Xirysa Says: Wait, what? I know some of you are reading this and are probably like "What the heck is Xirysa doing?" I can explain. See, with school and all this other crap going on, I've left the original Seraphic Wings unloved. Which I really hate doing to 'fics. Plus, I've a better idea as to where to take that particular 'fic of mine. Ergo... I've got a plan. So here we've got what was originally chapter two of it (with a couple of tweaks as well). But still, I must apologize to those who reviewed this already. I'M SO SORRY. And aside from that, please enjoy!

Expectation

It was obvious that she was the richest mercenary in the company. Everyone knew that. The way she swaggered around asking people their wages, the (rather full) purse tied at her waist clinking merrily, the fact that she regularly bought new clothes and weapons at every town we stopped at… We all knew that she was rich, and we didn't care about that. No, what we cared about was the way she flaunted it.

"Ha. I win!" She told Dorcas when they were comparing their earnings.

"Hector paid a pretty penny for my services," she twittered to a very bored-looking Kent.

I heard Matthew and Wil talking about her one day. "One day I'm going to cut that pretty little purse from that pretty little girl," the blonde thief told the archer with a grin.

So what if I didn't earn a single doubloon? I was there for the adventure! She looked at me as if I had two heads and told me that I was the stupidest person she had ever met.

The rest of us—the lords and tactician included—all agreed that she was likable enough if she didn't keep prattling on about her financial status. Even her sisters agreed!

But then, I began to hear some stuff about her in camp. Rebecca told me that the miserly little wench had given Dorcas a large bag of money for his wife's medicine. I heard from that love struck fool of a cavalier that she had paid of her elder sister's debts. Personally, I didn't believe a word of it myself. Sounded like a load of hogwash to me.

A few days later, we found ourselves in a small town somewhere near Bern. I was sitting by Geitz (who was flapping his arms about like a madman, trying to keep a small bird away from him) and studying my map, when I realized that someone else was looking at it too.

It was that darn blue-haired harpy. Oh. Joy.

"Gah!" I fell over and glared at her when she started laughing. From where I sat sprawled out on the ground, I could see that she really was quite pretty. I mentally slapped myself and looked at Geitz, who had gone of and was talking to that lady paladin from Pherae. Looked like I was on my own for this.

"What do ye want, you miserly little wench?" She just grinned at me. This wasn't good. I looked at the map in my hands and hastily rolled it back up.

"Shut it, wharf rat. Miss Xirysa said that it was our turn to go on the supply run. She gave me the money already—let's go. And about your map? Don't worry—I've already memorized that musty old thing." Handing me a decent-sized purse, she took off in the general direction of town. I stuffed the map into my pocket and hurried off after her.

-x-x-x-

We reached the town a bit later and began the shopping. Actually, I did the shopping; all she did was look over my shoulder and tell me that we didn't need half the things on the supply list.

At the armory, it was: "The weapons are still in good shape—a little sharpening here and there, and they'll be good as new."

When we reached the vulneraries and healing things and other magic stuff, she said that those mages spend so much time with their noses in their books, they should memorize those spells of theirs so that we could save money instead of wasting so much on some silly paper and ink (except that she didn't exactly say it that nicely).

And then the trinket stands. Oh, the trinket stands were horrible. She made all the stand owners her enemies when she basically said that trinkets and the like were only for little children and lovestruck fools after she saw a darkish haired man buying something for his blonde lady friend. They glared at us and walked the way, and all she had to say about it was something about how some people have to show of their wealth by buying things for other people.

I blinked at her. This was coming from the lady who strutted about camp and paraded her wealth around? Talk about hypocrisy.

And it was getting a tad annoying.

"Argh, get over here, girlie. We've got a job to do." Not caring whether it was appropriate or not, I grabbed her about the waist and slung her over my shoulder (I'm not one of the strongest of Fargus's crew for nothing!). The lass then did something I never expected her to ever do.

She blushed. Pounding on my back with her fists in a pitiful attempt to hurt me, she managed to open her mouth and squeaked.

"Let go of me, you stupid wharf rat!" before letting loose a steady stream of expletives that would have made even the most foul-mouthed sea dog cringe.

It was pretty funny.

Ignoring the strange looks people were giving me, I finished up the shopping (which really wasn't that much) and set her down on her feet. She looked a bit unsteady for a while, but then she turned and gave me a look that reminded me of Cap'n Fargus whenever he found out that the ale was gone. But it didn't scare me none.

She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a loud wail—one that even rivaled a certain pink-haired banshee's shrieks. We turned to see what was making all the noise, and I heard her gasp behind me.

A child was laying on the ground near one of the food stalls. Pieces of fruit and bread were lying all over the place, and the kid was lying in the middle of it all with his hands over his head. A large man, who I thought was the stall owner, was hitting the poor lad over the head with a wooden ladle. I was about to go over and tell the man to stop, but she beat me to it.

Taking out her purse, she pulled out two golds and held them out in her hand. "Sir, I'll pay for whatever it is he's stolen." I did a double-take—was the lass serious? Or had the sun gotten to her head instead?

I guess she was serious, because a few minutes later, she was six golds, five silvers, and a copper poorer. and the stall owner was six golds, five silvers, and a copper richer and had a very smug expression on his face. Three of the golds went to the stall owner—the rest of the money went to the boy, who had looked at her as if she was Elimine herself. She patted the kid on his head and sent him on his way..

Before we began on our way back to the others, she stopped me and prodded me in the chest with one finger. "You even whisper a word of this to anyone, you smelly lout, and I'll make your life a living hell."

I grinned. "After seeing that, darling, I don't think I could ever believe you again."

She punched me in the gut and walked ahead of me. "Don't call me darling, either." I'm glad that she didn't see me smile when she walked away.

Xirysa Says: I apologize again, but... If you could, please review again? It would really, really make my day if you did. I'm so shameless. But it was still very fun to write. Thanks for reading!