We now resume your usual programming.
When morning came, I was awakened by Tear gently shaking me.
"Fon Master. It's morning," she said as I opened my eyes and blinked up at her. I felt pretty refreshed despite sleeping on the ground. Auldrant sure had nice grass.
"Thank you, Tear," I said. She backed off, and I sat up and yawned.
"I made breakfast, everyone," Jade said from across the makeshift campsite. He was sitting beside a small fire, and several roasted apples were on a skewer held above it.
I was starting to get sick of apples.
I ignored this fact, however, as I was hungry. Sync was awake, and had managed to roll over on his stomach and was beating his own head against the ground.
"H-Hey, big brother, stop that! You're going to hurt yourself!" I said, though I didn't go over to him. I didn't want him to try biting me, though he wasn't able to at the moment. I remembered that I was still wearing his mask, and pulled it off. "…Will you stop if I give this back? And I'm sorry for what I said about you yesterday."
This got Sync's attention, and he turned his head to look up at me. He gave me an angry glare, but then closed his eyes for a moment. Then, he gave a slight nod. I rolled him over on his back, and carefully put his mask back on his face. Just as I had hoped, he stopped trying to slam his head against the ground.
"...Jade, can we take that belt off of his face? Even if he makes noise and attracts trouble, this is cruel," I said, looking over. Tear brought one of the cooked apples over for me.
"I don't see why not, but we may have to put it back when we enter St. Binah, as we certainly want no chance of trouble in a city," the Colonel said. I took a bite of my cooked apple, then undid the belt and moved it off his head. He spat out the glove at once.
"This glove tastes like blood and old guy sweat," Sync groaned. "And Ion? Regarding what you said about me yesterday, I'm going to kill you someday for it, when you aren't useful anymore and we're equals again."
"I wonder how much of that was true," Luke said. He had been awake, but was sitting over by Jade.
"Sync... I don't expect an answer, but how much of that was true?" Tear asked.
"World's cruelest two-year-old is opinion, not fact, and I DON'T like stories," Sync hissed. I offered him some of my apple, but he turned his head away.
"...So all of it, then," Luke said. Sync quietly growled, but said nothing.
"Shall we be on our way? We can ensure Sync follows us by having someone hold onto the rope we used to tie him to the tree," Jade said, standing up. I was still munching on my apple, but I quickly went to put on my backpack. Everyone but Sync seemed alright with it, so we ended up with Jade and Guy leading the way while Jade held onto Sync's rope. I was walking alongside Sync in the middle of the group, Mieu on my shoulder. We walked in relative quiet, Guy and Jade talking in front but the others remaining quiet.
After a while, Mieu hopped onto Sync's shoulder. He turned his head slightly to look at the cheagle.
"...What are you doing?" he asked, a hint of annoyance in his tone.
"You look really unhappy. I want to see you smile like Ion!" Mieu said. Oh, cute little oblivious Mieu.
"I don't have anything to be happy about, and I doubt you'll be able to change that unless you get these ropes off of me or claw out Luke's eyes or something," Sync said. But his attitude seemed just a bit softened. Luke started to protest, but Tear elbowed him and he didn't speak.
"I can't do that. But I can tickle you. Then you'll laugh, right?" Mieu squeaked.
"...D-Don't you dare!" Sync yelped, face flushing red.
"Okay... Maybe later," Mieu said. The little cheagle stayed on his shoulder, though. It seemed like Mieu really wanted to befriend Sync. It was the funniest thing- Sync was our enemy, being held hostage against his will, and Mieu wanted to make him smile. So cute... I had never thought of Mieu as annoying.
"I would love to see you tickle him later, Mieu," Jade said, looking back. "His reaction would certainly be amusing." Sync looked very, very unhappy about this.
We continued walking for a while, and before too long, we approached St. Binah. In the game, the city had been surrounded by Oracle Knights... but there weren't any around.
"Hmm. They must be thinking that we wouldn't approach a city area with a hostage," Jade said, pushing his glasses up. "We may get odd looks, but I have the authority needed to get us around without trouble." We entered the city, and indeed we did get some odd looks. A completely unfazed Jade led us straight to the military base with a smile. He gave his name to a guard at the door, and we were let in with no trouble. I hung to the back, with a rather confused Luke, while Jade spoke to General McGovern about sending a letter to Emperor Peony concerning our situation and what had happened to the Tartarus. I wasn't too sure here, but was this different from the game...? I hadn't paid much attention to what Jade was doing here. Either way, I knew it was off-track, simply by way of our hostage God-General. After a while, Jade finally finished whatever he was doing. We all left the military base.
"Shall we stay the night at the inn? Much as it would be beneficial to start moving right away, we need more supplies. I, for one, don't care for apples," Jade said.
"YES! NO MORE APPLES!" I exclaimed. This got me some really odd looks. "...um. Shall we head on to the inn?"
Solana doesn't like apples anymore.