After breakfast Lina and company went off to see if they could get whatever supplies they needed before heading out to Vallases.
Normally they wouldn't need to restock their supplies so often, but with twice as many people things like food was going much quicker.
While everyone was getting supplies Rena was again pouring over maps plotting the route they were going to take. Before breakfast, right when Rena got up she had gone and bought up-to-date maps. The reason was that her maps were old and not very reliable and she was nearly leading them blind last time. This time she wanted to be 100% sure of where they were going.
So that left her checking landmarks and plotting out points as she waited for the others to return. But picking out the right route proved to be harder then she expected.
How could my maps be this inaccurate? Has the land really changed that much in such a short amount of time? It wasn't that long ago that I last visited Vallases. Or was it? Rena thought while scratching her head in thought. Despite her frustrations she still continued on working of the maps.
It was going to take about two days to reach Vallases from the town they were at. Once they had all their supplies together they left tight away.
The sky was blue with only a few clouds and the sun was bright as they left for Vallases. Though it was bright and sunny the morning air was still chilly but with promise of a warm day to come.
For the most part Rena led them silently while constantly checking the maps as they trekked. The others talked amongst themselves but figuring it best they didn't try to include Rena in their conversations. Since she was the one leading them they didn't want to distract Rena from her maps.
Zelgadis, Lina and Zel had checked over Rena's maps before they had left. And all three agreed that where Rena seemed to be leading them to was nothing more then a vacant stretch of land. According to the up-to-date maps that Rena had bought that is. But according to Rena's older maps there was this bustling city that no one has seem to have heard off. Of course none of them had traveled this area so they really had no way of knowing.
Xellos and Zeros said nothing about Vallases. They offered no information and they didn't even bait the others. But the others didn't care as it was, what was the chances of those two being helpful? Not very likely.
After a few hours of traveling they stopped for lunch
"Miss Rena, how's your stomach? Are you feeling better?" Amelia asked cheerfully pulling out some food.
Rena was hesitant to answer. "A little better... I suppose."
"Good! The you can have a large lunch with the rest of us!" Amelia beamed pulling out a large assortment of food in front of Rena's face.
Rena sweatdropped and grimaced as the sight and smell of the food turned her stomach. She felt like she was going to be sick. Even though she didn't want to Rena very slowly reached for a few rolls and some fruit and some dried smoked meat.
"That's not all you're going to have is it?" Zel raised an eyebrow.
"Just because your Lina has a appetite doesn't mean I share her eating habits." Rena said dryly, looking over her maps again. She occasionally took slow small bites of her food. It took all of her control to swallow the food instead of spitting it out.
The others dug into the food with their normal frenzy.
After about a few minutes Rena got up and with her food and maps. "I'm just going to double check a few things, I'll be back in a few minutes."
Everyone was too busy to answer her, but they did hear her.
Rena walked off till she was a fair distance from the others before she sat down on a rock. She spied some wild animals and threw most of her lunch towards them.
The hungry animals devoured the food within seconds which made Rena chuckle.
Rena pulled out one of her bottles out of her cloak and took a sip of the contents to wash out the taste of her lunch.
While occasionally taking swigs of her drink, Rena walked around checking her maps. The area around her matched the area marked on the newer maps Rena had bought exactly, trails, rivers and all. But Rena wasn't lost, she knew where she was. What she was trying to do is find some points that matched her older maps of the area. The terrain differed completely from her maps. Where there should have been a trail, there were woods, where there should have been a river, there was a trail. She didn't get why everything was so different.
There should be at least some things that should be the same. It shouldn't be this different. Rena frowned.
One of the specific things she was looking was some of the trail markers that signified that Vallases was nearby. They were marked out on her older maps but they hadn't seen one yet. And according to Rena's older maps they should have passed by at least four of them by now. But they hadn't. It had Rena wondering if she had messed up this area with another one. She could have sworn Vallases was two days travel from the town they were just at. But she should have seen at least one thing that coincided with her older maps by now.
According to my older maps there should be a travelers cabin somewhere around here. Rena thought rolling back up her maps.
She walked up to what ended up being a clearing. There was no cabin anywhere in sight.
Damnit. There should at least something. Rena frowned and walked up to where the cabin should be. What she saw tall grass, weeds and wild flowers. No signs of any wooden structure anywhere.
Maybe I really have Vallases mixed up with another area. Rena sighed and sat down. She laid down on the grass and starred up into the sky. She closed her eyes and tried hard to remember the last time she was here.
After twenty minutes Lina and the others finished up their lunches.
"Didn't Rena say she was going to be back in a few minutes? It's been quite a long time." Gavin noted with a hint of worry in his voice.
"Maybe she got lost." Garry suggested. No one even felt it worthy of a reaction so everyone just ignored Garry.
"Well she did say she had a few things to check. So maybe she's not done checking yet. I doubt she'd get into much trouble, she is me after all." Lina stated factually.
Everyone sweatdropped.
"Should we sit around and wait for her to come back?" Sylphy asked.
"Nah let's go find her and get going. I want to get as far as we can in one day so that we don't have to camp out for two nights instead of one."
Rena opened her eyes and she didn't see the green meadow clearing she had been in. What she saw was a dark room lit up with thousands of candles. And instead of being on the ground she was chained to a wall wearing not her normal dark ensemble, but a dark slinky red dress.
Where am I? Is this a dream?
"Yes you are in a dream my little Garnet."
Rena snapped her head to her left and who she saw made her eyes go wide. "Why have you taken me here?! What do you want?!" Rena demanded.
The man wearing a dark hooded and caped ensemble inched nearer to Rena in a slow manner that made Rena think of a serpent. "Why my little Garnet, to remind you." He gave her a ghostly grin. His eyes glowed red and he stared her straight in the face.
Rena felt like he was burning holes right through her with his gaze. "Remind me of what?!" Rena hissed at him.
"Did you honestly think you could just slip right back into your life like nothing happened? Like there is nothing wrong with you? You aren't what they are, you can't go back my little Garnet, I thought I had already made that clear. You can't fool them you know, they will all find out what you are and they will hunt you down like an animal." The cloaked man laughed sinisterly.
"Where did she go?" Lina wondered out loud.
They had been searching for a good fifteen minutes and they hadn't found Rena yet.
"Maybe it would be easier to find her from a birds eye view." Ameria suggested.
"Yeah and get shot down like a bird if one of Rena's enemies is around."
"We don't know if there is anyone dangerous around Lina. And if only one of us flies and they don't do if for long we should be fine. And if it's one of us the worst that could happen is that we all get sent back because someone dies." Zel stated matter-of-factly.
Lina glared at Zel. "Are you volunteering Zel?"
Zel rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine I'll do it." Zel casted a levitation spell and got an over look of the woods. It was hard to see much with all the trees. His gaze darted around from side to side. His eyes caught site of something dark that was glowing red in a open clearing. He landed back where the others were.
"Did you find her?"
"I'm not sure but I did find something. C'mon follow me!"
Zel lead the others to the clearing where they found Rena laying on the ground unconscious.
Rena appeared to be in a great deal of pain and her body was glowing with a strange red aura.
"What's going on?"
"Someone is attacking her in her dream." Sylphy declared after examining her. "Though this is a strange spell, I don't recognize it."
"Is there anything you can do for her?"
"There isn't anything I can do from out here. The only way to help her is for someone to go into her dream and cut the magical connection of the spell to her dream."
"I'll go into her dream." Zel got himself ready.
"No you can't Zel! You're not from this world!" Gavin exclaimed. "You're spirit body doesn't exist on this dimension's astral plain. If you go into her dream and try to attack this assailant you could be lost forever if you lose."
"I wont-"
"I'll go in." Zelgadis cut off Zel.
The cloaked man touched Rena's face with a gloved hand.
"Don't touch me!" Rena screamed at him. She would have hit him if she weren't chained.
"Why so hostile my little Garnet. Aren't you happy for what I've done for you? I've given you so much."
"You've taken away more then you've given!" Rena screamed trying to pull free from her chains. But the power the cloaked man had over the dream was much stronger then Rena's. Which made Rena believe that he had created this dreamscape with his power and pulled her in.
"So ungrateful little Garnet."
"Don't call me that! Lina! My name is Lina!" She thrashed about in her chains.
"Garnet you cannot break free from my power, so don't even bother." The cloaked man paused for a moment. "Well it looks like we have a visitor." He grinned evilly.
"Let her go." Zelgadis commanded unsheathing a sword.
"Or what, little man. You're going to kill me? You can't harm me at all. But I can harm you." The cloaked man taunted Zelgadis glaring him straight in the eyes.
The glowing red of the man's eyes sent shivers down Zelgadis' spine. Before Zelgadis could even blink the cloaked man was behind him and gave him a crushing blow to Zelgadis' back.
Zelgadis fell to the floor in a great deal of pain as the cloaked man picked him up and kicked him in the stomach. Zelgadis tried to swing his sword and strike the man but it only ended up going right through him, not even fazing the cloaked man.
"See little child you cannot harm me. But I can hurt you, I can even kill you. So why bother trying to save her?" The cloaked man grabbed his neck with one strong hand and pulled him off the ground while chocking him. "She's damned, soulless. She's not worth dying over. Do you know what she is? Because if you did I doubt you'd be so quick to come to her rescue. She's lied to you, deceived you and because of it you are going to die." The cloaked man's eyes glowed a brighter red as his hold on Zelgadis' neck tightened.
"NOOOOO!!!!" Rena screamed breaking free of her chains and lunging at the cloaked man. She pushed him into a group of candles that immediately caught his clothes on fire.
Instead of being distraught of his clothes going up in flames, the cloaked man just turned to face Rena and Zelgadis. "It doesn't end here you know that. This was just a reminder little Garnet." And then he disappeared.
Both Rena and Zelgadis woke up with a start.
"Are you two alright?" Lina asked in concern.
"We're fine Lina." Zelgadis assured her.
How could I let myself get sucked into something like that I wasn't even tired! Rena mentally kicked herself while keeping her eyes closed.
"What happened? Who attacked Rena?" Lina demanded.
"I don't know. I can't remember what happened."
Rena's eyes snapped open and she gave a sharp look over to Zelgadis. He forgot?
"Rena do you remember?"
Rena snapped out of it and met Lina's gaze. "No I'm sorry I can't remember anything as well."
"Oh well at least you two are safe. I think it would be a good idea to get a move on and get out of here right now."
Hours later they set up camp for the night and had dinner. Rena offered to scout around the area to make sure that there was no one spying on them waiting to attack in the night.
She knew that there was no one around except the wild animals that inhabited the woods, but she wanted to be alone for a little while and think. She sat down at the riverside and looked at her reflection in the water.
Zelgadis' reflection appeared behind Rena's.
"Zelgadis what do you want?"
"I thought you were patrolling."
"I was."
There was a small silence between the two.
"Who was he?" Zelgadis finally asked.
"Who was who?"
"That cloaked guy in the dream."
Rena was quiet. "You said you didn't remember."
"I lied and so did you. So tell me who was that guy?"
"The one enemy I'm truly afraid of."
"But who is he? Why did his eyes glow red? Why did yours?"
Rena snapped her head to face Zelgadis. "Don't go there Zelgadis." She mentally kicked herself. He saw... I could I let him see that?
"Why did he call you soulless and damned?"
Rena didn't answer.
"What did he mean Rena?"
Again Rena was silent.
"Fine you have your secrets, I'll respect that. Everyone has some sort of dark secret they don't want others to know. But you can't blame me for trying." Zelgadis started to walk off. "If you ever want to tell someone one of your deep dark secrets Rena, you can talk to me. I wont judge you, you can trust me." He walked back to the camp.
Rena sighed and turned her gaze back to the reflection of the water. He's a strange one. She lightly chuckled.
The man with the glowing red eyes sat in his chair waiting. Soon his little pet would turn on him as she had done so many times before. Only now he didn't have to worry about keeping her alive. Soon.