Author: Sorry about the EXTREME wait, and thank you for pestering me, I've just had a lot on my mind, but you guys reminded me I had work to do, and here I am! I'm getting back up to speed, but I've also got two other fics, I'll do what I can, and Aquatic-Idealist, here's you're request fulfilled!

Chapter 3

Intel and the Search

"Man I hate this mission! Why did Ike have to send us on something so boring?!"

"Because, Boyd. One of the other mercenaries is missing. You'd want us to search for you if you got lost, wouldn't you?"

"Hah! The brat would probably just be stuck in a tree, scared of a squirrel!"

"You wanna start something, Shinon?!"

"Bring it, whelp!"

"You two, cut it out!"

Boyd mumbled something as Shinon grunted and walked away. Lethe then walked over to Boyd and growled.

"You are wasting time, AND MY PATIENCE, BEORC!"

"Why are you just yelling at me?!"

"Because, unlike you, he knows when to be quiet, AND HE'S USEFUL!"

This banter continued for some time, and they just continued to walk, Oscar ignoring the argument his brother was having, and also tuning out the challenges Kieran would throw at him every few minutes. How he did it was a mystery to all...

Meanwhile, back at Ike's team, he had managed to calm Jill down, and was currently talking with Tauroneo about their current location.

"We're going to hit a series of mountains soon. After that, King Ashnard has bases set up in three different directions."

"What's in them?"

"Not much. They don't really serve any purpose, not many know what's really kept there."

"Huh..."

Tauroneo sat down and stabbed his lance into the ground. "These are dangerous territories. There may not be troops stationed here, but that's because the cold can kill a man in minutes. We must make sure we keep warm."

"Right. We've been moving for a few hours now, let's stop and rest." Jill however, disapproved.

"No! We've got to keep going!"

"Jill, we can't, we have to rest. Like Tauroneo said, the cold can kill if we don't keep warm. What would Haar say if you died looking for him?"

"..."

"Come on, let's set up camp for today."

Tanith's team wasn't having much more luck.

"Captain Tanith?"

"What, Marcia?" Tanith asked with slight disgust.

"How long until we stop?"

"Until I say we stop."

"But we've been going all day!"

"We've been moving for four hours, and we haven't found anything. Didn't you tell Ike you wanted to help him in any way you could?"

"Yeah, but I don't want to freeze to death!"

"Marcia, just stop. We'll rest in a little while, just keep searching."

As Tanith continued to scold Marcia, Titania was actually having a peaceful time of it.

"See anything, Rhys?"

"No, nothing. (Cough)"

"Rhys?"

"I'm all right. (Cough Cough)"

"That's enough, we're setting up camp."

"No really, I'm all right. We've got to find Haar."

"I think we should make sure you don't get any worse than you already are first, Rhys."

"All right..."

Titania began to set up tents with the rest of the team, and so the first day of the hunt came to a close...

Haar looked down upon the encampment, and saw something glint in the sunlight. "There it is." He patted his wyvern and began his descent. "Let's go. Protect me, Commander..."

Author: Yeah I know, really short, but I'm getting bad writers block. I'll do what I can, but devout fans from my other fics need me too. I'll update again soon, and it'll be worth the wait! BlackChaos, out.