Return of the Emblem Chapter Fourteen: Fight

[Toogee]

"Jam..." Eva kept hold of her sword, keeping it close, and gently put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "...I would've froze if he'd grabbed me," she said, after a moment. "You had the gall to talk back to him, right? I would've froze. I saw him... I was right next to the captain, when he was killed, and... Kozel terrifies me. I know you didn't stab at him, but I'm glad you didn't. You'd be dead, honestly. Any of us would be dead... So I'm glad you're still alive. Don't think you don't deserve something just because there's someone stronger out there. He was stronger than all of us, but we're going to keep out heads held high. One day, he won't be. And when that day comes, he won't be able to scare us anymore. You'll make that happen."

Her pep talk was a bit messy, but she figured she got the point across. And it was the truth. Jam was young; she had plenty of time to get strong, strong enough to stand up to people like that. Eva was sure of it.

"But...he was going to kill you," Jam struggled to say. "If he didn't get distracted, he would have thrown that spear before you even said anything. And...I didn't do anything to stop him..."

"He wanted to kill all of you and make me watch. Leave me...alone...in some random village. I should've died to stop that, but I couldn't. Better to leave that sword for someone that could."

At this point, tears began to pelt the ground, though Jam did her best to look away.

[Nanami Touko]

"Hey, hey hey..." Eva stopped Jam, bending over in front of her, trying to stare her in the eyes. If she wouldn't look back, she wasn't going to force the girl, but she wanted to look at her. "No one should have died." She wanted that to sink in for Jam. "I made a mistake, it got you in trouble, but luckily, we got out of it. And we all got out of it. It's a shame the captain went, but none of our group died, and no one should have died for us to capture one bandit. You're far too important for that." Maybe it wasn't the right time, but Eva hugged Jam, giving her a tight squeeze, before letting her go and giving her a bit of space. "You did marvelously to not freeze in the face of such a terror. And you fought like crazy before that! You should be proud of that."

[-Cynthia-]

The group seemed tired upon their return from their wagon gathering and Nadya was no exception. She rode listlessly on Luca for a time before finally noticing an unfamiliar face.

"Uh, did y'all pick someone up while we were gone? Or am I just bad at rememberin' things?" she rode over and asked Greta, jerking her head towards Rolo.

--

Liam furrowed his brow at what was transpiring between Joanna and the Sanctuarans. Amon seemed to be reacting to the emblem piece in an unusual way, which was not a good indicator of its stability.

How do they even plan to reach Sanctuary if it is in trouble? They would have to pass through all of Kigen just to get there... he thought to himself, not wanting to distract Joanna with words at the moment.

[Phoenix]

Wilderness

"Yeah you should definitely write him. I'm sure he'd love to hear from you. Even if you don't have a lot of connections you should look after the ones you do," Darcey explained. "Though I'm one to talk, I guess. I don't even send money or anything. I also let that Fizza woman fly off with my pegasus in the heat of the moment. Gods that was dumb," she shook her head. She knew Abigail was the best pegasus for that particular job, and she would have wound up agreeing anyway, but she wished she had put up more of a fight to keep her partner with her. Anything but a reluctant yes from nearly the get-go.

Wagon

She supposed she was going to have to explain sooner or later. "He's comin' with us for a bit," Greta began, "I was gatherin' some food in town and forgot just how many Wrathites there actually are while I was havin' a word with Rolo there. Long story short, they chased us outta town before Liam came to help. Also, I couldn't ask while ya were off playin' healer in the woods so I borrowed Luca for the trip. I doubt we could have made it outta there without'em, too."

His name was being mentioned so odds were he was being praised. Somehow, despite having a long face, Luca looked pleased.

[Mercakete]

"You should really stop harping about that," Norbert replied to his sister with a grimace. He'd been reluctant to say anything about it until now since, if it'd been Rizen out there, he'd be handling it differently -- that is, with more of a focus on going back and finding her -- but this time, her decided to. "You're only going to make yourself feel worse about it at this point if you keep that up. Better to think about something else until tomorrow, at least. Then, you can go out looking for them if you really want to. Everyone needs to rest first, though."

He'd bent down and picked up his tunic by this point and now slid it back on. "Unless it bothers you too much, I guess." Next, he picked up his body armor and began donning that. "There aren't any bandits around and everyone else is too tired, but there's nothing stopping you from training a bit. Helps me when I'm mad or worried about something."

[Toogee]

Jam felt a lot better after Eva's pep talk. Her desire to be left alone was perhaps a desire to talk to someone. As Eva kept saying, they didn't lose anything.

"I guess I did pretty well in that battle," Jam grinned as she wiped the tears from her face. "Do you mind if I ride with you for a bit?"

[-Cynthia-]

"I guess it was reasonable under the circumstances, but probably fair to let ya know that ridin a woman's horse is a little like ridin' her man if ya catch my drift. Though hopefully my future husband wouldn't be swayed by an apple," Nadya said casually to Greta, looking down at Luca and shaking her head in mock disapproval.

[Phoenix]

Wilderness

"Maybe you're right," Darcey frowned, "but I don't have my lance with me. Not much point in training with a weapon I can't shoot mounted." She gestured at the bow she had on her back.

"Maybe some exercises?" Cameron offered.

"Absolutely not," Martha approached on foot, "I know now seems like a good time to work out some stress, but don't forget, we're on the run here. This is a rest stop, so you should be resting. Even if you're not tired, you should be resting, just in case."

Darcey sighed. So much for that plan.

Wagon

Oh wow, nomads sure take their horses seriously, Greta thought to herself, forcing a smile. "Think I'll look into gettin' a horse of my own ... just so I don't have to think about that comparison again, heheh." Luca still seemed pleased with himself, so he either didn't notice the look Nadya was giving him, or saw through it. "He managed to get himself more than one apple, though if it makes ya feel better," Greta said, having just remembered the sizable dent in one of the baskets she and Rolo had brought back. Apples didn't fall out from the center quite like that; Luca had grabbed and eaten half a dozen of them on the way back. "I'm a bit annoyed about it, but he saved our butts so I won't complain.

Joanna focused her attention, throwing herself as far south as she could. Her first attempt was unsurprisingly, unsuccessful. "Fisherman ...?" she mused aloud. She pushed briskly past the vision of a boat out on the water. "Rice ..."

"Rice?" Malik echoed. "Sounds like you're in Kigen. Keep going, farther south."

She continued on past the bag of rice being thrown atop a hefty pile and continued on, hoping to cover much greater distance this time. It seemed as though the farther she went, the hazier the visions were. She wondered if she could make it as far as Rex-Avaz before her vision was completely useless. As the next vision appeared, she flinched. There was someone beneath her. When she saw the euphoric expression on the woman's face, she jerked backward to escape and fell back.

"What?" Malik winced.

"I didn't want to see that," Joanna yelped, her face beet red. "Can we try something else, please?"

Malik blushed slightly, having a pretty good idea of what Joanna had run into. "What else can we do?"

[Ether]

Angelica couldn't help but snicker at Joanna reeling back from her own vision, causing both herself and Malik to be adorned with a heavily flustered blush.

"You seem a little flustered, Joanna. Something wrong?" The adept teased with a thinly veiled smirk.

[-Cynthia-]

"He's gotten me outta quite a few scrapes, so hard for me to stay mad at him either. Plus he's pretty darned cute," Nadya admitted, giving Luca an affectionate pat.

"Havin' more mobility in the group might not be a bad idea, but we gotta keep an eye on our food supplies with all the other mounts. Should be easier with the wagon if we can find the time to stock up," she suggested.

--

Liam felt some secondhand embarrassment on Joanna's part and frowned. "I don't believe there is much of anything to do at the moment. Even if we knew what was going on in Sanctuary, we have no way of getting there anytime soon. I realize that having your homeland in danger must be troubling for you, but I fear this will only distract us from the task at hand," he spoke up.

[Nanami Touko]

"You did great, Jam. Not just well." Eva smiled and gave her a light pat on a the back, actually handing her the sword she'd dropped and taking a few steps ahead of her. "You head on over to Sasha; he likes you, he'll let you on! I've gotta ask the guys a question, first."

Leaving Jam to that, Eva jogged up to the lead wagon, hopped onto the back, poked her head in and-- "Uh, what's going on?" To see the bird of all people with a blush like that, there was only one conclusion she could come to, especially with a certain someone there. "Angelica, what'd you do?"

[CobyTheGoober]

Rolo was pretty tense, and tried to stay unnoticed for a bit. He felt really out of place around the group of people he accidentally gotten involved with. But now that everything seemed to be calm, and that the discussion about Rolo and whether he should return home, and the Wrathites simmered down, he was able to calm himself (though he still felt awkward with what happened so far). With what was happening now he didn't bother to say anything, as he felt it unnecessary, so he just stood back and tried to not look uneasy.

[Mercakete]

Norbert was going to point out that he didn't necessarily mean training with weapons -- really, he was more thinking along the lines of conditioning or unarmed combat -- but here came Martha, forbidding exertion. While Norbert himself wasn't planning on working out -- he was too tired for that right now and really did intend to take a nap, if he had the time -- he was still annoyed by her barging in on their conversation like this and taking away what might have been a good release for his sister.

"Are you even a ranking officer?" he asked the newcomer. He also wondered why she'd headed over at that moment. Did she have something to say, or had she just overheard them? One question at a time, though.

[ArsTheurgia]

Alphonse was feeling more at ease than he had been in a long time. They were finally on the move, and the wagon hadn't yet been assaulted by bandits or anything. That, and he'd been around the group long enough to feel a bit more comfortable around them; not actually comfortable, that wasn't something he did, but now he was actually considering being social. Kind of.

Alphonse spotted Rolo and shrugged a bit. They were kinda-sorta acquainted, so why not start there? He ambled over to Rolo. "Hey. How's things going?"

[CobyTheGoober]

Rolo looked over at Alphonse. He was not expecting any sort of conversation to brew between Alphonse and him. "Uh... fine I guess? How about you?" Rolo expected that Alphonse was just trying to make small chat, so he kept his response brief.

[Phoenix]

Wilderness

"Seeing that our group is all on its own," Martha crossed her arms, "yes. Well, technically. Darcey and I are both the same rank, though I was promoted before her. Issues of seniority rarely come up, though." She let out an irritable huff. "Besides, my suggestion's perfectly sound. We can't go wasting our energy trying to feel better. If we make it back, there'll be plenty of time for that."

Wagon

"This was a terrible idea," Joanna said, her face contorted as if she was about to cry. "I didn't want to see anything like that."

"It wasn't a bad idea," Malik bit out, "we just don't have combination of people and tools for it. You're obviously too upset by seeing someone bathing, though, so I guess we really will just have to wait and see." The trouble was with Amon, though ...

"They were not bathing," Joanna squeaked.

Her meaning didn't reach Malik right away; he was too preoccupied trying to get a read on Amon, who looked like he might actually be unconscious. That would explain why he hadn't said anything in almost a minute.

[Mercakete]

Norbert took in this information, then almost indifferently looked over to his sister. "Sounds to me like you can do what you want. If the agitation's going to wear you out more than a workout, then see if practicing some unarmed fighting helps you focus again."

Hopefully that wording would help Darcey's case. Either way, Norbert went back to making sure his armor was secure.

[Toogee]

Jam took back her sword and sheathed it immediately. As Eva said, she would be better one day. There was no point in giving up now. But the next time she would need to use her sword, she wouldn't hesitate. She couldn't expect everything to work out in the end every time. When it didn't work out, she would be ready.

Jam walked to Sasha, seeing that Hoshi was still a passenger, though perhaps a bit sleepy.The dancer was careful not to disturb her, so she opted to wait beside the wyvern rather than climb on.

[Ether]

"How rude, I didn't do anything." Angelica replied flatly, flicking Evangeline on the forehead as she made her statement.

"Joanna was trying to use her new power to look into Sanctuary, because Amon has a sudden bad feeling, and the Emblem seems to be involved. She's not used to using it yet, so she ended up looking through the eyes of some couple fucking eachother's brains out, right?" Angelica continued, quite nonchalant about the whole ordeal. As expected, really.

[Nanami Touko]

"Ah... W-Well... That's a bit embarrassing." Eva blushed a fair bit as well, not expecting such a plainly stated thing on that sort of subject. "So, uh, yeah, I..." She coughed, clearing her throat. She was sure Joanna wouldn't take well to that statement either. "I was wondering if we're, uh, gonna be flying throughout the night, or making a pit stop. Gotta get to knowing so I can let the passengers sleep, or not..." Her eyes drifted to Angelica for a second, turning away to stare at the wall of the wagon right quick.

[Phoenix]

Wilderness

"Can't you just take a nap or something?" Martha said, first looking at Darcey and then scowling lightly at Norbert.

"Maybe. It's not really good for the unit to be arguing for no reason," Darcey frowned.

Wagon

Malik had been about to gently tap Amon's cheek to get him to wake up when he heard Angelica's explanation. Now he realized why Joanna was really so against the idea of trying to reach out so far. "I guess ..." his shoulders slumped and he sat back, away from Amon, "I guess we'll just have to hope nothing major happened back home. Amon isn't even awake anymore so I doubt we have to worry about him, for now."

"When did he fall asleep?" Joanna cringed; if Amon was unconscious, it hadn't been induced naturally, and that was never a good sign.

"I don't know, I was focusing on your descriptions, trying to help you reach Sanctuary," Malik shrugged somberly.

[Mercakete]

As long as Darcey was deciding it for himself, Norbert didn't care if she chose to nap or train. He just went back to strapping the first of his gloves on. Thinking about it, though, it sounded like they were going to have enough time for napping. after all, it was Martha who'd suggested it. That was good news, and whether his sister chose to take up Martha's suggestion or not, he sure was.

As he finished up with the first glove and began working on the second, Norbert asked Martha, "So, was there something you wanted to tell us, or was this all about stopping Darcey from working out?"

[Nanami Touko]

"Malik, Joanna, anyone? Are we stopping tonight?" Her question seemed to have gone unnoticed. The situation with Amon being out seemed to be a bit problematic, but she did need to know.

[Phoenix]

Wilderness

"Nothing important," Martha shook her head, "just sort of making the rounds before I sit down and rest, myself."

Darcey wasn't sure how she was going to get any sleep like this. No firm obvious patches of ground that weren't covered in loose or embedded rocks, tree braches and the like, and there were plenty of painfully protruding tree roots to worry about. The insects and other small creatures were practically an after thought compared to the terrain, itself. That was when she noticed one of the riders dozing off on her pegasus. She looked silly like that, but at least she was at least a little comfortable ... more than Darcey herself would be here on the ground. "Maybe I should just be sentry for now ..."

"The more we have the better off we'll be," Martha nodded her approval, "but don't move around too much. It's not just to save energy; movement's the first thing an enemy will notice if they get close."

Wagon

"I ... I don't know, actually," Joanna replied. This group's hierarchy had always been a tangled mess, and with Amon out cold, it was getting clearer just how bad it really was. "I guess it's up to Glen? He's the one driving, and he probably knows how well the horses are doing, right now."

"If we can keep moving through the night," Malik chimed in, "then we probably should."

[Mercakete]

After Martha's explanation, Norbert didn't see the conversation as relevant to him. So, it was largely ignored. Towards the end of it, he'd finished with his second glove and now just tied his forehead guard back into place. As he finished the knot, he informed, "Well, while we have the time, I am getting some sleep."

Rizen had already wandered a couple paces away and was grazing. As for Norbert, he just laid down where he'd just been standing. Now partially obscured by some of the lower-growing plant life, he told those nearby, "Wake me up when it's time to go again or if something attacks us."

After that, Norbert began to fall into his slumber. Passing thoughts as his consciousness faded included how nice it was to be in the mountain forests again, nearly just like how things were before all this craziness with emblem pieces, Wrathites, vasili, and Weyland's uncanny wait staff.