Kyroellian walked, and walked, as he always did. Away from his past. It was night and the stars shone brilliantly in the sky over the plains. Suddenly he heard some rustling in the grass, he stopped instantly his hand instinctively found the handle of his sword, "Eclipse Blade" it was a shiny black blade with a cutting edge sharp enough to cut through an average tree in one fell swoop. But a deep growling was heard in the grasses. Kyro inched his blade slowly out of the scabbard. Suddenly a great wolf jumped out of the grass and bit down hard on Kyro. He winced as blood seeped out of the wolf's mouth. Suddenly an enormous blade swung down upon the wolf cutting it in half. Kyro pried the jaws of the dead wolf off and kept on walking.  Kyro slowly walked on, he was still bleeding and had no medical supplies. Soon the going got so difficult Kyro could barely continue. "I..i'm going to die.. here." he said to himself. The sun had slowly risen while he was lumbering on. Blood slowly spilled from his wound. "please, someone.. anyone.." He then fell to the ground passed out. "No one will come.." he thought to himself.

The open plains, this suited her much better than the cities that populated this world. The space, the freedom, the lack of people. There were just far too many people in this world for her liking, and they all crowded together at that. Haven't they ever thought about…you know … some personal space? 

Long silver hair waved back and forth as the woman called Lily by those few she had met since her awakening skipped along the plains happily. She glanced around lazily with mercury colored eyes as she made her way into the unknown. She seemed to act more like a child that she should have. She appeared to be in her eArly twenties yet was skipping about humming without a care in the world. That is until she saw it. A large wolf lay before her and her carefree childish look vanished, replaced by a frown. The wolf was cut in half and had blood dripping from it's mouth. Serious eyes looked around in every direction. What had done this? 

A trail of blood…


She walked over and knelt next to some droplets of blood that stained the grass. She carefully touched the blood and brought it  Her nose and sniffed at it. It smelled interesting. She didn't know what it was from but she would find out. Either way it seemed like whatever it was that had slain the wolf was wounded and that is one thing she would not just stand by for. No matter who or what it was, if they were injured it was her duty to help them. She stood once more and followed the trail of blood with her eyes. She could only hope they haven't gotten too far. She didn't want to be too late. She set out with long fast strides much the contrary to her earlier display of carefree innocence. She moved across the plains in a swift manner hoping to catch up quickly.    

The sun was rising when she finally saw something in the distance. A figure fell and lay unmoving. She let out a hiss of breath and dashed forth quickly closing the distance between them. They were human, or at least looked it she didn't know for sure. As she got to his side she quickly dropped to her knees, blood now stained her light blue fluttery dress but she didn't care. She quickly found the wound and said quietly, "I hope it's not too late." She laid her hands upon his wound and called forth the magical within her. They spilled forth and she channeled them into the man's wound repairing what she could and creating new tissue where it could not be salvaged. She gasped as her energy drained, she wasn't used to healing anything larger than a bird to be honest, and maybe she had gone a little overboard with the amount of magic she used but she was hopeful that it would be enough to save him. She stopped the flow of magic once he seemed repaired and leaned back to observe him for a moment. She took off her back pack and pulled out a blanket before putting it under his head and nodding to herself. All she could do now was wait for him to regain consciousness. She sat still as a statue by his side staring at him without blinking just waiting in silence.

It took a few minutes until Kyro came too. He looked around dazed and confused. Then he saw her, "m..mother?" He said shakily. No, it wasn't possible, his vision soon cleared and saw a silver haired girl. Her hair was much like his own. He felt warm tears run down his face and he quickly wiped them away. He missed her, his mother. And seeing this person with hair much like his own, he broke down. Kyro then took a long glance at the girl and said "i apologize, that was rash of me. You looked so much like her though." His eyes looked tired as he said this. 

Kyro attempted to stand up, after much protest and agony his muscles soon obeyed and Kyro was standing. But he lost his balance and used his sword to catch himself. He sighed and was soon standing straight, he was exhausted from walking so muchand blood loss. He soon flicked his enormous two handed sword. Dirt and blood flew off the gleaming black blade. Kyro then sheathed the enormous blade and was digging in a pack until he found a small burlap sack. 

Kyro attempted to hand the sack of silver, copper, and gold coins over to the girl, "its the least i could do for you saving my life. Thank you.." it was painfully obvious that Kyro was trying to stay detached from this woman. For another reason except pride, pride was the last thing on his mind. He sighed and threw the bag onto with a clank. He then started to walk away, from his past as he had always done.

Mother?She continued to stare at him but blink in absolute confusion as tears came to his eyes. As far as she knew she wasn't anyone's mother but here was this stranger, calling her mother and crying. She kept her awkward silence not knowing what to say but allowing off to the side as color stained her cheeks from embarrassment from this confusion. She glanced back in his direction as he apologized for his tears and well she assumed the whole situation. She was about to reply that it was nothing, she was only doing her duty and that he should rest and recover but her words never came for when she opened her mouth to speak he was already trying to get up and leave. She slowly stood as he stumbled about. When he offered her a bag of coins she simply stared at it quizzical wondering what it was. She accepted it when he said it was a thank you to her and opened it only to get a questioning look on her face. Why was she being given these coins? Healing the sick and injured was her duty, not a job. Speaking of which she realized she should really get him to lay back down and recover more before he tried moving about. When she looked back up from the bag to voice her thoughts he was already walking away.Bad move.A dark nightmarish aura seemed to eliminate from her as a dark look came over her eyes. What was he trying to do? He was her patient and she had not given him the ok to leave. Yet here he was moving farther away from her every second. With inhuman speed she was suddenly behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him as she spoke in a clear voice darkened by the mood, "Where do you think you're going? Did I say you could leave?" The dark aura seemed to radiate from her as she stared at him with a look that would case babies to cry and cowardly men to back down. "Your treatment isn't finished. If you try and leave now you'll just get hurt again and I'll have to use more energy to heal you again." She said in an ominous tone as she held only his shoulder and with a strength a bit suspicious for her body size she pushed him to the ground then quickly went and grabbed her belongings and threw the blanket she had used as his pillow at his face. She loomed over him and said in a dark tone, "Lay down."She then opened her bag and rummaged around until she pulled out a small package of red leaves and a container of water. She put her bag down then locked eyes with him and shot a ball of fire out of her hand onto a few sticks that just ever so conveniently happened to be off to the side. The action almost seemed like a threat for if he tried running away again. She then held the water container over the flames until it started boiling. This of course was very hot and hurt like hell but she didn't break her menacing gaze or let any indication that she was in pain. She then set the container down and crushed a few of the dried red leaves in her fist before emptying it into the water container. She let it sit for a few minutes. The water inside had turned to a delightful bloody red color. She then took a small cup out of her bag and poured some of the liquid into it. She sat on her knees next to him and said in a demanding tone, "Drink" she let a few moments pass before speaking in a much kinder and light voice,"Seeing as you seem to prefer to keep things detached from the small amount I've seen of you, just know I won't force any conversation or anything other than what I must to make sure you fully recover if that is what you wish, but I don't have any problem keeping you here by force if I must. You are not allowed to leave me until I say, those are the rules of being healed, at least by my people." She paused for a moment to let it sink in before finishing, "Now, are you alright with that or should I get the rope?" She had ended with an obvious joking tone to her voice. Rope, no she wouldn't need that to subdue a patient.

Kyro was absolutely shocked at the healer, He didn't know what to say at the reaction of this. He was taken aback to say the least, he had never met someone so determined to take care. Her rage was demonic, but her intentions where the absolute opposite of what he had expected from a cheerful, almost childish person in a blue dress like her own.. He . then saw the bloodied dress and looked glum. She then watched as she made something, he was puzzled why the girl had used her hand to hold the bottle to boil. Kyro asked slowly "That must've hurt.. are you.." he stopped "Dammit why am i all the suddenly starting to get attached to people.." he thought this to himself as he took a sip of the blood red liquid she had made up. He sighed, it tasted odd, but good. Kyro set the bottle down and looked up to the healer, he didn't want to make her mad again, so he just asked a simple ?question "what is your name?" He then sighed and said "You don't need to tell me.. you've already done so much for me.. I am in no position to be asking questions.." Kyro was distant and he made it almost obvious why he was like this but he kept it that hidden that it was just out of reach of anyone trying to seek these feelings out. Kyro sighed and continued drinking this strange concoction that this demon healer had made for him. He then remembered a tale he had heard in the last village he was in.. "Crimson" "Madness" "Liquid" "Herbs." he was shocked he looked at the healer and then he looked at the bottle. His eye widened as he layed eyes on the bottle, he decided to play it cool. 

"So, where did you learn this recipe from?" He was fighting every urge to drop the bottle onto the ground and draw his sword, but she wasn't convinced she was in line with what they call "Reaper's Blood" He waited for an answer. 

When it became clear he wasn't going to dart away she relaxed and the dark aura faded away. There was no need to be all serious and dark anymore, he had wisely chosen to listen to her. She assumed he had been about to ask if she was ok after making the comment about how getting the water to a boil must have hurt so she sent a smile his way that held an almost childlike innocence. "Im fine, I've done worse." Everything about the way she presented herself had changed, not only changed but was completely the opposite of what it had been when she was forcing him to stay. The smile remained on her face as she started digging through her bag again, this time a wrapped up loaf of bread. She tore it in half putting one half back in her bag and held out the other half as he asked her name then tried to take back his question. "My name? What problems would arise from asking someone's name? You have the right to ask whatever you wish just as I have the right not to answer if I please." She remained silent for a moment making it a little joke like she didn't want to say her name before she gave herself away with a quiet laugh and said, "My name is Lilith Aeron, but you can call me Lily." She smiled brightly before asking, "And what should I call you?"

She was watching him closely as he drank she didn't want him to waste a drop of it, those herbs were very hard to come by and it was a dangerous adventure to collect them and she didn't want to go again for quite some time. She noticed the slight change in him as he looked from her to the bottle and his eyes widening slightly. Maybe he could tell what the herbs were doing and was surprised at their miraculous properties? His next question was of no surprise to her when she thought of what she assumed was the reason for his actions. As the face of the woman who showed her these herbs and taught her what it could be used for when prepared different ways a small smirk came to her lips and she asked,"Can you feel it working?" She let out a little laugh and looked at him with an amused look. "Do you feel any different? Can you tell what it's doing?" She looked at the amount he had drank and nodded knowingly, "Yes, it shouldn't be long now." 

She had momentarily forgotten that he had asked her where she had learned the recipe. "OH!" She said loudly then let out an awkward laugh "I almost forgot to actually answer. She was one of the first people I met when I woke up. Ah, she has so many titles. It was the Red Queen, Lady of the Land, the goddess Angela Rose. I was found by her bleeding to death with several broken bones and she healed me then gave me this." She motioned to the drink before continuing, "When prepared like this with boiling water it stimulates regenerative properties within the body, mainly the regeneration of blood." She waved her hand almost like dismissing what she had just said before looking all excited and saying, "But you could tell right? That's why you looked all surprised for a moment there, you could feel the difference it was making?" She looked at him with childlike excitement as if expecting him to answer that she was right.

Kyro nodded and said to Lily, "I am Kyroellian Tarane once of the Knights of the Holy Queens, you can just call me Kyro." What Kyro heard next was almost too much for him to handle. He looked at the blood red liquid in the bottle and dropped it suddenly.. "Th..The Red Queen.." He was panicking at this moment as he soon felt a warmth. "F..From Adeluna.." He was suddenly overcome with intense pains in his chest. "W..why..?" Kyro tried to stand up, and he did, but he tried to draw his sword and was hit with ferocious pain. It felt as if his Holy Light was being smothered from the inside. "What have you done to me?!" He tried again to draw his sword but was unable. The golden plains where turning red and every heartbeat made the landscape ripple and his head spliting in pain. He screamed loudly as his head pounded in pain, he soon feel to his knees again and screamed again all the while tears streamed from his eyes from the pain. "Is this what you wanted TERRA!? Why Terra! I had to stop you from killing anyone else, why punish me NOW!?" Kyro was still screaming like nothing could stop his rage, he suddenly screamed once more and finally drew his enormous blade. Rage gleamed in his eyes as the blade swung down and gotten stuck in the ground. 

"Kyro, your not gripping the handle enough, you need to grip it with all of your might"
"Sorry Terra, I guess i'm not strong enough yet."
"don't worry, you'll get there."
"I hope you're right Mother, but until then, i need to get stronger."
"you do indeed." Young Kyro walked away looking a bit glum about not being strong enough to hold the blade that he had so instantly chosen. It had been 10 years since Kyro's parents deaths' he was 6 then and now, he's 16, not having parents was the hardest thing about his life, but after Terra had taken him in, life had gotten a bit better. Although kid at his Academy still picked on him in the earlier days, it never happened again after Terra had showed up to school in a huff about Kyro.  

She smiled brightly as he gave his name and said, "Well it's a pleasure to meet you Kyro, I hope we can be friends." As she explained where it came from it seemed Kyro didn't hear everything she had said. He seemed to focus one one thing, the Lady Angela's title of the Red Queen. She was confused at his apparent reaction. She nodded, "Yes Lady Angela, the Red Queen."  Then he spoke the name of the city she had stopped in briefly. "Adeluna? No these were from the desert. Though I did stop in Adeluna and had an apothecary show me how to properly dry them. Her confusion grew as he seemed to be in intense pain and ask why, stand and ask what she had done to him. What? What was going on? Why was he trying to draw his sword? That's when she noticed his eyes were turning red and gasped. Her mercury eyes held to his rapidly changing gold with a look of horror as he screamed in pain, fell to his knees, continued screaming, and cried. 

What have you done you wretched child you have killed them all

The words fluttered through her mind as a memory of a past mistake was brought to the surface. Had she really made such a mistake again. Tears threatened to fall and her lip trembled at the thought of her having killed this stranger due to some mistake she didn't know she had made. That's when other words flirted through her mind.

…eyes turn red and there's an impossible rage… like a poison that just makes you want more… don't ever try Reaper's Blood.

The tears in her own eyes halted as she realized this was not like the past, this was something else. The memory quickly ran through her mind.

She had walked into the apothecary shop in Adeluna and saw a few people arguing with the owner, they wanted something but didn't have the money. She cleared her throat and the people looked at her, rage filling their blood red eyes. She recoiled against such looks, holding onto her package tightly and looking at the ground. She could still feel those eyes burning into her as they left the store. When they were gone she took in a ragged breath and looked to the apothecary. The old woman's warning was still fresh in her mind. Apparently this apothecary had something called Reaper's Blood that he was selling. It was like a drug that at first was euphoric then became rage as the effects wore off and the user yearned for more. A side effect was those eyes…blood red eyes. She would never have anything to do with this Reaper's Blood but she needed a quick herbology lesson and who better to ask than someone who made their living dealing with herbs? He had tried to get her to buy that damn drug but she had refused and after sometime he finally gave up trying to persuade her and accepted her money in exchange for lessons on how to prepare and dry her precious cargo. When things had been set up she had been asked to return the next day, that the fast drying process would be completed by the time she got there in the morning. When she returned the next day the store was half destroyed. Apparently those people from earlier had broken in funding the night and had made  a mess of the place. She had to wipe glass from her now dried plants but didn't look at them closely seeing as they were already a blood red color, but she should have seeing as it looked like blood stains on either side of her plants. 

Now that she looked back it was painfully obvious, something had been spilled on her plants then dried along with them… something blood red in color so it was hard to notice on the same colored plants… "Reaper's Blood" she whispered and her eyes went wide as Kyro drew his sword and swung down. She quickly rolled several feet away from him and the blade as it got stuck in the ground where she had been. When he first woke he had mistaken her for his mother, then his words now… it was enough to cause a pain in her heart with sadness for him. He had to kill his mother, she reminded him of his mother. This was all…this was too much. 

She doubted it would word, that words would get through to him in this state but she had to try as she thought of some way to fix her mistake. She should have been more aware. It was her fault he was in such pain and she would find a way to fix this no matter how long it took. She looked up from the ground to the raging man and stood. "Kyro, I'm sorry. I didn't know it had been contaminated with that horrible thing…" Her body began to give of small electrical sparks as she prepared to dive headfirst into helping someone who probably would be trying to kill her as he did so. "Just know… I will save you, even if it kills me!" With those words she darted at him with a magically enhanced speed. As she got within reach she activated the spell to first try and get a read off of him what was going on within him. For that she needed to make contact with him then analyse the small electrical currents within his body and how they were reacting. It was  difficult task and would normally take a while to do but she would have to manage somehow. She would be getting close to him, try to touch him somewhere when quickly retreat and repeat this process for as long as she needed to gain insite on what was happening before she would try and fix it. She would probably try a cure spell first and just hope it was as simple as that, but she was still a bit inexperienced with the spell so needed the insite of what was taking place in order to fine tune her spell to a certain problem so it would be effective. So it was this little dance of get close, attempt to make contact, retreat that she started in hopes she could fix what she had done. She could just run away and hope he got over it but she didn't think she could live with herself if she just left him in this state.

Kyro felt Lily touching him trying to do something, this made his artificial rage burn more furiously. He swung his mighty blade catching Lily on the cheek, giving her a small cut when sge was falling back. This rage was swallowing Kyro's light bit by bit, swing by swing. He grimaced and swung his blade again and again, his fury breaking his soul. The golden grasses darkened in Kyro's vision untl the only thing that remained was him and Lily in an empty void, the whole landscape was filtered out of Kyro's vision. Suddenly Kyro screamed bloody murder and dropped his blade onto the ground, dust floated up off the dry plains. Soon he fell to his knees, the red trying to fade away, Kyroellian was fighting this unnatural rage, he fought and fought as he always did. Red, gold, red, golden, his eyes flashed back and forth (Out of Character: Super Cliche) until they closed, it was only for a second, but he quickly opened them and looked up to the sky, tears rolling down his cheeks. He then looked at Lily, her eyes wide open, Kyro had beaten this drug, no, pushed back this drug, it took all his strength but he managed to control the unbridled rage and hatred. He then sighs and collapses onto the ground with very loud *Thud.*

Once, in Kyro's past, he had come across a dog, it was frail and alone. 
Broken..
Hungry..
Wild.. 
Kyro felt terribly for the dog, he attempted to care for the dog, but it was too far gone, the wild dog bit Kyro when he reached out for it. He didn't blame the dog, but he blamed himself for not being more careful. As he ran home in the rain, he tripped and ended up falling into a puddle. But even with a hurt hand and soaked clothes he got up and ran home.
Determined..
Caring..
Lonely..
Tired..

She was starting to get the picture about what was going on with every touch. The Reaper's Blood was coursing through him and seemed to be stimulating certain portions of his brain. She lingered just a bit too long as the pieces were falling together and took a sharp intake of breath as she barely managed to escape having her head chopped off. Instead she was left with a cut on her cheek that was leaking warm blood down her face. She kept at it though, things were becoming more and more clear. The Reaper's Blood was swallowing something within him. She was running out of time. She started gathering her magic to at least try a cure spell focused on the points in his brain the Reaper's Blood seemed to be affecting the worst as she fluttered here and there narrowly avoiding his wildly swinging sword. Just as she as about to go in and cast her spell on him he burst into howling screams and fell to his knees after dropping his sword. She kicked it away from him as she approached. Her eyes were wide as his eyes kept going m red to gold and back. In the end he seemed to have regained control over himself, but she didn't know for how long. He had tears in his eyes once again. Why is he so sad so often? She thought as he collapsed. She quickly closed the distance an  placed  again  on his head. She closed her eyes and was quickly able to read into what was happening with the maintained contact. He had wrestled the Reaper's Blood into submission but it wasn't gone. She quickly reformed her greatest curing spell, hoping that treating it as a poison that attacked  a certain part of the body would be enough to free him from it. She focuses  Her spell, gearing it to take effect in the areas that the Reaper's Blood had been attacking yet now remained under an iron fist of a will, and placed her free hand over his heart as she channeled the curing powers into him. 

With the power of his will holding it in submission she was able to perform the extraction much easier than if it had still been running rampant. The curing magic did its work quarantining the drug within him then ever so slowly and delicately moving it to where her hand rested over his heart. With an intense look of concentration she held her breath as she slowly pulled her hand up away from his heart, a steam  of white magic connected her hand to his body as she pulled about a foot away from his body and within that white magic a blood red mist started to come forth from him and swirl about within the light. She kept pulling it forth with her magic until no more appeared from him. She removed her hand from his head and cut the connection to his body with that hand, now holding a white light between her hands that held a red mist that was quickly condensing into a small sphere of blood. She let out her breath and turned away from Kyro before thrusting the white light away from herself violently causing it and the blood to fly a few yards away where it splattered on the ground and the white light vanished. She was breathing heavily as she tried to catch her breath. It had taken such willpower of her own to wrench that awful blood away from him even in its subdued state. 

Once she caught her breath she retrieved her pack and the blanket and manage  to maneuver Kyro into a much more relaxed looking position with his head resting on the blanket as a pillow once again. She then retrieved his sword and as she dragged it along he ground with both hands wondered how the he'll he was able to swing this thing around so viciously and swiftly with just one hand. She managed to get the sword sheathed then let herself fall into a sitting position with a huff. This whole thing hadn't gone as smoothly as she had hoped when she had first found that dead wolf. She thought it would be a simple matter of finding the injured, healing them, and leaving once they were recovered, but this…this was anything but a simple matter. A dark look came across her ace as she remembered those leaves. They had undoubtedly done their job even if they had been contaminated by that foul drug, for when Kyro had been attacking her if he had still been at such a lack of blood as when she had first healed him he would have been much easier to evade, but he had been a handful. She leaned back onto her hands as she watched over Kyro. He looked peaceful when he was sleeping at least. She hoped his mind was as peaceful as he looked. She reached over and brushed some hair away from his face then sort of spaced out watching the sun rise higher in the early morning sky and started petting his hair like he was a dog she was trying to comfort.