Chapter 8 - The Party Meets Grau

"Gah! More trees!?!"

"Hai. There's no other road."

Lina groaned.

"There's a town after this?"

"Hai."

"Alright... Let's go then."

Lina took a step forward, then someone called out from behind them.

"Wait! Stop right there!"

Xelloss smiled mentally, cause Lina was twitching again.

"Haven't you all had enough yet!?"

"Well, once again, I think I'll stay out of this."

Xelloss floated high up in the air.

"Aleinas! Stop avoiding me, you coward!"

"I'm not avoiding you because I'm cowardly, Tirrem. I'm avoiding you because you are -boring-."

"Keep talking, just keep talking."

Tirrem charged over at Aleinas and the two were at it again for the thirteenth time since they left the Woods of Eternity...or Forest of Dreams, as it was called long ago. So interesting, this Aleinas seemed only to be pretending to fight hard. Oh well, on to someone else. Ah, Jeffrisce. Sitting on the ground, hitting any bandits that came within range of his staff. He seemed half-bored. Lina was upset while at the same time having a good time Fireballing as many bandits as possible. Filia was sitting at the sidelines drinking tea. A bandit came near and she hit him with her mace. Hm, how like her to just use her mace...it would be so much faster, though, if she could just Laser Breath everybody. Hm, what's this? Yare yare, Zelgadiss was sitting with Filia, also drinking tea. Even Gourry was lagging a bit with a half-whining face. Apparantly they were all bored.

Amelia and Lina not included, of course. Xelloss wondered how they never became tired of fighting. Well, it didn't really matter, did it?

"Come on! You can do better than that! Stop dodging me and attack!"

That Tirrem again. Let's watch, after all, it seemed to be the only actually interesting thing around him now.

"Better? Oh no, I can't do better, I can be perfect."

Xelloss perked an eyebrow as Aleinas injured Tirrem then sent him flying backwards with a powerful kick.

"A-aleinas?"

Xelloss watched Jeffrisce get up and make his way through the group of enemies over to Aleinas.

"This is getting very tiring. And you are wasting -my- time, not only others'."

Aleinas set a foot on Tirrem to keep him down and lifted his hands.

"What are you planning, Aleinas??" Xelloss chuckled. Jeffrisce was guarding his friend who didn't really seem to care that there were men aiming their swords at him.

"Stars which pass through heaven's night skies. Heed the ancient convenant with the Earth. I pledge my life that he may be called forth. Ferias Bleed!"

"A, a summon!?"

Something seemed to appear high up in the sky, then dive down. When it came close enough, it looked like a pheonix. When it came closer, it looked more like a giant eagle covered in flames with deep black eyes and a nice yellow beak that glowed orange/red because of the little fire that kept escaping its mouth. It started to throw the men here and there, also using flamethrowers every now and then. It was helping greatly, except for the fact that it couldn't tell friend from foe...except for Aleinas and Jeffrisce. Xelloss wondered why that was, until it aimed a flamethrower at him. He teleported down to where the earlier mentioned people were.

"Aleinas...You could have atleast warned Lina and the others.."

Aleinas shrugged at Jeffrisce and grabbed Tirrem from the ground, dragging him all the way to the forest.

"Hey! Wait for me!"

Tirrem groaned and growled and half yelped in pain. He seemed to be deeply injured, bleeding, and now was being dragged. Xelloss could almost feel sympathy for the poor human... Well, not really. But he would have if he could really feel anything other than pity..and hunger for his pain of course.

~~~

"Sherra! Her name is Sherra! She's working with two others, I don't know who! She was working seperately from them, so I swear I don't! She wanted to grab as many of us together and gave us our jobs, or job, whatever! She said that later she would take care of your guide here, and then the rest would be taken care of by her partners. That's all I know, now please let me down from here!"

"Hmph... They never know anything... Dammit."

"Then time to cut down the guy, right?"

"No, actually. But don't worry, he won't be catching a cold."

"That's not the problem..."

Xelloss noticed Jeffrisce look at Tirrem and sweatdrop. Tirrem was hanging upside down by his feet. The same rope trailed down his back to tie his hands together. At present, the mercenary had only his pants on with his belt cut in the front, so it hung loosely at his sides. His armor and weapons were piled up by his tree, His clothes in a different pile. Out of those, his shirt was cut open. He had been wearing it while upside down, so...that was basically the only way to get it off...Tirrem's state was...well, physically, he was fine. Aleinas had allowed Amelia to heal him so that he wouldn't die or faint on them. Wouldn't really know mentally.Just frantic, and embarrassed for the first time in his adulthood, heh. No, getting information wasn't that hard. But apparantly, Aleinas was very upset at the 'poor' human, and both him and Lina had a problem with his rudeness and speech even after he was hung.

"H-hey! Aleinas! You've already put the man in that state, you don't mean to take anything from him, do you?"

Xelloss turned around to see Aleinas searching through Tirrem's things and pouch. He could almost laugh. Aleinas had just finished threatening Tirrem that he would cu...er, skip that. And yet, he would still go through his things.

This somewhat reminded him of someone... No. He pushed the thought away. It didn't remind him of anyone. If it did, he would know, but this whole time, everything that's reminded him of someone, it seemed that it was all reminding him of one person. But that person did -not- exist! It must be from how long he's spent time around these humans...Deja vu and things...Ugh, disgusting..

"Hm, Zephilian wine. Biscuits. Rubies, emeralds, sapphires, garnets, even pterydots. Stale bread. Good cheese though. Bracelet. Rings. Two pouches of money. Parchment. Rope."

Aleinas was naming all the objects he found while barring Lina from taking any of them. He picked up two sheets of parchment, the bottle of wine, biscuits, cheese, and an opal ring. The rest he stuffed back into the bag and threw it into the pile of clothes. Before Lina could jump at it, Aleinas grabbed her cape, resulting in a resounding thud.

"No need to take any more."

Aleinas tossed the opal ring to Jeffrisce.

"You said you needed one of those. Keep it. You can think of it as a souveniour from this journey."

"Souveniour? Heh....I can't take this...You stole it from that mercenary there..."

"Fine, put it back then, your choice."

"Uhh..." Jeffrisce hesitated and Xelloss quietly mused to himself as he just stuffed it in his pocket and caught Lina's cape just as she got up to get to the bag...and then dragged her over to the opposite side of a fire that must have been started just now.

"Well, we need to take a few minutes rest before continuing on through these woods."

Lina sat up and her eyebrow twitched. "Hey! How come I can't get anything, and how come I'm being bossed around!? And why are you keeping that stuff for yourself!!!???"

"That's just me. It's alot better than you, though. Don't you think?"

"What!?! Why you! Let's see you say that to my face!"

Lina was going to try and pound him...but she fell backwards on her back once again...Xelloss mentally laughed. Jeffrisce had pulled on her cape again. Oh, this was good to see. The infamous Lina Inverse being picked on by two men. Oh what a sight.. His thoughts were interupted by...a familiar presence...Grau?

Xelloss looked up and there he was. Floating in the air above the group. His long grey hair was loosely tied back in a ponytail. His brown cloak billowing somewhat in the wind. Icy grey eyes looking down upon the group. Xelloss watched silently as Dynast's priest floated a bit closer, and closer, then landed on a high tree branch.

"Gah! Hey Aleinas! Just because you're the only one who actually knows where this temple is doesn't give you the power to do everything you like!"

"Oh? Well I'm sorry, I thought it gave me all the power I need over you and your companions. I'm sorry for thinking wrong."

"Y-you, you're not too bad for a guy, but you're messing with the wrong girl here, buddy!"

"Hmph...Oh really..."

"Hahahahaha, that's your name now? Aleinas? Hahaha, so it was you that Sherra's little mercenary was talking about. Tell me, how come you didn't just kill him? Have you really gone that soft?"

"...Grau....." Aleinas looked straight up in the direction of the voice, as did everybody else. "...Hmph, no, I haven't gone soft. I've just grown a few more morals, and...well, you would know, I'm sure, as so would your 'sister' and 'brother'."

"Yes, yes, I know...rules rules rules... But still... I hardly think that's any reason to...act."

"One word comes out of your mouth and I swear, I'm going to make sure you never say anything again."

"Oh, don't worry, I won't do that, not yet. I'm not fond of love scenes, you see."

"Of course."

"Well, for that reason...I think I'll let my little demons play with you all for a bit. If I were to fight with you all, then you would have to use your own powers, because knowing Xelloss, he won't do anything other than what his master told him to do. And knowing me, I won't kill her precious toys right away. Now come out from the shadows, have a little fun."

Grau was gone the next moment before anybody could say anything else, and then they were all on their feet. Xelloss yawned lightly and disappeared up in a high tree. The reason for both of these? There was a number of strong and cruel looking mercenaries around them. Almost twice as many as them. It wasn't that large of a group compared to what they had fought the past few days...but there seemed to be something different about them...

"Heh, fine. They're just humans...come on, come and get me you little pests."

The mercenaries charge towards them, three of them charging Aleinas.

Here the scene fades so that it may be continued from chapter nine! ^_^ Come back to read! ^.^ hohoho!