A/N: Hey what's up? I'm back from writing big guy and small girl fanfic. Type for small girl and even smaller child fic.
"Don't let them near the Count!" Wardes commanded the guards that were with him. The Captain of the Guard, brandished his Sword-Wand and pointed it towards the group of Orcs that were charging at them.
They had came out of nowhere. One moment the entourage was making their way towards Tarbes, and eventually Hallownest, some of the Count's guards were oddly excited to see the Insect Kingdom with a few of them wanting 'souvenirs'.
Then suddenly, they heard the sound of a small stampede and caught sight of a group of orcs emerging from the forests nearby and were heading right towards them.
The chant towards the lightning spell that was his name came to Wardes in a flash, and he pointed his weapon at the largest one as well the most well armoured of the orcs in the group charging at them.
It popped their head like a grape, the spell was accurate as he could make it so that it hit his head dead on.
He chanted another spell, and his Sword Wand came alight with lightning just in time to swipe it through the club of an orc that had charged faster at the sight of their companion's death. The rest however lagged behind, if he had to guess this one was the next in charge after the one that he just killed.
As if to answer his question, the beast in front of him roared into his face which spurred the rest of the orcs to charge faster.
"Shut it," He tried to stab his weapon through the orc's chest, but the beast quickly jumped away from his strike. He had to bat aside the remains of the club that it threw at him, the wood splintering when he struck it aside.
He was already half-way chanting another Lightning spell, when the carriage door suddenly slammed opened, and Count Mott suddenly stepped out. Not entirely, but enough that his upper body was revealed.
The part of him that was supposed to be his guard for the trip, wanted to warn the Count to get back inside the carriage. The part of him that was a Reconquista agent, told him to shut it and hoped that one of the Orcs got lucky and through their weapons at the messenger.
Unfortunately it was not to be. Pompous as he was, he saw the man wave the staff in his hand and chanted, rather theatrically he had to admit a far cry to his own, the spell. He pointed it forward, and from within the carriage a wave of water suddenly burst forth.
Two of them actually. Mere moments after he casted the first spell, he chanted the nest. Wardes saw how the first one spilled out of the carriage, rose like the actuals waves he'd seen at beaches, and slam into the group of orcs, stunning them. The second one followed close by, and swept the creatures under their feet. A moment later, the beasts were groaning as they lied in the pool of water.
He waved his staff once more, and keep the water pooled under the orcs, and make sure none of them leaked towards the rest of the entourage.
Wardes took his chance, and quickly chanted his spell with the intention to strike the pool of water.
He didn't get the chance.
"BRAVAAA!"
From the same forest that the orcs had came front, a rain of spears suddenly emerged from the tree tops. Javelins, about ten of them that he could count, flew through the air in an arc. And seemingly with perfect ease, they landed exactly at where the orcs were lying down.
There had been six Orcs that had charged out of the forest, with the leader killed it remained only five. And for each one, the javelins struck through their heads and hearts. Killing all of them instantly.
Well most of them at least. One of them had gone just farther than intended and nearly stabbed through the toes of one of the Count's guard, to his shock.
Distantly the Viscount heard the sound of a 'smack' and… inhuman noises chittering from the tree tops.
The chant still on his lips, Wardes turned his Sword Wand at the trees with narrowed eyes. Only to find his aim was wrenched away by a magical force.
He turned to the only other mage of the group, and saw a look of reprimand on his face. But it lastly only for a moment, as he gestured for him to calm down.
Wardes closed his eyes and lowered his weapon.
The moment he did, he heard the sound of buzzing wings. They were different from the sound of bird wings. They were insect-like, the sound similar to parchment rapidly rubbing against each other.
Sure enough, moments later emerging from the tree tops where the javelins had been through were a group of ten Insects. They weren't clad in the usual cloaks that hid their figures. They wore blue chitinous armour that covered their bodies, but left their arms and legs exposed, revealing long gangly insect limbs with equally long fingers covered in black carapace. Alongside that were open faced helmets that stretched up into three horns that grew from the both sides and one the middle, before they converged.
The only one that was unique was one whose armour seemed bulkier than the rest. Not that it slowed them down. In fact, the one with the heavy armour reached them first.
Wardes surpressed the urge to quick draw his wand to kill it, he held back.
"Kero, meta fanadha?"
The desire made harder when it spoke a language that was decidedly not his own. "What?" He snapped.
He was spared from another question when Count Mott walked up to him. The Messenger had stepped out of the safety of his carriage, now that the threat was gone, and walked up to the captain of the guard and the Insect.
"Allow me," There was a rather smug look his face. He turned to the Insect, paused to cough into his fist and spoke "Shero fanadha, meto…"
Wardes watched incredulously as the Tristain mage spoke the Insect's language. Although, from the pauses he took it wasn't perfect. But he still knew their languages.
The Insect however, responded by speaking to the messenger as if he was fluent. And very quickly the smug look on Count Mott's face melted away as he tried to follow whatever it was saying.
Wardes tore his eyes away from the… leader? Captain he supposed, and looked at the rest of the Insects. They all looked the same to him, their black eyes looking around them. Some return his stare when their eyes met, but Wardes was in no mood for a staring contest and moved on to the next.
The only one that was unique was a rather pudgy, rotund? It was an insect that seemed more circular in the stomach than the others.
After a couple of minutes, a rather annoyed looking Count Mott approached him. Wardes raised an eyebrow beneath his hat at the look on his face. Before the Water Mage could speak, Wardes spoke first "You know their language."
That made the man pause in his words, before he simply shook his head "Just enough for the most basic conservation apparently," He sounded just as annoyed as he looked "I picked up some of it from Insect messengers or from certain forts that knew how they spoke. It's not widespread, but I learned it just so that it would be easier if I happened to run into an Insect guard rather than a Human one."
"Hmmm." Wardes' eyes narrowed before he sighed "Well, what did it say?"
"He says that he's thankful for us helping take care of the orcs, apparently they were making trouble near a ruin and were sent to handle it," He stopped, and then gave the Captain of the Guard a careful look "He also said sorry, because he had accidentally lead the orcs to us."
'Just a couple of days.' Wardes thought as he glanced at the Insect captain, who at that point was talking to the rest of them. His finger twitched, but he kept calm.
Satisfied at the lack of reaction "So he's offered to lead us to Hallownest as thanks, especially since I have a letter from the Princess for him."
"Yes."
Their conversation was interrupted by the Insect captain.
"We will," the next word in that sentence was a sound Wardes didn't know how to describe "To Hallownest. Thank you for helping and we are sorry."
Wardes rolled his eyes and walked back to his Griffin.
Count Mott however smiled and offered a handshake "Of course, thank you for the cooperation." Despite offering the handshake, the mage still couldn't help but internally shudder at the feeling of carapace on his hands.
"After this. We feed you," The Insect paused for a moment, before slowly spoke out "Orc meat. Very good."
The internal shudder become external.
[Scene]
"Remember," Louise gave the two Void Vessels a serious look "No whips, no spells, no Soul Wand, or whatever you did to that poor turtle." Jabbing a finger forward "No hurting Flame."
"Same for you Flamey," Kirche followed up, the Germanian reached down and patted the Salamander "Don't go hurting Louise's Familiars with either fire or claws, okay?"
The Void Vessels nodded at the words of their master, the Salamander opened its mouth and let out a sound.
Satisfied with their responses, the two Mages walked into the lunch hall.
Once the two of them were out of sight, the Void Vessels and the Salamander stared at each other. The latter took a step forward, prompting the two to take a step back. It took two steps forward, earning a similar response.
Then seemingly out of nowhere, the Salamander sprinted towards the Void Vessels, who responded by running in the other direction.
Inside the lunch hall, Louise munched on the bread without any enthusiasm. She ignored the looks thrown her way by some of the ones sitting closer to her, since the empty feeling in her stomach pretty much erased most of her shame for eating in such a way.
"No more problem with eating?" Kirche raised an eyebrow, the Germanian had a heavier meal that she had.
"I still don't feel hungry or full," Louise shook her head "It feels weird, just feeling the food disappear when you swallow it." Her eyes went to the heavy meal, and couldn't help but feel a slight bit annoyed. With the 'hole' in her stomach, Louise figured it was good to eat more than she usually did. Even then, it still paled compared to what Kirche was eating.
Kirche's chest puffed up when she noticed her staring at the food "Good food makes a good body," she was quick to say that.
"Good body for a cow maybe," it was usual response she gave for their usual banter. Though both noticed how neither had the same bite as before.
She took a seat and started eating. Louise looked at Kirche's hands. The bandages were smaller, before it reached all the way to her elbow, now it was just halfway through her forearm. She could see some of the red raw skin peeking through the edges of the bandages.
"I'm fine Louise," Kirche spoke suddenly. The Germanian couldn't help but let out a groan when Louise gave her a look "It's just a hand," she lifted the bandaged hand "I have another, fully functional for anyone's pleasure." She waggled her eyebrows.
Louise's face blush, but she stuck out her tongue and make a gagging sound.
"Speaking of pleasures," Kirche took a dainty bite from her meal "What about your?" She was slightly disappointed at the fact that Louise didn't explode at her words, but she saw the girl's face turn absolutely red as her mouth opened and closed in shock. She reached for a glass and lifted it in front of her "I'm speaking of wine Louise, whatever could be going through your head to look at me that way?"
"Ugh, you know what you were saying you skank." Louise picked up her own glass, she swirled the drink about "To be honest, the taste is still the same, but I'm nearly sure that I can't get drunk anymore." After they had talked about her not feeling any more or any less full when she ate, Kirche had wondered if that meant that same with drinks.
Water didn't change, apparently she still got thirsty even though she never 'felt' hungry anymore and she wasn't going to test if she could go days without water. But she had tried wine and she found out the results.
"I haven't really tried anything stronger," She mentioned "Not really in the mood to drink, but one time I was sure I drank more than my usual limit and I didn't really feel tipsy." She frowned "I still had a headache in the morning though."
'Though,' she recalled the memory of a dream I'm pretty sure that was just me getting annoyed a laughing Insect than anything else.'
"What a shame," Kirche sipped her wine "Getting drunk is half the fun!"
Louise rolled her eyes "At least I won't make a fool of myself at an event." At the word, her eyes widened a bit "Speaking of events," She focused her gaze on the Germanian "Are you going to attend the Wedding?"
"My my Louise!" Kirche put down her fork as she placed her injured hand on her chest "You never told you were getting married, I must ask who is the lucky man?" More than a few heads turned to their direction.
The smile on her face only grew while the glare on Louise's turned frostier.
After moment Kirche's let the smile drop "Oh relax, I'm just having fun. As for Wedding? Of course I'm attending, it's pretty much confirming the alliance of both of our Kingdoms." She pouted "Plus, with how Colbert was going on about the Insect Golems, I want to see one of those things face to face, maybe get them to translate that book that I have." She looked at the pink haired Valiere "Why do you ask?"
"Just wondering," Louise said "I'm obviously going, and I'm thinking about giving Hen- The Princess a gift." She looked at Kirche to see if she caught her slip up. When the red head didn't Louise continued "I know my family is probably going to give something, but I'm thinking about a personal gift. Any ideas?"
Kirche shrugged "Not really. I don't really know much about your Princess. What about a dress?"
Louise placed a finger under her chin "She did have a dress that she liked when we were kids…" Louise paused in the musings as she blanched at her own words.
Kirche herself looked just a bit surprised "I didn't know you and the Princess were friends." She paused, before she scoffed "I guess that explains why she chose you-" She cut herself short from finishing the sentence, but she did cause more eyes to be drawn their way.
Louise could only glare at her to stop her from speaking even more.
After a few moments, her glare softened and Louise looked down at her food "Yeah," she made sure to keep her voice low "Me and the Princess used to be playmates, though it's been a while."
Kirche let out a small chuckle "Who knew that you would have such a friend in a high place," She flicked her hair back "Do you think I might have a princess friend?"
"Doubt it," She muttered "You'd probably scare her off."
"Scare who off?" Tabitha suddenly stepped into their conversation. The blue haired mage was carrying her own plate of food that seemed even larger than Kirche's.
Whatever either of them were going to say was interrupted when one of the teachers walked up to them, and asked for Louise to come to the headmaster office.
Louise let out a groan, and followed them after waving goodbye to the two.
Though she did pause when she caught an absurd sight, of Sib riding on the back of Flame as the Salamander continued to chase Bug around.
[Scene]
Henrietta couldn't help but loath the dress that was set in front of her.
Which was ironic, considering that it was a wedding dress.
Something that most girls would be ecstatic to see. Especially if it belonged to them.
But the Princess couldn't really be happy, knowing that she'd be marrying someone she didn't love.
Even if it was for the sake of her country.
"Was it the same with you Wales?" She found herself asking, looking at the ring in her finger. It was no longer glowing, something she had found odd when she saw it on Louise's finger. But she knew that it wouldn't glow anymore.
The pairing ring was lost forever, and the man who owned it was gone.
"To forsake love for her country," She rubbed the gemstone. Some part of her wished that Wales had came with Louise, some part of her felt more than little angry when he didn't come back with her. That anger, whether it was towards Wales or whether it was towards Louise.
Both of them made her feel just a little more disgusted with herself.