"It's-- it's fine," Davis sighed, "Just try and get out of here before someone spots you, okay?"

Outside, Etsu followed Eld to the horse. As he readied it to go, she couldn't help but watch down the street. People were coming outside-- not because of them or anything, but because it was the afternoon, and that's what people in Galaens did. It meant the market was going to be packed, and so were all of the main streets. There was probably no way they were going to be getting through that on horseback. That would slow them down, even, and make them even easier to spot by police.

"We shour-rd go a-round back of town," Etsu remarked, seemingly ignoring Eld's apology, "Market crowd coming out."

The last part was quite a bit of botched Common, but Eld would probably understand. Probably . . .

"You're right..."

If they were on foot, the market would have been the perfect route since it would be easy to get lost in the crowd, but on the horse they'd stand out even more. Their best bet was to avoid the main roads and stick to smaller, less traveled ones. Even if it meant taking a longer route, it would be faster, and there was less chance they'd be spotted.

Having finished prepping the horse, he climbed on and helped Etsu up too. Part of him wanted to duck low to make him less visible, but that would probably only draw more attention to them. If they just rode naturally, hopefully people would overlook the fact that they were Cizokian and carrying weapons for the fact that they were teenagers.

Despite the fact that Eld had been raised in this area since birth, Etsu tried to act as sort of a . . . guide, of sorts. She motioned behind them, as far away from the market as possible. They'd have to go west first, which had no path. There was no road going out that was-- it wasn't a possibility. This horse wasn't Rutherford, it couldn't go anywhere and everywhere. But at the same time, it could still be ridden.

Once out through the west side of town, it was just a matter of going around Galaens and towards Feiyan. That would have been a long ride, as Davis suggested. On horseback, it was probably . . . five hours, maybe even six. That just wasn't an option. Besides, there were few places in the world that were as unpleasant as Feiyan, Algeroth. But they needed to take that road, nonetheless. At least for a little while.

The road to Feiyan was almost as unpleasant as the city itself. There were still trees, but only on one side-- on the left, where they could eventually cut through to get to the path to Hillcrest. On the right, though, it was a plain. All a plain-- and not a grassy one, either. The entire road was barren-- rocky, in fact. It was like going through a canyon-- except there were no high walls to be found. But boulders . . . there were boulders, massive hunks of rock would have seemed out of place, were it not for the relatively quick change of scenery . . .

And it was around the time they were far enough from Galaens to consider taking a different course that their horse refused to go forward. In fact, it bucked; it let out a neigh of discontent-- or maybe it was anger, or fear . . .

But either way, it wasn't keeping Eld and Etsu on its back. Etsu hadn't seen it coming. She fell off during the first buck, hitting the hard ground back first with a cry of pain, followed in short by a lengthy wince as she tried to muster up the strength to get back up . . .

Eld considered it a small miracle that they managed to get out of the city unmolested. He didn't know what he would have done if the police had confronted them; running away would have implicated them, and if they took him them in there was no guarantee they wouldn't have the crime pinned on them to just set minds at ease...not to mention if they looked into Etsu's identity, it would open up an entirely new can of worms...

Just as they were getting far enough that Eld started to think they should turn towards Hillcrest, the horse suddenly reared. He wasn't moving that fast and was caught as by surprise as Etsu, launched off the mount and landing hard on his back beside her.

"H-Hey, easy, girl!" he exclaimed, quickly diving for the reins lest the horse run away. Sarah would kill him if he lost the horse, not to mention he really didn't want to walk all the way back from here. "E-Etsu, are you okay?" he asked with a wince--that had really hurt, but it didn't feel like there was any lasting damage.

"Nhh . . ." Etsu winced painfully, "H-- hai . . ."

It was the same for her-- there was no lasting damage, but she had still fallen onto her back. That really, really hurt. Etsu had to use her naginata to get up. It was the only way, for now. Maybe she really had hurt something. Pain shot throughout her lower back as she stood up. Again, she winched, and leaned upon her polearm.

The horse was . . . not willing to let Eld take her, actually. Once he grabbed her reins, she bucked again, leaving Eld no other option but to just let go. Etsu struggled to turn around, to watch. Eld wasn't going to be able to keep the horse; she was going to buck into him if needed, before running off, but incidentally in the same path they intended to go: into the forest, towards the path to Hillcrest, rather than going straight back to Galaens.

That . . . still wasn't good, not at all. Especially not with the change of weather. It was getting fairly cold; odd, because it was the afternoon, but walking back home in this sort of cold might not be too great. Etsu . . . really, really didn't like the cold.

Etsu limped towards Eld, hoping he was at least a little better off than she was. "Er-rd-kun . . .?"

As soon as he grabbed the reins the horse reared again, jerking his arm painfully until he was forced to let go, at which point the horse bolted into the distance and all he could do was watch. "Perfect," he muttered, rubbing his arm. "Well, at least he's going towards Hillcrest." He wondered if it would be able to find his way back to the ranch alone, or if it would stop and they could catch up to it. He preferred the latter idea; it meant less of a walk and having the horse return without them would probably scare Sarah out of her wits.

"I'm okay," he reassured Etsu, "But...I don't like this. Why did it rear like that? It was as though something spooked it. And now it looks like it might rain..." Riding back to Hillcrest from Galaens would have been uncomfortable, but not terrible. It would have taken some time even to ride back from here, though, let alone walking.

"C'mon." He offered his arm for her to lean on, so that they could move easier, seeing as she was limping a bit. "We should at least get into the forest, in case they send anyone after us...and it'll give us some protection if it rains."

Etsu started towards Eld, willing to accept his arm and help. That was . . . nice of him. After last night, she had cooled off a bit, and was willing to be near him again. Tonight, she felt, she'd probably want things to go back to normal-- with her laying on him in the evening, and using him as a pillow and a bed. It was comfortable. He was comfortable-- comfortable and warm, just as she remembered him.

But then, without warning, Etsu's eyes widened. She still faced him-- and without a word, grabbed him and pushed him off to one side, towards the left, with her foot out-- with all intents and purposes of tripping him. She didn't let out a verbal warning or anything. It was just that, out of nowhere, throwing Eld down as quickly as she could.

And if Eld were to look up to her from the ground, he'd see something on her face. Blood. Blood, across her cheek in a line, with her eyes still wide (though, still, her hair covered one side of her face and that eye) and breathing quick and heavy. Slowly, the line of red let itself drain-- a droplet of blood running down her cheek . . .

For the second time that day Eld was tossed to the ground without warning. At no point did he expect Etsu to trip him, and he was totally unprepared, sprawling into the dirt with a small noise of alarm. Fortunately, this hurt far less than being thrown off a horse, and he quickly pushed himself to his feet. "Etsu, what's the--!"

It was then that he noticed her injury, and for a moment utter panic welled in him at the sight of blood on her. He quickly forced it down--it was a small cut, it seemed, and would do no permanent damage.

Instead of worrying about that he quickly moved to her side again, to protect her and follow her gaze, to see what it was that attacked them, his hand moving to grasp the scythe on his back...

"Ugh. I have had it up to here with your meddling. This could have all been quick and painless if you had not . . ."

And there was a sigh.

Just yards behind where Eld once stood was a familiar figure-- Toushikyo, sneering with a strong air of discontent. He hadn't changed out of his clothes from yesterday, not that it would really matter. Clothing was probably going to be the last that that Eldridge Tsukimono cared about right about now. More important, though, was the fact that he possessed a weapon. A familiar weapon, too. A scythe. There was a faint trace of dried blood upon it, as if it had not been adequately cleaned. Toushikyo held loosely it in one hand, while the other, his left hand, flicked at his wrist. A chill effect took to the air, the air becoming so dense around Toushikyo that, for a brief moment, everything around him seemed frozen.

And low and behold, he held with his left hand another "dagger," a shaped piece of ice with an edge as sharp as a live blade's.

Etsu may have hurt her back, but that didn't keep her from readying her naginata. Without a word, she held it out, parallel to the ground, with her hands tight and close to the blunt end of the pole-- turned so the blade faced the sky.

Of all the people Eld wanted to see, this person was last on the list. He would have sooner dealt with Illorex than this man; Illorex was, if dangerous and a bit frightening, at least somewhat reasonable. This person was not. He attacked without provocation, was willing to hurt innocents out of convenience, or order others to do so...

And now he'd hurt Etsu, and if he was right, then he...

No, he needed to confirm that first. "So, tell me...did you kill that tax collector yesterday?" he asked quietly. He stepped out, drawing his scythe and removing the covering from it.

On the other hand...of all of the people he met yesterday, Toushikyo was the only one he had no qualms fighting against if it came down to it...

"We had to test the scythe," Toushikyo replied coldly.

Cold. It was the best way to describe him entirely. Everything about him was cold-- his body, the air around him, his mind, his personality, everything. Toushikyo was in a constant effect of negative degrees. It was unlikely that he was even capable of feelings such as joy and sadness, only varying conditions of hate. Cold and bitter hate. That was the thing about the cold, though. It was ruthless. It was hateful. It spared no one. A queen advocating peace froze to death just as effectively as a madman taking children as hostages. And those children could freeze to death, too.

"It is a shame you duped us. That "tax collector" had a very strong spirit," Toushikyo narrated as he held out the farming scythe, holding it much like one would a polearm-- his weapon of choice for the time being, "We could have used that spirit of his. But we will just have to make do with yours, instead."

By the way the air around him was freezing at a rapid pace, it was reasonable to deduce that the time to talk had come to a bitter end. A cold wind passed, a chilling breeze that would find its way into the very pours of Eld and Etsu. Just being this close to Toushikyo would chill them to the bone. As jagged edges collected throughout the air like diamond dust, Toushikyo had concluded that it was time to wrench Eld's scythe from his cold and dying fingers . . .

There was no response from Eld. What could he say to that? Toushikyo was a cold-blooded killer, the kind of person who would never negotiate if he thought the problem could be solved through violence. He killed a man just to test the scythe...and he was fairly certain it didn't even do what they thought it did. It was all so pointless.

The biting cold drove him back a few steps, and he placed a hand on Etsu so that she'd fall back as well. "Stay back," he warned. "Sorry, but if you can't get close, then you can't do anything right now." It was too cold to try and fight Toushikyo in melee, and without her powers she had no way to strike him from a distance.

Sorry...looks I'll be relying on you again. But I promise, I won't let you fall into his hands.

"Infusco orbis terrarum, Kageko!" In his hands, the regular farming scythe warped, becoming a double ended weapon, a curved scythe-like blade on either end of the handle. Despite being an overcast midday, to Eld's vision the world was suddenly dark, illuminated only by a full moon, and as he focused his opponent seemed to glow with an inner illumination.

Etsu didn't know how to take that-- that Eld wanted her to stay back, while he fought against Toushikyo. Perhaps he had a point, perhaps there was little she could do to him. Fighting him at close range didn't prove to be a good idea last time, not until he was distracted. When they managed to get off combination attacks on him, they did quite a number on him. For all intents and purposes, they had defeated him last time. Were it not for Toushikyo's allies assisting him, Eld would have killed him. It seemed like Eld had gone straight back to the feelings of before, too. He wasn't even going to try and negotiate with Toushikyo.

And so, Etsu stepped back a couple of paces. She wasn't going to relax or anything, though. If there was some way she could assist Eld here, she was going to take it. Just like before, though, it was going to be a matter of when. She had to come in at the right time, otherwise she'd wind up getting herself killed . . .

Thank you, Master . . .

Toushikyo took the initiative. Without waiting even a moment, he held his scythe behind him and charged forward. Like a cold wind, Eld would feel it in his bones-- Toushikyo was charging, with full intentions of fighting him at close range. Or, due to the polearm, mid-range, but either way, not at the distance that Eld had initially hoped for.

As Toushikyo got closer, so did the cold. Just being in his vicinity was bitter, and would make even the strongest of bones shudder, at least momentarily.

He'd waist no time, swinging his scythe out in front of him, in front and over his head, way over his head, and once in range, he'd slam it down towards the ground as hard as he could, attempting to bring it down first upon Eld's shoulders or skull . . .

Against any other opponent, such a wide, telegraphed swing would have been an open invitation for Eld to get by his guard and strike his body, potentially ending the fight right there. But Toushikyo's powers meant even getting near him was dangerous--it was cold enough to cause Eld to involuntarily shiver as he approached, so he could only imagine what being right next to him must have been like.

Instead, he dodged backwards, stepping back as the scythe swung down in front of him and with his free hand sending a Qi blast at him. Toushikyo may have wanted to get close, but he'd find that difficult to do if Eld didn't want him to--unless he had some tricks up his sleeve, Eld was prepared to blast him before he even got close enough to swing.

Before his temporary weapon struck the ground, Toushikyo was thrown off course, knocked back by what felt like a single hurricane gust-- but not one that lasted long enough to do any significant damage. All it did was throw Toushikyo back a few feet, who nearly fell back-first to the ground, were it not for the scythe: he let the blade drag upon the ground and steady him. As Toushikyo rebalanced himself, he summoned something-- somethings, in fact . . .

A flash of hazy blue indicated collecting ice, shards of all the diamond dust floating in the air, refusing to fall to the ground. Eight of them took shape, all above Toushikyo's head.

They were, for all intents and purposes, daggers, just like the one he held in his other hand. The projectiles, for a brief moment, hovered in the air above Toushikyo's head. Within a certain radius of him, they could maintain form and function, but after a certain range, they were likely to melt. However, that range also was too distant for Eld to do nothing much than provide a gentle wind. Where the two of them, Eld and Etsu, stood, they were a bit far from that range of safety.

Toushikyo didn't even need to touch them. They were shot out in an instant, launched one by one like bullets from an automatic gun-- restricted, of course, two only eight shots. Four were devoted to Eld, while the other four . . . to Etsu.

He couldn't aim perfectly with them, but close enough. They each targeted a part of the body; which, it didn't matter. Being struck would be damaging all the same. Not only would they cut into the body, initially, but as bone was harder than ice, they were guaranteed to explode on contact . . .