A/N: I am back with presents! AN UPDATE! Frogata, this is for your persistence. Never change. : )
4: A day later…
The four Rangers had finally decided the best way to fix the problem was to force the two to work together.
They decided to put Altair's life on the line, partly because they didn't want theirs on the line, and partly because they felt he would make excellent bait.
They tied up Altair, Rae, and Yue, then took them into the forest. Tali was holding a suspicious jar, and Evanna was grinning evilly, so, Altair, Rae, and Yue were a little anxious.
The group reached an immense oak tree and halted.
Evanna was still grinning like a mad person as she took out a long piece of rope. With Eric, Peter, and Tali's help, she managed to tie Altair, by his feet, onto one of the lower boughs of the tree.
Then, while the tied up forms of Rae and Yue watched, Tali dragged the suspicious jar over and opened it. A sweet, rich scent floated out. They all found themselves breathing deeply.
"Honey." Tali sighed happily.
"Yeah, it smells great. But, if we stand here too long, the plan will be ruined." Evanna said sharply.
"True." Tali agreed sadly.
The four Rangers took the honey and slathered it all over Altair and his clothes.
When they were finished, Tali covered the jar. All four Rangers then turned to Rae and Yue, whose eyes were wide.
Smiling, Evanna said, "You two have to work together to save Altair. This honey will lure the local bears to him, in say, ten minutes, maybe less? Then, who knows what'll happen?"
Tali took up the story. "So, you will have to find a way, together, without cutting the rope, to save Altair."
She turned to look at Altair's dangling form. "Hey, he's our damsel in distress. I love it!"
"I don't!" yelled Altair in panic.
Eric and Peter rolled their eyes.
Peter continued, "Your weapons will be taken away, to try and stop you two fighting." Then, quieter, he muttered, "If that's possible."
Then, Rae and Yue were untied, and the Rangers ran (with the jar of honey) back to the cottage.
Rae and Yue sat looking at each other for a minute then Rae stood up and said, "Only one way to do this."
Yue stood up too.
"Sharp rock." They said in unison, and smiled at each other.
A few minutes later…
Rae and Yue walked in with a severed rope and Altair, who was still covered in honey.
All four Rangers face palmed at the same time. Then, Evanna said, "We were afraid of that."
Tali sighed, then told Eric and Peter, "Knock 'em out again."
The two obliged, knocking out Rae and Yue. Again.
Then, they trekked back through the forest to the oak tree.
Keeping in mind that Rae and Yue were warriors and not climbers, the Rangers decided to tie Altair to a branch much higher off the ground.
When Rae became conscious, she realized several things:
Yue was awake too, and looking murderous.
Altair was tied up again, much too high for Rae and Yue to climb up again and cut the rope with another rock.
The Rangers would continue this until Rae and Yue worked together on a plan.
Rae sighed and stood up.
"So," she began conversationally "Why haven't you killed me yet?"
Yue gave Rae a death glare and growled, "The Rangers would be irritated. I wouldn't live long after."
Rae nodded slowly. "Good point."
There was a pause, where neither spoke, but looked at their shoes.
Then Rae started, "I guess-"
"Yes, we'll have to work together. Much as I hate it." Yue interrupted.
Rae shrugged. The feeling of hate was mutual.
"Got any ideas, then?" Rae asked.
Yue's face scrunched up. "No."
"Well, then. Let's start with what we know." Rae said. She started to pace in front of Yue.
"We know the Rangers won't stop doing this until we work together. We know that Altair is tied to a tree, too high for us to climb and reach him. Also, he's covered in honey, which will attract bears. We don't know if they'll try to harm Altair, but you can never be too sure. We should be prepared for the worst situation."
Rae paused in front of Yue. "Ideas." She said, pointing at Yue.
They started passing ideas back and forth: carve hand holds on the tree (this was discarded quickly, because it would take too long), hammer the rocks into the tree to climb up (again, it would take too long), throw rocks at the rope to try and cut it… somehow (too dangerous for Altair) and then… a light bulb went off in Rae's head.
"Yue, Altair is tied to a tree, roughly at a bear's height, right?"
"Yes?" Yue agreed, but it sounded like a question. She was trying to figure out where Rae was headed with this.
"And his hands are tied together, in front of him, right?"
"I…guess."
"What if, you boost me up, and I use Altair's hands to pull myself the rest of the way, then untie him from the branch?"
Yue's eyes lit up. "That might work!"
"Let's try it!" Rae exclaimed.
So they explained the situation to Altair, who would act as the lever, as he put it, and then Yue picked Rae up and she grabbed Altair's hands. She reached up, and then realized she had no idea how to reach Altair's branch now.
"Hmmm. This is a problem." She muttered, looking around.
Then, a thought struck her. If she could reach another branch, then it would be easier to get to Altair's branch.
She had been dangling from Altair's hands, but know she pulled herself farther up and onto a branch to her left.
Once she was crouching on the branch, she moved carefully towards Altair, and started untying his rope.
She was too late.
A bear, an adult bear, came into the clearing, nose in the air, searching for the honey scent.
It was a male brown bear, and Yue, looking another direction didn't see him.
The bear came lumbering to the tree with Altair dangling from it, and tried to lick him.
"Ohhh, no, you don't want to eat me." Altair said, curling and leaning away from the bear.
"Really, I'm pretty sure I'm not very good for your digestive system, not to mention tough and stringy." He added, as the bear leaned forward to lick him.
"Yue!" Rae shouted, "Bear!"
Yue spun on her heel, saw the bear, picked up two fallen branches, and charged.
Yue swung an overhand stroke at the bear's head.
The branch broke.
She looked at what was left of the branch. "Useless." She said. Then she lunged at the bear again, screaming a very familiar war cry.
Rae was still busy untying Altair, who had his eyes closed, and his hands up like he was praying, was saying "I am not a tasty steak, I am not a tasty steak," over and over again.
"Altair, shut up! The bear won't eat you!" Rae exclaimed in exasperation.
Finally, she freed Altair from the branch. He dropped to the ground with a painful thump.
Voice muffled, he said, "That was unnecessary, and painful."
Rae carefully dropped down beside him as he sat up, and she untied his hands, then she grabbed Yue and dragged her away from the bear, who was retreating anyway. They ran to the cottage, to see all the Rangers still sitting at the table.
Tali took charge, telling Altair to bathe and Rae and Yue to explain what happened.
Story told and Altair clean, Evanna asked Rae and Yue if they still felt the urge to kill each other.
There was a pause, where the two women glanced at each other, then they said in unison, "Not really."
The Rangers cheered and Peter shouted, "Progress!"
Then, Carter burst in and exclaimed, "Everyone to the cave, now!"
And then he took off running to the cave, closely followed by everyone else.
When they were all assembled, Carter started pacing.
"Altair, you were given a mission by the senators of Kagari in order to train as a Ranger-bring back the sisters of Discordant Harmony, alive. Now is the time for you to leave, and you need to pick some people to go with you."
"Well, that's obvious. You only dragged them in here, Carter." Altair said.
"Great, so you're all here. Now then…you leave tomorrow, and you head after the next sister, Me. What's her real name?"
Rae answered, "Hayden."
"Right." Carter agreed, sounding distracted.
He pulled out a map of Kagari, and everyone leaned in.
Rae took out one of her daggers, and pointed at one of the mountains to the north, Mt. Blackstorm.
"This mountain is known for its caves, but it's also Hayden's personal base. All of them have personal bases, located throughout the country." Rae explained.
"And that's where we're headed. Let's go!" Altair said cheerfully.
"Hold on," Tali said, "We have packing to do."
"I hate packing." Altair grumbled.
"I hate the cold." Altair muttered.
This was natural, Altair was from the desert, so snow wasn't his thing.
They were on Mt. Blackstorm's highest peak, Sumatra, which was ironically a word from Ang's native language, and it meant 'height.'
In any case, being so high in the atmosphere had several effects on the group, including: freezing because of how cold and windy it was (to give you an idea, snow covered the ground about a foot deep), hardly being able to breathe, because of the altitude (the air being thinner), and to top it all off, they had to find Hayden, deal with Altair, and, more importantly, Evanna.
"Well, I do too, so the sooner we find this idiot who put her base on the highest mountain in Kagari, the better," Evanna snapped back.
Rae the peacemaker spoke before Altair could retort,"There are some more caves up farther up," she said pointing to a spot a hundred meters ahead of them, "and if we don't find Hayden there, we can at least rest in them."
Everyone else quickly agreed, and they quickened their pace.
They carefully checked the first three caves, the Rangers pulling their cowls up and investigating each cave. But, there was no luck in these caves. The fourth cave, Tali was searching. She melted into the rock with her cloak, and if you looked closely, you could see a faint shimmer vanish into the cave.
Hardly fifteen seconds later, Tali came careening out of the cave and grabbed the two nearest people to her, Eric and Evanna, and dragged them into the cave next to the one Tali had just checked. All the others in the group followed her, to find Tali pacing, and Eric and Evanna standing there looking confused.
"Okay, she's in there," Tali said, hyperventilating.
"Tali, what's wrong?" Eric asked, walking over and grabbing her shoulders.
"She… she… almost walked into me. That's… how I know she's there."
Eric pulled her into the hug. "Calm down." he soothed.
"It…freaked me out. She just popped up next to me."
Rae patted Tali on the shoulder. "It's okay." She said.
Tali nodded, and pulled out of the hug.
"Okay, I'm fine. How are we going to capture her? She has twenty guards with her, at least."
After discussing tactics for a while, Tali had inspiration.
She took out her throwing knife and stabbed it into the ground, making everyone jump slightly.
"I know what to do."