Chapter 5: New Found Friendship
"Oh, that's right." She stops and she extended out her hand to her.
"My name is Faye, Faye Valentine and I'm a bounty hunter." She mentally startled herself, 'Okay, why did I just told her my name and what I do...hmm...well, she did save my life and it's not like anyone knows me here.'
Lina accepted the handshake.
"Hi Faye, glad to meet ya. drop handshake and notices her arm Here, let me heal that for you."
"Huh? Oh I didn't even know I had that." she looked down at her arm, there's a large gash and the blood was dripping on the ground.
"You mean you didn't feel the pain?" Lina cupped her gloved hands above her cut and started to chant. A whitish glow emerged from her hands.
"No, well sort of. I thought it was a paper cut. I'm just probably use to anything now." she lied, wincing when the sudden sharp sting hit her.
Faye observed her arm aglow along with Lina's hands, carefully. She really hadn't thought about the pain til she mentioned it. And it does hurt like hell, that is before she felt the white magic spell slowly drawing out the pain and seeing her skin wound binding with ease.
"Bounty hunter, huh? I use to know a bounty hunter who chased me and two of my friends, but it was only a set up." using to kill time as she steadily heals it.
Faye looked her with amusement written on her face as her arm is almost done.
"Does it have to do with killing bandits?"
Lina let out a relaxed sigh, the job is done and checks for any unhealed areas. Faye checks out her arm and notices there's not even a scar. "Nice job if I do say so myself."
"Wow...you're really good. Not even where I'm from, top skilled surgeons or cosmotologists can completely erase a scar, especially a fresh cut at such little time."
"Thanks. Now as for your earlier question...no way. You see..."
Lina tells her what happened when she first encountered Gourry, Zelgadiss, Rezo, his goons, Shabrinidgu, Amelia, Prince Phil, and some of her adventures as they walked to continue with the search of any hidden switches or passages. Faye listened intently and with much interest to learn something of this world if she wishes to survive til she could find Spike and get the hell outta here back to their world. After about two hours later, Lina finally found the bandits' secret hideout, a cave 2 miles away from where they first met. The girls entered in a small room full of treasure, weapons, and priceless artwork. Faye couldn't believe her eyes as she sees tall heaps of gold coins, jewels and other treasures gathered in a small area. You can just imagine the dollar signs showing up in her eyes as she watches the sorceress gathering up her booty and storing in a black hole of sorts.
'Look all of this loot! Once I get back home with my new wealth, I'll move outta that floating trash can and get my own place! Hit the casinos in Vegas, watch all those lovely ponies and doggies run...'
Oh yeah, she's in a deep, blissful trance from all that glittering gold and gems. But of course, Faye hadn't thought about paying her debts first. She snapped out of her pleasant hypnotic state and picked up a blue gem while Lina was being picky over the bandits' gold and silver coins.
"Are these for real?"
The Dramatta turns around. "Well, some of the stuff here could be fakes...like the one you're holding."
"How can you tell? Did you perform a spell that would distinguishes the fakes from the geniunes?"
"No magic. Just look at it closely, feel it's weight, and go by your instincts." she said non-chalantely.
The bounty huntress did what the sorceress suggested. Faye's face crinkled in disappointement and drop the fake to the cavern floor.
"Ick...it's a fake alright."
She let eyes wandered a bit at the nearest heap to her and picked up another blue one, however, this one is less dark and tested it. Her smile broadened.
"Now this is real jewel." she beamed as Lina gave her a warm smile.
Time passed in silence except a few sighes or the sounds of coins and jewels tinkling in a dimensional pocket. Faye just looks around and admiring the necklaces, pendants, earrings, bracelets, and many other expensive accesories.
"Um...I did say thanks for saving me right? Cuz if I didn't I'm sorry and th..."
"That's okay, you did thank me earlier today. Besides, it comes out naturally whenever I see bandits like them. I hate it when those filthy pigs attack women, men, and children, epecially defenseless ones."
Her emotions are stirring up within her, her eyes trailed away to a painting of an important high priest then down to the floor, pretending to look for some coins that may have tumbled out of any of her loot bags.
Faye notices that her new friend's eyes flickered anger and sadness when she spoke before she turned away. She felt concerned for her.
"Something happened to you a long back, hadn't it?" her voice and face softened as she looks at her.
Lina shot her head up looked at Faye's green orbs, and hung her head low, but not before a small tear escaped from one of her garnet eyes.
"I'm very sorry Lina. I didn't mean to bring it up." Faye placed a hand on her cloaked shoulder.
Lina looked up, a little smile was on her face.
"It's ok. I don't remember that well anyways." she bent down to pick up the rest of her bundles and dumped them into her dimensional pockets.
"Oh." she already sense that the treasure-seeker is lying but she also don't want to push it considering it's not her personal business.
The sorceress lifted herself up and dusted off any debris. As she was ready to walk out of the room,
"Are you going to return the stolen goods to their rightful owners?"
She turned around at the inquirer like she have lost her marbles.
"Are you crazy? First of all, I don't know who they belong to, some of the stuff have been looted a long while back, maybe before I was even born. Second, all bandits tend to kill half of their victims, and third, I keep the stolen treasure as a reward for getting rid of them before they continue to attack other people."
"But don't you get a reward out of capturing bandits and returning the stolen items anyways?"
"sigh Well, you kinda do, but you don't get a lot out of it. Ten to twelve gold pieces is the most that I was given, they're not too many bounties for them since there's too many of them scattered throughout the world. Plus, there are some owners who are not so willing to offer a bonus for bringing back their precious stuff. A girl has to live you know."
"Hmm...now that's my kind of logical reasoning I would use." Faye smiled, remembering the times when she had to steal and cheat to survive in the harsh reality, wait, she still does.
"Ready to go?"
The Redtail owner snapped back into reality.
"But you're not done collecting all of this stuff."
"I have enough, besides, there's a whole lot more of bandits in this continent that need to be taught a lesson." Lina winked.
"Well, since you got your share, and there's so much left...I would like to test your motto, do you mind?"
"Naw...go ahead."
Faye guickly started to grab anything she can get a hold on, however...
"Er...I guess you wouldn't happen to have a purse or something, do you?" she sheepishly asked, feeling stupid for forgetting that she has no pockets other then her already full red sweater.
"Sure." she stuck her hand into her cloak and pulled out an ordinary brown coin pouch. "Here you go."
She frowned as she accepted it.
"Um...thanks, but I was more like hoping for a bigger bag than this. This one isn't gonna actually fit in 1/4th of the stuff I have in my arms." she made a face of disappointment.
Lina chuckled,
"My...greedy aren't we...and they say I am. Don't worry, just fill the pouch, you'll see what happens."
She shrugs her shoulders and dump her riches back down, and began putting the coins in first.
"Oh...by the way, when we see my friends...don't let them know what I gave you, just go along."
"Ah...let me guess, you don't want your reputation to be ruin, right?"
She nodded yes. Faye arched her violet right eyebrow at Lina, then it clicked,
"Gotcha." and began again with filling her bag with glistening jewels.
----------------------20 minutes later and still trying to fill the pouch--------------
"Just what kind of bag is this!"
"It's a dimensional one. It literally can fill up to 15-20 bags that same size." Lina yawned.
Faye gave a shocked expression. "Wow..."
"Done yet?" she got up and stretched.
"Almost, a couple of more coins and some gems and I'm done."
The dark haired vixen finally finished, tied and placed her currency within her red sweater and walked up to the sorceress who was waiting close to the exit.