A blur, that’s what it was. Just a blur, and only part it was from teary eyes. The rest of it was from the suddenness, the splattering blood, the evil look of the enemies, and the small wind you felt when narrowly missing a sword or a set of sword-sized teeth.

Kyri leaned against a tree and let herself slide to the ground as she looked up at the other trees. They blurred with the visible portions of the cloudy sky. Hadn’t it been bright and sunny just an hour before? The forest was full of cheerful fluffy-looking bushes and leafy trees, some of which had fruit. Any other time, it would have looked soft and peaceful.

But at that moment, it felt like reality itself could tear apart at any second.

"Kyri?" a soft high-pitched voice asked, "Are you… okay?"

Kyri blinked as she acknowledged the words. She slowly turned her head down to the white limbless creature at her side. It was nearly identical to Pegasus, save that it was wingless and had a short argent horn pointing up from its forehead.

Kyri gave a meaningless mumble and turned her attention back to the patch of sky she’d been looking at before. She hugged a large purse-like brown bag to her side. Her hand twitched, as did the bloodstained knife she was clutching.

"Do you think we lost the bad people?" the white creature questioned. She blinked her blue eyes worriedly. Kyri answered with another mumble, but she stood up and looked toward Ministrair. Only smoke was visible, but the pictures in her mind were as clear as if they were still happening right in front of her.

"M-mah…" she mumbled, and the white creatures ears drooped sadly, "Mama…." She sobbed and allowed a fresh wave a tears to slide down her face. "W-why…?" she questioned.

The white creature opened her mouth to speak, but she found she didn’t know the answer. Instead she asked, "What are you going to do, Kyri?"

Kyri only flexed the fingers on her knife’s handle.

"I’m sorry…" the creature said quietly, "I wish I could’ve been more of a help…. I knew this day would come, but I didn’t know… that it would be anything like… this…."

"…This day would come…?" Kyri repeated, "What is ‘this day?’"

"There are evil dark-hearted creatures in this world…. I told you that, didn’t I…?"

Kyri nodded.

"And I knew they would be a threat someday… today…. You have to fight them, Kyri."

"Mm…?"

"You’re not alone, though… and you’re not helpless," the creature said. "It’s been many, many years since your family has had to do any fighting. Memories fade with blood, but you remember because your mother, and grandfather, and great-grandmother each remembered almost as much as the one before them.

"Why do you think your mother, a medicine woman, would know how to fight with a staff? Why do you think she would know how to turn simple dance moves into evasion skills? Why do you think she would learn how to run long, think fast, and jump high? Why do you think she put so much time grinding the knowledge into your head…?"

"Mama…" Kyri repeated, hanging her head.

"I’m sorry…."

"None of it’s your fault, Unicorn…."

"Still…" the creature mumbled. After a moment, she hissed, "Kyri!"

"Hmm?" Kyri squeaked. Unicorn’s ears were perked, so she listened. The sounds of loud speaking were coming from the south, from the smoke. The voices were inhuman. Kyri blinked. "Come on!" She snatched up Unicorn and dashed northward.

* * *

After a few minutes of fast jogging, Kyri and Unicorn stopped and listened for any sign of the enemies. The continued vaguely northward at a slow walking pace until they heard another voice.

"Wait…" Unicorn began as Kyri started in the other direction, "I know that voice… from somewhere…." They walked cautiously in that direction.

"Are you okay?" the voice was asking urgently, "Come on, we have to keep going…!"

Kyri and Unicorn came to a spot where the ground suddenly dropped about five feet. They stood behind a tree on the edge of the drop and looked down at the source of the sounds.

"Aikel…?" Kyri mumbled. Aikel was standing about ten yards away, rubbing his temples, and swooning a bit. Pegasus was bouncing around him frantically. Kyri quietly asked Unicorn, "That little white thing… is it like you?"

"That’s Pegasus."

"You know him?"

"Y… not really… maybe. I don’t know," Unicorn said uncertainly, "But that boy is a friend of yours, right?"

"No," Kyri said bitterly, "Let’s leave before they know we’re here." She started to turn away, but Unicorn stopped her.

"If Pegasus is his friend," she said, "he’s the person that’s suppose to help you fight."

"A person is only as good as their friends—in quality, not quantity," Kyri said firmly, "I don’t know about Pegasus, but the rest of Aikel’s friends are self-centered obnoxious losers."

"You mean ‘were,’ don’t you…?"

"Oh… yeah," Kyri said guiltily. How many of them survived those monstrous warriors?

Pegasus squealed as Aikel fell forward and landed unconscious. Kyri’s instincts as the daughter of a healer triggered, and she ran down the five-foot-high slope and kneeled at Aikel’s side. Pegasus, who seemed ready to pass out himself, bounced in start as they seemed to appear out of nowhere. Kyri rolled Aikel over and held her hand in front of his face.

"He’s breathing fine, so I think he just became overexerted," Kyri observed, "He’s bleeding badly, but we’ll fix it…." She stepped over him and kneeled back down by his right leg. She took a pair of gloves out of her bag as Unicorn bounced to his other side.

"Um… what are ya doing?" Pegasus asked, feeling clueless.

"We’re gonna fix his leg," Unicorn explained. Kyri, her gloves equipped, removed Aikel’s boot and rolled up his pant leg.

Pegasus wince at his wound. He said, "I didn’t see how he got cut…."

"As chaotic as it was back there," Kyri said, "he probably didn’t see how he cut himself." She studied the slash for a moment; it extended along most of his calf and seemed fairly deep. She sighed, removed her gloves, and looked at Unicorn. Unicorn made a nodding motion and closed her eyes. Kyri closed her eyes, bowed her head, and pressed her palms together.

Pegasus’s eyes widened as Unicorn’s horn glowed blue, and a sphere of bluish light appeared between Kyri’s palms as she spread them apart. She looked at the light before pressing her palms together again and causing her hands themselves to absorb it and glow. Ignoring the blood, she pressed her hands against Aikel’s wound and closed her eyes in concentration. The glow, along with Aikel’s injury, faded.

Kyri rummaged through her bag and found a roll of bandages and a small glass jar. She smeared some of the jar’s greenish contents onto his leg and bandaged it up.

"Why are you putting all that stuff on there if he’s not hurt anymore?" Pegasus asked.

"It’s so he won’t… unheal," Kyri said. She put Aikel’s boot back on and rolled his pants down. She put the jar and bandages back in her bag and brought out a pair of corked bottles. One was empty, but she filled it with half of the water in the other one. She corked the bottles, putting one away and one on the ground. She stood and picked Unicorn up. She said, "He might need some water when he wakes up."

"Where are you going?" Pegasus asked after they walked a few steps. He flew after them.

"He’ll wake up soon. We have no more business here," Kyri said flatly.

"Is he really that bad, Kyri?" Unicorn asked her.

"Yes," she answered coldly. She smiled at Pegasus, patted his head, and told him, "You take care of yourself, okay, little guy?"

He blinked. "Okay." He watched them jog away and went back to Aikel’s side.

* * *

It was only a few minutes later when Aikel awoke. His stirring jarred Pegasus from a short nap, and the little creature bounced into his lap when he sat up.

"You missed it!" Pegasus informed energetically.

"Huh…?" Aikel asked wearily.

"Ya know how I’ve always told you you’d meet a princess, and the two of you would save the world together, and get married, and all that stuff…?"

Aikel rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Why?"

"She was here!" Pegasus cried, beaming.

"What?"

"Your princess! She came over and used magic to fix your leg, and she gave you some water, but then she left." Pegasus sighed, but he nudged the bottle of water to Aikel’s side and said, "She said you might need the water…."

"Yeah…" Aikel admitted, "but I think you’ve gone nuts, buddy…." He inspected his former injury incredulously before lifting the bottle and looking at it as if it might be something of interest.

As he drank from it, Pegasus said, "She was nice and all, but she didn’t seem to like you very much…. You must have been a real jerk to make the Princess of Life so angry."

Aikel exhaled loudly after all the gulping he’d done. He asked, "How could I make some girl mad if I’ve never met her before?"

"I don’t know," Pegasus confessed, "but I think she’s from your town."

"I know all the girls from Ministrair," Aikel said, "I’ve dated about a third of them. There are no princesses; only common, everyday, non-royalty girls…. What did she look like?"

"She was kinda shorter than you," Pegasus said thoughtfully, "and her eyes and hair were blue, and she—"

"Blue?" Aikel interrupted, "Her hair was blue?"

"Maybe a little grayish, but, yeah, it’s blue," Pegasus said, nodding, "Her friend mentioned her name, but I didn’t hear her well."

"Kyri?!" Aikel demanded.

"That’s her!" Pegasus voiced gleefully.

"She’s… she’s… I’m not going to marry her, pal," Aikel insisted.

"Why not?" Pegasus questioned curiously.

"I… I don’t even like her," Aikel said hastily, "She’s antisocial, and she’s got an attitude, and… her hair is blue! Why is her hair blue?"

"Maybe it’s because she’s a half-angel," Pegasus suggested.

Aikel blinked. "A half-what?"

"She’s part valkyrie," Pegasus explained, "A lot of valkyrie have bluish hair."

Aikel considered this. "…Oh," he said, "Whatever…." He looked around, and his expression grew sad. He asked, "What happened to others, the villagers?"

"I think most of them escaped into the trees; we just got separated from them," Pegasus said.

"Sibby…" Aikel murmured.

"I’m sure she’s fine," Pegasus promised, "Your parents wouldn’t let anything happen to her. They’re probably worried about you, so let’s go find them."

"Yeah… you’re right," Aikel said quietly. He lifted Pegasus and stood up, his right leg shaking a bit before he steadied himself. He showed Pegasus the remaining water in the bottom of the bottle and asked, "Are you thirsty?" As Pegasus gladly emptied it, Aikel said, "Most people are afraid of going too far into the Southern Forest, so I guess they’d all stay together on the trail."

Pegasus licked the extra water off his lips and asked, "What’s the Southern Forest got to do with this?"

"That’s the forest we’re in," Aikel said, "I think the trail is probably… this way." He pointed eastward.

"Why is it called the Southern Forest if it’s to the north?"

"I don’t know; I didn’t name it," Aikel grumbled, beginning to become a bit snappy. "Why don’t you fly up and see if you can spot a trail or something?"

Pegasus nodded and fluttered his wings. Upon returning from the treetops, he said, "It is east; we might as well go northeast. I didn’t see any of the villagers, but we need to be careful because I did see a wyvern flying around. It’s kinda far away, but it looks like it’s looking around for stuff." He began to fly northeast, but he let himself be carried when Aikel caught up to him.

"What’s a wyvern?" Aikel asked, scaling the five-foot ridge.

"One of those nasty looking green things."

"I thought that was a dragon or something."

"Nah, dragons are worse."

It took them about fifteen minutes to find the trail, a curved line through the forest where the trees and bushes parted a bit. The dirt was normally weakly trodden, but it looked like it recently been tread over by many feet.

Aikel felt Pegasus quiver, and he backed cautiously behind the trail-side bushes. They continued along side the path under the cover of foliage.

"Something’s wrong," Pegasus observed, "Shouldn’t forests have… foresty sounds? Like birds? Why is everything so quiet?"

Aikel started to answer, but an immense shadow passed over them. They saw a green-scaled tail move out of sight beyond the treetops. Aikel gulped and said, "I think that, if I was a forest, that thing would shut me up."

"Let’s keep going," Pegasus said. The suggestion was punctuated by the wyvern’s screech. Aikel nodded and continued trying to tiptoe through the brush. He felt Pegasus quiver again. The trail ahead of them curved; the trees hid their view of it.

An unsettling smell packed their noses, and Aikel’s uneasiness felt like spears jabbing at him. For unknown reasons, he jumped back onto the trail and ran along it until he passed the bend and stopped cold. His eyes widened. Pegasus made a few random stuttering sounds before falling silent.

"D-dear God…" Aikel said timorously. That smell was mostly of blood. About twenty yards ahead, the road contained puddles of blood with strips of randomly strewn flesh. Most of the humanoid skeletons had been picked clean, but they hadn’t had time to bleach white. Several bones were split apart and tossed around. Some of the flesh was burnt black. There were still stained strips of clothing among the gore.

Despite his terror, Aikel ran forward for a closer look at the scene. The corpses were mutilated beyond identification, but he spotted a bit half-stained sky-blue cloth. Much to Pegasus’s discomfort, he bent down to pick it up. The little creature looked up at Aikel questioningly.

As Aikel stared at the cloth, his eyes became tear-filled. He said, "My mother never took this scarf off, because my father gave it to her when they were teenagers…. Even when it clashed with her clothes, she had it tied around her neck or wrist…. She loved it…."

"Aikel…" Pegasus pouted. He took flight as he was dropped, and Aikel fell to his knees in the blood. His tears streaked his face and mixed with the puddles of red.

"There were at least fifty people here…" he sobbed, "All the others were back there…."

"Look who’s crying now…" a quiet depressed-sounding voice said.

Aikel and Pegasus looked up to see Kyri on the far side of the trail. She had Unicorn in her arms and was shivering a bit. Her face was blank, but her eyes were full of heartbreak and anger.

"Yes, I’m crying now," Aikel said bitterly, "What kind of monster are you, that you wouldn’t be?"

"I’d give anything to cry right now," Kyri said, "but I have no tears. They’ve been wasted on so many meaningless things…. But I was beginning to think you weren’t able to cry."

Aikel tried to figure out what she meant. After a few seconds of being clueless, his confusion turned to rage. He clench his trembling blood-covered hands into fists and yelled, "Go lose yourself, you blue-hair freak!"

Kyri glared at him before turning around and stomping angrily out of sight. He watched her disappear among the trees and then turned back to the corpses in front of him.

Pegasus perched atop his friend’s head and cautiously said, "Maybe a few of them got away…. We should still head north. Kyri went northeast… so we can go northwest if you want…."

Aikel closed his eyes and began to mumble something that Pegasus assumed must be a prayer for the deceased. The little creature closed his eyes in respect, and he flapped his wings to maintain his balance as Aikel stood up.

Aikel took dragging steps northwest along the trail. His emotions made his feet heavy. Pegasus flew along behind him. He wanted to say something comforting, but he didn’t know where to start.

He nearly dropped from the air at the sound of a loud trumpeting roar and another scream. Screams were far too familiar to Aikel now, but this one triggered something in him. With hardly a thought, he spun around and ran west, toward the source of the sound. Pegasus flapped madly, failing to keep up.

The loud bugle echoed again.