Tales Of The Abyss Fan Fiction ❯ New Game Plus ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

-==Tataroo Valley==-

(Wake up, loser. You're girlfriend won't shut up.)

“She's not my girlfriend,” Luke said as he pushed himself into a sitting position.

“What?” the all too familiar voice of Tear questioned.

Luke's eyes shot open, and locked onto the visible eye of the Locrian Sergeant. “Nothing!” he said, pushing himself to his feet and spinning around as blood rushed to his cheeks. His mind raced, thoughts of Tear as well and of what would be happening next vying for his attention.

(Smooth,) Asch chuckled. Then, as an afterthought, added, (Loser.)

“Shut up,” Luke muttered. “Hey, T-uh…you,” he corrected himself, realizing that he wouldn't have known her name yet, “what happened back at the manor?”

“My name's Tear,” she replied with a glare, “and as for the incident at the manor, it seems as though a hyperresonance occurred between us.”

“You don't say,” Luke said absentmindedly as he gripped the hilt of his practice sword.

“I was surprised,” she continued, not noticing his motion. “For a moment, I thought we'd been caught in the Planet Storm.”

Luke pondered for a moment whether to act as clueless as he had been the first time through the valley, but decided that the act would be unnecessary, and it would also save time on boring explanations.

“We should get going,” she said after a few moments of silence. “Monsters are more active at night, and we're not very prepared to be on our own.”

Luke nodded and unsheathed his sword. “Speaking of monsters,” he said, as the tall grass around the two rustle. Three Filifolia leapt from the grass, and were quickly met with a very blunt piece of wood cracking into their leafy heads.

“Behind you!” Tear called out from her casting position.

Luke spun around and swung his sword, though the wooden blade did very little to harm the Rhinossus that had charged him. He clenched his teeth and braced the wooden sword with his other hand, digging his heels into the ground to attempt to stop the monster from trampling him.

“Thou who wouldst take revenge, carve here thy holy seal!” Tear chanted. “Eclair de Larmes!”

Luke grinned and rolled to the side as a large glyph appeared beneath the Rhinossus. Light shot upward, tearing through the beast's thick hide, and it slumped to the ground as the spell's light faded. Luke sheathed his sword and turned to Tear with a smile. “Thanks for the save.” Tear merely nodded before bowing her head in thought. “Something wrong?”

“That's the first time I've ever used that spell,” Tear stated, and raised her head to meet Luke's gaze. “It's odd…it just felt very familiar.”

(So, what, the others don't know anything about the events that are going to happen, but they remember their advanced attacks and such?) Asch asked. (That's dumb.)

“It'll be helpful when we start running into you and the God Generals, though,” Luke muttered with a small grin.

(Screw you.)

“We can continue when you're done talking to yourself,” Tear stated, giving Luke an odd look.

Luke nodded, and the two continued towards the valley's entrance, and Luke smiled when he noticed the coachman filling up his bucked at the river. The driver jumped as he heard the two approach, nearly dropping his bucket as he exclaimed, “Wh-who are you? Are you with the Dark Wings?”

“The Dark Wings?” Tear asked, arching an eyebrow and folding her arms across her chest at the man's comment.

“They're bandits,” he replied. He relaxed a little bit as his gaze switched back and forth between Luke and Tear. “I guess not, if there's only the two of you. The Dark Wings are a group of two men and a woman.”

“We're just two lost travelers,” Luke replied quickly. “We were on our way to the capital before we lost our way and wound up in the valley. What are you doing here?”

“I'm a coachman,” he answered. “We lost some water due to a problematic wheel, and I came here to refill our supplies.”

“Do you travel to the capital?” Tear asked.

“Yeah, it's my last stop,” the coachman said.

Luke crossed his arms while he thought over the events that would be coming.

(He means Grand Chokmah, right?) Asch asked.

“Yeah,” Luke muttered. “If we take the coach, we'll be trapped in Malkuth until we meet up with Van at Kaitzur…”

(Then don't take it.)

“But if we don't, we'll never meet up with Jade and Ion.” Luke sighed audibly. “Not to mention what would happen if we weren't there to stop the Liger Queen's eggs from hatching.”

“Why do you keep muttering to yourself?” Tear asked as she poked him lightly on the arm.

Without a valid reason that anyone else would understand, Luke frowned and said, “Because shut up.” Though he disliked reverting back into his old attitude, there were times the jerkass nature just made things easier. “So how much is it to the capital?”

“12,000 gald a person,” the coachman answered.

Luke nodded and reached for the group wallet. He reached into the wallet and pulled out the amount, and then handed to the coachman. “That should be enough.”

“All right, then,” he said as he pocketed the money. “I parked the coach further out of the valley. Follow me.”

Luke smiled as they began following him, knowing that Tear keeping her pendant would be far more useful than a small amount of Gald just sitting around.

~ * ~

Luke awoke the next morning to the sound of cannon fire. He peered out of the coach's window to see the Tartarus chasing after the Dark Wings' buggy. “Cool,” he said as he dug through the item bag to retrieve his journal. He started jotting down a few notes about the night before, but stopped midsentence. He already knew what would happen, and even then, he only kept a record of events before in case he was struck with the mysterious case of amnesia that he turned out to never have in the first place.

He shook the thoughts out of his head as the coach swerved out of the landship's way.

“That's Malkuth's newest land dreadnaught, the Tartarus,” the driver called back as he stopped the coach.

“Oh no,” Luke said in a forced monotone. “What's the Malkuth military doing around here?”

The driver stopped and turned to look at them. “What do you mean? There's been no end to the rumors of Kimlasca preparing to declare war for some time now,” he said, giving his two passengers a questioning look. “You two aren't Kimlascan, are you?”

“No, we're not,” Tear answered. “We had business in Kimlasca, is all. When you said you were going to the capital, we thought you meant Baticul.”

“Oh, well that's too bad,” he said. “You should've gone south instead of crossing the bridge. Not that it makes much difference now, with the bridge destroyed.”

Luke sighed quietly and folded his arms across his chest. “Man, knowing everything that's gonna happen makes bits like this boring,” he mumbled.

“I'm passing by Engeve on the way to Grand Chokmah,” he continued. “Do you two want me to drop you off there?”

“We don't really have much of a choice,” Tear stated. “Going all the way to Grand Chokmah would only put us further away from where we need to go.”

(You don't say…) Asch quipped. (Seriously, what do you see in this chick?)

“Shut up.”