Getting Lost Has Its Perks

"So this is it."

"I didn't think it would actually be silver," Pictor said as he edged near the water. At least he hoped it was water. He poked at the silver substance.

"Neither did I... and don't touch that. It could be some sort of horrible toxic sludge for all you know," Alexei said as he started to edge away from the river. that was unnatural, and he didn't particularly care to linger poison or not.

 Pictor was just about ready to put his entire hand into the water when he froze. "Uh... Alexei? What exact--" He yelped. He seemed to be doing a lot of that lately, but this time in was a precursor to him screaming bloody murder. He never particularly expected a woman to pop out of the water. Silver water no less.

At least they didn't know it was poison.

Alexei spun around at the scream, drawing his bow. He was surprised to find the woman when he turned around. A very scantily clad woman who was dripping wet.

It was a nice sight until  he noticed the giant ball of water in the woman's hand.

Of course they had to run into a magic user. Of course.

***

He was spitting up water when he came to. Alexei rolled onto his stomach, coughing. He'd never really had a problem with this before. Last time he checked he didn't have a proper pulse because of his tiny vampire problem.  And yet he felt like he had almost drowned. Was that even normal?

"Are you all right?" a woman said out of seemingly nowhere.

Alexei didn't look up, "What do you think?"

"I'm sorry I reacted so negatively. I don't... get out very often so I just assumed you and your friend wanted to hurt me."

"Good to know," Alexei said as he pulled himself up to a sitting position. It felt like his ribs were broken on top of everything else. What did she hit him with? And why was she being so nice now? What had stopped her from... drowning him.

"Alexei!" Pictor said brightly, Alexei could hear the thumping of his tail. Apparently he had taken his wolf form again. It was becoming a pattern wasn't it? The vampire leaned back to look at his friend. "I'm glad she didn't hit you all that hard. It seems that she's the... thing we have to pick up."

What?

"No." Alexei said bluntly as he stood. He turned around to face the pair, if he was going to talk his way out of this he was going to at least look them both in the eye. "No. I am not playing this game. I'm not going to cart around some--oh lord, how old are you?"

She looked like she was sixteen. Apparently his first glance had been mistake? And from the various folded robes that she was wearing she was probably some holy virgin. The thought of carting around a priestess made him physically ill.

"I'm eighteen!" she said with an indignant huff.

She sounded a hell of a lot younger.

"No. No Pictor. I refuse."

"I didn't say anything!"

"Yet. And don't give me that cute puppy dog face, it isn't going to work."

"You don't have a choice!" The girl said as she pulled something out of her robes. Alexei suddenly found a umbrella pointed at his neck. A sharp and pointy umbrella that, from what he could see was covered in a bit of blood. "I had a vision that we were supposed to meet, and--"

"No." Alexei hissed. If there was one thing Alexei hated (and there was more than one) it was prophecy. He had heard all sorts of things from the time he was born to the time he had his unfortunate encounter. None of them ever came true. So when someone said they had a vision, or a prophecy or some other nonsense they were either crazy or lying to him. And he was sure this sheltered priestess was just crazy.

Pictor knew this all too well, and he had tried to warn the girl. Of course no one took a giant blue wolf seriously. He was a hopeless sort of person, they all assumed. And no matter how loud he was and no matter how he protested they always brushed him off. And now Alexei was storming off, the priestess was offended and he was just a joke. So he did the only thing he could think to do.

Alexei had no idea what was happening, but he hit the ground with a rather loud and distressing thud. Apparently he was out of practice defending himself from unseen attackers. It was probably a bad sign. "I'm sure you have an explanation..." he said as he prepared to kick his friend in whatever he could hit.

"Do you know about the battle of the Elements and the Gods?" the Priestess interrupted.

"I have a feeling you're going to tell me."

"Of course," she stated as she waltzed over to him. A smile was on her face as she offered him her hand.

Alexei didn't take it. He remained on the ground, staring up at the girl.

"Okay," she said after a moment. "We got off on the wrong foot. My name is Hosanna. I'm the priestess of the Temple of Cherry Blossoms."

Alexei continued to stare blankly. His ribs hurt and he didn't care.

The girl took a seat in front of him, unfolding her umbrella for the sake of shade. "There's a war going on. It isn't supposed to be happening, but someone upset the balance between the Elements and the Gods. It's why I left the temple to find the other elements."

The silence started the build. Apparently that was all she felt like explaining. Typical. Alexei finally pulled himself up to the sitting position. "And what do I have anything to do with this."

"You're one of the elements!" She said with a smile. "So is your friend."

"Right. We're elements." Alexei said with a snort. "Whatever that means."

"It means you're the host for the physical embodiment of a natural force."

"That's impossible, How can you believe what she's talking about Pictor?"

"I don't exactly," the Res said with a small shrug. "But whoever she's with seems to think that we're important. And you know better than anyone a lot of organizations around here don't stop once they've found something out. Not to mention we still have people after us."

Alexei cursed. Everything was happening entirely too fast. He wanted nothing do with it. He just wanted to be left alone to live his life... unlife... whatever he had now. He found himself running his fingers through is hair, there had to be a way to get out of this mess.

Hosanna was watching him. Closely and carefully. She didn't know how to read people. She didn't know how to do much of anything, though she would never admit to it. She just knew that he seemed to be a nice person, deep down inside. Otherwise he would have just attacked her after waking up or some nonsense like that. "Haven't you had anything strange happen to you? Like you had a close call, you blacked out, and suddenly all the problems you had were solved?"

Alexei seemed to freeze at the comment.

"Once when I was younger... I tried to save a cat from a tree. So I climbed all the way up to the top, got the cat, and then the branch snapped. I blacked out as I was falling, and when I woke up the cat was fine, and I was in the middle of the kitchen fixing food for it." She tilted her head to the side.

Alexei shook his head.

Pictor uncomfortably shifted his weight as he stood behind his friend.

"Even with that horrible example, for now we'll bite."