My Life as a Companion Ch.8

This plan, no, I really couldn't call it a plan, was insane. Libellia stepped away from me before we could really think it through. I wish I had protested, but instead I swallowed my apprehension and started to cast from the book, all the while wishing it had given me something more powerful.

The lizard men started to surround Libellia. I finished the incantation and stone erupted from the earth capturing and trapping several of the creatures. My heart crawled up my throat to pound in my ears as an axe swung down at Libellia. Her flail met it as she swung it up and blocked the incoming strike. I stared in shock as she started swinging the large weapon around her, attacking and blocking swiftly. A lizard man crumpled to the ground under her onslaught. I cringed as she dislodged the flail from the head of another attacker and swung it around catching the axe of another lizard man.

I shook myself. I couldn't just stand here staring at the Princess.  I wanted to cast more spells, but she seemed to be everywhere. I didn't want to accidentally hit her. I could go to Mathias, however, and give him his sword. Then he could help as well...assuming he was able. I braced myself and started to sneak towards the center of the camp.  Libellia had the lizard men well-distracted at least.

After a hurried crouched run and several looks over my shoulder, I found myself behind a canvas tent, trying desperately to remain calm. The Princess was still in my line of sight, and still battling the creatures with conviction. A few feet from my hiding place was Mathias, barely conscious and tied securely to a pole. Two incredibly tall, judging by their shadows, lizard men stood guard on either side. Another stone spell would help, but then what? Fire? They probably wouldn't like it, but it was less powerful than I'd like. I gritted my teeth. I had to do something. I opened the book and once more cast the stone spell.  The pair of lizard men turned, but their legs got caught in the stone. I took a deep breath. One step done, but now the hard part. I threw a small fireball and was rewarded with a screech from one of the pair. Its scales smoked and it was badly burned, but still capable of gutting me with its spear if I got too close.

I decided to sneak around the other side of the tent while their attention was diverted and untie Mathias from behind. Though incredibly dangerous if they managed to turn around even slightly, it was the only idea I had. Thankfully they were still looking for the cause of the fireball. I crept as quietly as I could to Mathias' back and started fumbling with the ropes. I was starting to wonder if this was even a good idea -Mathias seemed pretty limp and I wasn't sure he'd even be able to fight. As I started to undo the knots, I felt him stiffen. Maybe this would work after all. He started to turn his head and I nudged him with my foot causing him to go still.

The lizard men were still looking around for the source of the fire. Suddenly, one turned its upper body and its yellow eyes fixed on me. I swore under my breath. I almost had Mathias undone; I just needed a little more time. I ducked as it tried to jab its spear at me. It gave a shrill hiss and I sped my efforts up. I managed to get the last knot undone just as the spear point narrowly missed my shoulder. Mathias slid down the pole to the ground. I ducked back dropping Mathias' sword as both lizard men attempted to impale me.

Mathias threw some dirt in their faces, causing them to falter with their weapons and sputter. Hastily, I grabbed his sword and we darted away from the lizard men. Mathias let out a deep breath, still looking a little groggy. "Rhett?"
"Huh?"
"Can I have my sword back?"
"Oh, right." I handed it back and he took it, but seemed distracted -  my gaze followed his. Libellia was still fighting her way through the lizard men, though their numbers had dwindled quite a bit. Many lay crumpled around her and as I watched another fell before her deadly swings. Mathias started hurrying towards the battle, shakily at first, but as he got closer, he steadied.

He joined the fray though there were few left. He and Libellia swiftly dispatched the remaining lizard men. Mathias stopped, panting slightly, but Libellia marched forward to the pair of trapped lizard men that we had left. I stared, horror struck as she smoothly swung the flail into one's chest without even a moment's hesitation. As it went limp, she promptly slammed her flail into the other's head with a sickening crunch. She killed them before they even had time to make a sound. She turned to face us and I involuntarily shrank back. Mathias was staring at her with wide eyes. I gazed around the battlefield. There were bodies everywhere and blood and gore.  I felt ill. It seemed the whole camp had been destroyed. I turned my gaze back to Libellia who in turn gazed coolly at us.

Her eyes seemed to glaze over, but after a few moments she blinked and looked more herself. She dropped the flail quickly and seemed to cringe from it-- and the surrounding gore.  Mathias and I both stood, watching her silently.

"I...are you...is everyone..." she trailed off and stared around at the mess; her face paled. Mathias walked to her.
"Are you  alright, Princess?" He asked gently.
She stared at the ground. "I...I am unhurt." Her voice was almost a whisper.  After several seconds of silence, she glanced back up at Mathias and smiled shyly.  "Are you alright?"
Mathias grinned. "Of course! Those foul lizards couldn't hurt me. I was just about to put my cunning plan of escape into action before you two arrived." He took her by the arm.  "Come, Rhett! Let us leave this place! We have quite a ways to go until we reach Amarion."

I refrained from rolling my eyes. It was, after all, his fault that we had even taken this detour, but Mathias would never admit that.  I watched Libellia hesitantly stoop to pick up her flail and gingerly drop it into her knapsack. I'm not sure if Mathias noticed, he seemed to be examining one of the lizard men slain upon the ground as Libellia and I picked up our stuff. "Ready to go?" He asked, smirking. I almost groaned - a smirk was not the expression I wanted to see on Mathias' face now.  He'd probably make us find some alternate, incredibly ridiculous way out of these tunnels rather than going back the way we'd come.
"I guess, but..." I stopped. I really wanted to say something about what just happened, but I didn't want to talk about it in front of Libellia. They looked at me questioningly. "But, why did they want you, Mathias?" I asked instead.
Mathias shrugged. "Something about studying or food or something." He looked a bit disconcerted for a moment. "Actually, I think they wanted both."  He turned to the tunnel and looked over his shoulder at me. "It doesn't matter. We should go!"
"If you think you can travel. You didn't look too good when you were tied up," I couldn't resist the small jab. His exuberance was starting to irritate me and he still hadn't given one word of thanks. My attempt to get a reaction failed. He just grinned at me.

"Of course I can, Rhett!"

~

Unfortunately, I was right about the incredibly ridiculous escape route. Mathias had decided he wanted to find the source of the water -- not only because it (might) lead us out, but simply because he was curious.  Libellia had been quiet the entire trip and didn't seem like she would start speaking again any time soon. She seemed disturbed and lost in thought. Tired of hearing nothing but the water, a reminder of the fact that we were probably getting farther away from the exit, I made an attempt at talking to her.
"Are you alright, Libellia?" I asked. She didn't respond. "Libellia?" I said again gently.
"Oh, I...I'm alright." She hesitated and stared at the water flowing past. "I...I'm just tired."
I nodded. "I'm not surprised. Where did you learn to fight like that?"
She looked startled and I thought I caught a flicker of fear. "Oh, um...I...it's not difficult really...I was...taught by...the weapons master."
I raised an eyebrow. She was a really terrible liar.
"I wonder where this will go," she said. She clearly didn't want to speak of her skills and I wasn't sure if I wanted to know. She had seemed like a different person during the battle. I shuddered at the memory of her killing the pair of trapped lizard men.

"I'm not sure I want to know where Mathias is leading us," I answered.  The aforementioned hero was well ahead of us, and his whistling echoed throughout the tunnel.  "I'm not sure even he knows where he's going at this point."
Libellia's lips twitched and a smile slowly spread across her face. However, she didn't say anything more and I fell silent as well, though I was pleased that I had at least gotten a smile out of her.

Mathias stopped whistling after a while and looked back to 'check on us'. "Guys?" He called with a slight smirk on his face. I answered and he turned towards us and stopped walking. "What is with you two? You're so slow!" He teased, then waggled his eyebrows.
I glowered and Libellia tilted her head to the side. "I'm sorry for my pace, Mathias," She said quietly. "I'm a little tired..."
Mathias' expression softened and he smiled at the girl.
"My apologies, Princess." He grinned. "No need to rush! We'll stop for a little rest." He said decisively.
"Oh! No, don't let me slow..." Libellia started to protest.
"Nonsense!" Mathias sat suddenly on a rock. "We could all use a break, right Rhett?"
I rolled my eyes. Mathias usually liked to press on for as long as we could, but as soon as a lady was involved, he was all charm and attempts to impress.
Libellia nodded gratefully. "Thank you, Mathias," she said quietly.
"Of course, Your Highness." Mathias' grin seemed to widen, if that was possible.  Libellia sat down slowly, almost as if she were unsure, on a rock beside Mathias.  I sunk to the dirt floor and pulled my book from my knapsack.  Until Mathias deemed Libellia 'well-rested', we wouldn't be going anywhere. I flipped through it and scowled at the empty pages.  What had allowed one spell to appear but leave all the other pages blank?

"Is there anything I can do for you, Princess?" I heard Mathias ask eagerly. He seemed anxious to do something for her. I wondered if he was trying make up for being captured.  I felt a small smirk creep across my face and tried to repress it.  Luckily for me, however, neither was paying any mind to me.
Libellia seemed embarrassed by Mathias' eagerness, which caused her to stumble over her words.  "N-no, thank you.  I'm quite fine, really."  I peered at them watching Mathias' efforts.  Mathias shifted restlessly seeming unsure of what to do with himself. Libellia's head was bowed. I frowned.  She seemed tired and out of sorts. I started to rise to go speak with her, but sank back down to the dirt. I didn't know what I wanted to say, and though I still wanted to know how she had managed to fight all those lizard men, I didn't know how to broach the subject, and she seemed determined to avoid it.
"Rhett!" Mathias' voice, which was incredibly loud I might add, startled me. I glanced at him and he was staring at me with the most intense look on his face.  "Do you have any food left in your knapsack?" His voice was so serious that I just started laughing.  I couldn't help it.  Maybe it was nervous laughter; or maybe I simply needed to let off stress.  We'd been through hell for the past few weeks. We'd been thrown in jail, forced to trek over what felt like the entire map, and save an odd princess that was able to wield a weapon with deadly skill. I couldn't help but laugh at our situation.
Mathias gave me an offended look. I gasped for breath and started to look in the bags. Another bout of laughter took me and it only grew stronger when I saw Mathias and Libellia staring at me as if I'd gone insane. "N-not much left, heh heh. We're heroes!" I exclaimed. "What do we need, ha ha ha, food for? Isn't that right, Mathias?"
"A-are you alright, Rhett?" Libellia asked hesitantly.
"Sure! We're alive!" I chortled. "We're in the middle of an unknown cave after just killing a horde of lizard men that should have killed us, BUT! thanks to our Princess's," here I bowed to Libellia, "remarkable skills and fearlessness of slaughter, we pulled through." I felt myself grinning as I turned my gaze to Mathias. "And even rescued our fearless leader, the great hero, Mathias! We, the companions rescued the great hero. I'm just fine! Couldn't be better."
I was met with silence.  No words were spoken, and I suddenly stopped laughing and the grin slid off my face. Mathias was analyzing me, checking to see if there was any physical damage the lizard men had done that he hadn't noticed before.  Libellia just stared at me aghast. I swallowed, suddenly nervous and a bit shaky from my sudden outburst. A sense of guilt went through me at the sight of Libellia's expression.
"I..." I started, but stopped. I had no idea what to say or do now. An awkward silence fell. I raised a shaky hand to brush away some of my hair that had fallen into my face, then dropped it.
"Well..." Mathias began in a very quiet voice. "I guess we should keep going then."  Mathias stood up and offered his hand to Libellia. She took it and rose as well, but she was still staring at me with a mixture of shock and...was it pain? I wondered with a pang.
"Right," said Mathias, dusting himself off. "Let's go." Mathias started to walk down the tunnel and Libellia followed. After several steps, he turned back. "Are you coming, Rhett?" I nodded and stooped to pick up my bag, then hurried after them.

After a long and subdued trip we finally reached the end of the tunnel and found a way out into the sunlight.  The source of the water came from somewhere above ground and we didn't have the time to follow it that far. We were in regular woods, as far as I could tell, and with no trace of swamplands. I wondered just how far we'd come. I'd completely lost all sense of time in the dark tunnels, not to mention direction. At least we out of the swamp, but I had no idea where we were and I doubted Mathias did either.

"Where are we?" I asked, figuring that I may as well confirm my suspicions now.  Mathias opened his mouth, ready to speak, but it was Libellia who answered.
"We're near Amarion!" Mathias and I looked at her, slightly puzzled. However, her face was filled with happiness, so we assumed she was right. "We don't have far now before we reach Amarion. Then, just a little farther and we'll be home!" She looked at Mathias with a wide smile. "Thank you!"  
Mathias grinned in return. "I was just doing my job, but it was a great pleasure, Princess."
She turned to me, "and...thank you Rhett," she said quietly, her smile seeming to become more fixed. I winced. She hadn't said much to me since my outburst in the caves. She turned to face the path. "We still have time before nightfall. We should keep going," she said eagerly.
Mathias bowed. "As you wish, Your Highness."

Mathias and Libellia took the lead leaving me to follow with a sigh.