Alex grinned and then nodded. "Want to run away know? neither of them are looking."

Rosemary smiled mischievously and nodded. "Let's go. We can take my horse- that way my sister and your brother will both still have horses of their own." She said.

Alex nodded lifted her out the horse then hopped on with a quick kick they where off.

Lori turned to see them charging. "ROSEY!" she turned on Cal. "You son of a cow!" she pulled a knife out and advanced on him. "I knew this would happen! Where are you taking her!"

Rosemary squealed and laughed as they galloped away. "Are you dure that was okay?" She asked, catching her breath. "Aren't you still hurt? Lifting me might have reinjured you."

Cal spun around, shocked. "I had nothing to do with this!" He said, knocking the knife away impatiently. "That irresponsible little prick! I can't believe he'd do something so stupid!" He rounded on Lori. "This is your sister's doing! Alex would never have thought of this on his own. He's too innocent to pull a stunt like this. Your sister must have put him up to it! The poor fool's so stricken with her, he'd have done anything she said!"

"I'm alright. I'm stronger then I look" Alex squeezed her waist.

"This is unbelievable. How can they do this? You know what forget it. If they want to be together then let them." Lori growled. "At least she'll be happy." she headed the opposite direction of Rose and Alex.

Rosemary nodded. "Alright." She sighed. "I hope those two don't kill each other..."

Cal blinked. "What...are you serious?! After everything you've gone through just to be with her, you're going to give up on her now?! Well, fine. You go ahead and stop caring if you want to. As for me, I'm going after them. They're young and stupid, and while my brother could take care of himself on his own, that's not necessarily the case while he's distracted by a crush. The two of them could get hurt...or worse. And they don't know where they're going." He looked disgusted. "And I guess I'll have to rescue your idiot sister too, since you won't."

Lori rounded on him. "They abandoned us!" tears had appeared in her eyes. "We promised we would stick together and she goes off with your brother." she rubbed her eyes and took a deep breath. "she went her own way and its not like we know where to go either. There smart enough to figure it out and my sister is strong enough to take care of herself and Alex if need be." her shoulders sank in disappointment. ''Looks like we are on are own."

Cal paused a second, a look of realization coming over him. "Wait a second." He said, starting to pace. "Your sister...has she ever broken a promise? Whose idea was it to leave in the first place? And which of you tried harder to keep you together?" He asked. Pieces started to fall into place. "What I'm saying is, how likely is it that after all this, your sister actually abandoned you? Because I know for damned sure Alex is smarter than that. He'd tell me if he was going to leave- we never made any promise. But they like each other, and we don't. And my brother...it's just like him to try and get us to get along."

Lori made a face. "Theres no chance of that but it does make sense." she sighed. "Should we actually go after them or teach them a lesson and leave them to there own devices?"

Cal smirked. "I say we let them worry for a while. Once they realize we're not coming for them, they'll come running back. At least, my brother will." He said.

Lori nodded. "Agreed. We'll I guess we'll have to go to the same town so they can find us." she made a face. "Plus they only left us one horse and its another four hours to the village by the sea."

Alex sighed and handed Rose the reigns. "Do you think it worked?" he glanced back the way they had came.

((No, Rose and Lori each had a horse, and Cal and Alex had one horse. Rose and Alex only took one horse, leaving two behind. One for Lori and one for Cal.))

Cal shrugged. "I guess. Doesn't mean we have to stay together, though. Or travel together..." Although he clearly didn't want to travel alone.

"I hope so." Rosemary said. "At the very least, they'll have to get along long enough to come up with a plan. Even if they don't come after us..." The idea that her sister wouldn't come for her seemed to hurt Rose. "We'll give it some time and wait, and if they don't then we'll go find them."

"I really don't have a clue were to go." Lori admitted. "Maybe we should stick together for know. As soon as we reach a town that we split."

"Agreed. How's two or three weeks sound?" Alex frowned. He knew his brother would come looking for him unless he found out what he had done.

Cal nodded. "Works for me." He agreed. "Might as well get going- it's gonna start getting dark soon."

"Two weeks is long enough." Rosemary said. She didn't think she could handle more than that. "You know...this will be the first time in my whole life I've been away from my sister for more than a day."

"Yeah." Lori climbed onto the horse and set off shivering under her cloak as the sun began to set.

"You'll be alright. I'll be here the whole time." Alex promised.

Cal jumped up onto his horse as well, and followed Lori. It felt strange to ride after so long walking next to his brother. Would Alex be alright without him? He'd never left him alone. Not since their parents died. He couldn't help but worry.

Rosemary nodded. "I know. Thank you." She said. Still, she worried about her sister. Would Lori think she'd abandoned her? She could only hope her sister would have more faith in her than that.

Lori was shivering half scared, half nervous and half excited. She frowned as a wolf sounded in the distance. ''Of course." she grumbled. "And we still have two more hours to go."

Alex stretched and sighed. "I love the smell of the woods." he grinned. "Though that will change to sea water soon."

Cal urged his horse forward until he was riding alongside Lori. "It'll be fine. Alex and I have been dealing with wolves for years." He said, trying to be comforting.

Rosemary grinned. "It's kind of exciting." She said, a spark of anticipation in her voice. "I've never seen the ocean before."

Lori nodded not really sure how to react to that. At least the horses didn't seem nervous. ''I'm just...a wreck." she chuckled.

"I think you'll like it." Alex smirked. After a while the smell greeted them and then the trees cleared revealing a growing town with the sea in the background sparkling as the setting sun hit it.

"I...know how you feel." Cal said hesitantly. Sharing his feelings was difficult even with Alex, so with this girl he barely knew it was damn near impossible. "At least, part of it."

Rosemary got more excited as they got closer to their destination. The smell of the sea nearly made her squeal with excitement. Seeing the town, she smiled brightly and couldn't stop. "It's so huge! Oh, it's beautiful!"

Lori sighed and stared at the trees watching the shadows. "Look a village!" she pointed to a small village in the woods. "It looks empty." she frowned. "Do you think something happened?"

"I thought you would like it." Alex grinned. "I've only seen it once and it hasn't lost its charm. Though your far more beautiful."

Cal frowned. "I don't know. But I don't like it." He said, eyeing the village warily. "I think we should keep moving. Something doesn't feel right here."

Rosemary blushed. "O-okay, then." She glanced back at him, smiling. "Have you ever been in the ocean? I heard it's cold." The idea of getting to swim in the ocean made her smile wider.

"Agreed." Lori pulled her cloak closer as they edged past the village. "Looks creepy." she frowned as her horse shied heading further away from the village. 'The horse agrees." she chuckled.

"Its cold but in the summer it feels great. Can't imagine it would feel good in the winter." Alex chuckled. "So I have money for a inn. I say we take a day to look around before we go job hunting."

"Apparently mine does, too." Cal said as his horse tried to bolt. He reined it in with some difficulty, trying to stop it from running wild.

Rosemary nodded. "Okay. Actually, I'm glad you have any money, because I left my sister in charge of all of ours. I've got nothing..." She looked embarrassed. "I'll pay you back as soon as I earn it."

Lori kept an eye on the village as they edged away she gasped. "Oh God." she pointed to a pile of something that looked like bloody cloths. "That can't be good." She urged her horse away. "Lets hurry."

"Alright though I'm not worried." Alex kissed the back of her neck smiling softly. He dismounted and then helped her down. "Lead the way."