WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. Nothing special
for this chapter, just the usual innuendo.
Author's note: You see, this is where I really like the Author's note: I get to stand up for myself! Foolish professional authors never get this opportunity. I received a number of complaints after the last chapter over the word 'indolent'. Whilst I agree that 'insolent' also works well, 'indolent' is, in fact, a real word, and not a typo (for once, whee!). It's synonymous with 'lazy', in short. After all, Queen Valda's consort would have been sleeping on the ground, courtesy of Hawk's sleep flower. Just glad we cleared that one up. On to this chapter. Hmm, this chapter is a less eventful, shorter, and nowhere near as action-packed as I'm sure you guys want, but it's an important one (So I felt, anyway) so I had to throw this in here before we got on to the God-Beasts. I know, I know! I drag things out. Blame it on a personality disorder and we can all get along better for it.
Response to the Reviewers!:
Just Call Me Angels: Well, seeing as I never insult any of my reviewers on purpose, take it as a compliment ^_^. I mostly find it funny. I hope I've delivered on the flirting... sort of, anyway. Thanks for the review!
Wingnut: This is a good thing I suppose, seeing as I do have a tendency to find myself falling into turnip barrels often. Thanks very much! Try not to get too lonely while you're pretending you're sane.
Lone Ronin: It HAS been a while since Carlie's appeared, hasn't it? I'm sure we'll see her at least twice more before the end of the fic (whenever that will be.) I've never really watched Gundam, so no, I haven't read your Gundam stuff (and I find the sheer size of the fandom quite daunting as well), but if it means a lot to you I'll give it a shot. Yes! Write an SD3 fic! I myself haven't decided about the Black Rabite, this story is meant to focus more on the character relationships than the actual monsters, but it might be fun. Thanks for the review!
Slash, the Ironman: Yeah, sorry about the wait. I think I've developed too many hobbies and commitments since beginning this fic ^_^;;. Thanks as always for the review! (And keep those dark hordes away! Time used getting rid of them is time that could be spent writing!)
Freeloader1: I'm afraid I've already tried the 26 episodes series in one day thing... I think it was Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, then it was Fruits Basket, then it was X.... Not healthy, I agree, turns the brain to mush. Your presence was missed, but thanks for reviewing this chapter!
Staci/Nadia: Welcome back! Well, you should appreciate Dryad in this chapter, hopefully. That was quite a review, and unfortunately I can't really reply to all of it in here, but one point I'm glad you picked up on is Queen Valda and the absence of the Death Spell. That did strike me as odd in the game, so I changed it here, though I'm sure Squaresoft had a good reason for it. Hope you like this chapter, and thanks for the cat food – er, review!
FrickinEvilPoptart: (blinks) Well, I suppose yours was among them, but it worked nicely, didn't it? I agree, MEH! It was tempting to 'off' Queen Valda (though she didn't exactly die in the game if you've ever played Angela's scenario, which was confusing after the death spell), but then, how could Angela just leave her Kingdom without a ruler? Okay, so Riesz did it. Ack, this discussion could go forever! Thanks for the review!
Cookie Pixie: You'd probably be better suited to writing an 8-Bit Theatre cross-over than I would, let me know if or when you do, okay? Glad you liked Queen Valda's characterization. Always happy to hear from you.
^_^: YAR! You're early. (STILL. I know. *small voice* Please don't kill me.)
Ignorantly Grinning: Hello! Like I said, 'insolent' would probably work, but I used 'indolent' on purpose. I figured Queen Valda was the type to have an expansive vocabulary; she's the 'Queen of Reason' after all.
Lady Storm: (holds up sign that says, 'Will write for food')
Feyenal Dragon: H/A moment! A big one! Lots more coming too! Thanks for the review!
TheOneandOnlyT: Sorry for the typo then :P! I've been trying to speed up the updates, this one was only a slight improvement, even if the chapter is shorter. Thanks to everyone for their patience.
ThunDaGa: I know I've been slack, I grovel and apologise from the bottom of my heart. I could be quicker, but the chapter would both be shorter and probably even MORE filled with typos and mistakes and then I'd need TWO author's notes. Thanks for still reading and reviewing, though! (tries to have fun as suggested, has forgotton how.)
Ack, enough from me already! Like I said, sorry for the wait, shorter chapter than usual, but I hope you enjoy it all the same!
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Another Witchmaker
Chapter 37 – Conversations in a Princess's Bedroom
By Sinnatious
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"And so now, it's up to you to go and kill each of these God-Beasts as soon as possible, before they can grow any stronger, or even worse, combine!" The Fairy concluded with a flourish.
That had been four hours ago. And Angela was STILL annoyed. Thus Hawk and Duran had been giving her as wide a berth as possible, knowing the inherent dangers of just being NEAR a pissed off Delvar. Some of the Palace's servants hadn't been quite so lucky.
She paced in the confines of her familiar, yet somehow now alien room. Fighting God-Beasts now?! She had agreed to nothing about going on this quest for anything beyond this! Come to think of it, she hadn't agreed to any of this at all. She was starting to believe this was all some insane wild rabite chase the High Priest of Wendel had sent them on, just so that they'd help save Mana for free. Well, okay, she did get magic out of it, and it did give her a convenient excuse to follow Duran and try to flirt with him, but this was starting to get ridiculous! Hadn't the Mana Goddess herself felt threatened by the God-Beasts at one stage?!
Her mood had not been helped by her private discussion with her mother, either, during which she'd held a much lengthier discussion over recent events. Especially with how awkward it had been when the Queen hadn't seemed too pleased with the idea of her daughter travelling alone with two men - and it certainly didn't help when one of them was a lower-class ladies-man wanna-be. THAT had been a most embarrassing discussion. More to the point that Angela wasn't willing to admit even to herself that she'd been having less luck in this situation than she had on a normal night at the local inn.
Fortunately, after several well-placed questions about just HOW her mother had come to be on first-name basis with King Richard, the topic had been dropped, and she'd simply been given the Queen's blessing and sent off to bed. Angela still felt a little nervous about the reasoning behind the odd blush that had sprung up on her mother's face at the news. Queen Valda simply did not blush.
Still, she thought happily, at least she'd received a new cane out of the deal. Having heard the tales of her new skills with her daughter's choice of weapon, not to mention this whole thing with the God-Beasts, the Queen had bestowed some rather impressive weapons upgrades on all of them as a token of thanks for their intervention. She wasn't sure what Hawk and Duran might have received from the deal, but she knew, as she eyed her staff critically, that she'd been given something of a very old royal treasure. The Ancient Staff, she was told by Jose, who'd been so kind as to present her the gift with his usual lecture, was not quite as heavy hitting as her crystal rod, but was charmed to hold up against even the heaviest blows from the sharpest objects, and was lighter to allow faster movement. It would also be able to deliver more of her magical energy if she ever used something like her 'Star Attack' - she cringed even now at Duran's simplistic name. Still, it had been nice to demonstrate some of her magic for her flabbergasted old teacher. That'd teach him to doubt HER ever again. Some of the charmed accessories that the higher levels of the army used were also given to her, most only useful in reducing some of the damage inflicted by magic, but if the tales she'd heard of God-Beasts were true, anything that took the bite out of a spell was welcome. They'd been fortunate in most of their battles thus far, minus a few surprise skirmishes, to have managed to dodge most of the spells thrown at them, rather than taking the full brunt of it, but in the few cases one of them, usually Duran, hadn't been quite fast enough, it left them scrambling for Wisp. She herself had a certain amount of magical damage already, but she still ought to see if some of Altena's armour-makers could weave some sort of defensive spells into her own dress, now that she thought about it. She hadn't even bothered with such things until now because it hadn't seemed necessary, but if they were going to go fight the God-Beasts.....
"My my, is that fetching piece of wood going to be the next thing I have to dodge?"
Angela growled low in her throat at the interruption. "I was just thinking it would look quite good smashed into your head."
Grinning, the thief skipped from the shadows into the room - he appeared to have entered through one of the open windows. "It's a wonder I've managed to stay alive so long around you."
"I dare wager it's thanks to your unnaturally thick skull," she retorted.
"Ah, as usual your sweet words warm my cold heart," he collapsed melodramatically into one of the sitting chairs by the window, sprawling across it leisurely.
"Come to pilfer things from my own rooms now, have you?" she asked, only half sarcastically.
"Of course not! I just wanted to see what kind of room my companion lived in! I'd show you MY room!"
"You don't have one!"
"That's not MY fault."
"You just want to get into my pants!" Angela accused.
"And what lovely pants they are!" Hawk exclaimed.
Rolling her eyes, the Princess turned to continue inspecting the various ribbons and amulets the Queen had gifted her with. "Give it up, what's the REAL reason you're here? I hardly need mother bouncing in here to find you lounging on the furniture after her explicit warnings." Even his superb dodging skills hadn't saved Hawk entirely from the Queen's spells upon his SECOND attempt to get a dinner date. In a way, he was lucky that the monarch's magic was mostly spent warming and protecting Altena, leaving little behind for such frivolous usage in reminding 'Navarrian Ambassadors' of their place.
"I can hardly picture your mother bouncing anywhere. I just came to ask you what you were going to do! Is that a crime? Duran was too scared, and I thought I'd spare you the Fairy's company."
The Princess, in a moment of unguarded self-pity, muttered to herself, "Don't try and fool me. He's busy shining his new sword and armour, and you wanted to escape the Fairy's bored yakking." She paused after a moment. "Wait, what do you mean 'ask me what I'm going to do'?"
"What you're going to do now," Hawk repeated patiently, fixing her with that amber gaze of his.
"I don't understand," she replied, confused.
"You were just coming on this quest of sorts to get magic, weren't you?" he asked, twiddling a knife he acquired from somewhere, she really didn't want to know where, in his fingers lazily.
"Well, yes," Angela answered hesitantly, unsure of where this was heading.
"And you have magic now, right? So what's REALLY keeping you from going after Koren right now? Duran's mission has obviously changed greatly from defeating the Wizard of the Red Lotus to his mission as the Mana Knight. I'm not even sure if he cared that deeply about defeating Koren so much as being too weak anyway. But you don't need to come fight the God-Beasts. In fact, weren't you only going to kill Koren so that your mother would accept you back?"
"That was the general plan," she admitted through gritted teeth, wondering if the Ranger had a point, and having the feeling that if he did, she wasn't going to like it.
"Well, she's done it, hasn't she? She was just under a spell - there was no real need to kill anyone. You're welcome back in Altena, the death warrant is lifted from your head, and there's no longer the pressing need to defeat the Red Wizard, is there? So why then, don't you stay? Why keep travelling with us?"
Angela took an involuntary step backward. Why WOULD she still be travelling with the pair? (and the tiny glittering tag-along too, she supposed.) She'd just assumed that she would be, really - she'd been travelling with them so long now that it seemed natural to assume that she'd continue to do so. But everything she really wanted -except for Duran, and to be honest with herself, that was quickly becoming a hope long ago dashed - was right here in Altena. Granted, the desire to take her revenge on Koren for what he had done, and probably what he was going to do, was still pretty strong, but even so, that was a task largely unrelated to risking her life fighting the God-Beasts. That task fell to the chosen Mana Knight, and the Fairy had made it clear plenty of times before that she and Hawk were pretty much just backups. And though she didn't like the idea of leaving her handsome Knight to defeat the God Beasts all by himself - in all truth, without them, she admitted glumly, he'd probably be killed in five minutes, especially given his significant lack of magic and, well, quick-thinking - but while she was being so honest with herself, was going on a potentially suicidal journey worth the slim chance of the Forcenan's affection? Though the Knight was handsome beyond most mortals' comprehension, there were certainly plenty of other attractive Knights running around that were likely less oblivious and carried less chance of deadly encounters with the keeping their company.
Suddenly determined to break the prolonged silence, the Delvar snapped, "And just why do YOU keep going on this crazy suicidal quest then? After all, Bigieu's gone now, isn't she? No revenge to be had, no Navarre Thieves Guild left to be liberated. And you can't spin me a line about wanting to save Mana either."
The Ranger's fiddling stilled abruptly - he clearly hadn't been expecting the question to be thrown back in his face. She realised belatedly that perhaps it wasn't the most sensitive thing she'd ever done, but then, such displays were after all, common occurrences. Finally, Hawk replied, "You are aware that the situations are hardly similar, don't you? After all, your death warrant has been lifted, but mine won't be anytime soon, even if there was enough of a Thieves' Guild to go back to. You have the option to stay."
"Almost sounds like you don't want me to tag along anymore, desert tramp," she retorted angrily. How DARE he question the intentions of royalty anyway? No matter how well he could fight, he was still just a lowly street thief! No, he was WORSE than a lowly street thief! He was a street thief outlawed by his own kind!
"And lose the company of such an attractive and intelligent female? I would have to be a fool!" he declared, twirling the blade once more before sliding it deftly from sight once again.
"Then what DO you want?!" she demanded, then immediately cringed, regretting her choice of words, just waiting for the thief's usual torrent of lewd comments. At least it would be a good chance to test out her nice new ancient cane.
To her surprise, though, Hawk merely replied, "To know what you're going to do come tomorrow morning. That's when Duran's leaving."
The silence stretched on for a long time, interrupted only by the quiet tapping of the Hawk's fingers on the windowsill. What to do.... After coming so far, it was still somewhat difficult to imagine returning to life as normal at Altena palace. Now that she had magic, she'd probably move onto something REALLY tiresome, like etiquette lessons. And she didn't like the idea of leaving things to fate, either. Then again, none of this was really HER problem, even though the fact that Koren HAD used Altena to do it kind of made her slightly responsible, being Princess and all. She tried to squash what looked like a noble thought before it could grow big enough for the Fairy to detect. Either way, she admitted to herself reluctantly, whether it came to wooing Duran, or fighting God-Beasts, she hated leaving any job unfinished. Finally, she replied, "I don't particularly want to go back to Jose's boring lectures. I'll come along.... for a while, anyway." She glared at him, "Just to keep you honest. I hardly trust you in Duran's company with just the two of you - you'd probably rob him blind and leave him to die!"
"Nonsense! I'd leave him the Fairy!"
"See, a complete lack of mercy!"
Flashing her a quick grin, he stood, making his way back towards the window. "Still, you're coming! Looks like I win!"
Angela renewed her grip on her cane. "Win what?!"
He blinked at her. "Why, the bet of course! Duran and the Fairy both agreed that there was no way you'd leave a Palace this nice to traipse through the wilderness looking for God-Beasts."
The Princess just waved him away, rubbing her head tiredly. Was she so pitiful that the only person who actually had any sort of faith in her was Hawk - of all people?! "I'm sure the God-Beasts will be quite easy to spot."
She didn't get the chance to say anything else, though, before the Ranger disappeared; gone as quickly as he'd come.
It was only then, that she realised neither of them had really answered the most important questions.
Well, at least the verbal sparring match had put her in something of a better mood. She paused at that. Hawk hadn't actually been TRYING to cheer her up at the risk of his own life, had he? Of course not. He probably just wanted to improve her mood to.... well, to save his own life later, when she couldn't be avoided. Even Duran had picked up the Delvar's tendency to use Evil Gate over Holy Ball in her worse moods. And he probably preferred to confront her in the safe confines of the Palace that she'd prefer not to demolish rather than in the middle of a battle when the target of the spells could stray.
Thus, the next morning found the trio gathered outside of Altena Palace. They had each spent a little time in the city preparing for the journey ahead. Duran had gathered some provisions, and Angela had finally discarded her old boots for a better pair with an actual grip on the sole and both fire and water resistant fabric, among other things. She eyed Hawk warily. He didn't look any different, though it was always possible he'd just done as she had and had defensive spells woven into the fabric of his clothes. Chances were he'd wasted the entire morning robbing Altena blind. At least they'd have money for their journey. She may as well let is slide and consider it taxes just this once.
As she arrived, the Fairy shimmered into existence, with a damnable smirk on her face. "Angela! So, saving Mana is still stupid is it?"
"Who said anything about saving Mana, gnat? I just came because you'd get Duran killed if I left you to it!" she spat, then cringed as she realised once again, she'd made an open statement about her feelings for the Knight - not that her earlier attempts at flirting hadn't been incredibly open anyway. Come to think of it, hadn't she decided on a change of strategy a while back? Damn Fairy probably distracted her! When she'd agreed to come along on the next installment of this crazy death-seeking adventure, she'd momentarily forgotten that it meant putting up with the Fairy for longer. She might have turned around at that point, if it wasn't for the thought of her mother's stern face. The Queen, to her surprise, had thought that sending her only daughter off to kill the God-Beasts with two strange men was a glorious idea - quite the turn-around from the night before. After discussing it that morning over breakfast, Valda had in fact made it quite clear that if she didn't go of her own volition, she'd insist on making it an order. And one does not ever get away with disobeying the Queen of Reason's orders, ESPECIALLY not her own daughter. Angela still wasn't entirely sure whether her mother trying to kill her was Koren's influence or not.
"So," Hawk asked, yawning and stretching. "Which newly born God-Beast shall die first?"
"I was trying to think about that," Duran replied, pulling out and setting down a map that he must have bought in town. "It would make sense to go to the closest Mana Stone first. That would be.... the Mana Stone of Ice?"
"Wait!" The Fairy ordered. "I think the Elementals should be here to talk about this. All of them would know their Stones and the respective God- Beasts best. We shouldn't do anything without consulting them first. Hey guys, come on out!"
To anyone watching, the scene would have been a strange one indeed - even for a Magical Kingdom like Altena. In fact, they were lucky that the Palace Courtyard was so empty as the eight Elementals all appeared and conglomerated in a rough circle. Dryad, Angela noticed with a raised eyebrow, was clinging like a scared child on to Hawk's arm, whilst Gnome and Jinn were bouncing around enthusiastically. Luna, Shade, Wisp and Undine were the only ones to hold themselves with any dignity. Salamando wasn't doing much of anything either, but somehow one couldn't help but feel as though some sort of explosion was imminent.
"Don't even think of going to stop the God-Beast of Ice! It's much more important that you go defeat MY God-Beast first!" Salamando declared, fiery body crackling as though to accentuate his point.
"I really think that you're not approaching the problem systematically, Salamando," Undine said coolly. Even Angela winced at the tone of voice. Maybe THAT was were her mother learnt it from, hadn't the Queen received the icy Elemental's blessing at some point as well? "As usual, you're letting your emotions get the better of you, and you're over-reacting to the problem."
"Heya Jinn, how ya goin'?!" Gnome yelled enthusiastically, bouncing over to the Wind Elemental.
"Gnome! You still have that horrible excuse of a hat, I see," Jinn replied cordially.
"And yours seems to have shrunk over time to match your brain!" Gnome announced, spinning on one foot before resuming his restless hopping, laughing at his own wit.
"Shade! Luna! Fancy meeting you here!" Wisp exclaimed, floating over to the other two Elementals, who seemed to be engaging in some polite small- talk.
"Hey! Undine! Are you even LISTENING to me?! ARGH, this BURNS me up!"
"Say, Jinn old buddy old pal, I was wondering...."
The trio of travellers watched the chaos unfurl with wide eyes. From the way the Elementals were acting, it seemed as though they hadn't spoken in years, maybe even decades, yet hadn't they all been travelling around with them for all this time? Noting their expressions, Luna explained fondly, "It's been such a long time since we've seen each other in our corporeal forms, you see. It's so much harder to chat otherwise."
"ENOUGH! EVERYONE LISTEN UP!" The Fairy yelled; her voice was surprisingly loud for such a tiny creature.
By this point, Jinn and Gnome had swapped hats, and Salamando was quite literally smoking from rage as Undine calmly inspected her fingernails. Dryad was still clinging wordlessly to Hawk. Instantly, the council of Elementals turned their attention to Goddess's emissary.
"We need to decide which God-Beasts need to be destroyed first," she said evenly. "This is very, very important, so everyone should be honest, and straight to the point." Angela couldn't figure out whether to admire or be offended at the Fairy's gall - speaking to the divine Elementals as though they were children! Okay, some of them ACTED like children, but how old WAS the Fairy anyway? Goddess's messenger or not, she wasn't half as useful as even one of the Elementals was. "We need to figure out which God- Beasts will likely be the strongest, and defeat those before any one God- Beast can grow too powerful. A good place to start would be to figure out which ones will manage to break out of their Stones first."
"Wait a minute," Duran interrupted, looking puzzled. "I thought that when all the Stones were unsealed, the God-Beasts could all break out at once."
"They would have broken out of the magic sealing them in," the Fairy explained patiently. "Some stones relied more heavily on the sealing magic while others relied more on the magic of the Stone itself." Seeing the Mana Knight's still-blank expression, the tiny deity just sighed and waved it off. "The theory behind it is unimportant. We also should probably take into account which God-Beasts are able to wander far. If they're in a more isolated area and run less risk of causing mass damage, they're probably not as important a priority."
"Well, I suppose the God-Beast of Fire won't be much of problem yet then," Salamando conceded grumpily. "It'll be a long time before it finds its way out of the Valley of Flames with all of the extra seals I put in there, and even if it did, there's miles of desert before it can go anywhere else."
Reluctantly, Undine added, "And Fiegmund too will have difficulty in finding its way out of the Labryinth of Ice Walls. Even if it manages to shatter all of my seals and find its way out, the Snowfields are large and unpopulated. And Altena has enough magic to protect it for some time before it would grow strong enough to be a threat."
Wisp, on the other hand, looked very concerned. "There's only a few priests and priestesses in Wendel, and even then all of them only use light magic, which won't be any good against the God-Beast of Light. The only one of enough to power to protect it is the High Priest, and even then, he alone does not have enough power to hold off a God-Beast for long. It's such a peaceful town...."
"Wendel is quite close to the ruins atop the Cave of Waterfalls, too," Hawk mused, chewing on his lip thoughtfully. "Not to mention that area is quite populated - lots of little villages and towns everywhere, and all very unused to conflict."
All present nodded their agreement, concern etched on their faces. Shaking it off, the Fairy turned to the others. "Gnome? Jinn? What about yours?"
Gnome hopped in endless circles, growing slightly agitated. "It's probably broken out of the Stone already. It'll probably go deep into the Gemstone Valley while it gathers strength. Say, I hope the dwarves are okay," he paused mid-hop. "Now that Watts, HE has a really neat hat."
"I must meet this Watts some time," Jinn commented. It was somewhat difficult to take the Wind Elemental seriously with Gnome's nightcap on his head, though. After a moment, he continued, "Oh, yes, God-Beast of Wind... Dangaard I think the Goddess used to call him. The Stone might hold him a little longer yet, but it won't last long - it's been weakening for a while now. And it'll probably take some time before it's strong enough to fly far, but once it can, it might be hard to keep a track of it. Dangaard ought to stay close to Rolante for at least a while, though. Is that good or bad?"
"At least Rolante is full of experienced warriors - they should be able to protect themselves against it for a while," Duran concluded with a sigh. "But I think we'd better put that one as a priority." Angela couldn't help but wonder, in a brief moment of irrational jealousy, whether the Knight just wanted to see Riesz again. Seeing a couple of the Elementals glance at her at that thought, she hurriedly brushed the notion off. Stupid psychic deities.
"I agree," the Fairy affirmed, turning to the remaining three Elementals yet to speak up. "Shade, Luna, Dryad?"
Shade floated languidly in the air, ruffling his black bat-like wings briefly. "I am afraid that the God-Beast of Darkness has been missing for quite a long time. I no longer know where it is, or even whether it is still alive. It could be anywhere."
That certainly didn't help lift the mood. Hurriedly moving on, the Fairy directed her gaze to Luna. "Ah, yes, the God-Beast of the Moon. It will be a difficult one, I fear, but it should still take some time before it can break out of the Stone. I dare say it won't wander beyond the Moonlight Forest for a long time, or even beyond the Moonlit Tower," she reassured them. "And even if it should, Mintos is far enough away to escape harm, and the Beast Kingdom itself is something of a fortress." Nodding, the Fairy turned to the last of the Elementals.
"Dryad?" she asked softly.
"Eeep!" the patron of the Forest of Wonder gasped, huddling closer to Hawk, who seemed to be enjoying his position far more than should be healthy. The other Elementals, minus Shade and Luna, seemed to roll their eyes at this.
"The God-Beast, Dryad. What's your opinion?" the Fairy pressed.
"Well, erm, I don't much know if what I did will be any good....but it won't be able to leave the Forest of Wonder without merging with another God-Beast. The Elves will be safe," she whispered.
Angela was torn whether or not to be impressed with the self-conscious Elemental's raw power, or to be utterly disgusted with her lack of self- confidence. And she was certainly feeling ready to lose her lunch at the shy smile Dryad was directing the Navarrian, who was busy patting her arm comfortingly. Huffing, she pointedly looked in another direction.
"In light of that, I think that we ought to go to.... where was your God- Beast again?" Duran asked Wisp.
"The Ancient Ruins of Light. They're above the Cave of Waterfalls. Your dragon should be able to take us directly there," Wisp affirmed, a slightly relieved expression - if that was at all possible for a being of light - crossing its face.
"Right. We should probably try and handle that one first. Then maybe go to Gemstone Valley to find the God-Beast of Earth."
Angela was too busy wrapped up in her admiration of the Mana Knight's newly acquired leadership skills to even consider the notion that he was probably only favouring Gnome's opinion because that God-Beast was so close to Forcena. Either way, no one bothered contradicting him. All of the God- Beasts had to be killed eventually anyway.
Musing, Duran continued, "Then maybe go find Dangaard before he can fly off and mess things up by merging with another God-Beast?"
The Princess wasn't, however, so enthralled as to wonder whether or not placing Dangaard as the third priority had anything to do with Riesz. Especially seeing as that God-Beast was placed in higher priority to the one that threatened Altena.
Suddenly speaking up, Hawk suggested, "Maybe we should take care of Fiegmund after that. That way, all of the God-Beasts in the more populated areas are taken care of first."
Well, there was a chance that Altena would survive this crazy affair after all, she mused. Not that she doubted her Kingdom's strength for a second. She sent Hawk a grateful glance before she was even fully aware of what she was doing. Seeing his quick grin at Dryad's curious stare, she hurriedly turned her attention away again.
"Hey, if you're going to take care of Fiegmund fourth, then you'd better take care of mine straight after!" Salamando demanded.
Waving it off, the Fairy soothed the fiery being with a simple, "Of course, we wouldn't have it any other way. Okay, so after Navarre, seeing as Dryad's God-Beast seems the most secure, I assume we should go to the Moonlit Tower, then to the Forest of Wonder.... and, well, I'm not too sure what to do about the God-Beast of Darkness, Shade. With all of the other God-Beasts released, if it's still around there's a high chance it will come out of hiding, but...."
Shade didn't seem perturbed, but then, very little seemed to agitate the most mysterious of the Elementals. "I believe the course you have chosen is a wise one."
"Well then, it's decided!" the Fairy announced with a flourish. "To the Ruins of Light!"
There was a prolonged moment of silence. A cool breeze passed through the still-empty courtyard.
Eventually, the Fairy hissed, "Duran, this is where you should call the white dragon!"
The Knight looked blank. "But Hawk is the one who has Flammie's drum."
"Maybe we should go now," Wisp suggested, fading from sight. The other Elementals nodded their emphatic agreement, Gnome and Jinn trading back hats before disappearing, Undine and Salamando exchanging one last glare before vanishing themselves. Shade faded silently, locking eyes briefly with the Delvar while Luna offered her own words of encouragement, then followed suite. Dryad was the last disappear, giving Hawk a quick kiss on the cheek before receding from sight also.
"Don't look so pleased with yourself, desert rat. That's the most action you've had in months," Angela hissed.
"You mean all of those embraces when we ride Flammie count for NOTHING?!" he asked in mock hurt.
Rolling her eyes, the shiny insect turned to their resident thief, interrupting them before they could continue. "Hawk, if you'd do the honours," she suggested impatiently.
The thief blinked. "But I thought that Altena had magical aerial defenses."
Angela sniggered. "Forget, Fairy?"
Blushing crimson, she began to float towards the gate. "Of course I didn't! But I thought Flammie could use a head start while we head to the gates! Let's hurry along then, Duran!"
Shrugging, the Mana Knight led the way through Altena towards what was left of the Gates. Angela followed, the Ranger close on their heels. After a brisk walk throughout the bustling city and through the half-cleared away Gates, Hawk at last called their oversized flying kitten - was it her imagination or was she bigger today? - and they clambered aboard her back.
After the earlier insinuation, this time Angela made certain that she rode up front, clutching on to the clumps of orange fur that adorned the white dragon's head. Better just to risk the thief's roaming hands - she could always blast him away with a Fire Ball later.
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I hope you liked it. Please don't forget to review! Next chapter: A big big surprise! No, not a new joke. Better!
Author's note: You see, this is where I really like the Author's note: I get to stand up for myself! Foolish professional authors never get this opportunity. I received a number of complaints after the last chapter over the word 'indolent'. Whilst I agree that 'insolent' also works well, 'indolent' is, in fact, a real word, and not a typo (for once, whee!). It's synonymous with 'lazy', in short. After all, Queen Valda's consort would have been sleeping on the ground, courtesy of Hawk's sleep flower. Just glad we cleared that one up. On to this chapter. Hmm, this chapter is a less eventful, shorter, and nowhere near as action-packed as I'm sure you guys want, but it's an important one (So I felt, anyway) so I had to throw this in here before we got on to the God-Beasts. I know, I know! I drag things out. Blame it on a personality disorder and we can all get along better for it.
Response to the Reviewers!:
Just Call Me Angels: Well, seeing as I never insult any of my reviewers on purpose, take it as a compliment ^_^. I mostly find it funny. I hope I've delivered on the flirting... sort of, anyway. Thanks for the review!
Wingnut: This is a good thing I suppose, seeing as I do have a tendency to find myself falling into turnip barrels often. Thanks very much! Try not to get too lonely while you're pretending you're sane.
Lone Ronin: It HAS been a while since Carlie's appeared, hasn't it? I'm sure we'll see her at least twice more before the end of the fic (whenever that will be.) I've never really watched Gundam, so no, I haven't read your Gundam stuff (and I find the sheer size of the fandom quite daunting as well), but if it means a lot to you I'll give it a shot. Yes! Write an SD3 fic! I myself haven't decided about the Black Rabite, this story is meant to focus more on the character relationships than the actual monsters, but it might be fun. Thanks for the review!
Slash, the Ironman: Yeah, sorry about the wait. I think I've developed too many hobbies and commitments since beginning this fic ^_^;;. Thanks as always for the review! (And keep those dark hordes away! Time used getting rid of them is time that could be spent writing!)
Freeloader1: I'm afraid I've already tried the 26 episodes series in one day thing... I think it was Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, then it was Fruits Basket, then it was X.... Not healthy, I agree, turns the brain to mush. Your presence was missed, but thanks for reviewing this chapter!
Staci/Nadia: Welcome back! Well, you should appreciate Dryad in this chapter, hopefully. That was quite a review, and unfortunately I can't really reply to all of it in here, but one point I'm glad you picked up on is Queen Valda and the absence of the Death Spell. That did strike me as odd in the game, so I changed it here, though I'm sure Squaresoft had a good reason for it. Hope you like this chapter, and thanks for the cat food – er, review!
FrickinEvilPoptart: (blinks) Well, I suppose yours was among them, but it worked nicely, didn't it? I agree, MEH! It was tempting to 'off' Queen Valda (though she didn't exactly die in the game if you've ever played Angela's scenario, which was confusing after the death spell), but then, how could Angela just leave her Kingdom without a ruler? Okay, so Riesz did it. Ack, this discussion could go forever! Thanks for the review!
Cookie Pixie: You'd probably be better suited to writing an 8-Bit Theatre cross-over than I would, let me know if or when you do, okay? Glad you liked Queen Valda's characterization. Always happy to hear from you.
^_^: YAR! You're early. (STILL. I know. *small voice* Please don't kill me.)
Ignorantly Grinning: Hello! Like I said, 'insolent' would probably work, but I used 'indolent' on purpose. I figured Queen Valda was the type to have an expansive vocabulary; she's the 'Queen of Reason' after all.
Lady Storm: (holds up sign that says, 'Will write for food')
Feyenal Dragon: H/A moment! A big one! Lots more coming too! Thanks for the review!
TheOneandOnlyT: Sorry for the typo then :P! I've been trying to speed up the updates, this one was only a slight improvement, even if the chapter is shorter. Thanks to everyone for their patience.
ThunDaGa: I know I've been slack, I grovel and apologise from the bottom of my heart. I could be quicker, but the chapter would both be shorter and probably even MORE filled with typos and mistakes and then I'd need TWO author's notes. Thanks for still reading and reviewing, though! (tries to have fun as suggested, has forgotton how.)
Ack, enough from me already! Like I said, sorry for the wait, shorter chapter than usual, but I hope you enjoy it all the same!
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Another Witchmaker
Chapter 37 – Conversations in a Princess's Bedroom
By Sinnatious
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"And so now, it's up to you to go and kill each of these God-Beasts as soon as possible, before they can grow any stronger, or even worse, combine!" The Fairy concluded with a flourish.
That had been four hours ago. And Angela was STILL annoyed. Thus Hawk and Duran had been giving her as wide a berth as possible, knowing the inherent dangers of just being NEAR a pissed off Delvar. Some of the Palace's servants hadn't been quite so lucky.
She paced in the confines of her familiar, yet somehow now alien room. Fighting God-Beasts now?! She had agreed to nothing about going on this quest for anything beyond this! Come to think of it, she hadn't agreed to any of this at all. She was starting to believe this was all some insane wild rabite chase the High Priest of Wendel had sent them on, just so that they'd help save Mana for free. Well, okay, she did get magic out of it, and it did give her a convenient excuse to follow Duran and try to flirt with him, but this was starting to get ridiculous! Hadn't the Mana Goddess herself felt threatened by the God-Beasts at one stage?!
Her mood had not been helped by her private discussion with her mother, either, during which she'd held a much lengthier discussion over recent events. Especially with how awkward it had been when the Queen hadn't seemed too pleased with the idea of her daughter travelling alone with two men - and it certainly didn't help when one of them was a lower-class ladies-man wanna-be. THAT had been a most embarrassing discussion. More to the point that Angela wasn't willing to admit even to herself that she'd been having less luck in this situation than she had on a normal night at the local inn.
Fortunately, after several well-placed questions about just HOW her mother had come to be on first-name basis with King Richard, the topic had been dropped, and she'd simply been given the Queen's blessing and sent off to bed. Angela still felt a little nervous about the reasoning behind the odd blush that had sprung up on her mother's face at the news. Queen Valda simply did not blush.
Still, she thought happily, at least she'd received a new cane out of the deal. Having heard the tales of her new skills with her daughter's choice of weapon, not to mention this whole thing with the God-Beasts, the Queen had bestowed some rather impressive weapons upgrades on all of them as a token of thanks for their intervention. She wasn't sure what Hawk and Duran might have received from the deal, but she knew, as she eyed her staff critically, that she'd been given something of a very old royal treasure. The Ancient Staff, she was told by Jose, who'd been so kind as to present her the gift with his usual lecture, was not quite as heavy hitting as her crystal rod, but was charmed to hold up against even the heaviest blows from the sharpest objects, and was lighter to allow faster movement. It would also be able to deliver more of her magical energy if she ever used something like her 'Star Attack' - she cringed even now at Duran's simplistic name. Still, it had been nice to demonstrate some of her magic for her flabbergasted old teacher. That'd teach him to doubt HER ever again. Some of the charmed accessories that the higher levels of the army used were also given to her, most only useful in reducing some of the damage inflicted by magic, but if the tales she'd heard of God-Beasts were true, anything that took the bite out of a spell was welcome. They'd been fortunate in most of their battles thus far, minus a few surprise skirmishes, to have managed to dodge most of the spells thrown at them, rather than taking the full brunt of it, but in the few cases one of them, usually Duran, hadn't been quite fast enough, it left them scrambling for Wisp. She herself had a certain amount of magical damage already, but she still ought to see if some of Altena's armour-makers could weave some sort of defensive spells into her own dress, now that she thought about it. She hadn't even bothered with such things until now because it hadn't seemed necessary, but if they were going to go fight the God-Beasts.....
"My my, is that fetching piece of wood going to be the next thing I have to dodge?"
Angela growled low in her throat at the interruption. "I was just thinking it would look quite good smashed into your head."
Grinning, the thief skipped from the shadows into the room - he appeared to have entered through one of the open windows. "It's a wonder I've managed to stay alive so long around you."
"I dare wager it's thanks to your unnaturally thick skull," she retorted.
"Ah, as usual your sweet words warm my cold heart," he collapsed melodramatically into one of the sitting chairs by the window, sprawling across it leisurely.
"Come to pilfer things from my own rooms now, have you?" she asked, only half sarcastically.
"Of course not! I just wanted to see what kind of room my companion lived in! I'd show you MY room!"
"You don't have one!"
"That's not MY fault."
"You just want to get into my pants!" Angela accused.
"And what lovely pants they are!" Hawk exclaimed.
Rolling her eyes, the Princess turned to continue inspecting the various ribbons and amulets the Queen had gifted her with. "Give it up, what's the REAL reason you're here? I hardly need mother bouncing in here to find you lounging on the furniture after her explicit warnings." Even his superb dodging skills hadn't saved Hawk entirely from the Queen's spells upon his SECOND attempt to get a dinner date. In a way, he was lucky that the monarch's magic was mostly spent warming and protecting Altena, leaving little behind for such frivolous usage in reminding 'Navarrian Ambassadors' of their place.
"I can hardly picture your mother bouncing anywhere. I just came to ask you what you were going to do! Is that a crime? Duran was too scared, and I thought I'd spare you the Fairy's company."
The Princess, in a moment of unguarded self-pity, muttered to herself, "Don't try and fool me. He's busy shining his new sword and armour, and you wanted to escape the Fairy's bored yakking." She paused after a moment. "Wait, what do you mean 'ask me what I'm going to do'?"
"What you're going to do now," Hawk repeated patiently, fixing her with that amber gaze of his.
"I don't understand," she replied, confused.
"You were just coming on this quest of sorts to get magic, weren't you?" he asked, twiddling a knife he acquired from somewhere, she really didn't want to know where, in his fingers lazily.
"Well, yes," Angela answered hesitantly, unsure of where this was heading.
"And you have magic now, right? So what's REALLY keeping you from going after Koren right now? Duran's mission has obviously changed greatly from defeating the Wizard of the Red Lotus to his mission as the Mana Knight. I'm not even sure if he cared that deeply about defeating Koren so much as being too weak anyway. But you don't need to come fight the God-Beasts. In fact, weren't you only going to kill Koren so that your mother would accept you back?"
"That was the general plan," she admitted through gritted teeth, wondering if the Ranger had a point, and having the feeling that if he did, she wasn't going to like it.
"Well, she's done it, hasn't she? She was just under a spell - there was no real need to kill anyone. You're welcome back in Altena, the death warrant is lifted from your head, and there's no longer the pressing need to defeat the Red Wizard, is there? So why then, don't you stay? Why keep travelling with us?"
Angela took an involuntary step backward. Why WOULD she still be travelling with the pair? (and the tiny glittering tag-along too, she supposed.) She'd just assumed that she would be, really - she'd been travelling with them so long now that it seemed natural to assume that she'd continue to do so. But everything she really wanted -except for Duran, and to be honest with herself, that was quickly becoming a hope long ago dashed - was right here in Altena. Granted, the desire to take her revenge on Koren for what he had done, and probably what he was going to do, was still pretty strong, but even so, that was a task largely unrelated to risking her life fighting the God-Beasts. That task fell to the chosen Mana Knight, and the Fairy had made it clear plenty of times before that she and Hawk were pretty much just backups. And though she didn't like the idea of leaving her handsome Knight to defeat the God Beasts all by himself - in all truth, without them, she admitted glumly, he'd probably be killed in five minutes, especially given his significant lack of magic and, well, quick-thinking - but while she was being so honest with herself, was going on a potentially suicidal journey worth the slim chance of the Forcenan's affection? Though the Knight was handsome beyond most mortals' comprehension, there were certainly plenty of other attractive Knights running around that were likely less oblivious and carried less chance of deadly encounters with the keeping their company.
Suddenly determined to break the prolonged silence, the Delvar snapped, "And just why do YOU keep going on this crazy suicidal quest then? After all, Bigieu's gone now, isn't she? No revenge to be had, no Navarre Thieves Guild left to be liberated. And you can't spin me a line about wanting to save Mana either."
The Ranger's fiddling stilled abruptly - he clearly hadn't been expecting the question to be thrown back in his face. She realised belatedly that perhaps it wasn't the most sensitive thing she'd ever done, but then, such displays were after all, common occurrences. Finally, Hawk replied, "You are aware that the situations are hardly similar, don't you? After all, your death warrant has been lifted, but mine won't be anytime soon, even if there was enough of a Thieves' Guild to go back to. You have the option to stay."
"Almost sounds like you don't want me to tag along anymore, desert tramp," she retorted angrily. How DARE he question the intentions of royalty anyway? No matter how well he could fight, he was still just a lowly street thief! No, he was WORSE than a lowly street thief! He was a street thief outlawed by his own kind!
"And lose the company of such an attractive and intelligent female? I would have to be a fool!" he declared, twirling the blade once more before sliding it deftly from sight once again.
"Then what DO you want?!" she demanded, then immediately cringed, regretting her choice of words, just waiting for the thief's usual torrent of lewd comments. At least it would be a good chance to test out her nice new ancient cane.
To her surprise, though, Hawk merely replied, "To know what you're going to do come tomorrow morning. That's when Duran's leaving."
The silence stretched on for a long time, interrupted only by the quiet tapping of the Hawk's fingers on the windowsill. What to do.... After coming so far, it was still somewhat difficult to imagine returning to life as normal at Altena palace. Now that she had magic, she'd probably move onto something REALLY tiresome, like etiquette lessons. And she didn't like the idea of leaving things to fate, either. Then again, none of this was really HER problem, even though the fact that Koren HAD used Altena to do it kind of made her slightly responsible, being Princess and all. She tried to squash what looked like a noble thought before it could grow big enough for the Fairy to detect. Either way, she admitted to herself reluctantly, whether it came to wooing Duran, or fighting God-Beasts, she hated leaving any job unfinished. Finally, she replied, "I don't particularly want to go back to Jose's boring lectures. I'll come along.... for a while, anyway." She glared at him, "Just to keep you honest. I hardly trust you in Duran's company with just the two of you - you'd probably rob him blind and leave him to die!"
"Nonsense! I'd leave him the Fairy!"
"See, a complete lack of mercy!"
Flashing her a quick grin, he stood, making his way back towards the window. "Still, you're coming! Looks like I win!"
Angela renewed her grip on her cane. "Win what?!"
He blinked at her. "Why, the bet of course! Duran and the Fairy both agreed that there was no way you'd leave a Palace this nice to traipse through the wilderness looking for God-Beasts."
The Princess just waved him away, rubbing her head tiredly. Was she so pitiful that the only person who actually had any sort of faith in her was Hawk - of all people?! "I'm sure the God-Beasts will be quite easy to spot."
She didn't get the chance to say anything else, though, before the Ranger disappeared; gone as quickly as he'd come.
It was only then, that she realised neither of them had really answered the most important questions.
Well, at least the verbal sparring match had put her in something of a better mood. She paused at that. Hawk hadn't actually been TRYING to cheer her up at the risk of his own life, had he? Of course not. He probably just wanted to improve her mood to.... well, to save his own life later, when she couldn't be avoided. Even Duran had picked up the Delvar's tendency to use Evil Gate over Holy Ball in her worse moods. And he probably preferred to confront her in the safe confines of the Palace that she'd prefer not to demolish rather than in the middle of a battle when the target of the spells could stray.
Thus, the next morning found the trio gathered outside of Altena Palace. They had each spent a little time in the city preparing for the journey ahead. Duran had gathered some provisions, and Angela had finally discarded her old boots for a better pair with an actual grip on the sole and both fire and water resistant fabric, among other things. She eyed Hawk warily. He didn't look any different, though it was always possible he'd just done as she had and had defensive spells woven into the fabric of his clothes. Chances were he'd wasted the entire morning robbing Altena blind. At least they'd have money for their journey. She may as well let is slide and consider it taxes just this once.
As she arrived, the Fairy shimmered into existence, with a damnable smirk on her face. "Angela! So, saving Mana is still stupid is it?"
"Who said anything about saving Mana, gnat? I just came because you'd get Duran killed if I left you to it!" she spat, then cringed as she realised once again, she'd made an open statement about her feelings for the Knight - not that her earlier attempts at flirting hadn't been incredibly open anyway. Come to think of it, hadn't she decided on a change of strategy a while back? Damn Fairy probably distracted her! When she'd agreed to come along on the next installment of this crazy death-seeking adventure, she'd momentarily forgotten that it meant putting up with the Fairy for longer. She might have turned around at that point, if it wasn't for the thought of her mother's stern face. The Queen, to her surprise, had thought that sending her only daughter off to kill the God-Beasts with two strange men was a glorious idea - quite the turn-around from the night before. After discussing it that morning over breakfast, Valda had in fact made it quite clear that if she didn't go of her own volition, she'd insist on making it an order. And one does not ever get away with disobeying the Queen of Reason's orders, ESPECIALLY not her own daughter. Angela still wasn't entirely sure whether her mother trying to kill her was Koren's influence or not.
"So," Hawk asked, yawning and stretching. "Which newly born God-Beast shall die first?"
"I was trying to think about that," Duran replied, pulling out and setting down a map that he must have bought in town. "It would make sense to go to the closest Mana Stone first. That would be.... the Mana Stone of Ice?"
"Wait!" The Fairy ordered. "I think the Elementals should be here to talk about this. All of them would know their Stones and the respective God- Beasts best. We shouldn't do anything without consulting them first. Hey guys, come on out!"
To anyone watching, the scene would have been a strange one indeed - even for a Magical Kingdom like Altena. In fact, they were lucky that the Palace Courtyard was so empty as the eight Elementals all appeared and conglomerated in a rough circle. Dryad, Angela noticed with a raised eyebrow, was clinging like a scared child on to Hawk's arm, whilst Gnome and Jinn were bouncing around enthusiastically. Luna, Shade, Wisp and Undine were the only ones to hold themselves with any dignity. Salamando wasn't doing much of anything either, but somehow one couldn't help but feel as though some sort of explosion was imminent.
"Don't even think of going to stop the God-Beast of Ice! It's much more important that you go defeat MY God-Beast first!" Salamando declared, fiery body crackling as though to accentuate his point.
"I really think that you're not approaching the problem systematically, Salamando," Undine said coolly. Even Angela winced at the tone of voice. Maybe THAT was were her mother learnt it from, hadn't the Queen received the icy Elemental's blessing at some point as well? "As usual, you're letting your emotions get the better of you, and you're over-reacting to the problem."
"Heya Jinn, how ya goin'?!" Gnome yelled enthusiastically, bouncing over to the Wind Elemental.
"Gnome! You still have that horrible excuse of a hat, I see," Jinn replied cordially.
"And yours seems to have shrunk over time to match your brain!" Gnome announced, spinning on one foot before resuming his restless hopping, laughing at his own wit.
"Shade! Luna! Fancy meeting you here!" Wisp exclaimed, floating over to the other two Elementals, who seemed to be engaging in some polite small- talk.
"Hey! Undine! Are you even LISTENING to me?! ARGH, this BURNS me up!"
"Say, Jinn old buddy old pal, I was wondering...."
The trio of travellers watched the chaos unfurl with wide eyes. From the way the Elementals were acting, it seemed as though they hadn't spoken in years, maybe even decades, yet hadn't they all been travelling around with them for all this time? Noting their expressions, Luna explained fondly, "It's been such a long time since we've seen each other in our corporeal forms, you see. It's so much harder to chat otherwise."
"ENOUGH! EVERYONE LISTEN UP!" The Fairy yelled; her voice was surprisingly loud for such a tiny creature.
By this point, Jinn and Gnome had swapped hats, and Salamando was quite literally smoking from rage as Undine calmly inspected her fingernails. Dryad was still clinging wordlessly to Hawk. Instantly, the council of Elementals turned their attention to Goddess's emissary.
"We need to decide which God-Beasts need to be destroyed first," she said evenly. "This is very, very important, so everyone should be honest, and straight to the point." Angela couldn't figure out whether to admire or be offended at the Fairy's gall - speaking to the divine Elementals as though they were children! Okay, some of them ACTED like children, but how old WAS the Fairy anyway? Goddess's messenger or not, she wasn't half as useful as even one of the Elementals was. "We need to figure out which God- Beasts will likely be the strongest, and defeat those before any one God- Beast can grow too powerful. A good place to start would be to figure out which ones will manage to break out of their Stones first."
"Wait a minute," Duran interrupted, looking puzzled. "I thought that when all the Stones were unsealed, the God-Beasts could all break out at once."
"They would have broken out of the magic sealing them in," the Fairy explained patiently. "Some stones relied more heavily on the sealing magic while others relied more on the magic of the Stone itself." Seeing the Mana Knight's still-blank expression, the tiny deity just sighed and waved it off. "The theory behind it is unimportant. We also should probably take into account which God-Beasts are able to wander far. If they're in a more isolated area and run less risk of causing mass damage, they're probably not as important a priority."
"Well, I suppose the God-Beast of Fire won't be much of problem yet then," Salamando conceded grumpily. "It'll be a long time before it finds its way out of the Valley of Flames with all of the extra seals I put in there, and even if it did, there's miles of desert before it can go anywhere else."
Reluctantly, Undine added, "And Fiegmund too will have difficulty in finding its way out of the Labryinth of Ice Walls. Even if it manages to shatter all of my seals and find its way out, the Snowfields are large and unpopulated. And Altena has enough magic to protect it for some time before it would grow strong enough to be a threat."
Wisp, on the other hand, looked very concerned. "There's only a few priests and priestesses in Wendel, and even then all of them only use light magic, which won't be any good against the God-Beast of Light. The only one of enough to power to protect it is the High Priest, and even then, he alone does not have enough power to hold off a God-Beast for long. It's such a peaceful town...."
"Wendel is quite close to the ruins atop the Cave of Waterfalls, too," Hawk mused, chewing on his lip thoughtfully. "Not to mention that area is quite populated - lots of little villages and towns everywhere, and all very unused to conflict."
All present nodded their agreement, concern etched on their faces. Shaking it off, the Fairy turned to the others. "Gnome? Jinn? What about yours?"
Gnome hopped in endless circles, growing slightly agitated. "It's probably broken out of the Stone already. It'll probably go deep into the Gemstone Valley while it gathers strength. Say, I hope the dwarves are okay," he paused mid-hop. "Now that Watts, HE has a really neat hat."
"I must meet this Watts some time," Jinn commented. It was somewhat difficult to take the Wind Elemental seriously with Gnome's nightcap on his head, though. After a moment, he continued, "Oh, yes, God-Beast of Wind... Dangaard I think the Goddess used to call him. The Stone might hold him a little longer yet, but it won't last long - it's been weakening for a while now. And it'll probably take some time before it's strong enough to fly far, but once it can, it might be hard to keep a track of it. Dangaard ought to stay close to Rolante for at least a while, though. Is that good or bad?"
"At least Rolante is full of experienced warriors - they should be able to protect themselves against it for a while," Duran concluded with a sigh. "But I think we'd better put that one as a priority." Angela couldn't help but wonder, in a brief moment of irrational jealousy, whether the Knight just wanted to see Riesz again. Seeing a couple of the Elementals glance at her at that thought, she hurriedly brushed the notion off. Stupid psychic deities.
"I agree," the Fairy affirmed, turning to the remaining three Elementals yet to speak up. "Shade, Luna, Dryad?"
Shade floated languidly in the air, ruffling his black bat-like wings briefly. "I am afraid that the God-Beast of Darkness has been missing for quite a long time. I no longer know where it is, or even whether it is still alive. It could be anywhere."
That certainly didn't help lift the mood. Hurriedly moving on, the Fairy directed her gaze to Luna. "Ah, yes, the God-Beast of the Moon. It will be a difficult one, I fear, but it should still take some time before it can break out of the Stone. I dare say it won't wander beyond the Moonlight Forest for a long time, or even beyond the Moonlit Tower," she reassured them. "And even if it should, Mintos is far enough away to escape harm, and the Beast Kingdom itself is something of a fortress." Nodding, the Fairy turned to the last of the Elementals.
"Dryad?" she asked softly.
"Eeep!" the patron of the Forest of Wonder gasped, huddling closer to Hawk, who seemed to be enjoying his position far more than should be healthy. The other Elementals, minus Shade and Luna, seemed to roll their eyes at this.
"The God-Beast, Dryad. What's your opinion?" the Fairy pressed.
"Well, erm, I don't much know if what I did will be any good....but it won't be able to leave the Forest of Wonder without merging with another God-Beast. The Elves will be safe," she whispered.
Angela was torn whether or not to be impressed with the self-conscious Elemental's raw power, or to be utterly disgusted with her lack of self- confidence. And she was certainly feeling ready to lose her lunch at the shy smile Dryad was directing the Navarrian, who was busy patting her arm comfortingly. Huffing, she pointedly looked in another direction.
"In light of that, I think that we ought to go to.... where was your God- Beast again?" Duran asked Wisp.
"The Ancient Ruins of Light. They're above the Cave of Waterfalls. Your dragon should be able to take us directly there," Wisp affirmed, a slightly relieved expression - if that was at all possible for a being of light - crossing its face.
"Right. We should probably try and handle that one first. Then maybe go to Gemstone Valley to find the God-Beast of Earth."
Angela was too busy wrapped up in her admiration of the Mana Knight's newly acquired leadership skills to even consider the notion that he was probably only favouring Gnome's opinion because that God-Beast was so close to Forcena. Either way, no one bothered contradicting him. All of the God- Beasts had to be killed eventually anyway.
Musing, Duran continued, "Then maybe go find Dangaard before he can fly off and mess things up by merging with another God-Beast?"
The Princess wasn't, however, so enthralled as to wonder whether or not placing Dangaard as the third priority had anything to do with Riesz. Especially seeing as that God-Beast was placed in higher priority to the one that threatened Altena.
Suddenly speaking up, Hawk suggested, "Maybe we should take care of Fiegmund after that. That way, all of the God-Beasts in the more populated areas are taken care of first."
Well, there was a chance that Altena would survive this crazy affair after all, she mused. Not that she doubted her Kingdom's strength for a second. She sent Hawk a grateful glance before she was even fully aware of what she was doing. Seeing his quick grin at Dryad's curious stare, she hurriedly turned her attention away again.
"Hey, if you're going to take care of Fiegmund fourth, then you'd better take care of mine straight after!" Salamando demanded.
Waving it off, the Fairy soothed the fiery being with a simple, "Of course, we wouldn't have it any other way. Okay, so after Navarre, seeing as Dryad's God-Beast seems the most secure, I assume we should go to the Moonlit Tower, then to the Forest of Wonder.... and, well, I'm not too sure what to do about the God-Beast of Darkness, Shade. With all of the other God-Beasts released, if it's still around there's a high chance it will come out of hiding, but...."
Shade didn't seem perturbed, but then, very little seemed to agitate the most mysterious of the Elementals. "I believe the course you have chosen is a wise one."
"Well then, it's decided!" the Fairy announced with a flourish. "To the Ruins of Light!"
There was a prolonged moment of silence. A cool breeze passed through the still-empty courtyard.
Eventually, the Fairy hissed, "Duran, this is where you should call the white dragon!"
The Knight looked blank. "But Hawk is the one who has Flammie's drum."
"Maybe we should go now," Wisp suggested, fading from sight. The other Elementals nodded their emphatic agreement, Gnome and Jinn trading back hats before disappearing, Undine and Salamando exchanging one last glare before vanishing themselves. Shade faded silently, locking eyes briefly with the Delvar while Luna offered her own words of encouragement, then followed suite. Dryad was the last disappear, giving Hawk a quick kiss on the cheek before receding from sight also.
"Don't look so pleased with yourself, desert rat. That's the most action you've had in months," Angela hissed.
"You mean all of those embraces when we ride Flammie count for NOTHING?!" he asked in mock hurt.
Rolling her eyes, the shiny insect turned to their resident thief, interrupting them before they could continue. "Hawk, if you'd do the honours," she suggested impatiently.
The thief blinked. "But I thought that Altena had magical aerial defenses."
Angela sniggered. "Forget, Fairy?"
Blushing crimson, she began to float towards the gate. "Of course I didn't! But I thought Flammie could use a head start while we head to the gates! Let's hurry along then, Duran!"
Shrugging, the Mana Knight led the way through Altena towards what was left of the Gates. Angela followed, the Ranger close on their heels. After a brisk walk throughout the bustling city and through the half-cleared away Gates, Hawk at last called their oversized flying kitten - was it her imagination or was she bigger today? - and they clambered aboard her back.
After the earlier insinuation, this time Angela made certain that she rode up front, clutching on to the clumps of orange fur that adorned the white dragon's head. Better just to risk the thief's roaming hands - she could always blast him away with a Fire Ball later.
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I hope you liked it. Please don't forget to review! Next chapter: A big big surprise! No, not a new joke. Better!