AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Hello, Minna-san! So, here's the next chapter to Eternal Bonds!
It's been a really long week, so I was almost to tired and lazy to work on it. But thankfully, my sister pushed me to write. This chapter is mostly a filler then anything else, but in this next part I'm also introducing a new character! I thought she would really help the story out, so please tell me what you think of her!
Please R&R!
NEW AUTHOR'S NOTE: (Date: 2/14/09)
Gah!! I'm so sorry, everyone! I went to look at my reviews, and found my story with all four chapters. Confused, I checked it's status, and realized that I had uploaded the document, but had not updated it into the story itself. Please forgive this air-headed authoress!
*~*~
We hadn't traveled for long when a low whine caught my attention. And being at the back of the small group, I was probably the only one who heard it.
Halting my footsteps, I turned to see a familiar creature I recognized seconds later as a protozoan; with those big floppy ears and canine form, trotting it's way right over to us.
" Lloyd, Genis, wait!" I raised my voice, never taking my eyes off the panting dog creature. The boys ceased their conversation they had started a short while ago, and stopped as well so they could turn and face me.
" Hm? What is it?" Lloyd questioned curiously, taking a step closer to his pet and noticing a particular object in it grasped. " What's that in your mouth?"
Instead of inspecting what Noishe might have, Genis leaned to the side and stared at Lloyd's satchel instead.
" Look, your bag is open." Genis stated in a it's-so-obvious tone, tugging on the bag to indicate his meaning.
" Oh." The older boy blinked in surprise from this information before turned back to the dog in front of us, gently prying the object from the protozoan's mouth. " It's.. a letter from Dad."
As Lloyd went on to read the letter out loud to his elven friend, I took this chance to observe our surroundings to see how far we had traveled, and how much longer it would take to reach Triet Desert.
' Probably by late afternoon or early evening.' I mused after taking note of the House of Salvation in the distance. If I could see that building, then the desert shouldn't be too much farther off.
I set my own thoughts aside and turned around to face my companions.
" Why don't we stop by the House of Salvation?" I suggested, pulling their attention away from the panting dog. " We can prepare ourselves for the desert there."
" Why?"
Ah, yes. The inevitable question. Still, I couldn't stop my eyebrow from twitching.
" Because," I stressed out the word. " We are heading into a desert, are we not? It's usually scorching there. What we need are supplies for that area."
" Food, water, and cloaks, right?" The mage questioned with a cock of his head. I nodded to confirm, and Genis turned his head towards Lloyd. " She's right, Lloyd. We don't know how long we have to travel through the desert to reach Triet."
The duo swordsman tilted his head in thought for a moment or two. " Alright." He sighed. " But let's not take to much time. Or we might not catch up to Colette in time."
The rest of the walk to the House of Salvation was pretty quick and uneventful. Except for a few stray monsters that thought we were they're next meal. Thankfully Lloyd was able to dispatch of them quick enough and without much aid from Genis and I.
Now I found myself staring up at the welcoming building along with the two boys. ' Hm.. It's bigger then it looked on the game.' I mused while scanning our surroundings carefully. ' Then again this is reality. Not some virtual fantasy.'
" We should split up." Came Genis's voice from my right, snapping me back into the real world. " It'll be much easier that way."
" Right." The duo crossed his arms with a I-knew-that nod. " Genis and I will buy the food and water. Bev, do you think you can find a merchant who'll sell us cloaks?"
" Sure." I agreed easily. Back when I played the game, I always spotted at least one merchant hanging around a House of Salvation, and they were outside the building. That, and Selena had given me a generous amount of money to take care of myself until I reached Luin. " Let's meet outside in front of the entrance when we're done, okay?"
" Sounds like a plan." The brunette agreed back while Genis nodded his agreement. " Give us a shout of you need us."
After exchanging a few last reassuring words with Lloyd and Genis, I waited until they entered the Salvation House before turning my back to begin my own search. ' Time to get to work.' I stretched my hands high over my head before bringing them down to smother a yawn. With all the chaos from yesterday there was no way I got any decent sleep. Seeing as I was up half the night helping Selena and Taka tend to the wounded and repair the damaged houses.
(FLASHBACK)
" You should be in bed."
I looked up from my work of carrying an armful of burnt wood, and saw Selena standing on the steps of the inn with her arms crossed and a disapproving expression, similar to one my mother always used on me when I used to go through half the day without eating.
" I should." I agreed, dumping my load on one of the many piles of wood considered unusable. " But I still have a lot of work to do. I can't just be sleeping without a care in the world while everyone else is out here working their butts off."
The blond elf strode down the steps with purpose and grabbed my arm firmly as I turned to head back to work with the villagers, her grip firmer then it should've been, but less painful then it could be.
" There is no reason for you to be doing this." The innkeeper spoke, her voice a quiet and angry lit. " I've been watching you for almost over an hour. You can't let them push you around like this."
For a brief moment we just stared at each other; Selena, a storm of emotions just waiting to explode. Me, calm yet a bit taken back.
" Girl! What are you doing just standing over here?!"
The Mayor's voice, rough and cracking from all of the strain he had most likely felt within the last several hours, cut out across the distance quite easily and caught both of our attention.
" Forgive me, Mayor." I apologized in attempt to soothe the ill-tempered man as he marched over. " I got a bit side-tracked for a moment. I'll get right back to work."
" Now hold a just a minute," Selena interrupted, eyebrows now furrowed to show her quiet rage. " Mayor! How dare you! How could you just push her so hard? She's not here at your personal convenience!"
" If she wants to still here within this village, she's going to have to pull her own weight around here. Just like everyone else." The older man grunted. " Besides it's her fault that the village was nearly wiped out. Her and that boy."
I winced as the accusations hit me like a hard slap on the face. I wasn't going to completely deny any fault in the matter, but I couldn't just sit back and take this. Especially when I had absolutely no idea what I had done to warrant such cruelty.
Selena, who still stood on my right, remained silent. A quick glance at her though, made me want to bolt out of the village right there and now: Her head was tilted so her bangs shielded her eyes from view, and her hands clenched themselves into tight balls at her sides. But the one thing that had me so wary of the kind elf, was the thin and tiny sparks of electricity jumping around her hunched form.
A large hand descended and clapped Selena on the shoulder, startling her out of her little phase.
" Have no worries, Mayor." Taka's baritone voice came out smoothly. " She'll be gone by the early morning." While he had been speaking the tall elf had wrapped an arm around Selena, and around myself as well, gently steering the both of us back towards the direction of the inn.
" But understand this–" He stopped to address the Mayor again, not even bothering to turn his head. " I'm doing this for the girl's sake, not yours, and not for the village either."
And with that, Taka shepherded us back into the inn, leaving the village leader to stand by himself in stunned silence.
(END OF FLASHBACK)
" SOMEONE! ANYONE!!"
The desperate yell tore through the air, easily gaining everyone's attention who was in the area, including mine. Pulling myself away from memory lane, I immediately searched around for the problem–-
" SOMEO–!"
–Only to have it barrel right into me. Literally.
A heavy weight knocked right into me out of nowhere, instantly knocking me off my feet and sending the both of us to the ground, kicking up a smokescreen of dirt that had the crowds of people emit nervous yelps and skitter of to the sides of the road.
Feeling very sore (and winded) at the moment, I took a few seconds to just lay there. Expelling a low groan of pain from the impact of the surprise tackle.
' What the hell was that..?!' I thought groggily, struggling to lift the veils of fog from my mind and think out what had just happened. ' Damn, that's going leave a mark.' Finally, I was able to recollect myself and pried open my eyes, only to have the bright sun greet me.
' Ack.. That's bright.' I winced from the sudden light exposure and rolled onto my side, taking the person who was currently on top of me (and I had forgotten about) with me. Blinking rapidly to clear my vision, I looked down at the small form beside me, their body racking with coughs.
' It's.. a little girl?' The being that had ran smack into me was indeed a human girl, and a young one at that. Heck, she didn't look any older then my baby brother, who was only eleven.
Her hair, which retained a dark forest green color, was pulled into buns on either side of her head with only a few loose strands hanging down. Her outfit itself consisted of simple clothing: a one-piece, white colored sun dress clung to her small body while a light grey cloak wrapped itself around her shoulders.
The only other accessory that she wore was a pale gold bracelet that adorned her wrist, a black crystal that was set in the middle of the jewelry sparkled due to the sun's rays bouncing off it.
But when she looked up at me—
' Crimson..?!' Clutching tightly to me, the little girl looked up at me until our eyes locked onto each other, fear reflecting within her unique red eyes.
" What the..?!"
" Argh! Everyone, RUN!!"
All the loud commotion around me brought me back to the situation at hand: Advancing a slow but purposeful pace, creatures that looked remarkably like animated Gargoyles were making their way over to us, attacking the fleeing people with gleeful screeches. ' No way! What are those things doing all the way down here?!' I couldn't help but think with a shudder. Gargoyles were naturally found in the either in the mountain themselves or around them in the game. So why..?
A whimper caught my ever-wondering mind, and the tiny arms that were around my waist tightened.
' Did they chase her all the way here?' I thought with a frown, glancing down at the shivering bundle in
in my arms. ' Seems kind of impossible, but...'
WHOOSH!
The wind slapped me right in the face as well as sending up another cloud of dirt; I coughed and covered my mouth to prevent myself from inhaling anymore dust, and glared up weakly at the culprit: a rather large Gargoyle, and a darker shade then the light grey it's companions were. In it's hands it carried what looked like a piece of broken metal tied to a tree branch. Was that supposed to be a spear?
Growling in triumph, the monster gave a great flap of it's torn wings and dove straight at us, short spear poised to kill.
This got my heart to race nervously, chills of fear running down my spine. Thinking instinctively, I quickly reached behind me and grabbed Akiva, thrusting it forward with both hands to block the fatal blow.
But I underestimated the monster; although I had successfully blocked it's spear, the strength of the attacked knocked me flat on my back again. The little girl let out a squeak of fear, having to have been still in my lap. Gritting my teeth, I felt my arms shake from the effort of keeping the Gargoyle back.
' I can't keep this up forever!' I thought frantically, noting the lack of strength in my arms. ' I have to do something.. Anything!' Desperate to put some room in between me and the creature, I lashed a foot out and managed to nail it in the gut, sending it flying a few feet to my right and land with a 'thunk' in the tall grass.
Breath coming out in short pants now, I quickly scrambled to my feet with Akiva in one hand and the girl in my other.
" Stay behind me." I ordered the kid tersely, setting on her the ground so I would have both hands free. She did so without a word, scampering around so she was behind and clutched at my coat, peering around anxiously.
Just as I yanked a couple of arrows from my quiver, I heard the loud sound of doors slamming open from my left and a couple pairs of running feet.
" What the hell..?!" Lloyd looked on at the scene before him with a slack mouth, while Genis watched with a horrified expression.
I drew the arrows back on Akiva and took aim at a couple of Gargoyles that were chasing a group of 3-5 people.
" About time!" I growled, releasing the bolts with a snap so they flew towards my target with astonishing speed. I didn't mean to snap at them, seeing as it wasn't really their fault, but my temper had a habit of emerging whenever I was very stressed.
One arrow managed to strike a monster in it's wing while the other hit the Gargoyle's companion in the back; both of them emitted cries of a wounded bird and collapsed to the ground in a heap.
" Questions later, help me out here!" I requested wearily, reaching over my shoulder for another arrow.
The two boys glanced at each other, Genis with his willing but wary smile, and Lloyd with his infamous determined expression; And then without another word they sprinted in the opposite directions, weapons drawn for battle. I let out another sigh of relief, this one being bigger then the previous.
Between the three of us, the battle want along a lot faster then with just me fighting them. This Gargoyles were powerful, sure. But they were also slow and not at all accurate.
" Almost done..!" I panted, dropping to one knee to dodge a spear that had been thrown at me by an enraged Gargoyle, and quickly retaliated with a Holy Arrow that struck it in it's shoulder and exploded from the sheer force of the arrow's aura. I made a face when the monster's remains flew everywhere as a result.
' Gross..' I was still a girl after all. No matter what world I was in.
A scream lit through the air, quickly rounding up Lloyd, Genis and I's attention. Whirling around to face the little girl (who was supposed to be behind me), I found her several yards away, her small form curled defensively in the tall grass as a Gargoyle stood over her, poised to kill.
' Damn!' I inhaled sharply in surprise, then charged through the tall vegetation as fast as my legs could carry
me. ' You idiot! You should've known that thing was still alive!' My conscious all but screamed at me. ' No monster would die from a mere blow to the stomach!'
" Bev!!" Lloyd and Genis yelped/shouted in shock, as my next action had me skidding to my knees in front of the mysterious child and now the target of the attack.
I raised Akiva to block it's weapon, just as I had done before. But the damn Gargoyle had other plans. With a growl of irritation the monster swatted it's clawed hands and knocked my bow right out of my hands and sent it flying so it landed in the grass a foot or so away.
Unfortunately, the last action had also managed to nick my hand. So now I was down on my knees, weaponless while holding a bleeding limb. This is just peachy.
Howling it's triumph once more, the Gargoyle monster brought down at a speed faster then it was capable of; I wrapped my arms around the little child, covering her tiny body with my own bigger frame.
' This is going hurt like *&^.'
I waited and waited for the expected pain to come..
..But it never came.
Curious and wary at the same time, I pried open my eyes a bit, only to shut them immediately. For the girl within my arms had begun to sparkling light (you know, like the kind of light you see coming out of Christmas lights), all of which was coming from the gold bracelet on her left wrist.
Looking up, I saw that whatever the trinket was for, it had certainly done it's job; the Gargoyle in front of us had completely been paralyzed, it's body frozen in the form which had been seconds away plunging it's short spear into my back. Keeping a careful eye on the monster, I carefully slid myself out of the spears range before pushing to my feet.
Then the light faded.
I froze for a split second, then threw myself backwards into a back flip to avoid being run through. ' Wow, did I really do that?' I felt amazed, I haven't been able to pull that one off since I entered high school. Setting the kid down next to me, I reached back and grasped a single arrow, drawing it back and aiming.
For awhile the monster and I just looked at each other, calculating each other carefully and waiting for the other to charge in first.
Finally impatient of waiting, the monster let out a battle cry (quite honestly, it sounded like something a hawk would make.) And dove for me, determined to end this once and for all.
Thinking fast, I charged directly at the Gargoyle as well, enticing gasps out of the boys who had just come up behind me having to have finished off the rest of the monsters. But instead of meeting the creature head-on, I leaned my body to that I slid along the grass and under the monster's body, ending up right behind him just like I wanted.
Taking the Gargoyle's moment of confusion as an opportunity, I drew the arrow back a fraction tighter and fired: It flew through the air at high speed and enveloped itself in the same silvery white aura I had used to protect Colette.
Instead of pinning itself to the body, it tore right through with a powerful surge of energy. And, like before.. The Gargoyle exploded, sending it's body remains to decorate the people closet: myself, as well as Lloyd and Genis who had been standing behind me.
I growled my disgust and shook my head wildly in attempt to dislodge some monster guts from my hair, prompting the boys to laugh in amusement from my antics.
" Well, that seems to be all of them." I grumbled while picking out the rest of the remains that clung to my golden strands. " Is everyone accounted for?"
" Y-Yeah, everyone's safe and sound." Lloyd replied, his laughter reduced to mere chuckles. " And we managed to gather everything we needed."
" Hmm.." I nodded in satisfaction, but a tug on my clothes had me looking down again. It was the young girl we had saved, looking up at me with her big red solemn orbs. " Come to think of it, where on earth did this little girl come from?"
" That's a good question." Genis murmured, looked ironically like his sister as he crossed his arms and cupped his chin thought, staring at the kid with calculating eyes as Lloyd and I squatted down to her level.
" To me, it looked like she was chased her by those monsters, but..." I frowned in thought. " From what my book said on them, they only live either in the mountains or around them. And the closest mountain around here is in Triet Desert, right?"
" I see your point." The young mage sighed, lowering his arms in defeat. " But unfortunately we don't really have the time to stand here and ponder about it..."
" What if we take her with us?" Lloyd interrupted, never taking his curious eyes off the child.
" Eh?!"
" Lloyd, that's insane!" Genis stressed. " We have to catch up with Colette as soon as possible!"
I turned from the two bickering males and locked eyes with the little girl once more, staring at her as if the answer of her existence would pop up magically. She stared back just as hard, but with a more nervous and frightened expression.
" Let's do it." I cut through abruptly, carefully taking the girl into my arms before rising to my feet.
The look on Genis's face was absolutely priceless, and even Lloyd seemed a bit surprised by my sudden decision.
That's when the young mage let out a sigh of defeat, bringing me away from my silent amusement. " It's interesting that I'm traveling with a couple of lamebrains." The elf huffed. And here he'd thought she was smarter then this...
" Lame-brained to some--" I corrected with a grin. " --Open-mind to others."
I turned my attention back to the little girl for the second time, although continuing the previous conversation.
" I'm not officially apart of the Regeneration, remember? I'll look after this child as I travel to Luin. Maybe around then I can find some answers for the both of us."
Although silence was the only one to answer, I knew Genis had given up and adapted to simply sulking. I shook my head with amusement again and stood up, un-minding as the young child immediately latched onto one of my arms tightly and stared at my companions with wary eyes.
" So, are we all set?"
The duo swordsman and his mage partner glanced at each other as if to confirm something. Genis replied for them, his tone switching back to his usual it-should-be-obvious.
" Well, we did manage to find everything we need." The young elf motioned to the House. " But we left it back in the building when we heard all of the screaming."
" I'll go and retrieve it, then." I volunteered cheerfully. " Since I need to change out of these clothes after all."
Right now I was currently still wearing my Earth clothing, which consisted of a black-velvet shirt underneath my grey jacket, as well as dark-blue/boot cut jeans with blacked heeled boots. With this clothes, I was bound to attract unwanted attention and, most likely cause trouble as well.
Well, that and, I was still covered in monster guts from the earlier battle.
*~*
About almost twenty minutes later I found myself staring into a full body mirror, examining my own body with a critical eye over the new clothes I had just donned: It was pretty simple like my old outfit. I wore a pink tank-top under a small sleeved red-jean jacket. The tank-top itself was pretty long, covering up half of my black shorts to make it look like I was wearing short-shorts. The boots that came along with the outfit were made out of black wolf skin and enforced with a rock golem's hide. According to Selena (in the note she packed in along with the clothes.), this boots were more durable then most normal ones, and should half no problem protecting my feet.
The last accessories that came along with it were a pair of leather-guard gloves, styled in a way that it looked remarkably similar to Twilight Link's gloves, except they were slimmer as well as smaller, and had clear white stones set in the middle of the top of the gloves.
I had also taken the liberty of bandaging my wounded hand while I was at it. It hadn't been deep enough to require stitchs, but I had to be careful not to put any stress on it all the same.
' All set.' I thought with a sense of satisfaction and moved away from the mirror, picking up my bag from off the night-stand as I passed on my way to the staircase. I made a mental note to myself to think of a way to thank Selena and Taka once I got back to Iselia Village.
Downstairs on the floor level, I found Lloyd and Genes standing over a worn-looking map that had been spread on a table; The way Genes moved his arms about indicating that he was doing the talking, while Lloyd stood next to his younger friend, nodding to everything that came out of the elf's mouth. Although I was quite sure that the swordsman didn't really get (at least most of) what the twelve year-old was saying.
As I crossed the floor to them, my leather-equipped feet made the wooden surface groan in protest, and the boys raised their heads in surprise.
" Everything taken care of?" Genis questioned with a hint of curiosity underneath his normal tone.
I nodded in reply and looked down at the old parchment as I neared the table. " What were you two discussing about?"
" Ah, Genes and I were trying to look for the shortest route through the desert." The duo swordsman answered for them with his usual grin. " Genes think's they might be heading to Triet first for more supplies."
I opened my mouth to state my input (by now Colette's group were probably on their way to the Seal of Fire), but a heavy weight latching onto my arm re-directed my attention to the small form on my left; It was the little girl we had saved just several minutes ago, looking up with the same solemn looking eyes I saw the first time I encountered her.
" I still think we should leave her here," The mage inputted with a frown as I knelt down and gathered the small child in my arms. The line of his mouth tightened into a grim one as he watched the strange girl burrow her face into my jacket.
" Come on Genes, we can't just leave–" The rest of Lloyd's sentence cut off, and he looked down at the kid with a confused expression. " Come to think of it, does this girl even have a name? We can't call her 'girl' and 'hey you' all the time."
I turned my attention back to the girl with furrowed eyebrows. He had a point. Just who was this young girl?
" What's your name?" I asked with a careful and gentle tone. At the moment, this child looked ready to bolt at the next loud sound she heard. The girl raised her head so that her crimson eyes meet with mine, but still kept her lower face buried in my shirt.
" I don't think she's going to answer us. She's too scared." Genes sighed out dismissively. " A temporary name will have to do for now."
I cocked my head to the side as I continued to study the girl. So we had to come with a name for her? Didn't seem so hard to me. " How about Azra?"
" Azra?" Both boys exclaimed in surprise.
" Yes. In my people's language, it means 'pure'." I answered with a smile, but it was more directed to the young girl then my companions. " I can't help but feel it would suit her very well."
I rose to my feet from my crouch, wincing as I stretched the soreness from my legs for squatting too long. " We should get a move on. If we want to catch Colette, we need to hurry. She has Professor Raine with her, and Kratos seemed like a highly intelligible man. They shouldn't have too much trouble finding the first seal."
Realizing their female companion was right, Lloyd ran off to grab their stuff while Genis hurriedly rolled up the Slyverant Map. I watched this scene with a hand lightly pressed to my mouth to hide my humored smile, so I had absolutely no idea that, at the moment, Azra had looked up at me. Wearing a tiny smile that was hardly noticeable, but a smile none the less.
*~*~
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Konbawa, minna-san!
I really hoped that you enjoyed this latest chapter. Not a lot really happened in it, and it's a bit shorter then my usual ones, but it's for a good reason, I promise.
Chapter Six is almost half way done (At least I certain), so that one should be updated right on schedule. Hopefully.
I'm counting on you! Please R&R!
(PS: DG a.k.a Demon Gurl, little-pocketmouse! Thank you so much for support! I hope it'll continue in the future!)
PREVIEW:
" So this is Triet?"
" Wanted Posters and search parties.. Looks like they're really serious."
" Do I really look this ugly?"
" LOOK OUT!!"
"..Girl, just what on earth are you?"