Pazu woke up one innocuous morning. He stretched out his arms, and transformed to stretch his wings. He reverted back to base form, and turned to Lucita, who was still sleeping.
"Morning, Sheeta!" Pazu said, stroking her head. Lucita batted him away, and rolled over.
"Come on, Sheeta… I don't want to wake up either, but Romuska's really pushing us right now. We're probably going to be called late as is," Pazu said.
"Mm… fine…" Lucita said, stirring and awakening from her slumber.
"I'll make it up to you later… somehow," Pazu said. Lucita grumbled tiredly, smiling.
"Morning, Miss Dola," Pazu said, running up to her with Lucita a short distance behind.
"Ah, morning, Pazu. You're not normally here this early, are you?" Dola asked.
"Romuska's getting tough on tardiness, remember?" Pazu asked. Dola looked up in thought.
"Romuska… Romuska…" Dola muttered. Lucita smiled, stroking the back of Dola's hand. Dola was in her late 1400s, and had a tendency to forget developments that happened even a few years ago. Nevertheless, she always had a kind word for the husband and wife.
"Pazu! Lucita! Where have you been?" Romuska's voice asked. Pazu looked up, the familiar feeling of his dragon fangs coming into his mouth. Lucita grabbed his hand, and Pazu took the moment to slow his breathing.
"We got here on time, Sir Muska," Lucita said.
"Sheeta's been sleeping like this for centuries. That, and she is a little bit under the weather at the moment," Pazu said.
"That doesn't matter, Pazu. You know we're short on aetherium: we've got to pull our weight," Romuska said.
"…Understood," Pazu sighed. Romuska nodded, and returned to the mine.
"He is so annoying," Pazu groaned.
"Pazu… I know you just want what's best for me, but please…" Lucita said.
"Sheeta…" Pazu said.
"I can take care of myself…" Lucita said, before dropping to the floor.
"Are you all right, Lucita?" Pazu asked, dropping to his knees.
"I'm… I'm fine… just…" Lucita said, moaning slightly.
"Dragon's breath! It hurts to stand, doesn't it?" Pazu asked.
"…Kind of…" Lucita said.
"Lucita…" Dola said, looking at the pair. Pazu and Lucita looked up at her, as she held up a broken dragonaxe.
"Yes, Dola?" Pazu asked, looking at it.
"We'll need another… but I'm out of Firestones," Dola said. Pazu and Lucita looked between each other.
"Sure, we'll get you some more," Pazu said.
"Pazu, why are we going for this?" Lucita asked, following Pazu as he navigated through some of the northern plains of Goldoa.
"I reckon the fresh air might do you more good than some of that mine stench. A girl like you only comes around once every few millenia," Pazu said.
"Pazu… that's…" Lucita started. She looked around, and shivered.
"Uh, Pazu…?" she asked. Pazu pulled out his map, and started looking across it. He tried to figure out what went wrong- he must have made a wrong turn somewhere.
"Hm… sun rises in the east… it's closer to noon now…" Pazu muttered, looking up at the sun, and then down at the shadows.
"Pazu… we're not in Gallia, are we?" Lucita asked.
"Hope not. His Majesty would be furious, and more importantly, that whole world-ending thing could manifest itself," Pazu said, furiously trying to determine which direction south was. "Never forget a compass…"
"ROLF!" a voice cried out. Pazu and Lucita jumped, and the whooshing sound of a bow echoed through the trees. Unlike a Gallian hunting bow, this one had a more ominous, war-like sound. The shot grazed Lucita's arm, causing her to cry out.
"Sheeta!" Pazu said, his hand going through his pack.
"Don't move!" a gruff voice, though still higher-pitched like a child, said. Pazu jumped up, and watched as a boy and a girl, looking about a hundred, hundred and fifty, maybe, approached them. The boy was armed with a bow, the girl a pair of swords.
"What… did you shoot my Sheeta?" Pazu asked.
"You actually hit her?" the girl asked. The boy looked sheepish, as the girl knelt down, and wrapped a cloth around Lucita's arm.
"Sorry… we've gotten jumpy… hiding from our best friends and such…" the girl said. Pazu growled, trying to control his dragon fangs.
"Excuse me, little girl… could you please tell us which way south is?" Lucita asked.
"South? We're at the southern edge of Gallia! There's nowhere south but Goldoa, and going there is a bad idea," the girl said. Pazu opened his mouth, but Lucita grabbed his hand.
"…Come on, we'll take you to Ike. He can help you," the girl said, gesturing. She and the boy ran off, and Pazu and Lucita turned to each other.
"We're in Gallia…" Lucita said.
"She must be one of those beorc. Him, too…" Pazu said.
"We can't show our dragon forms… but what do we do now?" Lucita asked.
"I don't know…" Pazu started.
"Are you coming?" the girl asked.
"…Might as well…" Lucita said. She stood up, and she and Pazu followed the girl to whatever it was that awaited them.
The girl led the pair to a small campsite. A few men and women were wandering about: from the looks of them, all of them were beorc. Pazu was probably older than all of them combined. A man and a woman who looked Pazu and Lucita's age approached them.
"Hello. What exactly are you doing?" the man asked.
"Um… my name is Pazu, and this is my… uh… girlfriend, Sheeta. We got lost… and…" Pazu said nervously. He had never seen so many beorc, and all of them had weapons available… well, except for two of the boys. All they had were books.
"You're lost? Do you know where you were meant to be headed?" the woman asked.
"Um… we need to get back to our… no, we can't say that…" Lucita said.
"You can't say? We can't say either… we're meant to be hidden until Duke Ludveck of Felirae betrays Queen Elincia," the man said.
"Who?" Pazu asked.
"Oh…" the man said.
"Can they join us?" the girl who found them asked.
"No thank-" Pazu started.
"You have a point, Mist… they could help us get food while we're in hiding…" the woman said.
"Titania, opinion?" the man asked.
"We don't know anything about them other than their names. It seems… hard to trust them… I don't think they mean anything actively malicious, though," a red-haired woman with an axe, presumably Titania, said.
"Soren, opinion?" the man asked.
"More manpower is never a bad thing. Besides, you've already blabbed about what we're doing: we can hardly let them walk around with that knowledge. It's a miracle they don't seem to recognise us," one of the boys holding books, presumably Soren, said.
"Mia, opinion?" the man asked.
"Ike, I'm just hungry, exhausted, and a little bit shivery… I think having someone to help us with our food concerns is more than welcome. But I'm not so sure about them…" the woman beside the man, presumably Mia, said. The man, presumably Ike, mulled things over in his head.
"…So then. Would you like to join the Greil Mercenaries? We might not pay well at the moment, but there's always the pride in our name," Ike said.
"All I really want is to go home," Lucita said.
"We'll be fine if we just know which way's which by compass," Pazu said.
"Oh? North is that way," Ike said. Pazu and Lucita nodded gratefully, and ran south.
Pazu and Lucita pushed past trees as fast as possible, not risking losing track of which way south was, just trying to get back to the calm, open plains of Goldoa.
"No more trees," Pazu said, causing Lucita to giggle. However, their journey was stopped, once more, but this time by a platoon of white dragons. Wisely, they had dispensed with anything that marked them as dragons.
"Pazu and Lucita Laputa, what precisely are you doing on Gallian soil? You know Goldoa's laws:" one of the white dragons started.
"Allow dragons not on the soil of beorc, beast or bird, allow no beorc, beast nor bird in Goldoa. Did you seriously think we forgot? We just took a few wrong turns and lost track of south. Could we please get a little help getting back to Goldoa?" Pazu said.
"Lost? A likely story," a familiar voice said, stepping in between the platoon. This dragon was a red one: Romuska Palo-ur Tacano.
"Romuska…" Pazu said.
"Just give it up, you two. I know you're planning something. You can't hide it from me," Romuska said.
"Listen, Romuska, we're just an honest husband-and-wife duo with a penchant for mining. I will not have you disgracing our good name!" Pazu said.
"I'm 666. I outrank you by age. Just tell me what I want to know, and I won't have to resort to harm," Romuska said.
"I'm 708. And Lucita's 700. Don't try pulling age on us, it won't work. And if you want to hurt Lucita, you'll have to go through me," Pazu said.
"I don't need to. The pair of you are fired," Romuska said.
"We'll start our own mine. Romuska, you picked the wrong dragons to have a problem with," Pazu said. Romuska growled, before turning and leaving.
"We're sorry about him…" one of the white dragons said.
"Don't be, Hayao," Lucita said.
"We'll put him in his place," Pazu said.
"I'd like to see you once you're prepared. In the meantime… making yourself scarce from Deghinsea and Romuska might be wise," Hayao said.
"Noted," Pazu said, watching the white dragons leave.
"The nerve of him…" Lucita said slightly. Their thoughts were interrupted by a gentle gasp of surprise. Pazu and Lucita turned to the author- a familiar little girl.
"You were following us…" Lucita said.
"How much did you hear?" Pazu asked.
"I heard a lot… what do you mean, you're 708?" the girl asked. Pazu's eyes widened.
"I'm 708 months old! That's how we count them where we come from!" Pazu said. Both Lucita and the other girl started counting it out.
"She's not going to buy it," Lucita said finally.
"I don't buy it," the girl said almost immediately after.
"She didn't buy it…" Pazu said.
"Pazu… we can't survive without telling someone…" Lucita said.
"…OK. Little one, I'm going to tell you something very important… but you mustn't tell anyone, not even your friends with that company," Pazu said.
"What?" the girl asked.
"We are Goldoan dragons. I red, and she white," Pazu said.
"Goldoa… so you wanted to get back to Goldoa this whole time?" the girl asked.
"Yes… but not anymore. Romuska's got it in for us now, and King Deghinsea'll have our fangs for straying from Goldoan soil," Pazu said.
"Oh my…" the girl said.
"Could we please… maybe… avail ourselves to your company?" Lucita asked nervously.
"Lucita?" Pazu asked.
"Well, what else are we supposed to do? We've got a friend in this beorc, and it's safer if we're nearer people who know our heritage… I think," Lucita said.
"…We'll do it your way for now. Young beorc… you are young, right?" Pazu asked.
"Yeah… I'm 15," the girl said.
"Yeah, you've got a lot of catching up to do. But try and forget about that… we'll accompany you and your friends," Pazu said.
"Thanks… I'm Mist, by the way," the girl said, curtseying.
"Nice to meet you," Lucita said.
Mist led the two dragons back to her friends, the Greil Mercenaries. Ike had accepted Mist's story (a story that was sure to exclude the dragon part), and Pazu and Lucita became Greil Mercenaries.
"Now all I need to know is what kind of weapons do you guys wield?" the Mia girl asked.
"Weapons?" Pazu asked in confusion.
"Sword, axe, lance, bow, knife, magic… laguz?" Mia asked.
"Oh… um, I've never actually held a real weapon before… though I do know a little about pick-axes. Perhaps we can start there?" Pazu asked.
"As for me… I've always enjoyed using a hunting bow…" Lucita said.
"Noted. We'll get you fitted for a warrior and a sniper, and train you accordingly. Meanwhile, we can use you to make contact with villages… trade services for gold, and gold for food, or maybe cut the middle man. You're fine with that, right?" Mia asked.
"…Fine, yes," Lucita said nervously.
"So, Pazu… you ready to learn about axes?" Titania asked, handing Pazu an Iron Axe. Pazu hardly felt its weight, and Titania took that as a sign that he'd be moving on to better axes quickly.
"Yeah…" Pazu said, looking up at Titania.
"First thing you've got to know… axes are at a disadvantage against swords, but an advantage against lances. The advantages are relatively minor, but if you've the choice between attacking a swordmaster or a halberdier…" Titania said.
"Interesting… there are dynamics like that?" Pazu asked.
"Well… when you boil down to the basics, fighting is a lot of picking and choosing the correct option against the correct foe. Sure, this Hammer is effective against Generals… but if I can hardly lift it, I'm not going to be doing a whole lot against her, am I? I could attack this swordmaster… but he's quite fast and would likely evade my every swing, so he'd be best left to Mia. One more enemy and this position is mine… but can I survive her attacks?" Titania said.
"Wow… you've got fighting down to quite a fine art… I was always told fighting was rough, useless and… well… yeah," Pazu said.
"Fighting's not for everyone. There are people who can't wield weapons effectively. But those people often have other skills, skills which might help them to avoid fighting altogether… to be honest, a more preferable outcome. All fights end with corpses, Pazu. It is important to remember that we must never lift our axe against someone who need not die, but at the same time, if it's someone who threatens innocents… but enough philosophy. This was supposed to be an axe lesson," Titania said.
"Right… we can discuss philosophies later. It was quite fascinating, hearing a new perspective," Pazu said.
"Nice to know," Titania said.
Mist and her boyfriend, Rolf, led Lucita away from the campsite, and to a relative clearing. Rolf pulled out a pair of bows, and handed one to Lucita. She looked at it, shivering, before putting it down.
"I'm sorry, Rolf…" Lucita said.
"Um, Rolf… could you give us a minute?" Mist asked. Rolf nodded, and headed a distance away. The *thud* *thud* of him practicing his archery sounded.
"Are you all right, Sheeta?" Mist asked.
"…I don't know… I've always been fine hunting… but…" Lucita said.
"…I understand. Back when I lost my mother's medallion… the enormity of what was going on struck me… I was taking lives, lives not unlike you or me… I haven't lifted my swords for a little under two years," Mist said.
"Really?" Lucita asked.
"But I'll never forget how to use them. I can't let my guard down. I will stand by my brother, my boyfriend, my friends in the Greil Mercenaries… if need be, I will make sure that I will not lose them the way I lost my father…" Mist said.
"You…" Lucita asked, awestruck.
"How often do you transform?" Mist asked.
"Honestly… in the five hundred years I've been married to Pazu, maybe once or twice, and only when our mines caved in. Sure, I think I was a little bit of a hot-head when I was young, but I matured a lot before I married Pazu. I don't think I've fought in over six hundred years," Lucita said.
"Wow… it's weird talking to people with such a dramatically different lifespan. You talk about five hundred years like someone like Titania would talk about ten or twenty," Mist said.
"…All right… I'll try. You'll only really be fighting beorc anyway… it's not like they'll live all that long anyway…" Lucita said.
"Yeah, that's… the ticket, I guess? Whatever helps you fight," Mist said.
A few months following the Laputas joining the Greil Mercenaries, Pazu found Lucita sitting on a cliff, far and away from the rest of their friends. She heard her sobbing softly, and decided to make his approach.
"Pazu… do you feel… odd… around the mercenaries?" Lucita asked.
"Odd? Well, kinda… there is the whole secret thing. But I like this bunch… they're nice beorc, Sheeta," Pazu said.
"Really? You think so?" Lucita asked.
"Well… Mist and Titania, definitely. The others certainly seem like all right fellows, but I'm a bit more reserved with them," Pazu said.
"Titania? Are you…" Lucita started.
"Jealous? Don't worry, Sheeta… we've been married for five centuries. I'm not about to dump you for a woman who's barely entered kindergarten," Pazu said.
"Thanks… sorry… it's just… I don't… like this much…" Lucita said, shivering.
"Neither do I. But until Romuska relaxes his draconian grip on our mine, this is the safer option," Pazu said.
"Safer… with a looming apocalypse… I'm scared, Pazu… I don't want this mess to be my fault…" Lucita said.
"It won't be. We'll make it out of this mess with our world intact, and we'll prove to all of Goldoa that they don't need to be scared of beorc and other laguz," Pazu said.
"…I wish I could be as optimistic as you, Pazu… for now… can I snuggle in with you?" Lucita asked.
"…Of course, Sheeta. You're my life," Pazu said, pulling Lucita onto his lap. Lucita wriggled and squirmed, before finding the sweetspot of comfort.
"…Do you want to do that again, this time in a warm tent?" Pazu asked. Lucita murmured a vague assent.