Demon Spawn

[Maara]

The dark was gone. She could see his face, his eyes. He wasn’t going to kill her. He was trying to help her. He wanted to help. She was safe.

She felt the needle slip through her grip and hit the ground. She felt so drained but safe, and in pain. She probably would have passed out if it hadn’t been for the pain coming from her wing. She turned to look at it. It was broken, in an occurred spot to, right before the top joint. She could heal it, or at least help start the healing, but she would need help. It’s a good thing she trusted Akula again or it would never heal properly.

Maara turned to him. “I need your help healing this. If you’re willing, I need you to set the bone and then hand me my bag alright?”

[Devon]

Devon, hunkered down below her, moving his hand from heating the fire and moved it to her wing.

"I don't want to hurt you but I'm going to have to touch it okay? I'm going to warm it up just a little bit. It always helps me when I'm hurt, it relaxes the muscles a bit. Then I'll get your bag okay?"

He slowly moved his hand towards her wing, not the actual wound though. He wanted her to be used to his touch by the time he touched her wound. He had never been this close to a magical being before. Atleast not one so visibly so...well, magical. He slowly touched her wing and started moving his hand up to the fracture, heating it up a little more, and a little more until he was touching the wound. He felt despairingly again, much like he did the night his town had perished.

'This is the life I am meant to lead isn't it? Hurting people that want to trust me, and being hurt by the people that I want to trust.'

"I hope that feels better, I'm going to go get your bag...Where is it exactly?"

The campfire wouldn't let him control the shadow vision, not this close. He wouldn't dare dissipate it either, she needed it for the added warmth, and the comfort that the light must bring on this horrendous night. Again, his doing.

He wanted to make it up to her, he wanted to make sure she was healed and able to fly again. If she wanted to fly after that and leave him, Devon wouldn't blame her. He would let her, and gladly. No one should be around an insanely dangerous person. Even if that person....only wanted to find their place.

[Maara]

The heat felt good. Her muscles relaxed under it his touch, as did her discomfort, fear, and pain. Her broken bone slowly slipped back into its proper position. This was a lot easier and painless then her old way. Akula’s way was so much better. She wondered briefly if her would be able to learn something like this when she started her training. She almost fell asleep under his warm, gentle touch but he pulled away.

"I hope that feels better, I'm going to go get your bag...Where is it exactly?"

Maara’s eyes snapped open and blink. She didn’t remember closing them and had to adjust to the bright firelight. The soft throb of pain that came from her wing reminded her that she need to finish the job of healing or it wouldn’t heal properly. She turned her head from side to side and finally locating it peaking out of the shadows about 7 feet away.

“There it is.” Pointing to its direction. When he retrieved it she took out the mortar and pestle, the cloth bag full of roots and herbs, and her water jug and set out to work. Several roots and herbs were put into the mortar then ground and mixed them with water until it became a thick paste that smelt of rotting wood, but it would do its job.

She handed the mixture to Akula. “I need you to spread this over and around the brake. It will make a case that will keep the bone in place and heal it. Then I will be able to move it in three days. And…” She looked into his eyes. She saw guilt in his green eyes and she reached out for him. She touched his cheek comfortingly, mimicking what her mother used to do for her, and smiled.

“Please don’t look like that…” she gently rubbed her thumb over his cheek bone. “This is my fault as well. I overreacted; I should have talked with you instead of running. Besides,” she started to blush. “All of my landing are terrible, I brake a bone at least once a month. I used to this really. So please, don’t look so sad, Akula.”

[Devon]

Her touch not only flushed his cheeks with warmth, but in turn the fire rose just a bit. He was embarrassed to be honest. He couldn't remember when the last time a woman touched him so emotionally, and it was truly a first to be touched so by a demon. He rubbed the mixture onto the fracture and just sat by her side as it hardened. Then and only then had her words truly sunk into him. She had called him Akula, he hadn't trusted her enough to let her know his given name. The one everyone had called him...Everyone that he had killed...

"Maara...Maara are you still awake? I want to tell you something. My name, it's Devon Akula. I just wanted you to know that."

The mixture paste had almost hardened completely by this point. His mind whirled around with the thoughts of the past and their hardships, the present with all of it's misconceptions and mistrust, and what the future might hold. For better or for worse.

It had been a long and tiresome night. Now that he had tended to her wound the best he could, he needed to tend to himself now. He was tired and needed rest, he went to the edges of the nearby trees and picked up some of the fallen twigs and even managed to find a small branch. He placed them on the fire, in the shape of a cone; he focused his last remaining stores of power to catch it all on fire, then reduced it to a low glow so it would burn throughout the night. Then, he immediately fainted...

[Maara]

He didn’t speak after she pulled away. He merely tended to her wound and looked uncomfortable. She was beginning to think that she had crossed the line and had done something inappropriate. Not wanting to make things worse and offend him again, she sat still and closed her eyes.

Her mother had always told her that she should apologize for offending someone like that. She could never forget that lesson, It was after all one of the few times Adriana had ever scowled her. One of the travelers, an older lady, had said that Adriana’s cooking had been barely edible. The old women had meant it as a joke but Maara had actually thought at the time that she was serious. Maara had then said something rude to the old woman; Adriana had scowled her and set her to bed. Her mother came in later that night and explained to her what had happened. Maara had apologized to the old woman the next morning, but the old woman simply laughed and patted her head and told her to be proud for sticking up for her mother like that.

"Maara...Maara are you still awake? I want to tell you something. My name, it's Devon Akula. I just wanted you to know that." His voice broke through her memories. ‘Devon, so that’s he real name.’ She smiled. So he trusted her with his real name. It made her feel warm inside. She hadn’t given her full name to him, and then maybe she should to show that she trusted him. Maybe that would help with his discomfort with her inappropriate gesture of comfort.

Nodding her head she turned to Devon only to watch him fall in a dead faint. Gasping she hurried to his side to check on him. She didn’t find any wounds or anything out of the ordinary. He just must have been so tired he collapsed. She felt a wave of guilt, it must have been when she struggling with him. he use his magic to stop her and it must have taxed him greatly. Her guilt solidified in her stomach and she walked to her bag to get her blanket.

‘Well,’ Maara thought as she tucked the blanket around him. ‘That I least can make him comfortable. I’ll make this all up to him in the morning.’ She settled down next to him, arms around her legs, and head on her knees, her wings spread out in comfortable way. The casing paste itched a little, but she was used to it, she hadn’t been lying when said she bone at least one bone a month. She still needed to work on landing.

Before Maara drifted off to sleep she turned to look at Devon sleeping soundly on the ground. “Dream sweetly, Devon.” She whispered to him with a smile before her eyes closed and fell into a dreamless slumber.

[Devon]

When he woke up the sun had already arose nearly in it's highest point in the sky and the fire had long since died out. He realized that Maara was only only a few feet away and was still fast asleep, he just looked at her and smiled. He took this opportunity to notice more about her, more than he could see last night in the darkness. Maara's face was long, and narrow face with round cheeks.

She had a burn on her face that wnet from just below her right ear to the middle of her right cheek. She had dark red hair, oh how he loved red hair, it reaches just pasted her shoulders.On one side of her head she had it in a braid, if she were standing it would fall down, but now it was laying across her delicate nose. Attached to the end of that braid was a yellow bead and a little blue feather.

Maara’s body was small and thin, but beautiful. He could see even more burns on her body, and scars as well, coursing along her body like the veins under her skin. Then ofcourse, there were her gray bat like wings that grow from her shoulder blades, those were definately not ordinary, but they seem to fit her and fit who she was.

She was attractive alright, but he wondered why she had so many scars and burns.

She started to wake up.

"Hey"

[Maara]

There was hair in Maara’s nose. It was very hard to sleep when there was hair tickling the inside of your nose. She shifted her face a little but it still tickled. Giving up, she lifted her head and sneezed. ‘Well that’s one way to wake up in the morning.’ She thought to herself.

"Hey"

She turned her groggy eyes over to were she heard the voice. ‘And this is another way entirely.’ she thought blushing. Devon looked different in the light then in the dark. Of course when she saw him last night he was either in the dim firelight or covered in shadows. Then again with his dark cloths against his pale skin he still looked like he was covered in shadows. His thick black was mused up from sleep and somewhat out of the short ponytail it had been in. the morning light hit his eyes just right so that it showed the gold flakes in his green eyes and showed off his lean form.

He was beautiful. ‘No handsome.’ She corrected herself. She remembered her mother told her that men preferred being called handsome rather then beautiful.

Maara shook her head remembering that she had yet to greet him and scolded herself for being so rude. ‘I’m suppose to be making it up to him for being so rude to him last night, not make it worse.’ She smiled at him, slightly embarrassed, and told him good morning.

“How are you feeling? You passed out so fast last night I thought something might have been wrong.” She blushed again remembering what she wanted to tell him last night. “Oh, silly me I almost forgot. I wanted to tell you my full name, it’s Maara Adriana Loki.”

[Devon]

He looked her up and down, coursing her body with his eyes. The attraction was definate, but he hardly knew her and his more recent relationships with women didn't turn out so good. Still though, there was an undeniable passion he felt for her maybe it was him almost killing her or the fact that they shared something together that he had never been able to have with anyone else. Regardless it was there, and regardless he was afraid to approach that feeling with anything but trepidation. Then the thought came to him... she didn't know he was a demon...

"I'm doing fine, thanks for asking. And here I thought you had a great name at just Maara, who knew it even be greater...but uh... I need to tell you something more...important. I never explained why I attacked you. I was afraid to, to be honest with you. You said you were a demon, and well... I guess if you want to be technical... so am I. See we have a little more in common than just two young strangers who met each other in the woods."

He looked at her more intently, he may have let slip out more things then just him being demonic. He told her about the connection he felt. He thought himself utterly stupid, but it wasn't as if he was actually planning out every word he spoke.

"I just wanted you to know...That's all."

[Maara]

She couldn’t believe it. He was a demon too? Maara felt a rush of excitement. ‘He is just like me.’ She remembered that he did say technically he was, but she didn’t care. She had someone to relate to now, someone who was like her. ‘This must have been the friend mother saw.’ She hadn’t been this happy since before her mother died. This was wonderful news.

“Thank you, for telling me. “She whispered trying to contain her excitement. She felt like jumping up and hugging his but stopped herself. She didn’t want to frighten his away right after she found him. The sudden pain in her stomach reminded her she didn’t eat last night and so she went to start on breakfast for the both of them.

“Let’s something to eat shall we?” she stood and pick up the rabbits that were dropped last night. They were cold, burnt, and had some dirt on them, but they were still edible. She brushed them off slightly and brought them back to were she had been sitting before. She placed them on a flat rock off to the side and the pulled her water jug and a loaf of bread out of her bag and placed them next to the rabbits. “The meat is a bit cold now but it’s still good. I just got the bread in the last town so it’s still fresh as well. So let us eat, shall we?” she told him as she ripped of a portion of bread.

[Devon]

It was an odd feeling that was coursing through his body at the time. Excitement, mixed with fatigue and fear. He wasn't very hungry because of all of this, he wanted to know if they had any similarities, the wings was a definate flaw in that sense. He had no wings and thought she definately had the upper hand on the situation because of it.

"So, the wings, that's pretty cool. Wish I had some. So what else can ya do?"

He put his hand under his jacket, where the light of the day still had not come through, he pulled it out and it was cloaked in shadows. The shadows were moving and flickering much like a black, cold flame. He held his hand up and as it touched the sunlight the shadows flickered again and seem to explode in the light. He laughed and lowered his hand down and grabbed a piece of the wood from the previous campfire.

He held it and with only a small bit of concentration his hand heated up and the wood next to his hand glowed red and then eventually flames came through. He clasped his hand together tightly and clenched his teeth in meditation. The wood caught fire completely and was soon turned to ash.

"That's pretty much it for me. What's worse is that the shadows don't like light ofcourse and sometimes it's worthless outside, and the heat takes a good while to produce flames. If the flames are already there though, I can manipulate the hat that is present. So seriously, show me what you can do."

He looked down at the rabbits, he was sure there was nothing really wrong with them but at the same time the excitement and fatigue didn't leave much of an appetite for him.

[Maara]

Maara watched him demonstrate his powers in quite awe. She had never seen anything like that before. ‘He is handsome and amazing.’ That thought sent a shiver down her spine, but she wasn’t sure why she felt like this. This feeling was new to her. It was like she wanted to hug him and never let go. The feeling exited her as well as frightened her.

“---So seriously, show me what you can do." He wanted to see what she could do? She suddenly felt shy; she felt that if her powers weren’t good enough he would laugh or leave. ‘Well, here it goes.’ She held out her hands, palms facing each other, about 6 inches apart and closed her eyes. Her brows drew together in concentration and her breathing evened out, she almost looked asleep if it wasn’t for the low humming sound she was making. There was a small spark that flickered in the space between her hands. Another flicker and then the flame stayed lit and grow stately to the size of a small rock. She let out a sigh and the flame went out as she brought her hands away.

Once she had caught her breath she reached into her bag and pulled out a crystal the size of her palm. She held out her left arm and exposed a small cut she had gained from her “landing” last night. It had already scabbed over but it would work for her demonstration. She closed her eyes to concentrate again, focusing her energies into the crystal until it emitted a faint glow before she positioned it over her cut and held it there for a few seconds until it was completely healed.

“That is about all I can do. I can heal bones that haves small brakes in them, but nothing as extensive as the one I have. I also can brew a few potions, poisons, and there antidotes.” She slipped out a needle and showed it to him. “These are the weapons I use. They are coated in a mild poison or a sedative. They are sharp enough to pierce the skin and if I throw them and hit a nerve in the body it can paralyze a part of their bodies…” she blushed a little, she felt like she was babbling or bragging unnecessarily about her abilities. She hoped she didn’t embarrass herself.

[Devon]

He just sat there and watched her, like a little child watching something new for the first time, okay maybe it was also mixed with a little like a man who had just seen a beautiful woman walk out of a hot steaming spring. He just stood there, totally mystified of what she had just done. Her fire creation was actually visual as wear his was only the physical heat, and she could heal.

The implications of all that this girl could do astounded Devon to an almost breakable point. She had wings, which made her have an asthetic exoticness about her appearance. She couldn't land very well, but she could fly! She could create fire, which was really great as far as Devon was concerned, he loved playing with fire and the fact that she could create it as well made him smile. But out of all of her powers, her last made him go completely into a starstruck awe.

"You can heal?"

Devon recalled everything that he could think of about demons. Hungry, bloodthirsty, war crazy, evil and malicious creatures who found no other use in the fact that life existed other to destroy it. Then how was it, that right here in front of him was a being far more demonic looking then he was, able to heal? There was no offensive force to healing. It was light magic, good magic. Not evilness.

He could create heat in which to burn enemies, to burn houses and to create fear. He could manipulate the shadows, and they liked to come to him, to give him protection to give him power, to grant him all that he wanted. Granted, both of these powers could be used for good.

he could manipulate the fires of a burning building and decrease them almost to a non-existent point so the people inside could flee to safety. He could use his shadows to grant him access to places where he could save people or retrieve stolen items, or to gain intelligence for the cause of good.

But on the outside if he had been asked what magic he controlled and he answered 'fire' and 'darkness', they would automatically think him evil and untrustworthy. He felt like a degenerate, a scandalous and evil person. Just because people viewed him as such, not based on 'who' he was but 'what' he was.

It hit him like a landslide had fallen directly onto him, every stone hitting him atleast once. The realisation that the woman sitting in front of him was of goodly intent, a beautiful woman in her own right and personality. To look at her though, one would only think the worst. They wouldn't even give her the chance to express that she could heal, they would look at her and her wings, and they would persecute her.

He realised how selfish he had been in his own sufferings. Yes, his life had recently been full of contrite and mischevious individuals, but Maara had delt with hatred all of her life.

"Maara, is it hard growing up being a demon? I recently came into my powers, and none of my physical attributes point towards my blood. Do people hurt you or make fun of you for how you look? Is it hard?"

[Maara]

“Is it hard growing up being a demon?” the joy she felt at his reaction and amazement to her powers was gone in a flash. “I recently came into my powers, and none of my physical attributes point towards my blood.” She remembered always hiding her wings, herself, when strangers came. She remembered being proud of who she was with her mother and how ashamed she was with anyone else. “Do people hurt you or make fun of you for how you look?” she remembered Tom and the villagers shouting, hurting, trying to kill her. She felt her hands clench in her skirts and tears start to sting in the corners of her eyes. “Is it hard?”

What was she to tell him? Where should she start? ‘From the beginning I guess.’ She thought almost bitterly. ‘I just hope he is willing to hear all’

“My mother,” she began to tell him as she stared at the ground. “And her family had worked at the Justice Hall for generations. She was the first in her family to actually study healing instead of their ESP abilities. She had been admired for her talents and knowledge. Many men had tried to marry her but she refused them all. One man had grown so angered by her refusal that he bribed a battle mage into summoning a demon, my father, to dishonour her. She knew he was coming and that I was to be born after their coupling so she let him take her. After he was done he told her to find him one day so that he could teach be about my demon powers. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him, but his name is Cama Zotz. My mother then left Marn to a village to give birth to me.”

She cleared her throat, shifted into a more comfortable sitting position. She still didn’t look up at his face. “The villagers usually ignored me, it was as if I wasn’t there, until I turned two that is. It was the blacksmith who started it first. I was walking passed his shop alone one day and he grabbed me and gave me this.” She touched to burn mark on her cheek. “His sons and some of the village men who heard me screaming came and decided to join in.” she rolled up her sleeves and pulled up her skirts and legging to show off some of the scars they had given her. “My mother was the one to stop them and get me away. We waited until I was healed and then we moved into the mountains.”

She fixed her clothing into its proper place before she continued. “It was quiet there. I could run around free without hiding there, but only when it was just my mother and I. People, travelers going to and from Zaekonspiere, would come and stop by once in a while. Mother could never turn them away, especially if one was hurt. I never cared for them. It was mostly for selfish reasons like the fact I had to share my mother and my home with them or the fact that I had to hide my wings and not mention them to anyone. One of the travelers named Tom I remember the most.

“If I remember correctly he was traveling to Marn, but had fallen and broke his arm. Mother found him and brought his back to the house. He stayed with us until he was well enough to travel. He was a sweet man.” Maara’s voice started turned sad and bitter at this point. “He was always so kind to me and mother. Handsome too. He was the first traveler I wished would stay. But it didn’t happen. He walked in on me while I was changing, and he saw my wings. And…”

She inhaled sharply and turned her gaze to the sky, willing her self not to brake down yet. She had to finish the story. She needed to. “And I don’t remember much after he came at me. Just bits and pieces. I remember him grabbing me and being shaken, I remember his hands around my throat, I remember being called a monster and a demon bitch, I remember crying and calling for mother, I remember her mother grabbing his arm trying to get him to stop, I remember Tom smacking Mother away, and then I felt this rage in me. My vision faded out and when it came back… Tom was on the floor. Mother was holding me and crying. I don’t know how but I had broken his arm again and his jaw. He was also covered in small burns. When he woke he had amnesia and my mother told him he fell in the forest and had hit his head. He believed it and when he was well again he left without remembering a thing.”

“Things went back to normal after that. I was better at hiding my wings when travelers came but everything else was the same as it had been. That is, until after I turned 15. You see my mothers’ side of the family occasionally has visions of the future. We have no control over when they will happen or what we see in them, and they leaven us completing drained of energy afterwards. I had my very first vision that day, about my mothers’ death. I passed out after it. It was hours before I woke up again. When I did I found my mother out side our door unconscious and injured.” Her breath started to hitch as she held back her sobs. She closed her eyes willing herself not to cry. She had to continue the story. “I put her to bed and tried my best to heal her. But I was so weak, so useless to her. I couldn’t do anything for her.”

A small sobs escaped her lips. “She was awake for a few hours before she died. During that time she told me everything. Her family, my father, her life before me, everything. And then…” Maara paused and stared at the trees. The leaves were almost the same as her mothers’ eyes. “She made me promise, that I would go to Marn and then finish becoming a healer. And that…” she slowly turned her head to look at him. Not directly, more to the left of his face, but so that she could see him in her peripheral vision. “…I promised that I would find my father.”

She fell silent after that. Something hot and wet slowly slid down her cheek fallowed by several more. Maara almost laughed but couldn’t find the strength. She was crying. For the first time since she buried her mother, she was crying. And she couldn’t stop.

(Sorry it took so long. There was a big storm up lake and it knocked out our phone and Internet connections.)

[Devon]

Devon sat there listening patiently and intently. He didn't want to, it all seemed to much for him to believe but too horrible for it to be a lie. He just sat there and as she finished, he felt sadness in his heart. Not the sadness that is commonly felt by most everyone. No, this was the sadness that is so terrible and deep that so many people in the world are spared from feeling. This sadness came from another person's grief from all of the realms.

He felt as many people do in such situations that there weren't any goodly gods, how could there be when a person so kind in nature was thrown out into the sorrows of the world. Innocence sat before him, true and undaunted innocence. Ironic how something in which its blood was tainted with pure darkness could be without conscious sin.

He looked into those eyes, the same eyes that originally made him feel fear now made swept him with pain. The pain that he could see in her eyes, reflected back on to his own being. He didn't know what to say in a situation like this. Nothing that he could say would take back what history had already done, he couldn't take that back with a few words.

"Maara....I uhh..damn it...Maara Adriana Loki...Eventually there will be a time where your wings can be shown in the glory they deserve. ...That man...The one that hurt you... He was wrong. He was ignorant to what you truly are."

He stared still into those pools of innocence. Nothing he could say would make her whole again. He couldn't take it anymore. The silence, the pain shown back at him through those majestic orbs, the agony of the world, the hatred and fear given to those that don't deserve it.

He felt his anger rise, and with it, the temperature of his body.
His anger and hatred started to manifest itself from inside his powers. The control he held over heat loosened and his body took a sudden leap up and back.

He felt the shadows then, their fear and warning, they didn't like the heat. The heat caused fire, the shadows feared fire more than anything. The shadows that hid themselves beneath his longcoat swept from it, down the bottom, up from the neck and out through his sleeves. They knew what was about to happen.

The heat was consuming him, it wasn't slowing down either. It was growing. He reached his hands up to his shoulders and ripped off his longcoat off and threw it a few feet away from him. He brought his hands up again to his shoulders, crossing his chest. His hands were balled into fists, the air around them was wavering, the heat emanating from them was becoming visual.

The power was becoming too much to handle and control. What was even better, he didn't want to.

He dropped to his knees, only feet from Maara. She was still sitting there, just looking at him. Though the look in her eyes had changed. Devon didn't care. The power had finally taken over and... he was enjoying it. Enjoying it way too much to notice or even care.

He rocked up on his knees, standing on them. He threw his hands down to his side from his chest. The heat that emanated from them now was alot stronger than it had been moments ago. He arched his head back to where his hair that was loosely hanging in his face was now touching his back. His hair was being whipped by the wind of the heat.

Anger rose from his body, coming from his stomach rising to his chest, to his throat and out of his mouth.

"ARGHHHHHGGGGHHHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!"

The scream that had originally came from anger was not coming from something else.
Along with the scream came the flames. Devon himself could not create flames but he could create heat, and if you heat clothes, they burn.

His shirt was the first to catch fire. It started smoking in different areas and then from those areas holes were burned. The intense heat that caused the wind, caused the shirt to eventually break apart and fly up and then fall down around him, burning into ash. His bare chest was dashed with bits of melted shirt that had clung to his skin.

His pants were the next to go, in areas where they were tight from sitting on his knees sprouted flaming holes. Around his knees, and his calves the heat had already burned large holes in them, so large that the remaining areas were burning at multiple ends. Soon all Devon was left clothed with was a very small and revealing portion of his pants. So revealing that nothing was hidden from Maara's eyes.

He still just sat there and laughed at it all.The meniachal laughter now came from the true pleasure in his power. The world didn't matter any more. Hell the world didn't even exist to Devon Akula anymore. All that was real was the way he was feeling.

...............................................Euphoria..................................................

[Maara]

Maara wasn’t sure what was going on. One moment he was trying to comfort her, then he was angry at something she didn’t understand, and then heat started to radiate from him. It was intense, must hotter then the night before on her wing and it was growing. The leaves and twigs around him started to burn and turned to ash. To grow so hot she had to back away from him. Devon was on his knees in what she thought was pain at first but when she looked at his face she found that is was… pleasure, or at least a mix or both. And the heat kept growing.

"ARGHHHHHGGGGHHHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!" the scream surprised her. She wasn’t sure what emotion it expressed but it frightened her. She started to wonder if he had control over the heat. She had to stop him before he set the whole forest on fire. How she didn’t know.

Devon started laughing. It sounded maniacal but at the same time it was careless and full of pleasure.Coming from his naked form it sent a shiver down his spine, she thought it was of fear or of something else didn’t know. His head was thrown back as he laugh and exposed him neck. More importantly it exposed a certain nerve that her mother taught her about. If it was hit hard enough or pinched hard enough it could knock out the person. The heat was to intense her to do it by hand so she came up with a different way.

She slipped a needle out of her pouch. Bone was actually resistant to heat and usually just splintered and cracked under high heat. She hoped it would hit its target before that happened. She knew that the sedative would burn off before it touched him, but that didn’t matter now. He wouldn’t feel a thing if she hit the nerve and made him sleep.

As she threw the needle towards him she prayed that this would work… because she didn’t have a plan B.