The rescue.

Slowly, the sun climbs up in the sky, and the gentle golden rays play over
Emirie's eyes. The young girl rubs her drowsy eyes and forces the sleep out of
her mind. She sits up in the bed and her eyes sweep across the surroundings. Her
mind drifts back to yesterday, how Toi got captured, and how she barely escaped
to find the friendly Saria Starlet who let her stay for the night. Emirie
eagerly leaps out of bed to begin the new day. Outside, the small critters are
already busily harvesting from Starlet's overwhelming garden, and Emilie wonders
how Saria manages to gain such diligent aid from creatures that don't even speak
common. Really strange, really... odd creatures indeed. Almost otherworldly, but
then again the entire place is otherworldly. However, this is no time to let her
mind drift, and Emirie tears herself away from gazing at the beautiful garden,
and silently dashes out of the room. It is still quite early, so Emirie figures
that she should be quiet, not to wake Saria. Once downstairs, she pulls out a
pouch from a pocket and spreads the herbs contained within over a table, before
she pulls a chair next to the table, climbs up on it and gazes over the various
plants. She quickly sorts them in heaps, while her mind churns through the words
Saria spoke yesterday. Combine blue and yellow, dry the roots, take the sap from
the big and the leaves from the small. Burn and churn the green one and boil the
ashes in water. Two white leaves and one yellow flower... and finally, Emirie
finishes her concocting by pouring the sleep mist potion into a small vial and
quickly plugging it with a cork. She stashes the vial in her pocket and turns
around... to find Saria standing in the stairway, looking at her. "Miss Emirie?
What are you doing?" Saria asks, looking sternly at the young furrikin.

"Eh... nothing much." Emirie tries to act calm, but her blushing betrays her.

"No, I can see that you're doing something. Why is my kitchen such a mess?"

"Well... you see." Emirie begins as Saria walks up to the table and starts to
clean up the table. "I needed something to save Toi, and when you told me about
that sleep concoction, I thought that I could use that as a weapon to help me in
the rescue."

"So you had me help you create a weapon, and contribute to this... war?!" Saria
says with a distraught voice, and Emirie shrinks beneath the gaze Starlet puts
on her.

"No, no. Nothing like that." Emirie frowns, she didn't want to upset Starlet.
"I just want to save Toi. But I don't want to hurt anyone either. Don't you see,
I didn't make a weapon so that I could solve this violently." She takes a step
forward and her pleading eyes stare up at Starlet. "I made it so that I could
avoid violence. Look, the concoction creates a mist that induces sleep. They
can't catch me if they sleep after all. Please don't be mad."

"Well..." Starlet looks down upon Emirie with a stern face. "I can understand
that, but then why did you lie to me?"

"Lie, I didn't lie to you."

"You told me that you were doing nothing special. Creating a sleep mist potion
is special."

"I didn't think you would mind. I'm sorry!" Emirie cries out in frustration.
"This isn't what I want. I just want to save a friend. Is that so bad that you
have to get mad at me?" Starlet backs off in surprise at Emirie's outburst.
"It's always like this, isn't it? It's always me who does something wrong right?
It's always, always.. uh... oh no." Emirie looks down, blushing furiously. "I'm
sorry, I'm really sorry. That wasn't meant for you." Emirie looks up to see that
Saria has turned away. "Saria...?"

"Go..." The woman replies. "Just... go and save your friend. I'll clean up
here." Emirie hears that Saria's voice is at the verge of breaking. "The Yellows
are to the east. You should find your friend there."

"Saria..." Emirie begins, but she realize that it is futile. With a heavy heart
she turns around and walks out. "Always... why do I always have to mess things
up." She mutters to herself on the way out. "It wasn't Saria who was in the
wrong... I was. She..." Emirie sighs. "No, I can't let that bother me. I have to
rescue Toi." Determination fills her eyes as she strides confidently out of the
garden and into the forest. For what seems like hours, Emirie walks on, but as
time passes, so too does her confidence. When she went to sleep last night, she
thought that everything would go easily, that all she had to do was to find Toi
and get him out, but what if things would be more difficult? She isn't a
warrior. She has no idea how to properly wield a sword or shield, and she has
never studied any magic, be it natural, cosmic or elemental. If things don't go
as planned, she willl have nothing to fall back on. She clutches the vial in her
arm and glances around uneasily. Is someone watching her? Spying at her from
behind a tree, waiting for the perfect moment to strike? The thought terrified
her, but she can't turn back now. She knows that only she can save Toi now. She
takes a deep breath and forces herself to carry on. The fear and doubt pounds
relentlessly on her mind, but she manages to move on, silently damning every
consequence that would try to stop her.

Finally, the forest thins and a village... no a city appears through the green
drapes. At first it was only a few small stone huts, but as Emirie pushed away
the final branches, she sees that the city stretches wide and far. Large
cathedrals, small homes with beautiful white roofs, wide dirt paths, and several
green parks scattered across the city like soft green lakes on a white and brown
ground. Emirie stares mindlessly at the city before her, and jumps high in the
air when she suddenly hears "Hey you, stranger." shouted towards her. She turns
left to where the sound came from, and freezes. Coming towards her is a
star-folk, in lack of a better term, wielding a sword in one hand and pointing
towards Emirie with the other. She doesn't need to take into account his large
build and serious stature to deduce that this is one of the guards in the city.
Her mind races, trying to figure out a plan. She can run, but then she'll
definitely be suspicious, or she can stay but what if she is recognized. Still,
she has the potion to fall back on, and while he might know who she is, he will
surely be suspicious if she acts like a criminal so... "Hey, do you hear me?" He
yells towards Emirie again.

The young Furrikin nods and walks towards the guard. "Yes, I am sorry, I was
just admiring the view. How may I help you?" She tries to put up her most
sincere smile, hoping that it is enough to make her appear harmless and
friendly.

"Hey umm, I have to ask you. Blue or Yellow?" The guard asks as he moves to
stand before Emirie.

The young girl glances up at the guard before her. Ignoring his intimidating
size and posture, he actually seems very friendly. "Oh. That's Yellow, isn't
it?" The pace of Emirie's heart tries to quicken, but she manages to force
herself to remain completely calm.

"Hmm, yeah that's right." The guard nods and flashes Emirie a smile. "Sorry
about that, but we have to check everyone. There has been several spies from the
Blues lately."

"Check... yeah." Emirie ponders it for a moment, her heart naturally calm now.
"But how is that a way to check? I mean, there are only two answers. And it
seems pretty obvious to me what to answer."

"Oh, you mean there's a system to the questions? Personally I think it seems
entirely random what answer we are supposed to expect." Emirie's face burns
hotly. "Ah well. As long as you're not a blue spy."

"N...no, of course I'm not." Emirie stammers, not believing her own apparent
luck.

"Hmm?" The guard looks down upon Emirie, and adrenaline pumps through her body
as she fears that she is busted after all. She looks up at him, and for a brief
second, she notices fear in his eyes, before she hears the guard shout "Get
down." Her vision twists and she is slammed to the ground as something heavy
barges into her. The sound of something big flies past her, and there is a loud
explosion before clods of earth start to rain over her. When she manages to
regain focus, she finds herself pinned beneath the guard, who is writhing in
pain. A quick glance shows that his left shoulder is severely burnt, and several
of the stars in his “hair” have lost their glimmer and fallen to the ground
as dead, dull, gray stones. With obvious pain, the guard forces himself on his
feet and stare into the forest. Emirie quickly scampers onto her feet and turns
to face into the forest. In there, she can see another of the star-folk, very
similar to most she has seen thus far, except that this one has far darker
colors. Adorned in blue and purple, and holding an outstretched palm towards
Emirie and the friendly guard, he is quite a scary sight. Without a word spoken,
the enemy withdraws his arm and thrusts it forward again. A wave of bright,
white energy flows out and slams into the guard, knocking him prone and leaving
him wracked with pain.

Emire stares in fright as the enemy strides over to the fallen guard. The
darker star-folk rises a palm towards the guard, and Emirie knows exactly what
is going to happen now. In desperation she charges into the Blue spy, knocking
his arm astray so that the energy bolt flies into the ground and makes a huge
crater there. The spy turns and stares coldly at Emirie, before he uses his free
arm to knock her away. She falls down on the ground, right next to a sword. The
guard must have dropped it when he knocked Emirie down in attempt to save her.
Growling silently to herself, she picks up the sword and swings it in an arc
over her head. "Leave him be!" She cries out as the blade comes bearing down
upon the spy. There is a silent swish, before the Blue's bigger star clatters to
the ground, severed from it's bright tendril of light. Emirie gazes in horror as
the Spy's eyes glaze over. He collapses down on the ground and barely manages to
give Emirie one last, blaming look before he falls lifeless to the ground.
Before her very eyes, the body of the star-folk shrinks, tendrils of color flow
from his body and into the star she cut off. In a matter of seconds, nothing
remains but a pulsating crystalline star. "Oh... oh my... oh dear... oh..."
Emirie stutters as she drops the sword to the ground. "Have I... did I... I... I
just... I... oh my dear loving..." Her knees go weak as she falls down into a
kneeling position. "What have I done...?"

"You... you saved my life." The guard says through teeth gritted in pain.
Emirie turns her empty eyes towards the guard. Despite being in such horrible
pain, he is trying to comfort her. And even though she has done something
horrible, she actually feels less pained by his words.

Less pained, but still very pained. "But... I killed him. That's wrong."

"Yes... but if you hadn't done that, he would have killed me and then you...
thank you."

Emirie glances up at the guard, then quickly gathers herself, resolved to put
this in the back of her mind. "No... it... I have to go." The guard doesn't get
time to ask Emirie what is wrong before the young Furrikin jumps up and dashes
off towards the city. This was a distraction, a nearly fatal one, a distraction
she can't dally with any longer. She has to find Toi, and she has to find him
quickly.

Three hours later, she finally finds what she is looking for. It was more
difficult than originally intended, but at least she didn't have to infiltrate a
stronghold of sorts. And now she is standing outside the small cottage where Toi
is being held captured. Two guards stand valiantly outside the building,
preventing unwanted people from entering. And unfortunately, Emirie is unwanted
here. Still... this was exactly what she made the potion for. She takes a few
steps up to the guards, and gains their attention. "What are you doing here? You
aren't allowed to be here."

"Oh? Why am I not allowed to be here?" Emirie asks, feigning naivety.

"We are keeping a strange spy sent here by the Blue's." The soldier stares down
at Emirie. "He is a very strong and dangerous creature, so it is in the interest
of your own safety to not be here."

"I see... but I just came to deliver this." Emirie smiles and pulls out the
vial. She quickly unplugs it and points it towards the guards.

Blue mist flows out of the vial and wreathes itself around the guards. "This...
this is... sleep mist." the guards begin, but it is too late. Emirie can hear on
their voice that they are already falling asleep. "Stop... szztooopz." One of
the guard yells weakly, before they both fall over, snoring heavily.

"Finally..." Emirie smiles and jumps over the sleeping guards. She tugs at the
door, but of course it is locked. Luckily for her, she finds the key on the
guard and in a matter of seconds she manages to open the door. "Toi!"

Inside the room, she finds her loboshigaru friend chained against a bed. He
looks up at her, and his face becomes a mix of fear, surprise and anger.
"Emirie? What are you doing here? I told you to flee?"

"I couldn't flee without you, so I came back to save me."

"That was a stupid thing to do. What if they had caught you too?"

"Yeah, well, they didn't." Emirie states as she finishes unlocking his chains.
"Now get going. We have to hurry."

Toi frowns, though refrains from objecting as he tears of the remaining metal
and starts to run after Emirie. Outside, Emirie leads Toi deeper into the city,
knowing that staying out in the open suburbs will make them far easier to find.
However, that would turn out to not be such a smart choice after all. Suddenly,
the entire city seems to be swarming with guards. At every crossroad, they seem
to be spotted by more guards, forcing them to constantly change their course,
until finally. "No. We're trapped..." Toi says as he watches the brick wall
before them. Quickly, the two turn to face a patrol that has cornered them in
this blind street. "Emirie... stay behind me. I will protect you." Toi says as
he steps up before the guards.

The guards look intently at Toi and Emirie, before one of them steps forward.
"You have no place to go now spies. This time, we will make sure that you won't
be able to escape again."

"Oh yeah?" Toi replies defiantly. "Well you'll have to beat us first."

The guard looks at Toi with cold eyes, before he snaps his fingers and a
barrage of energy bolts strike into him. "Oh no, Toi!!" Emirie shouts as she
runs over to the big Loboshigaru. He is still alive, and his body is already
recovering from the damage, but still he is pretty badly hurt.

"Now..." The guard says as he raises his arms up into the sky. A bright beam of
warm light shines down from above to engulf both Emirie and Toi. "Goodbye
spies."

Deep within the light, Emirie holds tightly onto Toi, not daring to let go. She
feels herself being torn apart, tugged on and tossed around, yet she remains
firm, clinging desperately to Toi as the bright