A/N: First things first thank you to all the reviewers! I really do appreciate any and all support! Also, (and I should have been putting this in for awhile, barring Ch. 4) thank you especially to FierceDeityMask for being the unofficial beta for my story.
LoveDoctor0037: I'd normally respond in a personal message and even if you never read this I'll put it in in the off chance you see it ;) I always liked when authors mentioned me, after all. First off, thank you for your review and I'm glad you're the story so far! Now for the second part of your review: Good catch! I had kinda been hoping no-one would notice that. :P I had actually originally written Lance's introduction description with him in his Officer outfit, but I changed it because I figured sneaking through a forest would be much more effective and reasonable in camo.
Now then, on to the story!
The four adventurers walked in pairs down the dirt trail leading to the Crystal Caverns. Anna and Natalie were up front chatting amiably with each other about various things ranging from hobbies and favorites to battle techniques and their different healing magics; Natalie was curious as to how Anna's differed. Matt and Lance were trailing behind them in silence. Matt glanced over at his brooding friend—who was attempting to burn a hole in the back of Anna's head with his suspicious glare—and wondered if perhaps he should ask what about the ranger was bothering him so much.
The swordsman had just opened his mouth to speak but Lance beat him to it, "Are you sure we can trust this archer-girl not to get us into serious trouble or attack us? I mean, you said she'd already attacked you once; did she go for Natz too? Also, how's she do in battle? This isn't going to be some baby-sitting trip, is it?"
Matt shrugged, "Eh, I doubt anything she can do will be worse than Akron and while she did beat me back near Greenwood, she didn't leave me to die from her attack. She never attacked Natz, but rather, helped me find her and then saved her and NoLegs from being mauled by a bear."
"You were defeated by some girl from a random village in the middle of nowhere? Pathetic," Lance scoffed before realizing the implications of that. "Wait, she beat you? Is she that good, or do you just suck?"
"Hey, it was a surprise attack; I didn't even know she was there until she'd almost pinned me to a tree!" Matt exclaimed defensively. He shook his head before continuing, "As for skills, from what I've seen she's an incredibly fast and dead-shot with that bow, great in woodcraft, has some healing magic, and basic offensive nature magic. Apparently, her life back in Greenwood is solo hunting trips in the forest as well as dealing with the occasional thief, or thieves in our case, so she's no stranger to combat. She never had any hesitation in any of the battles we fought while trying to find Natalie and you. I wouldn't worry about needing to watch over her very closely; at least, not any more closely than Natz and I."
Lance's eyes narrowed in thought. "Okay, so she's skilled and experienced; at least somewhat, anyway. How about her personality? She seemed pretty irritable when I spoke with her."
The swordsman rolled his eyes and said sarcastically, "You insulted her and her village—which we had just stolen a lot of stuff from—and you expect her to be nice about it? Of course she was irritable. How would you feel if I busted into your home, messed with your stuff, and then threw some insults around?"
Lance snorted and quirked one eyebrow, "Correct me if I'm wrong but, you and Natalie did break into my home, destroyed my stuff, and then called my awesome Valkyrie Tank a 'fancy car'. I think you can remember what my reaction was." He then sighed and conceded, "I see your point, but I still don't trust her."
Matt laughed awkwardly, "Well, in all fairness, you were trying to dominate the known world with a death-bot army. Anyway, Anna is nice, cheerful, and usually friendly. I'm positive she's not trying to lure us into some horrible trap designed to kill us all."
The two glanced ahead at an excited shout from in front of them. Anna and Natalie stood before a giant, questionably-shaped red and white spotted mushroom towering next to the trail. The gunner and swordsman walked the last few paces and stood behind them. They all stared up at the mushroom with different expressions.
Anna's face was lit up with an innocent smile, "Wow! What huge mushroom! This thing could feed a whole family for a week!"
Natalie's nose was scrunched up in skeptical distaste, "I suppose so, but I can't help but think it's a bit... inappropriate looking."
Matt looked slightly perturbed, "I'm starting to feel inadequate, for some reason…"
Finally, Lance had a perverted smirk on his face, "Hey, it's almost as big as my member!"
Natalie smacked both him and Matt upside their heads for the lewd remarks, "For the love of all that is holy, Lance and Matt, keep those kinds of comments to your selves!" The mage fumed with a glare as the two men rubbed their sore heads.
Anna's face had been puzzled at first but, with another glance at the mushroom, her eyes widened in embarrassed horror and she flushed a bright red having realized what the other three meant. "I'm going pretend I didn't hear any of that and attempt to continue leading a phallic-fungi free life!" Ignoring the remnants of her blush—as well as the looks of amusement the guys were giving—her she turned back to them, "We're almost to the Crystal Caverns; if we hurry we might get to the entrance before dark!" She then proceeded to speed-walk down the path, pointedly avoiding looking at the mushroom, and rounded a bend.
"I see what you mean about not having to worry about her betraying us, Matt." Lance said, crimson eyes still glinting in amusement, "If she's that innocent in how she thinks about things, then I doubt 'betrayal' is even in her vocabulary." Matt simply rolled his eyes with a grin in response.
Natalie huffed in annoyance, "Just because she isn't socially and morally challenged like you two, doesn't mean you can insult her intelligence, Lance." Turning to follow after the flustered archer, she tossed a final, "You both should apologize to her at camp tonight" demand over her shoulder before hurrying to catch up to Anna. The two just looked at each other and sighed before following the two girls through the trees at a leisurely pace.
The sounds of a skirmish breaking out from behind the rock Anna and Natalie had passed around caused both of the fighters to break into a run, however. They rounded the bend and caught sight of the two girls squaring off against an Earth Golem. Two piles of leaves with arrows stuck in them showed that a pair of Green bushes had already been taken out by Anna; the few arrows sticking straight down into the golem's shoulders and head told Matt that she had used the Arrow Rain skill that had taken him down to do the job.
Lance and Matt skidded to a stop in front of the two girls right as Natalie unleashed a blast of Ice that coated the surrounding grass in a thin layer of frost and caused the golem to stagger back slightly. Lance took the opportunity to level his gunblade at the monster and fired a round into its left leg weakening it for Matt to slice off.
The golem crumbled into a pile of dirt with a low groan, bits of the magic that had sustained it sparking off for a little while before finally stopping. The adventurers exchanged a few high fives before digging through the dirt and leaf piles for spoils. A few bits of gold and a small emerald were pocketed before they continued on their way.
The sun was just setting when the four arrived at the mouth of the Crystal Caverns. Long shadows were cast from the trees onto the ground which looked to be stained red from the sunset. The evening calls of Black Birds echoed around the clearing and from the cave entrance and crickets were already striking up the evening chorus. The four gave a collective sigh of relief at having made it and just stood there gazing at the dark, yawning opening set into the cliff face. The cave had a few stalactites hanging just inside the mouth which gave the appearance of fangs. It was too dark to see much further inside but they could tell the ground began to slope quickly. The wind blowing out of the cave was frigid, causing the adventurers to shiver slightly. A small brook ran across the far corner of the clearing to disappear into a small hole next to the cave entrance.
Natalie gave herself a shake and turned to the others with a smile, "Well, we made it with enough light to set up camp. Matt and Lance, you guys can go find us some firewood while Anna and I set up the fire pit."
Matt groaned, tossed his pack on the ground, and led the way back into the trees to find some dry branches with Lance following silently behind him. Natalie walked over to a spot near the cliff away from the chilling breeze coming from the cave and knelt to begin pulling up grass. Anna shuffled around the clearing and brought over enough decently sized rocks to ring the pit and help Natalie align them. They then leaned against the cliff in silence for a while, waiting for the guys to get back with the firewood.
A low grumbling sound broke the quiet, causing Anna to flush in embarrassment and chuckled sheepishly, "That was my stomach. I was in such a rush to catch you guys that I forgot to stop at the café to grab breakfast before leaving. I'm starving!"
Natalie's stomach also let out a groan, echoing the sentiment, and the two girls stared at each other before bursting out in laughter. "And with everything that's happened today, we all forgot about lunch. I don't suppose you have any food on you, do you?" Natalie asked hopefully. Anna shook her head and Natalie sighed in disappointment, "It's too dark to forage for fruit or something. I guess we'll have to wait until morning to find some food; unless Matt or Lance has some on them, which I doubt."
"Have what?" Matt's asked as he and Lance came out of the trees with arms full of branches.
They set them down near enough to the fire pit to be convenient but far enough away to avoid catching from loose sparks. Lance knelt to start arranging some of the smaller branches and a handful of kindling in the circle before lighting it with a small burst of flame from his palm. The fire caught quickly and Lance fed it a few larger branches before sitting across the fire from the girls. Matt flopped onto his side next to him.
"Food; we just realized none of us have eaten since this morning and it's too dark to go find some now." Natalie sighed, her blue eyes glittering with reflected light from the leaping flames. Matt shook his head despondently.
Anna opened her mouth, "I could-"
She cut off as Lance started talking. "It's too late to radio in for some ration bars too. The drones wouldn't be able to find us in these woods in the dark, and even if they could, they'd probably just smash into this cliff here instead." He suddenly smirked and glanced over at Anna, who was just about to try saying something again, "We could always go for that mushroom. It's large enough to feed a whole family for a week, after all." Matt smothered a laugh and twisted away from the small rock Natalie threw at him.
The green-haired girl spluttered in embarrassment at the reminder before her eyes flashed in fury. She stood up suddenly, grabbed her bow from where it rested against the cliff, and walked around the fire, making sure to stomp on Lance's fingers as she passed him. Lance let out a yelp and rubbed his now sore hand, glaring at the archer's back and muttering under his breath about crazy, violent, green haired demons.
"I don't think wandering around the forest at night is a good idea, Anna." Matt cautioned, sitting up to eye her as she made her way to the tree-line. Natalie made a small noise of agreement.
Anna paused and looked over her shoulder, her face was in shadows, but her anger was still visible in her tense shoulders as she replied, "I've been in these woods countless times during both the day and the night. I know what I and what the monsters in this area are capable of and I promise to be careful. I'm just going to bag us a Tanuki Dog or something to roast. I'll be right back so don't follow me; I don't need the extra noise scaring off the game." She then vanished into the shadows of the forest. Matt and Natalie exchanged a worried glance across the fire before Matt reluctantly leaned back again.
"Ten gold pieces says she won't be able to find anything or she'll scream and we'll have to go running to save her. I think she dislocated a couple of fingers," Lance grumbled getting up to stick his hand in the cool water of the stream.
Natalie rolled her eyes, "Serves you right for making fun of her again." She turned to Matt, "I say give her a half hour or so and if she isn't back by then we should go find her."
Matt nodded, flopping onto his back with his hands crossed behind his head to look up at the stars. "Sure, but now that I think about it, she'll probably be back before then. Her job is to hunt animals and I saw her tracking first hand." He then started to fantasize about dinner, "I wonder what she'll bring? I've never eaten Tanuki Dog before…"
Lance and Natalie exchanged a glance upon seeing the slight drool on the swordsman's mouth and guessing what was causing it. Lance shrugged before pulling out a pocket knife and grabbed a few sticks that he then shaved and split to serve as a spit for the meat, wincing a few times when he flexed his fingers wrong.
"Assuming she finds any at all," The gunman thought, still skeptical.
Out in the woods, Anna was seething, albeit silently.
"What a jerk. I can't believe Natalie and Matt put up with him on a daily basis. I hope his hand hurts, it would serve him right," She fumed.
When, after a few minutes of internally cursing Lance and his knack for getting her worked up, she still hadn't calmed down, Anna slumped against a tree and decided she needed to deal with her anger if she wanted to get any hunting done. No way was she going to be able find any tracks as distracted as she was now, much less catching any prey she did find. Looking around the dimly lit forest, the ranger spotted a low branch, grabbed onto it, and hauled herself into the tree. She scurried up it swiftly and confidently and settled herself about halfway up the tree in a fork in the trunk. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and let it out slowly, listening to the faint rustling of leaves in a stray breeze and the chirping of crickets. Repeating this a few times, Anna considered her irritation with Lance with a much clearer head. "Well, while his and Matt's remarks were crude earlier, I have to admit the situation was pretty funny; if also embarrassing. The second time… I think I over reacted. Though being insulted is getting irritating that was no reason to step on his hand." Anna mused. She sighed softly, "I suppose I should apologize for that when I get back."
Finally feeling calm enough to hunt, Anna opened her eyes. Luck was on her side, apparently, as the first thing she spotted was a fairly large Tanuki Dog foraging for nuts at the base of the tree next to the one she was perched in. Anna carefully and quietly stood up balancing in the fork, nocked an arrow, and shot it. The missile found its mark in the Tanuki's neck, killing it instantly.
The successful hunter then made her way down to her kill and promptly skinned and gutted the creature before stringing it on a game line she kept in one of the many pouches at her waist. She then turned in the direction of the camp, steeled her resolve not to shoot Lance on sight, no matter how irritated he made her, and made her way back to the others, dinner securely in hand.
Fifteen minutes had passed when Anna silently walked back into the clearing, an already skinned and cleaned Tanuki dangling from a game line in her hand. She appeared to have calmed down and was smiling slightly. The other three looked up upon her entrance. Matt's eyes brightened at the sight of soon-to-be-dinner, Natalie gave the Ranger a relieved smile, while Lance just blinked in disbelief. Anna cut the meat into smaller portions which she then skewered and set on the two forked branches that had been set up in her absence. She sat down at one end of the makeshift spit to turn the meat over the fire so it would cook evenly.
The clearing was soon filled with the delicious aroma of cooking meat. Bits of juice and fat fell off to sizzle on the fire. Matt had gone slightly catatonic at the wonderful smells and even Lance's and Natalie's mouths were watering in expectation. Finally, Anna announced that it was done and carefully pulled the meat off the branch and handed a couple of skewers to Matt and Natalie first. They both began to eat with relish. Matt gave her a mumbled sound around a mouthful of food that vaguely sounded like thanks while Natalie gave her a big smile.
The ranger then turned to face Lance with an unreadable look on her face. Lance was convinced she was about to tell him he could find his own food—which he admitted he probably deserved—when her eyes fell upon his swollen hand, two fingers wrapped in gauze. The impassable look melted into slight guilt and Anna sighed as gave him his portion of dinner. He took it in his good hand with a nod of thanks, slightly surprised she was giving him any at all.
Matt and Natalie watched the scene with some interest. Both had been sure that Anna was going to withhold the food from Lance.
Before Anna sat to eat her own, though, she faced the gunner and said in a subdued voice, "I'm not sorry for getting mad at you, but I am sorry for purposely stomping on your fingers. I should have controlled my temper better, even if you deserved it."
Lance stared at her for a few seconds before he glanced downward in embarrassment. "Eh, you were justified. It'll heal in a couple of days, anyway. Thanks for catching and cooking dinner for us." He looked back up and covered his embarrassment with a snarky comment, "Although, it was probably just dumb luck that got you the catch."
Natalie and Matt both slapped their foreheads at the typical Lance behavior and sighed.
Anna's eyes flashed in irritation before she closed them and turned with a huff to sit next to Natalie. "You can catch your own dinner next time, jerk. Wouldn't want to rely on 'dumb luck' all the time, would we?" she muttered and proceeded to ignore him while she ate her share of the meal.
Silence filled the clearing while they finished their food. Matt was the first to finish and tossed his skewer into the fire before he stood up and stretched with a yawn. He opened his pack and pulled out a blanket which he then spread on the grass. "I'm going to sleep now. See you all in the morning." Using his pack as a pillow, he promptly fell asleep in the span of seconds.
Natalie sighed, "And again, he forgets the need to set up a watch." She shook her head in affectionate exasperation.
Lance shrugged and said, "I'm still impressed he can fall asleep that fast. I'll take first watch; I'll wake Matt to take over in a few hours."
Natalie nodded her assent and tossed a few larger sticks on the fire to keep it going for a while before she pulled her own blanket out. Laying on one half and pulling the other on top of her, she curled up on her side facing the fire with her back to the cliff.
"Actually, I can set up some wards to keep the beasts away. No need for any of us to lose sleep; especially if it makes you any grouchier." Anna offered with a pointed look at Lance, speaking up for the first time since dinner.
Lance quirked an eyebrow but Natalie cut him off before he could make another scathing remark, "Lance, shut up."
"I didn't even say anything!" He protested.
The mage snorted, "No, but I know you were going to. That would be great, Anna, thank you. None of us have any idea how to set up anything that would deter monsters; do you think you could teach me sometime?"
Anna smiled, "Sure, it isn't very hard. I'll show you tomorrow. Goodnight, guys." She then went about setting some simple wards around their campsite before curling up under her own blanket.
Soon, both girls were asleep leaving Lance the only one awake. He watched the three sleeping around the fire for a little while debating whether he should keep watch after all. Thinking on it, he decided that even if he didn't quite trust Anna, he would trust Matt's judgement on her skills and lay down on his own blanket. He stared into flickering flames of the camp fire and listened to the breathing of the other three for some time before finally drifting off.
A/N: And there we go, next up is Crystal Caverns! Please leave some reviews to satisfy my voracious ego. xD
See ya!