Author's Note: I'm so sorry about not updating the story until now! But on the upside, this chapter is long, really long. It'll introduce a few more of characters (although Zefiris, Seness and Eirote will sadly not make personal appearances until a little bit later) and hopefully give a bit more background about the characters' relationships to one another. I hope you'll enjoy!


Chapter 3: Morning Medleys

"WINIA! WAKE UP ALREADY!" Pacifica was crouching over her friend's seemingly lifeless body, trying to penetrate the thick barrier of pillows and blankets that Winia had erected around her head in order to protect her ears. "WI-NI-A!"

Pacifica's brilliantly blue eyes were alight with annoyance at Winia's stubborn refusal to acknowledge her, but they also displayed traces of concern; Pacifica had been yelling and gently shaking her friend for a good twenty minutes already, but Winia had remained positively comatose throughout the whole thing. Why didn't she wake up? Perhaps she was sick, but Winia's forehead didn't seem hotter than normal and Raquel didn't think that she was ill, either. So what was wrong with her?

"Is she still not awake, Pacifica?" Raquel's head suddenly appeared through the opening of the girls' tent. The scene that met the senior Casull would, under normal circumstances, have brought a smile to her face, but this morning was far from normal. By her own admission, Winia liked to rise to the first rays of morning sun, but today she blankly refused to leave her blanket cocoon. While Raquel was worried about the young woman, she didn't sense illness of natural (or magical) origin.

"No, Raquel-nee. I've really tried to wake her up, but all she does is to sigh a lot and to murmur something about axes." Pacifica looked up at her sister, while scratching the back of her head and wrinkling her nose in frustration. "But she doesn't seem sick, so—"

"I'm alright." The muffled voice from underneath the pillows sounded darker than usual. "I'm just a bit tired, there's no reason to—"

"Winia, come on! It has been hours since sunrise, sleepy-head." Pacifica wasn't a very patient girl, so she started to pull on Winia's blankets with renewed resolve once life-signs were received from inside the bundle. She noted Winia's squeal of protest with satisfaction. Ah, finally, result! "Get up, already! I said, GET UP!"

"Pacifica, please, it's too early! It's still just morning." Winia begged her friend to give back the blanket and to leave her in peace for just a little while longer. Five minutes would be enough. "Please?"

"Humph. But I've been awake for hours and hours already, because of Shannon-nii's terrible singing!" Pacifica's usually cheerful face grew a shade darker at the memory of the series of horrendous, broken tunes that had interrupted her wonderful dream about dancing omelettes. "Honestly, there's a reason why he doesn't speak much, you know. I didn't have a choice but to get up! Besides, since you were still sleeping and Raquel-nee was out sensing, I had to cook breakfast."

"Pacifica, you cooked breakfast?" Winia's eyes immediately flew wide open. Pacifica only meant well, but her cooking skills definitely left quite bit to be desired. They had all noted that during yesterday's dinner. But Pacifica was royalty after all, wasn't she? So maybe she wasn't supposed to know how to cook?

"Yes, I did. Someone had to." Pacifica looked questioningly at Winia, who suddenly seemed very much awake. She couldn't quite figure out what had startled her, but the main thing was that her friend finally had woken up. "Why?"

"Oh, um, it's nothing," Winia lied with the best of intentions, grateful that a pillow still partially covered her face. "Really, it's nothing. Pacifica."

"But now that you mention it, Chris is the only one who's eating. The others said that they weren't hungry. Even Shannon-nii, who'll eat just about anything..."Pacifica knitted her fair eyebrows together when she realized that there might be a reason why the entire Obstinate Arrow unit had fled the scene as soon as she proudly announced that breakfast was served. "You don't think that it has something to do with yesterday's dinner, do you?"

"Eh..." Winia felt incredibly stupid when she couldn't think of anything more intelligent to say.

"That's it, isn't it? Oh, that does it! Where is he?!" In a fit of blonde rage, Pacifica flew to her feet and stormed out of the tent, pushing past her sister to hunt down her brother. Shannon-nii, that... that jerk! He had some real explaining to do! He knew how hard she tried and dinner really hadn't been that bad!

"Pacifica, she..." Winia pushed herself up on her elbow, looking at Raquel questioningly. "Is everything going to be alright?"

"Oh, don't worry about Shannon." The mage smiled down on the younger woman reassuringly, while quietly wondering whether or not she should break up the brawl that was sure to follow Pacifica's sudden exit. Raquel could never quite understand the complex relationship between her sister and brother, but despite of all of the pointless fighting and loud bickering, they loved each other and that was all that mattered. "I'm sure that he will be just fine."

But Winia wasn't convinced. Although Shannon undoubtedly was a brave and very accomplished swordsman – even Chris had admitted that Shannon Casull was one of the best he had ever seen – his little sister was a formidable force when angry.

Raquel's kind smile froze ever so slightly when the morning peace was shattered by the unmistaken ruckus caused by the two arguing Casulls. She sighed inwardly; Raquel had since long accepted her role as the mediator in their various conflicts and from the sound of it, Shannon was in desperate need of reinforcements.

"Maybe I should go and check on them..." And with those words, the oldest Casull went off to resolve the fight before every bounty hunter, soldier, priest and Peacemaker in the kingdom was attracted to their location by the noise alone.

Once alone, Winia pulled herself up so that she was sitting upright among the confused heaps of blankets and pillows, rubbing the last remnants of sleep from her eyes. It would be impossible to go back to asleep now, especially with all that commotion outside. Shannon and Pacifica sure knew how to be loud, but Winia was strangely comforted by the sound of their voices; it had always been so quiet at the inn, and the siblings' good-natured squabbling reminded her that there were people around her and that she wasn't alone. Winia didn't quite know how to express that feeling, but it felt nice. Better than nice, even; somehow, it made her feel as if she belonged.

She suppressed a yawn as she staggered to her feet and started to pull on her clothes.

Winia hadn't meant for it to get so late, but both she and Leo had lost track of time. When they finally realized just how long they had been on the cliff, deep in their own thoughts, they had immediately headed back to camp. Leo had waved a silent goodnight before he disappeared into the tent he shared with Shannon, but she had lingered before turning towards the tent where she knew that Raquel and Pacifica were sleeping.

A certain someone had caught her eye.

Chris.

The Obstinate Arrow commander had been sitting by the dying camp fire, wrapped in his dark cloak and propped up against a tree. She had cautiously walked a little closer to him, unsure if he were awake or not; his eyes were hidden behind his thick fringe, which had fallen forward with his lightly bowed head. But his deep and rhythmical breathing had told her, to her amazement, that Chris was sound asleep.

Really, her discovery shouldn't have been very startling, since even Chris needed to sleep – he was only a human being, after all. But it had been the first time that she had seen him sleeping.

Winia had taken a deep breath, and before her better judgement had a chance to catch up with her, she had crouched down next to him. It was the closest she had been to him since the Glass Canyon incident.

She had looked at the sleeping face with wonder – this was a side of Chris that she had never seen before. He seemed so unguarded, almost serene. It had been an astonishing contrast to his reserved, waking self. But she had surprised even herself with her next observation: in the faint light of the still glowing embers, Chris had looked almost vulnerable.

But she had soon been given a sharp reminder that although he may have appeared serene and vulnerable, he certainly wasn't. His left hand had been securely gripped around the handle of his battle-axe, so even when asleep, Chris seemed ready to defend himself against an enemy's attack at a mere heartbeat's notice.

The determination with which he seemed to clutch his weapon had saddened her. Did Chris go through each day of his life feeling threatened? Afraid?

But she supposed that someone, who had been in the military for as long as Chris, was bound to have adopted some rather strange habits. She wished that she could ask him about it, but Winia knew that in the morning, his defences would be up once more and all traces of the sleeping, peaceful being by the fire would be carefully erased from existence. But still, she couldn't help but wondering why.

She had quietly walked towards her own tent deep in thought.

After carefully stepping over Pacifica, who had been sprawled out over more than her share of the tent, Winia had settled down under her own blanket. Her head had still been filled with thoughts about Chris, but she had finally drifted off to sleep just as someone, probably Pacifica, mumbled something about eggs.

The next thing she remembered was the insistent call of an irritating voice, which was mercilessly tearing through her dreams about a certain axe-wielder. Winia had tried her best to block the sound with her own pillow and also Raquel's for good measure, while wondering if this was some kind of delayed retributive punishment for rousing Leo so harshly from his nap the previous evening.

As Winia blinked at the soft sunlight that enfolded her as soon as she walked out of the tent, she wondered if said friend had fared any better from the late night than she. But when she finally picked him out from among the people sitting around the fire with pained expressions on their faces, her findings were as unsettling as they were conclusive: Leo looked tired, really tired.

And it was all her fault.

"Here!" chirped a voice enthusiastically. "It's breakfast!"

"Th-Thanks, Pacifica."

Winia only hesitantly accepted the hot bowl that Pacifica had unceremoniously shoved into her hands. Now, Winia had seen her fair share of odd-looking dishes in her days, but she was fairly certain that she didn't recognize the lumpy concoction in front of her. Or if it was edible, even. But the good manners instilled in her by her uncle and the proud smile on Pacifica's face prevented her from asking what 'it' was.

"No problem! There's a lot left, so eat up!" Pacifica beamed at her newly woken friend, but turned towards the rest with a significantly grimmer expression on her face. "And that goes for all of you!"

A barely audible collective groan escaped the small group by the camp fire, and the blonde girl turned her back on them with an indignant huff. It was humiliating how they had deemed her cooking so bad that they rather flee than eat. But luckily for him, her stupid brother had finally seen reason after their little argument, and somehow convinced the others to return for breakfast. Shannon-nii had, however, forced her to promise that Winia would cook lunch and dinner, to which she had agreed, albeit grudgingly.

Pacifica peeked into the cooking pot with satisfaction: it looked just right. Silly Raquel-nee, who had offered to conjure up those mini-Mr. Soopys to assist her! Pacifica had refused any help to her sister's obvious dismay, but now she was glad that she had – preparing oatmeal really wasn't all that difficult at all! The success had given her new confidence in her budding skills; the small matter of the not-so-successful dinner last night was obviously just a little hiccup in her progress. So Pacifica happily decided that asking Winia if she could help with dinner wouldn't be breaking her promise to Shannon-nii. Well, not technically, anyway.

-#-

"Casull, kindly remind me of why we're back here."

Dennis' low growl contained the promise of bodily harm as he addressed Shannon, who was picking in his bowl with his spoon, but, like everyone else, didn't dare to put it down.

Only fear and good manners prevented Dennis from leaving again, but he wanted to make it perfectly clear to Shannon Casull that the trickery was not appreciated and that revenge would be swift and merciless. Dennis didn't like to whisper, since it greatly reduced the dramatic effect of threatening someone, but he didn't want to attract Pacifica's attention either, oh no. Contrary to an annoyingly long-lived misconception, Dennis was no fool; he was certain that the Providence Breaker would force more so-called "breakfast" on him if he did.

But when Shannon Casull stubbornly refused to acknowledge him, Dennis turned to his fellow Arrows for support. "Fafal?" he urged.

"'Tactical deliberations', I believe they were called."

The redhead's whisper was strangely monotonic before she demonstratively raised her spoon and let the grey lumps fall back into her bowl to a series of splashing sounds.

"Yes, I distinctly remember something along those lines." Dennis' eyes narrowed, but they didn't leave Shannon's face even for a moment, and Shannon was beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable under the intensity of the glare. "However, do you see anything here that could be useful for tactical deliberations, Fafal?"

"I certainly don't, Dennis."

Now that Fafal's eyes were directed towards him as well, Shannon began to feel quite uncomfortable.

Raquel noticed how both Dennis and Fafal were staring daggers at her brother, and while she agreed that Shannon did bear some of the blame for their little predicament, Raquel felt that it was her sisterly duty to defend him. Besides, Pacifica had worked very hard to cook breakfast, although she had to admit that both she and Shannon probably had built up a certain 'tolerance' against their sister's culinary efforts over the years, in more ways than one. "Now, why don't we all just calm down a little bit and—"

"Do you, Jill?" Dennis ignored the mage altogether, and Raquel decided that it was best and safest to simply let Nature run its course. Shannon would reappear relatively unharmed from whatever Dennis had planned for him. Raquel wasn't worried.

"No", was the curt answer from the normally calm and soft-spoken seer.

"Nor do I." Dennis was now grinning evilly at him, and Shannon felt positively uncomfortable. "Casull, I think we should have a little talk after this wonderful meal."

Shannon actually relaxed when Dennis finally delivered his challenge, even though the man had taken his sweet time about it; Shannon had never been particularly appreciative of being stared at by people he hardly knew. But while he had no doubts about his supremacy in battle, Shannon didn't exactly cherish the idea of facing Fafal, Jill and Dennis first thing in the morning – and especially not on an empty stomach. After all, they were all former members of the Royal Special Forces and had been part of some special task force for who knew how long. And if his defeating of the axe-boy had told him anything, it was that he could expect an Obstinate Arrow to be both skilled and persistent.

Shannon sighed. As much as he disliked turning down a challenge, especially one which he felt fairly certain that he would win, he recognized the rare instances when fighting would just be pointless. This was one such instance: they had nothing to gain from turning against each other, particularly not when the challenge in question stemmed from something as stupid as poorly prepared breakfast.

Besides, the morning promised to develop into a beautiful day, he had slept well and woken up fully rested, both of his sisters were within an arm's reach once more, Pacifica was smiling and simultaneously managing to irritate the life of out him like the annoying little brat she had always been, Seness had unexpectedly come to their rescue in the furious battle against the Peacemakers earlier and Zefi had even joined them for dinner the night before. In simpler terms, Shannon felt more relaxed than he had for a very long time. And with the exceptions of the damned prophecy and subsequent multiple attempts made on Pacifica's life, the inedible breakfast and the death glares he was currently receiving from three Obstinate Arrows, everything was just dandy and he wouldn't let a stupid fight ruin the peace.

So Shannon just muttered, "Give me a break. Look, I made a deal with her. We eat her breakfast and Winia cooks lunch and dinner."

Dennis merely growled something incoherent, while Fafal and Jill looked back into their bowls in silence, carefully contemplating that which had been said; as much as the three Arrows wanted to, they couldn't question Shannon's agreement with his sister. After all, thanks to him, they would now get two delicious meals for the price of one, if horrible, breakfast.

It's for the greater good, Dennis told himself as he hesitantly dipped his spoon into the depths of his bowl, caught something lumpy, closed his eyes and swallowed.

-#-

"Good morning." Winia sat down next to Dennis, but since he seemed preoccupied with glaring at Shannon, she turned her full attention to the person to her left.

"Uhm, Winia..." Leo's foggy brain instructed his lips to smile, but something went wrong along the way and the command succeeded in creating a comical grimace instead. "Good morning to you, too."

Winia felt a sting of fresh guilt at the sight of Leo's sleep-deprived eyes, which were peeking through from behind his floppy fringe.

"I'm sorry for dragging you into the woods yesterday. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be half-asleep right now."

"Oh, but I assure you that I'm perfectly alright." Leo did his best to sound as cheerful as usual. But it proved rather difficult due to the lack of sleep and Pacifica's breakfast, which was slowly making its way down his throat. He would rather face a thousand foes than in any way injure his beloved's feelings, but even Leo had to admit that her cooking could be better. But having said that, he would never refuse anything she gave him.

"Oh..." Winia's voice trailed off into complete silence and a slight frown appeared on her forehead.

"Winia?" Leo nudged her discreetly with his spoon. "Is there something wrong? Winia?"

But when his friend remained unresponsive even after a more forceful nudge, Leo gave up and followed her gaze. As expected, it landed on a lone figure, separated from the rest of the group and pacing back and forth in an unusually agitated manner.

Christopher Bailaha.

Leo merely shook his head.