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Now I'm stuck here
But I don't belong here

I wanna be where you are
Maybe I'm not so far from home

Roy heard his mother speak with malice in her voice to the burning bandit before them. Never had he heard such malice in her voice, not even when he was a child. But she had her reasons for those words. After all, she was almost raped. He then heard the bandit speak.

"Such a shame... that I could not tame you...you would have made a fine addition... to my harem.... ..."

Even though Ninian was the one that responded, the young lord believed the statement was directed towards him. After all, the fat man was looking up at him as he spoke. He chuckled.

"Heh...even at Death's door, you still think about your harems." the young lord replied. "I am no one's property. Even if you did kidnap me to force into your harem, you'll find that this beast is one you can't tame. One flame you can't control. I am my own man, and I will never be someone's property."

This was an interesting bandit, if Roy looked at his last words. He thought not of death, but of the 'what if'. Most men used last words that went along the lines of "If this went my way, then blah blah blah." But...at least it wasn't the usual "Bah! Scum...you're all scum." response he and the others usually got back in Elibe when they were fighting bandits.

Ninian had decapitated the bandit, just to make sure he was dead. Roy pulled the Rune sword out of the fat man's leg with a strong tug. He flicked his wrist to the side to wipe the blood off the weapon, the ground splashing red from the move. The dark sword was then sheathed, and he looked over at Ninian and Sue.

He heard Ninian's words, then felt her run into him to wrap her arms around him. He winced, since his mother's body had brushed up against the burns and the useless left arm. Once the pain had subsided, he wrapped his good arm around his mother to hold her close. Yes, this was the real one...and not his imagination. His anger from before had literally dissipated, as if it was never there. Both he and his mother had been through a lot. And by all means, both dragons needed rest. Rest, and maybe therapy.

"Of course we would come for you...I would never leave my mother behind, or remain kidnapped. I've already lost you once, I don't want to lose you again. You're too precious to me." he said softly to the dancer.

The redhead blinked at the dancer's apology concerning getting his shirt wet with her tears. He glanced down. A tear-soaked shirt was the least of his concerns. Blood from the bandits (as well as his own) was splashed all over it, and there were quite a number of burn marks from the Bolganone tome. It was also torn in several places.

"It's all right, mother. It wasn't in the best condition to start with." he replied.

He smiled gently at his mother, before he heard her mention Amara. Right...that was the main reason Ninian had come out here. Well, she certainly wasn't in any condition to go with the others as he watched her stumble, and he didn't have the strength to hold a weapon up. His anger from before had gobbled up the strength he had. The young lord reached out and caught the dancer before she could fall over, then gently pulled her towards him so that she could have someone to support her.

"We're in no condition to go with them, Mother. We'll only be extra baggage. Let's head back to Eyris to rest and recover." he told her.

Darko caught up with Roy, Sue and Ninian, carrying a red book. It was the fire tome that the fat man was carrying. Since none of them could use anima magic, it would be better off in more capable hands. He already had an idea who to give the book to. The young lord then asked the imp to look around the treasure room to see if there was a staff that they could take with them. There was a small chance, but he just wanted to make sure.

It wasn't like they were running. Ninian was having a hard time walking, and the young lord was already beyond his limits. The imp came back after a bit. Nope...no staff.

He nodded at Sue's comment before they made it outside.

The screams from further within the fort weren't any of their companions--Charice was sure of this. They sounded... awful. Someone was being tortured, alright. Really? she thought to herself, a bit disgusted. We could've just... just...

She wanted to finish that thought with the words "just kill them", but could she have avoided giving in to hatred if she were in Roy's shoes?

There was a thief she had recently cornered, kept away from her by an Iron Lance in her hands. One good thrust would skewer him, and it seemed plain enough that was her aim, with the gold he'd acquired as the prize. But he was a man of Sentria, and he could see that only a woman of Sentria would wear long robes with a face mask like that. He knew that if one really wanted to know what such the woman felt at that moment, he needed only look into her eyes to see they had gone from rather greedy to... disinterested?

"So, uhh..." the thief began.

"...Go, get out of here. Just one thing before we go..."

--------

She flew off toward the spire. If everyone else in the group was going to take their time, that was fine; they'd catch up with her in due time. Maybe she could scout around, figure out weaknesses when they attacked.

She hadn't taken anything before she left. Lugging around loot in the desert? It would just be added weight and burden, totally unnecessary right now.

Hence, before she'd left, she'd asked about the location of the pantry in the fort. A neat bag of assorted exotic foods and expensive spices were stored in a small bag, tucked away in an alcove on the roof.

The thief was long gone, deciding that Feo had, so to speak, "died for his sins".

"None of us can hope to go after her, Ninian... I'm sorry... we must leave the others to Amara, and have faith in them. Deborah and I are the only ones are are able to have at least most of our full strength... " she remembered Charice as well, whom was likely unscatched and Akihi, whom was left behind in the sands and probably terrfied.

Yeah, by that reasoning, three of them were in condition to fight, and it wasn't like the path back to Pantheus was going to be easy. They needed more capable fighters to escort the injured, but it wasn't like warriors rained from the skies. This group would have to again make due with what they had.

"We're going home, all of us are. When we recover, and if they stilll need us.. we will save Alihi's daughter!" Sue declared, urging Andre forward to act as a scout. She had of course taken the food and water supplies, and handed some to Ninian, Roy, and Ephraim. Charice and Deborah looked fine on their own.

Yeah...the left arm was indeed useless. Who knew when it would properly recover. His left hand still hadn't finished healing either, from weeks ago. Perhaps they would never completely heal. It would certainly take a long time for him to adjust without the damaged limb. He would be just like those war veterans with the amputated limbs, except his was still attached.

They had soon made it outside. Ninian was holding onto him as a support and Darko was perched on the rapier hilt. The fire tome had been stashed away in his bag. He glanced at the others who were waiting for them to come out. The job was done. Now they just had to go fight the woman at the tower and save Amara and Blossom. Oh, and the Raven too.

Sue had pulled out some rations, and Roy glanced over at them. He wasn't hungry at the moment, but he was pretty damn thirsty. His good arm was currently being used to support his mother. The injured arm was...well, injured. So he had no hands to eat or drink with.

The imp took Roy's share of the rations from the nomad and stored the food in the bag. He then fluttered up towards the lord's face, holding the canteen, filled with water. The young lord opened his mouth as the cool liquid (water) waterfall'd into his mouth. Refreshing.

After Ninian had gotten some water too, the young lord looked at the others.

"We should probably head back to Pentheus to regroup. We've got Alihi and Abel there waiting for us, remember? That wyvern rider too. We can't save Amara without them." he said.

Well, now they had a reason to go back. The young lord glanced over at his mother.

"I do not want to see you to collapse in this heat. So stay close to me, alright Mother?" he told her softly.

Little did he know that he had almost used the exact same line his father did so many years ago.

Silence. Emptiness. That was all that was left in the bandit fort. The bandit group with the highest growth rate had been demolished; wiped out from the face of the world.

However, through the rubble, there was movement, there was a noise. Life? Could it be that there was somebody still alive, after this massacre?

Sand moved ever so slightly. The body of the massive Goliath moved, turning slightly to the side. However, it was not this monster that was alive. This fellow had died of blood loss a while ago. No, the body kept moving, until finally, a person erupted from underneath and crawled his way out.

Ali slowly got to his feet. He stumbled, as he walked back inside. He looked around and heard no fighting, nor saw any people. Still breathing heavily, he dashed into Feo's open room, to see blood spattered everywhere. Surrounding the most blood, which had dried up quite a bit, was a pile of ash. Not far away from it was the bloodied head of Feo, which must have been chopped off, before the flames got to it. Ali looked in shock for a moment, then slowly walked over... and lightly kicked the head and ashes into the open pit. He was not going to miss that fat, disgusting jar of lard at all.

Ali grabbed a few items and weapons, then walked outside, cautiously. The intruders were nowhere to be seen. So, they came in, killed everybody and rescued their friends, then ran off. Ali growled. This was the best line of work he had, since his last group. Having to prove himself to another group was difficult! You had to hope they didn't try to kill you on the spot! Ali shut his eyes tightly and raised his head to the sky. "CURSE YOU! I'LL HAVE MY REVENGE! YOU BIIIIIIIIITCH!"

After he calmed himself, he went back inside, and went down to the jail cells. That kid who was pretending to be a cow was still there. Ali could use this kid for something, if not just to have help traveling the desert. He opened the cell and dragged the boy out. "Listen, you! Your friends came in and killed everyone. They left none alive! Then they left, leaving you here to die. I'm the only one that's left!!"

Ali grabbed the boy's hands and bound them with some rope, leaving enough length for himself to hold, to make sure the boy followed. "You serve me, now. If you try to flee, I WILL kill you. If you escape into the desert... you will surely die, before reaching anywhere. So, that being said... it looks like we'll be having a nice long trip, trying to find a new bandit group to join."

Ali smiled menacingly. "We better get going... I've got an appointment to make with a nice group south-west of here. Ha.. ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!!"