End of an Era

She had crossed her arms and looked at him with teasing eyes.

"You don't think that because of your half demon blood. They don't think of the help they need. But you on the other hand do need the help like it or not..."

Cino sighed slightly and looked at the girl.

"What do you want then..." He muttered.

"The only thing i want from you is to reconsider killing us. We can help you instead understand where I'm going with this..."

She looked at him.

"You would have a lot more magic on you side that way..."

"I guess I have no choice..." Cino muttered.

"I won't...kill any of you." Cino looked down not trying to get out of her grasp.

"My name...is Cino..." He nearly whispered. "And I suppose I owe you an apology..."

"Now that's better...." She said lowering the vines. "Besides it doesn't matter you have the page from my book."

She looked at him

"You don't need to say any apologies. I can understand but I'm always like this when confronted with the fear for my friends."

She looked more willing to talk now and not as willing to fight.

"You must tell me though. Who are you trying to save..."

"Why would you like to know so much? My friend can't be that important to a total stranger..." He muttered as he rubbed his wrists.

"Those vines are rather tight he chuckled." Cino rumuged in his pocket and reproduced the page he tore from the book and offered it back to the girl.

She took the page.

"Well I'm a witch and it's my job to protect and help. Even those who can't be trusted at times."

She looked at the page.

"At this point i'm not seeing any reason the future generation need to know about this."

The page instantly burned up in her hand. She smiled and looked at him.

"You're trust worthy enough. If there is a need for knowledge of it again they can find it on there own like we have once done. Back to your friend though. I'm always helping and it involves me because at this point you're not planning on killing us all. To help you in return seems resonable. Princesses honor."

"Thank you then..." Cino meakly whispered. "Princess' honor huh?" Cino pondered for a moment before speaking again.

"On my blood then I promise." Cino withdrew his sword and held it straight in front of himself before giving a slight bow. He sheathed the sword and leaned up against a nearby tree.

"I never caught your name." He looked over to her slightly relaxed now.

"Right my name is Raven."

She pondered for a second before realizing how long she's been away the group.

"I wondered if they finally got that Chi Master pinned." She muttered to herself.

"Hmmm? Chi what?" Cino looked over slightly interested.

"A Chi Master. Everybody was fighting with him. I don't see the point though. He's just kind of warning to leave or brute forces will kill us. And if we refuse he'll kill us."

She looked up.

"I'm not expecting to go back. I left like he said but I'm still their friend I'm just not fighting with the old brute."

He growled, running through the forest. He hear voices, and started to run towards them. He stopped midway though, and bent over, vomiting blood onto the ground. His vision blurred, and he dropped his right blade. It clanged to the ground, and his arm moved, contorting into obscure angles and positions. He yelled in agony and held onto his forearm as his hand contorted wildly. It bled profusely from the seals, as well as his forearm and hand. It stopped contorting, and fell limp to his side. no...not now....not yet....

he walked forward, a large blood pool in his wake. As he walked forward, a large line of blood followed him, gushing from his arm onto the ground. He walked into the clearing, to where Raven and Cino were, and his vision blurred immensely.

damn...it all.....

he fell forward, his vision going black. He fell to the ground, and a large blood pool started fowming around where his arm lay.

"I used to find fighting useless...but times change and so do people..." Cino looked down at his hands for a moment before staring up into the night sky.

"Never thought I'd end up like this..." Cino heard the clatter of weapons and metal and quickly withdrew his blade and pointed it over in the direction of the man who had just emerged.

"Who's this?" Cino looked hesitantly at the bleeding man.

"His name is Xurabbi" She said running over to him. She bent over him with her hands outstretched over him. A light came from them as she hoped he would heal unless it was to late.

"Damnit! Why the Hell did have to get in that fight!"

His wounds started to heal, but the seals still on his arm hindered the healing magic, as the effects of it were still active, even though his arm was not. He opened his eyes for a second, a moment of conciousness, a slight one at that.

the..seals...

he slipped back into unconciousness

"Damnit I wish you would stay awake"

She looked through the book quickly to see if there was a healing spell.

"Wake up!"

"Here do this." Cino walked over and knelt over Xurabbi. Cino unsheathed his sword and tapped the seals. He muttered a few words as a green aura placed itself on the sword as the seals began to crack.

"What the hell are you doing?"

She gave a short laugh at her own comment. She was clueless but began to take note of it in her mind.

Cino looked over. "You want me to stop princess? If I do, your friend will die from the anti-healing wards placed on his body. Let me take these off and then you can finish your job." Cino went back to work.

"I don't want you to stop i'm just wondering..."

Cino finished tapping the seals and looked over at Raven and nodded.

"Your turn now."

"Right" She said as she held her hands over the seals one more time.

Cino sat down and simply watched Raven as she went to work.

"I want to say...sorry again about before..." He murmurred.

She looked over at him.

"Nah don't worry about it."

When the heal was finished she went over and sat by him.

"He'll need a little rest but he should be fine."

Cino smiled slightly.

"So uh, who is he exactly? Errr, well your friend obviously but...who is he?"