"Hey, Gerik?"

"Yes, Joshua?"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Gerik tromped through the murky brown swamp water with the small red headed swordsman in his arms. When Joshua had awoken, he realized he was being moved slowly up and down, as if at sea.

Blearily he had opened his eyes, his surroundings momentarily out of focus and unfamiliar. The sunlight gently streamed through the grey-green canopy of trees above his head, making it seem as though a golden halo surrounded Gerik's head, but Joshua knew better. He could see the horns as well.

"Well," he began, "you were sleeping so peacefully, it seemed a right shame to wake you up, 'specially with that dream you were going on about last night."

Joshua turned a little red at this and avoided his eyes.

"I figured that the sooner we get out of here the better, so, this is my solution I suppose."

"Do me a favor, Gerik…" said Joshua with an exasperated voice.

"Sure"

"Put me down."

Without a moments hesitation, and a rather blank look on his face, Gerik immediately and without warning dropped Joshua into the filthy muck. A small splash was made as Joshua landed roughly on his behind. He shot back up immediately and fixed an evil glare upon Gerik, who, with difficulty, was keeping a straight, unemotional face.

"What the hell was that for?!"

"You told me to."

Gerik could almost see the steam coming out of Joshua's ears and he smirked to himself. He loved to toy with Joshua.

"You bastard! I'll lop off your bloody head!" he reached towards his hip, expecting to feel the hilt of Audhulma, his sword, but instead found nothing. He gazed down at his empty side and then fixed an absolutely horrid face upon Gerik.

"Gerik…where's my sword?"

(o.O)

"Hey, Eirika, where's L'Arachael?" asked Ephraim as he looked about their campsite, looking for the crazed priestess.

"She's still asleep," replied Eirika, getting to her feet, "Why?"

Ephraim turned, exasperated to his younger sister.

"We're so gonna have to tie her down…lest we want a dead prince on our hands."

"Innes, you mean?"

"Yes…who else would be daring enough to do such a stunt?"

"What'd he do?"

"Drew all over her face…"

Ephraim sighed and Eirika placed a reassuring arm around her brother.

"Don't worry…we'll take care of it."

She rounded up a few people and got them to help transport L'Arachael in her sleep. They brought her to a large oak tree and quickly bound her to the tree.

Myrrh was beginning to pack up her things when a glimmer in a nearby bush caught her eyes. She approached the shrub slowly and silently, unaware of what was hiding in its leaves. Slowly she parted a few stems and looked into its depths.

A monkey, a rather petit one, with an orange-ish red coat peered up at her with big green eyes. In its small hand was the hilt of a rather large sword Myrrh recognized immediately as Joshua's sword Audhulma. She gasped and let the leaves cover up the gap.

"Quickly! Come quickly!" Myrrh cried, pointing to the bush where the monkey stood. "Joshua's been turned into a monkey!"

Ephraim, as well as Innes, who had come out of hiding, Forde, Knoll and Saleh joined her and she spread apart the bushes stems and they all stared at the rather frightened monkey.

Forde finally broke the silence.

"What manner of magic can turn man into beast?"

"Well," started Saleh "there was legend of an old goddess living around these parts that lured mortal men into her den and then turned them into beasts of various nature…"

The monkey shivered and tried to make a run for it.

Forde quickly caught it by the scruff of its neck and held it up to his face. He gazed at it skeptically and highly doubted the monkey was Joshua.

"Careful!" exclaimed Ephraim in response to Forde's quick action "If that is Joshua, we need to treat him gently."

'I highly doubt this is Joshua…' thought Forde as the monkey squirmed and tried to break free from his strong grasp.

"How do we turn him back?" questioned Innes.

This time, Knoll answered the question.

"Well, I've heard that in the very top floor of the Tower of Valni, an ancient tome exists that is supposed to be capable of all sorts of things."

"How do we get there from here…" muttered Ephraim to himself as he delved into thought.

"How do we plan on keeping the little rascal from escaping?" asked Forde as the monkey continued to attempt his escape.

Ephraim smirked at this.

"Why, keep him on a leash of course!"

(GW: Page break!)

"I can't believe you lost Audhulma! That was Jehanna's sacred relic! Sacred!" fumed Joshua as he stormed through the murk.

Gerik had stopped paying attention to Joshua's ranting a while ago, not wanting to bring up exactly how he had lost it.

"Joshua…"

"No! I don't want to talk to you no more!"

"But…"

"No!"

"Wait-"

"I said n-"

Joshua stepped off a ridge and before he could get his balance back, tumbled into the river that flowed 10 feet below.

"Joshua!" cried Gerik, peering over the edge.

"NO!" cried Joshua as he was whisked away by the gently rapids.

Gerik sighed and ran along the river bank in pursuit of his angered friend.

C4n j00 5p34k l337?

A half hour later Gerik managed to find Joshua lying on the river's edge, unconscious from a nasty head on collision with a rock. Gerik gingerly picked up his friend and carried him to an open clearing not too far away. The sun was slowly setting as he lay down Joshua and took out his handy-dandy flint. He gathered some sticks and some dried grass and started a fire. He watched as his friend, soaking wet, shivered in the growing cold and knew what he must do.

With his heart beating fast, Gerik began to strip the wet clothes off of Joshua's body and laid them out to dry. He turned to look at his naked, sleeping friend and could feel his face turning red. He quickly scolded himself for looking and rummaged through his pack. He pulled out a spare cloak he could've lent to Joshua the previous night but had decided to savor having Joshua so close to him, and laid it over his thin frame.

He rested back against a nearby log and decided to give his eyes a brief moment of rest.

"Okay," began Ephraim" which direction should we take if we're to make our way towards the Tower of Valni?"

"Well, we're only a little west of Jehanna, so I vote we take a north westerly direction." Said Innes thoughtfully watching L'Arachael struggle against the tree.

"Ok then, we head for the north west!" declared Ephraim proudly. "But…now the question is how to get there without L'Arachael dismembering Innes…"

(GW: How indeed...)

Joshua groaned and rubbed the sore spot on his head, absentmindedly rolling over onto his stomach. A cool breeze went by and Joshua flopped right back over.

"Good to see you awake, sleeping beauty."

Gerik smiled as Joshua, utterly confused, stared at Gerik, wondering why he was nude.

"Where…where are my clothes?" he sat up and made sure he was completely covered in the process.

"Well, if you had heeded my warnings, you wouldn't have fallen into that river and you wouldn't have gotten soaked to the bones and it wouldn't have been necessary for you to be stripped, but you didn't so all those wouldn't-s became a did."

"How…how dare you! You've really crossed the line this time, Gerik; now give me back my clothes!"

"Nope, their still wet."

Joshua gaped at Gerik, who stared unconcerned at the frantic prince. Finally Joshua looked away and noticed the fired. He made sure that the cloak was wrapped tightly around his waist before he got up to get closer to the warm fire. Gerik too stood up and sat next to Joshua.

"Back off, I'm cold, naked and angry."

"I can fix everything except your nudity…" said Gerik smoothly and Joshua could feel his heart beat quicken. Gerik wrapped his strong arm gently across Joshua's small shoulders and stared down at him with mysterious, glowing eyes.

"I can keep you warm…" he whispered into Joshua's ear as his free hand teasingly worked it's way across Joshua's body, making him scooch closer to Gerik.

Joshua could feel his heart working in overdrive and the adrenaline course through his body as he gazed up into Gerik's relaxed face.

"I can remove that angry mood you're in, but I won't fix your lack of clothing material."

Gerik teased Joshua a little longer before he wrapped his hand around Joshua's red-haired head and drew his lips dangerously close to his own before finally pressing them together.

And Joshua didn't fight back.