A/N: There is some sort of huge writing discrepancy in style here or something. I started writing this almost four years ago. ._. A lot's changed.
"I advise that you get up now, before I try other, less - than - humane tactics to get you out of bed."
My brain fuzzed. Was that Kratos? Ehh, who cared. Muttering something incomprehensible, I rolled over on my side and pulled all the blankets closer, aware of a furry lump beneath my head. Hmm, Noishe tail as pillow. Nice.
"Fine, have it your way. A morning dunking should wake the two of you right up..." If I'd been more awake and paying attention, I would've heard the slight evil chuckle that accompanied the above statement. But, being braindead and sleepy as I was, I didn't, and therefore wasn't aware of my impending doom.
Well, too aware, anyway.
Seconds later, my sleepy mind registered the fact that I was apparently being dragged along the ground by my blankets. Wait, ground? No, it was rocks. Wait... No, it was something soft and scratchy. And, for some reason, strangely moist...
That's because he's going to dump you into the lake, moron, the rational side of my head scolded, before sitting back and holding up an umbrella.
No he isn't, the sleepy half retorted with all the stubbornness of Gnome, trying to resume a previous state of near - comatose slumber. Kratos isn't that cold heart -
KER - SPLASH!
"YAUGH!" I shot out of the water so fast I nearly left my clothes behind. Shaking and dripping, I scooted over to the ashes of last night's fire and tried to roast myself over them via stick.
"That's not going to work, you know," Kratos commented from nearby with a sort of cynical amusement, before glancing over at the lake. Lloyd still had yet to get splashed by an incoming wave, like I had. Lucky bastard. "I think I should hurry him along," the mercenary mock - sighed, like this was such a painful procedure for him to go through every morning. Privately, I was willing to bet money that he got some sort of kick out waking us up in the most uncomfortable ways he could think of, but who knew with Kratos.
Down by the lake, the redhead whispered some words to the air, a small spell circle forming under his feet. The lake responded by suddenly rearing up due to a violent gust of wind, and then a fairly good - sized wave came crashing down upon poor sleepy Lloyd.
Now, I was also willing to bet that people in Tethe'alla heard him yelp, then curse everything from Aska to Shadow to kingdom come. On my end, the noise generated was enough to shake Raine, Genis, Colette, and Sheena out of slumber.
"What's going on?" Raine muttered blearily, reaching for her staff with one hand and rubbing her eyes with the other. Colette was staring at the beach with a mix of awe and horror, while Genis just stared blankly ahead for a moment before flopping backwards with a loud snore.
Sheena, however, was out of her blankets and had her cards out in the time it took to blink. That made me do a double - take, and then yawn.
"Chill out, Sheena. 's just Kratty waking Lloyd up with 'is usual sadistic tactics..."
"Oh." The ninja blinked once, then headed back to her bed. Did I mention it was earlier in the morning than most sane people should be up? Also, note the key word here. Sane. Sighing, I figured I should try to salvage what little bits left of sleep that I could when I remembered that my blankets were all still in the lake, and sopping wet to boot.
"Dammit!" I growled, marching past Colette back down towards the lake whilst checking to make sure my Hydra Dagger was still there. The blonde angel blinked twice in confusion, before speaking.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to beat the tar out of that no - good purple - wearing pansy - assed lake - dunking mercenary, for starters," I replied, watching Kratos issue some sort of lecture to Lloyd, no doubt about the values of waking up early or something. "Then I'm gonna steal someone else's blankets and go back to freakin' bed." Colette just nodded slowly. Being almost all angel and therefore unable to sleep, I figured she wasn't able to grasp how important my forty winks were to me.
But anyway. On to the slaughter. Hydra Dagger out, I flipped it around in my palm once before trotting down to the shore. I arrived just in time to witness the tail end of an argument between Lloyd and Kratos, on sleeping habits and why one should not be disturbed between the hours of nine and twelve PM. At least, that was what our resident dual - swordsman was defending.
And for the record, I wholly supported him on his stand. Down to the 'effin LETTER.
" - tos, why can't you at least wake me up like normal people do?"
"And how would that be?" Kratos replied calmly, utterly unphased by this whole thing. Trotting down the beach, I took up a position next to Lloyd and pointed my dagger at the Offender of Sleep.
"Render him unconscious for the next forty - eight hours?"
Lloyd drew his swords with a cross between what looked like a smirk and evil glare. "You're dead, old man."
"I beg to differ - " Kratos began, then swiftly drew his sword to block Lloyd's opening strikes before taking off into the woods. Whooping like a pair of banshees on crack, we followed the mercenary waving our weapons in the air and calling him every single insult we could think of.
While we were unaware that the noise we were making was keeping everyone up, Raine tiredly grabbed a skillet and began to start breakfast.
----------
"Freakin' monotone mercenary! Hold STILL!" I snarled at Kratos, ducking under the blade of his sword, which was currently occupied with Lloyd. Dagger snaking forward, I made for a sideways jab to the ribs when Kratos reached over and shoved me right in the face. That in turn made me give out a muffled yelp, lose balance, and fall off the tree limb we were fighting on to the ground. On my already - injured face.
If I was Zelos Wilder right then I probably would've pouted and sicced the Pope on Kratty, but I was not a certain Chosen womanizer and therefore didn't have a problem. Well, aside from the fact that my nose was bleeding a little, but heck. Yanking a handkerchief from my pocket, I held it to my nose until the bleeding subsided, then dashed off after Lloyd and Kratos, still going at it in the trees.
Judging from the sparks flying around in the branches overhead, for all I knew they could've been trying to kill each other. Either way, I jumped to the nearest low branch I could find, suddenly noticing the amazing increase in my self performance. Musing on it for a moment, I was then reminded of my benefactor when the Demon's Heart gave a sickening 'thump' on my chest. Ah, right. Exsphere substitute. Moving on.
"Can't you think of a better way to train us at least, y'old goat?" Lloyd hollered at the man barely inches away from his face, red - brown eyes narrowed with concentration. "'stead of trying to kill us?"
"Need I remind you, you attacked first," Kratos replied placidly, before a small smirk flashed across his features. "And your guard is down." Quicker than my eye could follow, the Seraph jabbed his fingers into Lloyd's side and made him flail backwards with a loss of balance, before jumping swiftly away.
Wincing, I stood partially hidden in the shadows of the tree branches and watched as Lloyd windmilled wildly before falling backwards to land 'THUMP!' on the ground, winded and somehow without stabbing himself in the process.
"You okay?" I called down, quickly glancing around to make sure Kratos wasn't about to ambush me as I headed out onto the branch. Lloyd gave a pained grunt from down below, before gasping and starting to sit up. Hmm, he takes a headbutt from Iubaris with no problem, but Kratos knocking him off a tree takes him out, one - hit K.O. Some days I wondered about that boy.
"Lloyd is fine. He will have bruises, but he is fine."
I screamed and practically fell headfirst out of the tree again as Kratos magically appeared inches behind me on my same branch. Flailing around, I grabbed the branch overhead for stability with one hand and fumbled for my dagger with the other, whirling around to face that gat - danged sneaky seraph. And hope he didn't stab me in the gut or something. That would be bad, yes. "K - K - Kratos! Don't DO that to me, dammit!"
His one visible eyebrow quirking, Kratos looked quite amused as he glanced from me to the ground and Lloyd. Pausing a moment, he seemed to sigh, and then looked back in the direction of the camp. "As much fun as it is to knock you both around the forest all morning, I have better things to do," he said finally, cloak rustling as he shifted position. "So here's the deal. I am going back to camp. Raine is cooking breakfast. If you two beat me back, I will do some cooking. You don't, you eat poison. See you in camp." And then, dangit, Kratty just vanished from the tree.
I gaped, brain still processing that statement, before beginning to seriously wig out. I had no wishes to repeat yesterday's experiences, thankyouverymuch. "LLOYD! Get UP, dammit! Kratty's trying to kill us!"
"...wha?" Lloyd asked muzzily, looking up at my tree. "Again...?"
"Well, indirectly this time, but whatever!" Leaping down to the ground, I raced over, snagged the ribbons on the back of Lloyd's shirt and then ran for my freakin' life whilst dragging the thrashing swordsman behind me.
----------
"...oh shit no."
Because, my friends, as you might have guessed, Kratos was sitting there by the fire, looking smug and chowing down on what looked to be the remains of French toast. NORMAL French toast. Wheezing, I just stared at him for a moment before dropping Lloyd and hitting the dirt myself, totally drained. Right now, I didn't even think I had the energy to eat something. But that was a good thing, presumably.
The others just kinda stared at us. Both covered in leaves and twigs, scratched up, and now currently lying prone on the ground. There was a moment of silence, during which Genis got a stick and poked at Lloyd. Growling, the dual swordsman reached up to weakly swipe the offending stick away, and then went back to being a vegetable.
"...did you have a nice training session?" Colette asked finally, for lack of conversation starters. I mumbled something unintelligible under my breath. "...Professor, what did those words mean?"
Kratos chuckled quietly to himself, while the others stared at him. Sanctimonious bastard. "She says it went very well, Chosen."
I summoned up enough energy to weakly lift one hand and give Kratos The Finger. Everybody stared blankly at it.
"...and what does that mean?"
"Go get bent," I grumbled into the dirt. All the relevant members of our party stared for a second longer, while Kratos went back to ignoring our plight and started to pack up the campsite in preparation for the day's journey.
"...does that have some sort of special meaning where you come from?" Raine asked finally, curious as to any and all special knowledge about where I came from. Her voice had a tinge of its usual ruin mania to it, which instantly made me wary of lectures and/or long question and answer sessions. I hadn't had to undergo one of those yet, and I really didn't want to.
"Yeah, Raine. It means go out, get drunk, father some illegitimate children, and never pay child support," I said, scraping myself off the ground and looking blearily at the remains of whatever the Professor made for breakfast. I thought it might have been scrambled eggs, but I wasn't sure they were supposed to be bluish in tinge and have what appeared to be orange peels sprinkled over them. Since I was obviously not eating that for breakfast, I supposed I was just going to have to starve until lunch. While Raine was whipping out a notebook and writing down everything about the previous conversation we'd just had, I nudged at Lloyd with a toe. He was still facedown on the ground and seemed to be trying to merge with it. "Heeey. C'mon, might as well pack up our crap before Sir Angsty McEmo over there decides to leave us."
"What did you call me?"
"OH KIND AND GRACIOUS MASTER THAT WE LOVE SO VERY MUCH but not really," I yelled the first part and mumbled the second so low Genis and Colette could barely hear it, but they both dissolved into giggles anyway.
"I like that nickname," Genis snickered, reaching for his pack and pulling out a small notebook. I took that moment to pout that everyone seemed to have notebooks but me. "That's definitely going on The List."
"There's a list?"
"Yep," the half - elf mumbled absently, busy scribbling. "I'll show you later."
"We wrote it after we left Triet!" Colette added brightly, giggling. "It was Genis' idea."
"I want to see this list," Sheena said, leaning over Genis' shoulder to look at his book. Genis abruptly snapped it shut and hugged it to his chest.
"I said I'd show you later! Leave me alone,"
"Sheeeesh, touchy," Sheena made a face down at him, before looking over at me. "Oh by the way, I fished your blankets and stuff out of the lake. They're on the tree over there," she pointed over to a small sapling strewn with blankets on the lower limbs. "I figured they'd dry out faster."
"You are the world's best ninja," I said, checking to make sure everything was in my pack before trotting over to retrieve my bedding. It was only slightly damp, and I figured if I folded it loosely enough it would be able to dry out the rest of the way in my pack. Tossing the cloth in the air to fluff it out, I folded it and tucked it away in my bag before reaching for Lloyd's blankets. They were a little damper, so I dangled them from an arm's length as I headed back towards the others. Lloyd still hadn't moved, and Genis had resorted to poking him with a stick while Colette watched.
"I think he's dead,"
"No! Lloyd can't be dead! We need him to finish the trip!"
"I bet we'd move a lot faster if he was dead,"
"Your ass would be grass if he was dead," I snorted dryly, dropping the swordsman's damp blankets on top of his head. Perhaps it was the wetness of the cloth that made his body respond; Lloyd's legs twitched for a second.
Genis made a face at me. "Nu - uh. We'd survive without Lloyd just fine."
"We have Mister Kratos and the Professor and now Sheena," Colette added, smiling as she checked the contents of her bag to make sure everything was in place.
"Would you please stop talking about me like I'm not even here?" Lloyd groaned from underneath his blankets. Genis, Colette, and I all scrambled to our feet with pretend shrieks.
"EGADS, IT'S ALIIIIIIVE,"
Lloyd made a sort of disgusted grunting noise and flailed his arm weakly at us for a second before going limp again. "I hate you all."
"Good news Lloyd, we hate you too," I informed him, stuffing my blankets in my pack and hoisting it on my back. "We'll be sure to send you a postcard when we get to Hima." With that, I tromped off whistling for Noishe. Screw walking and exercise, I was tired and I was going to ride the rest of the way to Hima.
From behind me, I caught the tail end of Colette's reassurances to Lloyd that nobody really hated him and that yes, we were going to wait for his lazy ass to get up and move.
But not in those exact terms, of course.
------
By now, I was paranoid.
We had gone a whole day -- a whole day -- without getting jumped by monsters. I couldn't believe it. I'm sure the others thought I was high on some kind of drug, what with the way I was twitching around on Noishe, fidgeting and squirming and trying to look in all directions at once. The protozoan let out an annoyed whine, curling his lip to suggest that if I didn't cut it the heck out, I was going to be eating dirt.
Finally, Sheena broke the wall of snickering and stares. "If you don't mind my asking, what is your problem?" I answered in the only way I knew how.
"WHY AREN'T WE DEAD YET?" I hollered, making Noise jump and yelp. The entire group as a whole deadpan stared at me.
"...shouldn't you be glad you're alive?" Lloyd asked after a moment, looking at me like I was going to pull my dagger and slit my wrists any minute now. "You're not suicidal or anything, are you?"
"Oh my goddess, Lloyd knows the word suicide - " Genis squealed when a certain red - clad swordsman thwacked him over the head a second later.
"Shut it, Genis!"
Colette was doing that thing where she clenched her fists and nervously wrung them in front of her. "Lloyd's right! We should all be happy that we're alive! The Goddess wouldn't be happy if we died,"
"Woah woah woah. Before this turns into a theological discussion and no, I am NOT suicidal," I added sharply to Lloyd, who made a face at me, "What I mean is: Where are all the fucking monsters?!"
Raine stopped walking for a moment and looked back, a thoughtful expression crossing her face. "You're right. This is rather unusual," she mused, in a way that suggested her brain was already forming several hypothesises to this problem. Her gaze then flicked to the rest of us, looking fairly reminiscent of one who is trying to decide what makes the best live bait. Noishe instantly whined and slunk behind Kratos for protection, bringing me along with him.
I tried to avoid wetting myself in accordance to the icy death glares the mercenary was shooting at me. Like I was going to try and glomp him again, really. I kinda liked having a spleen and everything.
Lloyd and Genis instantly recognized the look the Professor was giving them. Rather prudently, they grabbed Colette and hid behind Sheena, who stared warily between them and Raine, not quite sure what was going on with this picture.
"Ms. Sage." Kratos' icy tone broke the silence. "As fascinating as it is that nothing has yet appeared today to hinder our journey, we really must be moving on before something does happen."
For a second, Raine looked at him like she was going to pummel him with her staff and give him a lecture about the importance of not hindering learning, but then apparently what shreds of common sense she had left took over. "You're right. Come on, Hima's not very far away now."
"And neither is the darkness," Kratos observed dryly, striding forward again to resume his spot at the head of the group. Chastised and somewhat disappointed, Raine followed, along with Sheena and then the very cautious bundle of Lloyd, Genis, and Colette. Noise was prancing along beside Kratos, occasionally reaching over to shove his wet nose down his collar. The mercenary did not look very amused.
After a second, a revelation hit me. "Hey, wait. It's Sunday, isn't it?"
"...it's what?"
Orite. Different calendar days here in Sylvarant. Bugger. Frowning, I screwed up my face and tried to think. So what would be their equivalent of a Sunday?
My brain responded after a moment with a big, merry 'fuck you'. I mentally returned the favor, before turning to the greatest source of knowledge in the group. "Hey Raine, what's the first day of a week here?"
The Professor blinked at me.
"...what day do you go to church on?"
"Devout followers of Martel attend services everyday," Colette replied, her expertise in matters of the church being a little higher than that of Raine. "However, most of the more important services are held every Origin's Day."
"Origin's Day?" I asked, probably regretting the flood of information that might follow.
"The Day of Origin, or Origin's Day, celebrates the day the world was first created by the Goddess Martel," Colette spouted, almost parrotlike. "It is also the day that the Tower of Salvation first appeared."
"Coincidentally, the end of the Kharlan War and the regeneration of Sylvarant by the Chosen Spiritua also fall on this day," Raine added, looking thrilled that someone was interested in doing some learning on this trip. "The Day of Origin is a highly important day for devout followers of Martel."
"Does it come once a year or what?" I mumbled, before my mouth could get the message to shut up and stop asking.
"Why yes, it does. Festivities last all day, and they are simply fantastic."
"Thanks Professor, 's all I needed to know," I muttered into Noishe's neck fur before she could go off on some huge religious rant on me. This apparently meant I was the only one judging my time in calendar days, and I didn't even know what their calendar was like. Oh bugger. I was evidently going to be asking some more timekeeping questions later.
Up ahead, the tall grass and sparse trees gave way to a rockier surface as the mountain trail that housed Hima loomed into view. And unlike the game, it's not some smooth little gravel slope that you just trot on up - Oh no, it's fairly steep and lined with these angry, jagged looking rocks. Adventurers must have been nuts to build a town up here. I took one look at it and my face fell when Noishe bunched up his shoulders like he was going to buck me off. Looks like I would have to scramble my own way up to Hima.
And scramble we did! Oh lordie, you should've seen us.
"Why the hell couldn't they maintain this stupid pathway better?" I groused to the air, scrambling over a large rock and then trying not to faceplant when the ground suddenly dropped down two feet. "Who the fuck builds a town on the side of a mountain anyway?"
"Hima is the town of adventurers," Raine pointed out, picking her way delicately over a line of converging stones. "I imagine only the adventurous sort would come up here."
"Well those 'adventurous sort' must've been hit by one too many rocks on their way up here," I muttered, panting as I scrabbled my way along and tried not to slip on loose gravel. "Couldn't even maintain their own freakin' pathway."
"I think that's sort of the point," Genis snapped, before he suddenly tripped over a rock and went down on his face while at the same time grabbing for Lloyd's ribbons for balance. Lloyd yelped and made a noise like a dying Chocobo when he was suddenly yoinked backwards, windmilling his arms in the air wildly for balance.
"Geniiiis! Let go! You're strangling me,"
I made a face at their stupidity and kept climbing.
"The view is pretty from up here, isn't it?" Colette commented, looking down through the slight cloudy mist at the vista below. Since Colette was an angel, she had wings, and therefore she could fly over this rocky hell. Lucky bitch. I myself made no comment, because I was deathly scared of heights and if I looked down over the edge, I would probably freeze up and/or go splat down the side of the mountain.
"Yes, indeed. I hear you can get an excellent view of the Tower of Salvation from the top of this mountain," Raine nodded, using her staff in place of a walking stick to help her keep her balance while climbing. "Colette dear, do you think you could tell us when we're getting close to Hima?"
"Sure Professor! I can see it right now," Colette chirped cheerfully, pointing up the path. "Mister Kratos and Sheena are almost there!"
Ah yes, Kratos and Sheena. You may notice that I haven't mentioned them for a while. Well, from the minute we started climbing up this godforsaken path, they've been competing to see who is the Ultimate Ninja. Or not really, but I don't know anymore. Sheena took off up the hill using her mad ninja skills, probably because she's so freakin' worried about Pietro, and Kratos took off after her because...I dunno. Maybe he's paranoid she's going to murder Pietro or something. Or set up a trap to try and kill us once we heal Pietro. Either way, they were out of sight in thirty seconds and we haven't seen them since.
Besides, it's not like we're going to get attacked by monsters or bandits on this path, ononevar. Dammit Kratos, get back here.
Finally, like a vision of paradise, the large building that served as an inn and Everything Else in Hima loomed before us, along with the ground gradually getting less steep. Panting in relief, I trudged my way up to nice flat ground, and flopped on my arse at Kratos and Sheena's feet. "Oh Martel, I don't ever wanna do that again."
"You will have to if you want to leave the mountain," Kratos informed in a toneless voice. I'm sure all the color drained from my face.
"Oh fuck that, man. I'm just gonna throw myself over the edge and hope I survive when I splat on the ground howevermany seconds later."
Kratos made an irritated 'hmph' sort of noise, turning his attention to Raine and Colette as they came into view. Colette was helping the Professor over the last few rocks and up the hill, her wings having been retired into her back so as not to attract too much attention. That made almost our entire little group reassembled, but there was a notable lack of Genis and Lloyd.
So Sheena stated the obvious. "Hey, where are the other guys?"
In the moment of silence that followed, I scooted over to the edge of the path and looked down, trying to ignore the slightly dizzy feeling that came over me as I did so. There among the rocks was a blue and white blob on the back of a red blob. Cupping my hands to my mouth, I yelled down. "HEY! WHAT'S THE HOLDUP?"
"GENIS SPRAINED HIS ANKLE FALLING OVER THAT ROCK!" Lloyd hollered back, sounding slightly winded in the process. I guess he wasn't fully over almost being strangled. "GONNA COME HELP?"
"HELL NO," I yelled back down, when I was aware of maybe three death glares boring into the back of my head. Looking backwards, I was particularly struck by the evil eyes of Raine, who looked like she would punt me back down the hill if I didn't go and help her precious baby brother. "I MEAN, UH - aw shit, c'mon guys. Why don't you send Colette? She can fucking fly."
Glare.
"I don't mind going," Colette piped up after a second, therefore saving my ass from getting kicked down the mountain. Trotting to the edge of the path, the blonde extended her wings and fluttered off on her rescue mission while the others just glared at me in a way that clearly said 'LEARN FROM HER SELFLESSNESS'.
I don't ever want to be as selfless as Colette, because then that means I would DIE. I would like to take a few more turns around the sun or...whatever they have here, thankyouverymuch.
So we all just stood (or in my case, sat) around while they hated on me. Aw guys, don't hate on me, really. You all saw how much I sucked at climbing up those rocks, c'mon. I'd probably kill myself trying to go back down to help.
"Here they are!" Colette announced cheerfully as she fluttered back into view, once again saving me, this time from the agony of endless death glares. The blonde fluttered down to earth holding Genis in her arms, whom she carried over to Raine so the frothing half – elf could carry out a quick preliminary examination of how bad his injury was. Lloyd came panting his way up soon after to flop belly first on the ground next to me with a loud groan.
After a moment of meditative thought, I prodded him in the side with a finger.
"I swear I'm going to break that, whatever it is," Lloyd mumbled into the dirt, lifting his head up fractionally a few inches to glare at me out of the corner of his eye. I recoiled, dramatically clasping my hand over my heart in a mock swoon.
"Oh Lloyd, how you wound me so! …seriously man, quit glaring at me." …before I develop some sort of complex or something. Aaaaaagh.
"I believe I shall secure us some rooms at the inn," Kratos informed Raine, ignoring any and all other shenanigans going on within his vicinity. "As well as ascertain the whereabouts of Pietro."
"I'll go on ahead and check on him quick," Sheena chipped in, before she dashed off in a blur of purple. Kratos whuffed a little, before grabbing some of our bags and coolly striding off towards the inn with Noishe following him.
"Well, it looks like all you need is a little rest, Genis," Raine informed her little brother, after poking and prodding at his ankle for several moments. "Let's head on into the inn and deal with Pietro, shall we?"
"Oh, I do hope he's still doing all right," Colette fretted as our little group drudged our way over towards the inn. Despite how small the area looks in the game, it's actually pretty big. The plateau of rock that makes up Hima is wider, and the path leading up towards the graveyard and even to the summit is much steeper and fuller of gravel. I had to wonder how they managed to shuttle people up there when they wanted to bury someone. Maybe they pushed them off the roof onto a flatter part of the trail. But yes, Colette speaking and worrying and angsting as usual about the fate of the world and everyone in it. "We got so caught up in seal breaking and Luin, he could be dead by now… That would be so awful! And it'd be all my fault…"
"It wouldn't be your fault, dear," Raine assured her as she guided Colette and Genis up the stairs, supporting her little brother with one arm. Lloyd and I slowly flailed along after them, too tired to say much or even care. I was covered in two inches of dirt, I wanted a bath. "I'm sure we'll be able to save him now."
Thusly, our poor bedraggled party streamed into the inn. Kratos was chatting quietly at the counter with the clerk when we emerged into the lobby, and he didn't even give us a second glance as we all trudged up the stairs to the second floor. I had never been here before in my life, obviously, and thus I had underestimated the amount of stairs it takes to go up a level in this place. The game lets you zip up them lickity split, but not here. Geez there must've been like forty of the bastards, and I groaned every time I took a step. I had no idea how Raine was managing to haul Genis up along with her. Colette, obviously, was not very bothered with the no – pain thing going on. I glanced back once to see Lloyd pulling himself up by the stair rail and grumbling something, though I couldn't quite catch what it was.
Eventually we got up onto the second floor, staggered down the hallway, and headed into Pietro's room. Sheena, no surprise, was already there and chatting with his caretaker about his condition. "There you all are," she said, whirling about when we entered and striding over. "He hasn't gotten worse, but he also hasn't gotten better, either."
"That's good, I suppose," Raine said, letting Genis down on a chair so he could sit and rest his ankle before she headed over to Pietro's bed, pulling out Boltzman's book as she did so.
"Is that it? The healing technique? Can you finally heal Pietro?" The girl asked hopefully, flitting around on the other side of the bed and staring at Raine as the professor flipped through the book, humming thoughtfully to herself. I had half a mind to tell her that running back and forth chirping like an injured bird wasn't going to make the process go any faster.
Raine was silent, staring at something on the page for a long time before she shook her head a little and shut it. "I'm sorry," she said, lifting her head to give the anxious girl a sad smile. "The technique is in here, but I'm afraid I'm not skilled enough yet to learn it. I still lack a few of the items."
"So you can't heal him?" I stared hard at this girl, trying to remember her name from the game. It really sucked when there was a lack of floating speech bubbles containing all the pertinent information you needed to know. Raine, meanwhile, shook her head again.
"No. I promise that I will be able to heal him. Just help him hold on a little longer." The Professor tucked Boltzman's book lovingly back into her pack, while the others just stared at her a bit. Raine Sage, not able to heal someone? What blasphemy was this?
I smothered back a yawn and let the script unfold. No sense in rushing things along too much, I was tired as hell and didn't want to jump back into the world of battles and butt – kicking right now.
"So this guy… He escaped from the Asgard Human Ranch, right?" Lloyd asked from where he was sitting next to Genis' chair, crosslegged on the floor. Genis mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'DUH', and Lloyd made a face at him.
"Oh… Yes, he did. It's how he got this curse," the girl whose name I cannot remember said, crossing her arms and looking particularly sad for a moment.
"Did he say anything specific when he got here?" Sheena asked, tilting her head to the side. "About how he got out? Was he carrying anything on him?"
"Well, um…" The room went silent for a moment as nameless girl folded her head into her chest for a moment, apparently deep in thought about what conspired that day. Raine and Sheena leaned forward a bit to listen more intently, while Genis and Lloyd yawned at the same time and slumped so that Genis was resting his arm on Lloyd's head. I decided the floor might not be such a bad place myself and promptly flopped, my legs folding under me like a lawn chair. "That day… He said he came out from the yard of the ranch, I think. And… something about a boulder. He used a boulder to block the exit?"
"A boulder..." Raine looked like she was considering something for a moment. Sheena was nodding at this new bit of information.
"Did he say anything else?"
"No, that was all before he collapsed." The girl gave Pietro a worried look for a moment, reaching over to smooth out some nonexistent wrinkles in his sheets.
"Did we even see a boulder when we were there?" Genis asked, still leaning on Lloyd's head. The other boy shrugged, yawning and pausing when he finally realized that someone was using him for an armrest.
"Hey, gitoff Genis - !"
"Hello mister Kratos!" Colette chirped suddenly, three seconds before the door swung open and said swordsman entered the room. The bunch of us looked at the angel strangely, while she herself seemed blissfully unaware of our scrutiny. "Did you hear about the ranch?"
"Yes, I heard. And yes, there was something a bit unnatural when we went there," Kratos said, cutting off Raine as she opened her mouth and then shut it again. "Though I find it hard to imagine how we could have completely missed a boulder."
For a second there, it looked like some sort of argument was going to break out between everyone who cared to question Kratos' observation and Kratos himself, but nameless girl over there in the corner made a quiet little noise and spoke up again, fiddling with her dress for a moment. "Um. There is…also this," leaning down, she pulled open a drawer and dug around in it to pull out a small orb. It was a bit larger than a softball, easily taking up the palm of someone's hand. It was also a translucent black in color, with transparent purple flecks that seemed to float through the center of it. "Pietro was hiding this from the Desians."
And there, finally, was the all important Desian Orb. In an odd way, it was strangely beautiful, with the sparkling floating specks throughout the black miasma. I didn't particularly want to touch it, though. "Professor, do you think it has something to do with the ranch?" Colette asked, gently tugging on Raine's sleeve. The professor looked a bit surprised for a second, before nodding her head.
"Yes… Yes, it may very well be. Do you mind if we take it with us?" She asked, while nameless girl looked a bit surprised and hesitant, her hands closing more tightly around the orb. "We want to infiltrate the ranch and rescue the people of Luin held there. That may be very important to completing our goal."
"Please, please let us borrow it!" Colette chimed in, doing the cute little fretting and hand – shaking thing she does when a touch of angelic charm is required. "We'll take good care of it!"
"…very well. I hope it helps you," nameless girl said finally, handing over the orb to Raine. I wondered for a moment if there was something about the thing we couldn't see, because the Professor shuddered for a second and very quickly tucked the orb into her pack. "Please come back soon and heal Pietro,"
"I will as soon as I am able," Raine promised, which prompted a mass exodus from Pietro's sickroom. Soon we were all crowded out into the hall, standing around wondering what to do. Through the fog of my brain, I leaned against the wall and listened to Raine and Kratos have a quick adultlike discussion on how best to proceed with the knowledge we had garnered. I gathered the phrases 'rest for the night', 'plan carefully', 'leave in the morning', and 'manage time efficiently'.
See if you can guess who said what in that conversation, I dare you.
"The rooms are down the hall," Kratos said finally, which is the only thing the teenage members of our group paid attention to. I pushed myself up off the wall as Lloyd slogged past with Colette, the two of them holding Genis up to escort him to his room. As I slimed my way after them, I couldn't help but notice Sheena exchange a few words with Raine and slip back into Pietro's room with her. Perhaps they were trying to get more details out of the lady, or perhaps they were trying to think of another cure for him. Gradually I also became aware of Kratos walking behind me due to the distinct sound of clinking weapons and leather, though he headed down the stairs again and out the door. My guess was that he was going to bitch to Noishe about us and our stupidity.
Although, what did I care about him and his personal agenda? I had my own needs to take care of, the first of which was screaming SLEEP at me. Then BATH, and then FOOD. I'm not quite sure why my brain works the way it does.
Colette, it seemed, was still in the boys' room when I headed into ours, although her stuff had already been deposited in there on a bed. Taking the opposite one, I took a moment to drop my back and shove it under the bed before collapsing on top of the mattress, letting my exhausted body sink into unconsciousness.
--
I managed to sleep into the evening with a few hours nap, and when I woke up it was business as usual at an inn. I managed to get in my bath before dinner, and sat at the table with a towel around my neck for my damp hair to rest on while our group devoured the chow and observed the other travelers sitting at the table. Apparently there were other people nutty enough to climb that rocky hell trail to get up here, as a small group of so called 'adventurers' sat down at the end of the table swapping stories with each other rather noisily and with copious amounts of beer. The Bunch (as I liked to think of us) of Lloyd, Genis, Colette, and I, listened to them with half an ear and occasionally made faces.
One guy happened to be boasting about riding from Asgard to Hima on the back of a giant praying mantis monster we occasionally encountered. Lloyd took the liberty of pretending to be a bug and gnawing on Genis' head, at least until Raine reached over to give his ribbons a tug and got him to sit the heck down properly and eat his dinner like a good boy.
And as usual, Kratos said nothing and ate little. Nothing really worth commenting on, because that's just how he is. Though I did notice Colette doing a good job of trying to hide the fact that nothing on her plate had actually been touched by pushing things around with her fork and making them into smaller mounds. I felt a bit sorry for her, but what was I supposed to do? We couldn't bring Noishe in here for her to pass her meals off on.
After dinner, we were all free to flee from Raine and her dreaded homework in pursuit of more interesting things. More specifically, Genis' List. I was dying to see this, for serious. And so was Sheena, though she was masking her curiosity reasonably well.
"Hi guys!"
I somehow managed to avoid slamming my head on the ceiling when Lloyd's head appeared outside our window, with Sheena and Colette looking up from whatever book the blonde angel was showing her. "Lloyd what are you doing,"
"You guys wanted to see The List, right? We thought it'd be more private out here!" He chirped back, grinning a bit before scrabbling his fingers on our window. "Geez, why d'ya have it locked?"
"In case you've forgotten, there's a creeper who has a habit of coming in through windows," I replied dryly, unhooking the latch and shoving up the sill to display Lloyd in all his fresh – air glory. The brunette frowned a bit in memory, before shaking his head and moving out of the way.
"Well, c'mon. Genis is up here," floated his voice from somewhere above our room, out of my sight range. I bit my lip a bit nervously, sticking my head out to take stock of the roof. There was a good bit there and it wasn't steep, and there appeared to be a bit of that stone path nearby that lead up to the graveyard. Easy fire escape, at least. I had climbed on a few roofs in my time, so I carefully climbed out and up around the window to where Lloyd and Genis were sitting on the top of the building. Behind me, Sheena helped Colette out through the window, and soon enough our group was all assembled around the little half – elf.
"Listplz,"
"Fine, fine. But you can't look at any of the other pages," Genis grumbled, slowly unclasping the book he was hiding close to his chest and flipping through it. Judging from the manner he was treating it, I hazarded a guess that this was Genis' personal journal he was about to show us. Wow, that took guts. "Here it is."
Sheena and I promptly crowded around him and stuck our heads over his shoulders to look. The book was small and had plain, lined pages, covered with a somehow neat childish scrawl that was somewhat close to printing. Raine had certainly drilled Genis on his penmanship, that was for sure, but as a bonus it made his writing very easy to read.
The List (as compiled by Genis, Colette, and Lloyd!)
Below that, a messy, almost unintelligible scribble. Because Kratos is a dick!
Slowly, Sheena and I looked up and over at Lloyd, who just sat there and blinked at us. "What?" We just stared at him a moment longer, before going back to reading the list of entries.
-Dick
"You're really fixated on that word, aren't you Lloyd?" I asked dryly over my shoulder. I didn't see his confused look, apparently Lloyd's poor memory extended to making fun of Kratos.
"He kept trying to write in my book," Genis grumbled as the brunette swordsman scuttled over to refresh his memory on this mysterious word we were referring to. "I had to whack him with my kendama."
"And that hurt a lot Genis," Lloyd whined, plunking his head down on top of his white – haired friend's so that he could see. "Now what is this wor - I am not!"
Given the way Genis had started flailing to remove the teenage weight from his skull, I guessed there would be a limited amount of time to finish reading this thing and dove right back into it.
-Mr Fluffy
-Bastard
-Kratoast
-The Brick
-"…"
-Kratty
I raised an eyebrow. Apparently Genis was leeching all his good names from me now. Well, it was pretty easy to see when I joined the party, at any rate.
-Purple-wearing pansy-assed lake-dunking mercenary
-Sir Angsty McEmo
And then Genis managed to headbutt Lloyd in the throat, which sent him sprawling backwards with a gasp and Genis snatching up his precious book again to snap it shut and scuttle away. "Okay, viewing session over now!"
"Aw, Genis. Yer stealin' all my names," I pointed out. "And 's not a very long list. Why don't we think of a few more?"
"Yeah!" Lloyd popped up again, massaging his throat but looking remarkably chipper despite the sudden hit. "Where is Kratos, anyway?"
There was a moment of collective silence, during which we all looked around as if he was going to pop up from under a roof shingle somewhere. "I'm not sure it'd be very nice to make fun of Mr. Kratos," Colette spoke up after a moment, looking almost a little guilty. I felt slight revulsion from her selfless confidence not allowing her even the slight pleasure of making up some harmless nicknames for Mr. Fluffy down there. Or wherever the hell he was.
"We're not making fun of him, Colette, we're just," Lloyd paused and looked around for someone to finish his explanation.
"Giving him memorable nicknames?" Sheena suggested after a moment to fill in the gap. The Chosen still looked uncertain, but she nodded slowly after a moment and gazed out off the roof in the direction of the Tower of Mana. The light on the roof wasn't exactly great anymore with the sun setting off in the distance, and the light mist floating in the sky obscured the tower. I wondered if Colette could see it with her advanced angelic sight.
"Okay! I've got a new name for him," Lloyd started, as Genis sighed and fished around for a pen and some ink in the little bag he'd brought with him.
"If it's another variation of 'dick', Lloyd – "
"Wait, he came up with variations?"
"I am not – uh, what was that word again…"
"Fixated,"
"…yeah, that. I am not fixated with that word!"