Chapter 28

The moment of mind loss they all had after they saw Rhen leaving passed faster than anyone would expect. Lars found himself alone in Thornkeep, sipping loudly from a mug of mud-tasting liquid that made him think that he will throw up every second. Things were going too fast, indeed.

A large animal stopped in front of him, making him unable to see the glistening fire anymore. The large animal was a member of the canine family and was slavering abundantly with a happy-looking expression on its face. Lars stood up, engrossed and dropped the half-filled mug on the floor on purpose. Throwing the blanket he had been wearing to warm himself up on the Saint Bernard dog, he left the inn abruptly, ignoring the keeper's calls.

This was already too much.

"Because you cannot stay away from your soul too much" Te'ijal said, swinging a stone locket in front of the paladin's eyes. Galahad's eyes widened in shock as his mouth opened to speak, but found it difficult to do so. Te'ijal grinned smugly before he could react and spun around again, following her way.

"Y-y-you stole my soul?!" Galahad asked with a tone filled with indignation, anger, shock and anything else combined. The vampire did not turn around, neither slow down as the paladin was forced to follow her.

"Oh, don't be like that, my dumpling. You didn't even notice its absence. That coated man from Veldarah was nice enough to lower the price of the pendant for me. Now don't look at me like that" She said, before many diplomatic insults were thrown at her and before she could ignore them in a more diplomatic way.

With a worried expression, Te'ijal eyed the sand beneath her feet. The last time they went to Veniara, the sand was gold yellow, now it turned into the color of a moldy lemon of a shade between yellow and gray. That was a reason to get worried.

"So what do you think?" Galahad asked out of the blue, after his long speech about why human beings need their souls to live in peace.

"Hmm?"

"About the quest"

"Oh, well, I think the lavender-haired girl should settle down for a while before- I actually think that every of them should see the best option and-..."

"No, I meant what do you think of the quest" Te'ijal spun around and eyed the paladin in a weird manner. Their ship was ready to sail off.... The vampire put on a concerned expression.

"The conditions of these land are worry some. I would opt for the dangerous choice" She said shortly adding a smirk at the end. Galahad remained in silence, not responding or either telling Te'ijal his own opinion.

"Sheips goieng tew Seidona, Dirkoun, Broomweech leeving ein feiftein meinut'"(!) A cracked voice yelled as it took seconds for the two to realize what the rum-addict just said. They rushed to the sheep as the yeller gave them a glare before mumbling something about 'white-as-cheese wetlanders".

Her mind was blank. Absolutely blank. She was not able to think, react, feel anymore. Everything was going bad. And everyone acted as if it didn't actually matter. The burnt log she was sitting on right now could very well collapse and with a more pessimistic mind, Rhen could even break one leg or one arm as her "chair" was suspended a few meters above the -now- ruins.

She could have given up right in the day she got the opportunity to get away from Ghalarah. She would have continued to serve Rona and watch the sky fill with black clouds as the guardians, the Oracle and the druids would have covered their teary eyes in despair while wondering why did she refuse and choose to leave the world suffer slowly.

But she didn't.

She chose to live on and fight for everything, not die like a rat in poisoned flour. She could very well choose to fight this time, as well.

Rhen grinned stupidly at the thought of her daring to think that she could actually defeat a whole army. Stupid. AND too much.

"Are you okay?"

Stupid thing to do. Grabbing her sword (even if it was a reflex) in the position she was in without falling was like bribing the cow with grass and then tell her not to eat any.

Thud.

"Not anymore" Rhen answered frankly before standing up from between the bricks and wood. Elini smiled amused as she watched Rhen dust her clothes.

"What are you doing here?" Rhen asked, looking at the tanned woman.

"Well, a certain pirate stole the dragon-"

"Rampadel" Rhen corrected her.

"...stole Rampadel and went to the furthest of Veniara Isles and is now probably getting drunk." Elini continued, crossing her arms emotionlessly.

Rhen covered her face with her palms and let out a long sigh. Now one of them got away and took the dragon with him too. Their locomotion system was gone. Great. "If you are worrying about John not returning, stop it" Elini said as Rhen eyed her. "He will return to us with the dragon." She added in a threatening manner.

Examining the surroundings for the first time, Elini could only express her slight amazement with her partially opened mouth. Ruins. Big deal. A town that was probably vandalized by what the northerners called "the minions of evil". The ruins didn't have any significance, but the simple fact that they were there was worrysome. It looked like it had been a nice village in its past life.

"It's called Clearwater" Rhen broke the silence.

"Wh-?"

"The village; its name is Clearwater" Elini didn't respond, but continued looking around the destroyed community. "It was my hometown" Rhen continued in a grave tone as the southerner's sight migrated from the surroundings on the long-haired girl, almost like asking "really?". Rhen nodded, looking down, trying to hold back emotions.

"But..." Elini started, attempting to say something but finding out that there was nothing to say in that moment. After a long period of silence, Rhen sniffed, and made a sign with her hand to Elini that they had to go.

It was cold. But not the fact that Lars forgot to set the fire made the house cold. The lack of emotion was making it freeze. Rhen remembered that Galahad once said that it never snowed in Sedona; at least as long as he knew. Then what were those white feathers outside? Snow, right.

"S-set the fire, northerner, my blood is freezing in my veins!" Elini said stuttering. Lars obeyed and the next second the fire was lighting the room. Even with Rhen's given up coat and her own, Elini was still freezing in front of the fire.

Rhen ignored the southerner's curses towards the northlands and sat on the couch simply. Lars moved to the side, not looking up from the purple book he was currently reading.

"What are you reading?" Rhen suddenly asked.

"Spells" Lars responded firmly.

Rhen took a look at the pages. Latin. Uninteresting; it wasn't her thing anyway.

"Look, Lars-"

Swoosh.

"Why in the world is snowing in Sedona?" Galahad asked with indignation in his voice while slamming the door shut before the snow could enter the house. Te'ijal sighed bored. Everyone lacked sense; she didn't make the difference between the outside and the inside of the house anyway.

"Glad we found him on the shore of Sedona. Or else..." Te'ijal said as Elini watched stoic as another male that accompanied the two was trying to stand on his own feet. So she was right. He got drunk. Drunk enough to not keep his balance and to start laughing like a fool after stumbling over the fold of the carpet. Even the hard floor seemed soft in his current state.

"Nevermind" Rhen said, standing up from the couch after she noticed Lars have given up reading and was looking at her, waiting to hear what she had to say since she made him pay attention. "Forget it" She added, attempting to leave the room.

"What now?" Te'ijal asked, crossing her arms and sitting on an free armchair while Rhen turned on her heel, annoyed already by the many times that question had been asked.

"Party!" John answered promptly being ignored just as promptly.

Like they all didn't know what they all wanted to do. This was irritating.

"Firstly, wait for the sun priest to return" Elini answered the vampress' question before Rhen could.

"Exactly, and after that... we'll see..." That sounded pathetic. Rhen could have slapped herself in the face if no one would have been around; she would have looked stupid indeed. She turned once more in an attempt to leave, but a male arm caught her waist and spun her around.

"How 'bout a kiss?" Eww. John smelled like rum combined with mud.

Slap.

"Ouch!"

"Stupid drunk jellyfish! Stay away from me!" Rhen said, leaving the room in rage.

John laughed stupidly before turning around and bumping in a certain figure.

Slap.

"Ouch!! What was that for?"

"You know very well, pirate" Elini started, with her arms crossed. "One more event like this and you'll see that my whip is multifunctional." She added with a death glare in her eyes. John stepped back, trying to get away discreetly from the crazy Veldtonian woman. He then suddenly felt someone stand up behind him.

Slap.

"Ouch! What did I do now?"

"Watch where you're going, jellyfish; my foot is not the deck you dance on!" Te'ijal snapped her teeth at the pirate as he smiled sheepishly before trying to walk away from the two angry women.

Thud.

The purple book fell saddened on the floor as John rubbed the spot where the object hit him. Trying to calm down the pain in his sorry head, he turned around in anger to see the thrower of the book. Lars remained stoic at the angry man's expression in front of him and only shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh, sorry; I use to throw things at people when they are being stupid or when there is too much pressure in the air" Lars said simply, leaving the room without retrieving his book from the floor.


Isn't it just obvious that I am in vacation??

yes it is....

I am ubah-happy I managed to finish chapter 28 ^^. It was really fun to write. But I started writing too many things for my own good. Unfortunately, if I don't start writing right away, the idea gets lost ;-;

Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading~

See ya~