Escape! The route through Winmei

With his new companion in tow traveling was slightly slower than it would have been on his own but the important thing was that they'd gotten away from Sagmal. Squatting over the port hole that led up into Winmei Quin reached both hands down to pull up his lovely new friend. "This is the Winmei labyrinth," he explained in the process, "It's named after a young priestess who used to rescue unjustly sentenced inmates from Sagmal and lose their pursuers here in this maze." He set her on her feet and dusted off the webs in her hair collected through their trek through the underground passageways that hadn't been used in decades. "Pretty impressive huh?"

I let out a whistle. "Hyu~~~ Pretty impressive indeed. I never knew about this pla..."I pause in mid sentence. "Wait, a Labrynth? You know how to get out of this right? I mean, were underground, the city is above us, won't it cave in with this much space? What kind of demons are under here?" I start the beginnings of a panic attack with just speaking first, and in some space in the back of my mind, hoping that Quin would calm me.

Quin watches her feathers ruffle over the shock of it all for a long minute sort of enjoying the over stressed mind of a woman. After being locked in a birdcage with a bunch of men her petty worries and easily flustered thoughts are refreshing and he likes it. Before she can overwhelm herself though he rests a calming hand on her head and grins. "Easy." He points up to what could be considered the ceiling of the maze and shows her the multiple runes and the faint outlines of magical barriers supporting them. "Those rings of green and yellow light there are called Support Rings. It's magic that holds the weight of the city so it doesn't come crashing down. Also, if you follow the yellow and green in a pattern it shows the way out."

My mouth gaps open looking up. He touched my head, wich for some reason instantly calms me, but also relaxes me to a state I never thought I go into. My thought process becomes jumbled up and I nod my head looking at the yellow and green patterns.

"C-cool." Is all I can muster for the moment, not out of fear but my processing components still off line and still not used to being touched at all, let alone by a man.

What a weird look to receive.
Quin blinks and her and ducks down putting his face level with hers. She's shorter than he is but only by a head or so. There's a creeping flush to her face that he's not familiar with and unsure if he's hurting her he slowly removes his hand. "H--hey!" he mumbles. "you're ok right? are we moving too fast? You want to rest?"
AH! Did I break another one?! What happens if she dies because of me?! Negumi'll kill me if I make another Horror on accident!!!

I shake my head to get my blood running again and step back, becoming dizzy and losing my balance. I reach out for his wrist to steady myself. "No, I'm just fine..." I yank my hand back and look into his eyes, slightly embarrased.

He has a look of fear or panic almost glinting in his eyes, with him bent this low, I pat the top of his head and smile. Tilting my head a little bit as I do so to try and calm him.

Then after the awkward moment is over, I square my shoulders and clear my throat when I put my hand in front of my mouth to cover it, and then take it away. "Right then, shall we continue?"

Quin shares her smile more out of practice than anything and nods. Remembering her previous question he removes a handful of the safety pins latched onto his clothing and collects them in his palm for future use. "This place is infested with things called Horrors. Probably other things too." He looks back at her with a wry smile and tries not to offend her by asking sheepishly, "Can you fight?"

"As a matter of fact, I can, surprisingly enough." I say answering his question kindly. "It is just easier with a sword then my bare hands." I say shrugging, putting my hands up in a pathetic guard, that was half attempted then actually trying.

"So you fight with safety pins?" I ask and put my hands down.

A little off guard with the question Quin doesn't answer for a moment. Then, chuckling he nods and holds one up level with his eyes to examine the simple, metal construct. "Sort of. My real weapon was taken from me when I was arrested and slammed in Sagmal." The memory shaves a little of his good humor away and for a moment he has to take a deep breath. Looking up Quin checks their position in the maze and moves forward scouting their way through. "What about you?"

She looks down and draws in the dirt, and relatively large weapon. "I use a Sword. I'm just not proficient with magic or anything. I figured I was decent enough with my hands to get in and out of somewhere, so I left it at home, mainly because I'd stand out with it." I state truthfully.

I easily keep stride with the man. No point in losing him in the labyrinth. I still wasn't sure how to follow the patterns just yet.

The sound of her voice is comforting and in between his scouting Quin is more than happy to listen to her. "A sword is a very flexible to..." He stops and cuts himself off, flagging her down and signaling her to stay quiet. Up head something screams, a loud, gut wrenching yelp that is anything but human. He knows it very well but can't risk demonstrating to his new companion his pact with the Horrors of the world. To fight something he loves so much will hurt him, but he knows better than to blow his cover and readies himself for a tussle. "Looks like you'll be able to show me your skills," he mutters back to her.

I look around for a moment, trying to find an object to use as a weapon. "Jeez, this place is horribly clean. Think we can avoid them?" I ask still looking around. This was a relatively straight pathway, not trying to show fear, I ready my fists up anyways. "This will probably get rough..."

He swayed through the maze like the lost soul he was. There was nothing...nothing left for him! And the pain. The fury and the pain that consumed him! He slammed his head against one of the wall and wailed.
it had to stop
it had to stop
it had to stop!
Something within his line of vision stirred and he screamed again, forcing his fury and agony into his weapon

"SAVE ME!!"

SUMMONING WEAPON!!

The member 'Illya' has done the following action : Dices roll

'Summon' :

Result :

"FURY!" (4)
The creature knelt at her summoner's side and rose with grace and elegance to her feet, brandishing the barbed chain that was her weapon and lashing out at the uninvited guests in warning first. (3)
Behind her, her master howled in anguish and dropped to his knees writing in pain. Why?! Why had everything fallen apart?! Everything that he'd sacrificed for her! Why wouldn't these feelings subside?!
"Jjin," he demanded, "SCREAM!"
On command the creature unhinged her jaw and let forth an unbridled blast from her lungs shaking the surrounding area with a titanic whirlwind. (4)

The member 'Illya' has done the following action : Dices roll

#1 'Ability Hit/ Miss' :

#1 Result : 10

--------------------------------

#2 'Attack Hit/Miss' :

#2 Result : 7 +2

Final Roll 9

--------------------------------

#3 'Cast Magic' :

#3 Result : 4 +2

Final Roll 6

"Right buddy, lets get out of here before they..." I stop mid sentence and then begin to step back, then the scream occurred...

I screamed aloud as the attack from the whip bit down into my left arm, biting down to the bone and forcing a rush of blood to follow. I began to back pedal and run, I grabbed Quin's hand and... Was blown off the side by the whirlwind, gripping Quin's hand tightly and taking him off the side of the pathway with me.

"~~Ooooow."
His groan seemed to be only one of the several issuing from their collective tangle of sprawled out limbs and bruised bodies. Quin lifted his head from its boneless flop past her shoulder and lifted himself up enough to roll from ontop of her onto his aching back. Reaching up gingerly he rubbed his forehead and sighed wincing as he tried to open his eyes fully and realized he'd sustained a minute cut at the corner of one. "Jeeze," he moaned, "good thing there are a lot of things to land on around here." It was supposed to be said half jokingly but came out as a breathless gasp for air and a cough of jumbled words. He turned his head to the best of his ability and flopped a hand her way to brush her cheek carefully. "You okay?" He really had to start taking it easy on his travel mates. "You saved our lives you know."

I moaned, from pain and just waking back up. I weeze slowly and wait patiently for the massive weight to find it's way off my chest. I was borderline losing concious, and the fall for some reason made me lose it. When Quin rolled off my chest, I found it hard to still breath, dust, some wet feeling beneath my back... Wait, Wet feeling?I cough once or twice, and groan again, "Shit, my back." I say rolling over to Quin's other side, and then sitting up. "Uhg, I think I broke some ribs." I say breathing in deeply, feeling my stomach over checking to figure out how many... None in the front surpisingly, but there were several in my back. "Holy hell, Im lucky. My spine was so close..." I say wincing in pain with almost every breath and prod.

"How long do you think we have to rest here, Quin?" I say in a whisper.

He barely hears her too focused on a spreading melt of red eating up the lower back of her shirt. "Hey..." He didn't like blood...made him do funny things he didn't remember afterwards. "You...ok?" Goosebumps spread along his arms and up his spine. Blood was a pretty thing. Quin closed his eyes slowly and tried not to breathe for as long as he could. Maybe if he didn't look at it.
He remembered her hands because they were always so soft and pretty. He thought that if a woman with hands like that stretched out towards him so lovingly could smile at him he'd die happy. It was her eyes that really ate at him. so sad. Quin always wondered what someone so beautiful had to be sad about.
"Aren't you lonely? You're the only one from that city who survived. Do you need to be comforted?"
That day the hands she outstretched towards him were covered in blood.
Quin didn't quite look like himself, a distanced sheen coating his gaze when he finally reopened his eyes to her. The safety pins in the palm of his hand had been scattered when they fell.

He picked one up now and stood to tower over her.

"What?" A the stinging feeling began to bite in her back a bit more. "Ohh, the blood. Its no..." Her mind racing, since when did he look so distant? If I remember right... Daddy acted the same way one time when I started to bleed... I rolled backwards putting some distance between Quin and I. I rubbed my hands on the back of my pants, ignoring the sting in my back, and rubbed them clean quickly.

"There there Quin, no need to lose more then you need to." I said trying to be vague, I knew that I did not know his past, but I was sure she could jog something hopefully. So I stuck stuck my hands out wide and held them in front of me to initiate a hugging gesture, making sure he could not see my back, or any of my blood.

"Quin, we need to find a way out, only you know the way out. Without you, I could get really hurt and be helpless. You've been alone in that prison for a long time, you made it out of there because you strive to be a free survivor in this troubled world." I say, personally trying to calm him and buy time. He could probably kill me easily, but hopefully, he has some shred of heart for me.

I did come for him when he expected no one to be around for him.

He sees her without seeing her and all at once hears her without realizing it's her he's hearing. His mind scrambles over itself. Nema? No, that's not right. This is... He slowly loses sight of the red smears that had initially distracted him. Her voice becomes her own and his eyes recognize her as the real her. This isn't Nema. he reminds himself. To me, this woman is "Epiphany." He shakes his head as if to clear his mind and blows a sigh looking up above them to remark their position in the maze. Quin re-clips the safety pin on his pants and dusts bares his teeth, ripping up a piece of his shirt mindlessly. "Damn we got pushed back..." He tosses her the shredded material and tossed it to her without looking at her. He couldn't risk it. "You've got to clot that so we can get moving. We're probably going to run into that hollow again."

"Right, turn around." I said snatching the material from the air. The moment he turned around, I lifted my shirt up and tied the shirt tightly around my upper back, after picking out some of the random shrapnel. I wiped my hands off again, and sighed, seeming very hesitant... Then walked over to, and then into Quin. I wrapped my arms around his chest and began to cry silently, being reminded so much of my father and fully realizing how close to dying I was, hoping he was patient enough to let the shock wear off.

Its when I noticed something moving off to the side. It looked similar to a dog from this distance, I let go of Quin and cleared my throat. Sniffling, I say quietly, "I feel sorry for the person who lost that dog. Lets keep on, you just stay ahead of me, and I'll cover the rear."

Quin waits out her tears and is a little alarmed when she mentions a dog knowing full well that there are no dogs left in the world. His head snaps up and his eyes follow hers to the creature in the distance. A weak gasp escapes him. "No way..." Suddenly breaking free from her her drops to his knees, patting them with an overjoyed expression as he whistles shrilly. "ORI! Ori come here to me!" Wonderfully happy he seems to almost completely forget their situation! "Here boy!"

"Shh!!" I exclaim, remembering the Hollow mucking about the area. When this supposed Ori comes closer, I see that it is a Horror.

"Your kidding me, right?" I say seeing the monster come closer. I stepped to the side as Ori tackled Quin. Quin seemed to be happy with it, so I figured I'd be content with the beast also. "So... Ori is his name?" I say quietly trying to be nice and gentle at the same moment, but not trying to take the attention from the beast.