Forever Strong
A/N: Yay, I'm seeing a lot of new faces, or pen names, anyway. To you guys, welcome and enjoy, and to the veterans, thanks for staying aboard so long! I'm not sure how many chapters more this will be (I'm thinking 18 give or take), but if all goes well, there'll be something even funnier and wackier to come...
In this chapter, I realize that there isn't any sort of brook or spring anywhere near Izoold or Triet, however it was essential that this chapter include a creek and a natural hot spring. So, just for this, update your ToS cartography...
The creek gurgled with anticipation as the water flowed ever swiftly, carrying upon its watery wings the stragglers of a fresh gathering of salmon. Luckily for the idlers, they were saved from a filleted fate for their leaders of the group had paid that price.
After a hearty breakfast of perfectly roasted fish, to uphold his deal with Sheena, Zelos located a convenient hot spring in which to rid Sheena's clothes, and his own, of the nasty feces, as well as various other reasons...
On the opposing side of Zelos, Sheena sat on a ledge with a towel covering her and arms crossed, pondering how in the world he had gotten her into the hot spring with him.
"Sheena, what are you doing all the way over there?" he called out, putting extra emphasis on 'all the way'. Zelos, being Zelos, had fully undressed, save for the necessary bandages covering his wounds, and seemed very at ease.
"...Keep scrubbing." She replied stiffly.
Scrub he did, but was not content with the icy silence between them. Think, what do females enjoy doing? he thought, Well, they certainly like to talk for one...
"I don't get it."
"Don't get what?"
He looked up to the clouds. "Why didn't you just tell me flat out who you were?"
"I-I don't follow..."
He fixed his gaze directed at her, not at her chest for once, but into her eyes as Sheena mentally noted, "I mean, why did you have to keep your identity from me as 'Drowned One'? What was behind that?"
"Well," she started, "I didn't want to, first of all, in fear of blowing my plan entirely—"
"What do you mean by that, that I wouldn't be able to keep a secret?"
"N-no, but when you did find out that I was—well, me—you collapsed, didn't you? Had you done that before we were secure from the Bandit Camp, things could've turned out a lot differently..." she refined with a tinge of sorrow.
He matched her tone, "...What do you mean 'differently'?"
She hesitated, "They were planning to finish you off at dawn, whether they had the information they wanted or not.
"You see, they were the ones who shot you down, for they had somehow managed to find out about Tethe'alla. Their plans were to ambush Meltokio and the various other powerhouses of the land in order to conquer it and claim it for themselves. The cities would be defenseless, and in good reason. Right now, we are their only defense, so to speak. They depend on us delivering this peace letter, for in their view the two worlds are at peace so there's not much a reason to pull out their army. ...Is this making sense so far?"
He nodded, and she went on, "After taking hold of the cities, that is assuming Tethe'alla didn't strike and wage war on Sylvarant, they would use the full resources of the Tethe'alla side of the world to make their group of bandits a force to be reckoned with. They then would re-invade Sylvarant and grasp hold of the country by way of politics, such as the church, schools, mayors, etc.; in a manner very similar to the method Cruxis used.
"Contrary to appearance and the general thought, Wolf Bane was very intelligent and always gave everything a second thought. He was not the reckless, half-drunken leader his fellow bandits perceived him to be. In fact, the move to kill you at dawn the next day was very well founded; not just a first instinct. He knew that if he allowed you to live for much longer, you would soon learn of their plan and could travel back to Tethe'alla quicker than anyone or anything else and deliver a warning, rendering all the of the bandit's plans useless."
Zelos blinked, letting the information sink in. "...Soo... basically world domination, huh?"
"Well, yeah, I guess it could be called that..."
He rolled his eyes. "That is so clichéd! Do people these days have any better things to do besides devise their petty 'world domination' plans?"
Sheena sunk deeper into the water and sighed causing little air bubbles to surface just below her eyes. Rethinking over what was just said, she realized now was the best time of ever to try and get him to spill his little secrets.
...Unfortunately for her, the only way to access that...
Casually, she pulled down her hair and dove under water, making sure her towel came a bit loose as she went, in case all else failed. She resurfaced next to a pleasantly surprised Zelos, "Love ya."
"I know," he smiled, "what is it that you want from me?"
"What do you mean, what do I wan—" she started innocently before Zelos cut her off in a sardonically polite manner, "I read books, Sheena. The girl always uses sex appeal when they want the guy to cough up the money. So what is it you want?"
"Hehe, I've been caught," she admitted, rubbing the back of her head, "I was just curious about... something..."
"Something...?" Zelos questioned.
"I, uh, kinda went snooping through your stuff one night and I, uh..."
"And you what?"
"I know I shouldn't have, but I stole a note from your pack and read it through..."
"And do tell what you found intriguing about this note?"
"You're not mad, are you?" she said quietly while guiltily scooting a bit further from him.
"Mad isn't the correct word, hun. Now, answer my question."
Sheena shifted uncomfortably, "Well, something about elves and fish, but again, I'm really sorry I didn't mean to—"
Zelos sighed in relief, "Oh, that one. If you really wanna know, I figured something like this would happen what with me losing my Elvin blood and what not, so I had to prepare something. Basically I ask an elf if they'll donate some of their blood for the making of special weapons and such."
"But then what about the gems, twenty-one thousand, and avoiding red?" she blurted thoughtlessly.
"Bribes or props, how much gald an ounce will fetch and, uh, avoiding the village elder." He answered simply.
"What does the village elder have to do with red? I thought he wore green clothes or hair at least..."
"REDLE is elder backwards. Le red, the red, the elder. Same difference." He shrugged nonchalantly, "What can I say? My logic is genius."
She smiled, "That's... different. But you're not mad at me, are you?" He shook his head, "Nah, at least you didn't find the one with my world domination plans or the meaning of life scribbled on it." he teased.
"Oh yeah, I never thought I'd get to say this, but here's your shirt, Sheena." Zelos said as he handed her her sopping wet, but clean top.
She gave him an odd look, "Is that some sort or privilege or something?"
"I might tell you one day."
Sheena scoffed and gave him a playful splash, "Yes, goodness knows you men need a manual or something!"
Though beyond a thick façade of carefree laughs and the pleasure of being so close to the one he loved, Zelos found himself finally able to release his inner held breath.
Dear Corrine,
I'm glad we cleared those things up. Now I feel a lot more comfortable around him, knowing that he won't willingly keep secrets from me. I just wish I could say the same upon myself. My excuse is: it's for our own good. Like I said though, it's an excuse. If he's honest with me though, I should be honest with him and...
He's put his arm around me, what should I do? I'm in only a towel and his perversion could start up at any moment... No, no, I'm thinking too much. I'll just live life the way it's thrown at me. Besides...
...I feel safe in his arms.