Ch. 21: Hima, the Village of Adventures

Silver: Hey guys, I'm back. Yeah...sorry this chapter moves along so slow and sorry its so short...it was kind of hard for me to write, but I'm trying my best! :D And here's Lloydie with our disclaimer!
Lloyd: SilverMoon doesn't own ToS or Namco!
Me: Okay, onto your story! Once again, haven't looked up the walkthrough, though I have gotten to this part in the game, but still, some info might be off. Enjoy!

Lloyd sat up and stretched, scratching his face and moving the covers off of him. Standing, he began to clean up his area of the camp. It wasn't like he actually slept that night, but still, he had to make the group think that he was still normal, otherwise his and Colette's secrets would be blown.

"Good morning Lloyd!" Colette greeted with a cheery smile as she walked over to him.

"Morning Colette." Lloyd grinned, throwing his bag onto Noishe and turning to Sheena and waving. Then, he turned to Genis and asked, "So what's for breakfast?" Though he could no longer eat, he still enjoyed the smell of food on a bright sunny morning.

"Hm...I'm thinking about sandwiches since it's almost lunchtime." The white-haired magician flashed a smile before turning back to his bag of ingrediants that he was currently digging through.

Raine walked over to him, "Can I help?"

"Um..." Genis glanced around and, seeing everyone's expressions, shook his head, "Sorry sis..." He muttered and turned away from his sister. Digging through the bag, he pulled out what he was looking for and grinned, beginning to make the lunch.

After they had all eaten, Lloyd turned to Raine, "So how exactly do we get to Hima?"

"It should be north west of here, on a mountain side." She glanced up from the map to see if he had heard, when she confirmed that he had, she looked down again, examining their course, "There's a bridge north of here that we have to cross to get to where it is, but after that, it should be pretty easy to find." Folding up the parchment, she put it back in her bag and stood.

The rest of the group followed suit, standing and hiking their bags up on their shoulders. Noishe carried some of them, but most of the group preferred to carry their own things.

They headed off in the direction of north, searching for the bridge that Raine had mentioned. Once they found it, it was basically a straight shot to Hima. The only times they had to stop was either to rest, or to fight monsters, so they managed to make it there by nighttime.

"Finally! We're here!" Lloyd grinned, tired of walking. He was pretty sure that his feet had blistered, even though he couldn't feel it. He still grinned though, because he knew that the others were probably just as tired, and could probably feel it too.

"Let's head to the inn for the night and then we'll find Pietro in the morning, how does that sound?" Raine suggested, crossing her arms as she surveyed the small village. Recieving nods from the others, she led the way into the inn, where they paid their fee and got two rooms.

The next morning, as the group exited their rooms and headed down the stairs, Sheena suddenly called out to a woman who was near the top of the stairs, about to enter a room.

"Hey! Do you know where Pietro is?" The dark-haired ninja waved at hand at the girl, hoping to get her attention.

"He's passed away," The woman was interrupted by the party's gasps before she continued, "He's buried by the others. If you wish to go see him then go ahead, but please don't try to dig up his grave." With that, she turned and entered the room, shutting the door behind her.

"We should go pay our respects." Colette suggested, blue eyes wide and sad.

Sheena nodded quietly and exited the inn, not waiting for the others to follow her. When they found her again, she was standing near the top of the village, surrounded by a bunch of graves. The one in the middle was labled "Pietro". The assassin's head was bowed in prayer. Colette quickly joined her side, as did Genis and Raine.

Lloyd stood behind them, a questioning look on his face. As he looked around, he noticed that everyone's head's were bowed. 'The must be praying.' He thought to himself as he heard footsteps approach from behind. His senses immediately went on high alert as he turned around, finding himself face to face with a brown haired man dressed in dark green and white clothing.

"P-pietro?" Sheena gasped, approaching the man slowly.

"Chosen...mana...boulder...Chosen...die..." The brunette muttered in a zombie-like fashion.

"There you are!" The woman from earlier ran up and placed a hand on Pietro's shoulder, pulling him back towards the inn, "Come on, let's get you home." She stopped and looked up when Raine cleared her throat, staring at her with an angry look on her face.

"You lied...?" Genis said, standing next to his sister. Why would she have lied?

"Yes, but only because he's like this! Everyone who's escaped from the ranch became cursed and eventually died! Now, come on Pietro, let's get you home."

"Wait, we have something to ask him." Kratos said, seeming to appear out of no where. That reminded Lloyd, where had the mercenary disappeared to? "Pietro, how did you escape from the ranch?"

"Boulder...move...Desians...Chosen...die..." With that statement, the woman led Pietro away, telling them that his things were in the grave and that they could have them if they wanted.

"He said boulder...did we see anything like that back at the ranch?" Lloyd asked, turning to Raine.

"Yes...I do remember something looking out of place. We should check it out immediately." The rest of the group agreed. They began the process of digging up the grave, and with everyone's help, they managed to get it done rather quickly. From the grave they received an orb and a couple other irrelevant items.

"So Kratos, where did you go?" Lloyd asked as they headed down the mountain side.

"I went up to the top of the cliff. I met a man who was going to do dragon tours off the top of it." Kratos stated simply walking ahead a bit. Lloyd sighed, having gotten nothing important out of the angel.

"Hey, what's going on down by the inn?" The red-clad twin swordsman stared down at the front of the inn, where a large number of people seemed to be gathered. He hurried down the cliffside, the group following at his heels. What he found was Clara (still a monster) surrounded by a bunch of warriors and a spell caster.

"Come on! The monster's almost dead!" One of the warriors shouted, moving to attack Clara again. Lloyd ran forward with a speed he didn't know he had and managed to parry the attack, saving Dorr's old wife from being dispatched.

"What are you doing?" Another man with a sword growled angrily.

"No! You musn't hurt her!" Colette ran up to Lloyd's side followed by Genis who also was yelling that they couldn't kill Clara. The warriors seemed ready to attack when suddenly Clara moved out from behind the trio and exited the village, dropping something as she ran. The group of people immediately ran after her, shouting curses.

"What did she drop?" Raine inquired, stepping forward and picking up the item that had fallen to the ground, "The key to the Tower of Mana...hm, I wonder why she had it." The half-elf put the key in her pocket and then turned to the group who were exiting the village.

"Wait!"

Lloyd turned, seeing the auburn haired woman from earlier.

"Would you ever be able to do me a favor?" She pleaded, eyes wide.

"What is it?" Kratos asked, a hand on his sword. Lloyd had to resist the urge to snort, this woman seemed harmless, what reason did she have to attack them?

"Find the Boltzman's technique and save Pietro! Please?" She clasped her hands in front of her.

"I suppose if we come across it it wouldn't hurt to come back here and try..." Raine murmured, placing her hand on her chin and thinking, "Yes...we will try to find it for you and if we do I promise to come back here and try to save him."

With that, the group left Hima, the Village of Adventures.

Me: Yeah..that was a really crappy chapter. Sorry. T_T You may have noticed that I messed with the chain of events...some of that was purposeful, like them finding the key to the Tower of Mana. I just didn't feel like having to type that scene later. Sorry. And is Hima the Village of Adventures? I don't rememeber, if it's not please tell me what it is so I can fix this chapter. xD
Lloyd: REVIEW! :D