A bit of gravel falling on her head caused Lina to stir. Then she woke with a start. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the light, but by the time they did, she remembered what happened. The chase through the cave, being cornered, the fall...
Damn, she must've been knocked out. Lina looked around to see her situation. She was still in the caves, and Terra was nearby. That was good - it meant they weren't captured yet. Terra wasn't moving. That wasn't good at all.
Lina tried to stand up when she discovered another 'not good' detail. Pain lanced through her from her right foot. Looking at it, she could only hope that it was a sprain. It didn't seem to be broken - she couldn't feel any bones rubbing together or any such - but that was all she could tell. She couldn't even risk using a Recovery spell. Not only was it a bad idea to use Recovery without seeing what the problem was, with her magic being so shaky at the time, she couldn't risk even trying. Recovery might be a basic spell of White Magic... but screwing it up could make matters worse than not casting at all.
Lacking other options, Lina crawled over to Terra. She was relieved to find the other girl was still breathing, if now in possession of an impressive bump on her head. However, her experimental shakes did not rouse the green-tressed girl. And from the expressions of fear that occasionally flittered across her face, Lina did not envy her dreams...
_-=^=-_
The man was pale. That was the first thing she noticed. He was pale. Then there was the clothes - red, yellow, orange and green, all in liberal amounts. Red streaks were painted around his eyes, matching the color of his lips, and the feather in his immaculate blonde hair.
He looked like a clown.
But Terra knew, somehow, this man was anything but.
"Now stop struggling. It won't change anything," the man was saying as he moved out of Terra's view. She suddenly realized that she was sitting, clamped into a metal chair. She was screaming, begging, but somehow it wasn't conscious. And she already was sure, it wasn't going to work.
"Huh huh... oh, my sweet little magic user... with this slave crown, I'll practically /own/ you!" he said cheerfully, as he walked back over. He made a big display of showing her every detail of the crown, before slipping on her head.
A jolt went through here, and Terra could feel herself disconnecting from her body even more. Before everything faded away, she heard the man laughing again...
"WHU HUH HUH HUH!"
_-=^=-_
"What do you think?" the man said as he shouldered past her, confronting a blonde girl about her age. "What do you think about my little pet?"
As the other girl yelled at him, Terra just looked at the... man?... before her. He was around her age as well, she'd guess, and seemed to have a body made out of metal and rock.
He was also, she noticed uncomfortably, completely naked.
She wished she could turn away, but once again, her body was completely out of her control.
"Burn him again! We must save the endangered General!" the man suddenly ordered her, and she began chanting the words she only knew in her heart, to call forth the power of Fire once again.
She was momentarily glad when the fire was absorbed by the blonde's sword, but she could already her the man mumbling his own cant...
_-=^=-_
A battle.
There were bodies everywhere. Some frozen, some electrocuted, some poisoned... but most were burned.
And still she heard... "WHU HUH HUH HUH!"
She was in a machine of some sort, she couldn't remember what it was called, but she knew how to pilot the thing. And she was unable to stop herself as, with a flick of her hands and fingers, the machine rained fiery death upon some of the last few surviving people on the field.
The man was in a similar machine, and laughed as it walked up to her. "That's right, my dear! Burn them all! Burn everything! WHU HUH HUH HUH!!"
_-=^=-_
It was hot out, but she stood next to her machine without flinching. Before her she saw that man again, as well as the blonde girl. With them was an older man with a mohawk, and the same stone man from before, now in a uniform.
And in front of them all was an elderly man, who still cut a formidable figure. He was dressed in incredible finery, as he addressed the men before him.
"My people, we stand on the brink of a major breakthrough! In the coming days, we shall see the total revival of Magic!" He paused but a breath for the cheer that followed before continuing. "It is our right, our destiny - and our's ALONE! - to take this mystic force and claim what is rightfully ours! With all nations beneath out flag, we shall lead this world into a new era of prosperity! With our new-found power, there is nothing that can stand in our way!"
That man then rang out with a "Hurrah!!! Long Live The Empire! Long Live Emperor Gestahl!!!"
Soon that cheer was ranging among all the soldiers... but she couldn't help but notice. The stone man, he went through the motions... but he didn't join the cheer...
_-=^=-_
Lina looked around once more and sighed. There wasn't anything she could do here but wait for Terra to wake up.
_-=^=-_
"Psst... hey! Hey!"
Lina started awake. She'd nearly dozed off while waiting, and the voice above her was a welcome distrac... wait, voice above her?!
As she scrambled to get into some kind of defense with her bad ankle, a rope dropped from the hole above, and a man quickly rappelled down. Lina's first thought was slightly panicked, thinking it was one of the Narshe guards. A second glance reveled that he was not... in fact, he looked rather like... "...a brigand?"
Locke nearly fell over at Lina's declaration. "Hey! I'm a Treasure Hunter, thank you! Not a thief, and certainly not a brigand!"
Lina - who often made that kind of distinction regarding herself - just nodded at that. Besides, at a closer look, his clothes were too well made and well maintained to be a brigand.
"My name's Locke, Arvis sent me to get you two out of Narshe. So... are you Lina, or Terra?" Locke introduced himself with a small bow.
"I'm Lina... and getting us out of here may be a bit more difficult that you think. I've managed to either sprain or break my ankle, and Terra's out cold, and hasn't woken up yet. Think you can carry us both out of here?"
Locke blinked as he took all that in. "Um... well, maybe... ah... crap," he sighed. "I could probably carry one of you no problem, but not both of you. Maybe I can find something you can use as a walking stick for the time being... well, it's not like things could get much worse..."
"There they are! Now we got them!"
Lina and Locke both turned toward the new voice, and could dimly make out the Marshal in across the cave. With him were several guards, and no small amount of Vomamoths and Lobos.
Lina glared at Locke. "You just had to say that, didn't you?"
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(Posted Mon, 17 Jul 2006 17:15)
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