Time and Tides Archives

Luneth was glad to be out and about. He didn't want to stay in one place, and Dali seemed pretty slow to begin with. Almost like Gysahl in a way. It took them a while to get to the marsh, but it was obvious once they reached its wet, grassy edges that they were there. As Luneth tugged on his chocobo's rein, he was not at all surprised to hear what Refia had said. He chuckled a small one.

"They're just toads, Refia," he told her, but he stopped his chocobo and chased a few toads into the water so she wouldn't have to look at them until they found what they were looking for. And speaking of what they were looking for, Luneth needed a bit of a reminder. He turned to Arc, the cleverest of the bunch, and began to tote his chocobo again.

"What is it we're looking for again, Arc? A cave, right?"

The grass was very tall, and it looked to get taller.

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"Er, yes, I believe so." He fumbled with his chocobo's reins for a moment as he dug a small notebook out of his coat. While Refia had spent time working up money for the chocobos, Arc had spent some time going over what he knew about the world and figuring out where they needed to be.

He flipped to the appropriate page, checking what he'd written. "Right, yes. There's a cave deeper into the marsh, um, it should be obvious, from what I've read." He paused to glance up at their surroundings and frowned. "...It doesn't seem very obvious."

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While Refia had raked together funds for their journey for the chocobos, and they had finally set out, Ingus had long been on the road. He hadn't been able to find anywhere that would allow him to rent a chocobo, much less take one through Fossil Roo, so he had been on foot.

Fortunately he had stocked up on rations and curatives before heading out. The Mist spawned many monsters and made visibility very limited, so his adventure hadn't been an easy one. Not that any of the adventures the three had been on proved to be easy.

Thankfully the fights had been less within Fossil Roo, it then became a task of coercing Gargants to take him where he needed to go. Eventually Ingus saw light ahead and, after discovering that he thankfully hadn't been turned around, he breathed a sigh of relief. A little break outside the entrance wouldn't hurt, and if the other three found him before he found them all the better.

Honestly, he was exhausted and just needed to sit for a while. Hopefully without getting attacked by giant man-eating toads.

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"They're gross and disgusting!" Never mind that she'd had to become one at a couple of points, she would just never like the slimy things. It was such a girly thing to hate, but whoever said hating was rational? She hid her eyes for a moment while Luneth chased some of them off, only looking up when she heard him return to his chocobo. "I just don't like them." Even though she could turn people into them. Or used to be able to, at least, she hadn't tested that one yet.

The grass was definitely growing above her head, making her basically useless for navigation on foot, so she put her foot back in the stirrup and hoisted herself up to stand on the saddle as a makeshift lookout post, hoping her bird didn't startle easily. "I... think there might be rocks in that direction?" she offered, pointing towards the north and vaguely west. "It's kind of foggy, but it looks darker over there."

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Luneth just smiled, remembering how disparaged she had once been at the Tower of Owen. He also remembered the endearing Desch who had risked his life for them. He wished Desch were here now, and then immediately shook his head free of that thought, never wanting to bestow upon a friend a seemingly troublesome place like this "Gaia" as Rydia had called it.

Arc was right, though, the grass seemed to occlude anything "obvious", and when Refia had indicated that she'd seen something in another direction, he came beside his chocobo and up on his toes to see over the grass.

"I say let's go! If Ingus is there, we shouldn't keep him waiting."

He hoisted himself back up onto the chocobo's saddle, and gently snapped the reins to accelerate his feathery steed. Ahead of them, he called back.

"Come on, you guys!"

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"Oh - er - " Oh they were mounting up now. Well then. More juggling with the reins as he fumbled the notebook back into his coat, and then he also hoisted himself onto his chocobo and saddled up.

That was much better.

From the elevated position, he could see the outcropping of rock that Refia must have been referring to. He urged his chocobo to follow Luneth's, and the three of them were off, hopefully to reunite with their friend.

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It wasn't long before Ingus heard the sound of approaching chocobos, though given the terrain it was difficult to tell if those footfalls were from a familiar source, or yet another monster. Unwilling to be caught off guard in case it was an enemy, he dropped his supplies and Jumped as high as he could, mostly to get a good look at what was coming after him and to maybe skewer it if it was coming for lunch.

Chocobos! And some familiar figures riding them, excellent! His friends had very good timing. The Jump should give them a good idea as to where he was as well.

He landed and waited for them to come to him, no sense trudging through the grass to get himself trampled on accident after all.

That and he was still pretty tired.

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"Look!" Refia cried, pointing up. Ingus was very obvious in his winged helmet against the sky, and she grinned widely as he started to land again. Now they had an obvious destination!

And Refia flicked her chocobo's reins to speed it up, weaving around the grass and dodging a strange little hut at some point before coming - finally - up to the rocky outcropping, with Ingus waiting on the ground before it. And it was probably no surprise what happened next: she tossed the reins over her chocobo's head, ground tied it, and then ran the last ten feet to the dragoon to grab him in a hug, armor and all. "Ingus!"

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When Luneth had arrived, he'd been alone and accused of murder. Even with Rydia around, he didn't feel quite welcome. But then Refia had mauled him, to say the least, then he and Refia mauled Arc, and now it was their turn to maul the last Warrior of Light, he who saved the world with them and he who made Luneth wonder what could be wrong with him that he was so serious all the time.

He hopped from his chocobo, but waited for Arc. He wanted the very last group hug mauling process to be a great group thing; maybe with their combined force, they could knock down the fierce dragoon knight that Ingus had become on his arrival. He even made it a point to go at him extra hard.

"Come on, Arc! It's Ingus!!"

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That hut seemed pretty interesting; Arc made a note to come back and check it out once they'd reunited with their friend.

He didn't really want to rush Ingus and knock him down. He'd been on the receiving end of that already, and it was slightly unpleasant. But Luneth's urging was inarguable, and so Ingus got rushed, if a bit reluctantly.

Either way, it was nice to have all of his fellow Warriors of Light together again, after having been here by himself for so long.

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Perhaps, had he taken a moment to consider, Ingus would have prepared better for the incoming tackle. Now, he was a strong guy, he could handle one from Refia, possibly Luneth if it were only him, but all three? Not a chance. Especially with Luneth intending to knock him flat.

So all Ingus managed to do was look mildly surprised and slightly brace himself for impact before he was indeed flattened by the three Warriors of Light. This was far from dignified. Ingus tried his best to scowl and look annoyed but it really didn't come off as sincere, and a small laugh did escape him.

"Are broken ribs a new form of greeting?" He asked quietly, in a rare joke. Evidence enough that he was quite glad to see them.

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Refia wasn't intending to knock him flat, and even though she was strong, she was small, so she couldn't do that anyway, but with all of them? Sorry Ingus, but you're going down.

Refia didn't do too much better, though, considering she got squished between one set of armor and two red mages, and her initial laugh as she barreled into the dragoon was cut off as all of the breath was forced out of her body. It took a second to get it back enough to go "L-Luneth! I can't breathe!" and start pushing at him. She didn't want to be even smaller!

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Noticing that he had in fact, along with Arc, he had smushed Refia, he scrambled up to get off everyone. He rubbed his head a little embarrassed; even in this random place he was still exciteable and getting everyone into situations they probably didn't want to get into.

Again he offered Refia and Arc his hands to help them up, Ingus able to get up on his own, and knowingly would deny Luneth's hand anyhow. Ingus was chilvaric and self-sufficient like that, or so he had always thought.

"Hehe, hi Ingus," he greeted the mostly flattened knight, "I always thought you looked good as a Dragoon!"

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At the mention of injuries (joking though they were), Arc did his best to extricate himself. But he was still on the ground when Luneth offered a hand. He took it without fuss, rose to his feet, and proceeded to straighten himself out.

That taken care of, he smiled up at his friends and said, "Oh, yes, that's fortunate! Things might get rough if we had a party solely of mages. But, ah, that aside - It's very good to see you, Ingus."

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Indeed, Ingus was. Granted he wouldn't refuse a hand up in a more dangerous situation, but this he was perfectly capable of handling himself. "Thankfully I am, the armor protects well against your boisterous greetings." Ingus teased Luneth lightly back. As friendly as he was being, he must have been rather upset at having found himself stranded in a very strange land alone. He picked himself up off the stone and straightened his armor, looking as stern and serious as ever.

Thankfully the others weren't too far off. He cast a concerned glance over all of them. "You are all well, I trust?" Recently being smushed not withstanding. Noting that they were indeed, all mages of some type he was glad that he'd found himself in the armor of a Dragoon. Someone had to be able to take the hits should they find themselves in a situation where that were necessary.

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And Refia also accepted the hand up from Luneth to finish extricating Ingus from the pile. The armor may protect him, but there's no need to prolong the experience. She gave Luneth a quick smile for his help, even if he caused it in the first place, before turning back to give Ingus a very familiar and very thorough once-over, hands on her hips.

"You haven't been taking care of yourself again, have you?" You should be familiar with this look, Ingus. It is not a pleased look, and clearly you're going to have to come under her personal supervision until you can take care of yourself better. "You're too thin! And your armor is all banged up, I thought I taught you better than that!" Her eyes narrow and look carefully up and down - also not a comforting look.

"...You didn't bring enough supplies, did you!" It's not really a question. "You didn't think to ask how long this tunnel was and how many days you'd need to consider when you bought your food. Oh Ingus." Sigh. "You're absolutely hopeless."

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Luneth bit his tongue while Refia chewed Ingus out, but he realised what Arc had a bit late. While being a red mage meant lots of great magic and use with many weapons, the skills were so levelled out that it wasn't the most spectacular job. He'd been right; if Ingus had been another mage, they would have been horribly imbalanced.

"Refia, you don't look so thin yourself."

He'd bite it for that, but he didn't want Refia to dog Ingus when he'd just arrived, even if he could kind of see what she did. He just rubbed his head and thought about it. All of a sudden they wanted each other there, and poof!, in came Ingus. He wondered if Ingus had "fallen", too. The logic, of course, was still backwards, but he decided not to get into it.

"Well, we're stuck here... together, at least."

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Oh dear. He shied away from Refia when she started lecturing Ingus, mostly (but not quite completely) slipping behind Luneth and using him as a shield.

And then Luneth had to go and make a comment, and Arc shied away from him, too. ...Darn, there went all his options for discretely slipping out of sight. The only other option was running back to the chocobos and hiding behind one of them.

He stood there and tried to look innocuous, in the hopes that Refia wouldn't turn on him next.

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Uh-oh, Refia was being mother hen again. She didn't approve of Ingus' methods of being very sparing with his rations when he wasn't entirely certain how long it would take to catch up with them. He had asked, he had prepared as much as he possibly could, but he was still being as careful as possible just in case something didn't work out very well. Though he had a feeling Refia wouldn't listen if he tried to argue his side, so he simply set his face in a neutral expression and prepared to take the lecture without comment.

Then Luneth had to speak up... Ingus resisted the urge to facepalm, but did cast Luneth a brief thankful glance before deciding maybe it was his own turn to intervene. Wordlessly he grabbed his spear, gathered up his things, and brushed past the group. "We should move on." He said in his quietly commanding tone, nodding to Arc to come with him.

Poor Arc doesn't need to see that spat.

Edited Date: 2009-10-20 05:25 am (UTC)

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Don't worry Arc, you're not going to be turned on unless you say something far more stupid than Luneth did. Because that comment does, momentarily, cause her to go silent - but the expected follows that.

"ARE YOU SAYING I'M FAT?!"

So suave, Luneth. Why do you keep poking her? It just never ends well.

Refia only mother-henned out of love, really; it was partially a measure of how much they all cared for each other that she did it at all and that they let her get away with it. They all knew she was as quick to insult sometimes, but after being through what the four of them went through, there weren't any people she was closer to.

But still.

"That's it, I am NOT healing you OR COOKING FOR YOU for a week!"

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Luneth could feel Arc gravitate beside him, then sort of recoil slightly. He subconsciously knew that Refia cared for them and only knew how to express it best through nitpicking every thing. After all, if they didn't make it and Ingus did run out of food, then it really would have been dire. The problem was he didn't realise this consciously, and took Refia's masked mothering as a somewhat unnecessary action. Ingus did have a point; he was a knight from the very beginning, rigourous training was his precept, even if Luneth didn't quite catch the connection of Refia's purposeful, if somewhat misdirected, care. He was about to pat the back of his head in admittance and apologise, but Refia snapped back sharp.

What to do now, Luneth? Always quick to pick at Refia. And even if he didn't suffer from the lack of food, he knew that Arc and Ingus might feel uncomfortable with her glares directed to him, or her knack for ignoring him when she was angry.

"I didn't mean it like that."

That sounded just as bad - how else did you mean it, Luneth?

"I mean, you look exactly the same!"

That may have passed for worst. Luckily for him, Ingus saved him this time, as he passed them with his quick advise. But he didn't want to move forward just yet. He sort of wanted to stay close to Arc, too. Not that pinning him alongside his friend would make Refia's heat any less horrible. He just rubbed his head in embarrassment, and readied an apology when she calmed down a little.

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Arc practically jumped at the opportunity Ingus provided. He followed silently, trying very hard to ignore the explosion behind him. Refia cared for them all, sure, but that didn't mean Arc was any less uncomfortable around her righteous fury - especially when his brother had done plenty to deserve it.

... And speaking of Luneth doing things to deserve righteous fury.

This time Arc hid behind Ingus, peering out cautiously from behind the dragoon's shoulder at what promised to be a horrendous aftermath.

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Oh, Ingus knew why Refia mother-henned them. That was why he wouldn't argue that he was a trained knight and knew how to take care of himself. She did it because she cared, and frankly she did take care of them a lot better than they would have taken care of themselves. He certainly wouldn't let a little lecturing tarnish their friendship.

He subtly checked his own supplies for bandages and Potions when Luneth continued to speak up. Something told him he might need to remedy a black eye in a little while... Especially if Refia kept good on her threat to not heal or feed him. "Luneth..." A quiet warning, stop talking. Now.

He sighed, paused, and stayed close enough to intervene if that became necessary. At this point Luneth was really asking for the beating she might deliver, however. At least Arc was safe behind him.

This wasn't going to end well, was it?

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Their chocobos were right there, so Refia immediately made for hers as if she was going to just pretend Luneth didn't exist - but then she unfastened her staff from its holder.

And then she stuck it just in front of Luneth's legs right as he was walking.

It could have been a lot worse - being a blacksmith let her throw a punch with the best of them - but she was still too happy with finding Ingus to really do something bad.

"Now," she continued, pointedly ignoring Luneth, "where do we want to go? I don't want to sleep in this place." Too many toads, eww.

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