This way. That way. To the left. To the right.

Hakuren was running, in circles and at a rather high speed, around the scene of mossy, slippery, and very potentially unstable rocks. She had no idea why he was doing that, while being slightly amazed by the fact that he was able to do that. She knew also that it was making her quite disoriented, with Luke trying to continue holding her while spinning along all the while.

The turn of events came rather quickly. The other members of their group of humans arrived at the caves as well, the cloaked people demanded the list, and - Leila wouldn’t have said “the next thing she knew”, for she was fully aware of the chain of events - The not-so-much-of-a-negotiation, Harper being hit, the lunge and the sound of two individuals splashing into the glowing lake; the calls for actions to be taken, the division of unspoken plans of offense and defense, complete or incomplete, comprehended as different future courses of actions by different parties...all of that, piled and mashed together with some cries and grunts and the sound of swinging weapons, became the mess that was currently undergoing in front of her eyes, perceived through that ever annoying curtain of messy hair dangling in between. There was also Haku, who flashed in and out of her range of sight as he continue his little, apparently calculated dance around the pair of captive and captor. 

And then she felt the shove - the hooded figure behind her had, perhaps to get rid of the distraction that was the effort to maintain a captive, or for that he had otherwise decided that she was no longer needed, let go of the cuffed girl, and - intentionally or not - sent her staggering towards the incoming attacker.

With nothing to aid her with her balance or to divert the direction of her motion, and, in footwear and clothing that was absolutely not fit for maneuvering across uneven terrain, there was not much Leila - as she struggled to maintain balance - could do, besides from only realizing that her wobbly footsteps were on a course that led to an unavoidable collision.

Flop.

Translation to and from a non-inertial frame of reference was always an annoying thing to have to do.

With her hands still held together behind her, Leila let out a series of huffs and grunts as she rolled downwards on the slightly sloped surface of rocks. She stopped, some five or six revolutions later on the damp ground aside a puddle of water.

[b]”...uuuuugh.”[/b]

every part of her body protesting in disapproval - bruises, joints that feel like they aren’t fit together properly anymore (the old injuries from the Star Fisher was still there...), and certain pieces of skin that throbbed in a light, stinging pain that, together with nearly unnoticeable smears of red on the terrain around her, indicated that even the not-overly-severe rigours of her roll down the slope was too much to bear for the protection provided only by her clothing and her skin. Gravity, pointing roughly downwards sloppily, provided a guideline as to the directions of up and down, yet the other directions were almost impossible to tell apart. Angry cries (the voice was...Jasper?) and the sound of collisions in the distance implied an ongoing fight. The lack of a mystic, vaguely philosophical rant implied that Haku was nowhere near her - where was he? That probably wasn’t the most important thing now, he’s probably fine - past observations of him being fine suggest that he was likely still fine.

The first two attempts of Leila trying to get back up ended in failure, with her just flopping over onto the ground into another direction, her not yet adjusting properly to the lack of freedom to use her arms. She then spent about half a second pondering the viability of the decision that she just stay there on the ground - it seemed rather tempting to her as she was already rather tired from the initial hike to the caves. Then she decided against that and gave it a third try - directing her legs downhill first, she managed to push herself upright, ignoring the discomfort from the friction of the rocks that supported her back, and stayed standing after a couple of staggery steps. To her amazement, her hands were free when she instinctively shoved them out to correct a balancing act. A ring of cracked solid substance coated in red and white stripes still wrapped itself around her left hand, with its mirrored counterpart - half of it missing, shattered somewhere on the ground, dangled from a chain that connected the two segments.

[b]”Rock candy.”[/b] She mumbled as she looked at the cracked pair of handcuffs. She tried to pull the other half off as well, yet it seemed that it wasn’t damaged enough to break. Soon she gave up and decided she might as well have it hang there for another while - who knew when they’d suddenly need food. She also remembered to brush the strands of her hair back into a relatively orderly state - in fact, she did that in a fashion that made it look like she had been waiting for a million years to pull the fuzzy dark lines out of her range of sight.

Returning her attention to the fight nearby, which seemed to have come to a brief halt, Leila looked around the scene as she found a place to stand beside the humans (facing the right direction!).

[b]"Today we charge into battle! No-one leaves, not until we have the list."[/b]

The cloaked attackers announced. Leila stared blankly, partly in amusement and partly in confusion.

Was piggyback riding even a valid fighting style?