"Fireball!"
The smoke and dust settled, pulling into focus Ascot with palm outstretched, wide-eyed with a touch of fear and embarassment. Lina and Caldina straightened from their crouch dusting themselves off. Caldina started regretting the minimal clothing she wore in the discomfort of grimmy, gritty skin.
"Maybe it would be better if you aim outside." Lina forced a smile.
"Maybe you should stick to breathing fire." Caldina grumbled. "I'm turning into a grandmother!" There was so much dust in her black hair that it appeared grey.
"Practice makes perfect, I always say. Just look at me." Ferrio encouraged. "Now, can someone give me a hand here?" A lot of magically provoked accidents seemed to be happening to Ferrio since Lina started teaching Ascot some bits and pieces of destructive elemental magics about an hour or two ago. He had yet to figure out that Ascot was using him for target practice.
His plea went generally ignored until Windam reached over the edge of the transport and offered a wingtip.
WE MUST WORK TOGETHER, It told Ferrio in a whisper. ONLY THEN CAN WE ESCAPE THIS HELLISH COMPANY!
Ferrio gave the Mashin a funny look. "Escape? From my love? What for?" Abruptly his manner changed and Ferrio drew his sword against Windam. "You! You plot to have me out of the way so you can steal Ascot from me! Never, villian, never! I shall not permit it!"
HEY, WAIT! It took all of Windam to dodge the swordsman and it still would have ended up as sashimi had Ferrio not ripped Lina's mantle and gotten himself one of her level-a-building fireballs just then. Windam groaned. This was going to be a long trip.
She was bored out of her skull and can't help but feel she should be out there doing something about Cephiro's crisis instead of hanging around letting everyone else do all the work. And have all the fun!
"It's not fair!" She whined to no-one in paticular. From what Zagato wouldn't tell her, Ascot and Caldina have been captured by the enemy and Rafus sent to intercept them. The fortress was empty except for Zagato and herself. Emeraulde kicked the sides of her bubble fretfully. "I want to fight too!"
It's too dangerous, Princess. I cannot allow you to.
"But why?" She whined at her captor. "You let the others go!"
The others are not the Pillar of Cephiro. Now please stop fidgeting. You're weakening the bubble.
"Oh." She backed off the kicking and hammering. "Gomen, To-chan." She sat down looking properly ashamed.
How many times must we go through this, Emeraulde? He sighed with strained patience. Don't call me To-chan.
"Hai, To-chan." She replied unhappily.
"Alright, here's how we'll do it: Windam, you and Caldina get Rayearth from the front, then Ferrio and I will go from the rear and Ascot drop the net when we've lured it out. Okay?"
"Works for me, Lina!"
BUT CALDINA-SAMA... ... A look silenced the Mashin.
"It's workable, Lina-sama, but are you sure this is necessary?"
"Lina! That's not the way to claim a Mashin! You're supposed to use the sword!" Ferrio protested between getting rid of his new collar and failing.
"What, this old thing?" She hefted the sword that was supposedly made of the mineral she had retrieved from the Lengendary Pool and left in scabbard up to now. It was a tad tacky for Lina's taste and gleamed like a magic sword (which was a sure way to tell it wasn't for any expieranced adventurer) but somehow nagged suspiciously at Lina for being of pot-metal quality.
Granted Lina wasn't much with swords, but after a lifetime of buckling on a good one and knowing people good with them, anyone can at least tell an extremely bad sword from a good one.
"But how?" She demanded. "You wouldn't let me hurt these Mashins!"
That got Ferrio stomped. He only knew the Messiah was supposed to use the sword made from the Mineral to claim the Mashin, except no-one has ever told him how. Which also meant that neither of the Mashins they had with them have been claimed. Which isn't possible because you're only suppose to be able to enlist their help if you claim them and they recognise you. His head spun. It seems I'm missing something here...
It seems that he was missing a lot of things lately.
The plan worked fine, except for one minor setback: what they caught did not quite fit Rayearth's description.
He was an average looking man dressed in purple and black priestly robes and had his hair cut below his ears like a naive school girl and smiling enigmaticly. What he was supposed to be was big and red with a curved ivory horn and tongues of fire licking about all over the place and putting up a good fight with lots of snarling and gashing. Which can only lead to the conclussion that they have caught the wrong guy.
"Ah, about time you turned up." He said. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Rafus and I have come to offer you this, as a token."
Lina poked the furry orange ball suspiciously.
"It's the Mashin Guardian of the Temple of Flames." Rafus explained as the ball uncurled to reveal a beast with a lion's mane and curved ivory horn. It was about the size of a puppy.
"THAT'S Rayearth?!"
The creature blinked, yawned and curled back into an uninterested ball.
"Well? Are you taking it or not? And Zagato's fortress is over there, by the way."
Lina didn't need a second prompting. The moment Rayearth was in her hands, Rafus vanished in a puff of purple smoke. That solved their final Mashin problem rather neatly.
"Now, how do we pentrate Zagato's fortress?" Ferrio looked all out of sorts. The Fortress was the one thing about this whole quest that he dreaded the most. No one against Zagato had yet been able to get within 2 miles of the place and survive. It was one of those things that looked impossible and stayed impossible.
"How do you penetrate something that isn't there?" Lina grinned cryptically. Caldina returned the smile. Ascot was cuddling Rayearth under the stoned Windam.
"Huh? What do you mean 'not there'?! It's the only building for miles around! How can it be 'not there'?!!!!"
But Lina refused to say, so I guess we'll just all have to see... ...
Darkness.
Something shifted.
The snap-hiss of a match being struck.
"I can't believe this! Where are we?" The shorter demanded. The small ring of light highlighted the unnatural contours of his features, allowing him to almost blend in with the surrounding rocks.
"How in the world would I know! You're at home here, stonehead, you tell me!" His companion snapped back. Even long-term secret admirers have an end to their patience.
"I'm only one-third rock! If you hadn't taken that wrong turn...!"
"If you hadn't insist that it was a shortcut...!"
"If you hadn't..."
The match burnt out.
And there wasn't anymore.
"What do you mean there aren't anymore?!"
"What are you yelling at me for! You're a mage, so conjure up a witchlight or something!"
"I can't!"
"What do you mean you can't!"
"I can't see the spell!"