Crow cursed foully as he could see the demon holding Rye up by her neck as the slick red blood, was flowing freeing down her spine. He couldn’t believe it was him either, but Crow couldn’t just stand aside as Grey was ringing Rye dry. But what was he to do? Thrashing in his grasp, Rye suddenly screamed as Grey tightened his grasp around her.
His rage boiled within, anger began to turn and twist within his gut, causing him to feel the slow wind rising up from around him. His sights narrowed skillfully as he could see the slowing movement in Rye’s panic movements. The less air she got, meant the closer she was to death and this time, he doubted that she would be spared with a little bit of life.
His fist clenched closed as his own fingernails dug into his palm. The heat within the air seemed to grow as he ignore it completely. The hatred for Grey at the moment brought forth the wind to begin to turn freezing cold, as Crow could see the nips of snow and ice forming within. The longer he seen this beast prolong the suffering, Crow gnashed his teeth together. The wind picked up speed as it became thicker around him.
“That’s it! I am tired of beasts like you popping out of no where!” Crow barked. The wind screamed towards Grey as he was quick to drop Rye. Grey howled painfully as shards of ice penetrated deep into his body, sending specks of blood everywhere.
Spurts of air came from Rye as she rubbed her neck. Staring up to Grey, Rye seemed to not want to leave.
“Rye come on!” Crow called to her, she was quick to rise to her feet. Her back was bleeding still, as Grey let loose a deep low growl. Watching him, Crow froze on spot as Grey closed the gap between him. Staring up to Grey, Crow smirked awkwardly as he peered to the yellow gaze. “Hey he doesn’t have any pupils!” Rye snagged him by the collar.
“Not the time to gawk Crow!” Rye cried as Erinna somehow was waiting in front of them. Rye let go of his collar promptly, as they followed Erinna’s bloody figure. Grey was quick to follow them, as Rye and Erinna left a trail of blood behind them.
“This is not the time to leave a trail! We don’t need to find our way back!” Crow commented loudly as a hissing sound appeared before them. Erinna took off in another direction as Crow tried to stop quick as the figure of Grey appeared. “That’s not fair!” Crow fell to his knees as Rye bumped into Grey. Flailing her arms around, Rye pushed herself away from him as once again she grabbed him.
“Rouges don’t like to play fair Crow.” Rye implied. “We need a plan to turn him back to normal!”
Crow curved a cocky smile. “Why don’t you just kiss him?” Rye glared towards him as they kept there running sprints.
“Oh yes. I so wanna!” Rye dodged over a body as he followed her movement. “Cause you know I want to be killed in the process!”
“Fine, but what can we do?” Crow felt Rye grab his sleeve to yank him in another direction, as Grey appeared before them again. “It’s not as if, we can just ask him to return to himself.” Rye shoved him away from him, to send him to the other side of a spreading fire.
“I... I dunno, what we...” Rye screamed as she was knocked backwards. Slamming her bloody back into a building wall, Grey snapped him up with a smooth movement as he slammed him through another wall.
“I think I need a doctor... I am not supposed to go through walls...” Crow flopped over.
“Crow get up!” Rye yelled as he heard a sicken crack. A howl came after, as Rye finally lost her temper. Sitting up with the help of some random wooden beam, Crow seen Rye holding a thick pole as she whapped Grey with it. “Don’t just stand there; we have a couple minutes to get away!” Rye dropped the pole as she torn off down the remainder of the street. Crow, still uneasy, followed after her as he never thought she would hit Grey, especially with a massive pole.
“Mental note, do not piss off Rye,”
_________
Using the gloved backside of her hand, Rye couldn’t believe they got this far... she thought Grey would have woken up by now... but personally she wasn’t complaining. They had ran right out of Sidri and hadn’t stopped until they were sure, Grey couldn’t find them... well not as quick that is.
Curving a slow eye towards her companion, Crow was lying on his back just staring and panting up towards the gorgeous lush green trees. There was a sweet scent blowing through the cold air as the trees swayed and sang with the gentle push. It amazed her that the darkness thing hadn’t crept its way here yet. She had only seen a tip of what the darkness could do and that was bad enough. It sank into the ground to create an ominous black soil that nothing would ever grow again, the trees bled black sludge that held a rotten earthy smell to it, causing the stomach to turn and flip. Lakes and rivers were dried as the fish within were now nothing more than just skeletons.
Disposing of her thoughts, Rye wiped the cold sweat finally away with the back of her hand. The wind turned nippy with each caressing blow as she had to continuously push her bangs out of her face. “Crow,” Her throat was parched dry as it hurt to talk. “Are you in one piece still?” Rye choked.
His dark eyes circled the world above as they both enjoyed the peace, it was something that she rarely actually heard anymore. “For the most part,” for a brief glance, Crow smiled gently “But I may have lost my heart about fifty yards back.” It was her turn to smile as she was relieved to know that Crow didn’t lose his sense of humor... it was the one thing that was not foreign to her. He rolled up onto a steady arm as he narrowed a single eye towards her.
“How about yourself? I mean your neck wise...”
Rye rubbed her neck some as she had forgotten about it. The thought of it made it throb again, but it was one of her more minor injuries she had encountered over the past year and some. “Don’t be worrying about me; I am in one whole piece still.” Rye held her hand over the blood stained wound as she drew a slow eye to their surroundings. “We have to think of a plan still to get Grey back to normal.”
“I doubt there are many options, Rye.” Crow tried to put it in a obscure hint, but she caught on to his drift.
“We are not killing him.”
Crow rose up as he was clearly not understanding, why she couldn’t hurt him. “Rye that may be the last choice you have.”
She held an ignorant eye to him, “What happened to you don’t like to fight?” Crow shrugged.
“It’s either him or us.”
“You know your not doing a great job in the convincing department.” Rye sniped as she crossed her arms. “I cannot and will not kill Grey! There is no way in hell I’ll do it Crow... he’ll just have to kill me first.”
Crow knitted his eyebrows together in frustration at her stubbornness, “With that attitude you are suddenly carrying around, I think that may happen.” Crow sighed as he seen she wasn’t going to budge on this issue. “Rye I don’t like this idea any more than you do, but what other way is there?”
“I don’t know, but that doesn’t mean we can jump right into this ‘murdering’ idea.” Crow chuckled to himself some.
“And this is coming from the woman who attacked some weird Seplini beast not too long ago...”
Rye lowered her ears some as she couldn’t help but smirking. She knew the words she was throwing out were lies... she always jumped head first into a battle... but this was different... this was Grey! “We’ll... We’ll find away Crow—” Rye held up a fist, “— and if we fail, I’ll kill him.”
Crow agreed with her idea as a swift gust blew angrily at them, cursing towards them the blistering cold of the coming season of Eanila. Whistling through the trees, Rye slouched down some as she gestured some towards Crow to a tree that could provide some shelter from the awful wind. Some of the yellow leaves floated around in the gusts as sometimes swirls of wind tossed them up in a dirt devil. Her mind was spinning with empty ideas to turn Grey back into his kindhearted self, but they all came up blank. Most, actually involved killing him.
Crow’s teeth chattered as she was slightly envious of him. She had been stupid and wore shorts and an open shirt while he was wore pants and a long sleeved shirt, plus his ripped vest.
“How.... how long d-d-d-do you t-t-t-think we’ll be out here?” Crow chattered as she found some soft humor in this. Rubbing her numb fingers up and down her arms, she shrugged.
“When we become a pair of icicles?” Crow glared towards her at the comment as he wasn’t too fond of the idea. Rubbing against her legs, Rye wrapped a hand around the pile of leaves as she held a passing glance towards Crow. Throwing the leaves at him, Crow ruffled them out of his face. “Find any leaves and just pile them on you... it’ll keep you a bit warmer, so maybe you can get some sleep.”
“How late is it?” Crow questioned. Pointing up to the half risen moons, Crow mouthed an ‘oh’ as he raised one shoulder and lowered it. Rye smiled gently before he could even ask the question.
“I’ll stand watch for a while, it’ll be shift work.” Rye ran a hand through her hair, “Anyways my mind is whirling, so I won’t be able to sleep.”
Crow busied himself some already grabbing surrounding leaves as he seemed to feel a little guilty for having the pleasure of sleeping first. But as she said her mind was whirling. It would not be easy to sleep.
Nor did she want to try.