AN: remember kids! When you go for a quick fix, the solution might turn out to be just as bad as the original problem.

Chapter 12

The soggy ground squelched beneath his feet and once again Jude was glad for the new boots he had purchased just the other day. He had worn out his old shoes so bad the boggy swamp water would have seeped through the soles and given him a fungal infection. Having just treated one of those earlier that day, Doctor Jude Mathis was glad to not personally suffer through one; not only were they tenacious, but could get complicated when it came to treatment with medication.

Grumbling softly, the officer escorting him caught his balance as he nearly slid into a puddle. "You come out here once a week and I still don't know why," the man said.

"Since the Schism was dispelled, we're fueling Elympios's Spyrixs. I'm making sure it hasn't been having any adverse effects on Rieze Maxia's flora and fauna," Jude explained, though he was sure he had said it at least once before to the man. He saw the officer's head shaking and smiled.

"What good would it do us knowing that?"

"It lets us know about how much time we have left," Jude said.

The man sighed. "I still don't understand why we have to carry those free-loaders. Kind of wish the Schism had stayed."

Jude pressed his lips together and sighed softly. He wasn't sure what to say to that, but supposed from the common person's point of view, the people of Rieze Maxia were supporting a world of people who had so screwed up their own world that they had to leach off someone else. Although given the political climate of Elympios, Jude was having trouble reminding himself why he thought saving both worlds was a good idea in the first place. Every time he turned around there was someone else calling for a revival of the Otherworld Reactor Plan; just because the production of Spyrites was so slow and they hadn't figured out how to use them to replace anything other than medical devices.

Coming to his next stop along the trail, Jude pulled out his notebook and began taking detailed notes on the specific items he had chosen to observe as marks of how fast their mana was being depleted. So far it looked like things were all right, if on a steady decline. He tapped the pen against his chin in thought.

"Doctor," the officer said. Looking away from his notes, he turned to find the older man pointing.

Three Bog Polwigles were grouped around something white on the ground. Jude tipped his head slightly. "That's strange..."

"Looks like they killed someone," the officer said and looked at Jude.

"We should probably take care of the body," Jude said, even though it wasn't anywhere close to being part of his reason for exploring the Arkand wetlands north of Fennmont. He supposed he really hadn't changed that much in the last year after all. Jude closed his notebook and tucked it away in his pack before heading towards the group of polwigles. Whoever this person was, they likely had family who would miss them, it was better to at least try to identify them.

The three monsters turned to look at the pair of humans as they approached, one giving a threatening burble. From this angle, he could tell that it was indeed a body, lying partially face-down in the muck. Their white coat was dry, though, which was odd since it had been pouring rain not more than ten minutes ago. Burbling and bouncing, the polwigles bumped into each other as they crowded between the body and the approaching humans.

Jude came to a stop and held his hand out, stalling the officer. "I've never seen monsters act like this before," he said. "It almost looks like they're protecting..."

The body coughed. One of the polwigles turned to look and nuzzled the person, though there was no further reaction.

"Doctor, I think he's still alive!" the officer gasped.

Jude nodded and held his hand out. "You stay back," he told the officer as he crouched slightly to make himself smaller. "Hey," he said gently to the polwigles, though it felt completely strange trying to court a monster's affection, as if they were cats. "Hey there. What've you got?" he asked. "Are you protecting him?"

The polwigles shifted nervously and the one nudged the fallen human again with a concerned sounding burble.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you, or him," Jude said as he crept closer. Part of him was ready to beat the monsters to death if they looked like they would attack, but the longer he observed, the more the situation struck him as odd. One of the polwigles hopped forward once, tail wiggling threateningly at Jude briefly before backing away. Suddenly, all three scattered, hopping off a short distance to regroup near a puddle.

Jude moved closer to kneel next to the body, hands gently searching for a pulse. Letting his breath out in relief, Jude gently turned the young man over, revealing a blond with a young face. He judged him to be about sixteen. He was bruised and blood seeped from a cut on his forehead, it looked like had been attacked by something with sharp claws, though why the creature had left him alive was a mystery.

"Is he dead?" the officer asked, moving closer to look. "I don't recognize him."

"He's alive," Jude said, "But he's badly injured. I'll do what I can here, but we need to get him to the hospital for further examination." Looking towards the polwigles again, Jude pressed his lips together in thought even as he called on his healing artes to begin stabilizing the young man.

"Did those monsters do this?" the officer asked, moving closer to stand between Jude and the polwigles.

"No, his wounds aren't consistent with any monsters around here," Jude said. "We'll have to ask him when he wakes up." Though what he really wanted to know was why polwigles would try to protect a human.

The young man's brows drew together in pain as he tried to reach for consciousness and failed.

Looking up at the officer, Jude said, "If you carry him, I can take care of anything that attacks us."

"Right..." the officer said, hardly sounding pleased with that solution, but sheathed his sword and moved to carefully pick the young man up, holding him gently against his armored chest.

Jude's attention strayed to the polwigles again. They seemed to be conferring with each other before they hopped off in different directions, disbanding, as if their mission were complete. Filing that away for later, he turned and started south, heading back towards Fennmont.

...

Mouth dry, Emil coughed, digging his fingers in the dry, crumbling dirt beneath him. Hot sun beat down on his face and his head hurt terribly. Slowly peeling his eyes open, he rolled onto his side and propped on his elbow. A breeze kicked up, sending a small cloud of red dust twirling away over the edge of a cliff.

"Asgard?" he muttered as he stared at the barren landscape. But even Asgard had its own animals that found refuge in between the rocks. This place had an emptiness that made him feel achingly alone.

Rolling to his knees, Emil sat up to get a better view, but even that didn't help. His head throbbed. In the distance he saw movement and when he squinted, shading his eyes, he determined that it was nothing more than heat radiating off the dirt.

"Ratatosk?"

When there was no answer, Emil closed his eyes and went searching within himself for the Summon Spirit. Wounded and running dangerously low on mana, the Summon Spirit was completely unconscious. Horrified, Emil's eyes snapped open again as he realized what was missing; mana. There was no mana in the air at all. Nothing living was moving within his range of senses.

Finding his sword a few feet away, Emil crawled to it and used that to help himself stand. "I have to find..." He wasn't sure what he needed exactly, but Ratatosk needed mana, that was for certain. "Stay with me. You've gotta fight. I'll get us to safety," he told his other self.

He straightened and brushed the dust off his blade before sheathing it. Turning a full circle, Emil squinted at something that looked like a tower, though he wasn't sure if it was man-made or just another rock. With little else to go on, he began walking, rubbing his dry tongue against the roof of his mouth in hopes of finding enough saliva to spit out the dust that had collected there.

The landscape continued to be barren as he made his way up a hill and past an outcropping of cliff into a narrow gorge. There seemed to be remains of a road that led through it. A single tree with a smattering of brown leaves had grown here. Even as Emil watched, he saw one of the branches break and tumble to the ground.

"This place is awful..." he whispered.

Pushing himself forward, Emil started walking again, following the road towards what he was sure was a building of some kind. He just hoped it wasn't abandoned. The sun beating down on his head and bare shoulders made the trek incredibly uncomfortable. Even the Triet desert wasn't been this awful.

He had even stopped sweating. Emil wiped dust and dried blood off his brow and scrubbed his fingers together as he shuffled past the dead tree and something that looked like it was trying desperately to be a patch of grass, half buried in the shifting dust. A boulder shifted as Emil walked by it and he realized with a sigh of resignation that it wasn't a boulder at all, but a monster. The creature picked itself up and turned to face him, resembling a tortoise covered in spikes. It snapped its jaws at him as it lumbered forward. Emil drew his sword, knowing he was in no shape to successfully run away from the creature. He hoped he had the energy to defeat it and perhaps make a pact. It would have easily been able to carry him.

"Look," Emil said softly, "I don't have the energy to fight you. Please don't make this difficult."

For a moment the monster paused, shuffling its feet as if confused why anyone would think to bother trying to talk to it. That moment of hesitation was gone and the tortoise continued to shuffle towards him.

Closing his eyes tightly, Emil forced himself to straighten. "I am Lord Ratatosk, Summon Spirit who controls the Mana Flow." He looked down at the tortoise. "Do not provoke me."

The tortoise thumped its snout into Emil's stomach.

Nearly knocked off balance, he caught himself on one of the monster's spikes and looked down at the creature in amazement. It shuffled, bumping into him with its side and lowered to the ground entirely.

Shocked, Emil stared at the monster a moment more before finally processing that the tortoise wanted to give him a ride. Sheathing his sword, he slowly climbed onto the back of the spiky shell and found a comfortable place to prop himself. The tortoise stood in a swaying lumber and began moving, heading the direction Emil had originally been going. He closed his eyes and shuffled his scarf to pull over his head, feeling like his brains were baking in the sun. Even if the tortoise was slower than him, it was much easier to ride than try to walk, even though he had no idea or control of where they were going.

A breeze showered him with dust, but also pushed something that tasted like life itself past his nose. Opening his eyes, Emil squinted to look around. They had traveled some distance and he realized he must have blacked out again, since he didn't think that much had time had passed, though the sun was beginning to dip behind the cliffs. Ahead there was still nothing but canyon, although movement caught his attention and Emil turned his head to find a man in white picking through the remains of a monster. The wind blew again, bringing that sweet scent of mana along with it. Emil leaned forward, his headache easing slightly and he knew this stranger was the source of the mana he desperately needed to keep Ratatosk, and possibly himself, alive.

The man turned and shuffled back a step in shock before drawing a sword and falling into a stance. "Hey! You!" he shouted.

Beneath him, the tortoise balked and snapped its sharp beak. Emil gently patted it. "I won't let him hurt you," he said gently.

Turning its head to look up at him, Emil could almost feel the monster's disbelief at that statement.

"All right, all right. You stay here," he said and slowly moved to dismount the tortoise. He nearly fell head first off the monster's back and barely managed to catch himself before he hit the ground.

The man with white hair stepped forward several paces, hand out. "Hey - are you all right?"

Managing to get his feet under him, Emil patted the tortoise again and turned to walk towards the man. "Not... really," Emil admitted, deciding to go with the truth. The closer he drew to the man, the better he felt, though, and his head began to clear of the throbbing pain. Unfortunately it was a gradual process and he had a feeling that just standing next to this man wasn't going to be enough to help him recover fully.

Edging closer, the man in white kept his sword drawn, but reached out to catch Emil's shoulder as he stumbled again. "How were you commanding a gun tortoise?"

"Uh," Emil looked back. "She insisted I ride..." He squinted at the man's face. "I need help."

The man's expression fell. "I'm not giving you any gald if that's what you're after."

"Mana," Emil said. "You taste like it. I'm going to die if I don't-" his knees collapsed out from under him. "Make a pact with me?"

"What?" the man staggered back. "You want what?"

"I'm a Summon Spirit," Emil explained. "And you're producing mana, somehow. I'm going to die if I go without mana for much longer and this place is dead. Please... Make a pact with me."

Shaking his head in confusion, the man swayed back on his heels. "What's that involve?"

"You make a promise, and as long as you keep that promise, I lend you my power," Emil said, he felt dirty just for saying all this, but the longer he sat next to this man, the more sure he was becoming that his survival was tied to Ratatosk's.

The man folded his arms, sword dangling from one hand. "You're a Summon Spirit... Which one?"

"Ratatosk, Lord of Monsters," Emil said.

"Well, I've never heard of that one," the man said distastefully. "You can't be that impressive. Not as great as Lord Maxwell."

"Maxwell?" Emil asked. "He would recognize me if you can summon him."

The man's cheeks turned red and he stamped a foot. "I'm Lord Maxwell's handmaid! I can't just summon her!" Eyes narrowing, he rubbed his chin as a wicked smile curved his lips. "Wait, so if I make a pact with you... you have to do what I say, right?"

"Not... exactly," Emil started to object, beginning to worry that this hadn't been a good idea after all.

"I, Ivar, hereby promise to exact revenge upon Jude Mathis for stealing Lord Maxwell from me!" He raised his sword into the air, then swept it down to point at Emil.

"Can you think of any other promise that doesn't require revenge?" Emil asked with a sigh.

"Take it or leave it Mister Ratatosk!"

Hanging his head, Emil sighed. 'Maybe I can talk him out of it later...' he hoped. "I accept," he said softly and immediately felt the bond form between them. A flow of mana, cool and healing, began to fill him and he felt Ratatosk stir slightly.

"So... that's it?" Ivar asked and put his fists on his hips as he leaned forward. "No special magical sparkles or anything? How disappointing."

Emil slowly climbed to his feet and dusted off. "Is there shelter anywhere?" he asked.

"There's a lab up ahead, but I'm not supposed to go there," Ivar said with a vague gesture. "King Gaius doesn't want me causing trouble with them while they're doing their research." He rolled his eyes. "They're still playing around with Spyrites and nothing useful is getting done." He sheathed his sword finally with an irritated thrust.

"None of that made any sense," Emil said.

"You're really stupid if you don't know what's been going on." Ivar sighed. "Come on, we'll go to the city then." He started walking.

Emil stared after the man, then looked down when he felt the tortoise's nose touch his palm. Nodding, he carefully climbed back onto the monster's back.

Ivar stopped some distance away and turned to look, blinking in surprise when he found Emil on the tortoise again. "You're not planning on riding that into town, are you?"

"No, I doubt they'd take kindly to her," Emil said, "But I won't make it there on my own given the shape I'm in."

"Really? You must've taken a beating then." Ivar dug in a pouch hanging from his belt and tossed something Emil's way.

Catching it, Emil looked to find a gel. "Thank you," he said and stuffed it into his mouth.

"So what were you doing out here?" Ivar asked.

"I... don't know," Emil said and shook his head. He felt the tingling sensation of healing taking effect all over his body. "I wasn't here last I remember." He frowned slightly. 'If I survived... maybe Marta and Aster did too?' Although he knew that if Ratatosk ever woke up, he would be able to trace Marta via the core he had placed on her. Aster... was a whole other story.

As the tortoise drew closer to Ivar, the man grabbed a spike and leapt up onto the monster's back behind Emil. "Well, if you get to ride, so do I."

Emil twisted to look back. "You're not afraid of her?"

"I can talk to monsters," he said. "Its a special gift I have!" He put his fists on his hips and straightened. "I have a wyvern that answers only to me, too!"

"Would certainly be faster to ride that then my tortoise friend," Emil admitted.

Ivar glared. "I can't just summon my wyvern whenever, you know. It doesn't work like that."

"Really?" Emil smiled, "It does for me."

"Huh?"

"I told you. I'm the Lord of Monsters." Emil turned to face forward again, feeling steadily better now that his physical injuries were taken care of and Ivar was supplying a constant stream of mana.

"And I'll be able to do that now too?" Ivar asked, leaning in. "Since you and I have that pact and all."

"I'm not sure," Emil looked down with a sigh. "I've never made a pact with anyone before."

Ivar sat back again. "Maybe helping you out wasn't such a great plan after all."

Emil turned to look at him. "If I die a lot of things will be messed up," he said. "I'll repay you, somehow."

"You'd better, Mister Ratatosk."

"Please call me Emil," he said. "Ratatosk is my other form."

"Emil?" Ivar sighed. "You couldn't pick a more..." he waved his hands vaguely. "Ratatosk at least sounds like the name of a Summon Spirit."

"Uhm... This is my under cover form," Emil said. "Someone was trying to kill me."

Ivar looked him over again. "Nearly did."

"Yes," Emil said and sighed.

"We're going to have to find out what you can do for me," Ivar said.

"Can it wait a day?" Emil asked. "I haven't regained enough mana yet."

Ivar sighed. "Fine." He pointed his finger at Emil's nose. "But you'd better deliver! I want to see something awesome!"

Emil focused his gaze on Ivar's finger briefly before looking at his face. "I... I'll try..."