Sorry this wasn't up sooner I meant to post it on Saturday but got distracted ..

First a scene that should be familiar to you, followed by a little bit of comic relief. Not quite as long as the last part. That's just how it worked out.

Enjoy!

Chapter 2

The next day brought sunny skies and warm weather, perfect for flying. Judith greeted the sun with a smile as she got up and stretched.

"Good morning Ba'ul! Are you ready for more blastia hunting?" she asked her friend cheerfully. After a moment she realized that Ba'ul didn't share her good mood. "What's wrong?"

The storm still hangs over the human town, even though it has dissipated elsewhere. And it still feels wrong. Ba'ul sounded upset.

"Do you think that maybe the blastia you felt last night is causing it?"

That is the most likely cause. A normal blastia could not withstand the aer necessary to alter the weather like this. Only a Hermes model could affect that much aer for so long.

"Well then, maybe this will be the first time someone thanks us for destroying a blastia. I'll go gather my things and we'll head out immediately."

She returned to the cave and pulled out a nia fruit from her travel bag, juggling it between her hands and her mouth as she dressed. Many people disliked the taste of the bitter fruit, but she felt it served well to wake her up first thing in the morning. She carried a few around for times like these when she needed an early start.

A few minutes later, Judith emerged from the cave fully clad in her armor, her hair bound back up on top of her head beneath the helmet. She swiftly climbed onto Ba'ul's back and took a firm hold as he pushed off the ground with a single mighty heave, launching into the morning air toward Capua Nor.

Although the storm clouds dissipated only a few miles from the boundary of the port town, the air was turbulent for a much larger distance than that. It was proving hard for Ba'ul to approach the town with any degree of safety.

The air does not move like it should, Ba'ul explained in Judith's mind. The currents are shifting unexpectedly. It is very hard to fly through. I could make it to the town myself, but not with you as a passenger. He let out a frustrated grumble. I will try and find a calmer spot to approach from.

They continued to fly discreetly around the town until midday, when Judith finally let out an exasperated sigh of defeat.

"If this storm is being made by a blastia I don't think we're going to have any luck flying in. You can let me down somewhere and I'll just walk in and destroy it myself. The storm should dissipate after that and you can come pick me up."

I do not like the idea of you going in alone, Ba'ul grumbled in protest.

"Please Ba'ul, I'm not a child anymore. I'm sure I can handle anything that might be protecting the blastia long enough for you to come save my pretty little behind." She put on her sweetest smile. "C'mon, let me have some fun. Pretty please?"

Ba'ul was silent long enough that Judith was sure she'd won him over. She was about to begin gloating over her victory when he spoke again. The storm is breaking. The surprise in his voice was clear.

"I swear it did that just to ruin my fun," Judith pouted.

Ba'ul ignored the remark. We have to move quickly. The storm may return any moment. Hold on tightly!

Judith obeyed as Ba'ul picked up speed, heading straight for the largest house in Capua Nor. It was a massive two-story building with beautiful stained glass windows all along the top floor, the largest of which took up the entire eastern face of the structure. Behind the house was a small dock with a nicely sized boat resting against the pier.

"Why would someone decorate their entire house with stained glass windows?" Judith wondered aloud. "Seems like an awful waste of money to me."

I can feel the aer disturbance quite clearly now, Ba'ul notified her. It is directly on the other side of that large window. A note of curiosity entered his voice. There is something else going on in there. It feels like a mage is tossing aer around.

"Right, we'll have to make this quick if we don't want to get mixed up in whatever they're fighting about." Judith hoisted her spear in her left hand and took a firmer grip on Ba'ul with her right. "Whenever you're ready, Ba'ul."

Then here we go! Ba'ul roared as he charged the window.

As the window shattered Judith could immediately see the blastia core to her left. It sat in some sort of device in the middle of the large room, pulsing with a gentle blue glow. Without looking at anything else in the room lest it distract her, Judith lined up her spear with the core and, as Ba'ul sped down the length of the room, slashed as hard as she could across the surface of the blastia.

As Ba'ul reached the other side of the room Judith was able to turn and evaluate her strike. The blastia's glow was pulsing irregularly now, meaning the formula within was breaking down. In a few moments the blastia would be useless forever.

Then Judith spotted three figures as they approached the blastia using a catwalk suspended in the middle of the room by a number of stone pillars.

Ba'ul, don't let them reach the blastia, they might be able to repair it!

In response, Ba'ul glided over to the blastia then reared up almost completely vertical. Being used to this particular maneuver, Judith calmly extended her legs along Ba'ul's sides and gripped tightly to his back as he expelled a huge blast of fiery aer. The aer coated the the walkway in front of the blastia, preventing the three humans from reaching it. Judith was just about to compliment Ba'ul on his handiwork when she heard a shrill voice yelling from the floor behind her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing you freak?"

She turned around just in time to see a young girl standing in the corner, waving a piece of cloth around in the air. Judith didn't understand at first, but she quickly recognized the forms the girl was drawing in the air as they began to solidify around her.

Incoming! she yelled mentally to Ba'ul and gripped tightly with her legs as the girl finished her casting. Four fireballs shot out of her formula, sprayed across the width of the room. Judith trusted her fate to Ba'ul as he ducked and wove around them all, and felt the heat as the last one nearly made contact.

Taking her first quick glance around the room, Judith didn't like what she saw. Of the eight people in the room, seven of them were armed and ready for combat. On the catwalk, a female warrior with long hair tied back stood beside two men, one of whom was short and carried a staff while the other had a sword and shield at his side. They looked like a group from the Imperial Knights, though none of them wore the regular armor of the Knights.

The group on the floor looked a lot more...interesting. One was only a young boy wielding a hammer that looked to be much too big for him. There were two girls, the red-haired one who had been shooting the fireballs, and a pink-haired one who seemed confused. There was even a fierce-looking dog, whom Judith noticed was carrying a sword around its neck. Then she blinked and looked at the last member of the group, closest to the stairs leading onto the catwalk.

He was decently tall, dressed in sharp black pants and slightly parted black shirt, revealing the well-muscled chest beneath. Long black hair fell past his shoulders and halfway down his back, framing a face that, had she more time to think about it, she may have called beautiful. And as that face turned to look at her, she got a clear view of his face and, more importantly, his eyes.

She could feel an immense strength of character behind that gaze, so much that she gasped in surprise. There was also a kindness to them, one which Judith didn't see in humans very often. It was most certainly never directed at her - it had been a long time since anyone had shown her such kindness as she felt this man was capable of.

Looking deeper still, Judith found traces of worry and doubt, not reflected in his movements; those had a grace and confidence in them that she associated with someone familiar with combat. Did this lingering doubt have something to do with what had been taking place in the room before she had arrived? Judith could see the turmoil in his eyes as he fought his own inner conflict, carefully hiding it behind a mask of certainty and confidence.

Judith was snapped out of her reverie as the man broke eye contact, turning that intense gaze upon the eighth man in the room, who was crawling along the floor towards a door like a coward. Giving herself a mental shake, Judith spoke to Ba'ul.

I think it's time we made our exit, she said quickly, being careful to keep her other thoughts to herself.

Without voicing a reply, Ba'ul flew for the window they'd smashed to enter the room, obviously agreeing that they'd overstayed their welcome. As they flew across the room, the girl's voice screeched up from the floor again.

"You're not getting away from me, you dragon-freak!"

Judith spared a glance to see the short red-haired girl launch another fireball towards their escape route. She braced for impact, but luckily the hasty casting had thrown the girl's aim off. The fireball impacted harmlessly on the windowsill as Ba'ul escaped through the shattered frame above. As they flew free of the confines of the house and into the afternoon air, Judith allowed herself to breathe a heavy sigh of relief.

Don't relax yet, Ba'ul warned.

"What's wrong now?" Judith asked as she tried to recover her composure.

We destroyed one blastia, but there is still a strong aer disturbance in that room.

"Maybe you're feeling the mage?" Judith asked skeptically; those fireballs hadn't been big enough to cause the sorts of aer disturbances Ba'ul was usually worried about.

No. It is more likely that there is another blastia in that room. It was causing even more of an aer imbalance than the blastia you broke.

Disturbed by this news, Judith tried to recall the layout of the room. Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried, her thoughts always returned to that man's eyes; those dark, beautiful eyes that revealed so much to anyone who cared to look for it...

Looking back over her shoulder at the shrinking image of the manor house behind her, Judith sighed. "Since we're still heading away from the town, I'm assuming you think that means we'll have to wait until things calm down over there before going back."

Yes.

"I guess you're right. Whatever was going on in that room, that was far from an ordinary group of people. I guess we'll just have to wait and come back later to take care of the rest."

I would suggest we make ourselves scarce until tomorrow, came Ba'ul's reply. They seem like the type to want revenge for us destroying a blastia. Also, and Ba'ul voice almost became a whine, I am feeling very hungry.

"You just don't want to have to dodge that girl's fireballs again," Judith said with a smirk. "I think she liked you. And didn't you just eat yesterday? If you aren't careful you'll start getting fat."

Dodging fireballs makes me hungry. It is hard work.

She couldn't help but laugh as Ba'ul continued to look for pity. "All right then, until tomorrow. But there's no reason I can't stay in a nice warm bed in Capua Nor tonight." She shuddered in delight at the thought of sleeping in a real bed for the first time in weeks.

So the two friends headed away from Capua Nor to look for a suitable place to land, oblivious to the events taking place on the sea behind them.

A few hours later saw Judith walking into Capua Nor on foot while Ba'ul hunted for his dinner; she'd watched Ba'ul dine before and knew from experience that if she wanted to be able to eat anything for the rest of the week, she'd better not stick around to watch.

She left her travel pack, armor, and weapons - with the exception of the small knife sheathe that always hung from her left hip - with Ba'ul, coming into town wearing her usual attire of blue and white clothing that revealed far more skin than most women would feel was decent. Judith was not most women. In her opinion, if showing a little skin would save her a few Gald she should use it to her advantage; flying around the world destroying blastia wasn't exactly a well-paying job.

Of course, there are a few other perks as well... a grin forced itself onto her face. Those who can, should.

Judith headed into town, looking for an entertaining (and hopefully not too expensive) way to waste away the rest of the day.

It was several hours after the sun had gone down and the moon had risen high in the night sky when Ba'ul, dozing leisurely on top of a rock in the forest surrounding Capua Nor, heard Judith's voice in his mind.

Ba'ul, where are you? He could feel that she was tired and out of breath. She had recently been running.

One moment. Ba'ul pushed himself off the rock with one great heave, flying a short distance straight up above the trees. Can you see me now?

Yes, thank you.

Are you hurt? Ba'ul asked as he descended back to the forest floor, worried about why she would be running through the woods at night.

I'm fine, I'm not too far from you. I'll be there shortly. Curiosity plagued Ba'ul's mind, but he decided to wait until she arrived before he started asking questions.

It was only a moment before he could hear Judith approaching, making enough noise to wake every monster in the forest for miles around. She was also transmitting a lot of very intense feelings through her telepathic bond, something she normally had good control over. As she stumbled into view shortly afterward it became obvious that she didn't realize she was doing it, so Ba'ul politely pretended he couldn't feel them. As Judith cautiously shuffled her way through the woods, leaning on trees for support as she lurched toward her pack on the ground, the reason for her disorientation became obvious.

What happened to spending the night in a warm, comfortable bed? he asked; the young woman's face was flushed bright red.

"There were...complications," Judith replied shakily as she reached into her pack and pulled out two blankets. She tried to lay one out on the ground, but she lost her balance and fell face-first into the ground, the impact barely cushioned by the unrolled blanket. She didn't seem to notice.

Would it have anything to do with the fact that you are completely and utterly-

"Shut up, Ba'ul," came the grumbled reply from the heap of blanket and Krityan. Judith groaned as she rolled onto her back and covered herself with the other blanket.

If you would just learn to control yourself when you have fun you would not find yourself-

"Shut up, Ba'ul."

Judith woke up and immediately wished she hadn't. Her head weighed a hundred pounds and throbbed like it was about to explode. Opening her eyes resulted in an explosion of color spreading across her vision, accompanied by the most marvelous of headaches.

Ba'ul? She reached out carefully, not sure where her friend was at the moment.

Yes? came the reply.

I think I did something stupid last night, she admitted sheepishly.

I think so too. You did not want to talk about it at the time. What happened to sleeping in a bed?

There was a brief silence while Judith attempted to recall what exactly had happened the previous night. Well, I guess I technically did, for a little bit.

Ba'ul was afraid to ask for details, but he did anyway.

Well I was in a bed for a while, but...well, we weren't exactly sleeping. I had planned to sleep in it afterward, but then this other woman showed up and started getting really angry; I don't really remember it very well, I was very tired. And slightly drunk. So I told her to go away, but that just made her yell louder. Eventually some guards showed up to see what all the noise was. For some reason I thought jumping out the window to get away was a good idea. Unfortunately I accidentally landed on one of them. They weren't too happy about that, so they chased me around for a while until I lost them in the woods.

Ba'ul waited a few moments after the story was over to point out, that doesn't explain why you were almost too drunk to walk in the first place.

Judith grinned. There was some fun before that too, she thought without a hint of embarrassment.

She felt the rush of air as Ba'ul landed on the ground to her left. She opened her eyes to a squint and looked at her friend as he regarded her with his two big yellow orbs. While most people simply saw Ba'ul as a monster who had no discernible outward expression, Judith had learned how to read him like a book over the ten years they had been together. His expression was full of scorn and reproach, but he was unable to keep a slight bit of mirth from slipping into the mix.

I'm thirsty, she thought to him, licking her dry lips and trying to work moisture into her mouth. Are we near any water?

There is a small stream a short distance to the west, came the reply. Do you think you can stay on top of me long enough to get that far?

As long as I don't have to look at where we're going I'll be fine.

Judith slowly pushed herself to her feet, still squinting. She carefully stumbled toward Ba'ul, holding her hands out for balance and to catch herself in case she fell.

Are you going to bring breakfast? Ba'ul asked, giving a mental nudge toward her travel pack.

Just the thought of food made her stomach turn. No, I think I'll have to save that for later. Right now I just really need some water. She lost her balance and fell forward several steps, stumbling into Ba'ul's scaly hide with a thump. And for the world to stop spinning.

Several hours later Judith was feeling much better as she and Ba'ul approached Capua Nor once again, looking to finish the job they'd started the day before. As they approached the town, however, Ba'ul had some interesting news.

The disturbance I felt in the room of that house is no longer there, he informed his rider.

"Well, that's fortunate for us," Judith remarked. "I wasn't looking forward to getting back in that cramped little room anyway." She shrugged. "I guess we'll continue heading north then."

Seems like as good a direction as any, Ba'ul agreed.

Judith sighed contentedly. "I love flying over the ocean. The air's so clear and the sky so bright...fly slower so I can take the time to enjoy it."

He couldn't resist. I think you had enough enjoyment last night to last the rest of the month.

"Shut up, Ba'ul."