Happy Halloween you guys! :D I'm happy that this chapter was able to be posted on this day because it's all about pranks. That and shits and giggles.

I love using FF to get away from this thing call Midterms. Though I really should study... But the ideas come to me whenever I think of…math...? Don't know how that works but it does… Onwards to Author replies!

The Fool Arcana: Yes, pulling a prank on Jade is like pulling one on the devil. Which is why it's going to be so much fun! To me. Oh and Asch is being Asch. He hates anything that has to do with Luke. Except Natalia (obviously).

Rose: Sushi lovers unite~ :D The one who grabbed Anh's shoulder was actually Jade. XD He was also the one who grabbed Luke. Done all of that for the fun of it. And here's Tokunaga.

Aquamarine Silvertail: Sorry, Tokunaga's taken by RedRose-Requiem. ^^; As for the pronunciation, it's a bit tricky if you don't have some basic Japanese knowledge. You pronounce it as "Toe-ku-na-ga". The 'to' part is the tricky one (as in you don't pronounce it as 'too') the rest is simple enough.

And so I thank my beta Mieu for beta-ing this for me~

Disclaimer: I don't own ToA. I basically own nothing ToA related, especially the next couple sentences below.

Warning: The following scene(s) contains violence and coarse language. Viewer discretion is strongly advis-*gets shot*

Vampires covered in blood is prohibited from entering this pa-*gets shot by Zero*

Chapter 14: Getting back at Jade

"So...what's the plan?" I whispered to Luke while occasionally glancing in Jade's direction.

"Give me some time and I'll think of something," he muttered back to me.

"Right, that's what you said yesterday." I pointed out. I lifted a finger and tilted that to the side. "And the day before. And the day before that."

"Will you just shut up?" he hissed at me. "It's not easy like going up to him and telling him a scary story like he did to us back at the inn."

"Because he's obviously going to say 'Oh that really terrified me. Honestly!'," I mimicked Jade's sarcasm as I rolled my eyes. "All of that with a straight face and amusement sparkling in his eyes."

"You know...You're getting creepier by the second."

I blinked a couple of times in amusement. A grin began to form. "Wait 'til you see me at my creepiest."

Luke made a face. "I'll pass on that."

I gave him a smile before shrugging and looking in front of us. Luke and I were walking at the very back of the group with Celena in the lead. The way we thought of it, it wasn't that necessary for us to be in formation so Luke and I broke the usual formation to give us some time to think about what to do with Jade. Although we were pretty slack with the traveling, I kept my weapon in hand in case of an attack. Though that wasn't the case during the past couple days of traveling.

The trip to Kaitzur naval port was supposed to take twice as long as the trip from Fubras River and Kaitzur. Give or take a week. I was guessing by looking at a map so I wasn't that accurate. But, hey, two weeks was more than enough time to do an evil thing or two to Jade.

...Hopefully.

"Just what are you two talking about?" a certain aforementioned soldier suddenly asked us. He let himself fall back to walk at our pace. I pretty much tense up when he walked beside us. His red eyes were searching for answers...I think. Either that he was searching for answers or that he was getting suspicious about it.

"We're talking about how creepy Anh can get." Luke answered almost immediately. I smacked him in the arm for saying something like that.

Thank you so much, Luke...

"Oh really, I'm sure there are plenty of things she could be creepy about." Jade teased with a knowing smile.

"So what if I'm weird," I said defensively. "Everybody's weird in a way. Luke, on the other hand, is just plain sheltered."

"Excuse me?" Luke sounded really offended. "This is coming from a person who didn't know how to fight despite being a soldier. And you don't even act like a soldier either. What kind of soldier squeals loudly at the sight of a cheagle?"

"Hey, they are cute."

"You didn't have to make it so loud."

"Oh yeah? What about the time where you shouted when you found out that your Mieu's Master after you saved him?"

"I didn't save him! I saved Ion!"

"That's what you keep telling yourself."

"Why doesn't anyone believe me?" Luke turned towards Guy. "Hey, Guy, you believe me right?"

Guy, who hasn't heard the conversation, looked behind him with a confused look. "Uh...sure?"

"See? He believes me."

I rolled my eyes and placed one hand on my hip. "But he wasn't there at the Cheagle Woods, Luke, so he doesn't count."

"What's going on?" Guy asked, still confused.

Jade waved a hand at him. "Oh don't mind them; the conversation seemed impossible to follow to begin with."

"You seemed to know what's going on."

"Only because I started it."

Guy gave Jade a nervous look along with a smile that matched his look. "That's…" Then his brows furrowed and his expression became serious. "Hey, is it just me or does anybody else hear that?"

We all stopped in our tracks to listen to what Guy had heard. Even Luke and I just stayed quiet. Guy and Luke slowly reached for their weapons, not pulling them out but just waiting for whatever it was to come out. Jade and Celena stayed perfectly still, with the occasion movement to changing where they were looking at. Tear held her weapon up and Anise placed a hand on Tokunaga, both of them had a hand in front of Ion who was grasping his staff tightly. I slightly raised my rifle and inched closer to Ion in case of an attack.

After a good minute of listening, I heard it. The faint sound of wings flapping.

And it just got louder.

"Luke! Behind you!" Guy suddenly shouted. A loud piercing shriek filled the air and I was thrown to the ground. My rifle flew out of my hands and landed only an arm's reach away from me.

Now why was this ridiculously familiar?

Oh right, Jade was the one who tackled me to the ground. The only difference between that time at the Cheagle Woods and this time was that he also tossed Luke to the ground as well. Luke groaned as he sat up, he shot an angry glare at Jade but he said nothing at the colonel. The thing that flew past us was a large purple feathered hawk-like bird that was making a return trip towards the party.

"What the hell is that?" Luke shouted as he drew his weapon. The bird looked like it was going to take Luke as its target. This time, Luke was more than prepared. However, the bird was far swifter than he was and Luke dodged it by an inch or so.

"That's a garuda!" Guy answered, getting ready for a battle. "They are pretty common in this area. Be careful though, those claws are sharp."

"Man! Why can't the monsters be something as easy as the ones we encountered around St. Binah?"

As if something was answering his question, a hoard of chirpees flew into view. And not only chirpees, a good handful of garudas were also flying with the chirpees. Jesus Christ! That was a lot of monsters. I hastily gathered my rifle as I backed away from the incoming monsters.

Jade chuckled. "Ever heard of the saying, 'you should be careful on what you wish for?' Luke?"

"Why would I wish for that? And be serious about this battle!"

"But I am serious."

Of course he was. I turned around and made my way towards Ion, Tear was already casting a spell and Anise was standing guard to Ion. As for Celena…Where was she? I glanced over my shoulder just to see her joining Guy and Luke in the front lines, Jade had backed a good distance away from the incoming monsters and was also casting. Well, at least everybody was ready for battle. I looked ahead and made my way to Anise and Ion.

"Anise, I can take over," I told her.

She nodded, pulling Tokunaga from his resting place. "I'm counting on you, Anh." She then took off looking like a young girl trying to catch a running bus. Oh wait, that sounded a lot like me except I had a bag full of textbooks over my shoulder and not a doll. Back to the battle... A fonic glyph appeared underneath of Anise before she slammed Tokunaga down onto the ground. Tokunaga went from something that was a simple handheld doll to a gigantic life size doll that would tower over Jade easily. Guy, Tear and Luke were the only ones that were surprised by Anise.

"What is that?" Guy asked, looking at Anise's doll with a shocked look. A chirpee took that moment to attack him from behind. He immediately noticed it when it screeched at him and he dodged it before slicing it in half.

"I didn't think that Anise would be a puppeteer." Tear muttered as she made her way towards me.

I resisted a smile that was slowly making its way across my face. "Now you know."

"Anise is very capable," Ion spoke up. "She can also cast some spells which makes her very deadly."

Tear nodded. A garuda flew past us, kicking up the wind and dirt. All three of us covered our eyes to prevent ourselves from being blinded by the flying dirt. Once it calmed down, the garuda was flying right back at us intent for a capture. Or kill. I aimed my rifle at it and fired. Although it was an inaccurate fire, it grazed the wing of the garuda causing it to falter and that gave Tear an opening. She drew a knife that was attached to her leg and threw it right at the garuda. The knife landed smack dab on the area where the heart should be located, it shrieked in pain as it flew past us and hit the ground with a loud thud. Even though it was on the ground it was still moving and I knew I had to finish it off. I shot at the head and its entire body fell limp to the ground.

For some reason I felt bad for it. It wasn't as if it was attacking us like it wanted to, it must be looking for food for its young which was why it attacked the first moving thing it saw. Which happened to be us. But it was kill or be killed.

"Well well, what have we here?" a raspy voice asked. We turned to see some guy dressed in dirty clothes and holding a mean looking dagger at us. He appeared to have not shaved or bathed judging by the look of his face and the smell. He gave us a crooked smile as he scanned us from top to bottom like a pervert looking at his prey. The smile spread even further revealing a set of loose teeth. A couple of men appeared behind him looking just as filthy as he was. "Looks like a bunch of healthy looking wenches with a cheagle."

"Fon Master Ion is a boy!" Mieu piped up. Tear and I could only sigh in defeat when a brow rose in interest. Ion smiled nervously at the young cheagle.

"Mieu…those are thieves." Tear muttered to the cheagle. When Mieu realized his mistake, his ears dropped in depression.

"Myuu…"

"The Fon Master?" he repeated. His smile spread even further. "Oh now this is a pure treat. The Order will pay handsomely to get you back." The men behind him laughed and raised their weapons.

"Not on our watch," Tear said dangerously. She raised her weapon at them.

The ringleader didn't look too concerned one bit. "Oh look, the kitten knows how to scratch, how cute."

"Nocturnal Light!" Tear shouted throwing a dagger at the one at the left. It hit him right in the shoulder and he groaned in pain before taking a step back.

The man watched his companion backed away. He was still focusing his attention on him before he slowly turned towards us. "Hey hey, that's pretty dangerous. Someone could get hu-" I didn't give him a chance to finish his sentence when I swung the butt of my rifle at his face. It hit dead on and he fell to the ground while Tear took the other one down. All of them were moaning in pain but none of them were dead. Yet.

The one that I smacked held his cheek and his eyes were furious. "You bitch! You scarred my face! I'm going to kill you now!" He stood up and yanked the rifle out of my hands. He threw it to the side and I immediately aimed my handgun at him. He didn't falter one bit. Instead, he smacked the gun right out of my hand and wrapped his hands around my neck. I felt my airways tightened as I gasped for air. The hands released me as someone punched him in the face, knocking him back down to the ground. A hand pulled me back while I coughed.

"You're going to get more scars if you do that." Celena spoke up, cracking her knuckles. I looked around to see Guy, Luke, Jade and Anise joining up with us. Celena appeared less amused by the second. "Using monsters as a decoy while you thieves steal whatever there is to steal. Very nice. What are you going to do about them, Colonel Curtiss?"

Jade pushed his glasses up. "Well we could drag them all the way to Kaitzur where I could make an arrest." He paused a bit and shrugged lightly. "Or, to save us some time and trouble as well as deadweight, we could just kill them and I will report to the military that they are dead once we get to the naval port."

"Colonel Curtiss?" the thief repeated. "As in the Jade the Necromancer?"

"The one and only." I responded rubbing my neck.

It took a few minutes before he got up and fled. The other two, who didn't know what to do, fled along with him. There was a threat of 'I'll get back at you for this', with a lot of finger pointing and unclean words. If they weren't looking so beat up, that threat was just an empty one. Celena made a face at Jade and pointed in their direction.

"Is it a good idea to just let them go like that?"

He shrugged in response. "The letter takes priority. We could always chase them afterwards. That is, if they enter Malkuth territory."

Luke rubbed his shoulder, which looked like it had bled. "Man, those monsters were annoying."

"You should feel right at home." Jade said without missing a beat.

"Why you-"

A gust of wind picked up before Luke finished his sentence. A loud shriek filled the air once more followed by the shouting of Luke. The gust died down only for us to see that Luke was missing. A bunch of shouts in the air made us look up to see that a garuda was carrying a struggling Luke away.

"Oh no!" Anise gasped. "It got Luke!"

"DON'T JUST STAND THERE AND WATCH IT CARRY ME AWAY! DO SOMETHING!"

"What can we do?" Tear asked. "Casting takes time and Luke is being carried further away."

"It can't be helped then…" Jade muttered taking out his spear. He threw it at the garuda with such speed, and precision, that when it pierced through the bird, and the garuda burst into pieces as Luke fell to the ground. The minute Luke hit the ground, we all ran to him. He was recovering from the fall quite nicely and he was covered in masses of dead bird pieces. He was thoroughly disgusted by the parts of the bird that was on him.

"Next time make it cleaner," Luke snapped at Jade.

Jade pushed his glasses up with an amused look. "Understood, I will make sure that a clean kill takes priority to rescuing you."

That just deepened Luke's frown.

We all had individual tasks to do when we made camp. Tear went to find a stream to refill the water. Ion stayed at the campsite with Jade as his bodyguard. Celena went…somewhere. She was probably with Tear…I think. Guy and Luke were in charge of cooking and cleaning while Anise and I went to a nearby forest to collect some firewood.

We were pretty lucky with the wood, Jade, for some reason, always chose a place where some sort of forest or wood were close to the camp so that searching for water or wood would be easier. Since I knew nothing about camping or firewood, Anise accompanied me so that I learn to differentiate firewood from ordinary ones. That and it would be 'disastrous' if I was left on my own again. According to Jade.

Anise had an upset look for a small amount of time. She pouted only because she wasn't using the kitchen. Luke had suggested that she take a break from cooking and that she would try his instead for once. She agreed, just this once. And so she was with me. We were returning to camp with a good load of firewood in both in our arms.

"Psst! Did you hear?" Anise whispered to me when Jade and Ion came to view. Ion was looking at the letter that Peony had entrusted him. Jade was standing not too far from Ion, being alert like always.

"Heard what?" I asked.

"Earlier, I asked the Colonel what was his secret for being so strong," she explained. "Do you know what he said?"

"I said that I drink blood," Jade answered before I was able to. Anise made a sound before playfully hiding behind me. "It's not nice talking about people when they're right there."

"Boo, Colonel." Anise placed her hands on her hips. The firewood in her hands fell to the ground making multiple wood clashing sounds. "Anyway, if I didn't know any better, I would think you're a vampire, Colonel."

"Problem with that is that he doesn't spontaneously combust in sunlight, Anise," I pointed out. Although some stuff makes some sense like pale skin, red eyes, an almost nocturnal behavior and a natural killing instinct. Jade raised an eyebrow in interest.

"Maybe he's a different kind of vampire," Anise said with a finger on her cheek. "Like…he could have a different effect like sparkle or something while in the sun."

The first thing that came to mind when I heard sparkling vampire was Twilight. Followed by Edward Cullen. Then Robert Pattinson starring Edward Cullen in the movie. Immediate dislike of the idea.

"I'd take vampire withstanding the sun over a sparkling one any day…" I muttered.

"Why would you not want a sparkling vampire?" Jade asked, pushing his glasses up so that the light of the flame caused a gleam. "If I am a vampire then everyone would be in my dazzling presence."

That…by far…was the worst synonym turned pun I have ever heard.

Anise giggled. It was most likely at my reaction to Jade's sentence. "Anh appears to be speechless."

"I am."

Luke walked over to us. He looked at me before looking at Anise and Jade, his expression read: confused. "I don't know what's going on but I need your help, Anh. Think you can lend me a hand?"

I immediately snapped out of dazing out. "Uh...sure. What for, Luke?"

"Just come over here." He grabbed my arm roughly and pulled me away from the two of them. If I recalled properly, Luke was the one who was suppose to make today's meal. Should he really be pulling time out of the kitchen?

Luke pulled me all the way to the kitchen he was supposed to be using. Guy doesn't seem to be in sight so...now I was really confused. Guy used to be here helping Luke with the kitchen, aiding him as well as pointing out some cooking facts.

"Where's Guy?" I asked Luke. He released my arm and he held out something at me. I wasn't able to determine what the object was nor was I able to determine what was inside of it but something was up. I eyed it with an interested look. "What's that?"

"Blood." Luke answered simply.

Oh, now I get it. Anise must have been going around whispering stuff about Jade drinking blood and Luke must have heard of it from her. That meant I was the last person to hear that from Anise. I eyed the blood suspiciously. Honestly, I don't want to know where that blood came from. "You're...giving that to Jade...?"

"Why not?" Luke asked. "It's to get back at Jade for what he was done to me today."

The site of Luke covered in garuda pieces was actually an amusing one, if the person wasn't Luke that is. I resisted a smile when I recalled the image. Snapping back to reality… "I thought we were pulling a prank on him for what the story he was telling us."

"Well, we're doing that too, but I want to see the look on his face when he drinks the blood."

Now it was making more sense. Luke pulled me here to 'create' a diversion which was making beverage with a somewhat identical shade of blood and pass it around to the entire group while leaving Jade the cup full of blood. It sounded pretty cruel but...I was pretty sure Jade wouldn't notice until the last minute. Since Luke was all 'grr' at me, I might as well give him some slack. He was in charge of today's meal, after all.

"All right," I said, finally. "What's the drink I'm supposed to make?"

"That's for you to figure out," Luke answered. "I've been slaving away collecting the blood most of the time; I wasn't able to do much for dinner."

I gave him a 'not impressed' look at him. "...Thanks, Luke."

"Here." I held a cup out to Ion. He took it gratefully with a nod as Anise passed him a bowl of what I think should be soup of some sort. I hope there were no vegetables in there but it looked like there were some. Ewww.

"What's in this drink?" Ion asked as I passed a drink to Tear. It looked like he already took a sip out of it.

"Cranberry," I answered. It was the closest 'red' colour that we had in the Wing Pack and making the juice itself was by far the hardest thing I had faced. Squeezing the juice from an orange was pretty difficult but from a cranberry was even harder...! One thing for sure, I was pretty glad we didn't have glass cups because the colour difference between blood and juice was ridiculously evident.

"Tastes delicious," Ion commented. His comment made me smile as I already passed one to Anise and Celena then Luke. Luke passed his drink to Guy as a precaution since Guy couldn't have physical contact with females without a freak out moment. Though that made me sad a bit. I wanna freak him out before dinner begins. Oh well.

I looked over my shoulder to Ion and nodded. "Thanks, Ion."

It was finally Jade's turn to receive his cup. He didn't seem to have noticed what we were up to nor did he look suspicious. Instead of drinking his cup of 'juice', he set the cup down and waited for me to have a seat next to him.

Uh...Oh...

When I sat down, I gave a look at Luke wondering if Jade knew what we were up to. He returned a look at me that kind of told me not to make things suspicious. I narrowed my eyes at him before picking up my bowl of soup and looked around the campfire. Ion sat in between Anise and Tear, Celena was sitting on Tear's right. Guy was sandwiched between Luke and Jade and I was right beside Jade. To my right was a big rock. Yep, a rock. Fun.

"How long are we from the naval port?" Luke asked Celena.

"We're another week and a half away." She answered without looking up from her meal. "Give or take two three days depending on monster encounters as well as breaks."

Luke moaned. "We're still that far away from Master Van? I thought we would reach it sooner."

Guy chuckled beside him. "Patience, Luke. It's not like Van's going to disappear if we're late a couple of days or so."

"But I want to travel beside Master Van!" Luke protested. "Why did he head over to the naval port first? He could have sent her instead." He flicked a thumb towards Celena.

"Van's faster of the two of us," Celena said simply.

Anise looked really shocked. "Really, Lieutenant? I thought it would be the other way around. I mean, you're pretty fast."

"Just because he doesn't look fast doesn't mean he isn't," Celena said. "Although, I'm pretty sure he taught the Kimlasca noble some moves, that kid is still has a lot of things to learn before he is able to best Van in a fight. Besides, I can't match Van in strength or speed. If I was faster than him, I would have taken his position easily."

"Is that why you opt that for Head of the Fon Master Guardians?" Tear asked.

She shrugged in response and the conversation died at that moment. Well…sort of.

"Which reminds me," Jade spoke up, his glasses were pushed up and the gleam appeared on his glasses. "It's been such a stuffy day, how about a story?"

"NO!" Luke and I shouted at the same time.

Jade didn't appeared fazed by our sudden shouted. "Too bad, it wasn't going to be a scary one either."

"You always make it scary, intentionally or not."

"But that would be your minds to think that way. Honestly, you youngsters should think more positively about my stories." Jade pushed his glasses up once more. "Very well, then. Let's change the subject to Guy."

Guy appeared more perturbed by the second when his name was mentioned. "Me? Why?"

"Oh nothing, it's just that we had an agreement."

"What agreement?"

Anise was the first to realize what Jade was talking about. She literally jumped up from her seat and she stood up with a spoon sticking up in the air. "Ah! I forgot to tease Guy in the past couple days!"

The amusement returned to Jade's face. "Exactly, Anise. That's just what I was about to say."

Guy's face paled. Considerably. "Now now, can't we save this until after dinner? Or better yet, tomorrow?"

Celena, appeared quite intrigued to where the conversation was going, placed a hand underneath her chin while eyeing Guy. "This is something someone has to explain to me."

"Guy has a condition called gynophobia." Ion explained.

"Fon Master!" Guy whimpered.

"Why did you tell her that?" Luke asked. "She could be enemy for all we know."

"Luke's right," Tear agreed. "She could be here as a spy for Van."

Then chaos happened.

Luke glared at her. "You really think that Master Van would do something like that? He's your brother!"

"I told you: I don't trust my brother."

"I don't trust you for not trusting Master Van! You could be a spy for that Mohs guy!"

Tear sighed. "This is pointless. We're just going in circles with this."

"None of this would have happened if you didn't try to kill Master Van!"

"Calm down, Master!" Mieu piped up from his position.

"I told you to shut up!"

Guy held Luke down. "Calm down, Luke…"

"If we're talking about suspicions, why don't we question Anh?" Celena asked with a dark grin. Luke and Tear paused as they turned their attention on me.

"What?" I squeaked. "Why me?"

"I can guarantee that Anh is not a spy," Jade spoke up. "And I do not like her being questioned. Though we should be questioning you more than her, Celena."

Celena's eyebrow rose. "Really?" she challenged.

"Why yes, it's not like your history with Asch the Bloody is well hidden."

Luke gaped at her as well as most of the group. I was one of the gaping ones as well. I mean, I knew that she and Asch was pretty friendly with each other but...since when did Jade know that kind of personal information? Celena's brow lowered, and her entire expression turned dark then it changed.

She scoffed. "True, it's not something neither of us would be hiding." She lowered the bowl she was holding to the ground and stood up from her place. "Since I'm deemed as that dangerous, I might as well give you all some space. Not like that's going to help. We leave first thing in the morning, don't forget that." She turned around and abruptly left without another word. She left a trail of silence as we all sat there continuing what we were doing.

Luke groaned as he ruffled his hair. "I knew something was up with her. We should have travelled with Master Van in the first place!"

"It's not like she's a part of the Grand Maestro faction," Ion spoke up.

"What do you mean, Ion?"

Ion lowered his gaze to the fire. "I don't know the details but from what I have heard, Asch has been staying at her place for a few years now."

"So she's his caretaker or something?"

"One would say that." Jade responded as he pushed his glasses up.

"Which reminds me," Luke pointed a finger at Jade's direction. "How do you know something like that?"

"My intelligence told me."

"Liar!"

Oh boy. It went from intense topics to jokes in no time. I got to hand it to Jade to do something like that. I reached for my cup of juice to wash down the plain flavor of the soup Luke made.

Then the iron taste invaded my senses and I immediately recoiled. I turned my head away from Jade and spat out the liquid as I coughed. I also spat a couple of times to get rid of the lingering taste of blood. I used my sleeve to remove whatever was on my lips, my sleeve was dark so I wouldn't be worried about the blood stains on it. This wasn't the first time I tasted blood, well…the blood I tasted was my own and a monster's blood was just plain nasty. That wasn't what bothered me. What bothered me more was that my drink was switched with Jade's…by Jade himself.

That guy…he…!

…was a fucking bastard!

"What's wrong with you?" Luke asked, irritated.

"Is something wrong, Anh?" Anise asked me. She walked over to me with a somewhat concerned look. "Did a bug fly into your drink?"

Jade was watching me with a hawk-like expression. "I think I put too much sugar in mine." I lied, lifting the cup a little. "I didn't like the taste of mine so I added few more teaspoon of sugar to make it sweeter. Seems like I put too much in it so it's overly sweet."

"You want to switch with mine then?" she asked.

And taste blood that was meant for Jade? Hell no. Even I wouldn't be that mean to her. I shook my head to decline her offer. "Thanks by no thanks, Anise. I'll just go dump the juice in a stream for the fish or something." I stood up and took my bowl and the cup of blood with me as I walked over to the forest to find a stream.

"Hey, Anh, wait up." I heard Luke call from behind me. I stopped to wait for him to catch up to me. Like me, Luke was carrying his cup and bowl with him. When he caught up, we began walking but not before Luke gave Jade a look over his shoulder. We kept walking until the campsite was out of view. Luke had occasionally looking over his shoulder in case someone had followed us. Or maybe he was waiting for a chance to say something when no one was around.

"What happened back there?" he asked when he was finally sure that no one was there. "I thought you gave Jade that drink!"

"I did!" I protested. "He switched it with mine!"

"How did that happen?"

"How was I supposed to know? You're saying I should have kept a better eye on my drink? I didn't think he would know about the blood!"

Luke's face twisted to something that looked like a grumpy one. Neither of us said anything more than that, instead we kept walking. The sound of leaves crunching beneath our feet and twigs snapping was all that was heard between us. There was the occasional shifting of the bowl and cup by that was pretty much it. Then I realized something…

"Wait…Who's doing the dishes?" I asked out loud coming to a complete stop. Luke had taken a couple steps ahead of me before he stopped. He, too, was probably thinking about it as well.

"I think Guy is…" He answered looking over his shoulder.

I blinked a couple of times before turning to a nearby bush and dumping the blood onto it. If there was some sort of monster near here, the smell of blood should attract it to here before the campsite.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

"Since Guy's washing the dishes, I might as well just give him the cup to clean," I answered Luke. I shook the cup a couple of times to make sure whatever was left would just drip out. Hopefully Guy doesn't notice the blood stains in the cup by the time he washes the dishes. "Okay let's head back."

Luke muttered something underneath his breath before complying. A slight breeze picked up and the leaves swayed to the light touch of the breeze. I looked up at the sky to see the moon illuminating beautifully in the sky. The hue it gave off seemed pure and comforting. At the same time, I noticed the shape of a person sitting on a large branch, looking up to the moon like I was. The expression she held was…

"Why are you slowing down?" Luke asked me from far ahead. My head snapped down to see that Luke was a good distance away from me. I didn't realize that I slowed down to watch Celena peering at the moon. Luke looked irritated as ever as he waited for me. "Hurry up!"

"Coming!" I called to Luke, before taking off. I caught up to Luke and we continued walking back to the camp. Though I couldn't help but notice the expression Celena had while looking at the moon.

She looked, for some reason…lonely.

"How about we try giving him food he doesn't like?" Luke suggested the next day. We were all preparing for today's road trip but first! We need breakfast. Done by Anise!

Although Anise wasn't that pleased with the soup from last night, she was still head over heels over Luke. She also suggested that Luke should let her do the cooking because it was a 'woman's job' to cook for the husban-I mean-man. That sentence aside, today's breakfast was waffles. Nicely done, soft, fuffy and sweet waffles. My mouth completely watered at the sight of her waffles and adding powdered sugar and syrup just added more to it.

"I guess we could try that…" I muttered, taking a bite of the waffle. "The problem with that is that I don't know what he like or hates."

Luke groaned. "I thought you would know since you're his Lieutenant Colonel."

"Nope. No friggin clue."

"You're useless."

"So are you."

Now that I think about it… What did Jade hate? I mean Fomicry was a sore spot to him but I rather not push that button. It was like yanking a tiger by the tail. There was also Dist but I think the relationship between Jade and Dist was more like a friendly teasing/bullying relationship. Sure, Jade gets irritated from time to time but aside from that…

What did he hate…?

"You really don't know anything about him, do you?" Luke asked.

"No…" I sighed in defeat. There wasn't much about him from the game. All people knew about him was that he was from Keterburg, he was the creator of Fomicry, his last name was actually Balfour and he was a best friend to the Emperor. There were probably more facts to that but other than that, his history was in the unknown zone.

Something hard smacked lightly against my forehead and my line of vision was blocked by something. I grabbed whatever it was, it felt like a book, and removed it from my forehead. From the looks of it, it looked like Luke's diary.

"Uh…"

"I found a page in my diary regarding a prank we could pull on Jade," Luke said, taking the diary back. He began to flip through the pages. When he found the page he was looking for he passed the diary back to me to read it.

I scowled at him taking the diary from him. Honestly, why didn't he explain the situation himself?

Looking down at the diary entry, it was titled 'The slit mouth woman'. I was getting better at the reading part, but it was definitely going to take a while.

Today, I read a book talking about a woman who was apparently beautiful but vain. I'm not going into details about it but from what I've read; her husband got jealous and slit her mouth from ear to ear. She was probably cheating on him. Huh, serves her right. If she hadn't cheated on him he wouldn't have done that to her. Anyway, she turned into a malevolent spirit that now wears a surgical mask. She targets children and students asking them if she was pretty. If they say yes, then she takes off her mask, revealing her scarred face, and repeats the question again. If the person says no, she kills them after slicing their mouth to look like hers. If they say yes, she follows you and kills you at your doorstep…

I stared blankly at the last sentence that I read. I turned to Luke giving him a really dull look. "Really, Luke? Really? This is your big plan?"

"The book was far scarier than what I written down!" Luke protested. "Besides, it's not like you have a better plan!"

No I honestly don't. I rolled my eyes at him. "How are we supposed to pull this off? I mean, the mask, the weapon, the person-" Then it hit me. "Oh no. I'm not going to be that woman."

"I'm not a woman and you agreed to this."

"I agreed to nothing! I just want to pull a prank on him!"

"This is the prank!"

I sighed. Of for the love of…! I rubbed my temple as if I was completely exhausted by just talking to Luke. Somehow I get the feeling that this plan was totally going to backfire. Just like the blood.

The next few days consisted of walking, walking and more walking. Luke and I weren't hanging about at the back of the group like we had a couple days ago. Since the battle with the garuda, I think it would be better if we both keep the formation we had originally planned with the rest of the group in case of another attack. Although I was still pretty upset about Luke, we still kept planning about the prank. I, unfortunately, had to be the one to be that slit mouth woman. Luke made it sound so easy.

'Just pull the hood of your cloak over your head and speak in a creepy voice.'

Easier said than done, Luke.

And how would this 'creepy' voice work? I had a voice where I could go up an octave or two, but that was only when I spot something cute. Was I supposed to think of something cute and then talk? That wouldn't work because I wouldn't act scary at all. I would act more like…a girl fangirlling about something. I couldn't even do a low key at all. It just sounded…weird.

In about a week, we would arrive in the Kaitzur Naval point. That meant we had to pull the prank sometime soon. And by soon, Luke meant tonight.

With my cloak draped over me, I laid in silence in the dark in my make-shift bed. The cloak combined with the blanket made lying there completely unbearable. It was like being cooked alive in an oven or something similar to it. I turned over to the side many times waiting for Luke to hurry the hell up and get right down to the plan. But nooo! He ended up volunteering to be a watch after me and then Jade was after Luke for that role.

Hurry up, Luke…!

Opening an eye just slightly, I saw Jade sitting in front of the fire just staring at it. He just…sat there, staring at the fire as if something might happen. A chill went up my spine as if something might happen to the plan. How did I get myself dragged into to this was absolutely beyond me. I only wanted to pull a prank with Luke not be the one doing the damn prank. Ugh.

Jade's attention went from the fire and towards me. I instantly closed the partially opened eye shut hoping he didn't see me spying on him. I turned over to my other side so that my back was on Jade. Since I had been doing that for quite some time now, I just hoped that Jade hadn't figure out that I was awake. There was a long awkwardly pause between us.

A really, really long one.

The fire made a snapping sound and I heard a pair of feet crunching towards the group. That should indicate that Luke was returning to the campsite.

"Thank you for your hard work," Jade said sarcastically to the person approaching him.

There was a snort and it sounded like that was Luke. "It's not like I wanted to do this."

"But you even put some effort being lookout; it must be tough on you."

"Are you just going to make sarcastic comments or are you going to go to your post?" Luke asked, completely irritated.

"Yes, of course." From the sound that followed Jade's last sentence, it sounded like he was getting up or shifting or something. "Well, then, I shall be going on my way. Please enjoy the rest of the night off, Master Luke."

"I thought I told you to stop calling me that."

"But of course, Master Luke."

"You…"

"You shouldn't keep me occupied any further; I still need to get to my post."

"Just go then."

There was a long pause before Jade left the campfire. A good few minutes passed before I decided to sit up from my bed and stripped the cover off. A light cool feeling replaced the hot air I was laying underneath of and I fanned myself with my cloak.

"I thought I was going to roast myself alive." I sighed in relief.

Luke crossed his arms staring at Jade's direction. "I thought he was never going to leave. Now hurry up. We don't have much time."

"Yeah yeah yeah," I responded getting up.

There he stood, back leaned against a tree trunk, looking quite relaxed. He was occasionally checking the area where the holy bottle was poured onto the ground. He was probably checking if it was still working. But most of the time, he held his back on us. Almost as if he was saying 'I'm here, my back is on you. Attack me'. Somehow I got that kind of vibe from staring at his back. Most of the time he was just leaning against the tree. Watching.

...Waiting.

"Go!" Luke hissed beside me. I shot him an angry glare before complying. Pulling the hood over my head and covering the majority of my face. I looked at the ground to avoid any type of thing that would make a noise if I were to step on it. It was pretty unsuccessful but I was doing my best. While I heard my own footsteps, I was pretty sure it was quiet enough for Jade not to hear me.

That was…before I stepped on a twig.

It snapped loudly and, out of instinct, I lifted my foot from place. Looking down, I swore silently at the sight of the twig and looked back at Luke. He signaled me to keep on going regardless of what had just happened. Making a face at him, I turned to Jade who appeared to have not budged from his position. Taking a deep breath I crept up to him and tugged his uniform from behind.

The next thing was something neither Luke nor I was expecting.

"What is it, Anh?" Jade asked without looking behind him. I felt completely stiff when he said my name. My mind just shut down the minute he said it and my throat became suddenly dry as if I was standing in the desert for hours. My heart felt like it was about to burst from my chest and I think my face just lost its colour.

Still tugging his sleeve, I thought of a word to say to him. "Dare?"

I bit my lower lip as soon as I said that. Oh smart. The first word that came to mind just happened to be a Japanese word. It was worse since Luke was nearby too!

"I know that's you, Anh," Jade continued. His back remained fixated on me and he still didn't move. "If you continue playing these games, you'll eventually hurt yourself."

I opened my mouth to say something but suddenly I heard Luke cried out. That caused me to jump and cling onto Jade's arm. Next thing I knew, a hand grabbed my shoulder and I looked into what looked like Anise's face with a light shining right underneath it.

"Am I pretty~?" she asked darkly. That tone sent shivers up my spine as I shrieked and clung onto Jade's waist, holding onto him desperately. Trembling, I buried my face on his chest averting my eyes from Anise.

It was followed by laughter. Anise's and Jade's.

"Well, that was quite amusing." Jade said, patting my shoulder. "Thank you for lending me your aid, Anise."

"No problem, Colonel~" Anise giggled. "Anh's reaction was completely hilarious! Now about that 10, 000 Gald you promised me."

"10, 000?" Jade repeated. "I was pretty sure it was 1, 000 Gald I agreed to give you."

"Oh, come on, Colonel," Anise whined. "Backing out on an agreement, that's low even for you."

"Although my body is not up to standards, my memory is something you shouldn't be joking about. We agreed to 1,000 Gald."

"Booo!"

I felt someone poke me on the back causing me to tighten my hold on Jade. "Anh~ You can let go now. There's no slit mouth woman out to get you~"

"Uuu…" I whined, shaking my head. "Yadda! Kowai! Kowai yo!"

Anise sighed. "And now she's mumbling gibberish…"

"Well, I hope you and Luke both learned a lesson here," Jade spoke up. "If you want to do something like this, try to be more subtle about your choices and who to pull it on."

"I can't believe you asked Guy and me to teach them both a lesson, Colonel," Anise said. "You could have done it all by yourself without our help."

"But I'm old; pulling that kind of manoeuvre is difficult when you're the intended target. Besides, you youngsters are much swifter than I am. It's better if I let you both do that instead of myself. Less work on me, am I correct?"

"…If you look up 'villain' in the dictionary, I bet you will find Jade's face right beside it." I heard Guy muttered. I also heard Luke moan a bit.

"Definitely~"

Uneventful days were uneventful. I felt like being redundant because the days were ridiculously redundant themselves. Wake up early in the morning, breakfast, walk, lunch, more walking, make camp, dinner, watch out duty, then bed. And repeat for the next few days.

Luke and I haven't been talking to each other since the incident with Jade. I wasn't able to get the chance to either. He was either busy with Guy or I was busy myself. Dinner never helped either because the conversation kind of died halfway through. I didn't feel like talking to either Anise or Jade because they were just plain mean. Well…Anise was mainly teasing, while Jade was just mean entirely.

A big old meanie that was what he was.

"Is something the matter?" Ion asked suddenly. "You and Luke haven't been talking to each other recently and you refuse to talk to Anise as well."

"Nothing really," I sighed. "It's just that neither of us want to talk."

"Funny how Luke said almost the same thing," Ion replied. "You both seemed to have gotten along pretty well."

"That was only because they were planning something against the Colonel," Tear spoke up. "Honestly, why would they do such a thing?"

I looked over my shoulder and at Tear. She, unlike me, held a straight posture. I pouted at her. "Why don't you ask Luke about it, Tear?"

"Neither of us wanted to talk to the other either," she stated simply. Tear looked at the opposite direction of where Luke would be.

"Copycat."

"It's true, however," Tear said, turning her head back at Ion and I. "Unlike you, Anh, Luke doesn't have a reason to doubt you. You can just go up to him and talk normally like nothing had happened. Though I should recommend you not to do something dastardly like what you both did during that night."

"But it was quite intriguing," Ion chuckled. "Who knew that Luke and Anh were plotting against Jade because of the scary story in Kaitzur? That and Jade, of all people, knew what they were up to."

"Mean old man was mean," I grumbled.

Jade, who was listening in on the conversation, pulled both of his hands out of his pocket and raised them from his side. "Oh come now, I'm not that mean."

"Yes you are." Luke, Guy, Anise and I said simultaneously. Not too long after, Anise and I burst out laughing while Jade raised an interested eyebrow at the four of us. I was laughing so hard, I even had to stop to gasp for air while I clutch my stomach. Once we stopped laughing, Anise and I took deep breaths to calm ourselves down.

"If you all are done goofing around," Celena spoke up from ahead of us. "We should get going. We can make it to the Kaitzur naval port in a few hours."

"We're going to meet Master Van pretty soon?" Luke looked more excited than he used to. "Come on you guys. I want to meet Master Van as soon as possible."

"Again with your Master Van," I sighed.

"You got a problem with that?"

"No not at all." A grin spread across my face as soon as I said that sentence. Luke gave me an irritated look before he walked ahead of us. I laughed before catching up with him. "Oh come on, Luke. It was a joke, a joke~"

"Didn't sound like one to me."

"You need to work on your joke detecting skills, Luke."

"See? Even Guy's agreeing with me. High five, Guy!"

"Aaaah!"

"Whoops. Sorry, Guy. I forgot~"

What I knew when we got to Kaitzur naval port was that it was badly damaged by Arietta. What I didn't know about it was that the naval port was set ablaze while the screams and shouts of soldiers and monsters alike.

I have been glued to too much Vampire Knight these days. Too much Vampire Knight… Heart Miyano Mamoru (seiyuu for Flynn in Tales of Vesperia) for voicing Zero! And I didn't know that Takehito Koyasu (seiyuu for Jade) voiced the Headmaster in the Drama CD. I lol'd when I heard him overreact. I can also write most of his name in Kanji now! Everything but the 'take' part. *cough* Anyway…

I was sad to see only one person giving me an idea to pull a prank on Jade. D: Sad face is sad. And yes I know Japanese. I'm actually taking it in university (it's my minor). XD I would write it in Hiragana/Kanji but I'm lazy. So…Nihongo o wakarimasu ka~? Mochiron nihongo o wakarimasen. No Google Translate you guys.

Also: Dare (pronounced Da-re not 'dare' as in I dare you to do this) means 'who'.
Yadda (yad-da): No.
Kowai (ko-wa-i): Scary

Nothing to bring up for grabs right now. I have been neglecting Tales of Hearts for Rune Factory. If only AC works on my computer at home. I would get everything done faster. DX

Review please~ Progress will be made in the next chapter!