I'm typing and updating this much faster than my other fics. O.o Shows how dedicated I am to my other ones. Damn plot bunny…

Chapter 2! We get to the main part!

Read on!

Chapter 2: Shoot!

I take it back.

I take it all back!

I take what I said before back. Things were running horribly! I was forced to wake up early (and by early I meant when it was still dark out. DARK!) since some of the citizens were complaining about thieves, most likely the Dark Wings. They didn't go too far and the military caught them, but they managed a quick getaway. All of the stolen items were returned to their proper owners. I would know, since I was the one doing the returning part. As soon as I got that task cleared, I boarded the Tartarus along with Ion and Anise so that we could give the Dark Wings a chase.

"I'm tired," I declared in the room where I was keeping an eye on Ion and Anise. I sat on a chair, backwards I might add, with a heavy sigh. I rested my head on the back of the chair while I let my arms sway at my sides. The cloak that I had was folded neatly into my bag and my hair was now down instead of being tied up, though the majority of my hair was tucked behind my ear. Since my hair was layered, a small portion still covered my ears, albeit less.

"Well, you did wake up early to deliver all of the stolen goods," Anise pointed out. "I would be tired if I had to do all of that. But look at the bright side," she said, hopping right next to my chair and giving me her best grin. "At least you are being paid."

I gave her my 'Are you completely mad?' look. She had no idea why I was here and why I was doing all this. I had a debt I had yet to pay off. The provider of my financial needs as well as the cause of my distress was none other than Jade. I couldn't help myself. I had no money, I had no job, I was down to my last set of clothes, I was so not going to sell my last bit of jewelry and I had no freaking clue how I got here on Auldrant. What else could I do? Turn down Jade's offer and watch my life go miserably by? Hell no.

By the way, there was no profit on my side.

The reason: I was an illegal immigrant from Earth that magically appeared in Auldrant. If I were to get paid, I presumed that they need to search up my records and stuff. Since I didn't possess anything of that sort, I could have been thrown into jail. Could have is the key word here. So yes, Jade was my main supply of money.

And thanks to his offer, I became his second-in-command by name. I had no interest in military work and I was only called for the small fry stuff. For example: Look after Ion, return the stuff that was stolen from the Dark Wings, hand these letters to this and that person, blah blah blah. They were nothing more than simple tasks from Jade. It's wasn't a lot, but it was better than nothing.

'I'm stuck in a fictional world with a fictional status, and I'm doing actual work for a fictional character. Isn't that wonderful?' I thought to myself. I brought my arms onto the chair and buried my face into my arms. 'My life sucks...'

"Lieutenant Colonel!" I turned around to see one of the soldiers who worked at the bridge salute me. I was not used to that Lieutenant Colonel status of mine, so it took me a while to notice that it was directed to me, and I quickly got up and saluted back. "The Colonel says that you should report to the bridge."

"Again?" I whined. Then I sighed. There was nothing I could do about it. "I understand." I groaned, then stood up and gave a quick glance to Ion and Anise. Seeing that they would be alright on their own, I followed the soldier out of the room.

It was too quiet on the way to the bridge. I really disliked the silence unless I was by myself, so I wanted to strike a conversation. I asked, "What is the current status of the chase?"

"The Dark Wings are heading to the Rotelro Bridge," the soldier answered. My eyes widened.

Oh, is that so? This I had to see. I ran to the bridge as soon as I heard that. It was just like what the soldier said. Up ahead was the Rotelro Bridge and I was just in time for the big show. So were Luke and Tear. I saw the carriage that they were in, trying to avoid the line of fire from the Tartarus.

"The enemy set off fonic artes using the Fifth Fonon! The bridge is going to explode!"

Jade looked behind himself, at me. He pushed his glasses up before returning his attention to the issue at hand. "Tartarus, full stop." Jade instructed. "Activate fonic barrier."

My, he handled the situation so calmly. Better than what I could do, that was for sure. I sighed as I braced myself for the full stop. I heard the soldiers repeating Jade's command as the Tartarus halted and the fonic barrier was activated. Though the Tartarus was a good distance away from the explosion, the force of it must have been powerful if the barrier was up. I hoped Anise and Ion were coping pretty well with the halt and stuff. I'd been expecting it, but they'd probably been caught off guard. I looked at the Rotelro bridge before the Tartarus.

"So what now, Colonel?" I asked him. Jade looked at me as if I was trying to prove my point. I pointed to the Rotelro bridge.

"Since the bridge is now destroyed, we could make our way to Engeve," Jade muttered. I looked at him with a weird stare.

"Eh?"

"Didn't Ion ask you to make this request to me?" Jade asked. "I asked His Majesty to deliver the letter to Engeve. Turn the Tartarus around, we're heading to Engeve."

"Yes sir!"

I patted Jade on the back. Aww...so he did have a nice side. "I knew you would come around, old man. Now why am I here? Is there something you need me to do?"

"There was a coach that was in the line of fire while we were chasing the Dark Wings." Jade explained to me.

I didn't like where this is going.

"Luckily they managed to get out of the way, but I would like it if you could just drop by and check to see if they got out unharmed."

Oh, you have got to be kidding me.

Nope. Turns out he wasn't joking. I was dropped off in front of the carriage as the Tartarus went over in the direction of Engeve. I sighed internally; at least he gave me my bag with my weapon inside instead of leaving me empty-handed.

Well, might as well get this thing over with; the carriage was bound to Engeve anyway.

I walked up to the coachman and held out my hand.

"I'm Lieutenant Colonel Anh Le," I introduced myself to him. He shook it gratefully as soon as I introduced myself. "I'm from the Third Division of the Malkuth Imperial Forces. Is everything alright?"

"Yes, everyone here is fine," the coachman told me. I nodded. Of course they were okay.

"In the place of my commanding officer, I apologize for the earlier incident." I looked over to the passengers of the coach. Yep, I saw two people I know very well.

A male with long red hair and golden ends, his hair was spiky and it was parted to the left as small portion of his hair partly covered the edge of his emerald eyes. He was wearing a short-sleeved white jacket that revealed a nice set of abs and extended all the way down to his ankles. It looked to be parted somewhere near his midriff, and was split into two. It was evident that Luke was wearing a black shirt underneath that white jacket, since the sleeves of the shirt were longer than the sleeves of the jacket. Luke had brown fingerless gloves that had a loose, belt-like buckle around his wrist. From the direction the sword handle was facing, he was left-handed. He had black baggy-looking pants that were held up by a yellow-brown belt. Along with the pants, there were black shoes with dark red lining on them.

To his right, a female with long brown hair that parted to the right side of her face, her hair covering her right eye. She possessed a serious look in her blue eyes. Tear was in a brown sleeveless Oracle Knight uniform that went high up to her neck. The top was lined with a golden touch and three white strips, the two further ones were much thicker than the one in the middle, running all the way down the uniform in the middle. Underneath the uniform was a red turtleneck that was also sleeveless. Her gloves that were also brown went up to her upper arm; it also had a touch of gold. The glove ended with white from her wrists to her finger tips. Her boots were designed in a similar fashion as her gloves.

Good to know that Luke and Tear were here, though neither of them seemed happy to see me. Well, duh, I was representing the enemy nation here. I turned my attention back to the coachman. "I'm glad that there were no injuries. May I ask if this coach heads over to Engeve?"

"Yes…"

"Is it possible for me to get a ride to there?" I asked him. "If there's a fee, it can be paid." He nodded. I sat in the coach after I paid for the ride, 12, 000 Gald down the drain. Fudge. Not only did I use the remainder of the Gald Jade had given me for 'emergency' funding; I practically had no means of collecting all of that back. I crossed my arms as I glared at whatever was out at the window. Might as well take it out by glaring things down, but all I saw were plains, fields of grass and occasional rocks. Tired of the scenery outside, I looked around in the carriage to see who else was sitting with me.

Minus Luke and Tear, there were two other noblemen that were probably making their way to the capital. Luke, who was sitting across from me, was giving me an intent stare during the whole ride. I turned to him and gave him a friendly smile.

"Is something wrong?" I asked him in a friendly tone. Luke shook it off and looked out of the window. I sighed and did the same. Not too friendly now, are we? For the remainder of the trip, the only thing I could think about was the money I had wasted for this ride. 12, 000 Gald used equaled more debt.

I hated my predicament right now.

Once we reached Engeve, I walked past Luke and Tear towards the market. Engeve was popular for its livestock and crops, and from what I saw, there were a lot of both. In the market, there were a lot of stands set up with a variety of fruits and vegetables; even seafood was among the selections. Aside from the market, there was a small series of houses over to my right. The market and the houses were separated by a small river, there was even a small watermill beside a house.

I walked over the bridge to look at the houses over there. They were simple enough from the outside; they had white walls with a wooden door, what looked to be haystacks serving as a roof. There were vines on some of the walls. Though it looked nice, it was an old design from my point of view. It would be considered the best for these people, though. The villagers here were working hard in the fields, and I smiled to myself internally. I made a quick loop around the village and I headed back to the market just to check things out.

Rather, I was going to return to the market to look at the produce until Ion tugged on my sleeve.

"Fon Master," I greeted. I inclined my head in his presence. "Do you need something?"

Ion brought his finger to his lips. "I left Anise's side so that I can go inspect the storehouse."

Er…why would he do that? I thought Anise would most definitely allow Ion to go inspect the storehouse…unless she was going to go make demands to the villagers here so that Ion wouldn't have to do the inspecting. Knowing Anise...Most likely.

"Wait, where is Anise?" I asked Ion.

Ion looked at the exit of the village. "Anise is still over on the Tartarus. I just made my way here after Jade left."

Whoa. Talk about curiosity taking over.

'This is why you cause us so much trouble, Ion…' I sighed mentally to myself. First things first. Ion took priority because I had been ordered to keep an eye on him.

"It's going to take a while before she gets here," I laughed. "In the meantime, we can go check the storehouse together."

I regretted saying that after I saw how big the storehouse was. The storehouse was right next to the inn; since the owner of the Inn was gone, we just let ourselves into the storehouse.

Why were there so many wooden boxes? I could hurt myself just by moving them around.

But I refused to allow Ion to do the moving, so I did it in his place. Ion was going through areas where it was bare; he even looked in the boxes, but then closed them if he didn't find anything in them. Some of the boxes that I moved were lighter than most. It must have been because those boxes were raided by the thieves.

After searching through the area, and after moving them back to their original places, Ion came across something while I came out empty-handed. I was searching through the large area of the storage while Ion was in the smaller one right next to it. I stared at the item in his hand. It looked like a white puff of dust in his hand.

"Uh…what's that?"

"Fur from a cheagle." Ion answered.

Right…I knew that.

"Let's show this to Jade." Ion suggested. "He should still be at Rose's house."

I couldn't agree more to that idea. That had been such a back-breaking task. I was never going to do that ever again. Once we made our way to Rose's house, there were a lot of people standing in front of her door. Wow. That was fast. The villagers bringing Luke to Rose's house, that is. Luke must not have put up that much of resistance. Ion looked at me as if I had to do something with the large crowd.

Well…here goes.

I took a deep breath as a series of lines on what I should say went through my head.

"Please stand aside," I commanded in a stern yet quiet voice, "And allow Fon Master Ion to pass through."

Alright, that didn't sound very professional at all, but it was the best I could come up with.

There was whispers that was repeating 'Fon Master?' and 'Fon Master Ion is here!' while they made room for Ion to walk through. Ion gave me a look that said "thank you" before he made his way into the house.

"…the Dark Wings fled towards Kimlasca." I heard Jade say as I, too, walked into the house. "I can assure you that these two are not with them."

"They don't appear to be mere food thieves either," Ion spoke up as he entered Rose's house.

"Fon Master Ion…" Jade muttered. Like everyone inside of the house, his attention was on Ion. His gaze turned towards me as I was tailing Ion, and then went back to Ion. The people running the vendors that were inside of the house moved out of the way to give Ion a clear path. I just remained near the doorway as I watched Tear and Luke carefully. Tear was also focusing her attention on me since we had just met each other on the carriage earlier.

"I was a bit curious, so I investigated the food storehouse with Anh." Ion walked up to Rose and handed her the cheagle fur. "I found this in the corner of the room."

"This is fur from a sacred cheagle," Rose said once she had analyzed the material.

"Yes, a cheagle is what probably raided your food stores." Ion confirmed. I saw Luke turn his head upright as he proved everybody wrong about him being the thief.

"See!" Luke said obnoxiously. "I told you I wasn't the thief."

Most of the people looked around sheepishly since they had all jumped into the wrong conclusion.

"But you did eat that apple before paying," Tear pointed out. "You need to learn not to do things that will make you look suspicious."

Luke turned his attention to Tear and gave her a scowl. "How was I supposed to know? I didn't know you had to pay."

Oh good grief. Even I knew I had to pay, though I wasn't that sheltered like Luke…

"Misunderstandings happen," I told the two of them as I moved out of the way. I recalled earlier when Peony had immediately decided that Jade and I were in a relationship, and shuddered at the thought. That had been a huge misunderstanding in comparison to this one. A middle aged man with an eighteen-year-old girl. Yes, that totally makes sense, Peony. Totally.

Rose clapped her hands so that everyone in the room (aside from Jade and Ion, who were discussing something) focus their attention on her. "Well, sounds like that takes care of that. I think you all have something to say to this boy and his friend?"

"Sorry I'm late, Jade." I apologized to Jade when I approached him and Ion. I heard the men running the vendors apologize to Luke and in turn, Luke let it go without making a big deal out of it. "I would have reported earlier but the Fon Master comes first."

'It was, after all, my duty to keep an eye on Ion like you told me to.' I thought to myself. 'That and the fact that you are scary.'

Ion was looking at Luke, and Luke was also looking back at Ion. I stared at the two of them. Ion continued staring at the door even when Luke left.

"Fon Master Ion?"

He turned his attention back to us."O-Oh. I'm sorry."

Jade pushed his glasses up and crossed his arms. "Though I am upset that you left the Tartarus without an escort."

He wasn't not the only one who was upset. I could think of two more, and I would be one of them. Speaking of the other worrier…I looked around the house. "By the way…where is Anise?"

"Ah! I found you, Ion!" Anise chirped as she ran up to us. Speak of the devil! She came in at the right moment. Anise turned to look at me. "Oh, Anh! You made it! How was the slight detour?"

"Yes, Anh, how was the detour?" Jade joined in. The expression on his face said that he wanted to know if I had spent any Gald he lent me. The face I made practically explained how much I disliked it, since I had wasted a good 12, 000 Gald on my way here.

"It looks like she doesn't want to talk about it," Anise laughed as she turned back to Ion. "Ion! Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

Ion smiled at the raven haired girl. "It was all right, Anise, I had Anh keep me company."

Anise sighed. "You're lucky that she was there. You could have gotten into a lot of trouble if you have gone missing. Oh! Speaking of missing! I ran into this couple at the Inn and they told me you would be here. I also heard from the redhead guy that-"

"That would be Luke," Jade nodded. He motioned Anise to continue. "Do go on."

"He said that you were kidnapped." She stared at Jade and I, since we were the two that had helped Ion escape Daath. "This is bad. A rumour has already been spread around. It's likely that the entire Grand Maestro Moh's faction will be out to search for you Ion. And for the kidnapper."

"And they would assume that it would be Anh." Jade cast a side glance to me. He pointed to me. "After all, it was her face that was revealed when she was scurrying about."

"I wonder why…" I mumbled.

We made a reservation at the inn so that Ion could get some rest. Rather, it was much safer if we made the reservation at the inn instead of going back to the Tartarus. Who knew when we would be attack by Moh's faction. The rooms were split up into two since it would be better for both of us, one soldier for each room. Yes…the room I took was with Jade. Jade wasn't in the room with me, since he went out to check on the Tartarus. I took this opportunity to get some rest since I was more tired than I thought I would be.

I woke up with sunlight shining onto my face. I grumbled as I turned over to avoid the burning glare that was piercing through my eyelids and searched for my cell phone to check the time. It wasn't until I touched the pillow's edges that I realized that this was not my pillow, and that I was not at home. I sat up groggily as rubbed my eyes. I stared out of the window where light was pouring from it.

"Leave me alone, sun," I groaned as I covered myself with the blanket.

Wait a second…it was morning already? I shot up from my bed as one thing came into mind.

"Ion," I muttered. I jumped out of bed and struggled to put on my boots as fast as I could. I grabbed my vest as I darted out of the room while trying to put it on. I opened the door to Anise and Ion's room and I found out that neither of them were in the room.

Now this I had to report to Jade.

I closed the door and ran out of the Inn. It wasn't until I realized that I shared a room with Jade that I had to run back to see if he was there.

Turns out he wasn't.

Thank you so much, Jade, for leaving me in the dust…

Well, if he wasn't here, then he might be at Rose's house. I hurried over there without buttoning up my vest. But I somehow found the time to deal with my hair since it was messed up at the very back.

I knocked on Rose's door and anxiously waited for her to answer it. She did, a few seconds later, up and early unlike me. Rose stared at me since I was in such disarray. "Do you need something, dear?"

"I'm so sorry to disturb you at a time like this," I apologized to Rose, though I didn't think I needed to do that. I just wanted to be careful. "Did you see the Colonel? I can't seem to find him."

"The Colonel? No I haven't."

Balls.

"Ah, thank you, then." I gave her a quick bow. "If the Colonel drops by, by any chance, will you please tell him that I'm off to the Cheagle Woods?"

"Sure thing," Rose gave me a nod. "You might want to button your uniform, dear!" I gasped as I hastily buttoned up my vest. I thanked Rose once more before I went off to catch up with Ion. But not before I ran back to the Inn to collect my bag. I lifted it over my shoulders, and left Engeve as fast as I can.

I ran for at least a good five minutes before stopping to drop my rifle bag onto the ground. "Why are you so heavy?" I asked the rifle even, though I knew I wasn't going to get an answer from it.

I lifted the bag back up and continued. Seriously, this rifle was a pain. Ignoring that part, there was a path that led all the way to Cheagle Woods. Good for me, because I didn't have a map on me and it would be disastrous in my case since I had a horrible sense of direction.

I made occasional stops just to rest because of the weight of the rifle. I really hated it right now. I also ran into some monsters on the way. Of course, I didn't bother to fight them; I ran for my life instead. I was never a melee person and I wasn't about to become one now. Plus, the rifle was heavy.

Did I mention how heavy it was?

I swear I didn't get it! This world was fictional and yet all the things here were completely real! Weapons, monsters, food, heck even pain was real! This didn't make any sense! I mean…If I was thrown into Legend of Zelda and it became my reality, how the heck would Link still be able to run around with two sets of armour, iron boots, a fishing rod, bow and arrows, as well as two different blades and shields and so many more items that all fit into that small tunic of his? He even pulled them out of his pocket! Did his pocket have some huge black hole that spat things out when he needed them?

Or maybe Kirby lived in his pockets…

Enough of the irrational thoughts; I needed to catch up with Ion. Being chased by monsters was really hindering me, and at the same time, getting me to reach Cheagle Woods faster.

I finally caught up with Ion, who was just about to enter the Cheagle Woods.

"Ion!" I made a loud whining shout. Ion stopped before turning around to see who was calling him. "Wait for me!"

I sighed in relief when Ion decided to wait for me. Once I caught up to him, I technically broke down. I sat onto the ground in a formal sitting position with both my hands on my thighs as I gasped for air. Oh, this was way too tiring.

"What are you doing here, Anh?" Ion asked me when I wasn't too busy panting. I quickly collected myself, but my throat seemed a bit too dry.

"I was told to keep an eye on you," I answered him as we enter the woods.

There's only one thing to describe about this place.

Green.

Everything was green. You would think there would be some diversity of colour here but everything here was frickin' green! Dark green, light green, peridot (yes, this is a shade of green as well), every bloody shade of green! Everything you could see (other than the monsters that is) was some shade of green; the trees the leaves, the grass, the ferns, and a bunch of other plants. Heck, even the rocks that were normally some other colour were covered in green moss. The tree barks was no different; covered in green moss. Even the things that were dead and rotting were green.

The sight of the colour green would most likely sicken me later on.

I heard Ion collapse onto the ground. I got onto my knees and patted his back. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," he told me. I opened my mouth to deny that 'he's fine' but closed it when there was some rustling noise. My head snapped up to search the surroundings. There wasn't anything out there besides growling.

That was just lovely. Growling.

Soon after, a wolf decided to reveal itself to us. It slowly approached us, although it was approaching us cautiously, and my first instinct was to put myself in between Ion and the wolf. I swore to myself when I did.

There was barely enough time for me to whip my bag over my head so that I could pull out my rifle. I would be killed the moment I did that as well. My last weapon of choice was the little gun that was placed on my left pocket.

Eh…It wasn't like I had a choice in this situation.

I pulled out the small gun and fired at the wolf. And…I missed. The shot flew past the wolf, but it diverted the wolf's attention to the bullet. The bullet hit a tree and it startled the wolf with a small bang and flash. The wolf was growling as it moved its head to the side as if it was trying to shake something off.

"Wow…it's like a stun gun…" I said, shocked. I winced a little bit. The bullet was sent off with a bang indeed. I had this ringing sound in my ears now. I rubbed my ear with my free hand as the wolf collected itself. It turned its attention back as us and it appeared to get ready to pounce at us.

Oh, this sucked.

"Note to self," I told myself. "Learn to aim."

No wonder Jade told me it was meant for self-defense. Shoot, then run. Why didn't he put it that way? Next thing I knew, two more wolves joined in and this time they appeared from the left and from the right. By now, we were stuck. I couldn't do anything because if I fired one more shot, the other two would attack instantly without giving me much time to shoot.

Oh, this sucked hardcore.

Just when I thought this was the end, a soft light enveloped Ion's hand and a fonic glyph appeared from underneath us as he slammed his hand down onto the ground. As if the glyph had scared the wolves, they attacked immediately. Rays of light shot up from the glyph and destroyed the wolves when they pounced into the air. It ended so quickly, I dropped my gun in disbelief.

Instead of protecting Ion, I ended up being protected by him.

"Are you okay, Anh?" he asked me as he tried to get up by himself. He managed to stand up for a few seconds before his legs gave way. I caught him before his head hit the ground, but I was still shaken up from the wolves.

"Hey!" I heard Luke shout at us. From where we were, Luke and Tear were on an upper ledge. Once the two of us looked up at them, they hastily made their way down to see if either of us were okay. I was completely fine. But Ion…

Well. That's all of chapter two. Thanks for reading!

By the way, guess which Legend of Zelda I was referencing to. XD