"Soldiers ahead!"

Necia's quiet voice was an unwelcome reminder of the world outside. Vigilante spun out of Milo's embrace, completely unprepared in her current state of mind, yet ready for anything. She saw an arrow bury itself in a tree trunk and swore under her breath. Bloody timing! Tears forgotten, she let her fighting instincts take command. She left her horse behind, not comfortable fighting on its back in the dense forest.

She ran, lightly stepping on the soft ground. She scanned the surroundings. Damn, this is the worst place possible, she thought to herself. The forest gave them cover, but at the moment the soldiers had the advantage. She couldn't see them yet, but she was certain that they saw her.

A crow screeched in the distance, and the thick canopy seemed to press down on her shoulders. Someone grabbed her from behind. She bit down the urge to lash out just in time to see who it was: Necia. The Sigyn wore a grim expression over her fiery features.

"You're too used to fighting on your own. We will have a better chance if we coordinate."

She gritted her teeth, not used to criticism. She stared into the Sigyn's red eyes, looking for something that would give her a chance to retort, but all she saw was honesty and determination. The Sigyn was right: no one barged into a group of Westerland soldiers alone and without a plan. They were simply too dangerous. She scolded herself for being reckless, but there was no time for self-pity: they were under attack.

Necia nodded towards Milo, indicating that he was acting just as she had been. He was doing this as an individual rather than as a team. Vigilante gave him a hand signal to slow down but it took a while for the Nyx to respond, as unused to receive commands as she was. Another arrow nudged itself into a tree at breast height. If Milo hadn't stopped at her signal he would have been hit by it. The short moment it took for her to trace the arrow, see it hit, and then return to the Nyx was obviously enough time for him to disappear. She couldn't see him and somehow that settled her a little. He was as skilled as they came, and she had learned that first hand. She had no reason to worry...

She forced herself to focus and gave Necia an order to cover her back. Three careful strides later she saw the first sign of a soldier: a man cowering behind a set of thick but low bushes. The man was aiming an arrow towards Qumo and Vito, but before the soldier had time to let it go she threw one of her daggers. It whirled through the air and cut into the man's throat, producing a gurgling cry.

The rapid rush of adrenaline put a grin on her face. She knew she wasn't supposed to like this, but one twisted part of her enjoyed this lethal dance.

She smiled again as she heard another sharp cry and then a thud of what could only be a body hitting the forest floor. Someone must have been hiding in a tree, and someone -- probably Milo -- had brought him down. She looked to her left and saw another soldier scan his surroundings. Careful guy...she noted as she saw his tentative movements. She closed her fist around the hilt, flicked her wrist and grinned as his body slumped to the ground. She didn't need to look at him to know that she had hit her mark. She prepared another knife and moved on, wondering what the Nyx was doing, if he was okay. Stop thinking about him. Focus! she berated herself.

"No!" Necia shrieked and pulled her backwards, just in time. A sword graced the outline of her chest, sharp enough to cut loose a few strands of her hair. She had no time to regain her balance before the soldier slashed through the air again, hitting Necia's short sword with a clang.

She clenched her jaw, and glared at the soldier. If only looks could kill... She found her feet and jumped into the fight. Together they held the man off, but he was strong, very strong and very fast. His features were hidden but Vigilante suspected that this might be a Sigyn. For some reason that made her hesitate, which gave the man the opening he needed to break through her defenses.

A wave of anger at her own failed judgment rapidly turned into relief as the man was ripped away.

"What the hell are you thinking!" Milo barked at her while fighting off the strong soldier. Her cheeks grew hot from embarrassment, but there was no time to think of it. She dove into the fight, and a lucky moment later she had sliced his throat, blood gushing out to color the man's skin and clothes.

Milo shot her a glare. "Irresponsible!" he grunted, before turning his back on her, running off into the forest again. She gave off a small chuckle at his outburst. However, she couldn't be sure if it was due to Milo's grumpy attitude, or if it had to do with the close encounter with her own death. She looked over at the Sigyn, and her chuckle died.

"You alright?" she asked. Necia was white as a sheet.

"I hate to see one of them die, even after everything that's happened."

Necia's voice was edgy and raw, like broken glass. Vigilante stared at the lifeless body: a man that had been so full of life just seconds ago, terrifyingly alive. She thought that she could understand the other woman but she wasn't entirely sure. Regardless, this wasn't the time to dawdle.

"Come on!" she said while moving away in between the trees. She could hear Necia following close behind, the Sigyn's soft breaths a reminder of life. Life and death, fighting brought her closer to those two than anything else, and it was one of the reasons she loved it. She loved the fear, the excitement, the sweet taste of victory.

Another crow sounded in the distance. She stopped at the sound and wiped her brow. The heat was stifling, even if the sky grew darker around them. She wanted to put an end to this silly fight. She glanced at the Sigyn, the woman's eyes were still glassy, but she didn't know what to say to make it better. Not for the first time, she wished she was better at these things.

They continued to make their way through the forest, and just as she reminded herself to look for soldiers in the trees she spotted one. The soldier was clearly a woman, but that didn't make her less dangerous. Vigilante always found it harder to kill women, and she was saved from it this time around too. As their eyes met, the woman jumped down to the ground and headed off in the opposite direction, fleeing the scene.

"Do we let her run?" Necia asked.

"Yes, no need to chase her. We should go back and check on the others," she replied.

"You're losing your touch."

Milo's voice sounded from the surrounding forest. She couldn't see him, but she refused to chase around with her eyes searching: she would look a fool if she did.

"Perhaps, but I did save your ass again... I was the one who sliced his throat after all. I would have thought man to man combat would be one of your stronger suits."

He emerged right in front of them and shot her a wry smile in response. His lack of comment just proved to her what an excellent fighter he was, in every regard. He knew that she knew that he had saved her life, and he didn't need to remind her of that.

-----

An hour later they were looking out over the tree-less corridor between Westerland and the Southern lands. Milo watched from afar as Vito scouted the surroundings with his new-found vision. He wondered what the young man was seeing. They had agreed to let the two cross over the clearing alone, and step by step the young man and the fiery Sigyn left them for their own quest. It was a strange feeling to see him leave, a feeling he couldn't even name.

Their goodbyes had been brief but heartfelt. Vito had looked brave, but he had noted that the young man felt very far from it. That didn't mean that Vito wasn't brave. It took a certain kind of bravery to face the world while blind, and he didn't think that he possessed that kind himself.

The dark night swallowed the two as they progressed forwards. He could still see them, but both Qumo and Vigilante began to stir and he gathered that they no longer had any visual.

"No need to stick around I guess, we should probably move," Vigilante said after a while.

She got no reply, but they started moving all the same, turning their backs on a friend, one of his first friends...

"So, Wyvern...I hope you know what you're doing Qumo. I wouldn't enter that cesspit unless my life depended on it." Vigilante said lightly.

"Girl, you know as well as I do that all our lives may depend on it," Qumo answered, and although their bantering had a light tone to it, Milo knew they had darker thoughts on their minds. This wasn't a trip they did for fun. The thought hit him instantly, when had he started to feel like this about their journey? He had started it out of fun, hadn't he? It wasn't a pleasant feeling that started to spread through him as he realized that he had become thoroughly stuck in the N'aian's schemes.

-----

As the first glimmers of light touched upon the eastern horizon Vigilante woke from her uneasy sleep. Nothing felt entirely right in this land, and sleep hadn't taken away even an ounce of that feeling. She thought of Vito and the Sigyn: moving away from them. For some reason it felt awkward. She had grown used to his presence, even if he was exasperating sometimes. He had been like a little angel sitting on her shoulder; telling her to do right, countering the little devil that sat on her other one. He had brought out another side of her, not that she would ever tell him that...

"Good, you're awake. We should get a move on."

She started at the sudden sound and saw Milo sitting with his back against a tree, such a common picture these days, she mused. Did he never sleep?

"Why didn't you wake me up for the second watch?" she asked.

"Because I didn't need to sleep," he replied and pointedly looked away.

He seemed distanced again, and that made her cold. She was getting tired of his mood swings, they kept her on an edge she didn't knew she had.

"Everyone needs to sleep!" she spat, and it came out less pleasant than it should have. Why did he get to her this way?

"I don't," he answered, as if it was as simple as that.

"You are two very curious sorts of beings. Is there no middle ground for you to tread once in a while?" Qumo sighed. "I agree we should move on, we should be in Wyvern by nightfall if we travel quickly."

The old N'aian rose and ignored the look she shot him. If this was how the rest of their journey would be she might as well leave them to it!

"Don't think about it Vigilante, I'm just a bit cranky. Cranky and worried. I didn't like to see him go and I'm guessing none of you are happy about it either. Let me have a moment or two before you ask me to be polite again."

Qumo's words settled the tense atmosphere. She wondered how she had missed the signs of the N'aian's distress, and perhaps also Milo's. She should know him better than that by now. The Nyx didn't react very well to things that brought his mood down, and if she looked to herself she guessed that she didn't handle that very well either.

"I'm sorry Qumo, he'll be alright. He's much tougher than he looks," she said and this time he answered with a sigh and a smile, still troubled but perhaps also a bit hopeful.

"I think you are right," he answered, but worry still lingered in his voice.