'Two and a half days have past since we left to follow in Barly's footsteps,' Emily thought as she sat with her arms crossed over her knees by the campfire they just made, 'What could he be thinking?'
Chapter 10
Emily
The lost adventurer
"Hello," a voice said from behind her as a fist hit her upside the head lightly, "is anybody home?"
"What do you want, Malas?" she asked as she quickly recognized the voice as one of the traveling group.
"You looked so out of it just a while ago," Malas stated as she let a smile come across her face, "What are you think about?"
"Nothing much," Emily replied as she leaned back and braced her body up with the palms of her hands behind her.
"That's a lie," another voice said which scared the two women for a moment.
"What do you mean by that Lina?" Emily said as she quickly stood up and looked her in the face.
"Your thinking about something important to you," Lina guessed as she gave a wink and a smile.
"No, not really this time Lina," Emily replied with a sigh.
"Then tell us what's on your mind," Malas said as she placed her hand on Emily's shoulder.
"Its Barly," she replied while lowering her head a little bit in worry.
"Why are you thinking of him right now?" Lina asked as she walked over to the fire and took a seat.
Snoring could be heard from one of the tents where everyone else slept.
"Was that Gourry?" Malas asked with a slight giggle coming from her mouth. She shoot a glace towards Lina who just smugly smiled.
"Did I miss something here?" Emily asked as a confused look overtook her face. Lina and Malas couldn't help but laugh.
"Its nothing," Lina said with a downward wave of her hand. "Now sit down and lets talk," she said as she pushed her hands towards the fire to warm them under her gloves. Both girls sat down and did the same for the night had a strange chill to it.
After a short while of silence, Emily finally spoke up. "I was thinking about Barly because I'm worried about him," she said as she laid down and looked towards the stars, "plus he's got your payment on him Lina."
"MY WHAT?" Lina yelled as she quickly stood up and looked surprised. Both girls quickly hushed her as the could hear stirring coming from the tents.
"Didn't you discuss payment options with Barly before we began?" Emily asked in confusion at the red haired sorceress.
"Damn," Lina said as she quickly realized that the payment portion never came up, "I've been around Gourry for to long." All three girls laughed at this as the saw the irony in the situation. They all knew that Gourry was an idiot when it came to finances (and may other things as well) and everyone who stuck around him for to long was bound to have parts of him rub off on them.
"Looks like we better discuss it now," Emily said as she got up and walked over to her tent and went inside for a bit. The sound of rustling could be heard from within the tent. When she came out, she had on a pair of glasses and in her hands were a feather pen, an ink well, some parchment, and an abacus.
"Let me guess," Lina said as she sweat dropped at the sight, "You do all the finances for your groups travels."
"Well most anyways," Emily said with a smile as she walked over to them and set the items down by the fire, "Teir does the rest."
"Well," Lina said in surprise as she looked out towards the woods that surrounded the camp, towards the direction that she knew Teir and Zelgadiss were standing guard, "Theres more to him then just silence and good aim."
"Sure is," Emily said as she sat down next to the fire and grabbed a piece of parchment, "Though he mostly takes care of our inventories."
"Handy to have around," Lina said as she turned back towards the fire and sat next to Emily.
"He sure is," Emily said as she dipped her feather pen in the ink well and placed it to the parchment, "Now let's talk about your payment."
"How much are we going to pay them?" Malas said as she looked over Emily's shoulder with curiosity in her eyes.
"Well its 100 gold to start with," Emily stated as she quickly started to write numbers down, and 150 for traveling expenses, 50 for clothing repair, 75 for weapon maintenance, 25 for regents, and what else?"
Lina's eyes light up like the fire in front of them. "That's 400 gold som far," Lina said as her eyes glowed brightly.
"I take it that's good for you?" Emily asked as she took her glasses off and set down her pen and parchment.
"400 gold is a lot," Malas stated as she remembered back what it felt like to get her first gold piece, "If I'm correct that's 4,000,000 copper pieces or 40,000 silver pieces."
"That's correct," Emily said a she pointed at Malas with her glasses folded up in her hands, "It may be a lot but its necessary."
"Well then," Malas said with a mischievous smile on her face, "If we got gold to burn. Can I have some?"
Both women face faulted. "The gold is for their payment," Emily said in a huff as she picked herself up off the ground, "not for meager spending."
Two sets of eyes watched on as the women spoke.
"Are those two always like that?" Zelgadiss asked as he watched the women bicker.
"Unfortunately," Teir said as he sat upon a branch directly above Zelgadiss.
"How do you put up with them?" he asked as his eyes caught movement off to the left of him only to spot Tiko.
"How do you put up with Lina and Amelia?" Teir asked back towards the chimera as his eyes searched the area around him, "Not to mention Gourry."
"Good point," Zelgadiss said as he bent down and stared to scratch Tiko behind the ears, "I guess they just grow on you."
"What's this?" Teir said as his elven eyes picked up movement some 500 yards away from the northern portion of the campsite. Zelgadiss stopped scratching Tiko behind the ears and looked up at Teir with a question on the tip of his tongue. "It looks to be only 12 bandits heading this way."
"Let's get them before they cause any trouble," Zelgadiss said as he withdrew his sword and readied himself for the battle to come.
"Tiko," Teir said as he jumped down from the tree without making a sound and bent down next to the beast's ears, "Inform the camp about this." The timger let out a short quiet growl of acknowledgment and took off towards the camp.
"You ready now?" Zelgadiss said as he watched in the direction that Teir saw the bandits.
"Let's go," Teir said as he took off back into the trees while Zelgadiss took to the ground.
camp scene
"Tiko," Lina said in surprise as she saw the tiger running towards them. At the sound of Tiko's name the other two girls stopped disputing.
"What are you doing here?" Malas asked towards the big cat when a sudden explosion rocked the ground north of the camp.
"What's with all the noise?" Max asked as he quickly exited his tent with a grumpy Geglash shortly behind him. Gourry and Amelia both came out of their respectable tents as well.
"There seems to be a battle going on to the north of us," Emily cried out as another explosion rocked the camp this time even closer than before.
at the battle
"Where did these bezerkers come from?" Zelgadiss asked as he jumped back from a swing of an axe and discharged a flare arrow right into the bezerker's chest.
"From Sairaag is my guess," Teir said as he cocked an arrow and shot. The arrow hit a bezerker right in the eye and continued through to the other side just before it could reach him to attack.
"Won't these guys take a break," Zelgadiss said as he fired off a fireball killing three more.
The two remaining bezerkers moral broke as they saw their comrades fall and decided to flee.
"You guys okay?" Gourry asked as he was the first to make it to the battlefield.
"Were fine," Teir said as he watched Max and Geglash quickly join the group.
"Why did they pick now out of all times to launch an attack?" Max asked as he overlooked the dead bodies.
"We lost two of them in the fight," Teir said as he quickly looked towards the camp only to see smoke rising from its direction. "The camps under attack!" Teir yelled as he quickly realized what was going on. This group was a distraction so that the main group could attack the camp while its defenses where weakened.
meanwhile at the camp
"Look out," Lina yelled as she pushed Emily out of an arrows path of flight.
"Ahhh," Malas cried as the arrow pierced her left arm.
"Malas," Emily cried as she brought down her hammer down upon a werewolfs head, splitting it in twain.
"Why are they attacking us?" Malas asked as she broke the arrow near the entry point and pulled it the rest of the way out from the other side with a wince of pain.
"It must have something to do with Barly and Shabranigdo," Lina said as she quickly sidestepped a downward sword slash and countered with a burst rondo, killing two attackers.
"I hope your not right," Emily said as she attacked with her hammer but missed and got countered by a knee in the stomach.
"Emily," Amelia cried out as she got struck on the back of her head with the hilt of a weapon.
"Damn it all," Lina cried out as she looked around at the campsite. Enemies layed slain on the ground and the tents where in ruin. She quickly counted the remaining forces attacking them. 15 more were left.
"You got a plan, Lina?" Emily said as she placed her back to Malas and stood protecting Lina.
"Give me some time to chant a spell," Lina said as she put away her sword and started to chant.
"You heard her, Malas," Emily said as she readied herself for an attack, "We must protect her right now."
Darkness beyond twilight
"Die you piece of shit," Malas yelled as she ran her sword through an advancing bezerker.
Crimson beyond blood that flows
"Can you guys fight better than that?" Emily yelled as she cast consecration, forming a holy barrier around them all, inflecting wounds on all who dare to attack them.
Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows
"We must get to the camp," Gourry said as he raced through the woods only to stop to see Lina, Emily and Malas surrounded. Off to his right he could see Amelia on the ground not moving. Gourry immediately recognized what Lina was doing and rushed to help the two lone guards.
I pledge myself to conquer all the foes that stand
"Amelia!" Zelgadiss yelled as he to reached the camp and saw her laying there. In a quickened run, he hastly picked her up and took off for a safe place behind Lina. He to recognized the words to the spell and realized she was casting the dragon slave again.
Against the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hand
"Not this spell again," Max said as he saw the sorceress chanting and pushed Geglash and Teir to safety.
"DRAGON SLAVE," Lina yelled out as she reached her hands out beyond the two guards as to not hit them and fired off the spell. An explosion rocked the party at close range but once the smoke and debrie cleared, the campsite and the attacking forces were no more.
"So much for a nice rest," Max said as he placed his sword back in his sheath.
"Hows Amelia doing?" Lina asked as she quickly dashed over to where Zelgadiss was sheilding Amelia with his body from the falling debrie.
"Shes unconcious right now," Zelgadiss said as he held her carefully as not to break her. "How did this happen?" Zelgadiss asked as he looked up from Amelia's still body towards Lina's face, "Tell me."
"I couldn't see what happened myself," Lina said as she looked away from Zelgadiss and looked at Gourry. She knew what Zelgadiss was feeling right now but she couldn't bring herself to tell him that she knew what his heart felt. Gourry came slowly walked over and placed his hand on Lina's shoulder, telling her he was there for her. 'Thanks Gourry,' she thought as she looked around at everyone, "Did anyone see what happened?"
Everyone fell silent as Lina looked them all in the faces. No one let out an answer as time passed by. Zelgadiss out of worry bent down shortly after asking what happened and started to cast a healing spell on Amelia's body.
"It was my fault," Emily said after a uneasy quietness settled over them all. "I was next to her when this happened but I got kneed in the stomach before I could do anything to help. I'm just glad they stopped attacking her when she stopped moving," she said hung her head down low and slowly sat on the ground with her knees in front of her, in all her 19 years of life, she had never let something like this happen to someone she knew. She was the one who always protected them through thick and thin."I was forced away from her from the battle," she added in as shame overtook her voice, "There was nothing I could do right then."
"I think that will do the trick," Zelgadiss said as he stood up and dusted his hands off from casting the healing spell, "There was no major damage. Though she will have a big bruise once she wakes up."
"Thats great to hear," Lina said as she let a relief smile take over her face.
"Don't worry about what happened Emily," Gourry said as he walked over to her and kneeled besider her, "Shes going to be okay so you don't have to beat yourself up over it."
"She got hurt by my fault," Emily said as she tucked her head in deeper.
"You've not seen many real battles," Lina said as she walked over next to Gourry and looked down at the young paladin, "people always get hurt in a real battle and you can't save them all."
"No you can't," Zelgadiss said as he dipped his head in shame as he remembered Zolf and Rodimus and how they died fighting against Shabranigdo the first time.
"Lets go Emilly," Teir said as he walked over to her and placed one hand under her arm and picked her up.
"I can stand by myself," she said as she jerked her arm away from Teir and turned away only to face Amelia's still quiet body.
"Just remember," Malas said as she walked over to Emily and stood beside her, "She will be just fine once she wakes up."
"Your right," Emily said as she slowly turned back towards the group, "Shall we get going now?"
"That we should," Max said as he eyed the surroundings carefully, "Gourry, you carry Amelia for a while."
"I will do it," Zelgadiss said as he kneeled next to Amelia's body and gently picked her up and cradled her in his arms.
"Thats fine then," Max said as he looked back at once was their camp. "Lets move out," he said as he took off towards the direction of Sairaag with all the rest in tow.
authors notes
I still feel bad about the flaws that I placed in this story at first but I guess all writers mess up every now and again. I hope everyone is enjoying this fic as much as I am of writing it. If so then please post some more reviews.
The next chapter Chapter 11 Shabranigdo, the demon lord reborn once again will be up shortly once I work out some of the bugs in it so look forward to it.
See you next time.
