Denzell smiled. "Ah, you remembered...How nice." He reached into his tattered, but still functional, satchel and sifted through it. Some of his adventures had left his belongings wet or dirtied, but never lost. Ever since his memories of the time before his imprisoned days returned to him, he understood some of the items he kept on him. He was certain he wouldn't need such tools of destruction to be used for their actual purpose, but having something was better than wandering the world empty handed.

From a pouch, he pulled out a the hairpin he had gifted her so many years ago. Before it could catch her attention, he slid it into her hair.

"Of course I did." Emma paused a moment as she felt the pin slide into her hair, reaching up to feel over it, and she smiled. "I knew you'd still have it." She sighed as she looked to the camp again, and giving his hand a squeeze with her own bloodied one--covered in the blood of her tribal husband, and some of her own where her knuckles had split open--she pulled him along past the trees where the mages were. She just hoped for no further trouble as she went in search of her belongings and Aidan, looking for the fire mage as they walked.

Aidan ran his hands through the flames of one of the campfires. He had rolled up his sleeves and set his flame retardant gloves to the side. He wanted as much contact with the fire. Regenerating the fires within him, he tried to focus on them rather than the conversation he found himself stuck in earlier.

Arturo was reclining against some mossy brush, ready to flood the fire mage if he had to. As long as he kept concentration on the fire, he would be fine. He actually wanted to douse him, knowing how amusing it would be to see Aidan acting like a wet cat. The water mage turned his attention toward Emma and Denzell as they approached.

"Ah, got yourself a new man-----Emma!" he cried out, throwing his arms forward from behind his head to roll forward onto his feet. Denzell had no injuries beyond the cuts, so he wasn't the target of her punches. "Who did you get into a fight with?"

Emma rubbed the back of her neck, letting go of Denzell's hand now that they were standing still. She eyed Aidan for a moment before muttering a reply. "....Tavri." She reached to scratch some of the dried blood from her face. "Acacio has him now."

"Tavri..." Aidan rested his warmed hands on the ground, slid one to grab his gloves, and pushed himself up. He donned both as he looked at Denzell and Emma. "I'll go...question him. Emma, go and see Dion."

Denzell glances at her for some explanation on this Dion fellow. He hoped this man had some food.

Emma thought about telling Aidan to go easy on him, but she was still angry with the poor man. Aidan could do what he wanted to Tavri, she had other things to deal with.

Reaching for Denzell's hand again, perhaps out of habit at this point, she pulled him along. "Dion's our paladin." She didn't really see why she needed to go and see him--it was just a few cuts, and she'd straightened her nose back out, but she wasn't quite as stubborn as the mages were.

"Dion." She called as she approached him, quite the mess since the last time he had seen her.

It was expected that after all the injuries he had tended to, Dion would be immune to a new one. The young man, however, looked aghast at his newest patient and fussed over her injuries despite their nonfatal status. The mages he had abandoned for her assumed, like any other man there, that it was because she was a girl.

The paladin's powers were weakening from the nonstop use. He was sure the others were suspecting this. By distracting himself with Emma, he hoped to get enough rest to go back to the more complicated injuries.

Denzell looked a bit perplexed by this new fellow. "You're...not a mage," he observed. "What makes you different from the healing mages?"

"Paladins are holy men. They have powers of the divine. They don't receive aggressive training like healing mages. Why we got a paladin instead of a healing mage is beyond me," Terran answered as he deemed his injuries tolerable enough to not require more assistance. "It's possible for him to gain a dark alignment if he did get engaged in a fight. Weak."

Dion looked flustered by his explanation but was too bashful to defend himself of the negative stereotype. He could fight, just in defense, he wanted to say.

"Go pray after dealing with her." Terran waved him off, the common sign of a stubborn mage who wanted no more doting.

"You know, I could have waited, Dion." She said, but she didn't stop him from fussing over her wounds. She didn't really appreciate being treated any different than the men--she was just as strong as they were. It wasn't fair.

She watched Dion's reactions as Terran explained paladins to Denzell. There they went again, picking on their healer. She glanced at Denzell, relaxing a bit now that she had calmed down from her earlier squabble with Tavri. "They call him weak, but we'd be in a world of hurt if we didn't have Dion."

When he finished with her, she gave his shoulder a pat. "You should take a break, you know. You need rest too."

Dion just offered a small smile before retreating off to scope out the conditions of the other mages before he could rest. He was determined to care for everyone before he turned his attention to himself. While she pushed him away like all the others, at least she defended him. It gave him a little bit of happiness in such an unappreciative atmosphere.

"Some people just don't know what they have until they lose it," Denzell said with a sigh.

"Isn't that the truth." Emma sighed, standing up and tugging at Denzell's sleeve. "C'mon. I'm sure I can find something for you to wear. And I'm sure you're hungry, mm?" Denzell was always hungry when she found him, she would be surprised if he wasn't.

She got food for Denzell first, picking up just one ration rather than two, and handing it off to him. "Here." She then continued the venture for clothing. She knew where her things were, but it was a matter of getting Denzell something to wear. After all, she was pretty sure he wouldn't want to wear anything she owned for herself.

Emma sat Denzell next to her pack and left him to eat while she dug through her own clothes in the tent, pulling something clean out and turning away from the man and pulling her armor away from her body before peeling the bloody shirt away from her fair skin. Her body was riddled with scars from all her years of training with the Tribe. She rubbed some dried blood from her skin as she stood there, and then pulled the clean shirt on and picked her leather armor up to look it over, leaving it off for the time being as she left the tent for a moment.

A handful of minutes later, Emma returned with a half folded pile of clothes in her arms, and she sat them in Denzell's lap before taking a seat next to the man.

"It worries me how quiet they've gotten. The tribe, I mean."

Denzell gladly accepted his ration and devoted all of his attention to it. By the time she was giving him the clothes, any remnants of the food was gone. He looked very pleased, as if food alone would be all he needed in life to give him happiness.

Assuming she wouldn't mind if he changed in front of her - after all, she did use to be a boy! - Denzell began stripping away the shredded clothes. He tsked, finding it such a waste, but glad the clothes had survived as long as it did. The faint marks on him, from days of learning how to kill, to actual assassinations, to just pure clumsiness he had acquired during his days of memory loss, were not very prominent as the sun began to set. He brushed away some of the twigs that had settled in his undershirt and pants and stuck against his dirty body. He would be quick to admit he would like a washing, but with the mages and Tribe members clashing the way they were, it wouldn't be wise for him to be caught in any crossfire with nothing on.

"Too bad, that means we can't get some good rest," he murmured as he pulled the shirt over his head. The material felt cool against his skin. The undershirt clung close against him. He stretched, bringing one arm over the other as he hugged himself, trying to loosen up the material in case he would need to make a quick escape.

Since he had remembered his murderous rampaging past, he began to feel a little bit of envy toward the magical kind. He relied on reflexes, knowledge of fatal points on the human body, and the ability to kill swiftly with no weapons at all, if he had lost track of the tools of his craft. He felt like he was at a huge disadvantage to his friends. A pout crossed his lips before he stood and pulled on the new pair of pants. A brow arched. It was far tighter than what he was wearing before Acacio ruined the pair. It had been years since he had worn black leather.

"I like your style," Arturo, the leather loving mage, chuckled as he passed.

Emma idly watched him change, sitting on her bag and using her old shirt to wipe her armor down. It never really occurred to her that it might be strange for a woman to not look away as a man changed--but she had been Theodore in the past, and since she'd become Emma, she'd had a child. She was familiar with the male body, and considering they were in the middle of a war, privacy and decency wasn't the highest on her list of priorities.

She chuckled as he pulled his new pants on. They certainly didn't leave much to the imagination, that was for sure. They were far more fitted than the rags Denzell had been wearing just a few minutes ago.

"They're his." She commented as Arturo passed, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. "I swear he brings enough clothes to dress the entire camp." Emma stood, looking the former assassin over with a smile. "You look much better now, though I think we could all use a bath." She wanted to lay back and close her eyes for a while, but if she slept, she feared she might not sense their approach. She expected the peacefulness wouldn't last much longer.

Denzell held back his comments. "Well, I appreciate him letting me have some. I half expected you to bring me a bag with holes," he said, performing a few squats to try to break in the pants before he eased onto the ground. He had inched closer now.

"Go ahead and get some rest. I'll stay awake. You guys are the ones who can fight. M'just good for paying attention...as long as m'focused." He pulled her over to rest her head on his shoulder.

Emma sighed as Denzell drew her in to rest against him, and she protested a moment before letting herself sink into his side some. "Mmn... I just don't want them to surprise us..." She murmured, making a face as she tried to keep her eyes open now that she was comfortable, but it was no good.

Soon enough, Emma's head rested a little heavier against the man's shoulder, and the girl was asleep.

Denzell kept his breathing calm to not disturb her as she slept. His gaze fell upon the others, with one mage sacrificing rest for others. At one point, he witnessed the paladin retreat to sleep himself, finally done treating anyone who would let him.

Aidan was busy with the prisoner, questioning him with little expectation that without some sort of bribe or torture, the Tribe member would remain quiet as a stone.

"You have a better chance being accepted by us because of Emma than your people. I'm sure they despise you for your betrayal. So I suggest you tell us what we need to know so we can get your son and my nephew back."

Tavri stared at Aidan as he tried to get him to talk, and he merely pressed his blood stained lips into a fine line. Half of his face was swollen after the beating he'd gotten from Emma--such a vicious woman she was! He parted his lips after a moment, opening his mouth a bit. Blood thickened his spit, leaving a gooey feel in his mouth as it sat there, bleeding from gashes in his cheek and holes where his teeth had been knocked out.

Twisting his mouth briefly, Tavri gathered the bloody saliva and spit it at Aidan. He wasn't nearly as intimidated by Aidan so far as he was of Emma. She was definitely a force to be reckoned with.

"I can see why she did this to you. You're an idiot. You don't really care about her or Enver. Your pride matters more to you. I'm done being nice."

Aidan snapped his fingers, starting a flame.

"Until you tell me what I want to know, I'm going to burn off a different part of you, one by one."

Tavri tensed as he was called an idiot and accused of not caring about his family, and sneered as he jerked his shoulder in the thorn ridden bindings, dropping his head a bit as he was reminded of them digging their way into his skin. He lifted his head as Aidan summoned his flame, and Tavri's gaze flickered back up to the fire mage, eyes a little wider than before at the threat.

"And just what do you expect me to know? I don't know how to get them out. I don't have any special knowledge--I might by his son, but he is a very private man, Aidan." He finally spat. "I do know that Kadan has them in the hidden city, and I don't know about your nephew, but Enver has already resumed his training. I heard that Danny gave his escorts quite the scare, but Kadan believes he can still be trained. Despite his... rebellious nature." He took in a shudder of a breath before continuing, looking a little hesitant to say more, even closing his eyes as he gathered himself. And perhaps prepared himself for Aidan's rage now as well. "...They've taken Danny's mother, as well."

Upon hearing this new development, Aidan closed his fist, killing the flame.

He could only imagine what her purpose would be. A rebellious Danny could only be suppressed by his mother. And perhaps even blackmailed into doing what his captors wanted...

Suppressing the desire to land a punch upon the man, Aidan turned sharply and rushed off to where the stable hand was keeping the horses. Acacio opened his sleepy eyes, widening them when he noticed Aidan was finished with his prisoner. He was hoping to gain more sleep as Aidan dealt with the Tribe member.

With little warning or words to the others, Aidan mounted his stallion and headed off in the direction he had seen the Tribe had withdrawn toward.

Tavri was a little relieved that he wasn't injured further, but with how hastily Aidan took off, he knew it wasn't a good sign. He listened, expecting the mage to gather a group--but there was nothing, and he grumbled a bit. "Hey!" He called out to Acacio, his voice breaking a bit.

Aidan wouldn't have to go far. Just a few minute ride from the camp, and roots from the trees tripped his steed up, flipping both horse and rider over onto the ground in the blink of an eye. Their puppeteer was still out of sight as the roots quickly coiled and wove their way around Aidan and his stallion, and a few groups could be seen rushing past on foot. They were clumped in groups of five, with one clear leader to each cluster. If they could get the advantage of a surprise attack, surely things would go in their favor.

Acacio looked at the bound man. "What did you say to him?" he snapped, unsure of what Aidan was up to. He was occupied with trying to wake up.

***

Aidan, furious from yet another fall from his stallion, sent flames shooting around him. They consumed the binds that held him, the brush around where he had fallen, and lit trees about him aflame. His temper was getting the most of him, but his rage was fueling his flames.

***

Arturo winced as he watched the night sky illuminate into a brilliant orange and red. "That hot-head..." he murmured, wondering what was infuriating the fire mage now. He began preparing his waters, ready to kill the flames if they threatened their camp.

"That they have his sister." He spit a little more blood to the ground, huffing a bit as he tried to relax in his bindings, feeling the blood flow from where the thorns had torn into him on countless occasions.

--

The girl gave a yelp as the flames burst upward, and she barely escaped, earning a few burns before water suddenly stormed through the trees--not the power from just one member, but three. It doused everything and spilled the water all the way into the edge of camp.

--

Emma jolted from her sleep as Aidan's temper went off, feeling the wave of energy, and she gasped as her senses rushed back to her. "Oh no." She was up and on the move, pulling her armor on hastily and tightening it as she ran. She knew she shouldn't have slept. "Here they come!" She shouted, stumbling forward as the earth began to quake and roll beneath them to send any mage that might have been prepared to the ground before the tribe members began their assault.

Flames circled the opposite end of the camp, leaving only one way in and one way out until they were extinguished.

The water only infuriated the fire mage more. He continued his flames, turning much of what was near him into steam. He was ready to set everyone nearby on fire with no mercy. Setting his sights on the four near him, he felt more desperation and determination to destroy all those who stepped in his way back to his family.

***

Arturo smirked as the water rushed toward him. He sucked in his breath and worked his magic to turn what he could back on those who had summoned it.

"Good, I'm ready to play."

The group controlling the water pushed to drive it right back at Arturo, and another group hurried over, using their abilities to shift the earth again and turn nature against Arturo and numerous mages in the area, branches and roots striking out at some of them, restraining others, trying to coil around and crush the enemy.

--

The girl held her ground, focusing her energy to make the earth roll beneath Aidan, pulling up in a muddy wave over the fire mage and she pulled it to crash down over him.

--

Emma's flames swarmed around a group, closing them in together until she engulfed them, closing her eyes tight a moment. These were people she knew--she wasn't on their side, but it was hard watching people she trained with, lived with... die, and especially by her own hands.

She grunted as thick roots tore into her shoulder, sending her into a nearby tree. Her hands grasped at it, her flames burning it away, and setting fire to the rest of the branches as they tried to hook around her throat. She slumped down the tree a bit as she freed herself, barely escaping a more personal attack as someone lunged at her, their blade sticking into the trunk of the tree.

Emma kept her wounded arm in against her side, drawing her blade in time to parry the next attack.

Unsure of just how many members who dealt with water he was dealing with, Arturo realized this could very well become a tug or war of water. When the water came toward him once more, he coordinated his maneuvers with Terran to send it down the cracks of the earth. The earth mage followed by slamming the opened ground together.

"This will be useful for later," the water mage said, rubbing his hands together.

***

Aidan watched as the wave rose above him and produced a grimace in response. Oh, how he disliked water...and this was muddy water! He stood his ground, letting the weight of it crash against him. His knees trembled, but he managed to stand his ground, evaporating as much as he could muster. The steam hissed beneath his feet, rising up into the cool night air, bringing the temperature up to an uncomfortable, humid one.

The water had made him angrier, tapping in the resource he had built up during the day before he spoke to Tavri. The earth began to glow orange as it all light on fire or melted around him.