A/N: And here I am, swinging in with Chapter 17! Thank you to all reviewers last chapter! I'm really glad that you all liked the last one so much, I was worried about the romance :3
To guest reviewer, Mochi Ice Cream: Thank you for your review, I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations, even slightly! ;)
Anna and Lance trekked alongside the river in silence, staying close to the tree line to stay relatively dry. The river's water had fallen to a more normal level, though it was still a muddy brown and running swifter than usual. So far, they had seen no signs of Matt or Natalie, nor any place where the two might have managed to get out of the current that had carried them away. On the bright side they also hadn't yet had any run-ins with monsters. Anna's focus was intent on the banks of the river, eyes sweeping the muddy ground for any tracks that might indicate Matt or Natalie-preferably both together-had gotten out; Lance, though not as good of a tracker as the ranger, helped by keeping an eye and ear out for any signs of potential attackers.
Suddenly, Anna stopped and lifted one arm to point at a tangle of logs and branches caught against some rocks in the river, "There, I think I see something."
Lance squinted in the direction she was pointing and caught a glimpse of something glinting in the middle of the debris. "Could just be some garbage," He said skeptically.
Anna shrugged, "Hey, I think we should check everything suspicious in the river." She slid down the muddy slope to the water's edge and stood there contemplating the best way to reach the glittering object, "Hmm, It's too far to just reach out and snag it," she glanced down at the rushing water, "and somehow I don't think swimming for it is a very good idea."
"Definitely not," Lance said with a shake of his head, still standing above her on the higher bank. "It obviously isn't Matt or Natz. Let's just leave it and-" he broke off with a shout of surprise as Anna backed up a few steps before, with no warning at all, she ran forward leapt for the mat of debris. There was a heart stopping moment as the ranger landed on the branches and they shifted, a few breaking off to be carried away. "Are you nuts?! What if the whole thing had broken up beneath you?" Lance yelled across to Anna.
The ranger ignored her shouting companion as she regained her balance on the shifting raft of branches. She carefully lowered herself, wary of any sign that the whole thing was about to break apart, and reached forward to work the glittering object free from the mess without tearing the entire raft to pieces. A few tense seconds filled with Lance's raving from behind her passed, before Anna's eyes widened as she pulled Natalie's Crystal Staff out of the water. It had a few wet leaves and blades of grass stuck to it, but was most definitely the mage's staff. Anna held her find up for Lance to see and the gunner's rant cut off abruptly as he recognized the weapon.
"Well, at least we know we didn't miss them emerging before this point," Lance said, heaving a sigh. Anna nodded and carefully turned around to face the bank again. She froze and released a sheepish laugh that had Lance raising one eyebrow, "What's so funny?"
"Err, I didn't think about how to get back when I decided to jump over here," Anna admitted with an embarrassed laugh. The ranger winced when Lance slapped his palm over his face and dragged it down over his eyes. She winced again when he lowered his hand to glare at her, his face telling her that she completely deserved to be left there for being such an idiot. "Sooo, any brilliant ideas to get me back over there?" Anna asked, smiling hopefully.
Lance crossed his arms and chewed on his lower lip thoughtfully. He looked at the distance between where Anna stood on the mat of branches and the muddy bank, calculating how far it was between them before he abruptly turned around and began heading for the trees.
"Hey, don't just leave me here!" Anna yelled desperately.
Lance twisted his neck around to glare back at her from over his shoulder. "I'll be right back. Don't try jumping, don't try swimming, don't try paddling; don't even move," he snapped at her.
"Where are you going, though?" Anna called as he disappeared between the trunks. She huffed, muttering, "Geez, he could at least tell me what he's going to go do." Cold water began seeping into Anna's boots and she groaned. "I hope he hurries back."
DDDDDD
Lance stormed through the trees until he came across some strong, but flexible vines. He pulled out his gunblade and hacked off a few long tendrils. Tying one end of them together, the gunner began braiding them to form a makeshift rope, muttering all the while. "Stupid girl what the hell was she thinking, jumping for those branches like that. I should just leave her sitting there; it would serve her right." He sighed, anger fading as he thought, "What if she had fallen in, too?" A shiver ran down Lance's spine as he imagined helplessly watching his last friend be swept away. He firmly pushed the image out of his mind as he finished braiding the vines and tied the end off. Coiling the crude rope and sliding it over his shoulder, Lance retraced his steps back to the river. He'd been gone for too long, and he couldn't be sure that Anna wouldn't get impatient and try to get back to shore on her own. "I swear, if she's moved even one inch…" Lance grumbled in an attempt to keep himself from thinking about worst-case scenarios. To his immense relief, Anna was still balancing on the raft of branches when he arrived back at the river edge, though he noted that she had tucked Natalie's Crystal Staff away and was staring at the shifting platform beneath her with a concerned frown.
Anna looked up when she spotted movement on the bank from the corner of her eye. Her face lit up at the sight of the makeshift rope Lance pulled off his shoulder. "Good plan! Hurry and toss it over; I can feel this mat breaking up."
Lance rolled his eyes as he flung the coil over to her, keeping one end firmly in hand. The rope landed half on the mat of branches and half in the water. Anna carefully leaned down to snag it before the current tugged it away. She tied the rope around her waist and pulled on it a few times to test the knot before waving to let Lance know that it would hold. She waited until Lance had wrapped the rope securely around his hand and spread his feet in a wide stance. Taking a deep breath, Anna planted one foot against the one of the slippery rocks holding the branches in place and pushed off for shore. She made it about halfway before she fell in the water and started swimming. Immediately, the current started dragging her downstream, but it wasn't long before the rope tied around her waist snapped taut and prevented her from drifting any further. Looking ahead past the splashing of water, Anna could see Lance hauling the rope in hand-over-hand to help bring her to safety. A few minutes later and the ranger felt the muddy bank under foot and she hauled herself back onto shore not far from where Lance stood.
Standing up, Anna untied the rope around her waist and turned to find Lance right behind her, red eyes flaring with renewed fury. Anna took a half a step back only to have her foot hit the river again. She glanced back: cornered. The ranger swallowed heavily as she turned back to face the music. "Thank you," Lance remained silent, simply staring at her. "I'm sorry?" Anna tried hesitantly.
Lance blew up. "You're 'sorry', huh?" He hissed furiously. "We just saw Matt and Natalie get carried away by that river and you thought jumping to bunch of crap caught against some rocks in the middle of it to stare at something sparkly was a good idea?!" Anna opened her mouth to defend herself, but Lance swept on, "Did you even think about what might have gone wrong before you tried your insane leap? Obviously not, or you would have realized that you had no feasible way to get back by yourself." Anna's mouth snapped shut and her cheeks flared in embarrassment, unable to meet Lance's furious gaze any longer, "You could have fallen in and been swept away as well! Yes, the river is no longer in the middle of a flash flood, but it is still moving way too fast for anyone to safely swim in it. Never mind warning me that you were about to try something so stupid. How do you think I would have felt if you gotten carried off to Godcat knows where, if you came up at all?" Lance finally stopped to breath, staring intently at the ranger in front of him.
Anna's head snapped back up as she caught the undertone of fear in Lance's rant; her green eyes met his red ones. "You're right: I didn't think about any consequences. I'm sorry for scaring you."
The anger and underlying fear in Lance's eyes faded and a blush rose before he turned around, "I just don't want to have to fish three people out of this stupid river. Now let's get going. The sooner we find the other two, the sooner we can leave; this jungle stinks." With that, Lance started walking again, ignoring the giggle that came from behind him.
DDDDDD
A few hours passed and the pair finally came to the lake Anna had mentioned. Anna let out a gasp and ran ahead of Lance to a muddy part of the bank broken by gnarled tree roots. She raced over to one particularly large root and fell to her knees next to it, "Here! Someone pulled themselves out here!"
Lance's eyes widened and he ran up next to the ranger and stared down at the distinct, scuffed indentations in the mud. "Two of them; they must have managed to stay together after all!" He exclaimed.
Anna nodded, her eyes running over the less obvious marks, trying to read what had happened after they had hauled themselves out of the water. She frowned at a distinctly darker patch of mud, "At least one of them was bleeding at the time." She followed the marks with her eyes towards the woods beyond the river and heaved a sigh, "Unfortunately, they apparently didn't have the sense to stay near the water."
Lance frowned, "That's weird; I was sure Natz knew better, maybe she wasn't conscious?"
"No, they both walked away from here," Anna said with a shake of her head. A sudden flash of red bobbing in the water in her peripheral caused her to turn her head. "What's that?" She pointed to it and Lance followed her finger with his eyes.
"Uh, oh," He waded into the water and fished out a small pouch. Turning, he held it up for Anna to see, "This would be Natalie's Adventure Bag. We already have her Crystal Staff, so that means she's basically defenseless right now." He stopped and considered that thought, "Well, aside from Matt, of course."
Anna frowned, "If she didn't have any of her staves on her, then how did she heal whichever of them was hurt? There's a lot of blood here, but it doesn't trail into the woods."
Lance spotted a piece of cloth snagged on a smaller root nearby. He stepped out of the water and bent to pick it up. The fabric was stained with blood. "I'm guessing the old fashioned way. I forgot Natalie knows how to do that, too." Lance mused as he tossed the cloth to Anna, who dropped it with a wrinkled nose.
"So, one or both of them is wandering unfamiliar woods wounded, and Natalie is not able to fight. Great," Anna sighed before motioning for Lance to follow her. "At least they survived the river. Let's go find them before they get killed by a swarm of wasps or something equally pathetic."
The followed the trail for a couple more hours until the sun began setting and Anna was forced to call a halt for lack of proper light to track. "Let's stop here; I don't want to miss something in the dark."
Lance shrugged, "Sure, we probably aren't too far behind them at this point, and we have a trail. I'll go get some wood, be right back." With that, he strode off into the trees and out of sight.
Anna nodded, even though Lance wouldn't see it, and began digging a shallow pit that she then lined with stones for the fire. Lance wasn't back yet when she finished, so the ranger sat on a large tree root and pulled out Natalie's Crystal Staff and an old rag and proceeded to clean the mud and dried leaves off it. As she worked, Anna wondered if the two were even alive or if they had already been killed by some forest creature, and a few tears formed in her eyes to run down her cheeks, landing on the gem of the staff. She sucked in a deep breath and caught tight hold of the errant thought and threw it to the back of her mind. "They're fine, they are." She murmured to herself with as much conviction as possible.
"Of course they are," Lance's voice made Anna jump in surprise and she twisted around to see him watching her carefully with an armful of branches. Suddenly very aware of the tears on her face, Anna turned back away from him and hastily wiped them away.
"Right, of course. Now then, how about that fire? My clothes are still a little damp; I could use the warmth and cheer," Anna said.
Lance stared at her for a few more seconds before he shrugged and set the bundle of sticks in his arms down. Soon, there was a crackling fire throwing a circle of light around them. Anna gave a small sigh of relief as the warmth washed over her. The two ate a quick dinner of dried meat strips and it wasn't long after that Anna gave a huge yawn. Standing up, she shuffled about, setting the wards for the night before returning to the fire. She pulled her blanket out, mumbled a quick 'good night' to Lance, and fell asleep.
Lance stayed up for a little longer, watching Anna's peaceful face in the firelight. He sighed and leaned back on his blanket to look up at the shadowed leaves overhead. "Well, at least she's safe right now," Lance murmured before his eyelids slid shut and he drifted off.
An indeterminate amount of time had passed when the gunner shot upright, weapon in hand. He stared around their dark campsite, trying to spot whatever had awoken him, certain he had heard something. Anna's wards were still in place and, after a few seconds of silence, Lance yawned, lowering his weapon to run a hand through his red hair. "Maybe it was just a cold breeze," he murmured to himself, glancing at the glowing embers that were all that remained of the campfire. Shrugging the gunner laid back and pulled one edge of his blanket over him. Suddenly, the noise came again and he bolted back up, staring towards where Anna was sleeping.
The ranger had let out a small whimper and was shaking under her blanket, back turned to Lance. As he watched, Anna twisted onto her back and sweat could be seen glistening on her forehead in the faint glow of the dying fire. Lance frowned as her whimpers turned to quiet moans and he stood up to walk over to where she was shaking. He kneeled down and reached out with one hand hesitantly. Lance's palm hovered just over her shoulder for a few seconds before he swallowed and set it down, intending to shake her awake from her nightmare. A gentle shake elicited no response from Anna so Lance shook her slightly harder with a whisper of her name. Her shaking got worse and Lance reached out and with a hand on both of her shoulders, shaking the girl even harder coupled with a louder call of her name.
Anna's green eyes shot open and Lance suddenly found himself flat on his back, staring up at a wild Anna sitting on his chest with one hand pinning his right shoulder and the other raised over her head, gripping an arrow. The gunner's eyes were fixed on the sharp arrowhead and he swallowed heavily. "Anna..?" Lance asked hesitantly. To his relief, the crazed fog clouding her eyes cleared and she stared down at him in confusion for a few seconds.
"Lance? What are…?" Anna trailed off as she took in their positions and realized what had happened. Immediately, she scrambled off of him and backed against a nearby trunk. "Holy- I'm so sorry! Are you okay? I didn't stab you or anything, did I?"
Lance sat up and rolled his right shoulder, "No, you didn't. Remind me not to wake you up ever again; you're way faster than Matt." Anna just stared at him, guilt filling her face. "Hey, no harm done," he assured her.
"'No harm done'? I could have killed you just now," Anna said in a horrified tone.
"Emphasis on could. You obviously didn't, now let it go," Lance was quick to reply. Anna looked down, but nodded hesitantly. "Good. Now, are you okay?"
"...I'm fine…" Anna murmured, still looking down.
Lance observed her with one brow raised disbelievingly, "You sure? That looked like a pretty bad dream." He looked to the side in embarrassment, "Do you want to talk about it?"
Anna turned her head back up to stare at him briefly before she looked away again. "I was back at the archery range in Greenwood with Michael; only this time you guys didn't make it in time," she mumbled quietly. That was part of her dream, certainly, but she left out that the reason that they hadn't come was because they had already been brutally murdered by Michael. Anna shivered, recalling the glazed look of death in Lance's eyes.
Lance stared at Anna in surprise, before hurrying to reassure her, "Hey. We'll always make it in time to save you; as Matt says: you're a part of the team now. No man or woman left behind."
Anna nodded slightly before shifting back closer to him. She curled back up on her blanket and Lance returned to his. Anna squeezed her eyes shut, listening to the shuffling of Lance getting situated, trying to coax her body back to sleep. Her eyes shot open as she heard Lance come back around the fire pit to lay his blanket close enough to be within arms reach of hers, and curled up under it once more, all without a word. The ranger rolled over to stare at the back on Lance's head in surprise before she smiled softly and fell asleep once more, this time with no nightmares.
DDDDDD
Morning came too soon for either of them, but the pair still dragged themselves upright and stuffed their sleeping gear away. Neither one mentioned the events of the night before as they set off; once more following Matt and Natalie's trail.
After only a half hour of walking, following a straight path through the trees, the pair found where Matt and Natalie had camped. Strangely, their path suddenly diverged from the set course it had been following to veer off to the left.
"Where the heck are they heading?" Anna muttered in confusion.
An hour later and pair came across a few colored plants that had been cut in half or charred. "Well, at least it looks like Natalie can still use some magic," Lance commented, inspecting the charred remains of one of the bulbs.
Their inspection of the scene was interrupted by the distant sound of machine gun fire. Anna exchanged a bewildered and alarmed glance with Lance before darting off towards the noise. Trees flashed past them as they raced closer to the sounds of battle. After all, the only people who could possibly have rotten enough of luck to find a robot in the middle of a dense jungle, were Matt and Natalie. The two burst out of the trees to see a giant, pumpkin shaped robot steadily advancing towards the boulder it was maintaining fire on.
"Not you again," Lance groaned waving a hand to dismiss Anna's confusion.
The ranger shrugged and yelled, "Hey! Over here, you stupid squash," as she released a combo shot on the robot. The arrows clattered against the metal shell and gained the robot's attention.
Lance joined in the assault with a double shot. As the machine turned to reveal its jack-o-lantern face with gun barrels sticking out of the eyes, Lance saw the blond top of Matt's head poke up from behind the pock-marked boulder; however, he couldn't see Natalie anywhere.
Pushing the thought out of his mind, Lance called for Anna to stand back and for Matt to get back down. He fished a small black rectangle out of his pocket, tossed it onto the ground in front of Jack, and stood back. With a strange whirring-beeping noise, a massive tank materialized out of a blue laser light from the box he had thrown down. The gun turrets of his Valkyrie Tank swiveled automatically to bear on the giant pumpkin-bot. A split second later and more machine gun fire rang out before the tank's turret swung around and blasted Jack right in in the middle of its body, blowing the orange shell to pieces. As the smoking, orange shrapnel fell to the ground, his Valkyrie Tank vanished in the same manner it had appeared and Lance stepped forward to scoop up the rectangle and shove it back in his pocket.
"You can come out now, Matt," Lance called. The swordsman popped up with a big grin for the two. Lance glanced around, "Where's Natz? We know she was with you earlier."
Matt turned and waved a hand towards the trees. Anna frowned as he brought his other hand to his side with a flinch during the action and leaned towards Lance. "Looks like Matt's the one who was injured," she whispered in his ear.
Lance glanced at her, "Not for long. You do still have Natalie's Adventure Bag, right?"
Anna rolled her eyes as the mage came into sight, "No, I buried it for safe keeping at our campsite. Of course I still have it!" She turned her attention to her other two friends, "Glad to see you two alive."
Natalie stopped right next to Matt and leaned on his arm. Anna and Lance raised identical eyebrows as Matt turned his head and pecked her cheek. Their eyes shifted from Natalie to Matt and back again as matching smirks spread across their faces.
"I think we missed something momentous, Lance," Anna mused with a snicker. Natalie blushed.
Lance crossed his arms, "Yeah, well it's about time." Matt flushed as well and looked down at his feet.
Natalie cleared her throat, "Glad to see you guys, too." She turned to Anna, "Can you heal Matt? I lost all my stuff."
Anna pretended to think about it before she shook her head, "Nah, I think I'll pass." She struggled to hold in her laughter as Natalie's jaw dropped and Matt turned a pleading look on her. The ranger bit her lip before bursting out laughing and she pulled out her wooden flute to heal Matt's side. Lance sent a weird look her way, but Anna ignored it. A brief son later and Matt gave her smile while Natalie glared at her for joking about not healing her boyfriend.
Her anger faded as Anna grinned and dangled a very familiar pouch from one finger for Natalie to take. The mage's eyes widened, lit up, and she snatched the pouch, immediately opening it. "I can't believe you guys found it! I thought for sure that I would need to find a bunch more to replace-" She broke off as she reached inside, her eyes widened even further as she pulled out her Crystal Staff. Natalie squealed in happiness, "I completely forgive you for anything you have ever done! Though, for the record, you've been spending way too much time around Lance. You're even picking up his evil sense of humor."
Anna flushed while Lance snorted, "Not enough time, if you ask me, since she thought jumping in the river to retrieve a stick was a great plan."
"Well, she didn't drown, obviously, so whatever!" Matt said. "Now, let's get the heck out of here!"
All four of them grinned as they headed out of the clearing.
A/N: Whew, another beloved cliche, the party is back together, and the Valkyrie Tank has finally made an appearance! Leave me a review! See ya!