The next morning I woke up stiff as a brick. My back hurt especially...and my head was also a bit sore as well (no doubt from being slammed into the wall yesterday). All this resulted in making me rather clumsy. After tripping over several rocks and somehow failing to see a fallen stone pillar right in front of me (therefore running into it) I just sat around our "fire pit" with my eyes closed, massaging my temples.
"So," Lloyd asked as he helped to pack up our stuff, "Where do we go next?" There was a collective silence, and then someone kicked me in the rear.
"OW!" I yelped, jumping up unsteadily and rubbing my sore tailbone. "What was that for?"
"Where do we go next?" Kratos asked, all prefaces gone (and he was the one who kicked me in the butt, by the way).
"I dunno! Hang on, let me think.." Plopping down on the ground again (as gently as possible) I stared hard at the dirt for a moment, thinking.
Well, we've met Sheena for the second time, so that means... Luin-Hima-Tower of Mana-Luin-Asgard-Balacruf Mausoleum...
"Ya'll are going to hate me for this," I announced as I broke out of my deep concentration and looked around at the others, "But we're going back to Luin again."
"Again? How many times have we been to that city already?" Genis whined, looking a bit crestfallen. Counting silently on my fingers, I reached a grand total and got off the ground, beckoning to Noishe for my ride.
"I make it out to be three so far, and I promise that this is the last time we're going to have to go to Luin for a long while." I promised, hopping onto the protozoan's back and wincing as my sore tailbone made contact. Maybe riding Noishe hadn't been the best idea.
"Well, we do need to stock up on supplies anyway." Raine said, gathering up her pack and walking off, casting a last loving glance at the Balacruf Mausoleum. Lloyd, Genis, Colette, and I all made gross faces at her behavior, before we were shepherded along by Kratos, who looked somewhat annoyed. Possibly because he was stuck with babysitting duty again...
----------
The day passed quickly and somewhat uneventfully. We were attacked by bandits when we crossed the bridge spanning the distance between Asgard and the Mausoleum, but it was a simple matter to fend them off. They may have looked tough, but the poor bastards couldn't defend to save their lives. I had the gross honor of severely maiming someone, but I didn't kill them. When it came right down to it, I really doubted I could kill someone in cold blood. Unless, of course, it was one of those Desian Grand Cardinals (preferably Kvar).
Just my luck it was his ranch we'd get to demolish next...
"Emily, watch out for that-"
I tripped over a very good-sized rock right in front of me and ate dirt for the third time in a week. Ew. Not to mention that my shin was now extremely sore. Sitting up and spitting out dust and grass, I carefully got to my feet and dusted off the lower half of my pants, acutely aware of the confused and embarrassed stares I was getting.
"Umm... Are you okay?" Lloyd asked, looking a bit worried. "You've been kinda...out of it...ever since you woke up this morning."
"Tell me about it." I muttered, motioning for Noishe. I'd stopped riding the protozoan halfway through the morning due to the protests of my tailbone (and the fact that we were attacked by bandits, meaning that the chicken dog had run away) but now it was becoming apparent that I was a danger to my own health with the way this was going. "I think I left my reflexes back at the Balacruf Mausoleum."
"Along with your brains and your sense of balance. You're almost worse than Colette." Genis observed, snickering slightly. Bristling, I tried to ignore him and climbed up onto Noishe, the silver-and-green dog whining as was customary.
"Are you quite finished?" Kratos' voice drifted back to us, leaving Lloyd, Genis, and I to realize that Raine and Colette had gone ahead with Kratos, apparently not aware of my little disagreement with the rock. The three of us made faces in unison, all in Kratos' general direction, before I gently squeezed Noishe about the middle with my legs.
"C'mon boy! Last one to catch up has to eat Raine's cooking tonight!" I proclaimed, Noishe leaping forward with a sharp bark. Behind us, Lloyd and Genis protested loudly.
"No fair! You're on Noishe and Lloyd has longer legs than me!" Genis whined as he tried to catch up with us. Sheesh, but Lloyd almost ran as fast as his own dog.
Despite that fact, I won the race, haha.
"Genis! You have to eat Raine's cooking tonight!"
Before long, the lake that Luin was situated in loomed before us, just as the sun was going down. Due to my being on Noishe, I got there first, and didn't even have to pretend to be horrified. The scene in the game really didn't do this place justice.
"Wha- This is horrible!" Genis' squeak broke out behind me, along with collective gasps from Colette and Raine. Looking back at the others, I saw Lloyd shaking his head in sadness and Kratos surveying the area with a calculating eye.
Luin was in ruins, the houses burned and broken, the bridges shattered, the streets lined with drops of blood and the people gone. In the light of the setting sun, it gave the destroyed town a somewhat sinister look, something this once-peaceful town didn't deserve.
"Well, you don't have to shake a stick to figure out who did it," I muttered under my breath, urging Noishe off towards the wreck of the fountain. "Kvar, you bastard. We'll get you for this..." Underneath me, Noishe growled at the mere mention of his name. Doubtless he still remembered the man who'd turned Anna into a monster and caused Kratos to suffer. Not to mention trying to kill the poor dog and Lloyd as well.
Approaching the fountain, I stiffened momentarily at the sight of Sheena, before I remembered the reason why she was lying on the ground, covered in wounds and half-dead. Sliding off of Noishe, I stepped slowly over to her, picking my way through the puddles that surrounded the ruined fountain and hoping that she still didn't bear any grudges for when I ran over her during that fight in the Mausoleum. "Sheena? Hey, you're not dead are you?"
"Heh.. I might as well be." Clutching a wounded shoulder, Sheena looked up at me with a demented smirk, clearly anticipating this to be her last moments and she was at least determined to go out sarcastically. "Well, what're you waiting for? Go ahead and finish me off." She said, eyes straying to the dagger at my hip. "You won't find a better chance than this."
"Uh-huh. And if I did that, a certain redhead somewhere would be extremely angry with me." I replied dryly, watching Sheena's expression change quickly to shock and then back to her old mask of defiance. "'Cute girls deserve to live long', isn't that one of his mottos?"
"H-how do you know about him?" Sheena gasped. I shrugged, grinning wryly.
"He's public enemy Number One for all women everywhere." I said, chuckling slightly. "I promise I'll tell you all about it when you get better. PROFESSOR!"
A minute later Raine appeared on the path with the others behind her, all panting and looking worried.
"What's wrong? You're not hurt, are you?" She asked. I sweatdropped, embarrassed.
"Is that always your first assumption with me...?" Shaking my head, I continued on with my request. "Anyway, d'ya think you could heal-"
"Hey! It's that assassin person!" ...way to go, Lloyd. Your powers of observation never cease to amaze.
"Oh no! She's hurt! Professor, please heal her!" Colette begged, wringing her hands with worry. I slapped myself in the face. ...hello? Who's listening to me? I just said that...
"But-" Raine suddenly found herself confronted with three pairs of the most soulful-looking puppydog eyes in the universe, contributed by Colette, Genis, and Lloyd. Sighing, I leaned forward and added in my own, though I wasn't sure if mine were quite as soulful. "-Oh, alright! But don't blame me if she slits our throats in our sleep." She muttered under her breath, leaning over Sheena with her staff and going to work.
"So, can you tell us what happened here?" Lloyd asked a minute later, watching Sheena look herself over, amazed that her injuries were gone.
"Yeah, I guess so." She replied, sitting on the edge of the ruined fountain and pulling her feet up out of range of puddles. "The Desians attacked the city and took all the people away. And then, well..." Gesturing to the ruins of Luin with one hand, she sighed. "You can see the results of what they did next..."
"You got hurt trying to save the people of this city, didn't you?" I asked calmly, seating myself next to Sheena on the fountain. My rear end protested violently at the rough accommodations. The lilac-clad ninja nodded.
"Yeah. I owe the people of this city for housing me, so-" Her explanation was cut off by a scream as a tattered traveler ran down the path, a grasshopper following him. Before any of us could really get up to help him, Sheena vanished.
That's really the only way I can describe her actions, other than teleportation. One minute she was next to me, and the next- right in front of that grasshopper and giving it what-for with her little magic cards. The beast hissed, flailing its claws as Sheena pretty much danced circles around the thing, slicing at it with her cards. A minute later it took off squealing, with Sheena giving it a last smack to the rear as encouragement.
"What're you all staring at...?" She questioned, confused, as she strolled back to us like nothing had happened, and killing giant monster bugs everyday was ordinary. I wasn't aware that my jaw had fallen open while watching her fight, but now realizing that my mouth was getting dry made me reach up and shut it.
"That...was cool." Lloyd grinned, getting excited again. "I wish I could fight like that..." Kratos chuckled dryly from his spot behind Lloyd.
"Maybe if you practiced more, you could do that..." The poor swordsman in question winced at the shameless barb, instantly becoming crestfallen.
"Aww, Kratos..."
"Well," Raine sighed, looking about, "It's getting dark and we should find someplace to stay. Let's set up camp..."
"Wait, Raine! Not here..." Everybody stared at me due to my sudden outburst. "Um, I mean not here in front of the fountain! It's really wet and muddy here, and...er..."
"You wanna take a bath, don't you?" Sheena observed. I nodded, giving her a questioning look.
"How'd you know...?"
"You're covered in dust, mud, blood, dirt, and grass. Any sane person would want to get clean." Sheena replied, hopping off the fountain and following Raine back to the main ruins of Luin. She was joined shortly by Lloyd and Genis, leaving only Kratos, Colette, and I at the fountain.
"Now that you mention it... I want a bath too." Colette sighed, looking down at herself. It was clear that her outfit was a little less than pearly white, and her golden hair was starting to look a bit more toned-down. I shrugged, looking over into the fountain. The water might be cold, but... I was so going to get clean, come Hell or high water.
"Hmm... You can probably take one this evening after me." I said, getting off the broken marble edge and dusting off the seat of my pants. "Nobody's going to stop you, Colette... You just have to promise to watch for peepers for me, okay? I'll do it for you."
"Okay!" Colette grinned cheerfully, trotting off down the path to Luin. She tripped over a rock along the way and went face-first in the dirt, but got right back up and kept on going without so much as a cry. I shook my head. That was one evil Cruxis crystal.
"Kratos?" He looked over at me, pausing from his own ascension of the path back to the ruins. "Stop making Lloyd seem inferior. He doesn't have 4,000 years worth of time to hone his skills, he's only 17! And he's doing the best he can."
Kratos was quiet for a long moment. "Sometimes your best just isn't enough." He muttered, before leaving the area. I walked after him slowly, thinking on his words before they actually hit me.
Of course... He tried his best to save Anna, but... Like he said, his best wasn't enough. It's a veiled warning, I realized. If Lloyd can't improve beyond his best, he'll lose Colette... "So, Kratos. You really do care." I whispered softly to myself, half-certain that he heard me.
----------
Later that evening I huddled as close as I could to the campfire without burning myself, freezing my butt off. The fountain water had been cooooooold... My teeth only chattered harder when I tried to clench my jaws together.
Colette had also taken her bath, and wasn't shivering in the least. In fact, she was off somewhere near the lake watching the stars again with Lloyd. Sheena seemed to have mysteriously vanished after dinner, warning us that even though we'd healed her, we were not to expect immediate friendship or anything. Genis and Raine were sleeping, and Kratos...
"Here." Something was dropped about my shoulders, and I realized with shock that it was Kratos' swallow-tail cape.
"K-k-kratos?" I looked up at him in amazement, surprised that he would even do something like this. It was completely outside of his stoic nature.
"I don't need it." Kratos replied in a sort of offhand way, leaving the fireside and heading off towards the small cliff that overlooked the ruins of Luin. "Just be sure to give it back tomorrow..."
"O-o-okay! Th-thanks." I shivered, hugging it tighter around me and snuggling into it, a sort of inner glow spreading through me. I am wearing KRATOS' cape... Yus! I inwardly squealed with glee. Even though the strangely-designed cape may not have looked like the warmest thing in the world, it actually captured body heat pretty well. After I while I began to warm up and feel sleepy, so I started looking around for my faithful pillow, Noishe.
"Damn that dog. Where is he?" I muttered, stumbling around the ruins of the houses. Our camp had been made in the most stable and whole wreck we could find, but Noishe wasn't there. Hence the reason I was now searching around in the other, less-than-safe houses. "Noishe!"
"Bark!" The call of the protozoan came from near the lake, so that's where I went, shaking off ashes and debris along the way. As I emerged from a house I heard Lloyd yelling, and shook my head. It seemed that the dunce had found out about Colette's loss of senses... though I had to admit to myself that using that trick with the coffee had been pretty clever for Lloyd. Then I frowned as I came upon the two of them on the lake's edge, hugging. Eww.
"Whine..." I practically went three feet in the air as Noishe snuck up behind me on his soft paws and shoved his big wet nose into the back of my neck. With both hearts thumping madly in terror, I clutched my chest in an attempt to calm both down and turned to face a snickering protozoan.
"Noishe, you crazy, sneaky, devious, scrawny, funky-colored excuse for a mutt, don't you ever do that again!" I hissed at him, trying to ignore the big dog's evil woofing. "I shall now punish you by riding you back to camp and sleeping on your back all night." His ears went down as I hopped onto Noishe's back and pillowed my head on his. "Now, mush!" Whining dejectedly, Noishe slunk back to camp so we could both go to sleep.
----------
As per habit, we arose far too early next morning to set out for the Asgard Ranch. Heck, it wasn't even light out yet... Since I'd fallen asleep on Noishe's back from last night, I didn't even have to call him for a ride, which was a bonus. The arshis, however, seemed quite grumpy about his constant load and attempted to buck me off several times.
"Noishe..." The dog stopped again for the eighth time this morning, ears back. I sighed and leaned back, bracing myself from the oncoming forward upheaval that would be used in an attempt to dislodge me from clinging to his shoulders.
However, this time was quite different. Instead of throwing himself forward, that evil dog sat down hard, and positioned as I was I slid right off his back onto the ground. "Ow! Noishe!" He snickered in a way that only evil protozoans can, then dashed off ahead to leave me stranded on the ground, forced to walk. "I swear I'm going to kill that dog." I muttered under my breath, getting up and dusting myself off before commencing walking along with the rest of the gang, falling in somewhere behind Genis and in front of Kratos.
"I believe you still have something of mine." My sleepy brain slowly registered that statement, and the fact that I was still wearing Kratos' cape from last night. That took a minute. "Do I get it back?"
"Eh?" I shook my head slightly in an attempt to wake up further. "Oh, right! Sorry..." I said somewhat sheepishly, unfastening the cape and handing it back to Kratos. He took it without ceremony, dusted it off and smoothed out some wrinkles in the fabric before slipping it on.
"Well, I see you didn't destroy it," he remarked, striding past me towards Colette's side. "Thank you."
"No problem." I muttered sleepily, yawning once before jogging after the others in an attempt to catch up.