"That's okay. So where Relm-- mu, you going now?"
Relm thought about this for a moment.
"I was thinking of visiting the closest place to here."
Gau tapped his chin in thought.
"I don't really know,"
He confessed with a bit of a laugh,
"But I think Locke and Celes might be close because Celes' pigeon always flies here before Terra's."
Locke and Celes...? Relm then saw the picture she'd drawn in her mind; the pretty blonde woman, and the mischievous looking guy in the bandanna.
"Blonde woman?"
She tried. Gau nodded.
"You remember!"
He exclaimed delightedly. Relm shook her head, sighing.
"I wish it was as easy as that."
Gau noticed her depressed expression, and nudged her lightly. Relm looked up to see brown eyes that were glazed over with pale green, gold-flecked in the streaming sunlight. They were filled with kind warmth, as was his smile.
"Don't worry, Relm. You'll be able to remember. You remembered me, right? And Strago?"
Relm managed a small smile back in return.
"I guess you're right. Thanks."
She said gratefully, before she glanced around the area. She saw the endless fields of dry grass, but further on she could see in the distance other young forests, like the one she'd just been in, silver streams, and richer, greener fields where she could see a few monsters grazing. For some reason, she kept thinking of barren wastelands and grey rock, and somehow, she just knew that the Veldt was slowly, but surely, regenerating.
Regenerating? She wondered where the word had come from. Regenerate back into what?
What it used to be before the World of Ruin - back in the World of Balance.
Now where did that come from, Relm thought distractedly, before she realised that Gau was looking at her curiously. Quickly bringing herself back to reality, she asked,
"Do you know how I could get to where they are?"
"Mmm... I know that Celes and Locke are married, in Kolinghen."
Gau replied thoughtfully.
"As I thought."
The words automatically popped out of Relm's mouth, and she blinked in surprise. Gau grinned at her.
"Was that a memory comeback or are you just pretending?"
He joked, and patted her head.
"I think you just have to wait. It'll all come back in time."
He said reassuringly. Relm pouted.
"You're treating me like a kid. You're just three years older than me, and you're not that old either!"
Gau crossed his arms as he leant back from her, and looked around her as though he was inspecting her.
"Hmm. Yes, you have matured a lot from what you were five years ago,"
He said, grinning. So have you, Relm thought, but refrained from commenting and instead said mock-annoyedly,
"Well, I would hope so!"
"Prettier, too."
They said different lines in unison, but they heard what each other had said. Relm felt a pink tinge her cheeks as Gau laughed.
"They made new ferry connections from Doma to South Figaro, and I think they said they were making one to Kolinghen too. Let's go check."
Doma? Relm thought.
"Doma? Isn't that where Cyan--... oh. I did it again."
Relm stopped in the middle because she'd lost her strand of thought, but Gau patted her on the head again, smiling.
"Just be patient. Cyan isn't in Doma at the moment - he's in Figaro Castle, from what I read in the last letter from Terra. Okay, you need to go to Doma. I'll take you there."
Relm raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"I thought the Veldt was an isolated bit of land."
She said. Gau nodded.
"It is, but I made a bridge."
"You made a bridge?!"
Relm squawked. Gau nodded, walking back towards the forest they'd just been in.
"Yeah. It wasn't hard, but it took a while, I'll admit that."
Relm trotted after him.
"I'm just going to pack a few things, do you mind?"
He asked. Relm stopped in her tracks.
"Pack a few things?"
She repeated.
"Yeah. Can I? You're not in too much of a hurry, are you?"
"A-are you coming with me?"
She stammered a little, looking at him in surprise.
"I hope you don't mind. I haven't seen Cyan in ages, and he's a real father-figure to me. I want to see Sabin, too. Oh, and Edgar, Terra, Locke and Celes."
Relm resumed her stride, still surprised.
"I-I don't mind... but... are you sure you want to come?"
Having reached the dappled floors of the forest, Gau began to pick up a few things from here and there from a small burrow-like ditch at the side.
"Yeah! It'll be fun, I think. I need to bid the king congratulations, anyways."
"King?"
Relm felt that she was repeating him a lot, but she was absorbing what she thought was too much at once.
"Edgar's the king of Figaro... I heard from the birds that he's marrying someone but I'm not sure who just yet."
"What else do the birds say?"
Relm asked as she watched him pull on a white shirt, his next few words muffled as he did so.
"Nuffling much, exshept that a villhage ish being conthidered to be buil-fk-t again on the Veldt."
Relm brightened a little.
"That's good, isn't it?"
Gau looked thoughtful as he stuffed into a rough rucksack items like an earth-clay cup, a few apples and what looked like a tin of something that rattled like money.
"As long as they don't disturb the animals here."
He said, and he slung the bag onto his shoulder after he finished putting in what he felt was necessary.
"Shall we go?"
He asked. Relm giggled.
"You don't need to be so overly formal."
Gau crinkled his nose.
"I can't help but be formal, it was the way Sabin and Cyan taught it. Mostly the way Cyan taught it."
Relm laughed, and agreed,
"Yes, let's go."
"Where first? Kolinghen or Figaro castle?"
Gau asked. Relm thought, then said,
"All my clothes are so travel-worn, I think I want to buy some new ones. Let's go to Kolinghen first."
He grinned, flicking his pony-tail back as he laughed,
"You're just worried about meeting the king in those clothes, aren't you?"
Relm blushed as she said haughtily,
"Well, aren't you?"
Gau shook his head, still smiling. He plodded onto through the dry grass before him, and motioned to her to follow on. As she stepped into his tracks, he said,
"Nope. You and I are an exception... it doesn't matter whether we're wearing rags or riches."
Relm sighed.
"Well, if you say so,"
She answered softly, and followed quietly, contemplating the facts. Edgar was a king -- a king of Figaro... which makes Sabin a prince? She wondered. And Gau, acting like he was best friends with the king... maybe he was, Relm thought doubtfully, then wondered, hey, may we were...
Because she was thinking so much, she didn't notice Gau had stopped walking until her head bonked into his back.
"Oww... hey, why did you stop?!"
He had a sweatdrop as he pointed in front of him, and Relm peeked around him and felt her jaw drop in surprise.
"Wh-what is that?!"
"Uhmm... it's a behemoth."
Gau started, still looking at it with a sweatdrop, when it roared so loud Relm felt her hair rustle, and let out a stifled scream when it lunged immediately at them, it's sharp, yellowing teeth bared and dripping with thick, rubbery strands of saliva.
Relm turned to run, her eyes wide with horror, when Gau's arm gripped her round the waist firmly and jumped up. He flipped right over the beast, and it landed upon the grass, unearthing clumps of grass and soil with it's long claws as Gau landed nimbly behind it.
The first thing Relm did was throw a fit.
"You MORON!! You could TELL me before we go jumping and throwing acrobatics everywhere!!!"
She whapped his arm off her and glared at him as he scratched his head confusedly.
"G-Gau sorry!!"
He stammered,
"Gau d-didn't know he could m-make Relm so mad!"
Relm was incredibly embarrassed. She was wearing a dress! She didn't even *want* to know what on earth Gau had managed to see.
"Just don't do it again!"
She snapped, and then remembered that Gau was..., well, Gau. *He* was probably the one didn't even care about what he might've seen. As she sneaked a glance at him, he was biting his lip, his eyes extremely sad and apologetic... geez, now I feel guilty, Relm thought.
"Sorry for shouting."
She muttered, and he smiled almost immediately. He dropped his bag as he checked on the monster's reaction to their agility.
The behemoth let out a threatening growl, and as they turned, it pounced again, aiming to swipe at Gau's neck. He slipped under the claw easily, but as he glanced up, Relm's pupils were contracting in dread as the behemoth's claw drew nearer to her own head.
Gritting his teeth, Gau jumped onto Relm and pressed her quickly down onto the ground, the claw passing without harming a hair on her head.
Feeling his heart-beating against her own rapid thudding made Relm's face turn red. He then gripped her shoulders to roll over with her quickly to avoid the behemoth's tail, which whipped out a fair amount of dry earth where they had just been lying. They rolled several metres off before stopping. He got off her quickly, and Relm followed suit.
"Aren't you friends with all the animals here?"
She asked with a raised eyebrow, but then she saw that Gau's face looked slightly contorted in... pain?
"Mu... not with some monsters,"
He replied, and visibly winced.
"Gau...?"
Before she could say anything, though, he stood up and backed away a few steps, his eyes on the monster that was growling to his right.
"Relm, sorry, but get out of the way for a moment."
Then he stepped to squarely face the behemoth, and shut his eyes. The behemoth let out an almighty roar as it lunged towards him once more, a claw aiming to main his throat. Relm gasped in surprise when Gau made no move to avoid it, but his eyes opened. They glowed red, his irises a shade of scarlet.
Relm stared. This was strangely familiar. In fact, she was extremely familiar with it. She didn't have time to think about it though, because Gau brought her back to the present as he brought his arms up and shouted,
"GIGA VOLT!!"
A crackle sounded before lightning crashed heavily onto the behemoth, bursting in flashes of electric blue before leaving the badly burnt behemoth to let out a low whine. It whimpered away, limping.
Now that, Relm thought, wasn't magic, but... hell, it's familiar, she thought as she irritatedly racked her brains for an answer but to no avail.
Gau closed his eyes again, and opened them again. They were the normal, pale-green-brown eyes that Relm knew, but Gau wasn't smiling.
Then Relm saw the blood streaked across the grass where she and him has rolled. She looked at Gau with a questioning look, and approached him slowly. He looks a little grey, Relm realised. She ran the last few steps towards him and grasped his shoulder, earning a startled look from him before she turned him around and gasped.
She'd only seen his profile until now, and she could see that the behemoth had torn a heavy gash out of Gau. Blood had stained a great lot of his shirt, and as the gash was mostly at the right side of his back, his shoulder-sleeve was starting to soak dark-red as well.
The memory of her frozen to the spot, watching the claw about to sink into her, then being pushed down to the ground by Gau... his wince after confirmed it.
"This is from when I..., isn't it?"
She said uncertainly as she gingerly pressed her fingers to the skin around.
"It's nothing,"
He said roughly, twisting around to avoid letting Relm take a closer look at it, but she kicked him in the shin.
"Oww!!"
He yelped, and she pulled her bag up to her and snapped,
"Sit down Mr. Macho while I dress that."
He obediently sat down, and she instructed,
"Strip."
"Wh-wh-what?!!"
Gau cried, his eyes widening as he started to back away from her. Relm realised what the implication had sounded like, and blushed.
"Idiot, that's not what I mean!! Just-- just take off your shirt!!"
He blinked before laughing, and pulled off his shirt, discarding it by them and turning around. Relm stared for the second time that day at Gau.
"What?"
He asked. She couldn't believe the number of scars she could see on his back.
"Uhmm... nothing,"
She replied, and took up a bottle of alcohol, a jar of salve and a roll of bandages from her bag. Then she realised she had nothing to put the alcohol on, so she ripped a long strip out of her cloak.
"What's that ripping sound?"
Gau asked nervously, and Relm patted his shoulder as she said,
"Go stare at something and concentrate, because this is going to hurt."
He flinched at her touch on his shoulder, and Relm sighed. It's really going to hurt, she thought.
Soaking the cloth in alcohol, she wiped her hands with it, resoaked it, then took a deep breath. Then she pressed the cloth onto the start of the diagonal gash at the base of his right shoulder.
The reaction was immediate.
"GUUUAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"
He began to squirm immediately, and Relm gripped his shoulders as she said in annoyance,
"Hold still!!"
"Muuuuu!! Painful!!!!
He cried, tears springing to his eyes. No wonder the scars remain, Relm thought.
"What's so funny?!"
He demanded as she giggled.
"Because you're eighteen and you act like you're eight,"
She replied, and squeezed the cloth. The alcohol seeped out and into the gash that ended halfway down his back, and he cringed.
"Aww, no 'guaaahhh'?"
She teased as she began to gently cleanse the wound.
"Nnnnnn."
Gau answered, and Relm giggled again.
"You're speaking through your teeth."
"Nnnnnnn!"
Relm couldn't stop giggling even though she was wiping blood off such a horrible gash, and after that, she applied the salve from the jar. Gau relaxed and closed his eyes.
"....Mmmuuuuuuu...."
He sounds like he's purring, Relm thought.
"Honestly,"
Relm huffed,
"The salve makes you feel that good?"
He shook his head, letting out this time something that sounded more like a purr.
"Uh, okay. Whatever."
She replied, massaging the salve more tentatively into the more deeper part of the wound. I wonder, she thought, where all these scars come from. Fighting monsters?
Her nails held the start of the bandage firmly onto his shoulder as she wrapped it slowly around the shoulder and around his chest, covering the back injury as best as she could, and cut it with a pocket-knife. Tucking the loose end in, she grinned and patted his back lightly.
"There you go! Good as new."
He didn't wince, which she took as a good sign, when she noticed he was studying something in his lap.
"What are you doing? Gau?"
She looked over his shoulder, and saw him staring at his picture. The picture that she'd drawn in her sketchbook, which was supposed to be in her bag, which was supposed to be next to her.... which was now opened and its contents spilled over the grass in front of Gau.
Regardless of him being wounded, Relm enjoyed her own privacy, thank you very much. So she took the liberty to thwack him at the back of his head, hard.
"Muu!! That hurt!"
Gau cried, looking up at her. He cowered under her stormy glare.
"That. Is. My, I repeat, MY. Bag. Pick. Everything. Up. NOW."
He scrambled to grab everything and stuff it back into her bag.
"I just wanted to see your sketchbook,"
He muttered,
"I really liked looking through your drawings... I still do. They're beautiful; just like the real thing."
She blushed but still managed to maintain a glare, so he sighed and continued to put everything in.
"Thank you."
Relm replied as he handed the bag to her, and she slung it over her shoulder.
"Is the bridge close?"
She asked. Gau nodded, picking up his own bag.
"It's quite close. We'd've gotten there by now if it hadn't been for that behemoth."
"What..."
Relm struggled to find the right words as she walked along beside Gau,
"What was that... uhm, that 'thing' you did?"
He blinked.
"Thing?"
"Yeah... you know,"
Relm frowned,
"That Giga Volt thing."
"Ohh,"
Gau said with a nod,
"That's my 'Rage'. I can imitate animals."
"Animals?"
Relm repeated in surprise.
"Yeah, monsters, basically. I can imitate their attacks and use it against them."
Relm tapped her chin with a finger.
"That wasn't... magic?"
Gau looked surprised for a moment before smiling brightly.
"Relm, you remember magic!"
"No no,"
Relm said quickly,
"It's just that I heard about it from grandpa and everything."
"Still,"
Gau said with a grin,
"It's good to know you kinda remember how it looked like. You were probably thinking of Lightning."
"Lightning...?"
Gee, that strikes a familiar chord in me too, Relm mused.
"It'll all come in time,"
Gau said warmly,
"You'll see."
Relm thought about this for a moment.
"I was thinking of visiting the closest place to here."
Gau tapped his chin in thought.
"I don't really know,"
He confessed with a bit of a laugh,
"But I think Locke and Celes might be close because Celes' pigeon always flies here before Terra's."
Locke and Celes...? Relm then saw the picture she'd drawn in her mind; the pretty blonde woman, and the mischievous looking guy in the bandanna.
"Blonde woman?"
She tried. Gau nodded.
"You remember!"
He exclaimed delightedly. Relm shook her head, sighing.
"I wish it was as easy as that."
Gau noticed her depressed expression, and nudged her lightly. Relm looked up to see brown eyes that were glazed over with pale green, gold-flecked in the streaming sunlight. They were filled with kind warmth, as was his smile.
"Don't worry, Relm. You'll be able to remember. You remembered me, right? And Strago?"
Relm managed a small smile back in return.
"I guess you're right. Thanks."
She said gratefully, before she glanced around the area. She saw the endless fields of dry grass, but further on she could see in the distance other young forests, like the one she'd just been in, silver streams, and richer, greener fields where she could see a few monsters grazing. For some reason, she kept thinking of barren wastelands and grey rock, and somehow, she just knew that the Veldt was slowly, but surely, regenerating.
Regenerating? She wondered where the word had come from. Regenerate back into what?
What it used to be before the World of Ruin - back in the World of Balance.
Now where did that come from, Relm thought distractedly, before she realised that Gau was looking at her curiously. Quickly bringing herself back to reality, she asked,
"Do you know how I could get to where they are?"
"Mmm... I know that Celes and Locke are married, in Kolinghen."
Gau replied thoughtfully.
"As I thought."
The words automatically popped out of Relm's mouth, and she blinked in surprise. Gau grinned at her.
"Was that a memory comeback or are you just pretending?"
He joked, and patted her head.
"I think you just have to wait. It'll all come back in time."
He said reassuringly. Relm pouted.
"You're treating me like a kid. You're just three years older than me, and you're not that old either!"
Gau crossed his arms as he leant back from her, and looked around her as though he was inspecting her.
"Hmm. Yes, you have matured a lot from what you were five years ago,"
He said, grinning. So have you, Relm thought, but refrained from commenting and instead said mock-annoyedly,
"Well, I would hope so!"
"Prettier, too."
They said different lines in unison, but they heard what each other had said. Relm felt a pink tinge her cheeks as Gau laughed.
"They made new ferry connections from Doma to South Figaro, and I think they said they were making one to Kolinghen too. Let's go check."
Doma? Relm thought.
"Doma? Isn't that where Cyan--... oh. I did it again."
Relm stopped in the middle because she'd lost her strand of thought, but Gau patted her on the head again, smiling.
"Just be patient. Cyan isn't in Doma at the moment - he's in Figaro Castle, from what I read in the last letter from Terra. Okay, you need to go to Doma. I'll take you there."
Relm raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"I thought the Veldt was an isolated bit of land."
She said. Gau nodded.
"It is, but I made a bridge."
"You made a bridge?!"
Relm squawked. Gau nodded, walking back towards the forest they'd just been in.
"Yeah. It wasn't hard, but it took a while, I'll admit that."
Relm trotted after him.
"I'm just going to pack a few things, do you mind?"
He asked. Relm stopped in her tracks.
"Pack a few things?"
She repeated.
"Yeah. Can I? You're not in too much of a hurry, are you?"
"A-are you coming with me?"
She stammered a little, looking at him in surprise.
"I hope you don't mind. I haven't seen Cyan in ages, and he's a real father-figure to me. I want to see Sabin, too. Oh, and Edgar, Terra, Locke and Celes."
Relm resumed her stride, still surprised.
"I-I don't mind... but... are you sure you want to come?"
Having reached the dappled floors of the forest, Gau began to pick up a few things from here and there from a small burrow-like ditch at the side.
"Yeah! It'll be fun, I think. I need to bid the king congratulations, anyways."
"King?"
Relm felt that she was repeating him a lot, but she was absorbing what she thought was too much at once.
"Edgar's the king of Figaro... I heard from the birds that he's marrying someone but I'm not sure who just yet."
"What else do the birds say?"
Relm asked as she watched him pull on a white shirt, his next few words muffled as he did so.
"Nuffling much, exshept that a villhage ish being conthidered to be buil-fk-t again on the Veldt."
Relm brightened a little.
"That's good, isn't it?"
Gau looked thoughtful as he stuffed into a rough rucksack items like an earth-clay cup, a few apples and what looked like a tin of something that rattled like money.
"As long as they don't disturb the animals here."
He said, and he slung the bag onto his shoulder after he finished putting in what he felt was necessary.
"Shall we go?"
He asked. Relm giggled.
"You don't need to be so overly formal."
Gau crinkled his nose.
"I can't help but be formal, it was the way Sabin and Cyan taught it. Mostly the way Cyan taught it."
Relm laughed, and agreed,
"Yes, let's go."
"Where first? Kolinghen or Figaro castle?"
Gau asked. Relm thought, then said,
"All my clothes are so travel-worn, I think I want to buy some new ones. Let's go to Kolinghen first."
He grinned, flicking his pony-tail back as he laughed,
"You're just worried about meeting the king in those clothes, aren't you?"
Relm blushed as she said haughtily,
"Well, aren't you?"
Gau shook his head, still smiling. He plodded onto through the dry grass before him, and motioned to her to follow on. As she stepped into his tracks, he said,
"Nope. You and I are an exception... it doesn't matter whether we're wearing rags or riches."
Relm sighed.
"Well, if you say so,"
She answered softly, and followed quietly, contemplating the facts. Edgar was a king -- a king of Figaro... which makes Sabin a prince? She wondered. And Gau, acting like he was best friends with the king... maybe he was, Relm thought doubtfully, then wondered, hey, may we were...
Because she was thinking so much, she didn't notice Gau had stopped walking until her head bonked into his back.
"Oww... hey, why did you stop?!"
He had a sweatdrop as he pointed in front of him, and Relm peeked around him and felt her jaw drop in surprise.
"Wh-what is that?!"
"Uhmm... it's a behemoth."
Gau started, still looking at it with a sweatdrop, when it roared so loud Relm felt her hair rustle, and let out a stifled scream when it lunged immediately at them, it's sharp, yellowing teeth bared and dripping with thick, rubbery strands of saliva.
Relm turned to run, her eyes wide with horror, when Gau's arm gripped her round the waist firmly and jumped up. He flipped right over the beast, and it landed upon the grass, unearthing clumps of grass and soil with it's long claws as Gau landed nimbly behind it.
The first thing Relm did was throw a fit.
"You MORON!! You could TELL me before we go jumping and throwing acrobatics everywhere!!!"
She whapped his arm off her and glared at him as he scratched his head confusedly.
"G-Gau sorry!!"
He stammered,
"Gau d-didn't know he could m-make Relm so mad!"
Relm was incredibly embarrassed. She was wearing a dress! She didn't even *want* to know what on earth Gau had managed to see.
"Just don't do it again!"
She snapped, and then remembered that Gau was..., well, Gau. *He* was probably the one didn't even care about what he might've seen. As she sneaked a glance at him, he was biting his lip, his eyes extremely sad and apologetic... geez, now I feel guilty, Relm thought.
"Sorry for shouting."
She muttered, and he smiled almost immediately. He dropped his bag as he checked on the monster's reaction to their agility.
The behemoth let out a threatening growl, and as they turned, it pounced again, aiming to swipe at Gau's neck. He slipped under the claw easily, but as he glanced up, Relm's pupils were contracting in dread as the behemoth's claw drew nearer to her own head.
Gritting his teeth, Gau jumped onto Relm and pressed her quickly down onto the ground, the claw passing without harming a hair on her head.
Feeling his heart-beating against her own rapid thudding made Relm's face turn red. He then gripped her shoulders to roll over with her quickly to avoid the behemoth's tail, which whipped out a fair amount of dry earth where they had just been lying. They rolled several metres off before stopping. He got off her quickly, and Relm followed suit.
"Aren't you friends with all the animals here?"
She asked with a raised eyebrow, but then she saw that Gau's face looked slightly contorted in... pain?
"Mu... not with some monsters,"
He replied, and visibly winced.
"Gau...?"
Before she could say anything, though, he stood up and backed away a few steps, his eyes on the monster that was growling to his right.
"Relm, sorry, but get out of the way for a moment."
Then he stepped to squarely face the behemoth, and shut his eyes. The behemoth let out an almighty roar as it lunged towards him once more, a claw aiming to main his throat. Relm gasped in surprise when Gau made no move to avoid it, but his eyes opened. They glowed red, his irises a shade of scarlet.
Relm stared. This was strangely familiar. In fact, she was extremely familiar with it. She didn't have time to think about it though, because Gau brought her back to the present as he brought his arms up and shouted,
"GIGA VOLT!!"
A crackle sounded before lightning crashed heavily onto the behemoth, bursting in flashes of electric blue before leaving the badly burnt behemoth to let out a low whine. It whimpered away, limping.
Now that, Relm thought, wasn't magic, but... hell, it's familiar, she thought as she irritatedly racked her brains for an answer but to no avail.
Gau closed his eyes again, and opened them again. They were the normal, pale-green-brown eyes that Relm knew, but Gau wasn't smiling.
Then Relm saw the blood streaked across the grass where she and him has rolled. She looked at Gau with a questioning look, and approached him slowly. He looks a little grey, Relm realised. She ran the last few steps towards him and grasped his shoulder, earning a startled look from him before she turned him around and gasped.
She'd only seen his profile until now, and she could see that the behemoth had torn a heavy gash out of Gau. Blood had stained a great lot of his shirt, and as the gash was mostly at the right side of his back, his shoulder-sleeve was starting to soak dark-red as well.
The memory of her frozen to the spot, watching the claw about to sink into her, then being pushed down to the ground by Gau... his wince after confirmed it.
"This is from when I..., isn't it?"
She said uncertainly as she gingerly pressed her fingers to the skin around.
"It's nothing,"
He said roughly, twisting around to avoid letting Relm take a closer look at it, but she kicked him in the shin.
"Oww!!"
He yelped, and she pulled her bag up to her and snapped,
"Sit down Mr. Macho while I dress that."
He obediently sat down, and she instructed,
"Strip."
"Wh-wh-what?!!"
Gau cried, his eyes widening as he started to back away from her. Relm realised what the implication had sounded like, and blushed.
"Idiot, that's not what I mean!! Just-- just take off your shirt!!"
He blinked before laughing, and pulled off his shirt, discarding it by them and turning around. Relm stared for the second time that day at Gau.
"What?"
He asked. She couldn't believe the number of scars she could see on his back.
"Uhmm... nothing,"
She replied, and took up a bottle of alcohol, a jar of salve and a roll of bandages from her bag. Then she realised she had nothing to put the alcohol on, so she ripped a long strip out of her cloak.
"What's that ripping sound?"
Gau asked nervously, and Relm patted his shoulder as she said,
"Go stare at something and concentrate, because this is going to hurt."
He flinched at her touch on his shoulder, and Relm sighed. It's really going to hurt, she thought.
Soaking the cloth in alcohol, she wiped her hands with it, resoaked it, then took a deep breath. Then she pressed the cloth onto the start of the diagonal gash at the base of his right shoulder.
The reaction was immediate.
"GUUUAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"
He began to squirm immediately, and Relm gripped his shoulders as she said in annoyance,
"Hold still!!"
"Muuuuu!! Painful!!!!
He cried, tears springing to his eyes. No wonder the scars remain, Relm thought.
"What's so funny?!"
He demanded as she giggled.
"Because you're eighteen and you act like you're eight,"
She replied, and squeezed the cloth. The alcohol seeped out and into the gash that ended halfway down his back, and he cringed.
"Aww, no 'guaaahhh'?"
She teased as she began to gently cleanse the wound.
"Nnnnnn."
Gau answered, and Relm giggled again.
"You're speaking through your teeth."
"Nnnnnnn!"
Relm couldn't stop giggling even though she was wiping blood off such a horrible gash, and after that, she applied the salve from the jar. Gau relaxed and closed his eyes.
"....Mmmuuuuuuu...."
He sounds like he's purring, Relm thought.
"Honestly,"
Relm huffed,
"The salve makes you feel that good?"
He shook his head, letting out this time something that sounded more like a purr.
"Uh, okay. Whatever."
She replied, massaging the salve more tentatively into the more deeper part of the wound. I wonder, she thought, where all these scars come from. Fighting monsters?
Her nails held the start of the bandage firmly onto his shoulder as she wrapped it slowly around the shoulder and around his chest, covering the back injury as best as she could, and cut it with a pocket-knife. Tucking the loose end in, she grinned and patted his back lightly.
"There you go! Good as new."
He didn't wince, which she took as a good sign, when she noticed he was studying something in his lap.
"What are you doing? Gau?"
She looked over his shoulder, and saw him staring at his picture. The picture that she'd drawn in her sketchbook, which was supposed to be in her bag, which was supposed to be next to her.... which was now opened and its contents spilled over the grass in front of Gau.
Regardless of him being wounded, Relm enjoyed her own privacy, thank you very much. So she took the liberty to thwack him at the back of his head, hard.
"Muu!! That hurt!"
Gau cried, looking up at her. He cowered under her stormy glare.
"That. Is. My, I repeat, MY. Bag. Pick. Everything. Up. NOW."
He scrambled to grab everything and stuff it back into her bag.
"I just wanted to see your sketchbook,"
He muttered,
"I really liked looking through your drawings... I still do. They're beautiful; just like the real thing."
She blushed but still managed to maintain a glare, so he sighed and continued to put everything in.
"Thank you."
Relm replied as he handed the bag to her, and she slung it over her shoulder.
"Is the bridge close?"
She asked. Gau nodded, picking up his own bag.
"It's quite close. We'd've gotten there by now if it hadn't been for that behemoth."
"What..."
Relm struggled to find the right words as she walked along beside Gau,
"What was that... uhm, that 'thing' you did?"
He blinked.
"Thing?"
"Yeah... you know,"
Relm frowned,
"That Giga Volt thing."
"Ohh,"
Gau said with a nod,
"That's my 'Rage'. I can imitate animals."
"Animals?"
Relm repeated in surprise.
"Yeah, monsters, basically. I can imitate their attacks and use it against them."
Relm tapped her chin with a finger.
"That wasn't... magic?"
Gau looked surprised for a moment before smiling brightly.
"Relm, you remember magic!"
"No no,"
Relm said quickly,
"It's just that I heard about it from grandpa and everything."
"Still,"
Gau said with a grin,
"It's good to know you kinda remember how it looked like. You were probably thinking of Lightning."
"Lightning...?"
Gee, that strikes a familiar chord in me too, Relm mused.
"It'll all come in time,"
Gau said warmly,
"You'll see."