Thanks for reading, and please review. This is my first fanfiction, so please tell me what you think about it. And by the way, Luneth is my favorite character. ^-^


Arc stumbled up the third set of stairs in the western tower. "How much further to the top?" He groaned, kicking Ingus in the shin. "And you never said there were so many zombies!"

"I was not aware of how bad the situation has become. This is new to me, as well. And those dangling eyeballs..." The soldier shuddered, though his face remained void of any expression.

"I can't wait until we get jobs," Refia moaned, her voice hoarse from yelling warnings to her friends. "Then we could just blast these things with black magic!"

"Actually, white magic is more effective against these guys," Arc corrected her, smiling to himself. He scanned the room for any more stairs. "Good news, guys! It's the final floor!"

"Great. Hand me a potion," Ingus muttered. He looked about the room. "I don't see your friend. Could he have been defeated?"

Arc shook his head. "We'd have seen his body."

"But we disappear when we die!" Refia put a hand on Arc's shoulder. "Face it. He could be dead!"

Arc shook his head, refusing to believe her. "Luneth would never be defeated by those weak monsters!"

"Says the boy who was complaining about them just moments before."

Arc glared at Ingus. He simply wouldn't believe that Luneth had been taken down. His friend had to be somewhere! He scanned the room, looking for clues.

"Wait!" He tugged at Refia's sleeve, pointing at the empty treasure chest in the center of the room. "Wightslayer's gone!"

Ingus nodded sagely. "Yes, that is true. I recall placing the sword in this chest, at the top of the tower. Your friend must have beaten us here and back."

"But that's just not possible," Refia protested. "Those zombies take forever to kill, and they're everywhere! He'd have to have run though the tower without encountering any monsters at all!"

Arc shook his head in amusement. "Well, if anyone could have done it, it would be Luneth. He's a natural thief. Sometimes he'd steal people's hats right off of them!"

"Do you think he'd have gone on to the eastern tower, then?" Ingus' expression was even graver than usual. "That leads to the princess' chambers! If he has taken anything of value from my lady..."

"He probably already has," Refia laughed, darting back down the stairs. "It's a good thing she's not there!"

The boy groaned, following after her. "So this whole trek was for nothing? I'll kill that soldier..."

Arc took one last glance back at the chest, then hurried off after his new friends.

…

Luneth moaned, rolling onto his back and sitting up slowly. What had just happened? It had felt like... no, he wouldn't think about it. That was grounds for exile. If anyone found out... but when had it started? He couldn't remember anything that would cause... oh. Of course.

He looked around him, trying to determine where he was. A bed sat next to the far wall, empty. Luneth froze up for a moment. Had he eaten... but no. The King had said that the princess was gone, so it was all right. But this was going to be a problem. The boy gazed down at the weapons and items strewn about his feet. What sort of rampage had he gone on, exactly?

At least no one had been hurt. Luneth couldn't see any blood on his clothes, so he assumed that his secret was safe. If he could just make it back to his waiting companions before they noticed something was up...

"Luneth! There you are! What have you been up to?" Arc burst into the room, out of breath and full of smiles. "We thought you'd been killed by those things in the western tower!"

"Er, no, of course not!" Luneth laughed nervously. Western tower? Where were they now?

Ingus popped into the room behind Arc. "Are you still hateful of me? For if you are, I would like Wightslayer back."

Luneth stared at him blankly. "Wightslayer?"

"You know, the priceless red sword that was at the top of the western tower?" Ingus pressed. Following Luneth's gaze to the ground, he gasped in horror. "What is it doing on the floor?! You ingrate! You steal the most powerful sword in the castle, then leave it lying on the ground?!"

Luneth shrugged, handing a red sword to the soldier. "Whatever. You can have it. I hear there's a sword somewhere called kiku-ichimonji..."

"Just stop talking, Luneth," Arc begged. "Ingus was just worried about you, weren't you, Iggy?"

The expressionless freak snorted. "You wish!" Cradling the blade to his chest, he began mumbling incoherent, soothing words to it.

"I find that a little creepy,"Luneth whispered to the other onlookers.

"Me, too, "Arc admitted.

Refia clapped her hands briskly. "Okay, can we go now? Luneth, pick up those supplies. And Ingus... stop that."

The soldier glared at Luneth. "I don't see why he has to come. After such a rude display of misconduct..."

"Hey, I was the first one to start all this! Not to mention I got my orders from a floating crystal!" Luneth was recovering from his confusion quickly, helped out by the sparks of rage Ingus was creating.

"Also, he got quite an incredible amount of supplies here," Arc put in. "Including at least 2000 gil!"

"2000?! Oh, my poor King..." Shaken out of his Wightslayer coddling, Ingus buried his head in his hands.

Luneth found the title familiar. "Oh, you mean that poor excuse for a ghost? He was boring. Plus, he said you were coming with us! What kind of crazy person would do that to me?!"

"Oh, is that why you ran screaming out of the room?" Refia asked dryly.

"Er, that?" Luneth scratched the back of his head, wondering what in Ur they they were talking about. "Um, nature called."

Arc snorted, and Refia turned bright red. "That's not funny! We actually thought there was something wrong!"

"We did?" Arc looked at her curiously. "I thought you said... you thought it was because of Ingus."

"Well, of course! That's what I meant," Refia stammered, turning a darker shade of red.

Luneth rolled his eyes. It was quite clear what was going on here, and he didn't want to get involved. "I get it. You have a crush on Ingus, but you don't want to hurt my feelings because you think I like you too, since you're the only girl. Well, listen here. There are other girls outside this party of mostly boys! Not every guy in the world is going to like you!"

Refia's face crumpled, and Luneth backed up in surprise. Had he said something wrong? "But I'm sure Ingus does!" He offered, gesturing to the sword-hugging freak.

Arc shook his head at his friend's stupidity. "Let's go, Luneth. Come on, guys."

Luneth hopped up and packed away the supplies he had no memory of collecting. Ingus looked up from Wightslayer and started to follow them. Refia stared at Luneth's back for a moment before following. The boy was just clueless, then. Well, he wouldn't be for long!

"Shall we go to the djinn's cave, then?" Ingus asked once everyone was out of the castle. Arc nodded mutely, unsettled by Refia's bad mood. Luneth, oblivious, called dibs on piloting.