Baelfael: The Disclaimer is in Chapter 3. If you have time to ask me why it's there and not in the first chapter, then you have time to go read it.

Also, would anyone be interested in looking at a sketch of Leon? I'm actually a pretty good cartoonist, and he's turned out well. Leon?

Leon: Review. Review. REVIEW. What? You're thinking it, I'm just saying it.

Sunfrost : Thanks for reviewing. Yes, Colette has her habits. But then again, so will most of the other characters, even me.

Baelfael: Well, since no more reviews have come in, let's continue!

Chapter 04 : The Clumsy Assassin (NOTE: Chapter is rated PG-13 for blood)
After resting at the Triet Ruins overnight, Colette checked out and they were ready to move on to the next seal. As Kratos had suggested yesterday, they were going to the coast to look for a boat to take them to Palmacosta. On the way, however, they stopped for lunch.
"Hey, Leon! This is pretty good!" Lloyd complimented, stuffing his face. "I had no idea you could make food!"

Leon shrugged, grinning. "Well, of course I can cook. You don't travel around the world with an empty stomach, you know."

Everyone else seemed to enjoy the food as well. However, Leon noticed Colette barely picking at her food. She was using a fork and was lightly poking the spaghetti. Leon sighed and walked over, silently so as not to be noticed. It worked, almost too well. "You don't like spaghetti?" he asked as he bent over her shoulder.

Colette shrieked lightly and jumped. Then, when she realized who it was, she calmed down. "Oh no, I like spaghetti!" she said cheerfully.

Leon stared at her for a moment. Then, he narrowed his eye. "Then explain why you haven't touched your plate."

Colette looked down at her plate. Indeed, it only looked different because it was swirled around a few times. She looked sheepishly back up at him and muttered, "Oh,... well, um..."

Leon's eye narrowed even more, nearly becoming a slit. "It's me, isn't it?" he prodded poutedly. When she tilted her head in confusion, he continued. "I'm a horrible cook." He covered his face with his forearm and started moaning in agony.

Colette started to panic. "Uh, no, really! You did a great job on it! Really!"

Leon stopped his writhing pain, lowered his arm, and grinned at her. "In that case, why aren't you eating it? You full already?"

Colette placed her hands on her stomach. "Um... yeah."

Leon shrugged. "If you say so." He walked over to Lloyd and Genis, the former finishing his plate.

"My compliments to the chef! How'd you cook this, anyway?" Lloyd asked, putting away the eating utensils.

"Red, we're in a desert. All I'd have to do is point our dishes up at the sun and, as I always say, 'let nature take it's course.'" Leon grabbed his sack from the ground and slung it over his shoulder. "Now where do we go?"

Kratos also was packing up. "We head east from here. If your map is correct, we'll be at the Ossa Trail before long."

Leon nodded. Lloyd had finished packing up and had joined the group. Colette eventually came as well, and soon the whole group was moving on.

Fairly quickly, the Chosen's group had managed to get to the Ossa Trail, and all of them were relieved at the sudden change in climate.

Leon was giving some pointers. "The one main problem in this area is the Bears."

Lloyd shrugged. "Bah. They're Bears; they can't be that tough."

Leon glared at the dual swordsman. "Red, perhaps you don't understand the seriousness of this matter."

"Don't call me Red!"

"These Bears are meaner, tougher, and they've got the roughest bear-hug that will be your displeasure to experience." He shivered. "Trust me. It is not a friendly bear hug.."

Genis looked around, slightly freaked about the Bears. "How do you know all this, anyway?"

"It's in the handbook, which I've written and published." As he spoke, Leon produced a small, thick book which read "WILDERNESS 101 : HOW TO AVOID MOTHER NATURE'S WRATH". "You can buy the trilogy for only 500 Gald. Shipping and actual cost calculated seperately."

Genis sipped through some of the pages. "Wait a minute, this is all wrong! Birds can't have Apple Gels on them! All this information is fake!"

Leon shrugged while grinning. "Well, yeah. But they don't need to know that."

"Who's 'they'?"

"Anyone who isn't me."

"Stop!"

Leon was half tempted to say "stopping", but refrained. Everyone looked up at the cliff before them. There stood a woman wearing a violet robe, a very very (very) large pink ribbon wrapped around her back, and black pants with violet shoes. Her dark hair was brought up near the back in a messy pigtail. She also seemed to have some cards clutched in both of her hands.

Genis came up next to Leon. "Is this in the handbook, too?"

Leon raised his eyebrow. "Hmm. I dunno. I'll check." As soon as he finished, he started zipping through the pages.

Lloyd only stood dumbstruck as the girl jumped down from the cliff and landed perfectly. "What?" was all he could muster.

Colette turned to him. "Is she a friend of yours, Lloyd?"

Lloyd shook his head no. "Not that I'm aware of." He turned towards their theif. "Hey Leon, is she familiar to you?"

Leon looked up from his book and stared carefully at her. Then, shook his head as well. "Nope," he said as he put away his article.

The girl spoke up. "...Is the Chosen of Mana among you?"

Colette raised her hand cheerfully. "Oh, that's me."

Suddenly, the girl's face turned into a scowl and she raised her hands, exposing the cards in her hands. "...Prepare to die!" She dashed toward Colette, who was suprized at the shock and lost her balance. The assassin still came ever closer to Colette as everyone drew their respective weapons.

CLICK! Suddenly, the ground beneath the assassin was gone, and she was standing on air. Of course, it was only a matter of time until gravity kicked in, and then the assassin was falling down the shaft.

"Uh-oh." everyone gaped, with the exception of Kratos, who seemed to be a little off.

Colette, suprizingly, was the first to move and ran over to the edge of the shaft, which was too dark to see the bottom. She was panicking. "Oh no! What should I do? I did it again..."

Raine came forward and spoke. "You don't need to worry about it. If she had not fallen in, you might have been killed." she pointed out, also looking down the hole, but backing off quickly afterwards.

Colette looked down the shaft once again. "But..."

Lloyd, who was looking down the shaft, finally gave up. He turned to Colette. "Well... I guess I do feel a bit sorry for her."

Colette nodded at Lloyd. "I hope she's okay."

As Genis tried to reassure the two of them that she was fine, Leon blocked it out and thought back. That assassin was incredibly fast. I could probably handle her, but the rest of them will have trouble. Leon's thoughts turned to something else. I've never seen clothing like that before. Whatever she was wearing, it was perfectly suited for her quick movements.

Leon walked over and examined the shaft. "We should be careful on our way."

Lloyd turned to the theif. "Why?"

Leon pointed at the shaft. "This is a hidden passage into the mines. And the entrance to the mine is located near the eastern entrance."

"In other words...?"

"Where we're going." Leon sighed and looked over to his left at Lloyd. "Kratos was right; you have a horrible sense of direction."

Lloyd fumed silently while everyone started to move again.

After a long, draining walk through the mountain, the trail finally started to descend, and the group sighed in relief as they started to effortlessly trek down. Of course, when Colette started to get tired of walking, she spread her angel wings and started to fly instead, keeping low enough to follow the rest of the group.

There were several encounters with creatures, some of them were bears. As Leon suggested, everyone steered clear of them and attacked them from a distance. Lloyd and Leon, being the only ones who used close-range attacks, often found themselves being saved by the other four when faced with the bears. They found themselves especially thankful for Colette and her newly found 'Angel Feathers' technique.

They eventually reached the end of the trail, where the ground was harder. There was also a large wooden gate pushed up against the cliff they were just on.

Which immediatly was pushed down to the ground as they were walking out of the trail. And behind it was the assassin from earlier.

"..W..wait!" She sputtered, pulling out her cards from before.

Lloyd was more suprized than frightened. "...Wow, she caught up with us."

"Oh, thank goodness!" Colette seemed relieved to know the woman was unhurt.

She took a few steps forward, but the female assassin stoped her. "D...don't move!"

Raine nodded her head, understanding. "A wise decision." The assassin probably didn't want to fall into another hole, somehow.

The assassin shook her head, focusing on the group. "...I won't be caught off guard this time! Prepare to die!" And immediatly, she started to run forward, faster than anything all of them had ever seen. While she ran towards them, she took out one card and threw it away from her, towards the ground.

Suddenly, a puff of smoke erupted from the card and a tall, skiny monster with a mask attached to its back appeared and also proceeded towards them, although slower than the woman.

But Leon's attention was quickly torn away from the monster as the woman was dashing towards them with vigor. Taking the initiative, Leon used his speed as well and dashed towards her, making the space between them decrease much quicker. When Leon was sure she was within striking distance, he unsheathed his dagger and slashed... empty air.

The assassin had performed a barral roll in midair just above where Leon was sure she was a moment ago. But before he could even react to this suprize, she suddenly shouted "Pyre Seal!" and stuck one of her cards onto Leon's face.

Inexplicably, he was pushed backwards forcibly and felt a large blow to his temple. "AHH!" The force was powerful enough to push him into the cliff a few feet away. He fell down to one knee and pressed his fingers to his forehead. "Damn, what was that?"

The assassin landed on the ground, crouching. Lloyd took his chance and rushed forward, drawing his swords, and swung at the woman. She saw him coming and dodged, jumping backwards and putting some distance between them.

By now, Leon had gathered himself and looked over the battle briefly. Lloyd and the assassin were locked in combat and Lloyd was barely keeping up. Colette seemed to be hesitating in attacking, and the rest of the group was fighting the monster. Kratos was slashing away expertly at the monster while drawing it's attention away from Genis and Raine, who were casting spells constantly.

The monster suddenly grabbed the mask from behind and placed it in front of Kratos. Unaware of what to do, Kratos readied his shield and tensed up. Suddenly, violent gusts of wind erupted from the mouth of the mask and slashed at Kratos as they passed him. Gritting through the attack, Kratos leapt away from the monster.

Genis started another magic spell. He started to mutter Elfish language before shouting "Stone Blast!" A few chunks of the earth rose up below the monster and striked it with vigor. It seemed to work, as the monster was dazed for a few moments.

That was enough for the mercenary. He ran forward and raised his sword, and slashed the monsters head. It gave off a shriek before falling to the ground. It lay motionless on as the three of them catched their breath.

The assassin was dodging the blows from Lloyd, but he soon attempted a Sonic Thrust and she dodged that as well, but the blow lightly grazed her shoulder. She leaped backwards and winced as she touched it.

Then, she caught sight of Colette, nervously watching over the battle and indecisive of wether to attack or not. The assassin bared her teeth and ran towards Colette.

Colette gasped and lost her balance, once again falling backwards onto the ground. This time, however, there was no trap door, and no reason for the assassin to stop. She kept rushing forward, too fast for Lloyd to catch up, and Colette seemed paralyzed with fear.

The assassin finally raised her hands full of cards...

And came face-to-face with Leon, who glared at her with his free eye.

"Hawk-eye."

Leon, using god-like speed, quickly slashed the assassin with his dagger, fully intending on killing her.

Blood sprayed from a large gash across the assassin's shoulder, but she held it with her left hand and kneeled to the ground. "Damn..."

Leon continued to glare at her. She twisted her waist to lessen the blow. If she didn't, she'd likely be dead. He looked backwards towards the Chosen. "Colette, are you al--" but he stopped when she noticed that she was giving him a disapproving look.

The assassin gasped with pain. "Ugh... Just you wait! I swear I will kill you all next time!" WIth that, she swiftly grabbed something out of her robes and threw it on the ground, disapearing within a cloud of smoke.

"Wait!" Lloyd ran towards her, but as soon as he did, the smog cleared, and she was nowhere in sight. "Why are people trying to kill us?"

Kratos seemed disturbed at something, but spoke up. "...There are always those that reject salvation."

"Maybe she's a Desian." Genis suggested.

Kratos shrugged. "Who knows? At any rate, we are in constant danger. That's all we have to know."

Raine also seemed off. "Those clothes..."

Lloyd seemed to hear her. "Professor, something wrong?"

Raine shook her head. "No, it's nothing. Let's go." She started walking towards the exit.

Lloyd nodded. "Yeah. Anyway, let's go look for a place where we can get a ship." Lloyd also tagged along.

Leon and Colette were starting to be left behind. He turned towards her. "C'mon, Colette. Get off the ground and let's go." He held out a hand for her, but she relented.

She started whispering. "You... almost killed her. You were going to kill her."

Leon looked at the spot the assassin disapeared. "Yeah. Good thing too; she was dangerous."

"That's wrong!" she suddenly shouted, startling him. He looked back at her as she continued. "You can't just kill someone because they're a threat!"

"..." Leon kept silent and stared at the ground. "...If I didn't do it, you would've been killed."

"...Still!" she argued, tears starting to gather in her eyes. Her voice weakened and turned into a whisper. "If I can save even one life by dying, even if she wanted me dead, I'd do it."

"SHUT UP!"

Colette looked up in suprize, staring at him with widened eyes. He was glaring at her with his only eye, but it was more frightening than anything she had ever seen. Behind those eyes was more than simple hatred.

It was loathing.

"Are you saying that you'd give up your life just like that?" he spoke in a harsh tone. "That's stupid! Moronic! How could you get such a stupid idea?"

Colette stayed quiet for a few moments, before speaking up. "...The Church of Martel teaches that all life is equal, no matter who it is. There's no difference between us."

"That's wrong." he growled, gritting his teeth and grinding them. "Your life and her life are fundamentally different. There's a huge difference!" Both of them were silent again, but Leon spoke up again. "Alright, if lives are supposed to be equal, then explain why almost everyone hates Half-elves?"

Colette stopped and looked down sorrowfully. "I'm sorry..." she softly whispered, barely audible.

However, Leon heard her. "Why do you say 'sorry' all the time, anyway?" he asked, his tone less harsh than before.

Colette didn't move. "I... don't know. I started doing it when I was really young, but I can't remember why."

Leon growled with frustration and ruffled his hair.

"Hey!" A voice suddenly shouted out and they both looked in it's direction. Lloyd was running towards them.

Leon looked over at him approaching, and spoke to Colette without turning around. "Don't throw away your life so recklessly. There are some things worth living for, and some people want to see you live. Me included." He walked towards Lloyd who stopped a few feet away from him.

"Hey, what are you guys doing? We have to go--" Lloyd stopped as Leon merely pushed past him and kept on walking, totally ignoring him. Lloyd quickly grew angry. "Hey! What's your problem?"

Leon stopped, but didn't turn around. "...Nothing. Let's go." He continued to walk away.

Lloyd rubbed the back of his head in confusion as he watched him walk away. "What's with him, anyway? He didn't even check the monster's corpse for loot." Lloyd shrugged as he walked towards Colette. "Ah well, I'm sure it'll pass. Here, Colette, you need some help up?" He offered his hand to her, but Colette stared at it for a moment.

Some people want to see you live. Leon's voice rang through her mind as she stared back up at Lloyd, and she eventually took his hand and he helped her up. "Thanks, Lloyd."

Lloyd grinned. "No problem. Now, we're being left behind. Let's go catch up!"

Colette wiped her eyes and grinned at him. "Sure!"

And so, they both ran up to the group, who started heading towards Izoold.

There are some things worth living for? I hope you're right, Leon...

Chapter end.

For future reference, there are going to be three books covering the entire story, all of them spanning around 20-25 chapters.

If things are seeming dull at this point, don't worry. There's going to be a huge difference in the next chapter, but I'm not spoiling anything, ok? As always, if you feel like reviewing, please do so. Thank you!