[center][i][h2][color=DimGray]Shertul the Unnatural[/color],
[color=firebrick]Corra Lerouge[/color], 
[color=6ecff6]Carlisle Corvus[/color], 
[color=F08080]Sophia Devin[/color]
 & [color=FFFF7B]Analise Amad[/color][/h2][/i]
[i]By [@Jeyma], [@SanaChan], [@Emuxe], [@LitCabbit] and [@Arkaotic][/i][/center]
[hr]

Sophia was beyond surprised to discover that Shertul wasn't wrong in his paranoia and that they actually [i]were[/i] being tailed; and by none other than the same Nephlim that had previously let them walk free. [i][color=F08080]Had he changed his mind?[/color][/i] she had to wonder. Sophia's confusion was only magnified by the sight of the Nephlim stopping their conversation to drink from a flask; being the naive girl that she was, Sophia had only assumed that it was water. After all, were Nephlim even [i]allowed[/i] to drink?

A twitch formed in the corner of Carlisle's eye as he watched the fleshspinner empty the rest of the flask. How was he supposed to know the creature's metabolism extended to alcohol? He'd had encounters with fleshspinners before of course but it wasn't like he casually sat and had a social outing with any to know they didn't drink and now, once again, he was without a drink and outnumbered.

It was only after the Nephlim tossed the flask to her companion who only proceeded to drop it onto the floor. [i]So it [b]was[/b] alcohol,[/i] Sophia thought, a little disappointed; the Nephlim were meant to represent Raziel and his "purity". The young woman crouched down to pick up the dirt-covered flask, dusting the muck off with the end of her sleeve; after replacing the plug of the flask, Sophia tossed the flask back to the Nephlim man. "[color=F08080]Seventeen is [i]hardly[/i] a child,[/color]" Sophia remarked, though the childish pout that her lips had formed into didn't really help her cause. 

Shertul nodded grimly. [color=DarkGray]"I decided my fate at ten. You're a child only as long as you can afford to be one. She chose to save a 'monster' today, then chose to stick by me: she's not a child."[/color]

At the very [i]mention[/i] of the suggestion that Sophia was to go back to Wellborough to face the Nephlim's twisted sense of justice, Sophia had to meekly retreat behind her four-armed companion, not dissimilar to a shy child hiding behind her mother's legs: While she wasn't fond of the idea of being labelled as an evil creature by following after Wasteland-dwellers, Sophia [i]definitely[/i] didn't want to have her life ended for simply having the shadow of darkness inside of her.

Shertul registered the concern on her face. At the gates, he had stepped with stealth between his savior and his threat. Now he mirrored it, guarding Sophia carefully from one who he knew would end her life if he could only see how much darkness was truly clinging to this youngling. Yet, in the same fluent motion, he prepared his stance to leap at the Nephilim like a pouncing tiger. He still would not stop the girl from leaving with the Nephlim, if she chose, but it would be the same as not stopping her from tieing a noose around her neck.

Keen eyes caught the hunger within Shertul's gaze as he sized Crow up, causing muscles to tense along his body. The creature must be [i]starving[/i], Carlisle wasn't even sure how he had managed to survive the runes at the gates long enough to be dragged away and knew less how long it had been before that since Shertul last ate. Either way, he certainly wasn't planning on being a meal.[color=6ecff6] "Don't..Even..Try it"[/color], each word came controlled and steady though the steel could be felt in the spaces.

The hungry mage's face contorted into a predatory smile. Somehow, his teeth gleamed sharper than before. [color=DimGray]"No offense. You would be considering it as well, if you were starving. Instinct, my friend. Instinct. I will not harm you if you do not harm me."[/color]

Standing atop her perch, Analise spied out to the unraveling scene tempting at it's movements. Her senses picked up and clinged to every life force that dared at her surroundings. It would not take much to find her with her struggling state. Hardly would she have thought such an encounter to happen and became far from her previous intentions. But as Analise would expect, she couldn't ignore the situation's appeal.

She shook her head and concentrated on the beings below her. [i]The four-armed one...[/i] she peaked from her fold before readjusting its form, [i]a fleshpinner![/i] Rare was it for their kind to be seen out from their Monastery. Long she had doubted the sewned on tales of its path and yet, there was its living proof of its glory right before her.

Though picking up on to the other flamed spirit in her midst, her attention was focused onto the more neutral of the four individuals. Human, she assumed, but her stature did not phase Analise. A hint of her form resided within the young woman. Peculiar and yet invigorating. Analise was sure of it, a great darkness had to resided within the girl. 

 With flashes within her mind, she turned quickly to the Nephilim. She had always taken caution with the Nephilim, knowing the danger that comes with facing their kind. As if a sense of worry began to entangle in her mind, small sparks began to escape from the tips of her skin.  If he wishes them harm, she would take her aim.

Shertul paused for a few moments. Another creature was rustling in the trees, now. Another predator perched in wait, but this one... darker. Shertul's third eye dared to ease open.

Staring off with mystical gaze, he could spy something black gathering in the woods. Power. Very dark power, yet power burning so bright.

A dark mage? The one who marked the girl? Another Fleshspinner? Certainly not a Revenant. His luck was not nearly so fortunate.

[i]It doesn't matter[/i], he berrated himself. [i]It is no friend to the Nephilim, certainly, and now Raziel's avenger is outnumbered three-to-one. This should be an easy kill, if it becomes a kill.[/i]

The silver flecks in Carlisle's eyes flared along with the clarity rune as the fleshspinner's third eye saw past him to something further back in the trees. As his senses opened, Crow could swear that the presence touching his mind was the same Revenant that was around the gates before he went on this jolly hunt. Following in Shertul's movements, Crow's foot slid across the dirt to form a ready stance, the hairs on the back of his neck standing to the presence behind him. The girl was well and truly hiding behind the creature and Carlisle was being surrounded, an absolutely brilliant continuation of a really..[i]really[/i] shitty day. 

Shertul hoped with all his mind that the dark-bright one hiding in the trees could help them. Ambush the Nephlim. But first, someone needed to create a distraction. Then he remembered: at Wellborough, the angel was thrown off guard by Shertul's unexpected accusations. How simple!

[color=DimGray]"You know..."[/color] the flesh-mage was spinning a confusing spiel again, [color=DimGray]"the only reason I need to eat you is because Raziel created life in such a way that we must kill other creatures to feed on them. If he is so morally righteous, why did he make a world where [b]the weak must always die to feed the strong?[/b] Why did he create predators to murder the prey? In doing so, your god [b]invented[/b] violence. He is its origin. One would forge such beautiful life only to ensure that it would have to destroy other life to survive?"[/color]

Shertul did not know the answer to these unrelated questions, nor did he care. He created them as he spoke. The Fleshspinner could only hope the Nephlim would be too distracted to notice his actions, or the  actions of the stranger in the woods. 

"That was...a pretty poor argument", Carlisle's head tilted to the side quizzically as he watched the fleshspinner, eyes occasionally flicking over his shoulder to the farm girl cowering behind him. Unless his instincts were incredibly wrong, things were on the verge of getting very messy. There was nothing around to help him out either, not that he could see in the quick glances he managed to make around whilst keeping tabs on the threats around him.. unless. 

The faintest rustle through the trees alerted Carlisle to the fox's movment and in the space of a breath his hand moved to the throwing axe at his waist, hurling it through the shrub. The other hand came up in the same instant in a pacifying nature in hopes that he wasn't about to be jumped on before the [snick] and dying yelp of the fox could be heard. The throwing hand pointed to the fox, pinned dead to the nearby tree, holding the other hand still in a pacifying way[color=6ecff6] "Eat that instead"[/color].

Shertul wasn't sure whether to feel grateful or more suspicious. His eyes darted from the raw meat, to the angel, to the raw meat, to the angel, and then stuck to the meat. It was a plump little fox: still warm, dripping in blood. It's foot kicked just a bit. Fresh. Tantalizing. Ignoring instincts was not in his nature.

His stomach was shouting at him. This wasn't a choice.

[color=dimgray]"You!"[/color] he pointed to the fire elemental while gluing his vision back to the angel. [color=Dimgray]"You said you wanted to help. I will not leave this girl even long enough to take the fox. Not while he stands here, waiting. Bring it to me."[/color] He tried to sound polite, but desperation tinted his every word. [color=dimgray]"I [b]must[/b] eat. It is the curse of my kind."[/color]

[color=6ecff6]"And the axe if you don't mind, although best to touch it as little as possible.. It can be a little, uncomfortable"[/color], Carlisle punctuated the request with a quick glance to the flame spirit. He was hoping that in feeding the fleshspinner, things would calm down a little bit but it would not be so easy to soothe the suspicious creature and now he was without his axe with a possible Revenant behind him and two powerful beings in front. 

Corra looked at the two.... she didn't know what to call them at the moment who just ordered her to go get their things as if she were some little servant girl at their beck and call, [color=firebrick]"You're joking right?"[/color] she said, her expression as tame as she could keep it, but she sighed. She reigned in the desire to blow them all a few feet in some other direction, and turned and all but stomped over to the fox and axe, her hands ablaze as she was still deciding whether or not a fireball to their faces was an appropriate response. She pulled the axe from the tree after a couple tugs and need to shift positions for a better grip, tossing it towards the group, semi in the direction of its owner, as if it were diseased, before grabbed the fox corpse by the ear, also not wanting to really touch it, before bringing over and tossing it at the fleshspinner, [color=firebrick]"Is that all?"[/color] she asked, her sarcasm practically dripping from speech. 

[color=dimgray]"Thankyou. I'm sorry to order you, but it was a matter of life and death. You may have just prevented my starvation."[/color] He paused to take the fox from her hands like a bar of gold. [color=Dimgray]"You said it yourself,"[/color] the Fleshspinner continued, [color=Dimgray]"Nephilim have no mercy. Not on beings such as me."[/color]

He started to move the fox towards his lips. His jaw unhinged like a snake's, but just before it made contact at last, he suddenly leapt with all the speed in his bones, grasping for the angel's axe. The corpse was still dangling limply in one hand.

He had heard the Nephilim's warning. He knew it might be runed. He knew it might hurt. But nothing could be worse than Wellborough's gates.

Just as Carlisle thought he might have a few moments reprieve while Shertul ate, the creature lept for the axe that'd been tossed to him. From the sheer velocity of the fleshspinners movement, there was really no way for Crow to stop his mass directly without getting hurt himself. Instead he paused for a split second longer until the creature was about to grasp the axe and sent a kick hurtling into the side of his face whilst feigning a surprised step back.[color=6ecff6] "Didn't I just say it'd be uncomfortable?"[/color], the axe finished it's arch, landing in his waiting hand. He almost wanted to give an apologetic look to the farm girl but had suspicions that Shertul wasn't just going to eat dirt from that one.

Shertul took that shattering blow. It was bludgeon to his skull, aching and flaming. At first.

But Fleshspinners must grow their own bones: a slow, agonizing process for years. It hurts every second, every minute, every day, until the last second of the last minute of the last day of your life- unless you learn to blot out your pain. Flesh-mages practice all their lives to dull themselves. 

In a split second of focus, in the time between the kick and the fall, his aching was forced into relief. 

His arms moved quick. They impacted into the dirt and the rocks beneath him, then launched up. It was like watching an insect. He was back on his feet with inhuman speed. 

Two upper limbs took a defensive stance across his body, while the remainders spread to either side with open palms. The fox flopped in tail all the while, a bloody corpse in a clawed hand. 

His eyes dimmed to monstrously black, cloaking the direction of his gaze. One tried focusing on the backdrop of the forest, searching rapidly for the source of the dark-bright powers he still sensed. The second pinned itself to Carlise.

Crow grimaced slightly to the insectile motion of the Fleshspinners recovery, while it was expected, it still wasn't pleasant. His eyes dimmed to a black void and it took a moment too long to recognise the purpose of, to be able to secretly keep an eye on that presence. 

Analise's lip curled, amused by the sudden recognition of her being. Warmth rushed to the tips of her fingers as adrenaline sweapt her. Sparks began to fly out from her being, signaling those from a distance. Finally, she leapt from her tree, diving at the angel's back.

Analise hit his back before he could duck and he was forced into a roll to get her off him. As soon as she was over, the burning death rune in his hand flared as the other went to the hilt of the Braidh, partway drawing it so as to show the righteous power within.[color=6ecff6] "I just want to speak with the girl"[/color], he took a breath trying to settle the flaring of the silver flecks in his eyes.[color=6ecff6] "This isn't how this has to go."[/color]

Analise stared out to her new surroundings as she lay, taking small breaths to keep steady before moving. Pushing herself to her feet, Analise cocked her head as to sneer at the Nephilim.[color=FFFF7B]"Well then,"[/color] she outstretched her hand, mimicking his action by having her own palm set ablaze,[color=FFFF7B]"Speak quickly." [/color] The fire diminished at her clench.

[I]Of course, of course,[/i] Shertul internally lectured himself,[i] another fire elemental. One of the wastes. How could I not have expected this?[/i] The third eye could focus now that she had revealed herself- he saw her more clearly. Her soul was perceived like chaos sheltered under fire. Her took in her whole being as a shadow wreathed in flame.

She came just in time. This angel was not leaving- not until he was forced to flee, or until he claimed Sophia. Shertul could never allow that to happen. He knew if the farm girl let the Nephilim lead her away, she would never survive. The darkness was too deep in her. She was almost [b]made[/b] from eldritch powers, the way Shertul is made from magic. A vital, primal part of her soul was forever shadowed.

When Raziel's chosen find her out, and when they know there is no cure short of death, then death is exactly what they'll give her.

[Color=dimgray]"You wish to speak to her? Nobody was stopping you."[/color] His voice was dangerously calm, to hide the chilling anger waiting under the surface. [Color=dimgray]"It's what comes after that worries me. You almost took my life for nothing, then barely knew enough compassion to spare me. You've shown your true face already. You will kill her, when you realize what that mark is. You will burn her away."[/color] He made certain the last sentences were loud enough for Sophia to hear. 

He backed up mildly, posing again as her bodyguard. If he stayed at her front, she would be kept safe: at the least, Shertul could move deftly enough to repel any approach.

With a boney click, his jaw was unhinged again. This time, finally, the blooded and dirt-caked fox was actually eaten: it sunk down head first. Each part of the Fleshspinner's neck stretched slowly to pass along the sliding corpse. He was a snake swallowing a rat whole. Within thirty seconds, all that was left were the last threads of a tail being slurped down.

His strengthening voice whispered behind to the girl, at a tilt of his head. [Color=dimgray]"Apologies, human. Fleshspinners do not bother with table manners. Or cooking... or chewing."[/color] He cleared his throat as he motioned to the Nephilim. [color=Dimgray]"You may speak with him or go with him, but keep caution. It is your choice, friend."[/color]

Sophia was beyond disturbed at the sight of Shertul's snake-like tenacity; every minute she spent with the twisted creature, the more he surprised her with his... [i]Evolution.[/i] At least she could take solace in the fact that she wouldn't have to cook for her four-armed companion - the Nephlim's wrath and Wellborough's gates were [i]nothing[/i] compared to her awful cooking.

"[color=F08080]Speak to me about [i]what[/i]?[/color]" she questioned. The farmgirl peered around her fleshspinning companion, looking toward the Nephlim man. Sure, he'd showed them mercy [i]before[/i], but she doubted that she'd be offered such courtesies again. "[color=F08080]You'll just take me back and then everyone will find out the truth and I'd be burned alive - it's [i]better[/i] this way; just tell everyone that I [i]already[/i] died.[/color]"

The more Crow thought about it, the bleaker this whole situation looked. He was outnumbered three to one with the fleshspinner directly in front of his quarry. There was no way he was going to fight all of them and be together enough to get the girl after. He held the defensive stance, hand on hilt, whilst the newest fire elemental flashed a warning of flame and Shertul questioned the fate of the farmgirl if she were to go with Carlisle. Fair points all round considering Carlisle himself had yet to actually figure out what on earth he was going to do with her if he managed to get her away from them. It was only then that Sophia actually piped up, the poor girl considered herself too gone to return. 

[color=6ecff6]"Look I know you can't just go back, and I know you've been set on a path you can't just walk away from-"[/color], he paused to glance at Shertul who was very in the way of the conversation. [color=6ecff6]"Y'know, this just isn't good social etiquette"[/color], he suppressed the growing frown before directing his attention to what what little of Sophia could be seen from behind the disjointed mass of Shertul.

The disjointed mass made one step out to the left.

[color=6ecff6]"See now I don't feel like I'm talking to a very humanlike tumor like growth on your shoulder."[/color] The death rune dulled enough to show good faith but not enough to not be used if needed.

Shertul felt less stressed since eating. His metabolism was already processing the food and regaining his lost strength, but that also meant his stomach would be empty again in a few hours. 

At the very least, his sense of humor was re-fueling. [color=dimgray]"I could grow a humanlike tumor on the other shoulder, if that would add some more symmetry."[/color] He made a wink, identical to the one he had given to the crowd who watched him in Wellborough.

Crow had to repress a mix between a shudder and a chuckle to the image of more growths of any kind from Shertul, "I'm not sure the symmetry would make you any less distracting". His attention returned to the now more visible Sophia, [color=6ecff6]"Running off to the wastes is not the only way to do this. You're not some lost cause, nor do I plan on killing you. I can help you work this out without running headlong into the Revenant."[/color] 

Carlisle's eyes flicked to Analise for just a moment; he could feel the dark influence from her prickling the hairs on his body. The partially drawn Briadh slid back into it's sheath as a further show of peace. [color=6ecff6]"I'm not going to capture you, you'd be free to walk away from me whenever you wanted. Just let me try to help".[/color]

For once, her self-appointed bodyguard did not argue. Shertul only shifted his eyes questioningly to Sophia. They were all gray, now.

From Corra's perspective, closer now, but still not any clearer, this was all ridiculous. The answer to the solution seemed obvious. How did this Nephilim plan on helping her? It didn't seem like the source of the overall issue was something he could just whisk away and make it like it never existed, so what exactly was he trying to sell? And why was he so ridiculously determined to continue to try and sell a seemingly broken product when he was completely surrounded by those who did not exceedingly care for his presence, let alone his actual opinion on where the girl belonged? And it was all going in circles anyways, but even this odd character who took a boot to the skull and rebounded nonetheless had stopped to let the girl consider her options, which again just seemed like an endeavor to confuse her and waste more time. She sighed aloud, rubbing her forehead, wondering if all problems between these factions were handled so.... poorly. Honestly, the initial idea of the fireball seemed like the quickest and smoothest way to end this nonsense, plus the girl didn't seem interested in what Carlisle was even dangling in front of her- a smart choice as far as Corra could tell. She looked to the other fire elemental, though, deciding to divert her attention to the more interesting thing here anyways- was she a Revenant? Oh the questions she had for her, but she wasn't entirely sure she was the question answering type. In a physical manifestation of her rapid, circling thoughts, a fireball appeared in her hand that she tossed back and forth idly, waiting for something- anything really- to progress.

Sophia couldn't feel any more anxious even if she had a sword against her throat; on one hand, she'd be traversing into the wastes with those who Terra saw as evil. But on the other hand, Sophia could simply go home never knowing the truth of her... [i]condition[/i]. "[color=F08080]I... I...[/color]" she stammered, nervously clutching her hands to her chest. The farm girl backed up, edging closer to the border that separated light Terran lands from the chaotic wastes.

"[color=F08080]I'm sorry; I-I just need to know.[/color]"

Without another word, Sophia cut herself away from the group, her small figure disappearing further east - and into Alithe's domain.