"Stop it!" Yuri turned as a small child shouted. "Let go!" Lloyd straightened as well, his expression politely smiling as he turned and walked toward the pair of knights who was harassing a pair of children, Noishe in his shadow. Yuri quickly headed after him, not liking the expression on Lloyd's face, and Estelle quickly followed.
"Bad boys and girls that break curfew must be punished by the magistrate!" one knight tells them.
"No way, we're going to look for Mommy and Daddy..!" The little boy shouts back. Before the knight could say anything further, or his partner, Noishe growled low and Lloyd gripped one's shoulder.
"Let's leave the children alone, shall we?" Lloyd asks, looking polite and smiling easily. Karol twitched when he heard a slight screech, then jumped as he recognized where it was coming from. The armor under Lloyd's hand was denting, slowly, from the pressure Lloyd was exerting. Noishe stalked over, his hackles fluffing up as he stood protectively behind the children, his dark eyes fixed on the other knight.
"We'll see that they're properly disciplined." Yuri adds, stopping so he flanked Lloyd and yet still had a clear swing at the second knight.
"Stay ou-" Before the knight could continue, the armor under Lloyd's hand made another screech and the knight made a small noise of pain.
"I think you have rounds to be doing in another part of town." Lloyd offers them a way out, his grip still firm on the damaged armor. "Don't you?" The knight looked at his partner, and both flinched as Lloyd added another squeeze, and Noishe growled low.
"Y-yes." The second knight nodded hastily.
"Our deepest apologies." The knight whose armor was crumpled due to Lloyd nodded as well. "W-we really must be off to the o-other side of town!"
"Goodboys!" Lloyd cheers them, letting go of the knight's shoulder and then both fled. Yuri wasn't sure he should be worried or not that Lloyd had kept the smile on his face the entire time. Karol stares at the knight's crunched armor, then Lloyd.
"Lloyd... how did you do that?" Karol points at the shoulder armor. Lloyd blinked at the knight's shoulder, before the knight turned out of sight, and wriggled his fingers.
"They got me angry." Lloyd smiles at Karol, a different sort of smile fortunately, while Noishe shook himself, flattening his hackles, and sniffed the children.
"That doesn't make any sense." Rita frowns at Lloyd.
"Ever heard of berserkers?" Lloyd asks, his eyes flicking off to the right then back at the mage. "Warriors who enrage themselves and go and tear their way through armies. Usually, they take enough wounds to die, but..."
"You're a berserker?" Karol blinks.
"Oh, no. I was using that as a point." Lloyd waves it off, flexing his hand absently.
"Thanks for saving us from those bad guys!" the little boy thanks them.
"What are your names?" Estelle kneels to their level.
"My name is Alph!" The boy insists. "My sister's Layla."
"What happened to your mom and dad?" Judith asks.
"They got taken into the desert in the magistrate's big wagon!" Alph explains. "Someone told me they're going to look for Phaeroh!"
"Phaeroh..!" Estelle stands again.
"Yeah..." Yuri nods.
"But what d'ya think they're plannin' on doin' once they find 'im?" Raven asks.
"And using the townspeople to do their dirty work?" Karol adds. "It's despicable." Lloyd suddenly gets a rather strange expression on his face, but quickly covers it by looking away.
"Hey... big bro, are we going to go look for Mommy and Daddy?" Layla asks.
"No, you're not." Judith tells the children. "If you kids go into the desert, you'll die for sure." Alph yelped, while Estelle gasped.
"Judith!" Estelle reprimands.
"What my blunt friend means to say is that it isn't safe for you two to go." Lloyd explains. "And that we'll find your parents for you."
"You kids can't go out into the desert." Judith agrees.
"Really?" Alph asks.
"I don't lie." Judith reassures them, then glances at her guildmaster. "..You don't mind, do you, Karol?"
"Nope. Fine by me." Karol blinks.
"You're surprisingly agreeable." Rita comments.
"His guild is guided by justice, after all." Estelle smiles.
"Thanks, everyone!" Little Layla grins at them.
"Here, take this, 'cause you're so nice!" Alph handed Judith a small shiny, then he and his sister darted off before any other knights could take objection to them being outside.
"...A glass bead?" Karol peers at it.
"It's a precious gem." Judith corrects him.
"It's our reward for taking the job!" Estelle clasps her hands, smiling.
"Now that we've gotten paid in advance, we've got our work cut out for us, don't we, Karol?" Yuri gives a smirk-smile to the small guildmaster.
"Yeah, you're right." Karol nods a little.
"But what concerns me. . ." Yuri mutters, frowning at the town as a whole while Lloyd absently scratched his back. "... is that the empire is investigating Phaeroh..." No one else really had a comment, or heard them, and then Lloyd clapped his hands.
"Well, let's get the final preparations done and out of the way." Lloyd retrieved a pack from somewhere, and pulled some robe-looking things out of them. "These will make surviving the heat easier." And so they got the baggy light robe things on, fashioned hoods out of part of it and left those at the ready.
"Have you ever used these before?" Rita asks, frowning up at Lloyd.
"No." Lloyd shrugged. "But you're all very insistent on going now, so we might as well use them." He was absently scratching at his back.
"We should go now." Estelle insists. "Alph and Layla's parents are out there."
"This is true." Lloyd flashed a wide grin, pulling his hood up then making a bow. "As the Lady says." Estelle blinked, almost in time with everyone else at Lloyd's action shift, before following the twinblade as he left the village.
The sands were baked pale, and the dunes were no taller than Repede, offering no shade at all in their lees and sparse cacti were no better.
And the fractions of large ribcages baked pristine white weren't very reassuring either.
"...There's no shade anywhere." Estelle whispers, looking about. The light wind offers no relief, as it kicks sand into their faces and is only hot hair.
"I never imagined it would be this hot. . . " Karol moans, as Yuri kneels to check the state of Repede's paws, then fashion boots for them out of cloth. Lloyd held a rather one sided conversation, as far as they could tell, with Noishe about the state of his paws on the sand as well, which ended when the green and white creature danced in place, and knocked Lloyd over.
"Nobody'd last long out here without the proper supplies." Yuri notes, standing again. Extra layer between his black clothes and the hot sand or no, kneeling wasn't that brilliant of him.
"What's with him?" Rita demands. Raven had darted ahead, and looked to be having a field day, back flipping despite his robe like clothes. "He looks like he's out for a walk in the park." Raven came darting back.
"Hey old man... aren't you hot?" Yuri asks as the Altosk archer flipped in place again.
"Hot?" Raven repeats. "Heck yeah!" the man cheers. "I'm sizzling over here! Burnin' right up!"
"That lousy. . ." Rita growls.
"I feel like the temperature goes up every time somebody says the word 'hot'." Estelle mutters.
"We'll be fine so long as we remember ta keep our water well stocked." Raven tells them.
"Right, the cacti..." Estelle mutters.
"Worst possible case, I can call up an Ice spell." Lloyd comments, dusting himself off. A small turquoise feather flitted out of his robe and down to the sand. "But no, I won't go about doing that every ten minutes, so don't ask."
"R-right." Karol deflates a fraction.
"The parents of those children are out there with no supplies whatsoever." Judith comments.
"We do have Phaeroh to look for, but..." Estelle turns to face the rest.
"Yes..." Judith tilts her head. "Would it be all right if we took care of Alph and Layla's request first?"
"U-um, but..." Karol fidgets.
"You've more than fulfilled your obligation to me." Estelle tells him.
"Estelle..." Karol trails off.
"...Okay then, let's find their parents." Yuri starts ahead. Before he could take a pace forward, a cry rent the air, high and shrill. Lloyd grimaced.
"Was that Phaeroh?" Estelle blinks.
"Then he really is somewhere in the desert." Karol crows.
"Settle down." Yuri calls to the sky. "You'll get plenty of attention once we're done helping those kids." There was no reply, but Noishe bounded ahead of them.
And so they trudged through the desert.
Repede whines after they take down a tentacle creature, called Red Roper, and a floating fire spirit. Yuri blinks at his canine friend as everyone takes a sip break, then in the direction the knight dog flicked his tail. Lloyd wasn't drinking, one hand in the back of his desert cloak-thing and the other above his eyes as he looked about. His canteen had picked up a bit of sand-dust. Yuri frowned, and this Lloyd noticed.
"Something up?" Lloyd asks, dropping one hand and keeping his other where it was. The twinblade was itching again.
"Repede here noticed you haven't drank any water yet." Yuri comments. As Lloyd blinks and shifts, Yuri heard that tale-tell metal sound that was almost always heard when Lloyd moved. "And you're still in your full armor. Drink some water."
"I'm good." Lloyd waved it aside. "How are you, Karol, Rita?"
"I want a bath." Rita snapped.
"I want it cooler." Karol complains.
"I meant on water." Lloyd says with a slight smile.
"Oh." Rita still is glaring. "I'm good."
"Same..." Karol isn't so enthusiastic about it.
"See. Now drink, before I get that dog of yours to sit on you." Yuri instructs. Noishe comes bounding back; his large ears fanning as he pants in an attempt to also keep cool. "Stop being the tough guy and drink." Lloyd blinks, then gives this weird crooked smile.
"Gotcha." Lloyd does so, while Noishe gives a howl of amusement. The first cacti refill of the day was found and used, the green spiky plant only injuring Karol before Lloyd introduced a sword and made a clear place along one side, followed by cutting into it to produce stream of water. They topped off their canteens, then drank the water left within the plant and moved on. Despite the fact they had just drank a good amount, everyone but Raven, Lloyd, Noishe and Repede started to droop after they moved on.
"Better stop plodding along like a zombie, or you'll only make yourself more tired!" Raven instructs them.
"How are you in such good spirits?" Karol demands.
"Some people take pleasure in the suffering of others..." Yuri grumbles.
"Why I oughta..." Rita threatens.
"Don't waste your energy." Lloyd comments, watching Raven flip in place with amusement.
"That sort of peppiness simply isn't healthy..." Rita grumbles, before blinking. "Hey, did you hear a voice?" Lloyd's eyebrows drew together and Yuri looked to Repede, who wasn't paying them any attention.
"No...not at all..." Estelle mumbles.
"By the way..." the mage turned to eye Judith. "Why were you in this desert before?"
"I used to live in a town up in the mountains to the north of here." Judith explains. "Together with my friend Ba'ul. So I sometimes came near the desert."
"All the way to the desert?" Rita mutters, while Repede started ahead again.
"Anyway, we hardly have time to look for anything out here, what with this heat..." Judith directs them to the fact they're standing out in the sun in the middle of a desert day.
"Seriously." Yuri agrees. "If we run out of water, we'll be goners..."
"We need to find something like a clue soon..." Karol points out.
"Yes..." Estelle nods.
"Let's keep walking. If Noishe sees any other humans, he'll let us know." Lloyd comments, glancing over his shoulder. "Unless we want to sleep until night and walk then."
"Why?" Karol blinks.
"Haven't I explained this?" Lloyd itches his back absently. "It's baking hot out, moving makes you warmer. Soon, it'll be literally freezing out, well not really soon. And if moving makes you warmer, it's a better idea to move when it's cold, than when it's hot, yes?"
"That... makes sense." Estelle nods. "Should we stop now?"
"No." the twinblade tilts his head, watching the desert. "The dunes here aren't big enough. Let's go to the rocks."
"Right..." Rita blinked at the way Lloyd pointed, seeing the raised section of desert color.
"Unless we want to use that skeleton." Lloyd pointed a bit closer cheerfully, using his other arm.
"No thanks!" was the gist of the consensus, no one wanting to spend a sleep half under a ribcage. And so they headed over to where Lloyd had indicated, and the twinblade shed a feather as he put up a lean-to with the tent supplies. The shade did little to help, but help it did.
"Sleep for a few hours." Lloyd recommended, settling toward the mouth of the lean-to.
"You too, armor boy." Yuri grabbed Lloyd by the back of his coat and pulled him down. "Repede and your dog can keep watch. Both are smart enough to wake someone if monsters show up, which they shouldn't with the tent's 'barrier', and to wake us at night." Noishe whined in agreement, sitting before their shade.
"Fine, fine." Lloyd sat up, knocking sand from his hair then getting his own mat out and lying on it. "Noishe, after the light's gone." The big dog woofed once in agreement. "Sorry there's nothing for the heat, but if you just ignore the world for long enough..." The twinblade, sprawled out, trails off. Yuri blinked once or twice, expecting him to continue, but the twinblade didn't.
"... Lloyd, you suck." Karol grumbles.
Yuri wasn't too surprised that Lloyd was first awake.
"You got sand somewhere it shouldn't?" Rita demands, her breath misting in front of her face as she watches the brunette swordsman scratch.
"I don't think so." Lloyd muttered.
"It's c-c-cold!" Raven complains, rubbing his hands together.
"Then let's get a move on." Lloyd stretches. "Get an apple or something if you're hungry."
And so over the course of the night, they killed ice-aligned monsters and Lloyd collected rocks that seemed to keep the chill cheerfully. While it was night, the stars and moon were un-blocked by any sort of clouds, and Raven was complaining about the cold.
Only, they couldn't have been walking for more than three hours before it was suddenly noon hot.
"… What in Niflheim…?" Lloyd stared at the sky from under his hand, then quickly passed out the cold rocks while he set up the tent. "Well, anyone with energy, go find the fire spirits that looked like the ice ones. Some warm rocks for night can't hurt." Raven and Judith ended up circling the area and returned with a handful of red rocks.
But shortly after they were all huddled in the tent, it was night again.
"There is something wrong with this desert!" Lloyd yells to the sky. And this cycle, of changes between midnight cold and noon heat in shifts that were obviously not natural, continued. Much to Lloyd's frustration.
In the end, they used the stones from the fire and ice spirits to keep themselves warm and cold and simply kept walking until they were tired enough for a rest. The oasis was a welcome stop, and the same could be said of the unconscious, but still alive, town couple.
The shrilling, manta like monster, was not so much of a welcome sight. For one, its shriek had Lloyd clamping his hands over his ears, even in the middle of attacking. Repede was whining and Noishe had vanished with the couple the moment it had appeared.