She stood up tucking her wings back with a wince. She nodded at his question, "Yes I can run. Let's go." She ran with him down a detour of back alleys and winding city streets. She led him to the wall where a loose grate covered a gap where water from the moat flowed in.

She jumped down into the knee deep water and with a grimace jerked the loose grate from the wall. "Hope you don't mind water," she said as she bent down and waded through the gap in the wall. This was a small tunnel that cut straight through the wall to the moat. Once outside the wall they swam across this moat climbing up to higher ground.

The mechanists were focusing their efforts inside the city so no one noticed a couple of drenched bodies climbing from the moat and running into the forest. After running a mile or two among the trees Solara slowed to a stop. She placed her hand on a tree to steady herself trying to catch her breath. The arrow in her wing caused her pain with any movement and all that she had to do to get here left her exhausted and hurt. "Please... Take this arrow out," she muttered breathless to Raln holding out her pierced wing with a wince.

Raln had run a little ahead of her, dripping water as he went -- but when he no longer heard her footsteps behind him he turned to face the city they had just left behind. The downed airship was burning, its skeleton dangling between two buildings. From here, they couldn't hear the screams and gunfire, but Raln knew them well.

Although, a few dark shapes emerged from the moat and scattered in other directions. So more of the townsfolk had gotten out. Good.

His eyes were drawn to Solara at her request. The arrow certainly looked painful, and she had sustained the wound while carrying out his orders. Without hesitation he stepped forward, laid a hand on her feathers and eased the arrow gently from her wing. The wound looked worse than it had appeared before.

"Can you heal yourself?" he asked gravely.

She shook her head with a slight smile. "That's the price I pay for this gift. I can heal others but not myself." She tucked her wing in against her back with a wince.

"It's all right though," she assured him, "I can keep going." She began walking beside him again. She wasn't running but she figured as long as she kept moving they would be all right.

"There's a small village a few miles from here. Maybe someone there can make a salve for my wound." She explained as they walked through the trees. She continuously glanced around, listening for anyone who might be following.

Raln's thoughts were on the burning city they were leaving behind. At least they had done damage to the Mechanists, but it was far from enough. The woods, comparatively, were too quiet. The rain had stopped, and rivulets of water ran through the mud at their feet.

"Not being able to heal yourself doesn't sound like much of a price to me," he muttered. "That's like saying it's a curse that you're mortal like the rest of us." Maybe he'd offended her. He didn't quite care at the moment -- nor was he in the mood to go on a quest for a salve for one stranger's wound when so many of his closest friends had fallen in battle not so long ago.

"I'm not ungrateful for what you've done, but what are you and where do you come from? Are there more of you? And why aren't you with them?"

She looked away at his comment about her "price" remark. She felt guilty for sounding so arrogant. She hadn't meant it in that way. She had always found it ironic that she could heal others but not herself.

At his barrage of questions she blinked a bit taken aback. "Well I..." She began uncertainly. "I guess most people would call me an angel. My people would call themselves Sylphs. There's more but not many. And... I left." She shrugged without thinking and winced at the movement of her wing.

"And who are you? What gives you the ability to call down lightning?" She asked curiously.