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Eveser, Dameon, Darrow, Cyllea, Teya, Holi, Dexter, and Kerrigan sat around the small fire they had whipped up in the middle of the cave. Upon discovering the tiny chasm, they agreed it would be the best way to stay safe and dry for the time being until they could find a new place to set up a permanent abode.

"You know," Dameon said with a smile. "This seems oddly familiar."

"What, like the first time we ran from the Carnians?" Cyllea asked, scoffing. "Yea, fun times..."

"Well, we're not dead are we?" Dameon grinned. Cyllea rolled her eyes.

"Sometimes I wish," she said with an unamused laugh. Eve shot her a "really?" glance.

"Come on, guys," he said. "So we had to evade the bastards again, big deal! We did it before and we'll do it again and again until they stop looking. We just have to hold out until that voice calls me again. He said that we would meet soon."

"You're kidding me," Dameon muttered. "You can't still be on about the voice nonsense can you?"

"What are you saying?" Eve glared at him.

"I'm saying we can't hang back and wait for voices to tell us when to act, Eveser," Dameon said, trying to reason. "We need to continue thinking of ways to plan an attack against Carnia, one that'll seriously cripple the bastards."

"That day will come as soon as I hear what Bahamut wants me to do," Eve said, resigned. "He swore he would talk to me again, after the fight in Dirge's palace!"

"Eve," Cyllea began. Eve looked at her, wary of what she would say. "You know that at this point, I'll believe anything...but this is starting to sound a little wrong..."

"How so?" Eve asked.

"You had the power to turn into that hulk before you started hearing the voices," Dameon interrupted. "When we first fought Dirge, I watched you transform and toss him across the city like a toy!"

"So?" Eve was still curious to hear what they had to say.

"We're just saying that..." Cyllea began. "Maybe that voice you heard in the past wasn't another presence?"

"You're saying that I just thought I was hearing someone else?" Eve asked.

"It's completely possible that the so-called 'Bahamut' is just a name for some part of your mind that you feel is responsible for your power," Teya explained. "I'm no psychologist, but I dabbled here and there with it. Sometimes, when your mind feels overwhelmed, it creates another identity to assist with the handling of the problems you may face. Maybe somewhere in your brain you felt uncomfortable or worried about having the fate of the entire world on your shoulders...and you made someone else to help deal with it. Someone maybe to help regulate the use of the power that you yourself may not yet fully understand?"

Eve was completely shocked. As ridiculous as it sounded...Teya made perfect sense. He had to refuse to believe it, he had to. There was no way that the voice was his own!

"That's impossible," he said slowly. "I've always accepted the responsibility of the world, I've never shirked it! I-"

Eve was cut off by the sound of a blade being drawn from its hilt...

It echoed through the cave and made everyone's ears prick up. They had dealt with bandits and raiders before in the Carnian wilderness, that and worse. They had also encountered the remains of society after the Carnians had finished with them, turned them rabid, feral, vicious. Even though their minds were gone, it never got better having to cut down a family of now-ferocious creatures...

"Be on your toes," Eve whispered as everyone leapt into battle positions. The children, Darrow, and Holi stood in the middle while the rest of the group surrounded them. Dameon drew a dagger from a sheath on his leg and placed it between his teeth. They looked around the cave, glancing from ceiling to wall to floor and back to ceiling again. There was nothing in plain view, which immediately nixed the idea of the enemy being bandits or ferals, but raiders were quick-witted and agile, usually attacking in small groups to retrieve valuables and supplies.

Eve's gaze quickly shot from place to place, trying to locate the potential attacker. His sharp eyes caught the tail of a humanoid shadow quickly scurrying behind a rock!

"There!" he shouted and pointed. "Dameon! Light it up!"

Dameon grunted and heaved a green ball towards the rocks! The ball hovered in the air and showered the area in green light, piercing the shadows and revealing the creature, which had to cover her eyes from the instant introduction of the harsh light.

Eve's eyes widened and he turned back to the group.

"It's Merrick!" he said with alarm. Kyasha heard the words and quickly dashed away behind another nearby rock! She zipped and moved as quickly as she could to close the distance between the two parties. Eve and Cyllea glanced quickly at eachother and then heaved themselves into the air on their powerful wings.

Kyasha was fast, but she could not handle two flying opponents at once! They discovered her with ease and then promptly swooped down and began their attack. Eve tackled her from the air and landed on top of her, his jaws inches from her face. She snarled and drove the point of a sharpened rock into the side of his neck!

The blade didn't penetrate his solid scales well, creating a pinprick-sized hole in the dragon's armor. The blow was strong enough, though, to stun the reptile momentarily, giving the vixen enough time to roll from her weak position and regain her aggressive stance. The victory was short-lived, however, as she was herself stunned from the force of Cyllea's body slamming into her and lifting her from the ground!

Her lungs forcefully emptied from the collision, Kyasha's vision darkened. The last thing she saw was the roof of the cave as she fell from Cyllea's grip, falling down to the stone floor...

Eve watched as she fell, dropped by his mate to her certain doom on the rocky ground below. He knew how much of a danger she was, how threatening her very presence was to his and his friends' survivals...but he couldn't just watch as a helpless creature plummeted, unconscious, to her death...

He leapt again into the air and swooped by just in time to catch the falling vixen. He landed in front of the small fire with her in his arms and dropped her to the ground.

"Teya, get some rope," he ordered. "Dameon, restrain this crazy bitch."

"My pleasure," Dameon snarled as Teya tossed him a long coil of thick climbing rope. Dameon tied the heavy strands around Kyasha's arms, legs, and waist, making no attempt at gentility as he worked to ensure she would not be able to endanger them again.

"Holi, Teya, check her for any other weapons she may have and get rid of them," Eve commanded. The two females rummaged through her pockets, pulled out a few small, hand-crafted blades, and tossed the weapons into the fire pit. The flames licked around the stone and wood, rendering them unusable. After Dameon had finished the restraints, he whispered a small curse and touched his finger to the bindings. They instantly glowed green and then became awash with small watery lights.

Cyllea was almost angry with Eve for saving her.

"You could have just let her fall, you know," she said sullenly.

"I know," Eve said with a sigh. "But it's not right to watch an incapacitated non-combatant to just splatter on a rock. We need to have some kind of morals to hold on to or we might as well join up with Carnians."

Cyllea nodded slowly and looked down at the ground. "Yea..."

Eve approached Dameon and the prisoner, who was now forced into a sitting position. Eve lay down in front of her and snapped his fingers in her face.

"Hey! Hey!" he said sharply. "Wake up!"

Kyasha's head rolled back and forth as her eyes fluttered open wearily. She groaned and tugged against her restraints as she realized she was bound. She began to growl viciously and suddenly became frighteningly active! She struggled and snapped at the bindings with her teeth, but found them unbreakable thanks to Dameon's curse.

Dameon reached out sternly and held her by the snout. He snarled back at her, his black, conical teeth clicking as he ground them threateningly. Kyasha looked once at him and then back at Eve, her expressions singing a much different tune.

"Stay still and stop fighting," Eve said emotionlessly. Kyasha glanced again at Dameon's rigid face and nodded. Dameon released her snout and stood back as Eve spoke to her again. "What are you doing here?"

"I'll tell you nothing," she whispered, turning her head away.

"I'm not interrogating you, not yet," Eve said and growled. "If you'd like us to, we can get right to it, but that's _his_department."

He pointed a thumb over at Dameon, who cracked his knuckles fearsomely and glared at her. Kyasha huffed and looked uneasily at Eveser.

"He's taken so much from me already, what more do I have to fear?" she huffed and stared at the dragon. "I'd rather die."

"Is that why you attacked us? Was this a last-ditch, spineless attempt at assisted suicide?" Eve asked, knowing this wasn't the case. Kyasha was a very proud female, mentioning the very idea that she would lower herself to suicide and on top of that ask for help?! She would be furious.

"You miserable worm!" she shrieked and snapped her teeth at him! Eve grinned. Success!

"Too weak to do it on your own, you needed us to put you down, is that right?" Eve continued, edging her past her limits of mental stability. Kyasha looked like she would explode and tugged so ferociously against her restraints that Eveser actually had to move back!

When she finally understood she was completely helpless, Kyasha raised her snout to the ceiling and screamed. Her ear-piercing cry was so miserable, so lamenting, that Eve lowered his ears and tried to avoid the sound as much as possible.

Her lungs finally became so exhausted that she couldn't even force herself to take a breath and felt darkness again creep into her sight. She slumped over and lay on the ground, semi-conscious. Panting, she could only cough and gasp as she tried to regain her sanity.

Finally, the darkness set in and she felt herself slip into blissful unconsciousness.

She had no idea how long she had been asleep for, but she was sure she would not wake up. The last memory she possessed was of her most hated enemies surrounding her maliciously, no doubt they had slit her throat and left her out in the rain.

But this didn't feel like death. She could feel cold, but only against the side of her face. The rest of her was surprisingly warm. She felt the power to open her eyes return to her and she felt light begin to trickle through her eyelids.

She tried to move, but still found herself restrained, unable to move her arms or legs...

Her eyes widened in terror. She realized what they were going to do with her. She was to be their attempt at cruel revenge!

If they were not going to kill her, they would surely keep her alive for torture and rape, feeding her only enough to make sure she still lived and only keeping her comfortable enough to make sure she would never become numb to pain. She had read about the Carnians doing it, but though for sure she would never have to endure it...until now...

She groaned exhaustedly, moving sluggishly. Eve, who was sitting only a foot away from her, moved his gaze from a piece of brightly colored rock to the awakening captive. He had volunteered to watch over her while Dameon and Cyllea went hunting. He argued with Dameon about it, but in the end Dameon recognized that she really, REALLY hated him and leaving the two of them alone would only do more damage.

"Morning," he said solemnly. Kyasha looked at him and then down at her body, expecting to be naked.

What she found was quite the opposite! Instead of being exposed and damaged, she was still clothed, but covered by a warm woolen blanket!

"If you're going to try and make me beg, you shall be disappointed," she said flatly. She laid her head again down on the cold floor.

"I had no intention of making you beg for anything," he said, tossing the rock over his shoulder. "I don't know why you keep making these weird assumptions, what do you expect us to do to you?"

"Don't mock me," Kyasha said, insulted. "And don't try and make ME say what you're going to do to me. You won't get that sick pleasure."

"Again, I still don't understand," Eve said, actually starting to find this funny. "The only thing we're concerned about doing with you is making sure you don't escape and kill us."

"You should be," she hissed.

"What made you want to attack us like that?" Eve asked. "You're alone, without any real weapons; the only reason we didn't find you earlier is because you're so damn good at hiding! Why? You could've brought the entire Carnian military here with you if you figured out where we were hiding...wait, how did you figure out we were here?"

In all honesty, she didn't figure out anything! She simply stumbled onto them while looking for a safe place to hide.

"I...I knew I could kill you all myself!" Kyasha lied. She couldn't reveal that she had become a Carnian fugitive, her pride wouldn't allow it. "It was all part of a challenge, a bet between myself and Lord Gride..."

"You know, your heart beats faster when you lie like that," Eve said and grabbed her wrist, placing a claw over her pulse. "Say it again, would you?"

She was pinned. Kyasha couldn't believe he was that receptive to her deceit! It was the deceit of a desperate child, but it was still an attempt...

"That...I..." she tried.

"Just tell me the truth," Eve said, releasing her. "None of us actually care why you're here; we just want to know how. We are not going to rape you, we aren't planning on killing or torturing you, and we're not trying to trick you. If you can't take my word for it then just shut up and lay there."

Eve turned back to staring out the cave entrance, watching the sun's light dance across the mountains. Kyasha was astonished at his bluntness. She couldn't believe anyone could be so stupid as to just let an extremely powerful enemy just lay next to them without worry or concern.

"Why...why aren't you worried about me?" she asked childishly. "Why aren't you worried I'll kill you?"

"Because you won't," he said. "You're tied up, on the ground, and half-dead, if anything I want to help you."

Her head slumped back against the ground. "Is that what all of you think of me?"

"What?" Eve asked, turning to her again.

"Do all of you think I'm pathetic?" she asked.

"We don't think you're pathetic, we think you're in a pathetic situation," Eve said reasonably. Even though he was aware she could attempt to lash out at him at any given time, he was unafraid of her. When Holi and Teya were checking her for weapons the night before, they had also noticed that she was surprisingly thin. It was as though she had been running for a very long time and eaten only once or twice in the past three days. "So what is this all about?"

"What do you mean?" Kyasha asked.

"I mean, why did you come out here alone with no weapons to try and find us?" Eve asked. "What is it? Some kind of Carnian challenge to make your own weapons and to not eat as you hunt your opponents?"

"I wasn't trying to find you," she blurted out, immediately regretting it. Eveser raised an eyebrow.

"Oh no?" he asked. "Then what were you doing in the mountains with no food, no shelter, and no weapons?"

"Running," she said quietly. She gave up; there was no point in trying to conceal it now. Fuck her pride, what good was it if no one was there to appreciate it? She had no flag, no home, no throne, it didn't even matter that she was still an Empress by blood. "I was running."

"From who?" Eve asked, aware that he was on to something now.

"From EVERYONE!" Kyasha shouted angrily. "From Carnia, from Gride, from...from Grimlock...everyone..."

"What happened, Kyasha?" Eve asked.

"Don't call me that," she said. "You haven't earned it."

"What can I call you then?" Eve asked, annoyed.

"Call me Lady Kyasha Merrick, Red-" she began proudly until she was interrupted by the black dragon.

"No, I'm either calling you Kyasha or Fox, take your pick," Eve said finally. He was taking another stab at her pride.

"Fine!" she growled. "But every time you say my name I die a little inside..."

"Every time you say a word I feel more and more regret about catching you," Eve said with a small snarl. Kyasha was taken aback.

"Why did you save me at all?" she asked. "If you're not going to hurt me, kill me, humiliate me, or anything like that...why did you risk your life and the lives of your friends to rescue me?"

"I can't say for sure," Eve said. "Honestly, I just felt uncomfortable watching an attractive, unconscious female fall to her death. Call me chivalrous."

He chuckled as Kyasha felt her cheeks grow warm. She gasped and quickly hid her face! Was that a blush?! Did she just enjoy being complemented by that enemy scum?

"Y-yea, right," she said and cleared her throat, glad to the heavens that he wasn't looking at her.

"But tell me, then, why were you running from Carnia?" Eve asked. Kyasha sighed exhaustedly and closed her eyes, telling him the story. She told him of the attack on their previous home, her betrayal, the trial and of her escape. When she got to the part where Grimlock saved her, she heard her strong voice crack uncontrollably. Her eyes widened and then pooled with tears and she again hid her face!

Kyasha hadn't even felt the sadness creep up on her, its attack was so sudden! She clenched her mouth shut and tried to hold back the tears and the lump in her throat as best she could, but thinking about it only brought more images of Grimlock's face into her mind.

"Are you alright?" Eve asked, looking over at her with both eyebrows raised in surprise at her emotional ambush. Kyasha shuddered and successfully forced the wretched guilt and sadness back into her soul. She lifted her head from within the blanket again and looked at him.

"Yes," she said quickly and then continued with her story: her flight from the patrols, her attempt at hunting, and finally her eventual discovery of the cave. She smiled slightly. "The Carnians are really quite inefficient at searching for fugitives, aren't they?"

"We thought the same thing," Eve said with a small laugh. The vixen laughed a little as well, enjoying the opportunity to engage her emotions freely, with no constraints as to her social standing.

"But that's it, really," she finished. "Now, can you undo these ropes?"

"Nope," Eve said and picked up another shiny rock. Kyasha frowned.

"Why not?" she asked irritatedly.

"Because I still don't trust you," he said. "That and I actually don't know how to undo the spell Dameon put on the ropes."

"Curse actually," Dameon's voice echoed through the cave. He walked up to the two from the mouth of the cave holding a dead, lizard-like creature by the legs. "Called the Curse of Stoic Bondage. Makes the whole rope stick to itself like glue."

"Good hunt, eh?" Eveser asked as Dameon tossed the carcass onto the ground.

"Very!" he said with a smile as he brushed his black hair from his face. "So I see our captive has woken up."

"Yep, we've been discussing some things while you guys were out," Eve explained. Dameon sat by the fire and looked interested.

"What like?" he asked, looking over at the bound vixen.

"Nothing," Kyasha said suddenly. "Go away."

"Well, someone's grumpy," Dameon chuckled and kicked his feet up. "What'd I do?"

Kyasha's eyes twitched for a moment and she ground her teeth.

"How dare you even think to ask me that question," she snarled and glared at him. "Is my face one of the many you so callously hurt?"

"Listen, I used to do a whole bunch of bad things when I was a Behaku Lord," Dameon said and leaned in. "You'll understand if I don't necessarily remember you right off the bat?"

Kyasha growled and turned back into the blanket. Dameon shrugged and leaned back. Eve signaled to Dameon in their non-vocal code.

"Go away," he signed, spelling out each letter expertly. Dameon raised an eyebrow.

"Why?" he signed back.

"Need time alone," Eve responded. "Aggravated prisoner won't talk."

"Understood," Dameon rolled his eyes and walked off. When he had left, Eve turned back to Kyasha.

"Hey, he left," he said. "Just thought you wanted to know."

She said nothing, but scoffed quietly. Eve could hear her delicate breathing, gently escaping her weary lungs. Then he heard her stomach growl loudly! He chuckled.

"You sound hungry," he said with a smile. Kyasha looked up at him.

"Gloating at my suffering?" she asked, unamused. "Very mature."

"Why is it that you take everything I say as an attempt to hurt you?" he asked, still smiling.

"Are you not?" she asked, still looking up at him. She looked back down finally and the sighed. "Why are all the nice people never on my side?"

"Because you hang out with bad guys," Eve chuckled. Kyasha glared daggers at him.

"Grimlock is not a bad person," she hissed. "Gride is a bastard and so is Oxide, that scheming wretch, but Grimlock is not bad. He's not inherently evil, I mean."

"Forgive me if I happen to remember the time he brought Dirge back and almost made my friend shoot himself," Eveser said with a growl.

"You don't know what he's like intimately," she said. "He's a brutal warrior, clever and deadly, but he's also the sweetest male I've ever been around."

"I didn't know he had a sweet side," Eve scoffed.

"He does," Kyasha sighed, looking back down. "He almost died for me. He saved your friend Kane's life on numerous occasions, as well."

Eve's face hardened and he looked away angrily.

"Don't talk about him," Eve said distastefully.

"He has a new name now," Kyasha said, ignoring him. "He calls himself Vinson. Vinson Faust."

"I said don't talk about him," Eve said again, becoming more irritated.

"He's really become a member of the family-" Kyasha stopped when Eve slammed one of his paws down on the log he sat upon.

"I SAID DON'T TALK ABOUT HIM!" he yelled, furious. Kyasha was silent, looking at him fearfully. Eve sat back and relaxed. "He's made some mistakes, I know. But he isn't so far gone that I can't save him. Now, please, stop talking about Kane."

"Alright..." Kyasha said quietly, not wishing to provoke the large, fire-breathing creature with a lethal advantage over her. She lay her head down on the cold rock and waited in silence for her captor to speak to her again.

"I apologize," he said finally, swallowing his anger.

"Why?" Kyasha asked, looking back at him.

"For yelling at you," he said. "It was uncalled for...and I'm sorry."

Kyasha laughed, a full, hearty laugh, one that made her chest feel warm and tingly. Eve looked at her confusedly.

"Why are you laughing at me?" Eve asked, smiling at little at the bizarre nature of their interaction. Kyasha finally stifled her laugh and cleared her throat.

"Sorry, sorry," she said, gasping. "It's just that this seems so...storybook. In Carnia, getting yelled at was considered a VERY good thing, it means that the person angry at you isn't angry enough to kill you or take off one of your limbs! But, to hear someone actually apologize for it? That's like hearing Peter Rabbit apologizing for eating Mr. McGregor's carrots."

Eve laughed for a second as well before realizing something that he hadn't quite thought of before.

"I didn't know they had storybooks in Carnia?" he asked. She looked back up at him with a strange look of mixed curiosity and fear.

"They don't?" she said curiously, afraid that she had just made a wrong move.

"Then how do you know about Peter Rabbit?" he asked. Her eyes widened, she was struck by a strange feeling.

"I...heard it in my childhood," she explained.

"But then you weren't always Carnian?" Eve asked. "No, of course you weren't...I remember you at the steel mill that night. Back then you were with the Hollowborn, right?"

"Leading the Hollowborn, actually," she admitted with a small glimmer of pride.

"Wow," Eve said, raising an eyebrow. "I'm humbled."

He laughed a little at her expense, hoping his joke hadn't offended her.

Kyasha noted his sarcasm, letting it sink dryly into her thoughts. She wasn't offended, per se, but she was a little aggravated that her pride was still being attacked.

"Your sarcasm is not appreciated," she heard herself say. Both she and Eve went wide-eyed...

"Did...did you just respond to criticism without being a touchy bitch?" Eve asked, completely serious.

"I...I think I did," Kyasha said, looking down at the rocks again. "What's wrong with me?"

"You maybe found that you have a heart after all," Eve said.