Legend Of Dragoon Fan Fiction ❯ The Legend of Dragoon II ❯ Arrival ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

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Chapter 4) Arrival

It had been another week, out in the desert. According to Al, they were almost to Mille Seseau's borders. It was evident, as a row of pines, still insignificant, popped up on the horizon. It was Orrin's turn to pack up camp, when his thoughts turned to occurrances of the past week. They had in fact been attacked by the Canbrian Dayflies, just as Rashe'm predicted. Although it was a coincidence, they gained some more experience of battle, and they all laughed about it until they fell asleep that night. And, when Al and Rashe'm got into an arguement over the last bit of stew one night, they were up and ready to fight. Al threw the first punch, which was responded with a forceful blow from Rashe'm. Oddly enough, Orrin noticed that at the same time, the campfire surged exponentially, incinerating what was left of the stew. Seeing the flare of emotions from Rashe'm at the same time as the literal flare, he had gotten to thinking. He fought himself over whether it was another uncanny coincidence, or if it was like when he had found the stones, and the gust of wind blew away the sand. In his thoughts, Orrin had completely stopped putting up camp. He didn't realize it until Rashe'm came up behind him, put his sword to Orrin's head, and hissed. It was a dirty joke that almost cost Orrin his life, but instead, he thanked Rashe'm for snapping him out of it. "Hurry up, or we're leaving you behind, Squirt." Rashe'm added.

That was another thing that had happened during the week. Rashe'm referred to Orrin as "Squirt" a majority of the time. Not knowing what caused it, he stuck to it. It didn't bother him, but he wasn't exactly used to it either. Orrin finished packing up camp, putting the flint in its case, rolling the beds, leaving no evidence of fire. That was a big tip of Al's, "don't leave anything that proves ya were there. Then, people can't track ya." As Orrin bundled all of the supplies together, Al came up and told him, "I told Rashe'm that we may need to stay longer in Mille Seseau than planned. I'll tell him the truth when we get to Deningrad. We're almost there, a day's hike through the forest, and then a straight travel to Deningrad." Orrin nodded, signifying that he understood.

It was about mid-day when the three made it to the forest border. The only thing left to traverse was a gorge twenty yards wide and about 14 feet down. There was no way to jump over, and it would take a few more days to find a way around the gorge. Al told the other two, "I'll go down first." Then, taking out the mini-axe, "I'll make some hand holds, to make it easier to climb down." He lumbered down awkwardly, holding onto the ledge first, then making multiple horizontal slashes in the hard-packed earth. He continued this way until he reached the bottom. He turned around and shouted to Rashe'm, "Toss me down the supplies. Yer a better throw." Obediently, Rashe'm tossed down the packs, one by one, until they were all in the gorge. Orrin went down into the gorge first, and at the same time, Al carried the supply packs to the other side, getting ready to get them up to the other ledge. He put down the supplies, then started his awkward climb up while making hand-made hand holds.

When Al got to the top, he talked down to Rashe'm, now near the end of the gorge, "Now ya gotta throw the packs up to me." Rashe'm thought in his head at that moment, "Why don'y YOU come down here and throw these up, you lummox? You're five times bigger than me!" Instead, he chucked the packs to Al. He got to the last pack, which was a little more hefty than the others. He had also had trouble tossing it down to Al a half hour earlier, it was full of the cookware, and knives. Rashe'm had to change his stance for the pack he was getting ready to throw. When he was comfortable, he took hold of the pack, and under his breath, he whispered "One......., two........., THREE!" but the "three" came out loudly, so Al would be ready. Orrin stood near to Rashe'm after the toss, and he watched as the pack soared through the air. He couldn't help but feel that something was about to go wrong. Al stood on the ledge, getting ready to catch, but he noticed that it wasn't going to reach his height, so he kneeled. He put out his hands ready to catch it, and he did, but barely. With a sigh of relief, Al started tugging at the pack. In an instant, the pack came undone, and its contents went flying back down to the two observers at the bottom, who had no time to get out of the way. Realizing what was about to happen, Al's eyes went wide, and he pounded the ledge with his fist, shouting "NO!!!"

Two feet above the heads of Orrin and Rashe'm, a piece of earth half a foot thick came out of the gorge wall, right next to the hand holds that Al had created. Before that had happened, Orrin ducked, covering his head and bracing for impact with the knives. Rashe'm had decided to watch, wanting to know what was going to kill him. Numerous thuds were heard as knifes stuck into the earth slab, and the pots all bounced off of it, back onto the gorge floor. Amazed that they weren't shishkabobs, Rashe'm nudged Orrin, saying, "We're not dead,.... yet. Get up. I'll climb the wall, retrieve the knives, and you pick up the pots and pans and throw them up to Al." Orrin looked up and saw the slab. He also saw that the earth beneath Al had gone down, he was in a tiny rutt. Meanwhile, Al sat there, in awe that his friends weren't dead. But he didn't have time to wonder if he made the slab or not, because Orrin was yelling up to him to catch the pots and pans, which he caught with an immediate grace. His composure was back, and he was glad for it. He didn't want his friends to think he was terribly shaken by the near fatal accident.

Rashe'm was pulling himself up again to the ledge, holding all of the knives. He set them on the ledge so that he could pull himself up with both of his hands. Al took the knives from the ground, put them in the pack that they came out of, and tied it again, so that nobody would step on them. Then, Orrin came up the make-shift earth ladder, Rashe'm helping him up to the solid ground. Al told the other the two, "Ok, we should try to get through this forest before night hits. There could be some dangerous animals in there." Setting off, they all wanted to talk about what had just occurred in the gorge. That is, all except for Rashe'm, who thought that Al's weight made the earth come out the way it did. Orrin had seen all of the odd coincidences, first it being the wind, then the fire, and now the earth. There was something going on, or they were just in fact coincidences. Al had only seen the earth and the fire coincidences, but he didn't want to talk about it, since the others might think he was crazy. That was also Orrin's reason for not talking. As Orrin walked a premade path that the trio found a little ways away, he felt the coldness of forest in a burst, realizing that they were now in Mille Seseau.