Lise awoke because the sun was itching her eyes through her eyelids. She drowsily raised her arm to cover her eyes for a moment before rubbing and opening them. Her first thought was the confusion about why she wasn't at the inn in Jad. Then she remembered what had happened, and was filled with a wave of relief. Out! Free!
She sat up, keeping the warm blanket over her legs.
The sky was a painting of flaring red, warmly purple and fantastic yellow. Kevin sat in the sand, watching the scenery with a faint smile on his lips. He was completely absorbed by the magic of nature. Lise didn't want to disturb him, so she didn't say anything. Instead she turned her eyes in the same direction as the half blood did, becoming absorbed in the wonderful serenity of the morning's glory just as he was. For a moment she allowed her mind to leave all her problems.
The waves peacefully whispered their way over the sand and back.
Without really thinking about it she placed her hands on the ground behind her and leaned back, allowing the warm light to shower over her.
A few feet away Hawk opened his eyes and tried to blink the sleepiness out of them. He drowsily turned over and blinked again.
Just then Kevin happened to turn his head, his sharp ears catching up with the weak, muffled sounds of movements. He blinked too.
The rising sun's golden light painted Lise's simple tunic softly orange with its sacred rays, glistened in her uncombed hair that tumbled down behind her back. Her locks swayed lazily in the winds coming from the ocean, and her halfway open eyes carried the same absentminded smile which lived on her lips. The light of the sun added a somehow inner glow to her skin.
'Jessica!' Hawk desperately thought, hoping that his stare wasn't too obvious.
Kevin watched the princess of Rolante, and for some reason he was unable to turn away his eyes from her. He felt something sparkling inside, almost like he had felt when seeing the sun rise for the very first time.
Suddenly Lise straightened up and looked at her two friends, the smile still dancing on her lips. Hawk and Kevin blinked almost simultaneously and tried to smile back not too sheepishly.
"Good morning," the exile princess said.
"Mo-morning," Hawk mumbled.
He stretched out to cover the stuttering parts of his speech.
"Good morning, gah…" Kevin said and rubbed his cheek a bit.
"How's your back?" Lise asked while pushing her blanket aside.
"Ah… better."
Now she cared again… it was strange, but he liked it somehow.
"I'll take a look in a moment," she said and reached out for her armor.
'What a life, having to walk around dressed up as if ready for battle every single day…' Hawk thought while watching the princess get equipped.
He shook his head as he with the skill of everyday movement put on his boots without getting hurt by the hidden daggers.
Lise easily got into her armor and walked over to Kevin, who slightly shyly worked his way out of his sleeveless shirt.
'Lucky guy…' Hawk thought and fought back a sigh.
He almost slapped himself again. For heaven's sake!
But he couldn't help feeling a little jealous as Lise released the half blood from the bandages and carefully examined his wounds with small touches of her fingertips.
"Tell me if it hurts," she said.
"A bit," Kevin said, clenching his teeth not to yelp.
"Don't be such a martyr," Hawk said and came over to his two friends with the ointment.
The half blood said nothing at that. A few minutes later he put the shirt back on.
"Thank you," he mumbled as he stood up.
"You're welcome," Hawk said, and Lise nodded.
As Kevin's eyes trailed off to the big birds all three of them chirped and waved with their wings. It sounded like a question as they squeaked. The half human nodded and pointed at the ocean.
"Go eat, but come back," he said.
The carriers chirped again and took off.
"Breakfast sounds like a good idea," Hawk nodded and went back to his backpack.
"Yes," Kevin agreed, walking over to his bedroll and bag of whatever he had brought with him.
Lise did as her friends did.
"I have some bread and dried meat," she reported and took out a smaller sack from her backpack.
"Only bread, gah," Kevin said.
Hawk turned his backpack inside out. A couple of extra daggers, a lump of clothes tied into one big knot, a mysterious small black sack and a light brown bag fell out. The thief repacked everything but the last container.
"I have a little bread, some dried meat and a piece of cheese," he said with a smile.
He looked at Kevin.
"I'm sure that we could live on this at least until tomorrow, if your wounds hurt too much to fly…" he said, carefully.
The half blood resolutely shook his head.
"No, go today," he grimly said, "must be stronger than that. Or never revenge Karl."
He said it with such stubbornness that Hawk and Lise had to give up. It was obvious that they wouldn't be able to talk him out of it.
They shared the food they had equally, and the leftovers were split in three by a democratic agreement without any protests. They had only known each other for a handful of hours, but as Hawk chuckled:
"Nothing creates an alliance like a battle of life and death!"
Even if it was rather bizarre if you went deeper into the topic, it was true and in this case it was truly not a bad thing.
While waiting for their ride the friends took care of their package and other business.
Lise sat on a rock, brushing her hair to get rid of all the knots born during the night's turns. Her filled backpack lay by her feet. Hawk fought not to glance at her too often, and he was somewhat jealous at Kevin who seemed able to forget about the female friend. At least he was free of such troubles.
The half blood was in the water, with the liquid above his knees. In those conditions he worked on kicks and jumps to improve the strength of his legs. Concentrating fully on one task. Despite his wounds. He could forget everything, it was simply amazing.
At least that was what Hawk thought.
In reality Kevin trained more for the reason that he needed to clear his mind from Lise. He felt so strange when he looked at her, both happy and sad at once. And he didn't know why he kept either feeling. He just couldn't help it. It was so strange… and he needed to focus on revenging Karl. Focus… battle… must be stronger…
Water danced around him, the resistance forcing him to use more strength than usual. It made even the simpler kicks hard to perform. Good.
Beast King had told him about it once.
"Whenever you can, train in water. It'll help you build up the power of your basic hits."
Kevin stopped for a moment, his back stinging.
Wasn't it wrong of him to train with advice from the one he wanted to defeat? But he had no other ways; Beast King was his only teacher. It was the custom of beastmen that the heir fought and won against the old leader.
He was meant to battle his father.
No father. Just Beast King. Evil.
Kevin growled and jumped again, violently sending a shower of small drops above and back into the ocean.
He hadn't ever liked fighting before. He still didn't, but he'd avenge Karl no matter the prize. The crime of killing an innocent friend weighed heavy on the half blood's shoulders, and he'd do anything to ease it.
"Don't strain yourself, pal," Hawk called, "I haven't got an endless supply of ointment, you know."
Kevin looked around, frowning. He had to become stronger, didn't Hawk understand that? Hadn't he killed a friend too, without wanting to? Why wasn't the thief training for revenge, come to think of it?
The thief picked up a small, rather flat stone from the beach and sent it jumping on the surface of the ocean. Automatically Kevin sent out his hand and caught the projectile as it was about to pass him. Hawk whistled in surprise.
"You're just unbelievable, beastie," he said with raised eyebrows.
Kevin looked at the stone. It was white, somehow looked like it could have been clear as glass if it hadn't been for the color. Millenniums of waves had given it a round, smooth surface. Such stones hadn't existed in the forest either.
The young man with beastman blood wondered how much he still had to discover about the world outside of the endless night.
"How did you do that?" he asked, looking at Hawk.
He went off track again, when he needed to concentrate on training he asked about how to make a stone leap upon water. No discipline… Beast King had said something about that too.
Always Beast King… taking so much room after being a major part of Kevin's life.
"The rock thing?" Hawk said and smiled with a shrug of his shoulder, "it's all in the wrist."
"How come a desert warrior knows how to do that?" Lise wondered while securing her headband and hair wings.
"The fortress isn't that far from the ocean," the thief said and picked up another stone.
Kevin watched the second pebble go and then tried to imitate Hawk's movement. The white stone managed two hops.
"That's good for a first try!" Hawk grinned, bending down again.
The half blood watched the new stone jump and reached out. He found a triumphant grin on his lips as he managed to catch that too.
As he raised his gaze he found that Lise watched him, smiling. She still sat on the rock, now with all her equipment on. Her warmly greenish armor, the peculiar things in her hair. The bladed end of her spear was to be seen behind her left shoulder. Kevin felt that strange happy sadness again as he looked at her.
A shadow fell on him, and he turned to the sky. The three birds swept in over the beach again, each one carrying a couple of fishes in their claws. Kevin nodded at them and went ashore. After the carriers had had their meals the small group took the sky again, aiming straightly northwest.
"There's Maia!" Lise called.
The horizon really seemed to have a small, townish dot beside the cliffs.
"I think we better not land inside of the town," Hawk pointed out, "such an entry might cause interest we don't want."
"True," Kevin agreed.
He looked up at his carrier.
"Understand?"
The bird's chirp sounded almost like a chuckle.
About ten minutes later they swept down over the "golden road", the national symbol of the trading between Maia, Forcena and Byzen. It wasn't made of real gold, of course. It was just a road made of bricks of a yellowish kind of stones that could be found in certain parts of the mountains. Somebody must have thought that it would look nice to have a yellow brick road to travel between the cities.
A couple of hooded, furry monsters yelped and dove into the bushes as the three warriors dropped from their birds. Hawk glanced at the greenery.
"I guess we're not completely safe here," he sighed, "but at least there shouldn't be any beastmen around."
"Think they'll attack?" Lise asked and pointed at the bushes with her thumb, doubting it but still ready.
The monsters had hid, and they hadn't looked that strong either. But you could never know.
"Probably not" Hawk said with a small snicker.
Kevin looked up at the birds, who kept up in mid air.
"Better go and find somewhere to hide," he told them, "but stay around here in case we need you."
The birds took off towards the cliff area to the south. Meanwhile Kevin, Lise and Hawk began to follow the road to Maia. The town wasn't far away; they could see the rooftops about a hundred yards away.
"It'll be nice to be in a town where you don't have to fear being chopped or hunted doooh!" Hawk calmly began, but ended in a shout as he fell to the ground with a whip secured around his knees.
Lise ripped forth her spear and swung it at the whip, thus cutting it. While Hawk worked on getting his daggers and freeing himself Kevin turned to the bushes with an irritated look.
"Go away," he growled.
There was a sound similar to "Eep!" and then the bushes swung back and forth for a while as the monsters fled.
"Thanks," Hawk sighed and rehid his daggers, feeling embarrassed that he hadn't seen the attack coming.
Lise offered him her hand to help him stand up. Feeling somewhat blessed the thief grasped the smaller grip and got to his feet.
Without any further problems they went towards and into Maia.
It was a small town; it was rather famous for that. Called the tiniest dot on the map; nobody was really sure if it was to be named a town or merely a village. But it was also known for being peaceful and the country had no Mana stone.
With a sigh of relief Lise went to sit down on one of the small benches by the pier, placing her spear across her lap since she hadn't returned it to her back. Just keeping sure in case they should have encountered more brave or rather dumb monsters. Kevin's thick arms should be enough for a beast with the slightest intelligence to ponder an attack wisely.
After hesitating for a moment Kevin too gave in to his leaving tension and sat down to fully relax. There had been several nervous days… he was still amazed that none of the beastmen had found him in Jad by his mere smell. Too many people moving around, probably. Otherwise he would have been killed long ago. A heir being overconfident enough to be so easily defeated by his father and then even having the nerve to run away… he wasn't really a traitor; more of a shame of the race. Beastmen were strong because weakness wasn't accepted. Hopeless failures were removed.
And Kevin was doubtlessly and proven to be considered far beneath any kind of mending process. The son of the greatest warrior should be a model to everyone else.
He'd like to talk with someone about it. But he didn't really know why, or what he could say. Not to who, either. It just felt hard to carry all this anger and shame alone. Karl would have listened… barked a little and licked his face… and all troubles would have been gone.
Kevin heavily sighed, blankly watching his hands. Hawk sat down on the other side of Lise just a moment after the half blood's settling.
The thief heard his friend's sigh, but didn't ask. He didn't want to be considered a babysitter.
Even though he tried to relax his brain went off to ponder all paths he could take now. Just like Kevin he had visited Wendel and the priest of Light before the magical shield against the beastmen was created. But the old man hadn't been able to help him either… the curse of the necklace was too old, too powerful, too forgotten.
But there had to be some way!
So, what to do?
Hmm, since Isabella had cast the spell, she should know how to remove it as well. That seemed pretty logical. He hadn't any other options.
Maybe if he could capture Isabella…
Hawk almost chuckled bitterly.
Yeah, fat chance… but what else could he try? Frowning and thoughtful, he leaned back against the bench.
Capture Isabella somehow. The more he thought about it, the more it dawned on him that that probably was the only way to save Jessica. If he could only force Isabella to remove the curse… she was the only one who could know how to do it, as far as Hawk knew.
Madness. Yep. Suicide. Indeed. Last hope. Afraid so.
Okay then, step two. Where could she be now? In Navarre or Rolante?
Hawk pondered it for a moment, finally deciding that the later was the most logical alternative. The kingdom had been invaded not too long ago, and as the leading mind Isabella surely would like to stay for a while to make sure her troops were in place and fortified properly.
The thief smiled a little to himself.
Well, at least he had an expert on Rolante with him. Question was, would Lise want to help him? After all she had just fled and was set on finding her brother. But Isabella might know something about Eliott… it could be possible to talk Lise into it, if he only managed to think of a few good reasons. That shouldn't be too hard.
Making Kevin help wouldn't be bad either; he was an unbelievably strong fighter and the birds would without doubt be very helpful. But he could be harder to convince. The half blood had, after all, nothing to do with the fall of Rolante and the source of said.
Some part of Hawk said that he shouldn't try to get someone involved in his personal battle, but the other half of him wanted to aim for all help he could possibly get.
But in the end it was their decision, of course. He could only hope, not force.
He stood up and stretched out a bit.
"I have a little money left, think we can afford a decent meal?" he said.
They could.