Virtue was pulled out of her trance when the stranger - Vice, she reminded herself, suddenly grabbed her and pulled her towards the group.
"What's the big idea...?" She started, but soon shut up when she realized that he dragged her here because they were under attack. Giant wooden monsters, only held together by dead soil and a sort of oozing goo, were terrorizing the area the others had made a camp. "Vice, I'm going to need you to stay back. I'm sure I can take on some of these things on my own." She said, pulling out of his grip and rushing headfirst into the battle.
Stay calm, you knew this place would be dangerous. She thought, chucking one of her knives into a creatures' head. Just not.. this weird. She was taken aback by the fact that the things she was fighting weren't.. living. They didn't truly appear to be anyway. More like marionette puppets that were quickly thrown together, being controlled by some other force. She used the body of the thing she killed to launch herself right at another ones' head. She angrily clawed at it, seeming to tear right through the rotting wood. She only let go when it was little more than several hundred splinters of wood, scattering the area around her.
She retrieved the knife she threw, and ran right back into the fight. She was excited. This had been the first time in ages that she had the chance to be in a proper fight with someone. She usually preferred to do her business in the shadows, never revealing herself to her target. But there was something about this slightly unfamiliar style of combat that made her feel more alive than anything else.
Well, almost anything.
There was still Vice. As much as she hated to admit it, Vice was her one weakness. She didn't even know why. There was just something about him, whether it be the way he moves, his appearance, his voice...
"Virtue!"
Speaking of his voice..
Virtue looked in the direction of the scream, and saw Vice trapped under one of the creatures. Enraged, she streaked across the battlefield and jumped onto its' back. She then unsheathed her sword and decapitated it. Panting slightly, she looked up at him, relieved to see that he was okay.
Come on, Virtue. We're literally in the middle of a war zone. No time to be thinking about your weird crush on him.
After checking once more to see if he was alright, Virtue quickly through herself back into the battle in order to get her mind off of him. She made her way through the crowd, slicing and dicing anything that got close to her. From afar, she might have looked like a tiny brown tornado with knives. At one point, she heard someone else screeching in pain. Sighing in annoyance, she turned toward the source of the sound. She charged at the creature and stuck a ninja star into its' leg, distracting the beast so its' previous target could get away. She climbed onto its' head and bit down as hard as she could, and immediately regretted that decision. Not only did it taste terrible, but she got thrown off of it onto the ground. She hit the ground on her back, getting the wind knocked out of her. As she was sputtering and trying to regain her breath, she felt cold stone claws gripping her neck, squeezing as hard as they could.
The world began to fade away, and as the fight around her descended into darkness, she could only whisper one word.
"Vice..."
When she awoke, she thought she must be dead. That was, at least, until she saw a huge gray cat leaning over her, looking concerned. And noticed the fact that her head and back felt like they were being smashed to pieces. She scrambled to get up, but got pushed back down by the gray cat. They appeared to be.. making ice? And wrapping it in moss before setting it on her forehead. The cat made another, much smaller chunk of ice and placed it on top of some moss. Another, equally large cat with a fiery red mane came over to where they were sitting and... melted the ice.
Ok. I'm definitely dead. She thought. How on earth are they able to do that?
"Hello? Are you feeling alright?" The gray cat asked.
"Ugh. My head and back hurt, but other than that I think I'm fine." She responded, getting up much slower this time. "Where's Vice?"
"Vice? Oh, is he the light gray cat who brought you here? Light blue eyes, tinges of cream?"
"Yeah, that sounds like him. Where is he?"
"I believe he went out into the forest." She answered, "By the way, my name's Kosa,"
"Didn't ask," Virtue called over her shoulder as she stalked away into the woods. I can take care of myself, thank you very much. She thought as she walked into the forest. As she wandered, she began to truly take in her surroundings. Everything was sort of dark, and it seemed to be dusk or twilight nearly all the time. It was quite annoying, now that she thought about it. But then, nearly everything is annoying to her.
She found Vice in a small clearing, along with a small pile of her weapons. His ears perked up as he heard the rustling from the bushes, and he turned around. His face broke out into a huge smile as he realized who she was. He bounded over to her and immediately started nuzzling her.
Confused, Virtue pulled away slightly, which caused Vice to lean back in embarrassment.
"I'm really sorry, Virtue. I know I should've asked before I did that, but I was just so excited to see you. You really had me worried," He rambled, turning away from her as his sentence ran on.
Smiling at him slightly, Virtue pressed against his side reassuringly. Vice stared down at her for a bit, his eyes filled with an emotion that she couldn't quite place. Clearing his throat, Vice lead her to the center of the clearing to her weapons, and explained that he searched the battlefield after taking her to see Kosa. The two of them began to sort through the weapons to see which ones were hers.
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