A Phil back story.

The three songs for this fic are: Peachcake's "I Fell In Love With You While Listening To My Favourite Morrissey Album', 'Stop Acting Like You Know More About the Internet Cafe Than Me' and Cold War Kid's 'Tell Me In The Morning.'


She sighed and began to run a little faster. The hoarse shouts of bandits, the clanging of metal and the 'twang' of arrows had filled the formerly quite forest. The sorceress, clad in a revealing outfit that consisted of a leather bikini and a long black cape, began to speed up, her footsteps somehow loud in her ears despite the explosion ahead of her.

The woman paused and looked for a good place to jump out and announce herself. No, that tree was too short. Those rocks? Again, too short. Could I jump out of those bushes, confront the bandits, save whoever they were attacking and get a reward? Perfect.

She grinned and began to creep towards the bushes.

Now, the scene break. (for great justice)


Meanwhile, the bandits were indeed attacking someone, though that person didn't exactly need rescuing. Indeed, bandits were being thrown about, rusty swords and arrows dodged and loud speeches were conducted.

The aforementioned loud speeches did little damage to the bandits besides weird-ing them out and making them doubt the sanity of the large young man they had jumped. The bandits, incorrectly guessing that the guy in the plain clothes and armour had money on him, began to retreat further into the woods. The last stragglers continued to fight vainly, swinging their swords about and sending their last arrows towards the muscular man.

He easily dodged again and began another speech. As he punched another bandit into a nearby tree, he began solemnly launched into another long speech about honest work, kindness and justice. As the young man began to get to his favourite part (the kindness and justice in honest work) another voice rang out, this one much higher pitched.

"Dammit! Why did it have to be this bush?"

The cursing was soon followed by the sound of breaking branches and twigs, then more cursing, then murmuring. the murmuring was followed by another curse, then the yell of 'Fireball' followed by more cursing and trampling of bushes.

The bandits and large man stopped their fighting and speeches and looked at the clump of foliage that was half burnt and, most importantly, full of thorns. As they turned to glance at each other, bewildered and half convinced that it was some kind of attack that the other had planned, the owner of the high pitched voice stepped out of the shadows and thorny bushes.

The sorceress smiled, sure that they were in complete awe of her. And why shouldn't they be, she reasoned, trying to avoid clumps of what could only be poison ivy, I'm not someone who can be easily ignored. She smiled, flashed the amazed/shocked bandits a victory sign and began to laugh.

"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOH."

Everyone, even the young man, began to cover their ears and moan. The inhuman cackling filled the air, and added with the moaning, made the monks in the nearby village run for the temple to pray for the end. Of the laughing or their lives, no one; not even the monks, knew.

Grimacing, one of the bandits, launched an arrow towards the woman, intent on stopping the horrible sound. She easily dodged it, did a back flip and managed to land besides the man she was supposed to rescue. He stared at her amazed as she laughed easily and grinned at him.

"Hey there, big guy."

The 'big guy' continued to look at her, mouth wide open.

She rolled her eyes. Men.

"What? Too shocked by my beauty to reply properly?" She slipped her hair back, still smiling, although wryly this time.

"How did you learn to laugh like that?" His mouth was still wide open and she had to resist smacking him.

She rolled her eyes again and hoped that this guy had some decent money on him. Those thorns had been painful and she might have stepped in (sat in) some poison ivy.

"Nevermind that. Just go wait," she pointed towards the bushes, "over there."

He shrugged and walked over to the shrubbery, easily avoiding the weeds and poisonous plants. The sorceress gritted her teeth and focused on her magic. A few nice simple Flare Arrows would be enough to defeat most of the nasty smelling bandits. And if any continued to attack, she could always throw a Gaav Flare their way. Overkill, she had decided long ago, was the only way to kill.

As the disguised prince (yes, prince) stood behind the sorceress, a bandit crouched, hidden in the non-thorny bushes the sorceress had originally thought were the dangerous ones. He re-adjusted his bow, knocked an arrow,and began to pull the string back. He let the arrow fly as the woman let loose her Flare Arrows.

The young man, unscathed by thorns or any blows the bandits had tried to inflict on him, was the only one to notice the arrow headed for the scantily clad woman.

"Duck." He managed to yell as the arrow narrowly missed her.

She turned to face the bandit, beginning to mouth the words to a spell when the 'rescued' man tackled the bowman. He outweighed the man by quite a bit and was as angry as a bull being teased by alarge red circus tent. The bandit went down, smashing the bow and several bones.

The sorceress, wide eyed, began to walk towards the two. Her spell had already fizzed out. When she reached them, the larger man had wrestled the bandit to the ground and was reciting another speech. It was her turn to grimace.

"I think that's enough."

He paused, looked up at her, noticing how little her outfit left to the imagination, and stood up and blushed. The bandit, squashed and pain ridden, crawled away from the crazy people who had managed to defeat his gang.

"Hello, Fellow Justice lover," The young man beamed at her.

Justice lover? What the hell...? She sighed once more and gave him a weak wave and smile. He seemed nice enough. But, some things were bothering her, and not just the obnoxious speeches.

"What were you doing out here?" she rattled off more questions, "And what was with the speeches? And how did you defeat those guys? And what's my reward for saving your ass?"

He continued to beam at her, though his smile diminished slightly.

"Well, you see Miss..."

Sigh "Naga."

He grinned, liking her name and unpretentious way of speaking, liking even her attitude and outfit. She sure was different.

"Miss Naga, I'm on a training mission. There's a village up ahead that needs my help with a group of evil demons that have been terrorizing the poor villagers. As a defender of the good, I must..."

Naga began to ignore him, already wishing that he'd just shut up.

"...and the heavens demand that I defeat evil, using words and persuasion, and if I must, my fists. I will do whatever it takes to further the cause of justice, even if I have to break my vow of pacifisism..."

She sighed, wishing she had just continued on her way.

"...justice. As for you reward.."

Naga's eyes snapped open, awakened from her light doze.

"..I'm afraid I don't have any money on me. I spend it all on my trip." Still cheery, not noticing the sorceress's left eye twitching, the disguised royalty continues to ramble.

"But,when we get to the village, I'll be able to buy you dinner.."

The leather-garbed woman's eye twitched further.Is this jerk actually trying to hit on me? After all that? She began to recite another spell.

"...the mayor there said my stay there would be free. As would all my expenses, of course, I'd never want toabuse that privilege."

Naga grinned, spell and bad feelings forgotten. All expenses paid? She had gotten her reward after all. Maybe this was her 'just' reward.

"And, I could pay for your stay as well. You could help me defeat those evil creatures!" He paused and looked at her, hoping that she would agree to go with him. He was,well, intrigued.

She appeared deep in thought. A free stay in a decent inn and a nice meal? That would make all this worth it. Naga grinned and shook his hand.

"It's a deal, Mister...?"

Relieved and happy, the man smiled "It's Phillionel, but you can call me Phil."

"Alright," She nodded, though not quite liking how eager he seemed. What a creep..Sigh. What a girl has to go through just to get a decent meal...Where's my prince charming on a white horse? "Did you walk all the way through the forest, Phil?"

"Nope, my horse...,"He whistled and a large, brilliant white horse stepped out behind several dark tree. It snorted and shook it's large head.

"That's my horse, Flaming Justice," he whistled again and the horse came trotting towards the two.

Naga's eye twitched, feeling a headache coming on. Man, there goes my dream. At least he isn't a prince...Small comfort, but it helped. She smiled weakly at Phil, hoping this trip wasn't going to be too painful.