Heart of Darkness

Chapter 19

Amelia, Naga, Sylphiel and Gourry had wandered the village, waiting for the stunned owner of the sandwich shop to procure and prepare the incredible amount of food they’d ordered. He was, of course, delighted, for if he pulled it off, he would be able to take an entire month off and sail the ocean blue if he wanted to. Now, after a little over two hours, they were heading back up the main road, hoping to find the food ready to go. Keeping Lina hungry was a Bad Idea, especially in her still somewhat fragile frame of mind. Naga and Amelia had both agreed that Lina needed her spirits kept up so that she wouldn’t fall into depression. Amelia had seen the fiery sorceress do that twice now. It had been more than enough.

Gourry was busy admiring his new leather pouch, thinking hard about all of the things that he could put into it while Sylphiel walked along and contemplated the map she’d bought, occasionally glancing up to make sure she wasn’t about to run into someone or something. Amelia and Naga were bickering loudly over where to set up the lunch, Naga in favor of eating in the relative security and shelter of the caves, Amelia preferring the fresh open air and pristine sand of the beach. Neither girl was managing to convince the other. Granted, that was no real surprise to any involved. Amelia may have grown into the role of Crown Princess, Gracia may have run away for years to come back as the still-generally scantily clad and boisterous Naga… but the girls had picked up right where they’d left off once things had settled back down. Sister’s privilege, they’d called it. No-one dared disagree.

The good-natured squabbling was interrupted by a villager with white hair and eyes as black as night. She looked like one of those mages that had burned out all of their magic so completely that it had drained all the color from her hair, and possibly have done it repeatedly enough that her hair might never return to whatever its natural color may have once been. “Um… excuse me?” She asked in a soft voice, not entirely certain that they could have heard her over the amazing amount of babble issuing forth from the two who looked like sisters.

Three pairs of eyes focused on her, the two falling suddenly silent, and she took a timid step backwards. “Eek. Um, I’m sorry if I’m interrupting you, but I was wondering… you see, I’m a traveler, and I’ve lost my stuff…? Some bandits attacked me…? And I don’t have a clue where I am…?” She seemed almost so timid that she was asking everything, even when she was stating it as fact. “And, well, I was hoping that one of you might have… a map?” She knew that Sylphiel had one. It was one of the oldest, and lamest, tricks in the great book of ‘How to Join Your Enemy Without Setting off Alarms’ written by X. M., TPal. To her complete amazement, it worked, the Cleric falling right into the ploy.

“Yes, I have one right here,” Sylphiel said sympathetically, stepping forwards with it. “You poor thing, here, have a look.” As she handed the map over, she added “Bandits, how awful! When did you eat last? Would you like to join us for lunch? We’re waiting for our order to be ready, and then we were planning a picnic, though we hadn’t decided where.” Being that Sylphiel was completely taken in, it wasn’t too difficult to imagine that the other two would be as well.

Amelia and Naga looked at each other in a sisterly accusatory fashion, and then looked to the young woman who was studying the map, both speaking at the same time. “We were trying to decide if we wanted to eat… on the beach,” Amelia finished as Naga said “…in the caves,” at the same time. What was that phrase? Hook, line, and sinker? Good heavens, Deep Sea Dolphin would have a fit if she ever woke up to hear that one.

Gourry, in his typical blonde-headed fashion, hadn’t even noticed the young woman and so had continued up the road and into the shop as the others had stopped. “Hey guys,” he called from the door of the shop. “Our food is ready! Let’s eat!” Sylphiel, apologizing, had to hurry ahead to keep Gourry from going ahead and eating it all before they could take it to Lina.

“Oh, I really shouldn’t…” the young woman said, turning to watch Sylphiel and attempting to hand off the map to the nearest person… who was Amelia. “Though, it is a lovely day for a picnic on the beach.” She watched the younger woman with innocent eyes, trying to sum up the small but buxom figure and therefore get ahead of her in the mental game of cat and mouse. She could fake a chance encounter on the beach…

“The beach it is!” Amelia shouted, giving her old victory pose, startling the ‘innocent traveler’ into dropping the map. When Naga gave her a dirty look and picked up Sylphiel’s map, Amelia grabbed the young woman by the wrist and took off at a run, map completely ignored. “Come on! Let’s go! I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer!”

As she was dragged helplessly along, the young woman reflected on how insanely easy it had been to get involved. Then again, she still hadn’t encountered Metallium or Greywords. If she could convince those two of her innocence, she’d be fine.

Once loaded with bags of food, the little group of (now five) people headed back towards the beach and the two (now three) they had left in the caves, a little mobile cluster of chaos as Amelia and Naga bickered back and forth once again, only this time over who was going to get what sandwich. Amelia thought Lina should choose what she wanted first, but Naga said that Lina would eat whatever they handed her. And while Naga was probably right, that wasn’t the point. It was something to bicker about.