Chapter 38, Disobedience
"Why am I doing this again?" Vaan said sleepily.
Penelo sighed as she dragged him over a particularly bumpy hill. "Because genius, if we get in trouble then it's better to have two of us."
"I thought you could take care of yourself."
"I'm smart enough to plan ahead."
"Smart enough to go hunting snakes in the middle of the night."
Penelo huffed and turned her back. "We need Balthier to recover or we won't last long."
Vaan shrugged. "It's not like he won't heal naturally when..."
"If I hear one more drinking song I'm going to kill him myself." She cut across him.
Vaan was about to reply when he heard something.
Penelo looked around her feet. "Oh where are they? They were all over the place last time we came through here."
"Shhh!" Vaan hissed.
"What, I'm just..." But then her ears caught it too. The slightest rustle of grass, as if something was slithering it's way through.
As quickly as they dared they climbed over the crest of the hill and scanned the ground for signs, in the darkness it took them a few minutes to see the source even though it was right in front of them. There, sheltered in the shadow of the hill, something was slithering back and forth restlessly next to a large boulder.
Vaan Looked suspicious. "Plan of attack?"
"We kill it then same we did all the others" Penelo said impatiently.
"The others were in broad daylight," He shot back. "Besides, something's not right. The others were always hidden, this one's right out in the open."
"It's night time, it doesn't need to hide."
"You wanna end up like Balthier?"
She paused to think. "Ok," She said finally. "We go down there and let it make the first move. Then I use magick to stop it and you cut off it's head."
"I thought you could do this all by yourself."
"Do you want to help me or don't you?"
Vaan grudgingly drew his sword and nodded grimly.
The attack on the snake had gone well up to the point when it was supposed to make the first move, when the two hunters had made themselves known the slithering target had not reacted in the slightest to them. Now they were left standing awkwardly next to an enemy that refused to fight.
"I don't understand." Penelo whispered as if trying not to break the spell. "The others..."
"Maybe it's time to admit that it's not like the others." Vaan shrugged and prodded their deadly opponent with his sword. It recoiled from the sharp metal and a grunting noise sounded in the air though apparently not from the snake.
Then the moon came out from behind a cloud, and the two of them saw exactly what they were dealing with. The boulder the snake was moving under was in fact the creature itself. An enormous lizard with great bat like wings and for some reason what looked like a metal ring around it's neck. The snake, happened to be it's tail.
"Well that's just great." Penelo hissed. "You just stabbed a monster."
"Oh I'm sorry." Vaan shot back. "I thought it was a snake."
The creature opened one eye lazily and shifted restlessly.
"I say we just get out of here before this lizard decides to make a meal out of us." Vaan dismissed as he started back up the hill.
"What kind of lizard has wings?"
"Well what would you call it?"
"Well if memory serves me well it's a ringwyrm." Said a very familiar voice.
After a hasty explanation of what a ringwyrm actually was the two would be hunters found shelter behind the crest of a hill with Balthier.
"So how long have you been... y'know. Sane." Vaan pointed out as they all got their breath back.
"I'm not certain, yesterday I think." Balthier replied lazily.
Penelo leaped back to her feet furiously. "Then why did we have to carry you across half the plains?" She hissed.
Balthier shrugged. "I know a free ride when I see one."
Penelo seemed to die on her feet, collapsing next to Vaan with a blank face.
"So what made you change your mind?" Vaan asked.
"Well when I heard you running off to find a cure, and what with all the monsters out here on the plains. I was fairly confident I could live with myself, but just in case I decided to look after you."
The silence of the night was suddenly shattered by an ear splitting roar. It seemed their quarry had woken up and discovered the damage to it's tail.
"Time to go I think." Balthier said darkly. Penelo quickly came back to life and got up but Vaan looked indignant.
"Why do we need to run? It's not like it can find us."
"It can track it's prey from miles away and seeing as you skewered it's tail it will be sure to come after us and we probably won't escape with our lives."
Balthier was not wrong.
"Wake up everyone or we're all going to die!"
Granted not the phrase you most want to be woken by, however this is the very phrase that greeted the rest of the party enjoying their rest.
"What in the name of..." Ashe managed to slur as Balthier, Vaan and Penelo rocketed into the camp baring various injuries.
"Balthier what's going on?" Basch began, but Vaan had already shoved his sword into his hand.
"Less talk more slash." He yelled before proceeding to bang on the wall of the tents until the others emerged.
"Everyone listen." Penelo began.
"Wait," Ashe pointed to Balthier. "You're not singing."
"Yeah, apparently he's been okay since yesterday and was just faking for the free ride." Vaan said as quickly as possible.
"So we went out to find a snake that bit him." Penelo added.
"But we couldn't find one and instead found this huge ring lizard."
"Ringwyrm."
"Whatever, so I made it mad and it chased us across the plains for three hours."
"And in about thirty seconds it'll be right on top of us." Balthier finished grimly.
For a moment no one spoke.
"A ringwyrm?" Basch said slowly. "Do you have any idea how serious this is? Last time a ringwyrm came to Dalmascan soil we lost over half our knights."
"Maybe your knights had an off day?" Balthier put in.
"There were seventy of them and six of us."
Further debate was silenced as a great rumbling roar sounded over the hilltop. Everyone stood crouched ready to spring.
"What do we do?" Penelo whispered, trembling slightly.
Basch thought for a moment. "At least we're all capable enough in a fight. Fran, don't bother attacking with magick it's too well protected. We need to aim for it's chest. Vossler did it last time, almost killed himself doing it. You'll see the weak spot easily through the scales."
"But to get to it we need to get past tooth, claw, horns, breath and magick." Fran added cynically, Basch ignored her.
"Princess, I need you too... Princess?"
Ashe had been staring at a pendant in her hand ever since the crisis was announced
"Everyone." She said. "Do you remember what happened on the Shiva? When judge Ghis was killed? The creature that suddenly appeared and killed him, it was the esper we fought in Raithwall's tomb."
"It left behind that stone." Fran breathed. Ashe nodded.
"I think I summoned the esper, why I'm not sure but it seems to have bound itself to me. If I could call it here now, it could defeat the ringwyrm."
Another deafening roar split the air in the brightening dawn sky.
"Whatever you're going to do, do it fast." Balthier barked.
"It's settled then." Basch said. "We defend the princess until she summons the esper."
The group closed ranks around their princess, weapons held high as the great lizard dragged itself over the crest of the hill.
"Please, please help me!" Ashe whispered to the little gem, but it gave no response. Her companions stood stony faced as the great beast lumbered down the slope towards them.
It was Fran as usual who felt it first. The twitch of the ears, the low crouch as she raised her defences.
"Someone is working magick here, great magick." She hissed.
"You choose now to have a seizure?" Vaan said exasperatedly, his eyes still fixed on his enemy but Penelo dropped to the ground too.
"I feel it too." She gasped. "Never this powerful though."
The hill before them seemed to be slowly covering in ice. The wyrm's feet were already trapped in three metres of solid ice.
"Well well." Said an unfamiliar voice. "It's good to see you again Fran, Golmore child."
Good guacamole! This is without doubt the hardest chapter I've ever had to do and I'm not sure why. Probably cause I intended it to be a few sentences at the end of the last one. Every time I went to write a bit I'd wade through the sludge of my own head for a few sentences and not be able to write anymore. That is a basic explanation of why this took so long and why it's probably crap but the next chapter I've been looking forward to for a while and I'm brimming with ideas for it. Good to be back.