In the Arborian Highlands, mere miles away from the citadel named after it, were the seven heroes.
"It'll be quick." Erik said with a grin. "We'll go check and be right back."
The Luminary, armed with the six orbs, marched along six companions, Erik, Serena, Veronica, Sylvando, Rab and Jade.
"I'll come too." Serena said. "I know the place like the back of my hand."
But in the last stretch of land, spotting a detour, Erik sniffed treasure.
"I guess I can check it out too." Pera, the Luminary, said. "It could be fun."
And treasure he did find, as well as his group surrounded by a pack of monsters.
"Why not? Jade said. "It's none too far. Besides, what's the worst that can happen?"
Erik weaved through the crowd of hyper-activate Bloodbonnets, slicing each one apart as they frenetically clawed at him.
As Erik single-handedly fought off a flurry of cuts and slashes from the tiny, shrieking creatures, his three allies contended against an equal amount of behemoths. Two Ethereal Dragons and a Cyclops
"Zapple!" Pera roared out as a bolt of lightning cleaved straight through the right Ethereal Dragon, already bruised and battered by a mixture of Serena's magic and Jade's kicks. The left one, half-blind from a slash by Pera, attempted to blast him from behind, only for his flames to be countered by Serena's gust of wind.
"Jade!" She yelled out over the sounds of wind and fire merging into a burning maelstrom. "Now!"
"Hi-yah!" Jade spun in the air and kicked the dragon straight into the earth itself, disrupting its fire. "How do you like that?" She spat out, her right shoulder bruised and being held by her other hand.
"Jade!" Pera yelled out. "Behind you!"
The moment she turned, she was smacked away by the Cyclops's weapon. "Hehehe." The creature laughed, low and raspy despite its titanic size.
Pera held out his hand, his mark glowing with great intensity. "Alright you blue bother, let's finish this."
The Cyclops, rather than following up with Jade, took notice of at him and Serena. It aimed it's club at them roared.
As it charged him head on, Pera yelled. "Kazap!" A wall of lightning exploded forth, almost knocking Serena off her feet, and disintegrating the monster, and a good portion of the ground under and behind him, before it could reach them.
Pera breathed a sigh of relief, and fell to one leg.
"Cripes." Erik hobbled over to them, covered in a copious amount of cuts, blood staining almost every inch of his cloths. "That was miserable. I think one of those little bastards shanked me in the back. And the side. And everywhere else."
Serena gasped. "Oh dear, here, lay down and let me patch you up. Take off the shirt and try to relax as best you can." Erik, as graciously as he could, fell to the ground.
As Serena began to heal Erik, Pera hobbled over to Jade. "How's the damage?"
Jade gave a thumbs up from her one good arm. "Looks worse than it feels." Jade said as she hoisted herself up to a sitting position, bloody and covered in dirt and grass from scraping against the ground, but without much bruising. "I can't really move my left arm. And my right one's a bit sore. Might be some cracks in my leg." He raised an eyebrow. "The adrenaline is doing its work."
He sighed. "You scare me sometimes." He began casting his healing magic, focusing on limbs she mentioned for the most part.
She winced. "Well, it's nothing you or Serena haven't taken care of." She noticed him breathing a bit harder than usual, beads of sweat slowly trickling down his reddening forehead. "All that magic must have you tuckered, hm?"
"A bit." Pera said as he wiped the sweat from his brow. "Just don't move too much please."
She looked over Erik, nearly fully healed up by Serena's magic. All the little cuts and bruises cleansed away.
Serena was, by leaps and bounds, the best at healing magic in the group. Even combining their skills, Veronica, Rab, and Pera couldn't match her. The diminutive mage even bragged as such to the others, much to her sister's embarrassment.
As Jade sat there in silence, with Pera slowly repairing her bones and closing the cuts on her skin, it occurred to her that it would probably be a lot quicker to have Serena come over and supplement him. But it would also mean all four of them would travel again as a single group instead of pairs.
With no real monsters in sight, they could probably afford to take it a bit slower...
Both Jade and Erik's eyes crossed paths. In that moment she made a decision and nodded, trusting Erik to understand her. A few moments later his brow went from sloping downward in confusion to jumping up in understanding, and nodded back to her.
"Well," he said standing up. "It looks like Pera has everything tied up with Jade. We should probably catch up with the others." He looked down at his shirt, or rather the bloodstained rag on the grass that used to be his shirt. "Veronica's going to bite my head off when we get back. Should probably get that over with sooner than later."
"Are you sure?" Serena tilted her head. "I can go and finish healing Jade real quick."
"Nah." Erik said. "Pera's got this. Don't you mate?" Pera flashed them a quick thumbs up before continuing to heal Jade.
Serena nodded. "Alright, We'll just go back with the others. Catch up when you're done!" She waved them off as she and Erik left. Erik nodded to Jade once more and she nodded back, smiling as she watched Serena walk almost shoulder to shoulder with a shirtless Erik.
Jade let out a sigh of relief.
"Tired?"
"A bit." She moved her digits and limbs, the sensation returning to them. "Yourself?"
Pera sighed. "Magic exhaustion is a different kind than physical. It's like...being really thirsty, but no amount of regular water helps."
"That's a rather...interesting comparison." She laid back and gazed upon the clouds, slow moving and numerous. Like lazy sheep in the sky. "I think Veronica compared it to not getting a full night's sleep, but not being able to fall asleep no matter what."
He chuckled. "Something like that."
She paused. "I also remember Rab once describing it like being terribly hungover."
"I wouldn't know about that." They both chuckled.
"I'd hope not." She said with a twinkle in her eye.
"Mum never did like having alcohol in the house." He said wistfully. "Grandpa Chalky always hid in where she'd never look, like in the yard, or up the chimney, or in a friend's house."
She nodded. "Aye. Rab never drank while we were on the road. But the moment we found one of his friends, well-" she paused, "remember when we met Queen Marina?"
"Yeah?"
"It was like that, but all the salt was on the rim, not in the water."
Pera snorted. "Wonderful comparison." He stopped healing. "Speaking of wonderful, how do feel?"
"Well," Jade said with a small grin, "I'm doing much better, but they still hurt a bit." She flexed her ankle and faux-winced. "Maybe you could carry me for a spot?" She said with a wink.
"Sure." Without waiting for her to respond, Pera squatted, picked her up with both arms, and lifted her up.
"Eep!"
He grinned, face still red and sweaty. "Problem?"
"N-No, it was just that I-" she shook her head. "Nothing at all. I'm fine." She turned away, blushing.
"Alright." It was in this moment, as he began to walk with Jade in his arms, that Pera began to blush even redder than he had before.
As they walked in silence, Jade looked up once more at the clouds, lazily strolling along the Arborian sky. As odd as it may sound, she truly was glad that his healing magic wasn't as good as Serena's. After all, if it was, she wouldn't have this opportunity.
"Beautiful." Jade heard Pera mutter.
"Yeah." He froze in place for a moment. "The skyline truly is something."
"Yeah." Pera repeated. "Skyline. Beautiful."
She smiled laid her head against his shoulder. "I always wanted to fly like a bird, or float along like a cloud when I was a little girl. Just...to be free to go wherever I want."
"Jade..."
"But now I have you," she hesitated, "all. I have all of you." Her hand lightly squeezing his shoulder.
"...yeah." He smiled.
Both drifted off into silence, Jade lost in thought watching the sky, and Pera lost in his own thoughts as he carried her.
Lumijade is such a cute ship, I can't believe it has so few stories on this site.
This one was sitting on my computer for a couple of months just because I was 95% done and couldn't get around to finishing that last 5%. Hope you guys enjoyed.
In case anyone was wondering why I named him "Pera" instead of something like Eleven, it was the name I picked when I started playing DQXI. I was looking up random names with significant meanings. I ended up looking for names that meant something along the lines of "beyond", and Pera more or less meant that in Greek. It also happened to be a cognate of the name Peter, meaning rock, which incidentally fit the stone-theming that so many characters in this game have, like Amber, Gemma, and Jade. It fits perfectly.