Three more reviews! Thankies! :D
Still don't own, still want revews. Please O.O
"Sanaki?" Ike's face was incredulous. "Oh, goddess no, Sanaki, please..."
This was not what Sanaki had intended at all. "Ike, I couldn't stay in Beignion. I couldn't function when I knew you were being hunted. The Senate thought I was ill, because Tainith and Sigrun were running the place for me. I had to come here and help you, Ike, else Beignion would have a broken-hearted, lamed Empress for ever."
"I can't let the assassin hurt you, and when you're with me, she will do it," Ike said. "Please... for your people, or my peace of mind, if nothing else."
"Goddess damn the assassin, then! I don't care in the least what she might do. I'll be prepared! She will feel my wrath if she ever comes anywhere near us." Sanaki was well and truly annoyed now. "And," she declared, "If you even try to send me away now, you will have two dangerous, angry women chasing you. Don't even try it. I found you once, and I will do it again."
Ike looked at her fuming face for a moment and realized nothing would shake her in her resolve. "Nothing I could say will turn you away, would it?"
"Absolutely nothing," Sanaki said firmly. "And you'd better believe it."
Suddenly, a smile appeared on Ike's face, quickly growing. Sanaki was surprised. With his late grimness, and his tiredness when he had returned, and the three years they had missed each other, she had almost forgotten what his smile looked like.
"Well," said Ike, "If I can't turn you away, I will be happy to have you along. Just promise me one thing, alright?"
"Promise you what?"
He hugged her. "Stay close."
"I will," said Sanaki. "I'm not giving you even a ghost of a chance to go running nobly off to your doom. I intend on getting us both out of here alive. That assassin, however... she won't be so lucky." Sanaki grinned an evil smile. "I've got a couple of new spells in my Tome, and a friend of mine figured out what you were researching. She found some more information from the servants and the nobles' libraries A maid can go places we can't without being noticed.."
"Was it that brown-haired girl? The one in the apron that was too big, who kept trying to give me lemonade?"
Sanaki laughed. "That was probably her. She has a strange obsession with lemonade."
Ike responded with a small chuckle. "She also seems to not listen to what I said. She offered it to me three times after I told her, none too gently, that I hate lemonade."
Sanaki laughed again. "That's Elya. She's of the firm opinion that everything men say is a lie and they shouldn't be trusted."
That made Ike laugh out loud. "Why are we talking about this anyway? We should be moving. Your horse is beautiful, by the way."
"One of the finest in Beignion," Sanaki said proudly. "He's been mine since I was about ten, and he was a foal. He can carry me like it's nothing. He can probably carry you, too."
"Good," said Ike. "That will give us a head start. And that's probably why you caught up with me so fast. Do you ride bareback?"
"I usually use a saddle, but I learned fast," said Sanaki. "Elya didn't know how to find or saddle a horse. I had to sneak into the stables, and my saddle wasn't there."
"Oh," said Ike. "Well, I know how to ride bareback. I rarely ride a horse, and I've never ridden with anything but a blanket. Can I mount?"
"Go ahead, you don't have to ask," said Sanaki. Ike climbed up onto the horse's back, and held a hand out to Sanaki. She took it and climbed on herself.
As the two rode down the forest road, Sanaki asked Ike, "So where do you plan on going, anyway? Anywhere in Tellius, she can probably find you."
"I'm not going to hide," said Ike. "She will absolutely find me. That's what I'm hoping. I was going to fight her a few times, get an idea of her style, then I was going to go set a trap for her, finish her off once and for all. Then, I was going to get a warning to Roy, tell him to destroy the Sword while he still can, before the Nanos find him. Then I was going to tell him to come here, to Tellius, and we'd do the same thing he did in Aya here."
"Sounds good," said Sanaki. "I can help with that. If I can conceal myself near where you fight, I can study her battles and figure out a hole to use. But there's one problem with that master plan of yours."
"A problem?" Ike asked.
"Yes. This leaves no room for returning to Beignion with me."
Ike smiled tenderly. "After the Nanos are gone, Sanaki, I promise you I will return to Beignion with you. I can't stay there all the time, but I will as much as possible."
"Thank you," Sanaki said. "Now, another thing... I need some help from you. I need to have better senses if I want to help you, after all, she got the better of me last time. I know a spell that could improve my senses a bit... but it needs two people to cast it, and they have to be very, very close, and the spell bonds them closer."
"You want me to help in the casting of a spell?" Ike asked. "One that will... bond us and make your senses keener?"
"Right," said Sanaki. "The spell basically makes us close enough for me to be aware on your behalf as well as my own. When we're in the same area it would be like having two pairs of eyes. It can be undone later."
"And does it work the opposite way?" Ike asked. "That would let me watch out for you."
"Yes," said Sanaki. "I assume it would."
"When can we do it?" asked Ike.
"Well, it's a simple spell, we could do it now."
"Let's do that. Keener senses for you would be good." Ike stopped the horse, and the two jumped down to land on the cool grass. Sanaki staggered a bit, exhausted from her long night's ride. Ike caught her elbow. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Sanaki said. "Just a bit tired. I was riding all night."
"And I never thought of that," said Ike. "Come, let's find a place to rest, and we can cast that spell, then go to sleep. So what do you need for it anyway?"
Sanaki cocked her head, trying to remember what the materials were. "A willow branch... water from a clear spring... hazelnuts, two of them... and a shell, which I have in my pack." She pulled the shell out and showed it to Ike.
Ike and Sanaki searched the forest until they found what Sanaki needed. She filled the shell with the clear water, so pure it was clear as air. She broke the willow branch in half, and cracked open the hazelnuts with a small knife she kept. She tossed one to Ike. "Eat half the nut," she said, doing the same herself with the other nut. The remainders she cast into the shell of water. She took half the willow stick and put the other half into Ike's hand. "Put the whole end in the water and hold the broken end," she said, doing it with her stick. Ike did as he was directed, and Sanaki felt power well up in the shell. Keeping the stick in the water, she opened her Tome, flipped to the page she had wrote the spell in, and read out the words.
She went through the strange language fairly easily, having studied it a couple of times. As the ritual went on, she felt more and more detached, and knew the spell was working. She saw, as if from a distance, the power in the shell grow, and the shell glowed slightly, cutting through the last of the dark as dawn began to shine. Sanaki heard her horse make low noises. This ritual always made him skittish.
As she opened her mouth to tell Ike to drink half the water, she heard a rustle in the bushes. Her horse made a panicked noise, and rushed towards them. Sanaki threw herself out of the way of his panicked hooves, and Ike caught her in his arms. Sanaki felt something wet splash across her. The ritual was ruined and the water was all over her, and probably Ike. Just great. Just great. And what spooked the horse so much, anyway?
"A wolf," Ike breathed. Sanaki looked up. It was certainly a magnificent creature. Big as any Laguz, half as tall as her horse. Its eyes glowed yellow, a fierce, hungry light. It did not look like a pleasant creature. She hoped she need not fight it, with her exhaustion, coupled with her half-trance, she wasn't sure she could.
But she hadn't needed to worry. The wolf had smelled them, but it did not come after them. It slipped away and ran after the panicking horse. She hoped her horse wouldn't be the wolf's next meal, she liked the creature.
"There's a town in that direction," said Ike, practically reading her mind. "I daresay your horse will be fine. I suggest a place to rest, and a good one might be the farmhouse we saw to that direction. I doubt they'd recognise you, dressed like that, as long as you keep your hair under the cap, and I've been surprised how few people have recognised me. Have I changed so much?"
"Yes, you have," said Sanaki, "To the general public. The way you really act is different than how they perceive you, and even that has changed as you've grown older."
"Makes sense. So, the farmhouse, then?"
"Fine," said Sanaki. "Let's go." Ike took Sanaki's hand, and the two headed off through the forest toward the place they hoped to rest.
Oh, and thanks so much to my three more reviewers! -gives cookies-
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