Chapter Seven

On their search Tygra and Drake come across Rose, finding that she now had two others accompanying her as well

"This is going to take longer then fifteen minutes to find her…" Tygra said doubtfully as she glanced around her section of the woods.

Drake nodded his agreements as he stood to his feet after kneeling down to search for some sort of trace of Rose. Footsteps, jewelry: anything that they could use to lead them to her. Yet nothing such as that could be found. He sighed looking to Tygra. "I was thinking that too."

Tygra soon sighed walking over to a nearby tree. "Well, I'm going to try and speed this up a bit."

Drake narrowed his eyes. "How are you going to do that?"

"Simple." She replied, already climbing the trunk of the tree. "I’m going to travel up here." She quickly climbed through the branches and after finding a sturdy branch, she hoisted herself up, standing on top of the branch.

"You can't do that." Drake said as though he were talking to a child. He walked over towards the tree she had climbed and looked up towards her. "If you fall you could get hurt."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to fall." Her gaze then fell out to the distance. "Besides, while you're looking down there maybe I can see her from up her."

"Tygra we're not splitting up."

"Don't worry. I'll go a little ways ahead then turn back to let you know if I found anything." She rushed off the edge of the branch, successfully landing on another, continuing this pattern as she darted through the closely set tree tops.

"Tygra!" He called after her shaking his head. "Man, that girl is just begging for trouble."

After a few minutes have past, Drake began to worry. Patience wasn't his specialty and having Tygra run off the way she had hadn't helped sooth this quality.

"Where is that girl?" He questioned himself in a low voice.

"Ah!"

Drake turned to the sound of a cry. Not far from him were two girls and a man. One of the girls seemed to have fallen, the other two just taking notice. The girl looked up to the man, the other girl placing a hand to her shoulder from behind. His jaw dropped once he recognized the girl who had fallen. "Rose?"

"Ah!" Rose cried as she fell to the ground on her hands and knees. "Damn it…" she said beneath her breath as she found what had tripped her. A thick tree root was sticking up through the forest floor.

"Are you alright?" Gina questioned placing a hand to her shoulder.

"Sorry about that." Haru said walking towards her. "I should have warned you about that."

Rose shook her head, looking up to him. "No, it's alright. I should be more careful."

"Still-" Haru began reaching down to help her stand.

"Stay away from her!"

Haru jumped back from Rose in time to see a blade swipe between him and Rose. Immediately he drew his sword, readying himself for another attack.

Drake stepped before him, glancing back to Rose. "Are you alright?"

Rose watched him with wide eyes for a moment before blinking her eyes, snapping herself out of her daze. "Y-yes! Yes, I'm fine!" She swiftly stood to her feet, placing a hand to his arm. "I'm fine. Now will you put your weapon away?"

Drake looked from Haru to Rose. "What?"

Rose looked to Haru. "You too. It's alright he's my friend." Haru's gaze switched from Drake to Rose before placing his sword back within its sheath, not saying a word. Rose nudged Drake's arm. " Come on."

After a few seconds more, he slid his blade back within its sheath, then backed away from between Rose and Haru.

Rose let out a long sigh of relief. "Now that that's over with," she began walking between the two. "Drake, this is Haru. He is a warrior from Katrina's army. He was sent here to rescue me."

Drake straightened his posture immediately. "Oh, sorry man." He said, holding out his hand. "When I saw Rose had fallen, I assumed-"

Haru took his hand, clasping it with a firm shake. "It's alright. She said you were friends after all, so it is normal for you to react the way you had."

"Oh!" Rose walked back to Gina, pushing her towards Drake and Haru. "And this is Gina. I met her along the way."

"Nice to meet you." He said with a smile.

Gina blushed, backing away from the group shyly. "Same here…"

Rose looked amongst the group around her. "So, where is everyone else?"

"Well once we got here we decided to split up and find you. Asha went with Jade and I'm with Tygra."

"That's not surprising." Rose said rolling her eyes.

"What's that suppose to mean?"

Rose brought up her hands waving off the comment. "Nothing! Nothing at all." She then narrowed her brows surveying the area once more. "But, if you were teamed up with Tygra, where is she?"

"That is a good question." He stated shaking his head.

"What? You let her go off on her own?"

"How could I stop her? You know she just does whatever comes into her mind!"

Rose let out a groan, placing a hand to her hip. "When I get my hands on her I'm going to ring her neck! No more being nice to her, I'm going to stand up for myself!"

A cold icy hand was then clasped to Rose's shoulder causing her to jump in alarm. "Are you really, Rose?" A voice whispered within her ear.

Rose turned around slowly, her eyes wide. "Hi…Tygra…" she said in a low voice.

Gina quickly went to Rose's side looking to Tygra with interest. "Oh, so this is the one teamed up with Drake? His wife?"

"What?" Tygra questioned a little too loudly as she and Drake blushed lightly. She looked to Rose.

"It's not what you think!" She exclaimed holding up her hands.

"Their not together?" Gina questioned confused.

"No!" Both Tygra and Drake yelled a little flustered of the concept.

"You see Gina," Rose began, pulling her off to the side, "Team up is our way of saying forming groups. They're not married."

"Oh! I'm sorry!" She placed a hand up to her mouth looking to Drake and Tygra. "I didn't know!"

Drake placed a hand to the back of his head, ruffling through his hair. "Ah, it's alright. It happens."

Tygra shook her head. "What a scary thought…"

Rose looked to her questionably. "What do you mean?"

"If that's what she thought teaming up meant, then that would mean Asha and Jade were married."

Drake laughed. "That would be fun."

"You're such a pig!" Rose yelled angrily.

Gina watched in confusion. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, not at all!" Rose said waving her hand out before her. "It's just that Asha and Jade are both girls."

Gina cocked her head. "So?"

Rose and Tygra's jaws dropped while Drake laughed more. "I love your culture Gina!"

The two looked back to him. "Shut up!"

"I'm Haru by the way." Haru said trying to break the tension.

"Oh, right!" Rose said hitting her hand off the palm of the other. "He's a part of Katrina's army! She sent him here to rescue me and help us out with our fight against Alester."

Tygra nodded slowly then looked to Gina. "Who's the elf?"

Rose looked back to Gina. "That's Gina. She was a prisoner who escaped before I did. I found her along the way."

"Well, then, we should be on our way then, I guess." Tygra said already walking away from the group.

"Wait, Tygra. Where are we going?" Drake questioned following after her so not to loose her once more.

She stopped, turning back to face them crossing her arms over her chest. "We have to get back to Jade and Asha remember?"

"And how do you expect to do that?"

"We set up a rendezvous point, remember?"

"Ah…yeah, I forgot."

She rolled her eyes before looking to each of them once more. "Well, come on then. Let's get going."