Fire Dancing Feet
Three grubby travelers stumbled into Deen just as night was falling, and they certainly looked like they had trekked across the desert. Omar looked them up and down, then again, and finally decided that they looked relatively harmless, then let them pass. He was surprised to see a native among them, the tall youth with pale green hair and clothes cut from vivid violet cloth that was almost black. The gate guard saw no weapons on the man's person, but he did not delude himself into thinking he did not carry any As they passed, the child favored him with a smile fit to melt stone, and the big youth (who went bare breasted and wore pants tattered enough to be called short) hurried, face averted. Omar wondered why, but did not press. Dangerous folk, to be sure, but obviously not dangerous to the town. He tracked them with his eyes until they entered the Inn, and only then wondered at a group of children who had been able to make it all the way across the dreaded Navarre Desert on their own.
:You have to rest, Hawk.: admonished the faerie as she observed the ninja pacing back and forth in the room they had rented for an obscene amount of lucre. Kevin and Carlie were taking a bath together, innocent as babies, and seemingly the fact that the bath used sand instead of water was no boundary to their play. The little deity listened for the sound of Hawkeye's footsteps on the floorboards and found that she heard none.
"I know I have to rest, faerie, I'm waiting to use the sand. Don't know why they even bother with the bath, when we could just go outside and scrub ourselves down as easily."
:I am not accustomed to the ways of Fa'Diel, but I thought I understood that most people here had some standard of privacy that they wanted to be met when they stayed at an establishment like this one. That's probably why the owner kept the bath, even though he cannot spare water to fill it.:
Hawkeye sighed and stopped pacing to sit down in a chair. The most uncomfortable one in the room, observed the faerie, but she did not say anything for fear of his standing up to pace again. He made her dizzy when he did that.
"I can't believe the oasis here was drying up, and I didn't even know it. Why didn't Flamekhan do something about it?"
:He probably couldn't do anything about it, anymore than the Queen of Reason can prevent the cold from its assault on the kingdom of Altena. As the balance of Mana is thrown about like some little boy's toy, the earth is inevitably affected. As the patterns of Mana are disrupted, so are the physical elements that are attached to that Mana. Besides, even if he could have done something, would he have?:
The ninja tensed, then glared at her with no small amount of fire in his eyes. The faerie was rather reminded of Angela in one of her rages. "Of course he'd have done something, if he knew. He couldn't have."
:You can't know that. He was under Bigieu's control, remember? He might have known, and never done something about it simply because she did not let it occur to him that it was a problem. She didn't care about Deen, or Navarre's trading prospects, she was never concerned with making this place a real kingdom. She just wanted to train her own private army of ninja to help her revive her "Dark Prince".:
He looked troubled, but she did not say more. "You're right." He admitted at last, and she nodded, a bit smugly.
:Of course I'm right. I think with my head. Not that I blame you. I was just as angry when I found out that Mana was dying. The Tree was right under my nose, how could I have missed it?! I bathed in the dew that fell from the Goddess' branches every morning, and I never even noticed when the dew turned to tears. I understand your frustration, Hawk, but you can't let it devour you. Riesz left her kingdom in disrepair and chaos to come on this quest, can you do the same with your own?:
"I can do it."
:Then you are a better man than I thought you were, Hawkeye of Navarre.:
"What do you mean, 'The weapon shop's only open at night."?! You're joking, right?"
Hawkeye leaned forward menacingly and glared at the merchant who stood behind the counter. The merchant, however, remained utterly composed and calm.
"Yes, that is what I was saying, good sir. If you wish to purchase arms, I am afraid you will have to wait until dark. In order to remain open all day and all night, I sleep during the night, and he sleeps during the day. You will just have to wait until he awakens."
The merchant said all this while dancing around foolishly in the manner that most merchants, especially innkeepers, seemed to have. Hawkeye drew back smoothly and smiled. "Then I guess we'll just have to give him a wake up call."
"I wouldn't recommend that…Oh dear."
The dancing merchant sighed as the ninja stalked into the back room, thrusting the door open roughly. Carlie and Kevin looked at each other, bewildered, and wisely chose to remain behind. They waited a few moments, and then a piercing shriek cracked through the shop from the back room. Out of the room sprang Hawkeye, grinning like a fool, a statuette made of silver in one hand. A golden chamber pot came flying out of the room at his head, but he ducked, and it flew past.
"Knew that no merchant could sleep while his trinkets were disappearing." Said the ninja as he placed the statuette on the counter in front of the armor merchant. A livid figure came flying out of the back room, twirling a vicious-looking morning star about his head. "Who stole my precious statue of the water sprite? He will paaaay!!!"
"Oh, this?" Hawkeye replied, pointing at the statue. "I did. You can have it back if you sell us weapons."
"And why should I sell weapons to a thief?"
The merchant, who was in a nightgown, felt a tug on his sleeve, and he whirled to find a cute little girl with wide eyes staring up at him. Her lip quivered a little.
"Pwease, Mister? Carlie and her friends are trying to save Mana, and they need new weapons to do it!"
The merchant melted. "Oh, how can I resist? Fine, but don't expect a discount." He went to the back room to get his clothes, muttering something resembling, "Saving Mana? Hah!" Hawkeye just shook his head and pointed out a pair of earrings to the armor merchant, then began haggling the price. Kevin was bewildered as usual.
:We're close.: observed the faerie. They had not been traveling more than a day out of Deen, and they were all still relatively fresh. Some of the gigantic bulettes had somehow acquired gold scales, and had a way of retreating into their shells to avoid attacks, then spring at a body without warning. Carlie was able to get around that, since the Unicorn Heads she summoned could easily pierce steel with their horns, and the bulette's shells were no where near as hard as good steel.
"How close?" Kevin asked.
:Close enough that I can catch some of Salamander's stray thoughts. What a pervert. And a shameless pervert, doesn't even put up shields.:
"Purr-vert?" Carlie mouthed awkwardly. "Fire spirit is a purr-vert? What's purr-vert?"
Hawkeye smiled. "Never mind, Carlie."
"No one ever tells Carlie anything." The little girl pouted cutely, and the ninja laughed. His mirth faded though, when they rounded a curve in the hills and came up on the Valley of Flames. The entrance itself was not troublesome, it was the people who were standing before it that shook him. There were four, two women and two men, and he knew every one of them.
"Who are those people, Hawkie?" Carlie asked innocently, and Hawkeye cursed. The party in front of the entrance whipped around, the one woman dragging the other.
"Bill, and Ben. And Bigieu. What are you doing with Jessica?!" his voice rose against his better judgment, and Bigieu's elegant eyebrow rose to meet her turban. She was dressed quite tastelessly in pink and blue, as per usual, and that only contributed to the sick combination of disgust and desire Hawkeye felt about her.
"So you've finally gotten here. Where's that ornery princess of yours? Is she taking a holiday from the heroine business? Smart girl, smarter than you are. Knows how to use her body right, that one."
"Don't you talk about Angela like that." Hawkeye growled, suddenly defensive. Where the hell did that come from? He didn't have time to seek out the answer, though, because the foul woman went on.
"A trifle. As for this little wench…" she yanked the rope that held Jessica in line. The girl was wearing a blue dress so worn and old that it seemed fit to fall off of her at any moment. That made Hawkeye even angrier. Most likely Bigieu had not even let her wash or change her clothes the entire time she'd been in jail.
"Hawk! Run away! Don't worry about me, just get away!" cried Jessica, but Bigieu slapped her viciously.
"Shut up, you fool girl. It's not like you're cursed anymore anyway."
Hawkeye scowled. "You're going to sacrifice her so you can break Salamander's seal."
Bigieu offered only a sadistic smile in answer to that, and motioned toward him. "Boys, take care of him."
"Yes, Mistress Isabella."
Then she was gone, and the two ninja who had been Hawkeye's best friends began the dark spell that would combine their forms into one. Grimly, he whipped his daggers out of their sheathes, and would have told his companions to do the same if they had not already been prepared. Carlie was trying to unbalance Bill and Ben's magic with a counter-chant, and Kevin was crouched and ready to spring.
:Be careful, Hawk, they're stronger than they were before. She's infused them with more dark energy, and the Goddess only knows where she got it from. Certainly not from Shade, he's with Angela right now, and he'd never grant her power if he could help it.:
Maybe he couldn't? he thought, as he clashed blades with his old friends, fused into one. Carlie's chant was slowing them down, but he and Kevin would have to injure them considerably before the little enchantress could counter their combined energies fully.
:What do you mean?: asked the faerie, perplexed. :Where else would she get dark energy..?:
She cut herself off. Both of them knew where the woman had gotten the energy. She was conducting a war, and wars meant piles of dead. When people died, they released all of their Mana as their souls flew to the Holyland, or the Underworld respectively. That Mana was the easiest sort to harvest, since a mage did not have to go through the Elemental pact to get to it.
She's a demon. The enemy we face is darkness itself. He thought back to his dream during the class change, to the massive darkness that had enveloped his eyes, and the sweet scent of the Goddess' flesh. I will walk this darkness, dance on these flames, and to the lowest depths of hell with the creatures that try to stop me!
Kevin smashed the huge ninja hybrid toward him with a powerful fist, and he took the opportunity to rip the creature open from waist to shoulder. Losing control of the magic, Bill and Ben split apart. With Carlie able to go on the offensive, the rest of the fight was just cleanup, since not even a ninja could dodge a gremlin that constantly chased after him with a wickedly sharp pitchfork. As they lay dying, Hawkeye saw light return to their eyes, and they smiled, finally free of Bigieu's control. Ben mouthed what Hawkeye thought was "Thank you.", before life left his body. Sending a prayer up for their souls, Hawkeye raced into the flames, toward the fiery dance.
"What do you think, Duran?" Angela asked her brawny companion as she lounged on Buskaboo's back languidly. With Undine's aid, the return journey had been easy and free of the bone-chilling cold of Altenan waters. "Should we go pick them up, or let them catch a ship to one of the merchant towns and take one of the cannons?"
She grinned fiendishly, and Duran rolled his eyes. "Come on Angie, be nice. You know Hawk hates those things."
"Of course I know that! That's why I want to ditch him!" She cackled, and Duran edged a bit away from her.
"You might not want to do that again, Princess, it's not exactly flattering to your image."
"WHAT?!!"
They found monsters inside, but none so powerful as to give them any trouble. Bigieu had brought her ninja hordes along, but after Bill and Ben, these seemed more like amateurs than the death-killing machines that Bigieu had trained and magicked them to be. Hawkeye cut through them at a terrific rate, and Kevin did a similar amount of damage. Carlie took out a few with magic and flail, depending, but she mostly kept up with the boys' health. She watched Hawkeye's back with some concern, her healer's instincts on fire with the rage that she thought she felt from him.
Hawkie is mad… she thought, many times along the way. Sometimes, they were blocked by explosions, presumably the seals that Salamander had placed to prevent humans from venturing too deep into his lair. At some length, they reached a bridge over the lava, and caught Bigieu struggling with Jessica there.
"Let her go!" screamed the ninja, and he made to rush the woman in the tasteless pink dress. Bigieu turned to him, grinned ferally, and dragged Jessica around so that she was suspended over the lava, with only her feet and Bigieu's grip keeping her from falling into the fiery deeps.
"Oh, I'll let her go all right, boy."
"You evil whore!"
Bigieu snorted, and let Jessica drop. Hawkeye's heart leaped into his throat, but the woman caught his lover up just before she fell.
"You'll never succeed, you know. The Dark Prince will be revived, we've already found him a new body!"
She cackled evilly. Hawkeye felt something small and sharp whistle past his ear, and it embedded itself in Bigieu's chest. Startled, her grip on Jessica slackened, and the bandit princess began to slip. Hawkeye dove for her, and had the horror of knowing that he would never make it in time. Time slowed and the world narrowed to getting to her, to save her…
:Goddess give you speed, eye of the hawk.:
He did not recognize the voice in his mind, but at the same time he did. It was full of wind and laughter, serious only for that moment. Wondrously, he felt his arms close about Jessica's form, and he lifted her out of harm's way with strong arms. His vision cleared, and he saw Bigieu, clutching her chest indignantly.
"Cats should know better!" she hissed, and Hawkeye realized that Nikita, his old friend, had come to the rescue. The former merchant hissed right back at the ill-dressed woman.
"I could say the same to you, Kinslayer!"
With a scowl, Bigieu swept out of the room. Hawkeye wept and kissed Jessica over and over until both of their lips were big from the effort. Finally, after much mingled salt water, Jessica pressed a weak finger to his mouth and made a soothing coo.
"I'm sorry…for not believing you, Hawk…"
And she promptly fainted. "Jessica?" He shook her softly, but she did not wake. He checked her pulse, it was faint, but regular. He sighed and stroked her hair. When he felt the furry paw touch his shoulder, he looked up. Nikita looked pleased, but anxious.
"Hawk," he said, in that quick, hissing voice of his, "I'll take her back to Deen, it's closest. You've got a job to do. Go do it."
:Please, Hawk?:
The faerie, who had said nothing throughout the reunion, pleaded to him with such fervor that he sighed and gave Jessica over to Nikita's care. The cat-man lifted her into his arms neatly and scampered out, quick as only the feline merchants could be. Kevin offered him a hand, and he accepted it. Then they moved on. There were only a few rooms left between them and the heart of the Valley, so it took them only a few minutes to get there. When they arrived, Bigieu was already there, and already cackling crazily.
"Stone ish broked." Carlie observed sadly, and pointed at the Fire Mana Stone, from which little motes of energy were escaping. There were fine cracks all over the crystal's surface, and at times Hawkeye fancied he could almost see the creature that dwelt inside.
"You're too late, Hawkie-dearest, as usual!" Hawkeye wanted to rip out her vocal cords so she couldn't laugh like that anymore. "It's a pity though. I meant to use the girl's spirit, but I had to use those bumbling idiots instead. Oh well, a fitting end. They died serving their 'Mistress'. How ironic."
"You shouldn't jest at the dead like that." Kevin warned, and he stepped forward. He fell back when Hawkeye thrust a hand out to stop him. Bigieu began to float up toward to the ceiling, still cackling madly.
"You forget, little wolf, I'm Death's lover! He won't care if I make fun of his charges!"
And then she was gone. Hawkeye shook his fist up at the spot where she'd been. "I'll kill you, I swear it."
"Hawkie…" Carlie put out a hand to touch his arm, and he found it somehow calming. He did not notice the shadowy form of the dark Elemental, who hovered behind her and gave her advice.
"WHO RUINED MY STONE?!!!"
A thundering voice rolled over their ears, and Hawkeye winced. Carlie looked like she'd been slapped, and Kevin's face acquired that characteristic 'confused' look.
"My precious crystal, oh, how I'll miss you. The times we had together! The porno's I watched on your surfa…"
:Just as perverted as ever, Salamander.:
The faerie's wry voice cut through the thunderous reverie, and Hawkeye was able to make out a tiny, lizard-like wisp of flame with eyes and a spear.
:Salamander, please use mental speech, you know what our real voices do to mortal ears.:
:Apologies, good lady.: In Hawkeye's mind, Salamander's voice was softer, but still deep and booming. :What brings one of your kind this side of the veil?:
:Business, Salamander. We need your blessings to open the Gate to the Holyland. Surely you know that Mana is in peril?:
The faerie did not sound as if she expected the fire Elemental to know how to toast bread.
:Of course! Luna sent word to me in the last shipment of fire blooms she sent to me. Took me a decade to figure that puzzle out. That old girl and her puzzles.:
Hawkeye found his jaw dropping as far as his beast-boy companion's.
:Somehow, I don't think that she would appreciate your calling her "old girl".:
:Nonsense, we're old friends! At any rate, you have my blessings.: Hawkeye felt his body grow warm for a few moments, but the feeling subsided momentarily. :Now go get that fiend that broke my poor stone. There's a threesome…:
:Enough!: The ninja was astounded to see that the faerie was blushing. :Thank you for your blessings, Lord of Fire. Let's go, Hawkeye.:
:Bring me a present next time you come, okay?:
"I'm sorry, Hawk, I couldn't protect her like I told you I would. Bigieu caught me with that spell of hers, just like she did everybody else. Poor Bill and Ben."
They were in the basement of the Deen Inn. The shopkeeper was a distant cousin of Jessica's, twice removed, and had been more than willing to put her up for a few days.
"It's all right, Nikita. The only reason she didn't get me is that she wanted me dead instead of zombified. You did what you could, and you have my thanks."
The cat-man looked up from Jessica's prone form and smiled slightly. "You've changed, Hawk. You're harder, somehow."
Hawkeye blinked. "Am not."
Nikita's whiskers twitched. "Oh really? When's the last time you stole something?"
"Well, I stole that statuette from the weapons merchant last week…"
"Doesn't count." Kevin called from the table across the room, where he was teaching Carlie how to play stones. "You gave that back. And then you bought your knives from him, like a good little merchant."
Hawkeye scowled at the beast-boy. "When did you find your tongue, Wolfie?"
"Around the same time you forgot how to keep yours in your mouth."
Hawkeye could only growl in response to that, and Nikita chuckled. "She won't wake up for a while, Hawk. I'll take care of her. You go save the world."
"You're sure."
"I'm sure. I'll do a better job this time."
And the look in those strange eyes with their vertical pupils told Hawkeye that he would.
Author's Note: I'm so sorry! I got caught up with Fire Emblem, and this fanfic got neglected. I promise I'm going to finish it! I vow never to let my fanfic leave the first page again! :pompous face: Now read, my lovelies! Read and enjoy! And wonder why the hell Nikita said what he said, and why the writer is so evil to you! Hey Sinnatious, I finally did a "good" ending for a chapter that wasn't 'Everyone fell asleep'. XD Oh, and the trailer for Xenosaga Episode 2 roxxors, watch it. I love Yuki Kajiura's music. 8-8