The Barrier: chapter 2

The Challenge

Aayvee: Holy crap, I just realized that I forgot to put a disclaimer on my other chapters, so I better put one now.

Aayvee does not own the rights to anything of or related to the Fire Emblem series of games.

Whew! Anyways, I was really looking forward to this one; it may be my favorite chapter. I hope you like it too! Anyway, this one takes place a little bit after level 24, when the army is having a party with the Crimean retainers at Delbray castle."

Lethe paused. She had finally found an empty room to take rest away from all those beorc, but now she could sense there was someone else approaching. This made her very angry. She decided that she should take a look outside and see who it was; if she didn't like what she saw… well, let's just leave it at that. She peeked her head out the door and looked both ways. It was a long hallway, but she was able to see a girl in red coming down the hallway at the far end. It was Jill. What could she want?

Lethe decided to go back inside and pretend she didn't see her; Maybe she wasn't looking for her anyway. This momentary relief didn't last long, however, because sure enough, a few short minutes later Jill was knocking on the door. Lethe could feel herself getting very angry again.

Jill stood a few feet from the door. She was done knocking, so she had lifted her hand from the door and stepped back. She could hear a few audible growls from behind it before it opened, which she knew came from Lethe. She had just followed the laguz from the dining hall back to this room because there was a question she needed answered.

"What do you want, human?" said Lethe, looking quite agitated. "I hope you know you have interrupted my rest." Jill shrugged. "How much resting could you do in five minutes?" she said, holding out her hand so Lethe could see five fingers. She bristled and gave a low growl. So Jill had followed her in from the festivities. The girl obviously had some important business.

"Lets cut to the chase." She said in a quietly aggressive way. "What are you here for?" Jill leaned against the wall and smirked. "I've been wondering about something. Which one of us do you think is stronger?"

If Lethe hadn't been concerned with not drawing attention to her self, She would have descended into an uproarious laughing fit right there and then. As it was, she was doubling over and letting out a series of barely stifled chuckles. She regained her composure and grinned. "I think you know the answer to that one yourself, beorc.

Jill also smiled. This was just the reaction Jill had come to expect from her friend. She knew that Laguz had more natural power than Beorc, but she had confidence in the fact that after long months of weight and endurance training, she had more strength than a normal person did.

"You seem pretty confidant, but are you willing to back up your words with actions?" Jill said, smiling and folding her arms. "You have some sort of test in mind?" Lethe replied, also folding her arms, but not smiling.

"Why yes." Said Jill "How very perceptive of you."

Ranulf peered around the large room where he was currently located. He had already finished being introduced to all of the princess's old friends, the small talk was getting rather dull, and all the good food and drink had disappeared about two hours ago. So now he was just standing around, desperately searching for something interesting going on. A few seconds later, he spotted it. Lethe was seated on a small table in a corner with her friend Jill; so she had finally come out of hiding to join the "fun". This was not like her, so he approached the table; he knew something was going on.

Lethe cringed. "Did we really have to come out here in the middle of everything?" she said, bristling and looking around the room in a self conscious way.

"Oh come on, and stop" Jill shot back. "I even picked this small table in the back so no-one would really notice us. There were no tables in that room of yours, so we had to come out here."

This was not much of a consolation to Lethe, who was still annoyed. "Couldn't they have found a table in another room?" She thought to herself. Just then, Ranulf finally arrived; this was one of the last things she wanted to happen.

"Hello Lethe, anything going on here?" he said, giving the sarcastic smirk that was his trademark. She hissed. "Nothing that concerns you!" she almost yelled, but she did not, owing to the fact that she was trying to avoid attention. Ranulf just kept on smiling. This was normal behavior for her, and he had gotten used to it by now. "I'll tell you what we are doing." Jill said. He turned his head. Lethe turned her head also, but she had an angrier expression. Jill continued despite the obvious threat. "Do you know what arm wrestling is?" she asked him.

At that moment, Ranulf burst out laughing (much like Lethe would have done earlier). " HaHahahahahahaha!!!! Perfect! I was Just looking for something to do! I gotta watch this. At this, Lethe made a quiet but audible growl, which Jill heard, but Ranulf cluelessly did not hear.

Bastian was coincidentally experiencing almost the same bored symptoms as Ranulf. The small talk was most dull for him, and the guests were beginning to grow bored with his poetry. He was just on his way to his quarters to fetch some more, but on the way something caught his attention. "Do you know what arm wrestling is?" he overheard the wyvern girl asking two gallians. "Of course." He thought. "Arm wrestling was a test pitting two people against each other with nothing but their own strength. This will be just the sort of thing to whish away my most potent boredom."

"What's this?" he inquired as he got near the table. "A contest I hear? Come, my boredom is most potent. I shall officiate." The three of them all looked at each other as Bastian boldly ushered Ranulf out of the way and stopped at the middle of the table. "Damn!" Lethe growled. "Why did this fool have to come here!?"

"Why, this won't do at all!" said Bastian, totally oblivious to Lethe's comment. "This table hath gone and hidden itself in the back of the room. We must relocate it." And with that, He grabbed the table and pulled to the center of the banquet hall, taking Lethe and Jill with Him.

"AAARrGGhhh!!!" Lethe roared. "I thought you said no one was going to see us!!!"

"Hey quit it!!! How was I supposed to know this was going to happen!" Jill said back. Lethe turned and glanced back at Ranulf. She didn't say anything, but her face clearly yelled "HELP ME!!!" Ranulf Looked back with a face that said "I'm Sorry!!! THERE'S NOTHING I CAN DO!!!"

By this time, most of the people in the room (which was almost all the characters) had their attention focused on the two girls in the middle of the room. Jill spoke: "Well Lethe, this is it, all or nothing. So show me what you've got!" They both smirked and got into position.

"On my count, start." said Bastian. "1, 2, 3, GO!" He yelled, dramatically thrusting his hand down in a karate chop motion. At that moment, (at least from their standpoints) the rest of the room seemed to melt away, and it seemed as if they were the only things in the room. The contest was on.

Both of them strained and pushed; they were a surprisingly even match. The epic stalemate continued for almost an eternity, neither of them gave an inch to the other. Their eyes locked, each one trying to see if the other one would give up. Both were starting to weaken from the strain of holding up.

The end was in sight.

One of them would have to give up soon; it was only a matter of which one.

For a moment, time seemed to freeze.

There was silence…

The banquet hall was a complete wreck. Food, tables, dishes and silverware where lying everywhere. The table that Lethe and Jill had faced each other on was back in the corner where it had originated, and they were both seated at it. The silence was deafening. It was starting to make Lethe uncomfortable. She slammed her fist onto the table dramatically. "Damn!" She said. "just when things were getting interesting, there had to be a fire in the kitchen to mess everything up"(). Jill just let her head drop on her folded arms, overwhelmed by the sheer stupidity of that coincidence. Eventually, she spoke "Well you know, whatever happens, happens."

"I'm surprised, though" said Lethe You did quite well; quite well indeed." "I figured you'd say that" said Jill. "I train daily, and you were severely overconfident."

"Humph!" Lethe stated, and started to get up from the table. "You know what needs to happen now though, don't you?" she said. Jill most certainly did not know what needed to be done next. She surveyed the room and saw the servants cleaning up. "You think we need to help them out?" she said in a puzzled voice.

Lethe buried her face in her hand. "NO, No, no." she said annoyedly. "What we need to do is have a rematch. Once this war is over, there will be no distractions, and we will meet each other again, when no one but us there, and we will see once and for all who is the stronger. What do you say, are you up for it, or are you scared?"

Jill was anything but scared. "You're on!" she said enthusiastically. "Then you had better train hard; I don't want too win too easily." Lethe replied.

"Of course!" Jill said. The two friends shook hands.

"It's a promise!"

()Aayvee: Hehehe, sorry about killing the suspense about who would win with that fire thing. I was afraid that if I made one character win, it might make fans of the other character mad. I also thought it would be easier to make it mysterious as to who would have won. As always, keep the reviews coming. Part Three on the way!