Drunken Lullaby::An Erk and Serra Story::

Chapter 3: Just a Ride

'Life, It's ever so strange.

It's so full of change.

Think that you've worked it out

Then BANG

Right out of the blue

Something happens to you

To throw you off course."

-'Just a Ride' Jem

His eyes now well adjusted to the darkness, he knew he had to hide. His first move once he got away from his mother's house was to find the bandit's camp, which hadn't been that, hard. It had been at least two miles away from the village as far as they had been earlier that day. Finding it again, Reka had decided to watch them for a while.

Sitting, he saw that they changed the guard every hour waking up some unfortunate brigand to become the guard. Most of the brigands were tired even after twenty minutes on their watch.

Reka sighed. His mother often sent him to spy for her on some of the villagers to see if they were taking their medicine. She often had trouble of the younger ones taking it so she sent out her son as she worked in the garden or in the house with the herbs.

He knew in the morning, she would only shake her head, figuring that he had gone out to go get his friends in the village as he often did. That was if she didn't examine what he took with him, like his tomes.

Staring, he felt the urge to venture a little closer to the camp and find some place to sleep. It was getting a little late, especially for a child and he had been biting back yawns for a little over an hour. Looking around quietly, he found a small opening in a tree's roots. He could lay himself comfortably down and be able to see the bandit encampment still.

Reaching up with small fingers, he made sure that the hood of his cloak covered his face, and the rest of the dark matter covered his body from sight. Slowly, out of exhaustion, he fell asleep.

Waking up, Serra knew that somehow her son was gone from her arms. It wasn't that much of a shock really, she supposed. More often than not, Reka woke up at least an hour earlier than she ever could. He would usually go to town to get his friends or work in the garden. Brushing her hair, she calmed her frantic nerves about the four children that had been taken. In fact, more than likely she would be hearing Ikus's mother then Thom's father. Ikus and Thom were brother and sister, but only because their parents had married the other widowed parent.

Sighing, she put her hair up into a ponytail with a purple ribbon that Reka had given her from the Midsummer Festival. The ribbon was a dark and deep purple much like his hair, so she assumed that it did fit her somewhat. Undressing out of her shift, she washed herself down with a washcloth and some of the water from her basin.

Changing into her undergarments, she slipped on a familiar green tunic, skirt, and vest. Serra often found herself wearing the ensemble without much thought. She put on her sword belt with the light weapon. Easily finding her bishop's staff, a holy white still even after many years of use, she held it with one hand and slipped a few healing staves with a vulnerary into a belt pouch. Strapping, her leather armor, and her leather boots, she was ready to go hunt some bandits, rescue the children, and escape the annoying parents.

Exiting her home, Serra couldn't help the uneasy feeling in her stomach. She hoped that her boy was safe and sound within the village.

"Oh!! Look!! What do we have here?!" A harsh laugh followed by a rather dark glare. Erk looked up from his sleeping spot to see two bandits with swords near his saddlebags. His borrowed mount, Luna, pranced around, ready to kick if she was threatened. Her green horse eyes were wide when she began to neigh for his help.

His hands went into the natural pattern he could do in his sleep, three thrown lights, then pentagram in the air with its silver-white light. A sudden burst of holy fire surrounded one of the bandits causing the other to look towards him.

"Mitch?! What did you do to Mitch, you asshole?!" The bandit raged towards him. Mitch was now nothing more than a pile of putrid flesh and oozing death. He was deader than a doornail. The spell that Erk had cast was a rather complicated one, an actual experiment that had its first test right then.

"You'll only die here." Erk's tight-lipped frown seemed to increase as he felt another's magical aura around. He could feel the intensity of the darkness and knew suddenly that a dark spell was being cast upon him. Easily side-stepping the intended spell with a mind shield, he dodged the axe that was thrown at him. The two desperados hadn't been alone at all.

Even with his intense training and concentration, he felt as if there was someone else there that was at his side. Enough of the bandits had surrounded him, which he knew he would have to kill a few for an escape if he could manage so. After being raised by the magic general with his intense dodging and concentration training, Erk knew he could do it, it just wouldn't be that easy at all.

He suddenly heard an intensified voice of a mage scream out towards the dark druid, he supposed. He saw that all of the bandits looked surprised, glancing towards the direction that a few bolts of lightening all connected into one and fried whatever the hell it had been directed to hit.

Flashing purple hair, he readied himself with the memorized patterns of the elfire spell and shot it off towards a bandit. Watching after most of the bandits had fallen down, either by an elfire spell or a thunder spell, he could feel the bandits start to run away, the ones unscathed that is.

When fighting off the last dredges of leftover meat bags, he saw a form within the distance. It was coming nearer to him, frantic to find somebody. Erk squinted as the figure came closer and closer till the cloak stopped short then cast a fire spell towards the remaining bandit.

Smelling the burning flesh incinerate, the older man turned towards the figure that stopped before him. He could clearly see that the child was only somewhat trained as the child panted, sweating with his much well deserved concentration. The cloak the child wore was pretty ordinary for a traveler and yet it was as if it was only worn it was supposed to be.

The hood from the cloak and the drapery of the cloak, kept the form's figure and face hidden quite easily. The being within the swathing mass could be guessed as about twelve years old and younger. He couldn't well place ages. That was something Serra could do.

"Ar-Are you kind......ki-kind eno-en......enough to hel-help me, sir?!" The voice wasn't that impolite and seemed a little more boyish than he expected. Shrugging in thought, Erk concerned looked at the child. He pointed to the hood and the child nodded understandingly. Pulling down the hood, lavender waves flashed back towards him along with lavender-pinkish eyes.

The child could pass as a younger version of him. He nearly felt a fainting spell take hold. He nearly felt his heart stop as he looked at the child. This one was innocent and his eyes were hazy from drawing upon too much of his innate ability of magic. Erk nodded to the child to see a smile brighten up on his face to find that the smile the child adorned seemed to look like the face belonged to Serra instead of his own.

"What's your name?"

"Reka!! My mother is the Healer and the warrior of the village. She's supposed to be out here soon to take care of the bandits but I need help getting my four friends from them!! They were taken away by them yesterday." Erk nodded to the child. His darker amethyst eyes taking on a different hue as he wondered if this was his child.

"What's your mother's name?"

"I dun no. I just call her mom. Everyone else calls her healer." The child sat down bewildered at the older man. He hadn't ever met another magic user before except for his mother and Old Man Harlie. Pausing, he looked up towards the man. The man that was before him had long wavy hair the color of the dusky sky filling it as it spilled out of a ponytail. His tunic was a dark green along with his pants, while his cloak was a deep purple.

This stranger was a mysterious one.

"What's your name?"

"I am Sage Erk of Etruia under the house of Ostia." He replied calmly, even if his heart was beating faster than all twenty heaters of hell combined. He calmly shook his head and stared at the child that had decided to sit down.

"House Ostia? My mother said that here's a great lord that rules there who controls all of the Lycian League such as Caelin, Laus, Phaere, and..........Etruia, I think." The child's hand rose to his chin in deep thought. "I want to go all over there and meet all the lords. I think that would be fun. Mom says that I could do it after I turn twelve when I'll probably have to be sent to Etruia to become a mage apprentice."

'So the child is younger than twelve,' He stored that piece of information in his mind then saw the child would be an extraordinary magic user. It was if the child had been born from two mage lines instead of one. The child looked slightly younger than ten now that he could see Reka's face.

"I'm not sure if I'd be a good apprentice though. Would you take me on as an apprentice, Sage Erk?" Erk decided deep within his mind as he listened to the child, that this was definitely a child of Serra's livelihood.

"You have excellent potential to become even a sage. You'd be well trained but if I were your lord sage, then you'd never get to go outside much." With this encouragement, Reka's face brightened up even more as he sat down to concentrate upon grounding his energy, drawing the anima magic from the ground as Old man Harlie had taught him in case he needed to draw upon extra magic.

"Then why are you outside now?" Reka's head tilted in bewilderment as he finished his grounding technique. Turning towards the boy, Erk only shook his head. His face was unreadable to Reka. The mage child seemed to nod understandably even if the nod was fake.

"I have to find a woman and her child then escort them back to Lord Uther and Lord Hector. "Erk didn't realize why he was telling this small child, Reka, this information. Maybe he was hoping that for some odd reason that Serra was here along with his child, and that maybe this child was his.

'That's just wishful thinking, Erk, and you know it.' His mind coincided. Doubting his natural excitement, he watched Reka continue his unusual grounding technique. Unlike many of the magic users in Etruia, Reka grounded his energy through his hands and his feet while many just went to their feet.

Pausing in thought, Erk returned his gaze to the forest and then to Reka. If they wanted to save the younger mage's friends then they had better start where they needed to go.

"Do you know where the bandit camp is?" To this, Reka nodded his lavender lockes gravely. His small hands were clutching onto the scribe's shoulder purse that hung at his side. He was only a little frightened at the prospect of going back to the camp but he knew that the guard was small since they almost sent most of their fire power towards the village in where his mother was.

"Y-yeah!!" He responded hesitantly. He certainly didn't wish to see the horrors the brigands had put upon his friends yet he knew that he had to go and save them, if not for their sake, then for the sake of his guilt.

"Let's go."

'Ikus!!' Reka's mind exclaimed as he saw the girl, particularly the only one he really liked besides Nyne, flayed across a pole. Her arms were tied by hemp rope, above her head, tied at the wrists. She had struggled as he could see. Dried blood caking her forearms, and her face was tearstained. 'So it is true.' He thought as he stared at the tears that hadn't left her face yet.

'The brave fool can cry.....' He shook his head in shame. How could he be thinking that when he was supposed to get her and the three boys out. He looked over to the elder magic user and saw the signal. Opening his small tome, Reka recited the fire spell, remembering the exact swish of his hands for the small blaze he was setting.

Startled only slightly, Ikus looked up at the bonds holding her hands as she felt them burn away, licking her skin with feverish kisses. She immediately retracted her bloody arms, rubbing the sore spots where the rope chafted her wrists. Erk recited the warp spell, waving the wand he held within his fingers. The staff in question was a light blue with a pair of feathers surrounding the green orb on the top.

The orb floated out of the wings' hold upon it and shined brightly then faded and floated back within the grasp of the two wings. Ikus faded from sight at the pole and then reappeared back in the town, unknowingly to Erk and Reka.

"Where's she?" Erk shrugged then glanced towards the wand. Reka felt himself groan in understanding. 'Great, I'm going to get killed, if not by these stupid bandits but by mom once she finds out that Ikus disappeared to maybe Nabata desert or Ostia or someplace else!!' He hung his head then went and concentrated upon getting the other kids.

Ikus felt the upheaval of her stomach and allowed herself to throw up on the side of the porch. 'That was so weird,' She thought as she felt her hand come against the smooth wall of the town clock.

Looking over to a few frantic people as they surrounded her, she could feel her mind go over the events slowly even as she heaved the rest of small amount of gruel they had given her. 'What the bloody hell did you do, stupid head?!?!?'

Going back to the task at hand, Reka and Erk teleported the last of the children, when Reka heard his mother's angry screams as she hadn't found Reka at the village when she went to go fight the brigands. She only surmised, knowing her son and his headstrong qualities, that he had gone to save his friends.

"We have to go!!!" Reka pulled on Erk's arm as he felt his mother's presence within their area. Erk nodded understandingly. He had come to the reasoning that Reka had done this without the knowledge of the healer. Taking Reka, the two trekked to the boy's home in hopes that his mother, an angry fighter, didn't see them.

Upon reaching the quaint cottage, Erk felt his heart stop. 'This place........It's so beautiful.......One day...' The purple-haired sage placed a hand upon the weathered door as Reka walked in and immediately tried to put up all the tomes he had taken. His heart was warmer than ever and for once, he knew that this was home for him even if it was his first step into the small building.

The radiating warmth was something almost new to him and as he watched the small child hurry up and put on some work clothes. He truly wondered if his doubt was well-placed. Reka pulled out a small rabbit from his scribe's purse, placing it upon the table with a hunting knife near it.

"C'mon in!! Please stay for dinner. It'll be the least we can do to pay you back for helping me, Master Erk." The sage nodded, picking up his velvet-like robes off the floor. He sat at the table, watching the small boy fetch him some tea, warming the water quickly to serve.

"I think I will st-"

He stopped as he heard a wail and then the ripping of the door, nearly coming off the hinges. The insane strength of a worried mother, especially when the mother is the main fighter of the village, was aweing. Erk stood up surprised. Reka stood stiffly, head bowed down in shame.

"REKA!!!! REKA PETEN!!!" She screamed at the top of her angry lungs, staring at her son. She rushed over in a flash of pale pink, body hugging her son very close to her. Tears nearly coming out of her eyes, but they never did. Her memory went back to her promise so she stayed her tears.

Then she felt the presence. It was a strange presence, one she knew that she could never have felt again. This feeling emanating from it was warm much like summer, and comforting to her cold soul. The recesses of her mind recognized it and the wheels in her mind churned.

Turning to the feeling's pinpointed place in her home, She felt her pinkish-lavender eyes widen in recognition. Her throat was thick with lost hope. She thought she would never see him ever again in her life.

He stood there mesmerized by the beautiful sight from eight years before. His mind couldn't function as he stared, gaping at the she-demon. She was back in his life, and for some reason his heart wouldn't stop beating so fast.

It took me forever to decide how they were going to react to each other. Then also it took another day or so to decide which lyrics I was going to use. But I got this chapter done and I'm happy. I may be doing a few one-shots with Erk and Serra along with Priscilla/Heath, and/or few others.

I have been mainly typing on my laptop since I have bruised my bone and muscle from fighting for a weekend. Gawds, right now my life is sucking something horrible. I have to miss fighting today because of that damned leg. But for he weekend had an awful lot of fun so I suppose it kinda doesn't matter.

Reka's middle Peten is actually from a fighter I fought with on the weekend. I thought it should be a close name to Pent since Lord Pent is considered to be Erk's guardian. If anything I think Serra would think of that when she would name him with a middle name. I toyed with Louise, but Peten's name came up in my mind and I couldn't help it.

Please Read 'n' review!!!

Hopefully my dividers are there this time.