Wow I haven't had a very good weekend… anyway:

Chapter 6 – A Black Meeting

-The port town of Badon-

In a strange dreamlike state, Karla was reliving the final battle outside Dragon's Gate. It was as though she was there and everything was completely new to her.

"What!" Karla shouted incredulously at the tactician. She was momentarily stunned as the tactician nodded. She couldn't attack a swordmaster, someone so like Karel and herself, but her orders had been shouted.

Already regretting her decision to join the army, she gripped her sword and moved forward hesitantly. The enemy swordmaster growled and leered at her. Karla leant backwards and drew out her sword. The swordmaster raised an eyebrow and smirked, before drawing his own sword.

Okay, she thought, if I can get to that forest he'll never be able to hit me. Karla started to run towards the forest, but was forced to stop as the swordmaster attacked extremely quickly. Karla brought up her sword just in time to stop the sword's progress.

"Grrhhh!" The swordmaster growled, his eyes flashing. Wooah he's fast, Karla thought, Oh no... he's going critical! She screamed and threw herself to the side before the swordmaster's sword slashed the air where she used to be five times.

Karla jumped up and ran towards the forest. The swordmaster, driven a little crazy by his predicament, just threw his sword at her back. The sword flew through the air slamming sideways into Karla's back, the force of the impact making her fall over. She slammed into the ground, her arm jarring on a large branch, which was lying on the on the earth.

The sword embedded itself a few inches away from Karla's foot, while just meters away the forest hummed with insect life. She rolled over as the swordmaster appeared basically on top of her. He grinned wickedly and pulled the sword out of the ground. Karla's own sword was lying on the ground near her head, but she couldn't reach it.

As Karla was focusing on the swordmaster, who was raising his sword, a falcoknight swiftly flew over the peaks which bordered the area where the main skirmish was occurring. With a trained eye she immediately spotted Karla's situation.

The falcoknight quickly unstrapped a javelin and hurled it as hard as she could towards the enemy swordsman, grinning savagely when she saw it hit its mark.

"Hey, you! Wait up!" The falcoknight shouted at Karla's back, while landing gracefully.

"What?" Karla snapped, turning around. But when she turned around to see the slender figure dismount her mind reeled with memories.

"I'm Farina, I'm a Pegasus knight of Ilia!" Farina began. Farina… I remember, Karla thought.

"… I'm Karla" She said slowly, while her mind tried to collect what was going on. Was it an alternate reality?

"Nice to meet you, Karla! So...I'll get right to the point. How much are they paying you? Just so you know, I'm getting 20,000 gold!" Farina continued, while Karla's mind processed the information. Okay, obviously not an alternate reality, it's just something I heard about or something…, she thought.

When Karla shut her eyes her mind suddenly flashed with images: becoming true mercenaries, the attack on the camp, fleeing with Farina, the baths, the arena… The Arena. She remembered everything in a surge of understanding and snapped her eyes open with a deep breath.

Farina had spent the last twelve miserable hours in an old chair covered by some blankets. She drifted in and out of a fitful sleep for the first few hours, but had fallen into a light sleep when Karla started to regain consciousness. Farina was woken by Karla's erratic movements just past dawn.

Karla was shuffling around on the bed and for a fantastic moment Farina thought she was awake, but it seemed as though she was having a fit. Not knowing what to do, Farina gripped Karla's shoulders and tried to stop her movements. She moved even faster and pushed harder against Farina until she opened her eyes and gasped.

"Farina!" Karla gasped as she awoke. She twitched a little to see Farina basically on top of her, but was very happy to see her and by the look on Farina's face she was too.

Karla hugged Farina tightly and Farina, unused to such shows of emotion from Karla, was a little hesitant, but hugged her back.

On the bed beside them Dart opened his eyes to see the two women hugging intimately in the rising sunlight. He raised a thick eyebrow at the sight, he knew they liked each other but...

He turned over and quickly drifted into sleep again.

"Karla!" Farina sobbed, after their record embrace "You're okay…". Karla just smiled. "You need to rest some more, I'll let you go to sleep" Farina added, walking over to another bed nearby. She thankfully lay down on the bed, pulling her blankets over her.

Karla, on the other hand, had spent the last ten or so hours in a sleep-like state and therefore wasn't tired at all. She rose from the bed, finally noticing that her robes were encrusted with her own dried blood. Shuddering, she set off at a brisk walk to the inn, hoping that there weren't any people outside.

As she hurried to the inn, trying to ignore the soreness in her leg, she heard a pirate whistle behind her back. Karla turned around and the pirate jumped back when he saw the blood all over her robes. Karla simply continued walking imagining a relaxing bath and clean robes. She went straight to her room and quickly changed into clean robes, throwing out the old ones.

Deciding to let Farina sleep, Karla headed off to the baths and took some time to relax in the hot water.

Meanwhile in the infirmary Rebecca awoke slowly, pushing her hair out of her eyes. She spotted Karla's empty bed and wondered where she was. What was her name… that's right Karla, she thought, looking at Wil, who was gently slumbering, like I could ever forget that name.

Wil awoke, feeling Rebecca's eyes on him. He sat up and turned to the side to see Rebecca also sitting up, staring sadly at him.

"Uhh Rebecca?" Wil asked, confused.

"Good morning Wil" Rebecca mumbled, sliding back into the sheets, trying to keep a sob out of her voice.

"Rebecca?" Wil asked again "Rebecca what's wrong? Hmm where's Karla?". Rebecca's mood was slightly uplifted by the note of concern in Wil's voice, but it spiralled down when he mentioned Karla. Rebecca desperately tried to keep tears out of her eyes, while Wil moved over to her.

"Rebecca what's wrong?" Wil asked yet again "Is it about Karla?". Rebecca, overcome with rage at Karla, kicked out as hard as she could.

"OW! You kicked me in the… uhh OW!" Wil complained, doubled up. Rebecca pulled on her tunic and slid into her boots, ignoring Wil who was rolling around on the floor, groaning. She picked up the rest of her belongings and walked off towards the inn.

Dart, who was woken once again by Wil's moans, got out of the bed resignedly.

"Wil, are you a'right mate?" he asked the moving ball, which was Wil. When he realised what had happened he fought to keep his face straight. "So why did Rebecca kick you?"

"I… urrgh… don't know…" Wil groaned, but the pain was subsiding.

"What did ye do?" Dart asked suspiciously

"Nothing" Wil said, straightening out slowly. "I swear I did nothing!"

"a'right, well maybe you best go talk to her… or maybe I best go talk to her" Dart reasoned, walking out of the infirmary. He looked around for his sister and saw her hurrying towards the port.

"Rebecca!" He shouted at the quickly departing figure, who started running when she heard the shout.

Rebecca was running as fast as she could, she didn't know where she was going anymore, but she just wanted to avoid Wil. For she had lost her temper once again and it hurt her just to accept it. It was just too terrible to think that she had just hurt someone who used to care for her, and it was even more terrible to think that Wil was now infatuated with someone else. So she ran and when she knew that someone was trying to come after her, she ran faster. Rebecca couldn't face Wil again.

Dart ran after her, his muscular legs helping him slowly catch up to his sister. Rebecca ran up to the short wall which stood between the town and the sea and collapsed on top of it, sobbing uncontrollably. Dart finally caught up with her and picked up her dropped belongings before walking over to her.

"Rebecca?" Dart asked cautiously, surreptitiously protecting his groin. "Rebecca are ye okay?"

"Leave me alone Dan" Rebecca pleaded. Neither of them bothered to correct her mistake.

"Rebecca, tell me what's wrong" Dart asked her. Rebecca turned around and for a moment saw her brother in the face of the pirate, so she told him.

"It's Wil..." She began

"Why? What's he done?" Dart asked. If he harmed Rebecca…, he thought, threatening an imaginary Wil.

"No he hasn't done anything, well… you see I thought he liked me and now he's on to Karla and I bet he likes Farina and…" Rebecca broke off into a self pitying sob.

"Well if he wasn' datin' you then it isn' cheating…"Dart said, trying to work out the logistics of the situation.

"I know but…" Rebecca broke off again, this time dissolving into tears.

"Oh it's allrigh' I'm sure he doesn' like them Rebecca.." Dart said comfortingly, putting an awkward arm around her. "Let's just go inside".

He gently led her to the inn and by that time she had stopped crying. Wil was already in his room packing, as he surmised that they were going to leave today. He heard some gentle sobbing, which could only have been from Rebecca, but Wil decided to leave it.

In the infirmary Farina woke up again, looking around to see only Geitz still sleeping. Wondering where Karla could have gone, she put her boots on and left the infirmary. When she arrived at the inn Karla was already in their room packing. They arranged to leave immediately and packed quickly.

In the lobby of the inn Farina and Karla ran into Dart, Wil, Geitz and Rebecca who also packed and ready to depart.

"So we're off to Sacae and Ilia!" Farina announced to them, deceptively.

"Oh yeah, we're off to Pherae!" Dart told her.

"I guess this is goodbye" Farina said to them. They exchanged goodbyes and walked out of the inn towards the gates, while Dart and Geitz stopped to rent a transporter cart and horses.

-In a castle somewhere in Lycia-

Meanwhile, in one of the many abandoned castles that exist in Lycia a meeting of sorts was underway. A Hero was sitting on a rickety chair, next to a rickety table. Also with him were a few assorted warriors, talking in a low voice.

"Bring him in!" the Hero shouted to his men. In a few moments an archer limped in, supported by two mercenaries.

"This is the guy I told ya abou'" One of the seated men stated, smiling grimly.

"And what information does he have?" The Hero asked apprehensively. "Has Blaz tracked down the pirates who attacked my ship?"

"Well.. uhh sir.. he did, and uhh… he tried to attack them himself…" The archer said, trying to ignore his fear, but failing miserably.

"And?" The Hero asked impatiently.

"He didn't win the battle…" The archer trailed off. The only female at the table turned away and shook silently, while the archer mentally pleaded with them: Don't stab the messenger, Don't stab the messenger.

"Do not grieve, he died protecting the freedom of others…" the Hero said with little emotion, trying to console the swordmaster, who was now sobbing freely into her hands. "We must hunt down these evil warriors, we will make an honourable name for ourselves, and our family…" The Hero continued, with a rant he had wanted to express for a while. "Especially if we want to reinstate … the Black Fang…"

"Cousin…!" The young woman said aghast, lifting her head.

Oooh the inklings of what some might call a plot! But that was pretty short as my chapters go...

To the Reviewers:

Lemurian-Girl: Thanks, I really appreciate your reviews because you reviewed from the start.

Nightmare3: Uhh RavenxKarla? Well in my plan (I actually decided to make one rather than making it up as I go along, which is what I do normally) Raven isn't going to be joining them, besides I have a special role for Raven to fill… Thanks for the suggestion though!

ManaMage: lol, but harsh! Thanks, I actually found the battle scene really boring to write. It took me about four nights, because I'd do a paragraph and then get sidetracked. Thanks for reviewing, since the first chapter.

Daniel Chen: Really? Thanks! Yeah, here was the last place I expected to be writing too, but really I didn't expect I'd be into writing at all… I mean when I have to write a creative story for English it takes me ages, but when I do it for fun I can write a lot and not get bored… sorry I've rattled on…

I really appreciate your reviews (Don't read, and not review, please!), they make me feel like writing more, and if you have the time/patience, check out my new fic – Eli Wood, the creation of several sugar highs… don't ask, just read! So R&R!