[Splat]

Pseok reacted too late. Dashing to the side he was caught by the side of Fisher's claw, not by the points, but the force knocked him out of the air into a small huddle of trees below. Branches thrashed at him as he tumbled, slowing his fall enough so that when he hit the ground he wasn't badly injured, no more than bruised. He was lying flat on his back as his brain slowly caught up with his body in time to tell him he was feeling dazed and wouldn't like to get up for a few seconds.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Elfair had lapsed into a drugged state as Macker had walked in. She tried to wrestle herself back into awareness. She heard his voice but was slow to process the words.

But at his touch she began to come round.

At first it was just the strangeness of it; she'd been so long without human contact (not including fighting) that the feeling of the sensitive touch was almost alien.
But some voice in her head began to scream that this was worse than the fighting. This should not be happening, it was wrong, it was...
When his hand toucher her thigh she gasped. Her voice was muffled and warped by the mask that stopped her opening her mouth fully, and for some reason she could not bring herself to do more than whisper, "Stop touching me..."

The night passed when she'd been attacked by the phoenix, she thought afterwards that she would never be more scared in her life. Suddenly she knew she was wrong. this was a hundred times worse.