+{~RT~}+

Wha? I received reviews? I didn't even know…I got not alerts! Well…I'll have to fix this then, won't I? Lucky I never deleted this…

+{-~LSRA~-}+

Chapter Three: A Penny Saved.

+{-~LSRA~-}+

"Dodge!"

"Gah! Freakin...FLAPJACKS!"

Jumping back from a speeding arrow, Calliou barely had time to duck under a stream of flaming ones that had been sent his way. He watched them fly down the path and slam into some dirt walls. His hands charged with magic, he spun around to meet empty air.

"Elves...to damn fast for their own-WHERE ARE YOU NOW DAMNIT?.!"

"Here!"

"Huh...WHA?.!"

Calliou found himself dancing to avoid a hail of golden rain, and he still couldn't see where Tielle had disappeared too. He perked his ears at a small snicker and smiled. There. Right behind that...

"Tree!"

An explosive force flew from his body on all sides, blasting through the enchanted wood and cuffing the hidden elf in the midriff, making her fly. Smiling, the mage aimed and sent a hail of shots at her airborne form. Pummeled, she fell into some bushes, and Calliou charged up for another shot, calling out:

"Oi! I've got you now, so stand up and take your beating already!"

Groggy, Tielle got up to a crouch in the bushes, trying to guess where the mage was without losing her cover. Got her, did he? She'd see about that one!

Moving as quietly and smoothly as she could, she circled in the bushes until she could get a good look at her target. Calliou had a tense, spindly neck, and arrow there would make him gag, teach him sense. Not in the front, that's too delicate, the back. She rose her bow just above the line of bushes, curling her tongue to the side of her mouth as she aimed.

Just enough to knock him over, not too much...there. Go!

Calliou looked about; the silence was driving him up the wall. Heck; if he had actually hurt the elf seriously, he'd lose his ears to Recette and her nagging, and his relationship with the counter jockey was already strained...so much so that it was reflected with his gold purse.

Now, to be fair, the girl was a good jockey, and gave fair enough prices, but he noticed that the figures she normally named for his purchases tended to have a slightly higher markup...maybe. He would admit, arithmetic wasn't his strong point.

He tried to complain to the fairy, but she just gave a half smile and said she had no control over Recette.

What the hell was that supposed to mean? Wasn't the girl her employee?.!

"Uhh...Tielle, where are...hmm? Oh shoot!"

It was the retort of the bow that made him spin around and his eyes widened before he banked off to the side, avoiding the volley of three hell bent arrows. His magic already primed, he shot off a blast at the elf before he switched tacks, forming ice as a shield against more of her arrows.

He kept having to take steps back to form his ice fast enough though, and he soon found his back dangerously close to a dirt wall.

Quick as he could, he slid sideways off it, using the barrier as his escape route from another volley from Tielle, almost tripping up over a rock as he did so. If there was one thing that his "friends" told him, it was that he was too slow; clumsy.

As his power gathered in his hands and he regained his balance to face the elf, he grit his teeth. He hated people making fun of him. He was a mage, and regardless of speed, if he caught you with one of his spells…full bore, you hardly stood a chance.

He barely dodged a line of flaming arrows that were sent his way, but he managed to get as close as he dared to the elf to let loose a powerful blast spell. He was dismayed though, for Tielle reacted like lightning to his attack, keeping her ground and flashing out her bow faster than he could perceive, knocking the wind out of him with a blunt blow from the butt of her arrow.

Three more quickly followed the first, and then the elf shot off another three, making the young mage hit the dirt butt first. She was over him in a flash, her bow half taut and an arrow poised for his nose. Her smile told him he was gonna pay for this one today. Damn.

"I win! You promised!"

Like a little freakiin' kid she was…he hated to say this, but she was worse than Recette…a whole lot worse. At least the airhead store girl had a steady job she did really well, one that required a brain…his wallet was going to cry today…Winner bought lunch.

…and he really had wanted those Spirit Robes he'd seen in Recettear the other day!

Oh well, lucky for him no one else could buy it either. The place had been closed yesterday, and was fixing to look closed today too…he wondered if the fairy had gone out for a vacation or something and couldn't leave the girl alone? No, he hadn't seen Recette either…but who took their counter jockey on a vacation with them and left their store unmanaged?

+-~1~-+

"Hold still…Louie! I said hold still…"
"Gahh, I FREAKIN HATE THOSE FLYING JELLYFISH THINGS!"
"Shh, the thingies are gone Louie…now hold sti-"
"YeeeOW! …Ow. That stings. What is that stuff?"

Pausing in her work of trying to patch the boy up, Recette took a glance at the ointment she was using. It was for cuts and bruises, stings especially…but really, what was it? What made it go? It was a good question, but she didn't have time to worry about it…she just applied some more of the stuff to the rag she was using, and applied the result to the boy's shoulder, making him yelp afresh. They had decided after the jelly had assaulted them that they might as well take a good rest. Louie never did well against Jelly monsters…tentacles from the sky, too high to reach until they come down for the kill…it was no wonder Louie didn't like seafood.

Taking a glance around, Recette wondered where the dungeon came up with all this stuff, or, more accurately, where the golems that ran it came up with the stuff. Jellyfish that flew in the air, random flying fish that assaulted you like they had been thrown, avalanches of rocks, giant slimes and flying eyes…nightmarish stuff. The worst thing you could do to her was give her dreams about that jelly getting a hold-noooo don't go there.

Shaking her head violently, she unconsciously answered a question Louie had asked her, a skill she had picked up from being a crash course merchant, but her skill only extended so far…

"40 pix."
"Uhh…okay. I didn't really need you to appraise it tho'…I only wanted to know what you thought of it."
"HeWha?.! Oh…I'm sorry. I was thinking of something else…it's a nice stone Louie, it is. Really shiny from the water beating it up…"

A bit nonplussed, she pulled his collar back up to cover his shoulder, and went to the edge of the ground to wash her hands. No, she had no idea how clean the water was, but she didn't have much of a spread to choose from, did she? Louie looked after her thoughtfully, still looking at the shiny stone he'd picked up. It was pretty. Simple as that.

Tear, who watched the two from the sidelines, shook her head. The girl was distracted, and Louie wanted attention. Normally they would annoy her with their uncanny ability to seem like mirror images, but the boy's inability to figure out his compatriot's mood irked her too. Now wasn't the time to play, and no one had given Louie the memo.

She brought the two to attention with little effort though, and got them to move to the next floor, which was eerily quiet. Compared to the other floors, this one was…tense. All around them was dark, and there wasn't a single monster in sight…

They continued like this for a while, Louie jumping like a nervous rabbit at every sound, almost running his sword through a wall, (Or at least trying to do something similar.), when he stepped on something that cracked under his boots.

The nameless dripping of water was even worse.

When they finally reached the portal for the next floor, he was a mess, and they stepped through with caution into a much brighter floor, one that assaulted the boy right off the bat with a couple flying eyes and tentacle monsters. He was so quick to jump at them; Recette almost thought he was glad to see them. Crystals flew everywhere like hail in a high pitched wind. A FinFang landed near Recette's feet, as did several random toothpicks.

Yah know; she never understood those toothpicks. Of all things for a Knighted monster to carry…toothpicks…it made no sense.

That wasn't important though. What was important was their progress. Recette admitted that it was a bit hard to keep track of floors when monsters kept attacking you every few seconds, but by her count, this was the third day in, but more importantly, it was the 48th floor. The only other dungeon that had been this long was the Obsidian Tower, and Recette had the feeling that this one was nowhere near done with them…

+-A-+

Well, this was on my comp for a long while, and I just re-vamped it before shipping it out. It's short but it will get me started and has refreshed my memory on what I wanted to do before.