Treasures, Gold and Scorpions?

Raven was walking along the desert village on a fine sunny morning. Her travels had somehow finally made her stop in that rather hot place that Kuroe was already complaining to her about. “Raaveeeennn! What on earth are we doing here?!” He complained for the nth time making her angrily turn on her heels towards the glaring black raven. “Kuroe! For the last time! We are not going to stay here for too long. Just co-operate with me for now, will you?!” she sighed before turning around and walking on again. A couple of days ago, she heard from someone she was eating dinner next to in an inn that there had been rumors about treasures being found in the forbidden desert not too far from the village they were in. Apparently, the forbidden desert had turned into a heaven for hunters or so is what everyone thinks. The old man she dined with went on and on about how it would be nice if he could still be young enough to go on a journey to find some of those treasures. She just nodded along, zoning out when he talked about his youth for the 5th time that night.

Anyhow, the sun was merciless that day, she thought as she looked up at the sky with her right hand over her forehead. She combed through her hair with her hands as she sighed and walked along. “I wonder if I could find someone strong enough to come along with me,” she wondered out loud, earning a weird glance from Kuroe. She was about to shrug and walk away when she felt someone violently yank her backwards. She unconsciously shivered when she came face to face with bulging red eyes. The man staring at her looked hysterical. He was laughing and stuttering and Raven had to struggle against his grip for a while before he let go of her. “Treasures…monsters..we…desert…hunt…” he talked as if he was rather breathing. “What?” She almost screamed at him, looking around for someone to help her with the lunatic. “Who are you...” she trailed off with her question and was answered with him strongly gripping her on her shoulders. “There are monsters…monsters hiding in the sandstorms…monsters in the village…treasure…treasure greater than anything…” he went on and on about how his group of hunters got attacked and how he ended up in a hospital. Her first thought of course was, ‘ Is he nuts?’

But of course, she kept her mouth shut, not exactly giving away what she was thinking. “I don’t understand...what do you want from me?” she asked calmly placing her hand on his arms and pushing him away. “I want help. I want to find my crew!”

Naziel had found himself in yet another inhospitable environment. He had decided to see what work lay out towards the deserts in hope of finding information and work to help the guild since his return to civilization. He decided to take his mind off of the guild for a moment and relax in the small town buried on the edge of the desert as he walked the solitary streets he could feel the heat and being an Ice Demon Slayer heat wasn't exactly favorable!

He made his way towards an Inn that seemed like a good place to get out of the heat and cool off a bit before making his next move. As he entered through the door he saw a young maiden who seemed very shaken with a rather beaten and worn male being a bit too hands on in Naziel's eyes. He stepped forward and grabbed the man's arm with his right hand and produced a shard of razor sharp ice from his wrist that he pointed at the guy with a serious look on her face; "Let her go... I won't ask again." He watched as the man loosened his grip and took a step back shaking slightly as he lowered his head and stood still.

Naziel turned to the girl and retracted the blade of ice with a worried look in his eyes; "Are you alright? Do you know this guy?" He looked over his shoulder at the male who seemed to have taken a seat quietly clearly recognizing that he was in trouble. He had little need for a lunatic who attacked women and was tempted to hand him over to the proper authorities before he considered doing something bad himself. Why was he having these thoughts? He would never have thought of hurting someone just because! So why was it happening now? Was he being influenced by his new dark magic? Everyone saw it as a light or holy magic because it purges Demons. In his eyes it was still a darkness, it was merely a powerful way of killing the creatures more effectively. He looked at the girl and wondered what a girl like her was doing in a place like this, it was no place for a lady and she certainly didn't' have the 'terrifying battle ready western type' that he expected to find in this sweatbox.

He decided to get the facts and make his assessments from there; "What's your name miss? What are you doing in a place like this?" HE questioned with some curiosity and intrigue. In truth he wanted to know who this mad man was who had grabbed this girl who certainly seemed slightly shaken by the ordeal bu he would not allow any harm to come to her now.

She looked up when she saw the man being forced off of her only to find a rather dark blue haired guy using…ice magic? The shards of ice definitely didn’t go unnoticed by her red orbs as she stood rather awkwardly with a small smile. “Thank you…uhm My name is Raven and this is Kuroe,” she said motioning towards Kuroe who in his normal form came to sit on her right shoulder. “We were uhh just walking around when…oh!” she looked as if she remembered something for a second before quickly turning towards the man that was talking to her. “You...You said that your crew was attacked!” she asked, wondering if that was why the man stopped her like that in the middle of the road. “And you said…about monsters hiding in sand storms…”

He looked hopeful as he nodded his head furiously at her. “Yes yes..you see a few weeks ago me and my crew went to the desert in search of treasures and we were attacked by a rather big sand storm…there was a monster hiding in it! There are monsters hiding in all of them!” he exclaimed falling down to his knees. Raven guessed that the shock of being attacked was still there. Now, if any normal person heard this story, she was pretty sure that they would have taken him to an asylum by the time but she was a mage and she had came in contact with way too many things that ordinary people would sub as “impossible”. So, she could tell he was probably telling the truth…After all, it couldn’t be that easy to get treasures, now could they?

“Please! You have to believe me! Take me back to the desert and…and…that’s it! I’ll…I’ll reward you! I’ll let you have some of the treasures,” he said, looking at them with pleading eyes that Raven couldn’t say no to. She turned around to find the ice mage still there and looked at him with a ‘what to do’ look in her eyes. “I don’t know if this is true or not….but if by any chance it is true, there are people out there that needs some help,” She chose to speak after a few minutes of interval.

She didn’t know if she could just trust the man like that…For all she knew, he could be leading them to a trap…desert village was known for its not so friendly people, after all. But the all too desperate look on his face reminded of how she looked when her world slammed down into the ground in chaos. She was as desperate to save the once proud land…. However, she ended up destroying it…

“I’ll go. I’ll definitely help,” She concluded with a smile.