In The Middle of The Forest (Nayru)

[Mana]

"No!! Don't you dare to touch him!" Mana shouted as she stretched her hand toward the baby in the demon's arm. Sinister laugh filled the air as the demon raised his sword while mocking the helpless swordswoman. Mana couldn't allow the poor and innocent soul met his end at the hand of such beast. He still had a lot of years of life he deserved, the future he could achieve. Moving her heavily wounded legs forward, the swordswoman gritted her teeth to bear the pain across her limbs. Wounds covered her body and red had replaced her skin original color, which was the proof how bad she had been beaten by Nega Burt.

"STOP!!!" she screamed, her voice filled with fear. However, the monster didn't listen and started bringing down his sword toward the helpless baby. It happened so fast that Mana couldn't stop the terrible outcome.

---------

Mana sat up quickly but then stopped by great pain attacking her back and right shoulder. Sweats dropping off her cheeks and fear still dominated her expression. Mana brought her hand to cover her face while trying to steady her rigid breath. 

"Was it a dream?" she thought, eyes closed.

Mana tried to remember the events from the past few days. Her battle with the monster felt real, it couldn't be just a nightmare. Her head started to hurt as the memory came back to her, causing her to groan a bit. There was...a hunt. yes, a hunt. She remember how she had started a quest to hunt the monster who had appeared in the battle of the City of Heroes. "There was...a forest, some dead bandits, and...." Her eyes widened when she came to the realization that a baby had been unfortunately involved in the hunt, and worse... she couldn't find him or remember what had happened to him. The last thing she remembered was how she had been forced to flee and a superwoman had come to join the fight. She couldn't remember the rest well.

"Now here am I..." Panicked but somehow still able to restrain herself from going frenzy, Mana looked around. She was sitting on a bed in a small room. Judging from the dim light that coming through the holes in the wall, it seemed it was evening. The room itself didn't have much inside and was quite messy actually. "I need to get up..." Mana forced herself to leave the comfy bed to search for the baby. He was the only thing she could think about now. Finding her weapons on a desk while she was heading toward the door, Mana picked her swords then carefully opened the door. The next room was more spacious and had some old furniture but there was still no sign of people. 

Suddenly, she heard a cry from one of the doors. "Could it be...?" She had a guess whose cry that was but the girl decided to check it first. She watched her steps so she wouldn't make unnecessary sound that would alert people about her presence as she made her way toward the room. After a short peeking into the room, Mana found that it was probably the kitchen. Hmm...why the voice came from this place? The girl then spotted the baby lied on the table. While she was rejoiced that she had found him, she was surprised by a silhouette standing near the baby. This person was carrying something in her hand but the room was too dark so Mana failed to recognize what it was.

Mana couldn't think clearly at this moment, she didn't bother to identify whether that person was hostile or not but instead dashed immediately into the room with Falcatta drawn. "Get away from him!!" she roared as she charged toward the person. 

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

If looks could kill, the tiny smelly poop machine before her would long since have been rent into its component parts, a lovely coating of jelly to cover the walls and ceiling with. Unfortunately, she hadn't yet unlocked the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception power, so Nayru was instead just standing there glowering at the damn baby, thoroughly grateful that after its last little incident and the mess that had turned into, it was finally asleep. She didn't want to call it a him or a her because that would imply it was a human being, not a feces factory, and that would just be silly considering the horrors she had witnessed in the last few days.

She'd realized pretty quickly that just because SHE was fine to move, the humans weren't. Whatever the strange shadow warrior had done to them had left lasting effects, and while they didn't seem to be in danger of dying anytime soon, their recovery had been agonizingly slow and apparently moving them caused a lot of pain, so she had been forced to stop here. Nayru didn't know a lot about dark magic, but with how much of the crap she'd been dealing with lately, maybe she needed to start looking into it.

For the time being though, the great and powerful ancient dragon was trapped. Nayru could feel the wry smile creep onto her lips, even in her head that just sounded ridiculous. She wasn't THAT old either dammit. ...The kid was a lot cuter when it was asleep though. And not covered in crap. That definitely helped a lot. Nayru moved to stroke it's hea as it turned, trying her best to at least act caring even if babies were something like super-Kryptonite to her.

She heard Mana's movements elsewhere in the house but didn't really register them, assuming that it was fine. People moved around all the time, even when asleep, maybe she was just having a bad dream or something. She'd check later. Truth be told, Nayru's patience with the pair's malaise was starting to grow thin, she had to meet up with Veigue again soon to get back to work.

It wasn't until Mana burst into the room that Nayru's flagging attention was roused into full alertness, the crazy(?) woman moving much faster than she expected. Wiiith a sword. Caught off guard, Nayru's reaction was blunted, delayed, as the Sacaen swordmaster sortied savagely towards her; she had no idea what the hey was going on or why she was being attacked. Her first instinct was to dodge, but Nayru caught herself immediately, realizing she was between Mana and the baby. If she dodged - well, she didn't know what the Sacaen chick's problem was or how lucid she was, but there was a possibility that the kid was gonna get hurt in the process.

Her delayed reaction and attempt to assess the situation cost Nayru the time needed to draw one of her own weapons or even try to tackle Mana out of the charge, the blade already slicing through the air towards her, so much as she'd been forced to do when sparring with Veigue more times than she was entirely proud of, the dragon felt her power pulse as she raised her right forearm between them, trying to intercept the blade in time.

The pain was immediate and sharp, her reinforcement not fully complete in time and the woman's blade far sharper than she had anticipated, but it did the job... more or less, anyways, it didn't cut through her hand. Nayru hissed in pain, gritting her teeth to try to avoid responding further, and simultaneously used to pain to focus herself and not react badly by doing anything crazy like punching the bitch's head straight off her f**k**g body god DAMMIT that hurt. She wasn't sure if the blade had stopped shortly into the cut or at the bone, she thought it was the former but it was kinda hard to see on account of crazy sword lady's sword still being there. It wasn't going any further though, that was for sure.

"THANK you for saving me, Nayru!" Her voice was audibly strained, but the aggrieved dragon made the attempt at communication nonetheless, trying not to think too much about her 'thanks' for saving both of them and failing utterly. There wasn't much mistaking the acidic sarcasm in her previous words though, even as Nayru forcibly restrained her tone into mere injured venting. "Should've left you both lying there."

[Mana]

Mana needed to learn how to think before she act...seriously. As her sword cut into Nayru's flesh, which was surprising because Falcatta was sharp enough to cut metal and other hard objects, Mana caught a glimpse of Nayru's face. She was quite beautiful. Well, unless the Nega Burt's ugly and twisted face transformed into a lovely maiden, it would mean the swordgirl's attack just hit a wrong person. Uumm...that would make everything awkward. Her momentum was stopped by the hard block although she continued pushing for a bit before retreating quickly when she realized that her best and most prized sword had been stopped by...her arm? Was she a monster too?

"THANK you for saving me, Nayru!"

And then the monster superwoman yelled in frustration. Mana blinked a few times as she made sure the one she had just attacked was a human...or at least look like a female human. Her brain finally did its work...thinking. A sharp pain in her back helped putting the Sacaen back to her sense and stopped her from doing another foolish attack. "Her face...I know her...but where did I meet this woman?" she thought. Still keeping her battle stance, Mana's gaze shifted to the baby to check his condition. Fortunately, he was still sleeping and the little ruckus didn't wake him. Good. Nayru would probably kill Mana if the baby woke up and started crying again. She had probably spent 99% of her energy to putting the cute boy asleep.

"Aaah..." Mana gasped as she began to understand the situation. "You are the superwoman who helped us, aren't you? What is your name again?" With her head hurting and her memory being fuzzy, remembering Nayru was quite a challenge. After all, the had only a short introduction and at that time the situation hadn't been ideal. "Naru...no, wait...Is it Nayru?" she said, flicking her finger.

"AAAAAHH!!! I AM SORRY!!! I AM SORRY! I THOUGHT YOU WERE HIM!!" Mana shouted as she realized that Nayru was wounded by her last attack. She was panicked. The girl felt greatly guilty and believed that she had just done an injustice for hurting someone who had helped her. Bowing deep to the injured Nayru, standing and then repeating her apologize, Mana didn't dare to meet Nayru's eyes. She instinctively avoided the older woman's gaze as she tried hard to apologize for her...reckless attack. "I AM SORRY! I WOULD PAY FOR THIS MISTAKE! I PROMISE!!"

Unfortunately, Mana had forgotten one thing, the baby was nearby and asleep, probably after Nayru had worked herself very hard and spent a night without rest. Her voice was too loud. Sleeping baby and loud noises definitely weren't good match so...the worst outcome finally happened. The baby then woke up and started crying probably because he felt stressed and disturbed.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

"GOD that hurts worse than a punch to the tit." Still swearing like a drunken sailor beneath her breath, Nayru managed to get that much coherent speech out between gritted teeth as she clutched her arm, her pride wounded as much or more so than her body. It didn't... look to be too deep, but there was definitely blood. She hoped it didn't scar too bad or she was going to find Mana and beat some sword discipline into her in a year or two.

It was maybe not the most... mature and calm response ever, but the dragon wasn't exactly a fetishist for pain, so most of her actions in the past few centuries had been to try to avoid it - even if that didn't always go very well these days, what with all the adventures she and Veigue and Remus and such kept getting embroiled in. She bit her lip and tried to suck it in nonetheless, realizing that throwing a tantrum about it now wouldn't help anything. Mana's reaction did a fair bit to assuage her ire as well, at least, though it also got into awkward territory pretty fast, which almost made things worse. Nayru wasn't good at dealing with crying kids or people apologizing to her, and today seemed to be full of both.

"Alright, alright, just... keep it down." Her fraying sanity promised dire retribution if the level of noise didn't die down soon, but Nayru focused on the situation at hand, realizing she needed to wrap the wound for now at least. She could reinforce it to stop the blood flow, thank the Sky for bullshit dragon powers, but that was a temporary solution at best that wouldn't help much against a real wound anyways, and for better or for worse this was an actual body rather than a shell so it needed to do boring human stuff like, ugh, healing. THANKFULLY she had stole-'salvaged' enough cloth for swaddling the baby with some to spare, and she knew some first aid albeit nothing like Remus, so it wasn't too hard to get a simple constricting wrap going. Again - nothing on par with actual healing, but it would minimize blood loss and blood flow.

So all in all, it was pretty good timing for the horrible little monster to start crying again.

"And this is how supervillains are born, people," Nayru muttered mutinously to no one in particular, though her voice was definitely loud enough to be heard. It would be really easy to give in to the dark side now, or at least the thought was tempting, but Nayru knew she was far too boring of a person and cursed with too much of a conscience to actually DO it, so it was really just a really sad coping mechanism to joke about it. She sighed, her shoulders slumping. "Fine, whatever." She turned her eyes from the baby to the unnamed Sacaen lunatic. "Listen, uh, crazy sword lady or whatever your name is, you know how to make it shut up?" Her head nod to the baby might have been missed with how much the apparently-very-embarrassed sword lady was trying to avoid her gaze, which for some reason just annoyed Nayru even more. "Please tell me you do, I'm horrible with babies."

[Mana]

For some reason, the lady looked angrier when the baby woke up and cried. It was as if she was more concerned about the baby than her wound. Wow...she must be a good person. NO! Actually, the truth was...a bit different but Mana got wrong impression about Nayru's reaction to the baby's cry and she began to see the dragon lady as an angel. Mana sheathed her sword and finally stopped apologizing, although she was still acting a little awkward. Her hand moved up and slowly began rubbing her cheek as her eyes finally met Nayru's gaze. "Sorry, I was careless. I shouldn't shout like that. Sorry for making him wake up."

"Oh, my name is Mana. Mana of Hawkeye tribe!" Mana eagerly introduced herself, failing to catch that Nayru was speaking with irritated tone. How the baby was referred as it seemed to bother her though, although she end her it with just guessing that she had probably misheard the word. No way the one who had been caring and treating both of them, especially the baby, with motherly love would refer the baby as an object.

Shaking her head in panic, Mana raised both hands in refusing gesture and took a step back, "No way! I never have a child! I don't know anything about babies. Well, I have watched some mothers feed their kid or something until they stop crying but that's all I know. Uuuh, I've tried hugging a crying baby before but that didn't work at all." Mana wasn't honest this time. She actually knew a few things about raising babies and such from watching the women in her village. She had helped them a few times in rare occasions, too. The Sacaen girl simply didn't have courage to try calming the baby with her own hands because of her inexperience. A day where she would have to give birth and have her own kid might come someday but that was still far in the future. The swordgirl never thought about it anyway and she never dared imagining it. Although if she really had to have a child she wanted the father to be Wy.... NO! NO! STOP THINKING! Mana's cheeks began reddening as her imagination went to far. Great! How could she think about her future family now? Concentrate Mana!

However, Mana's next action was opposite of what she had said. She, despite being timid, walked toward the baby and carefully wrapped him in her arms. The hold was strong enough to keep him from falling but gentle enough to avoid hurting the cute baby. "Aawaawa...." Mana made a weird murmur as she awkwardly swayed the baby in her arms. An utter failure, unfortunately. The cry never stopped and in fact it was going louder. "Oooh...uumm...maybe he is hungry?" Mana said as she looked up to Nayru with eyes begging for help. The dragon lady probably wouldn't lift a single finger though.

Mana somehow came with strange conclusion. Nayru helped her and the baby...she seemed angry after the baby was awaken by the loud noise...she had been taking care of him with motherly love() for a few days. So, she was probably his mother!!!

"You are his mother, can you feed him? He might calm down after a quick meal," she asked innocently.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Hawkeye, huh...?

Trying to remember every single Sacaen tribe was a challenge at the best of times, even for the people who bloody lived there. Nayru was at least two steps removed, given that she didn't live there and didn't even visit that often, but it WAS an interesting subject that she had taken great pains to learn... in the distant past... once... and decided to never do it again, ever, even if someone held a ballista full of spiders to her head. At this point she only really paid attention to ones that made a personal impact on her, like the lunatics in the Magnus clan. Not that she was being racist or anything, some of her best friends were lunatics! Like Veigue... and Vandolf... and herself. So they were in good company. But the point was, she vaguely recognized the name Hawkeye, but the data she had was nearly two hundred and fifty... six years old, and needless to say had nothing to do with Mana or her parents or her parent's parents or their parents for that matter.

The descent into a sort of detached journalism did a surprising degree to temper Nayru's frustration at the grand irony of it all. It really just went to show that it didn't how matter how long you lived or how you tried to record everything, there was still so much of the richness of life that you could miss. Mana had her story - something Nayru had never in her life heard of - and it might even be a good one. And yet she would never have known it existed if she hadn't followed her (terrible) judgement and jumped into the fight against tall dark and douchebaggy. Funny how that worked.

She tightened the wrap reflexively, not from a sudden surge of blood so much as a general need to feel like she was doing SOMETHING to deal with it. It was a waste of time of course. The blood flow had mostly stopped already, it hadn't been an especially deep wound and her natural essence was already flooding the area, trying to mend it. Wouldn't it be nice if it was doing more to succeed. For not the first time, Nayru wished Remus was around, healing magic was INCREDIBLY useful and would do a lot to help her from bleeding out on a regular basis. Not that he needed to hear that, boy would get an ego bigger than Amelia's dreams.

Unfortunately, her brain crashed into an apocalyptic nosedive into madness at Mana's hopeful question. "The FUC- I thought YOU were his mom!" Nayru's voice cracked a little, her facade of calmness thoroughly tested by the events of the last few minutes. "Did you *#(%ing kidnap a baby? Was THAT why that shadow douchebag was attacking you?" Oh god, she was an accomplice to a kidnapping, wasn't she? That shadow guy had actually been a good guy and Mana the heartless slaver or something. So it wouldn't REALLY be ethically wrong to throttle them both here, right? Like maybe a grey area sure but generally acceptable...?

"This is my life now." Nayru's sardonic, deadpan delivery spoke volumes of how thoroughly her hopes and dreams were being crushed to tiny splinters by Mana's influence on her life. Maybe suicide really was the answer. She sighed, rubbing her forehead with the uninjured hand, trying to think. "There's, uh, there's not much food left." The singed trail of where she had tried to catch a rabbit, and the blackened crater in the ground that was all that remained of a deer she had... tried to laser, would stand eternal as silent monuments to her ineptitude at hunting. She had managed some smaller stuff but needless to say, Nayru had been hoping to get to an actual town for some real food sooner rather than later, she wasn't good for much but gathering.

[Mana]

How could Nayru come to that conclusion??? Mana swore she almost dropped the baby when Nayru said something about her being the baby's mother. Alright...maybe they both should calm down and think. Who the the hell is his mother??? Oh wait...this boy was found in the forest, in a small clearing, with a destroyed carriage and dead bodies. Maybe one of those corpses was his mom. Unfortunately, Mana was too startled to be able to think clearly so she failed to put the facts together and make precise conjecture.

"WHAAT??? NO!!!" The swordswoman protested quickly. "Look at me!! I am too young to be a mother. I am not even married yet!!!" Maybe she didn't need to explain that far but being mistaken as the baby's mother somehow had made the young Sacaen embarrassed and surprised. And worse...Nayru had accused her as a kidnapper??? That was absurd! No way she would do something so dishonorable! It should have been easy to tell which one was the good guy between her and that dark monstrous creature. There might be a phrase "Don't judge a book by its cover" but of course nobody would think she was the villain, right??? At least they shouldn't when the the other person was a muscular huge demon with strange demon blade. His look made it as if he was shouting "I am big bad monster!!!" which usually would be followed with a sinister laugh. Villains always did that.

"I saved this kid! That demon would have killed this little fella if I didn't interfere!" Mana never knew that the baby was a bait for dangerous trap laid by Buto. In her mind, she had saved the baby from being killed. "Do I even look like the bad guy? Please, he was big, scary, and...he had red eyes! You can't possibly think I am the kidnapper there!" Mana became frantic as she answered to Nayru accusation. Her free arm was waving wildly in her protest while the other one held was holding the baby firmly. Some frustration tears came out a little as she spoke to the Nayru.

Mana looked around and confirmed with her own eyes that getting fresh food in this place was unlikely. Well, there was some food and they could simply hunt deer or something but that wasn't a good solution. After all, a baby at his age probably wasn't ready to eat hard food. Mana didn't know much about babysitting and parenthood but she knew at least the basic. Unfortunately, her knowledge of this subject was too shallow.

"Uuuuh...think think think.... I guess at time like this he needs breastfeeding. But his mother has...died." Alright, Mana actually wasn't sure if his mother had been one of Buto's victims but it was quite a possibility. Her black eyes looked at Nayru looking for help from the older woman. "I wonder if we can find goat milk or something with similar texture... Oh hey, maybe you should try feeding him? I mean...you are not his mother but maybe... On second thought, I think it probably won't work. Sorry for saying something foolish..." Mana was a bit embarrassed by her own naivety. How could she randomly ask Nayru to replace his mother? 

Mana tried to give him a bit gentle swaying, hoping that it might work one way or another. In time like this she hoped she still remembered how to sing a lullaby. "Mmm...any good idea? I have never done this before..." she said, making a confused expression.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Nayru fired back pretty quickly herself, her words tinged with righteous indignation. "Well excuuuuuse me, princess!" She could talk about how Mana apparently had a tendency to try to murder people, and how she had been carting around a random baby that wasn't hers, and how she kept bringing up frickin breast feeding when clearly neither of them were pregnant enough to pull if off. Nayru liked to think of herself as a well-meaning do-gooder with a heart of gold and a rapier wit, but at this point she was more considering bludgeoning someone to death with the gold, metal was pretty hard, at least harder than a human skull. And, ok, there was a LITTLE bit of immature anger about the whole stabby-slashy thing with Mana's stupid sword. But having a tantrum here wouldn't help anything, so the dragon held her tongue rather than lambasting Mana like she more than slightly wanted to.

At least shadow douchebag prime didn't do back attacks.

"Fine, whatever," she said, raising one hand and waving aside to emphasize her statement - or imagine slapping Mana upside the head without actually doing it - jury was out on that one. "Let's just take care of this so I can get the hell out of here." And GOOD LORD did she ever want to leave, she could be saving the world or sparring with Veigue or knitting a lovely scarf, all of which would be less stressful than this. "There isn't much life in the vicinity - maybe your boyfriend tall dark and ugly killed some and drove the rest away, but no people and not much in the wise of farm animals. Nearest town I know of is a good half-day walk away too, maybe longer. I'm not familiar with modern Sacae enough to know what sort of smaller villages are in the vicinity, but I didn't see any when I went scouting yesterday."

Nayru sighed as the bad news just kept coming. "I'm almost out of food, too, I don't usually carry more than a few days worth at most and this little guy has been muscling in on my stocks. The simplest way to deal with this now that you're up would be to find a nearby village and offload the kid there, or at least get food if your motherly instincts have awakened and you decide you want to keep the little crap factory."

Okay... that last little bit may not have been ENTIRELY necessary, but it was the little things that made her day bearable. In this case, it meant petty vengeance through implications. Not exactly fire and brimstone vengeance, but she'd take what she could get. "So if you have some sort of Sacaen-sensing superpowers, now would be a good time to mention 'em."

[Mana]

Mana let the comment about Dark buto being her boyfriend slide and focused on the baby within her arm. She were acting awkward. This experience was totally unfamiliar with her and the Sacaen struggled to find how she should handle a crying baby. Nayru didn't seem to be interested in helping her after whatever struggle she had had to face. Was nursing a baby actually that hard? Mana wondered...maybe she should delay having a family for much longer. "Before I entered this forest, I saw a few tribes breaking off their encampments and heading further north. I talked to them and learnt that they had heard about a demon rampaging the forest area so they wanted to avoid it. Yes, that demon...that dark and ugly demon," she replied to Nayru. She had also heard that several tribes had moved away to avoid the demon too so it would be unlikely to find any encampment nearby. Maybe they would have better luck if they moved further to north but the baby might not ready for such long journey. Anyway, she needed to think of something quickly. "Maybe there are a few villages or small group living nearby but I am not so sure. We can also hope a group of travelers will pass by soon because this forest is one of the favorite paths for travelling between Bern and Sacae. Hopefully...." The girl didn't sound sure with her own opinion. At worst case, the demon had preyed or scared most of the inhabitants around this area.

"I probably still have some dried bread and dried meat left in my bag, assuming you haven't taken it." Mana looked around for her bag, wondering where Nayru had kept it. While looking around, she then noticed that she was half-naked with only bandages wrapping around most part of her upper body. There was something on her back to, between the bandages and her skin, which she had assumed as something like healing leaves or similar ointment. It seemed the dragon lady had taken care of her wound. "I...just realized that you have tended my wound so um...thank you for it and also for saving us from the demon. And...ehem...sorry for attacking you. I shouldn't have injured my savior," she said, taking alittle peek at Nayru's arm. Nayru might not want another apologize but the girl felt she had to say it for at least making her feel less guilty.

"I am thinking we should look for some edible fruits. We can grind the fruit to make it soft and light so the baby can chew it just fine. Well, I have seen a friend feeding her baby with this fruit porridge so I think it might work." Mana came to realize that the baby had stopped crying. There was still sobbing but at least he had become calmer than before. Warm smile appeared on the girl's face as she lightly poked the baby's cheek. "Well, go to sleep, little one..." she whispered.

"So...you have been taking care of us? How long have I passed out?" Mana asked, looking curious. "And how you can be so strong with that...feminine build?" There wasn't much difference in their physique but Nayru had displayed awesome strength in that battle against Burt which left Mana confused.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Well, to the surprise of... no one, Mana seemed to be a much more fitting mother figure than her. Which was pretty much OK by Nayru's standards, she wasn't really looking to enter the fray. All sarcasm aside, the Sacaen girl actually looked the part pretty well. And she was reasonably attractive. Aaaaand talkative. Nayru didn't even try to interrupt as Mana spoke, secretly just glad that the girl seemed to be doing a bit better now even if she was a little... you know, fanny flustered about earlier. This whole 'having emotions again' thing was pretty new to her and dealing with excesses in any direction was difficult.

On the bright side, food! And a bit of gratitude. Nayru was happier about the former, the latter just made HER feel embarrassed. She raised both hands before her, almost placatingly. "Hey, don't worry about it, Mana." That was the name right? "Wouldn't be right to leave you there after that soul scream... thing." She had no idea what kind of magic Burt had actually used, but suspected it attacked the target's spirit - the original dual hypothesis had been either internal organs or spirit, but both of its victims seemed to be fine now, which ruled out serious physical damage. Logic! "I'm not a cleric or anything, but I've picked up a few first aid tricks over the years. You should really see an actual cleric as soon as we can find one though, if there's any internal damage you'll need serious healing pronto."

Maybe she was just erring on the side of caution, or maybe she didn't want her work to go to waste. Whatever the reason, the dragon didn't want to see anything worse happen to Mana, and she didn't have any better solutions. "Wish Remus were here, he'd have you fixed up right quick." Nayru chuckled, envisioning Remus falling over himself to heal the girl.

She nodded at Mana's plans. "You've got a good head on your shoulders. I'm not familiar with the local flora, though, so we may have to lean on your wisdom... and whatever's in your bag. Should be by the bed somewhere." The first of Mana's last two questions was easy to answer - "It's been a little under three days. I was worried - well. The two of you were stronger than you looked. I'm glad to see you up, Mana." The latter question... that one was a bit more in depth, and also likely to end really really badly. 'Hey I'm a dragon, you know, that one race that humanity casually genocided, and still does whenever humans realize there are a few of us left.' Good times. All sarcasm aside, Nayru had long since accepted that as a fact of life - it was something she dreamed of changing, sure, but for now all she could do was work with it. It didn't mean she had to hate all humans anyways, there were plenty of good ones. "And I guess you could say I'm a monster hunter. Gotta keep in shape, ya know?"

It wasn't anything close to a real answer, but it was all she was going to provide for now. Nayru subscribed to the 'what a tangled web we weave' school of lying - an ancient technique in which you sucked so bad at lying that you just didn't do it, or if you had to, that the less you lied, the less you had to keep track of. She'd go to plan B if necessary, for now she was hoping Mana would take the bait on one of the other subjects they were discussing, and that she'd have a chance to slip out before it rolled around again.

[Mana]

Nayru seemed to soften a bit, she probably had gotten over being attacked by Mana earlier. This was relieving. Didn't want to stay in her bad side after how the dragoness saved them. "Yeah, thank you for that. We're lucky you was around. And you applied the bandage just fine. I can feel it wrapped tightly around my chest and back. Maybe a bit too tight but it is good enough," she said. The wound in her back was still hurting her a bit but it wasn't something she couldn't brush off. Pain at this level wouldn't be enough to make her unable to withstand it. "Sounds like this Remus guy is an amazing healer. Your friend, I assume? I too wish for some healing magic but for now simple ointment and some bandages will do just fine." Mana tried to demonstrate that she was holding fine by patting her own back...only to regret it later because it hurt more than she expected.

"A monster hunter, huh? Wow, you must have trained a lot, Nayru! No wonder you are very strong. You even blocked my sword, Falcatta, with your bare arm! Seriously, that surprised me. After all, that sword can cut through steel and even dragon scales. Maybe I subconsciously held back or I just didn't have enough strength in my swing...or maybe you have hard muscles haha. Anyway, it's good it ended with just shallow wound," she said. Of course Mana didn't know that the lady in front of her was a real dragon. But even she knew, Nayru didn't need to feel uneasy or threatened by Mana. She didn't have any problem with dragon in general. Mana, just like most people, thought that fighting and slaying a dragon was a great feat but the girl didn't hate the ancient creatures or anything. Her battle against Marcus the black dragon in the arena was only because she had gotten caught in the moment and he had been considered as an danger that time. "It's unfortunate that I am not in my best condition, I would have challenged you otherwise. I would like to have a spar with you. Sorry for saying it so suddenly, I just like to test myself against strong warrior like yourself. Can't resist the temptation, you know..." she said casually. 

"Leave the food problem to me, Nayru...I can't say I know everything about this forest but I am sure I can find a few fruits or roots that are safe to eat." Mana seemed quite sure with herself. While this forest wasn't her usual playground, she was used to forage for food. Her constant travelling had taught her a lot about the basic rules of survival. However, she couldn't guarantee there wouldn't be stomachache involved later. After all, she might end up picking up a poisonous mushroom or roots later. "I just hope the little one will eat it. I hear a baby this young tends to be picky and difficult. How did you feed him when I was still unconscious?" she asked. Three days could be quite long for Nayru. After all, the dragon lady had had to face an opponent that might have been more intense than her battle with Dark Buto.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

"Yeah..." Nayru chuckled, but it was a bit more reserved than mocking. After seeing what Remus put himself through, she wasn't going to belittle him. "Remus is something else. Watching him nearly kill himself trying to heal people gave me a lot more respect for healers in general, that's for damn sure. I just hope he doesn't overdo it, he has a tendency to do that." Not that she was going to say THAT to his face, come hell or high water. She liked Remus without an ego the size of Etruria... and it wasn't like she was actually that great at complimenting people anyways, particularly when she thought about it.

"Yo, don't move around too fast." Nayru put a gentle hand on Mana's shoulder to hold her a bit more still after her little display. "Though how you managed to dash through the house without flinching and NOW you feel it, I'll never know. And you think I'm tough?" She giggled, deflecting Mana's comments about her own toughness into - slightly ironically - something between a compliment and a joke. The joke(?) about dragon scales was a little... in bad taste to her, at least she assumed Mana was joking or bragging or whatever, if Mana actually was a dragonslayer that just made it all the more imperative they not go down that path. Not out of worry for herself, but because Nayru really didn't want to hurt anyone if she could help it. Straight murdering some useless bandits and monsters wasn't a big deal, she wasn't ashamed of killing or anything, but killing good people when not necessary was something she didn't want to do if she could help it.

"I am grateful it wasn't a serious attack though, I like my arms attached to my body, thanks." She was admittedly curious though. "Is it a special sword or something? I'm not as familiar with swords as I could be, but I thought mostly nodachis and other large blades were the anti-armor type." Of course it could just be magic, but Nayru's rudimentary understanding of battlefield tactics had left her with the impression that larger weapons with greater crushing and cleaving power were preferred against armor. But hey, not like she was a goddamn professional when it came to that stuff, she was mediocre with her kama much less normal weapons. But it WOULD be good to practice... "I'd say something about how my blades thirst for battle, but... well, that'd be a bit cliche. And I'm pretty sure they aren't sentient either." The dragon grinned, patting the dual kama at her side to emphasize the point. "Perhaps another time Mana. For now, I'm just glad to have someone else to do my dirty work for me. Feeding the kid was going to drive me to murder, suicide, or both at once. I'd rather fight another damn Bael than take care of a baby again."

[Mana]

"That was because I was worried...." Mana left out a weak groan when Nayru commentted about how the girl had forgotten about the pain before. Okay now she was beginning to wonder herself. How could she bring herself up after a few days having bed rest? The weakness began to overcome her sense as the adrenaline subsided. 

"Another time then. It's a promise..." Mana said as she looked Nayru expectantly. Despite her condition, Mana still kept her competitive nature that had brought her into more troubles than she could count. Well, the girl was warrior-born taught in the way of sword so I couldn't be helped if she liked pitting herself against another warrior. "I bet it will be fun. I just hope I can match your greatness, Nayru." Mana didn't need anyone to tell her that Nayru was probably out of her league. The kama-user was strong and her physical ability was far in higher level than a small girl like Mana. The Sacaen didn't seem bothered in admitting the fact nor feeling intimidated by it. 

"Your friend, Remus, does sound like a respectable person. There aren't many people like him these days. I am glad some people still put the others above themselves." That was a honest compliment as Mana truly respected Remus despite only hearing about him through Nayru's stories. Nayru didn't seem lying or exaggerating so the healer reputation was probably well-deserved. He must have done something admirable to make the dragoness feel liek that. Maybe because they shared similar morality and kindness, Mana already liked this Remus guy. Not "like" like romantic affection or anything but more like admiration and respected. "And please...you make this baby sound worse than a monster. This boy is still innocent and pure," Mana protested jokingly, chuckling, as she held the baby with both hands and brought him up toward Nayru. The swordswoman held the baby just a bit above Nayru's eye-level and smiled. In her assumption, Nayru was only joking about the baby. There was no way she really meant what she had said. "See? The boy seem wanting to thank you for saving him," she said jokingly.

And what happened next might hit Nayru harder than a gigantic hammer...

The baby opened his sleepy eyes and looked at Nayru, blinking a few times. Those tiny hands moved toward the dragoness' face as he muttered a single word.

"...M-Ma...Mama..."

That single word was enough to make Mana freeze in her spot. Her eyes stared at Nayru and looked as if they were saying "I know you are his mother!!!"

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Yeah... promises. Good luck with holding her to that one. Nayru smiled blandly, failing to mention that she hadn't really agreed to anything. But Mana's excitement was just so CUTE, and she didn't want to disappoint the girl. And it might be fun anyways. She wasn't... exactly... good with her fancy murder sticks, but practice made perfect, as they said. And what better way to practice than by being killed by a sword that could possibly cut through dragon scales! Her genius amazed even her. Well, genius might not be the best word for it, but Nayru decided to not think about that too much. They'd burn that bridge when they came to it, in the far, far, far, FAR future. To be honest though, she really didn't mind Mana, it was a little stressful but much less agonizingly painful than say Lynessa or Aerious, each in their own way.

It was nice to hear someone else saying nice stuff about Remus though. Most of the people she met wanted to kill the guy for some reason. She'd have to tell him all about the lovely Sacaen swordmaiden who was so thoroughly smitten with him and wanted at least 14 babies. That would be sure to get a reaction from him. And yes, she did spend most of her time how to make Remus's life worse, it just came with the territory. The Invincible Sword Princess and the... priest. It was probably for the best that Mana wasn't a mind reader or she may have decided to find out whether or not Falcatta actually could chop Nayru in half. Unfortunately, either she actually was, or she just had amazing timing for brutal assaults.

Nayru cringed a little when the Sacaen brought the baby up to her face, intimately familiar with just how much crap the little monster produced and not particularly excited to have it all over her face. Then the little monster decided to take things up a notch, realizing that mere feces were not enough to slay the beast. It took a few moments of sheer 'deer in the path of Forblaze' shock and horror mingled together etched on Nayru's face, then she brought both arms up before her, crossed as if to ward off evil, and took a step back, barely even cognizant of the fact she was backed up to the table and almost fell onto it. "GET THEE AWAY FROM ME SATAN by the f**k**g Sky I'm not old enough to be a grandmother."

[Mana]

Nayru's reaction was quite...interesting, if not weird. It was as if she had seen something scary. Ignoring the thunder dragon's protest, the baby kept both of his arms extended toward Nayru as if asking for a hug. It seemed the last few days when Nayru had taken care of him had left some kind of good memory for the infant. Whether the panicked woman felt the same or not was huge question but from judging from her reaction it seemed she took it as a horrible experience. Did she have some bad blood with babies? Maybe evil babies attacked her homeland and ate her family? Okay, the reason wouldn't be that crazy. 

"You aren't his mother? Are you sure? You aren't just denying your own child, are you?" Mana asked with curious gaze. The Sacaen girl looked confused by the fuss Nayru had made. Mana was quite simple-minded so she took this small misunderstanding seriously, starting to believe that Nayru was the baby's mother. However, Nayru's reaction provided some answer. The dragon woman truly looked horrified by how the baby had called her. It wasn't because Mana was an expert of family and maternal issues but that reaction definitely wouldn't come from a real mother. She sighed and shook her head then smirked.

Anyway, the infant had closed his eyes again and returned to sleep. Nayru could feel safe now.

Mana put him back into an embrace again, laying him on her arm and supporting him with the other arm. She then walked toward the table and sat on the edge. "By the way, I haven't told you why I was there with the demon, right? Well, I was hunting him...although in the end he reversed the situation," Mana explained. The girl pouted when she realized that she had failed. It wasn't an obsession or anything like that but her moral code demanded her to hunt the demon beast so he wouldn't hurt innocents anymore. Besides, Mana wasn't someone who liked an unfinished fight. "Oh well...and that's why I am here now. How about you? Was it just a coincidence that you passed by or you sensed our battle then decided to help?" she asked.