Author's Notes: I wanted to wait until I've typed up all the chapters before posting this fic (for once). Oh well, things change. By the way, THIS IS NOT HENTAI!!!

Trudging along to the next town, the ragtag group that's under Maquess Pherae's son's leadership were very exhausted. Some chitchatted a little bit (an example was Sain, who was hitting on any female that had the misfortune to wander adjacent to the chatty ladies' man), some took out their fatigue on someone else (an example was Marth the tactician, who was repeatedly whacking Sain upside the head for flirting with her), while some were off in their own little world. The midday weather was unbearably muggy, evident in Nils coming close to fainting a few times and Lucius resembling a tomato. The group was pretty much in a daze, mumbling to Marth if they're there yet every once in a while.

Erk, a temperamental anima mage, kept glaring behind him. He prayed that his nightmare was severely stricken by Mr. Heat Stroke. Perhaps then she'll be in no shape to torment him and causing him to charge at the enemy with his arms spread out, letting them get a critical hit without attempting to defend himself. Too bad that it only causing the tactician to go ballistic, nurse him back to life, then chew him out for getting himself killed for the umpteenth time. Permanent death is better than living with the sole person in the world that can cause someone to develop schizophrenia in a matter of five minutes or less due to listening to her talk at 1,987 words per minute. Sometimes, Erk would wonder if Lord Pent had a secret fetish for making his favorite student suffer from Serra.

"Err… Erky… Erkykins…," Serra whined faintly. She was right behind him, looking really sick.

"What IS it, man?!" The pink-haired cleric has left Erk alone for an ample amount of time, yet her very presence makes his blood boil. As he turned around to see what the obsessive Serra wanted, she fainted onto his shoulders from the heat. "Aw, man… MARTH! Help! Get this demon woman off of me! For the love of St. Elimine, GET HER OFF OF ME!!!"

Marth walked back to help Erk pick up Serra. Merlinus pitched his tent and the trio helped treat the sunstroke. As they sat down to rest, Guy came running to them with good news.

"Hey! Guess what I just saw!" the Sacaen swordsman cried happily.

"Like, Guy, like help us out here with her, kay Guy?" said the tactician while mimicking a male using a female's mannerism and some hand gestures. She tends to mimic people, accents, and stuff for fun (or to the annoyance of some people).

"Grrr… Quit that! I hate it when you guys (they began to snigger a bit from his name) STOP IT! When we get to the next town, which I just saw, I'm going to legally change my name to Sammie so that you would stop doing that to my name!"

"The Magical Girl… PRETTY SAMMIE!" Marth said under her breath with a different impersonation.

"You saw a town up ahead? Good! Good! Now we can all rest and relax!" cheered Merlinus.

"Yay. Then we can buy some fresh supplies and go out for a night of fun…" Erk noticed that Marth was glaring daggers at him. "Not Sain's definition, milady. No, no, 'course not. Why'd I do such a thing like that scoundrel? Plus Serra would try to kill me for that…" Erk began to daydream about the day when he dies and out of the tactician's reach to revive him. There, he'll be free from Serra's wrath.

"Hm? Looks like she's coming to…," said Guy. "Are we able to continue on, milady?"

"Yep! C'mon guys!" Marth got up and was soon followed by her company. It would take about a few more hours to reach the town.