Chapter 11: The more the Merrier
"There's the way out, slow down." Picard commanded and reach the end of the cave. The view was pretty nice.
You could see the entire valley and a few scattered towns. A winding trail led down from the mountain.
It was steep and a very very very long drop.
" Careful now, it's a long way down from here." Picard warned. The leading trail still had a little snow which made it slippery.
It took a nearly 2 hours to get down.
" There's Suhalla Pass, we have to go around it so we don't get spotted."
" I understand that." A mysterious voice firmly said. Out of the shadows of the trees was another person with an Oradon.
It looked like a young female around Sheba's age. She had light brownish texture of hair with blonde tips that shined when the sun shined on them.
She was wearing a gold dragon amulet and a red tunic covered in decorations of dragon printed silk. She carried a strange weapon. She wore gloves with long silver claws.
" Who are you?" Ivan asked.
" Jan." She replied, " I heard you needed to get around Suhalla Pass, am I correct?"
" I guess." Ivan shrugged.
" You won't make it around without me to help you." Jan advised, "Tolbi's already packed the area off with strange life forms"
" We're strong enough, no monster can stop us." Picard said with confidence." We can get through with ease."
" That isn't the point. You won;t make it alive unless I'm there with you."
" How do we know you're not a spy? Sheba sneered, " You'll probably make us fall into some trick!"
" No trick Sheba, just mind read me." Jan folded her arms.
" How did she know my name?" Sheba thought and then mind read her.
" She's right, her thoughts tell truthfully." Sheba backed away.
" Why wont we let her join us?" Picard suggested, " we might need the help after all."
" There are soldiers hiding out in this area, we might have to fight a few."
" There a post over there, let's hurry and get out of here before we get spotted." Ivan focused on the post just down the hill.
" This way." Jan pointed to a pine forest," it's the only way not to get seen."
So they went into the pine forest. Monsters were abundant here. Some were easily defeated, some were not. Apparently, a huge clawed monster blocked the only trail.
" Don't even try to pass humans!" The monster deeply growled.
" And why can't we pass?" Sheba said politely, " We don.."
"SILENCE!!!!!" I let no one with human blood pass though!"
" Were going to have to force our way through!" Jan yelled.
"You already lost this battle humans!"
The monster charged at Jan who jumped onto the creatures head. The monster roared as Jan began to slash into the monster's face.
The monster shook his head violently and quickly threw Jan off. Sheba soften her landing by using "Gravity"
" Careful Jan." Sheba looked at her and continued to use her wind attacks.
Ivan combined his attacks with hers as Picard healed the others and physically attack the monster with the Aqua Axe.
"Good keep doing that!" Jan's hands began to glow burning red (Erupting Burning Finger?).
She sent out a giant fireball towards the wind tornado and ignited it into a flaming whirl.
It took the monster off it's feet.
"You'll pay for that!" The monster spited out sharp vine shards flying towards Sheba like a hawk.
"Sheba!" He pushed her and got stricken by the shards meant to hit the girl. They pierced into his chest, barely missing his vital organs.
He screamed in pain and fell back. Sheba ran to him and used her Djinn Rescue to take away some of the pain.
" Take this!" Picard threw ice shards into the monster and froze it a little.
Jan finished the battle by using one of her best fire attacks. She began to glow red as she created many fire illusions of herself.
The swirling illusions began to plunge into the monster, leaving it's body scorched. It then turned into ashes.
" Are you okay?" Jan ran to him. " Hey, Picard...hurry and heal him!"
Picard nodded and began the healing process. His healing magic wasn't as strong as Mia's, but it was effective.
He began the process by carefully taking out the vine shards. Ivan gritted his teeth. Removing the shards was extremely painful.
Never in his life had he suffered such an injury as painful as this one.
" Hang in there, everything's going to be okay. " Sheba grasped his hand tightly.
Jan picked up one of the shards. " It's a poison shard. It may leave you paylized for a little bit."
" Oh great..." Ivan smirked.
" I need to get to the center of the wound." Picard tugged lightly on his coat, " Is it all right for me to take this off?"
" Just....get rid of the pain...."
" I take that as a yes." Picard carefully slip it off and got deeper into the root of the wound. It wasn't a very nice sight.
For every shard that struck him, it left a deep flesh cut behind. Newly spilled blood swept across his chest, making it look as if he become a pool of blood.
Picard cleaned out the blood, which changed his white first aid washcloth into a deep red color. As he healed the wound, slowly it stopped bleeding and the flesh cuts began to close.
In minutes the wound was improving and recovering to its full potential.
"Can you move?" Jan asked.
He tried to get up, but his arms were harder to move than ever.
"We better stay here." Sheba protested, " Ivan could hurt himself easily if we continue. "His injury was my fault."
" It was no ones fault Sheba...and it wouldn't hurt to camp out with the stars, as long as we don't have a smoking fire." Jan looked around for some firewood. " Help me find some wood strong guy!"
" Whatever, that'll be easy."
" I'll stay here to watch over Ivan," Sheba began to turn red, " there are a lot of monsters searching out for fresh blood."
" Okie dookie...." Jan wandered off into the woods for a certain kind of tree wood. The wood she was looking for did not smoke as much as regular firewood.
Sheba watched them slowly disappear into the pine forest. She turned to look at Ivan. His head was down and his eyes were closed.
She began to speak to him, " You should have let me take the pain."
" No....." Ivan could barely speak, " I protect you at all costs...it's an escort's duty."
" I'm sorry for making you suffer so much like this,"
" You don't need to apologize, I'm not angry at you."
" I though you were going to be really mad at me."
" Wha..what made you think that?" Ivan suddenly laughed.
" I'm just worried...here I'll make this up to you somehow."
"Make what...u.." Ivan's speech faded as Sheba placed her mouth over his.
He blinked after she slowly backed off. "No need to get so kissy about this!"
"Then why did you participate?"
He was silent.
"Well, loverboy? Confess!"
"Fine, I'm only doing this whole escort thing because I can't get over my crush 2 years ago..."
Sheba smile and hugged him, " see you do love me!"
" Easy now, you're going to make my wounds worse!"
Sheba made an eye watering face, " you can at LEAST stop sounding so mean!" She turned away.
"Sorry, don't take to so personally. Really I didn't mean it in that way."
" Just..just shut up you mean bastard!" She said in an upsetting tone, " Don't even talk to me!"
Ivan said nothing after that, now he felt really guilty about his actions towards her.
Meanwhile back in the pine forest...
"Hey Mister Picard man! The right kind of wood to get is over here!" Jan signaled him.
" What's the difference between that wood and these?"
" This wood is smokeless, so we don't get spotted." Jan grabbed and armful of sticks.
" I'll help you with that." He took half the sticks from Jan's arms. "Let's head back..."
"There's the way out, slow down." Picard commanded and reach the end of the cave. The view was pretty nice.
You could see the entire valley and a few scattered towns. A winding trail led down from the mountain.
It was steep and a very very very long drop.
" Careful now, it's a long way down from here." Picard warned. The leading trail still had a little snow which made it slippery.
It took a nearly 2 hours to get down.
" There's Suhalla Pass, we have to go around it so we don't get spotted."
" I understand that." A mysterious voice firmly said. Out of the shadows of the trees was another person with an Oradon.
It looked like a young female around Sheba's age. She had light brownish texture of hair with blonde tips that shined when the sun shined on them.
She was wearing a gold dragon amulet and a red tunic covered in decorations of dragon printed silk. She carried a strange weapon. She wore gloves with long silver claws.
" Who are you?" Ivan asked.
" Jan." She replied, " I heard you needed to get around Suhalla Pass, am I correct?"
" I guess." Ivan shrugged.
" You won't make it around without me to help you." Jan advised, "Tolbi's already packed the area off with strange life forms"
" We're strong enough, no monster can stop us." Picard said with confidence." We can get through with ease."
" That isn't the point. You won;t make it alive unless I'm there with you."
" How do we know you're not a spy? Sheba sneered, " You'll probably make us fall into some trick!"
" No trick Sheba, just mind read me." Jan folded her arms.
" How did she know my name?" Sheba thought and then mind read her.
" She's right, her thoughts tell truthfully." Sheba backed away.
" Why wont we let her join us?" Picard suggested, " we might need the help after all."
" There are soldiers hiding out in this area, we might have to fight a few."
" There a post over there, let's hurry and get out of here before we get spotted." Ivan focused on the post just down the hill.
" This way." Jan pointed to a pine forest," it's the only way not to get seen."
So they went into the pine forest. Monsters were abundant here. Some were easily defeated, some were not. Apparently, a huge clawed monster blocked the only trail.
" Don't even try to pass humans!" The monster deeply growled.
" And why can't we pass?" Sheba said politely, " We don.."
"SILENCE!!!!!" I let no one with human blood pass though!"
" Were going to have to force our way through!" Jan yelled.
"You already lost this battle humans!"
The monster charged at Jan who jumped onto the creatures head. The monster roared as Jan began to slash into the monster's face.
The monster shook his head violently and quickly threw Jan off. Sheba soften her landing by using "Gravity"
" Careful Jan." Sheba looked at her and continued to use her wind attacks.
Ivan combined his attacks with hers as Picard healed the others and physically attack the monster with the Aqua Axe.
"Good keep doing that!" Jan's hands began to glow burning red (Erupting Burning Finger?).
She sent out a giant fireball towards the wind tornado and ignited it into a flaming whirl.
It took the monster off it's feet.
"You'll pay for that!" The monster spited out sharp vine shards flying towards Sheba like a hawk.
"Sheba!" He pushed her and got stricken by the shards meant to hit the girl. They pierced into his chest, barely missing his vital organs.
He screamed in pain and fell back. Sheba ran to him and used her Djinn Rescue to take away some of the pain.
" Take this!" Picard threw ice shards into the monster and froze it a little.
Jan finished the battle by using one of her best fire attacks. She began to glow red as she created many fire illusions of herself.
The swirling illusions began to plunge into the monster, leaving it's body scorched. It then turned into ashes.
" Are you okay?" Jan ran to him. " Hey, Picard...hurry and heal him!"
Picard nodded and began the healing process. His healing magic wasn't as strong as Mia's, but it was effective.
He began the process by carefully taking out the vine shards. Ivan gritted his teeth. Removing the shards was extremely painful.
Never in his life had he suffered such an injury as painful as this one.
" Hang in there, everything's going to be okay. " Sheba grasped his hand tightly.
Jan picked up one of the shards. " It's a poison shard. It may leave you paylized for a little bit."
" Oh great..." Ivan smirked.
" I need to get to the center of the wound." Picard tugged lightly on his coat, " Is it all right for me to take this off?"
" Just....get rid of the pain...."
" I take that as a yes." Picard carefully slip it off and got deeper into the root of the wound. It wasn't a very nice sight.
For every shard that struck him, it left a deep flesh cut behind. Newly spilled blood swept across his chest, making it look as if he become a pool of blood.
Picard cleaned out the blood, which changed his white first aid washcloth into a deep red color. As he healed the wound, slowly it stopped bleeding and the flesh cuts began to close.
In minutes the wound was improving and recovering to its full potential.
"Can you move?" Jan asked.
He tried to get up, but his arms were harder to move than ever.
"We better stay here." Sheba protested, " Ivan could hurt himself easily if we continue. "His injury was my fault."
" It was no ones fault Sheba...and it wouldn't hurt to camp out with the stars, as long as we don't have a smoking fire." Jan looked around for some firewood. " Help me find some wood strong guy!"
" Whatever, that'll be easy."
" I'll stay here to watch over Ivan," Sheba began to turn red, " there are a lot of monsters searching out for fresh blood."
" Okie dookie...." Jan wandered off into the woods for a certain kind of tree wood. The wood she was looking for did not smoke as much as regular firewood.
Sheba watched them slowly disappear into the pine forest. She turned to look at Ivan. His head was down and his eyes were closed.
She began to speak to him, " You should have let me take the pain."
" No....." Ivan could barely speak, " I protect you at all costs...it's an escort's duty."
" I'm sorry for making you suffer so much like this,"
" You don't need to apologize, I'm not angry at you."
" I though you were going to be really mad at me."
" Wha..what made you think that?" Ivan suddenly laughed.
" I'm just worried...here I'll make this up to you somehow."
"Make what...u.." Ivan's speech faded as Sheba placed her mouth over his.
He blinked after she slowly backed off. "No need to get so kissy about this!"
"Then why did you participate?"
He was silent.
"Well, loverboy? Confess!"
"Fine, I'm only doing this whole escort thing because I can't get over my crush 2 years ago..."
Sheba smile and hugged him, " see you do love me!"
" Easy now, you're going to make my wounds worse!"
Sheba made an eye watering face, " you can at LEAST stop sounding so mean!" She turned away.
"Sorry, don't take to so personally. Really I didn't mean it in that way."
" Just..just shut up you mean bastard!" She said in an upsetting tone, " Don't even talk to me!"
Ivan said nothing after that, now he felt really guilty about his actions towards her.
Meanwhile back in the pine forest...
"Hey Mister Picard man! The right kind of wood to get is over here!" Jan signaled him.
" What's the difference between that wood and these?"
" This wood is smokeless, so we don't get spotted." Jan grabbed and armful of sticks.
" I'll help you with that." He took half the sticks from Jan's arms. "Let's head back..."