Chapter 9 Nights of Surprises Part 2

The Unfortunate Great Rush

A/N: Got a new "type-writer" handheld personal computerHPC for short. I should have more time typing this fanfic. However that time was short lived since school starts early here. Yes, it started in the middle of August . I was nailed with a book report and an assessment in one day and that was just my English homework alone. I have a lot more homework than last year, so I'm even lucky that I have time to do this. I have a lot more tests and a lot more projects and a lot less free time.

If you haven't noticed the word count of my chapters is increasing at least in a linear fashion.

In comparison to the other chapters, this is probably the most straight forward chapter, so far. The time line of the chapter is mostly linear with a jump or two.

I'm still keeping true to Riviera by keeping the symbols. Although, at this time, that's the only major change I'm keeping, aside from the improving grammatical skills. I'm also adding in a 5ö paw symbol as well.

- - - - -

There wasn't a giant golem smashing and tearing Elendia to bits. There wasn't demons appearing in Elendia, thankfully. There wasn't an assassin visiting Elendia either, but there was chaos. Fires, holes and mischief was clearly visible in the night sky. Ein is seeing the darker side of Elendia on April Fool's Day. He hung there, on a tree, 100 feet above the town watching everything. The sun had already set and the skies were slowly darkening. Confrontation was inevitable.

Ein was the eye in the sky. He was also the silent observe watching everything. Ein was and still is an angel...

- - - - -

How long is this going to last.. 4ô Cierra though to herself casting another fireball.

The group ran, mostly nude, around town slowly approaching Mursya's trap. No one, in that running group, knew about the trap. It was only a matter of time until the group met one of the traps. By the point, it would be too late to stop the chain of events to come.

"S-Stop..., quit moving..." Cierra yelled out, trying to catch her breath, while using the staff for support. She has ran around town chasing Lina for a few hours for the sake of revenge.

"Cierra, you should umm... stop creating fireballs...!" Fia said trying to catch her breath.

"Well, it wasn't my fault that Lina was out to get everyone. If anyone should stop, it should be me!" Cierra said pointing to the ever-moving Lina.

"Whoa!" Fia said dodging an arrow shot than came relatively close to them.

"See?" Cierra said. "I'm just trying to stop her using my own methods! 2 . Anyway, we need to catch up to them!" Cierra said, picking up her old wooden staff and continuing the chase. As she ran, she casted a speed up spell on herself. With each step, her distance increased until she completely disappeared from Fia's vision.

sigh Maybe Serene might know how to stop this madness. Fia though to herself.

"Fiaaaaaa! Moooooove!" Serene yelled out, trying to catch up to Cierra. By that point the witch has already disappeared and slowly Serene was disappearing as well.

"WAIT! I need to ask you something!" Fia yelled back.

"Can't talk now. Trying to catch up to Cierra to stop this madness!"

So Fia ran and slowly caught up to Serene.

- - - -

"Can I... ask you... something?" Fia asked, trying to breathe and talk at the same time.

"What is it?" Serene said effortlessly flying above the ground.

"Why are... you chasing... Cierra?" Fia asked, gasping for air.

"Because Cierra is creating a mess and I plan to stop it! 2 "

"With a..." Fia said slowly losing distance between Serene and herself.

"this reaper." Serene said pulling it off her back. "Yep, Ein isn't here so I decided take control of this situation myself. I see her! CIERRA! STOP!" Serene said, slowly catching up to Cierra.

"I can't stop now. I'm trying to catch up to Lina!... Ehy are you two following me?" Cierra said looking back at them.

"Why are you even casting all those fireball spells then? 3╬" Serene said arming herself with a reaper and catching up to Cierra.

"Well how else am I going to get her attention?" Cierra asked Serene.

"LOOK OUT!" Fia yelled out behind them.

"Woah!" Serene said easily dodging that arrow. "What is that squirt doing?" Serene said flying in place.

"Serene, lets team up and take out Lina!" Cierra said stopping and dodging the arrow.

"That works!" Serene said picking up the standing fire mage. Fia easily and finally caught up to the two, although she was out of breath and was close to passing out or at least vomiting.

"Wait... why are... you teaming up... against Lina?" Fia said easily catching up to them.

"Because she's destroying the town!! 3╬" Cierra and Serene yelled out.

"Didn't you set the last fifty trees on fire, Cierra?" Fia asked Cierra, trying to regain her composure.

"Well um..." Cierra started saying...

" What about you Serene? Didn't you cut many tree branches because you can't fly?"

"That's because..."

Right at that instant another arrow flew by and almost hit Fia. Luckily it missed, her and stuck a nearby tree. On the tip of the arrow was some green hair.

"Now you see why we want to stop Lina?" Serene said opening her wings and storing her scythe on her back.

"Let's go already! She's getting away!" Cierra said running away from the group. "Speed up Spell" Cierra yelled out, casting the same spell again. The spell itself was already weakening, since it was went to last a minute or two, so she decided to cast multiple copies so it would last. "Speed up Spell!"

"Here, why don't you 'persuade' here, since you want to solve this peacefully. 1 " Serene said picking Fia up and carrying her, while flying.

"Here, I'll help too." Cierra said casting a speed up spell on Fia too. "Magic does come in handy sometimes, doesn't it?" Cierra said with an evil grin.

"Wha... I never said I'd..." Fia started to say...

"Oh come on. You obviously are the smartest one and you always want to resolve everything peacefully! 1 "Serene said

"Aww, shouldn't we at least burn her and teach her a lesson?" Cierra asked, effortlessly catch up to Serene.

- - - -

It wasn't long before they caught up he the mischievous Lina, or so they though.

"Lina! LINA!" Fia yelled out.

Right on cue, another arrow flew and almost hit Serene's wings.

"Watch it squirt!" Serene yelled out, folding her right wing back, just in time.

"LINA! LINA!" Fia yelled out again, hoping to get Lina's attention.

Lina looked left and right, while still maintaining her speed. Slowly, Serene descended so Lina could see Fia.

"Fia... you're flying! How did you get those batty like wings... that look like...SERENE!?" Lina said

"Yeah, yeah I'm here. Fia has something to say to you" Serene said slowly lowering Fia down. "I'll leave the rest to you. We'll be right behind you if it fails." Serene whispered in Fia's ear before releasing her and slowing down.

I knew I shouldn't have tried to stop this. 1 Fia thought to herself.sigh But at least the speed up spell is making it a lot easier.

"What do you want to tell Lina?" Lina said before releasing another arrow. She effortlessly reached into her quiver and pulled out another arrow, and readied her bow.

"Lina, could you umm... stop shooting the arrows?.. Umm... why are you even shooting the arrows." Fia asked.

"Lina is shooting the arrows because she want revenge! 2 " Lina replied

Am I the only one that doesn't want revenge? Fia though to herself.

"Revenge because..."Fia started saying.

"because of Molan and Gill!" Lina responded releasing the arrow. The arrow flew and struck a nearby tree.

"Let me guess its because of an April Fool's joke huh?" Fia asked.

"Maybe..." Lina replied getting another arrow out of her quiver.

"So... are you ever going to stop shooting arrows?" Fia asked, already knowing how Lina would respond.

"Maybe. Maybe not..." Lina replied with a smile, launching another arrow.

The arrow flew straight ahead. As the two continued to run, they saw the arrow stuck on a tree, with a child's hat. It was a blue one with the name Gill written on it.

"Lina is hitting stuff as well! 1 " Lina said to Fia.

"Isn't it dangerous. I mean we could kill them and..."

"He was lucky that, that one missed." Lina pulling yet another arrow from her yellow matching quiver. "I won't miss again!" Lina yelled out.

"Wait! They've stopped!" Fia said out loud.

"Good, now I can finally shoot and hit them!" Lina said pulling out one of her last arrows from her giant quiver.

However, both Molan and Gill have made a complete stop and have completely disappeared in front of them. Lina, still as angry as ever, released her arrow prematurely, letting it hit one of the trees. Both of them attempted to stop and did. They stopped right in front of Mursya's first trap. Molan and Gill were standing near them watching Lina and Fia. But before Lina could pull out another arrow, "they" came.

- - - -

A few moments before Lina and Fia stopped...

- - - -

"Fia's taking too long isn't she?" Cierra asked Serene, who are both close by.

"So basically its all Lina's fault right?" Serene asked, still flying towards Lina and Fia.

"Well, basically. Your trying to stop me and I'm trying to stop Lina. If we both stop Lina then I don't have a reason to keep on casting spells." Cierra said recasting another speed spell on herself.

"Well since Fia is taking too long... shall we?" Serene asked, pulling her scythe off her back with an evil grin.

"Let's!" Cierra responded, casting another spell. Slowly the top of her wand glowed an eerie red as the orb, on the top of Cierra's wand, slowly collected energy. The red glow within the sphere slowly changed into a pure white color. They both continued to run towards Lina.

"Ready!?" Serene said. Cierra responded with a nod, still continuing to cast the spell.

"3..." Serene yelled out. "2!..." Serene pulled her Scythe back, poised to strike at Lina. The wooden part of the scythe rested near her side. The blade pointed away from her and her left hand was behind her on the scythe, near the tip. She looked like a Samurai, ready to pull his sword out of his sheath. "1!..." Serene yelled. Her hands felt sweaty but she was ready for the strike. Cierra's incantation was almost complete and her orb was now glowing a pure white. It radiated a white eerie glow as the core of the white energy was changing into a black color. They were both ready to strike, but will they strike? Or will they miss and hit Fia instead?

"NOWWWW!" Serene yelled out, taking a step forward. Serene was approaching Lina's left and Cierra was approaching Lina's right. However, there was only one problem. Serene and Cierra were still running with their full momentum while Lina and Fia has already stopped.

So instead they collided with Lina and unfortunately Fia as well. Serene let go of her Scythe at the last second making her impact with Fia, less painful. Cierra's spell was luckily canceled because the incantation was incomplete. The orb broke, hitting Lina right in the back, releasing all its energy in the form of a white glowing light. Unfortunately, the light temporarily blinded everyone within the vicinity for a few precious seconds, preventing Lina and Fia from bracing for impact and saving them from falling into the trap. Luckily, Mursya and Reiche didn't see what happened for they too were also blinded by the light. Unfortunately, someone else did.

- - - -

One could say that is was bound to happen but Ein would say that it was the will of the gods. Ein was still hanging up there, like the eye in the sky. While Ein didn't hear anything, besides the sounds of fire and people yelling, Ein did see everything. He saw that Serene was chasing Cierra who was chasing Lina and Fia was trying to ease the tension between them. He saw other people as well but was mainly focusing on them. Unfortunately, the winds of misfortune would also bring Ein into this chaotic mess and the servant of unfortunate was named Rose.

Rose was pawing the long rope that was holding Ein. She knew he would be staying there watching everything, so unless she did something to intervene, her master was willing to stay put and so she did. She had pawed at the rope for a few hours, hoping that this was for the best for her and Ein. Unfortunately, it would only help Ein get a better view of the girls. As the white orb released its energy, Ein fell.

Ein was falling from his, less than comfortable, viewing point. After the first two seconds, he realized what he happening and grabbed the other end of the rope. His hands burned but at least he was saved from more injury. After grabbing the rope he closed his eyes realized that he was going to fall into a pile of leaves. He landed in the pile of leaves, next to Rose. While he was conscious, he decided to keep his eyes closed, pretending to be dead. The leaves flew up but pretty soon they covered him. The white light, that was blinding everyone else, faded.

- - - -

As the girls, Fia, Lina, Serene and Cierra, were slowly falling into Mursya's first ditch trap, Cierra, deep in though, finished her incantation. The short incantation created an explosion, since it was a bad spell, propelling the four out of the pit,avoiding the rope trap and into the mud trap. The four slowly fell into the mud trap, but luckily not on top of each other. During that time, the "final two" showed up.

The Elder, gasping for air, and Ladie, helping and support the Elder. The Elder stopped in front of the, now visible, ditch gasping for air. Ladie was trying to help the Elder but took one step too many. She fell into the trap and landed on all four, attempting to not land and injure a bagged up Chappi. The Elder looked around, and saw nobody. The girls were covered in mud and were not moving so they were easily disguised. Ein was also laying there in a pile of leaves motionless because of the impact. Ladie was below his point of view so he wouldn't even see her. Mursya and Reiche were hiding in the bushes watching everything.

Instinctively, he gasped for air and tried to run, since he though he was left behind. The Elder easily got to the other side of the ditch, unaware that he was on somebody. Unfortunately, that's how far he got because he hit Mursya's second trap and caused a flour bag to swing into his face. The impact, covered his clothing in flour and knocked him down on the ground. The pieces of the flour bag fell on top of him.

- - - -

The girls landed on the mud. Instantly Lina got and started scratching herself. But with each scratch, the spot became itchier. Realizing that there was also mud on her hair, she tried to pull the mud out, but with each attempt the mud became stickier and stickier. Serene got up shortly after Lina and also started scratching. Unlike Lina, she was trying to remove the mud and prevent the itching but alas that also failed. Cierra got up and carefully removed some mud from her hair. Unlike the two, her skin has an allergic reaction and was turning to the light shade of pink. Fia, knowing that nothing this instant would help soothe skin, visually inspected herself.

- - - -

"You know I feel all perverted watching them in the mud." Reiche whispered in Mursya's ear.

"Its probably how Ein felt when he was looking at them." Mursya responded back. "Well at least, I'm getting from this." Reiche whispered back.

"Well at least we aren't watching the Elder. " Mursya whispered.

"I never knew you like to watch nude old men bathe!" Reiche whispered, trying to contain herself.

"Umm... crap 4ô." Mursya said.

Meanwhile, Rebecca was wiggling around, trying to see what Mursya was seeing. It wasn't long before she saw the girls herself.

So that's my competition! Rebecca though to herself.

- - - -

After the second impact, with the girls falling in the mud, Ein opened his eyes. He though something or someone found him. He looked up, through a crack in the pile of leaves and saw Rose's green eyes and her black tail swinging in the wind. He knew that someone or something landed. He wanted to make sure that it wasn't someone trying to kill him. After all, it was his Angel instinct, and his desire to live. Instinctively and instantly, he reached for Einherjar and pushed himself up. He held Einherjar in both hands and instantly looked around. His first glance fell on the "mud monsters."

At first he looked and eyed the monster, thinking that it fell from the sky and wanted to kill him. But staring carefully at the monster, he realized that it wasn't a monster, or rather it wasn't a normal monster. The four entities have hair, which mud monsters normally don't have. Then he realized that the hairs was colored red, orange, blue and green. Then he realized "who" the "monster" was.

Even through the mud, he could easily identify who they were because of their hair color. Not only that, the mud, on the girls, was slowly falling and revealing more and more of their bodies. Slowly, he stored his weapon on his back and stared at them.

The girls felt Ein's gaze upon them. It was as if he was Medusa, staring and disabling their movement. Each second, lasted an hour and each minute lasted a day. They stood there for a long time. The girls attempting to move, but being unable to because of the situation. Even if they could move, they have no weapons to strike him.

Unlike the last time Ein saw the girls, the mud was accenting and showing their curves. Unlike last time, Ein was in a middle of the place, he would have no where to run to without being chased. So Ein and the girls stood there waiting for the other person to make the next move, but they knew that neither side is willing to make the next move. It seemed like a nightmare for the girls and a dream for Ein.

At time passed, the mud slowly drop and hit the ground like brown syrupy water drops. Each drop separating what seemed like an one eternity from the next. But as people have said, all good things come to end. The person who would end this "heavenly moment" would be the same person that made Ein a pervert.

- - - -

Slowly, the Elder got up from the ground. He first took off the flour bag on his body and held in his right hand, so he could look at the label later. He looked up, realizing that he was still in the forest and looked around for his staff. He reached and easily grabbed his staff, which was close to him. He pushed the staff in the ground and used it as a leverage to get up. Slowly, the old man regained his composure and cleaned himself a bit but unfortunately, the flour itself stuck onto his clothing. He looked ahead and saw the girls as well but unlike Ein, the Elder got a different perspective.

"Oh, I never knew Ein's relationship would go this far!" the Elder yelled out.

Like magic, the girls instantly turned around and saw a "white monster." Instant they realized that they were stuck in a bad position. Behind them was a powdery white monster with one hand having only one long finger, the Elder's staff, and the other hand in a fist shape, the white flour bag. It wasn't impossible for the girls to beat the "golem" but it was a going to be a hard task. The reason why its a hard task is because they let Ein deal with it himself, during their last encounter with a golem. They just let Ein turn the thing off and watch the golem fall apart. Unfortunately, no one, except Ein, remembers how to turn one off.

Behind them, was their lover watching their every move. It was true that he was a pervert but he was after all the savior of Elendia. If they did attempt to take down the golem, Ein would be probably just still stand there watching them. He might even get a bloody nose from all that action. If they decided to "beat" Ein , then the said golem will take care of them and possibly the remains of Ein.

To the left and the right are bushes, which isn't helping them. At best they were stuck in a grim situation, with two possible solutions. There wasn't a wrong answer except fleeing because Ein would probably watch them and be injured by a golem. While it doesn't kill him, it does leave a lasting impression on Ein, or at least another case of amnesia.

However, with each passing second, the mud is slowly dripping back to the earth. The longer they wait, the more they reveal themselves in front of Ein. Plop. With each second, more of their body is visible to Ein. Plop. The mud, that was once their clothing is now dripping. Plop. Itching is the least of their problems.

Plop. Plop. What is the right decision? Plop. Is there a correct choice? Plop. How long will the waiting game last? Plop. Or will it never truly end? As Rose stays by her master's side, she turns and looks at what Ein's looking it.

I wonder how the girls will get out of this situation. Rose though to herself. Its not everyday that Ein to see this much of the girls! 5ö I wonder if this will give the girls' nightmares.

- - - - -

"You know I feel all perverted watching them in the mud." Reiche whispered in Mursya's ear.

"Its probably how Ein felt when he was looking at them." Mursya responded back.

A/N: Another pair of good lines. Currently, I doubt I have enough time, currently, to fix the mistakes in the earlier chapters. I might in a few weeks though. Unlike the other chapters, I had already planned this event, so it was a little easier knowing how a chapter would end. I don't know for certain, at the time of writing, that this is a climax, but it feels like it is.

As for chapter 10, I have parts of it planned out. I don't have anything written out, but I know what it will have. Unlike this chapter, it will probably include more people. It will still probably be done mostly on my "type-writer" HPC.

Oh yeah, if there are any typos, then its because I don't know how to spell the word., or typed it incorrectly I don't have spell checker by the way. I just re-read what I wrote and hoped that it was correct.

The characters are acting a bit more evil but its the night of April Fool's Day. After all, its the one day of the year where you can play pranks on people and blame it on a holiday. I'm sure everyone would want it to be longer than a day, especially the people in Elendia!

As the darkness descends over my house, I feel the urge to sleep. Alas, the day is ending and I need my sleep. Until next time Zesler