A familiar black and blue blur slammed into the violent creature, knocking it off its feet. They locked into a writhing ball, shouting and hissing as they rolled around the forest floor.

Oh thank goodness, Xinn is here. Wait. Crap. Xinn is here. Aley struggled to her feet, slower this time now that death was not imminent, eyes locked on the brawl. I should get away while they're distracted. But I shouldn't just leave Xinn, what if that animal hurts him? Xinn roared when the creature bit him, revealing his sharp teeth before raising the raccoon-thing up with one hand and smashing it back down into the dirt. You know what, I'm sure he's fine. She turned and started to hobble upstream as fast as she could. Hopefully they would fight long enough for her to get out of sight and Xinn wouldn't know which way she went.

A piercing scream shattered through the forest. Aley spun around to see Xinn stepping away from the now-bloody animal, blue eyes alight with adrenaline. His head raised, eyes locking onto her.

Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. Aley turned again, trying to use her wings to give her more speed as she hopped along. "The worst is death and death will have his day." Now probably isn't the time for Shakespeare. "Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay." No, stop that! I'm not dying! Yet...

"Savioress!" Splashes sounded off behind her, getting closer with every half second.

Nope, I'm going to die.

She screamed when arms wrapped around her from behind, hoisting her into the air before slinging her into a bridal hold. She squirmed in his arms making as much noise as possible.

"What are you doing?" Xinn grunted as she smacked him.

"Let me go!" she cried.

"I just saved you from the qirwa—why are you running?"

"Let. Me. Go!"

He tilted his head back to keep from getting hit across the face. "Savioress, please. Calm yourself. I've been looking for you all night—what happened? Did a valicaran chase you out here?"

Seeing as it was futile, Aley paused her struggles, chest heaving as she glared at the alien. "No, I left on my own. I'm tired of being locked up in your prison; I'm going to find Rocki."

"You won't be able to find her on your own. The mountains are almost two days away from us and you can hardly walk."

"I can manage on my own." She smacked his chest. "Put me down! I'm going to find Rocki and I won't let you stop me."

She felt him sigh a little, although it was so quiet she couldn't hear it. "I'm taking you back to the village. You're safer there than you are out here on your own."

Aley shrieked, twisting violently in his arms. "No! I won't go back to that prison!"

He frowned. "It's not a prison. The Protection Site is the safest place for you."

She glowered at him. "Why can't you understand? I hate it there. I'm supposed to be some sort of big important person to you guys, but you treat me like I'm a prisoner of war."

"We give you all the respect we can."

"That's not what I mean! You lock me up when you can't be around me so I can't leave. You feed and visit me on a schedule. You keep everyone away from me. I'm not even allowed to shower. Does that sound like high quality treatment to you?"

His unsettling eyes shifted away from her guiltily. "I... I hadn't thought of that. We have a reason for all that we do."

She heaved out an irritated sigh. "I know. But that doesn't make it any better." The smell of blood hit her nose like a punch, making her almost gag. "Can you put me down? I think I'm going to be sick."

He eyed her cautiously, but gently set her on her feet in the stream. The metallic scent washed away with the water. She groaned, sitting on the bank before lifting out her foot and twisting it to find the problem.

"Aw, crud," she hissed, wings tightening. A huge thorn was lodged where her pad and arch met. She didn't know how long it was, but there was still a good quarter inch of thick needle sticking out. She glanced away as her stomach lurched. I hope it's thinner near the top. That's going to be really, really gross to remove. She shuddered.

Xinn crouched down to look at her wound. "That's in pretty deep. I should probably let our healer take care of that for you. I don't want it to get infected."

She grimaced. "Just take it out. I don't want it in my foot any longer than it has to be." Her dad had always taken out her splinters when she was a kid—Mom didn't have the stomach for it. He never let it just fester out, he always had to extract it no matter what.

"I don't have anything to wrap the wound with. Tavl or Krye will take care of it when we get back." He looked around at the forest. "My team should converge here shortly. They would have heard my call." He sighed a little, looking back at her. "Do you really feel like we are treating you as a prisoner?"

Aley shrugged, letting her foot slip back into the stream. "Seems like it to me."

He lowered his head, then took her hands into his, turning them over and putting his palms over her wrists. "Aley, I don't want you to feel that way about us. The sariun only want to care for you in the best way possible. I promise I will make sure that you are more comfortable and happy when we return."

Aley looked down at their hands. Her fingers were brushing under his wrists but curled tightly into fists. His were relaxed as they rested on her own wrists, but firm with his promise. He sounded like he sincerely wanted to do his best for her.

She sighed. "Fine. I'll come back with you without a fight, but I need to be a part of the council or whatever thing you have that's in charge of trying to get to Rocki."

"I can arrange for you to speak with Head TerrCileBreg. He will have the authority to bring you onto the council." Xinn tilted his head a little, rubbing his thumbs over her wrists. "Your skin is soft."

Aley blinked at the sudden change in subject. "T-Thank you?" I'm not blushing am I?

"Does it hurt when you use your metal?" He peered closely at them, but at an angle that if she did happen to shoot something out of her wrist, it wouldn't hit him.

She shrugged. "I don't know." Both times she had accidentally used whatever powers she had, it was during a moment of high energy where she wasn't paying any attention to it.

"Hm." He dropped her wrists as something came crashing through the trees, on high alert for danger. It was only another sariun. Two, actually. She recognized Caif with his bright blue hair, but she couldn't recall the name of the one with narrow eyes.

"You found her," Caif said in relief.

The other raised his eyebrow at Xinn playfully. "I think you must be nature's favorite. You always get to the savioress first."

Xinn scoffed. "That's why I'm the general and not you."

He shrugged. "Fair enough."

Another sariun splashed up the stream. It was the big, muscular one of Xinn's crew. "Aban avar, why is there a dead qirwa back here?" He kicked the thing in disgust.

"We had a bit of a quarrel," said Xinn.

"I've always said you could argue with anything," the narrow-eyed sariun laughed.

"Jirn, I have never heard you say that," said Caif, crossing his arms.

The other sariun jokingly mirrored his stance. "I said it once anyway."

"You liar," Caif chuckled.

Rokh appeared out of the forest, upstream from them. "Of course he's a liar, we all know that. Some of us found out the hard way though; right, Kers?"

The muscular sariun scowled at him, but yet another alien came in from downstream, tramping along the bank.

"Is everyone alright?" Lore asked, his gaze scanning over the group.

"Yes," said Xinn.

"Then why is there blood in the stream?" Lore peered at the water beside him.

Kers pointed at the dead qirwa on the other side. "Xinn killed a beast."

Lore shook his head, eyes trailing up the stream until they landed on Aley's foot. "Savioress. You're hurt."

She drew her wings around her slightly. "Yeah, I stepped on a thorn I guess. Xinn said I would need a doctor to take care of it."

"He's right," Lore said. "We should get you back."

Xinn tilted his head so his neck was exposed. "If I may, Aley, allow me to carry you. I don't expect you'll be able to go far on that foot of yours."

She sighed. "No, I guess not." She begrudgingly held up her arms in a 'pick me up' manner. Xinn leaned over and scooped her into his arms, seemingly unbothered by her wet feet that dripped on his pants. "Is this the easiest way for you to carry me? I can go piggyback if you need me to."

He looked down at her, face scrunched up curiously. "What do you mean, piggyback?"

She wrapped her arms around his neck to secure herself. "I meant that you can carry me on your back if that's better for you." Her heart jumped a little when she tilted her head up to look at his eyes. His face was closer than she thought.

"This is fine," he said. "Just keep your foot away from everything. I don't want you to hurt it any more than it already is."

She nodded, clinging to him tighter when he started moving. His team fell in behind him, stomping through the forest with more confidence than she had. They probably knew this forest better than she did though.

"Savioress," called Kers from behind. "How did you come to be so far into the forest by yourself?"

She hesitated to answer. How do you say "I wanted to get away from you all because I felt like a prisoner and I wanted to find my sister" without being rude?

"Let the savioress rest, Kers," said Xinn, his chest rumbling against her shoulder as he spoke. "I'm sure she's had a very trying night and she's in pain. That qirwa tried to attack her you know."

"By nature, I hate qirwa," Caif complained. "They're always trying to kill someone."

Jirn snickered. "You only say that because you're allergic."

"Which means that they're constantly trying to kill me when they're around by shedding their stupid fur everywhere!"

The group laughed.

Aley listened to them chatter during the long walk back. There was silence when they decided to jog, but when they were only strolling along, they discussed all sorts of things: food, battles, friends, anything and everything that seemed to come to mind.

When the sun was at the top of the sky, Xinn brought them to a stop. "We're not going to get back to the village any time soon, and I don't think any of us have eaten recently." He glanced down at Aley, who shook her head. "Lore, see if you can hunt us something to eat, we'll wait here for you."

Lore smiled slightly. "There won't be much around. Kers' stomping probably drove everything off."

"I don't stomp," Kers said irritably.

Xinn rolled his eyes. "Take Rokh with you, Lore. We're nearer to the desert border now and I don't want anyone caught alone if valicara are about."

Aley watched as Lore and Rokh buddied up and went off into the forest together. Lore seemed almost dismissive of the clearly younger sariun, while Rokh was tense, allowing himself to fall in behind Lore rather than beside.

"How old is Rokh?" she asked, surprising herself a little when the question slipped out.

Xinn lowered her to sit on a fallen tree. "Twenty-one."

"He seems younger than the rest of you." She idly peeked at her foot but looked away immediately.

"He's our youngest," Xinn agreed. She expected him to sit beside her, but he remained standing. His strange eyes scanned the forest around them. "Have you seen any valicara out here?"

She snorted a little. "If I saw one, I wouldn't be here."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "You are willing to get kidnapped by a dangerous species and giving them the victory over the sariun just so you can find your sister?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Priorities, I guess. Besides, if a valicara saw me, they would just kidnap me instantly anyway, so I probably wouldn't have much of a say in the matter."

"They would have to know that you're the savioress first. They have no idea what you look like, remember?"

"I would probably accidentally tell them because I'm an idiot like that." She chuckled slightly at herself.

"But why would they believe a random valicaran they've just met?"

Aley rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine, you win at the made-up scenario. Gosh, you're just like Rocki."

He smiled at her. "Really? In what way?"

"She always thinks of every stinking detail in 'what ifs' and pokes holes in all my theories." She scowled down at her hands. "It's probably because she's an author and has to think about that stuff for her books, but still. I hope she's annoying the crap out of those valicara. They deserve it."

Her heart dropped as she considered what situation her sister might be in. Is she scared? Lonely? Is she trying to find me? Is she hurt? Did they throw her in a cell? Does she cry herself to sleep? The thought of strong, serious Rocki being so afraid that she cried during the night made her want to throw up. Rocki didn't cry. She always regarded herself as Roxanne Gentil: oldest sister and daughter, bearer of all responsibility, watcher over the silly little sister who got herself into trouble. She always took on her role proudly. As such, crying wasn't in her nature. She was the one to comfort Aley when she cried, the one to give her answers and hugs when she needed them. Aley had only seen Rocki cry a handful of times. Her frustrations just didn't seem to come out in tears like Aley's did.

Aley sighed, moving down on the felled tree that served as her seat so she could lean against one of the remaining branches. She stared up at the sky, what little could be seen through the trees, the urge to close her eyes suddenly washing over her.

"We'll get your sister back," Xinn said softly.

She sighed again, still looking at the cloudy sky. "I know you're trying." She succumbed to the urge and let her eyes slid shut, inhaling a long breath of the sweet, earthy air. She could just fall asleep right here.

Nobody spoke for a long while.

Finally, the small hunting party returned with a couple of small animals. Aley didn't look at them for too long, between her foot and the dead qirwa, she wasn't sure she would be able to handle any more blood today.

"Thank you, Lore, Rokh." Xinn nodded at his men as they handed him on of the creatures.

Aley glanced away as he summoned a small blade. She clenched her teeth at the ripping and squishing noises that ensued and the smell of warm blood. Just when she was about to cover her ears and stop breathing, the noises stopped, although the scent lingered.

"Here you are, Aley."

She glanced up to see Xinn holding out half of the skinned and gutted carcass toward her. Blood splattered its underbelly where he had slit it. Her stomach heaved.

"That doesn't look very safe to eat," she said, shifting her eyes to Xinn's boots.

"It is," he assured her. "These are the easiest to eat here in the forest. They don't require much preparation. We should eat and then get moving, it won't take long for other animals to smell the blood."

Her eyes landed on the small pile of entrails a few feet away. Or the guts. I'm sure the guts smell just great to wild animals. She unwillingly took the meat from the sariun. "If I get sick from eating this, I blame you."

His brows furrowed a touch in worry. "I don't see any reason for you to get sick. They were created to eat raw."

She shrugged, staring down at the half of a carcass in her hands. I can't believe I'm doing this. As fast as she could, so she would stop thinking about it and freak out, she bit into it like she saw the other sariun doing. Her sharpened teeth slid easily through the meat, tearing a piece off for her to chew on.

"Oh my gosh," she groaned, taking another bite. It tasted like baked potato, which was a weird flavor for meat, but it was the best thing she had eaten since coming here. It could have something to do with the fact that she hadn't eaten since yesterday morning.

She scarfed down the rest of the meal with pleasure, finishing up about the same time as the other sariun. She wiped her hands on her pants, grimacing at the traces of moisture left on her skin.

"Do you need anything else while we are stopped, Savioress?" Caif asked.

Aley shook her head. "We can get going."

Xinn exposed his neck. "If I may," he said, arms beginning to encircle her. She nodded, slinging her arms around his neck. He picked her up, adjusting her until they were both comfortable, and started off.

After a few minutes, Aley got bored and thought up a question. "Why do you tilt your head when you talk to me sometimes? Tavl and Head... whatever his name is did the same thing."

"It's a sign of respect," Xinn said. "By exposing my neck, I am submitting to you. In that position, you could easily tear out my throat if you so desired, so it is a gesture of deference, and in some cases, trust. Like putting my hands on your wrists."

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she thought. "So it's like a dog rolling over to show its belly. What was that about my wrists?"

He chuckled. "It is so strange to me that you don't have any understanding of our culture. We always expected the savioresses to know everything about us. If someone puts their hands on your wrists, it shows they trust you to not cut them with a blade. It is sometimes used to make promises as well."

"So when you promised you would make sure I was comfortable and happy..."

"I was trying to prove how serious I was."

She nodded, eyes feeling heavy again. "I see. It's like a pinky promise."

"A what?"

She giggled. "I'll tell you about it sometime." She let herself rest her head against his shoulder, breathing out a sigh of relief for her poor neck. Xinn was warm, and it was almost comfortable to be carried by him. It had been a long day, and then a long night, and then another long day. A nap sounded nice.

With a sigh, she turned her face in towards his shoulder and closed her eyes, allowing herself to be lulled by the consistent footsteps of the group.

She hadn't really wanted to go back with them, not after all the progress she had made on her own, not after the way they had treated her before. But at least she was safe.