Chasing Once More
I don't own GC
Of Rest, Return, and Ryan
(VMG)
"FIRE STORM!" Arme called, using her Staff rather than her War Staff. It absolutely did nothing on the sleeping Sieghart, who simply snored away. His cursed sleep has once more kicked in but Lass and Arme simply did not believe nothing will wake him up.
"We told you already, don't bother." Elesis grumbled, "I mean, Ronan already tried hugging me to see the effects, but he didn't even budge."
"But then what do you think we should do?" Arme asked, "We can't possibly travel like this!"
"Basically, the only way to wake him up is a strong enough stimulus." Mari said. Arme sighed when Mari practically said, 'It's no use.'
"What do you suggest, Elesis?" Lass suddenly asked. Elesis blinked confusedly.
"Why ask me, Lass? I'm not a thinker like ponyboy over here! All I need is a hard, sharp, slab of steel and I'll be able to do anything that involves battle." She glared accusingly at Ronan as she said that. Ronan looked back as though about to smile in response when Ronan suddenly had his head pushed onto Elesis's. Whatever happened next can be explained like this: Ronan jump backwards. Elesis touches her lips. Elesis charges Lass. Lass uses invisibility. Sieghart wakes up. Sieghart strikes Lass despite invisibility. Result? Lass on the floor, getting kicked around by two angry Sieghart clan members.
"Should we stop them?" Amy asked Arme. Arme shrugged.
"Let whatever they're kicking die, for all I care." Arme responded. "All they are hitting is a scarecrow, anyway." The two Siegharts finally noticed the exchange. Lass was on top of Sieghart's bed, rubbing a hurt arm.
"Ha, serve you right for forcing people to do as you say." Sieghart told Lass.
"That WAS the only way to get you to wake, you know…" Lass glared at Sieghart.
"… What?... What do you mean by that?"
"It's called your cursed sleep syndrome." Ronan explained, already calm. Sieghart nodded, grumbling slightly.
"… We need to head out soon." Amy mentioned. "We wasted enough time here… We need to fix that problem you mentioned regarding Ryan, right?"
"He was hostile when I passed by." Lass said, still rubbing his arm.
"I will accompany you." Knight Master said. "It is my obligation to help you in this quest of yours."
"We'll all go together." Amy chirped.
(Days Later, Path to Elven Forest)
The group trudged along the beaten path. It had been a few days since they left Serdin. Travel is quite boring considering that technically; they are still in the time of peace. No monsters attacked them, and in order to keep their senses sharp, they sparred whenever they could. And this is the pattern they took the whole time, until they heard a voice:
"Huff. Huff. Huff… Man, where is she?" A voice rang out. Familiar to everyone, but no one remembered it immediately.
"Who was that?" Elesis asked, pulling out her sword in the direction of the voice. The others also got their weapons ready. But what poked out of the hillside was a boy. A boy who only held a pair of stylized sticks in between his hands. But these sticks are not just for show. They are Vajras, and the boy who held them is the only living Deva of the World as of date. Jin of the Silver Knights.
"JIN!" Amy yelled as she ran. She then proceeded to slap the boy across the head. Jin gasped and pushed the girl away as soon as possible, rubbing his face afterwards.
"What? After not receiving messages from the girl for a full three weeks or so and deciding to come to see if she needs help, she SLAPS him in the face? That's a bit too rude, Amy…" Jin moaned. Amy simply glared in response.
"What do you mean not receiving messages? YOU'RE the one who stopped sending me messages all of a sudden!"
"Whoa hold up!" Ronan immediately intervened. "Amy, you know why that is now, right?" Amy blinked in response then remembered the details.
"Oh… Ooh yeah, I forgot… Someone was intercepting all our mails, right?" Amy chirped. New news for Jin, but it was immediately explained. Then Jin told his story. Apparently after losing any source of contact from any of the Grand Chase, he decided to go to Bermesiah, where Amy last mentioned she'll be. Specifically on the way to Serdin. After all is said and done, Jin joined the group.
/Jin: HEY! Why is MY recruitment so easy? Everyone else got some sort of complicated twist!
LW: You're just that simple. All it takes is one to say AMY and you come running.
Jin:… no need to rub it in. /
(Elven Forest)
The group soon found themselves standing somewhere around 25 meters away from the edge of the Elven Forest. Of course, with the hostile druids, no one dared approach it by much. There wasn't a druid in sight but that doesn't stop the Grand Chase in being wary of the forest. So they remained in a distance that would allow them to see any form of attack and run away in the next possible moment.
"So, how do you find a hostile Vanquisher in this forest?" Jin gestured to the group of trees just behind him.
"Just call out, "Ryan, come out alone and we'll have a nice chat!" Amy replied. Sieghart looked at her with ridicule etched across his face.
"Oy, Pinky, how long exactly have you been doing war alongside us? That could easily be interpreted as "Oy, Ryan, come out and walk right into our trap so that we can capture you." Definitely bad for us if they did." Sieghart sighed.
"Then you come up of a better plan!" Amy huffed. True, since he was the eldest and have done more wars than everyone here put together, he would've been ideal for coming up with a solution. Not today though. He hasn't slept for days on end, and the lack of sleep is just making him irritable. So rather than declining with his normally haughty tone, Sieghart opted to just growl in a way to say shut up. And sure enough, Amy shut up. Everyone understood Sieghart's current temper, all except Jin, who did NOT know about Sieghart's curse, and glared at the immortal. Soon, the two was locked in a glaring contest, much to the group's amusement.
The staring contest could've gone on for hours if it weren't for Lass's keen perception noticing something move behind them. "Ryan, your hair is bright orange, so it's stupid to think that a bush can hide you." Everyone spun around at what Lass has mentioned. As he pointed out, there was a bush nearby, with a thick tuft of orange jutting out somewhere around the top. The bush tried to edge away, but by now everyone already made the connection.
Arme sighed, "Ryan, do us a favor and just come OUT." With that last word, she sent a fire ball towards the bush. Ryan jumped out of his unremarkable hiding spot and blocked the fireball with his Storm Pikes.
"You're still quick-tempered, aren't cha, Arme?" Ryan grinned. Arme shrugged as she smiled back, putting away her War Staff onto her back.
"It's been a while, Ryan!" Amy grinned. Ryan nodded back then turned to everyone else. He noticed the very wary faces Ronan and the others were giving him.
"I won't bite." Ryan said, off handedly. Then he scratched his hair. "Not by much at least." The group relaxed, knowing that THIS Ryan was at least willing to talk to them. Then Ryan spoke, "By the way, thanks for not going too near the Forest. Need to keep the tough guy act for the village, me being their chief and all."
"So what happened?" Ronan asked the Druid Leader. "Why are the two clans of elves fighting?"
Ryan grew quiet with that question, before speaking, "One of our elves found this, Ronan." He pulled out the plans and the crumpled letter. Ronan took both and examined each. Elesis and Lass read over his shoulder. Their eyes widened with everything they saw, intriguing both Mari and Knight Master. Sieghart approached them as well, took one glimpse of the plans and went towards Mari.
"Mari, check if this is a POSSIBLE idea. If it will actually work, that is." Mari looked and scanned. She checked if it was possible.
"If it was to be done by a monster, it will be possible, however… Humans don't have the means to get these materials from nature. Yet. If one was to extract gasoline from fossil fuels, which are QUITE rare, they would need a-" Sieghart stopped Mari.
"So this is a stupid plan. The current civilization can't POSSIBLY be able to get this out of the ground. I mean, the deepest we got in to digging is for a well." Sieghart shrugged. "And even if they try setting the forest alight, the magic in the air will just snuff it out." Ryan blinked.
"So you're saying that…"
"It's impossible for a human of the now to devise these plans when they don't even know the word Gasoline." Mari replied. Of course, the word sounded so foreign to the others that they shrugged it off.
"Gasolin? What's that? Some sort of potion?" Arme excitedly said. Ryan scratched his head.
"I knew there was something fishy about these plans… But what about the Eryuell? They must've believed these plans…"
"The first question, Ryan," Elesis said, "did the Eryuell even WRITE this letter?"
"The signature is the same as a copy I kept around." Ryan replied. Ronan snarled.
"Don't get too sure about that." Ronan said. "A person was able to seal a false decree with the Royal Seal. It's not farfetched to say that the signature is just a very convincing fake."
"A rubber seal is a rubber seal." Ryan argued. "All you need is access to the stamp and you get a perfect copy. A signature is something you actually write. And the strokes are the same." As if to prove his point, Ryan pulled out another letter from Eryuell Council. Lass took one look at both letters and jumped next to Ronan. Lass whispered something to Ronan, something surprising enough for Ronan's eyes to widen. He turned to Lass and nodded. He beckoned for Jin, Ryan and Sieghart to approach. The guys huddled into a hushed conversation. The girls looked at the boys with confusion apparent in their eyes.
Elesis, soon enough, is annoyed that they are left out of the conversation. "Hey, Ronan, whatcha talking about." The guys ignored them despite themselves. Elesis tried getting near, but the boys edged away from her. Soon, Arme was also agitated.
"Why are we left out?" Arme complained. Mari simply stared at the group. She, like the other girls, is way outside earshot. However, unlike the others, she is not nearly as agitated. But not everyone is Mari. Even Knight Master had a limited amount of patience. However, before she could go near the group, the boys moved out of the huddle and approached the girls.
"We have discussed and decided." Ronan said, rather monotonously. "It is impossible to resolve this without choosing a side."
"What do you mean?" Elesis demanded. She didn't like where this was going.
"If we want to get involved in this fight, we would need to be IN the dispute." Sieghart supplemented. "We cannot claim to be a neutral party if we are to fight. We would simply make ourselves targets."
"So we need to take sides." Knight Master nodded. Then suddenly the implication dawned on her. "But which side would we take?"
"Well of course, we choose the druids' side." Lass replied casually.
"Why is that?" Arme looked at the striker's face. This was not becoming a good development. Quite the opposite in fact. The boy's didn't react and just smirked. Amy looked at Jin, pleading for a reason.
"So you're planning on joining the Druids, leaving Lire on the side?" Elesis snarled.
"Yes." Ronan said in the same monotonous voice he used earlier.
"It's because your boys, isn't it? Of course you'd choose Ryan's side! You guys didn't consult us about that decision! That's the reason, isn't it? So that you can just toss us on the side?" Arme snarled. Somehow, Arme managed to be slightly scarier than Elesis.
Even Amy took offense immediately. "Jin, how could you! You go and side with the boys, even though you came all this way to see me? Didn't it even occur to you that we want in?"
"No." This was the short response of Jin.
"Guh, you JERKS!" Elesis yelled. "That's it; I'm not siding with you boys! You're looking down on us girls! You're gonna join the druids, then we're with the archers!" Ryan immediately took offense and pulled out his Storm Pikes.
"Side with the archers then leave immediately. Next time I won't be so lenient!" Ryan yelled. The girls snarled and walked away from the group. They have an island to go to.
Chapter End
Internet connection problems. Wasn't able to upload any chapters for a long time. Well all's well. Read on and Review~
