The Warped

[White Wolf Guardian]

*The wolf dragon grunted when the other two started moving away putting one arm to his hurt shoulder and walked slowly finding that Kiral wasn't moving very quick now* "We probably won't be moving much at all soon, why don't we just hide somewhere? He's going to have to stop no matter what, whether it be in 5 minutes or 30 seconds. We could probably make it work with these trees being so fond of each other that you can't separate them with enough jackhammer. But I digress, it'd be a cold day in Hell to come upon something convenient like a cave since the other idea might be too complicated to do quickly."

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Kiral merely growled back, "I have no intention of stopping. My hunger's setting in, and it's not doing us any good to stay out without without any food. If we didn't stop last night, we would have been there already. And the next place is a small village, so it's going to be hard enough to see from just randomly running around. We have to follow this main road without being seen, and hope there aren't more people like that old fart."

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

"I wasn't saying you needed to stop. I was just stating the fact that you won't be able to handle running around forever with that injury." Mahi said casually. She wasn't going to force him to do anything he didn't want to do. It wasn't like she had that kind of power anyway. She continued to follow Kiral at his slowed pace, "watching" him intently as he limped along. It wasn't her way of checking him out, just how she was keeping the status of his wound up to date in her head.

[White Wolf Guardian]

"I'm surprised he's still going, I guess if the resolve is good enough even the most stubborn of people can keep going with half of their innards hanging out and dragging on the ground. I just hope my painful plan from earlier at least bought a few more minutes on our shortening plan of actions. If and whenever possible stealth could be our friend in this increasingly complicated environment." *He looked over at Mahi who was watching Kiral carefully* "I wonder if it's partial affection for him or just realization that Kiral is a vital component to the survival of the group... maybe both?"

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Kiral chuckled at Mahi's mention of his injury, "You should come work in the construction yards with me some time. People get more than just cuts like this. People actually lose limbs or have crap sticking out of their bodies." However, he wasn't kidding himself, the injury can become serious if he let it tear open like it did before. The bleeding had stopped, but the scabs were thin, and he knew it would be a matter of time before he'd be bleeding profusely again.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

"And an ambulance is always called for them. They aren't allowed to work. But since there are no ambulances here, stubborn attitudes win." Mahi said in response Kiral's comment. She wasn't nagging him in anyway but just pointing out the obvious. Her focus remained on how Kiral was doing while making sure that White was still with them since he hadn't spoken for a while, while the two of them had been talking.

[White Wolf Guardian]

"Not sure really how much time has passed since we ran away from the goons, but I'm starting to assume we're fairly safe for now, however I'll give it another hour or so. Until then I keep my distance and my quiet, I'm pretty sure Mahi can hear my footsteps anyways. If there was some sort of irregularity in my steps that would be the only reason to give alarm." *He walked along looking upwards beyond the tall grass and the trees trying to look at the sky* "Not really that easy to see even the clouds another thing that worries me is if they try to smoke us out with fire, that would be pretty easy to do in this thick wilderness."

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

It wasn't another 30 minutes before they reached the top of the hill, and the sight of the small village was in sight. Kiral counted just over 20 buildings, most of which were homes. The only building that didn't look like all the others was the Inn, which was 10 times larger than all the hut-like buildings there. He breathed a sigh of relief as he sat himself down, "Phew! We're finally here! But it looks like we're not going in for a while." There was a small caravan of 5 carriages, soldiers not even hidden, pulling into the village. "That must be another team that had went to check out the checkpoint we killed. Oh well. I wonder how much these are worth." Kiral pulled out a small pouch that he had taken from the half-dead soldier who tried to hold them up that morning. From inside, he found a few pieces of copper that looked like the Pocky crackers that he usually bought at the Asian supermarket in downtown everyday. But Kiral's eyes were more concentrated on the smoke emanating from the inn. "You see that? There's fire. Meaning high times for me." He smiled as he patted the pack of cigarettes in his leg pocket.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

When they reached the top of the hill, Mahi "looked" over all of the buildings along with the caravan of carriages with soldiers that was pulling into the village as well. She sat down on the ground beside Kiral but made sure that there was about an arms-length of space between them. When Kiral mentioned wondering how much something was work, she heard the jingle of some sort of coins in a pouch which she figured he must have taken from a soldier. Mahi couldn't see the smoke that Kiral was referring to since it wasn't solid but him patting the pocket she had learned that he kept his cigarettes in gave her an idea of what he was talking about. "Well, I guess we can have a pretty good idea of what will be your cause of death if we make it through this whole mess..." She said as her eyes were directed toward the village. "Come have a seat, White." She patted the ground on the side of her away from Kiral.

[White Wolf Guardian]

*White finally decided to reveal himself after Mahi motioned to him to come over and came upon the hill nearby his companions just barely looking over the edge cautiously* "Smoking really doesn't help anybody, except perhaps if you're about to die from another cause then you might as well indulge yourself. Thankfully that's not the case just yet. Looks like we can't go to the village, so what are we going to do now? Sneak in as two small giants guiding a blind girl?" "On that thought I hope there isn't giants." "Because it seems pretty impossible for who knows how long and what's not to say these citizens will side with the military even if they leave and attack us?"

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Kiral smiled and watched the village intently, "Well, if anything, there are plenty of people who would do anything for money, and others, for the sake of their loved ones. I'm sure a small village like this would support us. I've seen that happen in a ton of movies. Besides, I have some of their money. I have no idea what it's worth, but we might be able to buy something." KIral dumped the contents of the small satchel and started counting the Pocky-like currency. About 20 copper sticks, 5 silver, and one gold one.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Mahi shifted onto her toes in a crouch then placed her hands on the ground as she extended her legs out behind her and laid down on her stomach. She crossed her arms on the ground and rested her chin on them. She let the "image" of the village blur in her head as she laid there and didn't intently focus her hearing anymore so what she "saw" wasn't clear anymore. "Yeah, but movies aren't like real life, which is unfortunate in some cases." She said with a sigh.

[White Wolf Guardian]

"Yeah and since this is real life, as when you tour other countries you know nothing about with currencies and exchanges, very often you find out later you've been taken advantage of. Let's be careful with how revealing we are with the money we have." *The wolf dragon sat down, folding his legs and flexing his wings* "It's a bad time to be someone who can fly when now the bad guys also apparently have guns. I could have been shot dead already in that first town we came upon now thinking about it. I won't be doing that again for awhile."

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Kiral stuffed the money back into the satchel and tied it off, "It's not like anyone who wants to steal that money would want it more than our heads if we're spotted, anyways. And from what I've seen since we got here, the movies have been pretty accurate in portraying what goes on in these times. I think the weirdest thing is that in this time, all the world's continents were all meshed together. None of the terrains are even remotely familiar, and I've seen my fair share of Discovery and Travel Channel."

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Mahi kept her chin rested on her arms as she listened to White agree with what she had said and also add of piece of his own ideas about what could happen. After he was done speaking, she listened to Kiral speak again. "Well, it's not like I would know how accurate it is." She said as she blankly looked ahead with her cloudy green eyes. "Movies aren't exactly my cup of tea." She waved one of her hands up and down in front of her eyes while her eyes didn't respond to the movement (even though she did "see" it) as if to give a reminder that she was blind. After that, she thought about the last thing Kiral had said as she put her arm back underneath her chin. "Maybe we got transported to another dimension too!" She exclaimed, making a fake cheesy astonished face.