By nightfall, the small group has managed to push through the Grotto and reach the kingdom of Burmecia.
There's not much to see.
The once sprawling and fairly well off rebuilt Burmecia seems to have disappeared completely, and Puck has a sinking feeling that there's just nothing there anymore.
In front of them is a large lake that seems to have grown there in the few weeks Puck has been gone. He wants to know, desperately, what has happened to his kingdom but the only one who knows is unconscious in Amarant's arms.
The Burmecian king doesn't know much about the bounty hunter, other than what Freya and Eiko have told him. Both of them painted different pictures from one another, and both of those seem different from the real thing. Freya had said that Amarant was outwardly arrogant but inwardly nobler than he would ever let on in even the most civilized company – a dragon knight's soul in a kind of awkwardly large frame.
Eiko had told Puck that her "big brother" was really not as scary as he seemed. He wasn't at all the tough and vicious man he pretended to be – "bullies really are just insecure with themselves, anyways. He's a bully, but he doesn't mean it."
All Puck sees is a blank, undignified behemoth whose appearance, under different circumstances, would have terrified him. He's covered in scar tissue and his eye has been sewn so haphazardly that he might've done it himself.
But, in the grand scheme of things, Amarant really doesn't matter to Burmecia. Only Freya does.
Eiko yawns at Puck's side and the king turns to look at her. "Tired?" he asks, frowning.
"A little," she mumbles, looking at the lake.
"We'll have to ask Freya how she got across," Puck speaks quietly, not knowing if he wants anyone to hear them yet.
"There will be no need to question the female, little king."
The group, as a whole, turns to face the dark mountains around the Grotto. Nearby, Puck can just make out glowing eyes and a large, hulking body of a wolf.
"Fenrir!" Eiko exclaims in glee, coming forward and wrapping her arms around the wolf Eidolon's neck as far as they can reach.
"Who is that?" one guard questions lowly, "I can hardly see. Is it another Burmecian?"
Puck sees Steiner lay his hand on his sword. He has a look of cautious acceptance at the Eidolon's appearance and the king doesn't really blame him. Fenrir isn't exactly a very... welcoming figure. Beatrix is standing very still, her arms crossed and a strange, blank look on her face. Garnet is, eerily enough, looking in Fenrir's direction – it's almost as if she can see him... Amarant, with Freya in his arms, has only stopped walking; he hasn't bothered to turn around. The woman with him – Lani, as he picked up from Eiko – is watching the dark warily, eyes darting around them as if anticipating the arrival of more Eidolons.
"Continuing along this path will lead you around the lake. It is not more than a few hours walk," the Eidolon says to them all. "However... there is quicksand on the opposite side, and where you are trying to go is blocked by it."
Eiko is pouting and she says, "Oh, who cares about quicksand? I'm just glad you're alright!"
The wolf's mouth curls into an almost smile and he gently shakes his neck free of the girl's grip.
"Why would I be otherwise?"
His eyes, clearly visible in the dark, go over the group. "You should consider moving on in the mornin. Your companions look exhausted."
Puck casts his own glance at the group and hears the wolf chuckling. "Little king, it is good to see you again. I was afraid that after I left, you did something... irrational."
"That'd be completely unlike me," the Burmecian drawls.
Eiko looks to Puck and then shakes her head. "I hope you two aren't going to fight every time you meet."
The Eidolon nudges Eiko's hand and says, "I must go. I have..."
"It's okay," the girl says as the wolf trails off, "I know. You do what you have to, and we'll do what we have to... after some sleep."
"A wise decision," Fenrir mutters. "Goodbye, my master."
Even before the wolf starts pacing away, he is dissolving into thin air.
No one really says anything until the wolf is gone and Eiko has turned back to them. With a grin, she exclaims, "Let's make camp!"
Puck sends his guards a look and they quickly jump to setting up the few tents they have brought. He then looks to Eiko and grins.
"Maybe you guys should go... wash off in the lake. You're covered in muck."
"That's what happens," Amarant growls, before glaring half heartedly at the tents. "Is one of those for Freya?"
The youngest guard pulls the flap of one tent aside. "Of course."
With a grunt, the bounty hunter hunches over and steps inside – tents aren't roomy enough but he manages to put Freya down and get out without ripping the spikes out of the ground.
"What do we do?" Steiner asks, hand falling to his side.
Eiko smiles at him benignly and says, "Sleep, dummy."
The knight's face flushes slightly and he turns away, mumbling something about washing up and then walking away. That kind of confuses Puck, because every time he's seen Steiner, the guy's been marching everywhere, and he certainly never ran away when someone teased him. Then again, the end of the world does weird things to people.
Beatrix sighs and moves off after Steiner, and Puck notes his guards' careful gazes after her. They don't trust her, not even after four years, but he really couldn't care less what any of them think. They're all at their wits' ends and none of them know what to expect from anyone anymore; he understands their fears, even if he doesn't agree with them.
Eiko is pulling on his sleeve, and he turns to face her.
"Can Garnet and I use one of those tents, or...?"
"Yeah, of course," Puck nods, "Take whichever you want. I'm going to stay out here for tonight."
Eiko gives him a long, slightly sympathetic look that kind of annoys the young king, and then leads Garnet to the tent with Freya in it. He finds that reassuring – Eiko is one of the greatest white mages he's met, and that's saying something. If Freya needs help in the night, there's no one better to help her.
Amarant is still standing with his back to the group, arms crossed and staring out over the water. Lani is down on the shoreline, just a few meters away, half in the water and shivering a little as she tries to get the grime off. Puck's not sure if it's because the water's cold... or if it's because they don't know what's in the lake.
He can just barely hear raised voices farther down the lake – Steiner and Beatrix, he figures. Amarant's head turns slightly in the direction of the noise and then he glances at the young king. With a short nod, the Burmecian goes to his guards and begins to plan with them the next few days in their journey to Burmecia. Behind him, Puck catches muttering and pieces together a disjointed monologue on gravitational pull, Gaia's rotation, and time being irrelevant.
Freya wakes up with her stomach in painful knots but her mind is, surprisingly, relatively clear. It's been a long time since she's been able to really, coherently wake up and she's thankful for it – even if her stomach is digesting itself.
She struggles a little, silently, against coarse bedsheets and when those are gone she crawls out of the fairly spacious tent on all fours, ignoring the dark shadows in the corner.
The two moons are high and have only barely passed one another – it's just past midnight – and they reflect of that huge, unnatural lake that has so naturally found its place in Burmecia.
There are guards surrounding the campsite and she realizes they're all Burmecians – and her heart leaps. She nearly cries out but manages to keep calm, eyes going over the entire scene as carefully and quickly as she can without letting herself get carried away. Who knows? This might be just another dream. Hell, she could be dead, this could be the afterlife. Maybe she's not even really here. She could very well be a ghost watching new travelers try to find their way around the Great Lake.
She catches paws against the dry grass and turns to meet King Puck face to face, his eyes shining and wide and just all mixed up in emotion.
"Freya," he breathes, not loud enough to catch anyone's attention.
"...Your M-Majesty."
She rules out the afterlife.
He repeats her name and then reaches forward, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a tight hug. She rules out dreaming as well, because it certainly never feels this real in her dreams.
"I'm sorry," he apologizes quickly, stepping back, "I'm acting so irrationally."
"It's understandable," she rasps.
"Enough with the reunions," a dull voice comes from near the fire, and a few guards turn to see the two Burmecians and the hulking redhead who has spoken. "Get the rat something to eat before she collapses again."
"Oh, yeah!" Puck exclaims, "We have leftovers from dinner for you, 'cos we knew you'd wake up." He grins at her uneasily, "Even when you're completely healthy you can barely sleep more than five hours. Sit down, how long have you been walking around? Hey, you," he snaps at a gaping guard, "Get some food for Freya already, would you?"
"You're too energetic," Amarant growls as Puck leads Freya over to him and sits her down just a few feet away.
"You're too crazy," Puck responds glibly, looking much too happy for an end of the world scenario. Freya never understood how the younger Burmecian could keep such a hyperactive personality in the face of all he's seen. Then again...
The King runs off to help with food and Freya turns to Amarant.
"Of all the people," she says quietly. "...How is it?"
He turns his face to her and it really takes a lot of power not to make a noise at what is presented to her.
"I think you know," he mutters and she realizes she doesn't have a lot of power. He turns back to the fire and, with a sigh, gives her a basic outline of all that's happened and all that probably will happen. When she asks why it's all happening, he chuckles humorlessly and says, "Ask a goddamned Eidolon, maybe you'll get better results than we have."
Puck comes back with carrots, some stale bread, a casket of water and some dried meat. He tells her to eat slowly and then quickly shuffles off at her request.
"You said," she mutters quietly, pushing the food around a little, "That both Alexandria and Lindblum were hit hard."
"You better eat," Amarant grumbles.
"How many casualties?"
"I'm not giving you statistics until you eat, you crazy, anorexic rat." He gives her a surprisingly worried glance, "Your fur's hanging off in ropes."
She turns her head to the food and finds it almost unappetizing. Something about that sets off warning bells, but they're dull and she slowly chews through the bread and carrots. Her stomach growls and she nearly retches half way through this but she forces it down. Her stomach can't afford to eat itself anymore.
"How many casualties?" she asks again, chewing on the meat thoughtfully.
"...Lindblum's not shorthanded. Maybe... every one of twenty or so survived. Alexandria... More places to gauge. Treno's one in fifty or sixty, and there are only a few hundred... Alexandria City is maybe a hundred, tops."
"And of that one hundred..." She looks to the tents, "How many are here?"
"You're asking if anyone you know, personally, died."
The fact that he doesn't phrase it as a question unnerves Freya. That means he's either much better at reading her, or he's been asked that question too often.
"...I suppose that's what I'm looking for."
When he tells her she lets out one small noise – that's all.
She doesn't speak the rest of the night.
The sun shines against the Great Lake and it takes a lot of effort for Steiner to direct his gaze to other, less bright things – partly because the sunlight is so distracting, and partly because there's not much else to look at.
The lake seems to be much larger than they had previously thought – they've walked nearly ten miles and there's still a great deal of shoreline ahead, with nothing drawing Eiko's attention away. A part of him does note that they're slowly working away from the shore, but it's not enough to raise any suspicions yet so he stays quiet.
Beatrix is far ahead of him and he tries desperately not to let that get to him. They had fought last night, all because Beatrix had asked why he was separating himself from her! The thought of that drives him almost mad, because he certainly hadn't tried to stay away from her. He knows that this isn't their first fight, but like all the others, he hopes it will be their last.
Eiko is talking with Puck, hand in hand with Garnet, and Steiner realizes how young all of the leaders are. Garnet is only twenty – the second youngest queen Alexandria's ever had; Puck is about thirteen, as he remembers; and Eiko is only ten.
Hands of the young, and such.
He hasn't really thought of it – he put it far away from his mind – but he has no idea as to what, precisely, they're traveling for. He's sure that there is a very important task at hand, but it seems that only Eiko and Garnet have any idea as to what is going on. He makes a mental note to question the two later on, when he has the chance. He wants to know what they're doing.
Freya is limping along nearby, eyes down on the grass and sand and Steiner has a feeling someone told her about the rest of the continent – about Zidane.
Who's going to tell his sister?
He makes a note to discuss that as well.
His breathing is becoming a little labored and so he quits thinking and starts focusing on the exercise at hand.
Nearly five miles later, Eiko is definitely turning away from the shoreline.
Amarant speaks up first. "You know where we're going, brat?"
"Of course I do," the girl responds, marching along smartly with Garnet on one side and Puck on the other. "We're going to the ocean."
Freya's ears flick forward and she raises her head, looking at the back of the girl incredulously. "There... There is still an ocean?"
"Of course there is," she sighs.
"That would be silly," Freya agrees in a distracted voice, ears flattening against her skull.
Before them is a vast expanse of sand and, in the distance, the shining view of the sea. But before Eiko can even take one more step towards their goal, Puck stops her with a hand on her shoulder.
"Wait, Eiko!" He points to the sand, "We can't walk across that."
"Why not?"
"It's all quicksand, lady Eiko," one of the guards speaks up.
They look out at the desert and yes, in the distance Steiner can see it moving. It's subtle but it's there.
"Really?" Eiko looks out over the desert in confusion. "I guess it is. I think I can fix that, though... Ama-chan, could you give me the bag?"
The bounty hunter, staring apprehensively at the vast, deadly desert before them, moves up to the girl and puts the rather hefty sack on the ground in front of her. With a grin at him, the summoner digs through and pulls out a dented wooden case. Inside the case is a long, smooth flute – Steiner thinks it might be metal but it looks almost too soft and rubbery for that. It has a few engravings on it but they look to be purely aesthetic, with no words hidden in the loops and curves.
"You brought one of those things with us?" Amarant asks in disapproval.
"Why are you so against music?" she responds, eyes narrowing a little, "Grow up, would you?"
He stares at her almost uncomprehendingly and she smirks in triumph, turning to the desert and barely getting out five notes before the wolf is materializing beside her.
"Sorry," the girl apologizes as Fenrir turns his head to look at her in confusion. "I didn't think I'd need to... We can't get across the quicksand."
He looks out over the desert and nods. "I would not think so."
"Could you pull the sand up to the surface, maybe?"
Amarant snorts. "How is he going to do that?"
The Eidolon looks to Amarant in amusement, but says nothing to him.
"Would you, Fenrir?"
The wolf, in response, begins to pace across the wet, watery sand.
His paws touch the sand and it hardens beneath him and around him, creating a solid sand walkway through the quicksand. Eiko laughs in appreciation and starts after him – with a glance around and a quick wave, she gets the others to follow as well.
Amarant is the last and he, surprisingly, hesitates. Steiner looks back to see him standing at the very edge of the new walkway, and then hears the Eidolon's voice ahead, "Why are you hesitating?"
"...What are you doing?" the bounty hunter asks warily.
"Quicksand is, essentially, very wet sand. I am simply separating the sand and the water. It will fall back once we are across."
Amarant looks about to say something, about to tell them "no, sorry, can't do it" – but then Eiko turns and looks at him so he shrugs and follows after Lani quickly enough.
Steiner is used to sand shifting under his feet, so it takes him by slight surprise to be faced with hard, rock-like footing, rather than soft padding.
Beatrix is ahead of him again and he sighs, wanting to reach out and apologize for last night, and tell her that he'd never try to push her away, but she's out of reach by now, eyes on the approaching horizon and hand on the hilt of her sword. She doesn't want to talk right now. It can wait.
The sand suddenly shifts under his feet and he sinks a few inches.
"Please move faster," Fenrir says from the front of their line, "I am not holding up the path behind us."
"What if we need to get back?" Puck asks warily, picking up his pace and trying to keep up with the wolf.
"Do not worry so much about that. When you need to return, I will take you back."
The king nods, but doesn't slow down and Steiner wonders why he's so worried. Something about the Eidolon makes him feel at ease – he can't understand why the king is not feeling the same.
The sea is close now – only another quarter of a mile – and the sand under Steiner's feet starts to soften. He wonders why the wolf is giving them less time, but begins to pick up his pace when Lani, behind him, puts a hand on his arm.
"Something's wrong," she tells him lowly, and his eyes immediately look to Amarant, who is staring determinedly at the sky and keeping his pace slow and steady. If he didn't look so worried, Steiner wouldn't see a problem.
The sand is starting to dampen under Steiner's feet and the ground is sloping gently towards the bounty hunter.
Fenrir turns his head suddenly and stops, teeth bared slightly in worried surprise.
"Can't you hold me up?" Amarant growls hoarsely, and his feet are sinking steadily. He's not walking anymore and Steiner grabs Lani's arm before she can run to him.
"What did you do?" Fenrir exclaims, but Amarant can't respond – he kind of tilts forward and lands on his knees in the depression around him, which is steadily filling with water, arms over his head and curled inward.
The ground underneath Steiner's feet suddenly sags and he realizes that they're sinking just as quickly as Amarant – only they're not going to drown in water, but sand.
"Don't move!" Beatrix's voice comes from somewhere behind them and Steiner's kind of grateful she sounds so worried. Lani looks more worried over Amarant than herself and this confuses the knight a bit.
The bounty hunter is nearly gulping the sandy water and he's bleeding from his ears, neck straining now to keep his head above water but it's almost as if it's too hard for him to do just that.
There's a sudden shake and the sand begins to dry quickly around their feet. Fenrir has control over the ground again and Amarant isn't having so much trouble in the hole – he's gagging a little from choking on water and pushing himself up onto the now-dry, solid sand pathway, breathing ragged and body limp.
"Amarant!" Lani exclaims, moving to his side and putting a hand to his shoulder. "What the hell was that?"
His eye opens narrowly and he manages to shrug.
Fenrir casts a disapproving look at the bounty hunter; Steiner wonders why.
After a moment, Amarant forces himself up and shakes his head a little, dislodging some sand in his dreadlocks and allowing him to get a brief view of everyone. He finally sighs and says, "It's nothing."
The wolf's eyes flash and Steiner realizes that whatever Amarant's done, it's very far from nothing.
"Endangering your companions hardly constitutes as nothing," Fenrir snarls, before stalking forward abruptly. Eiko manages to give Amarant one of her very definitive, "we'll-talk-later" looks and gently leads Garnet along.
Before Steiner can say anything to Beatrix, who is looking at him strangely, she turns and walks away. For some reason, that kind of hurts.
Still, he turns and offers his shoulder – not much else to lend – to Amarant, who is still trying to keep his balance. He looks warily at the knight, but then accepts, allowing the older man to pull his arm over his shoulders.
Lani is in front of them, but just barely, and they move forward just as the sand starts melting beneath them.
"Fucking crazy," Amarant growls. Steiner looks at the bounty hunter inquiringly and so he continues: "This whole fucking situation."
He mumbles something under his breath that Steiner isn't supposed to hear.
"I wish Zidane were here."