Akiko smiled brightly at him, "brilliant!" She turned towards it, "It'll get us to the next town i hope!" She moved quickly towards the trees getting underneath the branches so that she could be somewhat rain and wind protected. She rode in silence for awhile pushing on trying to keep herself from freaking out. She didn't understand her fear of thunderstorms, but she had one. Her eyes roamed the ground to try to lead the horse around anything that might be there, she had absentminded pulled out the priest's gift again and it was clutched tightly in her hand. Looking down though she didn't see the tree-branch that was right in front of her and she got hit hard at the speed she had the horse moving and she nearly fell off but she lost grip on the emblem and let out a wail as it fell from her hands. She tried to pull her horse into a stop and not lose sight of the emblem but it was nearly impossible in what was now turning into mud. Akiko let out a little cry as she finally pulled the horse to a stop and she turned him around to look for it.

Aranthal had seen the trinket fall from her hands as the tree branch hit it. He immediately raced to the point where it had fallen gotten off his horse and retrieved it. Getting back on his horse and riding over slowly "you seem to have dropped this." he held it out so that no matter what she would have to touch his hand to get it. Hoping she would touch his skin so that he may have a reason to like her more.

Akiko reached out and took the emblem tears of relief coming to her eyes. "Oh my gosh thank you so much!" She nearly jumped onto his horse to hug him in her excited thanks. "I thought I'd lost it forever!" That was a major exaggeration of course, but those were typical of her. She slid the rest of the way back onto her horse embarrassed and wiping the emblem on her cloak and than hugging it across her heart. Nudging the horse gently she got him moving again.

Aranthal was a little surprised at the way she jumped at him but the hug was very nice. He even had planted a kiss on her cheek while she was hugging him. "It was no big deal honestly," he said to her after she got back on her horse. He sighed knowing that she may only want him for his horse. ((sorry im getting a little tired and i need to be up in 6 hours so night all))

Akiko had barely noticed the kiss, but she felt that it was him just being a gentlemen, even so she blushed all the same and happily hugged her emblem. "Thank you again Sir, Aranthal." She slid it back into her bag so she wouldn't lose it again. okay, focus on the ground AND the trees now, she thought, I need to make sure I don't do something stupid like that again. The storm was beginning to howl and she shivered involuntarily. I hate thunderstorms, she groaned. She visibly jumped as the lightning flashed, its as if it's still night! It's so dark out still.

(i really hope he actually told her his name, XD i forget )

Solruil's senses were ever being clouded by the growing storm effects. The wind caues her ears to be almost completely deaf, the dark clouds erased most of the sunlight, and the smell of the storm was entirely all that she could breath in. She watched as the elf ran ahead. Smart to look for small caves in the rocky hills. From her past experiences here, she knew that many of the wolves lived in these caves. Thinking more about why she hadn't thought of this idea, Solruil realized it was because of the great danger of coming face-to-face with a giant wolf wasn't her ideal "safe-place". But now there were more people with her. It would be suicide to face a lone wolf by herself but with these fighters, she wondered what the outcome would be.

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((Shadami. I don't know why Kotori's pictures still isn't coming up..Maybe I"m doing something wrong, but can you post his picture one more time ? :D maybe I can get it to work.. lol Sorry for the trouble!))

'Kotori'Katie had thought,going along and looking for a cave.She looked around and spotted Drake trying to call out something but looked at the sky.

Drake yelled up to Kotori."I Know theres a cave just past those trees!"He called pointing behind him.Running up to where they were and looked at the sky,feeling the wind.He knew they had to find somewhere to camp.

or http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g.../fe10-male.jpg
Kotori pushed on, he wasn't sure if he trusted the location of the cave Drake pointed out not to have something lying in wait for them. Nonetheless he turned around. "Should we take the first cave or try to push on to cover some distance before we stop?" He knew whatever would be out now to attack them would be in the caves, but it was there safest bet to at least cover part of the field to get to Solruil and Alana's city on time. Rain was now falling pretty hard and he wiped some off his eyes and than squinted, he could still see through the slits and his eyelashes kept the rain off so it didn't bug him to much. He was drenched however and that annoyed him just the slightest amount.

Aranthal had never been called sir before. "It was my pleasure mi lady." He laughed on the inside. I wonder if she likes me or if its just her being polite. Ill find out when i only can afford to rent one room. He noticed that she had jumped at the sign of lightning, she must be afraid of lightning. "Lady akiko you wouldn't happen to be scared of this storm" he asked as he rode up next to her with relative ease.

"No!" her voice clearly revealed that she was both annoyed and lying. Then she jumped again at another flash of lightning. "Okay...maybe."

(sorry had to go to class and didn't realize I had so little amount of time)

Aranthal rode closer and then reached out and held her hand. He then sang a song that was sung for him a long time ago by his mother. I wonder how she is doing, it has been over 60 years since i have been to my home village. "You will be find miss akiko, it can't hurt you as long as you stay close but not too close to the woods."

(I'm deleting what was in this post)

Akiko nodded briefly not looking up, tears had come to her eyes. She didn't know why the weather was getting to her so completely. She decided that if he noticed she would pretend it was just the rain. Yeah, that'll work! Normally she was really happy but everything she had ever known had suddenly been thrown into the wind. haha, very funny Akiko She scolded herself. She twitched hearing something and looked up and around.

Katie walked by Kotori."Maybe we should find a cave for the night..Its getting pretty bad."She said,hearing lightning crack threw the air.Drake stood behind Kotori,watching..most likely wanting to kill them all.He regretted missing Katie.

(I'm going to start new again, so I've deleted everything on this post...)

Aranthal continued to sing but switched to a more up beat fun tune. He couldn't help but laugh while he was singing it because he was after all singing in front of a complete stranger and he was very shy around them even more so around girls. I wonder if she has a guitar that i could play for her so i could see her dance. "Well we better hurry we do have some distance to travel now don't we." he looked at her and smiled then took her hand and kissed it to try and hit on her.

(Who's hand is Aranthal trying to kiss?)

(Akiko's hand, you never said which group you were coming up on. akiko and aranthal aren't with the others.)

Phantom had fallen behind because of the direct wind against his face, which put Solruil almost last in the march. She quickly jogged back up to the front when she realized this though. Everyone's words of finding shelter had travelled through the wind to her ears. Elf, Even though this weather is horrible, it is not yet unsafe. And from the look of these clouds, it won't get that way for awhile. We need to continue. ...Plus, you know what lies in those caves. I suggest we continue for awhile and look for another cave closer to the end of these lands.. There a a lot on the eastern side-closer to New Atre'as. Solruil new that they could handle a lot worse a storm and come out, just wet and tired. And she knew that Kotori had this knowledge as well. She hoped that the whole group would be able to decide quickly and easily because time was not on their side right now. Taking a vote for this was not an option either. Whatever we decide, we must do now. We'll be able to make it to the edge of the valley if we keep moving now, and if we decide to stay in the cave-its..Right there...Solruil pointed to her front-right.What's the plan?

(did i mention the whole read other people's posts thing? Sorry don't mean to be rude... but, it just gets on my nerves a bit.)

Kotori shot her a look, he knew full well what they were up against but as far as he could tell most of them were whiny humans that couldn't stand getting wet. The human part of him of course was also complaining a bit but he lived in nature and had no issues with it. "The wind is going to bring the bad parts of the storm much faster, I want to cover as much ground as possible before we are forced to stop." He glanced around at the members of the group. "even if you all stop I am going to move on ahead, rider, if you plan to do the same than I am with you. " He turned back to the path and quickened his pace, his footsteps nearly invisible as he moved swiftly around rocks and boulders making his way deeper into the small valley and across it.

I am not going to wait up for them to decide, this is their quest anyways, and I'm just tagging along. . . It is ridiculous. He eyed the newcomer over his shoulder, a deep loathing that he didn't understand in the front of his mind, out of all of them, this. 'Drake,' was the one he trusted the least.

Akiko's hand lit on fire and she looked up at him quickly a small blush creeping across her cheeks as she looked directly at his eyes. "oh." Her voice softened, and she lowered her eyelashes embarrassed looking at him through them. "Thank you for helping me." He was so close, she could feel his warmth even in the distance between their horses, or maybe that was her warming up, she wasn't exactly positive. Leaning across the horses she gave him a small kiss on the cheek and than sat back up in her horse. She seemed to have a calmer stance though she still jumped slightly when there was thunder or lighting.

Arantha felt a strange presence between them, he then jumped on the back of her horse after she kissed him. He wrapped his arms around akiko keeping the reigns of his horse. "Be still mi lady the storm will not hurt us." after saying this he took the reigns from her hands and urged the horse to go faster to make up for some lost time. "I hope you don't mind but we should try to get there sooner than later." Aranthal then hugged her with one arm as he steered both horses with relative ease.

It was an odd feeling that was going though Akiko right at that moment, she had never felt like this with anyone before. This elf also put up with her, could handle her wild ways and her seductive side. She leaned back into his chest closing her eyes in the warmth and protection she felt. The feelings washed over her completely eliminating the storm from her mind, all she focused on was this man who was kind to her. A small smile crept across her face, I must be dreaming. "Of course, the sooner the better." She murmured. She was completely lost in the strange feeling that she didn't understand but it felt extremely nice.

Aranthal smiled when he felt akiko lean back into him. This feels so right, it feels as if she is my perfect match. "So do you feel safer now?" he leaned forward and tilted her head then kissed her on her lips for a while making sure they wouldn't hit anything. He then smiled as he felt his heart race after he stopped kissing her. "I'm sorry i shouldn't have done that, i don't know what came over me." he said but not moving from behind her hoping she would tell him it was ok that he had kissed her.

Katie walked along,the most boring part of this was that threw all the walking they were doing..They were still..nowhere.She closed her eyes letting the rain hit her,she had caughten up fast with Kotori and now realized why she had never talked before to them that much..she really either had nothing to say or something that would make someone hate her.Even though,she hated almost everyone.She took out her dagger,feeling a little bit of despair in her emotions,she showed nothing on her face though.She always had a lovely mask to hide all the pain or sorrow that her memories brought to her,she loved this mask of fake emotions she used because she felt like a different person,she felt stronger,Quicker,and the best of all was that no one ever knew how she really felt,and she loved to keep it that way.

Drake ran to catch up with them,healing his arm and looking up at the sky with his dark red eyes.He was very strange of course..but a fairly happy person.Sure he was demonic but thats no reason to go off and destroy everyone.

Akiko nodded in a weird trance like way, This is definitely a dream, no one kisses like that. Her heart beat had sped up, and she felt like her entire body was now on fire. "No, I'm fine." What she said only made partial sense with anything she had been asked by Aranthal. She didn't do that on purpose, it was just that in her head that sounded like what she was supposed to reply with. A smile creased her lips and she brought a hand up to them in amazement. it has to be a dream... Her eyes stayed close, and she felt that the rain that was dripping on her was nothing more than that, maybe from a waterfall, and she was dreaming while taking a swim or something, yeah.. that was it.

Kotori frowned as Katie seemed to refuse to leave his side, but she was saying absolutely nothing, not even an opinion on staying with the group or getting out of the storm. The wind was horrible and his bow would be useless because the wind was pointed toward them. Climbing a rock he braced himself crouching low. Up ahead there was some movement that did not seem like natural movement, more like something was out there. His eyes narrowed as he squinted against the wind trying to figure it out, moving over more rocks getting closer, his bow was locked firmly over his shoulder and his dagger was drawn just encase.

(btw, if you've ever heard of a druid, it's kind of similar to what kind of person Kotori is. )