A/N: Whew, this was a long one. Welcome to the 20th chapter anniversary of 'An Epic Retelling'! I'm a little upset that people aren't reviewing as much, though I guess it's my fault for updating so quickly. Still, it only takes about ten minutes to write a quick comment stating what you liked or didn't like, and I know people are reading them. Please review as I spend several hours on each of these chapters and it makes me sad when I don't get to hear what people think. That said, a huge thank you to the people who did review the latest chapters; I appreciate those short comments more than I can say. ;) Enjoy this next one!
Anna's eyes sparkled as she gazed out across the endless blue ocean, "I've never seen this much water in one place before!"
Lance blinked in surprise, "You've never been to the sea before?" He briefly wondered if she would even respond since she was still mad at him, and for a few seconds Anna remained silent. Lance let out a silent sigh before stiffening in surprise when the ranger spoke up.
"No, before I met you guys the furthest I'd even been from Greenwood was Mighty Oak's shrine," Anna said, glancing briefly at Lance. Her eyes no longer sparked with irritation, but they weren't overly friendly either. "Maybe, after we're done saving the world, we can go swimming," Anna suggested turning to Matt and Natalie.
Matt nodded with a grin. Natalie's face, however, was twisted in mild distaste as she glanced down at the distant beach. "I dunno. Last time we went swimming somebody took pictures of me and I found them in a magazine later," Natalie glanced pointedly at Lance who was conveniently looking elsewhere.
Anna stared at the side Lance's face, "You took pictures of Natalie while she was playing in the ocean? Why?"
Natalie clapped a hand over Anna's mouth as Lance turned with a smirk on his face, "Don't answer that, Lance," Natalie warned with a glare and heated cheeks. Lance's smirk widened, but he kept his mouth shut. The mage removed her hand from the other girl's mouth, ignoring the confused look on her face, and turned to the path leading to the town, "Before we start planning any beach parties, let's make sure the Goldenbrick Jewel is still there."
Lance started down the narrow path with Natalie behind him. Matt followed next with Anna bringing up the rear. A short hike later and the group finally stepped off the stony path onto the warm sandy beach of Goldenbrick Resort. They four stood there for a few seconds wondering which way to go when a clamor came from behind a low rectangular building. The party exchanged glances and began to head for the noise. The sounds of shouting and yowling were heard before one voice rose above the noise crying, "They've taken the Jewel!"
Anna broke into a sprint followed closely by the others and they skidded around the corner to see a large group of Cats scurrying away from the stone altar of Goldenbrick. At the head of the line, three large glowing crystals could be seen bobbing away. Anna snatched her Angel Wing bow off of her back and nocked an arrow. She fired the arrow in a long arc and immediately followed up with several more in a blur of motion. A flash of light gleamed when the first arrow reached the height of its arc and there were a dozen arrows, intermixed with streaks of light, in the air before they came down in a deadly hail on the swarm of cats.
With a low, impressed whistle at the display, Lance loaded six bullets into his gun blade and gunned down six cats. One of the ones he struck was carrying a Jewel. The glowing crystal rolled across the ground before a different cat scooped it up and kept going. About a fourth of the swarm turned and came back to attack the group attempting to stop them. Lance grunted in irritation and lobbed a weighted net onto the approaching cats, holding a half-dozen of them in place for him to shoot.
"Poor cats," Natalie said with a sniff. Her love for the creatures didn't stop her from casting a firestorm spell, however. The flames swirled over the cats, killing some and burning others. A Shockwave spell came next and the invisible wave of air flung wailing cats in all directions.
Matt had a huge grin on his face as he waded into the thick of the writhing mass of fur swinging his Rune Blade in all directions. Bits of fur flew as the swordsman hacked away at the screeching cats. One thought it could jump on the swordsman from behind, but Matt, sensing the impending tackle, ducked and the cat flew into the face of a second cat. The pair tumbled hissing and spitting until the swordsman killed them both with one swing.
A brief, but bloody, ten minutes later and silence finally fell as the last cat was slain. The party stood there, surveying their work as a guard wearing gleaming armor ran up from where she had been watching the entire time. "That was incredible! I've never seen so many enemies taken down by such a small group before! I'd have helped, but our village holds cats as sacred so we're not allowed to hurt them."
Lance turned to the woman, "Those 'sacred' fur balls just came up, stole, and ran off with Goldenbrick's Jewel. You should have helped."
The woman flinched back at the glare he leveled at her, "Hey, rules are rules."
"Useless," Lance muttered, dismissing the guard. He turned and walked over to the other three, "Now what?"
Anna's face was bleak as she stared after the departed cats, "That was probably our last chance to stop them."
"The sky isn't turning black and stormy or anything, though," Matt said glancing up at the sky. "Well, the sun is setting, but I don't think that counts."
"We won't be able to find them in the dark," Natalie sighed, "Let's go find an inn and track them in the morning."
Overhearing their conversation, the guard offered, "There's an inn right on the beach with some open rooms. Tell them the Jewel's guard sent you and they should be happy to give you a discount." Anna nodded her thank to the woman and the party turned towards the beach to find the inn.
The building was two stories tall and set right on the ocean-front. Waves could be heard crashing on the nearby shore as the party headed inside. Natalie went up to the counter and relayed the guard's message to the person behind the desk. A handful of gold was exchanged for a key. With a bright smile, Natalie turned back to the others, "We got the rooms at half-price and meals for free."
Matt's face lit up, "Where do we order?"
"Don't eat too much and make them change their minds," Natalie warned, as she waved him towards a door at the back. Matt breezed past her and through the door. "I suppose that was a hopeless warning, huh? Maybe I should give them some money just for Matt," Natalie mused with a grin.
Anna grinned, "Might be a good idea. That, or go keep an eye on him." The mage nodded at the suggestion and followed her boyfriend through the door.
The remaining two stood there, awkwardly avoiding each other's eyes. Finally, Lance turned and looked at Anna. The ranger glanced at him occasionally, but didn't say anything. With a sigh, the gunner strode over to the dining hall and poked his head inside the door. "I'm going for a walk with Anna. We'll be back later," he informed the two eating. Matt gave him a grin and thumbs up with his mouthful of food, while Natalie waved him off with a wink.
The ranger was staring at him when he returned, but didn't say anything as he held the door open for her. He half expected Anna to tell him 'no' and was pleasantly surprised when she merely headed out the door. Anna followed Lance in silence as he walked out into the night and turned towards the beach. After a few minutes of walking across the sand with Anna shooting a few glances his way, Lance came to a stop near the water. He swallowed heavily as he turned and met Anna's hard gaze, "I wanted to apologize." Her eyes softened some and she waited patiently as he paused to gather his thoughts. "I'm sorry for constantly insulting you. I'm sorry for telling you not to do things when you are the best, maybe only, person to do them. I'm sorry for constantly being so overprotective; I know you can take care of yourself."
Anna listened silently to Lance's apology. She had a hunch that saying sorry wasn't all he wanted to tell her, so she waited patiently as he turned his head to look out across the waves. The moon was still mostly full and its light glittered silver on the ocean and turned the normally golden sand to gleaming white. The sea wind blew hair across her face and she lifted one hand to tuck the loose strands back behind her ear. Finally, Lance turned back to meet her eyes and Anna was captivated by the depth of seriousness and nervousness in his crimson eyes.
"Natalie suggested I tell you why I've been so controlling about what you do," Lance said, his words were so quiet that they were almost drowned out by the crashing of waves on the shore. "I don't," he broke off to swallow, before continuing, "have a lot of friends; literally, it's just Matt, Natalie, and you. It scares me when one of you guys gets seriously hurt; either from an enemy attack or from stupid decisions. I tend to snap at you guys when you scare me, and I'm sorry." He fell silent, watching Anna's face nervously as she mulled his explanation over.
"But, you don't tell Matt he can't go charging into enemies, swinging his sword like lunatic; and he gets hurt doing that a lot," Anna finally said quietly. "You don't tell Natalie she has to stop healing people when her mana's running too low. I think I'm the only person you've been seriously trying to keep from doing dangerous things. Why?" Anna studied Lance's face until he turned away again, "Is it because you don't trust my abilities?" Lance shrugged. "I know I've done some stupid stuff on this quest, running off on my own to the factory and jumping to a mat of twigs in a flooded river being two of them, but some of the actions you've argued with me over were actions I was best suited for. Things like summoning Mighty Oak to beat the Crystal Golem, or climbing that tree to figure out where we are, or healing Natalie when she was critically wounded."
Lance frowned, "I trust your abilities just fine. You have more than shown you can do everything you've trained to do."
"So, what; you don't trust me?" Anna asked, her face falling slightly.
The gunner whipped his head around, "Of course I trust you."
"Then what makes me so different from Matt and Natz?" Anna demanded.
"What's different is that I care about your wellbeing more than I do theirs!" Lance froze as soon as the words were blurted out. Hastily, he tried to recover, "I-I mean, I care about whether they're hurt or not, but you- I-" he covered his face with his hands. "Please forget I said anything and shoot me," Lance muttered, wishing he could sink into the sand.
Anna stared at the flustered man next to her as he flopped to sit on the sand, pointedly looking away from her; the heavy blush clear on his face even in the pale light of the moon. She lowered herself to sit next to Lance on the cool sand and touched his arm. He still refused to look at her. "It's okay. Natalie already told me about your crush," Anna murmured.
Lance finally twisted to stare at her with a look of shock, "She what?" His face fell and he looked away again, mumbling, "Well, this is humiliating." He wondered if he could bury himself here since the beach didn't seem to be made of quicksand and wouldn't do it for him.
Anna stared at him in confusion, "Why would liking me be humiliating? I mean sure, I don't get what you see; I'm good with a bow and woodcraft, but those hardly seem like things you'd go looking for in a girl." She frowned suddenly, "Is that why it's humiliating, because I'm just some random, ordinary ranger from a village in the woods?" Now that she thought about it, she really didn't see what Lance liked about her.
The gunner stayed silent for a long while, still not looking at her, and Anna assumed she had hit the nail on the head. The bitter tears of hurt were beginning to burn at the backs of her eyes when Lance finally spoke, "Do you know many girls—or guys—who would go out into monster-filled woods alone to track down three very dangerous people just because they stole something from a person in her village? Who would not only find them, but choose not to kill them when she had the chance?" He asked. Finally, Lance turned; his red eyes intent as they stared into Anna's green ones. "Do you know many girls who would risk their lives to go on a dangerous quest that would lead them further beyond their home than they had ever been before? Who would make the decision, no matter how foolish, to leave behind the people who had the experience to help her complete her quest because she didn't want them to get hurt—people she had barely known for three days?" Lance watched as tears formed in her wide eyes, "You push yourself to your limits and then passed them to make sure we are all right. When somebody gets hurt and Natalie isn't able to heal them, for whatever reason, you make sure they are all right. When you're hurting you hide it to make sure we don't worry. When Matt and Natalie were swept away by that river, your first action was to go find them, not keep pushing to find the missing Jewels." He shook his head slowly with his eyes still fixed on Anna's, "You are not some ordinary ranger, Anna. You are the bravest and most caring woman I have ever met." The tears in her eyes finally leaked down her cheeks. Lance reached out with a gentle half-smile and carefully wiped them away with the pad of his thumb, cupping her face when they were gone.
Anna leaned her face into Lance's calloused palm, still staring at him in disbelief. That had been, by far, the most beautiful thing anyone had ever said to her in her entire life. She broke his light hold on her face to throw her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder. Lance stiffened slightly before relaxing and hugging her back. "How do you not have a girlfriend already?" She asked with a watery laugh, voice muffled against his shoulder, "that was the sweetest thing I have ever heard." She felt his chest vibrate as he chuckled.
"I'm not normally that eloquent." He pulled back slightly to look at her face. Anna's green eyes were shining brightly, reflecting the light of the moon, as she beamed up at him. Lance pulled her closer again, lowering his face to hers and sealing his mouth against her lips in warm kiss that she immediately responded to.
Whatever Anna had heard about magical first-kisses paled in comparison to the moment Lance pressed his lips against hers. It was like the rush of mana when using a powerful spell only twenty times stronger and better. She felt light-headed and giddy and her heart thumped in her chest as she pressed closer to him.
Unfortunately it couldn't last; their lungs demanded oxygen. Lance ran his tongue across her lower lip once before pulling back. "Wow," he said breathlessly.
Anna's heart was still racing as she licked her lips. "Wow," she agreed. She leaned into his side with a content smile, Lance wrapped an arm around her waist and they sat in silence, listening to the waves. Anna chuckled suddenly, "You know, when you said we were going for a walk I thought you were going chew me out for something again."
Lance laughed sheepishly, "I can see why you thought that; lectures have been the bulk of our most recent conversations." He looked down at her, "I'll try to curb the overprotectiveness, but please don't anything pointlessly reckless?"
"I don't generally do things for no reason, you know," Anna grumbled before sighing, "I'll avoid taking more risks than I absolutely have too."
A comfortable silence fell once more before Anna yawned. Lance stood up, "Let's go back to the inn and get some rest. We have a big day tomorrow, after all." He offered a hand to Anna, pulling her to her feet as soon as she grasped it. When they reached the inn door, Lance pushed it open to find Natalie standing there.
"Back on good terms?" the mage asked, glancing between the two.
Anna grinned widely and assured her, "Very good terms."
Natalie's eyebrows shot up as Lance brushed a quick kiss across Anna's cheek before walking through to the dining room. She smiled at the slightly dreamy look in Anna's eyes as she watched Lance leave, "I want all the details later."
"Later," Anna agreed, "Right now, though, I want some food and a pillow."
"I'll see you up in the room then?" Natalie asked. Anna nodded and started for the door Lance had disappeared through, "Oh, and can you Tell Matt I'm cutting him off?" The ranger laughed and waved her hand with a nod as Natalie headed up the stairs.
DDDDDD
A half hour later, Anna was telling Natalie about her and Lance's apology and kiss as she brushed her hair out.
"Aww, that's so sweet!" the mage squealed. "I didn't know Lance was such a smooth-talker, he never was before."
"Lance said something like that, too," Anna commented with a grin.
Natalie grinned back, "I'm a little jealous. Matt took forever to confess."
"I think Lance would have taken forever too if he hadn't accidentally spilled it," the ranger laughed.
"Probably," Natalie yawned, "I guess we should get to sleep, huh? I hope those cats didn't go too far. I'm almost ready to agree with Lance that they're evil."
Anna smirked as she put out the light and crawled under the blanket of the inn bed, "Well, they are attempting to summon an insane goddess; I think that counts as evil. Goodnight, Natz."
"Good point," Natalie mumbled, 'Night, Anna." Both were soon fast asleep.
DDDDDD
The group left the inn early the next day, dressed in their new armor. Natalie's new white robes shimmered in the early morning light, almost seeming to exude a light of their own. The skirt reached almost to the ground, while the low cut top stopped short to reveal her toned stomach. An open, loose white coat covered her arms and fell to her waist. The mage's hair was tied up with her normal Red Ribbon in a ponytail. Her gleaming Seraphim staff was gripped tightly in her left hand.
Matt stood next to her, his Golden Armor reflecting the morning sunlight, gleaming faintly with defensive enchantments. Light bounced off the golden shoulder plates and wrist guards. Gold-studded, hardened leather covered his legs and arms. A Golden helmet sat on his head, the visor tilted up to reveal blond bangs hanging just over one eye and twin braids on either side of his face. He had his Rune Blade strapped across his back, the black and silver-etched hilt peeking out over his left shoulder.
Behind the pair, Anna's black dress was the opposite of the mage's. The fabric seemed to be made from pure shadows and caused her body to seem to melt into the shade of the overhang of the inn door, the effect only broken when she moved. Black fishnet connected the tight bodice to where the skirt flared out just below her knees as well as covered her legs until they disappeared into lightweight black leather boots. Her green hair had been fixed back from her face with the gleaming Dark Baubles she had found alongside the dress. The ranger's Angel Wing bow was held loosely in her left hand, the off-white carved arms standing out in stark contrast with her dark garb.
Lance stood just in front and to the right of Anna. The Dragon Armor he wore was formed of the scales of dragons and the gleaming pieces caught the light and made it look like the gunner was wearing a scale mail comprised of fire. Dragon skin pants clad his legs down to the matching boots. His red hair stuck out from under the orange half-helm sitting on his head; the front curving down to provide protection for his forehead, but left the bottom half of his face uncovered. He held his gunblade tightly in his left hand and had a massive black rifle strapped firmly to his back; red lines gleamed along the body and barrel of the gun.
Anna stepped out of the shade of the inn door and led the way to the Goldenbrick Altar. There, she picked up and followed the cat's trail to an ancient cat civilization ruin at the base of a mountain. They had only just begun exploring when Matt froze and pointed up the mountainside. Dark clouds had begun swirling and flashes of red and blue lightning. Smudges could be seen moving around a bright tricolor glow.
"Think those are the cats? They look like some kind of evil cult," Matt asked.
Anna squinted up the mountain, her face pale, "I think we're already too late. Godcat is probably being summoned right now."
"Maybe we should just find a nice cave to live in for the rest of our lives? I like that idea much more than being slain by an evil magical cat," Lance suggested nervously, Matt nodded in agreement.
Anna turned to stare at both of them, "Seriously?"
Natalie fixed the two men with a glare, "I happen to like living. I'm not going to sit here and wait for Godcat to mess everything up. We should head up there and see what we can do. Stop being cowards and let's go." With that, the mage started walking towards the columned entrance with Anna close behind her.
Lance glanced at Matt, "How come she's always the one completely unafraid of evil gods bent on killing us and yet she'll freak at wasps every time we see one, while we're doing the normal thing and being nervous?" The swordsman shrugged before the pair jogged to catch up with the two women as they walked into the cave.
Immediately the sickly-sweet smell of carrion mixed with the musty scent of reptiles assaulted their noses. A low rumbling growl echoed in the small cave and twelve red eyes gleamed out of the shadows. The source of the ominous snarls shifted their heads into the pool of light extending from the cave entrance. The echo wasn't actually an echo at all, but the throaty growl of three Black Dragons. Each drake had four red eyes, all gleaming with a feral hunger as saliva dripped from their massive fangs to pool on the floor. The party gaped at the massive beasts in front of them.
"How the heck did they get three dragons into one cave?!" Matt yelped.
"Question later, slay now," Lance snapped. "Focus on one at a time, starting with the far left." The party nodded and launched into combat against the three ancient beasts.
Matt charged forward and swung his Rune Blade across the left side of the dragon's face. With a screech of pain, the beast whipped its head wildly side-to-side, but missed Matt as he sprang backwards out of range. The bloody score left by the swordsman's blade ran right across the two eyes on the dragon's face, blinding them; the gash glittered faintly as holy magic continued to burn the creature. Natalie seized the opportunity created by the weakness to slip over to the dragon's blind side and she cast Judgment on the wounded monster. The circle appeared beneath the dragons head and blasted upwards right as Anna unleased an arrow rain over the creature. The drake was caught in a pincer of the two attacks and writhed, wildly roaring, until two bullets slammed home in its forehead and cut off its cries, curtesy of Lance. The Black Dragon thudded to the floor, dead.
"One down, two to go," Anna cheered, nocking three arrows for a Combo Shot. She didn't get the chance to fire them, however, as the remaining two dragons went on the offensive, enraged by the slaughter of their brethren. Their massive jaws gaped wide as they lowered their heads and unleased twin streams of black flames over the party. Anna gave preemptive yell only to break it off as the flames passed over her, barely stinging. "Man, this is some nice armor," she thought appreciatively as the flames subsided to reveal the entire party had weathered the onslaught with similar ease.
The dragons shifted back with surprised hisses at the ineffectiveness of their attacks. Matt grinned fiercely as he held one hand out in front of him, his sword propped on his shoulder. Natalie stepped up beside him and channeled her own mana into another judgement attack. To both of their surprise, they could feel their mana mixing, the power of their attacks doubling. The close proximity of their casting caused their attacks to fuse and when the Holy Sword pierced the next dragon, it was twice as large as normal, flickering with white flames. Glowing white runes spread out from the point of impact, shimmering briefly before bursting outward with blinding flashes and the dragon vanished, only a few ashes drifting to the floor.
Natalie's jaw dropped as Matt let out a long, impressed whistle at the devastation. The pair exchanged a high-five only to spin around at a scream from Anna. Lance was caught in the third dragon's jaws, teeth bared in a snarl of defiance as he strained to hold the fangs apart; his gunblade was on the floor near Anna as she nocked an arrow and fired it at one of the Black Dragon's eyes. The arrow pierced the glowing red orb, but not before the creatures long forked tongue wrapped around Lance's waist and swallowed the gunner whole. The three remaining fighters were frozen for all of two seconds before Anna screeched and snapped off an arrow that shone with a golden light. The Soul Arrow soared towards the drake and lodged deep in the monster's throat. The holy power of the arrow began burning away the black scales and skin, while the final dragon howled in agony. Suddenly, a pure white fire spread out from further down the beast's neck, and together the holy attacks spread across the dragon until nothing was left but bone. Lance squeezed out from between two curved bones in the neck of the skeleton, hauling his large rifle along behind him, and tumbled to the floor.
"Ugh, why am I always the one that gets eaten?" Lance grumbled as he stood up, only to be knocked back down with a grunt when Anna tackled him with a hug. "Whoa! I'm fine, I'm fine," he assured her as he returned her hug. Looking up at Matt and Natalie, he said, "Next time, Matt gets eaten. Twice in two consecutive journeys is unfair."
Matt pouted as Natalie laughed, "How about we make it a policy to not get eaten, period. That seems better to me."
Lance shrugged as he detangled himself from Anna to stand, "I think that's an unspoken rule."
Anna stood up as well, "Let's make a new one that says 'don't fight three dragons at once because there are too many heads to keep track of,' instead."
The other three nodded with matching sighs as they walked around the remains of the dragons towards a pedestal standing alone in the center of the room. The four gathered around it to stare a crystal statue depicting a winged cat. It was about as large as their heads and glittered faintly in the dim lighting. Matt reached out to pick it up only for Anna to smack his hand back down.
"Don't touch it; this thing screams trap," Anna warned.
Matt rolled his eyes with a pout, "But it's loot! Besides, if taking it triggers a trap, then how come it's still sitting here, and where are the corpses of the would-be looters?"
Anna glared at him, "Ever heard of resetting a trap? Just don't touch it." Matt shrugged, but as soon as Anna took her immediate attention off of him, he grabbed the statue and lifted it up. Anna whipped back around. "Matt!" She yelled in exasperation, puffing up to start yelling at him.
Any further scolding was cut off as a grinding sound was heard from their feet and the four dropped out of sight down separate stone chutes.
A/N: AND LANCE AND ANNA ARE CONFIRMED AS A COUPLE NOW, TOO! That scene had Lance so OOC, though; sorry 'bout that. Although, it tickled my inner romantic to write :3 Of course, now I've split the party up. *shakes head* Matt, why did you have to pick up the sparkly statue?
Anyway, I've described their fancy-shamncy new armor pretty thoroughly, I think, but if you have any questions, let me know. Be sure to leave me a review! See you all next time!