FINALLY got this done, day late cuz i slept through friday, crashed after getting off the bus, gonna start work on eleven now! \T.T/
Chapter 10: The Road Ahead
It was a short time before Ephidel returned “’kay, I got permission to let you go”
“great, let’s get out of here” Marco quickly pushed ephidel out and shut the door behind him before Celesta could get out as well.
“hey wait!” she tried to get up and run to it fast enough but the door was already tightly shut by then “damn him! The next time I see him I’m going to tear him a new one!” taking her frustration out on the air she sat down again and began trying to come up with an escape plan.
Back outside marco was pushing ephidel further away “he- hey! Wait a minute!” ephidel pleaded, marco stopped pushing
“you got permission for her too right?”
“uuuh yea…. So whay are you leaving her there? Isn’t she your companion? You don’t seem to travel with people very often”
“im not even going to begin to mention what’s wrong with that… but…. Do make sure to let her go when I’ve gone far enough away”
“why?”
“… I guess I’ve got allot of explaining to do huh?” Marco decided to give Ephidel the quick version of the last ten years, which was pretty easy since most of it consisted of travelling and getting attacked by bounty hunters and mercenaries alike. It was over in a few minutes
“dam… you live a pretty exciting life, don’t you?”
“yea… between running for my life and running out of food, it’s a blast…”
“But you still haven’t quite explained why you want me to let her go after you leave?”
“she’s… she’s one of the people trying to take tusaki from me”
Ephidel was caught off guard by this “really?! Then… then why didn’t she try to kill you when she had the chance?”
“what makes you think she could?” Marco retorted a little annoyed
“because I can’t tell your shoulders broken just by looking at you”
“he’s got me there” he thought “well… to be honest I’m not exactly sure why but from what I could tell she doesn’t seem to want to hurt people though her fighting skills would prove otherwise….”
“Well c’mon... I’ll take you to get fixed up then I’ll get your stuff.” Ephidel led Marco away from the prison house which, he had not noticed earlier before, was surrounded by forest instead of being inside the village itself. Curious, Marco was compelled to ask
“hey… wait a sec… how come we aren’t already in the village?”
“huh?... Oh!... the others thought it would be prudent for our secrecy if anyone were to actually escape because they at least wouldn’t know where they, or we for that matter, are…”
“what about guards?”
“they’re there, you just can’t see them…”Ephidel said with a grin
“great now I’m gonna feel like I’m being spied on all day…”
“you’re problem, not mine…”
Ephidel saw it long before Marco did but it soon came in sight, a large wooden gate hidden amongst the tall trees. As they neared the massive gate it opened seemingly without warning, Marco looked at Ephidel quizzically
“they could smell us coming”
“oh…” they entered the village and what Marco saw surprised him greatly; the entire village was built under, and closely to, a forest of tall trees. In between houses, in the middle of paths, wherever they lay, it definitely impressed him.
“whoa…”
“surprised?” Ephidel chimed “it was thought that we might be discovered from the air so we thought of this, it wasn’t exactly an easy plan but to ruby’s knowledge no one has spoken of this place yet so we know it works”
“so I take it you live here? I remember way back when this place got destroyed, they couldn’t have trusted you easily…”
“no, not quite, I actually live in the mountains of my old home town, but I couldn’t just leave this place devastated… so I decided that I would make amends as best I could every now and again… it wasn’t easy at first but when they heard that I got ruby to agree with the reconstruction they opened up a little… though I still get the cold shoulder every now and again…”
“and why is that?”
“Well.. to be honest… they don’t exactly approve of having a pheon in the village, though most wolfine tend to be ignorant like that so it doesn’t bother me
“pheon?” Marco thought “oh right… Lilina… so she travels with you?”
Ephidel smiled “actually, it was her idea to ask ruby in the first place so of course she was going to come… plus there’s the added fact that no wolfine I know knows healing magic…”
“ah…” they had reached their destination, a relatively small house near the center of the village Ephidel began to open the door.
“hey Lilina I’m ba-” before ephidel could finish his sentence two children had jumped him the second the door opened, one was clearly male wolfine, probably no older than seven and had an odd colour of fur not like that which Marco had seen before it was crimson with a tin of brown in places. and the other, younger than the first was pheon, mostly, female with some brightly coloured feathers that was typical of pheons.
“daddy your back!” the bigger one cried “are you going to take us hunting again?!” this time even more excitedly
“hmm.. so you grew up a little” marco cut in with a smirk. just noticing Marco’s presence now both children quickly huddled beside ephidel, the girl holding tightly to his leg and the boy standing defiantly at his side trying to look calm
“what can I say? Ten years is a long time” ephidel said proudly, he kneeled “don’t worry he’s one of daddy’s friends” the two cautiously left ephidel’s side and went up to Marco looking at him in wonderment, he grinned.
“this is probably the first time they’ve ever seen a human” he knelt to reach the kid’s height and looked back at the boy for a moment “what’s your name kid?” the boy still seemed hesitant
“Darren”
“and mine’s Lucia!” the girl chimed in.
Marco grinned again “heh, he reminds me of you from ten years ago” Ephidel was about to say something when a woman’s voice came from the house
“that only means he’s grown up” the woman came into view through the door, it was Lilina, a pheon woman with crimson feathers and by Marco’s account, a dangerous sword arm. “which is more than I can say about you” she added. Ephidel rose, went up to Lilina and kissed her
“welcome back” she said in a soft voice “now…” her tone changing “what is HE doing here?”
Ephidel smiled apologetically “ he’s injured, and you’re the only one who-”
“yea, yea, and you want me to help him… fine, how bad?”
“My shoulder is broken, but it’s had a little time to heal…” marco tried to raise his left shoulder as an example but winced as it reached half way
“that’s bad, well, come on in, this is going to take a while”
“I’ll go get your stuff” taking Darren and Lucia, ephidel left to another part of the village while marco entered the house
“sit down over there” Lilina pointed to a couch and marco did so “now, you said your shoulder has had time to heal?” saying this while removing the sleeve on Marco’s left arm to examine the injury
“about a day and a half, the evening before last” Lilina just listened without saying anything then out of nowhere she spoke up again
“brace yourself”
“wha-” but before marco could finish his question Lilina had delivered a powerful blow to his left shoulder, breaking it again, Marco wanted to scream but bit the feeling back and instead gave Lilina a dirty look
“what?” she said defensively “do you ever want to use that arm again? Magic may be powerful but your arm had already partially healed in the wrong way, had I healed you right then you would have never been able to move it more than a couple inches, now lie down, I’m about to begin” marco complied and Lilina placed her palms just above his shoulder, a pale green aura surrounded her hands as the healing magic began to work and a warm sensation washed over Marco’s body
“so… you still carry that ball and chain around with you?” marco raised an eyebrow without answering “they’re still after you, you know… the people who attacked the capital ten years ago, the people we fought off…”
“And you’re telling me this because…? Besides, didn’t we kill their leader in the fight?”
“That was a dummy organization, they merely wanted the capital under their thumb, but thankfully we put their planes years behind schedule, but you’re the real target”
“and you know this how?”
“I’ve still got connections here and there”
“does ephidel know?”
“No and I don’t plan on telling him either, thanks to him I could leave that life behind…” her voice was unsteady, only slightly, but Marco could tell “anyway… I just thought you should know, I’m done by the way” the magic faded and Marco rose from the couch, he moved around his left shoulder, although it hurt it could move now
“thanks”
“just don’t make it a habit” at this time the door opened and Ephidel, Darren and Lucia walked in, ephidel was carrying Marco’s rucksack as was as tusaki
“found your stuff, your pretty lucky, they were about to rummage through your it” he passed them over to marco “I’ve been instructed to take you off the island, you said you needed to get to the capital soon right?”
“yeah, today if at all possible”
“well I don’t know about today but I think I can get you there by tomorrow” “tomorrow?”
“We’ll have to go through Argonar city”
“but that’s in the opposite direction…”
Ephidel grinned “you’ll remember once we get there, but we need to leave now, it’s already midday”
“okay”
Ephidel said goodbye to Lilina and his children and lead marco on his way,, out of the village and into the great forest ahead.
