Hikari could hardly keep her eyes off him as they moved up into the hills behind the Inn, a laugh escaping her throat as he reached down and easily lifted her, setting her on more stable ground.

He was still so much taller than her, and he had grown so handsome in the ten years they had been apart. His tusks were much longer now, and muscles rippled beneath his turquoise skin. His hair was much darker now, she supposed it was to help him blend in with his surroundings.

"I like yo' dress... choo make it yo'self, yah?" He shouted over the sound of the rain, Hikari nodding eagerly in reply. Her smile faded ever so slightly as Tol'ray looked down towards the town, making a distressed noise. "Dis is bad... choo shouldn' be seein' dis. C'mon, le's keep goin'."

He turned to continue up the hill, Hikari gasping in the darkness before him. She said his name in desperation and he turned back hurriedly, following her gaze to the town below.

A single guard, a woman, stood with a crossbow in her hands, looking directly at them. Tol'ray felt his heart beginning to thunder harder than before, growling softly under his breath.

"Oh no, it's Holly." Hikari said breathlessly, putting her hand on his arm and shoving him. "Tol'ray, run... just run!"

"No! I'm on' leavin' choo behin', I been wai'in' ten ye'a's fo' dis day." He reached down to pick her up, a crossbow bolt flying between them and slamming into the dirt of the hill. Hikari let out a cry, stumbling backwards, and Tol'ray reached out to grab the front of her dress, dragging her upright again. As he did so, Hikari threw her weight against him, and blood sprayed across his face as a crossbow bolt hit her in the arm. She screamed in agony, her hand gripping his arm tightly, and he growled again, turning to look directly at the woman with the crossbow.

As he turned, Hikari cried his name again, feeling his grip on her loosen as he jerked. She stumbled again, feet sliding in the mud so that she fell. She looked up at Tol'ray through the rain, seeing him standing rather still on the hill above her. He had a crossbow bolt jutting from his shoulder... with a roar, the troll tore the bolt away, throwing his head back and howling his fury to the sky. She felt her blood roaring in her ears, matching the beat of her heart and the throbbing pain of the bolt in her arm.

Another crossbow bolt slammed into Tol'ray's chest, followed shortly by another that slammed into his stomach, blood trickling from his mouth as he let out a grunt of pain. Hikari felt something warmer than the rain splatter against her face, her eyes wide in horror.

She remembered calling out his name before he fell... she remembered seeing Holly's shining armor just before the darkness took her.

The guards dragged survivors to the Inn for healing, and the Horde left no corpses of their own behind as they retreated up the hill away from the town. Mounted Guards persued them to make sure they weren't planning to return...

Rain still thundered down on the town, setting the grim mood for the chaos after the battle.

Howe found Holly standing on a hill behind the Inn, standing over Hikari's limp form, spitting a string of colorful curses. Beside them, the body of a troll lay in the red mud, half dead... Howe found himself feeling hatred for the creature, knowing now that it was him that put a smile on Hikari's face. A troll... a filthy, savage troll.

"What now?" He asked Holly, shouting to be heard above the thunder and rain. Holly looked over at him, her eyes red, and though he couldn't see her tears, he could tell she was crying.

"You take the troll to the barracks... lock him up, I don't care what you do to him otherwise, as long as he's locked up after. I'm taking Kari back to the Barracks, too."

"What will happen to her?"

Holly shook her head, reaching to pick up Hikari's limp body before turning away. Howe watched her make her way back down the hill, looking down at the troll again. Growling, he grabbed the creature's arm and began to drag him back towards the barracks, not heeding the blood that smeared itself across the docks as he walked.

The other guards held the writhing troll down as Howe stood over him, all of them jeering and calling the creature names.

"Shut up! Stop your snarling, you pathetic wreck!" Howe shouted. "This is for the good of a girl who deserves better than a savage like you!"

He took a handful of the troll's dark hair, dragging his head back with one hand as the other held a tool used to pry bolts from wood and metal.

"This is for Hikari! And for all of us who love her!"

Holly stood across the room watching, silent, not moving to stop or to help. She stood next to the table where the still unconscious girl lay, her hand resting over Hikari's. She didn't avert her eyes... she didn't care what happened to Tol'ray now. Both he and Hikari should have known better. They should have known period that this was never going to work. She didn't know why they had this bond, she didn't know why Hikari had chosen, of all things, a troll.

She didn't care if she never found out, this couldn't exist. The bond had to be broken... the troll had to be broken.

Tol'ray was screaming, and there was the sickening sound, like a tooth not ready to be pulled being ripped from someone's mouth. Howe tossed a blood stained tusk to one side, leaning down again to finish the job with the other one. Holly turned her back to the scene, her stomach turning. She picked up Hikari again, looking back one more time before moving into the next room, to the next empty cell. She lay Hikari inside, stepping back and regarding her for a long moment before moving out of the cell. She closed the heavy door, locking it.

After that, she simply leaned against the bars, listening to the commotion in the next room. Howe was shouting above the troll's agonized screams, shouting things that made Holly sick down to her very core.

"Since you want to be with a human, you've got to look a little more like one, savage!"

Holly closed her eyes tightly again, allowing a sob to escape her as she continued to lean against the bars of the cell. Tears rolled freely down her cheeks... she pulled her gauntlets off to swipe at them, angry with herself for not doing anything sooner to find out more about the girl she had considered a sister for ten years.

Now it was too late to do anything but what she had to as a member of the Guard. Now the only thing she could do was wait for the day they put Hikari to death for treason alongside the troll she risked and lost everything for.

"For all your lies, for all the secrets, for all that you've done, Hikari, I'm sorry..." She gasped. "I'm so sorry..."

After they were done with the troll, the other guards dumped him into one of the cells, where he lay trembling, bleeding, weeping. They stationed a single guard at the door, figuring he was weak enough from blood loss to stay down for awhile longer. He would be down long enough for them to figure out what to do to him next.

It took a day for Hikari to wake up, and when she did, she found herself lying on the cold, stone floor of a cell, her breath catching. She was still alive... she was alone, though. Tol'ray wasn't with her.

Of course not, why would they have let him stay with her?

She heard movement outside the cell, tentatively moving herself to attempt to sit up. Pain shot up her arm, but she saw that it had been bandaged up and the crossbow bolt removed. Cradling it against her body, she pushed herself up with her other arm, looking out through the bars to see Holly sitting in a chair in the room beyond.

She looked like she hadn't slept, tired, filthy with red rimmed eyes, her armor still on. She regarded Hikari wordlessly for a long time, not moving to assist her as she made her way to the stone bench against the wall.

"Where is he?" Hikari's own voice startled her, because she barely recognized it. It was so hoarse and full of pain... She wanted water, but didn't want to ask.

"The troll? The one y ou told me wasn't part of the Horde?" Holly asked in reply. Hikari nodded, swallowing a few times to try and wet her dry throat. "He's in the next room. Tell me, why did you lie to me."

"I didn't lie to you. Not about Tol'ray."

"That's a lie, too, isn't it?"

"Holly, stop it. I didn't lie to you. I didn't." Hikari took in a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. Her stomach was churning, she felt so incredibly ill. The pain was bad... "You know this. You know I didn't... Tol'ray didn't come with those other people, the Horde. He came to see me, and he was trying to take me away from all the killing. He was trying to get me away so I didn't have to see it."

She stood on shaky legs and made her way over to the wall, leaning against it as though she were trying to feel that he was there.

"I don't know if I can beleive that, Hikari. I really don't." Holly finally stood, moving over to peer at her through the bars. "I can't believe anything anymore."

"You don't trust me, then. That was a lie." Hikari whispered, and Holly let out a sharp bark of laughter.

"We can stand here all day and accuse one another of lying, or you can tell me the truth. The whole truth. Where you came from, how you ended up in the lake ten years ago, how you met that troll."

There was another long silence, then Hikari turned her eyes back to Holly, smiling bitterly.

"Very well. Sit down, Holly, and I will tell you how I lost everything."