Rosalina sighed. "Sister, Darius treats me well, and he is a shifter."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You knew I needed to do the job." Gareth said, ignoring the second part of what Darius said.

_________________
Where do you go when your running away,
The cost of stopping is too great to pay.
~Amanda (saw this written in a washroom stall at a movie theater)

Calista was a bit surprised to hear that Darius was a shifter, knowing how much they were frowned upon by society, but in the end the fact that he was a shifter took little significance to fact that he treated her sister well. In her case, she had been married off to a mighty lord but the man treated her so poorly that she had often prayed to the heavens to let death take her. "As long as he treats you well, then I care not if he is a shifter," she whispered. "I know our society frowns upon them but perhaps the ones that should be cursed are the monsters who pass for men..." she added weakly, her voice trailing off.
------------------------------------------------------------
"And I would have given you the money," Darius pointed out. "But you had to betray what I was to the people who tried to kill me," Darius growled, his anger starting to get the better of him. "Let us now see who is the greater between the two of us," he snarled.
------------------------------------------------------------
Hearing the fight start to escalate, Calista grew all the more pale, not wanting either man to be hurt. Darius was her sister's true love and she owned this stranger a debt of honor. Summoning what little strength she had, Calista pushed herself to a sitting position before trying to get out of the bed only to fall out of it just as Darius shifted into the form of a lion-dragon hybrid.
"Please..." Calista whispered as she crawled to the two combatants and desperately tried to stand in between them. "Stop..." she whispered panting for breath.
"Do you know what type of man you defend?" Darius thundered, his voice deeper and gravellier than before. "A traitor who has no honor!"
"Please," Calista whispered weakly, feeling herself on the verge of collapse. "Ro said he helped me. Don't fight..." she begged as Darius' image started to blur before her eyes.

_________________


AWESOME set by the AMAZING Lembas!!!

Gareth looked at the group. "Well, I see I am unwanted." He said and went to the door to leave.

------------------------------------------------------------

Rosalina went to her sisters aid. She wasn't sure which side to be on.

_________________
Where do you go when your running away,
The cost of stopping is too great to pay.
~Amanda (saw this written in a washroom stall at a movie theater)

"Wait..." Calista called after him but with her strength spent her voice wasn't audible to any but Rosalina. Groaning, Calista's eyes fluttered close as she slumped to the ground, the effort it took to stop the fight completely overtaxing her energy and worsening her fever.
Morphing back into his human form, Darius gave Rosalina an apologetic look as he knelt down beside the unconscious woman and placed his fingers to her neck, checking for a pulse. "I'm sorry," he told Rosalina finally.

_________________


AWESOME set by the AMAZING Lembas!!!

Rosalina sighed. "I know." she said.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Gareth took this chance to leave, but he stayed close, watching the home incase he was needed again. He did not care for Darius, but the women needed his aid.

_________________
Where do you go when your running away,
The cost of stopping is too great to pay.
~Amanda (saw this written in a washroom stall at a movie theater)

Sighing to himself, Darius gently picked Calista off of the ground and laid her on the bed again. "I just cannot forgive him for what he did," he mumbled to Rosalina. "No matter what else he does, I cannot forget how he betrayed me," Darius remarked as he picked up the herbs that had gotten partially crushed after he had morphed into a hybrid creature. Shaking his head, there was a hint of regret in his eyes. Calista's fever was now worse than before and he knew that he was partially to blame.

_________________


AWESOME set by the AMAZING Lembas!!!

"If he forgave you, could you forgive him?" Rosalina asked. "I ask only because My sister is grateful to him, and I am sure she will want to thank him."

_________________
Where do you go when your running away,
The cost of stopping is too great to pay.
~Amanda (saw this written in a washroom stall at a movie theater)

"I don't know," Darius remarked with a sigh. "In all honesty, Ro. I do not think that I can forgive what he has done," he remarked quietly. "If one that you thought was a friend betrayed you, could you forgive them? he asked her seriously. "For a long time now, I vowed that I if I ever met that mage again, I would make him pay for what he did and I have no doubts that he has probably thought something similar towards me. How then do you expect me to forgive him."

_________________


AWESOME set by the AMAZING Lembas!!!

"I can understand my love. But my sister. She would want it." Rosalina sighed as she looked at him. "I feel torn. I want my sister to have less stress and be happy, and yet, I want you to be happy as well."

_________________
Where do you go when your running away,
The cost of stopping is too great to pay.
~Amanda (saw this written in a washroom stall at a movie theater)

Darius sighed softly and shook his head, getting the feeling that Rosalina's sister would end up being a pain for him. "I know I should probably forgive him, but I can't," he remarked. Taking some of the herbs for Calista‘s fever, he then crushed them before placing them in a pot, added water and set them over the fire to boil. Once finished, he poured some of the brew into a cup and after lifting her from the bed, he started to pour the liquid down her throat. Yet perhaps it was because of his haste or his annoyance with the blonde woman that he poured the drink down her throat a bit too quickly and she started to choke as the liquid started to sputter at her lips.

_________________


AWESOME set by the AMAZING Lembas!!!

Rosalina sighed but seeing her sister choke she spoke up. "Darius, slowly." she told him putting her hand on his arm.

_________________
Where do you go when your running away,
The cost of stopping is too great to pay.
~Amanda (saw this written in a washroom stall at a movie theater)

Darius sighed again as he stopped pouring the brew down Calista's throat. "Sorry," he mumbled, feeling himself grow a bit more irritated by the moment. Here he was stuck playing caregiver to this woman only because she was the sister of his love and to make matters worse, this blonde thought herself indebted to his greatest enemy---which means he had to watch his temper around the mage if ever decided to show up again. When Calista finally stopped coughing, he once again started to pour the liquid down her throat---this time at a much slower pace, although it was getting harder and harder for him to conceal his impatience and annoyance with the elder sister.

_________________


AWESOME set by the AMAZING Lembas!!!

"Darius. Thank you. I know your not used to this." Rosalina told him. "If i had only asked to learn about herbs, then it would be I who would be helping her."

_________________
Where do you go when your running away,
The cost of stopping is too great to pay.
~Amanda (saw this written in a washroom stall at a movie theater)

"You're welcome," Darius said finally. "In all honesty Ro, the only reason I am tending to her is because you are her sister," he remarked. "Part of this is of her doing. She should have left earlier," he grumbled. Sighing again, Darius could only shake his head. "But I must warn you, Ro. My knowledge of herbal lore is very limited. If her symptoms get much worse, I will not be of much use to her," he added. Once he finished pouring the liquid down her throat, he laid Calista back down on the bed before setting the cup on the side.

_________________


AWESOME set by the AMAZING Lembas!!!

Rosalina sighed. "Calista knows everything. maybe as soon she is feeling better, i will have her teach me enough."

_________________
Where do you go when your running away,
The cost of stopping is too great to pay.
~Amanda (saw this written in a washroom stall at a movie theater)

Darius merely shook his head at the irony of the situation, that the one person knowledgably in the healing arts was also the woman gravely ill. "That would be to your benefit and hers, my dear," Darius remarked before reaching out to place a hand on Calista's pale forehead and shook his head again. Her fever was still so high---almost dangerously so.

_________________


AWESOME set by the AMAZING Lembas!!!