Etro's temple

by Seeker of the Skies

17 years after Lightning's disappearance, Pulse is infested with men who claim to come from the realm of the Goddess, Valhalla. After 13 years of terrorising the populous, they have reduced everyone to hiding in Safe houses for protection. The military is hopelessly overpowered with little chance of winning. Amidst this a strange girl appears on Pulse claiming to be one of them.

4. The unpleasant women that is lady luck

Hello all my readers.

This chapter is a week late because my beta took her time reading it, promised me it on tuesday and it's now friday. At least it posted now.

I've had a really stupid last few days, there has been this girl at school who has been making a pitiful attempt at bullying me. She's been coming up to my friend for the past few and telling him that he's gay, it was very funny to watch seeing how fail it was.

Then just yesterday she came up to me and my sister and asked us if we were virgins, we didn't tell her anything of course, because as any person with a strip of brains with their body would know that's private. Wn we didn't tell, she said that there was nothing we could do to stop her asking, and while that was true, it didn't mean we had to answer, she didn't realise that.

I ended up telling my friend to ignore 'it' and when I called her it she completely overeacted, and while swearing her head off called me names that included freak, mental patient (she actually said mental impatient)bitch and she also said that my face was hairy and I had a moustouche (which is a overstatment to the max, it was made funnier by the fact that my friends face is exactly the same as mine hair wise)

She has now became a very funny inside joke between me and my friends (too bad 0erbayunFang was away sick, she missed out on the failness)

If you've noticed, I am unbullyable (I don't think that s a word)

Anyway, enjoy the chapter

Disclaimer: I do not own final fantasy, square enix does.

---

The Unpleasant Woman That is Lady Luck

Standing a few metres away from a group of people huddled around a small fire, Hope stood leaning his back against a tree, his mind going over what the past few days had contained.

It had been six days since the devastating Valhallan attack on the base, only a two-hundred-and-sixty-odd men and women had been found alive in and around the ruins of the Yaschas Massif military base. They had stayed at the site for a couple of days afterwards, rummaging through the remnants of the base looking for survivors and sending runners off to safe houses and other military bases to inform them of the attack. After four days of looking through the ruins for survivors – something that had turned out to be a next to useless attempt – the people still alive had separated into groups to head off to safe houses or a base or two, safe houses being the better alternative seeing as there were more of them close to the destroyed base then there were other military bases.

Hope had chosen to go to one of the safe houses, informing his friends that he was still alive was currently at the top of his list of things he needed to do. But even with the shorter travelling path than others who had chosen to go to the bases, simply being outside for any amount of time was a dangerous thing to do. The lands were crawling with Valhallans always ready to attack when the situation called for it – and for them that was nothing more than the sighting of a human in the open lands.

And as the demolished base he and the others had left behind him showed, the small group of seven that accompanied him were no match for such a fight.

Turning his head around to face the source of oncoming steps, Hope found the slim form of Savina walking towards him; half distracted by the starry sky above her. As she came to a stop just to the side of him, her eyes still locked with the sky in a dreamy daze, Hope poked her in the shoulder in an attempt to wake her from her trance and said, "Hey, you even there?"

Snapping out of her partial daze, Savina blinked her eyes and answered, "Um, yeah. My mind's kinda just refusing to focus on anything but the stars tonight."

Looking up into the star-laden sky himself Hope nodded absent-mindedly, and sought to start up a conversation with the girl beside him who was slowly mentally drifting away again.

"Nice to see your back to your usual self again, I was worried for a while back there."

"Jinx it and I'll turn into a fire breathing demon just to bite your head off," she snapped at him quickly.

Stifling a laugh at her response, Hope mumbled to himself, "Yep, definitely back to your old self."

Jokingly striking a pose at his words, Savina gave a little laugh and responded with, "And unfortunately for you, my regular self is an utterly insane maniac."

"Realised," Hope mumbled under his breath, intending for Savina not to hear him say it.

But contrary to what he tried the girl quickly informed him, "I can hear you perfectly you know."

Hope shot the girl a look of slight surprise; before he shook his head roughly thinking as he did so, 'Of course.' Why should have thought any different when it came to Savina? She could hear a mouse crawl across the floor in a room filled with screaming people.

Returning his gaze to the sky above him for a moment, Hope heard the sound of Savina's feet crunching against the soil on the ground as she stepped closer to him.

"So how much longer do you think we have till we get to the safe house?"

Knowing that after the thirteen years of Valhallans infesting the lands of Pulse when compared to Savina nineteen years alive, she hadn't had all too many chances to get familiar with the lay of the land. Hope thought the question over in his head.

Reaching an answer he told her, "A couple more days at least, give or take a few depending on what happens out here, so it's hard to say exactly."

Humming to herself as she listened to Hope's answer, Savina held both her arms behind her back, one grasping the other as she listened.

Looking out to the lands beyond their small camp, she asked Hope off-topic, "Hey Hope, you know how you've been out this way in the past, before the Valhallans came I mean. What's it like? I used to hear all these tales of what Archylte Steppe was like when I was younger but you don't really hear about places like that anymore."

Tilting his head to follow Savina's gaze out to the south of their camp, Hope thought over her words again in his head. She was right about how you don't really hear about that many places on Pulse anymore, the only ones important enough to name were those that where military bases and safe houses were positioned. The rest, while as big as they may be like the Archylte Steppe, were not seen as important anymore or even worthwhile to go near, seeing as wide open places like that would be nothing more than Valhallan feeding frenzies by the end, so the sight it made was nothing in comparison. Those foolhardy enough to actually go near such places after the Valhallan had started attacking were some of the first to die.

Shaking his head to stop his mind from digressing further, Hope went back to Savina's initial question, trying to think up an answer that the girl would be satisfied with. Thinking of one, he turned to face the girl a few steps behind him and told her, "There's not all that much to say. The Archylte steppe is this great expanse of land that goes on for miles, you can't even see the end of it; you could say it makes a beautiful sight I guess."

Trying to hold back a smile that was inappropriate for the contents of his next sentence Hope finished, "But then you have to deal with the mountainous supply of monsters that fill it from head to toe that keep on trying to kill you."

"Huh," Savina said running the words through her head, "well isn't that wonderful? Just add a little Valhallan and you've got yourself a killing fest."

Casting a glance over at the remaining six soldiers who sat by the fire, Savina added in a more serious tone, "Definitely not going near there then, aren't we?"

Hope shook his head in answer. "That we are not, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't keep your wits about you. The Vallis Media still has its dangers as well."

"Know your way around here don't you?" Savina questioned suddenly, speaking her thoughts aloud.

Hope looked her way for a short while, thinking to himself about her words. He did know the lay of the land out here – learnt it a long time ago – but it hadn't been under the best circumstances. He'd been branded a l'Cie back then, and even through that had been how he'd met the friends he now held close, the whole situation wasn't really something he wanted to talk about. He just hoped that Savina would know to stay away from the subject.

Unfortunately for him, his wish was ignored.

Staring off in the direction opposite of him, Savina asked him hesitantly, not sure if he'd give her an answer, "Hey Hope, I know it's off topic and you probably don't wanna tell me but why do you never talk about all that l'Cie stuff? it's how you met all your friends, right?" Halting for a second, she continued as she looked over to stare Hope in the face, "It's how you met Lightning, right?"

Hope turned away from her to stare out along the valley of the Vallis Media. Without even having to ask, he knew this was just one of her ploys to get more information about Lightning from him. And of all people, her name was one he didn't permit to pass his lips; it didn't matter how time passed after what happened back then. She amounted to nothing more than a source of pain.

Sensing that he wasn't going to answer her, Savina was about to apologise for even asking before a voice called out from the group surrounding the fire in the middle of the camp interrupted her.

"Hey you two, it's about time we got to sleep. We have to head out early in the morning."

Turning to face the source of the sound, Savina gave the man standing away from the camp a nod and turned back to Hope. "He's right you know, this isn't the best place to walk around tired."

After Hope nodded to her in return, Savina twisted on her heel and headed back to the small camp swathed in firelight, thinking as her feet took her away from Hope and closer to the six others why in the world she had even asked him that question. She knew from experience that he only became sadder every time she'd tried to get information about Lightning from him. She'd done it enough times for him to catch on to her when she was doing it.

Watching her go, Hope ran her question through his mind once more. It was simple enough yes, but as the years went by he'd come to hate being made to talk about Lightning just as much as Serah had.

It was simple. Why would he want to talk about the source of his haunting nightmares?

...:...

Waking in the early hours of the morning, Hope opened his eyes to the sight of the sun slowly rising over the high rocky walls of the Vallis Media. The other four men and three women still lay asleep but slowly waking from their individual slumbers. As he waited for them to rise, Hope sat against one of the high rock walls that lay on either side of where he and the others had sent up camp, tracing the path of the sun slowly rising higher into the sky with his eyes. The sound of someone grumbling as they forced themselves into wakefulness to the side of him made him turn his gaze back down to the earth.

It was Savina that met his, as she rolled off her side and onto her back wiping a hand across her eyes to rid them of sleep. Glancing around the quiet camp, her tired eyes found Hope, leaning his back against the rock wall.

"Anyone else awake yet?" she asked him, even though she could've just as easily cast a proper look about the camp to see.

"No," Hope answered her, "we're the only ones up."

Getting up herself and sending a proper look around the camp to check, Savina turned back to him and asked, "Should we wake them up?"

Glancing around the camp quickly and over at the still-rising sun, Hope nodded, "Yeah."

As both of them moved to wake up the others, Savina asked in curiosity, "How come you didn't wake us up when you first woke up?"

Telling her in all seriousness, Hope answered her, "Quite literally Savina, I've learned better than to try and wake you up."

Pausing in her attempt to wake one of her rather grumpy comrades, Savina thought back to the last few times anyone, Hope included, had been left with the task of waking her up.

"You probably dodged a bullet there."

Smiling at her answer, Hope thought to himself 'that I did'.

Soon enough all the camp's occupants had been successfully roused from their sleep and into the real world, and allowed a short time to properly wake up. After a few minutes of that, they got to work on erasing any traces of their camp, extinguishing the embers of the fire that had been lit the night before and covering their tracks. It was done within a few moments and the small group set off along the trail of Vallis Media.

There were groups of Pulsian monsters at irregular intervals along the long trail that attacked them when approached, but they were only small fry compared to what you'd find out along the Steppe. For a while all went well and it went along like normal, without many disturbances other than the few monsters, but like always, bad luck could be such a bitch.

As they turned a small corner, they were faced with a horrible sight. Right in front of them, taking up the majority of the narrow path with it's hulking form, was a sleeping Savrog.

Oh joy.

Stopping decently short of the hulking mass all of them froze, with a mixture of emotions as the cause. Mostly it was surprise or fear from some of the younger soldiers, but that wasn't taking into account the sanity-challenged Savina.

"Oh isn't it just adorable," she whispered, keeping her voice low so that the sound wouldn't wake it up.

Seven pairs of eyes flew to her to stare at her in confusion, the youngest of the soldiers – a Private by the name of Essência –even asking Hope, "Lieutenant, has she gone insane?"

"She was always insane," Hope answered her whilst walking to the side of the path, his words going unnoticed by the distracted Savina. Looking down the small gap between the rock wall and the monster, Hope motioned the others towards him, telling them as they came to stand beside him, "We should be able to get through here, just – for the love of the Goddess – be careful not to fall onto that thing."

Stepping forward apprehensively Hope trod ever closer to the sleeping Savrog, noticing from the corner of his eye Essência pulling Savina away from her spot where she was staring at the beast. Up close to it now, he was forced to view the thing in a clearer light.

It was beyond him how Savina could find it in her to call it adorable, it was one of the ugliest things he'd ever seen! It even had a face on its ass for the Goddess's sake!

Stepping over the slight gap between monster and wall, Hope successfully passed it without falling over and onto the Savrog, and made his way to the other side safely. Hesitantly the others soon followed; one by one, they stepped through the tight gap, with a few close calls along the way, included when Savina nearly slipped over because she was too distracted by staring at the Savrog.

But once again, Lady Luck wasn't on their side today and as Essência struggled to get though the small gap she tripped and fell to the side, right onto the sleeping Savrog.

The effects were instantaneous, the winged creature started to rouse from its sleep becoming more and more aware of its surroundings as the seconds ticked by. Darting quickly to pick Essência from where she had fallen on the ground, Hope lifted her up and pulled the young girl away from the still-rising monster and back to stand beside the rest of them.

"S-sorry," the girl stuttered out as the Savrog got up onto its feet and began to seek them out.

"Too late for that now," Hope told her, pulling out his weapon and brandishing it in front of him, ready for the battle that would come. Beside and behind him, the others did the same and prepared for the fight this monster would soon cast on them.

Launching itself into the air and spinning around to face them, the Savrog let out a mighty roar and prepared to attack.

...:...

As the battle came to a close, the monster fell to the ground defeated, its life at an end. In the same moment, Essência dropped to her knees and blew out a sigh, muttering out a "Thank the Goddess," to herself at the monster's death.

Grabbing her arm and lifting the young girl off the ground, Hope brought her back up to stand on her feet, swearing he heard Savina whisper as he did so, "Poor adorable little monster, Too bad we had to kill you."

This time everyone who heard her absurd words chose to ignore her instead of looking her way in confusion, except Essência who whispered loud enough for Hope to hear, "Definitely insane."

Walking away from the beast's still corpse, Hope walked closer to the beginnings of a cave. He knew from memory that this cave was more passageway than anything else, as he'd come through this way many times before. Tilting his head backwards to face the rest of his comrades, who were still catching their breath after the fight, or in Savina's case, still staring at the monstrous winged creature that lay metres away from him dead, as if it was the cutest thing she'd ever seen.

Calling out to them he said, "Hey guys, come on. It's this way."

Stepping forward and into the mouth of the cave, with the others soon following, Essência pulled up alongside him. Staring around the dark cave, she started questioning Hope about their location, as she– like Savina – had never been this way before, "Where does this lead, Lieutenant?"

Looking about the cave himself Hope answered her, "It'll lead to the end of Vallis Media; if you follow the normal path you'll end up at the Archylte Steppe."

"But we're not going anyway near there are we?" she asked with a hint of fear in her voice.

Hope shook his head. "No, I don't mean to scare you but that would be suicide for anyone these days."

"So, where are we going then?"

"To get to the Mynscentar forest safe house from here, you have to scale the cliffs at the end of Vallis Media and get down to the valley at the bottom, then follow that path until it starts turning into a hill and where it will lead you into Mynscentar forest, but from then on it gets trickier."

Looking over at him, Essência inquired, "Trickier how?"

Laughing a little at her question Hope gestured to all the people surrounding him. "Do you know anyone here who's familiar with the position of Mynscentar safe house? It's nothing but a needle in a haystack when we're given the task of finding it."

"Oh," Essência muttered at his answer. She had to give it to him: he had a point, a really good one. Staying quiet for a time, Essência continued to look over the cave, her eyes darting from one place to another on the cave's surface. As they came ever closer to the cave's end, she spoke up again, voicing her own thoughts, "Something about this place scares me, but what I wonder?"

Gazing along the walls of the cave Hope spoke to her, "Wouldn't be able to say, I'm not you. Can't say this place scares me myself though, but I don't have some of the best memories of it."

The moment he said the words he wished he hadn't, such a sentence would leave room for questions, and of course with Essência barely knowing him, she didn't know that being questioned about his past experiences here was the least thing he wanted.

"What happened to you here that was bad?"

Essência watched as a slight frown appeared on Hope's face as she questioned him. It didn't take a genius to realise that he didn't feel like answering her.

Her thought was confirmed when he told her, "I don't really want to talk about it."

She nodded, her chance at conversation gone down the drain as Hope's demeanour became downcast. Essência wondered how what it was about her question that could cause such a change in his emotions. Perhaps she'd ask Savina about it: she seemed to have known Hope for quite some time.

Coming to the opening of the cave, Hope shielded his eyes as the sunlight shone through the opening and into their faces. Walking out of what was left of the cave he found himself at the edge of a cliff, a small pathway leading across the edge and back onto soild knew that if they followed that pathway it would lead them to the Archylte Steppe, but that was neither their destination nor the smart thing to do.

Walking forward, Hope strode directly to the front of him and to the edge of the cliff, looking over the edge warily. Gesturing the others to walk towards him, he pointed down the steep valley told them as they stepped in line beside him.

"This is what we have to climb down, so follow the path down in the valley for a day or so and it'll start tilting up and become a hill. It'll lead us into Mynscentar."

Peering over the high ledge as he finished talking, the others took in the daunting sight the deep valley made. Hissing almost as if she was in pain, Essência stammered out, "W-we really have to go down there?"

Hope nodded, finding their fear funny in a way, considering that two the group's members were well over his age; yet he was still more brave in the face of the task ahead.

"Yep, it'd probably be more easier with rope – and a lot safer for that matter – but we'll have to manage."

Easier said than done.

The climb down took them beyond half an hour to descend, with many close calls as their hands slipped off from handholds or crumbling rocks between their fingers leaving nothing to grasp, resulting in some nearly falling the rest of the way down only for them to catch hold of the rock again. After the arduous descent, all eight of them met at the bottom, Savina being the last to finish, since she was continuously impaired by her fear of heights.

Now came the tiresome day-long walk out of this valley which everyone wasn't looking forward to one bit but as worn out as they all were the decision to call a short breather was unanimous among all of them, so they settled down for a few minutes so that all of them could catch some rest before they continued on along the valley.

Leaning her back against the valley wall, Savina shielded her eyes against the blazing sun that shone down upon her, looking down once she heard the sound of someone walking towards her. Treading one step in front of the other at a slow pace, she found Essência coming closer to her with her gaze directed downwards. Coming to a stop just to the right of Savina, Essência sat down beside her, choosing to stay quiet for a moment before venturing to ask, "How come Hope doesn't like this place?"

Blinking in surprise at her unexpected question, Savina probed her mind for an answer. Sucking in a breath as if she was about to talk, Savina closed her mouth and rethought her answer, but soon told the girl beside her, "It's not like he doesn't like this place, he just has bad memories of it."

"He already told me as much, that's why I'm asking you," Essência said.

"Ah." Looking to her right so she could see Essência's face, Savina asked her, "I'm guessing you're not just gonna let this one pass, are you?"

The girl shook her head. "No, why should I?"

Straightening her back against the rock face, Savina cast a look over the sizable valley and over at Hope. Turning back to look over at Essência she asked abruptly, "Hey, how much do you know about Hope anyway?"

Freezing like she was a kid with their hand catch in the cookie jar, she admitted, "Um, kind of just his rank."

"That would explain a lot," Savina mumbled to herself, her words piquing Essência's curiosity.

"Would explain what?" she queried.

"Why you're even asking, it's kind of common knowledge."

"What is it then?"

"That he was l'Cie, one of the ones from eighteen years ago," Savina explained.

At that Essência went silent, staring off in the direction in front of her, her gaze not necessarily meeting anything in particular.

"What?" she asked, flicking her gaze back to Savina.

"How'd you not know that anyway? Thought you'd at least recognise his name," Savina questioned her.

"Never really been told that much about all that 'Cocoon's Fall' stuff, kind of grew with the world in fear of the Valhallans."

"Huh, still thought you would have heard something," Savina mused to herself.

Essência shrugged her shoulders. "A little, but I wasn't even one by the time of the Fall and the Valhallans came to Pulse when I was four. My parents didn't really reflect on it after that."

"Guess that explains it," Savina muttered to herself again.

Creating a more comfortable position for herself against the rock, Essência asked Savina from sheer curiosity, "Do think it'd be horrible being an l'Cie, spending everyday knowing you could turn into a monster at any moment?"

Using a split second to think of a reply Savina answered her half distracted by her own thoughts circling through her head, "From what I've heard off Hope it was, didn't help that it came just off the Purge"

"He was involved in the Purge?"

"Yeah," Savina said nodding "his mother died in it actually. Didn't leave him in the best mental state, to be honest."

Going quiet, Essência sent a look up to the top of the valley, feeling sincerely sorry for Hope at having to go through so much.

"Is that why this place brings out so many bad memories for him, then?"

"It's a part of the reason," Savina replied.

Glancing over at Savina with a perplexed expression on her face she questioned, "What's the second half then?"

"Lightning," was Savina's quick response.

"Lightning?" the younger girl queried, Savina's answer successfully making her even more confused than before. Giving a small laugh at Essência's confusion, Savina informed her, "I'm talking about a person; it's a name, not the force of nature."

"Oh" Essência sounded, "well who's Lightning then?"

"She," Savina made sure to inform her, "was one of the l'Cie. Hope stuck to her after the Purge and they became real close during the l'Cie incident-"

"Why does she cause this place to be a bad memory then?" Essência interrupted.

"Let me finish my sentence first," Savina advised her before gradually going to tell her, "She disappeared seventeen years ago; no one knows what happened to her."

A whistle coming from the far right of Essência silenced any response she could've given, her attention brought from Savina and to the source of the sound. It was just one of the other soldiers calling an end to the break, and telling them it was time to move on.

Getting up off the ground and brushing off the dirt from her garment, Essência propelled herself forward to where the rest of them were gathering. Without having to look she sensed Savina coming to up to her side, the woman whispering in her ear as she did so, "Word to the wise, I didn't tell you about Lightning."

Before she could question why Savina was telling her this, she had already left her side and walked further ahead to fall into step beside Hope. Pondering Savina's words in her head as they continued down their path down the Valley, she came to the conclusion that, more than likely, the memory of the woman called Lightning would have just become painful to Hope after all these years.

...:...

The track along the valley floor was a tiring one and by the time they all settled in for the night, they were all more than willing to head off to sleep. Taking refuge in a decent-sized alcove in the wall of the valley, they shared out their small supply of rations, most of them deciding to curl up and go to sleep afterwards with Savina choosing to take first watch.

Laying down himself, Hope settled himself into a semi-comfortable position on the cold rocky ground of the valley floor, knowing that it was still hours before someone woke him up to take watch. Closing his eyes Hope fell asleep to what would be the first night since the attack that his dreams would be set alight by the darkness of his haunting nightmares.

...:...

The next day they set out early once again, and continued on down the path that would eventually lead them to Mynscentar forest, where the safe-house resided. They travelled the rocky trail for well into the morning until the path gradually began to slope upwards, leading them out of the valley and up to higher ground. Pausing once they got to the edge of Mynscentar forest, the group sat down against the tall trees of the evergreen forest.

Taking a seat next to Hope, Savina laid herself down on the blades of emerald grass that engulfed the ground for as far as they could see.

"Needle in a haystack, right?"

Nodding, Hope echoed, "Needle in a haystack."

Looking up to see his face from where she lay on the ground Savina said, "Heard you talking to Essência about that before, guess she doesn't really know just how big this place is."

"That she didn't, but what about you? You've never even been here before." Hope pointed out.

"Yeah, but I've heard enough stories to know that we, with no one that really knows their way around this place, will be stuck for days trying to find that god-damned safe house," she told him with a hint of humour in her voice.

"Hm" Hope sounded, thinking outloud "perhaps it would have been better if I'd come over this way more, I would've known the layout a lot more than I do".

Savina shrugged her shoulders at the sentence, "Can't really help that, if the army kept you away then it's not really like you could come here whenever you wanted to."

"Yeah," Hope half agreed, "but I've still been away far too long."

In curiosity, Savina asked him "Just how long has it been since you last saw your friends anyway?"

Cringing, Hope answered her tentatively, "Haven't seen them since before I met you."

"That's five years Hope!" Savina exclaimed in disbelief. "Whoa, you may just have a point there about it being too long, pretty boy."

"May? Five years is a long time, Savina," Hope told her, finding her choice of words an understatement.

"Ok, you definitely have a point there then." Shrugging she told him, "But at least you'll see them soon enough."

"Yeah, guess I will."

The break went along like that for a time, with nothing much happening, just average conversation going on between the soldiers. After thirty minutes had ticked by it was decided that they would start up their trek through the forest, one that would undoubtedly take them days to finish.

So, picking up their small amount of supplies off the forest floor from where they had left them, they set out among the foliage and in the direction of the safe house within the mass of ageless trees.

...:...

Like predicted, the journey had taken them all of four days so far, but Hope was finally beginning to recognise some of the landmarks. He'd memorised a few stationed near the safe house from when he'd been put out on guard some the times he'd been here in the past. Through the times he visited here had come to be few and far between as the years went by, not necessarily because he didn't want to come but because he was kept away by his own circumstances.

The army was one, as were the times when there was a dangerous amount of Valhallans in the area that made traversing the lands extremely dangerous, and all matter of other things. He hadn't even seen his father in the five years he'd been away from here, as he too lived at this safe house. Oddly enough though but he had seen Sazh; the man even at his age had a tendency to go between army bases and man the planes. He had heard rumours lately that he was thinking of giving that up, just live out the rest of his days with his friends in safety, but he could never be too sure until he heard it from Sazh himself.

The sound of a snapping twig woke Hope from his reverie and his eyes shot up to seek out who'd caused the sound. Alarm settled itself within his mind when he found that it hadn't been made by anyone in his small group. The danger wasn't immediate as when they were so close to a safe house it could easily be someone from said safe house out collecting things from the forest, but that didn't clear away all of the threat.

Not even close.

Halting in his tracks as he heard more noises sound off from the not too far away vicinity, the others behind him caught on to the sounds as well and followed Hope's lead; they stopped walking. Approaching the nearest tree he leaned his back against it, made himself as hard to see as possible and peered over the side to see if he could spot the catalyst of the sounds. Hope looked on for a time, the others following his example and hiding themselves while trying to seek out what was making the ever-ongoing sounds.

Still peering over the side of the tree, Hope felt a sense of trepidation; he had a bad feeling of what was beyond the next few trees without even seeing them, they had gone far too long with no evidence of them even being here . And as they rounded the group of trees in Hope's view, his suspicions were confirmed.

Valhallans.

The group of ominous men trotted through the undergrowth of the forest, their watchful eyes seeking out any changes in the environment around them, any glances of people outside of the protection of a safe house. It was a decent sized group; they outnumbered Hope's by more than twice, there were nineteen in all if he counted right.

Biting his lip in contemplation of what to do, Hope glanced back at his small group; they all had their backs pressed to the trunks of trees, and were out of sight of the Valhallans. On their faces he read a mixture of emotions embedded on their faces, fear a prominent one among the many. As he turned his head back to view the Valhallans among the trees, Hope knew that they knew as well as he did, that trying to fight a group of Valhallans that big was certain suicide.

"We need a distraction," he told the people behind him.

"What do you have in mind?" Savina asked from directly behind him, being the closest to him in proximity. Standing up straighter against the trunk of the tree he was leaning on, Hope made a gesture with his hand in the direction east of them. Half ignoring Savina's question, he told them all, "The safe house should be that way if I remember right." Turning his gaze back to the Valhallans he added, "Let me distract those guys."

"What? That's crazy, they could kill you!" Essência exclaimed loudly from her spot the furthest from Hope only to be quickly silenced by an older soldier covering her mouth, to impede her from making any other loud sounds that could direct the Valhallans right to them. Grabbing Hope's arm and saying in a considerably softer voice, not much more than a whisper, Savina said, "Hope she's right, that's suicide!"

Shrugging off her hand, Hope persevered by shaking his head and stated, "I know that, but let me do this."

Stepping forward noiselessly, a soldier, one of the only two older than him and the only one in the small group that outranked him, even if it was only by one, walked closer to him and placed a hand over his own chest. "Why don't I go in your stead, I have more experience in this."

Hope shook his head and told him firmly in a tone that meant no arguments, "No, you help lead the others to safety."

Quickly sensing that further argument would prove useless, most soldiers gave up trying to convince Hope of an alternative. Savina and Essência still looked unsure but didn't try to persuade him further. Directing them to go as far the cover of the group of trees they had hidden behind would allow them, Hope walked in a westerly direction, so that when he caught the Valhallans attention they wouldn't see the others that were heading east. As he crept up to the edge of the tree cover on the western side, Hope prepared a manadrive that he had on his wrist. Stepping out of the cover at last and into the open, he shot of ball of fire at the Valhallans that the manadrive had generated.

The blaze caught the brutes' attention and they instantly turned to seek out its creator, finding Hope standing a ways off to the south of them. A few broke off from the main group to pursue him, while others stayed back, their eyes looking out for anyone else in the immediate area, but found nothing as the other soldiers had already taken their chance to take off when Hope had distracted the Valhallans with the flame.

Dashing out of the way and back behind tree cover and Hope ducked through the foliage to get out of their sights. But after only a few seconds of partial safety in the foliage, one of the Valhallans who had broken off from the main group spotted him, only for a loud clanging sound, that sounded oddly like a frying hitting someone's head rang out through the small area Hope had found himself. The next moment after the sound had been made; the Valhallan that stood in front of him fell to the ground, knocked senseless.

Now standing in front of him was the form of Savina with the flat of her blade brandished in her hand and held high in the air. Lowering her weapon Savina held out her hand to help Hope up from the spot he currently occupied on the ground. Offering him a small smile she gave him an answer to the question that was playing on his mind.

"Ain't in me to leave a friend behind without help, and I thought you definitely needed it, pretty boy."

Letting her lift him back off the ground, Hope grasped her hand and came to stand on his feet. "No getting rid you of then."

"Was there ever?" she shot back with the same smile still plastered on her face, and, lifting her weapon so that it was balanced on her shoulder, she went on, "Now, are we gonna get going or what?"

Nodding, Hope answered her confidently, "Of course."

It would take all they had to give this group of Valhallans the slip. But unfortunately, even with all of that, Lady Luck was not smiling on them today.

...:...

Far from the site of the scuffle with the Valhallans, Seian, the eldest of the group of soldiers, the one who had spoken up to Hope previously, directed the rest of the group towards the hidden entrance to the safe house. Luckily for them, Hope had been right about the location of the safe house and it was now within their sights.

Turning back to cast a look over his shoulder, he silently prayed that both Hope and Savina would be safe. He hadn't been all that for Savina going after Hope but that girl had been damn right adamant about doing so. It was futile to try and stop her, she was protecting her friend here and she'd never back down from a chance to do so.

Stepping forward towards the entrance of the safe house he followed his small group, making one last silent prayer for the other two's safety. He'd come to like Hope in the time he'd known him, the man had stirred more respect from this group than he had managed to, even with his higher rank. Such a thing may have ticked off someone other than him, but he found himself respecting him just like the rest. The man was a born leader, and he never showed fear in the face of danger, he was brave despite their situation and not someone he wanted to lose.

With that thought, Seian walked to the entrance with the rest of his group.

...:...

High above Hope and Savina, a woman stood in the branches of one of the timeless trees, observing the sight below her. She found it so uproariously funny how nineteen Valhallans could not catch two humans, who were so piteously small in comparison. Flicking back her unnecessarily long golden blonde hair out of her face, she placed both hands on her waist and watched the hems of her knee length strapless black dress flow to the side in the wind.

Fixing up her dress, so that it fit better around her considerable buxom, she laughed to herself and said in her deep voice that seemed shockingly unfitting for her striking form, "Well, well, I guess I might as well give them a hand."

...:...

I happened so fast that Hope didn't even see it coming.

At first everything had been going all right, there were a few close calls but both him and Savina were avoiding the Valhallans well enough to not get caught. But then something fell from the trees above him and before he knew it Savina was out like a light, someone hitting her over the head so that she fell into the dark embrace of unconsciousness. And then it was his turn, but just before he was knocked senseless, he caught a glimpse of a strikingly beautiful woman, with golden blonde hair that flowed in the wind and perfect rose red lips. His last thought before it all went black was, Lady Luck, you bitch.

---

In my mind the blonde girl was wearing sunglasses, but she doesn't wear sunglasses, so why was she wearing them in my head. I'll think I'll make her wear sunglasses.

When it comes to the name of the chapter, think dictionary term and the last sentense explains it. Also originally I was actually going to include the savrog fight in the chapter but just before I started writing I realised I can't remember how they fought. Sounds a little stupid maybe, but that is what happened.

The blonde girl in this chapter is one of my two favourite OCs in this story, the other one is Aaia Yuto, who was the girl from the end of the first chapter if you forgot. The blonde girls is called lilypad when I'm talking to 0erbayunFang, I'm not to sure how that happened but it did.

Please review, I'm going phyco with the small amount I have.

~Claire Kreiss (This is apparently my name)