Well, now I really get to have fun fucking things up. Ah ha haa...this chapter makes me feel really awesome and nervous at the same time. I like how it came out, although I spent forever worrying over what repercussions certain actions would have and if characters really would behave the way I needed them to. Now to see if it meets your approval!
A couple of new additions to my DeviantArt gallery that I want to point out, since they provide better visuals of Letha's current outfit, daggers, and her fairy mark.
sylphwriter. deviantart art/Upclose-Look- 373099536
sylphwriter. deviantart art/Spider-Silk-Gi-and-Notes- 373101116
And I didn't mention this last time since the author's note was long enough, but I went out and bought myself an Xbox 360 just for the purpose of playing Tales of Vesperia. :D I regret nothing! No, wait, I regret I don't have the same time for video games I had as a kid. And that if I decide to get into Xillia after all I'll have to buy a PS3 as well. (Not ruling that out.)
And, once more, I've another chapter in reserve but it won't go up before a week has passed, nor take longer than two weeks to go up. So, uh...*tries to remember what day it even is*...Friday! Next one won't be up before next Friday!
Angelic: I can't really blame anyone for forgetting, even temporarily. I suppose that's better than being constantly waiting and hoping for a new chapter, although my pride would like that better. But my pride can acknowledge that I've more growth to do anyway.
Now if Alastor never uses that crystal again, it's totally because he has a grudge against it and not because the writer forgets he has it, capiche? ;p
x x x
Chapter 61: Something Wicked Comes
x x x
After that strange maybe sighting of a fairy dog I walked around in a kind of daze, hardly giving any thought to what I bought nor to the route I followed to the edge of town. In the end I found my feet had brought me to the designated meeting on the west side of town, from where we'd strike out towards the Manor of the Wicked in the hopes of catching up to the Don before shit went down.
Alastor was sitting on the stone paved street, arms wrapped around his knees and cheek laid on top of them. He was gazing dolefully up the street into the city, waiting. He almost looked like a child sulking in a corner. Yuri stood nearby, not quite blocking the fairy's view but with his own back to the street. It was only by viewing the movement of Alastor's lips that I could tell they were talking to each other. About what I could only guess.
Whatever it was, apparently Alastor had said something that Yuri needed to think over, as neither of them was saying anything when I got closer. Repede had been lying on the road at a small distance from the two, and was the first to notice me as he got to his feet. Then Alastor gave a little nod as I stopped behind the swordsman. Who was still unaware. I slid a foot along the ground and bent at the knee, causing my body to lean over so I was looking upwards at him from a downward angle. His mind was definitely elsewhere, but he blinked and jerked back when I suddenly appeared.
"If I were a ninja, I could have stolen all of your materia by now," I informed him somberly. For some reason that set Alastor off into a stream of almost repressed laughter behind me. Weirdo.
There was an uncomfortable beat before Yuri shook his head at my antics. "Good thing I don't have any to lose," he played along. "I take it 'materia' is something I'd rather keep safe from sneak thieves?"
"Well if you had some, you would know if it was."
"Had what?" The curious voice was Estelle, who had Rita in tow.
Our irritable mage supplied her own answer. "Some better sense than to stick his nose into this guild nonsense."
"Oh, Rita," I sighed. "None of us have that!"
"Yeah, a ninja stole it," Yuri borrowed my joke. The banter felt more comfortably natural by this point. "They're good at that."
Estelle considered his statement and pronounced, "Well, I suppose we'll just have to do without it!"
I love these guys, I thought warmly as Rita spluttered objections to the smiling princess.
"All jesting aside," Alastor levered himself to his feet, brushing off his coat. "I presume you're all quite ready to be off?"
"Ready as we'll ever be," Yuri asserted. "Unless our guide's changed his mind. All set, Al?"
At the casual use of Chase's nickname for the fairy, Alastor's head lifted involuntarily. He stared at Yuri as if carefully weighing his own reply.
"Hey," Rita interrupted, alert, "You guys hear that?"
We all stood quiet and listened. Back in town there was something of a dull rumble, many voices coming together in an agitated manner.
"The rumour of trouble bestirs itself," Alastor intoned. "We should be off." Without wasting another moment he strode off out of town. The faltering humor from just a few minutes before had run dry as we followed his lead with hurried steps.
x x x
Don, Don't Get Hasty
Estelle: If the Don really did go meet with Yeager, what could the reason have been? And why would he go alone?
Yuri: It's not to deepen the ties of their friendship, that's for sure. It was probably because he didn't want his subordinates to get wrapped up in the mess.
Rita: Well, that's just one more example of how much the guilds love doing things the hard way. Upholding every rule. Settling every score. Is it all really that important?
Alastor: Do please keep up. It's a better choice to hurry to ask the man in question himself rather than to drag your feet in thought.
Rita: We got it already!
x x x
Following Alastor's lead was an unsettling experience. Admittedly, that was probably more than a little due to my antagonistic attitude towards the guy. At least I don't think Rita was any happier about it than me; she stared at his back with a piercing glare that trumped my own fairy targeting evil eye.
But what was really weird about it was his random little detours and changes of direction. The fairy man seemed confident of our location at all times, so I didn't think he was actually lost. The first time he suddenly veered away from the path the only explanation we got out of him was, "It will be longer in distance, yet shorter on time."
The third time this happened, Alastor actually tried to make us backtrack the way we'd come. Yuri was the first to challenge him. "We don't have the time to waste with these games. Are you really sure these 'shortcuts' are saving us time?"
The fairy glanced around and saw none of us would take another step if he didn't give better reason for us to. Irked, he raised a hand to rub his forehead as he sighed, a gust of wind ruffling his hair. "Well, it would have."
Repede's head came up sharply when the breeze drifted past and the dog began to growl. We were all familiar enough with that warning sound that we already had hands on our weapons before knowing what the danger was. But it wasn't long before crashing and snapping in the forest undergrowth, accompanied by snarls and a howl, reached our human ears as well. And soon after the racket announced them a pack of wolf like monsters on the heels of a fleeing giant praying mantis broke through some low hanging branches that had been blocking them from view.
With our wonderful luck, we were smack in the path of the escaping bug monster (Yuri and his curse!). Which began making this chittering and clicking sound and immediately tried to cut at the nearest person with its bladed forearms. Estelle blocked the first strike with her small shield and used her slim blade to parry the other to buy herself time.
The pack was infuriated by us interlopers horning in on their hunt, and with great barks more than half of them began to target us. Full battle set in.
It was nasty business; the bug and a handful of the wolves were already injured. The mantis lashed out with the panic of a cornered beast, desperate but dangerous in its final stand. I thought Estelle was holding her own against it well enough, and her sword would be better suited than my daggers with their shorter reach.
I made like Repede and started darting among the wolves, leaving gashes and yelps everywhere. My heart felt like it had jumped up into my throat and was hammering at the walls as I pulled my arms out of the reach of snapping jaws, the images of yellowing fangs standing out too vividly in my vision for my liking.
My hand began tingling at some point. I hardly noticed at first as the sensation was so faint and the adrenaline rush almost blocked it out. Then Alastor came into my field of view, skipping aside as a wolf lunged at him. Meanwhile another Alastor slipped between two other wolves that ended up biting each other instead of him.
Wait, what?
That wasn't all, there were more Alastors appearing all over the place. All of which were dancing around the monsters without actually attacking them, but taunting the beasts to the point of madness. There must've been nearly twelve of him once the wolves realized something was up and began backing away from us, hackles raised and growling, though some whimpered in confusion.
"What in the..." Yuri lowered his katana for a moment in amazement at the show.
And Rita was on the verge of pulling hair out. "How is he doing that?! He's not using aer at all!"
It was then Estelle got in a critical blow with some fancy sword work (Marche Waltz, I thought she declared), putting the mantis down for the count. She retreated from the bug, returning closer to where we'd begun to regroup, when Alastor's voice came from...somewhere that wasn't any of the smug copies of him. "Now if everyone would just stay put quietly for a moment, then we'll soon be naught but air to them."
All the extra fairies vanished. The wolves stopped their aggressive posturing and stood still, sniffing at the air and whining. They milled together as if reassuring themselves before first one and then more crossed to the dead mantis and began tearing at it with their teeth. A few nosed at the bodies of a pair of dead wolves, or licked at new wounds. None of them noticed us at all.
Cautiously we retreated, watching the feeding monsters for signs that they had remembered us until we were a safe distance away. Alastor reappeared, just one of him thankfully, and with an air of "I told you so" he took up the lead in another direction again. My hand had stopped tingling, although I still rubbed at it with suspicion. By that point there was more than enough evidence that it sensed more than just the heirloom pieces.
"You've been avoiding monsters this whole time?" Estelle asked, and it lifted the sense of lingering weirdness.
"Yes," the redhead confirmed, "I have no wish to needlessly take the life of every creature unlucky enough to try and eat us. Avoiding encounters also ensures we arrive at our destination as swiftly and with as few batterings as possible."
"How do you know where they are?" Yuri questioned, "Not even Repede's noticed anything when you stop us, except for that last time."
Alastor spread his hands. "How does a tree know that it must grow?"
Rita rebuked, "Trees don't know anything at all! They don't think!"
"On the contrary," the fairy countered. "They know precisely all that they need to. And think on all the things they have seen."
I gave him a dubious look. Either he's going guru on us, or he's taking some pages out of Verte's book. Then something preposterous occurred to me. Hey, he's not implying that he knows where monsters are because the trees tell him, is he? That would be one weird variant of "I heard it from the grapevine."
I opened my mouth to ask, but closed it again without a sound. I mean, he may be a fairy, but even that's too much to be expecting from Fae abilities, right? Right?
After that no one openly objected whenever he abruptly changed the direction he lead us in. Although Rita looked more like she was stalking after him, sharp eyes watching every move he made to catch any hint of magic working.
x x x
How very fortunate it was that the forest grew thick right up to the very fenceline of the Manor. One could creep right up and grab one of the black iron bars and still remain hidden, crouched in the bushes and weeds. As long as that person wasn't Alastor, who glowered distastefully at the fence and kept a good distance from it even as the rest of us pressed as close as we dared. It was getting dark, so our merry little band wasn't in much danger of discovery.
Peering through the bars we could scan the grounds and the building itself. From what I could see of it, it was a nice looking place, or I thought as much. Classic in appearance, impressive but not full blown pomp. I couldn't identify the architecture, but no surprise there. Houses were...someone else's interest. Who's? Couldn't remember for the life of me.
Two guards stood at attention at the double doors, challenging two smaller figures that had just arrived. More Red-eyes stood along the path running from the door to the gate, and hood covered heads could be glimpsed through the lighted windows at times.
I quirked an eyebrow to see that their customary jackets were yellow instead of the more familiar dark tones, blue and purple. Hmm, the cut of my gi kinda mimics their coat tails too... Hope I don't get mistaken for one of them in the heat of a fight. Be sweet if I could take advantage of it in a reverse fashion though. Still, I decided it would be prudent to pull my gi inside out to wear its dark interior on the outside for the time being. Not being seen in the first place was preferable.
"It's so heavily guarded..." Estelle voiced aloud.
"Shh," Yuri hushed her quickly, straining forward with one hand wrapped around one of the fence's iron bars to support his weight. "They're arguing about something."
And sure enough, the exasperated voice of one of the Gauche-Droite girls escalated in pitch and volume. "What part of 'let us in' are you having trouble with?" I winced. I couldn't place the voice to either of the girls, since the two of them were inseparable and I still hadn't figured out which one was which. This one hurt my ears more though.
"Like I said, your timing seems just a little too perfect," the guard answered unperturbed. Now his was a voice I liked. Kinda reminded me of a snake without being all hissy and sibilant. "Don't you have anything to prove who you say you are?"
"You know what?" the more level voiced and business like of the two girls replied, and the figure on the left raised her arm and thrust it out to the side. "Actually, we don't. Let us through. The Don is here. We don't have time to sit and chat."
"So the old man really is here," Yuri whispered, head turning to peer at the red head behind us. "Guess your bogus magic worked after all."
Alastor merely sniffed derisively at the thought that his magic could be questioned. But Rita grumbled, "Yeah, well, it would've been better if he could have caught us up to the Don before he got here."
"Didn't you go looking for proof that the Hunting Blades were after that dragon rider?" Snakey voice asked the girls.
"I told you, we received word that Master Yeager was meeting with the Don before we could arrive at Mount Temza." I frowned at the darkness. There was a very minute distinction there that concerned me.
The more emotional girl's voice chimed in, "We couldn't very well ignore news like that, could we?"
Yuri pulled back and then straightened, though still remained in a crouch. "The Hunting Blades are out to get Judy?"
"What are you waiting for!" I winced at the voice again. "You won't be any use to Yeager if we have to give you a beating."
The guard didn't seem impressed by the threatening promise. But in the end he let the girls into the manor. And sent a number of the guards in with them as an escort.
"Ah, serendipity smiles," I crooned. "Pretty sure we were all due some good luck by now."
Yuri was the first to stand up, swatting away some clinging branches. "Guess we'd better strike while the iron's hot." The rest of us stood as well, all except for Estelle.
Her pale face looked up to us from the dark. "Why do you think the Hunting Blades would be after Judith?" she asked.
Rita scratched at a cheek and suggested, "If they're looking for apatheia, maybe they want the dragon she was riding." She motioned with her hand, connecting the dots. "If he's an Entelexeia, he might become an apatheia like Belius." Realizing what she'd said, she falteringly finished, "...I mean...when he dies." The "Dragon Freak" hating mage slumped a little.
I closed my own eyes, troubled. "I...can't say I perfectly recall all the details of their motivation," I offered tentatively. "But any Entelexeia is a target that they'll go to any lengths to destroy. And apatheia shouldn't be allowed to fall into the hands of unconscientious people."
Yuri groaned a little. "I can tell we're really going to enjoy your cryptic word games."
"Sorry," I apologized, head falling a little. "I'll try not to make a habit of it..."
"But if they're as determined as you say they are, that really doesn't sound good for Judith," Estelle murmured.
The swordsman was realistic about the dilemma. "Judy might be in trouble, but we should help the Don out first. Especially with those two charming young ladies in there."
The princess looked over towards the manor. "The Don...but Judith..."
"If you want, you can go to Mount Temza yourself," he suggested to her. Estelle stared at him in bewilderment, either at the option to abandon our current mission or that he would imply she'd be going alone. Yuri only added, "We're practicing making decisions, remember?"
As the princess thought over the possibilities before her, Yuri turned away and started for the gate. He looked like nothing more than a particularly dark shadow moving in the night. "Let's go," he ordered the rest of us.
"I'm going too!" Estelle hurriedly hopped up from the ground before he'd even gotten far. If Yuri was a shadow, she was a pale ghost in her white dress.
"She'd be upset if I left the Don like this to go looking for her," the girl explained with conviction. "I can just hear her saying, 'My, what did you think you were doing?'"
Rita hesitated briefly before attempting her disinterested facade again, "...Don't worry about that lady. She's tough," the mage grudgingly acknowledged with a dismissive hand wave.
"All right, let's get the old Don out of this place," Yuri reiterated our purpose, then looked past us all into the shadows where we'd been hiding.
Surprisingly Alastor hadn't moved from his spot, but was facing the depths of the forest we had come from. And we would have missed that we'd lost him entirely if he hadn't spoken to himself. "...Gow?"
"You coming Al?" Yuri called back to him. "You never said anything about what you'd do once we got here."
The fairy shook his head slowly. "No, I didn't... But I think I shall. Something has been troubling me, and it would be wisest to stick together."
That was a somewhat ominous statement given his already demonstrated ability to tell when we were about to walk into trouble. Yuri at least gave him a deep stare before nodding and accepting him with a noncommittal, "Whatever works for you."
x x x
Judith in Trouble
Alastor: The concern you have for your absent friend is admirable, though ill-timed.
Yuri: Yeah, well, unfortunately the problem isn't just if she's okay. If that were all, I'm sure she could handle herself well enough until we catch up.
Rita: But when we find her, she better be ready to talk!
Yuri: I'd like to know how Leviathan's Claw managed to get information about the dragon rider and Hunting Blades in the first place. I'm sure there's something they're after.
Estelle: ...Judith.
Alastor: Certainly, certainly. All quite understandable considerations.
Rita: Grr, you know something and just don't wanna tell us, don't you?
Alastor: Perish the thought, my dear!
Quick Wardrobe Switch
Estelle: ...Huh? Wait, Letha, since when were you wearing that?
Letha: Hm? Wearing what?
Estelle: That black jacket!
Letha: I've been wearing it this whole time-
Rita: Please, don't think you can fool us. Only a blind man would miss that bright yellow eyesore you were wearing before.
Letha: *Cough* As I was saying, it's the same gi as that "yellow eyesore"; it's reversible. The interior is black. Did you think I planned to try sneaking around outside a mansion of assassins in that get up?
Rita: ...Oh. Nevermind.
x x x
Only a few of the guards had been left in their positions by the front door and the gate. The ones along the path had been called back for escort detail, rather needlessly since they were keeping watch over their own members after all. But our enemies over cautiousness worked to our advantage in this case.
Yuri and I shared a significant look. In our black ensembles we were the least visible, and on top of that were the most capable to take out the guards quickly to avoid alerting and bringing down the whole manor on our heads. With a nod he indicated which guard he'd handle, but a touch on my shoulder made us both pause.
"Here," Alastor whispered as he offered something to me. In his hand was a haphazard little pouch made of soft yarn woven together clumsily. There were many gaps between the strings, and I could feel dried leaves crunching inside. "Take care not to hold these sachets close to your face, or to breathe deeply if by chance you do," he warned even as he passed a similar little pouch to Yuri. "You would sleep most soundly through all the fun."
"Handy, though I could manage without," Yuri commented while tossing his in hand a little carelessly.
"Not without some risk of noise and discovery," Alastor returned drily.
I regarded the gift dubiously, trying to sort out some mixed feelings. Well yeah, I'd love any harmless solution that didn't risk us injuring or killing people. Not to mention I wasn't as confident as Yuri that I could knock someone out in one strike. But...this reeked of Verte's modus of operandi. "Who did you get these from?"
The redhead glanced at me sidelong. "...We freely seek boons of our own kin, and make sport of winning prizes from each other. Whether won by trial or by trickery is left to the taste of the individual." Implying, I suppose, that he did get it from a fairy like Verte, but "earned" it one way or another. That seemed pretty Fae-like to me.
So we (the ninja duo, hells yeah) split up to take care of the two out front. He circled around to come at the furthest one from the opposite side without being seen. Being nervous about acting too soon, I hesitated until I actually saw the dark shadow that was Yuri spring on the unsuspecting Red-eyes.
His companion didn't miss that something was happening nearby, but once I saw Yuri was acting I jumped into gear and all but leaped on my own target. My right arm latched around his upper arms to try and pin them down even as I smacked the sachet of herbs into his face.
Super conscious of every movement the guy made that could be an attempt to throw me off, I wasn't able to watch how the maneuver went for Yuri. In my case the Red-eyes mistakenly tried to pull my arm off before doing something about the sleep inducing mixture being held to his face, and that stuff worked fast. In less than a minute I was staggering back under his dead weight trying to lower him to the ground.
Looking up, I saw the yellow coat of the other guard disappearing into the forest undergrowth as Yuri dragged him away from the gate. I had a bit more of an ordeal doing the same, but it was a smarter move than just leaving the knocked out guards in plain sight.
"Is it really alright to leave them here?" Estelle glanced down at my victim while stepping past his feet. "They won't be able to protect themselves if any monsters come along."
Rita shrugged it off. "Before long it'll probably be safer out here than inside."
The remaining guard was alone by the front entrance, standing not directly in front of the doors but near the base of the stairs. Probably trying to keep his field of vision as open as possible to all angles. Yuri still had little trouble with him.
"Way's clear," I announced, bowing to the other girls with a sweep of an arm to present the doorway.
Rita slugged me in the shoulder when she walked past. "Stop playing around already."
Before either she or Estelle reached the door Yuri stopped them both with an upheld hand. After shooing us away he indicated for us to take positions safely out of direct line with the door, Alastor hung back at the bottom of the steps and looking elsewhere, and then swung it open himself.
Yuri boldly stepped right in as the rest of us tried to look past him to see what awaited inside (which made his attempts to keep us out of harm's way kinda pointless). Well, no one immediately tried to behead the reckless swordsman, so I didn't wait long to follow in his wake. Sure as I am that even if he looked unprepared, if someone had tried then Yuri could have stopped them and kept his neck. But better to be there to back him up anyway. Even as I did so Estelle was already gasping, "L-look..." and pointing out two people standing on a balcony.
"Whitehorse...and Yeager," I affirmed aloud for the three outside. The two men faced off above us at the second level of the mansion. The tall and slender built man in a dark blue suit against an even taller, big bodied and white haired man.
Down with us on the ground floor of the main hall a number of Red-eyes were already standing around, fingering their weapons but not making any move to ascend to attack the Don. Even the sister pair were standing by, arms folded as the greenish haired one pouted visibly. They all looked pretty shocked to see us come bursting in, every head swiveling towards us to stare (which is fucking creepy with the red lenses covering their eyes).
And we had the attention of the two higher up as well. Whitehorse had enough fury in his face to send a bear in retreat. Excuse me, an eggbear. "Just whaddya think yer doin' here, ya damn fools?!"
"Funny, we came here to ask you the same thing," Yuri countered cheekily. His sword was already unsheathed and he rested the blunt edge casually atop his left shoulder. "But we're here to save your old ass or drag it back where it's needed depending on the answer."
I choked, "Yuri!" Damn, I wouldn't expect him to be anything but irreverent to an authority figure, but that's still crossing a line! At least, on further thought, the Don would probably be the last person to care about Yuri's attitude. Probably laugh and maybe beat the crap out of him to make a point under better circumstances.
"Ah, what good timing!" Yeager crowed, sounding honestly pleased by our arrival. He flourished a hand in a gesture that both flipped his hair from his eyes and finished by gesturing down at us. "If you are not willing to trust my sources, perhaps you will be willing to listen to your own, ja? I am sure the news that brought them all the way to my humble home seeking you is precisely what I asked you here to discuss."
"Wut?" I could not believe my ears. The Don came because...Yeager asked him to? Leaving aside for the moment why Yeager would invite Whitehorse to his base (not for tea and cake, I was positive!) there was the question of WHY the Don would go alone and without telling anyone! Even if he actually decided to agree to a meeting, wouldn't the sensible thing be to have it on neutral ground and with at least a couple people at your back? Or at least aware of where you were in case the worst happened? That was rookie knowledge right there!
And as my mind babbled on about how illogical it all was, Whitehorse growled at either Yeager or us or both. Still, he asked us as Yeager prompted, "What's goin' on that the Union'd send a bunch of young ones to a place like this?"
"If you don't want another war on your hands," Yuri answered, "You should get back to Dahngrest right away."
Estelle reached into a discrete little bag she'd been carrying since I met with the group again. From it emerged a sight I hadn't expected but shouldn't have surprised me. A familiar large gem sat in her hand, glowing faintly from within as if it contained a life of its own. "This belonged to Belius... We thought it would be best to bring it to you."
The cyano ciel crystal winked up at him as Whitehorse came to the balcony rail and grasped the polished wood so hard it creaked. He knew what it meant all right. "Of all the... Why'd she have ta wind up like this...?" His head sank as he mourned the passing of an old friend. Outside in the forest, the howl of a wolf rose through the night poignantly, its pack soon joining it. Repede whined softly.
Suddenly I felt uneasy to realize the apatheia was being displayed in a room full of people I wouldn't exactly call trustworthy. The Red-eyes mooks didn't seem to understand the significance of the stone, although they still oggled it avariciously. Who wouldn't? It looked like a giant fucking jewel. But Yeager's eyes glinted and his trusted girls stared at it intently.
"You can feel sorry for her later!" Rita snapped out insensitively. "Right now there's even bigger problems, and your guild of hot heads aren't going to make it any better if you don't go back and do something about them!"
The great man didn't respond for a minute, but from below we could see his eyes open and firm with resolution. "So," he finally said, "That fool boy really got his neck in deep this time, huh. And now he's gonna see how heavy leadership really is."
"You knew?" Yuri questioned.
"My sources are rarely mistaken," Yeager answered instead, and pretty smugly at that.
"'Sources,' right," the swordsman scoffed in return. "You've got some nerve you know."
A cold sense of panic had seized around my heart like a fist, part of my mind still whirling as it tried to grasp at possibilities.. But the guild boss didn't so much as glance in my direction. Of course, he's got more class than that. Class and professionalism.
Whitehorse released the railing and turned on Yeager. "If that's the case, then I know what I've gotta do. An' I'll make sure I take care of ya first!" A scrape of metal accompanied his own great two handed sword (which he held in one hand, of course) leaving its own scabbard.
This of course was echoed in kind by all the Red-eyes immediately raising their own weapons, their customary knives and crossbows predominantly, and my own friends falling into their own stances. Yeager didn't appear ruffled in the slightest to have a giant of a man menacing him with sharp steel. Estelle returned the apatheia to its place before reluctantly pulling her own slender blade and shield.
I grimaced to myself. Different, and yet the same old thing again! This was a frustrating pattern to see emerging.
Huh... Did I hear something outside?
"Inside!" Alastor suddenly barked, shoving Rita and Estelle from behind to move them fully inside the manor and finally leaving the doorstep himself. He wasted no time in slamming the doors shut.
"What the hell-?" before I could even finish the door shuddered as something heavy slammed against it from the outside.
"Gow-ROOOW!" a deep and throaty growl rumbled through the wood. It was enough to thrum inside my own chest like the percussion of a massive drum.
"The hell is that?" I asked again in a shaking voice.
Another wolf howl split the air, this time sounding from the manor grounds. My knees went weak in sudden comprehension. Not a wolf, but either one of the fairy dogs or a Cù Sìth again. Or some other breed of Fae hound, I didn't know, but that really wasn't a detail I cared about at the moment.
"A Gowrow," Alastor explained as another rolling "Gooow!" accompanied the monster outside throwing itself at the door again. Two of the Red-eyes rushed forward, dropping knives and crossbow to the floor on the way, in order to brace the door with him while one bolted the door. "A subspecies of dragon native to North America, where it was dismissed by the human population as a hoax targeting credulous tourists."
This thing's from Earth? I have never heard about it before!
"There's a dragon outside?!" Rita shouted in disbelief.
"Ain't none supposed to be livin' in th'area," Whitehorse objected, for the time being setting aside his new goal of killing Yeager.
"Gooooow!" Glass shattered. A scaled claw had thrust itself through a window in a corridor branching off from the main hall. And, by the way, those windows were up on the second floor, so the thing was big enough to reach that high.
"Correction," Alastor muttered, door shuddering at his back as the monster switched tactics and had begun digging and scraping at the wood with its own claws. "There are dragons outside. Soon to be inside."
Another "Gow-rooow!" echoed from the other side of the house. There were at least three of them, all looking for different ways in.
"Gauche! Droite!" Yeager commanded.
"Yes sir!" they both clipped out and practically flew up the stairs to the landing. They lost no time in lunging at the offending claw with swords extended. Both edges struck home and bit through the scales. The dragon roared in pain and jerked its claw back out.
"What are you lumps standin' about for?" Whitehorse bellowed at us all on the ground floor-us as well as the Red-eyes who had yet to move. "Some of you go see ta the one 'round back!"
When they hesitated Yeager reinforced the order with his own, "And while you are doing that, be sure you inform the others who they should be more concerned about. The monsters and not the guests, ja?"
I had shaken off my own stupor and was leaping the stairs two at a time to join the girls at the window, swerving around the two guild heads on the way. They needed reinforcements and I wanted a look at whatever this gowrow thing was. When I got there I was momentarily stunned to see a reptilian eye glaring in through the gaping window. Even with the girls attacking it the dragon had torn brick and mortar from the casing. The space had almost widened enough for it to stick its triangular head in, tusks and all.
Tusks and all. It was like a dinosaur had mated with a boar and produced this thing.
For the time being it looked like the girls had the situation under control, stabbing and slashing at the face and eyes whenever the head came within reach. And the gowrow couldn't maneuver well when sticking either claw or head inside, so it still hadn't scored a hit on the pair.
Still, unless either Gauche or Droite managed to stick a sword deep enough to stab the brain, they were just delaying the thing from ripping a hole in the wall large enough for it to climb inside.
I reconsidered how much help I'd be since it was more likely I'd just get in their way. They were familiar with each other and knew how to work together, but in the limited space I'd be worse than a third wheel. Well, I'll just have to get out of their way again. "Leap before you look."
"You two!" I yelled. "Keep its head still for me!"
"Don't you tell us what to do!" the green haired girl shot back, but she and her red haired counterpart both stabbed down at the dragon's head in synchronized strikes. They didn't pierce through, but the force snapped the head down to the floor and for the moment it was pinned.
I leaped up and planted a foot right above its yellow eyes, running out the window along its sinewy neck.
A dragon's neck and back do not make the ideal ramp to descend from a second story window. As a point of fact, the thing was large but it took all its height to reach that window, with one claw braced against the building while the other pawed and tore at the frame and people inside. So going down its back was actually a near vertical slope with ridges of horns growing along the spine. If it weren't for those horns serving as impromptu foot holds I definitely would've fallen straight off.
Grabbing one horn near the base of the skull in one hand, I pulled out the orange bladed Simurgh and charged it with aer for good measure. With my old standby Pierce I stabbed the dagger into the neck and dragged it down. Scales cracked and broke, some falling away, as blood poured out of the wound. The gowrow shrieked in pain, I could feel the vibration conveyed through where my knees and hand held on, and it thrashed wildly to throw me off.
Holding on was all I could manage, but saw that was impossible when the ground suddenly began rushing up anyway. Clumsily I let go and tried to fling myself away before the monster could roll over and squish me between its body and the ground. Not knowing how close it was I desperately tried to keep rolling over to put more distance between us before finally getting back up onto my feet.
For a split second I saw something thin and sharp swinging at me and then I was instinctively throwing myself backwards yet again to avoid it. It whistled past my nose by just a few hairs. The dragon's tail was long and flexible, with a flattened tip that gleamed almost metallically in the light from the manor's windows. Even as it saw the first swing had missed the beast was hissing and snapping the appendage back at me.
I side stepped as the tail cracked into the ground where I'd just been standing, sprayed by dirt knocked up by the impact. A slice was cut into the earth where the flattened end of the tail struck, looking more like a sword had been dragged through it.
Playing jump rope with this thing won't get me anywhere. The monster apparently had similar feelings as it roared and bounded towards me.
Dodging to the side out of its path wasn't enough. A claw lashed up trying to intercept and sideswipe me. Somewhere in a randomly calm spot of my mind the thought registered, Well, you fucked that up. The most I had time and presence of mind to do was raise one arm up in a feeble attempt to guard and with the other hand brace the Phoenix blade point towards the oncoming claw.
The impact rattled me to the bones and flung me to the side like a rag doll. My dagger wrenched about in my hand and I almost lost it, so that paired with the roaring, "Gooow!" indicated the dragon had simultaneously stabbed itself on the red blade.
But that was background data incidental to my immediate problem of rolling through dirt and grass and thinking I'd push myself back up if I could just remember which way "up" was first. I did manage to work myself up onto all fours and finally up onto my two feet.
Where was the gowrow while I was collecting myself? I shook my head and looked around desperately to find it before it got me first.
The beastie had its attention drawn away from me, courtesy of two red and green haired girls from the devastated windowsill raining attacks down on it from above. With the greater distance presented to them, Gauche and Droite were demonstrating the long range abilities inherent to their weapons; firing off small balls of red and green aer charged light from their swords as if they were bullets.
Each left a small circular pock mark on the gowrow's scales, blood seeping through the splintering pieces where the little craters overlapped. It thrashed around on the ground while yowling its strange cry up at them, but their attacks weren't enough to deter it from getting closer to retaliate. It lurched back up on its hind feet to attack at the window with teeth and claws once again.
"Oh no," I growled. "I didn't come out here just to get a better view of your backside!"
At that moment I heard something else growling from behind me. Oh... A cold stone of anxiety dropped and landed somewhere in my gut. Come to think of it...there was howling out here not long ago. Reeling about I did indeed find a small pack of white dogs ghosting towards me through the night. With hardly any light but from the moon and stars to see them their red ears looked more like they were black.
But I knew them. There were about four approaching slowly in a rough V formation. Those were the ones I could see at any rate, but the bigger, darker Cù Sìth would be virtually invisible in the dark.
We stared each other down for a moment. And then I ran.
I didn't have to look to know the fairy dogs were chasing me, drawing closer on my heels. Even normal domesticated dogs still had the hunter's instinct to chase fleeing "prey," of course an active hunting pack would do the same! But I didn't have far to go before I reached my goal.
Skipping over the frantically thrashing tail of the gowrow (who'd pretty much forgotten I was out there with it) I took a mad jump and almost threw myself on the thing's back again. I stashed away Phoenix once more in time to grab hold of one of the lower horns running down the monster's spine before it figured out the puny human thing from before was clinging on again.
It roared angrily and resumed the crazy rodeo we'd been having before. "Yeah," I grunted as it bucked and I worked to compensate by redistributing my weight. "Just crack that whip again!" For good measure I gave it a little jab with Simurgh.
In its blind determination to throw me off before I could start slashing it up again, the gowrow was stamping around wildly and smashing fairy dogs every which way with its tail. Nearly all of them even got cut by the blade-like end of the tail at least once, blood dripping through their white fur. All I had to do was hold on for dear life and hope it didn't decide to do another roll to scrape me off again.
Although a new complication presented itself when the dragon twisted its head and neck around to try and chomp me in half or at least gut me with a tusk. If it had a slightly longer neck or greater flexibility I would be a chew toy already! Warily I readied Simurgh with the idea of using it to stab at the snout if it manage to get too close. I hope these bastards don't have fire breath.
"Hey, idiot, look out!"
My concentration split for a second and I looked away to see what the warning was for. A second mouth of fangs and curving tusks was surging towards me. Oh frick! Desperately I tried to think if any of the attacks I knew could stop the monster before it was too late.
"-and deliver my enemies unto me! Tractor Beam!" The teeth snapped shut on air as the gowrow was unexpectedly jolted into the air. I gaped to see the giant lizard squirming as it rose a good ten feet off the ground, two dogs yelping in the air alongside it. After a moment gravity returned to them, but with much greater force than normal judging by how they all slammed against the ground hard enough that I could feel the tremors from atop my mount.
A "steed" which had had quite enough of my presence. Its shoulder dipped as it prepared to roll again. I compliantly leaped from its back before it could crush me, tumbling through a few rolls to soften my impact.
Rolling back up, I spared a moment to try and take stock of the situation.
There was a splintering hole in the front doorway. The first gowrow had nearly broken through completely but abandoned the effort before breaking fully in. To try and snatch me off its friend's back, or at least that was the only reason I could think of.
The door had been propped open after the dragon left off to release three of my friends to the battlefield; Yuri and Repede wasting no time in descending upon the gowrow struggling back to its feet (the dogs were down for the count, I think that collision with the ground broke their legs) while Estelle was rushing in my direction. Rita hung back but had obviously been the first to send in her support.
"Are you alright?" the princess asked as she reached me, taking a position to cover my back with her shield and blade ready. My former steed and two of the dogs had banded together. We couldn't drop our guard for the moment it would take her to assess and magically heal injuries before they'd be on us.
"I'm fine," I decided the tossing around I'd been suffering hadn't seriously debilitated me. Only the arm that had taken the brunt of that one swipe earlier really felt like it needed attention, but it was straight and unbroken (hallelujah!) so it could wait.
"You're getting as reckless as Yuri," the other girl remarked pretty lightly considering the situation.
I snorted, slipping the Phoenix blade back out again. "I'll take it as a kindness that you call it 'recklessness' and not 'sloppy.' Can't say I disagree with Rita's opinion of me either."
"Heh heh," Estelle giggled, although it sounded a bit anxious. The dogs had begun circling just outside our reach. "I guess you keep scaring her. She doesn't want you to get hurt, not really."
"Right, not before she gets to beat me up herself. Maybe strap me to a lab table too." The conversation had to end there. The dragon reared up and then brought its full weight crashing down on the ground, shaking the ground beneath our feet so that we stumbled trying to keep our balance.
Both fairy dogs seized the opportunity to leap forward at us, although they came around from different angles. I tried to recover from the loss of my footing by throwing my weight into a spin on one pivoting foot, lashing my daggers out in my corkscrew version of that "Phantom Blade" spin attack. Since I hadn't executed it quite right I couldn't maintain the spin long without getting dizzy, so I cut it off early. The dogs were cringing back with new slashes across their faces and chests, one shaking its head as blood ran into its eyes.
With the dogs beaten back for the moment, I took the chance to glance behind me to where Estelle and the dragon had gotten. Her shield was serving the princess well against teeth and claws, deflecting them harmlessly as long as she didn't take the full brunt of the force behind them, and her sword was flashing prettily in the moonlight. I could almost make out her reciting the names under her breath as she concentrated on her moves. "Delight roll...Ray Sting!"
Satisfied that she had her fight well in hand, I returned my concern to the fairy dogs.
With a deep breath I focused on pulling in aer; threads of water and wind were abounding so I wove both together. "Sting them! Ice Needles!" I flung a hand out while directing the sharp pieces of aer constructed ice at the dogs. Few of them hit as the canines read through the trajectory of the attack in time to avoid it. I sighed, thinking again how I wished I knew Freeze Lancer or some other big magical attacks.
Well, next up, I concentrated solely on gathering water aer. Splash was harder to avoid and easy to cast, but took a lot of aer to get that much volume. Simple for the experienced mage Rita, less so for the greenhorn me. I spread both arms while visualizing all the aer pooling between them.
The dogs saw that whatever I was doing was taking time to prepare, and they leaped together as one again. Trying to ignore the feeling that I sounded silly chanting the longer, more grandiose incantation, I repeated the words Rita had taught me to help manipulate the weaving of the formula. "Grant them thy undefiled purity, Splash!"
One dog was thoroughly drenched by water, the other hardly, uh, splashed as it lunged for my outstretched arms. I pulled them in close and danced back a step before impulsively snapping up a foot to kick hard against the canine's breastbone. It got shoved back, and then I was the one jumping forward to attack. The orange blade of Simurgh cut across the kicked dog's chest and up its neck, and then my momentum took me past it to the sopping wet dog.
"Frost!" I summoned more of the wind element to combine with the water drenching the dog and soon it was covered in visible white crystals with its breath gasping painfully. Speaking of which, I could hear the other dog was making some wet and gurgling noises as it panted.
Unlike the first time I was swarmed by a fairy dog pack, I had come out almost unhurt and victorious. But the dogs...I was hit by a sudden remorse for what I'd done. Of all the "monsters" on Terca Lumireis, they seemed so close to what was familiar to me, what spoke of home. Where I would never dream of hurting any animal, not even a dog trying to bite me.
Suddenly feeling as if leaden weight had been tied to my limbs, I heaved a sigh and looked away from the heavily wounded dogs to check on Estelle again.
I was just in time to see a particularly showy attack. Her blade efficiently jabbed at the gowrow leaving round puncture wounds, each glowing slightly as a kernel of light element aer was left behind. "O evil soul, fall before this pure light..." Seven times, and a familiar pattern I recognized from the night skies of Earth was left glowing on the wounded dragon. "Grand Chariot!" Then nearly in unison the little lights all exploded from inside the dragon, devastating it and leaving it open for a strong final stroke of the princess' sword.
"Estelle, you holding up okay?" I asked. Looking at either of us, it would be hard to say if the blood on our clothes and her gloves belonged to us or the monsters.
She nodded, pink hair swaying. "Yes, I think so. I didn't expect there to be more monsters out here besides the 'gowrows' Alastor warned us about." She looked closer at the frozen dog. "But...this looks more like the pet dogs I've seen in the capitol and towns... What are they doing with a monster like this?"
Closing my eyes, all I could say was, "Yeah, they do..." There were all sorts of different types of Fae dogs in the myths and legends of various cultures. This particular strain with the red ears was, best as I recalled ever hearing, essentially to the Fae folk what hunting dogs were to humans back in the day. Hounds bred and trained to hunt for sport. Other than the magical aspect...they probably weren't any different than any hound loyal to his beloved master.
Estelle gasped, "The others!" and we both returned to the moment, remembering that the fight wasn't over yet.
The other gowrow had moved farther away from both us and the manor doorway in its battle with Yuri and Repede. The grounds were torn up with rocks jutting up or lying strewn about; evidence of Rita going all out with some Earth element spells. Wisps of smoke rising from smoldering patches of grass were in evidence too. The dragon itself was lying on its side in an outer ring of the destruction, blood crusting around large puncture wounds in the stomach and cuts along its sides. Its scales were blackened as with soot, but it didn't appear the fire had done much in the way of effective damage.
But the fate of the other two dogs was a surprise and mystery. Back where the impact from the Tractor Beam had broken them against the ground there were signs that they'd tried to drag themselves along for a few feet, but then all further trace of them had vanished. I remembered the dog I had tried to "save" from Cumore had dissolved into smoke... But none of the others I had fought with since then did the same. And those injuries shouldn't have been fatal anyway, unless one of the others finished them off in a mercy blow. But there wasn't enough blood for it. And Repede stood on the spot, sniffing at the ground and growling in a way that sounded puzzled.
I had to shake my head at all the worry I was putting myself through over it. Fae do mysterious and unexplainable things. It's part of their nature. Sure, it's more likely than not that ignoring something like this could come bite me in the ass, but there's nothing I can do about it now.
Yuri was walking away from the gowrow corpse, a swing of his katana through the air flinging some of the blood from the blade. "You two okay?" he asked us. We both responded affirmatively.
The night hadn't fallen quiet yet. From inside the manor we could still hear "Gows" and "Rows" ringing out as people shouted and who knows what crashed all over the place. We didn't really have the luxury to take any longer of a breather, so all of us ran back towards the main entrance.
"You guys!" Rita called from the hole in the doors. Unlike us she hadn't gotten a break, immediately concentrating all her energy inside the building. She sounded panicked. "The two in here-they're way bigger! The Don-!"
Not needing to hear anymore, Yuri was the first to shove the door open wider and dive right in. I meant to follow...but froze up when I saw.
How the hell a dragon half again the size of the ones we'd fought managed to get through the hallways, well, it must've left one hell of a path of destruction in its wake. But there were two, one marginally larger than the other, and the largest had made it to the front hallway where there was enough room for it to move and strike out with all its wrath.
Small tables and vases were overturned and smashed, considerately provided seats and couches broken into kindling. The stairs to the upper landing had been smashed down the center by something heavy, up to a point where there was just a big hole broken straight through the steps. And the walls were gashed all about, most likely from the tail-blade and stray attacks.
The smaller of the two was still in the mouth of the hallway, lying in a spreading pool of blood but still snapping its jaws viciously.
A handful of Red-eyes, and not just yellow jacketed ones, were positioned around the room. Some lay prone on the floor or propped against a wall, but probably only one or two were unconscious. The others were either heavily wounded or...if not dead yet then close to their last breaths. The ones who weren't down were split between fending off the dragons.
Mingled among the fallen men was three more dogs...and these ones were giving off smoke from a number of their wounds. (Arrrgh! Stop seeming arbitrary!)
Alastor was perched on the balcony railing with all the grace of a cat, bow drawn and red arrow taking a bead on the dragon on the floor below. There were already several red shafts sticking out from the gowrow's shoulders, feet, and one in an eye. Some of them had been snapped off with the arrowheads left in the wounds.
Gauche and Droite had also turned to the battle inside, leaving the monsters outside to me and the others in favor of using their own bodies as shields to protect Yeager if necessary. The girls were tattered but whole, and by the large scythe dripping blood Yeager was pulling back from the smaller dragon in the hall it was apparent he hadn't been content to stand by and watch while they risked their lives.
But what was really horrifying was Whitehorse.
"His-his arm!" I gasped in shock. The Don's left arm was gone. My eyes fixed on the absence, unable to look away once I picked out that one detail in the entire room of chaos. And still he was fighting tirelessly with the gowrow, his one arm and sword holding back the head that was straining forward trying to snap up more of him. Its tusks were stained with blood...
It took a jolt from behind to snap me out of it.
"Sorry!" Estelle apologized as she forced her way past me. I'd been blocking the door without realizing. Without hesitation she ran to the cluster of injured Red-eyes before stopping and raising her hands in front of her. "O brilliant angels, grant us your favor..." A diagram of glowing light spread from her feet across the floor. It rose up and surrounded her with the spell's formula as she finished, "Nurse!"
The aer morphed into vaguely woman shaped...things, that floated through the room and to every injured person. All the Red-eyes relaxed, tension easing from their bodies, and a few started trying to stand again. One "nurse" materialized in front of me (for all the notice I had failed to give its approach) and gently touched my arm, the aches seeming to lift away.
One "nurse" went to Whitehorse, circling around him uncertainly. One of his sides was covered in blood from a large circular hole in his gut, which she closed with a touch. But other than stemming the flow of blood from his missing arm, she could do nothing. There was no ability in her skills to regrow limbs. She dissipated back into air (or aer, either way) leaving him permanently crippled.
Yuri lunged in and thrust an aer charged palm at the base of the gowrow's neck. "Raging Blast!" The small explosion radiating from his fist threw the dragon back. Not far, but it freed the Don from his stalemate. And our black haired swordsman followed the monster's involuntary retreat with slashing strokes of his sword from left to right and back, followed by the blade tracing circles through air and monster flesh alike as he spun it.
Yeager's scythe sang as it likewise twirled in his hands and swooped in to scoop out another gash across the dragon's flank, opposite the side Yuri was attacking on.
"Estelle!" Rita shrieked, almost dropping a handful of orange gels she'd been about to use. My head snapped the other in time to see one of the fairy dogs lunging blindly for the princess' back, jaws agape. Repede was rolling across the floor with one of the other dogs, trying to bring his own dagger into play against it.
Finally my feet started to move again. I dreaded being too late.
Just as the pink haired girl started to turn and see the canine about to assault her a dark purple form with red eyes glowing inside the hood interposed himself between them, catching the dog on his matched three bladed knives. Its weight sank onto the blades and staggered him before he shoved the dog off in another direction.
"What?" Estelle squeaked in surprise at having one of the assassins come to her defense.
I reached her side and stood on guard with my daggers, watching the other dogs. The third one was still down, but there was no guarantee it wasn't playing dead too. "Looks like you're the most effective healer, so keeping you well enough to heal just became high priority for them," I informed her curtly.
"Don't think too deeply on it," the Red-eyes hissed at us, "We won't lose any sleep if your friends die here. Except you!" he directed the last at me, and I was honestly surprised by the hate that entered his voice. "It'll be a good day if I get to see you die painfully!"
Well, that was a little out of the blue, but not my primary concern. "Maybe today will be your lucky day," I said impassively. "We kinda need to kill something else now though."
The fairy dog had rolled up onto its feet, smearing blood across the floor in the process. And more blood continued to drip down to the floor under it as smoke curled up and away. The Red-eyes and I both raised our respective pair of knives in guard stances.
Hey, waita-"Mine aren't metal..." I murmured, brow furrowed as I looked from the tri-bladed knives to my strange flower-created (probably?) daggers. And I glanced upward at Alastor, who as a fairy had been very vocal about his dislike for iron. "Well, shit, took me long enough to figure that deal out." But I never expected cold iron would make them dissolve into smoke.
Nope, nope, no time to dwell on the matter, just memo to self; buy a proper steel weapon again.
The dog had fallen back down to the floor, still trying to pull itself back up, but unexpectedly the massive tail from the giant gowrow swung around and slapped us all away. It caught the Red-eyes and me at roughly chest level, propelling us back into a wall. And, unfortunately, we took Estelle along for the ride. The poor girl hit the wall before we did and then got crushed into it further by two full grown adults.
"Estelle! Letha!" Yuri shouted.
"What in hell do you think you're doing?!" the Red-eyes wheezed back at him. I knew how he felt; at the very least my ribs had probably cracked. Shallow breaths were all I could manage without my chest constricting in pain.
Painfully I rolled over and crawled the short distance to the princess. "Est-elle...!" I gritted out. She didn't respond, laying on the floor senselessly. "C'mon, wake up..." I grabbed her shoulder with one hand and tried shaking her. Wincing at a sharp pain that caused in my ribs and back, I let her go long enough to dig a gel-any gel-out of the little pockets hidden in the seams of the gi sleeves and popped it into my mouth.
There was a great shout from behind me. I rolled over and saw it was the Don. Even with only one arm he was still giving the battle his all. Before my astounded eyes his sword scraped against the ground up into the air in a diagonal slash, burning a trail of fire into the air as it sliced through it, and then brought the flaming blade back down on the neck of the gowrow.
Panting, the old bear of a man sank down to one knee. The gowrow crashed to the floor, neck half severed and cauterized. Holy shit, I stared in awe. If that's what he can do one handed and heavily injured, no wonder all of Dahngrest has him on such a high pedestal.
The other dragon made a plaintive sound at the fall of its comrade. But it was weak, and with another crash its own head fell to the floor as its strength gave out. Gauche and Droite's swords were withdrawn from its neck.
"Hey, old man!" Yuri was the first to shake off the stunning effect of the sight and rushed to Whitehorse's side. "Don't go kicking the bucket before we get you back to Dahngrest!"
The white haired guild veteran hacked out a mockery of a laugh. "Is that what ya should be sayin' to an old man who just took out a dragon for ya? Show some respect!" His laughter turned to coughing, and drops of blood appeared on his white beard.
"Come on, like some overgrown lizard could stand a chance against you." But Yuri's cajoling tone was belied by the growing alarm that could be seen in his face. He looked to me-to where I was pulling Estelle upright. I shook my head as she was still unconscious. My eyes widened as I saw fresh blood spreading across the white of the Don's shirt. Oh God, he reopened the wound. And he must have already lost so much blood-it's a miracle that he's even conscious-
Yeager was kneeling beside Whitehorse and Yuri, having procured a cord, short rod, and bandage from somewhere (it was his house...) and was tying off a crude tourniquet on the stump of the Don's arm. His typical carefree demeanor was grim. Whitehorse grumbled something at the other guild boss.
A ghost of the usual smirk returned. "Consider it a momentary lapse of sentimental nature. I promise I shall get over it soon."
"Al?" Yuri implored the fairy on the upper level. Alastor was in the middle of shoving the longbow he'd been using inside a pocket of his coat (an impossibility that frankly didn't mean shit to me at the time). But even as he did so he stepped out into the air and dropped down to the ground floor, wings flaring out of nothingness to slow his fall. Scattered swears came from the conscious Red-eyes while Gauche and Droite jumped to place themselves between the winged man and their master Yeager.
Alastor gave no heed to the girls keeping protective guard over their boss. He was shaking his head as he alighted on the floor. "I have never known any personal talent for the healing arts. And even if that were not the case, I do not believe they would be of any use here." The redhead looked clinically on the Don. There was no pity in his eyes for the damaged human. The Don probably wouldn't stand for any of that anyway. "The best I may offer is to transport him back to his city with all swiftness. Perhaps there will be a doctor at hand there who may be of sufficient skill."
"Ha!" the Don forced himself back up to his feet to face the fairy. "Can ya now? That's a handy trick, I bet I coulda used someone like you in the guild."
"My sincere apologies," Alastor responded, unflappable. "But I believe that would conflict with the wishes of my current superior. She likes to have me on hand to look after her pets." He smoothly positioned himself under Whitehorse's remaining arm to provide support, stoically withstanding the proximity of the sword the old warrior still stubbornly held. He lifted one hand and with his fingers made a crisp snap-
And they were both gone.
x x x
I sliiightly adjusted Estelle's Grand Chariot attack from how I observed it in the videos I use for reference. I just, thought it kind of made sense? What with some of her other attacks (Pierce Cluster), and with the way I've been presenting the usage of aer. I just thought it seemed a little odd to just see the glowing lights of the big dipper just appear and explode like that, I felt like it needed some more deliberate set up... Well, if the move gets used enough I would probably expect it to become "automatic" and become more like the game version anyway. Sort of like reduced casting time with spells you're so familiar with you no longer need to use the incantation for. Or just shorten it to "Blah blah blah."
And Yeager makes that little sense. I swear, I'm never entirely confident I have a good grasp on him, and so he does stuff that I think I can understand but not quite.
*Fidgets and coughs*
"Inside!" Alastor suddenly barked, shoving Rita and Estelle from behind to move them fully inside the manor and finally leaving the doorstep himself. He wasted no time in slamming the doors shut.
"What the hell-?" before I could even finish the door shuddered as something heavy slammed against it from the outside.
He looked around to us in exasperation. "They have a cave troll!"
I...I just kept thinking of the Fellowship of the Ring and...Alastor went along with it!