The Nexus

The main road connecting between Rojan and Thelos, two major cities of this area, was a short one. And despite it being one of the only routes between the two cities, it was hardly traveled. Grass was rising along the stones and dirt, as the road remained unkempt from lack of use. The two cities had a falling out, when trades were stopped because of the drought. Both blamed the other for not trading when needed, and thus, the trades ceased until perhaps one day another deal could be worked out. But this didn't seem possible for the time being.

Thus being such, anybody traveling this route was prime target for highwaymen, who could no longer loot caravans of goods, but had to rely on passerbys, in hopes they would have enough money worth the time. If they didn't, then they would beat them dead. If they did, they'd still beat them dead.

Unfortunately, word of the dangers weren't circulated, so there were some unfortunate souls still walking this road.

Open valleys ran for a mile outside of each city down the main road, then turned into hills full of trees on either side. It made for perfect ambushes.

Micah was loathe to walk the open fields. He'd been on the run a long time, but still felt like his uncle's men were right on his heels. He'd have to come out eventually and cross the distance to the hills on the opposite side. If he stopped moving, who knows what would find him?

Steeling himself, he pulled his hood up and stepped into the light of the sun, crossing the field at a run. He made it to the other side quickly, his long legs working to his advantage. He slowed his pace once he found the cover of trees again and lowered his hood. The little red lizard curled around his neck looked up once they were more hidden and stretched his wings.

"We're almost out of here, Hiryu. Now if we could just---" Micah's voice was choked off by a rough, dirty hand over his mouth. He was jerked backwards and Hiryu took off from his shoulder as the birgands circled.

"Grab the little dragon! He'll fetch a nice price!" Micah struggled weakly. He wasn't made for this!

The little dragon made it to the edge of the trees before it was grabbed too. But not before blue eyes caught sight of it, hiding in the dark.

The man made his way back to the others and the head highwaymen looked to Micah. "'e's kinda scrawny, eh?" He laughed a bit and so did the other men. "Al'ight, les go ahead and get this over wif. You give us yer gold, and we'll... well, we'll beat ya tah deaf." Not only was his breath and body odor bad, but his way of speak was quite annoying to the ear.

One man next to Micah began to rummage through his pockets.

"Hey! You humans are so uncivilized. If you are gonna pick on someone weaker than you, then I'll do the same thing!" a voice rang out behind them, and they turned to look.

A young woman, long, strawberry blonde hair tied back in a braid, wearing layers of clothing, (which looked odd considering the temperature) was looking at them, arms crossed over her chest as she smirked.

It wasn't but a few moments, and all the men burst out in laughter.

"Ya 'ear dis one. She says she is gonna pick on us."

"More like she is gonna let us pick on 'er! Wha a lucky day dis is."

The woman frowned at their comments, before she arms fell to her side, her fists clenched as she bared her teeth.

"How dare you talk to a great elemental being like that!"

That only seemed to cause more laughter from the men, and it seemed they were so amused that their grip on Micah slipped a bit.

"Alright, now you are just pissing me off! I'll burn you to a crisp and eat you!" the woman yelled, pointing in their direction for added effect. In just a flash of flames, the woman was engulfed in fire. Just a few short moments after that, there seemed to be nothing left of her, but what remained were the flames that had taken form of a large, cat looking creature.

With unnatural speed, the creature sped toward the men, raising its fiery paws to tackle one to the ground, spreading flames over him as it ripped at its flesh.

Micah had no idea what was going on and he was half lost to fear of these men. The meager amount of gold he had on him was hidden under his tunic hem on his belt. It wouldn't be all that hard to find since they were patting him down. He struggled weakly and when Ayana showed up, he was completely dumbfounded. What was this woman going to do to help!? Hiryu was caught and Micah was not strong enough to get free!

The men seemed to stop their fun the moment the flaming cat descended upon them. Quickly, they tried to draw their weapons, and the man holding Micah tossed the male to the ground.

And though they try to attack the creature, their blades only passed through the flames.

Pouncing between each of them, soon, all the men were down, charred, and dead. Panting a bit, the cat sat in front of Micha, looking expectantly at him.

Micah tripped over himself and landed hard in a heap when he was tossed. He rolled into a ball and hid his head as if he was still afraid of being attacked. He wasn't sure the cat fire thing wasn't just going to burn him up too! Hiryu was freed and unharmed by the cat's flames. The little dragon sat protectively on Micah and chirped at Ayana as she stared.

When it was clear nothing was going to harm him, Micah unfurled himself and sat up. He looked a mess from being roughed up, not matter how light it had been. He stared with fear in his eyes at the fire cat and just huddled on the ground.

The blue eyes of the cat looked at him for a long time, and then to his dragon. They it glanced around, as if thinking and observing. The sound that came from it next was a sort of growling meow of realization. It turned it's gaze back to Micah.

Flames burst up around it again, and flame turned to flesh and soon Ayana was standing there again, hand on hip as she pointed to him... also completely naked as her transformation had burned away her clothing, her hair even fallen from her braid.

"You! Elf man! Isn't there a custom where if one saves the life of another, that the other person then owes a debt of their life?"

Micah was not at all registering what she was saying. His eyes had already gone wider at her transformation, but the realization that she was nude was too much. In one motion, he unlatched his cloak and threw it at her to cover up. With the same movement, he was on his feet and running back the way he came to get away from this crazy cat fire woman!

The cloak landed on her head, covering her face and front, and she stood there confused for a bit. "Eh?" was finally the sound she made as she pulled the cloak down and she looked around.

"HEY! WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING?!" she yelled out to him, seeing him taking off with some pretty good distance between them. She threw the cloak around herself, not liking the feel of the cold (it's summer?) air on her skin.

And then she was off, chasing after him.

Micah was fast; he was pretty tall and lanky so his legs were long. Hiryu had taken to flying through the trees just ahead of him. The pair was making a good break for it to the field they'd come from. Ayana was going to have to really push to get to the elf; he was in a mad panic!

With no sign of closing the distance at this rate, Ayana let out loud cry as she put more effort into her running, pushing herself to gain on him. She was moving right toward him, and it was only a few moments before she was right on his tail.

"Stop - Right - Now!" she shouted, before she pounced at him, her hands grabbing his shoulders to pull him down. And they tumbled a ways, though the cloak managed to stay wrapped around Ayana. Which was a good thing. Maybe this elf man would be less inclined to run away again.

Micah squeaked and went down hard again. He tried to curl as they tumbled and shield his face. When they came to a stop, he was nearly shaking with fear and definitely a mess! 'Please don't kill me!"

Ayana looked down at him, and sighed. "You are worse than a mouse," she said, closing her eyes for a moment. "I'm not going to kill you, I am going to invoke the right to debting!" Whatever that was.

"I saved your life, and your rat's," she said, referring to the dragon in the latter part. "So now, you owe your life to me! You have to help me out til the debt is paid! You have to. It's the law." She sat back and crossed her arms.

Micah just flinched. He'd heard worse than that, but it still made him feel badly. Ayana went on and Micah unfurled a little, peering up at her from behind his arm. She was talking about some sort of law he was unaware of... He was in a foreign land and she could absolutely be speaking the truth! "If-if it's law.... I don't know how you think I could help, though."

Meal ticket, pretty looking bargaining tool... she could go on with the list. "We'll see what you can do. You'll just have to stick with me til then." She rubbed her hands together eagerly. "Now, up off the ground, you look just plain silly at this point."

Even though she was on the ground too... But she pulled herself up and dusted the cloak off. "Thanks for the cloak! I was probably going to catch a cold if I wasn't careful! See, you are already helping!" She smacked him on the back with a laugh. "Now, that way? You were heading that way, right?" She pointed from the way they had run.

Micah got to his feet like he was afraid of consequences if he didn't do as she said. Hiryu settled on his shoulders, trilling at Ayana. She slapped him on the back with a thanks and Micah had to take a step not to fall over. "Uhm, you're welcome... I wasn't really going anywhere..."

"No?" she asked, raising a knuckle to her chin as she looked to go into a hard thought. And then... "Well that's okay! I'm not going anywhere either!" She laughed as if it were a good thing that they had no destination in mind. "Let's just keep going til we find ourselves another elemental."

Ultimately that was her goal, to find an elemental like herself. From what she gathered from people she had met, elementals were just myths. But of course, that didn't get her hope down as she was an elemental herself. So she couldn't be a myth, which meant maybe there were others.

MIcah shook his head when she said no. His purple hair was all over and full of twigs and leaves from rolling on the ground. He tried to straighten himself out, undoing his ponytail and shaking the refuse free while she talked. "Al-alright... Is... That what you are?" He was genuinely curious.

Ayana's chest seemed to puff up at that. "Of course I am. I mean, I am pretty amazing, after all. It is only natural to assume I am."

After her glorious moment, she started walking down the road, covering the distance before they were back at the charred bodies and pushing on past that. "You sure didn't seem like you wanted to put up a fight. But I know those guys were bad news, so I couldn't just sit back. Next time you should probably punch 'em a few times."

Micah just stared at her. He'd have to take her word for it, though. He'd never met an elemental before and he guessed Ayana's display of power had been... pretty impressive. It was more than he could do, really. The elf blinked as she walked off and belatedly started to follow like a lost little dog. He was quiet and kept a few paces behind her.

"Oh, uhm, no. It wouldn't have done anything..."