((ugh, not sure what to type so I'm just going to wait until I can get back in the swing again.
Where do you think we should go from here? I have kind of an idea but it ends somewhere hitting another(Badgers I believe) territory. And meeting up with a certain someone on the way there~<3 ))

Onil-Anja's eyes were glazed over in bloodlust. Oh the power he had exerted he hadn't felt in years. His breath hitched at the wound of Irene moving and he made a visible effort to calm himself. Finding his peace in the knowledge that the opposition and his forever annoyance were gone he turned to her slowly. A saccharine grin was plastered in his face , leaving his eyes dark pools a malice. It was unnerving to a lesser person but he figured if she could stand to be around the naga she wouldn't flinch.

"My dear..." he hissed moving so that he curled around her, "I know you wanted that girl but we must wait. I find my prey much more appetizing when they fight on the way down." His fangs glistened with venom as he spoke and he wrapped his claws around her middle. "We must be patient, they will return in due time."

Truth be told he was just as eager to see what that girl had to offer. It might not have been much but it had certainly caused enough of a stir. His guards were nervous, something that didn't happen often. He could tell that when his plan came through the foundation of this world would crumble, and with a bit of new information, so would the next.

-______________________-

He was tired. There were times when he would get like this, when he would do battle with a much large and experienced opponent only to either come out the victor or there wouldn't be enough energy to move in either of them. He had fought like a beast. It wasn't something he liked to think about when he got right down to it but it was what he had done. His injuries reminded him of those troubled times and he almost wished he had stayed a slave.

'Or at least been killed as a hatch-ling.' He shook his head as he stared up at the open sky. It was morning, the sun was high and he knew a good portion of his tail was buried under sand. They must have been at a beach or a desert of some sort, he surmised eyes finally turning to take in the sight. It was...glorious to be able to see again. To be able to see and not just feel the world around him. He hadn't realized what he would miss until it was gone. It was just happenstance that something gruesome would be his first sight. He would never un-see it.

Hearing Claire calling for him he stirred slowly, as to not aggravate his woulds further he coiled what of his tails he could and left what didn't move well alone. He became of the sting almost immediately but he ignored it in favor of trying to move. "I am here, little one..." He said, his voice hoarse. "I am here."

He just wished he knew where here was. Soturo had put in the spell and he hadn't had time to read it before he finished its casting. There was sand here, but that only narrowed down the places somewhat. It had to have been some place Soturo knew, or expected they would be safe, other wise it wouldn't have been there. Of course, again, it could have been any number of places.

His eyes finally locked on Claire, a sigh of relief escaping from him. He noted that Valdis was still holding onto Soturo's lifeless form. That wasn't healthy. That body was nothing but a shell now, it did them no good to dwell on it. Even as he thought it his heart ached for his friend. He might never see her again, ever. His first real, someone who did not lie, manipulate him, destroy or get rid of him, and she always asked for very little.

'Sadness...grief?' he turned the words over. Yes, that was what he was feeling. But again, now was not the time. Even so he reached his hand to Claire, dropping it once more when he remembered the blood, "Are you both well enough to move?"

The redhead took in the naga's countenance calmly with a shrug of her shoulders. A smile of her own flitted across Irene's features at the thought of what the future would bring. This world held so much potential for someone as ambitious as she. It had been easy enough to gain the influence she already had.

Humming softly the woman wrapped her arms lazily around the prince as his scaled tail slithered around her. "As you wish, for now. If in time they do not come it will be my turn." Glee filled her words at the thought of what she would do to gain more power when the opportunity came her way once more.

-----------------

The sound of the naga's voice made a so of relief escape the young woman's lips. Turning her green eyes away from the sea, Claire finally saw Barlios and moved to his side quickly. Heedless of the blood on his hands, she grasped one of them in her own and wrapped one of her arms carefully around him. Giving the naga a gentle hug and resting her head against his shoulder, the young woman silently told herself to stop crying all the time.

"I'm alright. You ... really don't seem too good." Worry tinged Claire's words as she lifted her head slightly to try and figure out just how badly Barlios had been wounded. There was just so much she didn't know. Learning how to take care of injuries like this hadn't seemed all that important, what where the chances after all? But now Claire cursed herself for never having taken even a single firs aid course.

Valdis seemed to snap out of his daze upon hearing the naga's voice. Shaking his head, the dark haired centaur carried the body away and hid it in a spot beneath some rather large rocks. Returning to the others, he sighed and knelt nearby. "As well as can be. What do we do now?" The numbness in Valdis's voice worried Claire, but she couldn't find it in her to blame him for feeling so.

Barlios managed a small smile. "I don't really feel all too good either." He sighed letting the comfort offered soak in. He felt weary, and battle beaten, which made sense because he was both those things. His body felt leaden but they had to keep moving. He didn't feel safe here where ever they had landed. It would be safe for a time, not a long one.

His eyes trailed over to where Soturo's former body had been lain and he almost told Valdis to pick it back up. 'Foolishness' His friend was gone there was no use holding onto a shell. They would have to find foods and fresh water. The beach itself was pristine and clean with the forest edging the place only 50 feet from where he was laying. There scent in the area was familiar, almost a warning in the back of his head. He took that for what it was and untangled himself from the sand further to right himself.

"We are in unknown territory..." He said watching the way the trees swayed as he watched. There was no breeze passing by to make them move, he would have felt, if not heard it.

The numb tone brought Barlios back to attention and he gave the man-horse a empathetic look. Much more had been lost in such times but even one more 'death' was always one too many. He would console the man if he knew how.

The trees parted way and a group of badger men carrying primitive spears, black and white fur raised and uneven teeth bared moved to stand before them. The red Naga's eyes narrowed those scant few seconds as he watched them, the men tall, lanky, definitely large then he remembered of the badger people, but then, he had only seen emissaries who were only female. They weren't as fierce looking as these men appeared to be.

One growled and barked, the largest -a white cresting warrior stripe and several colored beads hanging past his pressed ears marking him their leader- , directed at them. There was. Barlios didn't recognize the dialect but he understood the words 'Enemy', 'Danger', 'Leave'. He moved to respond in their native tongue but found he had little in the way of breath. It startled him until he realized he was still bleeding from some of his worse wounds. With great hesitation he slumped down careful so that he wouldn't drag Claire with him.

The leader narrowed, black beaded eyes at him before barking to his companions. The others barked, then circled the naga, moving Claire aside as some lifted his torso and others examined the wounds. More barked orders and they were dragging Barlios along with them, the leader staring fixedly at Claire and Vladis.

His words were rough as he spoke but he said with great pride in his ability, "Why have you come here?"

The young woman let out a small sigh. A feeling of helplessness, or rather uselessness , washed trough her. It was so hard to see how hurt Barlios was without any means of being able to help him. Then there was Valdis and his less visible wounds. Nothing Claire said or did could help either of them get trough their pains, which was among the worst things the young woman had come across so far.

Soon enough strange badger people had appeared, startling both the girl and the centaur from their respective musings. Normally the dark haired Valdis would have reared up and prepared himself to charge in and aid his friend ... But after suffering the loss of his mate a numb feeling permeated his body, making the man feel disinclined to help anyone.

Claire plunged forward passed the one who'd spoken to them without thinking. Or rather she moved to do so, then stopped to glare at the spear wielding badger with flashing green eyes. "Why should I answer any of your questions when you're dragging away my friend without any explanation! Who do you people think you are, coming here and manhandling people! I'd say you people were the worst, but after seeing the naga court I know that their ruler is the most depraved of them all." With every word her anger grew. Unknown to Claire, her newly discovered magic responded to her ire. Water ebbed and flowed in more violent a manner, rising faster and faster. It was called by an enraged mage and had no choice but to answer.

She did not control the sea of course, but simply the nearby water at the very edges of the vast ocean. Even so, it was more then enough to do damage if her concentration was not broken.

Barlios made no move to fight the men. They weren't causing him any more harm and even seemed to want to help him. They were rough but the men examining his wounds were trying(at least to some extent) to deal with the damage. His back to them he couldn't see what was happening even as he heard it. He wanted to warn her that the badger men have tempers, they have rules. There wasn't any energy left in him to even move much less speak.

The badger-men's leader turned angry eyes on the woman sniping at them. He growled at her resisting the urge to grab Claire. Instead, he stood to his full height and stared down at her as if non-pulsed by the show of power. Even their young sometimes had raw power, and it was their natural lack of control if something burned in anger. It did not matter, her posturing was a threat and he would answer it.

"You are trespasser . It is luck that you were not killed on sight. These be troubled times." He huffed angrily, his teeth bared. Blue-black energy shimmered over his fur like a shadowy mist as he bent to her level to stare her in the face. "malá žena (little woman) do not test me. The only reason you live is the hadí muž(snake man). Do not posture unless you intend to act, it be unwise." Though he gave her another pointed stare he said nothing more. Instead he barked more orders.

A few of the men broke off from the naga and ran off ahead, disappearing into the trees. The leader tossed his head back, the beads clicking lightly against each other as he took in the clouds over head, then the agitated waves. After another few moments he turned to face the human.

It was very like them, being in battle with them and speaking to their ambassadors, that they had limited knowledge of other cultures. Gestures that might appear normal to a human was rude to a badger and there were often misunderstandings. Its probably why they were in this situation with their tribe so, he, Caluk, en-devoured to learn their ways as well. It only helped so much. When your instincts screamed retaliation you'd have to have enough control to think past it. It was doable, but hard.

With a gruff huff he turn motioning for the spear wielder to join the men carrying Barlios through the forest. "Come." Caluk motioned with a jerk of his head, "You would see the hadi safe? We do not harm him. Will not placate you further, do as you wish." He did not stay to see if they listened or not, instead he bounded off after the moving group to help cart the naga to their village.


It wasn't so far into the forest that they'd have to make a long trek but by the time they arrived it was nearly mid morning. The dirt hovels and huts were hung with fires, fire pits were placed in the center of the encampment as nothing in the area looked permanent. People were scuttling about moving things to make room for the returning hunters. There was a sort of organized chaos to the way they moved, everyone seemed to be doing something, even the children that were peaking around stock piles and doorways.

The hunters place Barlios in front of one of the larger huts, making sure to curl the uninjured parts of his tail so that her at least fit in the village itself then left to their preassigned duties. From the hut emerged one large and old badger, she was wizened and scarred. Her crown was adorned much like Caluk's, with colored beads in earth tones and feathers scattered about it. A cane assisted her as she walked at a slow pace around the naga. Her eyes seemed glazed over as if unseeing but her attention always darted to a wound as she passed it.

Caluk knelt before the older badger, his head raised as he spoke, "Starší(elder), the woman was correct, we found them where she said they'd be."

The old badger nodded, "Yes, I can see that." there was a brief pause before the older woman began to chortle, slapping a bent knee, "Get it I can see, hohoh!"

Caluk sighed, "Yes, I-I get it..." He pressed a claw to his forehead as the old woman huffed at him.

"You don't sound like you get it. You were always my serious one." She shrugged at him pressing a hand to one of the naga's wounds. "You are gravely injured child and you are late. Your friend arrived before you did." She nodded sagely then turned to bark something at the hut she had been in. Badger women rushed out with bindings and wooden pots with herbs in them.

They were working on his cuts as Barlios got enough breath to ask, "What friend?"

The Elder pursed her thin lips in mock distaste, "A lady friend."Her blind eyes twinkled with mirth at the naga's confused ones, "A pretty one too. At least if she wasn't a friend was a very kind stranger, but I get the feeling that is not the case." She nodded as if deciding something, "Yes it was quite odd really, she didn't stay too long after warning us of your arrival, but she should return with in a day or so. Something about un-finish fishness." There was another pause.

"Business, starší." Caluk corrected. The elder nodded but turned to him.

"Well I'm starving, you didn't bring back any fish with you today. Honestly you men forget the smallest things, I'm beginning to think I should have sent Cara and the girls to hunt, at least they don't have sieve for brains."

"Starší, please..."

"What? I mean it, get your daughter, I want her trained for the next hunting trip, if nothing else you could use the extra brain power." The Elder snickered imagining the horrified look on Caluk's face. He did seem rather horrified if anyone cared to look.

"Oh but where are my manners? You had two others with you, were are they? Welcome to Wabbajack Island! ("Jezevec!")The woman turned about as if searching the crowd of people, "I was positive there were two more, the woman said there was a human, I want to meet it. I miss our talks with the humans they always brought those little crumbly bread like things with them. They were delicious, I wonder if I could get Cara to get the recipe for them. Caluk get your wife, I'm suddenly hungry for those breads. They must relinquish the sweet foods or we shall go to war!" ("Damn it Starší, no!") The woman thrust her arm into the air sounding much like an excitable with her grizzled voice. After another moment of silence she was laughing, then cough and laughing again.
--
((I've decided that the badger men will speak some form of Czech XD ))

Claire felt a stab of fear wash trough her as the badger peered at her. He was really quite intimidating, though after seeing Anja and facing that woman he seemed like a ball of fluff. Even so, she gulped visibly and nodded her head at his words. There was nothing else to say when confronted with a situation like this. Besides, Barlios wouldn't have brought them here if it was dangerous right?

It took a while, longer then it should have, for Claire to move forward to try and follow the badgers. Even if she couldn't see them, there was still a path on the forest floor she could follow. Valdis ambled along, head hung low, without comment. He still couldn't get over the loss of his mate so soon after her discovery. With a flick of his tail the centaur tried to chase such thoughts away without success.

The moment they entered the village a flash of familiar red scales made Claire break into a run to join the little group surrounding the naga. Hearing the mention of breads, she tilted her head to the side while wishing she knew how to cook. It wasn't the type of thing one thought about too much when you could survive without in her world. What a shame, Claire reminded herself to find some books about the subject sometime soon. Of course, she could always just ask someone here.

"Going to war for a bread recipe? Why not just invite a human to the village and send a badger to theirs and teach them your recipes while they teach the badger theirs?" The brunette shifted closer to Barlios and reached out to try and catch his hand with her own. She didn't feel safe without him near, and for some reason felt more tired then she should have been.

Valdis was waylaid by a pair of young badgers who seemed to be fascinated with his equine features.

"How fast do you think he can run?"

"Not as fast as us!" boasted the taller of the two.

Somehow this roused Valdis from his stupor, at least long enough for him to shoot out an answer after glancing at Barlios and Claire. "Would you care to test that?"

((Alright yeah, just do whatever with the youngsters, lol))

Caluk grumbled, "She means cookies."

Starší chortled, coughing up a lung before she responded to Claire. "and why not? haha, humans have gone to war over less and it never seemed silly to them." the badger woman continued to laugh as she made her way over to where claire was sitting.

Some of the women have moved from the Naga and were trying to check Claire for injuries, or at least they seemed to. it was more likely them hiding their interest in the girl under the guise of trying to treat her minimal wounds.They fussed her until the elder shooed them away. "Quite buzzing about the girl can't you see she's terrified. I mean I can't see it but you can, take care of the naga and stop being so nosy."

Barlios wanted to laugh at the old woman but he found breathing to be a difficult task. Relaxing had brought down all the pains in his body, there was no sitting up or moving. He smiled when Claire reached for his hand wish he could respond by hold her hand as well. The elder sat down, "Hello there young human~!" She said cheerily, her voice catching a bit, "I am Alin! This is my son Caluk, his brothers" She waved a hand in their general direction not too far away from them. "Eugene, Horia, Beryx, Baduna, Daniel, Doru and Dracul."

Caluk shook his head, "Dracul and Baduna are our cousins."

"Oh pish-tosh, I raised all ya you might as well be brothers." Alin cleared her throat as she continued. "Anyway. I was asked by the lovely woman who passed through here, I am only assuming she's pretty because Calukl and Eugene (they are my oldest) were following her around like pups in heat. Either that or she was strong." Both males gave a cry in protest as a thoughtful look passed over Alin's face before continuing, "So~ What brings you to Wabajack ("Je-ze-vec!") island?"

((I have no idea what to do with the boys XD))

"Well, we ended up in a spot of trouble. Barlios used a spell, and we all ended up here." It was so strange to be under the badger people's care. They all seemed so very curious about Claire, like they'd never seen a human before. Or rarely, as the remark about cookies demonstrated.

Her hand tightened around the naga's as the young woman tried to shift closer to him. All the while her mind whirled around, touching upon how badly Barlios had been hurt for her sake, and then shying away. The brunette lapsed into silence, and glanced pleadingly in the as yet silent centaur's direction. Dealing with these people was beyond her now.

Valdis sighed and moved away from the young badgers to join his companions. Claire's pleading look seemed to snap him from his numb stupor. "I've missed most of the conversation, but I need to say that I feel very grateful for your village's hospitality." There was more to be said, but the centaur couldn't find the words.

Alin nodded as if what Claire said made sense to her. "Interesting." She mumbles, head twisting from the Naga to Claire and then the centaur.

The two boys who Vldis had spoken to darted underfoot as he turned away from them, mirth bubbling from their snouts in the form of laughter. The small village was slowly but surely getting back to their ways though still curious of the new comers. Alin nodded to herself. suddenly rather serious. Her wizened face and unblinking eyes focused on the ever dwindling group. "Unfortunate for the trouble, but since you are here and I owe this friend of yours a hefty debt I shall allow you stay on this island." Her bent claw reached for her son who was standing over her and yanked him down by his waist straps with more strength then there appeared to be in the small figure. It made Caluk stumble to a crouch. "Sit down boy, no need to frighten the girl further.

Barlios curled his hand tighter around Claire's. "We thank you for the hospitality, and we apologize for the abrupt intrusion." He said carefully with bandages being twisted around his arms and torso. "If it is at all possible we will be of no trouble.."

"You are welcome." Alin huffed addressing both naga and centaur. "But what will you do from here?"

Vladis took a deep breath to compose himself. It seemed that despite the grey mist surrounding his thoughts it was up to him to speak for everyone else. Though it was hard to decide what in truth they would do . "We shall find a place to rest and recuperate. After that will be the time to plan our next move." Rest was the most pressing of things, along with the healing of wounds both visible and not which plagued all of their little group.

The centaur stamped a hoof with a small snort at the thought. A hatred for Onil-anja festered within his heart; growing steadily with each moment it threatened to take a life of its own. Ignorant of the centaur's thoughts, Theodora glanced to her naga companion with worry filled eyes. She would have to learn how to care for his wounds .. It was galling to let others take care of Barlios, even if she had no knowledge of how to do so.