Title:Lost and Found
Summary: The heroine Venetia's thoughts after the injured Elazul disappeared.
Disclaimer: Legend of Mana belongs to Squaresoft, not me. I am making no profit from this story.
---
'Damn it, Elazul, how could you be so stupid!' Venetia thought as she ran outside onto the path that lead to her home, past the Sproutling. 'I understand that you care about Pearl and want to protect her, but how are you going to do that if you're dead?!'
While caring for the injured Jumi, Venetia had been catching up on some chores. Although Bud and Lisa had been doing an excellent job keeping everything tidy, there were some things only she could do when she was back from adventuring, like tending the animals (no matter what she tried, they still tried to attack the twins if she wasn't there), and picking fruits and vegetables from Trent in the orchard (he could only bend his higher branches so far, and Bud and Lisa didn't have very good balance standing on each others shoulders). It was after she'd come in from the latter to check on him...
FLASH BACK
"And how is our favorite patient doing?" Venetia asked, smiling as she came up the last couple of steps. When she turned to face the room, she saw that her cactus was asleep and the bed empty. Panic trickling down her spine like ice water, she rushed over to the bed and sure enough there was no sign of the Jumi knight. Quickly, she stepped over to Lil' Cactus's pot then knelt down beside him and gingerly poked in between his spines until he groggily opened his eyes.
"Lil' Cactus, did you see where Elazul went? The guy who's been sleeping in my bed the past few weeks?" she asked him, dread squeezing her insides when he shook his head and nodded back off. Standing up, she looked around the room.
'The windows are way too small for him to get through, he'd have had to have gone downstairs through the door, past the twins!' Sparing no time, she went back downstairs to ask.
"Did either of you see Elazul?"
To her chagrin, they both shook their heads.
"You mean he's not in his bed?" Lisa asked.
"How could he have gotten out without anyone seeing him?" Bud wondered, holding his chin in thought.
Venetia didn't answer either of them, instead she ran out of the house as though she was being chased by a pack of wild Du'Cate.
END FLASH BACK
"Why didn't I just lie when he asked me how Pearl was? I could have just said that she was fine! But then what would I have done when he asked to see her? Think Venetia, think! Where would he have gone?" the blonde asked herself, fists pounding the sides of her head. "I told him where I'd already looked: Domina, Geo, the Highway, even Polpota and Lumina, I don't think he'd go to any of those places. Where else would he go to look for Pearl." Then suddenly a thought occured to her so suddenly she skidded to a stop and looked East; in the direction of the Tower of Leires. "Could he have...? It's worth a shot." With that, she began the journey to Leires as fast as she could.
---
"Elazul!" Venetia cried out when she reached the tower and discovered the Lapis Lazuli knight on his knees and hunched over in obvious pain.
"It's nothing." he grunted, standing shakily up then turning to face the tower. "Pearl must be in that room..." Elazul craned his head back to look at Venetia. "Will you come with me?"
"Of course." Venetia nodded. 'No use arguing with him, he'd go anyway if I tried to stop him. At least this way I can keep an eye on him.' she thought.
"Let's go." And the two ventured into the massive tower.
As they walked, Venetia watched Elazul through the corner of her eye. It was obvious that he was still in pain, despite his efforts to mask it she could see that his jaw was clenched and every so often his eye or hand would twitch slightly. During battles she was even more vigilant, sticking close by in case something happened. But Elazul showed no weakness as he swung his sword, fighting just as well as he had before the injury.
"How did you get out of the house without anyone seeing you?" Venetia asked after they reached the third floor. "The windows are too small, and there's only the one door leading out of the house, but to get to it you would have had to pass by Bud and Lisa, and even if you did succeed in getting past them unseen, I'm sure they would have noticed the door opening and closing."
"I have ways." Was his only reply.
"That's it? That's all you're going to tell me? 'I have ways'? Not even a hint?" she complained lightly.
"..."
"Will you at least tell me it was difficult? Or something only you're capable of? This is very unsettling, I mean if someone can get out unnoticed, that could mean someone can get in unnoticed too."
"Don't worry yourself."
"So you're really not going to tell me? Geeze."
Another battle marked the end of the conversation, and for a while they walked in silence. At the eighth floor, as they headed towards Transportation Device, Venetia spoke again.
"By the way, don't ever do that again."
"Do what again?" Elazul inquired, reaching to push open the doors.
"Scare me like that." Shocked, Elazul stopped and turned to face the human, and she continued with a hot glare. "I think of you two as very good friends. I'm worried about Pearl just as much as you are, the last thing I needed was to have you missing too, and while you're badly injured at that! The whole time as I was coming here, I was terrified I'd never see either of you ever again. So I'm telling you right now. Never do that again, or by the Goddess I will hurt you. And if you die, I'll go to the Underworld and make you wish you really were just some inanimate object."
Speechless, the Jumi knight could only nod, and to his surprise Venetia's glare instantly changed to a friendly smile. She said 'good', and walked past him into the room, even holding the door open for him.
"Well? Aren't you coming?" she asked when Elazul just stood there stunned. He snapped out of it and followed her inside.
---
Venetia watched as Elazul and Pearl left after the battle with Lady Blackpearl, chuckling quietly when Pearl almost went through the wrong door. They were both safe, for now at least. Her smile quickly evaporated as she realised that the next time they might not be so lucky. Sandra was determined to see the Jumi die out, and thus far she'd been quite successful.
'Goddess, please watch over them.' she prayed silently. 'Keep them safe. If anything happened to them...'
She shook her head violently, then headed for home.
--
The End
AN: Legend of Mana is quite possibly the best game EVER. I like how this story came out, but it nearly drove me insane because I couldn't figure out how I wanted to word the ending. Please review if you enjoyed it.