This is chapter twenty - seven. Thank you Eddie Camp, Draconet, and caitlinkeitorin for reviewing last chapter!
Chapter Twenty - Seven: Stories of the Past
The Light Army Keybladers hovering around the town kept Gillick, Mala, and Riun on their toes. Nervousness permeated the air. Gillick's amber eyes flickered constantly around. The last thing he wanted was a group of Keybladers to come in. In his condition, he'd be able to do little to nothing to ward them off, and he didn't figure on Mala or Riun being much use.
"Hey," Mala hissed. She was peering out between the broken boards of the building into the streets. She sounded as if she'd - mostly - recovered from seeing and hearing Trevor earlier.
"What?" Gillick asked, tensing. She didn't sound alarmed, but he'd rather be safe than sorry.
"I think they're leaving."
Gillick jerked upright, then regretted it immediately as he felt splitting pain run through his body. She frowned at him. "Careful," she warned. He nodded and made his way more slowly to where the thief was looking out. As she'd said, there was no sign of them.
A grim smile etched itself onto his face. "Good. That means we can get going."
"Not yet, we aren't!" Mala protested, glaring at him.
He glared right back. She cowered slightly under his gaze, but held her ground. "Why not?"
"You need some time to recover," she responded. "If you don't, then we won't get very far before you collapse, now will we?"
"You need to take care of yourself Gillick!" Riun chipped in.
"Did I ask for your input," he snapped at the boy. As usual, he was undaunted by the older boy's snappish nature.
He turned his gaze back to Mala. She'd folded her arms across her chest, a stubborn look on her face. "You know I'm right."
He weighed his options. Was it worth arguing about…? He decided against it. "Fine," he conceded. "Just so long as we aren't here too much longer."
"That depends on how fast you heal," Mala responded dryly.
"And how will you know when I'm Ok?"
"When I can't keep you here any more."
Gillick snorted, a small smirk appearing on his face. "Fair enough."
Mala turned away from him, adding over her shoulder, "I'm going out to get some provisions" as she left. More like steal some provisions, Gillick added silently.
Riun was up immediately. "And while she's gone you can teach me how to be a hero!"
He glared at the younger boy. "Didn't I already tell you that I'm not a hero?"
"Yes you are."
He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. These people were ridiculous. "Look," he said, "even if I were interested, which I'm not, I'm not exactly in the condition to be teaching you much of anything right now."
"Oh." Riun deflated a little at that statement. "When you're better, will you teach me?"
"If I say 'maybe', will you leave me alone?"
Riun stopped to think about this a bit. Then he nodded. "Ok."
"Then maybe."
The boy jumped into the air. "Yes!"
Gillick shook his head, smirking. Dumb kid. Doesn't he know 'maybe' always means 'no'?
"What happened? Why'd you call us back?" Trevor's breathless question lacked its usual formality as he hurried into Tollun's office. However, the messenger Tollun had sent had seemed nervous and jumpy; he was afraid something terrible had happened.
His suspicions were confirmed when he saw Tollun. The leader of the Light Army had anger blazing in his silver eyes, his jaws clenched with frustration. "The book is gone."
"The bo- oh." Trevor stopped himself abruptly, eyes widening. "Wait…you don't mean…?"
"Yes," Tollun growled furiously. "That book."
"Was it the Dark Army?" Trevor couldn't stop the worried question.
Tollun shrugged, still looking agitated. "I don't know for sure, but it's safe to assume it was." He began pacing around the room. "And, if it was, that means they now know about the X-blade."
"Which isn't good," Trevor commented unnecessarily.
Tollun nodded anyways. "We'll need to step up our attempts to find this weapon," he muttered. "We must somehow find a way to obtain it before the Dark Army, or we'll lose everything."
"I'm at your disposal, Master Tollun," Trevor proclaimed, standing tall.
"Good." Tollun stopped and whirled around to face him. "Gather a group of Keybladers and begin going around to various towns, searching for answers. I'll send other groups out, as well, while a few will remain here to score the library."
Trevor nodded, though he felt uncertainty tugging at his mind. "But…we can only search in the towns aligned with the Light Army…"
"Wrong." Trevor blinked in surprise at his master's response. "You will search all towns."
The young general swallowed hard. "All towns, sir?"
"Yes." Silver eyes burned into blue. "Are you questioning my authority?"
"No, sir! Of course not!" Horror at the idea burned so fiercely in his mind that the flames turned any thoughts of doubt to ashes.
Tollun nodded, noticing his sincerity. "Good. Then go."
"Of course, sir!" Trevor hurried out the door, anxious to start on his journey and prove his loyalty once more.
Several days passed with little incident. Though Gillick was bored an impatient, he could at least be thankful for that. For the most part, Riun had managed to leave him alone; he guessed the boy was holding out desperately for the chance that Gillick would teach him. He supposed he might have to, after all, if the boy ever hoped to defend himself.
Mala's obvious expertise as a thief showed. She'd managed to swipe several arrows for herself, and they were never without food for too long. There was never even any sign that she'd been spotted.
Gillick wasn't so worried about Mala getting caught or Riun annoying him at the moment, however. Both of those things he could deal with. Much more worrying was the memory of the assassin. She couldn't be too far away by now, even if he'd managed to throw her off with his stunt at the last town he'd stayed in. They needed to get moving, or she was going to catch them.
"You look uneasy."
His eyes flicked to Mala. "That tends to happen when you have an assassin following you."
Mala snorted. "Fair point, I guess." Lips pressed in a thin line, his eyes flicked away. "Hey, I know what could take your mind off it."
"What?" he asked suspiciously.
"Tell us about your past."
He whipped his head around to look at her fully. "And why should I do that?"
"Please, Gillick!" Riun pleaded. "It has to be awesome! I want to know! I want to know!"
"Keep it down!" Gillick hissed uneasily.
Riun lowered his voice. "Please?"
Mala nodded. "We hardly know anything about you."
"We hardly know anything about each other," Gillick countered, rolling his eyes.
Mala blinked in surprise at his response. Then she nodded. "Fine. My parents were killed when I was very young, and I was forced to live on the streets. I didn't really know what to do, so I joined up with a small band of other orphans like me. I learned how to steal from them." She shrugged. "Then a boy named Scree took over. He was a jerk, so I left. I ended up meeting a homeless old man who said he 'saw promise in me.' I brought him food, and he taught me how to use a bow." She gestured to the weapon. "Then…one day, he just…died." Sadness filled her gaze, but she quickly shook it away. "After that, I lived on my own. Until you helped me, that is." Her blue gaze rested on Gillick.
The black haired boy looked away. "That's…interesting," he commented, not knowing what else to say.
"I lived with my Mom and Dad," Riun began his story. "It was kind of boring, but we got to see Keybladers around town sometimes, which was cool. When you saved me and Mom from the Light Army Keybladers, it was the first time I'd seen a battle." Riun's eyes glittered. "You were so cool and so strong, I wanted to be just like you! So…I followed you."
"Really? I hadn't noticed," came the sarcastic reply.
"Funny how you're the one that connects our stories," Mala commented.
"Yeah…funny," Gillick muttered.
Awkward silence hung in the air for several moments. Mala finally broke it by saying, "So. We told you our stories. You tell us yours."
Gillick hesitated. What should he tell them? What could he tell them? That Tollun made him a Keyblader? That he'd tried to fight the Knight when he was a kid? That he'd become so disillusioned with the Light Army he'd left for the Dark? That he'd nearly had to kill his brother to prove his loyalty, and for it had been stripped of his armor? …No. He couldn't tell him any of those things. He'd been careful to try and keep his past a secret, at least as much as he could. It would take someone he trusted above anyone else for him to reveal it. And he didn't trust these two enough.
…They'd never believe me, anyways.
He looked up into their expected faces. Well, with some minor editing, there was one part of his life story he could tell. "I traveled the world," he began carefully. He touched the hilt of the sword that rested beside him. "A man gave this to me to help me defend myself. After that, I decided to set out."
"What about your parents?" Mala questioned. "Did you have any?"
"Yeah, I did," Gillick replied. "I…left them behind when I was very young."
"How'd you learn to sword fight?" Riun asked eagerly.
Gillick shrugged. "You pick things up when you wield a weapon for a long time." It wasn't entirely a lie.
"And…Trevor…?" Mala hesitated, eyes shadowed. "I mean, how did he feel when you left? Why did you…have to fight him?" "You think I really want to relive that?" he snapped, hoping the excuse was enough. Mala looked startled, but her mouth clamped shut. Her eyed her a few moments more, watching for a protest. When none was forthcoming, he continued. "I saw a lot of the area that's guarded by the Keybladers," he said, choosing his words carefully. "I even ran into the Knight once, when I was younger."
"That's why you said the figure was familiar," Mala murmured, more to herself to anyone else.
Gillick answered anyways. "Yeah." He shook his head, trying not to think too much about the event. "After that, though, I began to travel farther. The area guarded by Keybladers may be big, but the world is even bigger. I saw places…where there were no Keybladers at all."
This caused both Mala and Riun to gasp. "No Keybladers?" Riun exclaimed.
Gillick nodded. "It was strange at first, but…also a relief." He clenched his fists. "They lived differently, and yet…weren't so different from us. There were people of all shapes, sizes, colors…some weren't even people, really, but talking animals." He laughed at the stupidity of what he'd just said. His laughter seemed to startle the two before him. Not surprising; he rarely laughed anymore. "I know it sounds crazy," he commented, "but it's true. There were even people out there who could use magic without the Keyblade."
"But…how is that…?" Mala trailed off.
"One tribe I met believed that spirits gave them the power. Another thought the power came from adaptation. But the answer I'm most likely to believe is the last one given to me." He paused before continuing. "I was told that, when the Keyblades were created in our area of the world, the powerful magic that was used in their creation spread out across the entire world. It wasn't far reaching enough to bring the Keyblade to everyone, but the energy allowed some people to use magic."
He paused again, thinking about all he'd learned in his travels. There wasn't any possible way he could sum everything up into one neat little story. So he skipped over most of it. "I needed to make a living, so I became a bounty-hunter, sometimes acting as a mercenary when I had no other choice." He shrugged. "After I'd traveled for a while, I decided…I want to come back home." He sighed, amber eyes flickering with memories. "And that's when all this began."
That's the end of chapter twenty - seven. Reviews are greatly appreciated!