Author's Note: Yes! In an e-mail with Sara Jaye, I found myself with a new pairing to work with. So, as a result, Sara Jaye gets partial credit for this fic. This one won't be easy, but considering how well I believe I did with Erk's Aftermath, I've found myself working with the contrary mage once more. Who will he be paired up with? The winds of fate are fickle, my friends. The only clue I shall provide is that the person is not someone he can support with at all in the game. I may also include a bit of Guy in here, possibly with a unique pairing of his own as well! Hehe... I hope you'll like this offering even more than I will writing it!
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-Chapter 17-
Damn the boat ride!
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Ah, by Elimine. Cannot even you see fit to spare me for but a single day? Must I always be near... her? My mental voice dripped with venom as I cast a glance to the one that our wonderful tactician, good ol' Mark, had beseeched me to protect. Indeed, if he hadn't nearly gone to his knees to beg me to do so, I would never step foot near this... and yes, I hesitate to say woman. I would rather not even say girl, for to do so would be insulting to the two girls in our group that were at least well behaved. Yes, compared to Rebecca and Priscilla, even to Lady Lyndis, how could I call the pink haired, loud-mouthed, ill-tempered cleric a woman or even a girl?
I was not the only to think of her as such, and why Mark even allowed her on the battlefield was beyond me. Especially since we were at sea, and her prancing about as if she were on a holiday made her quite the sight. Shamans to the right, mercenaries to the left, and a mixture to the rear of the ship. By Elimine... if it wasn't for the fact that I still felt ill from all this rocking, I would likely wish to test my strength against the mercenaries and shaman that the rest of the group was facing. But no, because of the violent rocking, I, at least, was not alone in my misery. For, beside me, there was another. I looked over to him and smiled grimly, and he returned the look. Neither of us could help becoming seasick on this voyage. I had never sailed aboard a ship, and he had never truly left the plains and flat ground.
Guy was a good person- quiet, likeable. Good with a blade and dependable when one needed to decapitate an opponent in one swift attack. He suddenly looked to Serra, that pink haired pain in the ass that I had first met over a year ago. Damn that woman. Even now I despised her beyond belief. I once heard from Lord Pent that when it came to men and women, opposites attract. Yet, I could not ever think that I would meet a woman any more opposite from me than she. She just seemed to watch the battle and waved her staff about. Every so often, Wil would come closer and call for her, leaving us a brief respite as Kent, Lyn, Eliwood, Lucius and Hector provided the shield that stopped all possible Black Fang troops from coming closer. Mark was at Eliwood's side, providing him a vulnerary before dashing off to another of our troop requiring aid.
Oh, how I wish I could turn back time to a year ago and force myself to have lost this woman in the forests outside of Lycia after we had first met. But no, the experience I would have gained at that time far exceeded the wish that I had done so- for, I had learned much during my first travels with Mark and Lady Lyndis, the fine pair that they obviously were for one another during our battles against Lyndis' grand-uncle. I had pleaded with Mark to station the annoying cleric a tad too close to castle caelin, to easily be better able to heal any of our people he sent in to attack the old general. Obviously, since she was standing here still, the answer to that request had been a no.
My stomach heaved and I very nearly fell overboard, my body pitching forward before I felt a pair of hands on my shoulder. Rough hands, it seemed, and I looked over my shoulder to see the young myrmidon keeping me steady. Serra was busy recovering from the efforts of healing Wil, thankfully, and was nowhere nearby to try and annoy me once more. "My thanks." I managed, my mouth and throat dry as I nodded to the young man. He smiled again and nodded, before looking around carefully. A mercenary had boarded our side of the ship, and none of the others had noticed yet!
The ship gave a violent lurch to the side, halting the mercenary's advance towards our position. Unfortunately, my stomach heaved again as I attempted to keep my footing upon the planks of the deck. Guy seemed to do much the same, and soon wound up beside me at the side of the ship. I heard a few wet heaves and knew that someone's breakfast would soon be feeding the fish of the ocean. I shuddered slowly, hating the sound of that but knowing that I couldn't blame my friend for his illness. We shared it, after all, but I managed to keep the contents of my breakfast down (barely!) as I moved to the mercenary. Kent had moved to block any more from invading this side, but had been unable to face off with this one as others attempted to hustle down the planks that the 'Fang had set up for boarding the ship.
My tome of thunder came from where I usually kept it at my side, and he felt the power within the book mingle with my own magical strength. Meager though it was in comparison with my teacher, I knew that I could defeat this mercenary with what strength I did have to me. I remained just out of the reach of his blade as I began to recite the arcane words that took me so long to master, and then I threw my arm downwards as if to throw something at my target. A sound of magical thunder shot out and a powerful strike of magical energy slammed into my target from above. A cry of pain that lasted only a short moment burst from him before he fell overboard, dead even before hitting the water that the ships were floating on top of.
Then I felt another presence come near me from behind, and I shivered again. The use of even a single powerful spell like that drained me somewhat- I would need a moment to recover. But, I soon found that that moment that I could possibly have had brought me into the worst predicament I ever could have faced myself being in. It was that pink-haired wench from the bowels of hell that were so deep that even Saint Elimine herself would have trouble seeing them!
"Oh, hi there, Erk." she said, and I was unable to reply. Lord Pent had once said, while providing me with information that might prove useful about women, that if you had nothing polite or nice to say to or about them, saying nothing at all would be the only way to survive one's wrath. So, I said nothing in return to the annoying woman. Never did it occur to me to walk away... perhaps my heaving stomach could be coerced into emptying itself onto her dress? Nay... then I would have others' attempting to make me pay for the white clerical garb that she wore. Damn. "You should be thanking me." she said to me, and I closed my eyes. Why should I thank her? For talking to me so much that I could never want to be near a cute girl again?
"I'm the one who got you into this outfit. In fact, you should be terribly grateful to me!" she exclaimed, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Her logic, that is. Even a normal woman's logic was never this mysterious, I thought to myself. Lady Louise was an unusual woman, but Serra? She took the mountain! Oh yes, I was grateful to have managed to escape from Laus thanks to Lord Eliwood and Mark's troops with Lady Priscilla, but was I grateful to have joined all thanks to this devil in cleric's guise? No!
Then, I looked thoughtful for a moment. I was in fact thinking of how to say this to her in such a way that she might understand how annoying she was being. "...Well, you did introduce me to Lord Eliwood..." I replied, and the smug look on her face grew even more as she smiled even wider. But the smile I wanted to smile inside began to grow as I continued. "But that's about it, really." I commented. The smug look on her face gave way to astonishment, and before she could even reply (I had learned how to speak quickly, thanks to her constant interruptions), I commented again. "I owe you no special obligation."
She had the look of surprise and shock at being spoken to in such a manner, and I couldn't help the small grin that I had been building up to giving for over a year now. "That's the most ungrateful thing I've ever heard!" she exclaimed, and I grinned even wider. Indeed, I didn't actually owe the little cleric a damned thing. I didn't want anything to do with her- never did before, never will in the future. "You know, Erk, I've been with them longer than you have..." and I rolled my eyes. What, a week longer, possibly two? What a seniority! "So you really should treat me like your superior!"
I shook my head slowly- my head was beginning to pound again and the urge to lose my breakfast as Guy had done earlier came back to haunt me. "...As usual, you use entirely confounding logic." I replied, looking her straight in the eyes as I held back that nagging urge in my stomach and the back of my throat to just let loose. "Doesn't Lord Eliwood decide such matters?" I asked now, one hand holding my Thunder tome and my free hand clutching at my stomach to try and ease the upset feeling I was having.
"Well, he hasn't mentioned it yet, but I'm sure he would agree." she said, and a sudden rocking of the ship caused my breakfast to force its way back up the way it had originally gone down in. Elimine... not even you could provide a bishop the patience to outlast the utterings of this child of your very church, I thought. "After all, I am his close friend and Hector's fiancee!" and at that I very nearly laughed if it wasn't for the bile that I could imagine that I was tasting now. Hector's fiancee? Elimine must not care too much for Lord Hector, I realized, if such a comment was actually the truth.
With a swallow to hold back my food, I gasped and then looked at the pink haired 'priestess' before I could talk again. "Well, I've heard enough. Talking to you is just a neverending heache..." and I walked away, over to the railing of the ship as I heard a commotion near the steps that led below decks. Obviously, Fargus had returned, and as Serra protested to what I had said, I proceeded to empty the contents of my breakfast out over the side of the ship to land with a soft splash that could not be heard, in the ocean itself. Ah... such relief. The battle was over... both with my stomach and with the Black Fang. Perhaps now I could enjoy some peace away from the damned cleric? I certainly hope so.
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At least the continuation of our journey on the ship was uneventful. Unfortunately, both my seasickness and Guy's continued until we nearly made landfall, when our illness began to loosen its grasp upon us. Though we stayed mostly in the room provided to us, there was no chance in Elibe that Serra was going to let me get away with being seasick the whole time. It nearly got so bad that when she offered to heal me, one of the many times, I almost allowed her to do so. But no, I was not about to accept charity from the annoying cleric.
As we neared the shore, Guy and I were watching the land with a longing that I know I had never felt before. Solid ground! No more rocking ship, and food that tasted rather stale... though really, I would simply be happy having something that would just stay down for good, rather than wanting me to taste it more than once. "Erk?" came a quieter voice than I was used to. Strange, that wasn't the demon cleric from St. Elimine's darkest hell. I looked over my shoulder and smiled weakly to the girl that stood there and had said my name.
"Ah... yes, Lady Lyndis?" I asked, smiling for only a short moment longer before groaning softly. "Ah, I really hate ships." I commented, and Lyn giggled softly before watching me with saddened eyes. I was touched- obviously, she was concerned for me. The other two lords had simply avoided both myself and Guy ever since we left Badon. I could not blame them for staying away from us, for we were the only two who were seasick on this voyage of ours.
"I had a word with Mark, and he believes it would be best if we try to keep you away from Serra for a while. I saw how you looked at her when she spoke to you during the battle. Thank you for managing to not, ah... well, you know." she mentioned, a blush appearing on the girl's cheeks as I nodded to her. Oh, yes... I knew what she meant, easily. The stain would never have escaped the white cloth that the cleric always wore. I smiled a little, my stomach settling somewhat. Being around Lady Lyndis always did have a calming effect on me, for some reason. She is a very beautiful girl, possibly 18 years or so in age: 2 or 3 years older than I am, I realized.
"Ah, well, if I had any less strength, milady, rest assured that her clothes would not remain the pristine color that they are still." I said, and grinned slightly- a jest that I could barely have come up with even were I feeling much better than this. "And... thank you, milady. I was beginning to wonder if Guy and myself were simply on display for everyone else." I commented. Indeed, Guy nodded in agreement to those words that I said and the girl before us shook her head quickly, a look in her eyes telling the two of us that she was serious.
"Of course not! I simply thought that you might prefer not to speak with others, for fear that the effort might, you know... I cannot speak for the others, of course, but I am certain that it is the same with them as well." she said. Lady Lyndis was a fairly intelligent woman, but though Guy might not be too smart, it did not take a genius to realize that the others were most likely thinking about how funny it was to see us both sick on this trip. At times, we seemed to vie for the ability to see who could empty their stomach first. It was not a game that we played for fun or anything- it was not even a game, period.
"Ah... we thank you, Lady Lyndis." came Guy's voice. His voice was even more shy than mine, strangely, but then again it might have been because his throat was drier than mine was. I nodded in agreement, and we both bowed to the woman that came from both the plains and Caelin. The motion brought a fresh sense of bile to my senses, and I had to immediately cover my mouth as I swallowed it back and turned quickly to deal with the outgoing lunch that I had just eaten a short while ago. I heard another unique wet sound and could tell that Guy was doing the same thing. How humiliating, I thought to myself. Having to do this in front of the only lord that had spoken to us during this long voyage...
But then, I felt a hand on my back. Its warmth spread along my spine and I shivered a little as the hand began to rub up and down lightly, and I breathed deeply, attempting to relax again slowly. I looked over my shoulder and saw Lady Lyndis there, smiling softly to both me and Guy- she was rubbing both of our backs, and Guy just seemed to stiffen a bit as she continued to rub. "Try to take it easy, you two. We should be on land by nightfall." she said quietly, still smiling. Amazing. She truly was more concerned about others' welfare more than her own, as Matthew had said once or twice before. Who could have thought she would do something like this?
A flash caught my eye, far off along the ship, and I looked from Lyn and over towards the front of the ship itself. I could not see too well, with dark strands of my own hair in the way, but it looked like someone wearing white was wearing a rather angry look on her face. I grinned slightly as I saw that and looked away as I felt Lyn's hand leave my back. "I hope that Elimine will allow you both to feel better by the time we land, my friends. I shall be back to check on you later." she told us, and I smiled to her, feeling a little better now for some odd reason. Perhaps it was the feeling of satisfaction, having annoyed the cleric to no end, because of the attention that I had received from Lady Lyndis?
It very well could be. I looked over to Guy and saw that he had relaxed a bit- had he a crush on Lady Lyndis, perhaps? Was that the reason he had been so tense when she was speaking with the two of us? He glanced to me and sighed softly before giving me a certain look that was obviously meant only for me. The look practically said to me, 'tell anyone, and die.' Looks like, once again, I was right. I simply nodded to Guy in agreement, and he relaxed even more as we both smiled. He was my friend, and I had very few of those. Comrades in arms, I had everyone in the troop, but real friends? They were few, even in this group of people. But Guy was certainly one of them.
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Ah, that evening we had a large fire made from dead wood that had been found within the large forest that was in the northern tip of the Dread Isle. Guy and I were allowed to rest near the fire that was being built, rather than having to go out and get the firewood. We remained near the fire along with Ninian, who seemed to be suffering some sort of illness of the mind. She could hardly speak and didn't really even know her name! It was strange, to see this girl I had traveled with before so quiet again... Much more quiet than she had been during our travels with Lady Lyndis and Mark about a year ago.
Even Sain, the ever present lout, was gone to look for wood with Rebecca and Wil in tow. He had not even attempted to get close to Ninian since she had been rescued from the small boat that she had been drifting along the currents in. Any attempts to ask him why would simply result in a simple answer that even I could approve of: "The poor girl needs time to regain herself." It was a good reason, but I could also tell that he could have said something more as well, possibly that attempting to get close to a girl who could not remember anything would likely just be a waste. Besides, she seemed to respond only to Eliwood's voice, for the most part, and to Lyn, to a lesser degree.
Merlinus had been good enough to provide everyone with blankets that he had been carrying with him in the stores. The man, though unusual and completely worthless in a battle, certainly could carry a lot. Leave it to the peddler, as Lord Hector had said when he saw just how much the merchant carried with him all the time. With a sigh, I lay back on the log that I had been sitting on, my robe slipping to the side as I stared up to the darkened sky above. I could not see a single star or even the pale face of the moon.
I closed my eyes and found myself asleep within mere moments. Of course, being at sea on that Davros, the ship of Fargus the pirate, and being seasick had made it nearly impossible to grab more than an hour of sleep every day. That might be fine for Guy, who was attempting to better himself through training long and hard. But for me? Nay, it would be folly. I required more rest to regain my magical strength than he did to regain his physical strength.
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It was the next day to the sound of a loud and surprised cry that I awoke. My hand flew to my tome of thunder and I immediate got to my feet and rushed towards the sound of Lords Eliwood and Hector yelling at someone. When I got there, there was some sort of nomad that was holding Lady Lyndis. I could see Kent clenching his lance with both hands as all we could do was watch as they spoke with the man. It took only a moment longer before Lyndis was released by the nomad- some sort of code of honor, was what I heard the man speak of, kept him from using hostages when an honest battle could take place.
I hadn't noticed before, but there was fog all about us, and I could hardly see a thing. Our resident thief was nowhere to be found, and I could only wonder as to where Matthew had gone. Mark gave out some orders, and for some reason kept Florina in the party. Perhaps our resident diviner, the old woman named Hannah, had given him some small advice as to who to bring to this battle. I was even allowed to fight, after a quick check over by the tactician. He may not be a physician or a cleric, but he did know what to look for when it came to someone who could fight, it seemed.
I was stationed behind Eliwood, and Florina was to my right as Mark spread us out so we could repel the attackers. We would have to move fast- the nomad had said that if we could defeat him quickly, then perhaps we might achieve some quicker way to the place that Nergal had Marquess Pherae. With his voice on the wind, it was a surprise to all when Matthew reappeared with some torches and he lit one. Ah, now we could actually see! And there were quite a number of archers about, no less. Florina's Huey reared back a bit, and she reached down to try and calm the beast. I could not blame the Pegasus at all- it recognized something that could end it's life with a single arrow, after all.
"Dame Florina! I shall provide cover for you, should we be out maneuvered." I told her, trying to keep my voice low but loud enough for the shy girl to hear me. And she did hear my voice, looking over to me with a look of confusion and fear before a steel resolve covered the now hidden emotions that she had shown a second ago. Good, I thought, as I smiled softly to the girl who was for some reason very afraid of men. She was kind of like me- I was afraid of a certain woman getting on my nerves, but Florina was worse because of her fear of all men. Only to the Tactician did she actually speak to close to normally, and even then it took her a while to say anything meaningful. She never seemed to be afraid of me... though, to tell the truth, we had never had any real reason to speak to one another.
We nodded to one another and stayed back as the rest of the troop advanced. The light from Matthew's torch began to flicker and dim a bit, and we could no longer see very far towards the shore. What if the 'Fang stationed some of their troops near the shore, I wondered, a bit fearful that Mark might not have thought of that possibility. But then his voice came down on the wind itself (it was an interesting trick that I always wondered about. How did he manage it?), telling the two of us to move closer to Merlinus to provide cover, as well as to get a set of torches for ourselves. A good call, I thought, as Florina went to speak with Merlinus, who had heard Mark's order and had the torch ready for her.
It took but a moment for the torch to be lit, and then I found myself knocked down by some sort of limb that had been in the air! Damned fog, I had no way of knowing that there had been someone flying towards us! But wait... whoever it was hadn't noticed me yet. I stood back up, groaning slightly in pain as I looked to see who this might be. Whoever it was had settled not too far from Florina and myself, and there stood a pegasus with a rider on its back. I couldn't hear what she was saying, but Mark had obviously spotted her. Some sort of divine influence caused him to send Florina after the woman, and I drew closer as they drew to the close of their conversation.
"Florina, please introduce me to your commander." were the only words I heard the woman say to the younger pegasus knight that I had known for over a year. From the look on Florina's face, she knew who it was. In fact, I'd never seen such happiness in Florina's eyes before! I remembered hearing about a sister or two during the travels with Lady Lyndis a year ago, and found myself wondering if this could possibly be one of them. She did share several similarities with the younger Florina, though obviously this pegasus knight was older and much more confident sounding. She didn't stutter at all, which was quite an improvement over what Florina usually did. Florina nodded to the woman, and then at the sound of rustling behind us turned about. I did the same, and I heard a whinny from the other pegasus as the new knight to join our group turned as well. Pirates were coming in from the shoreline! Oh great... and there were several, too.
The pegasus knights used lances and spears, and the pirates used a pair of axes. Not a good choice, I thought, as I darted forward to face the first one. "Erk, don't! Stay close!" came Florina's voice as she yelled at me. Amazing, she actually yelled at me! A very hard to believe thing had occurred, and if I hadn't heard her myself, I would never have believed it. But then I was close enough, yet out of reach of the pirate's axes, and I cast my spell. A magical bolt flashed down from the heavens, clouded though they were, and the pirate was badly hurt, though not killed by my attack. I felt the air as it was shoved aside, and then a blast of wind caused me to move out of the way as the new pegasus knight came before me and struck out with her lance.
"You should listen to my sister, sir Erk." she said, and spared a smile to me after the pirate fell from where he stood to lie dead before the knight. I nodded slightly, getting a much better look at the woman as I smiled a little bit. Saint Elimine... she was quite the beauty! The color of her hair reminded me of Lady Lyndis' hair, though hers was much fuller and possibly a shade lighter as well. Or was it perhaps the dimness of the light thanks to the fog that made her hair seem that way? She carried herself well, with that lance of hers at her side and astride the pegasus. "My name is Fiora."
"Well met, dame Fiora. Thank you for your assistance." I found myself saying after a momentary lapse of concentration. Indeed, we soon found ourselves dealing with a pair of pirates. I took the one that had come from the direction nearest the bridge that had been to the east, and both the pegasus knights were dealing with the one that had emerged from near the coast, from the same direction that I had found my first opponent come from when Fiora had come inland. I forced myself to deal with the job at hand, for it was not finished yet. Indeed, it only took a few more minutes before Mark's expert instruction provided us with a respite in the form of Kent dealing the final blow with his lance upon the nomadic trooper that had taken Lyn hostage just before all this began.
This was not an easy battle, I decided, looking about the land as the fog slowly lifted. There were corpses of Black Fang troops everywhere! And of course, our troop suffered no casualties, either. Mark was a good tactician, though he absolutely hated the bookkeeping that was sometimes involved in the job. We packed up the camp after the battle, knowing that if we remained any longer that we would be asking for a larger force of the Black Fang troops to come in and attack us than there had already been. With my things packed and in tow now, I set off behind most of the troop. Guy was rather closeby, and we made some small talk as we walked, the time going much quicker now. A pair of shadows loomed over us after a while, and we looked up to see Florina and Fiora as they spoke with one another about how they had been lately.
Then, Fiora looked over to us and smiled a little bit. "Florina, shall we give our comrades a ride?" she asked, and Florina blushed for a moment, looking as if she had just heard something that might have been considered funny by someone else. Fiora winked to her sister and then held her hand out to me. "Come now, Erk. No need to walk so much if you do not need to... or do you prefer to walk?" she asked, smiling to me as my hand slid into hers and she provided me some leverage as I was pulled up behind her upon the pegasus. Florina stopped in place, and Guy blinked in surprise as he watched her for a moment, a blush on his face as well. Then the myrmidon smiled and nodded to her, moving astride Huey without Florina's help.
My hands went about the older girl's waist- she couldn't be much older than I am, could she? She didn't seem that much older than Florina, after all. "I thank you, Fiora. After being ill aboard the ship, I have yet to fully recover." I commented, and she smiled a little to me before looking over to her sister. I looked as well, and smiled slowly at the way I saw both the younger pegasus knight blush and the myrmidon look away. His hands were around the girl's waist as well, and obviously both were in some discomfort as Fiora chuckled softly at the look on her sister's face.
"I see that you have not changed since the last I saw you, Florina." she said, and Florina looked over to her sister, glaring at her older sibling. Ah, the ways of a family- how I had not had the chance to know them, I reflected, and then looked over Fiora's shoulder to watch the rest of the troop as we continued onwards towards our next battle. When and where exactly it would be... well, we would discover soon enough, but it was rare that we would know of it before it began.
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Author's Note: Well now, I think that's a good beginning. I don't think I've left too many clues in here as to who I'm pairing whom with... Ah, who'm I kidding? Anyway, I expect this to take one or two more chapters, at this rate. Please review!