Zalia transformed into her half human form, and moved her ears around trying to get a better sense of where they could safely move. Then looked at Vizard, and Gizzard fighting over who was going to protect her. She rolled her eyes and walked between them with her bow and quiver of arrows. "I'll protect myself...but I appreciate the sentiment." She said, as her ears moved forward.

Tyrcestus looked into the tree tops.
"But I'm curious."
Then he looked round at her.
"I could always go ask Hexy..." he said, raising an eyebrow.
"Is something wrong? Is it something she did?"
Clun nudged him.
"Can you focus, please? Ask questions later."
Tyrcestus nodded. "Stay close to Clun, he can protect you better."
Vizard and Gizzard both watched Zalia as she walked, more specifically the swaying backside complete with kinky fox tail.
"We hate to see them go..."
"But we LOVE to watch them leave."
Reunited as brothers by their appreciation of a fine booty, they joined her in scanning the trees for attackers - whilst musing which out of the three girls possessed the most delectable rump, of course...

Zalia looked over her shoulders, as her ears continued to scan the woods...obvious to the fact that Vizard, and Gizzard were staring at her backside. She then looked at Beelzenef. "I have a bad feeling about this." She said to him, with a worried expression on her face.

******

Arisa shook her head. "No other family." She replied. "My father is an assassin...any other family that I had...are dead.."

Tyrcestus looked at her.
Then he spoke, sounding like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"What... do you mean, you... like me?"
He said it again, sounding like it was some impossible idea.
"You... like me?"
Clun rolled his eyes.
We could be being attackied and they talks about liking each other. Stone the crows, I say...

"normally your typical lightning or elemental ninja are trained in poisons, agility, and how to accurately hit small targets with small throwing knives..." Sean looked around in the trees above them.
"along with how to be stealthy and to hide themselves. but these guys are rogues and exiles. they could be stealthy and silent... or not."

or dim and clumsy as you just saw.
Call us lucky if we where followed by dim witted idiots.
he looked back at hexy and answered her.
" To answer you, they're most likely the type to throw a small knife or shoot an arrow into you that's laced with poison. unless they've been hired to take you alive, then it'll just be laced with something that'll temporally paralyze you."

As zerron lept from branch to branch, he took out a couple of small throwing knives. as he lept through the forest he couldn't help to think who would have exiled elemental ninjas under contract.

then as he lept into the next tree canopy, he landed right across from another ninja... one who was wearing dark crimson.
oh by, I was looking for one of Zerrox's men.
before the other could react, he ate a flame punch.
should have known he would have sent some of his exiles in...
A grin appeared on his face as he raced through the forest.
"Let's see what kind of fun we can have with Zerrox's Kiddies!"

zerrox's archers had spread themselves out over the forest, some stayed in small groups while others where by themselves.
(lets say there's about 35 total, with the biggest group being about three to five.)

Sarret decided to transform into his raven form to avoid any fighting. he could also move better around the trees as well.

"Beelzenef not like this too, me think we should get to cave fast." Beelzenef said as he sheathed his sword before saying "Bring many things with Zalia, plan move into goblin home?"

*****

"Well a giant tiger crushed my home, so I was thinking of finding somewhere else to live. How about I travel with you to find your old man?" Steve said before he said "But first what did Shadow say about me?"

Tyrcestus acknowledged what Sean said in the part of his mind that wasn't stunned.
Then he moved closer to Trinity.
"...How do you like me? Like... like like me?"
What am I, fourteen?!

Hexy's eyes widened.
"So... should we attack them first?"

Zalia looked at Beelzenef and nodded her head. "I hope you don't mind." She replied. "It doesn't feel right living in my father's estate, knowing what he tried to do." Her ears moved again. "I'm going to get into the trees...hopefully, I'll hear something up there." With that, she lept into the trees.

******

Arisa nodded her head. "I don't mind the company." She replied, then looked at Shadow. "Well...to be honest...he thinks you should just man up."

The young self-critical part of Tyrcestus pretty much shut down.
The leader took point.
"OK, I... I guess we'll talk about this later then."
Then he turned to the others.
"Ears peeled. Zalia, let us know if you get anything. We move in a defensive ring, cover all angles."
He looked back at Trinity.
"This might get ugly. You prepared for that?"

"Me not mind you move into kin home, get to see more of Zalia." Beelzenef said as he watched her jump into the trees. He turns to Ty and said "What you want Beelzenef do?"

*****

'Wow, Shadow is more of an donkey then a horse' Steve thought befre he says "Well then, my name is Steve by the way" Steve said as he extanded is hand

Zalia stood on a branch, moving her ears slowly....wind blowing through the trees....birds...bugs...a squirrel...then...feet? Zalia looked down to the group, after climbing down a few branches. "They're following us...and have spread out." She said, as she stood on the branch just over Vizard's and Gizzard's heads. "If we're heading to the mountain, we need to move...and fast."

******

Arisa smiled gently, and shook Steve's hand. "Nice to meet you, Steve. I'm Arisa-" she paused, as she looked around. "Something's not right." She spoke softly, and just as she said this, Shadow had become uneasy, and managed to pull his reins from Arisa's hand, and he charged into the forest.

If there's one thing that separated a sorceress from a witch, it was that witches tended to shape things to suit their world-view.
As a result, when Sean had said "Good thinking," Hexy had thought he was talking to her.
And as a result of that, she had conjured a fireball the size of a village hall and sent it blasting in a random direction through the trees, obliterating a straight line through the forest in the hopes of catching a ninja.
When Sean looked her in the eyes, she batted her eyelashes sheepishly.
"Errr... ooops?"

Tyrcestus face-palmed.
"Hexy..."

Vizard and Gizzard both looked affronted.
"We can control our libidos!"
"Most of the time!"
"Some of the time..."
"Every now and again..."
"If we're lucky..."
"Once in a blue moon..."
"Never..."
"...Yeah, we've got our brains in our pants," they admitted. But they both were alert and aware of their surroundings.
At least until Zalia stood over their heads, allowing them to see up her skirt.
It took Clun smashing their heads together four times to get them to even blink, and it was only when Zalia closed her legs that they even attempted to rejoin reality.
"Worth it," said Vizard, nursing a bloody nose.
"Absolutely," agreed Gizzard, now with a smarting black eye.

They formed a ring, facing outwards, and began to move, Tyrcestus giving Trinity half-excited, half-worried looks that plainly said "We should talk about it later" and Hexy exasperated, frustrated looks which plainly said "Next time, please listen before you blast things!"
They moved slowly, cautiously, waiting for something to happen...

The fireball never touched anyone, but a couple of archers heard it and decided to head towards it.

Zerron herd and saw the blast and started to head towards the area as well.

Sean's jaw almost dropped as Hexy let off her fireball. He looked back at her with his deeply glowing blue eyes, narrowing them as they made contact with hers.
"I swear to the gods If you do something like that again that leads them to us, I will shock you..."
he calmed himself and focused on his suorundings and his senses.
" now is not the time for any hunting. I'm already ticked off as it is..."

A couple of Zerrox's archers found the path Hexy's fireball had made and decided to follow it. some even sent a mix of arrows down the path. A mix of flaming and lightning arrows came towards the group.

Beelzenef turns to Hexy as she fires the fireball, thinking how could she use such magic. The large goblins eyes turn just in time to see arrows of fire and lightning being fired at the group. He glances to the group and says "Bad guys shoot arrows, take cover!" before he ducks behind a boulder

*****

Steve watches Shadow run off into the wood before he turns to Arisa and asks "Does he always act like that?" before he begins pursuing the large horse

Zalia quickly got behind the tree...having to straddle two smaller branches to do so. 'This is not good.' Zalia thought to herself. 'They out number us.' She looked around, as she flattened her ears.

******

"Like what?" Arisa asked. "A jerk, or easily scared?" She added, as she followed Steve to chase Shadow.

"COVER, NOW!"

Vizard and Gizzard both tried to hide behind the same tree, then both looked up trying to get a glimpse of Zalia's goodies, clonking heads and falling to the forest floor, temporarily stunned.
As a result, the arrows zoomed overhead.

Clun placed his club, broad-side down, into the ground and braced behind it, so it acted like a shield.
He felt some arrows ping into it, and the elemental discharge forced him back a few feet. None touched his flesh though.

Fweep rose up in front of Hexy and spun furiously. The arrows struck the broomstick -and Hexy absorbed their elemental charges and channeled them into her next attack, a raging tornado that zoomed through the forest, whirling aside any follow-up arrows, as well as blowing leaves into the eyes of the archers, blinding them temporarily.

Tyrcestus had instinctively jumped on top of Trinity, pinning her to the forest floor, covering her from arrows. He was about to ask if she was ok when he suddenly found himself not wanting to move from his position.
Their lips were only inches apart and he was gazing into her eyes.
He opened his mouth to say something -
THWUCK!
"YEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!!"
He rolled off, a flaming arrow embedded in his lower back.
He reached back and yanked it out. Blood flowed freely and he swore.
"Sean! We need to move! NOW!"

Sean saw the volley of arrows come towards them and the chaos they caused. He started to cut the arrows out of the air as he headed towards the front. he blocked a lightning arrow with his dagger, his eyes glowing deeper as he adsorbed its discharge.
seeing the situation and hearing what was going on, he knew exactly what was needed to be done.
"You guys need to get moving, I can take care of these pests. I can easily track you guys to regroup with you so get going."
Sean charged up his dagger as the seal on his inner energy was desinergrading.
"The king was wise to call upon the last student of Master Zekken."

He vanished with a flash of lightning and reappeared where the exiles where gathering.
"so you wanted to find me?"  

the archers seemed surprised at this, but drew their weapons of choice. the fight was on.

Zerron heard all of the comotion and decided to help them out more by taking the archers out. when he went to engage the archers, he found that someone was already greeting them. he froze as he saw Sean. as one Zerrox's archers started to call him an outsider he watched as he took him out starting the fight.
So thats the one I defended back then... glad I didn't get on his bad side.

Beelzenef dashes over to the tree where Zalia is hiding in and says "We need to move, drop and me get us safe." holding out his arms

*****

"No, but he act's like a horses ass." Steve said as they chased after the ran. A moment after he said it the hermit said "Umm well he act's like an ass."