Chapter 5
"Get ready, everyone!" shouted Leena as she armed herself with her frying pan. Suddenly, she felt very foolish holding up a cooking item to defend herself against a giant hydra.
Serge blindly charged at the hydra, thrusting his swallow into the beast's flesh. It roared in pain and stumbled back a bit. Then it arched back and shot forward, its massive body aiming to crush Serge. But before any of his companions could even open their mouths to warn him, he dropped to the ground and quickly rolled out of the way. The giant creature rose, leaving behind a large imprint on the ground near the water. Serge then attempted to strike again, but the hydra reared back and dodged the blow.
"Serge, calm down!" Guile called out to him, "Being reckless isn't going to save Kid! It'll only get you killed, and possibly us as well!"
Hearing Guile's voice, the hydra turned around and then lunged toward Guile. The masked man effortlessly sidestepped the creature's crude attack, and countered by zapping it a couple of times with his wand.
Not wanting to be completely useless, Leena took out a yellow element and cast an Electro Jolt spell. The hydra screamed in pain as it was surrounded by several small bursts of electricity.
Korcha finally joined in, picking up several rocks and chucking them at the hydra as hard as he could. But they seemed to do little good.
"Use your elements!" Leena called out to him, "Serge's weapon is the only one that seems to be doing any actual damage to that thing!"
She was right. The giant hydra's body was covered in scales the size of Serge's fists. She hadn't even bothered to use her frying pan on it. As soon as we get out of here, I'm getting a dagger like Kid has…
"I can't use my illusiory magic on this creature!" Guile called out to the others, "An animal like that lacks the intelligence to be fooled by my tricks!"
"Leave it to me!" Serge braced himself, and then rushed forward, executing his Dash & Slash technique on the hydra. However, the creature ended up falling on top of him, knocking the swallow out of his hands, and pinning him to the muddy banks. Serge grunted in pain and struggled to breathe. The hydra still had enough energy, but realized that it had its enemy at its mercy, and didn't move from its spot.
"Serge!" Leena exclaimed. Not hesitating, she ran over to the swallow, picked it up, and began hacking madly at the creature's body. With an awful shriek, the hydra picked itself off of Serge and lunged for Leena. The terrified girl pointed the swallow ahead of her and then froze. But the creature never came down on her. She felt the swallow twist out of her grasp. When she opened her eyes, she discovered the hydra lay on the ground, Serge's swallow embedded in its body. Apparently, she had put out the sharp weapon before the hydra had a chance to twist itself out of its way. It managed to impale itself on the weapon, and fell to the side. It wasn't moving either.
"Are you okay?" Korcha ran over to Serge and helped the wheezing boy to his feet.
"Yeah," gasped Serge, "I'm fine…and I think it's dead now,"
Guile walked up to the hydra and inspected it. "He's right," he said coolly, "This creature is dead. Impressive, Leena,"
"I…" Leena was still reeling from the fight, "…didn't mean to?"
"Well, regardless of what you meant to do," said Guile, "The hydra is dead. We should collect the humour and leave the marshes as fast as we can before any of its kin discover what we've done. Not to mention any other dwarves. Speaking of which, where are they?"
"I think they hightailed it outta here once that thing reared its ugly head," said Korcha, "Figures. They call it a deity, but they know it'll devour them. Some god this thing turned out to be!"
"Guile's right," said Serge as he pulled his swallow out of the hydra's body and dipped it into the pond to wash off the blood, "Let's get the humour and go,"
Six hours later, the weary group made it back to the doctor in Guldove. The doctor had been completely shocked that Serge had brought back several vials of hydra humour. However, he quickly took the humour and set to work on making an antidote.
"I have no idea where in the world you found this..." he had told them, "…nor do I know who you really are. But now is not the time to ask such questions. You have done your part, now you can leave the rest to me,"
The nurse had told them that it may take at least an hour to make the antidote. So the foursome decided to grab something to eat at the local restaurant. Leena had made a phone call to her mother to let her know she was all right. Apparently, her mother had taken everything better than Serge's mother had, and Leena announced that she was "in this for the long haul".
"I sure hope Kid pulls through," said Korcha as they sat and ate their food.
"Of course," agreed Leena, "We've all only known her for a couple days now, but still…she's the same age as me!"
Serge looked at Korcha. Was he imagining things, or did the look in Korcha's eyes seem to hold more concern for Kid than to be expected?
Guile said very little as the group continued eating. He had gotten very quiet since they'd killed the hydra.
Leena seemed to notice this. "You've been awfully silent, Guile," she remarked, "Anything wrong?"
"I've never been much for small talk," Guile commented as he poked around at his food with his fork.
"Well…" said Leena, "Tell us about yourself. I've realized that we don't know anything about each other. If Fate has thrown us together like this, we might as well get to known each other a little better, shouldn't we? How do you float the way you do?"
"I've been wandering around for a couple of years now," said Guile, "When I was younger, I did many things that I'm not proud of. Now I'm…searching,"
"For what?" asked Korcha.
"I'd rather not say right now," said Guile calmly, "As for the floating, well- it's a gift, let's say,"
"Fair enough," said Leena, "What about you, Korcha?"
"I'm just a simple ferryman who likes to fish in his spare time," shrugged Korcha, "That's pretty much it,"
"Well, we know about Serge," said Leena, "So I guess I'm next: I'm from Arni Village, I'm sixteen, and I live with my mom and younger brother. My father was a fisherman. He was lost at sea when my mom was still pregnant with my brother,"
"I'm sorry to hear that," said Guile.
"Oh well…" Leena waved her hand dismissively, "It was a long time ago. I really don't even remember much about it. Anyway…uh, well, I also like to write poetry,"
"Oh, so you're one of those girls?" Korcha raised an eyebrow.
"What's that supposed to mean?" demanded Leena.
"You write all that angsty poetic stuff," smirked Korcha, "'Darkness…all around…rain…thunder…rain on my face…'. One of those chicks, right?"
"That's NOT what I write about!" Leena glared at him, " I write about the ocean. The daily life of the people in my village. Only…that's all I've ever been able to write about. These past few days though…I could fill a book with what I've just experienced,"
"Do you ever show your work to anyone?" asked Guile.
"Never," answered Serge.
Leena stared at Serge. "How do you know?" she asked.
"I've known you for years," said Serge, "Remember?"
"Right," Leena laughed nervously, "That's right- there's another me in your world that you've always known,"
"Creepy," said Korcha, "So…how well did you know her, Serge? Really well…?" he elbowed Serge and winked at him.
"Oh, grow up!" exclaimed Leena.
"How is she?" asked Serge as he and the others entered the doctor's house.
"Hey, dudes," the doctor greeted them as he stood up, "She's passed the critical period. No signs of complications from the poison. She's held up well thanks to you guys,"
Everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
"You there," the doctor pointed at Serge, "Serge, right? She wants to speak with you. She's tired, but seems to be holding out until you get there,"
Serge nodded and followed the doctor into the room in back where Kid still lay on the bed in the corner. She looked rather groggy, but upon seeing Serge, her face lit up.
"Oi…" she laughed weakly, "You've become bloody handsome while I was out of it. I don't know all the details, but I heard what happened from the Doc. Looks like there's been a lot going on while I was asleep. Guess that proves you can take care of yourself, eh? Ya did good, mate…now I owe ya one,"
"You're the one who helped me first, remember?" Serge smiled at her.
Kid yawned, "Right," she smirked, "Serge…thanks,"
She closed her eyes. Serge quietly got up and left the room.
"…A world different from our own?" the doctor was saying to the others, "That's pretty far out, man! You dudes are from this other world, I presume?"
"No, just Serge," said Korcha, "The rest of us are from here, but are with him for different reasons,"
"Another world... " the doctor said half to himself, "So I suppose some things are slightly different. The Hydra Marshes are a good example of this. Otherwise we would have never found a Hydra in this world. Parallel worlds, never to cross each other, yet existing along side one another...wow…"
"Hey, Doc, let's not think too deeply about this," Korcha suggested, "There isn't any easy way to explain it. Even after going through it myself, I still doubt what I saw. Let's just drop the theories, Doc! The girl's been saved. That's all we need to know, right?"
The nurse laughed. "That's very like you, Korcha. But he's got a point, doctor. Kid's life has been saved. I don't think we need to think about anything further for the time being,"
The doctor scratched his head. "Well, I guess you are right...I can't find an answer to this by thinking of it on my own. It is pretty late. We have been talking for quite some time. Let's call it a night. One good day's rest should be enough to let her get up and hang ten,"
"I'll take you to the inn," said Korcha as he led the group outside, "Hell- I'll even treat everyone to breakfast tomorrow!"
Later that night, the door to the doctor's house opened slowly, and a figure quietly crept inside.
Guile marveled at how trusting the people of Guldove were to leave their doors unlocked at night. He then picked up his feet and floated over to the back room. He gently landed on his feet, and then knelt down next to Kid as she slept peacefully.
"I'm…so glad…" he said softly, "Your mother would never forgive me if you'd died…one day, I'll tell you everything. But now's not the time. Your mother…it's amazing how much you look like her…!"
Kid moved slightly. "Sis…" she moaned softly in her sleep.
"I know…" Guile lowered his head, "I know. I miss that mad genius as well. Goodnight, Kid,"
A/N: Yep- there's the direction I took Guile in that I warned you all about. It's probably not that hard to guess where I'm going with this, since Squaresoft itself almost took this road. My apologies for not updating sooner. To be honest, I'm a rather lazy person. And I've also been busy with school, and now I've got a gig coming up this weekend. Later all.