Before they reached the city entrance, Caius paused. He remembered that the hunt could take days. The gathered hunters had probably brought supplies for his use, but they were not expecting Elle. They would need to stop and collect a few things before they met with the others. With that thought in mind, he took a slight detour.
Elle gave him a questioning look as he turned from the path, but didn't question him. She figured he knew how urgent the matter was and wasn't going to slow them down more than necessary. It wasn't long until they came to one of the guardhouses placed throughout the city. She lifted a brow as he motioned her to follow him in.
She got all the answers she needed when he stopped in the supply room. The guard stationed there gave him a curious look as he started going through the items, but didn't bother questioning him. He was the Apprentice, after all. He would not take something if he didn't need it.
After a few minutes, he finally stepped away with a pack and several items. He shoved them all in the bag and handed it to Elle. His voice was all business when he spoke. "We may need to stay overnight." That was all the explanation he gave before he walked past her. He paused before he walked out and pointed to a weapons rack. "Pick out a spear as well. Your knives will do you little good against a king behemoth."
It only took her a moment to find one that suited her and had a decent balance. She was still a novice with the weapon, but she wasn't clueless. With the spear in hand, she turned to follow him to where the rest of the group was waiting.
When they stepped into the mouth of the canyon outside the city, Elle was shocked to only see five men clustered together talking. Given the urgency and difficulty of the upcoming mission, she had expected more men. Almost as soon as she and Caius approached them, they all turned to salute. They managed the gesture, but all but one of them also could not hide their shock at seeing her next to the Apprentice. The fifth one smirked at her and called out as they approached.
"Why am I not surprised to see you here too?"
Elle smirked at him. She was glad to see at least one familiar face, though two of the others looked somewhat familiar. It took her a moment to remember she had seen them both in the group that had first brought her to Paddra. She nodded to them all before she turned to Laer. "Did you really think I would be alright with staying cooped up?"
Laer chuckled before he turned to the others. "Fellas, meet our esteemed Emissary, Chicago Bachman-Elle."
Elle scrunched her nose at the introduction. "I should have never told you the city I was from. That sounds too weird." She then turned to the others. "Just call me Elle."
None of the others looked like they knew how to respond. Laer was obviously enjoying the situation more than he should have, and Caius shot him a glare when he started to chuckle. "Enough. We can finish introductions while we walk. We have no time to waste."
Elle clenched her jaw when he shot her a glare, as though it was her fault, but she didn't say anything. She was reminded of Yeul's admonition and fell into step beside Laer since Caius obviously didn't want her presence near him at the moment.
Once they were on down the path a ways, the man next to her finally spoke up again. Though, his voice was thankfully toned down. He first pointed to the two men behind them. "To pick up where we left off, these two are Paddra Mar-Baren and Paddra Nial-Tewn."
Both men nodded in turn when she looked back. Elle wasn't sure that she would remember their names, but she would try. After that, Laer pointed to the two that had taken point. The two that had gone with Caius to get her. "Those two are twins. The one on the right is Paddra Ballad-Ingens and the other is Paddra Ballad-Mirus."
As soon as Elle heard their names, she stopped in shock. Laer turned to her with confusion. "What's wrong?"
Her voice was breathless, and somehow still caught the attention of all but the twins. "Did- did you say Ballad?"
Laer was giving her a concerned look as Caius came back to see what was going on. "Why have you stopped?"
Elle barely noticed his harsh tone as she turned to him. As for Caius, he knew he was taking his irritation out on her, and he shouldn't, but that was all a distant thought when he caught sight of the haunted look in her eyes. He had been listening to the conversation, and suddenly wanted to know what it was about the twins that had caused such a reaction. He hadn't seen anything like it from her since she first saw Yeul. He suddenly realized she knew them or knew of them. He gritted his teeth. Now was not the time to get into this.
He grabbed Elle's arm and turned her to face the front of the path and got her walking again. Her feet started moving automatically, and as soon as they were going, he dropped his voice and spoke. "Now is not the time to be distracted. If you have something to say, put it aside until after we face the beast."
Elle swallowed and jerked her arm from his hand. After a moment, she looked up at him. "Have no worries that I'll be distracted or put anyone in danger. I've been in tough situations before. I know how to work on a team, and I know my job."
He watched her eyes for several moments. Once he was sure whatever had been bothering her was no longer in her eyes, he nodded. Nothing else was said after that as the group marched to where the beast was supposed to be waiting.
Despite how tense the walk started out, after nearly an hour, quiet conversations started up between the group again. The only ones that did not speak at all were the Ballad twins, but that could have been because they were scouting ahead and were too far ahead to join the rest. Even Caius lost whatever stick he had jammed in his nether regions and caught himself laughing occasionally as Laer told the other two about some of Elle's mishaps during practice.
She rolled her eyes when Laer nudged her in the ribs during a particular retelling. She had no problem with it, as he had conveniently left out part of the story. She raised a brow at him before she turned to the other men. "Sure, he knocked me on my ass. Damn near knocked me out too. What he isn't telling you is that I actually managed to get up afterward and proceeded to hand his ass to him. Moral of the story here is don't count your chickens before their hatched."
They all gave her strange looks, and she rolled her eyes before she tapped her chin for a moment. It was a moment before her eyes widened, and she grinned. "Think chocobos. Don't count your chocobos before they're hatched." They all blinked a couple of times before they nodded. That made more sense to them. She laughed at the looks, though they didn't understand why.
They were interrupted by the return of the twins. They both wore solemn looks and gave Caius a nod before the one that Elle believed to be called Ingens spoke. "Apprentice, We believe we are close. There are patches of ripped up earth just beyond the bend and great gouges in the walls."
Caius gave them a nod, and the rest of the men fell into formation behind them. Elle realized this was where stealth would come in handy and wanted to curse. She was great at sneaking up on perps in the city, but that was a whole different skill set. That was more about finding cover, whereas this was about knowing where to put your feet to not make noise. Still, she knew enough that as long as she only stepped exactly where the others did, she should be fine.
With that in mind, she fell in step behind Laer. Even though it was hard for her shorter legs to reach, she managed to follow in his footsteps. It wasn't long before he looked back to check on her. When he realized what she was doing, he shot her a grin. She glared at him, and he winked. He also shortened his gait. Elle wasn't sure what to think of that, but she wasn't going to complain.
They paused before they rounded each bend to make sure they did not run into the beast unexpectedly, so it was only a short time later that they came upon it hunched over some other unfortunate monster that it had taken down. At least it was preoccupied.
Caius turned back to them and silently gestured for them to climb the walls and circle around. They each had spears they could use to try and use from a distance. If nothing else, it would allow them the advantage of wounding it before they had to fight it and drive it back.
Elle followed them up as quietly as she could. It might have been impossible two months prior, but she had been doing nothing but working her ass off, so she was shocked to find it wasn't that difficult.
Once they were all up, they kept low and scooted to the area around where the king behemoth was still munching away. Elle grimaced at the crunching noises, but thankfully, she didn't have a weak stomach. She took a brief look around and was pleased to see the area was like most of the canyons, and the walls weren't straight down. There were several ledges, so if they needed to get down fast, it would be possible to jump from one to the next with little issue.
She looked across the way again to see Caius finally give the signal to attack and raised her spear with the rest of them. She hoped like hell her training paid off as she hefted it back and flung it forward on his signal.
They all watched as time seemed to slow, and the seven spears whistled through the air. Much to Elle's relief, they all embedded in the thing's hide, though her's didn't stick when it reared up with a roar. In the end, it barely mattered. The beast was still alive, and very much pissed off. Caius gave a yell and jumped down, with the rest of the men quickly following. Elle didn't hesitate to do the same. As much as her adrenaline was flowing at the size of the beast, she couldn't afford to let it get to her. Not now.
Once they were on the ground, each man darted in and grabbed a spear. Even Elle had managed to grab the one that had fallen. They were all taking turns rushing in and jabbing at it and rushing out again before its giant paws could find them. The only exception was the female in their midst. Any time she would try to join the pattern, one of the men would jump in front of her.
She finally growled in frustration when she realized they were doing it on purpose to keep her away from the thing. She had seen it before in the heat of battle and knew they probably weren't doing it consciously, but it still pissed her off. She quit trying to get close to the fighting and stepped back before she threw the spear down. Just because she couldn't fight on their terms, didn't mean she was out.
It wasn't long before she called up every spell she could think of. She immediately started casting them at the behemoth, one right after another, paying close attention to how it reacted to each. She cursed when it seemed revitalized by the lightning, and the men all turned to glare at her, but it was nearly knocked off its feet when she hit it with earth. She grinned at them and did it again. Despite the unexpectedness of her actions, none of them were inexperienced warriors. They didn't hesitate to jump back into the fight.
It took a little bit of finesse for Elle to work on hitting the beast without hitting her teammates, but she had been practicing with the crones long enough that she wasn't completely inadequate at it.
Elle almost cheered when the beast staggered to the side, so she didn't understand why everyone started scrambling backward. Her question was quickly answered when it let out another roar even louder than the ones before, and much to her horror, stood up on two legs. It opened its front paws wide, and the canyon walls shook with the sound it released before it looked down again. Elle swallowed hard when she realized it was looking straight at her.
Everyone must have realized at the same time, that she had severely pissed the thing off. It was also at about that time that she remembered what behemoths were known for doing when their health got low. She cursed under her breath and switched tactics before she started trying to focus on evasive maneuvers. At least her brain didn't lock up.
She hadn't even noticed that several of the men had been trying to get the things attention, but it ignored them all as it barreled toward Elle with a screaming roar. She managed to roll out of the way of the first swipe of a giant claw, but the other one caught her and sent her flying across the clearing to slam against the canyon wall. Both Caius and Laer could be heard yelling from behind the behemoth. "Elle!"
All the men had rushed over and had reengaged with the beast, as it had turned away as soon as it thought the pest was dealt with. They were all shocked when they heard a voice behind it. "Hey, ugly! You missed me."
None of them had time to wonder how it was possible before a massive chunk of ice crashed into the things head and distracted it enough for them to see her run past it and rejoin them.
Caius had no idea how she was still breathing, but he had a feeling it had something to do with the slight glow that covered her skin. He gave thanks for the fact that she was a l'cie and then pushed the thought aside. They had bigger things to worry about. The behemoth had recognized the fact that the irritant it thought it had killed was still standing. It roared and tried to slam a paw down on top of her, but Caius grabbed her and threw her to the side.
Elle rolled with it but came up frowning. She was calling out as soon as she was on her feet. "I can handle the blows. Let me keep it distracted while you take it out."
Most of the men looked at her like she was crazy, but it was Laer that spoke. "No way! I refuse to let you kill yourself!"
They were all shocked when Mirus quickly followed up. "Let her. She is a l'cie. I can already see this is her ability. We have no time to waste."
Elle nodded to the man and didn't wait for another response before she sent another wave of rattling earth to knock the beast off balance. Caius gritted his teeth, but he had to make a choice. He needed to decide whether to continue trying to protect the woman next to him, or to take down the beast according to orders. He growled to himself as he lunged forward. He had already stated she was a capable warrior, now it was time to allow her to prove it.
He forced himself to ignore it as the beast lunged past them and continued to go after the tiny woman. She was fast enough to dodge most of the blows, but even when she was not, he was continuously reassured to hear her taunting voice. None of them gave any ground and continued to chip away at the things hide. Blood covered the ground, and he was pleased that most of it belonged to their enemy.
By the time the behemoth fell to its knees and crashed into the dust, every person in the group felt like joining it, but somehow, they all managed to keep their feet. Caius looked around at them all, and could not hold in a smile when his eyes caught Elle's across the body of the fallen beast. She smirked and raised a brow. "So, now that we've done the impossible, how do we get this thing back?"
Laer threw his head back in laughter and clapped her so hard on the back he nearly knocked her off her feet. She glared over at him, but it held no heat. Even the Ballad twins were grinning at the exchange.
The one that had been the most vocal on her behalf came over and held out his hand. She took it with a raised brow. "I knew you were an emissary of the Goddess, but I had no idea you were a warrior. I suppose I should have known after you tried to take out a pack of gorgonopsids with sharpened sticks. Glad you came along."
She laughed as she let go. She had almost forgotten about that. Laer came up to her other side. "What is this?"
She shook her head. "Ask me later. It looks like we still have work to do." She had noticed that Caius was watching the exchange with interest, but hadn't yet answered her question. No matter what they ended up doing, she doubted they were going to make it far that night.
Once Caius realized he had been staring, he shook off his thoughts of how hard it had been to have this woman in particular in the fight with him. He wasn't sure what it meant, but it was something he would need to think about. Later. For now, they had a beast to prep so it would not spoil before they could get it back to Paddra. He turned and started issuing orders that were quickly filled.
A/N: Hehe, we get to see a little bit from them both, and we meet the source of his future name, but which one? Questions, questions. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!