Caeldori

Caeldori landed with a large thud on soft grass. Her mind was foggy. "What happened? Where am I?" All she could remember was yelling at her mother about returning, but where were they returning too?

Caeldori opened her eyes to finding herself looking at glassy eyes of her...dead mother! She scrabbled up on the wet grass. "Mmmom?" she tentatively said, pushing the body. Everything that had happened can rushing back to her in crystal clear detail. A deep crushing sadness surrounded her heart, and slammed into her willpower. She collapsed over her mother's body and began sobbing. In the still sane part of her mind, she heard someone get up.

"Ugh." Asugi moaned. Caeldori tried to stifle her cries and get up to speak with Asugi. After pausing for only a moment, she collapsed again, wailing even louder.

"Hey," Asugi said, approaching her, putting a hand on her shoulder,"Are you okay?"

"No...no..none could see her crying like this. She had to put on a brave face and be the leader in this strange land…"

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Caeldori shrieked, whipping around to look at Asugi. All the blood vessels in her eyes were inflamed and tears stained her face. Asugi quickly back peddled to leave Caeldori to her mourning. In Asugi's haste, he tripped over something, only to be caught by Rhajat at the shoulders. "I got you love." she croned. Asugi was able to get on some better footing, only to see that what he had tripped over, was the body of Laslow.

"Wow, so they're dead." Asugi said, noting the body of Odin only a foot or so of Laslow.

"Yes. We need to get moving. Selena told me some things. This time is where they came from, roughly. The thing is, it's more likely that I under shot, rather than over shot. What I'm most worried about is someone finding their bodies, plus the lack of a clear cause of death. I already cracked the necks of Laslow and Odin, but I can't get to where princess is sobbing."

"How can you be so steely in the face of death?" Asugi asked, some fear seeping into his voice.

"You have no idea what I have seen." Rhajat said, her voice suddenly getting extremely serious,"Now do you have your shuriken" she continued, back in her normal tone.

"Um, I have a caltrop," Asugi said, pulling the sharp steel stick out of the folds of his clothes,"I found it while setting up the new caramel oven."

"That will do," Rhajat deadpan, grabbing the spike. She quickly began cutting up Laslow's face with it, not even flinching at the blood at all.

"What the F are you doing?" Asugi said.

Rhajat sighed,"I'm making it look like some really sadistic bandits jumped them. She said this while looking through Laslow's pockets. She came out with some golden coins, stamped with the face of a serene looking blond woman. There was a couple of bronze coins with the time dragon of time's symbol. Rhajat pocketed those. She then continued cutting up Laslow's face, until it was unrecognizable.

Rhajat moved over to Odin's body, and repeated the same process. Inside Odin's pockets, there were letters to Kargero and Ophelia, his wife and daughter. Laslow must of given Odin some letters to deliver, as there were letters for Orochi and Soeliel. Too bad they would never be delivered. Rhajat put those in her pocket too. She also marked up the birthmark on Odin's shoulder. This had just appeared, and oddly looked like the dragon of time's symbol.

"Gods, Rhajat," Asugi said, clearly disgusted,"why'd you do that?"

"You were a soldier too once, remember? It was only 8 years ago. We need to do what must be done." She slipped her book into the big supply pack on her back, and started walking toward where Caeldori was sobbing.

Caeldori had run out of tears, and was simply dry sobbing, basically hyperventilating. She felt a soft kick in her side and looked up to see Rhajat standing over her. "Move it, princess." she said to Caeldori. Caeldori silently backed away from the body and sat on the bottom half of her legs. Rhajat flipped Selena onto her back and snapped her neck with the heel of her boot. Caeldori cringed and looked away. When she cringed she saw the bloody bodies of Laslow and Odin. When she looked back, she saw Rhajat poised over Selena, caltrop in her hand. Caeldori closed her eyes for the rest of the process.

Caeldori felt a hand pushing at her shoulder. She opened her eyes to see Rhajat standing over her.

"Come on, princess," Rhajat said,"we need to get to the river." Caeldori was so crushed by grief, she simply followed Rhajat mutely. Asugi walked up to his wife,"So...why are we heading to the river?" he asked.

"So we look at pitiful as possible and match our story." Rhajat replied. Asugi looked confused, but Rhajat didn't elaborate.

When they reached the river Rhajat put her pack on the ground and jumped in, clothes and all. After only a few seconds, she came out soaking wet, shivering. Asugi followed her in, but Caeldori just stood there, grief in her eyes. Rhajat pushed her in. The river was shallow enough that Caeldori could lie face down, with her back still above the water. Water and sand filled her mouth. The pegasus rider spit out the sand and climbed out. The trio now looked extremely pitiful, their clothes mostly soaked.

"What was that for?" Caeldori asked Rhajat, clearly upset.

"It's for our story. Now nobody talk, and just follow me. I see a town up ahead." she replied.

When they reached the town, they were stopped a guard at the gate. "Halt," he said,"No Plegians aloud."

"What are you talking about?" Rhajat said. She quickly added a 'sir' at the end.

"What do you think?" he said,"with clothes like those," he said pointing to Rhajat's soaking clothes,"you got to be a dark mage. Dark magic is banned in Ylisse, but you should know that already. Go back to the hell hole you came from." he spat.

"Oh these," Rhajat said, looking at her clothes,"these are...circus clothes. Yeah, I'm in the circus. I'm an acrobat. The reason they're so dark is because my act is jumping in from the shadows." The guard narrowed his eyes, but it seemed like he believed her story, somewhat. "We're in a traveling circus. We were attacked by bandits. They stole our caravan. They killed everyone except for us. My friend...Calidoria," Rhajat said, giving a fake name for her and pointing toward Caeldori,"lost her mom." With this the posture of the guard relaxed.

"Okay," he said,"go ahead. You can stay in the chapel for a while."

The trio entered the walled town, starting their new life in this new land.