Thank you, AccessBlade, for reviewing!

I wasn't planning on uploading this chapter yet, but I can't sleep...

As an added bonus, here's a quick, kinda crappy drawing of what Letha looks like! http:/ /sylphwriter. /#/d32qbrn

Letha: Holy Bread! I've been digitalized!

Sylph: What the heck? "Holy Bread?"

Letha: ...I thought "Oh My GOD" is kinda overused.

Sylph: ...Am I really as strange as you?

x x x

Chapter 5: Golem, Not Gollum!

x x x

"This is my first time going inside ruins..." Ah, Estelle, you've truly been missing out on the finer things in life! Well, really, the way she said that was almost as if it's something most people do all the time. Or maybe that's just me...

"Be careful over there. It's slippery." Rita noticed Yuri staring at her. "What are you looking at?"

"I was just surprised. You're actually a nice person."

She sighed, "I knew it would be a pain to bring you along. I should've just come by myself..." Hearing them say lines I knew from the game was kinda creepy. I stopped paying attention while Estelle began pestering the mage about her research.

It really was rather impressive, rather like being on one of those guided tours of natural caverns but more...exciting. I guess it was because this wasn't a safe tourist attraction.

"Hey, hurry up or we'll leave you behind!"

"Ah, sorry!" I rushed to catch up with them again. When I did, I noticed Estelle was looking at me. "Um, can I help you?"

"I wanted to ask what your name is, I don't believe you've introduced yourself yet."

"Oh, I guess we did kinda skip the introductions. I'm Letha. Letha Vitae." The unfamiliar name felt strange in my mouth, but at least I didn't slip up saying it.

"Pleased to meet you! My name is Estellise, but I'd like it if you called me Estelle." I smiled at her. Still pushing to be called by your new nickname, I see.

"I'm Karol! An ace member of the Hunting Blades!" Isn't Karol supposed to be a tank in battles? How can a twelve year old boy, and a coward to boot, have more raw strength than anyone else in the group?

"The Hunting Blades? I don't think I've heard much about them before..." I had decided to play dumb to work with the persona of a girl raised in the woods. I turned to Yuri and Rita who were leading our little party. "Karol called you 'Yuri' before, right?" Oh, jeez, it's gonna be hard to keep a straight face whenever I say his name, isn't it? Damn the corruptive influence of the internet!

"Yeah, that's right. And this over here is Repede." Repede whined a bit and walked past me. "Don't worry, he's usually like that." I just shrugged to show it didn't bother me. It would be great if Repede liked me, but I knew better than to try to force it. "Over there is the genius blastia thief, Rita Mordio."

"Hey, don't give me a weird introduction like that, I'm not a thief!"

I scratched my head and said, "Well he's already called me a thief, so I wouldn't have taken him at his word." I shrugged and added for good measure, "For all I know you're all thieves and I've been taken prisoner."

"I'm surprised you're not angry about that." I shrugged again at Karol.

"Well it makes sense not to trust someone you just met, and if you guys are looking for thieves I can't blame you for wanting to be careful." Really, I was just glad that they let me come with them. It would be amazing luck if I could find the fairy-heirloom-thing here in the ruins, but I never would have managed to search them on my own.

So thinking, I glanced at my tattoo. It remained stubbornly dark and I sighed as I followed the others. Of course it wouldn't be that easy.

x x x

Searching the Ruins

Estelle: These ruins feel very different once you're inside them.

Karol: Yeah, it's weird. And there's all this stuff I've never seen before...

Yuri: What, is this your first time too, Karol?

Karol: Well, yeah. My specialty's monster hunting. Hey, what do you think this is?

Rita: You really shouldn't be fooling around over there. This place is loaded with traps.

Estelle: Did anyone else just hear a click?

Yuri: Karol, watch out!

*Yuri pushes Karol*

Karol: Waaaah!

Yuri: Sorry, I thought you were about to get killed. I overdid it.

Karol: I think I would have been better off getting caught in the trap...

x x x

We were attacked by some weird blue...tadpole looking things. I had the nagging feeling that I'd seen a pokemon that looked like that. Wanting to make sure I was pulling my weight (so they wouldn't ditch me at the first opportunity) I ran into battle right behind Yuri.

He rushed in without hesitation, slashing away at a monster before it even had a chance to react. I wasn't as fast, but those tadpoles weren't very intimidating just bouncing there. In a few moments we had dealt with all of them.

"That...was easier than I was expecting-"

"Letha, look out!" I spun around to see more tadpole creatures, but with arms and legs, attacking from behind.

"Woah, shi-!" Aikido instincts (that Ludwig had encouraged) kicked in to dodge around behind the one closest to me, though I still took a hit to the arm, and then I stomped on its tail without really thinking about what I was doing. When it occurred to me that this kept it from moving, specifically, from turning around and hitting me again, I started chopping at it with my daggers. When it was dead I was covered in a clear gelatinous goo. Like the jelly frogs laid their eggs in. "Ick..."

"Are you alright?" Estelle rushed up to me and began healing the injury on my arm.

"Yeah, it's not too bad, thanks," I said while watching the healing light move from her hands to my arm. Dang that was a nifty method of first aid. I'm not especially used to fights or getting injured, so it was a relief to have the pink haired healer on duty. Even if I knew what her power meant for this world...

To distract myself from that train of thought I looked around to see how everyone else was doing after the fight. Yuri was standing in the center of a ring of dead monsters and didn't look like he'd even been scratched, Repede by his side with his own dagger clenched in his teeth. Karol had apparently been trying to hide behind a nearby rock and Rita was trying to drag him out again while complaining about him being useless.

He'll get over it. No boy likes to be defended by girls and Yuri will be a good role model.

"You two okay over there?" Yuri asked us while picking up his sheath. It never made sense to me why he always threw it away during a fight. Well, I guess it's so it won't get in his way, but wouldn't it be a pain to find it every time?

"We're just fine." Estelle chirped. Then she turned back to me. "Letha, you did really well in that fight just now!" That surprised me, how could someone say I fight well when Yuri Lowell is there to be compared to? I figured it was her way of trying to make me feel like part of the group.

"I'm not that good really, I just learned a bit about fighting from my uncle. We live alone, so he wanted to be sure I could take care of myself." I laughed. "He still wasn't happy about teaching me, 'cause he didn't think it was very feminine."

"Oh, but I'm sure he'd be proud of how you fought just now!" I smiled. Maybe Ludwig would...

"Was your uncle a knight?"

"Eh?" I looked over at Yuri in surprise, I hadn't realized he'd been listening. "Oh, no, he used to be in a guild, but he retired when I was still really young." What had he called the guild? "Umm, I think it was called The Protectors." I was again reminded strongly of the Tony Jaa movie about protecting elephants.

I was saved from randomly saying, "You killed my father! Where's my elephant?" (the Aikido Club's joke was that single line summed up half of the movie's dialogue) by the resident guild expert, Karol. "You're uncle was in The Protectors? That guild used to be really well known!"

"Really? Uncle told me that it was just a small guild."

"It was, and there were other bodyguard guilds with stronger members, but The Protectors were known for specializing in protecting common travelers for a low price. They made it safe for people who needed to to travel between cities but couldn't get protection from the Knights or didn't have enough money for any of the bigger guilds." He looked at me as if he couldn't believe I didn't know about this. But Ludwig would have told me if his guild was that big a deal, right?

"Is my uncle's guild famous then?"

"Uh, well not really. They disbanded fifteen years ago, so not many people know about them any more." I nodded.

"Well that explains it. I was only five then, and Uncle Ludwig isn't the type to brag much." Then a thought occurred to me. For Karol to know all about guilds hadn't surprised me, but The Protectors were from before his time. "Wait, then how do you know so much about them?"

"I heard about them from an older guild member." Oh, of course.

"If you're done, let's get going before more monsters come!" Rita snapped as she put words into action.

"Right behind you guys." Karol and I fell into step behind Rita and the others.

I ended up lagging behind the rest of the group, looking around and still hopefully glancing at my left hand now and then. When we found a blastia without a core I didn't really pay much attention as Rita and Estelle gave us a joint lecture about blastia and their cores, and how most had to be excavated from old ruins.

Being familiar with later events and plot twists in the game, I knew blastia had been buried on purpose to prevent the return of the Adephagos, but I thought it was still kind of careless to just leave them lying around. Shouldn't the civilization that had made them have locked them all up in a vault or something? They apparently didn't even leave behind any warning, only the Krytians on Myorzo had any idea what really happened.

A little later Rita gave Yuri the Sorcerer's Ring with instructions on how it worked with blastia and aer, and then Estelle mentioned the castle in Zaphias. That was going to tip Rita off, but I didn't pay it much mind since I knew she could be trusted.

"Are you sure? What if I'm just luring you deeper into the ruins so I can 'zap' you?" I had to hide a small laugh at the timing of that comment. It was my cue to pay attention again, as up ahead some of the stone sentinels had come to life and were standing guard in the route ahead.

"I'm starting to think I'd rather try my luck with the golem," Yuri said dryly as he accepted the point position and the job of using the Ring.

Ugh, Yuri's comments aside, fighting the golems wasn't fun. They were big, their fists were heavy, and it was hard to chip away at them with my little daggers. I mostly concentrated on supporting the others while trying not to get squashed. The bag Ludwig had given was me well stocked with gels that I shared freely.

When a few bats attacked as well, I targeted them instead. One bit me and tried to fly away from the battle. I just cursed and threw a rock at it. I'm not sure, but I think I heard Yuri laughing at me and my shoddy aim.

x x x

The Sorcerer's Ring

Yuri: I wonder if people a long time ago used little things like this to move things around.

Rita: Yes, items like this have been discovered in other ruins, as well.

Karol: It sure is useful for something so small.

Rita: Yeah, unlike some people I could name.

Karol: Huh?

Letha: ...The Sorcerer's Ring is a little like a remote control, isn't it?

Yuri: What's that?

Letha: Huh? Oh, nothing! Just a little idea my aunt had, but wasn't able to make work.

Estelle: It's impressive that you've been entrusted with a Sorcerer's Ring, Rita. I've heard they're only given to a very small number of people.

Yuri: Hmmm. Guess someone trusts you.

Rita: You're the only one who doesn't.

Did You Say "Castle"?

Rita: Hey, didn't you say something about the castle not too long ago?

Estelle: Oh? Yes, well, you see...

Yuri: Yeah, I was in the castle a while back. I used to be a knight.

Rita: You? A knight? Please, how gullible do you think I am?

Estelle: Believe it or not, it's true.

Rita: ...Will wonders never cease?

Yuri: Is it really so hard for everyone to believe that?

Letha: I believe it just fine.

Yuri: Really?

Letha: Well, yeah. The key word is that you "used" to be a knight. If you said you were still a knight now, I'd think you were pulling my leg!

Yuri: Thanks a lot. Come on, let's go.

*Yuri, Estelle, and Letha leave.*

Rita: Hey, they changed the subject on me...

Nothing to Worry About

Estelle: Hmm... If that ceiling collapsed, we'd be buried alive.

Karol: Wh-what are you saying stuff like that for, Estelle? What if that really happened?

Rita: Come on, don't be such a wimp. These ruins are made of stronger stuff than that.

*A large crashing sound*

Karol: Ahhh! Estelle, now the ceiling's going to collapse because you were talking about it! ...Huh?

Yuri: Oh, sorry. I just stubbed my toe on a rock.

Rita: ...You did that on purpose, didn't you?

Estelle: Yuri... You're mean...

Letha: I kinda thought it was funny...though it wouldn't surprise me if the ceiling really did fall. Made of strong stuff or not, time will have its way in the end.

Karol: C-come on, let's hurry and finish up what we're doing so we can get out of these ruins!

x x x

I didn't say much while we worked our way deeper into the ruins, mostly keeping my eyes peeled for more bats. They seemed to like the taste of my blood as much as mosquitoes back home did, and I found myself to be their target most of the time. Though with Yuri's little pranks almost making Karol wet his pants, I still managed to find some humor in the situation. Ah, too bad I missed the famous "Prepare to die, Eggbear!" line...

"Hey, Letha, was it?" I hadn't noticed the black haired man had fallen back to walk beside me.

"Uh, yeah? What is it Yuri?"

"I was just wondering why you don't use your bodhi blastia." My hand reached up to finger the hair clip in my braid again.

"Ah, well, I only got this recently so I'm not sure how to use it. I don't think Uncle Ludwig was originally planning on giving it to me so he never taught me about using them. I don't know much about Strike Artes either."

"That so? Well, you'll probably pick it up on your own while fighting." Ah, Yuri, I don't think I'll "pick up" that sort of thing as easily as you do... "But if your uncle didn't want you fighting, why'd he let you leave on your own?" ...Shit. He was looking at me closely to see how I took his question.

"Well, he didn't want me to live in the middle of a forest like he did forever. So now that he finally thinks I can take care of myself, I'm out of the nest to find my own place in the world. Though I plan to travel around as long as I can before settling down."

"'In the middle of the forest,' so you guys weren't in any of the cities? What did you do about monster attacks?" Yuri was pretty interested. I guess it's because the life I supposedly led sounded strange, giving up safety provided by barrier blastia. It was a good question, why did Ludwig and Sophia choose such a life? There must be more to it than just convenience for Sophia's research. Though it certainly had the appeal of freedom, which Yuri probably found attractive.

"Well, Uncle Ludwig set up a lot of traps around the house to keep monsters away, though none were close enough to put us in danger. He also made use of the terrain, not many big monsters could get to us, and what could were small fry he took care of with his swords."

"Huh. Not many people could live like that."

"Yeah, I don't think we could have either if he hadn't been a former guild member." I felt kind of uncomfortable talking to Yuri about this. He might have a pretty laid back attitude, but he still noticed things and fit the pieces together. I could only hope he'd be satisfied with quietly keeping an eye on me, and that any doubts he had about my cover story wouldn't make him turn me away.

"So, you're another sheltered girl who's never left home before. Hope you're better at looking after yourself than Estelle." His tone had become teasing, though he kept an innocent look on his face.

I grinned, "Well you'll have to be the judge of that, won't you? Let me know how sheltered you think I am once you've had some time to know me better."

"I'll do that."

What, you may ask? Was I flirting? No, of course I wasn't flirting with Yuri. ...Not intentionally. I just like guys that look good with long hair. He's cool but not really my type. ...Note to self: try not to send mixed signals. Though I'm not sure how much Yuri would actually pick up on, in the game and movie he was kind of slow about that sort of thing at times.

x x x

We finally reached the room where the giant golem was waiting for us, (I don't know if it has a name other than that), and I was not looking forward to fighting that thing. Might as well throw me at a granite cliff with a pair of toothpicks.

When she saw it Rita split off from the group and ran towards it. "H-hey!" Yuri raised a hand as if to stop her, though she was already too far away.

Karol was craning his neck back to look up at the thing's head. "Jeez, what is this thing? So this is a blastia, too?"

"But what I want is the aque blastia," Yuri protested, "not this...this puppet."

"What are you doing? Don't just go poking at him like that!" Yuri turned away in disgust and Rita gave the golem her complete attention. "If I can just analyze him, I'll finally be able to complete my anima formu—huh? No! His blastia core is missing!" Oddly, at this point I remembered that Rita apparently names blastia. Had she named this golem too? If it were me, I'd probably be an idiot and name it "Gollum" or "My Precious."

What? Tolkien was an important part of my childhood!

Repede suddenly fell into an aggressive fighting stance, alerting us to the man in a white robe on the next floor trying to hide behind the pillars. "Rita, looks like one of your friends is here." Yuri said calmly.

"Hey! Who're you?"

At Rita's shout he gave up hiding and came back out. "M-me? I'm just a blastia researcher from Aspio!"

"...That sounded convincing," said a very unconvinced Yuri.

"And just who are all of you? This place is off-limits, you know!" Ah, such a classic bluff. Of course it didn't work on us.

"I think you just gave yourself away. I don't know who you are, but you're definitely not from Aspio if you don't recognize me," Rita declared with a hands on her hips and a haughty tilt to her head.

"...Guess she's got no problems with modesty." I'm sure we're all thinking that, but it's because you say that out loud, Karol, that Rita always hits you.

Seeing he wasn't fooling us and Yuri already had his sword ready, the man rushed over to Gollum. "Gah! This job's just full of problems. If it's not the Knights, it's a bunch of kids!" And I'm sure you would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids and their dog... I didn't have time to mentally kick myself for that before he put the core back into the Gollum blastia. Oh no! Gollum has his Precious back!

The entire room began to shake as the golem stood up, causing Karol to shriek in fear. "Aaah, it's moving!"

"Rita!" Estelle's warning was too late and the golem backhanded the mage into a wall.

"Oww," I winced, "that's not playing nice, Gollum!" Rather than watch the exchange of Estelle healing Rita and Rita putting two and two together to get a pink haired, healing power using four, I busied myself trying to avoid getting hammered into the ground.

"Hey you guys! Stop playing around and help us!" Huh, so Karol hadn't hidden yet. Maybe it was because the golem was between him and the pillars. Rita tried to run past us to chase the escaping phony researcher, but Gollum got in her way. Instead Repede leaped over a swinging boulder of a hand and ran after him.

"I guess we've got no choice but to play with this wind-up toy for now." Yuri was ready to rumble.

"Let's get this over with and go after that jerk!" And Rita was just ticked off.

Deciding there wasn't much else I could do to be useful, I concentrated on chipping away at the stone construct's abnormally thin legs. I was hoping that they might break under its considerable weight and restrict its movement...maybe.

I did not like being there, it was all I could do to avoid being stomped on or getting any worse than glancing blows, but that thing was blasting some kind of light beam around that I was positive would suck even if it just clipped me. Staying as close as I could meant I was actually pretty safe from getting hit by one of those, or else the thing would destroy itself.

I heard Yuri's shout of "Azure Edge!" several times, and Karol's "Dragon Upper!" Fire balls were also regularly exploding somewhere above my head and...there was Estelle hitting the thing on the knee with a hammer that made rubbery noises. Alright, I guess a hammer was about as good as my daggers in this case.

A Fire Ball burst against the golem's waist, just barely missing my head. "Shit, aim Rita, AIM!" I shouted, and the distraction kept me from dodging fast enough. "OOF!" The breath was knocked out of my chest, but I clung desperately to the arm that had just bashed into me. Fortunately I'd been hit by a swing of the arm rather than a punch, so it couldn't just smoosh me into the ground. Instead, Gollum began waving me around trying to dislodge me.

"Oh eff, this is worse than riding that mechanical rodeo bull!" I gasped. Unlike with the bull, however, I couldn't just let go when I'd had enough and wanted off. Urgh, now is probably a time when a Strike Arte would be useful! Desperate to try something, I stabbed one of my daggers into the golem and tried to imagine forcing my energy through it, kind of like I'd heard of in various yoga, tai chi, and even my Aikido lessons.

I was more surprised than anything when the metal flashed green and a large chunk of stone fell away. Unfortunately, in my surprise my grip loosened and I flew across the room. I didn't hit a pillar like Rita had, but I must have skid five feet across the floor. I landed badly too, so I couldn't recover with a backwards roll and didn't think of trying a hard fall until it was too late.

"Letha! Are you hurt?" Not sure who that was, maybe Estelle. Yeah, I'd put my money on Estelle... I just raised a hand and waved it a bit.

"I'm not dead~! But I'm gonna wish I was tomorrow..."

There was a particularly large blast of heat past my vision, though I could see how everything was very distinctly outlined by fire-colored light, so I figured Rita got the finishing blow in. This was confirmed by the sound of something heavy falling to the ground and her saying, "All that's left is to cut off its power supply...I'm sorry..." Then there was a distinct "powering down" noise.

Ah, don't feel bad for Gollum, Rita! At least he didn't fall into a fiery pit of doom! I was kind of dazed...

"Rita, hurry!" Oh yeah, have to chase the thief.

"All right, all right!" I should get up. Just as I pushed myself into a sitting position, I felt a tremor.

"Uh, that was bad wasn't it?" I muttered. Now I could see that the section of floor I was sitting on was heavily damaged, and cracks were spreading across it. I looked up just in time to meet Estelle's horrified blue-green eyes before there was a loud crack and I was dropped into darkness.

x x x

Hmm? Hmm? I bet none of you expected that! Oh, what happens next?

Bodhi blastia and Strike Artes, how exactly do they work? Can someone tell me?

Ugh, I need to think of attack names for Letha... Neither she nor I are the type to call out the name of an attack while preforming said attack, but I think I still have to at least name them...

As for the skits: I settled on leaving them in a skit-like format because otherwise it would take forever to get anywhere. I didn't want to cut them out entirely because they contain valuable humor and develop the characters. So I'm including any skit that I think Letha would add her own two cents to, overhear, or that I made up because I thought it seemed like it could happen. Yeah, I'm enjoying myself with these...