I in no way, shape or form take credit for creation or ownership of the Final Fantasy series. That belongs to Square-Enix.
"…Dammit…"
Jayson muttered a few stronger curses under his breath as well, none of which he was exceptionally proud of, but being caught in a narrow passage with bandits on one side and a steep drop on the other wasn't exactly something that made him want to write poetry. Grasping the hilt of his sword, Jayson did a quick check of the area above them. It was about ten feet up a steep slope, with craggy rocks roughly lined along the top and trees behind them in what could only have been a small plateau. There were three bandits; At least, three he could see. The two standing on the edge of the abrupt incline were twins likely, since both had identical, sleeveless shirts stretched over their scrawny bodies and red cloth wrapped around their heads, leaving only their small, beady eyes visible. The third however, looked much different. Not only was he a foot taller, he was also at least a foot wider, granting him the appearance of a well-fed man, but their was no mistake that the bulge around his arms and shoulders was all muscle. The larger one opened his mouth to speak, and his harsh, raspy voice made it clear that he was the one who had called to them before.
"Long time, no see boy. How've ya been?"
Jayson didn't quite understand who the man thought he was talking to, until he turned his head and saw Dau'Mahl, at which point he nearly turned back around out of fear. The normally calm face of the Elf was, quite simply, etched with hatred. His eyes had narrowed significantly, he was baring his teeth slightly, and every line that his Elven blood managed to smooth out was visible. Looking around Dau'Mahl, he wasn't sure who Calida was more afraid of; The bandits or Dau'Mahl.
Calida.
He had to protect her. Even before Dau'Mahl told them what the bandits would do to her, he was prepared to protect her against anything, but now more than ever he felt that desire grow stronger. He called her over quietly, and though fear seemed to have paralyzed her for a few seconds, she managed to sneak behind their guide and hide behind Jayson, her eyes wide with fright. He looked back at her for a few seconds, gave her a (hopefully) encouraging nod when their eyes met, and then, gripping his sword tighter, he looked back up at the bandits. 'Your move.'
"What? I go through all the trouble of getting away from my job to see you, and this is the greeting I get?" The larger man said. The two smaller bandits flanking him let out a small series of approving chuckles, but stopped the moment he began to speak again, slower, more calculated, a sick and twisted smile on his face. "I daresay the Halfling was more friendly than you."
At those words, Dau'Mahl's face hit an entirely new level of anger, and Jayson swore he saw a flash of red flames dance in his eyes. The two cronies let out howls of laughter, elbowing each other and repeating, "Good one boss" over and over, apparently sharing in some inside joke. "You bastard…" was all Dau'Mahl offered as a response.
"Now, now, let's not go off saying things we can't take back. Let's just get down to business, shall we?" The bandit leader said with an unusually dignified tone. "I thought I'd seen the girl somewhere, and I think I understand it now. Flaming red hair, a dress white as snow, cute round cheeks and an ass to match." The laughter started again, and this time Jayson started to feel some of Dau'Mahl's hatred towards these men. The man managed to calm the other two down by yelling, "Well, I'm not so sure about that last one" over the noise.
"But seriously though you two, do you not realize who she is?" He continued. "Well, you're both idiots, just I'll just up and tell you. I remember a few weeks back seeing a huge group of Paplan Knights marching from that monastery on the east side down towards Cornelia. And she was in the center of all of them. You know what that means right? Boys, feast your eyes on the Solaced of Light."
The laughter died at once as the other two turned to stare at Calida, who by this point was huddled against Jayson's back trying to hide. The smaller men then alternated between looking at Calida, their boss and each other, trying to figure out if he was right.
"She's pretty important, so I'd say we could really cash in on this one. I'd say… maybe two million Gil for us three." The two men's attention quickly turned to him, "Each." He added, drawing looks of amazement from them. "And a good million per head for the boys back at camp, for being such good pals."
"I'd be careful who you call 'friends', Ciaran…" Dau'Mahl muttered too calmly, too formally for the situation. The Elf lifted his head, and Jayson saw that his face was almost normal, save for his eyes, which still had murderous intent. He had completely transcended anger. "We both know what happened to the last two."
The man named Ciaran's eyes widened, as if hit with an unexpected blow. A sick smile, reminiscent of the one Ciaran wore when he spoke of the 'Halfling' spread across Dau'Mahl's face, as he pulled his sword out of it's sheath, and Jayson only saw a thin streak of black before it disappeared into his cloak. The bandit nodded with a grave sort of anger, and drew his sword as well, with the other two following soon after.
"Two years ago I was made the leader of this band. The moment I got in, I put a new rule into effect, a rule that said that no member of the Black Hearts was allowed to kill. Do you know why I made that rule Elf?" Ciaran said hastily, as if he was trying to say it all before his body lunged down the slope.
"Do I care?" Dau'Mahl called back, his breathing was starting to get heavy. He too wanted to start fighting right then and there.
"So that none of my boys sunk to your level." He said, and Jayson heard Calida gasp softly. Even Jayson edged slightly away from the Elf, who was by this point getting ready to somehow try and rush up the slope. "You guys, get the girl! Leave the Elf to me! This ends today, murderer." With that last word, the three bandits jumped onto the slope and started sliding towards their targets.
"Two down, one to go." Dau'Mahl muttered to himself, and that was the last Jayson heard him say, as the two smaller bandits rushed towards him.
"Get back!" He shouted at Calida, drawing his sword. The Solaced took a few shaky steps away, then broke into a quick run along the path a good ten feet, but Jayson noticed none of this. He was intently focused on the two opponents rushing down the hill towards him, one slightly ahead of the other and about two feet apart. He smirked slightly to himself. He knew that formation. 'Swinging Sandbag exercise, don't fail me now.Focus…'
The young knight knew that regardless of how much training he had under Padrone, these men were a lot more experienced than he was. He knew that out of all the things he could possibly do, they would be able to predict and counter almost every one easily, especially since there were two of them. However, they apparently didn't expect him to whirl around quickly and lunge at them backwards as soon as they hit flat ground. Time seemed to slow down for Jayson as he flew through the air, and after what felt like forever, he finally saw the first bandit's waist alongside him.
'Here we go!' He thought to himself, and pulled his sword backwards towards the unarmored midriff, ready to strike. Knowing the move wouldn't work otherwise, he hastily twisted his sword so that the edge was perpendicular to his target, meaning the face of the blade would hit him, not the blade itself. He felt the impact send a wave of shock throughout the bandit, and just as the blade recoiled from the strike, Jayson pulled it forward, spun his body quickly, and hit the other bandit across the temple in the same manner. Following through on that last movement, Jayson swung for the back of the first bandit's head, but he wasn't fast enough and the man's small frame evaded the attack.
Time suddenly resumed its normal speed, and Jayson's back hit the wall of dirt and rock with a nasty thud, an impact that wasn't helped by the spin he had put on his body. Feeling the air rush out of him and the large bruise on his stomach start to ache, he tried to pull himself up before a bandit came over to finish what they started. His vision was clouded from the blow and he had some trouble getting his balance back, but he managed to stagger to his feet to see the bandit trying to wake his friend up. After failing to do so, he abandoned his attempts and climbed to his feet holding his stomach, lunging at the knight moments later. Jayson parried the blow and took a counter-swing, but the bandit ducked under it and brought his blade back up as Jayson was still recoiling from his counter.
Instead of trying to stop and bring his sword back, Jayson kept spinning with the momentum and barely managed to block the blade as he came full circle. The next moments were a blur to Jayson, and if he were ever asked to describe it later, he wouldn't be able to. Both he and the bandit had the same idea at the same time, and quickly dodged to their left, sliding their blades along the other to get around them. If only one of them had done this, it surely would've ended the fight right there, but since both attempted the move at once, the result was quite different. Jayson lunged and swung, striking the man on the shoulder and drawing a noticeable amount of blood on contact, causing the bandit to flinch and missJayson's neck, merely sending a long cut along his upper right arm. The bandit grabbed his shoulder instinctively, stumbled backwards a few steps and fell down the cliff, unconscious from the pain.
The knight was stunned, and barely even noticed when Calida rushed over to make sure he wasn't hurt too badly. Even after Dau'Mahl came over, panting and angry, telling them to run, it all felt like it was miles away, like he was watching someone else's life through their eyes. He eventually came back around, but by that time they had been running for a while, and he couldn't speak at all lest he waste precious breath. They ran for hours, until dusk was finally upon them, and only in a small, well-hidden cave did Dau'Mahl let them stop for the night.
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"There." Calida said softly, putting the final touches on the bandage wrapped around Jayson's arm. It had been at least a few hours since they had found the cave, and despite Dau'Mahl urging them to, they couldn't manage to sleep at all. Jayson had originally refused treatment for his arm, his pride not allowing him to be bothered but such a shallow cut. But eventually he felt a sickening pulse along the wound, and agreed to Calida's request to bandage it up before it became infected.
"Yeah… Thanks…" He replied, still in a state of mild shock. He may have very well killed a man earlier that day, and it was taking its mental toll quite heavily. Noticing the young girl reach for the wrappings for the third time to adjust them, he moved his arm away slightly. "It's fine. Don't worry."
Calidas had hung in midair for a moment, and then she slowly pulled it back, averting her eyes slightly. After a short while, she spoke again, but so softly Jayson had to strain his ears to hear her. "I'm sorry… I couldn't help…"
"Don't worry about it." The knight said, though he still sounded indifferent as a result of the mental strain he was under. "Besides, I'm the one who should apologize. Ya know, about before…" He glanced quickly at Dau'Mahl, but even more quickly regained his focus on Calida. He didn't want to think about the Elf right now.
"You already did, and I said it was fine. But still… All I did was run and hide and watch you get hurt. I should've helped you. I wish I could fight…" She continued, not feeling much better from Jayson's reassurances.
"It's just a scratch." He muttered, and finally realizing that the Solaced was really upset about this, added "And I said don't worry about it. If you had been fighting, I would've been worried about you getting hurt, and wouldn't have been able to concentrate. It's because you ran and hid that I only got this." Calida didn't reply.
Dau'Mahl was even less talkative than ever, going from barely acknowledging Jayson and Calida to outright ignoring them. He just sat and stared out towards the exit (which he couldn't actually see, since the cave had many twists and turns), occasionally turning to tend the fire small they were risking and not much else. Jayson had tried to ask about what had the bandit been talking about, but he quite simply refused to answer, and Jayson was still in a bad mood as a result.
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"Here. We'll stay here for the night." Dau'Mahl said, stepping into the small cavern.
"Finally…" Calida managed to spit out between gasps for air, collapsing to the ground and rubbing her sandal-covered feet.
"Which leaves… one… last question…" Jayson said between breaths. It seemed the Elf was the only person not overly affected by their run. "What… the hell… did that guy… mean…? He called you a 'murderer' "
"That's none of your concern." He replied, in a particularly foul mood. It seemed the man known as Ciaran had managed to escape from the Elf.
"Like hell it isn't…" Jayson muttered, wiping a bit of blood off his arm as he too collapsed from exhaustion. "Rather convenient that killing somebody slipped off your résumé until after you're left alone with the Solaced, don't you think?"
"Shut up." Dau'Mahl said, a dangerously threatening tone to his voice.
"Or what? You'll kill me too?" Jayson provoked, becoming angry at Dau'Mahl for not telling them sooner, even though he knew he was in no rush to tell anyone about what he had done just a few hours before.
"I said shut up!" Dau'Mahl cried out, yelling for the first time in Jayson's memory.
"Jayson, stop it." Calida piped up, but to no avail.
"All this time I've been worried about getting attacked at night or from behind by godforsaken lunatic, and lo and behold, I've been walking around with one for the past week!" Jayson kept going, his anger and frustrations with the Elf all coming to a boil in this instance. "Even that bandit had more moral fiber than you do!"
That was apparently more than Jayson should have said. Before he could even react, the Elf had lunged at him and punched him across the face, knocking him to the ground. The young knight tried to scramble to his feet, but in an effort to stop the group from fighting, Calida leapt onto Jayson to hold him down. They struggled for a moment, but he managed to throw her off him into a wall, only to scramble up and have a sword placed at his throat. It was a strange weapon; Black, thin and curved ever so slightly, with short ridges along the front edge, each getting shorter as they approached the tip.
"Listen to me human, and listen well, because I only feel like saying this once." Dau'Mahl muttered, his voice had returned to its normal volume, but the level of danger in it had done nothing but increase. "If you ever dare to compare to that bastard again, I swear upon whatever you hold sacred that I will make you regret it. I don't like you, but I know what's going through your head right now, so I'll let it go this time. And don't ask me questions about what he was talking about if you want to avoid trouble. I don't want to talk about it."
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And so the other two members of the small group had left Dau'Mahl alone since then, not even asking him whether or not they should have a fire when he began to make one (With his magic no less, something Jayson was starting to question).
For two days they traveled hastily through the mountains, not daring to look back, always moving at a half-running pace through the crags and peaks, following a trail only Dau'Mahl seemed to know. They only stopped at dusk to find a safe place to spend the night, and for a few fifteen minute breaks for a light meal and a little covering of their trail through the day. It was on the second night of their wild run that Dau'Mahl spoke for the first time since the fight in the cave.
"Assuming everything goes well, by tomorrow afternoon we'll be out of the mountains, and with luck of the reach of the bandits. From there we have two choices. We can head straight through the marsh and save a day's trip if we're lucky, or we can veer south a little and cross the foothills there. It'll take a little longer, but it'll be an easier trip." He explained, making a point to speak to Calida and completely ignore Jayson.
"Are you sure the foothills are easier? I thought there were mountains there." Noticing both her comrades were looking at her with confused looks she hastily added, "I mean, that's what the scriptures said…"
"The scriptures you read must have been very old then." The guide explained. "There hasn't been a hill in that area that anyone would call a mountain in well over five hundred years. The foothills are out of the way, but it's a much easier walk."
"Well, let's go that way then. Anything to make this trip easier." She said, rubbing her sandaled feet. "I feel like the blisters on my blisters have blisters…"
"Gee, there's a nice image…" Jayson said with the closest thing to a smile he'd had in three days, although Calida didn't seem to catch the sarcasm.
"I-I said it only felt like that!" She stammered, her cheeks turning slightly pink. "I don't really have any… I think I don't, at least…"
Jayson finally cracked a smile at her overzealous response, and even Dau'Mahl's solemn face seemed to soften a bit. They planned long into the night about their future course. To the Elf's dismay, they were going to head straight for the small village of Taiga, located south of the foothills along the coast of the Aldean Sea, a town Dau'Mahl had neglected to mention. There they would have to stock up on supplies, because after Taiga there were no towns until Pravoka, their next destination. Once there, they would take a ship to Elfland, since due to Cornelia's war with the dwarves, it was one of the few ports accepting travelers from Cornelian lands. Not only that, but according to Calida, Elfland was situated comfortably between the Fire and Earth Shrines, making it an ideal place to go to.
Eventually, knowing they needed sleep, they all settled in quietly to try and drift away from their troubles for one night. Jayson and Dau'Mahl were blessed with quick release from their troubles that night, but Calida continued to squirm in the blanket she was sleeping in. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't get to sleep, any comfort she managed to find on the hard rock was quickly lost. Finally, she sat up in frustration and looked around their little makeshift 'camp', which was still visible by the dim, orangelight of the embers their fire had left. She looked at Dau'Mahl and Jayson, lingering slightly on the knight, who both sleeping soundly.
With a soft sigh she drew her knees up and rested her hand on it, wrapping her arms around them to keep the blanket on, and began to realize how difficult the journey was going to be. But unlike the other two, she wasn't worried about the obstacles that lay before them, she was confident that Jayson and Dau'Mahl would get her through those. But she was privy to knowledge about the Journey of Rebirth that they were not allowed to know, and that was were her doubts laid.
'I wonder… When it comes down to it, will I be able to do it…?' She thought to herself, 'Of course I will, I'm the Solaced, that's what I'm here to do, that's what I was born to do.' A voiceinside her head answered, but the first voice continued on.'But still, the end is a long ways away. When the time comes, will I be too weak…? It's happened before, will it happen to me…?' She looked over at Jayson's sleeping face, 'Will I be strong enough to let it go…?'
No one of course, answered these questions and she sat there wallowing in doubt for at least a half hour. Eventually though, she felt sleep tug strongly at her, and the young Solaced lay back down on the floor of the cave. The only sounds were that of Jayson's breathing, for Dau'Mahl had learned to be unnaturally silent somewhere in his life, and he didn't make a sound as he slept. She jumped slightly whe she heard what sounded like a twig snapping outside, but there was no other sound for a long time after, and she let it go.She took comfort in the sound she did hear constantly though, and nudging herself a bit closer to the knight, she finally fell into a peaceful sleep.
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Sure they were asleep, and moving hastily through the darkness, the man made his way back to the planned meeting spot. He had listened for hours, had followed them for days,but had finally gotten the information he was told to retreive. He stepped on a dry twig by accident while leaving the area, and after freezing in fear of being caught for a few moments, doubled his pace until he was quite a distance away. Groping his way through a well-hidden passage, he finally came to a small alcove illuminated by a small fire. Beside the fire sat none other than his boss, Cirian Faud, leader of the Black Hearts band of thieves.
"Well?" The portly man by the fire demanded, unconsciously rubbing a burn on his leg he'd received three days before from Dau'Mahl.
"Taiga Boss. They're making their way to Taiga." The smaller bandit answered, still heaving slightly trying to catch his breath. "They said where they were going after that, but I didn't hear it."
"Pravoka probably." Cirian muttered to himself. "That'll work just fine..."
"Umm, Boss?" The eavesdropper asked cautiously. "I don't suppose you... I mean, did anyone manage to find Aleric?"
"Tunamer and Heris found him as the bottom of the cliffs. He's breathing, orat least he was when I left. Don't know if he'll make it though, the fall tore open his shoulder something fierce." Washis reply, "But right now, we have bigger things to take care of. Gimme ten minutes and I'll have a letter ready to go, and you're the one that's gonna deliver it. I know you want your revenge, but trust me on this one. Take the fastest horse we've got, and get to Provoka as fast as you can, make sure to stay ahead of those three. There, go to a pub down by the wharf called the Salty Sailor, and look for a man named Gilgas. Give him that letter, and I assure you; The Elf and the kid will die, and the girl will be given to us."
I live!
Yeah, well, I said not to expect me to update this often, or in any set pattern. Really my writing schedule is determined by when I can get the computer, and then whether or not I feel like writing or not. The next chapter might come sooner than this one did though, because we're close to a point I'm looking forward to writing. Albeit, I'm still working out some of the plot. :P
However though, there are two points I'd like to take this time to address. The first is a mistake on my part. In Chapter 3, I said that it took the group two days to make it to the Chaos Shrine. I've since realized that such a distance over such a short time is inconsistent with the rest of the story, and is far too short to simulate the massive world I'm attempting to create here. I'm going to go back and change it for anyone new who reads the story, so this is more just a tidbit for you awesome people who've already read up to this point. The second is a glitch I've noticed when I went back and went over my story. For one reason or another, to sometimes throw two or three of my words together to form one long string of nonsense, despite the fact that it looked fine in editing. This I'm going to fix on my editing trip as well, so I'm really just rambling at this point.
There's nothing for me to really put in my review reply section, other than thanks to Smurfkiller for reading it. So, until I return, I bid you farewell.
