Sylvanus (Private)

[Sonatina]

"No!" Mira said quickly "I mean, that isn't what I meant! I just wanted to make sure we were both on the same page." She paused catching his gaze with hers, trying to communicate to him just how important he was to her.

"I am willing to do anything to see you when I can, sneak away, or tell the truth. Just know that I will always find a way to you. I'm not trying to tangle you up in this relationship just to let you hang later on, I am as tangled up as you, even if I wanted to get away, which I don't, I wouldnt be able to."

She lowered her head to rest on his chest, listening to the gentle thumping of his heart. "I want to be in this moment forever, but I know eventually I will have to leave. So I will build all the memories I can here and now, so that when I do go, and if I have to stay away for a long time I will always have something to hold on to." She smiled up at him and kissed him lightly on the neck.

"I'll always be willing to work for moments like this"

[Malverne]

Ryan relaxed again, wrapping his arms around Mira.

"Good," he muttered, kissing the top of Mira's head, "Don't scare me like that, okay?" He suddenly had a flashback to his parents fighting, a lot like this argument. The roles were reversed, but basically the same fight.

"Y'know, I've never felt this way about a girl before," he said, "You're something Special, capital S and all. As long as you'll have me, I'll fight tooth and nail to be with you." Ryan fell silent for a long while, listening to Mira's breath, and the swoosh of the snow outside the treehouse. The sounds melded together inside Ryan's mind until he couldn't distinguish one from the other. He slowly nodded off, the happiest he'd been in a very long while. Also, he was perfectly warm.
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Faust ignored the snow falling in front of him, trusting his reflexes and instincts to make up for the impeded sight. His newest creation was in a bag tied to his belt. He was taking a long, circuitous route back to the village, getting himself as tired as he could. His mind was deadly calm. No turmoil left. Just clean purpose. Not a single shred of guilt or confusion. He accepted his pain, and it drove him.

Faust felt like nothing could stop him, even though a tiny part of him wanted to be stopped. His purpose was not a pure one. It was not nice. But it must be done. It must.

[Sonatina]

Mira could feel Ryan's body relax, and then the lovely sensation of his arms around her, she laid back gently on him, resting her head in the nape of his neck.

"I didn't mean to scare you" she said quietly, she turned her head, kissing him right under his jawbone.

Ryan's words made Mira's heart squeeze and a ball form in her throat. She tried to say something, but when she opened her mouth warm tears welled up in her eyes. She buried her head against his neck, relishing in the wonder that was Ryan.

***

Mira stirred, moving her head slightly and stretching her arms out. She opened her eyes and saw the rising and falling of Ryan's chest, she carefully raised her head, disentangling herself from him and standing up. She stretched once more, silently laughing at how Ryan's sweatshirt hung down to almost her thighs, she pulled it up to her nose, breathing in his scent and smiling.

She reached out and grabbed her bow and arrows, it was early in the morning and Ryan wouldn't be up for a while, might as well do something constructive with her time.

She leaned over and gave Ryan a soft kiss, first on the forehead and then the lips before jumping out the window and landing softly on the branches outside.

[Malverne]

Faust woke early. He knew that he needed to get moving, just in case an opportunity presented itself. He had only fallen asleep a few hours before, but he felt well rested. Faust was out of his house in a minute, and was swinging through the forest toward the place he'd seen Mira and...it.

Despite Faust's grim mood, a smile pulled at his lips as he blasted through branches and leaves. He fell into a rhythm, and soon lost himself in the physical feats he was performing.

Half an hour passed before Faust reached the place he'd spied on Mira. He sniffed the air, and dropped to the ground, looking for tracks. Faust may not have been the hunter that Mira was, but he could spot elven footprints pretty easily. He traced them back to their origin; a crude house in the trees. One of the hollows was covered in some black cloth. Faust pulled his newest creation out of his pocket, and slipped the punch dagger into his fist. Faust took a deep breath, and settled in to wait.
------------------------------------

Ryan woke slowly, and groggily. He opened his eyes to see Mira gone. Most of his mind screamed at him that she'd left for good, and that his conversation with her last night had had no impact whatsoever. After a moment, logic won over. No, she was probably off being actually useful. Yep, that was it.

Ryan stood up, stretching, and pushed back the curtain, letting the sunlight in. Something glinted in the bunch of leaves across from him, but the glare from the sun drowned it out. There was a soft rustle from that direction as the glinting surface disappeared.

"Mira?" Ryan called, "Is that you?"

[Sonatina]

Mira stood, frozen and silent, in the branches of an old and twisted oak tree. She watched as a rabbit hopped across the ground, nose sniffing the frozen ground, she released her tense muscles and let her arrow fly, hitting its mark perfectly.

She swung down from the tree, carring her other two rabbits from earlier, she added the third to her stash and looked up to take in her surroundings. The village was closer than Ryan's treehouse, and she didn't know how Ryan would react to the dead animals. She set off through the underbrush, making her way back home.

Valora was just leaving for the healer's hut as Mira came into sight, she waved to her and waited as she climbed a ladder up onto the plateform where she was

"You are up early this morning Valora, Mira said and they walked along together

Valora looked at Mira from the corner of her eyes, regarding her mood, she was happy and had a strange bounce in her step that was abnormal for Mira.

"Mira..have you talked to Faust yet today?" She asked

"No, not yet...why?" Mira looked at her friend, assesing the way she was avoiding her gaze "Val?" She said, stopping and turning towards her "What is going on?"

Valora looked down, avoiding Mira's intese stare, she ran through her conversation with Faust, wondering what she should tell Mira, that she might be in danger, but Mira wouldn't care about that, she was reckless, and glad to be so. That as her friends they just wanted to protect her? That was no good either, Mira didn't want protection.

"Well, I was talking to him earlier and he thought he had saw you in the woods, and....um, well he just wanted to know if you were around, er-" Valora cut off, she was no good at lying, it was no use trying

"Faust said he saw you with a...a human" she stuttered out "and he was worried for you and he came to talk to me and I was supposed to distract you while he checked the human out" she stopped, seeing Mira's eyes widen in recongnision. "Only to see if you would be safe!"

"Valora" Mira said slowly, trying to control the fear building up inside her, threating to over flow "where is Faust now?"

Valora looked at the ground "I don't really know" she whispered "probably at the forge at this time"

Mira turned and sprinted towards the forge, the dead rabbits clutched in her hands, her heart pounding in her chest, her brain registered that Valora was running behind her calling for her to slow down, but she didn't stop until she had reached to forge. She slammed through the door, glancing around the room, but Fuast was nowhere to be found. Her heart sank and she spun towards one of the smiths.

"Where is Faust?" she said in a voice that seemed to come from someone else

"Don't know" the smith answered "he didn't come in this morning, though he was working late last night, on a knife or something"

The color drained from Mira's face and she swayed on the spot.

"Ryan" she whipstered

The dead rabbits thunked on the floor as she ran back out the door and past Valora who was catching her breath. Mira leaped into a nearby tree, jumping from branch to branch before she hit the floor running. Her legs pumped in rythm with her heart, as her brain raced, when had Fuast seen them, what was he planning to do, was Ryan alright? What would happen to Ryan, what would she do if anything happened to Ryan?

Ryan

Ryan

"RYAN!" she screamed, sending nesting birds into flight as she sprinted through the forest, hoping beyond all hope that she wouldnt be too late.

[Malverne]

Faust waited calmly for an hour or so, then the leaf curtain in the tree shifted. Faust leaned forward, placing one hand onto the branch in front of his feet so that he wouldn't fall forward.

The human stuck his head out, and Faust's eyes narrowed in hatred. He froze as the human's eyes flickered to his hiding spot for a second, realizing that his punch dagger was reflecting the light. Faust pulled his hand back and settled back a bit further, bracing himself against the trunk of the tree.

Ryan shrugged once when only silence answered his call, and turned back into the treehouse. His thoughts were preoccupied with homework and calculus (specifically, the demonic properties of calculus), and he wasn't really worried about anything. There was no sound except the slight rustling of leaves moving in the wind, and the swoosh of something moving through the air.

Ryan had absolutely no warning before something slammed into him from behind. Reflexes born of many brotherly wrestles took over, and Ryan rolled with the impact, ending up on his back, looking up at his assailant. Ryan didn't really have the time to take in any details because the elf sitting on his chest was getting ready to bury a few inches of sharp steel into his forehead. Ryan jerked his neck to the side, and the blade struck the wood less than an inch from his ear. Ryan buried his teeth into the arm just next to his face, earning him a small grunt of pain from the elf. Not to mention a strong fist to the jaw, forcing Ryan to release the elf's forearm.

Ryan planted his feet and twisted his shoulders, flipping the elf off of him, and scrambled to his feet. The elf was lightning fast, and was already bounding off the walls to try to kick Ryan in the mouth. Ryan ducked backwards, dodging the powerful blow.

"Look," he yelled, stumbling back, "I know what you think! But I'm not evil! Okay, I'm like you!" The elf didn't reply verbally, only gave a small snort. Ryan took the opportunity to charge forward, reaching for the wood elf's thin waist. He grabbed only air as the elf leapt over him, landing nimbly behind Ryan. Ryan felt the elf hit him twice in the back, and swung around, punching the elf in the gut.

Faust's lungs emptied violently, and he tumbled backwards. He paused for a moment, regarding the human. Faust's punch dagger was buried in the ground, about halfway between them, and he had a string of throwing daggers on his back. They didn't have much weight though, and wouldn't do much harm if they hit. Faust narrowed his eyes, weighing his options.

"I don't know who you are," Ryan said, noticing that the elf had stopped moving, "But I don't want to hurt you. Hell, I've never met you before. You don't know me. I'm not a bad person." The elf remained silent, and Ryan wondered for a moment if the elf even spoke English.

Suddenly, the elf gestured sharply, a bright flash coming out of his hand. Ryan leaned out of the way, his eyes following the throwing dagger as it moved just past his face to bury itself in the wood behind him. There was more movement in the corner of Ryan's eye as the elf rushed forward, bent low. Ryan didn't have time to move before the elf reached him.

Faust reached the human easily. The creature seemed to move in slow motion compared to the speed at which Faust operated. Faust fell to one knee, reaching for the human's leg. One palm went behind the human's knee, the other forming a fist. Faust punched the spot just above the joint with all of his wiry might, and felt a surge of satisfaction at the 'crunch' that issued from the knee.

Before the human could even fall, Faust stood up on his left leg, his other foot whipping dangerously fast through the air to hit the human in the back of the head. THe human fell with a 'thud' and an 'oof.' Faust, secure in the knowledge that the human was not getting up, crossed to his punch dagger and yanked it from the floor. He went back over to the prone human, and placed his left knee on the human's spine, putting all of his weight onto the human's back. With his left hand, Faust positioned the human's head, making it face to the side instead of straight down, and leaned on it, so the human couldn't move out of the way this time.

Ryan could barely move. The pain in his knee was overwhelming, and his head seemed to be full mush. It took a moment for him to realize that he was actually face down on the floor. A pressure appeared on his back, and something turned his face to the right. Ryan could see the elf, standing over him, holding that knife. Ryan realized that he was scared. Terrified. He was going to die. The elf hadn't even said why.

The elf was completely silent, and Ryan was out-of-his-mind terrified of that. Was this just senseless violence? Was it personal? Did the elf think he was serving some greater purpose? Ryan didn't know why he was going to die. Ryan's eye followed the point of the dagger as the elf raised it high. The point paused for a moment, and Ryan looked deep into the eyes of the elf.

What he saw surprised him. No anger. No glee. No sorrow. Just pain. The elf's entire being was thrumming with pain, and the elf thought that killing Ryan would help.

"I'm sorry," Ryan mumbled, his tongue swollen. The elf paused, surprised.

"I'm not."

[Sonatina]

Mira was still 150 feet away from the treehouse when she heard the sickening crack of a breaking bone that stopped her in her tracks, if she had enough breath the would have screamed again but she just printed to the nearest tree, flinging herself into its branches and leaping from tree to tree until she landed on the closest platform of Ryan's treehouse. She turned and ran towards Ryan's make-shift bedroom, where the sounds of a fight had died down, which was either a very good thing, or a very bad thing.
She burst though the door trying to absorb the scene that was displayed in front of her. Ryan was laying on the floor with one leg splayed out, bent at a wrong angle, obviously broken. But the one thing Mira couldn't quite absorb was the fact that Faust was perched on his abdomen, his hand raised and glinting. In the split second that it took for her to realize what the item was in his hand Fast had started to stab downwards. Before Mira had even formed a plan she found herself leaping the five feet that spanned between them and throwing herself on top of Ryan's body. There was a pause of shock before Mira felt the icy pain of the knife slicing into her left hip.
She cried out and rolled over, yanking the knife from Faust's hand. She pulled the knife from her side and touched a hand to the wound and brought it up, red and shiny with blood. She clutched her hip again and whipped her head up to look at Faust, eyes blazing with anger.
"What are you doing?!" she shouted, wincing and pain tore through her side, and she gasped.

[Malverne]

Faust didn't know what to do. At one moment, everything was going fine and then...MIRA. Of course, she always had to show up and break his heart! Faust's hands were pressed to his forehead, and he had backed up to the doorway.

"What are you doing?!" Mira demanded. The sound of her pain tore through Faust.

I don't know, he thought. I just want it to stop.

Faust turned and ran out of the tree, jumping into the trees. He ran and flew faster than he ever had before, barely seeing where he was going. He didn't know where he was, only that he needed to get away. Away from everything. Away from the human, away from Mira, and away from himself.

After miles, hours, Faust's exhausted muscles slipped and he crashed to the earth. The snow didn't do much to soften his fall, but Faust barely felt the pain, despite the fact that something was almost definitely broken. Faust pushed himself to his feet, spat out a mouthful of blood (he'd bitten his tongue) and hobbled away again, still intent of moving.

Soon, even that was too much, and he stopped altogether. Faust stood there, in the snowy forest that he didn't recognize, completely still, and lost in body and soul.
---------------------------------------------------------
Ryan squeezed his eyes shut after the elf uttered those two words, fully expecting to die. Then, something crashed into him (again. Geez, what is it with these overemotional elves and crashing into him?), and Ryan was not, in fact, dead.

The weight from his back lifted, and Ryan could breathe again. His leg was still on fire, and he was sure he had a concussion, but hey, that's better than a three-inch long piece of steel in his skull, right? Ryan O'Conner: ever the optimist.

"Mira?" he croaked, recognizing her voice. Ryan rolled over, despite the stabbing pains in his knee, and held her.

"Ohmygod, are you okay?" he gushed, ignoring the fact that the elf who just tried to kill him had run off, "You need help!" Ryan tried to move, but the pain in his knee threatened to knock him out. Ryan let out a run of curses, which helped him focus.

"Mira," he grunted, "You need help. I need help. We can't get help from the same people. You've got healers, right? Can you get to them? I need to call my mom and get an ambulance down here. Like, right now because ow. Mira!" Ryan grabbed the girl by the shoulders and looked into her eyes.

"Take care of yourself," he ordered, knowing she would argue unless he was forceful, "You keep yourself intact, and I'll do the same. OK?"

[Sonatina]

Mira bit her lip to keep from crying out again as Ryan shook her shoulders. "Get your mother here right now, okay?" She looked down at his leg grimicing, some how injuries on animals and humans were two completely different things to her. She stood up shakely using the wall for support, assessing the damage done to her hip; the but wasn't long, but it looked deep, at least what she could see of it through the blood. She didn't know much about medicine, but she did know that she needed to stop the steady dripping of blood.

Looking around the room she picked up a part of the bed sheet and tore a good sized strip from it, wrapping it around her hip and thigh. It would have to do until she got to Valora. She glanced over at Ryan, and knelt besides him. "Keep yourself safe, okay?" She kissed him swiftly on the cheek and hurried out the door and made her way clumsily down the ladder, she didn't trust her legs to support her jumping from tree to tree.

She searched for any sign of Faust but he had dissapeared. The image of the look on his face as he stabbed downwards at Ryan was burned into her memory, along with the pain that it carried, then there was the look as he jumped out of the window, confusion, pain, anger. Mira knew something was wrong but as she started off to follow the direction he had gone a painful throb from her hip reminded her of the care she needed.

She stood for a moment, closing her eyes tightly before turning and loping slowly through the woods. It seemed to take forever with the slow pace and many stops she had to make, but finally the familiar tree houses came into view


Valora was pacing restlessly, imaging all of the different horrible things that could be happening at this very moment, she could tell that her and Faust's plan had gone very wrong, it wasn't supposed to happen this way. What had Faust been thinking? and what had Mira been thinking when she ran blindly into the woods, the was something about the look of sheer terror on her face when she had run by her that frightened Valora.

Maybe she should have gone after Mira, but no, she knew that was pointless, Mira was by far a better runner than she could ever hope to be, Valora would probably end up lost in the forrest somewhere, of no use to anyone. No it was best to stay here and help when both Faust and Mira came back.

The sun was high in the sky when Valora walked out of her home headed to the medical hut, she walked without really paying attention to where she was going, her mind somewhere else, she almost didn't knowtice the figure leaning against the trunk of a tree.

"Mira!" she exclaimed, Mira looked dreadful, her face was white and her eyes barely open, she was leaning against the tree as if she couldn't support herself and one glance at the bloodied strip of cloth around her hip told her why.

"oh Mira," Valora said again as she rushed over and supported her friend, half guiding half carrying her into the medical hut. It was a good thing she was tiny, or else Valora would have collapsed too. "what happened to you?"


Mira was vagley aware of the friendly presence helping her into the hut, the trip back had worn her out so much she could barely keep her eyes open, it was only when Valora forced and warm cup of liquid into her hands and made her drink it that she could focus, fresh energy ran through her body. She sat up slowly, noting that her dirty hunting clothes had been removed and exchanged for a simple smock, she could feel the pressure of a new clean bandage on her hip, and the stinging of the wound was lessended a great deal.

"Valora?" She questioned, her voice cracking, she cleared her throat "Valora, have you seen Faust?"

Valora shook her head, "I haven't seen him since you came back, but I've been in here most of the time" She sat on the cot next to Mira and took her hand. "Mira, what happened?"

She sat quietly as Mira explained everything from the moment she first realized what Faust had set out to do to when Valora had found her. Valora shut her eyes and breathed slowly before opening them again "I think we need to find Faust, and figure out what is going through his head"

Mira stood up slowly, testing her strength, she was relieved to find that she could stand on her own, whatever Valora had given her seemed to be working. "No Valora, I need to find Faust, not we" She glanced around for her clothes, freshly cleaned at the bottom of her bed. As Valora started to protest she cut her off "I'm sorry, but I don't know where he is, or what kind of conditon he is in, I need to do this by myself" She quickly changed back into her hunting gear, wincing when she brushed against her wound.

She ignored Valoras protests of how she wasn't healed enough or didn't have enough energy to go out into the forrest and exited out the door. She clambered down a ladder, using her arms mostly, and ifnored her friend's final shouts.

The return trip seemed to take a shorter time, but that was most likely because along the way she spotted a trail that nothing but Faust could have made, heading off west of the trail to Ryan's. She took a deep breath and slowly made her way along, eyes and mind intent on finding Faust.

She traveled for what seemed like hours, the sun had started to sink low in the sky when she came across a deep indentation in the snow, and a splatter of blood, with a sinking feeling she screamed out Faust's name and started to run, following the trail of blood drops, she was so focused on the ground that she almost ran face first into a tree trunk. She looked up, realizing that it was not in fact a tree trunk.

"Faust?" she questioned softly

[Malverne]

Ryan gritted his teeth as Mira left, and forced himself to his feet. His head was throbbing, and his knee...well, let's not talk about that. Ryan hopped/hobbled to the door, and managed to climb out the door.

It took forever, but Ryan made his way out of the treehouse, and slid down the ladder. He arranged himself at the base of the ladder, then pulled out his phone and called his mom. She'd be here soon.
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Faust stood there for hours, his hand holding his side where his ribs were cracked. His tongue had stopped bleeding a while ago, although the pain was still present.

Not that the physical even compared to what Faust was going through emotionally. Faust couldn't move, for fear that he would just crack open. He tried to shove the pain aside so that he could deal with it rationally, but the pain demanded to be felt.

So caught up in himself, Faust barely heard Mira coming up behind him, even when she was less then two feet from his back. Not long ago, that proximity would have filled him with warmth and made his heart pound. Now...Faust fought down the urge to shiver. His eyes slid shut when he heard his name.

"Yes?" he replied quietly. He didn't turn to face Mira, because he didn't think he could look at her right now. Or maybe it was that he didn't want her to see him.

[Sonatina]

Mira took a slow step forwards, noticing the tension that ran through Faust's shoulders, from the way he was holding himself she could tell that he was in some sort of pain. She reached a hand out to him but let it fall to her side. This wasn't the Faust she knew, the laughing, caring, and loving Faust, this was something had been buried deep inside of him, something that something about Ryan had woken it, like a sleeping beast. This Faust was chilling.

"What happened back there?" She asked softly, her voice cracking slightly

[Malverne]

"I think that's what I should ask you," Faust replied. His voice was completely dead and flat. Faust couldn't bring himself to sound angry. He could barely bring himself to speak.

"How's your hip?" Faust asked. He coughed, his ribs shifting under his hand as he breathed, flaring with pain. Coughing didn't really help.

"Y'know Mira," Faust said after he got his coughing under control, "I never had many secrets. I mean, everyone's got at least one, right? I just never thought my secrets would ever come to light. I always thought that, after a while, they'd disappear, and cease to matter. But no, Omnipoten's gotta drag 'em back up, doesn't he, the big green bastard. Mira, I-" Faust's voice caught as he fought to keep himself intact. His shoulder's shook, and his head hung low. Faust still couldn't bring himself to open his eyes or turn around.

"I've lied to you." He said, after a moment of silence. "I've lied to you since we met."

[Sonatina]

Mira's answer to his question caught in her throat as Faust started to tell her about his secrets. She was turned speechless, listening to the emotion swelling in his voice.

Her mouth dropped when he cursed Omnipoten, Faust, the most steadfast, loyal, religious elf was here cursing his creator.

She closed her mouth and swallowed about to say something, anything, just to understand what had brought about this sudden change in Faust, but once again his words stopped her in her tracks.

Her mouth felt like it was full of sand when she said "Lied? What do you mean lied?"

[Malverne]

"I loved you Mira," Faust said, "I always have, ever since we met. For the past ten years, I've wanted nothing than to just spend time with you. Nothing. But it was drilled into my head that I could only be a friend, and I settled for that. I was...well, I wasn't really happy, but it was enough. It's hard to explain it to you, because I'm completely positive you've never felt anything like it before. Val would probably have an easier time of it. She gets how you work." Faust tried to laugh, but his lungs wouldn't really cooperate. It came out as a half-hearted wheeze.

"I guess it's a good thing you're so oblivious when it comes to other people," he said, a harsh edge coming into his voice, "Otherwise, you'd have figured it out, and you'd have either pitied me, or left me. As badly as I handled being near you, I don't think I could have handled either of those." There was another long silence.

"But enough about me. Care to tell me what you're doing, running around with a savage mythical creature?"

[Sonatina]

Mira stood flabbergasted, mind reeling. love. Faust had said he loved her, and she knew it wasn't the kind of brotherly/sisterly love that she had for him, this was the heart-wrenching love she felt for Ryan. The kind of love where you would do anything to be besides that person, even if they felt nothing back.

Mira thought back to the conversations they had had, the time they had spent together, the things he had said and done. She realized that this was the explanation to various things that had confused her before. She wondered if she had taken the time, would she have been able to see Faust's feelings? She doubted it, just like she doubted now that she could say anything to make Faust feel any better.

The word 'savage' cut through her thoughts "Savage?" she choked out "Savage?!" she yelled to his back "Ryan is not a savage Faust! He is intelligent, and caring! You are the savage here! You tried to kill him!" Her voice cracked and she swallowed hard as she walked around him and looked him in the eyes, her eyes boring into his "Kill him! Without even finding anything out! What right do you have to attack an innocent man?! What right do you have to try and destroy my happiness?!"