Mage's Confrontation

by Shadray

The way Erk and Serra met each other in the game wasn't exactly real. It was a fake — an edited version of the real thing. What, then, REALLY happened on that day? Well, let's just say, deceit, maneating bears, whipping, and one VERY unhappy escort.

Author's Note- This one-shot is basically my version of how the beginning to Erk's quest with Lyn started. You may find that the few characters within this fic might be a bit different from the way they were in the game, because I purposely made them that way. I wanted to add my own little twist here.

Summary- The way Erk and Serra met each other in the game wasn't exactly real; it was a fake—an edited version of the real thing. What, then, REALLY happened on that day? Well, let's just say, deceit, man-eating bears, whipping, and one VERY unhappy escort.

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Mage's Confrontation, by Shadray

"Are we lost?"

"No, don't worry; we're fine."

"You sure? I feel like I've seen that same boulder three times now. We aren't going in circles, are we?"

Erk shook his head, but he really wasn't so sure. The boulder did look a bit familiar…. But he didn't want the lovely woman behind him to be troubled with this; therefore, he kept quiet. After all, he was probably just a few paces off track—nothing to worry about.

"Well if you say so, I'll believe you," the woman sighed in her dreamy sort of voice, her hair flowing backwards with the wind.

Erk smiled. He had been so anxious to help this priestess find her way to Ostia that he hadn't thought twice about how confident he was about getting there. But whatever—we'll be there in a few minutes, he told himself inwardly.

The autumn leaves beneath Erk's and the priestess's feet crunched continually as they trudged on, enduring the chilly breeze blowing by and the occasional flight of birds from various nearby trees. Fall had rolled by before anyone knew it, and now the atmosphere was lacking its normally beautiful qualities.

"So, have you been escorted through these woods before?" Erk asked, thinking conversation was the best way to ease the awkwardness going on between them.

"Not exactly, no. You see, I've normally been lead another way." She paused to step over a log lying in her way. "But I suppose it doesn't matter. Any way gets the job done."

"Oh," Erk murmured, now growing less and less confident with his escorting ability.

"Why? Have you escorted anyone through here before?" She didn't sound skeptical, but merely curious.

"Er, well—" He didn't want to lie, so he avoided the question. "So, if you don't mind answering, why are you going to Ostia anyway, ma'am?"

Either the priestess didn't notice that he had changed the subject or she didn't particularly mind, for she only shrugged and said, "Please, call me Ella. And I'm going there to meet with Father, of course. I normally visit him every autumn, for that is the time of year when it isn't too hot or cold to travel. Usually, I spend no more than a week before returning; can't stay away from home too long, you see."

"Then—you'll be needing another escort on your way back?"

She considered the thought. "Yes, I suppose so."

Erk saw his chance to meet this stunning woman again, and hastily took it.

"Well, how about I come by your father's home a week from now to pick you up and guide you home?" he suggested hopefully, momentarily taking his eyes off the path before him to see her reaction.

This, too, she considered for a moment, tilting her head slightly to the side. She evidently hadn't yet gotten anyone to lead her back home, as she smiled and said, "Sure, why not?"

Erk grinned at Ella, cheering for himself internally.

They continued in silence for a couple of minutes, during which Ella must have realized they were making absolutely no progress. "Pardon me, Erk, but erm…I still see that same boulder," she said, after passing it for the sixth time.

He saw it too. "Curse that thing," he muttered under his breath, kicking the oversized rock with his right foot—which resulted immediately in a terrible pain in his big toe. "OUCH!"

Urgh—why didn't he have a map? Or at least a sense of where in the world he was going? He had been a fool for agreeing to do this. Just why did he always have to be so stubborn? Now he had gotten both himself and Ella lost in the forest; they weren't going to have any food for days, not to mention water, entertainment, or…

"Sex…?" Ella finished quietly.

"WHAT?"

"Sorry, I was just wondering—what sex do you think that bear is?" She pointed ahead, to a large four-legged, furry mammal, which Erk had not noticed.

The bear was currently busy treading along the ground warily, as if hunting for prey. As it did so, Erk's stomach did a particularly unpleasant lurch; this was one more mistake he had made: He had led her to a real, live hunting animal—and an exceptionally vigorous one, at that. He gulped.

Erk grabbed Ella's arm and flung both her and his own self behind the protection of a thick, towering tree.

No one made a noise for a good thirty seconds, afraid that the tough animal would tear them apart if it heard a peep out of them—but the bear made no sign of recognizing them. It merely continued to rummage around for prey, crunching more and more leaves on the ground as it did so; luckily, the bear was far enough away to not search in their vicinity.

Then, when it seemed as if the animal were too preoccupied to notice, Ella turned around to make sure they were a good distance from it and whispered, "There's a saying around here…. It says that in this area and around this time of year, only the male bears eat humans."

So that's why she wanted to know its sex... "Listen, I don't know if it's a male or female, and we can't risk our lives guessing," Erk responded. He heaved a deep sigh. What if the thing saw them? They would surely be chomped on. With a sudden air of courage, Erk whispered gravely, "I'll take care of it."

And with that, he leaped from behind the tree and faced the animal, which saw him immediately growled menacingly. The bear took a few slow paces toward Erk, who quickly realized it was a male. Oh. Great.

He didn't want to hurt an innocent being, but Erk knew he had to—unless, of course, he wanted to live the remainder of his life with his head ripped off…

Which is NOT about to happen, he thought, closing his eyes

The bear broke into a run, ready to swallow the type of prey it had been searching all along for. Erk thrust out his hand, fingers outstretched, and concentrated—

And a quick lightning bolt hurled from the skies toward the fearsome animal, stopping it in its tracks and causing its body to jolt under its overwhelming power. The lightning subsided, and behind a thin cloud of dust that had risen up, was a motionless bear, curled up on the floor.

"YOU DID IT!"

Ella came sprinting up to him, and before Erk knew what was happening, he was being glomped. "Thanks so much, Erk! You saved our lives!" Ella cried, embracing him tightly in her half-hug, half-tackle. "What was that?"

"Just Anima magic," Erk explained quietly.

"Well, you certainly are good at it!"

Well, naturally he had to be. He had been born with the gift of Anima magic, but had had to practice controlling it for the past ten years. People didn't realize these days how exhausting it was to train magical powers.

"Thanks."

Without much other conversation, the two walked on. This time, instead of ending up walking in circles again, Erk backtracked to the area where he entered the forest and took a different route. This backtracking took a couple of hours, for they were previously very deep in the forest.

Ella looked around, completely trusting the judgment of the man leading her. This new pathway would most definitely lead the way to Ostia.

Right?

She shrugged. Erk was a handsome man; she secretly wouldn't really mind staying out in the forest a bit longer with him before finding the right path. Of course she didn't voice this feeling; it was rather awkward—

She suddenly stopped moving. She could swear she had just seen and heard a rustle in the bushes. She peered closer—but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Supposing it was her imagination, the priestess moved on, trying to catch up with Erk, who was now plenty of paces ahead.

But after she stepped forward three times, she stopped again; this time she definitely had noticed a rustle in the bushes.

What…is…?

Perplexed, she moved to the bush and checked behind it, but once again saw nothing.

Weird.

Once more, the woman continued forward, but at a faster pace than usual—she felt she was being watched. Unfortunately, it was this faster pace that caused her to stumble on a stick that lay out in front of her. She was now lying on the ground, a great distance behind Erk, who had not noticed.

Suddenly, two hands surged forward and grabbed the woman.

"Hey! What—!"

She tried to scream, but the one of the hands covered her mouth so that the only sound ensuing was "MMMMM! MMMMMMM!"

A small girl with pink hair shoved Ella behind the bush she had been hiding in.

"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!"

But Erk couldn't hear it. And a moment later, Ella was knocked out.

The girl smiled to herself. She took the clothes off the priestess's body and hastily put them over her own, making her look just like Ella from a distance.

She quickly hurried to catch up with Erk.

->->-

Erk frowned. He turned to Ella. "Are you sure you haven't been through this place before?" he asked desperately. "I think I found the right path, finally. I know it's a long journey, and it might be harder for you to endure if you haven't at least been through here at least once."

Ella's eyes shifted shadily. "Oh! Um…er…yeah! Sure, Erk!"

Huh? That was odd. Before, Ella had said she had taken other routes to Ostia. Why was she so quick to say otherwise now? Still, Erk found that even though the journey was sure to be long, he had the motivation to make it through. "Are you sure?" he asked her.

"Yep!"

But he had just noticed something. He narrowed his eyes; had Ella shrunk? He didn't remember her being so short—or so cheerful, for that matter. "Er, alright," he muttered uncertainly at last, deciding it was best to just proceed.

"Um, Erk? Where are you escorting me again?"

He stared at her. "Do you suffer from short-term memory?"

"Well, no—"

"But we've been talking about this journey the whole time!" he pointed out. "How could you not remember?" He was suddenly very skeptical of "Ella." He slowly stopped walking and turned to face the girl, who sheepishly grinned and waved.

He studied her face—and gaped.

No…it couldn't be….

"SERRA?"

"Aw, how'd you guess?" The girl chucked away the clothes that she had stolen from Ella. Erk continued to stare at her; he knew this girl from his own village, and did not exactly enjoy the time he spent with her. "It was my hair, wasn't it?" Serra asked.

Erk ignored this question and got right down to business. "Where is Ella?"

"Her?" She rolled her eyes."Oh, I took care of her a while ago."

Erk was beginning to anger. The lovely woman who he had begun to like—now replaced—by this—thing? Oh no, he would see about this.

"WHY?"

"Because! You're supposed to be my escort, Erk, not hers or anyone else's!"

He smacked his forehead. "How was I supposed to be your escort?" he said. "I distinctly remember agreeing to be hers, Serra. Only you would think that by killing Ella, you could take her place."

"I didn't kill her!" Serra exclaimed, appearing to be hurt by his words. "I only…knocked her out with an exceptionally large…mallet…?" Seeing the look on Erk's face, she hastily continued. "Besides, I do need an escort myself, you know. After all, a noblewoman like myself can't be seen without a proper escort."

"So I have to take you all he way to Ostia?" He had had the inspiration to take Ella there, but this girl was a whole other thing. Her appearance had completely eradicated any notion that he had to walk miles to Ostia. Now, he just wanted to implode.

"What are you mumbling about, Erk? You don't have any choice but to take both of us to Ostia, as it's the closest place from here. If you don't take us there, we'll be stuck on this terrible forest forever! The bears will surely devour me!"

"I'm not too sure I wouldn't mind that…"

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing…."

She eyed him. "So, you plan to continue the journey, then?" When he shook his head, Serra pulled out a long, flimsy rope-like substance from seemingly nowhere:

A whip?

"Will this change your mind?" she said, and raised the object high above her head. There was a deafening SMACK! noise that echoed about the forest, followed by a very shrill "OOUUUUUUUUCH! FINE, I'LL ESCORT YOU!"

Serra smirked.

"Good. Now lead the way, slave."

"Slave? I'm not your sla—"

SMACK.

"Alright, alright!" And with that, Erk mumbled something about him never escorting anyone again in his entire life, and proceeded forward, enduring multiple SMACK! 's along the way.

->->-

Clang.

Serra abruptly stopped. "What was that noise?"

Clang.

"…I think it's…the sound of swords making contact," Erk said quietly, rubbing the marks on his leg where the whip had hit, "which means we're finally exiting this forest. But we shouldn't go—"

"Let's go check it out!" Serra squealed, rushing forward to witness the fight up ahead.

Erk smacked his forehead again. He should've known Serra would be eager to get her butt kicked in a fight the first chance she got. Shaking his head pityingly, he slowly followed Serra to a wide-open battle site. Two groups of people were standing, carrying weapons threateningly and glaring at each other, as if daring one another to make the first move. The first group was a team of bandits, while the second was obviously a group of people who opposed the bandits. Out of the corner of her eye, a female warrior from the second group caught sight of Erk and Serra and immediately ran over to them.

"Hello," Serra greeting casually, waving a hand in the air. "Why are you fighting these bandits?"

"Oh, it doesn't matter," Erk swiftly interjected before the warrior could say a thing. "We should leave them to their battle, Serra."

"NO! I want to know what's happening!"

The female warrior from the second group of warriors nodded understandingly. "Well, hello, I'm Lyn. They've been following us for a long time—it's a long story, actually, but we need to defeat them and quickly move on. We need all the help we can get—"

But Erk could already see where this was going. "But we need to quickly move on, too. If you could just let us pass by—"

"No, no, no!" Serra seemed determined to argue with whatever he had to say, giving Erk the strong urge to "accidentally" strangle the girl and blame it on the warrior. "You're a mage, remember, Erk? You can fight with them!"

"He can?" the warrior said, her eyes bulging with excitement.

"No! I can't! Well I could, but, you see—"

"Erk, you are my escort, and I am your—well—master. You do as I say. And I say, 'Go help these people win their fight!' Oh, come on, Erk, be a gentleman!" Serra pleaded.

He considered for a minute, but Serra, for some reason, seemed to think he was being disobedient. She yanked out her whip and—

SMACK.

"Alright, I'll—"

SMACK.

"I'm going to—"

SMACK.

"I'M—"

SMACK.

"GOING—"

SMACK.

"TO—"

SMACK.

"I'M GOING, SERRA!"

"Oh," Serra said carelessly. "Well, come on, let's get to it!" And with that, she pushed a reluctant Erk toward the battle.

Oh, great. He frowned as he noticed an exceedingly burly bandit charging toward him out of the corner of his eye. Erk turned and got into a ready stance, ready to either kick some ass, or get his ass kicked.

And so began his quest with Lyn's group.

"Bring it on," he mumbled.