Finale: How doth this world appear to thee? What dost thou seeth in it? For I can see naught but you in my eyes.
The rest of the party weren't better off, Nina's wings were already disheveled from all the flapping she did periodically to cool off while Ursula's let her hair down for some reason. The road was long...and the chilly night had turn into day without them knowing it. As the sandy winds picked up, they could only try to abate its aridity by covering themselves with anything that might shield them from it. Shyde wasn't far away from here, however, not exactly close either. The desert town had rose in popularity as merchants began to commonly choose it as a place to rest and restock at. Becoming the connection between Wyndia and Ludia, the town had prospered...and suffered. Now once again pulled together by the horns of war...it has become a site where one could easily obtain sandfliers to venture through the vast deserts. From afar, a blue streamer came into sight. Shyde. Had the ceasefire not been interrupted by the searches the Imperial army were making, it would be bustling with trade. "Shyde is where all the merchants with sandfliers go. With a little luck, we should be able to get one there." "Yeah, do you sell them?", Cray replied as he prospected the shop. "Well, sure, we've got them, but they're not cheap!" As the party followed the Manillo to the yard where the sandfliers were held, it became apparent that many had already been bought. "So, how much would it be?"
********************************************************************Money, Money, Manillo!**********************************************************************************
Sweating profusely under the desert sun, Cray struggled to keep his eyes clear from perspiration.
The pebbly tiles of the path, which stretched endlessly before them, wore down their crumbling wall of fortitude.
The very walls of this desert border were built to seperate the two nations whose interest had grown apart over time.
"You're looking for a sandflier?", the Manillo greeted as Cray stepped into the shop, away from the sweltering heat.
"Wha-?!", Cray could not believe his eyes with the figure on the price tag. The Manillo merely shrugged and made it clear that it was how they cope with supply and demand. "You know how everyone has been after one of these to flee to the capital. If you don't have enough money to buy one, you should ask one of the travelling merchants to let you ride on one of theirs." "If you wait, one should be along soon enough." Leaving the shop's front, Scias spotted a sandflier leaving.
"Drat! The 'flier's already leaving!", Cray cursed as he ran to catch the sandflier's attention. "You know, it's a simple enough task to stop it, instead of shouting like that.", Ursula mockingly spoke as she raced past and leapt aboard the sandflier. Scias followed without hesitation, his wide grin only making them doubt the true reason to his in-hesitance of it. First shocked, Cray's panicked face later reaffirmed the party's doubts. They were going to stop the flier their way. "AHHHH!!! Thieves! Hijac--", the voice was silenced after a gunshot.
"Whoa!! Mercy, MERCY!!!" A couple of crew members run past as the party moved towards the sandflier. Ryu paused for a moment, the plea for mercy overlapping with those he killed, before he distanced himself from the party slightly. There was a faucet of guilt that surfaced when he was not drunk with power. That he had enjoyed killing them at that point of time, and their deaths, to him, was all too insignificant.
"What do you zink you are doing, eh?" "What do you think?", Ursula replied with an irritated undertone, almost as if she was inconvenienced by him. Securing the flier, she stepped out of the cabin within, now awaiting the rest to get aboard. "You...YOU IDIOT! We aren't criminals!" Ursula took a step back almost instinctively from the roaring brute who now had his palm upon his face.
Cray was about to apologize to the owner of the flier when the familiar voice made him think otherwise. "It would zeem you 'ave a new line of work, yes?", the tied up Manillo sarcastically questioned. "Marlok!", Nina had exclaimed, though most of those who knew him had repressed part of their memories. "You go to zee Empire and come back as robbers? Well, at least you are keeping busy, eh?" Cray now gestured desperately as to avoid any conflict with a man like him.
Marlok wasn't a powerful warrior of any sort, but as the influential man he was, he could very well impede their journey by a great scale by his whim. "We're sorry, Mr. Marlok. We need to get back to Hesperia and we're looking for a sandflier to take us there. Would you be kind enough to give us a ride?" Nina asked in an apologetic and sweet voice, but she barely had any hope that he would. "If all you want is a sandflier, zere are ways to get zem wizout attacking people, you know. If you go to Shyde zey sell zem zere, no?" Scratching his head in an awkward pose, Cray replied concerning their plight, "Well...We...Um...We don't have that kind of money." "Ah, I see. I 'ave 'erd zat money is zee root of all evil, but in your case zee opposite seems to be true as well."
After untying Marlok, Cray almost immediately beseeched him for help, though Marlok made himself comfortable before he even bothered replying. "Please, Marlok...We need your help again. We've got to have a sandflier! We'll do anything you ask...Any job you want!" Cray didn't expect the day he would be wanting to work under Marlok would come this soon. "Hmph. What do you zink I am, a charity service? I am a busy Manillo yes? I do not 'ave zee time to be giving you a ride whenever you are needing one!" "Ugh...", Cray let a defeated groan escape his mouth.
Ursula gave Cray the 'I told you we should have done it my way' look and stormed out of the interior of the flier obviously angered by Cray's reprimanding. "Still...I would not want someone zat I know to become a zief. It would be bad for my reputation, no?", the Manillo spoke with no concern to Ursula's actions. "So, I will 'elp you buy a sandflier. 'Ow's zat? Ere--take zis." Handing Cray a passbook of some sort with the Manillo emblem atop, Marlok began to excuse himself. "Wh...What!? You mean it, Mr. Marlok? Thank you!", Nina first quipped ecclesiastically then cringed after Marlok gave her his trademark Manillo smile.
"I don't believe it. Who would've thought that greedy old trader would do something like that!?" "I know what you mean. Now that we've got money...Wait...How much is it?" Opening the passbook, Cray's eyes shifted from one side of the passbook to the other and back. "He...he...uses...TWO lines each deposit?!" No one in the From her blind spot, a hand grabbed her shoulder, pulling her back. Her fall was cushioned by another's body and her gun taken swiftly from her. "Wha--Just what are you doing!" Ryu merely pulled the trigger and shot into the sand but a foot in front of her. The sand stirred, rippling as something emerged from beneath it. Desert scorpions. Ursula blushed with the close proximity between Ryu's face and hers. Attempting to right herself, she found herself clumsily trying again and again with Ryu's arm still holding her down. "Tha--Thats enough! Let go of me! What..." Ursula stared as another scorpion rose from the dunes of sand, the only difference being their size. "What...is...that?!"
~~oOo~~
Walking on the outskirts of Shyde, Ursula made it a point to herself to cool her head.
Turning about, she found herself in the arms of Ryu.
The first fell to its underside within seconds, the shot from Ursula's gun seemingly having killed it.
Her voice fell to a whisper as a growing sound, the rustling of sand around them became apparent.
~~oOo~~
"You guys again.", the blue Manillo seemed almost ready to shoo them off in the knowledge of them not being potential customers. "We'd like to buy a sandflier.", Cray simply stated. "My prices do not fluctuate that fast and even then..." Cray only tossed the passbook into the Manillo's hands. The Manillo's eyes almost seemed to glint in the dark warehouse he was working in at the sight of the figures within. I understand that you have previously operated a sandflier. Would you show me your license?" "Alright.", Cray fished out a laminated card from his pockets. After clearing all that was to be paid, a very happy Manillo waved his goodbyes to them while they strode off to their sandflier. Cray looked away from the Wyndian's eyes obviously guilty of the said biased-ness he had against her. "We aren't criminals...we are wanted, yes, but we don't..." "I...d-did the s-same thing t-too..." From the other side, the lanky mercenary spoke, his face calm and seemingly, his head in the clouds Cray struggled to return the gratifying smile Nina offered him, managed only a wry one. "Where is Ryu and Ursula anyway?" "Ryu went to rescue the maiden in distress, Ursula, that is.", the party stared at the armor who simply shrugged it off. As he chanted, Ryu's sword began to glow as magic riveted around it, encompassing it in a glowing blue light. Lifting his face to meet his adversary's, Ursula noted one of his cyan eye's pupils turn into slit. "They who have drank from the dregs of which we Endless have rose from, return to thine place in nature." Ursula watched, amidst the sand and dust, the claw of the scorpion land crashing in the distance. The monstrosity let out a blood-curdling screech, its movements now set into a frenzy. Last be not least, the fact that he even chose to help her, to look out for her. Shaking off her over-competitiveness, she reasoned to herself...that it was only natural of him, a god. "This changes the very balance of Nature herself, flooding the world with energies both powerful and dangerous, and causes those beings easily influenced by it to change as well..." And he was, despite being a god, a puppet of fate, destined to confront him . For some reason, she was sorry for him and the burden he had to carry when he was but all that he was. Noting that she had been staring at Ryu, she consciously avoided meeting their eyes, now feeling uncomfortable with the feelings which accompanied thoughts of him. Her disdain for royalty had came together from many faucets. With their oppressive behaviour and their obliviousness to the hardships of life having lived in shelter at the cost of many other's basic necessities...and more. But this time, there was something more she couldn't put her finger on. The party was awed by 'their' combined efforts being able to bring that monster down... As she always did, she simply continued to follow him...to what end, she was no longer clear. Why was she even considering the possibility that she would be stay by their side? Looking towards Ryu intently, as if for an answer, she supposed her mixed feelings shown through. Nina observed Ursula's actions with a strange curiosity, and pondered on whether what she thought was right. The days seem to pass quickly when she travelled with this group. Day to night, night to day, no matter how tedious, the days were strangely pleasant, a new experience. And the night has fallen once more, on this strange land she too was unaccustomed to. Climbing to the cabin within, Cray looked uncomfortably around before he spoke. "Hey, you know, about what I said today..." As Cray apologized towards her, Ursula was keenly listening, to not him, but the conversation between Nina and Ryu. Nina sat beside the blue-haired lad as he watched the moving, yet plain, scenery, its only noteworthy decoration being the crescent moon. He had no signs of fatigue, yet his heavy-lidded eyes produced an effect that made him seem...so tired. She noticed how he avert her eyes, how he had always done so when she spoke to him since then. Nina wasn't the only one who noticed the changes Ryu though, Ursula too, kept her tabs on him. But she no longer felt that he would escape. All the while, she polished her gun meticulously. "Is it fine for you to leave him out of your sight?" The light coming out from Ershin's eyes gave her a distinctive ghost-like feature combined with her quirky look. Unamused, Ursula continued to watch the lone shadow, which stretched before her, shrouding the white sands.
"Thanks for waiting! Here's your very own sandflier!
"Cray...Weren't you a little harsh to Ursula?"
"Alright, alright...I'll apologize to her later."
~~oOo~~
"Stand back." Ursula did as she was told, visibly in shock.
The scorpion struck as Ryu released the charge from his blade, the force of both crashing against each other.
Ursula felt irritation at herself, time after time, being at the mercy of him...but much more at her own incompetence during such occasions.
Ursula could tell, he didn't know that...his other half, the one they mentioned so much, did.
"Ryu! Ursula!" Ursula's eyebrows knitted together as she heard the sweet voice of the princess.
"Are you all fine?" Ryu simply nodded and then look towards Ursula who offered a flat yes.
She hoped that the time she would part from him would come soon, any deeper into this affair that concerned her not and she could be dragged into all this together.
As the discussions settled down, the party made their way to their sandflier.
The barren desert shone in the moonlight as the lone sandflier drifted through it endlessly.
"Ryu...shouldn't you catch some shut-eye...?"
"I'm fine.", Ryu's voice was soft...and heavy.
It was a queer form of trust, she was trusting someone she was to capture, to not escape.