A/N:
RK: I'm actually really surprised i got this chapter done when I did. Especially considering I managed to somehow injure my dominant typing finger and it was in a splint for a good few days. But I digress.
Here's the new chapter, read it and enjoy!
Valeria stretched as she walked down the port hatch down to the ground below. She honestly had no idea how they'd managed to make it so quickly to Sheridan Port, but time was and still is of the essence so Jade had given her permission to alter a couple of things in the Tartarus's system so that they could make better time. So, a day earlier than they'd thought, their group was leaving the landship to head towards the crafting town.
"Sheridan handles ship construction for the entire Outer Lands, doesn't it?"
"Yes, exactly!" Guy answered Tear. "Sheridan is technically part of Kimlasca, but experienced craftsmen from all over the world live there."
"The craftsmen spend a lot of time passing on their craft as well," Valeria commented, smiling at a memory she had of a particular craftsman who helped her out before. "A good chunk of those here in this town love it when someone shows interest in the craft and will even mentor others."
"And you know how there's a huge canyon around Sheridan? The dry rocks from there are invaluable for building fon machines, especially weapons."
"Oh! And the wind power from the surrounding area is a new way to help power some parts of the town," Valeria added on to Guy's comment about the geography. The blond looked at her with eyebrows raised. "Oh come on, you had to have known that! It's one of the best things about the town, how they keep creating new ways to get different types of power!"
Guy nodded. "I'd heard something about that, but didn't know they'd implemented it."
"It's amazing! I talked with one of the people in charge of that and he gave me the lowdown in it, I'll tell you about it sometime."
"Thanks!" He turned back to the others, "Sheridan is pretty close to Daath, which allows them to be able to sell battleships and landships to Malkuth as well, so—"
"Arrgh!" Luke cut in. "Shut up already!"
Valeria and Guy both fell silent at the red head's outburst. The fonist noticed the others were looking rather annoyed as well and had to stifle a laugh.
"…Stay away from me." Anise ordered.
"Their obsession with fon machines is… incredible…" Natalia breathed, an odd look on her face.
"Or maniacal." Jade smirked.
"Well sorry!" Guy muttered dejectedly.
Valeria laughed. "I'm not, it's too much fun."
The group pushed past the two of them, leaving Valeria and Guy standing at the port entrance for a moment until Nyla brushed past them, knocking them over.
Valeria stood up from that in surprise, noticing the Arka flicked her tail back at them. Since when was Nyla that playful towards others?
It made Valeria take a better look at Guy, who was standing up now as well. "Did you bribe my Arka?"
"W-what?" He sputtered.
"She seems to be awfully nice to you recently. On our way over here I noticed her curled closer to your terminal than mine and she just playfully knocked both of us over instead of just me."
Guy shook his head, walking to catch up with the rest of the group.
"You're not discounting either of those facts, you know. Which, makes me believe even more now that you bribed her somehow…"
"The first day when we were in St Binah, right after we met with McGovern and the others, I noticed Nyla sneaking off towards the back of town and I followed her." Guy looked ahead at Nyla, the Arka pacing on the outside of the group, keeping her gaze out on the surrounding area. He sighed. "I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but her leading the way to a group of dogs wasn't it. The dogs were obviously strays but there were two females there who looked to belong to someone, and they'd just given birth to some puppies. I think Nyla had sensed that and wanted to help out or something."
Valeria nodded, not surprised in the least that Nyla would do something like that.
"She'd realized I followed her and got defensive until I left; I then came back with a cart after I piled some blankets in it that I'd taken from a stall. I helped the mothers and her puppies into the small cart and the rest of the strays just piled in, getting protective of them. From there I dragged the cart up to the town square and gave it to one of the soldiers who promised me that they'd take care of the animals. And right then one of the owners managed to stumble by as well, and they also agreed to help all of them. Nyla had stayed with me the entire time and when it was just the two of us, she bumped me and then ran off."
Valeria smirked. "Do you have a soft spot for animals or something, Guy?"
The blond hunched down, embarrassed. "I… guess…"
Valeria laughed softly. "Anything else happen?"
"Well, she came in around the time I was eating dinner and I gave her the rest of my meat so she wouldn't have to go hunting, but that was it."
"Huh, so food and understanding… The best way to get an Arka to like you," Valeria smirked. "I'll not have you stealing my best friend from me."
"I wouldn't!"
Valeria laughed as she ran to catch up with Nyla, running her fingers along the Arka's torn ear the moment she caught up. "You're my best friend, no leaving for the other blond, ya hear?"
The Arka head-butted her, growling softly.
Sheridan was just as Valeria remembered. There were all sorts of craftsmen around and the fon techie within her wanted to run around, talking with a lot of them. Though she did have self-control, so instead of doing just that, she told the others to follow her towards where she knew the flight projects were supposedly being worked on.
And since none of the others had been here before, or if they had they hadn't made friends with the mechanics here, they left it up to her and Nyla to lead the way.
Though she did make a mental note to head back and check up on a weapon smith buddy of hers before they left.
Like usual, any crowd that was in the way parted when Valeria, riding Nyla, came walking by. It always made Valeria smirk, and it was a good perk to have the Arka around when she didn't want to deal with people.
Finally, after walking into the warehouse portion of the town, they happened upon a small group of elderly people looking rather flustered. Valeria had Nyla slow down just a bit so they could slowly come up on them and not freak them out. One of them was bald with side burns, another had one small patch of blond hair on him with long eyebrows covering his eyes and the only female of the group was wielding a ruler, occasionally smacking it in her palms.
"Well? Well!? What's happening?!" The blond asked.
"I can see it plain as day! The gusts over the Meggiora are going to blow it off any minute." The other male responded.
"Oh, come on, Aston. Are you sure you're not going blind, old man?" The female argued.
"You know you only get farsighted with age, Tamara. I can see far away just fine." Aston responded.
"This is bad; we might lose the hover drive." The blond broke in.
"How can you talk like that, Iemon?! That's your grandson, Ginji trapped in there! Aren't you worried about him!?
Valeria looked over at Jade, not sure what to do. She hadn't ever actually met the mechanics in charge of the flight project, she just knew who they were; and since these older folks were talking about the hover drive, she was sure these were them. But now it was out of her hands and up to Jade or whoever to get this moving.
And it seemed like Luke wanted to fill that slot.
"Is something wrong?"
The blond, Iemon, looked over at them. "… The Albiore crashed in the Meggiora Highlands."
"The Albiore? You mean the machine equipped with the ancient hover drive?"
"Oh, no." Anise cried out in response to Guy's question. "Did we come all the way here for nothing?"
"No, I heard two hover drives had been excavated…"
Valeria sighed, palm resting on her forehead. "That doesn't mean a thing though, most of the mechanics here focus on one huge project at a time before starting another huge project. Sure, they tend to do smaller projects as well, but it's better to focus on one large project at a time. And I'm pretty sure one flying machine with the hover drive is considered a huge project, let alone two."
"The little lady is correct; the second hover drive hasn't been so much as started up yet."
"Iemon, there's no time to chat. We have to form a rescue party for Ginji and the hover drive!"
"Right," Iemon agreed with Aston. "We can attach the hover drive to the Albiore II and resume experiments."
"You're a heartless old man!" The lady growled at him, following the men as they walked past their group.
Valeria sighed again, this time choosing the lay down on Nyla as the others talked around her.
"The Meggiora Highlands are teeming with monsters," Jade brought up, putting a hand to his head. "The rescue team may need rescuing themselves…"
"But from what they've said, we can't fly without the hover drive." Tear brought up what they all were thinking.
Luke chewed on his lip. "Let's at least ask whether or not we can borrow the hover drive."
"Yes," Natalia agreed, "we should probably ask the one they called Iemon."
Ion stepped forward. "I think it may help smooth things along if I'm the one who speaks with them. Let's go."
Valeria nodded. "That group was class I, they're the top mechanics in this town, so since they're not here, they'll be in the town hall. I'll lead you there, but I have to go run an errand real quick. Make sure you all don't leave without me, got it?"
The others agreed and the two of them led the rest of them to the hall, waiving at them before they went to another part of town.
After walking for some time, Nyla grumbled under her breath and stopped suddenly, turning to look over at a different street. Valeria looked over as well right as Noir came around the corner, York and Urushi behind her.
"Noir?!"
The thief looked at the two of them in surprise. "Valeria, Nyla?!"
The three thieves quickly came over to them, the female pulling Valeria from Nyla to hug her. "Please let me go…"
Noir did, after one more squeeze and looked the two of them over. "I know I heard about it from Drayden, but I'm still happy to see you for my own eyes. The boys and I were really worried that you and the pooch didn't make it."
Valeria laughed. "We're too hard to kill!"
Urushi nodded. "That is true."
"Well little lady, what are you doing here?"
"Here as in this walkway, or here as in this town?" Valeria asked York.
He chuckled. "How about both?"
"I'm going this way to see a weapon smith friend of mine, the town, however, is because Jade's group wants to borrow the hover drive from Class I."
"The hover drive in that flying contraption crashed in the Meggiora?"
"Yep," Valeria answered Noir, "that's the one. Not sure how they plan on doing this, but we'll see."
"Noir," they all looked at York. "I'm going to escort her to her weapon smith, that alright with you?"
The Dark Wings leader nodded. "That's fine, just catch up soon."
Noir and Urushi walked off, leaving York with Valeria and Nyla. Like many times before, York bowed before her, gesturing for her to lead the way. They walked side by side, the male occasionally asking her some questions.
She knew he was fishing for her next plans, likely cause he, Noir and Urushi wanted to keep track of her, but she didn't know what her group were doing next after helping St. Binah. In fact, her only plan was to keep moving so that she doesn't have to deal with Aeron, or worse.
A couple minutes of lapsed, comfortable, silence fell between them as they walked onward until they reached Valeria's destination. She turned to York and bowed at him. "Thank you for the escort, it's nice to have someone who understands walk nearby. I'll try and keep you guys updated, if you promise to do the same. And if you go back to helping Asch, don't get dragged into anything stupid, you hear?"
York laughed softly at her but bowed nonetheless and sauntered away, allowing Valeria to go inside the workshop with Nyla trailing closely behind. Though the moment she entered through the door, the Arka moved past Valeria quickly to go into a back room, to the surprise of the patrons inside.
"Ah! Valeria! The old man is in the back with Gita, he'll be happy to see you!"
Valeria smiled at Shon, working the front desk, and waived at him, following Nyla on back. Sure enough, Nyla was curled up on a large animal bed with the wolf hybrid, the two canines catching up for the moment.
"One of these days, I think she's going to leave me for Gita…" Valeria muttered to the silver haired man standing in front of the forge.
He whirled around, arms wide with a grin on his face. "Yellow Bird! Goodness it's been some time! Get over here you!"
Valeria grinned, bolting over to the older man and letting him envelop her in a hug. His arms wrapped around her middle and, even though he was an old man, he lifted her in the air and whirled her around. Even she wasn't sure why this didn't bother her, since normally even the thought of a male hugging her would send her sprawling to the ground. But old man Haus treated her like a granddaughter from the first moment he saw her the first time she visited Sheridan. So she didn't really see him as anything other than a protective grandfather.
The moment he released her, Valeria was digging in her bag. "I found one of the best items for you to try and craft with!"
Haus looked over at the canines. "She's obviously using me for my crafting skills, what do you think?"
Gita raised his head and huffed at his owner while Nyla didn't even bother responding to that. Valeria rolled her eyes and extracted the ore from her bag. The moment his eyes landed on the ore, Haus stopped talking and stared at it in surprise.
"Th-that's Libavius ore! Do you have any idea how rare that is!?"
Valeria snorted. "Duh, and you won't believe what we went through to get it, Nyla and I. So I want you to take this ore and create the best thing you can ever make!"
"Yellow Bird…" Haus looked teary. "I… don't know what to say…"
"Nothing needs to be said; I just wanted to give that as thanks for all the stuff you've helped me with. Mess around all you like, I don't want anything in return, you hear?"
Haus picked her up and twirled her around again, once again making Valeria wonder how the old man managed to twirl her around like he was thirty years younger.
"Hey, Nyla and I have to go, but you have fun with that ore!"
Bribery.
She had to result to bribery to get the Arka away from the wolf hybrid, a whole handful of snacks and even then, the pooch wasn't thrilled about having to leave her friend.
Currently, the two were waiting at the entrance of town for the group. She wasn't sure what the situation was, but since they were on a strict timeline, she'd made sure not to waste time seeing old man Haus.
Even though she enjoyed watching him work.
She looked over as the other rounded the corner to head out of town. They saw the two of them and came to a stop a few feet in front of them.
"So, what's the plan?" Valeria asked them.
Everyone looked at Guy, who hung his head. "Me again?"
The silence stretched for a moment before he sighed. "Class I is going to allow us to use the Albiore II if we go rescue Ginji and the hover drive from the Meggiora. They gave us a launcher to help get the Albiore safely to the ground."
Valeria nodded. "Got it, I've been in the Highlands before looking for ore, it's past the port. We should probably hurry."
The others agreed and allowed her to once more lead the way. It took them a couple of tense hours before they reached the point where they could actually enter the Highlands and the moment they entered the realized just how precarious the situation was.
The Albiore was stuck on a narrow ledge and the winds kept teetering it closer and closer to the edge where it could fall and kill the pilot.
"We have to hit both sides of the Albiore so we can lower it safely," Guy told them, pulling out the launcher that had been supplied to them.
Valeria took one quick look at the group. "Luke, Guy, Jade and Tear take the left. Nyla and I will go with Anise and Natalia to go right. It'll split the group is half with a healer in both teams."
"Are you sure? That'll give our group two sword users."
"We'll be fine, Jade. Nyla and I can handle the close-up encounters when Anise is casting or she can be up close when I'm casting." Valeria assured. "Enough arguing, we need to hurry or we'll be in trouble if the Albiore falls."
Even Jade couldn't argue with that and the two groups split off to take their sides.
It was tough going for Valeria's group; it seemed that all sorts of monsters were running at them. Although she'd noticed that a couple of the monsters were more intent on getting past them, rather than attacking them.
And for some reason, that bothered her.
And Nyla as well. The Arka was occasionally glancing around and whining, something she hadn't heard the canine do in quite some time.
"I have a bad feeling about this..."
"What?" Anise asked.
"Have you noticed anything odd?"
"Other than you and the pooch? No."
"I have... The monsters..." Natalia muttered softly.
"Exactly."
"What?" Anise asked.
"They've been running away from this area..." Natalia told the girl quietly.
Suddenly Nyla crouched down with a loud growl, the noise startling them all to look at the direction she was staring at. Moments later, they each heard and felt large footsteps coming from that direction.
From around the corner a large red and black striped grey reptilian creature stepped into view, fangs gleaming in its jaws and horns all along its head. It moved on two feet and had a long spiked tail trailing behind it.
Valeria paled, she knew that creature, remembering it from a book she'd read ages ago. A book on ancient extinct Dawn Age creatures.
"Guys... That's a Blade Rex..."
A couple of plot bunnies made some of the things in this chapter happen, so thank them for the middle chunk...
Also, Guy has received a new title "Future Fur-friend"!