Xirysa Says: Well... Done for Absol Master's challenge. I hope this was a pretty decent job.

An Unexpected Cure
Done for Absol Master's FE Challenge

Lucius was quite an amiable, practical, go-with-the-flow type of fellow. He was pleasant and polite to the other members of the company and was always willing to assist them with any problems they had, which were actually quite eclectic in nature when he thought about it. Granted there were a few instances in which he found himself in a quandary, but those were few and far between.

It was also rare for him to get mad. Yes, he was annoyed quite frequently (a certain pink-haired cleric comes to mind) and was sometimes a bit frustrated (due to a plethora of comments about his appearance from a myriad of people), but he was usually able to keep his emotions in check. Usually.

Because now, to say he was angry would have been an understatement. Lucius was livid.

He was storming about the camp as fast as his restrictive monk's robes would allow him, hands balled up into tight fists at his sides. Seeing the very effeminate young acolyte thundering around with a scowl had caused most of the company to burst out into fits of laughter—Lady Xirysa could be seen clutching her sides while lying on her back on the ground, Bartre guffawed loudly with Dorcas by the fire pit, and Merlinus was hooting loudly in the shade of his cart. Even Lord Raymond was trying to hide the smile on his lips! What made matters worse was that every few seconds Lucius would jump up and shake as a high pitched squeak left his mouth.

Yes, Lucius had the hiccups. But not the small ones that leave after a few minutes. No, these were the kind that had the victim hopping and twitching about for hours on end.

It had already been eight and five sevenths of an hour since this particular bout had started, and Lucius had begun to despair of ever ridding himself of them. He had tried everything—he had gone to a little stream he had found a ways off from camp and had drunk copious amounts of water. That had simply led to a ridiculously full bladder which in turn had led to a very long bathroom break.

The next thing he had done was hold his breath. Well, he attempted to at least. Because of his illness, his lungs had become woefully weak, and his head had begun to spin about ten seconds after he had started holding his breath. A few moments later, he had found himself on his back and looking up at the bright blue sky.

Lucius had then decided to ask other members of the company for advice on how to rid oneself of hiccups. That young knight from Pherae, Lowen, had suggested that he sneeze them out and had given the monk a small bag of extremely spicy pepper. But when they had tried to use it, both had ended up with bloody noses; Lucius from the pepper and Lowen from not being able to see where he was going and running into a tree.

Sister Serra had then told him to try to scare away the hiccups and had Erk cast a fireball at him. Lucius had yelped and managed to duck out of the way in time, but not before singing the tips of his long golden hair. The attempt seemed to work for a moment, but the monk let out a small squeak a moment later.

He had even retreated into his small tent and prayed to the little Saint Elimine figurine he kept there to somehow help him rid himself of those damnable hiccups. That, he had decided, was simply pathetic. Lucius was just exiting his tent when he saw something that stopped him in his tracks.

Standing under a large tree a few feet away were the two people Lucius least expected to see together. Florina, the young Pegasus knight whose timorous personality and fear of men was well known throughout the company, was standing only a few inches away from Sain, who was probably the most flirtatious man Lucius had ever met. The fact that these two polar opposites were standing so close together immediately piqued his interest.

Lucius watched the scene before him unfold. Sain was tall for a man from Lycia, a little over six feet tall. By contrast, Florina's Illian heritage was evident from her petite figure, standing only at five feet and two inches high. Lucius was surprised to see Sain pick up the shorter girl from the waist and kiss her firmly on the mouth. What shocked the monk even more was watching Florina kiss him back with much enthusiasm.

Very surprising indeed.

He continued his role as a silent bystander as they separated and Sain set Florina down on the ground again. They embraced once more before parting ways, a smile on their lips, and Lucius was quite sure that his jaw had dropped all the way to the ground.

It wasn't until Florina innocently mentioned it at dinner that night did Lucius realize that he had been cured of his hiccups.

Xirysa Says: Well... I wrote this on the way to New Jersey. I just did some editing, and now... Yeah. It's done. Thanks for the great challenge, Absol Master! It was really fun to do—especially Lucius's "situation"! This was really an idea I had for the longest time, but didn't know how to go about doing it. So thanks very much! And even though this was a challenge, please critique as usual!