standing on the shore (nils, paisely)

Henri sighed, turning to Nils. "I know you don't want to leave, Nils. I don't want to either --"

He quickly turned in the direction of a loud yell for help. The voice had come from a woman, and he immediately thought that Paisley was in trouble.

"No..." he muttered, moving as fast as he could (which was significantly faster than he could a few days ago) toward the voice. He jumped over vines, ducked under branches. A few scrapes later, he made eye contact with a woman.

Not Paisley.

Henrik suddenly felt his kidnappers' hard grips on his arms, he felt himself thrown in a hard stone corner. He tasted blood. He heard his brothers' screams in a chorus of the sound of terrorized children. He felt disgusting, trapped, evil, captive.

All of this, he saw in the eyes of the woman before him. The woman calling for help. Henri was stunned, speechless, paralyzed, traumatized.

"P...Petra..." was all he could breathe. He felt the need to cry, but he was terrified. His stomach hit the ground. They had left her...that had escaped and they had left her there. How did this happen? How had she stumbled on them?

Petra whipped her head around when she heard someone crashing through the jungle towards her. Her eyes widened when they met with the eyes of the man who stood before her. It had been years, but she would recognize that face anywhere. The face of a man she hated. Henri.

"Henri!" she gasped. She immediately rushed forward and threw herself into his arms, tears in her eyes. As much as it disgusted her to have to do, crying on command was a skill that had come in handy many times in the past. "I never thought I'd see you again! Th-they told me you were d-dead!"

She looked up at him. "Is it really you...?" she whispered, even though she knew full well it was.

What incredible luck! She never thought she would find one of them so fast. And if Henri was here, Nils must be nearby. They had always been inseparable.

Nils and Henri were interrupted by the sudden cry of a woman. Nils thought he recognized the voice, but it didn't sound like Paisley. He didn't have much time to dwell on it though, as before he could even react, Henri had taken off into the jungle.

"Wait, Henri!" he yelled after his brother. He hesitated for a split second before following him. He had no idea how Henri was able to get through the thick foliage so quickly. Nils struggled to keep up, but by the time he found Henri he was no longer alone.

There was a girl in his arms. A girl that he recognized. A girl that he occasionally saw in his nightmares. "Petra?" he gasped, stunned. The sight of her felt like a punch to the gut.

Henri didn't know how to react to the person in his arms. Feeling the touch of a person after his entire body reliving so many memories...it was jarring.

But her emotion brought him back to reality. The reality was that Petra was right here, alive. He looked down to her, his arms finally embracing her.

"I'm here," he said, rubbing her back lightly. "I'm here, it's me, it's okay. We're here."

He glanced at Nils, sad that he had to relive what Henri just had to. But they had to band together, they had to help each other out. Petra was here now and she needed them.

"You're hurt -- are you okay? What happened?" he asked, concerned.

Petra felt Henrik's arms tighten around her. Perfect. Hook, line, and sinker. Henri had always been protective, and she knew she'd be able to exploit it with her scared and vulnerable act. It helped that they had been really close in the past, before he and Nils betrayed her.

"I-I got away," she said shakily and breathlessly. "They were gonna kill me. I just ran, I ran and I jumped in the water and just let the current take me." She was Ughdarras, so it was plausible enough.

She looked back and forth between the two brothers. "I can't believe it's really you guys."

Nils felt a wave of guilt at the sight of Petra's injuries, and her account of what she had been through. He knew that situation all too well. If only back then they had been more careful, paid more attention, they all could have escaped together and she wouldn't have had to suffer four more years with those people.

"Petra, I'm so sorry," he said quietly. She must have been so scared, just like they had been all those years ago.

Henrik fought back the anger that tried so hard to consume him. He wanted to go back and fight them, bring down the entire group, save all the kids from being taken and hurt and used and killed. That was his plan for the long term...but he knew it was nowhere near plausible at this point. And it wouldn't be for a long time.

So for now, he had to help take care of the survivors the best he could.

"You're okay now," he said. "We can help you disappear. We'll help you find a life you can lead happily. We'll do this." He smiled lightly, as much as he could muster at this point. He never ever thought he'd see her again. Finally the good memories of the two of them were surfacing. He was glad to see her again, though he would have loved to see her leave with them. He had a lot of regret, but he'd learned to push that back.

Petra smiled back at Henri, but on the inside she almost wanted to laugh. He was going to help her lead a happy life? A happy life of running, and fear, and paranoia? Of never staying in the same place for more than a week? Of constantly looking over her shoulder? Henri was an idiot. If he and Nils had stayed like she had, they'd be living much more comfortably and happily than they were now. Well, maybe once she brought them back, they'd have a change of heart.

Well, time to carry on this plan. "Can you come back with me to the beach?" she asked him in her most pitiful voice. "I left some of the few things I was able to escape with and I...I'm afraid to go back alone."

Henrik nodded. "Of course, yeah. Nils," he said, turning to look at him. "Would you mind going and finding Paisley? I'm sure she wouldn't mind helping us fix up Petra's wounds." He smiled warmly. Having Paisley around made him feel more comfortable, like he wasn't alone in helping protect Nils. He even felt a bit more protected, and definitely cared for, himself. He wanted to help Petra feel more safe too, and he knew Paisley had a way of doing that.

"Let's go," he insisted, following Petra toward the beach.

Petra's face fell momentarily when Henri mentioned someone named Paisley who was apparently with them. Fuck, there was someone else here? Oh shit...the hut thing they were living in...of course someone from Nadar must have made it. Fuck. Fuck. How could she overlook something so important? This changed everything.

Her expression recovered quickly, and she smiled gratefully at Henri. This would be okay, just a minor setback. She'd just have to settle for one of the brothers for now. It wasn't like it would be hard to get her hands on Nils if she had Henri to use as bait.

"Thank you," she said, as they walked to the beach together. When they arrived, she mentally noted the location of her boat and supplies.

"I don't know where I dropped them," she said with a frown. "Could you check over there? I'll look over here." She pointed across the beach to a distance far enough away that Henri probably wouldn't notice her getting her supplies ready.

"Oh, um, okay," Nils had said to Henri. To be honest he didn't particularly want to be alone either, but he felt too bad about Petra to say that. So he watched the two of them disappear into the jungle, and then went the opposite direction to go find Paisley. He hoped she wouldn't mind another addition to their group...she'd done so much for them already.

Henrik nodded when he was asked to check in a specific direction for supplies. How funny, having run from enemies for years and been captured by them for most of his life -- he had gotten so good at listening and checking for trouble. He was protective, he was smart, he was detail-oriented. And here he was, taking directions mindlessly from someone from his past.

He headed in the direction he was asked to go. While on the lookout for anyone who might be looking for him or Petra, his guard was embarrassingly nonexistent, though he was blind to that fact.

Too easy. Petra kept an eye on Henrik, who was facing away from her, as she quickly pulled a rag and a spray bottle filled with a special little concoction out of her hidden bag. Everyone who had gone after Henri and Nils in the past had always just charged in dumbly to fight them, but Petra knew that getting these guys would take a more pragmatic solution.

She dampened the rag with the part-sleeping pill part-muscle relaxant solution and casually walked up behind her target. Even the strongest person could be taken out in a second with the right drugs. Before he could notice her behind him, she wrapped her arm around his shoulders and covered his mouth and nose with the rag.

"Shhhh," she whispered in his ear, as he presumably realized what was going on.

Henrik didn't question it when Petra came up behind him...until there was a rag over his face and a shh-ing in his ear.

Well. Fuck.

He tried to grab her arms, rip them off, pull her over him, anything. Nothing seemed to work, as he started to slip from consciousness and felt his limbs go limp. He fell to the ground, he felt the beach on his skin. He saw the waves, and he saw Petra looking down on him before his eyes closed.

He was so helpless. What would happen to Nils and Paisley? What was Petra doing, was she taking him somewhere? He wanted to scream, warn them, protect them. He didn't care about where he was going and what he had to deal with from here on out. He just wanted them to be safe and. . .

Elsewhere, Nils was attempting to find Paisley, unaware of the events unfolding on the beach. He didn't want to venture too far from their hideout, but he also didn't want to waste time when his brother and his friend needed help. He was still kind of in shock about the whole thing, and hadn't really managed to absorb what had just happened. Instead, he tried to just focus on one thing at a time, and that current thing was finding Paisley. "Paisley?" he called out tentatively, hoping she was somehow nearby.

Luckily, Paisley was just returning to their little jungle hut. She had shoved lots of edible fruit, roots and medicinal herbs in her backpack for their journey back to her estate on the Western side of Nadar. Today was the first time since she met them that she thought the brothers would be able to travel far, and she wanted them to see a real doctor.

Henri and Nils hadn't liked the idea of going with her, but she had convinced them. Whatever had happened to them to leave them scarred up and bloody had them too scared to want to be around other clio.

Nils wrote:Paisley?

Paisley hear Nils' voice carry through the last few feet of foliage that stood between her and their little clearing.

"Nils?" she called back. "I just finished getting all our supplies!" She was happy she had finally talked them in to leaving with her. Relieved, too. She pushed aside a wall of branches and the walked into the clearing.

Oh good, she was nearby. That was lucky, for once. "Umm, listen," he said to her, wondering exactly how to explain what had just happened. Paisley didn't know any of the details of their lives, just that someone had been after them and attacked them. It would be hard to explain how Petra fit into the equation without going into more detail, which he really didn't want to have to do.

"There--there's someone else who needs help," he said finally. "We just found her. She's a friend and sort of in the same situation as us. Her and Henri just went to the beach to get some things but I'm worried about them being out there in the open."

There, that sounded good, right? He hoped Paisley wouldn't get mad about the addition of another clio.

"Someone else?" Paisley asked, confused. Nils and Henri had been with her for almost a week and had never mentioned anyone else that might need help.

"What do you mean, she needs help? Like, is she as bad as you were?" she asked, suddenly worried. The Henri-Nils situation hadn't made a lot of sense since it started, but adding another random clio to the equation made it even more strange. It sent off a whole lotta warning signals in her head.

Were the brothers really who they said they were?

Did they even really say who they were? Chevron asked back, as wary as his clio.

"And why did they go to the beach?" she asked cautiously. Something was wrong.

"They...to get some stuff she dropped there," Nils said weakly, noticing the sudden look of worry on Paisley's face. He bit his lip. The look on Paisley's face and her tone of voice, like he had done something wrong, were making him start to freak out. "A-and she was hurt, but not as bad."

Should he have not let them go back to the beach? He was nervous about them being out in the open there, but when Henri had decided to go with Petra he hadn't questioned it. He rarely questioned what other clio did, especially Henri, since his brother always seemed to know what was best.

"Do you think they're okay?" he asked, as if Paisley would somehow know any better than he did. In fact, she knew even less than he did. He just felt like he needed to ask, for some kind of reassurance.

"Let's go," Paisley said immediately. She had no idea what was going on, but she did not like it.

As for Nils' question, she didn't know the answer to that, so she didn't respond. Henri was able to travel now, but still weak. If something happened, Paisley wasn't sure if he would be able to defend himself.

If Nils was already starting to freak out before they got to the beach, it was nothing compared to the panic he felt when they arrived to find it deserted. He looked down the long stretch of sand in either direction. Not a single clio to be seen.

No. No. What had happened? Where were they? Fuck, fuck, fuck, something must have happened, someone must have gotten them both when they were off guard. Fuck, why did he let them come down here, why didn't he speak up to say it was a bad idea? This was all his fault.

He looked at Paisley helplessly, at a total loss of what to do next. If someone had taken Henri and Petra off the island, how the hell were they supposed to follow? There had to be something he could do, he had to help his brother and friend, he couldn't just leave them to whatever horrors they were facing.

"I think someone got them," he said to Paisley, talking fast like he did when he was afraid. "I have to find them."

Paisley and Nils scanned the beach, with neither Henri nor friend to be seen. Nils' panic was evident in the way he paced and sped talked.

"Nils, what the hell is going on," Paisley asked, realizing she was nervous as well. "You're going to need to tell me why you are on this island. Who beat you up?"

Where the hell could Henri have gone? He never would have left without Nils, that much Paisley was sure of. The only thing Paisley could imagine was that this "friend" hadn't really been who she said she was.

Nils withdrew a little bit into himself at Paisley's scrutiny. He didn't like talking about what had happened, not even to Henri, who had been through all of the same things. But he was afraid that Paisley wouldn't help him if he didn't tell her, and he was pretty sure he needed her help.

"There--there are these clio," he mumbled finally, after some hesitation. "They took us when we were little. Me, and Henri, and our friend Petra, and some others. Me and Henri got away but they've been after us ever since."

Please don't ask me anything more. Please. Just help me find them.

"Petra is the friend you saw today?" Paisley asked, her brain running a million miles a minute.

Henri and Nils had been kidnapped. How long ago? Why?

And by who? Chevron asked quietly.

The information Nils had supplied didn't give her much to go on, but Paisley could tell he was uncomfortable talking about it, and Paisley didn't think she had time to drag more out of him. If the wounds she had seen inflicted on the brothers were any indication of how Henri was currently being treated, Paisley wasn't sure they had much time at all.

"Did Petra say anything about where she came from? What she was doing here?"

"Yeah, she got away too, same as us," Nils replied, infinitely grateful that Paisley wasn't pressing him for more details. "I think she probably came from the mainland like us too. I think whoever got them probably took them back there." Nils remembered a certain place he had often tried to forget, a hideout that their captors had in the forest on the east coast of Amelia.

He looked out across the ocean. Neither one of them were Ughdarras or Cuir. How were they supposed to get back to the mainland? He looked at Paisley, thought of the things she had done for them. The stretcher. The shelter. She was amazing with her eilemaiden.

"Do you think you could make a boat?" he asked her. He wasn't sure if it was a dumb idea or not, but it was all he could think of.