Yeah...took me long enough, didn't it?

Letha: Stop neglecting us!

Sylph: Silence! I'm earning income!

Letha: *Glaring* …

Sylph: ...Alright, I also got sucked into TV Tropes again... And there was that Doctor Who marathon... And other stuff...

And thanks again to hinafanboy08, for informing that the knives the Red-eyes use are called Kataar (katar, katara, more research to keep Sylph happy~). But Letha is kataar ignorant and sadly must remain so...

Quite a few more pictures up on Deviantart. As several people have already noticed.

Okay, I'm gonna at least give this a try and hope it doesn't turn into a flop and waste our time. I'm holding a contest. Everyone and anyone interested can write a one shot that takes place in the FTaBV universe. Not limited to whether you have a fanfiction account, just as long as you provide an easy link to wherever the story is posted and make sure it's clear that Fairy Tales and Brave Vesperia is the original fic.

The one shot could be about a particular scene that interested you from the point of view of someone besides Letha. Or make up an original scene you can imagine playing out. Heck, make up an original 'what if' scenario of something you'd like to see, no matter how off the wall bizarre, with the understanding that there should be a note somewhere that its not canon to the main fic. (I know some of you are wondering this. YES, pairings are allowed. It just won't be canon.)

And after they're all up I'd set up a poll for people to vote on their favorite one shot spin off. Winner gets a minor cameo for the character of their choice (an existing character or even an OC) in the main fic and/or the privilege of giving Brave Vesperia a guild job (doesn't even have to be one from the game). I haven't decided on a deadline, but I'll try to give you all lots of time. For now, there'll be a poll in my profile. Go and clicky if you plan on entering! Or just tell me you think I'm nuts...

Any questions, send me a PM. And feel free to pester Letha on her formspring to get relevant information or likely reactions.

Letha: Why are you doing this to us?

Sylph: To keep EVERYONE on their toes!

...

Angelic:

O ,o Just what kind of interrogation are you thinking of? Something about the way you said that was kinda creepy...shipping fangirl creepy...quit corrupting my brain! ...Yeah, if the contest actually gets anywhere I can expect more corrupting influences...

...Birdman missed you. He missed all of you guys. :3

x x x

Chapter 38: Pardonez mon Francais

x x x

There was more than enough of a distraction for 'Regaey' to make his escape. The others made the effort to try and stop him, but failed to get past the veritable wall of assassins making it their business to get in our way. I was totally absorbed in the fact that Birdman was bent on mincing me with his fancy knives.

His knives were caught on my daggers with his full force behind them. I'd missed the chance to do any aikido momentum redirections or whatever, leaving me committed to what amounted to a contest of brute strength. Which I'd lose before much longer.

Urrrgh, I need to break this off without getting something chopped off in the process! Well, I could always try... I spat in his face. What I could see of his expression twisted in disgust as he involuntarily drew back just a little. The pressure on my daggers eased, and I took the chance to shift my stance and kick my right leg up so that my shin connected hard with his ribs.

Well, that made my leg tingle uncomfortably, and later I'd have a bruise to show for it. But it did more damage to him than me and ended our stalemate nicely. Both of us backed away a few feet, me making sure my leg wasn't going to give out on me, Birdman wiping the saliva from his face with the back of his hand while trying not to let on how much my kick had hurt. He glared at me. Or was probably glaring behind those red lenses in his mask. Seriously, why do the Red-eyes have those red eyes? Do they have some function like night vision or something?

That would actually make sense for a group of assassins...

My eyes flickered away from Birdman for a moment to assess how everyone else was faring. What I saw wasn't exactly disheartening, but we were clearly outnumbered by the Red-eyes. I wasn't too worried just yet, though, since we normally were outnumbered by these guys and still came out on top. And this time their greater numbers would be a disadvantage in the confined space of the cavern tunnel. Certainly, none of the others looked any worse off than I was.

Though I was a bit concerned about the new pair of Red-eyes that were trying to circle around me. For some reason they were holding back. As if giving Birdman the chance to satisfy his vengeful homicidal anger. Yay for considerate people.

Even if it didn't look like they were planning on trying anything yet, I still didn't like the vulture impressions. As a precaution I took a few edging steps to put the cave wall at my back so no one could get behind me.

"Distractions are gonna kill you, bird!" Birdman taunted as the multiple points of his weapons raked towards me. Not caught by surprise this time, I was able to deflect them off to one side so that one even bounced off the wall behind me, scraping off grains of sediment and leaving scratches in the stone. He swept his blades sideways to try and catch me before I could escape his range.

"Hey, I just figured it out!" I chirped cheerfully. The unexpected mood change confused him, and he wavered a moment. Just long enough for me to skip back a bit like he'd been trying to prevent. "You totally remind me of Voldo from Soul Calibur!"

He snarled, and for a brief second I wondered if he could possibly know who Voldo was (my God, Voldo the creeper, practically molests the other characters). "Bitch, I should have killed you long ago!" Birdman threw himself at me in an energetic display of stabbing knives that I decided would be wisest to dodge.

"You know what they say about hindsight and the number twenty!" Ooh, he clipped me that time! I could feel the warm blood dripping sluggishly down my left cheek.

"Jasper!" one of the other Red-eyes barked, "Don't get carried away!"

"We're supposed to take her alive!" the other added to the scolding.

Now isn't this interesting. There are standing orders to catch me, and Birdman is actually Jasper. It was kinda weird to think of him by any other name though.

"Sure, but that doesn't mean I can't have some fun to pay her back first," Birdman-Jasper hissed. I swallowed nervously.

But it wasn't until I heard a familiar, shrill voice calling out "Ground Dasher!" that I was actually frightened. The ground shook violently beneath my feet and large pieces of the ceiling were knocked loose and sent crashing down. All fighting stopped briefly as everyone desperately danced around to avoid getting flattened, impaled on stalagmite spears appearing out of nowhere, or falling into one of the cracks that opened in the floor.

"Knock it off, Rita!" Yuri shouted.

"This jerk was asking for it!" she shouted back indignantly. I wondered just what her opponent did... Something bumped against my back, making me whirl around and prepare to gut whatever it was with a Gemini. I stopped myself just in time when I realized it was Karol.

I blew a forceful exhalation in both relief and an attempt to calm my jumpy nerves. "Whew, don't sneak up on me," I chided as we both turned so that we stood back to back. We weren't near enough to any of the walls to use them for protection and now had both my little party of enemies plus the pair that Karol had been trying to deal with. Though they were sporting some nasty holes in their clothes with bloody edges, suggesting the little ace had bashed them with his mace a few times. Ooh, a few of the points of their blades are missing! Ha ha, Karol broke your fancy knives!

Jasper-Bird rushed again, a vicious smile on his face. I was all set to block him again when to my confusion he spun and dipped away to the side. And struck out at Karol, who was concentrating on his own opponents. "Crap!"

Lurching back and sideways, I just barely managed to intercept him before he could hurt Karol. Unfortunately, I was not properly braced to deal with his momentum, and my lack of balance sent me tumbling backwards with Jasp-Bird coming along for the ride. And we both landed on top of Karol, who was knocked over by our combined weight. He fell over too, and then we were all falling, and my last clear thought was Dammit, Rita! as I realized we were all falling down one of those cracks her Ground Dasher attack had opened up.

x x x

"Nnngh..." my vision was swimming but fortunately I didn't totally black out. The fall was no more than a confused jumble of limbs, rocks, and goddamned gravity in my memory. The sound of something else moving somewhere nearby, crunching boots and the rattle of stones rolling, was good incentive to shake off my own daze fast. Arms and legs flailing a bit, I got back to my feet and brandished my Gemini. I could see in the faint cattail lights the others that had taken the fall with me, and my heart sank.

The one moving around was Jasp-Birdman, spitting out dust while shaking his head. But even more worrying was the second person. Karol was lying still on the floor and I could only hope he was just knocked unconscious in the fall. Birdman...Jasper...(screw it), Birdman didn't look like he'd held up well with the unexpected pitfall. The coattails that were a part of the Red-eyes uniform were tattered, his hood ripped completely off, and most of his mask was missing so that it was no more than a high collar fitted to his neck.

Seeing his face for the first time stunned me, though it was mostly shadowed and dim from the minimal lighting available. But I could see that his hair was short and black in contrast with his eerily pale eyes. Very pale, very cold eyes that were narrowing dangerously at me. And his thin lips were spreading in such a wide smile that the scar actually curved a bit.

"Heheheh. No one to stop me from killing you down here," he gloated, "And I can just tell 'em you had an 'accident'."

Uh oh. I had just lost a layer of defense. Fighting off someone who's trying to take you alive is a lot easier than fighting off someone who wants you dead more than anything. Frantic now, my hands scrabbled across the stone floor while trying to find my daggers. Birdman laughed at my near panicked state.

He dove towards me, his own hands empty but still stretching towards me with the promise of a painful death. I tried to escape, crawling backwards and kicking at him, but my hand landed on a piece of rubble that rolled and caused my arm to fly out to the side and drop me. And then Birdman had both his hands around my neck, squeezing down hard.

NO!

The spike of pure fear was accompanied by a flare of heat from my left hand, and suddenly the pressure around my throat disappeared. "What?" Birdman's eyes widened in confusion. I didn't stop to wonder about his distress, or about why he'd stopped trying to strangle me. Instead I flung my hands out wildly to try and get him off me. My fear surged again as my hands didn't make contact with anything. When one finally brushed against something I reflexively grabbed at it thinking to perhaps smash it against Birdman's head to knock him away.

But when my fist closed he screamed in pain, startling me so that my hand clenched tighter and jerked slightly. His scream was even louder, and then he slumped forward in silence. My mind felt numb, slow to catch up with what had just happened. But when it got there I realized my hand was sticking out of Birdman's chest. I'd gone all intangible again, causing his hands to pass through my neck and my own to pass through him.

And I had crushed his heart in one of my fists.

Jerkily I let go and pulled my hand back out, the heat leaving my left hand soon after. The body slid off me and fell to the side, expression twisted in pain and confusion. Shuddering, I dragged myself away from the corpse, too weak with reaction to stand and walk away. Finally I found my Gemini daggers where they landed in a pile of rocks. I looked at them a touch bitterly. Where were you when I needed you?

I couldn't let myself dwell on it. The most important thing was to make sure Karol was okay and to find our way back up to the others. Shaking myself, I sheathed the daggers and concentrated on being productive.

Karol was still out but didn't have any serious injuries that I could find. And after a cursory search (avoiding Birdman's body as much as possible) I couldn't find either of our bags. In fact, we didn't seem to have Karol's weapon either.

Well, less to carry.

In theory, I could pick up and carry a man twice my size with aikido. In practice, my limit had been our instructor, who was lean and only a few inches taller than me. Karol, however, wouldn't be too much of a problem since I estimated him weighing about as much as the smallest girl in our class. At most. Presuming we weren't attacked by anything, things should work out.

Once I had him settled as comfortably as possible on my back I considered my options in routes. Three tunnels, though one was hardly more than a crack in the wall. I tried to determine if they were any noticeable difference in gradients (one sloping up more than another at all) or if either smelled like it had fresher air.

One was maybe better than the others, or I was fooling myself, but it was better than nothing. "C'mon, boyo," I said to the unconscious kid on my back, "Let's go hunt down the plot again."

x x x

I had to fight only twice so far. Eggbears and spiders and bats, oh my! When I could I just tried to sneak past or flat out outrun monsters I encountered, and carefully deposited Karol on the ground before the unavoidable ones caught up. I was getting worried about him though. Shouldn't he be waking up soon? Or was his head hit worse than I thought? But there wasn't anything I could do other than try to get him back to Estelle as fast as possible.

When he finally began stirring I was incredibly relieved, feeling as if there was less weight on my shoulders (and hopefully I could put him down so that would be literal). "Wh-wha happen'?" he slurred a bit. "Wha's tha soun'?"

I coughed a bit self consciously, realizing I'd been humming for awhile. The music box melody from one of the Silent Hill games. "Sorry, that was me. And we fell down a hole during that fight with the Red-eyes."

"Oh, right..." … "You smell kind of nice."

Pfft! "Sounds like you either have a concussion, or you've been hanging around Raven too much. Thank you, though."

"I think I'm gonna barf..."

"Ho-kay, ride's over!" I knelt down and let Karol slide off my back. He stumbled over to the tunnel wall and was sick for a bit. Rather than observe that, I wandered off a bit on the ostensible excuse of keeping watch for monsters. When I heard the uneven scuffing of feet on grainy stone floor I turned and found him wiping his mouth on his sleeve while trying to walk towards me in a straight line (which was almost as wobbly as if he'd been wearing beer goggles). Wordlessly, I handed him an apple gel. It was the last one I'd been carrying on me (the rest were in my bag) but he probably needed it. At the very least it would take the sour taste out of his mouth.

"Doing better?"

"Yeah..." Karol looked around, "Where are the others? And my stuff?"

I shrugged, "Hopefully still with the others. And hopefully we'll find them soon."

"But what'll we do if monsters attack?"

"That's easy. Fight back." I unbuckled Oberon's belt and handed it to Karol. "Play nice now. This guy isn't up to general roughhousing."

"O-okay." He turned the sheathed sword over in his hands a few times as if trying to figure out what to do with it. The belt wasn't made so the sword could be worn across the back and the dao was too long for him to strap to his waist. He'd just end up tripping over it that way. In the end he opted for just keeping it in hand like Yuri.

Then the ace looked at me a bit curiously. "Hey, I know we fell and all, but how'd that happen? Last thing I remember was getting ready to try a new move." Remembering that it was pretty much my fault, I had the urge to divert the question.

"New move?"

"Yeah, Roaring Dragon Blow!" he exclaimed excitedly. "It's like woah! And then it's like bam! And then it's all woah again!"

"Huh?" I didn't understand that at all.

"It kind of makes me dizzy afterwards," he admitted. A small noise echoed through the tunnels, probably caused by a distant monster, and made him start a bit. "S-so we're the only ones who fell?"

I remembered the lifeless body of Birdman...of Jasper back where I'd left it. Where it would stay until monsters cleaned the bones. "Yeah, just us..."

For a moment the thought of being lost and alone in these tunnels seemed to press down too heavily on him, but then he straightened and looked me in the eye. "We should probably go. The sooner we find a way out, the sooner we can meet the others again." I blinked in surprise, then smiled at him.

"Right-o, boss!" And his small chest puffed out slightly at the title. He even took the lead, though he occasionally needed to use Oberon like a cane to get him through dizzy spells.

Heheh, I feel kinda proud of him. Our little guy is growing up so fast!

"Wuaagh! Spider!"

I sighed as the little brunet went zipping back behind me. Right, the bug spray Rita gave him is back in his bag...

x x x

What If...

Karol: You sure do know some weird stories. Especially this new one with the flying ship!

Letha: Ah ha ha, yeah... Sophia's book collection was full of some pretty wild stuff.

Karol: I mean, people who live on different worlds? That's pretty crazy!

Letha: ...Hey, Ace. What if you met someone who said they were from a different world? Like me, for instance.

Karol: Wha-oh! I get it, you're trying to trick me again!

Letha: Er, yeah! You got me!

Karol: Ha, come on! Like I'd ever fall for something like that!

Letha: Right...

x x x

"-'Let's see what a man like you would kill for,' and then, ignoring Simon's protests, Mal kicked the top off.

"And it was to the crew's complete shock when inside the crate wasn't smuggled goods, but a girl."

"A girl?" Karol repeated, surprised but not fully getting why it was a big deal.

"Ace, they had a federation mole on board that was after good doctor Simon, who turns out to be smuggling a girl," I left out the part about her being naked, "in his luggage. Most likely explanation is slavery and human trade."

"Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh'. And while Captain Mal was 'nicely' asking him what the hell this was all about, and Jayne and Zoe were menacing him with their guns, the girl suddenly bolts upright screaming her head off.

"Startled the crew enough that Simon was able to run to the girl without them shooting him. They were even more surprised by how gently he held her and calmed her down. He promised her that it was safe and that 'they' were gone."

"Safe? From who?"

"No getting ahead of the story. And when Mal demanded what the hell that was about, Simon very seriously informed them all that the girl was his sister."

"Woah, really?"

"Yup. It was clear that there was a lot more going on so they took a time out to get the whole story. Simon actually started his explanation by making it clear how wealthy his family was, how highly educated he'd been, and what a promising medical career he'd had before him. And then claims that his younger sister, River, was a genius who made him look like an idiot in comparison.

"She'd caught the eye of the empire and been brought into a special program for the young and 'gifted'. But in reality that program was a cover for government funded human experiments. Simon had used all his resources, gave up his career, and been disowned by his own family in order to rescue her."

"Wow..." We walked in silence for a few moments as I let all that sink in. And took a chance to concentrate on breathing. We'd been consistently climbing an upward slope, which was encouraging. "Is it, you know...normal for family to be like that?"

I had to consider his question for a moment. "...Yes and no. Being willing to give up that much for someone depends on your own character and morals, but pretty much everyone has strong feelings where it concerns their families." I paused and made a hushing sound, thinking I'd heard something. When I didn't hear anything else I shrugged it off as a false alarm. "Though the definition of family doesn't have to be related by blood. It can be a tight knit group where everyone feels connected, for better or worse."

"I think I get what you mean..." Karol mused aloud. "I've never really had a family, so I don't know for sure, but I always thought about what it might be like..."

I grinned and teased him with, "Aww yeah, I'm sure you were always imagining what it would be like to start up a family with Nan some day."

"Wha-no! No, I didn't mean-you got it wrong!" he spluttered.

"You just make it too easy sometimes," I giggled. My laughter changed to hacking that had me hunching my shoulders and doubling over slightly. This, however, I regarded as a good sign since it meant we were near that aer krene that's supposed to go crazy when Regaey/Yeager runs past it with that apatheia in a box.

"Are you okay?" Karol hovered nearby, very helpfully trying to discover a way to help cure aer sickness.

"Ugh, yeah, and I think we're almost out of here..." After the initial flare of sudden pain passed and I got used to the familiar ache (really not all that bad, it was just unexpected), I straightened and we resumed our dogged trek through the Weasand's tunnels. We were still moving steadily upwards. I couldn't really remember any of the game dungeon maps, so I wasn't really able to hazard a guess as to where we might come out. But I had to guess that our tunnel must connect to the room with the aer krene or else I wouldn't be feeling crappy. I mean, I didn't think it was possible to get aer sickness when the source was on the other side of a thick stone wall.

And, just as suddenly as it came, the aer sickness was gone! Uh what? Oh yes, Khroma deals with the rampant krene rather promptly. Bless her. Arguably, the aer sickness could have provided a rough sense of direction to follow. Much like my tattoo. But really, screw that!

It was probably only a few more minutes before we came to the end of our tunnel, its entrance apparent from the ambient glow indicating a greater source of light than the rare luminescent cattail. We both walked a bit faster in our eagerness, and at the last second I had to grab Karol to keep him from falling off the drop off. The tunnel opened into a wide cavern with a floor no less than six feet below our little hole in the wall. Fortunately, not so far down as to make it one's final step...

I helped Karol down as much as I could, gripping his hand in both of mine as he went backwards over the edge until he could jump down from a lower height. Myself, I just jumped. Meh, no different from jumping off the bleachers back in gym...wait, I'm thinking of the indoor bleachers. Outdoor ones were higher...

Still trying to figure out why I was jumping off bleachers in my memory, I bumped into Karol before I realized he had stopped walking.

"Hey! That's the guy that was at Keiv Moc!"

"Hm?" snapped back to the present I finally focused on where I was. The cavern floor was better described as a series of naturally formed walkways that dropped off to ominously murky depths. What looked like water was pooled beneath them, but closer inspection confirmed that it was, in fact, aer in a denser than normal form. And standing in the middle of a barely submerged walkway was Duke. He was pensively studying the aer at his feet and didn't seem to have noticed us yet.

Nooow, I wonder if it's better to just walk on by without saying anything, or to try talking to him... I opted to at least try for the walk by, and if he still didn't notice us then fine. Quietly, I placed a hand on Karol's shoulder and nudged him along.

Of course something had to go wrong. The warning signs had gone completely over my head in the surprise of seeing Duke. But the moment my foot touched the semi gaseous, semi liquid aer there was another surge of muted pain centered in my chest. I'd had worse, and it probably would have been exponentially harder to bear if I'd been there earlier, but the unexpected nature of the attack had me gasping and stumbling down to my knees. Which put my hands and knees into the aer and made matters even worse.

"Letha! Are you okay?"

Why yes, Karol, perfectly fine. I just had the sudden urge to study the rock and see if it could be igneous or metamorphic. Perhaps even some subcategory of sedimentary formed by aer currents. I was busy biting back any more pained noises and so fortunately didn't voice that sarcastically technical retort.

Black and red framed by long tendrils of white appeared at the edge of my vision. "I thought I told you... Stay away from the aer krene." His epic deep monotone carried overtones of annoyance, suffering patience, and a touch of bemusement at finding us in such an out of the way place.

"Oh, but it's just so pretty!" I did not just say that... And I'm certainly not looking up to see how he took that. "And as much as I'd love to take your 'advice'," said in a way that made it clear 'order' should have been in its place, "we really need to cross and regroup with our friends."

"Can you be certain you'll find them without the need to come back?" Now I dared to look up at him through the cover of my own dark hair. Mostly I could only make out his pale face and paler hair, glowing eerily in the light of the cattails. Cripes, the man looked supernatural. And feminine. He was damn lucky he had such an unmistakably masculine voice to balance out his extremely fine facial features.

"...Kogorh is ahead. If they haven't already gone this way they'll still try to get to the desert soon for other business. We'll meet up sooner or later." And no need to say that I knew it should be sooner. And never mind that we'd come back through the Weasand on the return trip to Nordopolica.

And whoops! A deceptively slender yet strong hand caught me around the arm and lifted me back onto my feet. Duke's arm was around my shoulders, somehow making even less physical contact than should be possible in that position, and was propelling me forward. The patter of feet behind us was Karol trying to keep up.

Crossing the aer submerged walkway didn't take long, and the moment my feet were clear Duke's arm vanished from around my shoulders. "Now leave." He was already halfway back across the krene by the time I turned around.

"Um, thank you!" I called out politely, still rather perplexed by what had just happened. Duke, of course, never even acknowledged me.

"What was that all about?" Karol wondered aloud.

"Beats me." Well, Duke being Duke wasn't any surprise. And at least I had a very rough idea of where we were so it shouldn't be long before we caught up to the others.

x x x

Voices were echoing down to us from up ahead. Most of what they were saying wasn't clear enough, but I was able to make some of it out by virtue of having prior knowledge. "I'll have to show you my really real power...!"

"What's so funny?" Karol seemed caught between concern and wariness (for my potential insanity I suppose) when I paused and doubled over yet again. This time clearly trying to hold in laughter.

"Oh, nothing, nothing..." 'Really real power'? Are you SERIOUS? I just can't hear that line without cracking up. Something about the way he says it. Maybe it was a bit of Yeager shining through the Regaey disguise. "It sounds like they're up ahead. Let's hurry!"

Sure enough, the tunnel we were in opened out into a another cave, this one with countless bats flitting around the stalagtites hanging from the ceiling. At all times there was a cloud of bats hovering in front of the only other way out of the room, as if intentionally trying to block escape from the Weasand. Ignoring the bats, as they weren't openly hostile as of yet, the Brave Vesperia group were facing off against Yeager. He must have just revealed his identity and it seemed the shock hadn't completely passed yet. Estelle was clutching that red box he'd stolen, so at least it had been reclaimed on schedule.

Karol took it all in with bewilderment, "What's Yeager doing here?" The others hadn't noticed our arrival yet. Well, Yeager might have, but he didn't immediately draw attention to us. Instead he was busy trying to shake a few skeletons out of Yuri's closet.

"-Oh me oh my, how terribly frightening. I don't know what I'd do if I were to end up like poor Ragou."

What felt like an electric shock seared through me. Yeager is awesome in the game and all, but personal experience had given me no solid reasons to empathize with him. On the contrary, I felt compelled to head off the mind games he was trying to play on my friends.

"What do you-" Estelle started to ask, but I rudely cut her off (sorry dear, but you're playing into his hands) to shout across the room.

"Hey YEAGER! I've got a bone to pick with you about one of your subordinates!" Heads whipped around to look at us so fast...

Yeager didn't look at all surprised, as if he'd been expecting Karol and me to show up soon. Or had seen us standing there all 'D'uhh' for a minute. Though it seemed he was ignoring the little ace at my side (who looked just as surprised at my outburst as the others).

"Ah, sehr gut meine fraulein," he purred, flicking that ostentatious lock of hair slightly. "For a moment I was afraid I would have to inform a certain friend of mine that meeting with you would be...impossible. Perhaps your enthusiastic friend was a bit overwhelming in his attentions, hmm?"

Again I thought of Jasper, no longer mis-affectionately named Birdman, and felt cold anger at Yeager for bringing him along when the ethnically confused bastard clearly knew about Jasper's vendetta against me. "Votre faire foutre!" I hissed at him. While Yeager and I, er, 'talked', Karol and I slowly walked forward to join the rest of the group, keeping our eyes locked on Yeager the whole while. Well, mine were locked on him, but I figured it was fifty fifty whether anyone else was watching him or me.

"Nein, I must decline," Aaarrgh at his smugness! "And, for some friendly advice, I wouldn't recommend you interrupt conversations that do not concern you. Such hastiness tends to lead to misunderstandings, ja?"

I flushed angrily, "Fermez la bouche ou je vais la fermer pour vous!"

He wasn't anywhere in my peripheral vision, but I could still tell when Yuri leaned in a bit towards the group (most likely towards Estelle or Rita) and muttered, "Hey, got any idea what she's even saying?"

"No," the princess whispered back, "But I think she talked like this once before."

"Yeah, I remember that too."

"Do any of you have my weapon?"

"What, didja lose it? Sorry, we've only got yer bags."

"Aww, I liked that one..."

Yeager smiled, a strangely indolent yet cunning expression. Hmm, I do believe the cliché phrase is 'cat got the canary'. Appropriate enough, if your cat was the head of an assassin guild of kitties and used a big ass scythe to catch that canary.

"Now, I really must be going. Always must be busy and on the go, you know?" That last bit was carelessly tossed to us over Yeager's shoulder as he approached the bat blocked exit of the cave. The bats went into a frenzy of flapping wings and high pitched screeches. Some practically flung themselves at Yeager, which he neatly avoided, though Estelle gasped and reached out a bit.

"Oh... Not that way!"

"Yeager!" the red and green haired twins (are they twins? I never remember for sure) leaped in from the side where'd they'd been concealed in the shadows behind some stalagmites. In near perfect synchronization they took fighting stances to menace us with their slender rapiers.

"Ta daah, the reinforcements have arrived!" the green haired one crowed. I dunno, they're always together so I never managed to remember which was Gauche and which was Droite.

"Gauche, Droite—the rest I leave up to you."

"As you wish," red hair acknowledged.

"Aye aye, sir," green hair giggled.

"See you in the funny papers, leibchen!" Yeager again ran for the exit, and this time when the bats swooped towards him they met instead the whirling blades of the fierce twins covering his retreat. And even while preoccupied with the bats, the girls maintained their position between us and their leader. But soon there were more pressing concerns for all of us (minus the now absent Yeager) to worry about.

As if enraged at his escape, the bats all clumped together into a great mass that began to exude a sort of darkness. Saying they were shrouded in smoke wasn't quite right, more like they just kinda blurred together as a large smear the eye couldn't register. Like spots in your vision. Though at the same time, still smoky... When I start contradiction my own descriptions, you know it's weird.

"That's him!" Karol realized with a start. "It's Pteropus!" There was a pulsing shock wave that flung Gauche and Droite back from the monster. Red hair hit a stalagmite, hard, and her sister slammed into her bare seconds afterwards. Neither looked to still be conscious after that.

Estelle rushed towards them immediately, catching the eye of Pteropus. It, um, gravitated (for lack of a better word) towards her, but jerked and stopped short. Behind it was Yuri, his katana buried deep in what should be its back. But its back became its front as it just turned around to face him, rotating with the katana still stuck in it and not moving. Unflappable Yuri seemed a mite disturbed by that.

Pteropus lifted one, um, arm-appendage to give Yuri a smack down with. And got an arrow in the face and a knife wielding dog in the stomach. Meanwhile, Judith and I had run around behind it like Yuri had. Judy leaped into the air to cut a wide arc through the back of its shoulders while I dug both of my daggers in where its lower back should be and wrenched them apart from each other.

Karol was standing by Estelle, Oberon in both hands and ready to protect her while she was healing the girls. Rita and Raven were also in that general area. So the four of them were the only ones that had time to drop to the ground and avoid a second shock wave.

I was thrown backwards, and managed to convert my momentum into backward rolls in order to regain control before I hit anything. As I came back up onto my knees I saw both Yuri and Judith recovering on their own, so no worries there. Instead, I had to worry about the fact that Pteropus was conspicuously absent, and instead there was a swarm of bats. A swarm that broke up into smaller swarms, one for each of us. And my own personal swarm was flying right at my face.

OH EFF, this is gonna be hella worse than any friggin' MOSQUITO.

x x x

Letha: Jasper?

Sylph: Yes, Jasper.

Letha: ...Duke?

Sylph: I don't know, what the hell, it got away from me and got all weird.

Yeah, this was hard to write mainly because of first Duke, who was uncooperative and simply refused to go along with any conversation attempts. Then Yeager was all, "Hmm, and why should I be cooperating with you, Sylph?"

*Sigh* I feel like I'm butchering Firefly. I highly recommend you all watch it, so you can properly appreciate it.

Pardonez mon Francais, Pardon my French. I seem to remember more of those classes than I thought. My German is rusty though. I apologize to native speakers if I'm mistaken and got something wrong for either language.

"Sehr gut meine fraulein,"- Where I most likely made mistakes if I made any. Though I doubt Yeager's German is perfect to begin with. Means "Very good my lady."

"Votre faire foutre!"- You can probably guess based on context. More or less means "Fuck you!" We finished class early, so our teacher decided to teach us some swears.

"Fermez la bouche ou je vais la fermer pour vous!"- Quite literally means "Shut your mouth or I'll shut it for you!" My brothers know this one...

Remember! Contest! Pretty much anything goes (T rating), and check my profile for that poll and the link to Letha's formspring! And don't be afraid to ask me any questions in an email.