Seth wandered the cold, dark forest road, his breath coming out like smoke from his mouth. He felt eyes boring into his back, panic overwhelming him as his walk turned into a run. He felt something warm fall on his face- rain? With horror he looked up, realizing that what dripped off the trees was dark blood...

"Seee-eeeth...."

Seth looked around wildly, trying to draw his dagger but realizing that it had disappeared from his waist.

"Seee-eeeth... What's wrong? Do I scare you?" A skinny, pallid girl appeared before him, brushing lanky strands of hair away from her blood stained, marred face.

Seth tried to scream for Kobas, for Rhyss, for Sovelis, and even Arrika- but nothing would come out. He was paralyzed as what remained of his sister crept towards him, her chewed, slash hand missing all of its fingers except half of one stretching for him... eagerly awaiting the chance to rip him apart just as she had been....

OoC: Alcohol impairs my dream walking. YAH!

IC:

Sovelis was somehow still awake, and he was just as drunk. His hand slipped up to Arrika's shoulder and he shook her gently. "Arrika? *HICCUP* Wakie Wakie..." he mumbled. Sovelis smiled drunkenly at the sleeping girl and tried to wake her up again. "Arrika...wake up..*HICCUP* I wanna talk...or...something. I can't sleep when I'm a wee bit drunk...it..makes me all...weird..." he kept mumbling as he tried to make her wake up.

Arrika opened one eye, Sovelis shaking her awake. Damn him; she'd been dreaming about Kobas. "What? I'm awake, I'm awake... what else do you want...?" She yawned, rolling over and burying her face in the pillow to stifle it, her arms feeling like lead.

"Hey, Little Green, having a nightmare?" Ralin said, slinking over to him, her head still throbbing. "Maybe you ate too much..."

Sovelis scooted as close to Arrika as he could. "You. You are the prettiest girl ever...*HICCUP*...You know that...right?" He said, smiling drunkenly in Arrika's face. His breath didn't smell like a drunk's. Instead, it smelled like the sweetened fruits that had been used in making the wine that everyone had so happily drank with dinner. "W-when we were in the...erm, where were we? Right...When we were in the t-twilight...I thought, I thought I was going to loose you. I felt my life pass before my eyes right before I turned...*HICCUP*...back into myself..."

Sovelis put his arm around Arrika and pulled the two of them closer. "I thought, that we would never see one another...I was afraid that we lost each other..." Sovelis whispered as he moved closer to Arrika's pale lips, and kissed them with his own.

"I told you not to do it..." Arrika muttered, pulling away slightly. "Noooo oooone ever listens to meeee..." She giggled, similar to Ralin's own high pitched one. "I wonder if Seth passed out from just the smell of the wine.... I'm gonna have a reeeaaallly big headahe tomorrow, hahaha," she started laughing madly as if that were the funniest joke in the world. "Ya know wha', you taste awful good!" As if to show what she meant she jumped on Sovelis to kiss him again, this time deeper.

Sovelis's eyes popped wide open when Arrika jumped on him and locked her lips on his. Whoa...either I'm dreaming...or she is too drunk to control herself... he thought as his hands slid up her back and pulled her even closer than before. Drawing breath through his nose, Sovelis was determined not to break the kiss that they were so eagerly enjoying with each other. He quickly ran his real hand up further and up onto the back of Arrika's neck, running his warm, living fingers through her long and dark hair.

With his right hand where it was, Sovelis moved his cold, steely left hand down to Arrika's waist and squeezed the side of her stomach gently, trying to see if she would jump form the cold of his hand, or the playful attack on her side.

Arrika yelped as the cold metal reached her warmer skin, breaking their kiss and hopping back on the bed a foot or so. "You suck...!" She said, and almost fell backwards and off the high bed but caught herself in time. "Seeeeeee, I've got awesome ninja reflexes too...! Just like Kobas...! He took out six guys at once when I was hostage that one time..." The Sheikah started to laugh uncontrollably again. "I still got this sick scar on my back when they slashed me open- hahahah, I cried and everything was covered in red.... Wanna see it?!"

*HICCUP* The noise escaped Sovelis's mouth before he could answer the girl. In the dim moonlight, his face seemed to redden at the Idea of Arrika showing him any of her that was normally covered up. "S-sure...I mean, If you wanna show me your scar. I can show you some of mine that I've g-gotten clawed or cut or burned into me over the years...*HICCUP*...Theirs one thats on my back and my chest...from when I got run through with a sword...its pretty bad..." Sovelis mumbled, sitting up and looking at Arrika's face. His slightly drunken grin shined in the dim light as his head tilted to the right somewhat.

The Sheikah fumbled for a moment for the zipper on her jacket-shirt, then finally found it and unzipped it, pulling it off with a little difficulty. Turning around so her back was to Sovelis, she pulled down her tank top at the left shoulder, and a large and painful looking scar could be seen marring her otherwise smooth back. "I can't think right now," she mumbled. "So I'll just show you how I got it." She grabbed the Tempest's hand and dizzily tried to concentrate.

A 13-year-old Arrika kneeled bound and gagged on a cold, grimy floor. Her eyes were wide with fear and she shook from the rapidly dropping temperature as the night wore on.

"I don't think he's coming," said one of the thugs to their leader. "Damn! What a waste of time."

"He'll come. Won't he, girl?" Their leader was a muscular rogue whose body was covered with various fading tattoos. He kicked the Sheikah girl in the side and smirked as she cried out in pain and fell over.

Kobas... I don't... want to die...

As if he had heard her silent plea, the already cracked and dirty windows of the abandoned house crashed and shattered, a blue haired thief jumping in and landing with a smooth roll. Before any of them could react three of the bandits had fallen. Their leader grabbed their young hostage, hauling her up roughly and holding a blade dripping with black poison at her throat.

Kobas circled him warily, playing with his dagger casually in his hand, although his eyes were as lethal as a wolf's. By chance the already huge bandit tripped over Arrika's clumsy footing as she tried to stand, and in that one moment of weakness Kobas decided to strike. By another stroke of luck, although this one not in his favor the bandit had anticipated his attack and Kobas missed. Arrika had tried to stumble away, and her kidnapper, thinking that Kobas would drop anything to save the girl if she was hurt, slashed her while her back was turned to him.

Arrika soon passed out from the pain, waking an hour later to see Rhyss working frantically to heal her. He could have easily prevented a scar, but he didn't have an anitidote for the venin blade and it was the best he could do.

The vision was foggy due to Arrika's drunkeness and skipped the part where Kobas slashed out the rogue's throat, but it was sure to get the point across.

Sovelis gasped after he pulled his hand away form Arrika's skin. Mental images such as those always carried the imprint of the original pain that had been in the memory. "Arrika...I-I'm sorry. You were so young..and that happened...I'm so... sorry..." he mumbled drunkenly, putting real hand on Arrika's shoulder. "If we're going in order...of the worst pain...than I'll...*HICCUP*...Show you the worst pain I have ever felt..." He said, pulling Arrika closer and wrapping his arms around her.

The Doctors hadn't expected their patient to be so young. What kind of parents would put a ten-year old boy through this kind of surgery? The head surgeon looked down at the kid, and smiled at him from behind his face mask.

"Are you ready? We're about to start..." he said, looking into the boy's green eyes.

"Uh huh. Does this mean I'll have an arm like everyone else?" Cody asked the doctor, smiling up at the man.

"Thats right...You'll have two arms like the rest of the kids. Isn't that great?" the doctor said as he and the nurses tightened the straps that would hold down the patient.

"But why do you hafta tie me up? I'm not gonna wiggle around. I don't even cry when they gave me a shot earlier!" the blond haired boy remarked, a wide grin on his young face.

"Because...we have to so that you don't move around and hurt yourself."

The doctor nodded at the nurse, who nodded back. She handed the doctor a slim, surgical knife that reflected the overhead light grimly...

"I'm not going to lie to you, Cody. This surgery will be very, very painful. Theirs a lot of work we have to do, and we can't give you any medicine to take away the pain."

"Okay. I'll be okay, doc! I scrapped my knee yesterday, and it didn't even hurt!" the boy said cheerfully.

The doctor's eyes filled with tears as he pat the young boy on his head. "Thats good...Now, this will hurt, allot." And with that, he sank the blade into Cody's soft, left shoulder, and started to carve out the stump that should have been a left arm.

Outside, in hallway, a passing nurse heard a scream coming form the O.R. A scream that sounded like someone had taken a little boy and stabbed him right in his chest and was gutting him alive.

The doctor handed the nurse the bloody, mass of flesh and bone that was the base of an arm. He could feel it quivering in his gloved hand as the nurse took it, and he stepped aside for the technician to do her job.

She looked the kid that she was working on. His eyes were wide open, and his breathing was shallow. If it wasn't for the heartbeat monitor that was beeping, she would have guessed that he had died from the pain. She slowly took the wires for the automail base, and started to stab them into the base of the nerves that hung out the side of him, exposed and dripping blood. With each connection, the boy screamed as if his body was on fire.

After about thirty of these, she saw the nurse put another bag of blood on the IV. if they didn't keep more blood going into the kid, he'd bleed to death before they could finish. She fitted a steel cover over the wires, and poked them through the hole in the middle. She then stuck a metal pipe with a ball end into the hole, and rammed it into the kids shoulder socket, causing him to scream again, even though he had passed out already.

She quickly took the base pieces and started to screw them into the highest rib bone, shoulder blade, and collar bone. After that, another doctor came in and sealed the wounds with a special heated iron, cauterizing the wound and closing the holes up. Then he wrapped the wound with gauze, and they wheeled the boy to his room. The next day, he would be fitted with his arm...

Sovelis was crying as he held Arrika next to him, the pain in his mind made his shoulder throb as if the wounds were still fresh. "A-Arrika?" he sobbed, kissing her cheek. "Are y-you...alright?"

OoC: I kept imagining that picture of cute Sovelis you sent me screaming in pain... I'm such a softie, I swear my eyes got all misty....

IC: Arrika was stunned silent for awhile, and even seemed sober at that moment. "No..." she said, her voice wavering. "A little kid could take the pain with a smile and all I do is whimper and cry..." A few tears leaked to the corner of her eyes, but she held them back as always. "I'm such a coward... Don't leave me, okay?" The Sheikah blurted out. "He left too, and all I could do was wander around aimlessly and cry... don't disappear too... I think I- I think I love you..." Her voice shook with emotion, something Arrika would normally never let herself do. Was this just the alcohol talking and exaggerating what she really felt?

"I'm not going anywhere. I promise you....that I'm not gonna leave you alone." Sovelis said, turning the sheikah around and pulling her close to his chest. "I'll be right by your side, and take care of you...*HICCUP*...And I love you t-too Arrika... So much more because of our little adventures in the Twilight." He said, laying back down and pulling her down with him. "I'm not going anywhere..." he whispered, closing his eyes and pulling the blanket over the both of them, and smiling at the girl on top of him.

The sound of Sovelis's blood pulsing so close to her seemed to sing out to her, inviting her to try it. Before the Sheikah was fully aware of what she was doing she had entwined one hand in the Tempest's hair and pulled back roughly to expose his neck, her teeth now fangs as she clamped down on the nape of his neck. Arrika seemed to realize what she was doing then, and with a red tinge across her face slid down.

Arrika managed to regain full control of her voice and was soon nodding off to sleep again. "Hey... tomorro'... promise you'll tell meh wha' happened, 'kay? I hate bein' drunk an' forgettin everythin'..." She murmured, resting her head on his chest. "Although I don' think I'ma forget whatcha showt me..." Her speech seemed to grow worse as drowsiness took over, but the screams of the younger Sovelis rang through her mind.

The little bite caused Sovelis to squirm slightly, but he didn't mind the intimacy of that little action bother him, even if it bothered her."M'kay...I'll do tha.. *yawn* ...that...in the morning..." Sovelis mumbled as he slowly drifted out of the waking world, and into a forced state of drunken, dreamless sleep. His eyes seemed to slightly glaze, his breathing grew shallow, his pulse slowed drastically. All of the obvious signs of sleep were there, but his mind simply...Turned off and left his body to fend for its own while he was out of it....

The house grew silent as the night went by slowly, leaving all within to find sleep, least they be on the kitchen floor, dreaming of a dead sister, or wandering the library, thinking of their past home.

Ralin ended up sitting on a counter in the kitchen, her gaze still fixed on the moon. She didn't move any inch, and her breathing was so shallow it was as if she were a dark statue. A little farther away Seth would twitch and mutter every now and then, unseen nightmares ravaging his sleep. The pixie stayed that way until the radiant sun and dawn with it began to rise, the brightness and intensity of it dazzling her.