Ch. 5

And you know what the disclaimer says.

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After 3 days of sleepless nights and stinky cheese, the crew was overly excited to finally arrive in Jehanna. (Well, of course, except for Jafar, who's a regular emo-less poop).

Nergal's group was headed towards the capitol of Jehanna, where they would pose as a justice driven army of mercenaries willing to "lend a helping hand to Renais in their time of need". The plan was, then, to recover their loses (supplies and such) and continue on to Renais, where Grado's army would be waiting. It seemed like a decent plan to Karleniia, except for the fact that Nergal was a freakish old Druid, who was probably dreaming-up unmentionable things about the local girlies. Now who would trust a man like that?

It was day and the sun was high. Puffy white clouds littered the sky, lazily drifting with the breeze. It was a nice spring day, and Nergal's army was spending it marching towards Jehanna's capitol, singing her doom song.

Karleniia and her group were traveling at the end of the army with the supply cart. It wasn't bad. You didn't have any annoying foot soldiers behind you telling you to "pick up the pace" (which, more often than not, ended up as unnecessary comments about someone's intelligence level than actual speed increment) or a cavalier ready to mow you down. Yeah, this was the good life. Or was it…?

"The caboose, as usual." Nino sighed at their present condition and rolled her eyes.

"What do you mean "as usual"! I distinctly remember Jafar and I leading the army against Eliwood a while back. And even then Eliwood was considered more of a threat than any Desert Queen. Not that Eliwood was threatening. More like his brainless brawny buddies." She laughed at her own joke and grinned.

"I wouldn't call that points for you…" Marisa trailed off.

Karleniia just looked at her then refocused her eyes to the back of Joce's head. Joce was the army's merchant. He was often teased about his name's resemblance to the word "joke" and Karleniia hated it. "Lame brain-less hunks of muscle that lot is," She once said, referring to the band of Fighters, which often teased Joce. He had wavy chestnut hair and light green eyes. He wasn't bad looking, and was a constant source of chatter among the army's ladies. Karleniia wasn't interested, but liked watching his hair as the sun danced across its many waves and swoops.

Marisa began humming loudly to herself; loud enough to pull Karleniia back to the sun-dancing-wavy-hair-free world.

Karleniia let a few soldiers walk by and then when Marisa caught up, began striding along side her.

"Watcha humming?

Marisa popped back into reality and said, "Wah…?"

The blue-haired myrmidon sighed and repeated in a mocking loud voice, "What are you humming, Grandma!"

"Ugh." Marisa rolled her eyes at the constant joke. "You know it. It's that song by… um… well, whatever his name is…Linky Slipper…? Ah, never mind… you know the one that goes-"

She took a deep breath and sang, "The boys are back in tooooooooown! The boys are back in town! The boys are..." She dragged out the word "town", while displaying some major head banging and air guitar playing. A few unidentifiable dance moves were also added, but from obvious lack of experience she just managed to make herself look like she had ants in her pants or was having a seizure.

Karleniia snickered, but managed to compose herself when Marisa glanced over at her.

"Come on, Karlii, join in! We are going home. Sort of…" She gazed at her with hopeful eyes.

Karleniia sighed, "I suppose…" She trailed of but then added, "Although, it could be fun." She smiled and winked.

Right on que, guitars picked up in the background. The girls climbed up on top of the supply wagon and began tapping their feet to the rhythm, preparing for their dramatic entrance.

As their part came around, Karleniia and Marisa began prancing around like pop stars. While jumping around on the wagon, they belted it out (quite off-key) into healing staves. The two jumped to the ground and began skipping around Nino, dragging her around with them. A couple female soldiers were heard in the background, picking up on the back-up singers parts.

"Guess who just got back today? Them wild-eyed boys that had been away haven't changed, haven't much to say but man, I still think them cats are crazy!"

Jafar, Joshua, and Joce watched in amazement as the duet completed their awe-inspiring performance of "The Boys are Back in Town." Nino stumbled away, dazed and confused from the sudden noise and dancing.

Upon song completion, a loud horn was heard across the plain. All heads snapped up and turned to the source of the noise. Karleniia watched as a richly decorated horse and rider (followed by a formidable amount of soldiers) approached the head of Nergal's army.

"Oh, no" Nino breathed, scrambling up to the top of the wagon "Are they going to attack?"

"Shhh." Jafar hushed the young mage and returned to watching the approaching mass.

The decorated rider approached Nergal and the two were quickly lost in conversation.

"Damn, if we were only closer…" Joshua strained to see the two leaders discussing whatever they felt was so important.

After quite a while of sucking up on Nergal's part, an end was reached for the unknown leader waved a greeting.

Soon after, the march continued up and a young archer came running about the ranks of the army yelling "The Queen of the White Dunes has accepted us to stay in Jehanna for a week!" The poor boy was relaying this message at the top of his lungs, face red and voice dying.

The group let out a sigh of relief, and they climbed off the wagon.

"Well, it's good to hear we're at Jehanna!" Joshua chimed positively, smiling and whooping.

Karleniia smiled and met the gaze of Joce, who beamed back.

They had braved the treacherous (not) sea, trekked through barren wasteland (whatever. It was a nice plain), and survived Nino's constant chatter! The future was hopeful for the group! If only they knew…

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End of chapta 4

Kasa – Hey, people! Hope it like it so far. If you got this far… If you don't…blame the monkey! -points at fruitishisly dancing monkey-

Squi Gi - On the subject of fruity dances, remember Seta and Jafar going at it?

Kasa - Oh, yeah! . That was good.

Jafar and Seta - Aww, man not that again!

Seta - I don't even like yaoi! T.T

Squi Gi - I would hope not.

Seta - Oh shut up! -flapping his hand girlishly-

All - -gasp- He IS a fruit! o.O

Kasa - I always knew. -Nods-