The Red Tide [Loveless x Hue Ran]

[Loveless]

Gentle clacking sounds as each footsteps were taken as a figure clad in a dark-colored hakama walked down on a ground path in a slow, relaxing pace. Despite the hakama hid most of the feminine curves within the thick layered clothing, the stranger was indeed all female when especially one would look at the angular yet petite-looking face of the female. Though anybody passing by the walking female would had noticed the sword, in its designated sheath, strapped to the left side of her hips.

A pair of auburn eyes kept their gaze forward but eventually started to drift upwards to stare up at the sky, though grateful that she was still in the forest and thus the trees near her was shielding most of the hot sun rays from her form for the time being. Many thoughts went through her mind as she was trying to recollect on where she was truly heading, but then again; she had been mostly wandering anywhere without any destination in mind. Going without an aim was indeed such a bore, but that was nothing new to her.

Moving her head back to face forward again, she pushed the negative thoughts which bear most of her haunting memories from her past and bringing herself back to the present. She was like a ghost; feeling so disjointed and disconnected with the present; always finding herself buried deep within her past. Then again, she felt she could not forgive herself and even more was how she was so immersed within her despair, then carving such an infamous name for herself.

Shaking her head at this, she kept the relaxed pace and walked further until finally reaching to the mouth of the forest. Even more was how she could see a nearby town in the horizon as she stood near a small cliff to spot it. At least she would be able to rest her feet and fill her stomach; even buying some food and water supply when she would leave again. It would not be too long, she hoped.

It was then she realized something was rather off as she stood at the mouth of the forest. One was how she did not remember seeing anybody passing by her down this path as she walked through the forest. Second was that she did not even hear any birds or animals within the forest whatsoever. Mentally scolding herself for letting herself be distracted without noticing it sooner, she then waited in silence for a moment or two. Then just as she had expected, her sharp ears heard movements within the shadows of the trees and as if on cue, the woman had caught sight of a pair of throwing daggers thrown towards her direction.

She was quick to just sidestep easily, dodging the thrown weapons as they hit to the ground on where she previously stood and then seeing the hidden figures finally emerged from their hiding as they dropped from the trees to stand a distance away from her. From what she saw, there were in total of six people versus her; bandits and thieves, no doubt. One of them begin to speak in a determined tone, "So what do we have here? It's a woman, traveling alone. That sword you have with you must be for show. So.. come and be a good girl, and hand us any valuables you have with you if you do not want to get hurt. That sword would look nice too."

"But I want to have fun with the girl.. She looks too good to be freed, you know?" Another mentioned to the apparent leader, and seemed the others were agreeing to the idea. At this, the female just heaved out a slightly frustrated sigh and yet looked unafraid whatsoever of what was happening. ".. Oh look, the girl is trying to be all brave and acting as if she's not scared." One of them then moved forward, his hand reaching out and daring to grab the female by her chin. At this, the woman narrowed her auburn eyes and instantly; within a flick of her wrist, she drew out her sword with her right hand in such a quick blur and in the process, slicing his hand off with a clean cut.

His eyes moved to the stub of his arm, where his hand used to be and then horror struck his face as he then screamed out, "That bitch cut off my hand! MY HAND!!!!" At this, the other bandits drew out their weapons, the confident look now changed to anger and slightly wary expressions while the one who lost his hand fell down to his bottom, gripping his bleeding wrist and still absorbing the fact that his hand was now gone.

Sounds of blades clashing could be heard echoing within the depths of the forest, then added with a blade slashing through flesh and accompanied with shouts and shrieks of pain, terror and shock. This only lasted for a few minutes and then once again, just silence. Before the female now laid all the motionless bodies of the bandits, now within a pool of their own life fluids as the crimson fluid seeped out from their bodies to be then absorbed into the ground beneath them. "... Mhm." A slight sound escaped the lips of the female, as she then kicked one of the bodies to turn them over and slashing the sword to the side in one swoop to flick the blood off from the blade then finally sliding the blade back into its proper sheath. Dusting her hakama a bit, she was glad she did not have any speck of blood upon her robes.

Bending herself down, she patted her hands around the bodies to then loot the money pouches out of them. Lucky day for her, it seemed; especially seeing how they were loaded with coins. These would last her for a good while, she thought to herself. Not even caring and thinking the bodies could rot at the spot for all she cared, she then turned herself around and continued along her way, as if what had transpired earlier was a daily occurrence.

[Hue Ran]

(Jeez this took me long enough)

Sweat covered his face and his footsteps grew heavy with each step he took. He looked around his heavy breathing flowing from underneath his cloak. He quickly checked either way before touching a tree looking left and then right and then bolting to the left. His hard footsteps cracked against the twigs on the ground as he stumbled forward, but caught himself with a tree and continued forward running fast as his legs would let him. He regretted even going to that last village. It seemed like every time he made a conscious decision anymore it was the wrong decision. He was once again running for his life but this time his body was tired and he was scared out of his mind. He didn't know what these things following him are but some of them couldn't be tricked its like they knew exactly where he was going to go before he did.

If only he hadn't been given these stupid powers. If only he had been normal like everyone else. You see Hue wasn't like everyone else. When he was but a child he was granted the forbidden power from the previous owner. Now normally when you are granted the power you are taken to a special Temple to train, but before Hue could go there to learn everything he needed to learn the Temple was burned to the ground. Now he is constantly hunted like prey, everybody seemed to be after him even those that are in fact not going after him. Hue was supposed to be told how to control his emotions and feeling, instead Hue is now controlled by them. When he is made fire tends to appear out of nowhere. When he is scared or frightened he can control the shadows. When he is firm, strong, and understanding he can control Earth. Each emotion has it's own power and without training he cannot control any of them.

Hue looked back again before he jumped upwards to the tree branch atop of him, he continued climbing as fast as he could before he reached the top of the tree and looked out to the sea of trees before him. He had been running for what seemed like days, taking break only when he could and becoming more and more exhausted with each step he took. He knew eventually he would get caught and he wondered if that would be a better fate then constantly running all the time, but his fear of dying kept him from giving up and turning himself over to these bastards. He looked down to find two men running past then tree and some kind of four legged creature lead the way. He was able to take a deep rigid breath as he relaxed for a moment thankful he had a moment to breath.

Hue felt as if he couldn't get enough air into his lungs, even when concentrating and taking deep steady breaths didn't seem to help him. He remembered how this chase started it was two days ago and Hue was visiting a small Temple in one of the outlying villages. Hue however lost control but for a moment, the entire Temple was rubble when he left and a crater at least a mile wide took residence where the Temple used to be. This obviously gave away whom Hue was and so he was once again here in the moment being chased yet again as if he didn't have to deal with that enough without everyone wanting to locate him.

The two men reappeared in Hue's sight as they came back looking for him, instead of going down to the ground Hue grabbed a hold of the branch he had been sitting on and used the branch to swing himself across to the next tree. He continued this process until he was a good many trees ahead of the two hooded figures. Hue then began his descent back to firm ground, only to stumble on the last branch before the ground and fall to the ground and a loud snack feel into his ears as the branches he landed on broke. Hue instantly bolted to his feet and once again took off to the East of the Woods, hoping he could find a way to lose these persistent and annoying pests.

With each step Hue could feel them gaining on him, he could feel them coming closer as though he was getting a itch in his spine as they close in on him. He was not surprised, he had received the feeling multiple times over. Hue didn't focus on that though, instead he focused on his running, trying to get as much distance between himself and his attackers as he possibly could.

"How do I keep getting myself into these messes," he whispered to himself under his breath.