The mountain path was a rugged assortment of uneven surfaces, pebbles, and fallen trees. Rogue and Sting had set out on their own - which Sting still thought was a stupid idea - and had taken the mountain path into the tall mountains that ran throughout the country.
At the top of one of the grand mountains, Sting grabbed on to a tree branch and hung off the side of a cliff, admiring the view.
"If that branch breaks and you fall and die, I can't save you," Rogue sighed.
"Have faith in me," Sting laughed pulling himself and jumping back onto solid ground, "Besides, there's just something about being suspended in the air that makes the view so much better."
"Adrenaline?" Rogue offered.
Sting looked at Rogue, unimpressed.
They began trekking down the mountain when both of them smelled something. It smelled like rotting flesh mixed with mildew and fermented fruit.
"What is THAT!?" Sting asked holding his nose.
"Nothing good," Rogue sighed knowingly.
The roar that shattered the peaceful mountain air around them affirmed that assumption.
"WHAT WAS THAT!?" Sting cried.
"As I said, nothing good," Rogue growled.
They ran off the trail and into the woods, dodging ill-placed boulders and ducking under branches until they came to the edge of a cliff. They both looked down and saw some sort of monster writhing in the trees.
"Well... it doesn't look like a dragon," Sting offered.
"It's not," Rogue murmured, narrowing his eyes so that he could get a better look at the beast. It was large, but not as tall as the trees that it was darting about in. Rogue could just barely make out the beast's long figure that was covered in thick, glossy brown fur.
"Hey, I smell something else," Sting cried, "I think there's a magic-user down there!"
Rogue peered further and sure enough, it looked as though the beast was chasing someone through the trees.
"What do we do?" Rogue asked calmly.
"You're asking ME!?" Sting cried.
"Yes, I'd like your opinion," Rogue nodded.
Just them there was a very human yell from down below, whoever it was sounded hurt.
"Uh - help," Sting offered.
"Yep," Rogue sighed.
The two dragon slayers then launched themselves off of the cliff and down towards the beast.
"HOLY DRAGON RAY!" Sting yelled bringing his hands together and causing thousands of beams of white light to spray downwards to the monster. They came into contact with the beast's back
Rogue covered his arms in shadows and came down on the creature's neck, "SHADOW DRAGON WING ATTACK!"
The beast roared in pain as it flailed around, knocking down a few trees.
Sting and Rogue landed on the ground and looked up at the beast who now glared at them. It looked like a mix between a lizard and a buffalo... nightmare fuel.
"That's going to haunt my dreams," Sting murmured.
Rogue looked at him, clearly annoyed. Then, Rogue spotted the human. It was a woman, she had long purple hair and intense brown eyes. She was holding a sword and had a wound in her side along with a few bruises on her face.
The beast above them roared and raised a clawed paw.
"Tag team or together!?" Sting demanded.
"Together!" Rogue snarled snapping his attention back to the beast.
"HOLY DRAGON..." Sting yelled filling his lungs with air.
"SHADOW DRAGON..." Rogue growled doing the same.
"ROOOAAARRR!" the two of them yelled, blasting their magic breaths out of their mouth and into the beast's face, sending it flying into the air.
"Oh heck yeah, that was awesome," Sting grinned.
The beast let out another roar and then unfolded furry wings from its back, keeping it aloft in the air.
"Dammit." Sting growled, "More things to haunt my dreams.
"It's not a dragon," Rogue offered, trying to stay positive.
"No, but it is a LIZARD GOAT WITH WINGS!!" Sting yelled.
"I'd say more buffalo, less goat," Rogue corrected.
"It doesn't MATTER! Just shut up and help me kill it," Sting yelled blasting into the air. The beast snarled and easily smacked Sting away with a claw.
Sting hit the earth a few feet away from Rogue. Rogue nonchalantly walked over and leaned over his brother, "How'd that go for you?"
"Shut up," Sting growled, now covered in dirt.
There was a yell as the woman, who was a few feet in the way, also launched herself into the air towards the beast.
"She's gonna kill herself," Sting murmured watching her go.
The beast went to smack her away too, but the woman managed to slice the thing's large wrist clean off.
"Or kill it, she might kill it," Sting corrected.
The woman landed lightly on a tree branch below the monster and with another powerful jump she launched herself onto the beast.
"Wow," Sting gawked.
"Come on," Rogue sighed hauling Sting to his feet, "We have to finish this."
The beast was flying higher and higher, trying to reach the top of the cliff that Sting and Rogue had just jumped down from.
"Are you kidding me!?" Sting cried looking up the cliff.
"Come on," Rogue ordered, activating magic on his feet and blasting upwards. Sting did the same... but with more grumbles.
The two soared back up the cliff, landing atop it again and taking off towards where the beast and the woman were struggling. She was still on top of the beast and had cut off one of it's wings.
"WHY ARE WE EVEN DOING THIS!?" Sting cried as they ran forward.
"This was YOUR IDEA!" Rogue yelled back.
"I SAID WE SHOULD HELP! SHE HAS THIS COVERED!" Sting yelled back.
At their words the woman was thrown off of the beast and sent flying into the tree. Sting swore and launched himself at the beast.
"Together! On the skull!" Rogue yelled, at his side.
The two of their fist's glowed with power as they came down on the beast. Their fists cracked the monster's skull and sent a shockwave through its body. The beast crumpled and didn't get up again.
Rogue landed lightly, breathing heavily but slowly calming down. Sting landed lightly too but was way more excited.
"THAT WAS AWESOME!" he laughed, "We DESTROYED that monster! Give me five!" he offered Rogue his palm. Rogue only glared at it.
"Okay, if you want to be like that," Sting sighed rolling his eyes.
Both of their attentions were suddenly taken by the woman, who they had just saved, suddenly rushing at them with her sword drawn.
"Ooooooh!" Sting began fearfully.
"JUMP!" Rogue ordered as the woman slashed her sword. It cut clean through the tree that had just been standing behind them.
"SHE'S TRYING TO KILL US!" Sting shouted as the tree fell to the ground.
"What gave it away?" Rogue snarled under his breath. The two landed an immediately had to avoid another attack. Rogue glared at the woman and found that her hazel eyes were full of rage. She was still bleeding from the wound on her side and had a nasty bruise above her eye.
The woman leaped upward, ready to slash Rogue in half but the shadow dragon slayer wasn't too easily killed. He turned into shadows as soon as she came down. He remained unharmed and the woman jumped away.
She landed close to the cliff where she hesitated, breathing heavily and holding her wounded side, and very suddenly there was the sound of crumbling rock. The woman looked down in horror as the portion of the cliff that she was standing on suddenly crumbled and fell, her with it.
She tried to jump off, but pain shot up her side from the wound in her side. She cried out and trembled as she fell.
Before she could plummet too far, a hand shot out and grabbed hers. Her fall was yanked to a stop and she looked up to find the shadow dragon slayer as her savior.
He had run forward, and lept over the edge, grabbing her hand with one hand and clinging on to the edge of the cliff with the other.
"Oh, I see, when I hang off the edge, I'm crazy, but when you do it, you're a hero," Sting grumbled running forward and grabbing Rogue's hand. He hauled his brother up and Rogue held on tight to the woman. When all three of them were back on solid ground, panting and shaking the tension in the air came to a standstill.
The woman was still glaring at them but she made no move to attack them.
"Well, now that you've stopped trying to kill us. Hi, I'm Sting, this is Rogue. You're welcome for saving you... twice," Sting introduced his voice thick with sarcasm.
"What does the Dragon King want with me," the woman asked, her voice hard with anger.
"I wouldn't know," Rogue answered.
"See, if you had bothered to ask your heroes you would've learned that we are definitely not on Acnologia's side," Sting smirked.
"All dragon slayers are on his side," the woman spat.
"Not us," Sting smiled proudly.
"We're enemies of the state, running from other dragon slayers. We heard your struggle and thought we'd help," Rogue explained.
"And then you tried to kill us," Sting chirped.
The woman was looking at them intensely, judging them and trying to gauge if they were being truthful.
"We weren't looking for trouble, I'm sorry we frightened you," Rogue said simply standing up, Sting did the same. "We'll be on our way."
The woman watched them go. Her gut was telling her that those two weren't lying. If they were Acnologia's pet monsters they would've attacked her with no mercy and they definitely wouldn't have saved her from falling. Then again, they may just be lying so that they could get close to her parents. That's what her mind reasoned, her gut though told her to help them.
"If you follow this trail you'll meet Dragon Hunters," the woman warned them, standing. "If you are an enemy of Acnologia, you'll want to take the back trails."
"Back trails?" Sting asked looking back at her.
The woman took a deep breath and reasoned with herself. If these boys were telling the truth, then her parents deserved to know. If they were lying, her parents could destroy them. So... now loss in trying.
"Thank you," she murmured slightly embarrassed. "I would be dead if not for you. The least I can do is help you."
"Help us how?" Rogue asked, sounding harsher then he meant to.
"My house sits at the edge of that mountain. There, we can mask your scents and send you on the back trails to avoid Acnologia's minions," the woman explained.
"We?" Sting questioned.
"My parents and I, it's the least I should do," the woman murmured.
Sting looked to Rogue.
"What do you think?" Rogue asked his brother.
"I say as long as she doesn't try to kill us again that it sounds like a great idea," Sting answered, "Masking our scents is the whole reason we split up!"
Rogue's mind was warning him that this could be a trap. Something else was telling him that he needed to trust this woman, even if she had just almost tried to kill them.
"Lead the way," Sting grinned.
"Miss?" Rogue questioned.
"Scarlet," the woman answered simply, "My name is Kagura Scarlet."