When Jake appeared beside her outside of the healers small home Sasha looked in the direction she heard his voice. "You don't have to come with me Jake, I'm only going to be a burden now," she said, almost sadly. The morning weather was cool, lower 70's, it felt great to Sasha. The sun was peeking over the small villiage, but all was still dark in Sasha's world.

Jake shook his head at her words "no" he said a little sternly "i shall not just let you wonder blindly" he said as he handed her his blade "while your sight is unavalible, use my sword as a guiding stick, its easier to tell where your walking since if your heading towards a tree or brick, it will make a ding noise" he explained as he felt his eyes shutting a little, he shook his head and looked to her "right, lets get going" he said walking foward

Sasha was secretly happy that Jake wanted to help her. There was no way she could do this alone. She held his sword out to him, blushing slightly at what she was about to ask. "Jake?" she said timidly, "Would you mind, holding my hand, instead?" Her cheeks reddened even more. "It's just that, I've never been blind, and I almost feel unstable... If I walk on my own it will take days just to get out of this villiage. If you could guide me, well," she paused for a moment, "Well, I trust you is all..."

Jake took his sword back and looked at her "yes?" he asked as he blushed deeply at her question, Jake was unsure what to say or do, he was for the first time in his life, speachless "w-w-well... i-i-i... i g-guess i-i-it wont h-h-hurt" he stuttered as he gently took her hand blushing deeply still as he looked at her, he felt something powerful towards her but he was unable to say it, all he need to do is say how he felt, but something was stopping him, he looked at his hand in hers and looked down "Sasha... i need to tell you something..."

When Jake took Sasha's hand she was relieved, there was no way she could have managed on her own. Her hand felt warm in Jake's and she felt safe. Now that she thought about it, everything about Jake made her feel warm and safe. Jake was trying to tell her something, "Yes Jake?" she asked.

But before Jake could answer the ground began to rumble, calmly at first, and then more steadily until Sasha could hardly stand as she held herself closely to Jake. "Jake, what's happening!?" she shouted over the loud rumbling.

Under the ground a large groundhog had come across a shard of the jewel and eaten it, thinking it was food. Now, the ground hog was huge, easily weighing a ton, and was burrowing under the small villiage. A short ten feet in front of Sasha and Jake the groundhog busted up from the dirt and grass in a cloud of smoke. His eyes were red and his two front teeth were sharp and he was drooling massively.

The monster meant business and he was there to destroy the villiage. Lodged in between his two front teeth was a jewel, and lucky for Jake it was so visible, otherwise he would not have known.

Jake was about to say he loved her when suddenly the ground shook "what the hell?" he said holding Sasha, he then noticed a familiar sound, he looked over seeing a huge groundhog bursting from the ground. While everyone ran away, Jake gently took Sasha back into the healers hut and said "keep her safe, if i fail to kill the hog, get out of the town" he explained to the healer as he run back outside with his sword drawn "ok then hog... its on, that jewel is mine" he said as he ran towards it yelling ready to strike

Before she knew it, Sasha was being ushered back into the healers home. With a frown, she turned around on the porch as Jake ran back towards the monster. Sasha was frustrated. She couldn't see, couldn't help herself, much less anyone else and she was feeling helpless and useless.

In her anger she tore the bandages off her eyes, despite the fact that it was daylight. Her eyes stung and watered and hurt as she blinked away the tears and burn. She closed her eyes for a moment trying to regain her composure, and when she opened them again, she could see. Not normally, by any means. Everything was still mostly dark, but there was a sort of blue neon glow of an outline on anything that was moving. So up ahead of her she could see an outline of a man wheilding a sword, must be Jake, and ahead of him a large neon outline of a large rodent of some sort. There were also small blurs of what must have been villagers as they ran to hide.

Frowning again at her change in vision, she was at least grateful that she could see some. But she also knew that if she didn't get her bandages back on soon, her vision may never get better. Quickly she pulled her bow and armed it with an arrow. Unfortunately, with Jake in the way, all she could do was wait.

Jake was getting closer to the creature, he dodged one of the vicious tusks of the groundhog, this one seemed to be very angry about something, unsure what it was angry about he dodged out of the way of its hoof that clashed into the ground, he got as close to the creature as he could as he sliced its right eye causing it to flail around and swing widely, Jake emidiatly dropped to the ground, but the way the creature was stopping he knew he needed to move.

Swiftly moving, Jake moved to the side of the hog as he stabbed the side of its chest in hope he could weaken it more, it was a success. The hog was slowing down and becoming more weaker, but it was still moving around waving its tusks, Jake dived under its stumoch and hid underneath it until it stopped waving its tusks around

Sasha was trying to keep up with their movements, but her newfound vision was proving difficult for her to get used to. She was frowning and squinting and her head was pounding. Then there, she saw a small glimpse of a brightly lit, pink neon object in between the monster's two front teeth.

Without a moments hesitation she aimed and let go of the arrow in her grasp, sending it flying through the air directly towards the monster's face. A perfect shot, despite her vision. It hit the jewel, before stopping abruptly and falling, with the jewel, to the ground.

In the next moment, the monster let out a loud roar as it's red eyes faded to it's normal beady black color and he shrank down to his regular ground hog size before scampering off into the woods. So it was the jewels that made living things act like this. They would need to be extra careful then not to let them fall into the wrong, and evil hands.

Jake noticed something happen to the hog as it had shrunk and ran over, he quickly looked over to Sasha seeing the bandages on "SASHA!" he said in a rather concerned voice as he picked up the stone peice, he ran over to her and covered her eyes with his free hand "what are you doing, you will end up blind for good at this rate, i know you want to save me, but you must never take the bandages off until your vision is better" he explain as he handed her the stone peice "leave the killing to me" he said with a small chuckle

In the next moment Sasha saw someone running at her, but she couldn't tell who. When Jake spoke she realized it had been him as he put his hand over her eyes. She pulled the bandages from out of her pocket and tied them around her eyes again. She hated the feeling of the darkness.

Jake placed the stone in her hand. "Thank you, Jake," she said smiling. Part of her wondered if she couldn't use the piece to heal herself, but she needed them for her mother. Stuffing it into her bag with the others she felt for Jake's hand. Reaching out to touch his masculine chest, her hand moved to his large arm muscle, and felt down until her fingers intertwined with his.

"I guess we should get going," she said.

Jake smiled and let her put the bandages on her eyes "your welcome" he said as he watched her put the stone in her bag, he stood wondering at first what she was doing, but he then felt her hands on his chest, then down his arm, he blushed deeply as he took her hand blushing deeper, he was glad that she couldn't see his face "yes... lets go" he said leading her out of the door, he made sure that she didn't trip over.

They walked most of the morning and into lunch time where Sasha began to feel her stomach growling. She reached up to rub the bare skin that was her belly as she spoke to Jake. "I think we should stop and rest, and eat. The healer sent us with food and I need a clean bandage on my arm." She paused for a moment before adding, "Do you know where we are?"

Jake had been enjoying the walk, it had been very peaceful and he had been loving the company, but that was soon disturbed by the sound of her stumoch growling, Jake chuckled a little as he nodded a bit "that is a good idea" he said as he placed his on the floor and he gently guided her to sit on his back which only contain clothes and a few extra weapons but he made sure that part was on the ground and that she was sitting on the clothes "well... we are not far from the next village, mabey we should by a tent there so that way no creature will know of our presants" he suggested setting up a fire to cook some soup over.

Sasha sat at Jake had lead her to do. The midday air felt warm and soothing on her skin, the light breeze tugging at her hair. How she wished she could see what was around them. When Jake mentioned the next villiage and a tent, Sasha shuddered. There was no way she was going to camp outside again until her vision returned, she felt way too vulnerable. "Maybe there will be a place we can stay in the villiage," Sasha suggested.

She then put her own pack on the groud in front of her where she knelt down to dig around for the bandages the healer had sent with her. She was frowning as she dug around, it would be so much easier if she could see. And then she found them. Pulling the bandages from the bag she sat down next to her bag and removed the old and stained bandages from her arm. It was actually a good thing that Sasha couldn't see, because the wound still looked awful. It was certainly healing, but it was still a greusome sight that would certainly leave a nasty scar on her flawless skin.

Jake had managed to get the fire started, he made sure it was big enough and he put a pan over the fire, he saw the wound on her arm and didn't even look away, he had seen it way to many times "thats going to be a good scar, beleive me, once you have on you really dont worry about wnother" he let out a sigh as he put some soup in the pot "trust me, i should know" he said as he looked over to her "im sorry i failed to protect you" he said feeling bad

(i have a great idea, they sould be attacked by bandits, they fight them off but then Jake is caught slightly on his voice box and is unable to talk until his adams apple is healed :D that means she will be the voice of the two of them and he will be the eyes :P)

((Great idea!!! :D))

Sasha was done wrapping her wound when she heard Jake's apology. She smiled towards him where she felt his presence. "Jake, I don't expect anyone to protect me. But it sure it nice having someone care about me for once." She had been traveling alone for some time before she ran into Jake, and no one had ever tried to protect her before. In fact, it almost seemed like just the opposite. She had been captured by a foreign tribe, almost sold on a slave market, and even jumped. But it was all what gave her the experience and guts she had today.

A noise caught Sasha's attention. Since her eyes were taken out of the picture, her other senses were slightly hightened. She sat still for a moment listening. "Jake, I hear something," she pointed, "There."

Jake smiled a little as he listened to her "oh dont be silly, you need someone to protect you and thats why i will be here until the death" he said as he was about to sit down until he heard the noise Sasha had meantion, he was about to draw his sword when he turned and saw a bandit swing his sword, Jake jumped back but felt a sharp sting in his neck, he let out a choaking like sound as the bandit when to finish him, but Jake drew his sword and glared at the bandit who let out a shocked expression "you should be dying" the bandit said before running off, but Jake was left choaking a little trying to talk seemed to be extreamly painful, he tried and tried but only managed to only let out choaking sounds.

"Jake?" Sasha heard some commotion before another unfamiliar voice spoke, "You should be dying." Fear struck Sasha as she stood. She heard choking and the sound of feet running into the forest. What had happened? "Jake?" No response, only choking. Sasha's heart was racing as she reached up and untied the bandages over her eyes allowing them to fall around her neck. She squinted to focus as the neon took hold. She saw what appeared to be the glow of a fire, and to the right of it, Jake. She knew it was Jake because he had a beautiful ora that surrounded him, a color no one else had.

She could see something was wrong, but what she couldn't tell. "Jake!" she shouted as she ran to him. "Jake what happened, where are you hurt?" He reached up to his neck, Sasha's hand close behind. Her fingers touched him gently as they began to feel wet. He was bleeding, but not too horribly. Thankfully whoever did this to him was unsuccessful in sliting his throat. Sasha hugged Jake. "Oh Jake, I thought you were going to die. But it will be ok," she looked up into his eyes, although she couldn't see them clearly. Her eyes eminating a small blue glow to match the neon colors she saw, she spoke quietly, relieved that Jake was ok. "You can be my eyes Jake, and I will be your voice," she said as she rested her head against his chest again still holding him close.

Jake was too busy holding his neck to notice her approch, he looked at her and realised he was unable to talk, he looked at her and felt sorry for worrying her and he smiled gently as he looked into her eyes, he listened to her and nodded at her idea as he felt her lay her head on his chest, he gently wrapped the bandages on her eyes as he held her closesly, he just wished he could tell her how much he loved her, but his heart was beating much faster as he held her close and he wondered if she would be able to figure it out herself.

Sasha smiled as Jake replaced the bandages over her eyes. Was his heart suddenly beating faster? It was probably the adrenaline is all. She stepped back from him wondering how they were going to really function like this. Well she could still hear, that was a plus. "Ok Jake, lead us to the villiage. We will stay there the night. When you see a person that we can ask about lodging, just," she paused for a moment thinking, "signal me somehow, I don't know, with a nudge or something."

She slowly turned around and retraced her footsteps back to her pack, picking it up and swinging it over her shoulder. "Let's get out of these cursed woods, before anything else awful happens to us."

Jake noticed that she still didn't know his feeling for her, he shurgged to himself as he watched her pick up her back, he listened to her and nodded for no reason "he took he hand once she was ready and he began to lead her towards the next village which wasn't far away, they would be there in the next two hours, but he was unsure how he could let her know someone was there, he was hoping her eyes wasn't down for many more days, if they was still bad they would have probablems

As they neared the villiage, Sasha found herself thinking more and more of Jake. He was so kind to her and protective, she felt safe with him, despite their bad luck. After all, if she had been alone in these instances, she surely would have died. Suddenly, at the thought of them holding hands the way they were, Sasha smiled and began to blush. Quickly, she looked away hoping he wouldn't see her face. Surely the way she was feeling was silly. There was no way a big strong and independant man like Jake would have feelings for someone like her.

Sasha could hear voices as they entered the villiage and waited for Jakes signal to speak.

Jake continued to lead her, he ignored the fact they had been holding hands during the travel, he had a feeling she didn't feel the same way, and he was unable to ask. He also never spotted her blush as he was too busy staring at a few people in the village trying to see if they meant harm or not, as he approached them he gave Sasha a gently nudge to signal they were by some people who she could talk too.

Sasha was happy to finally be in the safety of the villiage and felt Jake nudge her arm. Looking in the direction she heard the voices she spoke up, "Excuse me," she said with a smile, "Do you know of a place my friend and I may stay for the night? We are traveling and would greatly appreciate some direction."

A few short minutes later they had been given directions to small temple at the edge of the villiage where the old man who ran the place was looking for help keeping the temple running. Apparently he also let travelers stay there for free as long as they helped out with chores.

Jake was pulling her along again as they reached the rock stairs that lead up to the temple. Cherry blossom trees dropped their pink flowers along the stairs, a stream ran around the temple with a small bridge that connected the sides of the bank. It was stunningly beautiful, and peaceful. A short old man appeared at the top of the stairs and waved them up, "Come on up, all are welcome at my temple," he announced.