The Winds Lover

[Acheron]

Some time ago...

The boy ran faster than Kessler could have ever imagined, so much so that he had a hard time keeping up to begin with during their run. If Kessler had known during the run why the boy was going so fast, it would have made far more sense but for now, he ran along the boy to the best of his abilities. The plains quickly turned into the woods, with plenty of trees, stumps and other things getting in the way of the two of them. Quickly the boy tripped over a log but before he could fall, Kessler grabbed him by the shirt and slung him over his shoulder, telling the boy to wrap his arms around his neck. As the brown boots of the earth shaping man pounded the soil, the little boy was calling off directions for Kessler to follow, which he did to the best way possible.

He had been led to a small little town in the woods, a community that lived off the nearby land and rarely left the woods for anything. The homes were made out of logs or stone, Kessler admired the work that these people would do day in and day out, they worked harder than most if not all in the area. Once they took a few steps into the town, the little boy got off of Kessler's back and led him to the home where he was needed. Blood had trailed out a little ways from the door, Kessler had started to wonder why he was being called to this home and not someone else.

Present Time

"Silk eh?"

He didn't have any reason to stick around, to help her or the other one, no matter what she told him. Kessler didn't think his powers were that important or that they would be able to do much with them. She seemed really passionate though when she spoke to him, her eyes were almost pleading with him to stay. He looked down a little bit and then sighed, looking her directly in the eyes.

"It's against my better judgement...But I'll stay with you, we just can't stay here exactly. And however weird it sounds...I can't leave you."

[Lady Rika]

A curious smirk spread across Silk’s face, his answer was exactly what she wanted to hear. The words of this strange man entranced her to actually want to question him about his intentions on why he was to stick with her but she figured it best not to bother him with petty questions.
Leaning her head back up to face him, her eyes like the bright mornings-gentle touch. When the sun spread across the hills, like butter to the bread, golden and shiny, beaming with brilliance; those were her eyes. The yellow color filled with such euphoria rapture it seemed they would burst, explode and let the saffron petals drip down her cheeks and into the snow beneath her.
But tears were inferior to her, they were useless and Silk vowed never to do it. Never let the salt filled orbs drizzle down her ivory cheeks. That in its own would be nothing but pure weakness.

“Yep, that’s me. Silk. Now don’t you dare forget it now! Or I’ll be mad.” She taunted letting her smirk deepen a bit. As her traced her fingers across the sides of her moon washed neck, her mind in a bit of turmoil.
Now that she had got him to stay with her, what was she to do now? Where would they go and better yet, how would they get there?

‘Walking of course.’ Her mind poked fun at her, Silk thought of their next destination. Or better yet the closest one.
‘Hmmm. That would be Suiren Village, south from here…but a long journey it would be. Especially on foot and going threw the Careithus Mountains is no easy task.’ She thought, wishing she could whip out her map from the sling bag that lie in the cold snow near the gray haired girl who stood so silently under the equally bare, gray trees.

“Alright then. We staying here would be a problem since they will most likely be sending some scouts to search the woods to find us. But fear not, I know a few places we could stay that they would never find us in. But…”
Silk thought for a few seconds, then lightly nipped at her finger as it trailed along her lips.
‘Maybe…just maybe…’

“Alright, you can’t leave me eh?” Silk gave him a false smile, filled with sly intentions. She planned to use his words against him, since he said he couldn’t leave her.

“If this is so, I can take that you have agreed to come with me to find the source of ‘the scent’. That means you’ll listen to me and follow me wherever it is we may have to go…right?” she continued her smile, she hadn’t had much practice with smiling so she just kinda went with it.

In her head she pictured it to be very sweet and innocent. But another part of her mind said that it looked rather evil and that made her want to laugh with morbid, dry humor.
Silk hoped the girl with the wind wouldn’t go anywhere while she was talking to this man, she would be very annoyed if she mearly vanished into the sky never to be seen again.

“So that means…” She continued, “If I say we should leave now and walk all night you’d do it right?” though her face looked innocent enough, Silk was nothing but serious. She longed to find the killer of all the animals in the wood, to bring salvation to Kaguya and wherever else there was some poor creature slamming its face into a charred brown boulder. Bleeding and crushing its face till it was no longer recognized for what it was, until its madness finally left along with its life. As soon as the death set in, turning its internal viscera into a rotted core of black scorched meat; all the fluids and left over blood going black and boiling itself. Turing the dead beast into a fleshed pot for the black corruption of a depraved stew.
Besides wanting to stop ‘the scent’ Silk also wanted to find herself within the flames.
Instead of being a vessel to the blaze itself, she wanted to learn, become what she longed for the most. What they were, the man and the girl. Having control over her powers. Taming the flame, controlling the fire that was her biggest goal, and her biggest fear.

[Fehrant]

Fuuyuu watched as Silk's anger flame slowly raised like a forest in fire; first the ground would be ablaze, but then the hungry flames would climb the trees and eventually consume everything in their path. Even though Fuuyuu had calmed her down a bit, her violent mood swung once again and started to lash at Kessler, the earth boy, who ironically was unfazed by the violent flames like a solid rock.

This was the side of humans she didn't like. Unlike animals, who would only fight for survival or food, humans fought over petty reasons, played silly mind games, exuded with pride and greed. In this sense, Fuuyuu was more like an animal, untainted by the dark side of the human being. Her thoughts were pure, innocent, only concerned with simple things.

She watched the invisible flames of Silk's constant mistrust burn bright; a tiring sight that vexed her eyes. Fuuyuu started to look at the sky, letting her mind drift. She want to fly, to become one with the wind, but that was well beyond her power. Right now though she wanted to be somewhere else, somewhere alone, somewhere were petty human squabbles were of no concern to her. She had wanted to help, but right now she realized the flames shone too brightly for everyone around; the closer they got, the more they would get burned.

The wind traveled. The wind did not stay still. Fuuyuu looked at the two resigned, and jumped high into the air, getting farther away from them. As she felt the wind in her body, her temporal aggravation quickly vanished. She moved into random directions, to see where the wind would take her.

[Acheron]

Some Time Ago...

The cabin would have been one of the nicer places that Kessler had seen in his time if it wasn't for the blood that adorned the walls and the ground. In the far corner of the room, he could see a little boy holding a stab wound to his chest, while there was a little girl next to him who had already passed on. A woman was sitting down on a bed in the corner across from the children while a man was closest to the door, leaning up on one of the wooden walls. Kessler had sent away the little boy that brought him to the home, making sure that he wouldn't have to see anything like this. It was almost too much for him to bare when he leaned up against the closed door behind him, none of these people would be able to survive thier wounds. While the woman and the little boy just looked at Kessler, the man tugged at his boots, which made Kessler take a knee to speak to him.

"What happened here?"

The man let off a blood filled cough, "The wind....it kills everything....you never...never know...when it's coming."

"But the wind...", Kessler was confused by what the man had been telling him.

"..I...", the man looked up to Kessler's eyes, "I wanted....all of...us...to go...together...and not...just...like...animals..."

The man had just admitted his guilt to Kessler and now he hated this death wind more than anything. It had driven a man to madness, making sure that his family would all be together when they released thier last breath. He had been summoned here though, but what exactly was the point of having Kessler come here to a dying family? Finally it hit him harder than bricks, Kessler hadn't made his healing powers known to anyone but people knew he was able to destroy things with his powers, the family wanted him to destroy thier home with them still in it. He left the house and stepped outside, with the family still inside, Kessler made the earth around the house devour it, with Kessler falling to his knees afterwards.

Present Time

Kessler wasn't a fool and didn't like the way that Silk was speaking. He wasn't going to be boss around and when she kept on about how he was going to follow her direction, Kessler started to laugh.

"You misunderstood Silk. I can't leave you because I feel bad about something bad happening to you in the woods. I will help you find the source of this scent but this isn't going to be something where I follow orders. I'll help but I won't be ordered around."

He continued his walk away from where they came, he was headed towards the nearest village.

"Now if you want to be productive about all of this...we should really start going."

[cetra_aeris]

Aqua put a few more things into a small bag before hiding it away again under the bed. Some dried meat and a map she had found among her Grandmother's things. In her mind she wanted to leave now, but she knew that she needed to wait and prepare. She also needed more time to think, especially concerning about Shuyin coming with her. The more she thought about it the more she thought that it might be wise to make him stay. Yet she also knew that the wind would reach him eventually, and if he did reach his end she wanted to be there. Besides, even if she left without him, he could track her and come after her any way.

She also needed time to gather all the things she needed for traveling. She needed to make sure she could have enough food for her and Shuyin, as well as water. The water was still clean in Suiren, but she'd heard some of the villagers talking about how the water in some places were undrinkable, tainted by the wind and the dead animals.

So Aqua had her work cut out for her. Shuyin, because he was a wolf, could go without eating for a few days, but water was necessary. Aqua could go without eating for about a day or so herself, but without enough water, they would surely never make it to any destination.

Aqua layed back on her bed and laughed softly to herself. If the villagers heard her thoughts they would all be shocked. Their vision of the 'Water Sprite' was a light hearted, cheery one. And that was usually how Aqua acted as wel, but she also had a very serious side. If she found the need she could spend hours, or days even, planning something to make sure it would work. It wasn't someting she did very often though, as she found it a pain to make sure all the minor detail were in place.

A thump near her feet told her that she had woken Shuyin. Her laughter and movements must have awoken him from his place at the foot of her bed. His tail hit her foot in annoyance, his muzzle lifting slightly, jaws opening in a yawn. "I don't suppose that you could stop laughing at nothing long enough to let a tired wolf get rest before the birds begin their loud chirping again, do you?" Shuyin asked, his voice, or so it seemed to Aqua, filled with a mixture of sleep and laughter.

"Perhaps. But you will still snap at the birds when they wake you with their song, no matter how long you sleep." She replied, grinning. This statement caused Shuyin to lay his head back down on the bed, letting out a snort. "Is it my fault that their songs make no sense and many notes are out of tune? Besides their constant chatter is irritating." He said, a low growl creeping up and dieing just as quickly.

She laughed and looked at the ceiling as already the wolf's low snores were heard as he slipped back into slumber. She too wa tired, yet she wanted to stay awake to think some more. She also knew though, that if she were to wake with circles under her eyes she would cause her Grandmother to worry. Sighing, and rolling over, Aqua decided that she get some rest while she still slept in a bed.

[Lady Rika]

Silk’s nostrils flared, her yellow eyes burned with a seething malice. But she soon had to throw that from her mind; he was the first to ever speak to her in such a manner. The first.
She lowered her head, not wanting to look at him. “Well if you knew anything about the scent at all then you’d know that the water is the most dangerous of all. Maybe you need to be ordered around, hmm?” she spoke, her voice dripping with acid. The beautiful saffron’s that were her eyes were soon to catch ablaze, anger was something she really couldn’t control.

“And another thing. How do you expect me to listen to someone who didn’t even divulge his own name to me? Now would it be wise for me to be…’productive’ with a certain someone whose name is not known to me?” she added, voice full of apathy. The way she spoke, it was as if she was inclosed in a fog of stupor, hiding how she felt and how all the cruel words made her dig deeper her hole of enclosure.

Silk didn’t really wait for a response from him, all she saw was the girl with the power of wind jump into the air and seemingly soar into a reach beyond any mortal.

“Hey!” Silk screamed, running over to the girl. Her sling bag lay in the white snow; nothing but jumbled snow and tiny feet print rested.

“Dammit! Hey you…wind deity–I mean goddess…get back here!!!” she screeched, making the lovely air of her voice flair with hatred and burning anger. If anyone could see her now, they would swear that they could see flames rising on the tips of her fingertips and the backs of her shoulders.

‘When I get ahold of her I swear to the gods…I will wring her neck!’

[Acheron]

He had delt with plenty of angry famers, merchants and people that really didn't have any morals but dealing with Silk at the moment was becoming harder than all of that. No matter how hard he was trying to deal with her, it was starting to become a little more than he could handle. Her words felt like venon coursing through his veins whenever she spoke, so Kessler finally starting walking along without her.

"My name is Kessler and don't bother following me, you seem a little too immature for me to deal with right now."

There wouldn't be much argument between her and him as when he started walking on the new path away from her, he had the earth rise up from behind him, forming a wall on the pathway. He didn't have the time to deal with a little girl on his travel, as now Kaguya would be impossible to live in anymore. Kessler would have to find another home, another place where he would at least be able to rest for a little while before continuing his search for the source of the wind.

It didn't matter to Kessler at this point wherever his path was going to take him, anywhere would be better than where he had just been. He didn't feel like dealing with Silk or arguing about whatever they had to do next. The path would probably take him to the next closest village, which would be good enough for Kessler to grab a meal at.

[Lady Rika]

Silk’s yellow eyes paled, and expanded in size. Her heart dropped at the size of the wall, and the fact that she wouldn’t be able to get over it without maybe killing herself in the process of trying.
She spoke not a word as her ivory colored hand stroked against the hard wall of earth. In its own way it was quite beautiful, if it wasn’t trapping her than she would have admired it more.
Turning her head to face the trees, hoping to find one large enough for her to climb up and get over the wall. But no suck luck.

‘This just isn’t my day.’ She thought looking up once again at the wall, ‘Damn him...lets see.’

Silk reached into her sling bag, where her old, stained yellow map rested in its elderly age. Gently pulling it from its humble, darkened bed; unraveling the old map, she let her eyes widen even further. The map though it was aged, it was very precise in its direction. It showed the entire island of Careithus, both islands in fact. With much detail and accuracy.
Eyeing the map, then tracing it with her finger to map out where she was and which way to go.
‘The path he took…it’s a one way trail to…Suiren Village?’ she turned her head up in disgust.
The water village has hidden in the mountains, nearly untouchable because of the surrounding mountains and rushing Shuyin River.
Being she was now alone, she figured it would be easier for her to travel. Fire didn’t need a companion, the blazing inferno needn’t have help to accomplish its deeds.
She promised herself, she promised her moldy lean-to that she would return victorious and that was what she planned to do. Though Silk did plan to purposely run into that Kessler guy again and give him a piece of her mind since the road he was taking only went to the so-called Water Lily Village. Her map though told her of short cut path that would take her there as well, maybe in a little bit of shorter time if she was lucky enough.
Though luck hadn’t been on her side this fine day. Not at all.

After staring at her new destination Silk had memorized her path. Looking to the left of her, though no passage was visible yet, after a few minutes of travel she would find one hidden in the brush. Completely covered in a white lather, but still seeable Silk guessed. Putting away the map back into the dark sling bag, then adjusting her corset just a little she began to take quick steps into the snow and down the hidden path. Passing the grayed trees along with their clawed hands reaching out for aid made Silk want to find ‘the source’ even more than normal. She had been angered by this sanguinary wind just as much as the animals that had to suffer a suicidal death.
She remained silent except for the occasional quiet intake of air, or a sigh every now and then.
Knowing that this might be a long walk from Kaguya to Suiren, but that is what to be expected of course. It was closest to her home village yes, but it still was a long distance away. Maybe a good day or two at the least if she stopped to sleep, and rest her body.

But Silk didn’t plan to stop at all during this journey, she didn’t need sleep. Food maybe, water most likely but sleep was something she never wanted. Especially since she dreamt such vivid, detailed scenes of her burning to death by her own flames.
Her screams muffled and unheard; truly terrifying and monstrous. So if becoming an insomniac is what she need to keep her sanity, then so be it.
After a short time of walking, Silk found herself stepping along the hardened trail. Her face remained nonchalant about her discovery, but her eyes smiled with satisfaction. Tilting her head to the sky, the trees attempt to hide it from her petty, she had at least seven good hours of light left. And she planned to use them wisely, by tightening her bag’s grip on her shoulder then breaking into a swift run. Her legs becoming nothing but a blackened blur in a world of vast white and gray deceased trees, continually rotting on the inside.


It seemed that she had been running for days, but it most likely was only a few hours. A shirking pain was developing in her left leg. So this led her to stop.
Silk nearly fell to the ground, gasping for air in such a way made her feel like a suffocating Koi fish. Her head began to hurt, and a more dangerous, frigid cold begin to set in. Silk hated the cold, but she hated being mortal sometimes too. Her lungs were on fire, hurting so bad when she took in sharp breaths of air.
To make things worse, darkness had set in early; stars were dusted along the skies dark face.
‘Alright…where am I now?’ she asked herself amongst the heavy, painful breathing.

It had been snowing a few hours back, though it had long since stopped Silk felt the strength from it. It was getting colder, everyday she had noticed was getting colder.
Silk looked down at her hands, she could still see them but it was a little hard. Her fingers trembled, were they trying to produce flames?
‘Concentrate, concentrate. Flames, I need flames. A small flare even?’ she squinted her yellow eyes, her head pounding. She imagined an inferno of red, yellow, and orange caking the walls of earth that Kessler had made. Imagining that she had never left that path and burned down the wall with her intense heat.
With that her eyes caught fire, glinting bright yellow, erupting with fire her palms screamed as pale yellow and bleeding red fire poured up into the air. Clawing at the air; Silk smiled in satisfaction. Though the fire didn’t stay as large as it had when it formed, but it did stay at a manageable size. Warming her slightly and breaking threw the darkness of night.
Silk continued to smirk, then continued on her way with a hasty walk. She now knew that she would saunter down the path to Suiren, but she wouldn’t be alone. No she wouldn’t alone at all, Silk thought looking at the flames in both hands, those, which were very much alive.

[Acheron]

Once he was away from Silk, Kessler felt a little more relieved from when he first met her. Worrying about the wind was enough for himself and he didn't really feel like having the weight of someone else's life on his shoulders. He was pretty sure that Silk wasn't going to ask him to protect her or defend her in any sort of way but that didn't change the fact that Kessler would still feel the need to look out for her. At least now he would be on his own path, maybe take a little rest from everything that had been going on from the village until now; he wouldn't admit it to everyone but he really could use a good sleep once he reached the next village.

It wasn't before long that Kessler realized the path he was on, which caused him to let off a loud laugh to himself. He was on a one way path to Suiren Village, there was no other way besides heading through the thick bushes and weeds to find another path. He had been to the water village before and it was a nice place, a little nicer than Kaguya but right now he really didn't want to have to deal with any questions or concerns of villagers around the place. The wind girl was gone, Silk was behind him and it was just Kessler on his own now, hopefully there wasn't another Elemental lingering around in the water village. It was hard for him to remember what exactly the water village looked like but he knew it wouldn't be too far ahead of him now.

Duck!

The earth had spoken to Kessler and he did exactly that, looking in front of him as a pair of daggers came sailing above his head, barely missing the top of his head. He quickly turned around but it wasn't quick enough, as he only caught the glimpse of the attackers foot, which looked to be in a black boot. Kessler didn't know if this attacker was aware of his powers or not but he stayed in a crouched position before placing both knees on the ground, he assumed a position like was praying, hoping to lull the attacker into a false sense of security. The attacker fell for it as he came down from one of the trees and swung at Kessler's head with a sword, all from behind Kessler; but the sword never reached his head as some of the vines had already grabbed hold of the sword, pulling it out of the attacker's hands. The man in an all black outfit, along with a black stocking on his head, tried to kick Kessler in the head with a quick right kick but Kessler grabbed his leg, then pulled down at the shin; dislocating the man's knee and causing him to fall down in pain. He wasn't out for the count though, for as he started backing up, he pulled out another dagger, tossing it right into Kessler's shoulder. Kessler winced in pain while he reached into his shoulder for the dagger, pulling it out with a pissed off face. The man had finally backed himself into the truck of a tree, breathing hard from the dislocated knee, which now had started to cause severe pain. Kessler walked over to the man and stepped on his knee, placing a lot of pressure on the knee which he had dislocated.

"So this is the part where you tell me why you decided to ruin my peaceful walk and try to take my life. What did I do to you?", Kessler wasn't too thrilled about this entire situation and made sure that his boot was throughly introduced to the man's dislocated knee.

[Lady Rika]

As soon as night passed, and morning broke through Silk’s flames slowly died away. Her palms beautiful light burnt up into the cold air that was soon to bring snow.
Silk figured since it was winter, that it would snow a lot more often and be cold. She grimaced, she really hated the cold. But she couldn’t say much, since it was her elemental powers that made her so open for anything cold or anything that was related to water.

‘Now where am I now?’ Silk reached into her black satchel, pulling out the old, creased map.
Eyeing it quickly, then letting a smirk lift across her face.
“Perfect.” She whispered. Replacing the map into her bag, she was rather close to Suiren or at least the path that would lead her to the mountains since the Shuyin River along with the Careithus Mountains blocked her from entering. Since the River was dangerous, she figured she’d just take her luck going threw the mountains and finding some sort of way into the clandestine village.

Silk looked up, she had just made her way into a large open grassland. She had left the Kaguya forests and now was well on her way to Suiren. Since the Village was right in the middle of the Island and Kaguya was at the top she had known it would be a long journey. She just didn’t know how much time she would save by walking threw the night.
But she couldn’t lie that her body was growing slightly weary; Silk had also heard her stomach cry out in hunger a couple of times. So thinking it be wise, she sat down on a mossy stone in the middle of the large field.
Silk felt a paltry bit of remorse for her old meadow, the one she would escape to hiding herself from the cruelty and annoyance of the Villagers. Sleeping there to fight back her own loneliness.
Though this grassland was different than hers, a small yet lengthy stream ran through it. Unlike hers it was larger and expanded throughout instead of being in one large area.

Reaching into her sling bag Silk pulled out a small container of water, drinking little to save for later. Just barely filling her thirst with the crisp, clean, semi-cold water.
After wiping the remaining water from her lips, she pulled out the small bag of dried meat, only taking out one long strip. After looking about to see if anyone was watching her, she took in a deep breath, then wolfed down the meat hungrily. Licking her lips, savoring every strong tang of the delicious dried meat. After resting for a few seconds Silk rose from the rock, reaching her arms up in a yawn.
‘I wonder…’ she thought, “If that Kessler guy is making it on his own?’ Silk pondered this as she felt the aftertaste of the meat ring through her throat. He could be hungry, but she quickly brushed those thoughts aside.
‘He was the one who basically called me childish and left me alone–‘

But Silks musings were interrupted by a loud, monstrous cry.
Silk’s heart jumped, dropping her bag in surprise. Without thinking she jumped to the ground and pulled out her bow, her quiver already strapped to her back. Loading it quickly, Silk looked around to see what could of made the sound; a little ways off. There was a creature, with a gray body and corrupt face. Silk covered her mouth to keep from gasping.
It was a horse!
But at the same it wasn’t, it had no sleek coat, or thick flowing mane falling from its bushy tail. In fact it had no mane, or tail. All that flowed from its hindquarters was a hand length spine looking tail. The creature looked like it was a horse at one point, a starved, and half dead one.
Its ribs were visible, only small glimpses of pink muscle were visible through the gray flesh that hooded the body.


Silk’s hands shook the bow, its hideous exterior giving her morbid thoughts of what it could do to her if it did see her or worse…attack her.
It lowered its head to eat some grass that was covered by the snow, after pushing the powered ice away with its long haggard front leg. Nuzzling the green grass with is muzzle, Silk watched it try to eat the turf.
Silks eyes went wide with alarm as she watched the atrocious horse creature cough up the grass; long runny streams of black blood poured from its mouth. It reared back its head with fury and let out an enraged screech; as it continuously lifted its head Silk could see a long tube like thing running towards its mouth and down towards its belly. It was slowly draining blood from its body and letting it leave through the creature’s mouth. After a few seconds of thinking she realized that it was its esophagus.
Taking in a deep breath, Silk pulled back on the bow, the string making a high pitch clamor from its restricted use.
The horse creature looked up, black eyes flaring with anger.
Silk’s eyes narrowed, then with a quick breath she let go of the arrow.

[Fehrant]

Standing on the edge of a cliff, her silver hair flowed wildly as the wind caressed its companion. It made a mourning sound; the wind was well aware of what she intended to do. A tear streamed down her cheek, ignited by memories of what she had witnessed. The vivid massacre of the intoxicating air had been a sight so unnatural and evil, that her fragile heart had been torn aside with overwhelming sadness. The source of it was unknown, but even if the source was stopped, what would happen to all of those that had already been kissed by death?

She was the interpreter of the wind, her companion and friend, her disciple and master altogether. At the same time, however, she was human. She had a primitive mind, but she was not an animal. An animal would not weep at the sight of a massacre, but would rather flee in terror. Understanding and feeling the sadness of the situation was something a human could do, no matter how primitive or innocent like Fuuyuu.

She moved further to the edge, as more tears rolled down. The wind tried to push her on the opposite direction, but Fuuyuu ignored the wind's plea. She closed her eyes, listening only to the surrounding gusts from her friend, and the water below colliding against the rocky surface.

"Goodbye, friend."

Fuuyuu let herself go and dropped from the cliff. The wind made a last attempt to save her, making her float almost magically for a second, but she restrained the wind's movement with her power and resumed the inevitable download to her own demise.

The wind screamed one last time, before she plunged into the water never to emerge again.

[Acheron]

"Ah well I just thought I'd randomly attack you, it's what I do for fun really. Just last week I saw an old man walking along the pathway's, I figured I'd jump him too."

Kessler did not appreciate the young man's sarcasm so he repaid it by pressing down as hard as he could with his foot on the man's knee, which Kessler had already done some pretty heavy damage to. The young man winced in pain, he was clearly in a great deal of pain but didn't want to show too much weakness to Kessler. Soon enough his gritting of his teeth turned into a fit of laughter, a way to pretend that the pain wasn't there at all but it was only working half way through.

"Stop lying, you're taking me for a fool and I'm not one to be too thrilled about it, what is it that you attacked me for?", Kessler eased up on the young man's knee, maybe pain wasn't the key for getting this guy to talk.

"You know...I seem to have forgotten why I decided to attack you...", the young man gave him a smile but he could see that Kessler wasn't anywhere near impressed. The man cut the crap though and looked up to face Kessler, "I'd be far more inclined to answer your questions if you decided to fix up my knee here though, that would be a nice gesture on your part".

Even though he really didn't want to, Kessler took a knee and jammed the man's knee down into the soil. When it was brought back up to the surface, it wasn't all the way healed but healed enough so the young man would be able to walk again, he wouldn't be able to run or attack Kessler with that leg. At least this way the man would be able to walk along with him but Kessler wasn't about to just let him walk on his own command. He reached behind the man sitting against the tree stump and pulled out some vines from the bush near him, he pulled the man's hands behind his back and wrapped the vines around his wrists, making sure that he wasn't going to be able to use those quick hands of his. Once he had his hands tied up behind his back, Kessler pulled the young man up to his feet and made him walk in front of him.

"For whatever reason, getting answers out of you seems to be impossible so maybe this is a waste of my breath but at least tell me your name."

"My name? Eh, my name is Golgo."

"Golgo? Well that's a start. So now why did you decide to attack me? We've never met before so I'm going to assume it's not because of some personal beef", Kessler made sure that Golgo kept a decent pace ahead of him that way it wouldn't take forever for the two of them to reach the water village.

"Why did I decide to attack you? Well that came out of sheer boredom, I was never one for tracking missions and I just had to test out out strong you were. Sadly for my knee, it looks like you bested me today., Golgo started laughing a little bit once he finished the last part, "Stupid of me, I knew that leading with the knives was going to be a good start but I didn't think through the plan of attack after that, whoops I guess haha."

"You know, you don't seem to be too worried that I have you handcuffed pretty much and plan on turning you into the village marshall once I get into the water village. Tracking missions? Why would you be following me? I'm not all of that interesting."

"I'm not worried because I don't plan on being in custody for more than five minutes. As for why I would be following you, interesting events or lack there of, it didn't matter to me, the only thing I cared about was the money I was being paid. You're a little more interesting than you think earth boy, at least I thought so."

"Money? Why in the world would you care about money when this wind is sweeping around everything, killing everything that it touches? That money won't be going too far in the long run my friend."

"All a matter of opinion soil-hound."

Both Kessler and "Golgo" continued along the path, at the current pace they were making, they wouldn't be more than fifteen minutes out from the water village.