Chapter 32, And so they were three again
At night the ocean of sand turned rather chilly, but it was better than the boiling heat during day. Every breath of the clean, technically morning air made Hawk feel more refreshened.
Jessica was finally getting better and he had been able to get some decent sleep in the past days. Things were looking brighter, if not completely solved. He still had no idea what he should do next. Or if he even was going to do anything at all, or simply stay with Jessica and make sure she was safe. He'd gladly do that but at the same time he felt restless, worried about a certain werewolf and amazon.
On the other hand the chances of him finding the two of them were slim. Not that that fact got his mind off the concern.
If he hadn't been dragged away from Rolante that fateful day Jessica might have died in the valley of Flames, yet… he felt guilty for Lise's sake.
The sun wouldn't rise in another half an hour or so, therefore he could still enjoy how easy it was to breathe fresh air. Funny how twisted the climate of the desert was.
Many had already went inside again to get ready for the next day in the heated land; most people preferred to sleep during the first part of the day to avoid the worst heat. Inside the warmth was less tormenting as shadows could be found and the homes were build by humans accustomed to the heat and had thought of ways to keep it down.
Lazily kicking at a pebble on the ground he let his thoughts wander back to the query of what he should do next. He'd really want to know how the rest of the world was doing; Deen was still isolated because of the vicious ninjas and monsters. But Hawk regarded the fact that there still were humanoid desert warrior out there as a good sign. At least that meant that more people of his clan were still alive and not eaten by demons.
If there only there was something he could do to release them from the spell that kept them hypnotized!
Sighing he straightened up and stretched a bit. No use getting a headache about it…
'What to do, what to do… aw, shut up!'
He frowned and rubbed his forehead, frustrated wandering out into the village just to get something else on his mind.
Jessica was safe… and a fair group of ninjas too, including Nikita. Good. And Lise was safe at least last he saw her, after all. Kevin was the goddess knows where…
'And I'm okay…' Hawk thought, trying to cheer himself up, 'I don't know where that brings me, though. What to do…?'
Blah.
"Hawk?! Hawk!"
Huh?
"Eh?"
He turned around and narrowed his eyes against the dark sky. Could have sworn the voice came from there…
There was a swooshing sound and somebody landed just before him from out of nowhere. The light from the few torches of the village and the moons was just enough to reveal a familiar armored person.
"Drake tails, Lise?!" Hawk choked, helplessly blinking stupidly.
In the next moment he found himself pulled into a hug and out of breath. Oi, hadn't thought that she was that strong… and her armor wasn't too comfortable to be squashed against.
"I'm so glad to see you again!" she said with a short, warm laugh and let go of him, still holding his shoulders however.
"Can't say anything else myself," Hawk replied, widely grinning as he caught up with his breathing, "what on earth are you doing here? Where did you come from?"
Before Lise had time to reply two more shadows thumped down from the night sky, one of them straightening up to tower behind the amazon like a hunching storm cloud.
For a moment the thief was about to drop dead, until his eyes remembered that they had well enough light to use for seeing. And his brain also found the correct image.
"Kevin?" he choked in surprise but then grinned.
"Hello again, Hawk," the slightly growling voice said.
It sounded stronger and less shy than Hawk recalled. However the thief was too happy to see his two friends again to care about that.
"By Salamando, I had never thought I'd see you guys again!"
Three gigantic birds landed in the packed sand of the village, squeaking tiredly.
… Eh? One, two, three, four… five, six? Who…?
"Glad to see you, Hawk," the Flame Kahn said with a tired smile.
"Kahn?!"
For a moment the thief just stared, then he began blurting out a panicked explanation of what had really happened as Eagle died. He didn't get very far before the older man kindly stopped him.
"I know, Hawk, don't worry. Bigeau found great pleasure in explaining just exactly what she had done and would do in the close future. However I heard from Wisp himself that Salamando had seen you earn my eternal gratitude."
The young man's face went from panic, to relief and over to triumphant joy.
"Jessica is alright!" he assured, "she had a fever but it just left her, let's go!"
"Of course," the Kahn said with a just as wide smile, starting to follow the exalted thief.
For a moment Kevin came in between.
"Birds tired, and be hot soon," he pointed out.
"Take them to the inn," Hawk said over his shoulder and pointed at a house in the northwestern corner of the village, "they have a stable that keeps the temperature for the donkeys of the merchants, your birds should be able to fit in there. We'll be in the item shop, in the basement, alright?"
Kevin and Lise both nodded and watched the two men of Navarre hurry off between two of the buildings to see the desert princess.
"What a coincidence, wasn't it?" the vanadis said with a smile.
"Yeah…"
Kevin's hand grasped her arm lightly, more a touch than anything to be called a hold.
"Must get birds and Karl to safety before it gets hot," he pointed out.
She nodded and they headed towards the inn after Lise had picked the wolf pup out of Kevin's backpack.
Some time later they found their way into the lower area of the regular shop and found Hawk, the Kahn and a purple, humanoid cat with a big yellow sack by his side assembled in the room there. In a bed in a corner of the room a beautiful young woman with bluish hair laid, however she seemed more asleep than awake.
"Kevin, Lise, this is Nikita," Hawk said with a smile and motioned at the cat, "and Jessica… she's sleeping again."
"Any troubles at the inn?" the Kahn friendly asked while the cat creature greeted the two.
"The innkeeper was a little startled when we explained what animals we had," Lise said with a chuckle, "but he was so happy to have costumers that he didn't care that much. Karl stayed with the birds, he was tired."
She looked at Hawk and smiled.
"So, what have you been up to since we parted in Rolante?" she asked, softly to assure him that she didn't blame him for the split roads in question.
It was almost lunchtime before the stories had been exchanged and all details had been filled out.
"And Navarre is your only hope now, is it?" Hawk said, leaning his cheek in a hand.
"Yes," Kevin grunted, his eyes narrowing at a wall.
"It's all we have left," Lise said and grimly shook her head.
"Well, you've handled demons before…"
Hawk rubbed his neck, frowning.
"I want to come with you, guys," he honestly said and his eyes trailed over to the still sleeping Jessica, "but…"
There was a couple of seconds of silence. But when Lise started to say that it was alright, the Kahn exploded.
"Hawk! What are you saying?!" the old man roughly demanded.
Almost everyone jumped and the thief straightened up in panic, on the brink of saluting. Nikita watched his friend for a moment and then turned away to hide his laugh.
"These are your friends and now you've got a chance to claim revenge for all that Bigeau and her companions have done to you and your clan!" the Kahn growled, "I won't have you tiptoe around Jessica like a lovesick rooster while others fight our enemies, and I'm certain both she and Eagle agree!"
"Yessir!"
Hawk found himself and really saluted, parodying the warriors of Forcena.
"But those are demons," he pointed out and dropped the jester-mask, "there were just three in the kingdom of Light and I don't know how many are in the castle."
The Kahn pursed his mouth and nodded.
"That's true."
He turned to Lise and Kevin.
"You're the only ones with proper experience of those beasts. Any suggestions?" the leader of the ninjas asked.
The two exchanged glances.
They grinned.
"Classchange."
"Classchange?" Hawk, Nikita and the Kahn repeated with raised eyebrows.
"Mana stone here, not?" Kevin said, tilting his head a bit.
"Sure, but its power was released," the thief slowly said, "would it still work?"
At that the princess and half blood helplessly shrugged.
"Don't know," Lise said but smiled a bit, "so… Wisp, I call upon you."
Immediately the white flame with the happy eyes floated out of thin air, a bit transparent but still. Nikita and Hawk nearly fell backwards.
"Yes?" the elemental of Light kindly asked.
"We were just discussing if Hawk here could go through a classchange," Lise explained, "but the Fire stone's power was released as you know. Is that a problem?"
Wisp shook a bit.
"Nope," he said, "Duran and his crew went through their first change in Altena, and that stone was the first to have its power released. Go ahead, though I can't tell you whether your friend or anyone else can manage in beforehand."
"Thank you, Wisp," Lise said.
"Anytime."
And he disappeared again.
"So, what do you say, Hawk?" the princess said with a small grin.
"I'm with ya all the way!" he grinned back, "however we better wait until nighttime before we go there and you'll need better shoes. The valley of Flames is one hot place, if you don't wear something thicker than that you'll find yourself with fried toes, Kev."
He pointed at the half blood's feet; bare except for two long strands of tough cloth he had wrapped around them to protect them a little.
"If you say so," Kevin said and shrugged.
"I think the shop here has boots to borrow for the matter, might be tricky to find something in your size though," Hawk commented and walked over to the stair with a grin, "shall we?"
In the end the old lady of the shop simply cut up two big pieces of the tough bulette hide used in the boots and made a few holes around the edges so that Kevin could tie the thick yet bendable material against the soles and sides of his feet. His size was quite a few numbers too big even for the largest of the boots.
Lise was much simpler to find a pair for, and Hawk's boots were designed for the heat. The reason for the existence of these boots for hire was of course the desert; the sand could sometimes reach such heat that it burned through normal shoes.
After a moment of steeling themselves against the heat outside Kevin and Lise went to the inn to rest for the evening. One couldn't claim that it was much cooler inside, but somehow the heat wasn't as crushing down on everything.
With Nikita back in the area Deen had been able to receive some extremely welcome new supplies from Sultan, and the inn could offer a decent meal of cactus fruits and salted fish. Not anything the guests had eaten many times before but there wasn't anything wrong with the taste. By the time they had finished eating and went to their room the warmth had drawn back a little bit more.
"Thought I never be able to sleep, maybe now," Kevin said with a grimace, absentmindedly combing one hand through his hair while leaning against the wooden frame of the right bed's end.
Since it was a small village it had a small inn and it only had one guestroom, with three beds standing in a line against one of the long walls of the room. Lise sat on the middle one only in her tunic, idly brushing her hair.
Finally she put the brush down and sighed a bit.
"I hope there won't be too many demons in Navarre…" she muttered, somewhat lazily.
The mattress below her swung a bit as Kevin sat down behind her and the warmth of his hands closed over her shoulders.
"Tired?" he gently asked.
She nodded, clenching her teeth.
"It's probably just the journey taking its toll now, maybe I was so excited about seeing Hawk again that I pushed it back earlier..."
Kevin's fingers clenched their grip for a moment.
"Wha…?"
The brush fell to the floor and blinking she turned to her side to meet the half blood's eyes. He was frowning a bit, his right arm moving in under her head while the left hand came to Lise's cheek.
"Be careful when tired, alright?" he gravely said, "Wisp say you're healed but still beware."
Wisp…
Lise managed not to swallow at the thought of the elemental.
Despite wild protests from Duty her right arm moved up and around Kevin's back, carefully drawing her closer.
"Yeah, you're right," she softly mumbled.
'Stop that! Right now!' the infernal sense screeched.
'I'm fed up with you!' Lise snarled back.
'Just because Wisp made so that you can't become pregnant doesn't mean that you can act like a…'
'You're not finishing that line!'
'This is serious, princess! You're not married, you shouldn't even lie here… ack!'
The vanadis softly smiled and closed her eyes, lightly turning her head towards Kevin's hand as the back of his fingers stroke her cheek.
"Rest now," he said in a low voice.
"Again…?"
She chuckled a little and opened her eyes to watch him. The frown was gone, now there was only the softness of his eyes left to see. Smiling a bit Kevin spread out his fingers over her cheek, his fingertips brushing into the border of her golden blond hair.
Lise found herself wishing that he'd dare to move his tender hand down her cheek, over her shoulder and…
She closed her eyes again and forced back a blush with all her willpower. She really hated to feel her cheeks burn; it was yards below her dignity.
'How dare you be so, so…?!'
But Duty hadn't the courage to fulfill the slap of words.
'How dare you be so pompous?' the princess coldly shot back, 'I love Kevin. Accept it.'
'True and well, but you still has your responsibilities as a future queen!'
'Oh, shut up…'
It was too hot in the room; she had to let go of the half blood and draw back a little.
Looking back at him again Lise smiled and moved her freed hand to his cheek in turn.
'I wouldn't push him to do something,' she thought.
'Good,' Duty nodded.
After all, she had been the cause of their first kiss and the proposal, and Lise didn't want to be a dominating part of the relationship.
'However…' she thought with an inner smirk at the sense, 'I probably wouldn't stop him either.'
Duty groaned. And shuddered when Kevin drew a little closer and gently kissed Lise's lips.
"Want you to be careful, alright?" he kindly mumbled, "no more hurt."
"Alright, I'll do my best. And you too."
He smiled and nodded, moving back again.
Properly laying down on the mattress and closing her eyes to sleep Lise smiled a bit drowsily.
"I love you, Kevin."
His hand tenderly stroke her cheek and moving his head upwards a bit Kevin touched her forehead with his lips before drawing back to spare them both from body heat mixed with what the desert provided.
Pulling up the sheets over them would be crazy, so he just laid back and watched Lise. She wasn't quite asleep yet, he could both hear that from her breathing and feel it by her smell. Sleeping things got something lightly damp in their scents. It was hard to explain…
He shrugged the line of thoughts aside and just watched while his lips moved into a smile.
Lise had moved in her hand under the thin pillow to get her neck into a more comfortable position, almost burying her face against the cloth filled with feathers she looked somewhat innocent. Her tunic was a bit tight against her body since she was lying on the clothing.
Kevin quickly closed his eyes as the thought ran through his head, hardly able to contain a blush. But he couldn't stop the flinch of mind to follow itself up with that though it hardly was the first time he was sleeping by Lise's side, they hadn't spent a night together in an actual bed before.
Pushing back a grunt or perhaps a groan –he couldn't really tell– the young half blood turned over on his back and placed his arm over his eyes.
'Cool that down, it's not going to end well…'
After a moment he let the arm fall away again, helplessly turning his head towards Lise again.
The sad happiness, love, was tickling his whole being from inside, trying to make him do something. But he couldn't fully grasp his own will just yet, as he still weakly hesitated.
Kevin tried to look away for longer than a few moments, but his eyes wanted to take in the amazon princess beside him.
Beautiful…
'What would she want?' he more or less forced himself to think, 'I don't even know what I want…'
That was what the rational part of his mind wanted to think.
The rest of him knew fully well how much he wanted to draw Lise as close as he dared and never stop kissing her.
"I love you, Lise," he whispered.
She smiled a bit, more hearing his words as in a dream than anything else; on the verge of falling fully asleep.
'I…'
Asleep, in peaceful slumber.
'Goddess, let her stay safe from now on… no, I'll make sure of that. We might meet even worse enemies ahead, but I'm not going to let anything like Rakadra and Jagan ever touch her again.'
He frowned a bit, but the swift grim thoughts floated away before Lise's calm face.
Beautiful… sweet, strong, compassionate, brave Lise.
No use denying it… even his rational beastman side had to give up on this one. Carefully Kevin reached out and swiftly ran his fingertips through Lise's golden fringe, wary not to wake her up.
'I want you more than anything, but I want nothing you don't.'
He withdrew his hand and closed his eyes to try to sleep as well.
'Love you…'