This sucks.
Serra walked alongside her teammates, doing her best to imitate Jaffar's "walk". She was still worried about Matthew, especially since she was supposed to be nursing him in the first place.
Erk and Lucius walked on either side of her. Erk would periodically pick a book out of his pack and start reading, which bothered Serra to no end. Lucius, meanwhile, kept giving her funny looks that she didn't really know how to interpret.
Jaffar, meanwhile, sat with Merlinus and Matthew in the supply wagon. The old man was really beginning to pry into his nerves, something that didn't happen very often. Matthew had slowly regained consciousness over the past few hours, and had recently begun to start talking.
"Whothere?" the thief mumbled into the room. He tilted his head toward Jaffar. "That you, Serra?"
Jaffar nodded his head. "I'm here," he said.
"Whahappen?" Matthew moaned. "Catch the burglar?"
"No, he got away," Jaffar answered. "I think he must have been with the Fang, to catch you like that."
Matthew grinned. "Yeah…big bad assassiny guy. Sounds good." He looked away. "Guess I shouldn'a gone in. Just wanted to make sure you were okay…" He closed his eyes. "How's everyone doin'?"
Jaffar took a second to summon forth his Gabbing Powers. "Well, Wil and Rebecca made up, and Fiora's Pegasus kicked Sain in the back of the head, and Nils still isn't talking but we left him with Fargus, and -"
"Fargus?" Matthew asked, puzzled. "What…are we on Dread Isle already?"
Jaffar looked at him. "Yeah," he said. "We just got off the boat a few hours ago."
"Oh…I hope that poor kid's doin' okay," he mumbled.
A wyvern shriek filled the air. Jaffar thought it was probably Heath's, though it was hard to tell wyvern calls apart.
A few seconds later, Matthew began to snore.
Loudly.
Serra clapped her hands over her ears as Hyperion let out a loud cry. Heath landed him next to Eliwood and began to talk to him. He seemed a little out of breath and extremely nervous. After a few seconds, he turned around and flew back toward the ship.
Serra and Lucius walked up to Eliwood. "What's going on?" Lucius asked.
"Heath says someone's approaching us from the rear," Eliwood answered. "He thinks it might be Nils."
"Nils is coming by himself?" Serra asked.
"Isn't that dangerous?" Lucius added.
"I sent him back to check it out," Eliwood said. "I'm going, too. Do you three want to come?"
"Three?" Serra asked. She turned around and saw Kent sitting on his horse.
"I'll take one of you along," Kent offered. "Do you both know how to ride a horse?"
"I've been taught a little bit," Lucius said. He stepped over to Kent, who helped him onto the saddle.
"Do you want to come, too?" Eliwood asked Jaffar. Serra managed to repress yelling "Duh!" and instead nodded and got on.
Jaffar's head shot up.
"…approaching from the rear…might be Nils."
"Isn't that dangerous?"
He stood up and hopped off of the wagon. He turned the corner just in time to see Eliwood and Serra riding back toward the pirate ship.
Jaffar took a deep breath and began to run after them. Needless to say, he was really surprised at how fast Serra could run at times.
Legault and Canas walked in the center of the small army. Canas would occasionally stoop down and pick up something, usually a rare variety of flower. Legault, meanwhile, would constantly find pieces of ebony or silver on the ground, which he thought would sell for a "fair price".
"Oh, great," Legault sighed as he looked ahead. "Looks like Karel and Karla are going at it again."
Canas watched in fascination. "Oh, did I tell you about my new field of research?"
Legault shook his head.
"I have decided to devote a month or two to the studying Karel. Measuring his mood swings and his bloodlusts and all that. I think I'm going to call it 'sociopathology'. What do you think?"
Legault grimaced and Karel slashed Karla's left leg. "I think you're going to get yourself slaughtered, my friend," he said. "He's a dangerous dude."
Canas pursed his lips. "Would you be willing to spy on him?" he asked earnestly. "I can pay you five thousand gold a week, if you like."
Legault's outlook immediately reversed. "Of course!" he shouted. "That's definitely worth the risk. Besides, I can run faster than he can."
Karla let out a screech and plunged her sword into Karel's belly. Karel took the moment to plant his sword in her shoulder.
"Serra! Priscilla!" Lyn called out. "A little help here?" She ran forward and tried to restrain Karel.
"I wonder why they fight like that," Canas continued. "It will be such a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the human mind!"
Legault smiled. "Sure, whatever."
Nils trudged along the path after his friends. His movements were jerky and robotic, his head rolled from side to side. His mind was completely clouded, just as Ninian's had been when she walked that path a short time ago. Every now and then he would try to look up or walk normally, but he just didn't care enough to do anything.
For a long time, he was completely emotionless. But, after he had been walking for some amount of time, he began to feel it. The presence.
Death was coming up behind him.
Yeah…so this is my definition of "soon"…ahem. Sorry about the delay, but I finally updated the story! Yay for chocolate!
Gotta go. Hope you liked it!
Valete.
