@Lord Santa@BytheSpleen@taistelusopuli

Illumina froze as the beast leapt at her. Roll out of the way? Stab it? Come on brain work damn you!. Rolling out of the way seemed the best option, and really only viable option, before she lost her head in more ways than one. She didn't even notice Steven jumping in to attack the beast or Lyra firing her weird death beam again, without much more thought she rolled sideways out of the way, netting a large gash on her head and face. She didn't have time to check to see if it caught her eye, she was curently to busy on the ground clutching her bleeding wound and cursing in pain.

@Lord Santa@BytheSpleen@Shikaru

The starving mountain cougar had no chance of surviving. It's paw reached Illumina's face tearing four deep cuts. Each surely leaving a permanent souvenir from the trip. The moment that happened and Illumina rolled, Steven's halberd hit the beast at the root of it's neck. The blade sank deep into the body of the cougar. At the same time when the lethal iron met the beast, Lyra's death beam hit it's side. The ink colored, snake-like projectile penetrated it's fur to devour all life that was left in it.

The lifeless, almost decapitated carcass hit the ground with the force of the halberd and Steven's blade sank few inches deeper. Blood streamed freely from the gaping cut that separated the body from the head. The cougar's fur began to take ash shaded color from the death beam.

Silence fell on the scene. Säätur found his way to a sitting position and turned to see the others. He froze on the spot.

---

@Baklava

"Was he alright?" The old man seemed to relax slightly but the gloomy concern remained on his face. "That boy was not home when the family woke up. They were afraid that he had been taken like his older brother."

The last sentence seemed like it escaped from the old man. He realized what he had just said and looked around confused and embarrassed. "I ... I shouldn't have said that. It is not my place it say more." The old man's voice slightly faded to a apologetic whisper as he turned his eyes towards the direction where Abel had pointed.

"Say, you had others with you?" The man kept his eyes fastened at the Rocky Gate in the distance for a moment more before turning his eyes back to Abel. "where are they now? You came here alone." The gloomy concern had not left his voice.

Immediately, Lyra ran towards Illumina before applying pressure on her wound. Forget Saaturn; her accomplice to-be was already hurt!

"Take Saaturn back to town, and get an apothecary or doctor!" she barked as she quickly unbuttoned her shirt before pressing the cloth on Illumina's wounds.

"If I didn't miss that time...it's all my fault! Dammit!" muttered Lyra under her breath as tried to lift the human's onto her lap, to avoid blood from spilling out. Truth be told, the idiot Saaturn was at fault, but then again, who was the woman that didn't drag his arse back to the town?

Who was the one who even entertained the idea of fighting a cougar without the proper attire and retraining?

It was the same thing all over again. More friends to be lost, more mistakes made.

At the very least, though, she had a corpse to work with.

As Steven's halberd swung downwards, he saw the cougar launch its attack. Steven put in some extra strength into his swing trying to make it go down faster, but he could see that it wouldn't work. 4 cuts on Illumina's face. As the cougar's claws drew blood, its neck blossomed red as Steven bore down on it. Lyra's death beam entered its side and Steven's anger-fueled strike drove through the beast's neck, slamming its corpse into the ground. Blood sprayed from the open wound, coating his halberd in blood.

Steven wanted to curse more than anything, but his mind and upbringing prevented it. He panted there, halberd still in the corpse, feeling like he could've done more.

"Illumina-" Steven said, looking up to where she lay.

But as he looked up, he saw that Lyra was already attending to her. As Lyra barked orders at him, Steven forced himself to calm down.

He sighed, releasing the tension he'd accrued killing the lion.
No sense to beat myself up for it. What's done is done.

"It isn't your fault. It's fine. She's not dead." Steven said, taking his bloody halberd out of the lion's corpse. "I'll go as fast as I can, but I doubt Satuur will like it."

Steven walked quickly over to his discarded pack behind Satuur and rifled through it, looking for something specific.

"But we have no choice, so here." Steven said, tossing the mystery item to Lyra. "You'll make better use of this than I ever could."

It was a roll of bandages, given to him by one of his siblings. He was never very good at first aid, unfortunately, but he'd taken them because he thought they would come in useful. He still hoped they would.

"Keep her alive as long as it takes." Steven said, dropping his halberd by his pack. "I'll be leaving my stuff so I can go as fast as possible."

Walking over to where a traumatised Satuur sat frozen, Steven gently put a hand on his shoulder and talked to him softly.

"Satuur, I know this must be shocking for you, but I'm going to need to take you back to the village." He said to the shocked boy. "Do your best to hold on, because I won't be stopping before I get there."

Before the boy could protest, Steven picked him up by the shirt and put him up on his back.

"There could be more of those lions, but that lion looked pretty desperate, so it might be isolated." Steven told Lyra. "There probably aren't anymore, but be careful anyway."

Steven's expression was neutral but determined. The events that just transpired could be thought about later. What he had to do came first.

"I'll be back soon." Steven said.

Without waiting for anymore words, Steven bent forward and took off, sprinting towards the village. It was within shouting distance so he was sure he could make it. He had to. He'd already failed once, and he wasn't looking to fail again.

"Taken"? Abel wondered why the old man spoke so cryptically, but that was at least one mystery solved. Any mother would be depressed if her son went missing, wouldn't she? Nonetheless, the dumb kid shouldn't be running off without telling anyone-- no wonder she was worried sick. He wanted to poke a little further to find out more about the supposed kidnapper, but it was clear the old man wouldn't let any other details slip. If he cared enough by the time he reached the village, he'd have to remember to ask the mother herself-- assuming he can even find her.

"The rest of my party decided to take a break and help the boy search," Abel said, sounding a bit gloomy himself.

I elected to escort one of my comrades back to town because he was so damn anxious to get there, but then he decided he wanted to stay and left me. Of course, Abel wouldn't dare say this to the old man. It would only confuse him.

"I elected to scout ahead and make sure our rooms were prepared for the night," Abel shrugged, "We've been on the road for quite a few days and a hot meal sounds like heaven right about now. I'm certain my party will make sure the boy comes to no harm. If I see her, I'll let his mother know he's safe." He smiled reassuringly.

@BytheSpleen

Illumina wasn't sure how bad she had gotten cut, but it was most certainly worse than she had originally thought. Simply clutching the wound wasn't helping in the least, blood was all over her hands and she wasn't sure how deep the cuts ran. What she did know was apparently that thing was dead and Lyra had ran over to help her by applying pressure to the cut areas with something that felt like cloth. Honestly, she wasn't sure what it was nor did she care. She was, however, grateful that her companions seemed to care enough about her to help her. And further grateful she didn't land on her sword when she rolled out of the way, that would have been much worse. "Let me guess, half my face is missing or something, right?" She asked, moreso as a joke than anything. "Damned kid..if I had've just went on about my business this wouldn't have happened. Though, you probably would be dead now so that's a good thing at-least." She added. Her entire face hurt and her vision was blurred, she just hoped nothing beyond a few scars was permanent.

@BytheSpleen@Shikaru

Steven had ran to the village with Säätur. The blood continued streaming from where the cougar's head used to be. More and more of the ground turned to red. The sun kept shining and heating the bare rocks around Lyra and badly wounded Illumina.

From the shadow of one of the bigger boulders behind the two, emerged two dark shadow-like creatures, not bigger than a human head. They were small and round, without eyes or mouth and their arms and legs where more like tentacles.

Carefully, silent as a shadow would, they went to the carcass. One walked to the leg and the other to the head. The one that went to the head, grabbed it from the upper jaw and tore it completely apart from the rest of the body with disgusting sound of flesh and bone ripping apart. Then without a word the two shadows began dragging their pieces of the cougar towards the forest that was far towards South surrounding the waterfall where the river began.

---

@Lord Santa

The first time Säätur reacted to the situation with something else than being paralyzed of the shock was when Steven already ran a good deal from the blood, death and decapitated carcasses. He began twisting and struggling to get off the back and grip of this big scary stranger. Regardless of what he did with his meager strength, it didn't seem to help so he started yelling "Let me go!! I don't want to!! Noooo!!!" and pounding Stevens armored torso where ever he could reach.

It seemed that he had already forgotten of the violence. The only thing that mattered now was getting off the back of this stranger who was not letting him find the flower he was looking for. Once the river began to come closer to the road they were on and the fields began to surround the two, Säätur realized that he had failed. He stopped pouting and fell forwards leaning to Stevens sun heated armor.

---

@Baklava

"If it is the inn you are looking for, you will find it further down the road." The man waved slightly along the road. "Just go across the bridge and into the town. There is a few houses and an alley that takes a sharp turn left. You will come to the town square. Inn is the first house on your right in the corner of the square. Two floors with big windows in the first, can't miss it."

After he was done explaining the old man turned his eyes from the village to Abel. "I hope what you say is true." He took the bridle again to continue his way. "The night after the brother disappeared we heard witch drums from the forest and saw smoke." With a snap from the bridle the old horse began slowly pulling the wagon.

The man didn't make it far before he stopped again. In the distance he saw a knight of sorts running down the road towards them. "That one of your friends, lad?"

@Shikaru

Lyra gently patted Illumina's cheek as she leaned her torso over the human, so as to shield her face from the blinding sun.

"You'll still be a very dashing lady. There are songs of strong shieldmaidens, no?

I mean, you don't seem like one, but...

I don't really need to tell you, but as a reminder, perhaps...if you have friends clad in armor, use them. It's a man's job to take the blows, isn't it? Your companions are here for you; I'm here for you, okay? If I fail, I should be the one suffering for my inability, no?

But...thank you for helping, though. You could've been a fine guard or something other...

So if I may ask, what led you to coming here?"

Just then, a couple of tiny creatures, black and writhing, rushed their way to the corpse, and tore off the jaw and the leg of the cougar. Silently, Lyra kept her eyes on the little monsters, curious as to what the two had in mind.

What sort of creature of such size do with the jaw and the leg (perhaps a foot, considering how small the creatures were) of a cougar? Spears and other implements were out of the question; the size of the teeth and claws were already quite large in proportion to the creatures' size.

So much for working with an entire corpse.

So as to avoid the same incident happening again, Lyra closed her eyes and loosened her body, slumping just a tad bit as though she were dead. She was, though, focusing more on re-activating some smaller bits of magical residue within her; she was going to try to re-animate the corpse for protection.

Somewhere in the middle of Steven's journey, it'd occurred to him that taking Illumina to the village first may have been a better course of action. Though when he'd happened on that thought, he was already too far away to go back. He was quite certain that Saatur had also made some complaints on his back. He wasn't sure why, but Steven noticed that the boy wanted to go back, and he made it very clear.

Not that it mattered much.

Steven was simply focused on running forward. He just needed to get to town, hand over Satuur, ask for a doctor and then go back for Illumina. That was the plan, at least.

He ran without talking, saving his energy to continue running. He ran at an even pace, to preserve his stamina. Fast, but even. It was a few miles to the town itself so he'd need any stamina he could save. He was planning on making 3 trips, after all, and that'd make quite the long haul.

Satuur finally became quiet which would help him somewhat. He kept up his pace, not slowing down or speeding up. It was beginning to wear on him, but he had to keep going. Time was of the essence, after all. Soon enough, he saw the village ahead of him. He found the entrance easily enough and kept running towards it. He could figures by the front of the town, one familiar and one a stranger.

A local? Steven thought. Good.

Steven's pace finally began slowing as he approached the two figures. He finally stopped and paused to catch his breath, hands falling onto his knees. He slid Satuur off his back carefully and placed him onto his feet before attempting to speak to the local.

"Lion attack." Steven said breathlessly. "One injured. Call a doctor."

Abel was quite ready to bid the old man goodbye and continue on into town, armed with the knowledge of where the Inn was located and puzzled by the talk of drums and smoke, when the old man's head turned towards the road behind him.

"That one of your friends, lad?"

Abel turned to look with a small spark of hope that it might be one of the women folk of his party-- perhaps feeling bad that poor old Abel was left to trek to town alone. But, of course it was Steven, jogging towards them with none but Saatur bouncing rather uncomfortably on his back. Quickly, Abel noticed Steven's halberd was missing. He rose a curious eyebrow, wondering if something serious had happened.

"Lion attack. One injured. Call a doctor."

His expression quickly went from one of irritated curiosity to one more serious; a lion attack? His eyes fell on Saatur. Clearly the boy was okay, if not a bit shaken. He furrowed his brow with frustration, "How serious? Who got hurt?" Abel clenched his fists. He was not one for violence, but hearing this news set his mind aflame with rage. This was all Steven's fault. If he had not been so anxious to leave the boy alone with his useless flower hunting and head into town, Abel would have been there. He could have easily summoned Tiburtius to drive off the beast and nobody would have been hurt at all.

"Bloody idiot," through grit teeth he turned to the old man without waiting for Steven to answer, "Where's the doctor?"

@BytheSpleen

Illumina wasn't really sure what to make of what Lyra was telling her. She'd never had many friends, and most definetely never had someone that'd be there to look out for her like she and Steven had. Hell, if it was the group she normally hung around with she'd be cat food right about now and not just slowly bleeding out. But still, it honestly made her think a bit about the concept of stealing from these people. Ultimately she mentally shook her head, she couldn't get too attached to these people after all. She was used to developing false friendships to steal from them in the end, but those false friendships never exactly cared for her like Lyra seemed to be doing.

She found it odd how she could so easily trust someone she had just recently met. Rather than responding to everything else, she stayed silent for a while before finally deciding she may as well be honest with her. " Well, honestly? I originally decided to tag along to rob you all blind. But now..here I am risked my life for you all. I guess that went out of the window altogether. I have to say..it feels..odd to have people that actually care if I die or not." She told her, sighing.

@Shikaru

"Well, honestly? I originally decided to tag along to rob you all blind. But now..here I am risked my life for you all. I guess that went out of the window altogether. I have to say..it feels..odd to have people that actually care if I die or not."

"...excuse me?" was all Lyra said as she tilted her head, as though she didn't hear the question. Before Illumina could say anything more, Lyra resumed stroking the other woman's hair as she maintained pressure on Illumina's wounds.

"I've half the mind to be angry right now, but...you do have reasons to do this, don't you?" she finally admitted with a sort of weary smile, no doubt the product of some internal conflict. With one hand, she took off her one earring, really a beautifully carved piece of stone of some sort, and slipped it inside Illumina's pocket. Failing that...well, there were other secure places where a woman wouldn't lose her belongings.

"This old bauble brings up too many bad memories for me, but...for you, maybe it'll also be the first gift you'll have from someone actually caring," she continued as she gently swept any hair away from Illumina's forehead, before kissing it. "Keep safe next time, please?"

@BytheSpleen@Shikaru

The two shadowy creatures left a bloody trail behind them as they wobbled onward across the fields of grass. The green turned to crimson that slowly turned darker and darker as the blood of the cougar dried in the sun. It was a long way for the two of that size.

Transparent, ink-like and thin tentacles of smoke surrounded the carcass of the dead cougar briefly before they dug hungry into the limbs and extensions of the beast. After they disappeared, without a sound, without a breath, the body of the cougar tried getting up on it's legs. Without it's other rear leg it fell accompanied by a disgusting sound of flesh. Slowly it got up again but it remained sitting. It was a gruesome sight. It's jawless head was hanging from the left shoulder. All that still kept it in place was the meat that had not been cut by Steven's halberd.

---

@Lord Santa@Baklava

Clearly disappointed, exhausted and given up, Säätur just remained sitting on the ground at Steven's feet. He didn't say a word and kept his eyes at his feet.

"Lion..? There ain't no lions here boy. But there is a pack of mountain cougars near the Rocky Gate." The old man looked at Steven with his searching old eys. "They never come down from the mountains..." With that he became pondersome and silent again. "It must've been a hungry stray then," he mumbled under his breath.

Abel's demand for doctor's location took him back to the urgency of the moment. "Doctor? Remember where I told the Inn was? Just go diagonally across the square to the opposite corner. It is the brown two floor house with a red circle on the door, on the long side of the square." The old man made a throwing gesture with his hand to emphasize the "on the other side" part.

The old man jumped off the wagon with a cup of water and went to Steven and Säätur. He gave the cup to Steven. Then looking at Abel he said "if you hurry, you can borrow my horse. It will be faster than running. The doctor is not as strong and fast as your friend here."

Steven sighed with some relief, glad that he'd made the journey intact enough. He stood up straight and took the cup the old man had offered.

"You know," Stevn said before draining the contents of the cup. "A horse sounds like a good idea."

Steven was glad for the cool liquid, making a vague noise of appreciation as he handed the cup back. Setting his back straight, he walked to where the horse he'd been offered stood, examining the creature. It was sturdy and seemed well-looked after. Chestnut in color, its eyes looked Steven up and down quizzically. It was still attached to the wagon, standing in place loyally.

Steven unhitched the horse from the wagon carefully, hoping that the creature would take kindly enough to him to allow riding. The horse pawed the ground a little but was mostly settled in his presence. Gripping the reins, Steven climbed up to sit on the horse. It buckled a little under his weight but didn't try to run or buck him off.

"Your horse is very well trained." Steven noted to the old man.

He shifted his position slightly before turning to address the man.

"So, where's the square again?" He asked.

"Doctor? Remember where I told the Inn was?" Abel nodded at the old man's directions.

Then looking at Abel the old man said "If you hurry, you can borrow my horse. It will be faster than running. The doctor is not as strong and fast as your friend here."

Abel withheld the urge to scoff. Strong and fast maybe, but not very smart, he inwardly muttered to himself as he shot a glance at Steven before turning to start unhitching the cart. But then--

"You know... a horse sounds like a good idea."

Before Abel even got a chance to lay his hands on the ropes, Steven had miraculously overcome being out of breath within the few seconds they'd been conversing, forwent finishing his cup of water, and began unhitching the horse. Slightly frustrated, Abel shrugged it off. That's nice of him, I guess, he grudgingly thought as he stepped to one side of the horse. Again, before he was able to mount the beast, Steven's foot came careening towards his head as he quickly mounted it from the other side. The bottom of Steven's boot managed to graze Abel's nose as he tried to get out of the way, leaving a scuff of mud and lingering soreness.

"Your horse is very well trained," Steven said to the old man-- completely ignoring Abel as if to rub it in that, in spite of the fact that the old man had very clearly been speaking to Abel, he had insisted on going into town on the horse in his own Steven-y way. What a belligerent asshole! Abel had been wrong about accusing Steven of being stupid! He was indeed actually just a glory-hogging ass! He got Abel to leave so he could play hero with the girls! He'd probably seen the lion before hand and that's why he was trying to annoy Abel to the point of leaving! And now this!

I hate you. So. Much. Abel mentally seethed, rubbing his nose. Even so, if someone really was injured, it would do no good to make them suffer because of Steven's insolence.

"Further down the road," Abel answered before the old man curtly, "Across the bridge, into the town. Take a sharp left after a few houses and an alley. Town square will be right there." Boy, Steven sure loved making people repeat things they'd already said for no reason. Almost as much as he enjoyed repeating himself, he reckoned. Or maybe he just liked the sound of his own voice.

"You should really take Säätur here into town with you, by the way. His mother is worried sick about him," he gestured to Säätur, who was looking quite forlorn from his seat on the ground. Abel gave the kid a sympathetic look. Yeah, I'd feel that way too if I was forced to go anywhere with this idiot, he inwardly sighed. But it couldn't be helped. The boy needed to be taken home right away. Witnessing someone being mauled by a lion was no doubt a sore sight for a child to see. He needed to be with his mother.

@BytheSpleen

Illumina had expected that reaction, and summarily expected her to stop caring for her and possibly leave her to die as well. And honestly after receiving that news she wouldn't of blamed her in the slightest, although she'd of preferred her not to..that was aside the point. She further didn't expect her to be understanding of her, and sadly truth be told she really didn't beyond increasing her wealth. She couldn't let her know that though, especially after she gave her something and was so understanding. She equally hated lying to her, but she felt that'd be the best thing to do in this particular situation. She was also heavily confused as to how someone could be so kind after someone admitted that the sole reason they tagged along with them was to steal their valuables and disappear forever.

Though, she guessed that was impossible now, she wouldn't feel right stealing from someone that she'd actually developed feelings for, actual feelings. "Yeah. I will..Thanks for not freaking out." She replied, smiling faintly. "I..half expected you to leave me here and walk away after what I told you. But I'm glad you didn't." She added, sighing.

"Hm. That's true." Steven said.

Steven carefully dismounted the horse before walking to where a slightly shell-shocked Satuur sat. He picked him up as gently as he could and gingerly placed him onto the horse. If it had to be done, then he'd have to do it, so he'd have to do it quickly. However, considering the rough experiences the boy had just gone through, Steven could probably do with being gentler this time.

"I'll do it, but I'll have to do it fast." Steven said out loud. "Do you know where his house is?"

Abel watched silently as Steven dismounted, picked up Saatur without so much as a word to the boy, and remounted. Abel would have gladly offered to help give the kid a boost onto the horse, if he needed it. That would have been much faster, but Steven hadn't given him the chance. Wasn't the kid old enough to mount the horse on his own anyway? Oh well... As it were, he was content to sit back and let Steven keep doing whatever he wanted. Abel was done trying to understand the kids logic-- or lack thereof.

"No clue," Abel answered flatly, "Just ask the kid. I'm sure he knows where he lives. Just get going already."

@Shikaru

As Illumina spoke, Lyra snapped her head to the shadows sliding across the road, causing the mutilated corpse of the cougar to writhe and stand back up painlessly.

"We've only just started this adventure, love. I wouldn't dream of letting our companionship drop off so quickly..."

She blinked for a moment, and then attempted to assert control of the corpse. She wasn't too sure if she had successfully resurrected the beast herself, or whether or not it was the work some other being, but at the very least, having control of a large creature as such would behoove the two women until help arrived. In doing so, though, she let one of her hands drop to Illumina's collar of her shirt and squeezed tightly. She seemed to press much harder now, more out of an attempt to maintain focus than to make her patient have any discomfort.