Tales of a Journey
By: Rogue White Dragon (aka Dragoness's Rage)
Disclaimer: I don't own TOS in any way.
Chapter 5 – Iselia
Lan coughed loudly, drawing everyone's attention to him.
"Uh, everyone else from Mizuho are through those doors."
He pointed as he spoke, gesturing towards a door that was by the computers. Rain gave a nod of her head, and started towards the door. Regal, Presea and Genis followed her. I stayed behind with Zelos. Lan walked to the computers, and began rummaging through the desk. With a victorious grunt, the youth returned to where Zelos and I stood, holding several daggers in his hands. I raised an eyebrow as he began clasping them in different areas : one on each upper arm, on each of his shins, hidden by his pants, a larger one attached to his belt, and the remaining two which had small belts around them, went criss-crossing over his chest. With a glare towards Zelos, the boy walked back into his cell, and grabbed what I assumed to be a black jacket. He slipped it on, and his knives were almost completely hidden. Zelos grimaced and muttered something about wishing the boy hadn't retrieved his knives.
"So, uh, Lan, how old are you?"
I asked out of curiosity. I would rather not have a child come along with us to rescue Sheena, even if the child was her son. I saw Zelos flinch out of the corner of my eye, and wondered why.
"I turn sixteen in a couple months."
He replied simply. Now what was it about that age that seemed to make alarms go off in my head?
Raine returned with the others, and said
"We should get out of here before we're caught. I can try looking on their computers to see where they've taken Sheena."
Lan spoke up before she could do so, and said
"Uh, I heard one of the guys say they took mom somewhere south of here."
Raine gave a nod of her head, and replied
"Then we'd best get out of here."
Since we had nearly the entire population of Mizuho with us, that wasn't an easy task. We must've fought several dozen foot soldiers. To my surprise, Lan was actually pretty good with his daggers. He fought with one in each hand, and I made a mental note to see if he was interested in fighting with swords. That way he wouldn't have to get so close to the enemy to do some damage.
I cursed when I heard the alarms go off. We were close enough to the exit, though, so Lan, Zelos, Presea, Rain and I stopped to hold off our attackers, while Genis and Regal helped the villagers escape.
I ran towards the first of the men running toward us, shoved him back into two of his comrades with the hilt of my sword. Lan and Zelos came up on either side of me, weapons read. When the three men got their feet, angrily, we lunged at them, taking them down quickly. We turned to help Presea and Rain, who were being attacked by four other men. Presea took one out with her axe, but got stabbed in the side from behind. Raine was casting first aid spells quickly, and Zelos ran behind Presea to stop other men from attacking her until Raine could heal her. After taking down those four, we turned around and saw half a dozen more running at us. Behind them was another dozen still. Outnumbered, we ran after Regal and Genis, who had already left. Raine turned around and cast a quick photon, to help in our retreat. The photon took out two men, which slowed down their pursuit. We kept running, till they base was out of sight…well, the area the base was in was out of sight, we still couldn't see from the outside.
Two hours later, it had been decided that we would take the people of Mizuho back to Iselia. They needed a place to live, after all, and their homes were completely destroyed. We traveled all through out the night towards Iselia, and finally reached later in the after noon of the next day (we took short breaks to rest during all the walking). Frank suggested that the villagers from Mizuho stay in temple of Martel, just outside of Iselia. Genis and Raine took them there, while Regal, Presea, Zelos, Lan and I all went to my house.
"Lloyd!"
Colette exclaimed when she saw me, she jumped to her feet, and nearly ran to me, except she was intercepted when Mattrim beat her to me, and nearly jumped on me in the process
"Dad!"
He said with a grin as I put him down. Colette walked over and hugged me. Upon noticing the others behind me, she smiled and greeted them, asking if they'd like something to drink. When she saw Lan, she froze, looking like she'd seen a ghost. She glanced at me, and stared back at Lan. The boy shifted nervously, and gave me look that just begged for help
"Colette, need some help getting those drinks?"
I asked, bringing her attention away from the now nervous youth. Colette flushed, and said hurriedly
"Uh, no, I can get them."
She smiled before she rushed to the kitchen. I gestured for everyone towards the living room. I sat down on one of the couches, Presea and Regal sat across from me on another couch, leaving one seat between them. Zelos sat on the rocking chair across from the living room entrance, and Lan sat one see over from me on the couch, and Mattrim sat down beside me, asking if I had fight any 'bad guys'. I smiled at him, and told an un graphic description of what we did. When I finished, Colette came into the room, nearly dropping the tray of drinks when she glanced at the couch I was sitting on. I looked from her to Lan, and frowned. Now he was the one getting weird looks. I looked around the room, and then back at my wife, and said
"Uh, Colette, do you need help with the drinks?"
"Oh! I'm sorry, here."
She placed them the table, a little awkwardly, and asked
"Lloyd, can I talk to you?"
Zelos shot up from his seat, and said
"Can I talk to you first, Colette? I haven't seen you in ages!"
Zelos didn't wait for a reply, but walked speedily from the room, tugging Colette after him by her arm. What the heck was that about?
"So, Lloyd, what have you been up to the last couple years?"
Presea asked before I could question after Zelos.
"I've been training some of the Professors students. With the forests around here, and the monsters that sometimes appear, the Mayor thought it was a good idea."
Regal gave a nod of his head, and Lan suddenly asked
"Uh, Lloyd, why does your wife keep staring at me?"
I turned to him, and Mattrim replied for me
"My mom's not staring at you."
I sighed, and said truthfully
"I have no idea."
I turned to Presea and Regal, and asked
"I could ask the same thing of you guys. Ever since Genis and Raine came over, you guys have been giving me funny looks too. What the hell is that all about?"
Regal coughed, and glanced at Presea. She shrugged, and replied
"We haven't seen you in a long time, Lloyd, and, well, you've changed."
Lan looked over at me and said thoughtfully
"Genis and Raine stared at me really weird when they first came to Mizuho. Wonder why that is."
Regal suddenly looked like he wanted to hit himself, and Presea found a flower pot in the corner very interesting. I frowned at them, opened my mouth to speak, and Zelos and Colette came back in. I stood up and asked
"What did you want to talk about?"
Colette gave a shake of her head, and replied
"Oh, it's nothing."
And promptly left the room. I turned to Zelos, a questioning look on my face, and he shrugged, before sitting down. What weren't they telling me? Whatever it was, Lan seemed to be out of the loop as well.
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yay, I updated quicker this time. . Hope you all liked it. I'll try to write another chapter within the next week or so. Well, please review! ciao