"So you're a Knight of Ceiphied?"
Luna didn't even look at the person that was addressing her as she continued to polish her sword with the whetstone. This wasn't been the first time that people have asked her that question, whenever she was with a different squad of soldiers there would always be one that would ask her that question.
"Leave her alone, she doesn't talk unless it is necessary," one of the soldier called.
Luna looked upon the reflection of the blade as she watched the soldier that asked the question walk away. Sighing to herself, she placed the blade back into its sheath as she leaned back against the side of the wagon as it went down the bumpy road.
Looking at the other occupants of the wagon, she could easily judge that most of these were rookies, this will probably be the first battle they've ever been in. Nervousness was in the eyes of quite a few of them, as others seem to be in deep thought.
Why had the Council saw it fit to send her here? Certainly, of all the Ceiphied knights that they had under them, she was the youngest of them and therefore the least experienced. Though she was sure she could easily take down whatever they were going against.
Her thoughts drifted back toward the conversation she had earlier with Milgazia, a Ryuzoku, over the pretense of this mission.
"You're sending an entire squad and a Ceiphied Knight to the ruins?" Luna barked, as Milgazia didn't even flinch.
"That is correct," he said, as he remained seated in his desk. "The superior feel that this would be the best course of action. You are assigned to the squad as back up. Let them handle most of the dirty work and if things get out of hands, then you will be expected to deal with it." Milgazia explained to her as Luna felt uneasy.
"I don't understand the reason for this," Luna remarked to Milgazia.
"You still have a lot to learn Luna," he sighed. "You have only been with us for barely a year and you must understand that we have certain procedures for things. You must not question them or forget your rank."
"..."
"Is it clear on what you must do?" Milgazia inquired.
"Yes, sir." Luna said as she got up and left.
The door slammed with enough force to shatter the hinges as the door crumbled to the ground as Milgazia sighed and shook his head.
"Teenagers," he stated.
"Copper piece for your thought?"
Luna blinked out of her thought as she realized that one of the soldiers had suddenly taken a seat next to her. Cursing herself for letting her guard down, she merely turned her head the other way to ignore him as he sat there.
"Not very talkative are you? Well, I guess we have our own reasons for not talking."
Why is this guy talking to me? Does he enjoy the sound of his own voice?
"Of course, some people talk because they like the sounds of their voice. I on the other hand believe that talking is a very effective medium for conversation."
Luna tried to do her best to ignore the soldier and squash thoughts of introducing her fist into his face at the moment. She was patient to wait for her revenge later.
"Most of the boys here are surprised that you're a girl. Of course, it's been quite awhile since they've seen a girl. I mean, it was a surprise for even me that the Knight of Ceiphied we're traveling with is a girl. A pretty one none the less."
Pondering revenge, Luna wondered if there were any convenient pits where they were going, in order to kick this guy down one of them. Heck if there wasn't a pit, she'd make one just so she can throw this arrogant bastard down.
"You know, I figure you have a pretty smile if you try smiling."
Wait a moment, is this guy trying to flirt with her? That's it!
"Because I think you're a -- "
"Shut up, you jerk!" Luna interrupted him as she delivered a left hook right into the soldier's face.
The sheer force of the punch caused the whole wagon to shudder as the soldier was sent flying out of the wagon, leaving a rather large hole where he used to be. The squad captain stuck his head into the wagon from the front as he glared at the seething Luna.
"What the hell happened?" Rodimus demanded looking at them all.
"The Knight punched cadet Lez out of the wagon."
"I think I heard him bounce."
"Is this true?" Rodimus inquired.
Crossing her arms, Luna remarked, "He had it coming."
"Damnit," Rodimus grumbled as he pulled his head out of the wagon. "Stop the wagon, we got a wayward cadet to look for," he ordered.
The wagon came to a screeching stop as the entire soldier squad started to file out of the wagon into a line as Rodimus paced in front of them. Luna, however, sat where she was as the soldiers scattered across the badlands they were traveling through to find the missing soldier.
It took several hours to cover the entire range, seeing that Luna being a Knight could punch the cadet pretty far. They were hoping to find a reasonable size of his body to send back to base to explain the whole mess.
Surprisingly, they found him relatively intact for the most part, that is the portion of him that was sticking out of the rock intrusion that had halted his flight. Luckily one of the soldiers had taken some lessons in astral magic and applied some recovery to Lez to alleviate some of his more serious injuries.
"I must say that is an impressive left hook."
Soldiers sweatdropped as the wagon continued down its merry way, the worse-for-wear Lez continuing his little conversation with Luna.
Luna was getting sick of this jerk very fast, she was really hoping that his jaw was at least broken from the punch. Unfortunately, the only thing that seemed to suffer from that little impromptu assisted flight was his uniform that was pretty ravaged from the impact.
"Since you don't seemed to enjoy listening to me talk, how about a little deal then?" Lez inquired clapping his hands together. "Tell me your name and I'll won't talk to you for the rest of this ride?" he offered.
Luna looked up at him as she said, "You'll leave me alone if I just tell you my name?"
"Yup."
"It's Luna, Luna Inverse."
"Nice name, Luna." Lez commented to himself as he leaned back and closed his eyes.
Luna gave a sigh of relief, as it seemed that he finally decided to shut up. She sat there for a moment as all the sounds that they heard were the wheels of the wagon crunching over the surface of the badlands. Long moments passed, as that was the only sound that could be heard, the sun in the distance slowly dipping down the horizon.
"Dusk is approaching," Rodimus commented from the front of the wagon. "We'll be approaching the site pretty soon."
Grumbling to herself as to what she was about to do, Luna said, "Do you really think that I have a pretty smile?"
"Huh?" Lez commented opening one eye.
"I asked do you mean what you said?" she restated.
"I always mean what I say," Lez replied commonly as he looked at her. "If you took anything I said as offensive then I apologized,"
"No it's not that." Luna remarked looking away. "I was just curious to the intent of your statements," she said as Lez nodded.
"So how is it like to be a Knight of Ceiphied?"
"What?"
"I've heard much about what it takes to be a Knight of Ceiphied. How you are born with the power of Ceiphied within you. But I always wonder how it affects the person that bears this power?" Lez mused.
Luna just sat there silently for a moment, before she said, "I really don't know. For all my life, I simply did what has been expected of me as a Knight of Ceiphied. I sometimes wonder what kind of person I would be without this power."
"Luna Inverse," Lez remarked, "you will be who you always were. No one can take that away from you. Despite all that you might feel, you shouldn't ever toss aside who you are."
"Lez," Luna remarked turning her head away from him to hide her blushing.
"Of course, now that you mention it. I think you would look just hot in one of those form-fitting waitress outfits," Lez added rubbing his chin.
"Pervert!"
The wagon gave another shudder as Lez went flying through the top of the wagon into the distance as the soldiers inside all shook their head.
"Not again," Rodimus swore.