Blood Tainted Rose

Chapter Ten: Aria Bells

    Lotus had gotten up earlier than the boys. Last night she had too many nightmares to count. Another reason she woke up earlier was after yesterdays sneak attacks Jiro and Ryker needed to recover more than her. Though Jiro didn’t say anything about serious injury, but he seemed completely exhausted after the battle last night. Deciding to get some water she went into the woods. She liked these ruins a lot. It was peaceful and calm. Even the forest was the same way.

    Filling up the canteen she looked at the water, staring at her eyes. Lotus always wanted blue eyes or brown. In the younger years at the Neutral Grounds children made fun of her eyes. But none of it fazed the young half-breed. As long as she was comfortable in her own skin everything would be fine. Yasha was the more sensitive out of the two. He still managed to keep his spirits high. Now the Neutral Grounds was a distant memory.

    Arriving back at camp Jiro was cooking a wild bird that he claimed, “Walked right in front of me.” Taking a seat in front of him she watched him. During the surprise attack he had a cut above his eye that was already healed. That is the most amazing thing about being a half-breed. Gaining the demon ability to heal fast. Lotus didn’t know what else you received if one of your parents was a demon.

     “Jiro do you get a longer life?” asked Lotus. “Like demons can live a hundred years and still look the same. Do half-breeds have that?”

     “Generally, yes. It’s like we are demons, but we aren’t. We have limitations.”

    “Like what?”

    Jiro looked her straight in the eye and sighed. “Our bodies do weaken if we fight for too long. Also half-breeds can become stronger than demons, sometimes. There is just a power deep down that is valuable. Whoever your father was clearly was powerful or they wouldn’t just be targeting you.”

    Shaking her head she ate her food. While eating the injured Ryker came out with bandages wrapped around him, almost looking like a mummy. Ryker didn’t look as bad now, but still wasn’t better. The attack by Than took a toll, as well as this one. They still moved forward towards Ryoku. While they ate talk of yesterday’s battle was fun and interesting. Jiro kept saying there were still some flaws in both Ryker’s and Lotus’ fighting techniques. This moment was like being apart of a family. Even if it was going to be taken away by some attack at any moment it was still nice for all of them to have their family moment.

    Ryker suddenly dropped his food, sniffing like a dog. Something in the air wasn’t right anymore, like another presence around their campsite. Standing up he walked casually around the ruins, then taking hold of a young girl by the hair and throwing her down growling. A little scream escaped her before Lotus went over to see her. She seemed to be a little younger than Lotus; she also had an army uniform on, which meant her squad couldn’t be far.

    Suddenly thirty or so men surrounded them holding gun in their hands. There was no way to escape this mess without being shot in the head or something like that. Taking in the men surrounding them Ryker let her go as she ran back behind one of the solders. Standing there completely still the sound of boots came closer. Their commander was coming over to their direction. Expecting a big strong looking man Ryker stood up straight.

    To everyone’s surprise it wasn’t the big strong muscled man they were expecting. Instead it was a woman with dark skin, with short black hair, and a stunning scare free face, not what you would expect from someone fighting in the army considering almost every man surrounding them had several scares on their face. However she didn’t, she also wore a commander’s uniform with a raven holding a blade in its claws on her shoulder. Her eyes were as dark as the raven on her jacket. Lotus thought this mess would soon be fixed since she was part of the army, but instead this woman took out a sword and pointed it at Ryker’s neck. Natural animal instincts kicked in and he growled. Already this wasn’t looking good.