A Warrior's Heart Continued.

Korag waited for her to get to the bottom. He again told Cloe to climb up on his back so they could climb down the rope. But it was to late the Harpies had spotted him and some began to swoop down at him. He drew his sword and pushed Cloe to the rope. "You will have to climb down. Hurry I will keep them off of you the best I can."

As she eased herself over the wall and hung onto the rope the first of the Harpies came in. He dodged out out the way swinging his sword and catching it along it's side. It screamed a horrorable screach and flew up again as another came in from yet another angle.

Below as Maeve hit the ground the five Amazons moved forward to her. One of the Amazons put her hand to her moouth. "Cloe. Oh by the Goddess, My sister is not dead." she ran forward and as Cloe's strength left her and she let go of the rope, her blood sister caught her and held her. One of the others said, "Lets go." and started to move away from the castle.

Maeve stood back, her gaze shifting up toward korag. Cloe was safe, but korag had the harpies to deal with. And while she didn't have an attachment to him, he was still fighting the same battle she was fighting, and he helped her and her sisters. The traitor was still up there, but she'll figure out a way to get her to the queen to face judgement.

Taking one of the bow and arrows from one of her sisters, she promised she would cover them, and she would wait till they were out of view, in the trees, before taking aim and shot an arrow at one of the harpies coming at Korag.

Cloe stopped her real sister from going and looked back up at the wall of the castle and Korag fighting the Harpies. "No." she said to her sister weakly. "If not for him, I would not be here." she looked at her sister and she nodded. She laid her sister down by a tree and rejoined Maeve and began firing at the Harpies.

The first arrow hit one of the Harpies circling above Korag, causing it to fall to the ground clutching the shaft of the arrow. Korag had killed one, and it lay close to him, and he had wounded two more. More arrows now flew, disrupting the Harpies. Korag took that opportunity to sheath his sword and he made for the rope. He repelled off the wall and in a few short jumps was on the ground.

He made for Maeve and the other amazon and gave Maeve a warm smile. He spotted Cloe and scooped her up into his arms. "Time to get out of here." he said. He hated to leave. He had not killed the Mage and he knew that the mage would be a problem. He would have to return with a number of his clansmen to attack the castle.

Maeve kept shooting at the harpies till korag was able to get away and rejoin her and her sisters. She looked her sisters over, making sure they were alright. Once she saw they weren't harmed, she moved forward, leading the way toward their tribe.

They soon caught up with the other four amazons. They did not look to thrilled to have Korag there with them. He just ignored their looks and kept pace with them as he carried Cloe. Next to him was Cloe's sister, a worried look on her face. She turned to Maeve. "What happened to her?" she asked. Korag didn't think he was going to like the response when Maeve told her what had happened.

He figured that all of them would want to go back and kill the bastard, along with anyone that stood in their way. He knew that Maeve wanted to kill the Mage because of it. But they would have to deal with the Harpies and soldiers that he had saw. Though they were not enough to defend the castle from a full scale attack, they would be enough to take on the small group of amazons.

Maeve glanced to Cloe's sister. Of course she would ask that now. "The mage raped her," she stated softly, not knowing how else to say it. "I wounded him, before he vanished. He was too cowardly to die for what he did." A sigh escaped her. It was bothersome, now that there would be war, she just hoped no one made impulsive decisions, especially against the mage, he would be their most powerful mage.

When Cloe's sister heard what had happened she stopped dead in her tracks, blood lust and rage filling her eyes. The other amazons also stopped and turned to face the direction they had come in. Korag had been right, they wanted blood. It was not up to him to try and stop them. They would not listen to him anyways. It was going to have to be up to Maeve to talk some sense into them.

Soldiers now exited the castle to enter the forest to try and track down Korag and Maeve along with Cloe. They didn't know about the five amazons now with them. Harpies flew over head, one could hear them screeching and the flapping of their wings.

Maeve saw their reaction. She had that same reaction. She still wanted his blood. "we need to keep going, the queen will plan an attack. I promise, he will die sooner or later, but now there's not a enough of us to go back while they are on the alert," she told her sisters, needing them to listen. "let's get Cloe back safely. She needs to be home, and to be taken care of."

Cloe's sister could be see fighting the urge to run back and kill everything she came across. The others were almost as bad. But finally she nodded and said, "My sister must get back to the others. Maeve is right. There will be another day and a recqoning." she looked up at Korag. He had helped save Cloe, and then made himself a target for the Harpies while her sister climbed down the rope. He had help rescue her and the others. She didn't know why, though she thought it strange that a man would do so. Even now he kept silent, when she knew others would have been ordering them around.

She moved up to Maeve and whispered. "What is with that one? He does not seem like the others we have delt with." He was strong and she had seen how he fought on top of the wall. She had not seen any thing like that.

Maeve glanced to Cloe's sister. "I don't know, but he's different. He thinks women should be equal to men," she whispered back. Her gaze shifted to Korag. it was still strange that he was helping them. But figuring him out seemed impossible.

The Amazon lifted a brow when Maeve told her that he thought women whould be equal to men. To her no man wanted that. They wanted to make all women subservenant to them. She then moved closer to Maeve, "What do you think of him?" she asked. "You have spent quite a bit of time with him since you brought hem back to the village."

She had noticed how she stayed back when the others had begun to make their way away from the castle, to help cover Korag as he fought the Harpies.

The question startled her, and it was one Maeve didn't want to answer. "I don't really know what I think of him. He's complicated, and the things he does, the way he thinks doesn't make sense." She was ready for him to go home, he was disrupting everything she knew about men, the way she felt about them. He made it very hard to hate him.

The Amazon looked at Maeve with a strange look. "Complicated? Isn't that what most of us want? To be recgonized as equals to men." she looked back over at Korag looking him up and down. Then back to Maeve, "Have you..... You know." What she saw she liked, and he was different then the men that they knew. If what Maeve was saying about him was true, well who knew what could happen.

Maeve was startled when her sister asked such a thing. She was weary of what the Amazon would think or do when they found out she had Korag inside her for a reason that didn't involve babies. "Why... would you think that?" she asked, not directly saying no, but she couldn't lie to her sisters, but she didn't want them to know.

The look and the way Maeve responded told her all she needed to know. She smiled a knowing smile and asked. "What does he think of you? If he is so different then other men, has he said anything that is differnt then the men we know?" She again looked over at Korag. He was quite interesting. She wondered if there was any more like him where he came from.

Korag saw Maeve and the other Amazon talking in low tones and he noticed the one looking at him. He had a feeling they were talking about him. He already knew that Maeve's thoughts on him was changeing some, by what Cloe had repeated.

Maeve wasn't very fond about her sister asking her all these questions. "I don't know what he thinks about me, why would I care? He mentioned something about a wife more like me, which I find rather strange. That he wants a wife to fight along side him, and not be afraid of everything."

She shook her head, "Oh he has said alot about how he feels about you with that alone." she said. She moved up to take a look at her sister. Cloe hung on to Korag, her arms around his neck. She was still hurting and weak from her struggles with the Mage. She took a closer look at Korag as she spoke with her sister.

Korag was a bit stronger then he had been. His wound was sealed and he was regaining his lost blood. But still he was begining to tire and he slowed down some. The strain was evident in his face.

Maeve frowned, hearing those words. What the hell did that mean? If he wanted her for a wife, he had another thing coming. In a bit of a mood, she kept moving, her gaze studying Korag, not sure about what he wanted.

Korag looked at Maeve and had saw the frown on her face, and the slight smile on the other Amazon's face. He finally had to stop and he did so, putting Cloe down on the ground. Pulling up his shirt, he checked his bandage for blood and then to see how the wound was. The stiches were still in place and he had not reopened the wound. That was good.

The Amazons also stopped looking a bit anxious to be away from the area. He moved to Maeve and asked her, "Something wrong?"

Maeve glanced to him when he came over to her. She shook her head and sighed. "No," she replied softly. It wasn't easy to tell what was wrong, she didn't express herself well. She didn't even really know what was wrong. This was all so complicated, and she didn't like complicated.

Again he had a feeling she was not telling the truth. She probably would open up to another woman, but she would not open up to him. He shook his head and went to sit down, putting his back against a tree. He closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the forest. Where they were the birds were quiet because they were around. He could hear them back the way they came. If they went quiet then he knew the enemy was close behind.

He sat there for about fifteen minutes before the birds went quiet. He groaned as he stood up. His muscles were begining to ache. Climbing a cliff wall, a rope up to the top of a wall, then climbing down more ropes and carrying Cloe. He was in good shape but he was only human after all. "They are gettling closer. We had best be going again." He picked up Cloe, a strained look on his face. "Lead on." he said in a low voice and began walking in the direction they had been going.

Maeve just didn't know what to tell him. Even with her sisters, she didn't open up very well. She sighed, and sat down, to rest while they could. Her body hurt, from the mage's attack. Soon as she got back, she would take a closer look at herself.

When Korag got up, to move on, she got up as well, and went over to him, seeing the strained look on his face when he picked up Cloe. "Let me carry her," she offered, walking along side him.

Korag shook his head. "You will need all your strength should the Mage's soldiers catch up with us." Some how they had to get as far from them as they could. How he wished he had some of his clansmen around now. They would make short work of the soldiers. Not that the amazons could not put up a good fight. He knew from seeing Maeve in action that they knew how to fight. But he didn't know how many were after them. Even if you are good, if there were to many against you, you would lose.

He took a deep breath and continued on. He looked up and didn't see any Harpires though he heard their screeching now and then to either side of them. He gave her a smile and kept on going.

Maeve scoffed at him when he didn't let her carry Cloe. "I can handle it. You need your strength too." she stated softly. But she didn't argue, she had a feeling that he could be stubborn. With a sigh, she kept moving.

( sorry its short. so distracted right now. )

Korag kept going, trying to ignore his aching muscles. They were on foot and their progress was slow. The mage's soldiers had access to horses and some had ridden around to come up in the direction that they had been traveling. Suddenly there were mounted men before them as the soldiers on food finally caught up. Korag put Cloe down on the ground and drew his sword. The Amazons nocked arrows and formed a small circle.

"You are out numbered and out classed. Surrender." one of those mounted on a horse spoke. Korag assumed he was the leader of the soldiers. The amazons just drew back on their bow strings and took aim at a soldier. The leader of the soldiers laughed. "Resistance is futile."

The amazons were not about to surrender. They were more then willing to die, then be taken prisoner again. Even Cloe, hurting took a sword from her sister and stood ready to fight. Korag grinned. "These amazons are worth two of any of your soldiers. I think it is you who should reconsider your postion." he told the soldiers commander.