The Scaled Girl

Though the pressure of wind he shot was nowhere near the scale that Aeragis did, it swayed trees and moved boulders alike. The hood on their assailant flew off easily as it raged within the winds of his Artes. Within his attack, he could see the face of a young girl. One with blue skin and a face with a few scales. It matched her hands. Her hair fell long and purple. Her ears pointed, and she had fangs like a bat.

Despite all that, her features were unbelievably cute.

No matter how Ryuma could see her, there was without a doubt that she was not connected to anybody with the Skylands. Definitely not the edicts.

"What are you here for?" Ryuma asked.

She removed her arms from blocking her face. There were cut marks across it that managed to make it deeper than the wounds that his blades could make. {Did his wind attack really do all that?} He couldn't think about that now. He still had this mystery girl to deal with.

"Grr…" She growled. She turned around and took off running in the opposite direction.

"After her!" Ryuma said. He took off running in the exact same direction.

"Wait! Why should we!?" Kosha asked.

Though he asked the question, Ryuma already was on the chase and ignored him. Though he didn't know which group she belonged to, he knew which one she didn't. And if there were other groups out there that were interested in him, then it was reasonable to assume that this group knew what he was. There was no way he could lose out on meeting them.

"Dude! This isn't the smartest thing I've seen you do," Kosha said once he caught up.

"That's ok! That girl knows something, and I want to find out what," Ryuma said. His focus was forward, and he chased the girl through the woods. He sped up as fast as he could jumping through bushes and shrubbery alike. He didn't even mind the cuts he was getting but the girl's running speed was unbelievably fast. Despite her small stature, her physique was higher than normal.

From her size and face, she couldn't be no more than thirteen if he had to guess. Though he didn't know her physiology. What was she?

She was slowly but surely increasing the distance between them. "SLOW DOWN! I WON'T ATTACK YOU!" He pleaded.

Though he shouted it in desperation, he really didn't think that attacking her was the wisest decision. If she was indeed holding back for whatever reason, this young girl was more powerful than them. Which meant that whatever group she was in had to have insane strength to keep her in check.

Or… was it possible that she was acting all on her own.

He almost tripped and fell over a few times, but he stuck in there. As she kept running, she was heading for a cliff. If she stopped for just a second, he could convince her to speak to him.

"HOLD ON! THERE'S A CLIFF AHEAD OF YOU!" He tried to warn but the girl jumped off with little fear.

He got to the cliff and his heart sank. No way would she take it that far to conceal a secret, right? Before he knew it, that same girl that jumped off the cliff flew high into the sky. The wings on her back that resembled bat wings had ripped the back of her clothes. With a single flap, she was simply miles high and out of their reach.

Even if Ryuma knew how to use his Wind Artes to fly, there was no way he was skilled enough to maintain a speed like that. Whoever this young girl was, she got away.

Ryuma could only look off in the distance as the figure of a bat got smaller against the sun.

Kosha finally caught up and panted heavily. "Do you know how far we ran off track?" Kosha asked. Ryuma ignored him. He didn't care. The prospect of catching her was worth it.

It does suck that they didn't catch her though.

"What is with you? Should we be wasting our time with this? Don't you want to get to Naru?" Kosha asked.

"Tch… Naru isn't going anywhere. What's the loss?" Ryuma asked.

"I'd say a few hours but whatever,"

Ryuma sighed and turned around. In his haste he didn't even check what direction he ran in. It was going to be a bitch trying to get back on the same track. Nevertheless, he continued anyway. Not like he could change what happened and complaining about it wasn't going to solve anything.

Besides. That lizard girl was bound to want to spy on them again. This wasn't the last time that they were going to see her again. Though next time, she likely wasn't going to get as close as she was and leave herself open. She'll keep her distance.

"Wait up. I haven't even planned the route we were going to take yet," Kosha said. He followed him anyway.

Time passed and they were finally on the right track towards Naru. It was starting to get dark again and so Kosha began unpacking his bag to the side. "Man, such a weight off my shoulder," He rolled his shoulder to increase its range of motion.

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Ryuma went over towards his bag and tapped his ring next to it. The entire bag disappeared.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Kosha screamed.

"I was going to tell you I could do that, but you know, things happened," Ryuma said.

"You mean I was lugging this heavy ass thing on my back for days and you just let me do it!" Kosha complained.

"I said I forgot. Besides. I can't go using this thing any and everywhere so easily. Did you forget I'm in hiding?" Ryuma asked. "People see me start using this thing and they start asking questions. I don't need that,"

Kosha leaned back sighing. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Man, you have it rough. Entire world wants to kill you. You must have somebody you left back there you can trust,"

Though it sounded like an off-hand comment, it still put Ryuma in deep thought. Everybody up in the Skylands was freaking terrified of the edicts. Even the people close to him, he couldn't see them gathering the courage to go against them. Who would be so stupid?

He then thought of Gen Ichizo. Oh yeah, only Toga would be so stupid.

Toga bowed just like the rest of them. So did Nuna. Under normal circumstances those two would be the first he would say he trusted but the fear of the edicts was something of an abnormality. Everybody outside those names, he couldn't see not turning him in for the money. Clara included.

Despite that, he couldn't help but think about that girl. Clara…

Growing up in the same cleric class, he never really put the girl into his mind. He was too focused on becoming the best priest possible. It wasn't until that night she berated him did he really look at the girl in her totality. She had quiet a curvaceous figure and her chest was cow jugs. He blushed at the thought. It was the first time he was so attracted to a person of the opposite sex.

Sure he had Nuna, but he never really thought of her romantically. He just thought the girl was nice and wanted to focus on his career. He wished he could have said the same about Clara, but he just couldn't stop thinking about her even now.

Then there was his mom. If nothing else… she was the only one in the world he could truly trust to stand by him even if the world stood against him.

And truth be told, that's what scared him the most.

He never wanted to think about it. His mind put it off with everything he kept going through, but what did the Skylands do to his mom? There was no way to keep in contact after Aeragis's attack. He didn't even know whether she got caught up in the destruction or not. If she were fine, then wouldn't the Skylands use that against him? If it came down to it, what would he do? What should he do?

"Sorry if that was a difficult question?" Kosha said. His silence said it all.

"Nahh. You're fine. I think I needed someone to ask that. Helps me reevaluate my position," Ryuma said.

"You're welcome then?"

Ryuma sat against a tree again and closed his eyes.

"You're not going to rely on that again, are you?" Kosha asked.

"Do what you want. I'm sleeping the whole night regardless," Ryuma said. He didn't want to argue with Kosha. Neither was he going to change the way he does things just because somebody joined him.

"Ok, if that's what you want. We'll talk about how to get into Naru tomorrow," Kosha said.

Ryuma's eyes were already closed. His dream yet again lucid. That night, he dreamed of being a child younger than the previous. Endlessly chasing his mother who got further away