Gunner Duel

Sierra and Selene stared each other down. The older woman was confident in her triple gun, but everyone else was more with Sierra on the matter, it looked like some real shoddy workmanship. Kyoku jumped off Sierra's shoulder, not wanting to get involved in such a matter, and onto Lyle's.

"Now, then," Selene began, "Let's get this done and over with. I've got a busy schedule to stick to and I didn't need this interruption. If you want, you can just give the treasures over to Robert and myself, and we'll let you four go with only a nod. So, do you want to fight, or run away little girl?"


"Little girl! LITTLE GIRL! Hey! At least I'm not an old hag like you," taunted Sierra, well knowing that Selene was only twenty-three. It never failed to get a rise out of her when she thought she might be too old, one of Sierra's favorite insults on the days where the two fought one another.

Selene's face began to contort, Sierra's comment had attained its desired effect. She yelled, "Old! I'll show you, you little brat! I may be older than you, but I'm not old yet." Selene aimed her gun, ready to pull the trigger on a moment's notice. A gleam was in her eyes, which didn't impress Sierra.

Robert nodded. "Yes, my lady is not old at all. She's only twenty, if you round down." Which earned him a nice punch, a knock across the floor, and an enraged woman giving him the evil eye. Not things you want if the woman in question has a hair trigger temper like Selene.

"I'll show you," the Silver Wolf whispered, "You'll learn to respect this gun, Sierra Kenju. It will be the last thing you see before I kill you and send you to the bowls of Hell. I'm sure the Guardian of Death will be quite happy with the soul of one so vibrant as you, if the rumors of him feeding off the energy of the dead are true. You certainly have enough for a few hundred years worth of meals."


"That's not true, the Guardian of Death only takes our souls to the afterlife, he doesn't steal our energy. Where did you get a wacko idea such as that?" inquired Jacob, a little bit timid over the whole ordeal. Selene scared him, but he had to stand up for the Guardians when they were being insulted.

But Selene ignored Jacob. Instead, she fired her ARM at Sierra. Due to the random nature of a shotgun, however, it missed her completely. Sierra sighed, Selene had no patience for aiming her ARM and doing the job right. She then picked up her new Rifle, and aimed it carefully at Selene. This one hit the other Silver Wolf on the shoulder, Sierra wanted to avoid bloodshed if possible. Maybe she didn't like Selene, and maybe the disgust was mutual, but she had some high morals to stick by.

Suddenly, a loud noise could be heard from outside the room. In came a monster, which looked like a lion with talons and an eagle's face. If what the old records on monsters that can be coaxed into guarding treasure are true, then this beast would most definitely be a griffin. Not that they wouldn't know, with Sasha screaming out about the whole thing right in everyone else's ears. She was plain frightened of the creature, knowing well that her ancestors had chosen it for a reason to guard the vault.

She exclaimed, "Now see what you've done! You've awakened the guardian beast. And after all the work I did to make sure we wouldn't have to deal with it. Now, we've got to fight against something so powerful that it can rip us to shreds with only one blow of its massive claws."

Selene got up, and pulled Robert along. "Well, this has nothing to do with us, so Robert and I are just going to leave here. It pains me to leave this treasure, but we have no choice. We'll settle the score another time, Sierra." Then, the two ran away, leaving the four to fight the griffin on their own.

"How can we destroy it?" asked Lyle, "Sasha, you said your people have always studied the ancient culture in order to find these ruins some day, but did they mention anything about killing griffins in the report? Or did they assume that the person who goes will just have the key on them?"


'No choice, I'll have to unleash the powers locked deep inside my soul. Teardrop, Dist Dims, and my own Crest Sorcery must combine, in order to stop this beast from wreaking havoc or killing those who have come to call me their friend,' thought Sasha. She then stepped forward, facing the griffin.

Jacob screamed, "Get away from there! You're going to get hurt. At least let the three of us go with you, it's just too dangerous on your own." He himself didn't know what his outbursts were directed at. Certainly, back home, such a display of anger would have earned him a beating by his father.

Sasha shook her head, and smiled. "Don't worry, this is how to defeat the griffin. As only a Shaman can summon it, only a Shaman can destroy it." She called up her Force Skill, Mystic, and activated the Teardrop's power. Then, the spell to summon the staff Dist Dims was added. Energy flowed from both, casing an incremental increase in Sasha's power. When the time was right, she began to take aim with her spells, and cast Flame on the griffin. It began to reel from the pain of fire instantly. Before it could counter, the Freeze spell was added to the attack. The griffin began to scream in a tone that didn't belong in this sane world, and then was turned to fine ash.

* * *

"I'm sorry," Sasha said, "I guess I should have let you in on my secret. I was just so afraid of dying, that I kept it inside like everyone else back home. I should have trusted my friends a little more. The people of Neo-Adlehyde are descendants of this kingdom, those that avoided persecution. But we would never summon a demon, we've been Guardian worshippers for millennia now."

"Apology accepted, I'm just glad you're not hurt. A pretty lady such as yourself shouldn't have to risk her life so foolishly," Lyle replied, earning him a hard glare from Sierra. But the young woman didn't know why she was glaring at him, he was certainly free to do whatever he wanted in life.

Jacob told them, "Anyway, we've found a great boon of treasure. Let's hand the artifacts over to the foreman back in town, and claim our reward. All except the map, which might prove useful on our travels. And take these, Lyle, Sierra, they'll go a long way to protect you from any harm."


He handed the Felgalon Medium to Lyle, and Sasha gave Moor Gault to Sierra. Now, the whole team was Guardian protected. It would certainly come in handy for when they encountered any enemies on the battlefield. And by dividing them, he lessened the chance of someone stealing them before he could return the Mediums to Baskar for his brother's ceremony.

- - - -

Teefa's Last Words…

That was the longest "Threads of Fate" parody scene I've written. Well, I saw some fanart last night, and realized I'd almost made Sierra and Selene act like Mint and Belle. So, I redid some of the scenes involving them, just for kicks. I do make plans most of the time. However, just as a base, I never work without a base. But I do work without a direction, remember how far off track from my original plan I took "Destined Daughter". I ended up with merging dragon sisters, and demons living in glaciers, instead of the empress being a demon, and two sisters having to kill one another.