It was only a few days afterward when Hizashi barged into his friend's home in the wee hours of the morning, when the sun was just beginning to lighten up the sky.
"Elly's been caught!" He burst through the door, waking Aizawa from his fitful slumber.
"Hizashi," he gasped, jolting upright and throwing the sheets back. "What's wrong?"
His friend stood hunched over, gasping for breath. "Saw a man with her," he choked out. "She's in a cage on the back of his horse. It was maybe a couple miles out of town."
"A cage? What?"
"She's stuck in a cage like an <i>animal</i>!" He shook him by the arm. Aizawa flinched at the word, his face paling, but Hizashi didn't notice. "She didn't even look at me when I called out, she just said - she said ..."
Aizawa stamped his boots on as fast as he could. "What? What did she say?"
He stood there with tears in his eyes. "She said, '<i>my heart is no more</i>', and she wouldn't move or say anything else."
The two men rushed out of the cottage but at the sight of the open moors ahead Aizawa froze. "He's on a <i>horse</i>, there's no way I can catch him." He stared hopelessly out at the rolling countryside, chilly and shrouded in mist.
"He stopped for the night," Hizashi pointed north, at an angle along where the road led out from town. "At the old ash tree amongst the gravestones. You might catch up if you hurry. You have to try!"
Aizawa shook his head but his feet were moving before he knew it. His heart raced with fear and adrenaline in his chest. He'd never catch them. They were gone, the fresh tracks of hooves leading far away from here and god knew how long a head start they had.
Never mind couldn't - he <i>had</i> to catch up.
Throwing logic to the wind, he got up again and ran as fast as he could. Aizawa ran until his lungs felt like they were on fire and his legs were about to give out, and then he ran some more. As he ran, his mind repeated their last interaction in agonizing slow motion over and over. He called her an animal and rejected her cruelly after she declared her love for him. It was true that he thought she was lying about her love, and it stung so deeply he had lashed out.
Tears pricked the corners of his eyes and he stumbled, winded, almost unable to go on. What would happen to her? Would she be sold to the highest bidder at auction? Or would she, perhaps, be paraded around for coppers at fairs and dirty towns more wretched than the one he lived near, with dirty waifs poking her through the bars of a cold, hard cage with sticks?
He clenched his jaw and screamed in desperation, only to jerk wildly to one side in fear as he heard the shrill squeal of a horse nearby. Aizawa tossed his head up, snorting, and pulled to a stop.
<i>Could that be them</i>?
He grunted as his rear skidded on the grit of the road.
<i>That hurt</i>!
He looked down and his knees buckled - all four of them.
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