Chapter 2

Albel frowned at Cliff as the huge Klausian carried Fayt on his back towards Arias, where they were supposed to regroup with the others. He understood that Fayt couldn't walk because of the wound and the stitches, but for all the big man's bickering, wouldn't it have been easier to just hire a wagon? It would have been faster, too, come to think of it.

The town of Arias couldn't come fast enough for Albel, despite the fact that he had to take care of all the fighting, which mostly involved beating back strange things like vicious porcupines or the odd small dragon. Out of spite, Albel had kicked a tree and had literally glared the hornets away from himself with his anger at Cliff's bickering.

"Hey, Cliff!" called Mirage, the other blonde Klausian of the group, and the one with more brains, as far as Albel figured. She was nicely built as far a women went, and usually came up with decent battle strategies, but there were also times where she was, as he put it, just another dumb woman that grated on his nerves.

"Hey, guys." Cliff called. He practically dropped Fayt onto a nearby bench and plunked his bulk down on another. "Well, Fayt's out of commision for a while."

"Huh?" asked Sophia. She looked at Fayt, looking him up and down, until her mud-brown eyes came to rest on the splinted ankle. "Oh, what happened?" she cooed.

Albel tried to suppress a shudder. He hated that awful, sickly-sweet voice that the girl used any time she was trying to curry Fayt's favor or devotion. Something she never succeeded at, and Albel was sure it was because of that tone she used.

"It got cut." Fayt replied. "I'm not allowed to walk on it, so for the next while I'm afraid I'm not going to be of much use."

Pepitta Rosetti, a tan girl with white-blonde hair, walked over and gently petted Fayt's knee. "It's ok, Fayt. You just take it easy until your better, alright?"

"Thanks, Pepitta." Fayt smiled. Suddenly, his face twisted to one of pain. "Owch!"

Albel, without much thought, kicked a certain little bratty Menodix in the rump and sent him clear across the courtyard where they sat. "FILTHY LITTLE MAGGOT!" he shouted. "Touch him again and I'll break every bone in that scrawny, flea-infested body of yours and use your tail for a scarf!"

Roger hid behind Mirage and whimpered.

"What did he do to deserve that?" Cliff asked.

"Let's you get wounded and then get it poked at while it heals, you big ape." Albel replied. "We're wasting time."

He looked at Fayt, then knelt, hefting Fayt over his skinny shoulders like a fur scarf, and walked into Arias like nothing was wrong. The other just stared.

"Did something happen that we're not aware of?" Maria asked.

Cliff just shrugged.

`~`~`~`~O_O~`~`~`~`

Fayt blinked as he was sat down in his room at the inn. While it had looked like he was being carried like a sack of potatoes or someones prized fur, Albel had actually been quite careful with him getting him into the inn and up to the room."Thanks." Fayt said.

"For what, worm?" Albel asked. He took Fayt's foot and carefully pulled the boot off. "This isn't going to do you any good." he muttered, tossing the boot behind him, where it banged against the door and flumped to the floor.

"For getting me out of that mess." Fayt replied. "If Sophia looked at me with those 'poor you' eyes any longer I might have been sick."

Albel snorted in an effort to hide what was almost a laugh. He inspected Fayt's ankle wound, noting the bit of blood from when Roger had poked it. "Damned pest." he grumbled, undoing the bandage and re-setting the splint. He wound a new bandage to the injury, making sure to keep it secure. But he didn't let go of the foot.

"Um . . ." Fayt paused, bewildered. The look on Albel's face wasn't one of anger, hatred, or fury. It was one of someone who was trying to figure something out, despite the scowl.

The Glyphian male looked Fayt's food over, flexing his claw-hand slightly. An idea was forming, but it was going to take some work. The first thing would be to see just what could be done, and work with that. He flexed his hand again before letting go of Fayt's leg and sitting on his own bed across the small room from the Earthling.

"Um, Albel?"

"Hmm? What, maggot?" Albel asked.

"Thanks."

Albel raised an eyebrow. "What now?" he asked, dropping the derogitory terms.

"Taking care of my leg. I wouldn't have been able to do that myself."

Albel shrugged and lay down on his bed, staring up at the cieling. "You welcome." he mumbled as he rolled over, adding, "maggot" for good measure.

`~`~`~`~O_O~`~`~`~`

"So how are we supposed to get to Aquios now?" Sophia asked. "Fayt can't move in his condition."

Fayt rolled his eyes at her mock concern for his well-being. This argument had been going on for nearly a week, and he was sure that if it wasn't for Albel always being somewhere nearby, his injury would have been a lot worse off.

"Well, you turned down any ideas we've had." said Nel.

"Carrying Fayt is the most likely way we're going to get him to Aquios, but it'll also put whoever has him in danger, since they won't be able to defend themselves." Mirage pointed out.

"And the only two strong enough to carry him that distance are Cliff and Adray." added Maria, the other blunette of the party. Albel swore that she and Fayt were related somehow. How else could you explain two people with blue hair like that? And while Maria may be vain enough, Albel knew firsthand from having to help him at night, Fayt was naturally that color.

"We've seen what happens when Adray carries him just down the stairs." Sophia whined. "And Cliff's our best fighter after Fayt."

"So who would you suggest?" Pepitta asked. "Roger and I are too small to carry him."

Roger reached a hand towards Fayt's leg, only to pause as a hand grabbed his tail. As if on cue, Adray opened the door, and the little Menodix went flying out, followed by the lines, "Stay out there and freeze, maggot!" Adray closed the door, leaving Roger to try and find shelter from the rain he'd been tossed into.

"Maria and I certainly aren't carrying him." said Mirage.

"I'm not strong enough to." Nel added. "So that only leaves you or Albel. And you're even weaker than I am, so it would have to be our Ariglyph friend."

Albel gave her a look that said 'I'm not your friend'. He sighed, knowing already that the conversation was going to go in circles again, today, with nothing actually being decided upon. Taking the cloak Fayt wore on rainy days, he suddenly wrapped Fayt in it and hefted him over his shoulder again before starting to make his way outside.

"Hey!" Sophia shouted, giving chase. She had to duck back into the inn to grab her cloak before following the now-soaked Glyphian to a covered wagon, where Fayt was deposited.

"Tynave. Farleen. What are you two doing here?" Nel asked.

"We got a message saying we were needed to help get you to Aquios." Tynave replied.

"We were already on our way by, so we figured picking you up wouldn't be a problem." Farleen added.

Albel climbed into the back of the wagon and put his foot across the opening at the back, prohibiting anyone else from getting in.

Not that they could, anyway. The wagon was full of spring wheat and ores traded from Ariglyph. Just having Fayt and Albel in there filled the remaining space in the wagon.

Nel looked at the Glyphian, then back to the two Aquarian women in the wagon. "Alright. We'll march beside you, keep the wagon safe."

"Alright." nodded Farleen. With that, the wagon started the slow, rocking trip towards Aquios.

Fayt looked over at Albel, noticing that his wagon-partner was occupied with something, but because of the bags of goods surrounding them, he couldn't tell what. Outside the wagon, he could hear the others.

"Why's Albel in the wagon?" whined Sophia.

"To protect Fayt." Nel replied.

"I thought that's what we're doing slogging out here." said Maria.

"We're protecting the wagon." Mirage clarified. "Albel's Fayt's last line of defence, so to speak."

"Look at me!" crowed Roger from under the wagon, where he was clinging to part of the undercarriage. Right before they hit a bump and he was plastered in mud.

"Yeah, look at you." said Pepitta. "In need of a bath." She giggled and hopped up closer to the front of the wagon, where she could see where they were going better.

"Albel, what are you working on?" Fayt asked. No response. Albel kept working at it, sometimes making faces at whatever it was, and at other times scratching his head with the end of the pen (Fayt realized Albel had snitched his fountain pen). Whatever the Glyphian was working on, he seemed puzzled with it, and it vanished in his hip pouch before they stopped in Peterny for the night.

"Fayt." hummed Sophia. "I booked the rooms for tonight."

Albel hefted Fayt over his shoulder again and climbed out of the wagon. "Well then, wench. What room were we assigned?"

"I'm not rooming with you!" Sophia shouted.

Albel tried his hardest not to deck the girl. "I meant Fayt and myself, BITCH!"

"Your not rooming with him, either!" Sophia snapped.

"Yes, he is." Fayt argued from his place as Albel's new shoulder pauldron. "He's the only one that knows how to care for my injury, thank you."

Sophia pouted, and Albel knew how she'd wanted the rooms done. There was no way in heaven or hell (whichever one he'd go to, it would probably be hell) that he would EVER room with that red-headed Aquarian bitch. "Last room on the left, second floor." Sophia grumbled. She scowled after the pair as Albel headed into the inn. "Why can't I ever get to stay with Fayt?"

Nel stood beside her. "Because Fayt's the only one brave enough to spend the night with a homicidal maniac like Albel."

Sophia sighed.

Meanwhile, Fayt had found himself, once again, plopped neatly on a bed and having his ankle taken care of. He sighed, feeling completely useless. And then there was why Albel had been in the back of the wagon with him. He was certain that it was to work on something, but what? "Hey, umm, Albel . . ."

"Hmm?" Albel looked up from his bandagework. "What, maggot?"

"What were you working on in the back of the - Owch! - back of the wagon?" Fayt whimpered a little as Albel tightened the bandage.

The Glyphian snorted. "You'll see when we reach a decent forge in Aquios, worm." He wiped his forehead and stepped back, sitting on his own bed.

Fayt looked across the room in confusion. Had he just heard Albel sigh? The other man was undoing the buckles and hinges that held the gauntlet to his arm, and Fayt tried his best not to stare as the metal slid away to reveal a thin, burn-scarred arm and hand from about a third above the elbow all the way down his left arm. The gauntlet found it's way up onto the bedpost, and Albel lay back and pulled the covers over, his arm lying out in the open for Fayt to see by the moonlight.