Unwanted Assistance. [open nd, nm]

[Yvhv]

"y-y-yes...They have...more than once...more than 50 times really....because of my race, i healed too quickly....so...they did it to me, sliced me open...and put something..some..vile artifact insie of me...that prevented me from healing....then, they did it to me....until i was near death,....they starved me..beat me...burned me..tortured me...raped me.....posioned me....rthey did so much to me...i cant remember most of it...then they healed me, and did it again and again and again..until i was broken in every way. and then, they removed the artifact...and raped me again...i healed, and became pregnant...and then...they aobrted the baby by waiting till i was 5 months along, then they held me down, cut open my belly...and killed the belly. i slowly healed...but they did so much damage to me while i was healing....my insides finally broke. all because, i would not bend to their wills and become a killer. this went on for an entire 4 years....the baby...the baby was 3 years ago..thats when i went along with them...and became an assassin...."

While the story was being told, she had been crying. her body was shaking with pain and sorrow.

"though i walk freely...i'm a slave. they own me...they bought me from someone i thought cared about me at the age of 7...and they did all that to me my whole life...the four years...was because i refused to wipe out an entire village for the greater good."

When she looks up at him, all that is apparent is pure despair, heart ache, and trauma, and she looks away.

"i'm....a monster...raised by monsters..."

[Wicked Basket]

Lucian's muscles tensed, his anger now apparent.

"I use to think that no one deserved to die," he began. "I was wrong! Why would anyone do that?! Who would do such a thing as deprive a young woman of the miracle of having a child?! That's utterly despicable!"

Lucian held Sazha closer to himself protectively.

"I won't let them hurt you again. I'll kill them. I'll kill them all!"

[Yvhv]

A smile, although a sad one, crossed her face. "There are too many lucian...thee are thousands of them.....it would take years...plus...i...wouldnt..."  She was struggling with her words, trying to find the right ones. Her mind and heart were in contest, and she did not know which one was the correct one to speak from.

"i-i-i" She was faltering. She really did not know what to say. Finally, her heart won out.

"I wouldn't want anything to happen to you...i.....have become ....well acquainted, and...some what...attached to you." Those words, were hard for her to say. to someone else, it would sound like she was being hurtful,and curt. but, to her, these words really meant "i care deeply for you"

"If you want to really protect me....then we have to kill my targets...and my handler....but not in that order."

[Wicked Basket]

"You've become...attached to me," Lucian asked.

No one had ever said that to him before, and he wasn't entirely sure what that meant. Did it mean friendship? Was it more than that? She then told him how he could protect her.

"If that is what must be done, then I will."

[Yvhv]

"attachment is something im not supposed to have to another person. Because it is close to affectionate. and that is a sign of weakness, according to the guild. so, im attached to you. which means im not far from affections for you."

at his claim, she sighed, and rested her head on his chest.

"then that means, you get to kill the man who did all those things to me..."

[Wicked Basket]

Lucian thought about what she had said. Not far from affections. So, she was attached to him, but it wasn't entirely affection yet? He was confused. Emotions had always confused him. She then said that he would get to kill the man that had done all of those horrible things to her, but he had a better idea.

"I'm not going to kill him," Lucian said menacingly. "I'm going to rip off his arms and put out his eyes so that he spend the rest of his days pathetic and helpless, the two very things that he despises the most."

[Yvhv]

Sazha chuckles weakly. "A fittingpunishment....but, you woul have to kill him..otherwise, his pact partner would just heal him...and make him stronger...."

she weakly convulses in his arms. "aghh!!" she coughs a few times, nad coughs up a small amount of blood. "looks like i may have overdone it with that spell...the rebound is finally hitting me full force...." She coughs a few more times and more blood comes up.

"that's the dangers of a non demon using demonic magic. there are always rebounds. I this particular case...my rebound, is internal bleeding. to what extent i dont know...but not enough to be fatal.."

[Wicked Basket]

"Then I will kill him slowly," Lucian replied. "But at the moment our concern is getting you some medical attention, but I know not where to find some."

[Yvhv]

"Mother nature provides the best help....find some place safe to put me. Then go find blood thorn, a red leaved plant, that has needles on the stem that look like serrated hooks...and then find 3 sprigs of mint and 4 weasel's paw mushrooms. the mushrooms look like my paws in weasel form, with purple dots. we need the whole mushroom. but only get the really big ones. The small ones are poisonous. Then we will need fresh water, and some of the needles or leaves from the trees, depending on the type of forest we are in..."

[Wicked Basket]

Lucian nodded and went off of the trail to look for somewhere safe to put Sazha. He gingerly laid her down against a tree.

"I'll be back as quick as I can." 

Lucian then went off into the woods to find everything Sazha had told him to look for.

[Yvhv]

As Sazha laid there, resting, she reached out with her mind to keep track of lucian. she contacted his mind faintly, and quietly watched him.

Something else was watching him too. large, hulking, but moving silently and with great stealth.

"lucian! something is following you. 3 meters away...staying in the tree line."

she mentally alarmed him.

[Wicked Basket]

Lucian spun around immediately, not taking the time to wonder how Sazha had been able to talk to him when she wasn't there. He pulled out his axe and pointed it toward the tree line.

"Show yourself!"

[Yvhv]

The creature stepped from the tree line. It was a pit daemon. This hulking engine of destruction and chaos, was in reckoning of power, an equal to the most mighty of dragons.

"Hello....little Dh'ivraki. [Means demon] "

[Wicked Basket]

Lucian had no idea what the demon had called him, and he didn't care. He needed to get those things that Sazha needed.

"Who are you," Lucian asked in a commanding voice. "What do you want?"

[Yvhv]

"Only to talk....my little demon warrior." The creature said. it was unknown if male or female. the thing appeared genderless, taller even than lucian, and built muscular enough to toss a mammoth like a ragdoll. its skin was pale, with a hint of red, and had large wings that rested furled on the daemon's back. Large claws adorned their hands and feet. horns sprouted from their head and twisted forward like a ram's.  their eyes seemed to burn with a black fire bwhind them, and their voice sounded as if it both male and female mixed together.

"You look frantic. what are you searching for so heedlessly?"

Sazha comments into his mind "dont answer them. Run as fast as you can away from them....and come back to me."

[Wicked Basket]

"I don't have the mint yet," Lucian replied with his mind, unsure if she would even hear.

This was the second time that Lucian had been called a demon. Is that truly what he was? He would have no hope of defeating the more powerful demon before him, and Sazha wanted him to return to her. How could he return without the mint though? She was depending on him, and he couldn't let her down. Lucian turned and made a mad dash into the woods. He would find that mint first. Then, he would go back.

[Yvhv]

As Lucian ran, sazha tried to spread her mental contact to him, but in her weakened state, she was unable to do so. Determined to not let him die, she struggled to stand, and took hold of a branch, and  began to limp through the woods, searching for him with her mind. As she concentrated on Lucian, she did not notice the daemon sneak up on her.

"Sazha Glimmer Fang. Roschel said you were out here, on the trail of Red Claw. Did he get the better of you...or did that little demon i saw a few minutes ago get the better of you?"

Sazha gasped in suprised. "Azhidak?! Why are you here!?"

"Because Roschel was worried.....that he would have to waste his time cleaning up your corpse. But alas, you are alive.....though i cannot say well."

"You spoke of a demon. Which way did he run?"

"North. and at quite the pace too, and he was looking for something. But why does it matter to you? what business is the demon to you, Sazha? Are you going to kill him? bind him to you?"

"No...he's....my tracker through this forest. My guide and escort. we were attacked bya  force of hobgoblins and ogres.....and we were retreating. i told him to leave me behind and that i would cover our escape. Hence my injuries. "

"Ah, i see. How valiant. im surprised he trusts you.....Does he know about your past?"

"No. and he doesnt need to know. "

"I see.....Well, Have fun. This is boring me..."

and with that, the daemon departs, in a flash of fire. KNowing better than to believe a single word the daemon had said, aside from the cleaning up of her corpse, Sazha went in the opposite direction of the daemon, and soon picked up on Lucian's trail. She followed it until she was but a few yards from him.

"Thank the gods....he is alive..." she whispered to herself. She was about to go through the bushes to him, when a fiery whip collided with her back, and she screamed in agony.

"agh!"

then, a tall, muscular man, Built as stout as a tree, and as strong as an ox, stared down at her. "Hello, Sazha."

Another lash from the whip made her cry out. He smiles evilly, and whips her again.

"I said Hello!!"

"h-helllo..." she groans.

he whips her again.

"Is that how you answer your superior? "

"Hello....Magister....Roschel..."

[Wicked Basket]

After running for awhile Lucaian noticed that he was not being pursued. Now he could focus on getting that peppermint. What was it though? Sazha had given him clues to find everything else, but not the peppermint. Distracted by his wondering, he tripped over a root and landed with his face next to a plant with a peculiar odor. Then it hit him.

One day, Lucian had come across a woman that had smelled exactly like this plant. After inquiring as to why she smelled that way, the woman had told him that it was peppermint. This tiny plant was peppermint!

Lucian grabbeb the small plant and headed back to find Sazha. On the way back, he heard a voice. He snuck up to the source of the voice and saw a large man with a flaming whip, and Sazha. Lucian erupted from the brush and bodily slammed into the man with all his weight. He then placed himself between the stranger and Sazha and drew his axe.

"Leave or die," Lucian threatened.

[Yvhv]

Roschel grunted as he was thrown to the ground, and then smiled as lucian stood between him and sazha. "A hero for an evil monster. How amusing, and yet irritating. That oversized kitchen knife will nit help you here, biy."

He stands and cracks his neck and the same whip of flames appear in his hand, only this tim it is flanged

"Ready to be punished you whelp?"

[Wicked Basket]

"You're the evil monster," Lucian replied angrily.

Lucian charged the stranger with his axe and started swinging. Sazha was not a monster. This world may be strange to him, but he knew enough to know what qualified as a monster. A monster would not have protected him. A monster would not have whatever those feelings were for him. Sazha was no monster. This guy with his flaming whip, on the other hand, was a monster, and he would pay for harming Sazha.