Stumbling along {all welcome}

[Dawnwings]

With a frustrated sigh, the young woman stopped, looked around her, and realised she was completely lost. And had been for the last three days. She had meant to head for a small town in the foothills of the mountains, but somehow, she'd missed a trail or something, and was now quite utterly... somewhere.

"I should have made them write measures on that map," the young woman muttered, running a hand through her copper-blonde hair. It had come loose from the ponytail that kept it hanging down her back to the bottom of her shoulderblade. She hated her hair most days.

Sitting on the nearest tree-root, she pulled the map in question out of her pack and studied it. It looked as though a chicken had drawn it. It was almost too much. With two nights of barely any sleep, she was tired, and hungry and she'd had enough. Absolutely enough. She hated the war, hated everything to do with it. Hated the way it devided people, made them argue, tore people's lives apart. Tore people apart. Her hand crept up her chest to the pendant hangin there. A star enclosed in a diamond. It had been given to her...

"Adorna, keep this with you and I swear I'll be there if you need me."
The voice, so reassuring because he'd been there all her life, was a dagger in her ribs as she sat in the forest alone. She's needed him when those Dark bastards had burnt her town to the ground, had killed everyone who mattered to her. And now they would have him, because if they didn't, those who felt the Light would never bow to them. While he lived, none of the Light would give up. She wouldn't give up.

Standing, slinging the pack over her shoulder, Adorna wiped her face free of grit and any stray tears, and looked around. With a determined stride, she struck off in a random direction. Each step made the name echo in her head and in her heart.
Dornovarn.
Storm.

[Christa (htmlkid)]

((Oblidging now hehe))
Soaring like a raven against the (?night's?) sky, Seera followed the girl ever-so-silently. Ah yes, her newest mission plan, put together to nudge the Light Leader a little further. The girl was important, and Seera would catch her. Prisoners had to be taken, after all, this was war.

Her shade's cloak concealing her as she darted in and out of shadow, she remained totally quiet. Leather shoes on her feet allowed her to move flexibly, and hide well. She held a tight grip on the handle of her whip, like a coiled snake ready to attack. Now she was just waiting for the opportune moment.

[Dawnwings]

Something was wrong, Adorna felt it like an icy feather down her spine. Something was very wrong. But she was in the uncontrolled lands, she reminded herself. Any attempt on her here would mean the start of the war. She shuddered. That didn' mean she wasn't at risk. Closing her hand around the pendant more tightly, she walked on, looking for a likely camping spot as it started to get too dark to walk anymore. She started to sing.

"Now through the mists he calls to me,
To make my way across the plains.
Through night and day,
Through hatred and decay,
Because they're all the same.

And I will walk through the mire,
There's nowhere left to go,
So I will walk through the mire,
And let it..."

She stopped herself, shook her head, pushing the song away. She tried again.

"Take my love, take my land,
Take me where I cannot stand,
I don't care, I'm still free,
You can't take the Light from me.

Drag me down to the Dark,
Try and rip my heart apart,
I don't care, I'm still free,
You won't take the Light from me..."

Finding it no beter than the last, she just gave up on the idea. For a moment, she stood in the trees and felt overwhelmed. How in the name of the Light had she believed she could make it to Dornovarn alone? But he'd promised to be there for her, had sworn it. Tears stung her eyes and she clenched her teeth. No, she wasn't going let thoughts like that crush her. Instead, she made a decision. She would camp there.

Once decided, she made for a suitable tree and started to preapre for yet another night in the horridly lonely forest.

---

ooc: I just want to give credit to Joss Whedon for the songs, they're versions of 'Walk Through the Fire' from the Buffy episode and the Firefly theme song. We love you Joss!!!!!
Thanks

[Christa (htmlkid)]

The girl had at last stopped moving, settling down to camp for the night. The songs she had been singing before were kinda catchy, and they ran in loops in Seera's head until she was about ready to scream. Now, with night fallen, was the perfect time to start.

She melded in the shadows, becoming one with the night, mind, body, and soul. Surrounding the campsite, twisting up the trees like black snakes, she spoke; nay, she sang, echoing the girl.

"Now through the mists he calls to me,
To make my way across the plains.
Through night and day,
Through hatred and decay,
Because they're all the same.

And I will walk through the mire,
There's nowhere left to go,
So I will walk through the mire,
And let it..."

Her voice was silken and beautiful, a quieter replication of the girl's, but it had a darker quality to it, an ominous feeling.

[Dawnwings]

Hearing the song, in almost her won voice, Adorna paused, her hand that had been carrying firewood flying to her pendant. Oh, how she hated forests, especially at night and alone...

"This love I bear is haunting me
His voice forever in my heart
I want to stay,
Make it melt away,
But I can't bear to start..."

She raised her voice for the chorus, stepping out into the open slightly, hand still on her pendant. She wasn't scared, not really. She wasn't terrified yet. She wasn't scared. She repeated it to make it true. And with every step, she called him, Dornovarn.

[Christa (htmlkid)]

For a few moments, she once again echoed the girl's song, then paused, letting the sound ring eerily. "And who is this love, child," Seera said with the voice of a snake, wriggling it's way into the very heart of anyone who heard it, coming from every corner of the campsite. "For truth you are thinking of him." She wasn't scared enough yet, then she was braver than Seera had assumed.

[Dawnwings]

Adorna shook her head, suddenly afraid. No one who knew her asked that... No one needed too...

"Doesn't matter what I want
Doesn't matter what I need
If you've made up your mind to go
I won't beg you to stay
You been in a cage
Throw you to the wind you fly away..."

She sang, eyes closed as she pushed herself into the tree behind her, focused only on the song and the pendant in her hand. But her heart beat... Storm, Storm, Storm, Storm, Storm.
And the memory of the last time she saw him, resplendent in his uniform, so handsome it made her ache, was buried in the very centre of her, the part she would protect until there was nothing left. They could know Storm, the young man who was arrogant, carefree, sweet and frustrating, but they would not know who he was now. The Rose had taught her how to make sure of that.

"Doesn't matter what I want
Doesn't matter what I need..."

Fear made her voice tremble on the held notes, stubborness kept her singing.

---

ooc: Credit for the song: Alison Kauss, and she is awesome and the song rocks!

[Christa (htmlkid)]

Seera grinned maliciously. Now she was scared enough. Withdrawing from the shadows of the trees, she began to take her normal form, materializing before the girl. The pale moonlight graced her skin with a silvery shimmer, accenting the darkness of her clothes. "You belong to the light," Seera said, still grinning. "And I take all that is theirs." With this, she drew her whip in a whirling flourish, it's steel rings glinting like monster's eyes.

[Dawnwings]

Neutral land, Adorna thought in the moment of stillness as her body froze, but this is neutral land... And then it didn't matter. She ran, her hair straming behind her shoulders like waves on the ocean as she spun and fled. Something, creatures of the Dark were not people, wanted to knoe about him, and that was dangerous. It meant her secret was dangerous... What in the name of the threads of the world should she do?

"Run, from everything that ties you to him, run." The voice was satin in the screaming mess of her thoughts. With a half-sob, half-gasp, she jerked on the chain that held the pendant. It snapped. Running between the trees, she flung it as far as she could into the darkness. Under the sound of her pounding feet, Adorna thought she heard a small splash.
And her heart beat.
Storm, please, Storm!

[Christa (htmlkid)]

Seera leapt from the ground, veering just slightly off course. She had seen the girl's amulet drop, and though she didn't quite know it's significance, these things were best not left to chance. Quickly scooping it up from where it had started to sink in water, she then took off in pursuit of her.

"Run so hard yon soft of voice, your time has come you have no choice," Seera said in a sing-song tone as she raced towards the girl, muscles at their full potential. "In the hands of dark at heart, the light's child forced to bring the start."

[Dawnwings]

Adorna ran, without thinking, barely seeing where she was going. The voice echoed in her head and she hated it with a passion she had nver realised she had. That voice, and those who sent it, they would pay. If they hurt her, they would pay. Adornoa leapt over a tree root. Or, rather, she attempted to. It was a little higher than she expected and she ended up tripping, falling into a bush and struggling out the other side, covered in scraches from thorns. She cursed brambles as she hobbled further into the shadowed woods.

---

ooc: Ok, that was bad, sorry. You want to catch her, please feel free Sorry about the dodgy post...

[Christa (htmlkid)]

With a single swoop, Seera leapt down onto Adorna, tackling her to the ground and pinning her tightly. A mischievous grin spreading across her face, she spoke to the girl, "Now, are you going to make this easy or difficult for me?" Indeed, if she would just give up it would be easiest, but they never did want to do that. "Either way, welcome to the dark side, love."

[Dawnwings]

"Neutral land means nothing to you, does it?" Adorna snarled, trying to get some purchase on the ground under her. Flames but the creature was strong! But then, the beast didn't know her well, didn't know anything about her... She'd been seen as part of the Light and captured for it... Adorna kept the relevation to herself, shoving it into her core and wrappping it around the name and the face they couldn't have.

"Get off me you disgrace to the world, you can't change what I am, but you're not giving me any flaming choice, are you?" Gathering her strength, she tried to wriggle her way out of Seera's hold but to no avail. She was trapped, that was that. But they didn't know what they were dealing with, not yet. From somewhere towards the Light mountains, a rush of cold rage washed over her, comforting and terrifying. He knew, she didn't know how, but he knew... With the smile of a predator on her lips, Adorna fought her captor, struggling fiercely, despite the obviousness of her failure. The Dark would take her, but they wouldn't be able to keep her, not for long... Or so she hoped.

[Christa (htmlkid)]

Freeing up one hand from her struggle with keeping the girl pinned, Seera pulled two chains from her cloak. "It's obvious you're going to be difficult, so here's how it's going to be," she said, then bound the girl's hands tightly together, not an inch of free space between them. After, she twisted backwards and tied her feet, giving her only enough leeway to be able to walk. With that, she got up off her. "Neutral land means absolutely nothing to a person who brings the darkness with them." Flames that girl had some muscle behind her... she could already feel a few bruises from her thrashing. And what provoked that eerie smile? Really, it didn't bother her, she'd seen that same look on many people before, but did the girl actually know something, or was she pulling Seera's leg?

[Dawnwings]

"Then it would follow that wherever you take me, I bring the Light. Are you sure you want even a trace of that in your precious camp?" THe words were soft, venomous, slightly shaky. Despite the comfort she drew from knowing that she would be rescued, Adorna was still scared. What if they managed to figure out who would come for her? What if they used her as bait? She cut the ideas down, ruthless and logical. The pendant, her link to him was gone. If they had it, they still couldn't know what it did until someone untangled the spell the Rose had cast on it. That should, would, slow them down enough for Storm to act. And someone would be forced to bend to his will, and he'd come save her. Adorna repeated the conclusions like a silent mantra to keep away fear.

Once on her feet, Adorna gave an experimental tug on the chains that bound her. No give, none at all. She could walk, but not run, and anything over three inches high was going to cause her trouble. But they hadn't done anything else yet... Which meant they didn't know, or she'd be dead. Everyone she'd talked to in the Light lands had agreed that while the Light was well led, there was something about the men in key positions they didn't trust. But they were hardened warriors and there were bound to be difference between them and common folk. No one really believed the comforting lie.
"So, where are you taking me? And do you really expect me to walk like this?" Adorna smiled politely, her eyes sparkling with carefully held rage.