Chapter Four – Late Night Picnic
Nash looked up to see a young woman standing before them. She looked familiar. Nash's mind was reeling, trying desperately to find a lie that could explain why he was huddled behind a kitchen counter in the dark with a vampire.
However, he suddenly recognized the woman's dark hair and simple green clothing. It was Yumi, an Alma Kinan girl who he and Chris had met on their journey to find the Flame Champion.
He then wondered how and why it was she was in the castle. Alma Kinan was miles and miles away. He noticed that she was not looking at him. In fact, she didn't seem to be looking at anything in particular. Her eyes were glazed over as though in some sort of trance.
Nash stood up, now more concerned about Yumi than what excuse he was going to use. Sierra pushed herself away from him.
"Excuse me, Miss Yumi? Are you quite alright?"
She continued to stare unseeingly past him, and did not respond.
"She's sleepwalking," Sierra stated simply.
"You know, I think you're right," Nash replied as Yumi walked aimlessly past them.
Nash went over to her, guided her to a chair, and sat her down.
"She lives in Alma Kinan... How in the world did she get here? Do you think we should wake her up?" Nash asked.
"I think we should get out of here before she does wake up," replied Sierra.
"But what if she unknowingly sleepwalks into some danger?" Nash asked. "There are a lot of seedy characters around here that might take advantage of her, you know."
"You being one of them."
Nash was searching for a suitable rebuttal when there was a small gasp, and he turned to see Yumi gazing groggily around her. Her eyes went to Sierra, and then rested on Nash, comprehension slowly dawning upon her. She had awoken.
"Nash, sir?"
Nash nodded. "Hello, Miss Yumi."
"Where am I?" she asked, traces of fear etched across her face.
"Budehuc Castle. How you got here is what I'd like to know," Nash replied.
"Budehuc Castle? Am I... far from Alma Kinan?"
"Quite a long way, I'm afraid. Do you remember anything before just now?"
"No... Last I remember I was in my bed at home."
Nash nodded. "We think you were sleepwalking."
"Yes," Yumi replied with a resigned sigh. "I sleepwalk a lot. But I don't think I could have sleepwalked right out of my village to this... place."
"It is hard to fathom how you got here," Nash agreed. "It makes me wonder how long you've been wandering the halls around here in your sleep tonight."
"Viki must have had something to do with this," Sierra suddenly said.
"Viki?" asked Nash and Yumi together.
"Yes. I knew her from the Dunan Unification War. She's a teleportress. That's how I got to and from the Great Hollow so fast. She says that one of the leaders here, Geddoe, found her a while ago and offered her a home here. While she is useful for getting to places fast, she's not entirely reliable, as she's brainless beyond all measure."
"But why would she teleport me here?" Yumi asked in bewilderment.
"I can't pretend to understand her dim-witted ways. I suggest you ask her."
"In the meantime," Nash added, looking at Sierra, "I think you better clear out of here."
"I'll leave when I please!"
"Fine, do whatever you want. I'm going to help Yumi get back to Alma Kinan." And without looking back, Nash left the kitchen with Yumi.
"May I ask who that young lady was?" Yumi asked.
"Oh... She's my missus," he lied without thinking, then immediately regretted it. He thought he was going to try to dispel the rumors of him having a wife... Now he just reinforced them. What's worse, if Sierra ever found out he had said that...
"Oh, really? I didn't... Interrupt anything, did I?" Yumi asked cautiously.
Nash inwardly cringed, but before he could answer, a skinny blond boy with large glasses leapt in front of them. It was Arthur. Nash looked at the clock in the hall. It was well after midnight.
"May I just ask a few questions?" he said, pushing the bridge of his glasses up against his nose.
"Isn't it past your bedtime?" Nash said through gritted teeth.
"Who is this young woman here?" he had his notebook out. Damn these kids and their damn notebooks.
Nash kept moving Yumi along, but the boy was following.
"My name is Yumi. I'm from Alma Kinan," the young woman replied, looking over her shoulder at Arthur.
"Ah, I've heard about you when I interviewed the lady Chris! What are you doing here, Miss Yumi?" the boy asked.
"I was sleepwalking."
"Sleepwalking!? And you found her, Nash, sir?"
"Yes," he replied curtly.
"Where was she?"
"I was wandering the hallways and ended up in the kitchen," Yumi answered, "I saw Nash with his wife. They found me."
"His wife!?"
Nash winced. Now she'd done it. Now the whole castle would know that his 'wife' visited him last night. In the kitchen, no less.
"That's enough, Arthur, miss Yumi is very tired and doesn't want to answer any more questions."
"Wait, please make a statement for the story!" Arthur pleaded to Nash.
"Why should I?" Nash said irritably.
"Well, you wouldn't want me getting any of the facts wrong, would you?" the boy replied, emphasizing the word 'facts' with a sneaky smile.
Nash paused, turned to the boy, narrowing his eyes at him. This kid was threatening him! He knew the last thing he needed was more bad publicity. However, he wasn't about to be outsmarted by a kid.
"Alright, here's the deal," Nash said. "If I give you the details about Yumi's sleepwalking, your article will not contain any slander, and you will quote me as an anonymous witness. Okay?"
Yumi looked slightly confused as to what was going on, but Arthur nodded at once.
"It's a deal."
Nash released a sigh. "When I went to the kitchen at midnight, Yumi was wandering about the hallway. I called her, but it seemed she did not notice. My wife said she was sleepwalking." Now that Yumi had told Arthur that Sierra was his wife, he figured he might as well follow up with it in his statement. "I hope she gets better," he added as an afterthought, wanting to seem like the caring civilian.
"And what were you doing in the kitchen with your wife at midnight?"
No matter how he looked at it, any explanation would seem pretty bad. He'd just have to evade the question. "I told you I'd give you details about Yumi's sleepwalking, that's all."
That said, he guided Yumi into a room near the entrance of the castle, and slammed the door in the boy's face.
In the room, they found a girl asleep in a chair. She had shoulder length black hair and a white dress. Her mouth was hanging open and a long staff hung limply in her hand. She looked like a mage. Maybe they had found Viki by luck?
"Excuse me," Nash said, gently prodding the girl.
The girl suddenly jerked awake, opening her big eyes, and looking around. "Oh, hello! Must have nodded off!"
"Are you the teleportress, Viki?"
She nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! Who're you?"
"I'm Nash and this is Miss Yumi."
"Ohhh, you're the lost girl!" Viki said excitedly, pointing at Yumi.
"Excuse me?" she asked.
"This place is great isn't it?"
"What do you mean, 'lost girl'? Do you know how she got here?" Nash asked.
"Of course I do! I brought her with me!"
"What? Why did you teleport her from Alma Kinan to here?" Nash asked, exasperated.
"Alma Kinan? That's where we were?" Viki seemed genuinely puzzled by this.
Nash was beginning to see what Sierra meant by 'brainless beyond all measure'. "Could you tell us what happened?"
Viki smiled widely. "Sure! You see, earlier tonight, I was going to teleport myself downstairs, but I guess I sent myself a bit too far and found myself in a strange forest with lots of wooden houses."
"You accidentally teleported yourself to Alma Kinan?!" Yumi asked in disbelief.
Viki shrugged. "Well anyway, I was going to send myself back when you came walking up to me."
"I don't remember that..." Yumi said.
Viki continued. "Well, you looked awfully lost, so I said to myself, 'why not take this lost girl with me!' After all, this is where lost people go, right? This is where that nice man sent me when he found me. So I thought I'd bring her back with me so she could have a place too!" Her smiled widened even more, apparently quite pleased with herself.
"She wasn't lost, she was sleepwalking!" Nash exclaimed.
"Huh?" Viki looked quite confused.
"Nevermind," Yumi said quickly. "It was just a mistake... But do you think you could send me back? My sister is going to get very worried if she finds me missing in the morning."
Viki's face fell a little. "Well... okay... I thought you might like it here though!"
"I do!" Yumi replied, obviously trying to humor the thickheaded girl. "But I must go back, at least for now." She turned to Nash. "Thank goodness I ran into you, I could have gotten in a lot of trouble, wandering around here at night, asleep. Thank you for helping me."
Nash flashed a charming smile. "Not at all. It was the gentlemanly thing to do." He turned to Viki. "Now make sure she gets back to Alma Kinan, and not somewhere in Toran Republic!"
Viki nodded. "Okay!"
And before Nash realized what was happening, Yumi had vanished.
"You sent her?" he asked hesitantly after a moment.
"Yup-yup!" she replied with a goofy smile.
"That's a handy skill you have there..." Nash commented, a plan beginning to form in his mind. "Can you teleport people anywhere?"
"I think so!"
"Hmm..." Nash rubbed his chin. Maybe Viki could teleport him straight to Sasarai in Harmonia! But he still had doubts in his mind about Viki's capabilities. He couldn't help wondering if Viki hadn't messed up again, and if Yumi wasn't at the mercy of some sea monster out in the middle of the ocean right now.
Regardless, the temptation of a faster trip was too much to pass up. Maybe he could ask her to come with her, so that if she 'got lost' again, she could send him back. Yes, that was a sound enough plan.
"Viki, would you like to come on a little trip with me?"
"Ooooh, like a picnic?" she asked excitedly.
"Well..." he couldn't bear to disappoint her. "Yes, like a picnic! In Harmonia!"
"Yay! Let's go!" Viki jumped up and down in excitement, as though having a picnic in Harmonia at one in the morning was a completely logical thing to do. "So, to Harmonia?"
"Wait...No," Nash said, another idea coming to mind. He could spare a little extra time if he had Viki with him, right?
"No? Then where?"
"Viki, first do you think you could take me to Chris?"
From a distance through the trees, Nash could see the glow of a campfire and the outlines of several people and horses.
As Nash had hoped, Chris and her knights had set up camp in the forest not too far from the Great Hollow. He had figured that, had all gone well with stopping the masked bishop, they would have set off back to Budehuc and camp among the trees before making the trek across the open plains.
Unfortunately, to Nash's despair, he could see that the two knights standing guard at the camp were none other than Percival and Borus. They would not want him to speak to Chris. This wasn't going to be easy.
"Can we have a picnic now!?" Viki asked loudly.
"Shh! No!" Nash hissed, then upon seeing her alarmed face, softened his tone as though talking to a child. "Viki, we will go have a picnic soon, I just have to talk to the knights first, okay?"
"Okay..."
"Good. Wait here," Nash said.
Viki still hidden among the trees, Nash made his way towards the two knights, hoping against hope that they would be somewhat reasonable. As he neared them, they spotted his form and both reached for the hilts of their swords.
"Who's there!?" Borus called.
Nash continued to walk up to them until they could see it was him.
"Nash?" both Percival and Borus said in unison.
"None other," replied Nash, smiling at them as though he were an old friend.
"What are you doing here?" Percival asked, suspicion evident upon his features.
While it was Percival doing the interrogating, Nash's eye was fixed nervously upon Borus, who had not relaxed his grip on the hilt of his sword. In fact Nash was certain he had tightened it. This definitely was not going to be easy.
"I'd like a word with Chris."
"It's Lady Chris to you, you ruffian!" growled Borus.
"You know, Borus, 'ruffian' is really getting old. Surely you could have thought of something nastier to say to me by now?"
"Hold your tongue!" The blonde knight unsheathed his sword and brandished it before him.
Percival stepped in between them. "You were not supposed to leave the castle while Lady Chris was on this investigation," he pointed out to Nash.
"Nevertheless, I'd like to speak with her."
"If you have a message for Chris, I will be sure it gets to her." Percival spoke calmly, but it was clear from his expression he didn't like Nash any more than Borus did.
"I insist that I speak with her myself."
"Lady Chris is resting! She's had a very long day and the last thing she needs is someone like you wasting her time!" Borus shouted.
Nash flashed his sardonic smile that he knew Borus hated so much. "I disagree. The last thing she needs is an incompetent dunderhead like you, waving his sword around and making a racket in the wee hours of the morning."
Nash should have known that he had gone too far. Borus growled like a rabid animal and pushed passed Percival, charging at Nash with his sword. Nash whipped out a small dagger he had up his sleeve. It didn't look like Borus was going to show much mercy.
Then Viki popped up between them.
Both Nash and Borus stopped dead in their tracks, Borus holding the sword still above his head in mid-swing, and Nash staring at Viki in bewilderment. Percival was standing off to the side with his mouth hanging open.
"Hi!" she said cheerfully. "Are you coming to the picnic too?"
Borus blinked unbelievingly. "...Picnic???"
"Viki, I thought I told you to stay put!" Nash whispered.
"But Nash! Aren't we going to invite them to come to the picnic?" Viki tilted her head to the side with a curious smile.
Nash suddenly grinned. "Of course!"
"What is going on?" Percival asked. "Who is this?"
"This is Viki, a new recruitment of the Fire Bringer," Nash said pleasantly.
Borus was still in a state of utter confusion, staring at the girl, and said nothing.
"We were just saying," Nash said to Viki, "that you should be the one to decide where the picnic is."
"Ohh, really!? I know the perfect place! Let's go!" Viki was jumping up and down in excitement again.
"But you, Sir Percival, and Sir Borus go on ahead without me, I'll erm... Catch up later!" Nash said with a reassuring smile.
"Oh, okay!" Viki was simply beaming. "Here we go!"
And with one last look of confusion from Percival and Borus, Viki and the two knights vanished. Nash hoped that whatever place Viki chose was somewhere far, far away. He also hoped that all the noise Borus was making hadn't awoken Leo, Roland, Salome, or Louis.
However, as he crept through the camp, he passed the forms of the other four, still asleep.
He found Chris sleeping against a large rock, still fully clad in her armor. Her horse stood a few feet away from her, and looked at him wearily as Nash approached Chris' sleeping form.
Nash kneeled beside the ironclad woman and paused. She was asleep and almost looked peaceful. It was not an expression Nash had ever seen on Chris before. When she was awake, she almost always looked stern or concerned or broody. It was at least a few minutes before Nash realized he had been just staring at her. He was going to have to wake her up sooner or later.
Quite suddenly, Chris began moving her head back and forth against the rock. Her face no longer looked peaceful, and she was breathing quickly. Her lips moved but she did not speak. Nash let this continue for a few moments, uncertain of what he should do. Then her eyes flew open. She sat upright and pressed her hand over her face, breathing deeply.
Nash continued to kneel silently beside her, but it was a few seconds before Chris realized she was not alone.
Her head whipped towards him. "Nash?"
He smiled at her, but he knew it must have looked like a very sad smile. He realized that Chris must've been having a bad dream. She had almost certainly been reliving the death of her father.
"You really shouldn't sleep in all that armor, it looks rather uncomfortable," he said finally.
"I'm quite used to it. What are you doing here?"
"I came to see you."
"I told you not to leave the castle!"
"I know, but I had to leave."
"Why?"
"I just needed to see a pretty face."
Chris' defenses were back up, now fully alert. "You followed us here, didn't you!"
"No, I didn't. Did you get the rune?"
"What rune?"
"The True Water rune."
"How did you-"
"A little bat told me," Nash smirked slightly, thinking of Sierra.
Chris eyed him distrustfully. "Yes I got it, and you better hope I don't use it on you for defying a direct order."
"I stayed at the castle the whole time until tonight, I swear!"
"That's impossible, it takes at least a day to get out this far. Besides, it doesn't matter, you still left the castle before I returned."
"I admit defeat," Nash sighed. "But I swear on my life I've been a good boy. I was courteous to the other tenants, and I even acted in Nadir's play. You can ask him yourself. And if he covers his face and moans, it's just because he's too stunned by my mesmerizing acting too speak."
"Why are you here?" she asked.
"I told you I just wanted to see a pre-" he cut himself off as he caught another one of Chris' death glares. "The truth is I wanted to tell you that I am going to be away from the castle for a while."
"Why?"
"I'll be coming back, don't you worry!"
Chris looked away from him. "Why would I worry?"
Nash simply flashed another one of his irritating smiles, which he knew Chris could see out the corner of her eye.
"Oh, just get out of here!" she exclaimed.
Nash stood up, but he did not move after that.
"Chris..." he began, suddenly serious.
"...What?" she asked, taken off guard by the sudden change of tone in his voice.
"I know you probably don't want to talk about it, especially with me, but... You have my condolences... about your father. My parents were killed too, when I was about your age."
There was a long moment of silence, and Nash couldn't clearly see the expression on her fire lit face. He was sure she was going to unleash a fit of rage on him, or waspishly tell him to leave, or tell him she didn't want his condolences and didn't care if his parents were dead too.
But the reply that finally came was calm, and sounded as though she had embraced the gesture of empathy. "Thank you...I really didn't know him..."
"...I think he loved you, all the same."
Chris gazed into the fire. "How could he?"
Nash smiled. "How could he not?"
Nash's rare display of deep sentiment left Chris dumbfounded, and there was another lengthy moment of silence.
"Well..." Nash said eventually. "I must be leaving. I'll be back at the castle as soon as I can." He walked over to Borus' horse and took the reins.
"Wait a minute," Chris said, getting to her feet and looking around. "Where are Percival and Borus? I thought they were supposed to be guarding the camp."
"Well..." Nash grinned as he mounted Borus' horse. "They decided to go on a picnic."
And he rode off on the horse towards Harmonia, leaving Chris to stare after him in confusion.
A/N: Writing a 'behind the scenes' kind of story, I wanted to have this clever plot with Nash that involved a theory about the newspaper articles, like the articles about Nash meeting a mysterious girl by the lake, and about Yumi sleepwalking. My plot fit perfectly until I suddenly realized there was a massive plot hole that was big enough to drive a tank through: Yumi is not a part of the Firebringer at this point in the story. I still wanted to use the idea though, so that's why I made up all that stuff with Viki transporting Yumi to explain why she was wandering around the castle in her sleep. Hope it's somewhat plausible. -- Anyway, I took the 'statement' the Nash made directly from the newspaper article in the game.
K'Arthur, I'm glad you liked the interaction between Sierra and Nash in the last chapter, I love writing the dialogue with them! It's strange, because the more I write scenes with them together the more I seem to appreciate the possibility of Nash/Sierra – but Chris/Nash always has and probably always will be my favorite pairing!
Anyway, thanks again to all who are reading my story, and thanks for the reviews, as they are truly inspiring! I'll have the next chapter up in a bit.