"You did what ?"
Ruby looked at Nall with what could best be described as an incredulous look on her face. Nall just arced his eyes and looked back at her.
"I let her go to the plains. To the carnival, to be exact."
"Nall, I can't believe you would send our daughter on some wild adventure with any random stranger. And even after she tried that crazy stunt to cross the plains alone . For Althena's sake. What were you thinking?"
Nall rolled his eyes. "Ruby, you can't expect her to be held cooped up like she has been almost all her life and not take the opportunity when it would present itself. She's inherited so much from the both of us, it was just an accident waiting to happen. She is, after all, the daughter of the two biggest adventure junkies on Lunar," he said, grinning broadly. As Ruby looked ready to launch her protest, Nall held up his hand. "Look, I agree with you up to a point. She will face the consequences of her actions when we get home. Until then, though, I gave her the opportunity to have what we had so long ago; an adventure. While it's not going to be anything like the ones we had, it's going to make her settle down for a while and get it out of her system. At least until she receives her dragon aura."
Grudgingly, Ruby had to agree. She didn't, however, like it very much.
"But to just send her off with some boy. What if something happens."
"Like what? If the boy can handle three wyverns," Nall said, stressing the word 'boy', "I'm certain that there will be few problems. And this is the boy that saved our daughter's life no less. Look, Ruby..." He sighed and gave her a serious look, "Let her do this. I know how she must feel, and I suspect you do too." Grabbing her hand and holding it tight, he continued, "We have had the greatest of adventures, the both of us. It would seem so selfish of us to deny her this little trip."
He looked at Ruby. She eyed him back in return.
"Well? Am I right?"
After giving Nall a half-nervous smile, Ruby's expression turned back to looking worried. Nall scratched the back of his head and sighed yet again.
"Look, if you're that worried about them, why don't we just head for Vane in a couple of days and join in the trip? If they have left Vane by then, which I doubt, they shouldn't have been able to go very far. That way Nina gets to have her travelling needs satiated and you don't have to fret about them so much. They are just going on a rather short trip anyway. Besides, our mysterious enemies have been kind of quiet as of late. While I doubt they have given up on whatever they're doing, my intuition tells me that it's not very likely they'll try anything now. And on top of that, we get to go to the carnival again. It's been a while since we've visited the carnival."
Then he thought of something.
"By the way, there is something you should know of the person she's travelling with." He went quiet a couple of seconds, trying to find the best way to tell her about Nina's travelling companion. Making his decision, he continued.
"Ruby, do you remember the old guy in Horam that became the master of his own style of martial arts? Well, when he took his second student, he chose a little boy..."
The valley south of the plains stretched itself over a distance of a couple of miles between the mountains, creating an enormous path of sorts that went south - southwest. Much like in the Madoria plains, there were mainly great stretches of open grasslands with the odd patches of trees and bushes dotted around. The area was mainly flat, despite the fact that they were still up in the highlands and Illusion Forest, as well as whatever was left of Takkar, was lying much farther south, not to mention lower down. The light snow that now covered the plains was still absent here, and the air was definitely warmer, if only slightly.
On top of a little hill, a boy with a mane of long, white hair stood, holding a map with one hand and the arm of the other covering his mouth, apparently just been experiencing a series of sneezes. As he lowered his arm, Nina flew up to him.
"Hey Quinn, are you okay?" Nina looked at him with a curious look, tinged with a pinch of concern.
"Yeah. Nothing to worry about. Anyway..." he said, bringing the map up in front of his face and his attention back to the contents of it, "...we should actually reach the ruins of the old city of Takkar in about... four days. At least if this map is still somewhat correct." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "It would be a good place to spend the night before going into Illusion Forest. Even more so if some of the structure is still intact. Saves us the trouble of dealing with the tent."
"I guess we're going to need all the rest we can get before tackling that particular forest, huh?"
"Yes. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure what to expect here. Since neither of us have actually been there, it's hard to say if the old magic of the forest is still alive. I guess we just have to wait and see. What we will have to expect, however, is that the forest has grown quite a bit. How long did you say that it took your mother and her friends to get through the forest itself?"
"About six days... I think. Mom told me that they were delayed a bit by the plantella, but she didn't tell me exactly how long. I hope we don't meet any of them when we're in the forest."
"Hmmm... well, we have to get there first," Quinn said. Then, he folded the map together, put it into a pocket in his jacket and hefted the sack onto his back. "Full speed ahead?" He looked at her, grinning like an idiot. "Batten the hatches? Trim the main jibbits? Top side?"
Nina snorted in a very 'unladylike' manner, rolling her eyes, "You've never been on a ship in your entire life, have you?"
"Well, not since I was very little, no." His grin had not receded one bit. She smirked.
"Figures."
Three days later, as time went, Lucia finally obtained contact with Lunar.
The Blue Star's guardian almost cheered in relief, as she finally managed to get a hold of Kodai, the Star Dragon. Kodai, however, sounded as indifferent as ever.
<What do you want from me?>
Lucia understood that she would probably have to tread carefully when dealing with the Star Dragon. While he had been a servant of Althena, and a dutiful one at that, he bore no allegiance to the Guardian of the Blue Star. Knowing that, she hoped she could convince him to help her. She had to.
"I'll make this short." she said, as she knew fully that Kodai had little patience for small talks, "I'm asking you to prepare the crystal for a boy that will appear at the Star Spire in one or two weeks, and send him up to the Blue Star when he does appear. You see..."
She paused a little, considering how to tell the Star Dragon about the situation.
Quinn took his surroundings in with an eagerness he hadn't felt in a while.
They were travelling in places where neither Quinn nor Nina had been before, after all. Although Quinn was quite content with living the quiet life with his grandparents in their cabin, he had to admit travelling through unknown territory had its perks as well. And the valley was an impressive sight, all in all.
When all this was over, he mused, it would not be such a bad idea to go on further trips around the Silver star once in a while. And if Nina's parents allowed it, he could invite her along as well.
By now, they should be pretty close to whatever was left of old Takkar. With more ships sailing between Meribia and the other cities, almost no one traveled through the forest anymore. As a result of that, there was little need for inns there, which forced most of them to move their business elsewhere or close down for good. And with the current wildlife in the area, farming was not a particularly good option.
Thus, as the people left the city, it changed slowly to a ghost town.
In the distance he could see Bandit Butté, the mountain that the Wyverns were using as a their nest. With no settlements nearby and few people passing by, most of them avoiding that particular mountain as best they could, the Wyvern hunting had gone down to almost nothing. Because of that, Bandit Butté housed a rather large, thriving colony of the flying reptiles. A few dots flying around the oddly shaped mountain indicated that there were, unsurprisingly, wyverns there right now.
Feeling a light weight add itself to his right shoulder, he stopped and turned to Nina, who had just landed there.
"We're going to keep as far away from that mountain as we can, right?" she said. Although Quinn wasn't sure, he thought he could feel her shiver.
"That would probably be wise, yes."
Having presented her case to the Star Dragon, Lucia anxiously awaited the answer. The silence stretched for quite a while, and Lucia started having doubts about getting any help at all. But as she started thinking about what else to do, Kodai finally replied.
<Very well.>
"You will help him?" Lucia sounded relieved as well as a bit surprised.
<I shall prepare the crystal when it arrives and send him up when he gets here. However, I will not aid the boy on his journey. He must make it here on his own.>
Well, that was pretty much what was to be expected from Kodai. He respected strength and perseverance, but little else. She just hoped the boy had enough of both, so that he would get there.
Knowing that he neither expected, nor wanted, any thanks, she sent her acknowledgements to him and started the preparations for sending the transport crystal down.
"Would you look at that," Nina said, sounding surprised.
At their arrival at what was left of the old town, they had just stood there and stared at it for a while, It was quite the sight, too, with the nature reclaiming the area after the residents of the town had moved on to pastures new. Anything that had been made of wood was pretty much all gone by now, leaving most of the housing roofless and wall-less as well, and the old barricade was gone. Some buildings had managed rather well, though, mostly from the fact that they were built using mostly bricks, or even cement in certain areas. The temple, for example, looked pretty much intact, a few cracks aside.
All in all, the vegetation had more or less invaded the town. The wind, the rain, the sun and, lastly, just plain old time had given the old town a whole, new look. Most of the brick structure had gotten a greenish tint, due to the moss growing on it. The bricked road was hard to see due to the grass growing between it, although looked at from a distance, you could almost make out where the roads used to be. And, lastly, trees had grown up here and there, making the whole town look more like a forest village. One tree had, strangely enough, grown up between the four brick walls of what used to be a house, now without a roof. Its crown was easily visible over the walls, with the leaf covered branches stretching out over the top of the walls, providing it with a roof of sorts and making it the strangest sight the both of them had ever seen. Taking it all in, the two travelers turned towards each other.
"It looks kinda nice," Quinn stated, folding his hands. "Almost like home."
"Except you don't have a tree growing up through the roof." Nina giggled.
"True," Quinn said, lifting one eyebrow and putting one of his hands under his chin. "This'll do nicely, though." He took on a rather snobbish look on his face. "Shall we go check out the lodgings, m' lady?"
Playing along, Nina added, "Yes, let's do that. But I will not accept anything less than three stars."
Changing his voice to a butler's voice, Quinn continued, "Very well, madam. Oh, wait... let me carry that for you," he said, picking up the sack, earning him a snickering laugh from Nina.
"You silly boy," she said, playing along. "That's what you get for packing more than I can carry."
With their little joke session over, they proceeded checking out the different ruins for somewhere to spend the night.
"Slow down, Ruby," Nall rumbled exasperated. "I don't think Vane has flown off somewhere since last I was there."
For that, he earned himself a glare from the Red Dragon. She complied, though, slowing down and placing herself beside the larger White Dragon. With all business taken care of and their visit to the Blue Dragon ended, they were presently headed for Vane. Ruby had wanted to go to Vane the very same day Nall had caught up to her, but not wanting to be rude towards Aurora, she came along. Even so, she had been pacing a lot while she was in Aurora's cave. Three days had gone by since he had found her and told her about the incident, and now she was getting impatient. And worried, despite Nall's reassurances that their daughter was doing fine.
Getting no reply from her, Nall continued on, "Look, they're probably still in the process of putting the boy through all those initial tests of theirs. You know how it is in Vane. If nothing else, they're thorough. There's no point in rushing over there full speed."
"I can't help it, Nall," she finally spoke. "I have a bad feeling about this. Besides, I, too, would like to see my daughter again, especially considering what happened to her, If nothing else, than to put my mind to rest."
"Ruby?" Nall spoke with a voice that both chided and sounded concerned.
She sighed. "Nall, I... have spent some time thinking about it."
"And?" Nall sounded positively curious.
"And I might let her travel without us still, but I'll decide on that after I meet the boy you speak so highly of. Perhaps I am too protective of her, but she is our daughter after all. Oh, and Nall...?"
"Yes."
"I know I should trust your judgement more than I do. I'll try to do that a little more in the future, but ..."
"But what?"
"But I want you to promise me that you'll make no major decisions concerning our daughter without including me from now on. At least when they get as major as this one."
"Very well," Nall said, after a moment of thought. "I promise."
Finally earning himself a smile from the red dragon, he relaxed.
"Now that that is settled, how about we just relax. We're not hurting for time, so let's just enjoy the trip. Go a little easier on the wings."
"Feeling tired, Nall," Ruby added smugly. Nall sighed a mental sigh of relief. If she was up to joking and teasing, she had probably lost her stress factor.
"I was thinking of you," Nall added, grinning with an equal amount of smugness. "You might be the faster and more agile flyer of us, but your endurance is still lagging behind mine, and it's not like there's a lot of landing spots at sea, you know."
She chewed that little tidbit of information over, her expression slowly turning sheepish. "Well, I suppose you got me there," she said, laughing.
"Not yet," he added. "But just wait 'till we reach land. Then I will." His voice spoke of promises, its tone mischievously laden.
The temple was pretty much the only building that still carried its original roof, so that's where they had chosen to set up camp for the night. Quinn had used an old branch from a tree to sweep away most of the dust covering the floor in the area they had planned to use when the night came. Having done that, they went outside to make a campfire so they could prepare their supper. The area just outside the temple suited their needs just fine, and it gave them both a nice view of the town ruins below as they sat in complete silence while they were eating.
As they finished, they found themselves in possession of a couple of hours left of daylight.
"So... what would you like to do now?" Nina inquired. Quinn mulled it over for a while.
"I don't know." He shrugged. "Anything is fine with me. If there's anything you want to do, don't be afraid to tell me."
After a bout of more thinking, Nina shot up into the air, flying in front of Quinn's face.
"I know," she exclaimed excitedly. "Let's go check out the old ghost manor."
"The what?" Quinn looked strangely at her.
"The ghost manor," Nina continued. "There are no ghosts there, but mom told me of the time they had traveled through it on their way to Pentagulia. They even met Lemina, the old premier of Vane, there. Oh, come on, Quinn," she practically begged him. "It'll be fun."
"Sure... I suppose," Quinn answered. "Do you know where it is?"
"No, but mom said it was pretty close to the city."
"Well, we came in from the north," he mused. "Since we didn't see it then, it should probably be found somewhere close to the southeast exit."
"Great! Shall we go, then?"
"Sure. I'll just go get my sword first."
From the top of the peak, Kodai lowered his binoculars.
They had, it would seem, already reached Takkar... or whatever was left of it. Watching as they set up camp inside the old temple, Kodai deduced that they would try for the forest the next day.
Lucia had sent down the crystal, asking him to use it to send the boy up when he arrived. If the boy and the baby red dragon were this close, it would probably be a good idea to head over to the spire to prepare for the sending. The boy and his partner would -- as he had told Lucia -- have to deal with the forest themselves.
Kodai, the Star Dragon, put away his binoculars and headed back south.
The mansion was in surprisingly good condition, something that puzzled the both of them.
They were still some distance from it, that was true. But even so, it looked not only whole, but rather well kept. Still, there was something odd about the mansion itself. As they slowly approached it, they saw that wherever wood had been used, it looked like it was recently built.
And, as they came up to the large building, the mystery deepened.
The wood that made up most of the walls of the mansion looked not only new, but like the planks had been melted together to form a solid wall with no apparent damage to the wood itself. Even at the foundation of the mansion, where the wood joined the stone, it looked like the wood had been shaped to accommodate the stone perfectly, sealing it tight. And now that Quinn noticed it, it carried traces of...
"Magic!"
"What?" Nina turned to Quinn, curious about the certainty of his voice.
"It's made with magic," Quinn said, turning towards her. "At least I think so. I have the same feeling I had when we came to Vane. It's... hard to explain. But this house..." He put his hand on the wall. "...It... well, it hums . And it's warm, much like a living tree."
"Quinn." Nina eyed him suspiciously. "You're starting to scare me. How can you feel thing like this? I've never heard anyone talk of skills like that."
"I'm sorry, Nina, but I've never felt anything like this before in my life either. I'm just guessing it is magic, since, like I told you, I felt the same strange feeling when we were in Vane. It's not as strong, though. Not by far."
Nina still looked at him suspiciously. "So... what are we going to do now?"
"I don't know." Quinn looked towards the mansion's walls. "Find the door, perhaps?"
The inside of the mansion was built more like a labyrinth.
From the main hall, with stairs that went up to the second and third floor, several doors led into corridors with rooms placed along both sides, all of them empty except for the occasional fireplace in most of the bigger rooms. But the biggest mystery wasn't the lack of furniture... or decorations, for that matter. It was the lack of dirt, dust and grime.
"This place is really starting to freak me out," Nina said, flying close by Quinn. "Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to come here after all."
"It is a strange mystery we have stumbled upon here," Quinn answered, sounding less scared but equally cautious. "Who do you think is maintaining this house?"
"I'm not so sure I want to find out."
"Well, we haven't checked out the top floor yet. But if you feel uncomfortable in here, I guess we should leave," Quinn mused. "Besides, if someone really is living here, it would be impolite of us to look around, particularly as we aren't invited to do so."
With the decision made, they both left the mansion, heading back to 'town'.
During the whole trip, Nina watched Quinn cautiously. The recent happenings had spooked her a little, what with Quinn's reactions to the mansion, both outside and inside of it. And the fact that he could detect magic just like that, something even the mages at Vane would need to cast a spell to do, was unheard of.
She sighed.
Perhaps she was being a bit unfair. Aside for the fact that he had saved her life, something that had been a lot on her mind lately, he was also genuinely happy to have her around. Besides, he never treated her differently, even though she was a dragon. And this was a fact that would put most people at a certain distance from her in more ways than one. And she knew that even when she would receive her dragon aura, nothing would change between the two of them.
She sighed again, this time loud enough to catch the attention of Quinn.
"Are you alright?" He sounded concerned. Nina flew up to him and landed on his shoulder.
"It's nothing, Quinn," she said, managing a weak smile. "I'm fine."
Quinn turned his attention forward again, his expression unchanged.
Later, as the two of them returned to the city ruins, they spent the rest of the waking hours stargazing. Quinn was lying outstretched on the grass with his arms placed under his head for support. Nina had sat herself down just beside him, gathering courage.
"Quinn?" She sounded a bit nervous.
"Yes?" Quinn was grinning contentedly as he turned towards her, but with the nervousness of her voice, his expression turned to a puzzled one.
"I'm sorry..." she started, stammering slightly. Clearing her throat, she continued, "...If I've appeared a little... distant to you, Quinn. I guess I... well, what with what happened at the mansion and all. I just wasn't sure how to handle it. But..." She trailed off.
"But what?" Quinn asked, trying to put her back on track. "I'm not quite sure I follow you."
"But you... well, you..." she struggled with the words. "Some of the things you do, I guess it just... seems so strange to me. And I don't mean just today, at the mansion, but other times at other places."
Looking over at Quinn, she got a strange, confused look back. She continued.
"What I meant was that, when we were in Tomari, you acted kinda strange just before that guy attacked you. And later, in Vane, you talked about how you felt the magic of Althena, or something like that." She sighed, and looked at the ground. "I'd like to think I know you rather well, but... every time I do, you do something new, showing another side of yourself I never knew. I guess it just became too much at the mansion, what with the strange things going on and you starting telling me of the magic you felt there."
"Well, I don't really know how I do that. I just do. I suppose you can say it puzzles me as much as you."
"But still..." she continued, "...I feel a little bad about it. You've never treated me any differently, even if I'm a dragon. You even treated my dad like a person and not some high-and-mighty, all-powerful being like most people do. If you only knew how much he appreciated it..." The fact hadn't occurred to Quinn, or so it seemed to Nina, as she looked at his expression.
"So..." Deciding to wrap it all up, she said, "I guess I'm trying to say that I hope you'll bear me no ill if I've been a bit distant. Because I..." she blushed, "...love travelling with you, and I'm happy that you don't treat me differently because of what I am. And I really like you for that."
A half embarrassed grin formed itself on Quinn's face. "You don't need to apologize for that, Nina," he said. "I know my habits and manners might seem a bit strange at times, and I guessed that it might do so for you too. I guess I just feel..." he looked up towards the stars, silent for the duration of a few seconds, "...I don't know, strange... different, perhaps. I've always kinda stuck out in the crowds, and I know how it's like to be treated differently." He chuckled, and looked back to her. "I guess that's why I didn't want to do that kind of thing to you." Nina felt relieved hearing that... and grateful.
She giggled, as a thought came to her, "You know..." she said, "...my dad used to tell me about when he was the head of an orphanage placed inside Taben's Peak, long ago. Some of his fondest memories, he used to tell me, was after he got his dragon aura back from the crystal where Ghaleon had sealed it inside. While he was afraid that the children would be scared of him when they learned he was the white dragon, they didn't. One of them even started calling him an 'old, white fart' or something like that. And then he would pretend to be angry and insulted, when, in fact, he felt really good about it... felt accepted, I guess. He always gets a little wistful when he's telling me that tale. I suppose he... misses it. ...And them."
Then, she yawned. A few seconds later, Quinn did too. As soon as he got his jaw working again, he stood up.
"Well, I guess we should go get some sleep. We have a rather big challenge to partake starting tomorrow."
"I know," she said, flying up beside him. "We'll be fine, though."
And with the Blue Star illuminating the ground, the two of them made their way to the temple.
Ruby was not particularly pleased.
The sky was already darkening when they finally made it to Vane, only to find out that the patient and his partner had left the same day they had arrived, giving no clear reason as of why. Ruby would probably have left that very moment, but someone named 'Lina' had wanted to talk to them. Something about the boy who was accompanied by a 'little dragon', as they were told.
A woman appeared at the door, and both Nall and Ruby rose up from the chairs they were sitting on.
"You must be Nall and Ruby. Just remain seated!" she said, going over to another chair and sitting down. "First, I have to ask; do you know the boy?"
Both Nall and Ruby answered in the negative, although Nall had heard a little about him from when he had lived in Horam, most of it small things related to the tournament or connected to Yu-Shan, from which he told her. When he was done, Lina spoke.
"Well, apparently, he came to Vane to ask for our help in curing an 'unknown, magic aura related disease'. As is our usual procedure, we took an aura photography for study and was about to commit him to one of our open wards, when he left for reasons unknown." She paused, looking at them both. "Now, after careful study of the photography, I have reached certain... conclusions. He might have something of an illness, because there is something blocking his aura, quite possibly hindering its further development. How this is related to his illness is hard to tell, although the likeliness of it is probably high. But that's not the thing that puzzles me the most."
"Then what?" Nall and Ruby asked simultaneously.
"He states that his current wards, and also his grandparents, are..." Lina looked at some papers, "...Gowan and Maria, currently living on the Madoria plains. We are currently trying to track down information on their son and his wife, but our interest is mainly focused on his wife, because from what we gathered from the aura photo, one thing is for certain..."
She leaned forward, looking at them both before continuing.
"The boy is not human."
And in the edge of illusion forest, the boy in question and his partner stood, gathering the courage to enter.
"Well, this is it," Nina said, stretching her head towards the thick of it.
"I guess there's no avoiding this." Quinn sounded tense. "Are you ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be. Boy, this is one thick forest."
"I know. Stay close! We're going straight south on full speed. It would be far too easy to get lost in here."
So, as Nina flew closer, they both headed in. Quinn was almost running, but made sure Nina was in visible range. Much to both their surprise, the forest opened up a little as they got farther into it, but because it was so thick, very little of the daylight reached down there. It took a little while for Quinn's eyes to adjust to the dim light.
The forest itself, when viewed from the inside, was certainly an impressive sight. Quinn and Nina both stopped for a while just to admire the view. Most of the trees had grown to an incredible height, making the forest itself curiously roomy, the leaf-covered branches above forming a roof of sorts. Each tree had a massive trunk, its roots stretching out in all directions along the ground, sometimes making a little arch over it. Little, as in compared to the tree, though. Nina could walk under one, and she did, just for the sake of doing it.
But then Quinn insisted that they both continue the journey. He sounded strange, almost suspiciously aware of something, Nina thought. She didn't say anything, though, but it still puzzled her. She followed him, considering asking him about it, when suddenly...
...She felt it.
It was the same, strange feeling she had felt when they had been at his grandparents' place, when she had just lost sight of Quinn, right before he had jumped in from above her. It felt pretty much like a dull tingle at the base of her neck, but a little different. She looked around her, but seeing nothing, she flew up to Quinn, whispering:
"Quinn, I feel like something's following us."
He looked shocked for about a second, but all too soon his face slid back to the suspicious looking mask he had wore the last minutes.
"I know. Don't turn around, Nina. I don't want to let whoever's following us know that we know about him... or her... actually following us," he whispered back, not turning his head even an inch. "Let's head for that clearing. We can either lose our tail there, or perhaps find out who... or what, it is."
Nina silently agreed, and they both headed for the clearing, head turned forward but eyes and minds focused fully on the area behind. This proved to be a mistake. They both heard a grunt, and, their attention turned towards the front again, they found out that they had walked right into a group of albino baboons. To make things much worse, almost all of them were turning right towards them both at that very moment.
Quinn quickly racked up all information he knew of the albino baboons: Very large, very strong, extremely territorial and prone to kill to protect their turf, meat eaters (and not particularly picky ones either), usually found in larger groups (Quinn was counting at least seven of them now), excellent tree-climbers, and very fast, despite their size.
All this, he concluded, spelled out a whole lot of trouble. The baboons, on their part, looked very angry and quite possibly hungry. (No one had actually done any study concerning face expressions of albino baboons for quite obvious reasons.) And, as they started surrounding him, Quinn considered his options.
Sighing, (and inwardly cursing) he drew his sword. The baboons stopped, considering this new threat, but all too soon resumed their slow advance. Quinn took a stance, ready for the assault.
And then, he doubled over.
The baboons stopped again, apparently puzzled over this new turn of events. As Quinn rose up again, disbelief and panic written all over his face, the baboons just stood there, eyeing their target.
"No - no - no. Not now!" Quinn sounded desperate and afraid. "Dear goddess... not now." He wheezed, and doubled over again. And the horrible realization hit Nina.
Quinn was having yet another seizure, and at the worst possible time.
Dropping his sword, Quinn hunched together. The baboons had already now taken positions around him, closing off every possible escape route. It didn't matter much to Quinn anyway, as he wasn't even able to stay on his feet, much less run anywhere. He screamed in pain, prompting the baboons to halt their advance yet again. But by now, they were so close.
Nina couldn't take much more of it. She dove down towards one of the baboons.
"Get away from him."
Flying between the baboons, occasionally scorching them with her fire blasts, she managed to actually catch the attention of a few of them. But even so, the blasts didn't do anything more than singe their fur a little as well as the unfortunate effect of making them angry. A thick arm with a meaty fist swung at her, forcing her to keep at a distance. She flew over to Quinn, hovering over him as he was lying down, convulsing as the seizure hit him with full force, and stronger than ever before. But even so...
"Get away, Nina," he wheezed, looking at her through eyes almost squeezed shut. "Leave me..." He went into another spasm again, shaking from the pain.
"Quinn, no!" she almost cried. The baboons were almost within arms reach by now, and all of them had stopped, apart from the biggest one. He looked ready to attack.
"Go." Quinn wheezed again, fainter than before. He was almost unconscious, his shaking lessened to almost nothing.
Nina looked at the approaching baboon. He had lowered himself to a crawl and looked ready to spring at them at any moment. Her mind racing, she knew all too well that they couldn't expect any help, as there was not a soul living for miles around them. As her frustrations grew because of her inability to actually do anything to help him, she screamed. And while the baboon actually stopped, she could see it hunching down, preparing to jump at them. Not thinking of actually escaping, she closed her eyes. This was it. This would be where their journey ended.
The silence stretched for a while, suddenly followed by strangled grunts and screams. As she opened her eyes, she saw something incredible. The baboon that was about to attack them, was currently being lifted up high from the ground and looked like it was being strangled.
By what looked like a tree's root.
The other baboons, she also noticed, had turned their attention towards this new threat. But before they could move, four more of them were hit by what looked like huge thorns. In a couple of seconds, they turned even paler than they were before, and dropped to the ground like a sack of... well... Nina wasn't thinking very highly of them at this moment.
With the leader occupied by the root and four of them down by poisonous thorns, the last two ran for the forest. As they left, Nina heard a snapping sound, and the baboon that was suspended by the root dropped limply to the ground, its neck twisted strangely, apparently broken. It had happened so quickly, and Nina's mind was racing to catch up. As she slowly turned to see what was strong enough to deal with a group of albino baboons, she gasped.
It was a plantella.