Lot watched the knight astride her horse turn, to try to get away, it looked like. She had her eyes on the forest behind them. Come to think of it, it had been awhile since Luna acted as a distraction for the both of them—Illyce was in barely any condition to fight, let alone walk away; the poison was just leaving her system, and she still was beaten senseless; welts riddled her body and it looked like they had broken a couple ribs, the way she seemed to jerk away at every bounce on the saddle.

"What is it?" Lot said. Leading the both of them had been a quiet affair. Lot's were the first words aside from barking the occasional order.

"I need to go back," Illyce croaked,

"Oh no, no, no—not in your state you're not!"

Illyce kicked her heels. Her horse stopped galloping.

"My state doesn't matter. Luna does..."

"Wait just a—"

"Yes, wait."

There were a lot of times when Illyce's strength surprised Lot. This was one of them—she grabbed him by the collar, gagging him for a second before he could object, and dropped him on his ass. Lot knew he was only bruised when he felt the sore pain on his tailbone, but heard no crack. He looked up at Illyce. She wasn't quite the same, he noticed, when they had first met. Her hair was slightly cut, its auburn color stained with blood that Lot was assured was a mix of her's and the foes they had slain to get her out of that dirt-ridden tent. The sense of duty in her eyes seemed more so with the bags under them. She turned Goya around and let the warhorse gallop off. To where, Lot wasn't sure,

"Make camp somewhere safe!" Illyce called back to him.

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

This was the most irrational decision Illyce had ever thought to make. Her head was still swooning a little. She could see clearly, but only between pangs of dizziness and the occasional headache. Her thoughts of Luna were anything but a headache.

[i]You once thought I was like a lost puppy,[/i] Luna thought. The thought that perhaps she might as well be a lost puppy without her had crossed her mind, all the time.

"I might as well be one," she repeated, this time aloud. "Luna...I'm coming for you, just like I always do." She rode out a little more. "Just like I said I would," she said. The sound of crying rang in her ears. She thought she was hallucinating—between the cut on her head, the bloodloss, the remaining poison, and her worry—at first. It didn't take long for her worry to override her entirely.

"Luna!" She called. "Luna!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.