September 11th


Lloyd groans, flopping down on the sparse grass that grew on the base of the mountain pass, pressing his face into the wiry plants.

"Grass, I will never leave you again." Lloyd mutters, shaking sand from his hair, then sitting up to remove a boot and do the same.

"I. Hate. Sand!" Daichi growls. "I need to wash it out, now..."Unfortunately, there isn't a stream anywhere near by. Before them stretches the path, slowly climbing in a valley. The air us cooler than it would be if they were fully in the desert.

"We camp here for a few hours." Raine says, pulling out bed-rolls. "Some rest before we take on the pass." Lloyd is shaking out all of his clothes, having stripped down to his muscle shirt and dark boxers. Shikka has no sand on him whatsoever. Piers is grumbling quietly. Lloyd puts his clothes back on, leaving the jacket undone as he falls back, staring at the early morning sky. They had taken to night traveling again, and the teen was tired to be awake still now.

"How long..?" Lloyd yawns.

"Until a little after noon." Raine says. "we'll make a small lunch and move on." Lloyd nods, falling asleep. Genis is pillowed on Noishe, who uses a paw to cover his muzzle and eyes. Shikka remains awake, not tired. Kratos also stays awake, watching Shikka for a moment, then turning to stare off in the direction the Laguz was not facing, keeping watch once more.

Kratos turns, noting the sun was at the noon-slightly after angle, and debates how to wake them. Throwing a log on a dying fire wouldn't work. He whistles, and Noishe looks at him, then the man indicates Lloyd. Noishe nods, and sneakily maneuvers over to the sleeping teen. Shikka looks up, watching. Noishe sneakily shoves his nose up the back of Lloyd's shirt and jacket. The boy yelps, sitting up quickly and thrashing away. Shikka chuckles, watching. Lloyd manages to wake fully, while making a lot of noise, his sword-sheaths clacking, his yelping as Noishe continues to try to clean the teen, and is eventually able to fend him off. the dog's muzzle is open, and he has the impression he's laughing with his peculiar mixture of whines and barks. the large creature moves to sit next to Kratos.

Daichi sits up. "What the fuck is going on?" Hopefully, Raine didn't hear him. Unfortunately, she did. Raine reaches over, and using her staff as extra arm length, raps him on the head.

"Watch it." she warns, but she's also curious. Lloyd glares at Noishe, then Kratos.

"You set him on me!" the teen accuses. Kratos tilts his head, looking off to the side, as if he hadn't heard anything Lloyd had said. Daichi manages to avoid the knock, watching the drama unfold. It's not much drama, Noishe looking and sounding like he's laughing while Kratos calmly ignores Lloyd, who's gotten his Jerk!Kratos opinion back. after a few moments of trying to talk to the man, who was ignoring him, Lloyd gives up. Genis having finished sandwiches and cabbage rolls makes it easier to forget. So they pack up in relative silence, Noishe still looking amused, and head up the mountain path, Lloyd still eating the easily carried food. Again, Colette eats little, and almost absently.

"Stop!" a female voice shouts.

Daichi turns, hand on the haft of his Axe. "Uh-oh. That don't sound too friendly." From above them, purple shifts, a lighter shade than what their Mercenary wears, a woman in a short kimono and black slacks standing.

"What?" Lloyd asks, a little exasperated, as the party stops.

"Is she a friend of yours, Lloyd?" Colette asks her friend.

"Not that I'm aware of." Lloyd shrugs. Piers tenses, letting his energy flow ready. Shikka watches.

"... Is the Chosen of Mana among you?" the dark-haired woman asks, still on her higher ledge above the path.

"Oh, that's me." Colette says, taking a step forward. Paper crinkled.

"..Prepare to die!" The woman drops down to the path below, a crisp seal of paper between the first two fingers of each hand.

"Deluge!" Piers yells. The Psynergy activates, huge orbs of water falling for the would-be assassin. Colette stumbles backwards as the woman nearly reaches her, and falls onto a lever. Kratos was almost past Lloyd when rusted gears groaned, and a wooden hatch opened under the woman.

"Uh-oh..." Lloyd, Genis, Raine and Colette say in chorus, as Kratos stops moving, watching the hole.

"...Oh, come on! What sort of idiot puts a trap door there?!" Daichi exclaims, the coincidence seeming to be too much. Kratos sheathes his blade as a crash is heard from inside, some of the Deluge spell also falling in.

"Oh, no!" Colette says, getting up and peering in. "I did it again..."

"You don't need to worry about it." Raine says, pulling the accident prone girl away. "If she had not fallen in, you might have been killed." Kratos snorts, turning away.

"But..." Lloyd looks inside the pit as well.

"Just close the damn thing." Piers mutters, pulling the lever to close it.

"Don't Worry about it." Lloyd says to Colette. "It looks like she's an enemy."

"I hope she's ok..." Colette watches at the wooden flat groans, and rises back into place.

"Even assuming her weight to be 45kg, and this hole to be 10m deep," Genis gets his math hat on. "and calculating hte gravity constant at 9.8, the impact shouldn't have been fatal."

Lloyd looks stunned. "??? Gravity.. .constant?"

Piers face-palms. "She should be alive."

"Yes." Genis nods.

"Still, man, she's got some bad luck. Standing right on top of a trapdoor and all." Lloyd is looking at the pit again.

"It's not a trap." Raine says after looking at it for a second. "It's a hidden maintenance passage for the mountain path."

"..We should get moving." Kratos says, looking up the path.

Piers nods, pushing an irritated Daichi. "Get moving and stop whining."

"Hey!" Lloyd says, frowning at Kratos. "Shouldn't we try to find out who that woman was?" Kratos glances at the boy, already moving to start up the path farther.

"She'll come after us again on her own." Kratos replies. "This area is too confined, and the footing is poor. It would be wise not to linger." Lloyd frowns, but accepts this logic. They head farther up the mountain pass, reaching the top in time for dinner and evening. Unfortunately, Raine refuses to let go of the pot... and she cooks dinner. They sit around a large stump of a tree, waiting in dread for the healer to come back with their food. Piers manages to get Shikka to go hunt for them to spare them from having Raine's food as the only option. Obviously, they'd wait for her to sleep first. Raine gives them each a bowl. Lloyd had eaten a rather crumbled sandwich that had lived in his pocket since the day before, and claimed to not be hungry. Kratos was prodding the soup while looking like he's wondering if this could even be counted as food. Genis had snagged an apple while Raine wasn't looking, and had inhaled it as fast as he could.

"Sorry." Genis and Lloyd say at the same time. Piers and Daichi pretend to eat, Shikka feigns sleep. Colette reminds Raine that she's having a delicate stomach, and this leaves the healer with another victim, someone.. new. Kratos. When she turns on him, he gives her a dull stare.

"You're eating." Raine says, pointing at the bowl.

"I am not hungry." Kratos shoves it away.

"You haven't been sleeping, as far as I can tell." Raine says, pushing the bowl back in front of him. "Always taking Night Watch. You are eating." Kratos stares at the bowl as if wishing it would light itself on fire. "Eat, before I force feed you." Raine says, firmly, shoving the bowl under Kratos's nose. The man gives her a look that says 'you think you could do that?' and Raine takes up the spoon. Lloyd, Genis and Colette stare as the healer manages to get the mercenary to eat a spoon of her soup.

"...Does your sister have a death wish?" Daichi asks Genis.

"I think so.." Genis mutters, wide eyed. What little color there was to Kratos's face drains out, and he gets up, a definite gaging noise escaping him as he moves for the battered fence around the ledge they camped on, hands flickering with the healing spell. Piers casually throws his soup over his shoulder when Raine is distracted. There's a muted sound of retching, the faint stirring in the air of a healing spell, and Kratos comes back, looking impassive. Kratos takes the sack from Lloyd silently, and takes the chip with Raine's name on it out. Then throws it into the fire.

"No more." Kratos says very, very calmly. "Unless you'd rather we all died from food poisoning rather than against monsters." He cuts off Raine's protests.

"Owned." Piers whispers. Kratos then goes and takes a seat by the edge, one arm around his stomach, the other over his face. He looks rather miserable, from what they can see of his face. Noishe whines in admonishment at Raine, then goes and sits near Kratos.

"It's not that bad." Raine scowls, looking at her pot of soup. She tries it, and seems to find little problem with it, but Lloyd and Genis are making plans with Colette to use the food as some sort of attack.

"Night watch." Kratos mutters, claiming the post. "I doubt I shall be able to sleep after eating that concoction in any case..." It seems this will be the closest man will get to complaining, even as he still looked a bit green. Lloyd and the rest dump the food off the edge, and then studiously scrub the pots and bowls, and try to coerce Kratos into playing card games. This does not succeed. Shikka stands, wandering off. Kratos glances at him, but goes back to his little world of ignoring the real one. Colette doesn't seem to understand the rules of Go Fish, and Raine is tired after all that strenuous cooking and argueing with Kratos to get him to eat, and lies down for sleep. Shikka comes back with three deer. One for Lloyd, one for Daichi, Genis and Piers and one for himself. He sits by the fire, starting to prep kebabs with sticks.

Lloyd gapes. "Food!" its a controlled shout, with all the enthusiasm of a shout in the loudness of a whisper. Shikka passes the first set of kebabs, sprinkling a grass-like herb over them. It makes the taste better. Lloyd is just pleased to have real food, and sits there happily eating, passing one of them to Colette. She politely eats a small amount, and then Genis inhales the rest in a single bite. Shikka keeps passing them out until everyone is full. Lloyd collapses back with a very pleased expression on his face.

"Thanks to Kratos, we don't have to carry emergency food around.." Lloyd says, and takes out some very battered apples and sandwiches with pocket lint on them. he feeds these to the fire. Piers yawns, flopping back. Shikka shifts into lion mode, turning his back so that no-one can see him eat the corpse. Lloyd, fed with nice warm and tasty meat, falls asleep half in his bedroll. Genis shakes his head, and the goes to his own. Colette going to hers as well. Kratos sits with Noishe, idly watching their surroundings, even if he looks like he might be feeling ill/having indigestion.


September 12th


Kratos makes his normal waking call of dropping a piece of wood noisily onto dying fire, Lloyd sitting up quickly with a blink and muted noise of confusion. Shikka seems to have been up eating most of the night. The corpse is picked clean aside for some...indigestible matter, bones and skin. and shoved off the edge of the cliff. Genis stirs next, sitting up and starting the oatmeal. There is no coffee to drink this morning, but since Kratos still looks a bit uncomfortable it might have been a good thing. the mercenary declines food, waiting on the seat he had occupied for the night. They eat, clean their bowls, and pack up. They had camped at the top of the ridge, now they just had to make their way down the other side of the range.

After a winding trail down the mountain path, they reach a flat, unnaturally flat, area. on one side, a large wooden flat-door angles up to the sky.

"This is the base." Raine says, then the large wooden door thunks to the ground.

"W..wait!" the assassin says. Lloyd stops, as Colette stops, and since Colette stopped, the rest of them stopped.

"..Wow." Lloyd says. "She caught up with us."

"Oh, thank goodness!" Colette says, taking a half step closer. Kratos silently draws his blade, watching the assassin.

"D..Don't move!" the assassin takes a matching half step back. Piers tenses up, getting ready to cast a spell. Daichi tenses also, growling lightly.

"A wise decision." Raine says softly, holding her staff.

"...I won't be caught off guard this time!" the assassin says, drawing her two slips of paper again. "Prepare to die!" As if this is some sort of signal to him, Kratos lunges. the assassin, not too much older than Lloyd, blanches, then throws out a slip of paper. a poof of smoke and a large bird thing is there. Piers starts casting spells at the assassin-ninja. Kratos whips his shield up to block the creature's lunge, a scowl forming as he fights the creature on the wheel. Lloyd glances at Kratos, then his attention is swiftly brought back to the assassin as she slams a seal into his chest, and then more cards appear out of air to throw him back. Piers gathers his energy into a hand, slamming it to the ground. A rumble can be heard beneath the assassin.

"Lloyd, get back!" A geyser bursts out beneath the would-be assassin. Lloyd staggers back, pulling at slips of paper that have stuck to his face and his eyes. Colette is behind him, and moves to help. The assassin screams, backpedaling quickly, then flipping to keep to her feet. Piers blasts at the assassin with a Move spell to knock her over. Daichi is aiding Kratos with the bird-creature. The bird starts making its lightening quick attacks at both Kratos and Daichi, and the mercenary seems to be getting angry, to judge by the electricity sparking off him. A flicker of thought, and the violet glow changes to an earthen one.

"Grave." Kratos snarls the spell, and the earth under the Guardian shivers, and slabs of rock spike it.

"Aqua Edge!" Daichi has been practicing the spell, the water bullets pounding against the guardian harshly. The pillars of rock shudder, and explode, and Genis gasps, apparently their mercenary had used too much Mana in that spell. the Guardian fades with a cry, and the assassin backs up to the front of the mine.

"Crap!"

"Move!" A giant hand appears, shoving at the assassin. Piers' aura is golden/green instead of blue as he casts this.

A rumble echoes from the mine, and the woman immediately takes an 'Oh, Holy Shit, I thought I outran that' look. Noishe whines, and Kratos switches his glare from the woman to the doorway.

"Ugh..." she gets back to her feet. "...Just you wait!" She edges away from the door way. "I swear I'll kill you all next time!" with some smoke, she vanishes.

Piers pants, out of breath...And almost out of PP. "Uh...What do we do about the...rumblings?" Kratos is watching the entry way, but his fingers flick, and rapid-successions of First Aid spells fire off, including one for Daichi. Raine blinks, then casts Charge on Kratos, then Piers.

"It is a monster." Kratos says.

"It's... dark.." Colette shivers. Piers just gets ready. Daichi settles into a ready stance and Shikka transforms. Lloyd pulls the last bit of paper off him angrily as the large creature comes out. it was a large black skeleton, with a tail, four arms, and golden rams horns on its head.

"It's called a Sword Dancer!" Genis shouts, a crystalline lens in one hand while he used his Kendama as a focus in the other.

"I don't care what its called, lets just kill it!" Daichi snarls, rushing in, Shikka close behind.

"Light! Hit it with Light!" Genis shouts, finishing his casting for Icicle as the lens crumbles. Sword Dancer continues shambling forward.

"High ground!" Kratos barks, dashing up the cliff path and face to get on level with its head, then launches himself from that height to attack the creature from the back. Lloyd blinks as Kratos comes crashing to the ground next to him, then realization dawns on his face. he leaves off slashing at the monsters ankles as Kratos launches once more, then Lloyd clambers up the cliff face to mimic the mercenary, getting roughly the same amount of hits in before falling to the ground. Genis's spells distract it enough so that it doesn't turn to face the cliff. Colette uses her throwing rings to keep it distracted as well, while Raine casts First Aid on Lloyd and Kratos every time they land. the Sword Dancer draws two of its arms back, then two more.

"Move!" Kratos barks, dropping down the back of the creature and moving back as it swings its arms down. Daichi growls slightly, jumping down from his place on the ledge. He starts attacking the creature, his movements more erratic, powerful, faster. A sparking can be seen on the back of his neck, indicating an Exsphere normally hidden by his collar. The four arms of the Sword Dancer gain a black glow, and slam into the ground before it, like a Demon Fang that only existed just before it, sending up a shock wave of rocks. Genis and Colette yelp, the minty green bubble of their defense tech rising to cover them both as Raine is knocked out of casting by a few rocks. Daichi has his own defense tech, a blood red bubble in his case. It seems to activate automatically, as Daichi continues to attack. Shikka stands before Piers, protecting him from the flying rocks. The creature seems to pause, like it couldn't do anything so soon after using that attack, and Kratos takes this chance to run up its long tail, and start attacking the arm joints. it's skull chatters, as Lloyd darts in for its legs. Daichi has managed to get to the chest, pounding away, relentless. One of its arms simply falls off, and the Sword Dancer roars, a shock wave of the dark energy rippling off it. Kratos snarls as he goes flying, flipping in mid air to land better than he would have other wise, but still poorly. Dark Mana seems to hurt him. Lloyd yelps, throwing up his defense tech and he bounces off inside the bubble. Daichi throws up the defense bubble, but darts in, managing to hack its leg off. Lloyd dissipates his bubble, getting back up, battered but in one piece, as Raine flicks out First Aid spells, Kratos casting his own. the Sword Dancer chatters its jaw, and drops the remaining three weapons.

"strong...." it says, somehow speaking without any flesh to it. "Fight... strong..." it chatters again. "... ... back.." it fades in a swirl of Dark Mana. Daichi pants, the Exsphere stopping the sparking. He falls to his knees. Once again, Kratos does something unexpected - his First Aid casts before Raine's does, but he turns to check on Lloyd and Colette next without a word. Daichi wasn't really injured, more...exhausted. He lifts his collar to hide the Exsphere once more.

"I'm fine." Lloyd gets back to the group with Kratos shadowing him. "I never expected to run into an enemy like that." Lloyd mentions, noting that the large blades, and arm, of the Sword Dancer are gone.

"He was huge!" Colette cheers. "I bet he lived in a big house before he became a skeleton." Watch as Raine, Genis and Lloyd sweat drop.

"Colette, it wasn't a human... it had big horns..and a tail." Lloyd protests. Daichi manages to wander over to the group, still getting his breath back. Raine has already pulled out her book, and the Monster List. There's some strange bit of magic about writing in the data that allows them to see an image of the creature on the page.

"That may have been the end result of an elite being from the Underworld." Raine says, finishing the notes in her book.

"The Underworld?" Genis asks, dusting himself down. "That's just a legend, isn't it?"

"Did...That...look like...a legend to you...?" Daichi pants. Genis makes a face, but Raine steamrolls over them.

"Not necessarily." Raine shuts her book. "After all, demons and ghosts are completely different from our type of life-form. It hasn't been proven yet, but I think it's likely that there is a world where those things we refer to as supernatural creatures live." Most of this goes over Lloyd's head.

Daichi sits down, flopping back. "Agh...Everything hurts..."

"An Elite being from the underworld.." Lloyd muses, sombre for a moment. "But we took him out and all," he says, grinning. "So it's ok now, right?"

Genis sighs. "I hope so..." Lloyd stops, frowning at the dirt. there are shreds of paper yet on the ground.

"... why are there people trying to kill us?" Lloyd asks, slowly, as Raine passes him to check on Daichi.

"Some people might just be evil and not want the world regenerated..." Piers muses. Daichi is unaware of Raine's movements.

"....There are always those that reject Salvation." Kratos says.

"Maybe she's a Desian?" Genis offers, glancing at Daichi, then purposefully away. Raine is trying to get him to sit up, so she can poke and prod for injuries, and already has an apple gel out for him.

Daichi moans, batting Raine away. "I'm fiiiiine..." He whines. "And she wasn't no Desian..."

"Who knows." Kratos says, tilting his head as he turns for the path for the plains. "At any rate... we are in constant danger. That is all we have to know."

"If you're sure." Raine says, standing and offering her hand to Daichi. Daichi takes it, not letting Raine take too much of his weight. Raine releases his hand after he stands, crossing her arm across her waist in thought as the party starts moving. Lloyd spots her, and walks slowly.

"Those clothes..." Raine murmurs.

"Professor, something wrong?"

".. No." Raine says, walking faster to rejoin the group. "It's nothing, lets go."

"Yeah.." Lloyd also catches up. "Anyway, lets go look for a place where we can get a ship." the party works its way along the rolling flat-lands to the sea, and the fishing town ahead. After a few hours of walking, it's obvious Lloyd's curiosity is eating at him.

"Who was that girl earlier?" Lloyd finally asks Colette.

"I hope we get to see her again." Colette smiles. Lloyd looks slightly horrified at Colette.

"What are you talking about? She's trying to kill you!" Lloyd protests.

"Yeah, once we become friends, I'll have to ask her why she was doing that." Colette skips along.

Daichi sweat drops. "Does this girl have a death wish?"

"Huh?!" Lloyd looks horribly confused. "Are you kidding me? How do you plan on becoming friends with her?!" this makes Colette's skipping halt for all of a few minutes as she thinks.

"Hmm..." Colette spins around to smile up at Lloyd. "What would you suggest?"

"Me?" Lloyd looks even more confused. "How am I supposed to know?"

"Maybe if we get Daichi to chop her head off, she'd be easier to convince." Piers suggests.

"No, I don't think that will work." Colette frowns, as if she was seriously considering that as an option. "I don't think we could be very good friends if her head was shopped off. Lloyd, try to come up with a plan before we see her again!" she skips to Raine.

"Wait... I have to come up with the plan...?" Lloyd mutters, very lost. Daichi mumbles something like 'chop her arms off...' There's a strange tilt to Kratos's head as he walks behind them, as if he's thinking about something. A slight smile flicks, then disappears as he watches for monsters again. It's past dark by the time they reach Izoold. and Kratos knows where the inn is without much light to see the sign. Again, they split into rooms, and once again, by the time Lloyd gets into the room he shares with the Mercenary, the man has chosen the bed farthest from the door. Lloyd glances at him as Kratos sits and undoes his shoes, his sword already under the pillow, and cape on the chair nearby.

"... You're weird." Lloyd says, spotting the blade.

Kratos pauses, and a tiny smirk flicks. "Maybe I am."