Yuhan followed my lead quietly. He still hasn't realized it is me, but he's not fussing anymore. I didn't think this plan out very throughly. I can't actually bring him to the general or else they'll be suspicious of me.

Maybe there's somewhere I can hide him until I find Kai. I wasn't sensing his life force, but I'm probably just too far away right now.

Suddenly, an idea sparked in my head.
I had to get to the woods. "I'm... um... supposed to take you to the woods to ....relieve yourself."

"I don't have to."

"Well... too bad," I said assertively,"I'm taking you now, so that I don't have to do it later."

I tugged at the chain in the direction of the woods. He surrendered and followed along. As we walked I checked around making sure no one was around to see. Everyone was busy with their own endeavors and hardly noticed us.

Once we got in the woods I told him to wait against a tree, as I tied him up against it.

Okay, I got him here now I just have to let him know it's me.

I turned my back and tried to wipe some of the mud off of my face. The mud was caked on and hardened.

I pressed my hands on the trunk next to his face, so that I was close to him. He looked at me wide-eyed and confused.

"Yuhan... it's me, Scarlett."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

I huffed with a tinge if frustration, "fine, if I have to prove it to you." I scrambled through my memories to remember something only I would know. I really could have said a thousand things but what blurted out was, "you told me your brother tried to kill you when the both of you were very young, and you said that the memory replays in your head every night before you sleep.

Yuhan stiffened, the shock visible on his face. He squinted," wait... Scarlett," the realization hit him. "Scarlett, you're so stupid, didn't I tell you to wait where you were," he said with a thankfulness in his tone.

I touched his shoulder,"you did, but I didn't listen. You have any idea where Kai is."

He shook his head, "No clue. Unlock me, I'll help you find him."

"You can't, you don't have a disguise and I can't put you in any more danger right now. You're injured and you should take it easy. Besides, he's my guard, I have to save him."

I began walking towards the camp.

"Scarlett," he said in a harsh whisper," Scarlett get back here, you can't leave me here."

I turned back momentarily, "Ill go find Kai and bring him here so that we can all escape. Everything will be fine. Promise."

I've never made a promise I haven't been able to keep... I hope this one
goes in that category.

Quickly, I ran back into camp and tried to find Kai. His energy was no where to be found. All a sudden, a conversation between two men passed by.

"Heard he's in bad shape down by the general's tent. General got the best down on him, it was awesome to see him in action. But damn, that guy's as stubborn as an ox."

That's all I needed to here. The general had the largest tent in the encampment, so it was easy to find. I searched around for Kai's energy, but nothing. Maybe my powers aren't well connected here or something.

From the corner of my eye, I spotted an unusually large tent far away from the rest. I creeped towards it silently. I bit my lip in fear and slowly peeled open the flap.

There hanged Kai by his arms, from a wooden log reaching across the tent, covered in cuts across his bare chest. I went around to the other side with feeling a bit uneasy. The back was worse, covered with whippings and slashes that were still fresh. They look somewhat recent, and then I think, what if I found Kai first? Could I have been able to save him before this happened?

Tears welled from my eyes. A awful feeling churned my stomach, and made my throat and lungs burn. I haven't had this horrible feeling in my body since... Kai remained motionless. I gently touched side and jerked up quickly.

"Here for more," he spoke scratchy and worn down. I walked into his view and he recognized me immediately.

"Scarlett..."

I kept nodding and a few tears rolled down my face. After a few moments of silence I collected myself, "you protected me, now I'm here to protect you," I touched his bruised face with my hand, and grazed my thumb over his cheek, "You're safe now. I'm going to take care of you."

He took a steady breath and gave a half-hearted smile. "The key?"

"I have it."

I walked behind him and began unlocking the cuffs around his hands. He collapsed to the ground with a grunt. I ran over to him and helped him stand.

"This is your plan Scarlett, where to?"

"The forest to go get Yuhan."

"You got Yuhan...impressive."

"Then I chained him... You know let's talk about it when we get there," I looked down at Kai's damaged body,"eventually."

I peeked out of the tent and saw no sign on anyone. Slowly, I helped Kai limp to the forest. No one was in sight... I'm getting suspicious now.

We reached the outer edge of the forest and heard yelling and shouting from behind us. I turned around, expecting the guards to be looking straight at us, but instead they all stood with weapons faced at a radiant girl with dirty blonde hair and wild looking clothes stood there with a sword in front of her.

Suddenly, Yuhan came running out of the woods. His eyes enraged with fury.

"How did you...?"

"Get out! Yeah, I had to absorb the moisture from the soil and freeze it to smash the chain. Do you know how long that takes to do that Scarlett... Of course you don't, well it takes a really long time..."

"Hush, or they'll spot us," Kai scolded.

I returned my attention to the girl. Something seemed odd about the girl. I wonder if she also escaped the camp. She was in rags and had some minor cuts on her face. She was beautiful none the less.

All of a sudden, her entire body sunk into the ground. It was quick, only a split second before she was deep underground.

"That's the earth magician!" Yuhan exclaimed. I shot my head around and shushed him. Luckily, the guards paid not attention and inspected the hole in the ground.

"While she's got them distracted we should go," Kai whispered over to me.

"But we don't know which way she's headed. The whole point of all of this was to find her."

Kai grabbed my shoulder. "You know I would never hold you back from what is needed to be done, so go on ahead with Yuhan and track her...."

"Are you stupid?!? I'm not leaving you. You're injured... so we will just have to find her later. There's a town nearby, we will get you fixed up there and then go back to search for her.... that's my decision."

"Fine by me," Yuhan interjected, "I could use a nice bath and wash off all this grime off."

Kai refused to look me in the eye. I know he hates me for making him appear weak, but he needs to take it easy, like it or not.