volieredeatori | Ancient Future (working title)

She supposed she ought to have expected this, considering her own reaction, but Sera was finding it much, much harder to convince Emilia that she was telling the truth about Mika than she had even found it to bring the subject up in the first place.

"I'm telling you, you probably fell asleep and had another weird dream." The two of them had stopped in at the cafe for a quick snack, at Emilia's request, and now the blonde girl was licking the remains of a sugary pastry off her fingers as they walked. "It's kind of weird, though, that we had the same exact dream before - no, it's not even a dream anymore, it's a nightmare. Seeing people get killed is not my idea of a good dream," she grumbled, a shiver running down her spine. "But, I mean, what else could it possibly be? The Ancients have been dead for who knows how long, and even if this whole possession thing were possible - which it's not, no matter how you look at it - why would an Ancient want to possess someone like me? Me. I'm not exactly prime material here." She laughed, licked her fingers again and wiped them on the napkin she held, tossing it into a trash incinerator bin as they passed. "Don't worry about it, Sera. You'll feel better after a few days. I can't blame you for being disoriented."

Sera wrapped her arms around herself with a softly frustrated sound, torn between anger and relief. Things would certainly be simpler if it were all a dream, and it would be all too simple to put it aside, brush it off and dismiss it as tricks of an overtired, wild imagination...but at the same time, something about going the denial route just felt intrinsically wrong, and she couldn't bring herself to do it. "I don't dream like that," she finally responded, figuring that safe enough to say without sparking any inadvertent fits of temper. "I'm not saying that you're not making any sense. You're making too much sense. If that even made any - you know what, forget it, I'm just going in circles." She smiled weakly at Emilia's laughter, lowered her arms and shook her head sharply a few times. "Emilia, listen - I'd love to just think it was all a dream and forget it. But I can't. I just can't. It's not the way my mind works."

"You have a weird mind," Emilia said teasingly, reaching over and tapping her knuckles very gently against the side of Sera's head. "Like I said, don't worry about it. I'm sure you'll forget all about it once I show you your ship. It's pretty impressive for such a little thing."

Though she wasn't really sure what to think at that, Sera did have to admit when they stepped onto the teleporter and were whisked away to her personal ship that it was, indeed, rather impressive for its size. A wide windscreen wrapped around the front, affording a clear and expansive view of the starfield outside; consoles and terminals displaying ever-changing readouts that made her head spin lined the walls along either side; and the majority of the open deck was taken up by what resembled nothing so much as a holographic projector planted right smack-dab in the middle of the ship, displaying a slowly and serenely rotating view of the three planets of Gurhal amidst beams of cold bluish light. She'd never seen anything like it before, but even in all her limited experience, there was really nothing else she could call it but strangely pretty. "So...this is mine?"

"All yours," Emilia nodded, throwing herself into the closest chair and sprawling out in the most unladylike way she could manage. "Well, ours, since I'm your partner, but you're the leader - so yeah, technically yours. Details, y'know? Don't sweat it."

"Devil's in the details," Sera muttered, but followed Emilia's example, though she seated herself much more gingerly and jumped right back up again when the console she'd sat down at began to beep insistently.

Emilia giggled. "That's the comm line. It's probably Chelsea calling to fill you in on the stuff you can do from here." Then she sobered. "Or with my luck, it's the boss wanting to yell at me and ask why the heck we're not out on a mission yet."

Sera rolled her eyes and gazed cross-eyed at the console for a moment, puzzling out the controls. "Just let him try," she said finally, keying the line open and relaxing despite herself when it was Chelsea's smiling face that appeared on the viewscreen.

"Allo, girls! C'est magnifique to see you in such good spirits!" Chelsea winked, pursed her lips and blew Sera and Emilia a playful kiss. "I am so terribly sorry to interrupt you while you are right in the midst of your recherche, but I have a small errand for you, yes? Come to see me tout de suite, if you please." She gave a small wiggle of her fingers and cut the connection, leaving both girls looking at one another in silence, Emilia's gaze apprehensive and Sera's just confused; neither moved, or even spoke for a long moment, until Sera finally shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose, turning to the teleporter. She had a sinking feeling about this 'small errand', and she was sure it showed.

Emilia, however, made no such attempt to hide her own thoughts. "Bet you a hundred meseta this has got something to do with the boss."

"Oh, go buy your own pastries," Sera shot back automatically, the image of Emilia staring wistfully at the cafe's most cavity-inducing (and equally expensive) offering lingering in her head and making her smile.

As it turned out, however, Emilia was exactly right; Chelsea nearly pounced on them when they entered the Little Wing office, hugging them both tight around the shoulders, kissing their cheeks and then pressing a piece of paper into Emilia's reluctant hand. "So good of you to arrive promptly, mes petites chéries! This, you must deliver to Monsieur Boss right away. I would of course do it myself, but euh, he is...shall we say...très grognon today?" She smiled apologetically, clasping her hands before her in a play of coquettish innocence. "But I trust you can handle his temper, yes?"

Sera privately thought that her idea of handling it would be to just put her fist through his teeth, but Emilia - probably wisely - was reading over the paper instead, likely so she wouldn't have to think about said temper. "...A receipt? For a lingerie shop in Dagora City? What the - does he really think he can get the brass to reimburse him for this?! And for that matter, gross!" she ended on a revolted sputter, shoving the receipt at Sera instead and wiping her hands roughly on the front of her skirt. "Ew, ew, ew, ew. I need new hands..."

"Bleach," Sera supplied, gripping the strip of paper by its very corner and staring distastefully at it. "Lots of bleach. And very hot water."

Emilia pouted. "I still think new hands is a better idea."

"Of course they will not pay," Chelsea cut in, beaming now, her eyes closed in a smile of utter delight. "That is why you must deliver it to him, you see? Tell him l'argent must come straight from his pockets alone! Go on now - shoo, shoo, get it over with, yes?"

"I think she just gets a kick out of annoying him," Emilia whispered confidentially to Sera once they were out of Chelsea's earshot, and it was all the redheaded newman could do to suppress an agreeing fit of giggles.

It became all too easy to forget their amusement, though, the closer they got to Kraz's desk; even halfway across the office, the acrid stench of absolute rotgut was becoming all too obvious in the air, and up close, it was downright suffocating - Sera wasn't sure she'd ever be able to breathe properly again, but she steeled herself and managed to keep her eyes from frantically watering only through a supremely epic effort of willpower, holding the receipt out at arm's length and dangling it as close as she dared to risk any of her appendages around a cranky beast. "I believe this is yours," she managed quite evenly really, though it lost its effect when she took a bit too deep a breath and started coughing.

"Hn? Gimme that." Kraz swiped the receipt from her hand, stared at it bleary-eyed. "Yeah, this is mine. One of my receipts. The hell are you doin' with this?"

"Informing you that in no way, shape or form can this be considered a business expense, and the money's coming right out of your pockets. What did you think I was doing with it, holding onto it for my health?" Sera retorted once she had her breath back.

"Smart-ass little..." Trailing off into grumbling, Kraz slouched back in his chair and eyed the two balefully. "Of course it's a damn business expense. Sweeten the deal, if y'know what I mean. But enough about that, I got a job for you two."

Emilia finally seemed to have regained enough of her coherency to speak around the stifling fumes, planting her hands on her hips and giving him a narrow-eyed glare. "What, running some stupid little errand for you? Cleaning up the mess you've undoubtedly left in the kitchen again? Trying to convince the brass to pay up in your place? No way! Forget it. Not doing it."

"Keep that back-talk up and I'm cuttin' you off the payroll for good, brat." Glowering, Kraz dragged himself upright in his chair (with what looked like a painful amount of effort) and grabbed a datapad off the corner of the desk, shoving it at the two of them. "This guy's gone missing. Wurley Kokov, male beast, age fifty-one. I want you two to go out and find him." He popped his neck, groaned, and added as an afterthought, "And while I'm at it, I want a million meseta and a beer..."

For a split second, Sera saw red, and before she even realized it, she was lunging across Kraz's desk to fist her hand into the front of his shirt and glare right into his face, never mind the overpowering reek of alcohol assaulting her senses. "Alright, you goddamn bastard, look. I don't know what the hell there is between you and Emilia, and I don't want to know, but from here on out, things are going to damn well change. You're insulting my partner, you're insulting me, and frankly, I am tempted to tell you to just take your goddamn job and shove it up your ass right alongside that drunken head of yours. But since I'm feeling charitable, I'll let it go. Just. This. Once." She gave him a firm shake and then let him drop back against the chair, settling back onto her feet and giving him a flashing turquoise glare. "So start explaining while I still have the damn patience to listen. Who's this Kokov guy and why are we supposed to be going after him?"

"He, er..." Kraz sighed, deflated somewhat and rubbed the back of his neck, visibly rattled by Sera's display of sheer fury. "Fine, fine, I'll give it to you straight. Kokov owes me big time - business deal gone wrong, y'know, and he bailed with the money. Money I could be using right now to pay off this damn bill," he said sourly, flicking the receipt back and forth a few times before flinging it down onto the desk, cutting Sera off as she narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to interject. "You're gonna say no, I know it already. I can see it in your face. But chew on this one for a couple minutes. This--" He jabbed at the receipt. "Is gettin' me into a lot of trouble. Just like I can get you into a lot of trouble. If I take the money out of my own pocket right now to pay this off, then I don't have a damn meseta left to cover the costs of dragging your half-dead carcass out of that relic site - and that reflects on you. You get me?"

Sera's mouth opened and closed a few times. The man was an utter bastard, but even angry as she was, she had to rather grudgingly admire how dangerously persuasive he could be. "That's blackmail."

"You're damn right it is." Kraz huffed and swung his feet up onto the desk, leaning back in his chair - he didn't quite look smug, but there was definitely a bit more confidence about him now. "You done thinkin' it over?"

Taking a deep breath, Sera considered her options, then let the air out on a disgusted sigh. "...Just hurry up and give us the details on what we're doing."

"That's more like it." Kraz tapped the edge of the datapad with a nail. "Last place Kokov was seen was in the Crodog region of Moatoob. Last place I'd expect to find a guy like him - no bars, no casinos, no nothin'. But there's a good chance he's still there." He huffed a sigh, pretended not to notice the way Sera and Emilia turned away from the alcohol fumes in perfect synchronism, and rolled his eyes up to stare at the ceiling. "If you want my opinion on this whole situation - you know, I don't care if you do or not, I'm givin' it to you anyway. There's something damned fishy about all this. Yeah, he's a flaky, no-good bastard who gambles and drinks his whole damn life away - stop looking at me like that, I don't gamble - but it's not like him to just up and vanish. I ain't gonna sugarcoat it for you, I'm damn nervous about sending the two of you down there. But, well...not like I got much choice."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Emilia eyed him suspiciously.

Kraz huffed another sigh. "Figure it out for yourself. Now get goin' while there's still a chance he is down there."

"Whatever. You'd probably suffocate us in those fumes if we stood here much longer anyway. The hell did you do, bathe in beer?" Sera retorted, and stalked out of the office, Emilia in tow, while Kraz was still trying to come up with a proper insult to fire back at her.

The trip to Moatoob was surprisingly short (even if it did end up with Sera clinging to her seat and cursing a few times), and soon their ship was touching down in what resembled nothing so much as a gigantic parking lot, much to both girls' consternation and puzzlement; as usual, it was Emilia who addressed the situation, her lips pursed into a frown and a hand up to her chin in a posture of deep thought. "From what the boss said, I was expecting some empty desert out in the middle of nowhere, not...this. Ugh, I wish he'd give us all the details beforehand, y'know? Trying to find someone in all this mess is gonna be like finding a needle in a haystack! What's with all the people, anyway?"

Sera rubbed an ear. The all-over chatter was really getting to her, just like in the relics site. "No clue. I'd never even heard of this region before today." Which pretty well took away the possibility of it being any sort of mercenary hunting ground or the like. Oddly, that made her feel a little better. "I guess there's really nothing we can do but start looking around, but to be honest, I have no clue where to even..."

Emilia interrupted her with an elbow in the side. "Hey, I think someone's coming over here!"

Two someones, actually - beastlings, a man and a woman, Sera realized when a wild, automatically wary glance darted about them fixed her eyes on the approaching people, and she was moving slightly in front of Emilia before she could even think and force herself to relax her posture a little. They didn't look threatening, they didn't feel threatening, the least she could do was not act like she was going to bite their heads off. She couldn't really stop the slight distrust that crept into her voice, though, and mentally kicked herself for it. "Something we can do for you?"

"That's the question we should be asking you," the male beastling responded with a cheerful grin, tilting his head back to look up at Sera's face. "You look more lost than a rogue in the Communion of Gurhal. Got the look of a mercenary about you, too," he mused, the smile dropping as he studied her with piercing eyes. "Not the kind of person I'd expect to see getting sent to a historical site."

"A what?" Sera's wariness faltered, replaced with open, honest surprise. She didn't even have to look to know Emilia had an identical shocked expression.

"Man, didn't your boss tell you anything? All right, listen up. You're in the Crodog historical district, home of the Kasch tribe. It's not usually this busy," the beastling shrugged, a little apologetically, "but well, there's been a lot going on lately. People going missing, threats all over the place, that kind of thing - I'd guess most of these people are here to try and cash in on that..."

"Wait a minute," Emilia cut in, a bit shrilly, putting up her hands. "People going missing? People? As in plural? More than one? Seriously?"

"Seriously." Now both beastlings were eyeing them suspiciously, the female being the one to speak up this time. "Let me guess. You're here looking for someone, aren't you?"

Sera pinched the bridge of her nose, wondering just what Kraz had shoved them into, and gave a slight, sharp nod. "Yeah. Business deal. What about you two?"

"Rumors. Threats. But first things first, why don't we get the niceties out of the way? I'm Tonnio Rhima," the male beastling introduced himself, then gestured to his companion. "This is my wife, Liina."

"Sera Cecille." Sera nodded again, just as quick and sharp. "And my partner, Emilia Percival. We're here looking for a man called Wurley Kokov. Any chance you can help us out?"

Tonnio hummed absently, rubbing his chin. "Kokov...can't say I've heard the name. Doesn't mean we can't give you a hand, though," he hurried on when Sera opened her mouth to speak. "Y'see, all the people that've gone missing around here? They disappeared around the vicinity of the Kasch village. If your Kokov guy is here, I bet that's exactly where you're gonna find him. And, well, no offense, but I don't think you're gonna be finding your way around this place alone. How about a little mutual aid here? We help you find the Kasch village - and maybe this Kokov - and you help us investigate the rumors that someone's trying to attack the Kasch. Safety in numbers and all, and we both end up profiting from it in the end. Sound good?"

Emilia shifted uncertainly. "Are you sure? We'd probably just slow you down..."

"Sounds good," Sera cut in, silencing Emilia with a jab to the ribs and pretending not to feel a little bad at her pained pout. "Let's get going. No time to waste."

"I like your style. This way," Liina grinned, starting off with Tonnio at a quick pace, letting Sera and Emilia follow behind.

It didn't take long for pavement and noise to make way for the stifling, thick silence of deep forested jungle, and despite herself, Sera was impressed - she'd never imagined someplace like this could exist here, and to step into this otherworldly place made her feel almost like she was suddenly in the midst of a fairy tale, or maybe a dream. Sure, there were the usual native monsters to contend with as they moved past the fringes and the greenery closed fully in, and the walls of foliage made it extremely disorienting to even close one's eyes for the space of an eyeblink, but she felt strangely at peace here, a feeling she couldn't remember having in a long time. "This is amazing," she breathed out finally, looking around with wide eyes, crunching to a halt in some withered moss and feeling vaguely sacrilegious for it. "Living in the midst of all this...the Kasch are so lucky."

"It is beautiful, isn't it?" Liina gave her a sentimental smile, ignoring Tonnio's affectionate eyeroll from beside her. "I'm glad you like it - we've got a long way to go yet. Finding the Kasch in the first place isn't going to be easy; we have to look for their markings and read them for clues, and then puzzle out the riddles to find the proper path. It's one heck of an anti-intruder measure." She chuckled sheepishly and shrugged. "That's why I'm here. I can read the Kasch markings, I've spent a while studying them. Without me, Tonnio would probably be hanging headfirst from a tree in a trap by now."

"Aw, come on! Just because you can read their chicken scratch..." Tonnio pretended to pout, but it was rather ruined by the fact he was trying not to grin.

"So what do these markings look like?" Emilia asked curiously, fidgeting with her weapon as she spoke. "I haven't seen anything here except a lot of jungle and rocks. But I guess that's just because I don't know what I'm looking for."

Liina shrugged again, sweeping the area slowly with her gaze. "We're not going to find anything until the path splits, it's pretty straightforward for a little while longer, but...let's just enjoy that while we can, huh? The Kasch clues get pretty confusing, and I don't really have the mind for riddles. I'm sure we can figure it all out if we put our heads together, though."

Sera hesitated, then gave an awkward smile. "...I'm not half-bad with riddles." It felt like she was tooting her own horn, but it was the least she could do to help Tonnio and Liina in return for their guidance. "Leave it to me."

"Great! I'm counting on you." Liina reached up to give Sera's arm a friendly squeeze, then continued deeper into the area.

The closer they got to the split in the path, however, the more difficult things became, and by the time they reached a strangely open space in the midst of all the vegetation, Tonnio was starting to look extremely nervous. "This isn't right," he muttered as he paced slowly along the fringes of the area, clutching his single photon dagger tight in his hand, ears twitching every so often. "The native fauna shouldn't be anywhere near this keyed up. It's like something's gone haywire in all their heads! I don't like this...Liina, you see any clues yet?"

"Not yet, but--" Liina had ventured farther in, and let out a gasp as a wall of flames abruptly sprang up in front of her face, forcing her to stumble back. "This is definitely a Kasch trap! There's got to be some markings around here somewhere."

Emilia, crouching by a wall of rock covered in deep gouges, spoke up immediately. "Are these them?"

"Yes! Good eye!" Any fatigue or apprehension forgotten, Liina was over there like a shot, Tonnio and Sera gathering round a bit more slowly to listen as she ran her fingers over the marks and read them off a little haltingly. "It says...'We do not fear the flame. Bravery is strength. For the weak...death awaits.' If that's supposed to be encouraging, I sure can't see how."

Sera gazed at the wall of heat and light, her eyes unfocusing briefly, then sharpening with a sudden ferocity. "Well, if they think we're weak, they've got another thing coming."

Before anyone could speak, she raised her weapon and walked straight into the heart of the fire.

"Sera!" Wide-eyed and panicked, Emilia leapt to her feet, but got no farther before the flames suddenly dwindled and died away, wisps of smoke fading into nothingness around a smirking Sera on the other side; realization struck her like a bolt of lightning then, and she sagged back with a nervous laugh. "I get it...I get it now. Man-made fire. It was covering the path, and the only way to keep going was to be brave enough to walk right into it. You're good, I admit it, but please, please, don't do that again?"

"No promises. You know how reckless I get." Sera tossed her hair back, turned on her heel and continued down the path, leaving the others to hurry after as fast as they could to catch up with her.

The rest of the Kasch traps were just as straightforwardly confusing as the first, and by the time they cleared the last of them, even Sera's thoughts were a bit muddled up, forcing her to pace about and rub her temples for a few long moments before she could get herself thinking straight again. "You really gotta give these Kasch people credit, they came up with some impressive traps," she muttered finally, ceasing her slow, measured steps and looking up. "I'm going to guess we're close to the village - there's no native fauna in this area, the ground's obviously been cleared and there's a huge honking set of markings right over there. Different from usual, looks like." She lifted her weapon and pointed, gesturing with the longer reach of the two-pronged claw. "Liina? What do those say?"

Liina moved immediately to study them, Tonnio and Emilia peering over her shoulder, nodding to herself as she traced the symbols and mouthed them to herself. "You're definitely right about us being near the village," she responded finally. "Even if you hadn't noticed the lack of creatures and the deliberate clearing, this would have proved it. It says--"

"It says, 'Your courage and wisdom have led you this far and proved your worth. Friend of the Kasch, we welcome you.' Or something like that," Emilia interrupted, a little uncertainly. "I'm still a little shaky on those last couple of symbols..."

"Well, that's simple enough." Sera pushed her bare hand through her sweat-damp hair, then did a sudden double-take, staring at Emilia. "Wait a minute - you can read that?"

Emilia blinked at her in confusion. "Well, yeah. Why? Can't you?"

"Of course not! I've never even heard of the Kasch before today, much less seen what their markings look like. How--" Sera checked herself, all too aware her voice was rising in utter shock. "And I know you didn't have a clue what any of this said at first either. Did you just - I don't even know, really - teach yourself as we went along or something?" she finished in a slightly calmer tone, almost reeling as she realized that despite the sheer improbability of it, she had probably just hit the nail right on the head.

"Um, well--" Emilia blushed, scratching her cheek lightly with the tip of a nail, then quickly changed the subject. "Look, that doesn't matter right now! The village is this way, let's keep going!" Turning quickly, she hurried off down the well-worn footpath leading through a nearby stand of trees, leaving Sera, Tonnio and Liina to exchange identical stunned looks before following after her.

The trees here, at least, were thin, and it was really only a matter of a few meters of walking before the four reached the next clearing, but despite the same peaceful silence reigning as before, Sera abruptly found her senses on full alert - there was something here, she could sense it even if she couldn't see it no matter where she looked, and her panic instinct flared awake when Emilia gave a delighted cry at some pretty flower growing near a rock wall and dashed close to look at it. "Emilia, wait! Don't run off ahead like that, there's--"

She got no farther before something whizzed through the air and stuck itself into the ground at Emilia's feet with a dull thonk, causing the blonde girl to shriek and fall flat on her rear.

Sera started forward, her claw at the ready, but was stopped as well by a sharp shout and something long and thin - arrows? she thought in disbelief - suddenly quivering in the ground at her feet as well. "Don't come any closer! Don't even move!"

Eyeing the arrow for a few long moments, she finally just lowered her weapon and willed it back into her nano transformer; the risk of being unarmed was much more acceptable than the risk of potentially being skewered, and it wasn't as if she was completely helpless without a weapon anyway. "You must be one of the Kasch," she started, pitching her voice a little louder than she normally might and trying her best to inject a soothing note into it. "Listen to me, all right? We're not here to hurt you. We want to help you. Please come out and tell us what's happened."

"Shut up!" Another arrow went thonk at her feet, and this time she was able to track the trajectory to a high rock formation several feet away. No wonder she hadn't seen anyone - she hadn't looked up. "I don't care who you are, or what you say you want! You're not coming any closer to my village! I'll kill you all!"

Sera's eyes briefly narrowed, but she smoothed her expression quickly, keeping her gaze leveled now on the brightly-dressed figure crouching atop the rock. "What happened to your village?"

"I told you to shut up! No one's coming anywhere near my village!" The bow disappeared from the boy's hands, replaced immediately by a photon slicer; Sera was quickly forced to dive aside, gesturing frantically at Tonnio and Liina to drag the still-stunned Emilia out of harm's way as a flurry of deadly blades filled the clearing. "You're gonna have to kill me if you want to get past me!"

"We don't want to fight you! What the hell don't you get about that, you little brat?!" Tonnio nearly exploded, only to end up dodging a few of those energy blades himself.

"Tonnio, stop." Sera put out her hand, picking herself up out of the awkward crouch she'd landed in. "He's not going to listen to reason. You and Liina need to take Emilia and get somewhere safer. I don't want you three getting caught in the crossfire."

Emilia, finally regaining some of her bearings, let out a helpless wail. "Sera! You're not going to...?!"

"You kidding me? I only kill people if they really deserve it, and usually not even then." Sera turned her head briefly to flash a sharp grin, then slid into a battle stance, calling out her weapon again and making a sharp, taunting gesture with it. "But I never said anything about not giving a naughty kid a nice sound spanking!"

Letting out an enraged howl, the boy launched himself off the rock at her, and she met him halfway with a clash of claw on slicer, allowing herself a brief flare of satisfaction when she heard three pairs of footsteps quickly retreating.

If she was honest with herself, she hadn't had a fight this good or this fulfilling in as long as she could remember. The kid was fast, obviously skilled, and his fear and anger granted hm a frankly unnerving strength he probably wouldn't have had otherwise; she was able to hold him off with very little difficulty for the few moments of the fight in which he kept his slicer out and tried to keep her at a distance, but when he switched out to a wicked-looking, feather-adorned spear and lunged in close, she almost found herself regretting her decision to try and wear him down alone, forced to change herself from her trademark single claw to a pair of daggers with which she could block and fend off his frantic stabbing lunges. Damn...he's better than I thought. I don't want to go all out on him, but at this rate I'm not going to have any choice. There's got to be some way I can wear him down... Her mind raced, but no matter how hard she thought, she couldn't come up with a single thing.

"I've had enough of you!" the boy suddenly yelled, interrupting her almost-reverie, and leapt back, his spear vanishing into nothingness as he raised his hands, a fiery orange glyph scribing itself into the air in front of him. "I'm going to burn you to ashes!"

Sera's eyes went wide as a well of flame exploded from the ground before him, magma and rocks flying several feet into the air, a towering horned creature with impossibly large fists appearing from the rift and cocking its arm back, curled fingers starting to emit a blazing red glow. What - what is that thing?! There's no way I can fight something like that...!

The fist slammed down; a wave of scorching fire raced towards her, and all she could do was close her eyes tightly, suddenly feeling the restless sensation of a stirring power at the edges of her mind.

"You asked for this," she found herself murmuring, and her hands moved of their own volition, fingers twisting and spreading as if to pull invisible strings, shimmering icy blue hanging in the air in front of her for a split second before a blast of wintry wind swept past her, eyes flying wide open and lighting with an unearthly pale glow as a blizzard of frigid shards engulfed the entire clearing.

The fire-beast was helpless before the onslaught, and so was the boy - even as the former faded away with an agonized, bellowing roar, the latter collapsed into unconsciousness, the last of his energy finally drained fully away.

Sera slowly lowered her hands as the chill faded away, then fell to one knee, half laughing and half gasping for air. What the hell had she just managed to pull off, and why had she never known she could do it before?

"Sera! Sera!" Emilia's frantic calls only vaguely caught her attention, as did the running footsteps approaching her, but she did look halfway up when she felt worried, trembling hands on her shoulders, blinking slowly at the strange expression on the blonde girl's face. "That - that was - Sera, that was amazing! I thought you were dead for sure and then you just totally wiped that thing out without even struggling! You're amazing--" Her voice caught on a sob, broke slightly, and she passed a sleeve quickly over her eyes, throwing her arms tight around Sera's shoulders and all but clinging to her. "But don't ever do that again! Don't ever put yourself in that much danger again! I really thought you were going to die...I really did...!"

Blinking a few more times, Sera finally just closed her eyes again and leaned into the tight hold. It was warm, soothing, and frankly, she didn't feel like getting up to get away from it. "Told you I'm reckless," she murmured in response, her lips finally starting to thaw from the horrendous chill that seemed to have suffused every inch of her. "But I have no plans to die anytime soon. Come on - have a little faith in your partner, will ya?"

"How am I supposed to have faith in you when you go and do things like that?" Emilia sobbed, burying her face in Sera's shoulder. "Even if they're really, really amazing!"

The two beastlings stood uncertain a few feet away, and finally Liina moved to try and comfort Emilia, while Tonnio cautiously approached the boy and crouched down to look him over. "He's still breathing," he said, tilting the lax head and putting his fingers to the slender neck, "and his pulse is strong. Looks like he just passed out. Whatever you did, Sera, you sure pulled off one hell of a risky gamble with it. I'm pretty impressed."

"Save the compliments." Feeling she'd regained enough of her strength to get to her feet now, Sera carefully pried Emilia away, giving her hair a slight reassuring ruffle, and stood with only the smallest bit of shakiness. "Tonnio, Liina, you two stay here with the kid. I'll go farther in with Emilia. Whatever happened to the village has got to be bad, or he wouldn't have defended it so viciously, but we can't just leave him alone here. No arguments," she went on, putting up a hand as Liina opened her mouth to protest. "We can handle ourselves, and we've still got a job to complete. You said you'd help us out - so that's exactly what I'm asking you to do. Take care of the kid and let us go."

Tonnio eyed her sharply, admiration writ large on his face. "...Hope you know what you're doing."

So do I. Sera just flashed him a smirk, however, and grabbed Emilia's wrist, taking off at a dead run towards the Kasch village.