Brand New Day

"Pernas should be okay. The door remains locked unless his friend chooses to go back, and I don't think anyone would have any real motivation to go after him."

He stumbled back and sat down. "Nothing's really wrong or anything. It's just I wonder how long we can keep up this running. Granted, we're on a boat, so that doesn't make it too much of a problem, but it's a bit more than I'm generally used to..."

The scene changed again so that they were in the middle of the ocean, with no land in sight.

"I don't think we have to travel this much. As long as we travel every so often. That or we figure out a way to get rid of him," She avoided the word kill as she knew that he wouldn't want to do anything like that, "Although I don't think that we can convince him to leave me alone."

"Perhaps." Eonoe said. He looked around. "On the upside, I don't think he can sneak up on us here." he laughed.

"True," Reyna said softly before she moved towards him. Her hands pulling her close to his robes as she lay her head against him, "We can't keep avoiding him though. I know you have someone else on your trail but I want to be able to relax for you, even if just for a little while."

"Maybe you're right." Eonoe said. "We'll have to fight him sooner or later. Perhaps that might give us an opportunity to push him back, get more distance between us."

"And try out the cannons." Nerrak said.

"Cannons?" Reyna asked but was quickly interrupted as a shudder went through her, "I don't think we will have to wait very long."

An avenging angel. He hung the sky. His wings flapping nonchalantly behind him and a very large two handed sword in his hands. Carelessly he tossed back his hair with a flick of his head and smiled at them, "Miss me?"

"You bet I did!" Nerrak said, walking up to the prow.

"Yes." Eonoe said, teeth gritted. "Cannons."

Panels on the front and sides of the boat opened, and a large array of barrels poked out. All aiming at Seth.

"Fire." He said, his double-bladed sword forming in his hand.

The cannons exploded, firing white projectiles at the avenging angel.

Dodging them seemed pretty simple for Seth, although one skimmed across his upper arm, leaving a rather nasty burn mark. Instead he rushed at the boat. Not hitting any of them but smashing through it. Sending splinters in all directions and Reyna in to the water.

As a human Reyna could not swim. Although she quickly grabbed on to what she could. Any power, of course sometimes these things don't work and she came up with the cold fire. It burned around her in sizzling sparks and heated the water. She shook her head and got it in order. Releasing the cold fire she used her wings to swim back up as if she was flying. It was much easier for her than flying in the first place, at least in her human body, so she headed up and hoped that Eonoe was alright.

Seth hacked and slashed at Eonoe with his sword. Angrily trying to hurt him in any way possible.

Eonoe barely managed to lean back, avoiding the blade. Seth swung the other sword, but Eonoe parried, knocking Seth's arm away.

"You broke my boat!" Eonoe said, punching Seth in the face. With Seth disoriented, he ran to the edge, looking down in the water. "Reyna!"

"Uhh, whitey, you might wanna..." Nerrak said.

Eonoe turned around just in time to block Seth's next attack, but he was so unprepared that the attack knocked him down.

The remaining pieces of the boat began to drift apart and sink. Reyna burst out of the water and assessing the situation she went straight for Seth. Her teeth dug in to him before he could shake her and she began to tear at him.

Bleeding and frustrated, he threw her at the fallen Eonoe but she stretched her wings, catching herself she stood between Eonoe and Seth. She looked monstrous. Her hair wet and ragged looking, blood dripping from her cheeks, and her teeth bared in a hiss.

Seth wasn't about to waste words. So he lunged at her with his sword and she protected herself with her wing. Of course it was delicate and a chunk came off of it before she threw herself at him. Biting and pulling where ever she could.

Eonoe got up and then teleported behind Seth. With one powerful blow from his fist, he struck Seth at the right point in the back, knocking him down.

But not unconscious.

Eonoe shifted into his dragon form, grabbed Seth by the neck with his claws, and then dove down into the ocean, dragging him with.

Reyna was knocked free of Seth and fell, disoriented, against he fast sinking boat. When she looked up Seth was going over the edge, followed by Eonoe.

Seth didn't seem fazed by the water. He continued to slash at Eonoe, scratching his hide in several places. Blood flowed around them as well as water.

Reyna changed in to a dragon herself and dove in after them.

Seth beat his wings changing the pattern so that when they landed on the bottom Seth and Eonoe where upright. A trail of bubbles came from his mouth but he faced Eonoe.

His mental voice came strong and the water shivered and vibrated with the waves of there combined power, 'Why do you deserve to love, Dragon? What have you done to deserve it? Your sin is apparent on your human skin. Stained, dirty, DESPICABLE,' the water shivered with his anger, 'I loved her more than you have ever loved. You are a BEAST why do you deserve love?'

Eonoe continued to lash out at Seth, beating him with his wings, strangling him, and slashing at him with his hind claws.

They hit the bottom and separated, Eonoe hovering a few feet off the floor of the ocean, facing Seth, his teeth barred.

And then Seth spoke in his mind. Thing about telepathy is that it can often affect you in ways spoken words can't. It's one thing to ignore someone on a street corner shouting at you. Quite another when the words are echoing in your mind.

He was left a little shaken by those words. But then came one sentence:

"I loved her more than you have ever loved"

Eonoe's eyes glinted with rage.

"NO!" He snarled, lunging at him. "You don't love her! You never loved her! You just want to kill her and use her for your own twisted wants!"

He slashed at him with his claws, blood clouding the water. "I love her, and she loves me, and I'll never stop fighting to protect her."

Seth slashed as well and both of there blood clouded the water. It hid them from view except for themselves in the swirling mass of red mist. Reyna's instinct was to attack but she would have no way of knowing if she was biting Eonoe or if she was biting Seth.

There power thrummed through the water and nearly over whelmed her with pure hunger. She held a tight clamp over her mouth and surveyed the bottom. Blood rose and fell and for a moment she saw Eonoe on top of Seth, tearing at him. Her eyes went wide as she heard his thoughts.

Eonoe wouldn't die because of her. She slid in between them like a snake and and shoved her claws at Seth's chest. His eyes opened in surprise before it glazed over and he slid away.

Her body collapsed as she fell back against Eonoe. She was unmarked but her wings and horns were gone and she was once again normal and knocked out.

Eonoe saw her, sitting there, unconscious...

Oh my God, she's going to drown! he thought. He rushed over to her and grabbed her, and then sped towards the top of the water...

No, couldn't do that. The Nitrogen pressure - the sudden depressurization could kill her.

He formed a crystal bubble around them, filled with air, that slowly rose to the surface at a safer speed. He turned back into a human, cradling Reyna. "Reyna?" he asked. He stroked her hair, and then stopped. He noticed blood on his hand. He was bleeding.

She sucked in a big breath when the bubble formed around them and coughed. Opening one eye, and then the next she looked pale and upset, "Eonoe?" Her voice rasped slightly but she touched his face, "He hurt you."

"I'm okay." Eonoe said, smiling.

Nerrak returned. "Well, he's dead."

"Dead?"

"Dead."

Eonoe paused for a moment. "Well, that means he won't be bothering us anymore." He shivered. "I could use a break from that. I'm bleeding."

"Good, good he's dead," Reyna said softly as she pushed her face against his chest, "Can you heal your self?" she ran a hand through her hair, "At least I don't have a wing to hurt any more."

She felt terrible and wished she could do something but doing something would involve take a bite of him and right now that was the last thing he needed.

"I think so..." Eonoe said, feeling around his arm, trying to find the wound. "I can." He pulled back the robes, exposing the arm, which had a bad cut and was covered in blood. He put his other hand over it and closed his eyes. The diamond on his forehead glowed, and the wound was healed.

"Usually when I transform," he said, repeating the same process with his shoulder, lower leg, and part of his chest, "the wounds all heal. Guess this just might've been a bit much. So, you... lost all your powers again?"

She stood and watched as he healed himself, "It was the weapon, I think. The sword." Reyna didn't want to talk about it. Maybe she did deserve to die? She had killed before and now killed again but he would forgive her wouldn't he?

Watching his eyes she couldn't see any accusation or anger, "Yeah, but it's alright. At least I'm not hungry for now."

Eonoe sighed and leaned back, against the wall of the sphere. "I can't believe it - I... I felt like I wanted to kill him. I wasn't holding back. I was more violent than I'd been in ages. I... well, I guess it doesn't matter now."

"Well, at least it wasn't you that did it." Nerrak said. "Still, a shame. He was very pretty. But psychotic."

"I wonder what happened to the gunman."

"Either he killed him or the gunman got sick of him."

"In any case, he was never as problematic as Seth." Eonoe said. "I hope we never have someone like that again."

Pretty? Reyna decided she would rather not know. She frowned, "I wasn't going to let him kill you or you him. I couldn't let you." She turned her face slightly away, "Yeah, I guess I can stick with just Pernas and you."

Which made her a little happier, "Funny, now I feel bad about killing someone but he's gone right?"

"I'm too tired to be upset." Eonoe said. "Maybe it was right. Maybe it was wrong. But I don't think I'll mourn him." he looked at the bubble as it broke the surface and started drifting off under the night sky. "Night." he said. "Would be nice to get some sleep. Could use some better accommodations, though. Maybe tomorrow when I'm feeling better I'll make another boat."

"Try to eat something first," Reyna told him, her mind of course on food, as she sat down on the bubble floor. You can sleep in my lap if you want. Although I'm still a bit cold."

Slight trembles were going through her water still dripped off of her and in to the curve of the bubble. Although she was much more worried about Eonoe. Moving close she rubbed her hand against his robes, "They are a bit see through."

In fact the white robes were very see through but it was hard to see in the dark of night in the first place, "Can you dry your own clothes? If you have matches and a few sticks I can make a fire to cook your food if you want."

Eonoe leaned forward and raised his arms. Using magic, he conjured a floating ball of fire in the middle of the bubble.

"You should also..." Nerrak started.

"Done," Eonoe said, vanishing the top half of the dome. "That'll keep us from choking to death. He leaned against the wall of the glass and closed his eyes. "Mmmm..." he said, enjoying the warmth.

"Wish we had marshmallows." Nerrak said.