22. Losing Time

Summary: Zesha and Yurick are forced to work together to find a way to cure Tahirah's voice while Therius and Arlyn watch over her. Nuriel starts his journey back to Lazulis, to check on Callista and to confront the Shadow-only to be blocked by an ambush from Garbis. Um, Dagran, Zoran and Gil, meanwhile, run into Zael while trying to escape some guards-and the results are not exactly pretty.

Characters: Zesha, Yurick, Tahirah, Therius, Arlyn, Nuriel, Garbis, Dagran, Zoran, Um, Gil, Zael

"How do we restore Tahirah's voice?"

This question was very obvious. Arlyn bit his lip lightly, pausing for a moment before speaking. "There could be medicinal herbs stored in the hospital wing, but I wouldn't count on it." He muttered quietly. "Because the Reptids did invade Melodia and trash the entire place, they could have taken as much resources as they could as well..."

"That doesn't help." Zesha muttered under his breath, before speaking up. "Arlyn, do you know of any type of medicinal herb that grows not far from Melodia and can restore speech?"

"...The forest outside Melodia shouldn't be touched by the Reptids, I think, if they were mainly focused on the goal of destroying Melodia. If that is so, there is a herb that grows in the heart of the forest. I don't remember the name of it, unfortunately, but it has an orange flower-it'll probably look a bit like a lily, but the petals would be curved inwards at the tips." Arlyn let out a sigh, shaking his head a little. "I should probably stay back and tend to Lady Tahirah. Nuriel already left for Lazulis-"

"Why?" Yurick asked, crossing his arms. "And...when? Is something the matter?"

Therius took a deep breath, before speaking up. "Apparently...the Shadow cast a 'Death' spell on Lady Callista. The spell will kill her and her unborn child in three days if Nuriel doesn't get back to Lazulis in time. He left half an hour ago."

"...Oh."

"It's terrible, and also cowardly of the Shadow to do such a thing to Lady Callista-all for the sake of fighting Nuriel." Therius didn't dare hold back any bite in his voice at that statement, but he composed himself, keeping a stoic face as he continued to speak, his voice never wavering. "I would like to request to stay with Lady Tahirah also...not just to support her, but to make sure the reinforcements I brought with me don't get annihilated by any enemies that might attack here."

Yurick could easily see that in Therius' eyes, there were obvious hints of fear. So obvious that he wondered if the others could notice, too.

Wait. Tahirah was out of commission. Therius had to stay back. Arlyn had to stay back. Nuriel technically ditched everybody. That meant...

Yurick and Zesha would have to be the ones to find the healing herb. Together.

This was not good.

"If only I knew a faster way to get back to Lazulis..."

Nuriel let out a sigh as he made his way through the woods, continuing to ramble aloud to himself. "I should have asked Therius if I could borrow a couple soldiers from him, but then again it wouldn't have worked out too well in terms of Melodia's defense-"

A branch suddenly snapped from underneath someone's feet. The advisor/bodyguard turned, looking around. He let out another sigh, crossing his arms.

"If whoever it is out here is going to ambush me, now would be a good time."

There was silence. Nuriel shook his head, scoffing.

"Seriously! I'm sick of waiting for all the suspense and stuff-it's not really cool. In fact, I find it cowardly to pull an ambush such as this...Garbis."

Garbis appeared from behind a tree, swords in each of his hands. "I'm surprised you noticed me so quickly." The Reptid spoke, directing an apathetic look towards the fire-wielder. "But it does make me wonder why you dare to travel alone."

"Someone needs my help. They will die if I don't reach them." The other responded, taking out his sword. "Just because I don't have the greatest fire abilities now doesn't mean that I can't fight, Garbis, but the more time I waste the more they'll die. I don't particularly enjoy death caused by my own hands..."

The Reptid paused for a moment, before speaking again. "True." He responded quietly. "That's true. But I'm afraid I have orders to kill you." He let out a soft laugh, smirking a bit. "Wait until Lady Tahirah hears that we Reptids have killed you as well...oh, wait, you won't even be alive to hear that-you'd be a bleeding, rotting corpse."

Nuriel didn't say a word-instead, he threw a fireball at Garbis, who easily sidestepped it.

"No, no," The Reptid murmured, still smirking, "That's not the way to fight, Nuriel. You really do have a bad temper when you get pissed off, don't you?"

"Shut up!" Nuriel threw another fireball at him, now completely frustrated by the whole ordeal. "Let's just end this already! Bring it on!"

"This way!"

"Run!"

Zoran nearly cursed as the four ran for their lives. "Why can't I just let you take refuge in my shop!?" He shouted, pushing crates and barrels aside so that the guards chasing them would trip over them and fall.

"Because," Dagran shouted back, "It's too obvious a hiding place, as we just found out! Pick up the pace, Zoran! Otherwise they're going to get you!"

Gil cursed under his breath as he used his wind abilities to push some oncoming guards out of the way. "We can't just run around here forever!" He shouted to Dagran, pulling Um away from an arrow that was shot at them. "This is getting ridiculous, Dagran-do you have any better ideas?"

The formerly-dead mercenary shook his head. "Not really-what about you?"

"Look out!" Um shrieked, and Dagran found himself colliding with Zael, who coincidentally had been taking a wander through Lazulis to try to sort things out in his head.

"Wha-" Zael looked up to see Dagran. "Dagran, what are you-"

"No time to explain!" Dagran responded quickly, getting up and continuing to run. Zael was utterly confused until a bunch of guards ran into him, causing him to accidentally trip them.

"What the-" Zael looked at the disappearing Dagran, with Zoran and- "Wait, is that...Um? And the other, that's a Reptid..." Letting no time go to waste, he took off after them, determined to catch up and figure out what was going on. "Wait!"

"Dang it, Zael's chasing us!" Gil shouted to Zoran. "Um and I have to lose him and the guards! Any ideas, mister so-called genius who thought it would be an excellent idea to hide in your shop?!"

"Hey, it's not my fault that you decided that breaking down the back door to get in was a brilliant idea!" Zoran snapped back sarcastically, before continuing to speak. "Maybe we should split up! They can't get us all at once if we're all separated.

"Brilliant idea!" Dagran shouted back. "I'll take Gil. Zoran, you take Um with you! We'll find each other again eventually!" With that being said and done, the group of four split into pairs of two, taking separate paths as they continued to run away. Dagran and Gil kept running down the streets, knocking things aside behind them as they sprinted past the startled people, yelling apologies if they knocked over any of their things. Zael followed close behind, dodging said things that they knocked over (though he did trip one or two times).

Dagran and Um turned a corner-

-And immediately found a dead end. Dagran cursed, just as Zael came around the corner.

"Dagran!" The two turned to face Zael, who was panting a bit. "What's the deal-" He stopped as soon as he saw Um. "So...you did go try to rescue him."

"Yeah." The other responded, nodding a bit. "Zoran and I did. And we succeeded."

Zael shook his head. "Dagran, I don't think you've realized this, but you could have just made the Reptids even more of an enemy to us now because you attacked them to get Um back-right?"

"Well-" Dagran started, but then Um cut in.

"I'm sorry."

The two turned to face the islander, who had his head bowed. "I got captured. It's my fault."

"No, Um-" Dagran walked over to Um, holding him by the shoulders. "Look, it's not your fault about any of this, alright? It's mine. I wasn't thinking of any consequences for busting you out of there, and I know now. Alright? It's not your fault."

Um paused, biting his lower lip, before nodding a bit. The two turned towards Zael, who let out a breath.

"Well, I'm glad you're safe." He glanced behind him "I think the older soldiers went after Gil and Zoran. Knowing them, they're not going to be able to chase them down that easily-Gil's a lot faster than the rest of you when running, you know."

"I know," Dagran admitted. "Well, it kind of helps for him that he has the abilities of wind magic."

Zael was confused. "Wind magic?" He repeated.

"Yeah," the other responded, crossing his arms. "It's a rarer form of magic, and it gives the user the abilities to harness the wind and use it for attacking others. Gil also told me earlier that Garbis, the other right-hand man to Chrysaor also harnesses wind magic."

"Good to know." Zael paused, before speaking again. "We should probably get you guys to the castle-actually-" He glanced behind him again, "We should probably go and stop the big chase between Gil, Zoran, and the other guards-otherwise we'll have a lot of beaten-up people and that won't be good..."

"Right..."

Garbis was slammed into the dirt again, and Nuriel pointed a flaming sword at him. The other Reptid soldiers had already fled, or were nothing but dead corpses or ashes littering the earthen ground-incinerated earlier by Nuriel in the battle.

"This can't be possible," The Reptid panted, trying to stand, "It can't be. The Shadow-it-"

"Yeah, I know." Nuriel responded, his eyes full of blazing fire. "He took away a lot of my power. I had some training, though from another fellow fire mage, and I think I've gotten better." He let out a sigh, before continuing to speak. "I'll kill you in ten seconds. One-"

Garbis stared at him. "You must be joking."

The other shook his head. "I'm not. I don't have too much time to waste-I need go help...the person I need to help." He worded carefully, doing his best not to give away any vital information. "Two...three..."

Garbis smirked, slowly getting to his feet, tasting blood trailing from his nose. "You won't win so easily next time, Nuriel."

"Four...five..." Nuriel continued quietly, continuing to point his sword at the other.

The Reptid sheathed his sword, and a gust of wind suddenly threw Nuriel off-balance, sending him into the dirt. When he recovered, he soon realized that Garbis was gone. Nuriel blinked, rubbing dirt off his face, before looking around quietly.

"Great. Another enemy I've made. Just what I need..." He groaned sarcastically, before continuing his journey.

Author note: I just want to thank you guys so much for voting on my poll and reading my fics-every single Last Story fic has been voted to be updated more and the like, so I'll be focusing on this fandom for a while, I suppose... :) Hopefully Carnevale Di Felicità can be updated soon, or Blood Warrior, and thanks so much for your patience! Thanks!

Oh, also, a question to shout out to you readers-do you have a favourite OC in this fic? If so, why? Leave it in the reviews, and thanks again! I'll reveal in the next three chapters which OC is the most popular in this fic! XD