One Long Trip
Hawk struggled from his bed, he thought it was morning, but he lost track on the ship far too often. He wished he had taken a clock with him or something, but they were rare enough as it were and they hadn't had time to buy any supplies but the bare minimum. He said they, he meant the guys, somehow Angie had managed to buy all her supplies within the first few hours in Jad and had spent the rest of the day buying clothes and food. Hawk never really understood it, she'd just end up wearing that red dress of hers. Not that he was complaining about it, a little ogling was always good fun and with her, well it was more than good fun. What worried Hawk was that she had managed to drag Lise along with her. He'd never really thought of her as anything but a warrior, a cute warrior, but a warrior none the less. Yet, she'd gotten into it as much as Angie or at least it seemed that way from the sheer weight of clothes she'd taken. He'd thought of inquiring about why they needed so many clothes, but the likelihood was that he'd be told to mind his own business and keep his nose out of women's affairs.
Drawing his dirks from under his pillow, he made himself presentable and walked out the room. Yet as soon as he was out the door he stopped, there wasn't much point to leaving his room really. There wasn't all that much to do on the ship apart from drink at the makeshift bar and eat in the dining room and he didn't plan to get blind drunk till the evening. Going up on deck might have been novel at first, but now, there wasn't all that much to see, nothing but sea all the way to the horizon and according to the captain, they wouldn't see land till Pedan now. At least if he stayed in his room he could do a little work, there was plenty of other admin he could get done, he'd brought a pile of reports from Navarre that he hadn't got round to. Goddess, he sounded responsible now, heck, he wasn't just sounding responsible, he was acting like it! How the years had changed him. Determined to be rid of this new Hawk, at least for the trip, Hawk turned around, he was going to throw those papers into the sea and not worry about it. Yes, that sounded like the old Hawk.
As he took his first step though, he found a sudden weight on his right shoulder and two arms wrapped around him. He turned his head slightly to find a mane of purple hair in his mouth. "Hi Hawk! Whatcha doing?" A curious voice arose from the hair.
Hawk shifted slightly, so he could face Angie without being choked by hair. Not that he really objected to the position, a beautiful woman with her body pressed up against him, no that position wasn't too bad at all. In fact as soon as he moved he felt himself regretting it. "Well, I was about to go into my room and fling some papers out the window, but now I think I'm too stunned by your beauty to move another inch." Hawk felt like wincing at that, if he was too stunned by her beauty, then he wouldn't have been able to make that first move, it felt like ages since he had last flirted with a woman. There was Kairen, but then, that had been more drunken stupor than anything else and then Lise, but it was too easy to flirt with her really, she'd go red at the slightest compliment. No, Angie was the first girl he had flirted with in a good while.
Surprisingly though, Angie didn't seem to pick up on it, that or she didn't want to mention it and spoil the fun; instead she frowned at him in mock disappointment. "Oh well, that's a shame, I was hoping I'd have a handsome man accompany me for the day, but if you're too stunned to do the job, then I guess I can go to Duran or Kevin's room instead. I'm sure they wouldn't object."
That lit a fire under Hawk, he doubted sincerely that she'd actually go to Duran or Kevin's room but it didn't hurt to be cautious, women were complicated sometimes, "Angie, I would overcome anything to spend but a single hour with you let alone a day," Hawk's logic picked the worst time to cut in, "but what do you plan on doing for an entire day, there really isn't all that much to do on this ship."
"Oh come now," Angela frowned at him again, unfortunately this time, it didn't seem fake, "There's always something to do, you just have to find it first." Suddenly, Hawk found her clutching his arm, "Walk and talk little bird, we have about 5 years to catch up on and I intend to do it."
Hawk, not surprisingly started walking, smiling at his luck, at least he'd have something productive to do today. "Well, I'm at a loss as to where I should start really, with so much and such a pleasant distraction, I can't really concentrate."
"Just tell me about Navarre and how you've been getting on there, I've only seen it once and I don't think that one image does justice to the hard work you must've been doing." Angie smiled encouragingly at him. Great now she thought he was some greenhorn who didn't know how to talk to women.
"Well, we've just been rebuilding what Bigieu took away from us." There was bite in his voice when he mentioned her name, that wretched woman hadn't deserved such an honourable death, she should've paid for her crimes in years. "I let Nikita take care of the finances most of the time, those cats are really very good at it. I may be able to con a merchant, but i'm not that great at figuring out the ideal price of grain in mid Spring. I just supervise the training and make sure everything keeps in check really. It's not that much fun, but I think I owe it to my people for not stopping her earlier."
"Mmmm," she murmured in agreement, "Ruling a country is never fun, but it shows you've got character, as if I didn't know already," she flashed him a smile, but Hawk didn't favour her with one back.
"Navarre isn't a country and I don't rule it, we're just a thieves guild." Hawk paused, collecting himself, he'd almost snapped at her. "I'd feel uncomfortable with that, it sounds too much like what Bigieu said when she took control of Flamekhan. The Navarre guild has always maintained that Flamekhan wandered into the desert to find peace with nature, but we all know that he left because of what Bigieu did to him. He claimed it was his own weakness that let her take control and he didn't want to suffer the dishonour any longer, the dishonour of claiming to be a King. They may call me Lord Hawk, but I don't rule them."
The archmage frowned, it seemed a sad frown rather than an irritated one, but he hadn't meant for her to feel bad, it was just an honest mistake after all, "I'm sorry Hawkie, I didn't know it was a touchy subject, you'll forgive me won't you." She looked up at him with those emerald green eyes and gave him possibly the cutest look he'd ever seen. How anyone could refuse that look was almost completely beyond Hawk. Valda must've been a tough woman if she could deal with that.
"Of course I forgive you Angie." Hawk held her a bit closer for emphasis, "You can't blame someone for doing something in ignorance."
Angie laughed, delighted it seems, "Well I dunno, I seem to have done that plenty of times."
Time seemingly flew by when he was with Angie. After getting breakfast, porridge fit for the prison in Jad, they spent the day strolling about the deck, discussing everything from the work they were doing to which type of rabite were more annoying. It truly was delightful.
"You know what I regret most about our adventure all those years ago Hawk?" Angie said, seemingly in deep thought. Her voice held a sense of mystery in it.
"I have a feeling you're going to tell me," his voice was twinged with a hint of curiosity.
"That I didn't get to know you guys as well as I wanted to. I mean it was all so fast, one minute we were trying not to fall off the cliffs in the Gemstone valley, another we were fighting Dolan on the top of the Moonreading tower. It was great in its own way, but I would've liked to have had some time to just sit around and talk. There were a lot of things I would've liked to have done, but I never really got the chance." The look she gave him was warm, very warm. It was as if she was echoing his own thoughts, things he'd been thinking about for years now.. Were it not for that look, he would've thought nothing of it, yet it carried a hidden message or so he thought. Angie'd always been a missed opportunity in his book, but he'd never really thought she'd considered anything above mild flirting.
Hawk tried to think of a witty response, but perhaps being honest might have its rewards, "I," Hawk hesitated slightly, "I know what you mean Angie, I've always thought about what might've been you know? What might have happened if we'd just had a little more time, but we had to grow up too fast." Angie was staring at him, it wasn't impolite, not even vaguely confused, it was pure understanding.
"Guys! Finally, where the hell have you been?"
The moment was broken as Duran almost ran headlong into them, "We decided to take a swim in the ocean, where do you think we were you myconid-brained idiot!" Angela was fuming apparently. "You run about like that on the ship again and I swear I will put you on the wrong end of a fireball."
Duran kept calm, "All I was trying to do was tell you that you're late for the meeting," their looks of confusion must've said enough, "you know, that meeting we arranged yesterday to discuss some sort of plan of action for when we get to Pedan?"
Angela was suddenly on top of Duran, seemingly showering all her feminine charm onto him, "Duran sweetie, when exactly were we told about this? Don't worry I'm not mad with you."
Duran hesitated, probably as confused by Angela's mood swing as Hawk, "Well it was yesterday evening, in the restaurant."
Angela batted her eyelashes at him, "Oh I know, that was when both Hawk and I," Angie's voice suddenly grew loud and not very pleased, "were blind drunk! Trust you to be so damned dim-witted to not even realise that two people who're drunk will likely not remember the night before. Duran your stupidity surprises even me." She whirled to face Hawk, "Come on Hawk let's go."
Hawk, not wanting an ice smash down his trousers decided to follow Angela without a word. At the furious pace she set they were soon in the room, the dining room, with a map spread over one of the tables. Lise and Kevin looked up as they entered, but they seemingly had judged Angie's mood and simply nodded hello. Duran quickly followed Hawk in, shutting and locking the door behind him. Kevin stood up to say something, but was cut short by the still irate Angela, evidently on a roll, "Can we just get this damned business over with, I don't understand why we can't just run in and hope for the best like we did last time. It always seemed to work out." The grim look from half the room however, seemed to stop her in her tracks. Angela looked dejectedly at the wall, she was a lot quieter, "Oh, I'm sorry guys, I forgot."
Kevin, who'd stayed standing throughout Angie's tirade, resumed from where he left off. "Guys, it's simple really, we'll be landing north of Pedan, assuming that the enemy hasn't managed to take over the entire mirage forest, we should be able to reach the city without too much trouble. Kevin pointed to a point on the map, "this is the North entrance of Pedan, we all know it pretty well. And here and here," he pointed to points either side of the entrance, "is where an enemy could lay an ambush. We don't know whether the enemy will have the entire city or whether, indeed there will be any enemies at all, but it's better to be safe. We can't really prepare for every single ambush possible in a city the size of Pedan so we'll do it Angela style from then on." The wolfman gave a wry grin at the Queen of Reason.
Angie seemed to take offense at this and took this as an opening for her to add her fair share, "Kevin I think you're missing the main point of all of this, we need to plan because mana is dying and without Carlie we only have Duran to heal us." Angie hadn't even winced at mentioning Carlie, a hard woman, a hot one, but still. "The fact is that you guys are going to have to survive without Lise strengthening you all the time and without me wiping a good third of the enemies off the face of the planet. Simply put, we can't pull off a direct assault if the town is overrun."
Kevin seemed embarrassed that he hadn't realised this straight away, "Then what Angie do you propose we do?"
"We attack at night, I'm surprised you didn't think of it Kev, you'll be far stronger, Hawk'll be able to hide better, their troops will be asleep, it'll be far easier than your little daytime assault. Since you guys will be able to take out more, I'll be able to conserve mana and take down anything that's vastly stronger than the rest."
Kevin seemed dumbstruck really, all that tactical training in the beast kingdom and Angie of all people had thought of a plan better than his own in less than a few seconds. Hawk thought it was because Kevin had assumed that everyone would be up at night, the beast kingdom probably did that to a guy, "Yes, Angie, I think that'll work. It's too bad we don't have any of that pollen from the sleep flowers really, but we'll live I'm sure. Guys, you should start getting prepared for this, I don't know if you can train with your weapons on the ship, but it wouldn't hurt. I have a feeling about this one, I think it's the Goddess, but it's not going to be easy."
Everyone else took this as their cue to leave and Hawk followed suit. Nodding at Duran again and smiling politely at Lise, well perhaps a bit more than politely but still, it was nothing really, she barely blushed. Yet before he knew it Angie was at his side again. And they were soon finding their way back to a more secluded part of the ship, however secluded you could be on a vessel with 20 crew and passengers. And once again they easily slipped back into their conversation. Unfortunately not quite at the same point as they were before, but it was still pleasant.
The day drew on, the two of them forgot to even get lunch, dinner was another thing, but they ate hastily and got away again, without anyone noticing seemingly. But night drew quickly in and soon Hawk's yawns punctuated most of his sentences. Angela however, seemed to have lost none of her energy, "You know what's been annoying me like hell recently, that bloody Paladin, he's been going on about some alliance between Altena and Forcena, he wants to send his troops over, to my country! And for what? So they can protect it. I mean what will people think of me if I allow hundreds of Forcenan troops to pour into my country unchecked, they'll be more of a threat than anything else! But the damned man keeps pushing it, it's really starting to annoy me!"
Hawk paused, they were right outside Angie's door now, he hadn't really been paying attention to where they'd been walking but Angie'd probably known all along. Perhaps she was tired, how she kept it hidden was really beyond Hawk though. Hawk felt he had to defend Duran though, he may have been wrong about this, but the archmage was seeing the worst of it. She didn't even want to find any good points. "Well Angie think of it this way. Duran's your friend, the only thing he wants is what's best for you and all he's trying to do here is protect you. He's worried that in the future you guys won't be able to defend yourselves and he honestly doesn't like that notion. He's going about it entirely the wrong way but at the heart of it the only thing he's doing is showing that he cares about you and doesn't want to be hurt. Just tell him why he's wrong and thank him for his effort, that's all he really wants. That's all any guy wants really."
Angela seemed saddened by this, a look of regret came across more than anything, "I've been incredibly harsh on Duran haven't I?" She didn't wait for acknowledgement, it had been more to herself than anything, instead she broke into a smug smile, "Thankyou Hawk, I had a great time today."
"Angie you sound like a girl on a first date," it was true, at least from his experience.
Her look became more sly than smug as she opened her door, "Aren't I Hawk, aren't I?" And with that she shut the door in his face.
Writer's Rants
I liked this chapter, it was good fun to write really and it gave me a chance to get in some more practice with Hawk. I've always thought that he's a little more self conscious than he lets on really. It also let me develop Angie more, since despite having two chappies with her, I still feel she's a bit lacking compared to the rest. I've tried to get a mix between the immature girl with a bit of an anger management problem and the calm ruler, since at about 23 (yes 23, Square can say all they like about her being 19 in the game, she isn't) she'd be on the cusp between the two. And if you wanted action, then I'm sorry, I felt this chapter was necessary and you'll get plenty of what you want next chapter. Speaking of which, I'm debating as to whether I should have a Kevin or Duran chapter next. Duran would make the story as a whole more well (geh, grammar sucks sometimes) rounded, but instinct tells me it would more of a Kevin chapter. Alas the ways of writing are too complicated for my taste.
Reviewers (sadly only 2 this chapter, hopefully I'll get more with time ): Yermog, Carlie is dead, she may or may not come back but I always thought that girl was actually the game's biggest villain in disguise. Secondly, here's a nice big portion of Angie, but you'll have to wait if you want some Duran.
Sinnatious: Yay shameless plugs work….. well a little anyway. Thanks for the review, it means a lot when one of the greatest SD3 writers of all time reads your fic. My futures for the mana heroes were essentially based on the classes I used when I played them in SD3. The only exception being Kevin, I chose Deathhand for him for plot reasons that will be revealed later on. I always thought of Hawk as a ninja more than anything, the light classes seemed a bit too… girlie for my taste. Duran's a paladin, end of. He's too innocent to be anything else really. I chose Star Lance for Lise, because from the game, she leans towards honesty and kindness, but being a general of an army, I reckon she's got a dark streak as well. I'm sorta regretting my choice of archmage with Angie. It's the most powerful class in the game, but it doesn't really suit her in this fic, magus would probably have been a better choice but you can't cry over spilt milk. Thankyou for mentioning the Kevin speaking English thing, you've given me a brilliant idea. Oh and yay for Carlie being dead! And a little favour I need of you, tell Terra-sama in your response to reviewers that the forums kinda died without her. And finally, a deal, if you update I'll update. A way to keep my fic (and yours if you feel like it) going at a half-decent pace.
Read and review people and if you're in the mood recommend it to a friend. An author can't do without readers and more readers is definitely a good thing. Free scythe of doom for anyone who reviews.
Note, scythe of doom may be a figment of the author's imagination.
