Return of the Emblem Chapter Thirteen: Flight

[Ether]

And so they finally began marching. Angelica figured Fizza had her reasons, and likely wouldn't divulge anything substantial... or truthful, even if asked, so the adept didn't bother asking the assassin about her escapades. Regardless of that, after a time, they had reached the rendezvous point, with Malik having gone off... somewhere. But there wasn't much time to dwell on it, as Eva stomped over, and with all the tact of a barbarian, dragged her over to her wyvern with a series of grunted, single syllable utterances.

"You're more blunt than usual." Angelica noted, not bothering to put up any resistance... yet. It wasn't worth the effort for the time being. More importantly, there was this completely untrustworthy wyvern... that type of initial look was never a good thing, and though it appeared to have back off a little, it was still disconcerting.

[Nanami Touko]

"<I've got a few reasons. Hop on, he won't try to eat you. If I wasn't here he might, but that's not really an issue right now.>" Eva tapped her foot lightly as she waited, not bothering to cover up her wyvern's little bits of faulty training. She considered it quite amusing. "<And sit up front. I'm not craning my neck to talk to you while the wind's blasting our faces. Need you to actually be able to hear me.>" Though this entire idea wouldn't matter if Angelica still wasn't in any mood for talking. Eva couldn't exactly tell...

[Ether]

"This is sounding like a worse idea with every word that leaves your mouth." Angelica retorted, giving the wyvern another weary look... how irresponsible was this woman, really... generally 'don't eat, nor attempt to eat, humans except on express(and very rare) command' was one of, if not the first training lesson for any carnivorous mount. There was the lingering issue of the rider's grip on her wrist, but... if need be that could be taken care of... it wouldn't be pleasant but considering how much of a masochist this girl was, she'd likely get over it fairly quickly.

"Besides, we're in no rush to leave without Malik here. Why would I put myself in such precarious care just to talk?"

[Nanami Touko]

Eva let go of the girl and glared at her. "<Please, just get on Sasha? As soon as Malik shows up, we're leaving, and I'm not waiting until we land to get out of what's on my mind.>" Eva let out a sigh and tried her best to fight through her frustration to give Angelica a rather sincere look of sadness. Underneath her anger, she definitely meant it. "<Please...>" She looked at Sasha and made a few hand motions: pointing at Angelica, making a chomping motion with her hands, and a signal that seemed to signify to not do that. The wyvern nodded once.

[Ether]

Letting out a sigh, Angelica looked Eva over once more... she seemed serious about this... she supposed it couldn't be helped.

"Fine... but you'll need to get on first." The adept replied, playing with her skirt a bit for emphasis.

"I'm not exactly equipped for riding normally, so I'll need to go side-saddle... it'll be easier if you're on first so our legs don't get tangled, I can just slip mine over yours." She concluded with a light shrug.

[Nanami Touko]

Eva let out a groan, turned herself around for a moment, muttered a few things in 'Skotian and attempted to collect herself. "<Fine.>" She brushed herself past Angelica and climbed on top of Sasha. The wyvern let out a contented grunt, let his wings down, and Eva settled herself into the saddle. <Maybe if she ever wore pants this wouldn't be a problem... I guess it isn't all bad, at least, but still...> "<Alright, climb on.>"

[Ether]

After Eva climbed up onto Sasha, Angelica darted off, hah, what a loser. hopped up after her, sitting on the wyvern's saddle and resting her legs over top of Eva's, wrapping her arm around the rider's midsection and across her neck for support. Letting her legs dangle off to the side, and resting her head against Eva's shoulder, the adept let out a sigh.

"There, happy?"

[roymbrog]

If Valter was tired before, he was absolutely exhausted now, and it was showing. He had never done well through long periods without sleep. Once they arrived at the meeting site he made a beeline for Phyllis, ruffled her mane in greeting, unhitched her from the wagon, and led the mare back to where Amon was speaking with people. Once there, he leaned against the horse’s side, intending to hear the current situation while exerting the least required energy to do so.

He only heard the tail end of the conversation, but from what Valter gathered Malik had successfully retrieved the emblem, but wasn’t here. He didn’t think the Sanctuarian would just make off with it. There had to be a reason for his disappearance. Probably? It was hard to think right now. “Are we going to wait for Malik, or send someone after him?” he asked. If the latter, he was not volunteering for that job right now.

---

OoC: Need to ask Phee a thing might be edited

[spoiler=A Little Bit of Kindness]

Focusing on the road, as mundane as that was, was all Glen could do not to think about, and worry about Joanna and her would-be rescuers. At least the royal guard probably wouldn't be out in force their with the king already gone. That just left the wrathites and the regular guards, both of which they seemed good enough to handle as long as they weren't surrounded or forced into a closed space. "Urgh ... I hope they're alright in there," he muttered to himself as the wagon was dragged along. He didn't even notice what was happening nearby.

"Whoa whoa, hold on a sec," Greta spoke up from in back, "They look like they could use some help over there."

"Huh?" Glen looked up and over to his left to see what looked like woman and an avian trying to haul a cart. It shouldn't have been that difficult, but Glen soon realized why they were having so much trouble. "Okay, maybe you're right. We need to get moving but I suppose stopping to help them is a good idea. After all, if we can't be bothered to stop and help others when they're in need, there'll come a day when no one bothers to help us and we'll look back and be filled with grief." Greta didn't quite catch the insightful quip, as she'd leaped from the wagon just before it came to a complete stop. Noticing he'd wasted the line on her, he sighed. "I'll just wait here." Alphonse could help if they needed some muscle, after all; Glen was the designated driver for the time being.

"Hey there," Greta waved.

Kimiko and Elliot had been pulling their damaged cart for a while now, and both were beginning to tire out. The alchemist and student hadn't paid the approaching wagon much mind until it stopped nearby and a girl hopped off to greet them. "Hello," Kimiko answered, slightly out of breath, and Elliot watched Greta curiously as they slowed to a stop. Ever since they'd actually pulled away from Amon's team, Alphonse had been feeling unwell, as though he had made the wrong decision. It was a selfish desire, but he still wished he'd been able to go with the rest of them, he knew that someone had to defend the others and their new wagon, the swordsman just wanted it to be other than him.

At the moment though, Al was standing next to Glen on the wagon to keep a look out, one leg resting on the driver's bench, and the other on the floor while his hand was on the top of their vehicle to steady himself. Really he would have preferred to have a wagon with a solid roof that he could sit on, but this position would have to do for now.

Spotting the pair that Greta had mentioned, hesitating for a moment and looking to Glen "Keep an eye out while we're handling this, I'd rather we not completely lower our guard." Before jumping off after Greta and following her, giving a nod to the people they had stopped for. "Looks like your cart has seen better days, no offense."

"Err-yeah, pretty much," Greta mused aloud. "Did y'all want some help? Seems like we're goin' the same direction anyways," she offered with a shrug.

Elliot made a face at Alphonse and mumbled in Neviskotian, “<Looks like your face has seen better days, no offense.>”

“<Be polite, Elliot,>“ Kimiko told him, albeit quietly. The last two days had been stressful for everyone but she was not going to let it color her interactions with others, she told herself, and breathed a sigh of relief when Greta spoke up again. “Yes, yes we would be most grateful. Our cart was damaged in the attack last night, and… my animal as well. Are you headed out of the city?” she asked. The alchemist had a bit of an accent, something odd and likely placeable as a mixture of Neviskotian and Kigenese.

"Yeah. We're meetin' up with some friends in a little bit, but I think we've got time to help y'all out too," Greta answered, choosing her words carefully. The news of them losing the animal that was supposed to be pulling that cart was a little disturbing, but hardly surprising. She glanced over at Alphonse to try and gauge whether he was in the mood to do any grunt work.

"Right then..." Alphonse muttered before shrugging out of his jacket and handing it over to Greta, leaving him in a short shirt. "Hold onto this will you? I'd rather it not get in the way." Looking over the wagon again, there wasn't a pretty sight to be had. "We can pull this thing for a while, but with the way that wheel is damaged I don't know how long it might last." He mused, shrugging afterwards "Oh well, daylight is burning so we might as well get started."

“Thank you,” Kimiko replied, nodding to the both of them. “Hmm... We should introduce ourselves. My name is Kimiko, and this is my student, Elliot. Elliot, would you come help me pull this side?”

“Yes, Miss Junie,” the young avian answered. There were two beams in front of the cart meant to attach to either side of a work animal, and he ducked under one to grab the other. Alphonse was left with one beam to himself.

Looking up at the sky, the swordsman was right, it was starting to get late. They likely wouldn’t make it too far before it got dark. “If you could help us to an inn, that would be wonderful. I suppose I will figure out what to do with my stock in the morning…”

Greta folded up Alphonse's jacket and kept it safe under her arm. "Wait, you're a merchant?" she asked Kimiko, a little surprised at the information. 'Peddler' didn't always carry positive connotations even though it seemed a bit more accurate given the size of the cart, so Greta stuck with the general, more flattering term instead. Suddenly she was even more sympathetic to the woman's plight. She'd lost her animals and merchandise to a 'monster' attack not too long ago, as well.

“Alchemist, actually,” Kimiko replied, though after a moment seemed to think better on her answer. “I suppose I am a merchant as well, to pay expenses. I sell imbued items, not only weapons, and repair delicate objects. The supplies are in the cart,” she explained.

"I see," Greta said, thinking back on her life prior to that terrible day. "Well my name's Greta. I'm just a regular old merchant, myself. No special skills or nothin'. I lost everything when we got attacked by 'skotians and their blasted dragon around Ursaea. That wagon over there ain't actually mine by the way," she pointed over with her thumb, not wanting to confuse Kimiko. "Guess it's a loaner or somethin'."

"I'm Alphonse, mercenary by trade, I've been with Greta for a while now." The swordsman explained. "So, pick up any good business today after everything that happened last night?" He questioned the alchemist as he lifted his side of the cart.

“There was a… Neviskotian dragon in Ursium?” Elliot asked. It was the first thing in this conversation that had interested him so far, so it was worth breaking his silence.

Kimiko’s brow furrowed in confusion. She had seen maps of the country before, and how would a dragon make it that far from the border? Regardless, she felt that after last night she could emphasize a bit with Greta’s experience. The alchemist nodded sympathetically as Alphonse took up his position on the other beam. “A loaner is better than nothing, I suppose. I wish your business well. Perhaps one day you can regain a portion of what you lost?”

At the swordsman’s question she hesitated a moment. After an event like last night would be a prime time to sell items for self-defense, but using such a tragedy as a boost in income wasn’t in her nature. “No... We stayed in the Cathedral most of the day, and only recently returned for the cart,” she replied. An idea hit her, and she smiled. “Would you be interested in buying anything? I would gladly give a discount for your help. Truth be told, I will need quite a sum of money before I can travel again….”

"I think I've got just about everything covered for what I might need in the future, though if you know anything about runes I'd certainly be willing to pay for you to take a look at my sword. Magic isn't my forte, so I kinda have to rely on others to see if that part of my blade is holding up as well as the rest of it." Alphonse replied to the merchant.

"A portion is all I can hope for, really," Greta frowned, thoughts of her family forcing their way to the forefront. She glanced at Elliot when he asked about the, normally, rare occurrence. "Yeah, there sure was," she nodded gloomily. "But enough about that awful day," she forced a smile, "I told myself I'd keep lookin' forward so that's what I'm doin'. I'm teamin' up with a girl that's travelin' with some friends to help get things up and runnin' again, but we're goin' to Kigen so things could be a little rough for awhile. Maybe you should stick around for a bit and see if she can't invest in another cart for ya. Those ain't nearly as pricey as full blown wagons."

“I would be willing to look over your sword; runes are my specialty. Discount still applies,” Kimiko replied to Al with a smile.

Elliot believed Greta’s dragon story, if only because of how sad she looked about it. He didn’t want to make her talk about something painful, so instead piped in on the next thing that caught his interest. “We’re going to Kigen too, it’s where Miss Junie’s family is from.”

“Indeed we are,” the alchemist confirmed. “If your friend is that generous, perhaps… Hmm. I would be willing to speak with her. If it meant I wouldn’t have to stay in Europa for several weeks, I could repay her investment.”

"Alright then," Greta smiled, "they shouldn't be too much longer and when she gets here I'll introduce ya and y'all can work out the details.” She still wasn't too thrilled about trying to start her own business back up in Kigen but this situation she found herself in seemed like a good thing. It might even serve to help her in some more direct ways.

"Good to hear." Alphonse said with an added nod "My Father is from Kigen as well, so it'll be interesting to actually see his home country with my own eyes after hearing so much about it."

Elliot had long since fallen asleep, but Kimiko saw no reason to wake him as the rag tag group approached. The druid walked over to Greta after the latter had greeted them, and tapped the girl on the shoulder. “Excuse me, Greta? Is your friend with them?”

[Eail]

Alphonse had been resting near Greta after their little group had made it to the rendezvous point. He had ended up pulling the cart himself by the end of it, which had left the redhead pretty tired. "Yeah, that's her over there." he replied to Kimiko once he'd finished taking a drink of water, pointing out Nadya to the alchemist.

Amon had picked up some new friends as well it seemed, all around it seemed like the plan had worked out, hopefully things could stay on track from here on out.

[Toogee]

Jam followed the others back to the wagon, only to find that they weren't quite moving out just yet. The dancer didn't have any of the details as to why, nor did it matter. She made a beeline for the wagon regardless, hoping to claim a nice spot to rest. That wasn't the only reason however.

Jam was hoping to find Alphonse inside. The last battle wasn't anything like the others she had been in: she wasn't sure they were in the right this time. The look on the prince's face continued to haunt her. How could anyone continue with this lifestyle without such thoughts?

Jam managed to find a small pillow and an old blanket and proceeded to setup her sleeping quarters for the night. Hopefully, they would be on the road soon enough.

[scorri]

Arriving at the wagon, Lumi made her way inside it, hoping to get some time to rest and relax her arm, since her shoulder was still aching. Sitting down, she fiddled with the ice sling a bit until it was covering the upper part of her shoulder instead of the lower arm. It was less good for preventing jostling this way, but would help with the pain. Leaning back against the canvas, she sighed in relief. That was better. Glancing to the side, she noticed that she wasn't alone in the wagon. "Oh, hi! I'm sorry, must have missed you when I first got in. I was a bit distracted. Uhm... Your name is... Jam, right? I'm Lumi, in case you didn't know. I hope I'm not disturbing you. I can head out if you wanted to sleep or something."

Hoshi meanwhile had jumped backwards and squeaked when the wyvern came rushing in. Seeing Eva and Angel get ready to fly away, Hoshi turned and rejoined the rest of the group. Not sure exactly what she wanted to do, she simply stood quietly while everyone else talked and got ready to leave. As far as she was concerned, she was ready to head out as soon as possible.

[Nanami Touko]

Eva couldn't help but turn red as Angelica practically plastered herself all over the rider. With a deep breathe and a sigh, she did her best to ignore the situation and remember that she was still quite frustrated at this girl. "<Maybe if I was in a different mood I'd be happy. I'll say I'm glad you're willing to come with me on Sasha. That's all...>" Sasha craned his neck up and turned an eye back to see the girl resting on his rider. He was rather confused, but she'd told him not to eat her, so he wouldn't try to get her off of his back. It wasn't like she added much weight.

----------

Tia felt the best place for her to be right now would be out of the way, and since the wagon was there, she brought herself back to it. Perhaps she should've stayed there the entire time the group was in the cathedral, but her curiosity and boredom had gotten the best of her. Too bad about that, it sure wasn't worth the added trauma. So she went to the wagon and was about to hop in when she spotted both Jamella and Lumi inside. She stopped her hop. "Oh, uhm... Is...there any room back here for me, too...?"

[Ether]

"<You slipped into Skotian, again.>" Angelica chided with a smirk, as she pushed herself a little deeper onto Eva.

"Besides, I need to make sure I don't fall off, don't I? I can't grip the saddle so I'll just have to hold on to you."

[Toogee]

Jam was making her bed when others started coming inside the wagon. One of them seemed to have a wounded arm; the other was Tia. both seemed friendly enough at a time when she could use from friendly people.

"No, it's fine. This isn't exactly my private wagon," Jam replied to Lumi and Tia. Still, she remained silent. Jam wanted to blurt out what was on her mind, but she just couldn't. Certainly not among a stranger and definitely not to poor Tia. Her face showed the internal struggle going on inside of her, even if she made an attempt to hide her emotionless expression in preparing for the night.

[scorri]

Lumi glanced between the two slightly younger girls, and raised an eyebrow. "Are you two ok? Both of you seem to be a bit upset..."

[Eail]

When Al had seen Jam enter the wagon a bit ago, he'd assumed she was grabbing a different set of clothing to change into now that everyhing had calmed down though when the two other girls entered as well and she hadn't come back out he figured that wasn't the case. A tad bit concerned for the dancer considering he hadn't been there at the cathedral, Al wanted to check up on her.

Figuring Greta could handle Kimiko from here on out, the swordsman made his way to the back of the wagon, climbing up and sitting on the edge with one leg hanging off, he gave a small wave to the occupants "Hey... didn't plan on interrupting anything, I just wanted to check up on Jam, since I assume you guys had a fight right?"

[Afterglimmer]

The long march came to an end as a wagon came into view. Amon and Joanna mentioned something about an emblem and a strange box only she could open. It looked as though their visit to the cathedral wasn’t just to spring her; leaving the question of their true intentions up in the air. This Malik guy was not here at the moment; so inquiring about it would have to wait.

Some of the others had already entered the wagon while the loudmouth rider and her friend mounted one of the wyverns; not before letting Hoshi off her back. After her breakdown at the cathedral, the mercenary was a little worried about her. “How are you holding up?” Luther asked as the druidess rejoined the others.

[scorri]

Lumi looked at the man entering the wagon and nodded. "Yeah, we fought. We won. Not easily. But we won. And then we got out of there after running into the prince who let us go for some reason." She shrugged. "It was a good fight though, worked out well. Got both the emblem and Joanna apparently."

Hoshi started as the man she'd worked with in the fight approached her. "Oh, uhm, yes. I'm ok. Just... well, I used a lot of magic in the fight and, uhm, well, uhm, being short makes it harder to keep up sometimes, especially with... uhm, magical exhaustion. So... yeah. Eva just helped me. Thanks for asking?"

[Afterglimmer]

“I see. It’s just you don’t seem like you had much combat experience and after what happened at the cathedral, well…” Luther’s voice trailed off as he concluded that statement. “I just wanted to make sure you were OK.”

[Toogee]

Jam looked up as Alphonse appeared and asked about the fight. Lumi called it "a good fight". It was a win. It was successful. However, Jam would not have called it good. She was glad for the opening, as she finally spoke to what she had on her mind.

"Every other battle I've been in, it was clear who the bad guys were. The bandits on the road. The monsters at the manor. We were definitely in the right. I thought this rescue mission was the same. A bunch of thugs kidnap a girl: how clearly wrong was that? But when the prince came and looked at what happened...it was as if we killed his best friends. This Joanna girl, the one we rescued. I'm not sure she's happy we rescued her. Did she want to leave at all? Does that mean we're the kidnappers? It wasn't a good fight at all. It was terrible."

As she explained her feelings, Jam focused intently on the floor. She kept a blank facial expression; anything more would have resulted in tears.

[Nanami Touko]

"<I slip into 'Skotian when I'm bothered,>" Eva said plainly, not attempting to explain when else she did, lest it give Angelica more ammo. "<And that's fine... I never said you shouldn't, just that I'm not the happiest about it. Not right now, maybe later.>" Perhaps that was too much to say, but it was becoming an effort to stay mad, the emotion slowly turning into simply slightly annoyed. Curse this girl...

----------

A whole slew of things happened rather quickly. Jam and Lumi welcomed Tia into the wagon, so she quickly hopped in and huddled herself next to Jam. And then lumi asked if they were alright. Well, Tia was far from alright, but judging from the look on Jam's face, she didn't want to talk about that. Tia shook her head, but didn't say anything. Of course, it couldn't end there. Alphonse came over, and Lumi spoke of the fight, which seemed to be the breaking point for the emotion on Jam's face. Tia huddled herself up further, and put her face on her knees. She'd been thinking some of what Jam had said, but now that it had been said, she was thinking all of it.

"There was nothing good about that fight," she finally said, raising her head to be heard instead of talking through her knees. "It was terrifying, and harsh, and... We even murdered someone after the fight was over..." She sniffled a bit, trying to stop herself from crying again. "This isn't right... This isn't what we're supposed to fight for..." There went her head back onto her knees, and despite best efforts, she began to cry again.

Edited September 1, 2014 by I have opinions

[Eail]

It was at times like these that Alphonse really wished that he was better at this whole social interaction thing, because right about now he was feeling pretty terrible. The redhead knew that he should have gone along with the group, Greta hadn't even needed him to defend the wagon so he'd basically just wasted his time, maybe if he'd been there he could have at least prevented the girls from seeing what they had.

Climbing up into the wagon properly, Al crouched down in front of Jam and Tia, hesitating for a moment before putting a hand on each one's shoulder "Sometimes... it won't seem like you're the good guy. Sometimes it seems like you've done something bad, even though you have good intentions.... but you can't let those feelings control you, you've got to believe in yourself and your friends, believe that you've made the right decision, doing the right thing doesn't always feel good but you've got to remember that it was the right thing in the end. Leaving the emblem piece with the Wrathites would have been a terrible thing, we all know they wouldn't have used it's power for the good of the world, so even if their lives were taken, you saved so many more."

[Ether]

"Bothered, huh? From the sounds of it, almost seems like you're working pretty hard to stay bothered there, Eva." Angelica teased, as she nuzzled her face a little deeper into the rider's neck and shoulder, and pulled herself a little closer in general... all for the sake of a firm grip for takeoff, of course, her chest pressing against Eva's own as she did so.

"Well, atleast you understand that all this is necessary for my safety, it's fine."

[Nanami Touko]

Eva groaned, and slightly pushed Angelica away from her. "<Later,>" she said in a stern tone, with a somber look on her face. "<Can I not be serious at least once? I'm honestly not in the mood for any of this teasing. If you have to get it out of your system, then do it, but I want to talk. And that's all.>" Eva looked a bit frustrated now, as she silently hoped Amon would give the go ahead for them to take off. "<Do what you will...>" she finally said, wondering if she could stop Angelica at all, at this point.

----------

Tia shrugged Al's hand off of her shoulder and continued to cry. "It's not... That doesn't just automatically make it right..." she mumbled through her knees, not accepting that because it would help in the future, it made all of it fine. Tia hadn't focused on Athrun's face when he'd ran in like Jam had, but she'd heard the anger and sorrow in his voice, and no evil or terrible group would have such a devastated leader like that. She didn't know if he was really the leader; she didn't care. He'd been there after their fight, and it had torn him apart. Nothing would make it feel right, not any time soon.

[Ether]

"Then go ahead and talk. I'm just getting ready to take off... I'm much more suited to either moving on my own power or in a vehicle... certain preparations are needed for riding animals." Angelica replied, as she continued to brace herself on Eva.