"He would have woken up by now if he was fine! Something is wrong! Can you at least contact him?"

Drog says "Hold on, I will try."

As I wait for Drog, I notice the wound is closing around the strange arrow. That is a bad thing, should I pull it out? Would that just make things worse? Oh I wish I knew more about this kind of thing so I could help master!

Drog says "I can't reach him."

"What do you mean? Why not?"

Drog says "His soul isn't here, but we are bound so I should be where he is. I don't understand it."

"What do you mean his soul isn't here? He is still alive! A wound from an arrow shouldn't remove the soul right?"

Drog says "Not that I know of. The soul shouldn't go anywhere as long as the body is alive."

"Well, what do we do? How do we get him back?"

Drog says "Nothing, all we can do is take care of his body until his soul returns."

I growl in frustration when I see he has started manifesting and I will have to wait to ask him more questions. As I wait I wash the wound again only to see it has almost closed around the arrow. As soon as Drog finishes manifesting I ask him what to do.

"The wound is closing around the arrow, that's bad right?"

Drog says "Yes, pull it out."

"Are you sure?"

Drog says "Yes, the wound can't heal properly while the bolt is in there."

"Bolt? You mean the strange arrow?"

Drog says "Yes, that is a crossbow bolt. It is like a bow but with a shorter range and higher power."

Deciding not to argue when my knowledge is so limited, I grab the bolt and carefully pull it out. Master doesn't respond and nothing happens except the wound starts bleeding again. Drog moves closer and sniffs at the bolt in my hand.

Drog says "I smell more than blood on that."

"What? Like poison?"

Drog says "Maybe, I can't be sure."

"Would poison explain why the master's soul is gone?"

Drog says "Not as far as I know, but it might explain why he isn't waking up."

"So, now what do we do?"

Drog says "We protect the master and take care of his body until he returns."

"Okay, I will start a fire and make camp as best I can."

Drog says "I will scout around and make sure there are no more humans."

"Oh, there was one who ran away."

Drog says "What?! How could you let one escape? He will bring more!"

Before I can answer, Drog runs off. He stops by where I killed the hunter and sniffs around. He must have found the trail because he takes off in the direction the captain ran. I turn back to master and check on his wound.

The wound looks to have closed completely so I roll master over and try to make him more comfortable. I gather some wood and start a fire when I notice the sun is going down. I don't really know what else I can do for him.

About a half hour later Drog comes running back. He is running fast, and from the way he is panting he has run for a long time. He skids to a stop near me and catches his breath for a minute.

Drog says "Get ready! I was too late, they are coming!"