I don't have all that much to say. Sorry if this chapter seems rushed and for the seemingly random and terrible fight scene. I'm no good at writing them yet, but I'm practicing. This particular one isn't out of the blue either.
XoXoX
Chapter Four: Follow the Brown Dirt Road
"Where are you from, Katie?" Lloyd decided to ask me out of the blue during our third day of traveling in what was almost complete silence.
"Does it matter?" I asked skeptically, trying to dodge the question.
"Sure it does. We're going be traveling together for a while, so we might as well learn something about you," the drifting swordsman said. I merely sighed in response.
"I don't really come from anywhere," I started, then paused, hoping that answer would suffice. It didn't.
"How can you not come from anywhere?" Genis asked me, breaking into the conversation. Though he probable still didn't like me, I guess the small half elf trusted me a little more since I had helped fight the Desians back in the village.
"Well, I don't have any family, so I don't have ties to one specific place," I informed. Hey, I actually managed to tell the truth without having to tell the truth, if that makes any sense. I was going to be one hell of a liar after the world regeneration.
"What happened to your family?" Lloyd asked.
"They all died in a house fire when I was six."
"So that means you've been by yourself for..." He paused momentarily, counting numbers on his fingers. "Wait, how old are you?" He asked. I guess he realized he couldn't do the math without my current age.
"I just turned fifteen a few months ago," I said, waiting for him to finish calculating.
"You've been alone for eleven years!" The 'Genius' exclaimed rather loudly.
"No, it's been nine years Lloyd," Genis told his friend, the words accompanied by an eye roll. I giggled quietly in response to their antics. They were really close. They were arguing just like siblings.
"Enough about me, what about you two," please let this attempt be successful.
"What about us?" Lloyd wondered... VICTORY! I performed a little dance number in my head before speaking again.
"What are your home lives like?" I asked in return, coordinating it with their question to me.
Genis was the first to answer. "I live with my sister Raine back in the village. Or, I did anyway," He said as he dropped his gaze to his feet. I thought it best not to push him. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out he was going to be upset for a while. Why did he have to go and blame himself?
"What about you, Lloyd?" I asked.
"I've been living outside the village with my dad as far back as I can remember." He told me.
"I guess it makes sense why the mayor called you an outsider... Not that its right, but still."
"Yeah, I lived on the other side of the forest, just past the human ranch."
"Hey, look!" Genis called to us suddenly. Lloyd and I both turned our attention to the little half elf. "We've finally hit the Triet Desert!" He shouted out happily.
"I'm glad, but if the both of you keep yelling every couple of minutes, its going to attract monsters and bandits. I don't know about you, but I don't like unnecessary violence." What the hell was I saying? I was supposed to be feigning ignorance, not being a know-it-all. Raine would fill that occupational void later, I was sure.
"Oops, sorry," Lloyd said, rubbing the back of his neck with his right hand in embarrassment. I just shook my head and kept walking forward, a dismissal. I really did hate confrontations with a passion. The only reason I knew how to fight was because my only friend at school, David, had insisted on teaching me karate as my only means of self preservation. I never would have believed it would come in handy. I had one more person to thank if I managed to figure out how to get back to them in the first place.
Having no memories of anywhere apart from the city, I had no idea what a desert would feel like other than it being extremely hot. It was nowhere near as bad as I had expected it to be. I guess I was just glad to be wearing shorts and a tank top.
"Gah!" Lloyd gasped, more than a bit short of breath. "I am sick of this desert," he complained. And now it began...
"Then why don't you take off your coat?" I asked him, raising my left eyebrow as an indication of my curiosity.
"Are you kidding?" Lloyd asked me while he stared like I had grown a new head.
"He never takes off his coat unless he's swimming or sleeping," Genis wisely informed me.
"I have a feeling there's about to be a third exception," I said, mirth finding its way into my eyes as a smile crept its way onto my face.
So, for six hours, Lloyd wouldn't shut up about how much he loathed deserts. Their temperature, to be precise.
"Why is it so hot here, anyway?" He asked at one point.
"According to legend, there is a gate that leads to Efreet. Its hot here because of his influence," I told him. I was too happy about not being a total dunce to realize we were in the middle of a Z-Skit and I had just stolen one of Genis's lines. Word for word, too!
"A gate that leads to Efreet? Could that be..." Lloyd said, putting two and two together and proving that he has some form of intellect aside from instinct.
"I'm sure that's the seal Colette's heading for," Genis assured Lloyd.
"Ah! That means Colette is in the area somewhere... Man, you both know a lot of stuff!" He said cheerfully.
"That's because I don't sleep in class like you do," he replied smugly.
"And you'd be surprised at what you can learn through years of travel," I gave as my excuse.
The walk to Triet from Iselia would take the average traveler a week and a half. We had been journeying for not even a full three days yet and had already gotten pretty far into the desert landscape. I wondered how much longer it would be before we saw civilization again. I didn't dare voice my thoughts in fear of sounding like a certain older teen walking slightly in front of me.
"How much longer are we going to have walk?" Lloyd whined for the umpteenth time in the last hour. My point proven...
"We should get there sometime in the next two days," Genis, unknowingly, answered both our questions. I hadn't realized how late it had gotten, but the sun was already beginning to set in the clear blue expanse above us, turning it a beautiful mixture of red, orange, and violet the farther out you looked.
"Maybe we should stop to set up camp now so we don't have to do it in the dark?" I suggested, hopeful. It was widely believed I hadn't been born a leader. I was always considered more of a guide, if anything.
"Good idea," Lloyd agreed immediately. He was probably tired of walking already, what with him having the attention span of a new born puppy and all. With a quick examination of our surroundings, I spotted a decently sized rock jutting out of the sand.
"Could we set up over there?" I asked, indicating my latest discovery. "There will be more protection against the sun tomorrow morning, and more protection from enemies tonight," I added for the sake of argument.
"Sounds like a plan," Genis said while Lloyd had already started to make his way over there. I think I lost him at 'protection from sun,' but I couldn't be sure.
We didn't have all that much to set up having not been prepared for a sudden banishment, so the three of us took out the blankets we'd managed to bring and layed them down on top of the sand. There wasn't much to use as firewood since there weren't any trees in the immediate area, but we managed to get a small flame going steadily thanks to planning ahead and bringing some dead trees with us before we hit the desert. Genis casting fire ball helped a lot as well. We sat in a comfortable quiet for a while, enjoying the fire in the now cold night, when Lloyd's stomach roared out to be fed. An embarrassed blush covered his cheeks when Genis and I laughed in perfect unison. After several rounds of laughter and Lloyd's face turning into a nice ripe, red tomato, our fits of laughter began to stop.
"My turn to make dinner?" I asked through a few small giggles I smothered with my hand when the object of our humor glared at me. I saw Genis attempt to nod his head, so I moved over to my small pack and rummaged for a minute until I got my desired result. I pulled out some bread, lettuce, tomato, and a few carefully placed pieces of cold chicken. I was going to make a slightly altered version of a blt, instead of bacon, I'd use egg. I cut six thin slices of wheat bread and layed them out side by side on my blanket. Next, I shredded half the head of lettuce and divided it up equally between the three of us (I secretly gave the two boys a lot more than myself since they weren't paying much attention to what I was doing). I chopped two slices of tomato and placed them on only one of the three sandwiches. I split the three eggs in half and set them on different spots on the lettuce and placed the piece of bread next to it on top.
Once finished, I called my masterpiece to attention. Lloyd lunged across the makeshift campsite and made to grab his meal, until I kicked him back and slapped his hands away. "Do you really want the one with tomato?" I asked, daring him to answer my rhetorical question. When receiving none, I grabbed the food Lloyd almost ate and handed it off to Genis. I turned back around and gave the one with extra lettuce to Lloyd and snatched the leftovers for myself.
"This is actually pretty good!" Genis told my through a large mouthful of the concoction.
"Yeah!" Lloyd agreed heartily, spewing food everywhere in the process.
After clearing my face of his chewed up food, I told them what it was they were eating. "It's just a blt with chicken instead of pork," I informed them quietly, a little shy after the compliments. Genis nodded, probably after taking note of the small change, and Lloyd continued to shove the rest of the food into his mouth. When he was finished, the sad look on his face almost made me laugh uncontrollably again.
"Here," I said as I held out all but four small bites of my portion.
"Are you sure? You didn't eat very much," Lloyd said as he eyed the substance longingly. I nodded once and pushed the food into his waiting hands.
"I was never one to eat very much."
With our stomachs no longer empty and surrounded by a comfortable heat, the two boys in the group began to doze off. Lloyd, as far as I could tell, was trying his best not to fall asleep. I could also tell it wasn't working like he wanted.
"Go ahead and go to sleep, you two. I don't mind being the night watch," I informed them with a small, understanding smile lifting the corners of my mouth.
"But you've been night watch every night since we left," Genis protested with a yawn.
"I also haven't been anywhere near collapse like the both of you have since we left. I'm used to not getting much sleep."
"I can't complain," Lloyd said as he rolled onto his side so he could use his arms as a pillow.
"Use him as an example,"I told Genis while gesturing with my head towards the remaining member of our group. "He doesn't have a problem with me staying awake," I said smugly, holding back the yawn that threatened to escape my lips.
"Fine, fine. You win," the silver haired pre-teen gave in. With the verbal battle lost, he turned away from me and fell unconscious within seconds. Lloyd was also sound asleep, snoring contentedly. At this point in the game, I sort of envied the both of them. Sure, they no longer had a village to return to, but they could still go to Dirks. Plus, they got to travel the world with their friends and family. I knew better now, of course, because the whole angel transformation was nothing but a hoax to get Martel a new body she didn't want. If it wasn't for the worlds joining and a new giant tree being born, this journey wouldn't be worth all the trouble.
XoXoX
Several hours had passed since I took up night watch for the third time in a row, and there hadn't been anything out of place. The fire had dimmed down to mere coals, leaving us warm but in complete darkness. I didn't mind at all; I was used to it like most other things here in Sylvarant. I was too busy waiting for the panic to hit. After all, if you woke up one day and found yourself in a fictional world, wouldn't you be scared or worried? It was only a matter of time before the reality of it all came crashing down on me, and I wanted to be alone when it did.
I heard quiet voices in the distance. My eyes snapped shut and I slowed my breathing, listening to whatever it was approach us.
"-get something good from those twerps, I wonder?" crap, the group was talking about us? I really hoped not.
"I'm not sure, but they look like pretty easy targets!" Another man jeered. This wasn't good. I looked over at the two boys that were on my right. Dammit! Both were sound asleep and showed no signs of waking anytime soon. I quickly crawled over to Lloyd and shook his shoulder, hard. Nothing happened aside from a slight stutter in his snoring. Genis wouldn't be of much help in hand-to-hand combat, so I didn't even bother waking him up. Thinking quickly, I grabbed one of the swordsman's weapons and held it tightly in front of me. If the bandits were armed, I didn't want to fight them with just my fists.
"Well, look what we have here!" One of the group of four exclaimed quietly. He probably figured it would be easier for them if they kept this little escapade quiet.
"Looks to me like this little girl wants to fight." Another of the group said, antagonistically. The bastard was trying to pick a fight. Did he not get to do it very often? I examined everyone who had come to rob us. All of them were large, wearing bandannas over their mouths, and had giant knifes in their hands. I gulped, silently praying for help from any higher being that might exist in this world. As long as Yggdrasil didn't come, I'd be much better off.
"If you give us all of your possessions, we might let you and your friends go without a fight," one of them, my guess was the leader, offered me. In response, I shifted my right foot back and slightly out, bracing myself for attack.
"Hahahaha!" the whispered laughter was haunting in the quiet and tense atmosphere. It was unnerving. That's why I barely blocked the first strike with Lloyd's wooden sword. For simple robbers, they certainly were fast. I twisted my left foot and angled myself to kick my attacker away from me, giving myself some room to move and protect the sleeping people behind me. Thankfully, it worked and I lunged forward and hit him roughly in the neck, knocking him unconscious. Pressure points came in handy every once in a while, I supposed.
I turned to my right and brought the weapon up just in time to block and oncoming dagger from stabbing me in the back. I pushed, and he pushed back, overpowering me with weight alone. One of his buddies came up from my left and tried to stab me in the neck. Key word, tried. I brought my matching arm up and away from the sword, blocking the blade with my upper arm. A searing pain in my tricep told me that the iron missed its mark. I near silent whine escaped my throat and the three fighters still moving laughed loudly in return.
They were too busy cracking up to notice that a certain magic user was waking up quickly. He looked at me from where he was, eyes wide, and then he was yelling as loudly in Lloyds ear to get up.
His eyes opened and he blinked a few times, disoriented. Then he, too, saw me on the ground with one of his swords in my right hand, and jumped to the rescue. Genis was in the middle of casting an earth spell, Lloyd was running towards where the fight had managed to get to. I got to my feet and threw the piece of wood in my hands to its owner and ducked under a lunge aimed at my gut. I punched with my right arm and hit my opponent in the ribs, hearing a satisfying crunch. I followed up with a swift kick to the face, knocking the foe to the ground. I leapt away quickly when Genis yelled stone blast. I looked over to where Lloyd was fighting and flinched when I saw his sword hit right in the middle of his wind pipe. That looked painful.
All four of the bandits were down just as the sun was starting to rise in the dark blue sky. The only two others that were awake ran up to me, and Genis examined my arm.
"Are you alright!" Lloyd questioned me, worry written all over his face.
"I'm fine," I lied uneasily. I whimpered when Genis gently tugged the now warm steel from my skin. I watched in shock as the crimson trickled down my arm and dripped onto the sandy landscape. I felt like throwing up at the site. I had never been a big fan of blood. It went along with my being unconfrontational. I looked back up to Lloyds face and knew instantly that he didn't believe me. Hell, I didn't believe me. I sighed softly. "Sorry for the trouble," I apologized. At the rate I was giving those out, I was going to turn into another Colette, I was absolutely certain.
"This is really deep," Genis informed me unnecessarily. Of course it was going to be deep. Half the fucking blade had been lodged into my arm. I was a miracle it hadn't severed anything on the way.
"I know,"I said instead, my throat tight in suppressed agony. "Can someone bring me my bag?" I asked as politely as I could manage. A few moments later, Lloyd appeared with my bag. I was lucky that it was filled with medical supplies. I rummaged for a minute and pulled out an apple gel and some bandaging. I opened the bottle filled with the red goo and poured it on my upper left arm and spread it thoroughly over the wound. Then Genis wrapped it snuggly in the white, soon to be red, fabric. Though still immensely painful, the gel was definitely helping some. I moved my arm experimentally, and instantly regretted the action as it sent an unwanted jolt up my arm. My eye twitched minutely in annoyance. I didn't like the idea of not being able to protect myself.
"Are you going to be able to fight?" Good ol' Lloyd and his hidden concern.
"It should be fine," I told him, unsure whether or not it was the truth. And the lecture would be coming in three... Two... One...
"What did you think you were doing fighting that many people by yourself!" and Lloyds spiky brown head just exploded.
"I tried to wake you up without making a ton of noise, but it didn't work. And Genis isn't all that good at close combat, no offense," I directed that last little bit at a now miffed half elf. I was walking on eggshells while trying to diffuse a very active bomb, which wasn't exactly the easiest of tasks.
"Fine." What?... "Just don't do it again," Lloyd ordered me sternly before storming back off to our campsite. Genis and I were quick to follow. At least the twelve year old didn't seem angry that I said he couldn't fight all that well.
We packed in silence and were, once again, on our way to the desert oasis called Triet.
XoXoX
The fourth day was already almost over, and even though we hadn't seen any hint of Triet, were were ecstatic. Up ahead was a firelight. Not many people were traveling from place to place with the world in its current crisis, so that only meant one thing.
"HEEEY!" Lloyd shouted halfway across the desert to his blonde haired friend, waving frantically. I smiled when to myself when she started running towards us, laughing all the way. I, too, laughed when the angel-to-be tackled Sylvarants future hero.
"You d-dummy,"Lloyd stuttered on the ground.
"Sorry," Colette said from on top of the red clad teen. "I'm sorry Lloyd," she said repeatedly. I looked over to where Genis was still gasping for air under his large pack. He had a goofy smile on his face that was so big it may end up staying that way.
Lloyd and Colette stayed on the ground until Raine and Kratos made it over to us. Genis ran up and hugged his older sister and I was looking at my shoes that had suddenly grown much more interesting. I felt the seraph's glare, but didn't acknowledge it, letting the reunion occur. I was thankful when Lloyd spoke up and introduced me.
"Colette, Professor, Kratos," he pointed to each person in turn. "This is Katie." This time, he pointed at me, and I still refused to look at anyone.
"She helped us back at the village," Genis elaborated once detached from his sister.
"Help with what, exactly?" Raine asked, eyeing me with suspision plain on her face. Maybe it ran in the family.
"The Desians attacked Iselia," Lloyd told the three through clenched teeth. It was never going to be an easy subject for him to talk about. From his other side, I heard Colette gasp in horror.
"Was it because of us?" the girl asked with dread.
"No," Lloyd answered right away, quick to correct her mistake. "We-" Just like I wasn't going to let him admit his.
"I was new to the village and was exploring the woods. I went to the human ranch by mistake," I was going to have to do some major BSing now. "I spoke with one of the people being held there, and the Desians said I broke the treaty. They attacked and the three of us fought them in order to prevent the entirety of Iselia burning to the ground. They mayor banished the three of us because there's a risk we're on the Desian hit-list." I alternating side glances between Lloyd and Genis, hoping neither one of them would correct me, blowing the cover story.
"What are you saying!" Lloyd all but shouted at me. God, him and his dwarven vow of honesty."Katie isn't the one who went to the human ranch, Genis and I did,"he confessed willingly. The actions was answered with a smack to the back of the head from Raine. Genis recieved the same. I was unpleasantly surprised when I felt a similar pain in the back of my head. I called her on it.
"What was that for?" I asked angrily, doing my best to pass it off as mild curiousity.
"Lying is not the best way to make a good first impression," she told be sternly.
"I didn't want them to get in trouble for doing something morally correct," I admitted, voice hished and head bowed.
"Morally correct?" Holy crap, Kratos can talk...
"I was friends with one of the prisoners," Genis informed them quietly, smoothly moving behind me. I guess I became the little guys meat shield.
"It doesn't matter what the catalyst was," I said, nolonger submissive. "All that matters is that the village is safe from further destruction and we can't go back to enjoy it."
"I want to hear the details, but not now. It's cold right now. We should head back to the fire." Raine walked away. Her three students were fast to follow, and I wasn't far behind them. Kratos was the last to make the short trek back to the temporary campsite.
The three of us who hadn't been there ten minutes ago pulled out our blankets and set the out like we had done the night before. There was a long, uncomfortable and tense silence that came with the reliving of past events. I felt eyes on me and knew Kratos was glaring at me. I didn't show my nervousness on my face, but it was there and he could probably smell it like a blood hound.
Hours passed and I was the only one awake.
"Why are you without a weapon?" Never mind. Kratos was awake, as always during the first leg of the journey.
"I'm not," I told him, pulling out the dagger in my bag that I'd forgotten Phaidra had given me. I threw it towards him so he could examine it further.
"It is unused."
"I fight using martial artes, not with blades." I hope he left it at that.
"Hmph," Yay for classic sounds of dismissal! He tossed me my knife back from across the fire and looked back up to the illusion of stars in the sky. They resembled the ones I was used to not seeing. It would have probably brought me a great sense of familiarity if I hadn't been raised in the city, surrounded by constant lights. I instead focused solely on the bright orange flicker in front of me. My eyes dimmed at the memory of my life turning to the hell it represented.
I missed my thick headed parents, all my siblings, the sheltered life I'd lead... Everything about my past life. I was grateful I hadn't wound up at an orphanage like so many other children do, but how my uncle raised me isn't normal. It isn't even legal. Maybe after being here for a while, I could work up the courage to call child services?
... No, not even then. It would do me little good. Whenever he'd hit me, it hadn't left marks that lasted more than a few hours. He'd had me cornered there. It's for that reason, and probably that reason alone, that I had yet to have a mental breakdown. Maybe this was my way to escape? It didn't matter right now. I managed to turn my thoughts off and stare at the colors in front of me.
XoXoX
Does anyone recognise the scene with Colette and Lloyd? It's from the anime (ova?). I don't think I've read one yet where Lloyd wasn't taken to the Renegade base, so I thought this would be a nice change of pace... Please excuse the bad rhyming. Sorry if the length isn't quite satisfactory, but I felt it a good place to stop. I don't really want to leave you all with cliff-hangers in the beginning. Please R&R and I'll see you all next chapter. JA MATA NE!
~Nobody-XV