Fios had been on watch, as he hated to sleep in groups with no watches going on. He had took first watch, and it was late into the night. He didn't mean to wander off far, but he wanted to check out the place around them, and hope there were no nearby bandit camps, and where he went there was none, and he soon found himself at the Norwood lake. He looked out over the calm waters, and looked up, thinking he saw something white up ahead, wondering if it had been a unicorn, but he couldn't see anything and he frowned slightly, but shook his head lightly, thinking to himself it was nothing.

He walked to the lakes edge, and had a odd feeling that Sava had been here before. He closed his eyes slightly, and listened to the wind blow gently over the waters surface, and the trees rustling. Fios didn't find much comfort in anything these days, but this place was calming, especially at night. The moons were out, shining down on the lake and the leaves of the willow trees.

He took a couple steps back, his movements were graceful like any elf, and his feet barely made any noise at all. He then sat down in the soft grass, he leaned back, his arms keeping himself up. He looked at the lake, the wind then blew around his face, making his long black hair fall in front of his dark blue eyes.

Suddenly there was a crack of a twig being snapped, and Fios instantly turned his head to see what had made it, as he jumped into a crouch, and had a hand on his sword, eyes scanning the nearby trees. He stayed there, waiting listening, but as moments passed on, he heard nothing else, he was starting to relax himself, when suddenly a deer sprang out from between some trees, and bolted right for Fios. He jumped out of the way, just as the deer leaped past him, and into the darkness once more.

He laid now on his back because of jumping out of the way, and he picked himself up, and stood, his muscles tensing, wondering what had caused the deer to panic. After a minute or so, he shrugged lightly, and figured it was nothing.

Celebriel had decided to take a walk down to the lake near by. She not only needed to fill her water canteen but she also wanted to wash the grim of the road from her face.

She had taken off her outer robes back at the camp sight was now in just a dark pair of legging and high cut tunic which reveal her well toned stomach. Well...well toned for a spell caster. The moon light reflected off her scales making her appear a bit more white than her normal metalic silver.

Her keen ears picked up the noise of someone, or something approaching long before it reached her. She got into a defensive stance a held her hands out before her ready to cast. When she saw it was only a deer she let out a sigh of relief.

The deer stared at her with wide eye and stamped its foot. "You have nothing to fear from me. I will do you no harm," she said calmly in the fluid elven language.

The deer pawed at the ground one last time before trotting off into the forest. She wondered if something had startled it and decided to look into it. She began to walk the way the creature had come from. The half-dragon, who also carried to blood of the elves, move fluidly through the forest as well as any elf could.

She smirked at she saw Fios, she knew she saw him before he saw her. Dragon eyes were more powerful than elven after all. She stood there for a moment wondering if she should go talk to him or not. He hated her kinds, but perhaps the only way to change that was show him not all half-dragons were evil.

A silent sigh left her lips and she walked over to him, her clawed feet barely making a sound. She flashed a smile "A lovely evening we are having are we not?"

As he calmed himself, he looked out over the lake again, and folded his arms over his chest, and let his eyes close, and taking a deep breath, reflecting on all that had happened to him since he had entered Imythess. There was a lot of fighting, and bloodshed, then always hiding away, and working in stables to earn some money to buy food and shelter. He knew his father would be terribly disgusted with Fios, knowing that his noble son was having to live in hiding now, and working with horses, and now basically becoming a mercenary to do jobs for people, and then about to help train Sigmund to be a better warrior.

He then let his thoughts roll over to the human Shadeen. She could have turned him in, and let the guards take him to a cell, but she showed kindness, and let him go, saying that if he ever needed help he could go to her. She was nice, one of the nicest people he has met in Imythess, but now he was meeting more and more people.

A small smile played over his face, but it was quickly gone when he heard something coming near. He turned around quickly, his hands on his sword, and he tensed up once again, and watched the trees, as a silver like creature walked towards him with the grace of any elf, and when it got closer, he noticed it was Celebriel, the silver half-dragon. His eyes darkened with disgust and hatred. Sure, she was somewhat beautiful, but he despised her kind, but mainly the chromatic kind, the kind he had to fight and kill just to survive.

"A lovely evening we are having are we not?"

He stared at her a moment with his dark look, but decided he should say something, since Sigmund had asked him to try and get along with her.

"Yes. it is." Was all he said, then slightly reluctant, he let his hands fall from the hilt of his sword. "Why are you out here?" He asked not to kindly either.

"Why are you out here?"

Celebriel smirked a bit. "I could ask you the same thing," she replied back. "But to answer your question, I was just taking a walk."

She looked up to the sky and watched the stars as the twinkled and moon shinning down on her. "Night is my favorite time of day," she said almost to herself. "That is when my father would sit at talk with me. Teaching me the ways of the elves."

She had no idea why she was saying this, to Fios of all people! She knew he hated her, but for some reason she did not care. Could not care on a night like this. The cool air and soft breeze reminded her of all the time she spent with her loving father. He had truly been the only person, besides her dragon mother, who had loved her and seen her for who she truely was.

But the night also brought her bitter memories. For it was also during the darkness of the night that her father had been murdered. Soon after she left her homeland and had not yet returned. That was twenty years ago. She had never had a true friend or loved one since.

She brought a hand to her face a wipped away a tear, betraying her true feelings.

The half-dragon decided to try and talk to Fios, to distract herself if anything else. "Why do you hate my kind? You mentioned you have battled half-dragons and dragons alike, but we are not all alike. Just like not all humans or elves are alike. You cannot judge one person because of their race."

She said this all without bitterness in her voice. It was obvious she was truely trying to befriend the elf. To befriend anyone. She had been alone for far too long.

"I could ask you the same thing, but to answer your question, I was just taking a walk."

He watched her wearily. He doubted he could ever trust her, with the past he had among dragons and the such, even if he had fallen in love with a dragon, though, never knowing that Sava had been one, but what frightened him the most about Sava, was that she had been part green and part black dragon, the chromatics, which he had tried to kill, and succeeded with a couple before he was nearly killed by one. Suddenly his back and side seemed to hurt from the memory, and he grimaced slightly in pain, but that look was quickly gone, and he focused on what Celebriel said.

"Night is my favorite time of day, that is when my father would sit at talk with me. Teaching me the ways of the elves."

He looked at her again, and was slightly interested for a moment, but didn't saw it. Now he knew something else about her, that her father must have been elf, and mother a dragon. He said nothing to that, since she seemed to have said it to herself, and he wanted to talk as little as possible to the half-dragon.

He noticed she wiped away something, and figured it must have been a tear. Her past must have been terrible also, but he held no sympathy or anything, if he did, he did not show it. He had shed his tears a long time ago, not even pain could make his eyes water.

"Why do you hate my kind? You mentioned you have battled half-dragons and dragons alike, but we are not all alike. Just like not all humans or elves are alike. You cannot judge one person because of their race."

His eyes filled up with anger mixed with fear. "I've fought in a war, trying to protect my people from our enemy, that was full of rogue elves who gave themselves to evil, and half-dragons of all kinds, along with full dragons who filled the skies with smoke. I hate your kind because they killed my friends and fellow knights, and destroyed villages full of innocent people." He snapped. The memories all to clear of when he rode Seer into battles, charging the enemy and their fearsome numbers, and then remembered how they had to retreat a lot, with the enemy right on their tail, and how the dragons had swept down, killing hundreds.

He shuddered at the memory, then crossed his arms again, and stared at her with a hard gaze, almost like he was accusing her of being one of those monsters who killed many.

Celebriel watched his out burst in silence. She just nodded, she understood.

"I am sorry for bring up painful memories for you. Please forgive me," she said calmly. "But I hope that some day you will understand that I am not like those half dragons you battle."

She turned and began to walk back to camp. "I shall leave you to your thoughts. Good night."

With that she slipped through the forest and dissappeared. When she returned to the camp and curled up on her mat. She did not fall alseep for quite a while but instead laid there and thought about what had just occured.

He listened to her speak, and he looked away. He knew not all were the same, but how could he get over a hate that he basically grew up with? His father had always hated dragons and likes, and so Fios had always been taught to hate their enemies in his city. He sighed silently, and he turned and walked to the edge of the lake, not finding any thing to say, and not wanting to say any thing, be reflecting on his past made him uneasy, but also frustrated and how stupid he was, not being quick enough to save friends, and not realizing that Belana was gonna frame him for killing someone innocent, and all those other times one of his friends died by the hands of a half-dragon, or getting captured and tortured.

He flinched slightly at the thought of torture. He was tortured once, by a dark wizard, who was looking for Sava.

"I shall leave you to your thoughts. Good night."

He turned his head slightly to see Celebriel walk away into the forest. He sighed, and thought it would be best to head back to camp also. As he turned his back, and started towards the camp, there was a crack of a twig, and he heard a strange whistle like noise that was supposed to be a bird, then suddenly, about six bandit like men jumped out from the brush, and held longswords. They surrounded Fios, and he stood there, eyes burning with annoyance, as his hands gripped his weapon, and he swung it from its sheath in a smooth motion for such a heavy blade, and brought it towards one of the bandits, who raised his own sword and blocked, the two weapons it with a deafening clang! and the bandit stumbled back from the force of Fios strong attack.

Kaess found himself restless in the night and had woken up to find he could not see Celebriel or Fios. He decided to get rid of his restlessness and find them at the same time. He unfurled his wings and took off into the sky and started flying low over the tree top.

As Kaess flew he scanned the ground bellow looking for signs of Celebriel or Fios. As he approached the lake he heard what seemed to be the sound of weapons clashing against each other. He swerved in the direction and soon spotted Fios who seemed to be surrounded by armed men and fighting them.

"Well can't have that." He says to himself in a low tone.

He changes his direction of flight so that Fios might spot him then goes into a dive at the closest man with his back to Kaess. Flipping over near the end of the dive and slowing his fall with his wings, he slams a kick into his target, with a loud battle cry, closer to a draconic growl. The kick sends the man sprawling towards the dirt, with claw marks on his back. This also breaks the remainder of Kaess descent.

He was a little unsteady, but few moments of the bandits surprise by his sudden strike allows Kaess to recover and to slip into combat stance, while he folds his wings back, ready to fight the rest of these people. His eyes have a golden gleam to them in the night light. 'Glad that worked, that move was a little crazy. I really should think these things through more.' He thinks.

He calls to Fios as soon as he can. "It's me Kaess! Hope you don't mind me dropping in Fios, but it looked like you could use some help. Oh, and have you seen Celebriel? I hope she hasn't run into similar company." He is obviously concerned, but at the same time he is still focused on the battle, ready to counter any attack with his fists, claws, or feet.

Celebriel sprang to her feet as she head sounds of battle. Not good she tought.

She ran in the direction of the sound and soon caught sight of Fios and Kaess battle some bandits. She did not slow her pace as she began to chant her spell.

One of the banits turned as he relized she was there, but it was too late, she was upon him. She grabbed his neck as she finished her spell. Ice spread from her hand and went onto him. She dropped the man as he gasped from breath through his frozen throat. She took this moment to whip his head with her tail, and he went out cold.

She turned to face the next opponent. He seemed to fear her, typical. She let out low growl as she prepared from the man to charge. Let him come...

Fios moved with ease, and elven grace as his blade sliced deep into the mans side. The bandit screamed in pain and Fios curved his blade up, and gave it a sharp jerk, then pulled his blade out easily, and let the man writhe in pain. The former knight then turned to face another bandit that came charging at him with a large mace and swung it straight for Fios' head. The moon elf duck, then ran forward into the man with his shoulder, knocking the bandit off his feet and to the ground.

Before the human could recover, Fios brought his blade up and stabbed the just below his throat. Blood splattered over Fios sharp shining sword, and some got onto his arms. He pulled his sword out, just as a arrow flashed through there air, and landed right into Fios shoulder. He stumbled, but quickly regained his balance as another bandit came at him with a sword, lunging towards his back. He didn't feel much pain in his shoulder, his chainmail protected him. Fios whipped around to face this opponent, and managed to bring his sword up, and parried off the attack.

Then, Fios heard wings, and then a all to familiar battle cry, and as he glanced up quickly he saw Kaess take down a bandit. He heard the half-dragon speak to him, but he said nothing, saving his strength, and just not wanting to talk to a monster. Soon after, Celebriel showed up, and froze a mans throat, and the elf couldn't help but shudder slightly, but he didn't have much time to think of that, as a few more bandits came out of the woods, and joined the fray, and the one Fios battled lunged at him again.

Fios jumped to the side, dodging the lung, then brought his two-handed longsword and slashed towards the mans shoulder, he now blood coated sword shined eerily as it flashed through the air, and struck the bandits shoulder, severing the mans arm.

Kaess was impressed with the skill of Fios with his blade, but he couldn't stop to think anymore as more bandits came at them. He fought quickly ducking and weaving his new opponents blows.

He was glad when he caught sight of Celebriel, whom he hadn't seen at first, was safe and in the fight with them. The relief he felt didn't feel normal to him and he felt a little worried as well, but he couldn't quite place it. These thoughts caused him to slip up slightly not noticing a blade coming towards him quite in time to avoid it completely. The sword cut him on his left arm. Kaess' scales took most of the damage and the arm was still functioning, but it still hurt more than he cared to admit. 'Geez one of these days I am going to get my self killed if I don't stop missing thing.' He quickly launched a counter punch with his right snapped the mans neck.

Kaess turned to face another bandit, but takes a more defensive stance. Pressed by the bandit he finds it difficult to find openings to strike at this one. After battling against the bandit for a while, he falls back and then sweeps at the bandits knee. The bandit leaps back, but is still hit slightly causing him to stumble. Kaess then leaped forwarded and stabbed the man in the chest near the heart. The bandit goes limp as he removes his claws.

Celebriel did not miss the fact that Kaess got injured because he was not concentrating. He will get himself killed if he does not pay attention!

She then noticed a bandit coming up behind him. "Kaess, duck!" she warned in draconic so not to give her plan away to the enemy.

In a fluid motion she swipped her tail through the air and made contact with the man's face. A loud snap could be heard and he fell to the ground with a thud.

The sorceress then stands staight, trusting the two warriors will guard her long enough, and begins to chant another spell. She had noticed a man hidding in the shadows watching...well it was time to fix that.

She released the spell and the man was suddenly surrounded by bright colorfull flames. "There! I think he is the leader!" she shouted.

Already ducking before the warning. Kaess had seen the man from the corner of his eye earlier. Kaess spun around into a kick that colided in the mans midsection while Celebriel's tail cracked his skull, snaping his neck. He quickly came, back up in a full defensive stance and using a gap between his next enemy to start chanting a healing spell. His arm was still bleeding badly from the arm wound and needed to seal it soon or it might start effecting him.

He finishes the healing spell and manages to stop the bleeding at least for now he would have to properly tend to it latter. Shortly before this he sees a bandit surrounded by the dancing flames cast by Celebriel. He decided that he might as well work his way towards this man and end his suffering from the light show, well that may involve his death or lots of pain, but oh well he probably deserved it. He is a bandit after all. He then started to fight his way towards his target through the remaining bandits.

Fios pulled his weapon away from the bandits arm, who moaned in pain and dropped his weapon and fell to his knees, gripping his fast bleeding arm. He looked up at Fios, very pleadingly like. Fios looked down at the man, and raised his blade for a killing blow, then grimaced, and then slowly lowered his blade to the side, and looked at the bandit. He was torn, kill the man who tried to kill him, or let him live like he would have when he was knight. He sighed, then let one hand fall from his sword and clenched it in a tight fist then punched the bandit in the side of the face, where the man then fell unconscious.

In the corner of his eye, he saw colorful fire circling a bandit who appeared to be the leader. Fios' eyes grew dark. He was angry that this peaceful night had been interrupted by bandits. He was now intent on killing the one who probably decided to kill the moon elf and take his sword and gold, probably the human bandit knew that Fios was once a noble and great knight.

A bandit charge him, with a mace, and took Fios nearly by surprise and the mace slammed right into the elf's left shoulder. Fios cried out in pain and stumbled back, then unwilling tripped over a branch that was on the ground. His sword slipped from his fingers, and fell to the ground near where Fios fell. The bandit came closer, but by that time, the elf regained himself, and when the bandit was near, Fios was ready. He was on his back, and he glared up at the bandit with a dull, hard look.

Suddenly, Fios jumped to his feet in a crouch then dived into the bandit, knocking them both to the ground. Fios grabbed his dagger that was on his belt, then plunged it into the bandit. When the bandit stopped struggling, Fios stood, and stepped away from the dead bandit on the ground. He held the dagger tightly, ignoring the searing pain in his shoulder. He watched what the others were doing, and watched as Kaess made his way towards the leader.

"Ro amin." He muttered in elvish, then sheathed his dagger and ran to his longsword, and lifted it, but his left shoulder still burned with pain, and he moaned slightly, but clenched his teeth tight, and lifted his sword and charged at the leader, eyes filled with anger and annoyance. His sword was raised to send a powerful cleave at the leader, but as Fios brought his sword down on the leader, he stopped his blade in the middle of his swing. His eyes grew wide with shock, and fear.

"Nurafe?" Fios gasped, eyes still wide. He took a step back and lowered his sword slightly, staring at the leader. Nurafe was a tall moon elf. Long black flowing hair tied back, and piercing blue eyes on very pale skin. the other moon elf wore elven leather armor, and held a two handed longsword in his hands, one that looked identical to Fios' sword, but the only difference between the swords was the gravings on the hilt. Fios had a unicorn on is, and Nurafe had a wolf. Fios watched Nurafe, who merely smiled thinly at the other elf.

"Hello, old friend." Nurafe said. This elf was part of the search parties who were looking for Fios. The last time Fios had ran into Nurafe was five years ago, where he had injured the entire party, but Nurafe managed to not get scratched. Before that, though, when they were at the academy, they had been good friends, along with Daluec, but they were all sent to different sections in the army so they barely saw each other and Nurafe was always changing, and now he was Fios enemy, you could say, since the elf was always trying to capture, or kill Fios, which was his job that Fios' father gave him.

Another bandit lept out at Celebriel sword leading. The half-dragon tried to move out of the way in time, but still recieved a nasty cut to her arm. She let out a growl as the blade sliced her arm. Not for the first time she thanked the gods for her hard dragon scales which absored most of the damage. But the cut was still deep and blood ran freely down her arm.

The bandit smiled wickedly at her. "I'll have your head beast," he said.

Her eyes narrowed and she let out a low growl. "Don't be so certain," she replied softly.

Without warning she lept forward at the man. She sudden movement surprised him and they both went falling to the ground, with her on top. She kept his sword arm pinned with her good one with surprising strength for someone her size. She raised her hand claws ready for the strike. She paused. She hated having to kill with her claws.

She started to strike down ready to rip out the man's throat with her sharp claws. Then she seemed to change him mind. Instead she whipped her tail and stuck the man right between the eyes. He looked daze for a moment before going unconsious.

She stood up and looked that the elf Fios was facing. She slowly circled around the enemy elf her piecing eyes not leaving him for one moment. It seemed the two knew each other.

"A friend of yours?" she asked as she continued her circuling. She stopped when she had the man's back to her. If he tried anything she was ready to run in and take him down.

Kaess saw that Fios had attacked the leader. He was still blocked by two remaining bandits and they were fairly good it was hard for him to find an oppening. His injured arm gave some protest when he would launch a strike, but he ignored it. He finnaly saw his oppening after right after Celebriel joined Fios with the leader. The bandits had moved just close enough for him to launch one his stronger strikes. He launched a powerful kick that slamed into the side of the left most bandit, but he didn't stop there. Kaess continued and the kick conected with the other bandit as well slamming both of them into each other and into the ground. Both lost their grips from their weapons. He then followed with an ax-kick into each the bandits' chest. They now were unconsious and probably had several broken ribs.

Kaess allowed himself a second to recover, then quickly moved up on the right side of the leader. Ready to finish this fight.

Fios stared at Nurafe, then at at the two half dragon. Celebriel moved to the back of the other elfs back, and Fios then shifted his gaze to the other half-dragon, Kaess. Who walked to the side of Nurafe, looking as if he was about to attack. Fios grew tense, and held a hand up to stop Kaess from advancing. He turned to look at Nurafe, and smiled thinly.

"Seems you have fallen quite low here, Nurafe." Fios said in a low voice. Nurafe's face twisted in annoyance.

"You killed half my men, Fios, and injured the rest. They went back to the city, while I volunteered to continue the search, for you, and Daluec. It was necessary to get these bandits to help, for a price, though." Nurafe said, and waved a hand dismissively. He kept a calm look on Fios, though, Fios sensed his annoyance at losing again, and Fios smiled again, but it was quickly gone with what Nurafe said next. "It seems your living up to what you did in the past. I was watching the whole battle, you fight and kill as if its easy. You were always a killer, and you will forever be known as a killer."

The elf hissed, and smiled cruelly. "First you killed you innocent sister, now you kill anyone who gets in your way, and you never have a second thought to it." He said.

Fios stayed silently, and grew tenser as he watched the other elf. He wouldn't bother answering and try to convince Nurafe that he didn't kill his half sister Belana. He gripped his sword tighter.

"And somehow I made the mistake of letting you live." Fios hissed. He raised his sword again, and charged once more at Nurafe, but the other elf jumped easily to the side, and pulled his own sword out, and made an attack of his own at Fios. He noticed the half-dragons but paid little attention to them. Fios blocked Nurafe's attack.

Kaess seeing Fios hold up his hand backed off a little bit and went and stood by Celebriel. He seemed to be waiting to see what would happen, but he didn't let his guard down even a little bit. He couldn't hear what all was said, but it seemed to be some personal problem. 'Better not to get involved in other's problems if they don't want you too' he thought. While waiting he started using his healing spell to fully heal the wound on his arm. He also asks Celeberiel, "You hurt any where?"

When Fios charged at Nurafe, Kaess almost gave into the impulse to help in the fight, but again thought better of it. He couldn't interfere in personal fight. If Fios was in danger of death he would interfere not before this was his fight.

Celebriel watched the battle Fios fought. She barely noticed Kaess coming to her side. She was ready to attack this enemy at a moments notice.

Warm blood trickled down her arm from the wound she had recieved earlier. Her eyes barely glance to Kaess as he asked if she was wounded.

"Nothing serious she said. I can still cast, and that is all that matters right now," she said. Her eyes went back to Fios and his battle. "Pay attention to the battle and worry about me later."

She slowly began her circling again. She was more than ready to launch another spell or leap in with her claws again if needed.