Chapter 25: Part 2

Rae curled up into a ball in one corner of the creaky old cargo cart. "A thief bug!" The girl burst into tears.

Lei frowned. 'Damn it, why does she have to cry! Good Lord!' If anything was to be said of Lei Fu Yang, his biggest weakness was to see or hear a girl cry. He just couldn't bear it. Whenever a girl in earshot cried there would be that nagging feeling at the back of his skull. "I'm the one who's doomed here. So please stop crying."

"Odin save me!" she bawled.

Lei approached the slouched frame of Rae. Did she always act like a baby? She sure didn't look like one… He shook his head, this wasn't a time for fantasizing. He knelt in front of her and gave her head a good pat.

"It's going to be alright." Lei told her reassuringly. The girl nodded weakly and was about to take another sip from her bottle of booze. "Hey, stop that." He snatched the bottle from his hands and snuck it in his robes. Honestly, Lei didn't know how it would be alright. Contrary to what he thought at first, this train wasn't going north, in fact it was going south. If this wasn't bad enough Rae had stolen a bottle of booze from one of the crates, and now she was drunk.

Rae's almond shaped eyes caught Lei's. She tugged his robes blatantly. "Where are we?"

Lei opened the windows, there was a she of sand and nothing else. He slid the windows back into place. "Morroc." he said in a slow undertone.

Rae burst into tears again. "I'm gonna die in the desert!" she cried. The girl wrapped her arms firmly around Lei's legs. "I don't wanna die!"

"No one's gonna die! Please let go of my foot!" Lei said loudly. The girl shook her head, arms still firmly locked around his leg in a vice-like grip. "No." she told him with a tone of finality. Lei sighed in exasperation and just sat down on the floor.

"You know, you're such a baby sometimes."

"No, I'm not!"

"Then please stop clinging unto me like that."

"But I'm scared, you told me there was a thief bug and…"

Lei offered her a gentle smile and lifted her chin. "Could you at least choose something other than my foot to cling on." he suggested. Rae quickly scurried to his side and tightly wrapped her slender arms around his frame. "You're that scared of thief bugs huh?" Lei asked. The girl nodded vigorously.

"You know you wouldn't be stuck on this train if you didn't chase after me."

"Well, at least its you." she muttered dreamily. Lei's eyes widened, he shifted his gaze to the girl. She was now sleeping soundly. "Such a weird girl." Lei sighed. He brushed aside her bangs and planted a kiss on her forehead.

Pyre scampered out of his robes. "She's cute don't you think?" he stated.

"Yeah."

A few minutes later, exhaustion caught up with him and he joined Rae's peaceful slumber.

Lei woke up with a mouth full of sand, his eyes snapped open and he was about to stand up when something heavy was hurled unto his back. With an audible thud his face was once more buried under desert sand. "What happened?" Rae groaned on top of him. Lei got up on his feet groggily.

Huge stone walls of sandstone loomed in front of him, behind the wall rose towering mosques that glimmered in the sun. A sea of caravans, merchants and pilgrims went in and out of the citadel's main gatehouse. "The fort city of Morroc." Lei murmured.

An old bearded man clapped the dust off his hands as he boarded the train. "Damn brats, how many times do I have to get rid of these freeloaders." he muttered angrily before sliding the door shut. The familiar humming of the emperium engines hung in the air, this meant only one thing.

The train was leaving.

Lei fell flat on his back, the desert sand cushioned his fall. He resigned himself to the fact that he was going to spend Christmas in a backwards desert country. He wondered idly if Odin was playing a big joke. Sure he was stuck in some godforsaken desert with a fairly attractive girl, but that didn't change the fact that he was stuck. Stuck with no money, water and no way back.

"Lei…" Rae prodded his head with a stick. Lei shifted his gaze from the sand to Rae's worried face. "Sorry, you were spacing out." She giggled.

Lei shrugged. "Now what?"

"What now?"

"You just reversed what I said!"

"No I did not! If I did it would be: Tahw won."

"…"

"Lighten up, I'm sure we'll get back to Geffen before the break is over." Rae told him cheerfully. "Your still not sober, so don't take it the wrong way if I don't listen to your opinions." Lei replied nonchalantly. He sat on the ground and bowed his head down, he had to think of something.

Rae suddenly draped her arms around him. It suddenly became uncomfortable stuffy. If it was due to the heat and the winter ensemble, or Rae's plump chest rubbing his back he couldn't tell. "I'm hot." She whispered into his ears.

"I… Err… Yeah it is." Came the young mage's nervous reply.

"Its really—" Rae undid the hook on her muffler allowing it to fall on the desert sand. "—getting hot isn't it?" she purred.

"Yeah… That's why I think we better find some shade and—" Lei's eyes widened. The girl was undoing the buttons on her blouse. "—stop that!" he croaked.

A shadow loomed over Lei, he looked up at a the face of a disgusted blonde. "If you two are going to do it, I suggest finding an Inn first." she castigated.

"It's not like that!" Lei blurted out nervously.