[private - Mai] Taking a break

[Chase Sato]

As they day drew to an end, the landscape began to grow more and more familiar. By the time the sun was setting, they were riding in on the city near his home. It was a decent sized city, nothing compared to republic city, though. No buildings were taller then four stories, and it was much less crowded, though there were still a decent amount of people out. His family and the other Noble Families lived in a small village type grouping of homes just outside the city. Mai was right about having to leave their Emu Horse behind, he knew just the place. Leading them to a small shack on the outskits of town, he helped Mai down, then jumped off himself. Tying off the horse, he turned back to Mai. "The entrance is there." he pointed to a large, fancy looking gate. Seeing it again brought up so many emotions in him. After tonight, this was probably going to be the last time he would see it. He grew up here, but was resolved in leaving it behind forever, as long as his family was safe.

It would still be a while before they reached the houses, there was a dense forest with a single path that connected the gate to the main house. Walking it would take about 45 minutes to get there, so they would have a lot of time to talk over their plan. Making sure his hood was up and hair tied back, walked over to the gate and began climbing it. Opening it was out of the question, it would draw too much attention. Making sure Mai made it over alright, he turned to look down the dark path. "I don't even know if they'll be here. Hopefully they are." taking a steadying breath, he started down the pathway.

[Mai Toriko]

Mai followed him up the path, keeping their voices down as they kept their feet light in the darkness. They couldn't be careful enough as they approached the home, if one person found them and managed to alert the estate it could have put his entire family in jeopardy. She kept her eyes moving along the area but keeping her head still. "we need a back entrance, something that allows us to get through the servant quarters." Mai had been taken to palaces to service the rich nobels before, she knew that the servants usually kept tunnels that allowed them to travel all through the home without being seen by their masters. It was how Mai was smuggled in and out of the Lord's chambers without his wife seeing her presence.

She could sense Chase's anxiety and slowly reached to hold his hand in reassurance. She gave it a gentle squeeze and them maintained her hold. It kept them walking at a good pace and allowed her to remind him that he wasn't alone in this. The time passed slowly they walked on, the weight of the situation seeming to make their feet heavy. Finally they reached the side entrance and Mai looked at him one more time. She whispered gently, "we can do this..." she let go of his hand and looked up to the moon as she took in a deep breath, ready to blood bend the moment she entered. She wasn't sure how much she could do it but there was no place like the present to give it a shot.

They got in through the servant doors in the back east end of the building, lurking around the dark halls of the dungeon like setting in order to keep themselves hidden. Mai was silent, like a thief as she moved gracefully about the hall. Her body moved so much like her bending. As she peaked up the stairs that led to the tunnels she noticed a guard circulating. "first one.." she raised her hands and clenched her fists, slowing the blood flow inside his body as she forced him to lay down. She didn't kill him but she did render his unconscious as they raced by into the tunnels. "we need to find a way to the dungeons in this place." she whispered as they hurried.

[Chase Sato]

Their journey was an especially quiet one, their footsteps made barely any noise against the gravel as they made their way down the path. Mai broke the silence, Chase nodded in return, answering quietly. "Follow me." As the moments passed he could feel his anticipation growing. These next few hours would determine so much of his life. She could probably tell, he wasn't trying to hide it either. Squeezing her hand back, he guided them along the maze of houses, he knew exactly which one they needed to go to. His feet followed the familiar path towards their destination. Passing by why he knew used to be his home, he couldn't help but to look up at it like he had thousands of times before.

But unlike all those other times, the grand building that stood there didn't gaze back at him. Instead a sectioned off pile of rubble stood where his home used to be, everything charred by the flames. His jaw clenched as his looked away, continuing on. He held Mai's hand tighter for a moment, at least until they got away from that place. Quickly and quietly running along the side of the next few houses, he brought them around the back of a particularly large one. The back entrance was not locked, which wasn't surprising. No one's home ever got broken into, they all knew about the heightened security as soon as one entered.

'we can do this' Strangely enough, her words encouraged him, made him feel a little bit better. It was great not having to do this alone. He made a note to tell her how much he really appreciated this later, when this was all over. Hopefully he had a chance. Nodding, he opened the door quietly, slipping into the mansion. He had never been in this part of the house before, but was able to navigate them through, Mai taking out the first guard they came across. She was proving to be very helpful. "They're this way, I'm pretty sure." he whispered back, his pace changing from their previous silent steps. The anticipation hurried his pace, leading the pair to a staircase. The dungeons were just down these steps.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door, almost running down the spiral staircase. A single bulb lit the four cell dungeon. It only took one glance to see that all four cells were empty. How could they not be here? Spinning around, he looked back at Mai, shaking his head. "I don't know where they'd be." trying to think as hard as he could, his mind raced to think of where else they would be. Footsteps of more guards could be heard a little ways away, they didn't have a lot of time. He didn't want to have to fight his way out of here. They still needed more time to look. Grabbing Mai's wrist, he dashed up the stairs and through the door, running as fast as he could down the hall away from the sound of footsteps. Hopefully they didn't hear. After a few minutes of running, he couldn't hear anyone following. Stopping, he looked around, panting a little. "I'm just going to start looking..." by everywhere he meant everywhere, and began by opening the nearest door.

Nothing. Not bothering to close it, he continued on to the next one, continuing down the hall, until they reached a staircase. Ascending it, he began searching the rooms on the next floor. He was familiar with his area of the house, it was the guest chambers. On the fourth room, he stopped, squinting into the dark. There was a small lump in the bed, unlike all the others which had been empty. He pushed the door open further, allowing the light from the hallway to illuminate the room further. There was no doubt that it was her. The little girl sleeping in the bed had orange hair almost like Chase's. It was a little more brown, but they were obviously related. "It's her." he whispered to Mai, not sure if he should wake her quite yet. Maybe they should look for his mother first. "What do you think we should do?" he asked Mai, looking down at her.

[Mai Toriko]

Mai looked inside and saw the girl. "We can't leave it to chance that we may not be able to get back here." she reached into her top and pulled out a lock pick. She'd broken out of her attic room and other cells before, this would be nothing but a cheap exercise for her. She got it free in seconds and placed it back in her breast cup before slowly and silently opening the door and slipping inside. She knelt down and woke the poor girl carefully, covering her mouth in case she made noise off the bat. As the girl's eyes fluttered open Mai calmly spoke, like she did the marketplace to the girl who had fallen. "Hush, I'm here with your brother and we're getting you out of here..but you need to be very quiet and come with us. okay?" she helped the girl up and looked into the far corner...she smelt something coming from the next cell over. The cells were connected with iron bars separating the prisoners. She saw blood that had pooled and started to dry on the ground, rat tracks running through it and sticking to the stone floors as they travelled on.

The smell of death was thick and as her eyes cleared in the darkness she saw a body. Her breath hitched as she saw the faint orange hair, a woman in royal clothing laying there. Shielding the young girl from the veiw of a dead woman she eased them out of the cell and looked to Chase. He needed to know...but she was worried he would react and get them caught. Guilt seeped into every pour, had she made him late? If she hadn't gotten hurt, if she hadn't stalled them with the kiss his mother may still be alive... She looked to Chase and heard guards, "you need to get her out of here..."

Mai gasped when she saw men coming around the corner. She saw the blood on the floor and gritted her teeth as she used it and used them to make her daggers that she fired in their direction. She saw them dodge and break them and ready their weapons so she took a deep breath and caught their bodies with her blood bending. She froze them and groaned as she looked down. She didn't freeze them in time and felt a sharp pain from a thrown spear hitting her shoulder. It was hard to focus on the blood bending with the cut slowly stretching and blood seeping. She glared and looked at Chase. "get your sister out now."

[Chase Sato]

Chase stood next to the doorway as Mai picked open the lock, stepping into the cell. He was glad that she had done so, for some reason he didn't want to go in there. The room gave off an eery feeling, the air was thick. But the prospect of seeing his family again pushed him to step into the room just after Mai was waking Hiyro, pulling her out of her slumber. The small girl ran over as soon as she saw her brother, hugging him tight. He saw Mai looking into the next cell, his eye followed. The site was too much, he had to look away. So it was just him and Hiyro. He was so convinced that they would both be alive when he got here. He came as fast as he could, why did they kill her?

There was no time to question it, though, as the guards seemed to have located them. Hurrying towards the door, it was too late, they were already crowding it, pushing their way through to the trespassers. Picking up Hiyro, he shielded her eyes as Mai bloodbent some daggers, which they easily evaded. Luckily she still had her blood bending, and was able to stop them. But not before one of them cast a spear at her. Chase called out, reaching to catch it, but was too late, the sharp metal piercing her skin. Cursing, he pulled it out while she continued to blood bend the guards, assessing the damage. It wasn't too serious, but without care she could bleed out in a while.

Kicking a large blast of fire at the guards, they flew backwards, hitting the wall and falling to the floor. Taking the opportunity, Chase ran out of the room, grabbing Mai's hand as he dashed past the guards. Though she was in his arms, Hiyro's cries sounded faint. Everything did. They ran through the way they came, not running into any more guards. The fresh air hit him like a wall, Chase took a deep breath, not stopping their run until they reached the gates of the houses.

Panting heavily, he set Hiyro down, leaning down on his knees. The emu Horse wasn't too far, he was just focused on getting out of there was quick as possible. He could think about what happened later. Taking another deep breath, he picked up the protesting Hiyro and climbed the fence. The little girl was demanding to know what was happening. Chase couldn't answer, so he just ignored her words, continuing on his quest to get them out. A faint light of torches could be seen coming down the path as they mounted the Emu horse, he made sure everyone was on properly, and called the Emu Horse to a trot.

They made pretty good time, and were out of the town within the hour. He knew a place not too far where they could set up camp.

[Mai Toriko]

Mai was dizzy as they road. She was leaning against his back as the small girl was held in the front. Thankfully they were not followed as the travelled through the darkness in search of refuge. Her body was weak from the blood bending she had to perform and the healing process wasn't going to save her this time. She would have to rest and heal naturally. Mai felt the emu horse slow down and she slipped off the side to give the siblings time to dismount while she found a tree trunk to lean against and trying to stop her dizziness from taking over. She slid down and rest her back on the tree trunk, a cold sweat coating her body. Taking in slow and shaking breaths she tried to regain a small amount of composure. Smiling softly she was glad for the siblings to have eachother, even if they lost their mother, at least they came away with one silver lining.

Soru was at her side, crawling up to her neck and whining in his small mewling noises as he sensed her pain. She pet his weakly, before her hand clasped her shoulder. When Chase pulled the spear it had torn the wound wide open. The spear head had more their one prong, with back facing spikes so to hook into the skin. When pulled, it rips the skin like shreds of paper and in doing so makes one wound like five or more. The moon light hit her but it wasn't enough. Her powers to dwindling quickly. As she sat by the tree and was about to speak to Chase she saw torches coming through the darkness and shouting. She thought they had been far enough away but they should have been smart enough to know better. This wasn't going to be that easy.

Mai was in a panic in her mind, unable to pull herself to feet without aid she was useless. There was no way Chase would be able to fight them off on his own. She went up to him and whispered, "they're coming....and we can't fight them off alone..." she raised her hands slowly. Getting up she cried in pain as she forced her last amount of energy and blood bended Chase and his sister back onto the horse and smacked it'd behind, forcing them away from the scene. The last thing she saw before it went black was Chase riding away to safety while the guards descended on her. The blood bend would wear off in a while, but enough for them to be safe.

[Chase Sato]

He was certain they had enough space between them to be safe. They had been riding for a while. They slowed to a stop, Mai slid off and sat down by a tree. He helped Hiyro off the back of the large creature, she clung to him tightly, so he just held her up, resting his chin on her shoulder. He felt terrible that she was going to grow up without her mother, but at least she wasn't alone anymore. He couldn't believe they were keeping her next to their mother's dead body. Well, it hadn't been for very long from the looks of the scene, but seeing your mother dead would be traumatic for anyone, yet alone a ten year old.

But if almost felt good to have this all finished. Though he was too late for his mother, at least he had Hiyro back. His mother had always been very sickly, and probably wouldn't have lived many more years. It still didn't excuse her death, but it was a small consolation. At least nothing happened to Hiyro. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he almost forgot about Mai for a second. As bad as that sounded. But he had a lot going on, it was difficult to keep track of everything in this state of mind.

Kneeling down, he looked at her shoulder. "looks like i did more damage then good." the wound looked horrible, and he knew that if she had the energy, she would have healed it by now. He knew it would be bad if she lost any more blood, and it didn't look like she was going to be good to heal anytime soon. His master taught him this, he knew it would be painful, but it could possible save her life. Leaning forward, he heated his hand, pressing it against the wound, the heat sizzling with the blood, cauterizing the wound closed.

Before he could apologize for the pain, he saw her eyes widen. He followed her gaze to see the distant light of the guards torches. Dammit how did they catch up!? 'they're coming....and we can't fight them off alone... he nodded in agreement, but didn't expect what she was about to do. He thought they would all just hide or something. His and Hiyro's cries of pain here drowned out by Mai's as they floated up onto the Emu Horse. He tried to fight against the power of her bending, but it was too much. "Mai, don't do this!" he yelled at her as she smacked the horse's flank, the animal speeding off with Chase and Hiyro safely on it's back.

As soon as the effects of the bending wore off, he jumped off the Emu's back, Hiyro still in his arms. He ushered her into a bush, telling her to hide and not to come out until he came to get her. Knowing that the steed would be a dead giveaway that she was hiding there, so he sent it off, at least it could act as a decoy. Taking off down the path towards Mai, he used his bending to speed his strides, blasting fire from his hands aimed behind him. He reached Mai just as the guards were closing in on her. Blasting away the closest two with two swift kicks, he took a deep inhale, focusing his energy. As the next two guards came in for their attack, Chase blasted them away again. Noticing that their attacking in pairs was not working, they all started closing in on the two.

This had never worked before, but for some reason, Chase felt like if he tried, that it would work. Taking his stance, he did the motions he had done so many times before. But unlike the other times where fire would just blast back in his face, blue sparks of lightning formed on his fingertips, the sizzling sound filling the air. After building the bolt for a moment, he released it at the guards, a large hole appearing in the ground, the guards all getting thrown back by the force of the attack. He had to keep from yelling in triumph, and instead hurriedly picked up Mai, running back down the path to where Hiyro was hiding.

[Mai Toriko]

Mai started to come to from the movement of being picked up.She was jostled and her shoulder was ripping from the moment. Reaching, not knowing who was touching her she pushed and went slamming into the ground in a heap. She grunted, hitting into her lip to take the pain and shot her head, staring into those eyes again. She was too weak to scream. The wound may have closed it but it did little to ease the pain it had inflicted. She saw his sister hiding in the bushes as she was shoved in with her she stumbled away from him. The young woman stayed quiet, waiting for the coast to clear. They waited in silence for over an hour before even attempting to move, each time Chase would glance her way he was met with emptiness. She knew it was bad to send him away but it wasn't just him, that little girl was liability to them in a fight. If they didn't survive she would be dragged back and possibly put into the same role that Mai had grown up in, she wasn't about to take that chance.

When the time came she stood, holding her shoulder. "I did what was best." she said, knowing he was about to snap on her for doing what she had done to them. "You feel free to fight them with all your might at your expense. But we had a little girl to rescue, it's not about being a hero. It was about getting your family back together!" she didn't yelled in fear someone was still lurking by but her tone was firm enough. "If you hadn't been able to summon that lightening we'd all be dead right now and she'd be without a family all together. She's your priority, she's the one you need to keep your concern around, not me. Keep in straight in your head."

She hissed form moving too much and jerked away from him, knowing him well enough to know he would move to help her. "What did you do to me anyway?" she whispered, her voice growing more worried. She moved away and pulled water from the grass to make a tiny pool of water that she could catch a reflection in.

Her face lost all colour as she gazed at her shoulder. Washing away the blood she saw it, a deep tissue burn and heavy scaring already forming. Part of the heat he had given had travelled up her neck and almost touched her face. the skin was discoloured and raw. "what did you do?" she whispered, not even directing the words to anyone. She touched the fresh burn and winced but pressed her fingers against it anyway. "You...you catarized it...you...you did this...." she was shaking. her body wasn't scared, it wasn't maimed after years of torture but this she couldn't heal.

Her body image was all she had, it was something she took with honor to at least if anything in her life be beautiful. It was the only thing that gave her worth and now this...she was worthless now. What man would want this in his arms, this deformed scar with uneven flesh, bumping and discoloured. Mai was shaking as she knelt and stared at it. Maybe if she ripped it open again she'd be able to heal it. She applied more pressure, tears streaming down her face from the pain.

[Chase Sato]

The hour they were in that bush seemed like days. Hiyro fell asleep as they sat silently, occasionally looking at each other. It was very apparent that they were both upset with each other. She had no emotion in her eyes, but he knew she was upset with him. They both did what they had to do, but the whole situation still left a bitter taste. After enough time had passed, Mai stood up. She was the first to speak. Her words made him frown, if he wasn't already. He knew she was right, but it still made him angry.

He knew that he was all Hiyro had, but Mai probably would have died if he didn't go back for her. She had no right sacrificing herself like that. They could have come up with a plan, they could have hidden. "I saved your life. You would have bled to death. Not that you couldn't have healed it, you had enough energy to blood bend Hiyro and I." he said, not bothering to hide the bitterness in his voice.

She began to freak out about the wound. He was so confused, she would have died. Would she rather be dead then have a scar? He thought she might be over reacting a bit, but that may be because of the shock. He hoped it was. Sighing, he sat beside her. "It won't look that bad once it's healed." he said, trying to cheer her up. He knew this whole injury was his fault. He carelessly tore the spear out in the first place, and now she was obviously distraught over the scar. He couldn't help but feel guilty. "I'm sorry...."

[Mai Toriko]

Mai wanted to scream, she shook and gripped her hair before she tried to cut the wound open with her nails but they were dull from travelling and did nothing but scrath the surface and irritate the skin. "Dammit, dammit dammit!" she hissed, choking on her own sobs. "You have no idea what you've done...you don't know!" she pushed away from him and closed her top again as if she was afraid of him looking at her. "I have nothing, nothing but beauty. It's all I'm good for. It's all I'm worth in this world. IO have no family, no money, no assets. The only thing that gets me any sort of kindness is my appearence. Tell me the truth, would you have really travelled to that place in search of someone homely and ugly? Would you have hunted down an ogre?" she knew the answer to the question. "Now look at me!" she looked him right in the eyes as the wound came into full light and let him see the way the skin was now rough and cropped out in placed. It may look better, but it would never go away. "Who would have me now?!" she screamed, "I wasn't worthy of anything before but at least I was beautiful in the eyes of some. Now I'm more worthless than before..I'm an ugly, scarred prostitute..." she admitted to herself as she broke eye contact. "and I can't even hate you...I can't even be mad at you...I can just hate myself more..."

Mai replied to his comment quickly as she stared at the wound. "Healing it's like a quick burst. It takes hours of pain taking concentration with no garuntees. I had enough energy to start healing but not enough to finish, or enough to get you and her out of there in a second. I chose the later. I chose the later because I wanted to save you!"