Behold! I'm on a roll this week. Hey, you know what would be a great Christmas present for me? A JadePeony fic, or reviews!
I don't own ToA.
Read on!!
Peony flopped onto the bed, taking a long drink from his water bottle. St. Binah monster problem, check. Next stop, Engave maybe? Would he go to Engave? Or would he continue on to Akzeriuth, he heard there was a problem with monsters in the mines...? Then again, there was also a missing person report from Engave. Maybe he'd get a good reward for finding them...Hm...Choices. He turned his head to stare at the wall. The wind was blowing the curtains to and fro, causing the sun light to dance across the wall. Maroon on second, fiery orange the next.
His mind snapped out of it's daze when he felt cold water running down his face, chest and neck. "Crap!" he set the bottle on the nightstand, and jumped up. The water ran down his back now. "Great..." This zoning out was really getting to be a bad habit. He was already talking to himself...He heard voices...The inn keeper poked his head in.
"Are you two related, or are you on a hon-"
"-She's my cousin."
The inn keeper looked from the knight, a tall red haired man with a frown permanently etched into his face, to his 'cousin', a shorter girl with short layered brown hair, and brown eyes, and a cloak wrapped around her. "Uh huh, and your names?" he picked up his pen.
"Asch fon Fabre." Asch watched the man scribble 'Ash' into his record book. He decided to ignore the misspelling.
"T-Aurora Grantes." Asch frowned as Aurora stuttered, and the inn keeper scribbled out a 'T'.
'Okay, we've only got one room with available space. Would you mind sharing?"
"It's fine." Asch replied.
"Then I'll go ask him. You know, not much space with the Autumn Festival comin'." The inn keeper walked out from behind the desk, and poked his head into one of the rooms. "Hey, you're the only one in here, right? ...You wouldn't mind sharing with a knight and his cousin, would you? ...Alright." he walked back and faced them. "He said he doesn't mind sharing with you guys. I'll give you the extra key then..." he held out the little bronze key.
Asch took the key, dropped it into his pocket and nodded a silent thank you. "Come on. We gotta wait for Guy at the tree soon..." he whispered.
Tear nodded. She took a deep breath. She'd almost said her real name to the inn keeper. That would get her in some trouble with Asch, not to mention Guy. She found herself thinking about him as she set eyes on the man they were sharing the room with. He was a tall man with a deep tan. He had blond hair that reached just beyond his shoulders, and sea blue eyes. It was almost obvious that he'd grown up in the city of Grand Chokmah. He was wringing water out of his shirt, but he looked up and put on a friendly grin as they entered.
"Hello there. I guess we're sharing a room tonight huh?" he held out his hand, completely forgetting his shirt. "My name's Peony."
"Asch." he ignored Peony's hand and threw his bag onto the bed closest to the window.
"Aurora." Tear said, taking his hand. Peony however, instead of shaking it, quickly took it and kissed it.
"Aurora, that's a very pretty name. I'm pleased to meet you. Am I correct in assuming you're from the Engave area?" Peony asked.
Tear blushed slightly. "Er-Yes, I am." she paused, trying to make up a story that wouldn't put her in any spot of suspicion. "I moved to Grand Chokmah a while ago, and came back down with my cousin." she glanced over at Asch, who seemed to accept the fib.
"Really? I'm from Grand Chokmah as well. I haven't been home in a while though. I travel around a lot for the money." Peony said.
"You're a mercenary?" Asch asked.
"Yep. And I guess you're a High Knight huh?" Asch nodded and continued to stare out the window. Peony leaned down and whispered in Tears ear. "Not very sociable is he?"
She shook her head. "Not really." Still blushing, she was having trouble keeping her gaze away from his bare chest.
"So," he finally turned away, remembering his damp shirt. "Are you guys staying for the festival or are you just passing through?" he tried to smooth out the wrinkles unsuccessfully. He shrugged, throwing it on anyway, then picked up another shirt Tear hadn't notice. He began wringing that one out too.
"Not sure yet." Asch said shortly. He turned to the clock above the door. "But we gotta meet someone right about now, come one Aurora." he stood up quickly and left, Tear followed.
"Alright, see ya tonight then." Peony nodded, and went back to smoothing wrinkles from his shirt.
Asch had left his bag and sword in the room, Tear noticed as she tried to keep up with his pace. She shivered slightly, it was windy out here, and Asch had her jacket in his bag...She rubbed her arms, staring at the ground. In her thoughts, she nearly walked into the ladder that led up the the top of a large tree.
"Hurry up!" Asch called down. Tear looked up, he was already almost half way up...She started climbing behind him, daring not to look down.
"I see you've managed to keep your hair layered." Guy commented as she made it to the top.
"What did you expect?" she wiped sweat from her forehead.
"Nothing." Guy shook his head. "Anyway, we've got three choices. One, stay here for Autumn Festival, which I wouldn't mind myself. It's been a while since I got to play fishing in a kimono. Option two, we continue down the path for Akzeriuth, which wouldn't hurt. They've got ores there that might one hell of a blade. Or, we continue to Kaitzur."
"Hm..." Asch thought for a minute. "It would be faster to just go to Kaitzur from here, but if we take the time to go to Akzeriuth, we could get better armour and weapons..."
"Exactly. Plus Aurora over here should learn to fight." Guy said. "Can't have her slowing us down."
"Hey!"
"It's true." Asch said. "Having us fighting all the battles slows us down. We'll find you a sword somewhere here-"
"I took care of that already. It isn't much, but it's something." Guy reached behind him, and held out a staff that was about half as tall as Tear herself. "It's got some power to it, but it's mostly for artes."
Tear held the staff in her hands. It wasn't heavy, int was only about as heavy as the shovels she used in the fields.
"And, this." Guy pulled a book from his bag. "It's on artes."
"Okay." Tear set the staff down next to her, and flipped through the first few pages. She recognized the first one, first aid. "I'll practice these."
Asch leaned over slightly, reading the page she was on. "You're a seventh fonist?" he asked. Tear nodded.
"Even beter." Guy commented as he dug through his bag some more.
"What else do you have in there?" Asch asked.
"Some food...scissors..."
"And you had to use a knife to cut my hair?" Tear interrupted.
"Shut up, I only got these recently! More of the mousse or what ever that was...Contacts..."
"I thought we were supposed to pick those up." Asch said.
"Well, it just so happened that I passed by a house that had a few of these things." Guy shrugged.
"You robbed some ones house." Asch said.
"Yes."
"For mousse and eye contacts. Oh wow, Gailardia Gardios robbed a house for mousse, I wonder what they're gonna think." Asch snorted.
"Shut up! Hey, if it makes you feel better, I got some of that gel you always put in your hair, except it says 'improved formula'." Guy read the label.
Asch blushed slightly. "Sh-shut up! I don't use that much!"
"Oh yeah, like I'm gonna believe that. How else would you keep your hair like that?"
"It's natural!"
"No it isn't."
Tear sighed and continued reading. As 'manly' and threatening these two were, they couldn't stand to be in each others presence for long without arguing. Oh this was definitely going to be a long journey... "So, are we heading to Akzeriuth, or Kaitzur? Or are we sitting her bickering to the world's end?"
The two knights stopped almost immediately. Guy cleared his throat, and Asch did the same. "I say we head on to Akzeriuth. Guy's right, they've got good armour and weapons, which we will need." Tear could have sworn she saw Guy look slightly depressed that they weren't staying for the festival. "Even got a wig..." she heard him mutter. Asch didn't seem to notice as he began climbing back down the ladder.
"Well, you guys go back to what ever inn you were at, I'll see if I can find a good boulder or something to crash on..." Guy jumped away, seeming to disappear into the sky. Which left Tear to gather her new staff and book into one arm, and cling like death to the ladder as she slowly climbed down.
While Asch stared out the window again, Tear and Peony were chatting across the room.
"So you're heading on to Akzeriuth from here?"
"I guess so, apparently there are some really good ores for weapon making." Tear said.
"Oh they do." Peony smiled. "Most of my own weapons came from that city. What a coincidence huh? I was thinking on heading that way too, they've got a little monster problem in the mines."
Monsters. Maybe that would be a good place to train...Tear thought. "Maybe we could go together. All of us...to Akzeriuth, I mean, if Asch was okay with it."
"He's the one in charge huh?"
"Yeah, you could say that..." Tear replied. She remembered back in Engave, the only people that were really in charge of her were her parents. "I don't actually know when we're leaving so-"
"We're leaving tomorrow, and he's not coming with us." Asch suddenly cut in.
"Why?" Tear asked, but she already knew the answer. Guy would be travelling with them, and if Peony travelled too, then Guy wouldn't be able to.
"Because I said so."
"Why? We're both leaving at the same time, to the same place. What's wrong with having me along?" Peony asked.
Asch ignored him, instead, he sat back back and threw the blanket over him.
"...You're going to go to sleep." Peony raised a single brow, chuckling slightly. "And it's only what, six?"
Asch still ignored him.
"Oh well." he shrugged. "Hopefully we'll cross paths again at another time, Aurora." he stood up.
"Where are you going?" Tear asked.
"...Just on a little stroll around town. It's been a while since I've been here, so..." he trailed off as he stretched.
Tear looked behind her to her 'cousin', then back. "Hold on! I'll come with you!"