I'm sorry that it's a day late! I was trying to upload it, but then something during the uploading process was restricting me in uploading a new document. But now, since it's here, here you go, the 6th chapter.

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Chapter 6: Travel Part I

I asked Bayle where he was going. Coincidentally, he was going to Sacae too. He asked me how long I've been traveling, and I told him that it has only been several days. The reason that he wants to go to Sacae, as he told me, was that so he can learn how to wield the sword as the Sacaen's do.

"But, why would you want to learn how to use the swords as Sacaens when you can learn a great sword technique in Lycia, which is closer to you?"

"Aha, that's the reason why. I've already know the Lycian technique, 'specially the one from Thria. I'm from Thria, that's why I want to travel to Sacae, so I can learn their technique, and probably mix them together and make my own combinations."

"I see. Well, that's interesting. … Wait, if your from Lycia, why are you here in Etruia?"

"Haha… that… well, I kind of got err… lost."

"Really?" I chuckled, and started to laugh. He looked at me as if he wanted for me to stop laughing. I tried taking a deep breath and tried not to laugh anymore, "Well, that means that you were way off. Sacae is the opposite way."

"Oh really? Hey, thanks. I'm not good with directions, as you can obviously see. I was going to turn back some time, but then I was thinking that it would be nice to see some of the fighting techniques that they use Etruia."

"Well, most of the fighters here are magic users. It won't help you that much with your sword techniques. Don't you have a map of Elibe? It would help you a lot."

"No, I think adventuring without a map makes it more fun than with it. Who knows? Maybe going to Etruia will help me with my sword techniques. Well, then if you say so, I guess I should make my way… in the right direction."
"That would be a good idea, haha." I said.

"Hey, why don't we travel together? We are going the same way, aren't we?"

"Well, I don't want to be the one slowing you down and being in your way. I don't know how to use a sword, either."

He looked at me like he was surprised, "You don't know how? You've been traveling all this time and you have no means of defense? What's wrong with you?"

"Well… I didn't say that I didn't have any means of defense. I have a fire tome (which I can never use due to my lack of fire conjuring, hey, I just bring it around so that people 'think' I'm a threat) so I'm alright with that, but-"

"No buts. Magic is only good at a distance. Fire is also a weak magic spell. When you get too close, it's too dangerous for the user. It's good to be an 'all-rounder.' Do you have your own sword?"

"I… no, I don't since-"

"Well let's get one! I need to teach you right away!"

It was weird… I only met him about ten minutes ago. When we found out that we had the same destination, he probably assumed that I would travel with him even though I didn't give him my reply. He was treating me as a friend, although we just met. He dragged me to the armory and bought me a sword.

"Here, your present from me as us starting our friendship," he said handing me the sword.

He's already calling us friends? I took the sword from him and thanked him. He then took me outside of the town again to train me to hold and swing the sword. For a person still recovering from fatigue, he sure is pretty energetic. It looks like the elixir works real fast, not only in regaining your health, but your whole vitality as well.

After he taught me some techniques and footwork, I went… we went on our way to Sacae. As we both knew, it would take a long time to get there, but that would be the only flaw, right? Little did we know, we were slightly wrong…

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Caden grabbed her small drawstring bag which she filled with necessities like elixirs, antitoxins, and other remedies.

She walked out to the front of the castle where the others were. They were there to see Florina and her go.

"I'm sorry that we can't have more people accompany you to travel to Ostia. We are limited with guards and soldiers for the time being since they are all reconstructing Caelin and helping the people," Lyn said.

"It's alright, Lady Lyn. Florina and I will do alright traveling to Ostia. We can both ride on Huey for a while, so it will be faster travel. She's a better fighter than me, and because I'm a good observer, I can spot archers somewhat at a distance. If something happens to Florina, you can blame me for it. You have my word that we will be as safe as we can." (1)

"I'm worried for the both of you, but I'm worried about Florina more."

"N-Not to worry, Lady Lyn… Since Caden's with me, she can stand up to the men. I-I'll be fine with her around," Florina replied.

Lyn looked at the two again. She was going to miss them for a while, especially since Florina is going to be out of her sight, and out of her hands. Lyn was always the one to look after her, and with Lyn not protecting her, of course she would be worried for Florina.

"I wish I could go with you two, but since I'm the princess and the heir to the throne, I really can't go anywhere. I wish you two good luck on your travel."

"Thank you, Lady Lyn," Caden said.

They both bowed and got on the pegasus. This was the first time that Caden was on a pegasus too. Caden was slightly afraid of heights, but she tried to put that in the back of her mind since this was a way that they would be going to Ostia faster. After all, Florina has been riding a pegasus practically ever since she joined the military. She didn't doubt her abilities, she trusted her. Caden wanted to ride a horse on her way there, but she was too inexperienced and not strong enough, in her opinion, to ride a horse long distances. She wanted to spend more time in Caelin so that she could ride a horse better, but she didn't want to wait… neither did Lyn for the sake of Florina. Caden thought that the horse and the rider are supposed to be… friends. The more they bonded, the more the horse would listen to the rider. Well, that's what Caden thinks, possibly talking out of the experiences that she's seen with soldiers, and other people with their horses.

As Huey was first flying, Caden was grabbing onto Florina, she feared that she would fall off. Florina noticed since Caden was grabbing her tightly. Usually it was the other way around; Florina would be the scared one. She tried to give Caden words of confidence, and it worked for a little while. Caden started to get used to it, but she was still very terrified since she kept on looking down at the ground. She imagined herself that she would fall off at anytime.

When night came, Huey landed on the ground so that he could rest. He could have gone further with only Florina on his back, but then he had one extra passenger. They gave him water, and Florina was showing Caden how to treat it and feed it.

A little later when the sun was still rising, they continued their trip to Ostia. As they were flying, Caden thought that she saw something… someone.

"Florina… I think I see an archer…" Caden pointed in a direction and squinted to get a better look.

"What? Where!" Florina panicked.

As Caden was observing, she saw that the person was lying down on his back… and in the middle of the field. She tried to look at him closer, but because of their height, she couldn't see well.

"H-Hold on… I don't know if he's an archer or not… but uh… huh…?"

"Huh? Is there something wrong? Is he coming after us?"

"He… doesn't seem like he's doing anything… he just looks like… he's tired. I don't know… just keep on going. I don't want to go down… this reminds me too much of my travels with 'him.'"

Florina looked at Caden confusingly, "K-Keep on going? That's strange coming from you, Caden. Why don't we help him?"

"For all we know, he might just be sleeping… or dead. This isn't our concern. Just keep on flying. Don't stop for him!"

"But… why? Don't you want to help people?"

"Of course I want to help people… not him though. He… can take care of himself. If we do go down there and he's still alive, you wouldn't be the one talking to him, I would. I think that it would be troublesome, so just ignore him."

Florina couldn't believe what was coming out of Caden's mouth, and she tried to hide about what she felt about Caden right now. Florina ignored Caden's command and turned the direction towards the person. Caden was screaming because: 1) she didn't expect Florina to not listen to her and go down there, and 2) … she doesn't like the adrenaline rush. Huey stopped once they landed on the ground again and Florina got off and went up to the person. Caden followed; she wanted to have a word to Florina. But before she could do that, Florina gasped.

Caden went up to her to ask her about what the commotion was, and she found why. It was a person… yes, it was an archer, it was a man, and… he was dead. Caden was observing the body to see the wounds that he had. The wounds were made from arrows, swords, anima magic, and any other weapon that you could think of. Caden, as she was observing the body, was deeply thinking of something. "This body… he looks young… about my age if I estimate. Looking from his recent wounds, he looks like the last hits he received are from magic tomes… more specifically… anima magic and a strong dark magic. He must have died… about two days ago. That's weird… he looks Etruian. He has the clothes and his looks are Etruian-ish as well. Why is there an archer from Etruia? It's unusual to see someone from Etruia who's not a magic user. That would put me in the same category too, haha, no time for going off subject… or laughing. He… looks so familiar though. I know he's from Etruia, but… he reminds me of someone… someone I probably know… but dammit, why can't I put my foot down? It's at the tip of my tongue."

Caden was biting her thumbnail with frustration. Florina was looking at her.

"Is there something wrong, Caden?"

Caden broke her concentration and looked at Florina, "It's… nothing of your concern, Florina. I was just thinking… that's all. Well, let's go then. There's nothing else that we can see here. He's dead… and that's all there is to it."

Florina looked disappointed about Caden's replies, but she still listened to her. They got back on her Pegasus and started to go to Ostia. Caden was still thinking to herself, "Who is this guy? Why does he look familiar? He's from Etruia, but where?" Florina was wondering what Caden was thinking… hey, it's not wrong to ask her, right?

"Um… what are you thinking about, Caden?"

"Huh? Well… the body we saw… he just looks… like I've seen him before… I don't know where though."

"Hm… I see. Well, there's really no reason to ask her further. I'll just leave it at that."

For some reason, Caden felt sad after that encounter. She's seen many dead people before, but this person, who she probably knows, even if it was a slight chance that she did, had an impact on her. She tried shaking the emotion away, and returned to concentrating to go to Ostia.

Caden was still very scared about riding on a Pegasus. This was new to her, and she didn't think that she'll ever get used to this either, especially with her slight acrophobia. There were some instances when Caden wanted to go to sleep, but she thought that her sleeping might mean that she would fall off the horse… which was real dangerous considering their distance from the ground. She tried to stay awake any way she could. It was working for a while, but then she couldn't stay awake any longer, so she asked Florina if they could rest.

Finally, after a couple of days, they made it to the borderline of Ostia. Caden's heart was slightly racing for her meeting with Matthew again. It's been about three weeks since the last time they've seen each other; the same goes for Florina as well with Hector.

"Florina… we're here… in Ostia…" Caden said happily.

"Yes… we are. At last we get to see Lord Hector and the others again."

Others… there are a lot of others and one that comes to mind is that one, outgoing, narcissistic, happy-go-lucky cleric. They'll see her, they know, but they probably might not want to talk to her a lot. They were thankful for her to be in the group, but Caden thought of her to be… too much. Hector was sort of right about that replacement comment he made a few years back. It would have been more… peaceful. (2)

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As me and Bayle were traveling, we saw dead bodies… where ever we went. There was no way through it. Some of the people, as we were observing some of the bodies, looked fresh… meaning that they just died. Others looked like they've been burned to death with a fire spell. I had to know these things because I felt like knowing them, and I like to find out how people died. But sometimes curiosity got both of us into trouble. On those events during the journey, when we saw the newly slain bodies, bandits would ambush us, and Bayle was always there to protect me.

I felt so helpless whenever it came to him fighting bandits. One of the reasons that I wanted to learn how to use a sword was… because I just wanted to learn. The other reason I wanted to learn was… I wanted to help people and not just stand around. I'm a horrible magic user, which is very ironic coming from a person from Etruia, but that's where my tactics came to play. I guess my ability to strategize sort of made up for me not knowing how to use magic. When we were ambushed I felt like I needed some way to protect myself if Bayle wasn't there to help me. I don't want to be the one tying him down… he needs to fight the bandits, and protect me. I didn't want him to do that… we just met and all, and why would he want to risk his life just for a simple stranger… acquaintance… friend, as he says? I was determined to learn how to use a sword. You know… Bayle's idea of combining different techniques together doesn't sound that bad…

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End of Chapter 6: Travel

They're almost there to Ostia, but what's in their way? What will happen at their stay there?

Author's note:

Caden always can change her attitude just like that :snaps, haha. I think it's a little fun having a personality like that, you never know what that person's thinking. Isn't that called borderline personality disorder or something? Haha, just to let you know, Caden doesn't have that.

1) Well, I'm positive that Florina's Pegasus's name is Huey. But please correct me if I'm wrong and I'll fix it up as soon as I can.

2) Part of Hector and Serra Support Conversation C:

Serra – "Well, I'm the only sister in this army!"

Hector – "Yeah, that's true, now that you mention it. Of course, a replacement would work just as well..."

Read Me… Again! Heh… Sorry for this update. I have been busy doing work and I don't think I can keep up with me updating every other Monday, so instead, I'll just update on a Monday, but I don't know what Monday I'll be updating upon. Did that make sense? Oh well, this is due to the lack of material and trying to make my story seem more interesting. Once again, if you have any suggestions, e-mail me at eyedonno89 at yahoo. Please don't leave a suggestion in your review. I check my e-mail usually everyday, and I do read your reviews, but it's better for me if you e-mail it to me. I won't bite, haha.