Blood Tainted Rose

Chapter Nine: Battles

    For the next few days Jiro and Lotus focused on returning Ryker back to his normal state of mind. Ever since that first night he had been watching Lotus with wide eyes. It was almost like he was ensuring she was safe or something. Jiro only allowed him to do certain things for the day. Like watching the campsite, gather wood with Lotus, and cooking the food for the night. Lotus never knew about the effect of Than’s power. It was incredible. His power of shadow, from what Jiro told her, showed what you feared most and sometimes physically harms you. Then if he didn’t kill you with that shadow visions of all sorts of fears and nightmares would make the person insane. Eventually the people kill themselves. Ryker had a few close calls, but Lotus was always there to protect him. During the night Ryker would constantly toss and turn with nightmares, but Lotus stayed by his side to protect him. The way she calmed him down was having him lay on her lap until he would breath normally again. These were a hard few days with Ryker. However they made everything work until he was back too normal. He wouldn’t try to harm himself and wouldn’t have nightmares very often.

     Soon it was time to begin heading towards Ryoku again. Yasha was still waiting for his sister to come save him. Packing up everything Lotus worried about her friend, but he was acting normal and was functioning normally again. That fear, though, that he was still messed up by Than weighed on her mind. What if he went through that again? What if another one of her friends went through that? So many thoughts about that scenario went around like bees around a flower field. Shaking her head she focused on leaving the cave. It was irritating staying in a place like this. It was boring, nothing exciting, other than Ryker sometimes attempting to kill himself.

    Jiro came into the cave after gathering some fresh berries and refilling their water. Now they were off to the great and powerful City of Ryoku. If what rumors were true about it would be hard to get in. However there were ways to get into a place like that. Lotus wanted to know more about this place, but she feared Ryker wouldn’t tell her. So she left it at that.

    Walking out of the woods it was dead silence in the trio. Ryker opened his mouth to speak. “So how bad was I?” Ryker asked looking down to the ground. It was like he had recollection about what happened in his time of insanity. “Like did I ever try anything crazy?”

    Lotus couldn’t help smiling a little. Where would she begin? “Well for one thing you tried to kill yourself more than once,” began the girl. “Second you kept watching me like a crazy hawk or something. And third you kept screaming in your sleep.”

    The demon remembered watching her like a hawk while he was up. He was worried about her. “I feel like crap. Like I have been drained of all energy.”

     “Well it was your fault being stupid,” Jiro chimed into their conversation. “Swear if you weren’t an idiot you wouldn’t be insane and we could have covered more ground.” The half-breed looked at the two of the young adults in the eye. “Let’s agree not to be stupid anymore.”

    Shaking their heads they walked on. Lotus talked to Ryker about how she finally accepted the fact she was a half-breed. Of course the demon laughed about being right, which was then punched in the shoulder. Jiro had to begin walking behind them so they wouldn’t fight. The rest of the day was spent trying to find a way out, looking at maps. It was when the sun began to set was when they set up a campsite. Tents were pitched and tents were set up. Three surrounded the fire to keep them warm for the night. Clover came holding a dead rabbit in her mouth. Giving it to Ryker she motioned for the other wolves to come up to her. Two more came holding rabbits in their mouth. While Jiro cooked the food Lotus went inside to change into something warmer. She changed into a long sleeved navy shirt with a pair of faded jeans, along with wearing a leather jacket. Sitting down Lotus rested against Ryker. She was starting to fall asleep, but she wouldn’t go to sleep yet. It was still early in the evening.