Crimson

Make 'us' flutter.

VITA

The masked man that had stepped out of the trees was watching them .

He did not move , he just watched them .

If Vita had not actually seen him step out of the trees , he might have been convinced that the man was a stone statue .

The trees shook slightly and more men poured out , masked and shirtless , each holding a machete or some variant of a machete .

At first , there were just three .

The three soon became five and then eight , soon , they had Ali and Vita surrounded .

Now , there was no need for any of the men to try to stand forth , there was enough to go around .

Vita watched Ali's hand creep to his hair .

He removed the small bangle or was it a big ring that held his hair up , he wore the ring around four of his fingers and held his fingers in a fist .

Vita sighed and moved closer to Ali , so that they stood back to back , he swallowed down his heightened pride and nudged Ali .

" What do we do ?"

His pride was cut down with a blunt blade and trampled on .

Ali ignored him .

The men moved aside to create an opening between them , two more men came through this opening .

The new entrees must be twins or siblings at the very least , they had the same features .

The same short , brown hair , same round brown eyes and the same chiseled chests .

They came forward , breaking the line their friends had made , they were both looking at Ali .

Vita was once again treated like he existed at the same frequency as a ghost .

Ali took a step towards them .

The trio stared at each other for a while with Ali visibly flexing his wrists all the while .

Finally , one of the men put forth his hand .

He had some sort of mark on it , Ali looked at both of them before lifting the man's hand up to examine the mark .

He put the man's hand down .

" Will you come with us now , Master of Haze ?" , the second man asked .

They knew who Ali was .

Ali nodded .

The two men turned and Ali walked off with them , beyond the line of masked men and into the trees .

Vita waited every second for Ali to turn and tell them that they were together , he did not .

Immediately Ali was out of sight , the men began to leave one after another till just two of them was left , the first two that had arrived .

Vita took a step forward when the men started to walk towards him .

" Where did you take the other man to ?"

They also ignored him .

Vita was at his limit , he threw his right fist at the first man and kicked the other man in his guts .

They both bent down , grasping their mid sections , Vita went to the first man and lifted his head up by his hair , this proved to be tricky since his hair was cut quite short .

But , it was mostly painful for the other man .

When the man had finally stood to his full height , Vita punched him again and watched from the corner of his eyes as the other man that he had hit in his guts ran forward .

Vita let him think that he was unaware of the impending attack .

The man jumped on Vita's back , his right arm coming around Vita's throat .

Vita lifted his hand , he was targeting the exact place he had hit the man earlier , somewhere between his ribs .

Just as his elbow was going to sink into the man , a blade flew past his eye and into his assailant's arm .

The man did not make a sound , all he did was release Vita and fall to his feet , cradling his injured arm .

Vita was pushed behind someone , he looked up at the intruder .

Of course , who else but Juno .

He stood between Vita and the man with the injured arm , his sword drawn .

Vita spotted the other man , a blade had also visited his stomach .

He was pressing his hand to his side , trying to stop the bleeding .

Vita had this situation under control before Juno had appeared .

Now , it seemed as if Juno had saved him yet again .

Telling Juno that he had the situation under control before he appeared would seem quite unnecessary , to others .

" Are you okay ?"

Juno had turned briefly to look at him when he had asked that , earning a glare from Vita .

It was not a conscious glare , during that brief moment when he had looked back , Vita had seen Juno's eyes filled with fear for him , this had made him angry .

Did Juno think Vita had been raised atop petals ?

When Vita did not answer Juno , he turned to the man that he had hit in the arm .

" Who are you ?"

He also ignored Juno who then turned to the last man , seeking a reply of any sorts .

" The white haired man , where is he ?"

This man was silent too .

Vita adjusted himself , he still half crouched where he had been pushed .

His undershirt had been wet when he had worn his shirt over them , he had assumed he could withstand it but right now , he did not want to withstand it any longer .

In the distance , a wolf howled , probably one of Juno's .

As if on cue , Juno turned to him , it seemed the wolf really was his .

" I'm going for Ali , the others are waiting at the stream ".

He pushed the hilt of his sword into Vita's hands and turned back , ready to run again .

Vita was suddenly very disgusted with how the wet clothes clung to his body , he ripped all of it in one swipe .

The cold morning air rushed at him and he took them in , breathing them and steadying himself .

He lifted his head to find Juno staring at him , he was looking the way a starved man would look at a food spread .

Juno took a step back though .

" Ummmmm..... I'll go now " , he almost whispered .

Vita looked at Juno , really looked at him .

He wanted him to know that he was really looking at him .

" I'll come with you ".

Vita watched Juno think it through , albeit a vert fast think through .

His eyes moved from the two men to Vita , they would have to leave them behind , even though Vita was sure that they would go nowhere .

He was almost sure he would say no , he was ready to go along regardless .

Instead , Juno nodded and began to run the way he had come through a little while ago .

Vita caught up with him immediately , running alongside Juno .

They ran neck to neck , it seemed Juno was more agile than he let on .

As he ran , he continued to maintain a pace that he could rely on for possibly hours .

Soon , they came across the wolf.

It was the female , Star .

She also joined , leading them to where Ali waited .

Finally , they stopped running .

Actually , the wolf stopped first and then Juno stopped .

Vita did not know how to stop pumping energy into his legs so suddenly.

So , he ran a few seconds more to slow himself .

Honestly , a few seconds more was all it ever really took .

He had entered into a part of the forest that Star had obviously wanted them to stop before probably for reconnaissance purposes .

Now , several men stared at him , they were the men from earlier except without their masks .

Vita had been expecting some almost occultic faces but they looked relatively normal .

Like everyday folk .

Now , those everyday folk where currently running around to pick their weapons .

It seemed that they had been very into cosplay and were not ready to come out to the world with their real faces .

Vita decided to open the cauldron of mistakes and kept running deeper into their encampment .

He hoped that Juno saw the beauty of his mistake and used the distraction to search for Ali .

On no universe would Vita ever admit that he had not planned to run into the enemy's camp without thinking .

As Vita ran , he realized that his distraction ( which is what he wants people to call it ) would not be enough to help Juno find Ali .

Ali stood up ahead with a man that seemed to be the one in charge , he and Ali did not seem like a hunter and the hunted .

They seemed rather familiar with each other .

Or maybe they had simply bonded over similar thoughts on a man running carelessly around the other man's camp .

Vita would never know now which it was .

He stopped running when he reached the man and Ali , he looked at both of them .

Ali as always had on a poker face , the other man must still be freaked at the intrusion .

Then , Vita made another life altering , extremely embarrassing mistake .

He could have introduced himself as a Brigadier and established himself instead he did something that could not even qualify as the opposite .

" May I borrow a cup of sugar ?"

Still , Ali's poker face remained intact .