[Cartell]

(I have come to a bit of an Impasse, and if anyone has any ideas on where to take the story it would be much appreciated. Well enough from me.)

Isiana slowly stopped singing as the song neared its conclusion. She ended and continued humming for a while, lost in the moment before stepping back to look at her garden. Over the course of the hour, the plants had grown, been trimmed and watered. She watched as a mouse skittered across a small garden of flowers. As she looked up she stopped humming, two yellow eyes stared out unblinkingly from the darkness of the surrounding forest. She drew her katana, modified for her, and a little lighter then usual, but just as deadly. Giving a whistle, she watched as Vestil heard and flew down to her shoulder.
“Well, what do you think it is?” She watched out of the corner of her eye as Vestil turned his head to look at her.
“I don’t know, but there are more of them behind us.” On instinct she turned, and saw a dozen pairs of eyes staring at her. As she turned back she noticed the first pair of eyes had disappeared. A sixth sense, one born out of years from living in the forest, warned her, and she dove sideways just as a dark shape threw itself at her. Turning to face it she saw a shad. They were much like werewolves, only forever in the haunted shape, and evil to the core. She called upon the magic nature had granted her and a bolt of lightning creased the night sky, slamming into the shad. Its dead twisted hulk lay there, defaming the beautiful garden it lay in. She spun around, and in dismay, saw herself surrounded by shad, who had taken the time it took for her to kill their kin and moved in. She was surrounded.
“Vestil, get Ashaan, or anyone near, but I need help, fast.” Vestil flew off, a black arrow launching itself towards help, or failure. She summoned two proud black bears, who came lumbering out of the darkness, bowling over a few shad on their way to sit by her side. Communicating with them, she described her desire, and they turned, prepared to help her fight. The onslaught was came quickly, and Isiana felt herself attacked on all sides, her katana a blur as she mostly defended herself. Unable to attack she settled with stopping all attacks on her, and let the bears, massacre any shad who came near. She ducked and a particularly brave shad flew right over head, into the claws of one of the bears. Getting between the bears, she found herself safe for the moment, and yelled out the words necessary to summon an ice storm. Great blue pieces of ices flew down from the heavens and smashed the remaining shad into pieces. Walking over to the first bear she whispered a healing spell, and it groggily stood up. She thanked them and sent them off, still nervous about possible attack, but unwilling to endanger natures creatures anymore then necessary. She stumbled over to the druid tree, bleeding from several large gashes and bites, and began to bind herself with a healing pack. As she worked she wondered, and foremost in her mind was the question, where had the shad come from, there were no shad in her forest, and she and her husband had wiped them out upon arriving. And then it hit her, and why were they working together, shad were solitary figures, fighting if they even got too close, and unable to work together. The thoughts swam around in her head as she waited for her husband to arrive.

Darkness had fallen quickly upon the world, and the three runaways had found it increasingly difficult to move as they stumbled on through the forest. Not a single one of them had escaped unharmed, and Marcus in particular was close to death. The fire had devastated his arms, and he found it took all his strength to keep moving, and to not scream with pain every time his arm moved slightly. He finally admitted to himself that he could not go much farther, and he yelled up to Cecil and Marie,
“I have to stop, I’m going to collapse if we keep moving, and it doesn’t help that my bloody arms are so useless.” He yelled this last part mostly because of helplessness, but it was also accompanied with a glaring look at Cecil. Cecil’s eyes were sunken, his body pale, and his bones showing through his body. In the few hours his body seemed to have become weak, and despair showed in his green eyes. He walked over to Marcus and looked at him,
“Do you think that I haven’t thought, haven’t suffered over what happened.” His eyes sunk deeper into his face as he talked, “I know, I should have told you all about the magic, but I had no choice.” As he talked on he seemed no longer to be explaining himself to Marcus, but instead was rationalizing to himself. “Michael would never have accepted me had he known, after all he was a paladin, sworn to uphold all things righteous and just. And here I was the half-blood spawn of a demon. I would still be locked up there with the rest of the children.” With this he seemed to stand taller and looked at Marcus, this time no apology in his eyes. “I did what I deemed necessary to survive. None of you would have done any different in my position. So do not judge me!” Marcus, and Marie both looked surprised at this entire revelation, and Marcus was the first to speak,
“You are a demon-child, from legend?” There was no longer rage, but a mixture of fear and loathing. Marie looked just as shocked, and simply stood behind Marcus. Cecil turned back around and looked at Marcus,
“Yes, but you have nothing to fear from me, friend. I have it under control, although if the need arises, I can make use of my cursed half. We that he reached forward, and grabbed Marcus by the arms. The sounds of his incantations were blocked out by Marcus screams of pain as his arms slowly rebuilt themselves. Marcus stared down in shock and slowly moved his arm. There was no pain. “I have fixed what damage I wrought, however you will never be as strong as you were. My magic is very powerful, when uncontrolled. You were lucky to be alive. A lesser man would have been killed the minute he came into contact with the power held within me.” Marcus gave a small grin as he flexed his painless arms,
“It’s okay, I was mostly just mad about the pain, but tell me, do you know which demon is your father? He cannot be that evil if his heritage grants you healing powers as well.” Cecil gave Marcus a sad smile. When we make camp I will tell you the story, and then you may decide if you wish to keep traveling with me. Marcus nodded and they walked off into the night.