One-on-One: Hunter Phoenix and Sophidian

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén nodded and walked with Shie to the end of the mountain and then they turned east towards the curling smoke, he saw the town easily enough, it looked more like a village from there but he knew that that was just because of the distance.

"It looks like it is a busy little place, is there normally smoke rising from it like that?"

He was a little concerned about the smoke, it didn't look like normal smoke that came from towns, it was darker and thicker. Almost like something was burning.

[Sophidian]

Catching the scent on the breeze, she shook her head. "No. That doesn't seem like the normal smoke. Maybe... Maybe something caught on fire." She sped up her steps, hopping down the last few rocks.

Once hitting the grassy plain, she began to run, the weight of her equipment slowing her down. The road, covered with holes from pawing horses and puddles from the rain, was an obstacle course that she tried to navigate well despite her speed.

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén ran with Shie, keeping pace with her, navigating around the pot holes, he wasn't having the same trouble as Shie because he didn't have as much to carry.

"I sure hope it is just an accident like you said, want me to run ahead and check while you stay back and keep safe?"

[Sophidian]

"I can take care of myself!" She paused a few feet outside of the town's boundaries, seeing that their guards were gone. "This isn't a good sign. Run ahead. I'll catch up!"

She dropped her bag by the guard post, untying the overclothes she wore for traveling.

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén took his pack off and dropped it onto the ground without stopping, he picked up speed and drew his sword, heading into the town, there were no guards and it was deathly quiet, he ran further into the town, to the town centre and in the middle, there was a huge fire burning, he stopped running, he was breathing heavily.

Walking up to the fire he stopped a short way and cursed, then he ran back to Shie.

"We have to get out of here right now, the fire, someone or something has killed all of the people here and piled them up and set them on fire, we have to get back to the village right now"

He picked up his pack and hers and put them on his shoulders, then he waited for her to put her overclothes back on.

"Please Shie, we need to go before we join that pile, there is evil here, I can feel it in the air"

He looked around for signs of demons or humans on the rampage.

Oh damn, I need to run back in for a moment, please, stay here where it is safe, I will be one minute"

He dropped the packs again and ran into the town, he soon found the building he was looking for; the blacksmiths. He ran in and grabbed the first sword he could find, one would have to be enough for now, he could make more once he got back to the village.

Wielding both of the swords, he then ran to another building and found wrappings that contained meat, meat that could be taken back to the village for the inn, it would have to do for now, he could return later for more if need be.

He was about to exit the building when his blood turned cold as he heard a low hissing noise, he dropped the wrapped meat and turned, holding both swords in one hand each. When he had turned fully, he saw the one thing he didn't want to see; a demon staring right back at him with blood red eyes and teeth as sharp as razors.

"God save me" He muttered under his breath and then prepared to defend himself.

[Sophidian]

Shie dropped the over clothes again, watching him run off. A fire? The whole village? Her blood ran cold as she thought of the meaning. The demons would have had to have gotten smarter in order to start a fire and deposit bodies in them. Any why would they want them charred? They didn't need cooked food.

Unless...

She raced forward, nearing the village that billowed black smoke into the air. Flecks of the charred remains began to rain down like ebony snow. Ignoring that fact, she ducked into a building, searching for any sign of Lièrén. Calling his name once, then twice, she broke through doors that were half off their hinges and rushed around forgotten loaves of bread and tools.

The hiss, loud over the steady crackle of the fire, brought her gaze to the butcher's. Gasping at the sight of a man in the doorway, she folded her hands over her beads. "Gods, grant me strength..."

From her clasped hands, a ray of light brighter than any flame shot out, trailing over the man's shoulder to aim for the demon.

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén was just about ready to defend himself from the demon when a light shone right over his shoulder onto the creature, it was so bright that he had to cover his eyes with an arm so that he wasn't blinded. Turning his back on the demon, he ducked out of the butchers and looked up to see Shie stood there with light pouring from her hands. He then saw something move behind her.

"Shie, duck down right now, don't say or do anything else, just duck right now"

As she ducked, he threw one of the swords like a spear and pierced another demon that had been sneaking up on her. He ran over and decapitated the demon with the sword in his hand and then he removed the second one from the demons body.

"That was a close one, we really need to get out of here now"

[Sophidian]

Shie rose from her crouch, hands on her ears. She glanced around, seeing first Lièrén then the room. "Oh gods." She backed up, picking up one of the bags on the ground not knowing if it was his or a travelers or whoever it belonged to. Slinging it over her shoulder, she left the building and started back down the road.

The sound of quiet hissing started around them, coming from all angles behind them. "Run faster," she huffed out. "Hurry!"

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén ran after Shie as fast as he could without leaving her behind, he was holding his swords as he ran, ready to strike anything that leapt at them.

"You keep running, I'll give you some time to get out of here, don't worry, I will soon catch you up, I have a trick hidden up my sleeve"

He stopped and span around to face the group of demons that had gathered behind them, there was easily twenty of them, Lièrén swallowed heavily, feeling a little nervous, but he wielded his swords and stepped forward towards the demons and then broke into a run, running straight into them, blades twirling like devils, slashing and hacking into the demons, blood spraying in every direction.

Lièrén just hoped that Shie was still running, he knew he would be ok, but he hoped she would keep on running without him.

[Sophidian]

Shie only stopped to catch her breath after she reached the rocks of the mountain. Hands on her knees, she gazed back at Lièrén, watching the dance of his swords slice the demons apart. She fell to her knees, legs awkwardly spread behind her as her hands touched the ground. With a quiet murmured word, the earth began to rumble.

Between Lièrén and the demon, the soil began to split and large vines, coated in thorns, erupted, blocking the path back to her village.

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén had many scratches and cuts from where the demons had caught him with their teeth and claws, he was tiring and they seemed to be taking it easy, he was easily outmatched. He was close to becoming overwhelmed when all of a sudden he was thrown back and a wall of thick thorns formed between him and the demons.

He took a minute to catch his breath before he stood again, he was bleeding quite freely across his arms and chest and he was sure a couple of ribs might have been broken as well as the demons had swarmed him. He slowly left the town and made his way back to Shie who was sat with her hands on the ground.

"Thank you, you just saved my life, but I told you to keep running, I would have been right behind you"

He wasn't mad, but insanely greatful that she had not listened to him.

"Thank you Shie, I owe you my life"

[Sophidian]

"Don't," she said, shaking her head. Unable to get up, she just watched him come over, bleeding and tired. "Are you hurt? You must be. If...my bag..." She searched around for it before gasping. "I left it by the guard house. This isn't mine."

She picked up a bag, one that was made of the same leather material, and sighed. "I don't even know what this is." She flipped it open and picked through the contents. "Books. Scrolls and books."

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén shook his head

"I'll be alright, give me a second and I'll run back and get your bag for you, you stay here, keep hold of that pack, it could come in useful, those scrolls may give us some indication as to what happened here"

Lièrén stood and wobbled on his feet for a minute and then he jogged slowly back to the guard house and picked up the pack that looked more like Shie's than the one she had picked up, he checked the contents quickly to confirm it was hers and then he returned to her.

"Right, now let's get the heck out of here and back to the village, we are still at risk here"

He put the books and scrolls back into the pack and put it on his back along with his own pack and once Shie was stood and wearing her overclothes and her pack, they set back off to the village. It took them long enough but eventually they made it, collapsing into chairs once they reached the inn, Lièrén was covered in his own blood now, the bleeding hadn't stopped so he needed treating soon otherwise he would pass out from blood loss.

[Sophidian]

Shie sent for the doctor as soon as they came into the village and now sits beside Lièrén, removing his shirt. "You were walking on this? This seems like you broke your ribs!" She would hit his shoulder, and she yearned to, but she knew it would only hurt him. "You can't do things like that. You'll end up much worse off than you began."

A bucket of water, fetched by her father of all people, appeared at her side. She dipped a cloth in it and began to clean off the blood while muttering about foolish men.

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén coughed a little

"Yeah, I do stupid things like this when it's a life or death situation, still, here we are alive and well, and we have a pack full of books and scrolls which could give us some indication as to where these creatures came from"

He reached over for the pack and pulled out a scroll, opening it, he read for a while, then shook his head and put it down, sitting back and letting Shie fuss over him even though he felt fine apart from the pain in his ribs where he had broken them.

"It would seem that someone has been helping these demons all along, that scroll details a ritual to summon them in packs, it isn't pretty, I bet the rest of these books are full of information about them and other creatures"

[Sophidian]

"That isn't important, Tsai!" She slammed her hands down on the scroll before staring, realizing that it wasn't Tsai in front of her. Clearing her throat, she lifted her hands and blushed. "I'm...sorry. I guess you remind me a bit too much of an old... Friend."

The doctor came in then, pushing her aside to bind his ribs. To Shie, he gave implicit instructions to make sure the patient didn't move apart from easy labor the next few days. Giving her a thick roll of gauze, she's instructed to bind him once a day.

As he left, she frowned down at the gauze. "Well. You've certainly hurt yourself."

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén listened to the doctor and nodded, looked like he was going to be out of some work for a couple of days or however long it took for his ribs to heal.

"Don't worry Shie, you don't have to apologise to me, but now that you mention him, I would please like to take another look at that remarkable sword of his, I can show you the mark while we are here"

He waited for her to bring him the sword. He took it off her and placed it down on the table.

"You see this little symbol here down by the pommel where the blade meets the handle, I think it has some major importance right now, I will look through the books and scrolls for more information since I am forbidden to do work while I have my ribs healing, so it is the perfect chance to do some reading"

He stood up and winced a little

"I think I will retire to my room for a little while now, I am glad no harm came to you Shie"

He then picked up the pack with books and scrolls and took it up to his room where he closed the door, took out a leather bound book and began to read.

[Sophidian]

She took the sword back, fingers moving over the symbol. She'd never noticed it, nor remembered Tsai telling her about it. Placing it down, she decided that the inn should be opened for the evening. She moved to the door, flipping the sign over, and opened the partition. It wasn't long before she was able to lose herself in the loud fun of the night.

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén read all the way through till he felt like he needed to go to sleep, he had read half of the first book and had learnt nothing overly important, it was a little bit of the background about the demons, which was interesting in itself, they had existed for thousands of years, but had never been on this plane of existence before, someone had helped them break through and now they were gathering in strength.

He had also found the mysterious symbol that was engraved on Tsai's sword, it was a symbol for fire, and this sword was embued with the power to burn through demons, making it a very powerful weapon against the demons, but only certain people could wield this power, specifically, a warrior of honour and good morals, which meant that the villagers would not be able to use the swords with this symbol, so he would just have to give them standard swords to fight with.

He yawned and closed the book and was soon fast asleep, his wounds had sapped a lot of his energy with him bleeding.

[Sophidian]

The next morning, Shie cleaned the entire downstairs herself. She restocked the bar, set the yeast and rice to fermenting for the next batch of sake, and finished cooking breakfast. Carrying it in one hand, and the gauze in another, she walked up the stairs to Lièrén's room.

She stood outside, staring at the frame for a moment. How could she have mistaken him for Tsai? For the one man to capture her heart? They had similarities, but nothing in their facial structure or even outward appearance. They may both be foolish men who would risk their lives before thinking through an option, but they were different people. Vastly, she was sure, and should remain so.

Sliding open the door with her hip, she placed the food on the table and moved over to his bed. "Good morning."

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén sat up in his bed and smiled to Shie

"Good morning, you didn't have to bring me anything, I was just about to get up, but thank you all the same, it is a nice thought"

He watched place the tray down and then sit on his bed.

"How are you today?"

[Sophidian]

Shie held up the gauze as the reason she came up. "Well. I've done my chores. The meat you grabbed is ofthe most excellent quality so Father is finding ways to make new dishes. You'll be forced to taste-test many of them, I believe. I'm still not quite sure if you're fortunate or unfortunate for that."

She knelt, examining the bandages on his chest. It seemed that the bleeding had finally stopped but the thought of misaligned ribs made her stomach turn. "How were your books?"

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén smiled

"I don't mind food testing, just so long as I don't come down with food poisoning or anything, as far as I got with books, I managed to read half one just one of them, there is quite a lot of history on the demons, which leads me to suspect that humans have been helping them cross over from their own world, which means more mages are out in the world and not the good kind either"

He sat up a little straighter and winced as pain shot through his ribs.

"I'm glad I could get you some meat, it was what we set out for in the first place, my only regret is that we couldn't get more supplies"

[Sophidian]

Shie shoved him back by his shoulder, holding the plate of food in a hand. "Stay still before you're bedridden for more days. There are other towns, other places to get supplies. Father has sent out one of the farmers to the village to the west. It's a longer trip, but he has a horse."

She picked up the book beside his bed and frowned. "Why would anyone wish to call them in? Our town has nothing of worth. The person with the most money would be my father and as you see, that's still only a few gold coins above poor."

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén laid back as he was told and he gratefully took the food from Shie and took a mouthful, it was delicious.

"My thinking is that they possibly need some place to experiment with demons before they unleash them onto bigger places, so they are sending them here either by themselves or in groups to see how they fair"

Lièrén shook his head

"Anyone who works with these things is certainly asking for trouble, turns out they have a habit of turning against the people that summon them, killing them and then operating on their own, bringing more and more in from their world, so pretty soon we could be looking at a full scale demon infestation, a lot worse than we saw in the town, we need to get ready for it and fast, as much as I need too, I cannot just sit in bed and wait for this to happen, I need to get making weapons, replicating Tsai's sword if possible"

He made to get up out of bed again and soon stopped as pain shot through his chest again, causing him to cough and sit back again

"And I think I will be a heck of a lot more careful the next time I face those things as well, their heads hurt"