Chris: Another update! Strangely enough, when there wasn't a bet, less people reviewed. Hmmm....
Farina: -=crying=-
Chris: See? You guys depressed her. You guys are mean to Farina. Anyway, it's time to respond to the reviews.
Mia: Yeah...Less people than last time. Weird.
Duderly Bob - Thank you for the review. And I don't know why Sain wouldn't say cool. Eh, whatever you say.
sonicfreak2004 - Thanks again. Hmm...You like dissing Farina a lot.
Angel of Fate1 - Hey Hitomi. Thanks for reviewing. And we'll see if Heather is trustworthy or not.
Charlie - Gasp! It's amazing isn't it! I'm updating pretty regularly! Thanks for the compliments.
Chris: Now, on with the fic!
" "- dialogue
' ' - thoughts
- location
Sacean Temple
"So, this is the temple that you wanted to visit? It seems...quaint." Sain looked around at the temple. The temple looked basic in the least, with very few trimmings and decorations and it was in need of some repair. The stones were loose in some places, and you could see a small gap in the side of the wall. There were also some weeds on the ground and vines climbing the walls. Nearby were some houses, and two small outposts that were run- down and also in need of repair. "Umm...Are you sure this is the temple we're looking for? I imagined something more...elaborate."
"Sain! Milady Lyndis knows where this temple is and if this is it, this is it! You do not have to insult it! Sure it's a little run-down, but I'm sure the inside shall more than make up for it!" Kent walked up to Sain and pointed his finger at Sain. "You got that?"
"Very well, daddy! Did you get me any milk?" Sain adopted a face that a little boy would have and winked at Lyn. She giggled but quickly brought it under control and put on a stern face.
"Sain. This temple is sacred to my people! I will not have you disparaging it!"
"Fine, Lady Lyndis. I won't make any remarks about this old temple." Sain turned around and brushed his hair and mumbled under his breath, "Which is in big need of refurbishing."
Heather looked around and nodded. "Yeah, Sain. It might not look good, but this temple is sacred to the people of Sacae. You shouldn't be putting it down." She scanned the landscape and noticed a female villager running towards her. "Hey guys, we might have trouble!"
Chris ran up to her and also saw the female villager. He shook his head and turned to the others. "Stand sharp! I have a feeling we might have to do something other than a simple temple visit!" The villager ran up to Lyn and panted heavily. She was trying to say something but she was out of breath.
"Temple...Attack...Bishop in danger...." She said during pants of breath. Lyn looked alarmed and helped the villager stand up straight. Her gaze moved to Kent, Sain, Heather, and Chris.
"We need to save him! We cannot let the bishop be in danger! We need to save him! Who are these people that attacked him?" Lyn said frantically, trying to get as much information as she could.
The villager regained her breath and looked at Lyn. "These bandits and this man wielding a sword came into the temple and tried to steal the Mani Katti! It's a sacred artifact to the Sacaens! I was able to watch it all from the small gap in the wall. The guy with the sword pushed the bishop away and tried to take it! But the sword wouldn't come out of its sheath! They say it is blessed by the spirits. Please, young miss. Save our bishop!"
Lyn nodded and turned to the others. "I know this wasn't really what we planned...But can you help me?" She looked pleadingly at everyone else.
"Sure! It's up to us, Caelin knights to stop this wrongdoing! I shall be at your side!" Sain stood next to Lyn and winked at her. Lyn blushed a little but quickly turned her attention away from him.
"If Milady Lyndis wishes it to be so, it shall!" Kent walked next to Lyn and stood with a rigid mask of honor and service. Sain quickly proceeded to give him bunny ears and make faces behind his back. Heather started laughed but covered her mouth with one hand and struggled to keep her laugh under control.
"Of course! I would be glad to help you!" She flashed a thumbs up at Lyn and stood next to her.
"Chris? What about you?" Lyn looked at him.
Chris opened his arms and grinned. "Hey, what are you going to do without me to lead you guys? Right?!" He smiled as everyone started to playfully whack him for that statement. "Well guys, let's be off!" He began directing everyone to their places, but he kept a wary eye on the temple. If what the villager said was true, he wasn't too sure how spirits would react to vampires, even half-vampires, entering holy ground. He took a look at the surroundings and turned to the villager again. "How many bandits are in there?"
"Oh, there was one as a rear guard, staying just outside of the temple, near those small outposts there, two guarding the front gate, one in the hills, and one of them inside! Their leader is on the throne that guards the Mani Katti! Does that help?" She looked at him.
Chris turned to the others. "Yes, it does. Thanks. Okay! Sain and Kent, I want you two to take out that rear guard! We can't let him alert the rest of the bandits! After you're done with that, I want you to open a bigger hole from that gap and enter through there. And remember! Use your swords! Most bandits have axes so a sword will help you gain an advantage." Sain and Kent nodded and mounted their steeds. "Lyn and Heather, I want you two to take the southern pass and take down the guards at the front gate. Then, we'll enter from bottom and meet up with Sain and Kent, okay?" Lyn and Heather nodded also, and gripped their swords a little tighter. "Okay then, let's go!" Sain and Kent rode off to where the rear guard was and Lyn, Heather, and Chris set off for the southern path.
Sain and Kent rode swiftly to the rear bandit and snuck up on him. The bandit turned around and spotted them, however. He was about to shout to the other bandits through the hole in the wall, but Sain managed to slash him in the back. The bandit let out a small gurgle before he collapsed to the ground, dead. Kent looked at Sain and gave him a small nod.
"Good work, Sain. It would have been drastic if he was able to alert the others. Now, let's complete our part of the mission. We need to break this section of the wall down." He turned to wall and studied it. It was a tall, wide crack that ran the height of the wall and there were some loose stones around it. "Okay Sain, I've got an idea. We can use our lances to pry loose some of the rocks and we should be able to make a gap big enough. But try to keep it quiet, I don't want the bandits to know that we're doing this." He proceeded to stick his lance inside the gap and wiggle loose some of the stones.
'Sure...Don't make any racket. We're shaking out loose stones onto the ground, Kent! Of course we're going to make noise!' Sain thought as he followed Kent's orders.
Meanwhile, Chris, Lyn, and Heather were crossing the hills to the south. Heather and Lyn had their swords out and were holding them cautiously. Chris was traveling behind him, scanning the landscape for any sign of the bandit lurking in the hills. Since he couldn't wield a sword or any other type of weapon, he tried to be as inconspicuous as possible, which was hard since he, Lyn, and Heather were the only people over there. Chris spotted someone standing on one of the dips of the hill and quickly motioned to Lyn. She and Heather ran to him and he pointed out the bandit. He pointed at Lyn and motioned to the right side of the bandit, pointed Heather to the left side, and motioned that he would go at the front. The others nodded and ran off to their respective positions. Chris took a deep breath and walked to the bandit.
"Hey! It's a great day, isn't it?" Chris put on a fake smile and walked to the bandit. 'Man, I can't believe I'm doing something so stupid.'
"Huh?" The bandit turned around and stared in surprise at this stupid villager who apparently didn't notice that his temple was under attack. His mouth was wide open when Lyn and Heather closed in from behind and cut him down. Chris breathed a sigh of relief.
"Come on! Let head for the front gate!" Chris said as he walked off.
Heather and Lyn walked up to Chris and started to tease him. "It's a great day, isn't it?!" Heather asked.
"What kind of goofy smile was that?" Lyn questioned as she smiled at him.
"Shut up! I couldn't think of a plan and that just popped in my mind! Leave me alone!" Chris retorted as his cheeks turned a slight crimson. He stalked off to the entrance of the temple.
"Chris! We were just joking around!" Lyn and Heather chased him as he stalked off. Soon enough, they caught up to him. Unfortunately, he got so angry he wasn't looking where he was going, and he had bumped into one of the bandits guarding the front gate. So now, both of them had him at their axes and he was trying to find a way to escape.
Chris gulped and slowly backed away from the bandit that was holding an axe to his neck. "I told you. I'm just taking a stroll. I happened to come across here and I wanted to offer my blessings. That's all." He nodded his head and hoped that the bandits wouldn't notice that he was looking very nervous. 'Next time, I'm going to look where I'm going. I didn't need this little exercise in quick thinking.'
"I don't believe you. Why would someone just happen to walk by here? And didn't you notice that there was a sign that said the temple was closed?" The bandit walked up to Chris and looked at him suspiciously. He looked at Chris's green robe and his clean clothes. "And where'd you get those clothes? You seem very rich to just be walking around alone."
'Crap! I'm screwed now! I can't think of anything for this!' Chris looked around nervously and backed away again. "Umm...You see...I didn't think there would be bandits on the road and-"
"Bandits?! Who said we're bandits?"
'I shouldn't have said that....' He looked around for a means to escape and he spotted Lyn and Heather hiding behind a small bush. They motioned for him to continue stringing the bandits along and Lyn made a slicing motion with her neck and hand. He nodded slightly and they crept off. He turned back to the bandit. "Uh...No one said that...I just assumed-"
"Assumed?! Sir, we are not bandits! We are people who protect the rights of the average citizen! You see that temple? There are spirits of the dead and they practice necromancy in there! Sir, we are here to protect the common people from those godless infidels inside of there!" The bandit's voice was rising to a fervor pitch. He was waving his arms around to show the emotion in his voice and his face was turning red.
'This guy really believes what he is saying. Who could have put this warped meaning into his mind?' Chris looked at this bandit in a new light when he noticed that Lyn and Heather had appeared. They crept up behind the bandit's partner and carefully slit his throat. He fell without a sound and made a soft thump when he hit the ground. The bandit turned around in surprise and saw that his partner was dead. He quickly spotted Lyn and Heather and his face purpled with rage.
"YOU! You killed him! You Sacaen mongrels! You deserve to burn for what you've done! You will pay for your crimes!" He rushed them and swung his axe at Lyn. She ducked under the horizontal slash and stabbed him through the chest. He gasped and crumpled to the ground as Lyn withdrew her sword, which was covered with blood.
"What did he mean by 'Sacaen mongrel'?" Lyn looked at Chris. He shrugged and looked at the bandit with disgust plain on his face.
"I don't know. He said some pretty weird things. And strange as it sounds...he believed all of it. Whatever...Let's just get inside. I don't like what feeling I'm getting from him, even though he's dead." Chris walked off again. Lyn and Heather nodded and followed him.
At the rear wall of the temple, Sain and Kent finally managed to make a gap wide enough to take their horses in through. Their swords and lances took some damage from prying loose the stones, but they had made it through and their weapons were still usable. They rode in silently, their horses hooves muffled by sacking. They spotted the bandit leader trying to wrestle a sword out of its sheath and one of his lackeys nearby, looking for any of his enemies. Sain silently rode to the bandit and took him out with one quick lance thrust to his back. The bandit fell and hit the ground. Kent and Sain waited for Chris, Lyn, and Heather at where the bandit had fallen. The leader still hadn't noticed that they had entered and killed his guard because he was still busy with trying to get the sword out from its sheath.
Lyn, Chris, and Heather reached the entrance to the temple. 'This is it.' Chris thought as he gazed at the temple, 'Please spirits, let me inside. See my soul and determine if I should enter a place like this.' He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and entered the temple. He didn't feel any presence trying to stop him from entering and he opened his eyes again. He saw that Lyn and Heather had entered just fine. 'Maybe,' he mused, 'the spirits know that we are here to help them.' They ran up to Sain and Kent. "You guys okay?"
Kent nodded and Sain grinned. He pointed to the mercenary leader at the throne. "That bozo still hasn't noticed that we're here. He's still too busy with that sword...What was it? The Mani Katti." Lyn noticed that the mercenary was holding the sword. She shook with rage at seeing this holy sword being stolen from its holding place. She slowly stomped to the mercenary and motioned to the others. They quickly followed behind her and soon they were all assembled in front of the mercenary. He finally noticed them and put down the sheath holding the Mani Katti and took out his own blade.
"What do you want? And what did you do to my guards?!" He looked over them and noticed that the bandit in the hall was dead. He shook with rage and pointed his sword at Lyn. "You'll pay for killing them! And then I can show these stupid spirits who's really in control now! I, Glass, will annihilate you!" He lunged at her and she blocked it with her sword. His face was lit with rage and anger and he quickly moved his sword and thrust at Lyn. She quickly dodged to the left and slashed him on his sword arm. He hissed in pain and picked up the sword in his other hand.
"Shouldn't we be helping her?" Sain asked Chris. Chris shook his head and looked at the battle in front of him.
"No. This is her fight. It would be an infringement on her honor to help her now. Be content in knowing that Lyn will probably best this joker." He folded his arms and watched as Lyn moved to the attack, raining down blows as Glass blocked them all. At the last parry, however, his arm, weakened from the numerous blows rained upon it, finally gave up and dropped the sword. Lyn saw this chance and slashed him across the chest. He fell back and toppled to the ground, his eyes sightless. Lyn breathed heavily and looked at the dead body.
"Somebody drag these people out. They don't deserve to be in this temple after they've desecrated it. And someone tell the Bishop that he'll be okay." Sain and Kent immediately began dragging Glass and his bandit guard outside of the temple. Chris and Heather went to the room that the bishop and hidden in. Chris knocked on the door.
"Uh, Mr. Bishop? We just wanted to tell you that it's safe to come out now. The bandits are...umm...dead now and they've been taken away so it's okay to come out."
The door slowly creaked open and an old, weathered face peeked through. He saw Chris and Heather and smiled. He opened the door fully now and he stepped through. He was dressed in a worn looking, blue robe and wore the white ceremonial robes of a Bishop. His white hair peeked through the cowl on his robes and he had a white mustache. He glided to the throne and spotted Lyn.
"Ah, thank you for saving this temple. Your dress signifies you as a member of the Lorca tribe, am I correct? How are they doing, by the way?"
Lyn looked at the ground and tears formed in her eyes. "T-They were massacred a few weeks ago. Bandit crept into our camp and killed them all...I am the only survivor."
"I'm sorry, my child." The bishop put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "And who else may we have in this little army?" He spotted Chris and Heather and smiled at them. "Ah, the special people that helped me get out of that stuffy room. Thank you." Sain and Kent rode back in after disposing of the bodies and bowed before the bishop. "And two fine, young men. I'm glad to see that you helped remove the bodies. I am eternally grateful. How may I reward your service? I know, here. You may touch and Mani Katti and ask it to give you a blessing."
Lyn bowed in reverence. "Thank you." She walked to the sword and laid her hands on it. Suddenly, the sword flashed a bright white and it started to hover in front of her. Her eyes widened in surprise and she looked at everyone else. Sain, Kent, Heather, and Chris look just as surprised as she was. The bishop just smiled and nodded.
"Ah, I see. The sword has chosen you to be its new owner. I'm glad to see that someone as righteous as you will wield the Mani Katti. It is yours now. The spirits wish it so." He bowed to her and smiled again.
Lyn stuttered and stammered as she was so surprised by this statement. "B- But I-I can't t-t-take this sword! It's not mine!" The sword floated down to her waist and fastened itself to her belt.
"The spirits want you to hold the Mani Katti, and so you shall. It is a great honor to be chosen by the spirits, young one. May the spirits always accompany you on your journey." He sat on the throne that guarded the former resting place of the Mani Katti. He looked over the group and winked at Chris and Heather. Chris looked surprised at this but then Lyn told them that they would be leaving. He motioned that he wanted to stay and talk with the bishop for a little while.
"Very well, Chris. But don't stay long. We still have a journey to continue on." Lyn and the others departed from the front gate and Chris soon lost sight of them. He turned back to the bishop.
"Umm...Sir? May I talk to you?"
"Why of course, Chris. I'm sure you're wondering why I winked at you and Heather. I must say, it is quite interesting to see a half-vampire in this day and age. Two things that I never imagined I would see in my life have happened. The Mani Katti has chosen a new owner and I was saved by a half- vampire."
Chris fell to his knees. "Wait, you can tell I'm a half-vampire? But how?"
The bishop smiled and held out his hand. A small ball of purple light appeared in his hand. "Why, the spirits told me. Don't think they didn't notice your little prayer before you entered. Why do you think they let you in? But they saw that your soul was pure, if not a little tainted from the vampire blood. I'm glad that you stayed for a while. I have something to give you." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a short sword. "This is yours. The spirits have ordained that you receive a gift for your service. This sword has also been blessed by the spirits and they gratefully had it to you in appreciation. This is the katana, Sange." He handed it to Chris, who ran his hand over the leather sheath that it was contained in.
"But I can't accept this! I didn't do anything to help! I just gave the orders!" Chris rose to his feet and began to give the sword back. The bishop pushed his hand away and fastened it to Chris's belt. Chris was still protesting. "But I don't even know how to use a sword! What use is this to me?"
"Ah, you may not know now, but I predict you will learn how later. I wish you luck in your travels, Chris. May the spirit of Hanon walk with you and guide you on your paths."
Chris nodded dazedly and walked out of the temple, his head still shaking. The ball of purple light floated out of him and formed into a person dressed in nomad clothing. The bishop looked at the figure and smiled.
"Hanon, I'm glad to see that you're still here. Is he truly the one? The tales told of a person to help defeat a new evil that will appear in the future, but a half-vampire?"
The spirit figure of Hanon looked at the bishop and nodded his head. "Yes, he may just be the one. We may never know, but I'm almost certain of it. May his path be true." The figure vanished and the bishop sighed and waited for another sign from the spirits.
Out on the plains, Chris caught up with the rest of their little group. Sain was explaining how Lyn should just accept the Mani Katti and Heather and Kent were talking. Lyn noticed that Chris had come up and motioned him over.
"Hey Chris. We were just going to begin discussing our travel plans. I think we should get into Caelin as quickly as possible. I'm worried about my grandfather."
Chris nodded quickly and agreed. "Yes, we should get out of here. These bandits are getting a little too creepy for my tastes."
Everyone else agreed and they set off for Caelin once again, two of them holding a weapon blessed by the spirits and always being looked upon by the spirit of Hanon, nomad of the plains.
Chris: Wow. I'm done. Now, if you think my tactician is a Gary-Stu, tell me. I'm trying to make him a normal guy...Kind of. I mean, the half-vampire thing isn't normal, but enough of that. Now, I do realize that he receiving a cool, new weapon may be Gary-Stuish, but number one, he doesn't know how to use it, second, he's just a freaking tactician! When do they ever fight, huh?! Now, if you've got any other complaints, tell me in your reviews. Don't say that I suck without give me a reason. And don't flame me for no reason at all. Because you know what? That's stupid. Now, R & R.
Mia: What he said.
Farina: Ditto.
Rebecca: I agree.