War's Ordeals: Another Battle

A knock then came at his door. He made a sound guess that it was Nag since the serpent was the only other being in the castle besides himself who could get anywhere near his door without being thrown away from the magic barrier. Though what Nag was doing awake this early he hadn't a clue.

"What is it?" he called under his breath, wiping the sleep from his eyes. The door opened and Nag shyly poked his head into the room. He offered a little wave then slithered into the room.

"I didn't know you could get up this early. What's up?"

Nag crawled to the bed where he sat on the floor next to it. He rested his arms on the edge of the bed and set his head tiredly upon them. Magus removed the glove from his hand and felt Nag's arm.

"You're still cold," Magus said, growing concerned. Nag nodded slowly.

"Slash woke me up so I could wake you up."

"Well, I'm up. What is so important that he needs to wake us up this early?"

Nag closed his eyes. "Slash said that Ozzie wants you to go over battle plans. He probably wants you to leave this afternoon."

"The encampment before Zenan Bridge?"

"Probably."

Magus nodded. "Go get warmed up before you can't move," he told Nag. Nag picked himself up and slithered lazily out the door, shutting it behind him.

Magus sat up and Jenica stirred beside him. She then opened her eyes and looked at him.

"I need to go discuss... um, battle plans with Ozzie," Magus explained awkwardly. He paused, then groaned, realizing he should have asked Nag to stay with the girl while he was gone. Now he would have to find the serpent. "I'm going to find Nag first to watch over you. He is a trusted friend, so you've nothing to worry about." Jenica nodded in understanding. "Do you know what you're going to do yet?" Magus asked her.

"I think I am going to stay here, at least until things have a chance to settle down. I know not what else I can do until then." Magus gave a curt nod then stood. He walked to a far corner of the room and picked up a smooth black pole, taller than he. The bottom end was tipped in a silver point, however the top of the pole boasted a wicked curved blade and another metal point to cap it off. He rested the scythe in the crook of his arm and placed the removed glove back on his hand. When he was done, he bid the girl farewell and walked out the door.

"Nag?" he called, hoping to catch his friend before he crawled too far away.

"Yes?" replied Nag, directly in front of Magus.

"Geez!" Magus jumped. Nag smiled.

"Got ya. Do you want me to watch her?"

Magus nodded, catching his breath. "Don't do that again!" Nag laughed and slithered to the room. He then turned quickly.

"Do you want me to show her around? Or..." Nag asked timidly.

Magus shrugged. "If she wants you to. It's her choice." Nag nodded and Magus left him to find Ozzie. Nag went into Magus' room, shutting the door, and crawled to the bed again.

"Hi," he said to Jenica.

"Good morning," she replied. Nag looked around the room before his eyes found the balcony, rays of sun just beginning to shine down upon it. Their warmth beckoned him.

"Um, if you don't mind," he said gesturing to the terrace, "I'm going to go warm up." She nodded an approval and Nag crawled to the balcony where he promptly found a suitable sunbeam and plopped down. Jenica looked from where she was sitting and noticed a discoloration at the tip of Nag's tail. It was a bruised burgundy unlike the silky white of the rest of his body. She stood and joined the serpent sprawled out lazily on the terrace.

"What happened to your tail?" she questioned him. Nag glanced over to her.

"Um," he said hesitantly, biting his lip, "Slash kinda stepped on it."

"Accidentally?"

"To wake me up," Nag corrected her.

"What a cruel person!"

Nag propped himself up on an arm. "He likes to remind us that he's the superior officer."

"That's terrible," she said. "Will you be all right?"

"Oh, yeah. I'll be fine." He sat, thinking for a moment. "I'll have to find someone who knows a Cure spell."

"A Cure spell?"

"Yeah," Nag told her. "Cure spells help to heal you. Not many Mystics know them so those who do are quite valued. You can imagine how useful they are in a war."

Jenica agreed.

"I think humans are capable of a few basic Cures." He shook his head saying: "None of the serpents can. At least not to my knowledge... Maybe the marine serpents can-"

"There's others of you?" Jenica asked. Nag sat up, becoming quite talkative now that the sun had warmed him up.

"Oh, yes! There's four main groups of serpents: you have me, your average serpent, you have the marine serpents, the cobrids, and then the vipers." He shook his head fervently. "You can't trust vipers. Too wild. At least in my opinion." He stretched and sat upright.

"Oh, dear," Jenica exclaimed. "Are any of you poisonous?"

"We're not," Nag responded referring to the 'average serpents.' "However, the marines, cobrids, and vipers are." He then got an idea. "I could show you around. I could show you were I stay and you can see the other serpents! That is, unless you're uncomfortable being around serpents..." he drifted off, remembering other encounters with panicky females.

"If you think that simply because I am a girl I'm frightened of 'creepy crawlies,' let me tell you, you're badly mistaken!"

Nag was beaming. "Do you want to see?"

Jenica smiled and sighed. The creature in front of her was simply adorable in nature, almost childlike now that he was fully awake. "Yes, I would like to see."

"Great!" the serpent exclaimed, rising quickly to his normal standing height. He held his hand out to Jenica who took it and stood next to him. With that, they exited the room and began making their way to the lair of the serpents when Nag's voiced echoed down the hall once more.

"Are you calling me a creepy crawly?"

Nag led Jenica down a final hall in the damp, mildly hot caverns underneath the castle.

"It's fairly warm down here year-round, so that's why we live here. We rarely go above ground unless we're called upon." he explained. The hall opened up into a dimly lit room. Serpents of different sizes, body coverings, and colors lay everywhere. Though most were dark browns and blacks, a few were vibrant greens and other assorted colors, the coloration of their humanoid torsos matching the color of their tails.

It appeared that serpents similar to Nag were the most human-looking of all of them. The majority of them had scaly skin all up their torsos with either scaly hoods, fins, or rattles at their tails.

A dark group of serpents, hooded cobrids, shied away from the girl, wary of any human in their midst. A rock-colored serpent similar to Nag crawled up to them.

"Why did you bring a human here, Nag?" he asked.

"She's curious and wishes to learn, Sebae. She means no harm." Nag replied. Jenica moved forward, pausing as her foot bumped into something. In a flash, a mottled black and brown serpent appeared, hissing and poised to attack the one who had stepped on his tail. Nag reached out to calm the serpent when it turned it's anger to him. Nag and the other serpent engaged in a mild brawl, Nag's tail writhing around the other's to restrain him. Jenica was knocked back into Sebae who placed his clawed hands on her shoulders protectively, trusting Nag's words. Eventually, the two serpents stopped wrestling, Nag holding the other firmly against the wall.

"Blundering human!" the dark serpent hissed.

"Acanthophis, calm yourself! It was an accident," Nag said, attempting to soothe him.

"Forgive me," Jenica stammered. "You were so well hidden I could not see you."

Acanthophis inhaled deeply, forked tongue flickering between his lips for a moment. "You'd better believe it." With that, he relaxed his muscles. Nag released him and he slithered off to find another dark corner, one that this time he wouldn't be disturbed.

"Intelligent human," Sebae reasoned, breaking the silence. Jenica looked at him questionably. "The best way to calm an angry viper is to compliment it. They adore praise," he explained.

Nag shook his head again. "Can't trust vipers."

"I'm sorry," Jenica apologized.

"Do not worry about it," Sebae said.

"Vipers always like to pick fights," said a curl of scaly coils. Nag turned to Jenica.

"You've met two of my kind and a viper," he paused, slithering to the new serpent. "This is Naja - a cobrid." Naja stayed in his little ball, not exactly wanting any attention.

"I don't like humans," Naja said. Jenica stopped walking over.

"I'm sorry, do you want me to leave?" she asked sincerely. Naja sat for a moment. He then looked to Nag.

"She's different."

Nag nodded. "I know. Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were more like her?" Jenica stood, not understanding what they meant.

"Come here," Nag told her. She complied and sat next to the two serpents. Naja lifted his head up revealing the pale yellow scales on his underside.

"What is her name?" Naja asked. Nag stared blankly for a moment. He turned to her.

"What is your name, exactly?" he asked.

"You don't know her name?" Naja said in mild disbelief.

Jenica smiled. "My name is Jenica. Jenica Dayne."

Naja looked to Nag again. "What is it with humans having multiple names?"

"Don't look at me. Do I look human to you?"

Naja grinned shrewdly, eyes half-lidded. "No, you're too pale," he cooed.

Nag hissed at him. He had slithered his way right into that insult. Naja kept smiling. Nag scowled at Naja until he finally turned to Jenica.

"Come, there's one more thing I want to show you." He stood, casting Naja a final glare, and led Jenica to the rear of the cavern. A small pond was tucked away behind some of the rocks. "This is where the marines hang out." As those words left his mouth, a serpent rose from the depths, bobbing for a moment on the surface before whipping her head around, flinging the water out of her hair. Vivid blue and white fins adorned her head and wrists. A male and another female soon followed. The female marines, like the females of the other serpents, wore a simple upper body covering for it was the only part of the body they deemed necessary to cover.

"The waterway underneath the pond leads to the ocean," Nag explained. "It's actually there that the marines spend their time." The three marine serpents swam to the shore. Then, the female that was the first to appear glanced over to Nag and noticed Jenica. She, who seemed to be the leader of the small group, stopped, the others following suit.

"Don't worry, Astrotia. She comes here in peace."

Astrotia paused for a moment, studying the human. She then backed up to the middle of the pool again.

"Semperi, Pelamis," she called. The other two joined her before they all sank back down into the waters. Nag put a hand on Jenica?s shoulder.

"They're not very warm to anyone, even the other serpents. The marines are the only serpents not comfortable on land they're so adapted to living in the water. They keep to themselves."

"I understand," replied Jenica.

"I can show you around the rest of the castle, if you wish," Nag offered.

"Yes, please," Jenica said. "I would like that very much."

Nag first showed Jenica the rather expansive library that the castle housed. Volumes upon volumes of books filled the shelves, ranging from science to math, though most of the books contained various spells and incantations.

"We learn magic on our own and this is where we learn it," Nag told her. He ran his fingers along some of the volumes. "Many of us have spent hours in here, at least those of us who can read."

"I should love to glance at these books sometime," Jenica said in awe.

"Careful, you'll end up spending all of your time in here. We'd never see you again!" Nag joked. They left the room and continued down the hallway. They passed an opened door which Jenica peered in. Nag continued crawling past it.

"That's where we hope not to end up." Jenica stopped walking and stood at the door. Crying came from inside.

"Jenica-" Nag said. Jenica walked into the room and past a few sheet-covered tables. A hand protruded from one of the tables in front of her. It was held by two smaller hands. She stopped at the table before it as Nag slithered up behind her. A little creature resembling a stone gargoyle sat holding the larger hand, weeping softly. He then looked up, startled at the two beings behind him. He glared at Jenica.

"Human!" he yelled as he ran to her. He beat his fists upon her legs in fury but being the small child he was, it bore no result. After a few moments, his blows ceased and he sank to the floor, crying once again. Jenica sat down beside him and slowly took the child in her arms. He held onto her dress, bawling. Jenica looked to Nag, eyes begging for an answer.

"These Mystics were killed in the last battle," Nag answered, gesturing to the bodies in the room.

"Humans killed Momma and Daddy," the child said bitterly.

Nag looked down to him. "Your parents fought bravely for what they believed in and died honorably-"

"I want to avenge my parnents' death! The humans can't just get away with this!" the gargoyle child cried.

"Then kill the human in front of you," Nag said. The child looked back in shock, not hearing the expected response. He looked to Jenica, troubled.

"But... but she's..."

"Different?" Nag finished for him. The gargoyle tucked his head under Jenica?s arm. "Not all humans are cruel."

"Mystics are the same as humans," Jenica said softly.

"What made you think that we were so different?" countered Nag.

"I miss Momma." Jenica brushed the back of the child's head. Nag lowered himself to look eye-to-eye with the child.

"Come on. Let's go."

The child looked to him, then to the ground. He then stood followed by Jenica. The three began to walk out of the room, the young gargoyle holding onto Jenica?s hand. He stopped as they were a few feet from the door and turned to gazed lovingly at his parents one final time. He turned again and walked out of the door without looking back.

Nag continued to show Jenica around, the gargoyle child tagging along. They quickly stopped by the dining hall as to get Jenica something to eat. Nag refused a meal as he did not need to eat as much as humans and the gargoyle, whom they discovered was named Adryn, wasn't exactly hungry for obvious reasons.

After that, they headed down another fews hallways before stopping at an open doorway leading to a large, carpeted room.

"This the the armor and weapon room," Nag said, preparing to move on. Jenica paused, peeking into the room. Nag stopped. "Um, Jenica?" Jenica turned.

"Are we not going to go in?"

Nag rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn't think that you would be interested..."

Jenica glanced into the room again, looking for any possibly hostile Mystics before stepping in, Adryn following. Nag stayed for a moment where he was then joined Jenica and Adryn in the room.

Jenica looked around, taking in the multitudes of weapons, shields, and armor that adorned the walls. She walked over to a rack of stilletos and long swords, admiring each one before picking up a long sword sheathed in a black leather scabbard. The handle and metal tip were a tarnished steel. She held it and turned it in her hands.

"It has been a while since I've held a sword," Jenica said, lost in the past.

"You can use a sword?" Nag asked, quite astonished. Jenica drew the weapon, studying the polished blade.

"I practiced on my own whenever my father was away. Father would never have permitted me to even touch a sword, had he known."

Nag crawled to the rack next to Jenica and picked out a sword of his own, another long sword with a golden handle and a deep red scabbard.

"I was never very good myself," admitted Nag, removing the blade from the sheath. Jenica stood en garde.

"Then perhaps I may have a chance to best you."

Nag smiled and matched her position as best he could with his serpentine body. "Perhaps," he agreed. Adryn moved to a bench along the wall and sat down, watching the human and serpent.

The play duel began when Nag jabbed out at Jenica repeatedly in a maneuver that was fairly simple to block to test how well Jenica could defend herself. He had gotten the impresson that Magus would never forgive him should Jenica be harmed during swordplay. Fortunately, Jenica blocked each thrust with ease and after the first few realized that Nag was indeed merely testing her.

"Nag, I assure you that I am more skilled than that," she said as their blades met once more, the point of Nag's being twisted to the floor again. With that said, Jenica drew the blade up and out from her. Nag barely countered and recoiled a few feet on his serpentine tail. He still held his blade vertically in front of him, hilt up, with Jenica?s perpendicular to his.

"Well, then," Nag said, still a bit overwhelmed that he was fighting a rather skilled person, a female human, no less, "I shall have to remember not to underestimate you." And so, the bout continued.

Adryn watched placidly as the two fought. He pulled out the apple he had taken from the kitchen and began munching on it as he observed the duelers. Hmph, what do you know? Jenica?s not that bad, he thought. Nag's been on the defensive for a while now.

Unbeknownst to the occupants of the room, Slash stood just outside of the doorway, also watching the battle. More or less he was still watching Jenica as he folded his arms and leaned against the doorframe. Every so often he flinched, seeing what to him was very amateur swordsmanship, mostly from the serpent.

Jenica thrusted forward again as Nag countered, nearly tripping over his own tail in the process. She stepped back, relaxing her sword a bit. Nag saw this opening and shot up, sword slicing down towards her. She looked up suddenly, threw the sword to her left hand, and countered. She twisted her blade in a waltz with Nag's before her opponent's sword was wrestled out of his grasp and was thrown to the floor in a metallic clatter. Nag, and Slash, looked at her, astonished. She's ambidexterous, thought Slash.

"You can fight with your left hand?" Nag asked, looking down the blade of Jenica?s sword. Nag swallowed, feeling the cold point of the sword at his throat. Jenica smiled and relaxed her hold, bringing the sword away from the serpent. He rubbed his throat protectively.

"I'm learning how to. I can't do much yet." Jenica looked at the blade a final time before placing it in its scabbard. Nag stopped his advance towards his sword to stare at her awkwardly for a moment. He then slithered to his blade before sheathing it.

Slash stood up to his full height before levitating about a foot off of the ground. Not too bad for a human that's just starting off and who's had no formal training. Perhaps Magus will teach her... Slash wondered as he went down the hall already thinking of the one thing he enjoyed more than women - weaponry and war.

Jenica had placed her sword back on the weapon rack and was walking to the bench that Adryn was sitting on. The little gargoyle sat motionless, still holding the half-eaten apple hanging out of his mouth. He finally snapped out of his stupor, realizing that the battle was over. He finished his bite of the apple and looked at Jenica calmly.

"Not too bad," he said, trying to sound unimpressed. He was trying to hid his awe - it wasn't every day one saw a human best a Mystic. Or at least not every day for him. Jenica smirked.

"Not too bad, huh? I probably wouldn't last a minute against a tough guy like you, right?"

"Yeah, something like that..." Adryn managed to say.

After that, the little group returned to Magus' room. They were sitting on the sunny balcony talking, learning more about Mystics, more about humans. Nag was content simply watching Jenica and Adryn chat, Adryn talking excitedly about his friends in the small, and rather peaceful Mystic village, Gannett.

Nag felt a disturbance in the barrior about the room and, peering into the chamber, saw that Magus had returned. The mage looked over and saw them on the terrace. He started to head towards them, then paused, realizing he was still holding his scythe. Magus placed the deadly weapon on his bed before continuing to the balcony.

"You leaving?" Nag asked as Magus approached. Magus nodded. Nag stood and made his way off of the balcony. "Come on, Adryn."

"...and then Aryn and I-" Adryn stopped. "Huh?"

Nag didn't reply as his tail wrapped around the child's wrist and pulled him off of the terrace, leaving Magus alone with Jenica. Nag loosened one of the curtains that covered the archway to the balcony as Magus sat next to Jenica. Adryn squirmmed to get out of Nag's grasp as the serpent dragged him to the far side of the room. Adryn paused for a moment as a thought came to his head.

"Are they gonna make out?" he asked blatantly. Nag's face reddened and he clamped a hand over the boy's mouth. Fortunately, the comment had been out of hearing range of the Magus. At least he hoped.

Magus had sat down beside Jenica, though he said nothing for a moment. Then:

"I'm going to be gone for a few days."

Jenica nodded in understanding. Magus sighed. "I'm sorry, it's-"

Jenica stopped him. "I know this is a war and that I am on enemy grounds." Magus flinched at the use of enemy. "I know that you are going to attack a human encampment. But I realized when Nag was showing me around that Mystics and humans are nearly the same." Jenica paused. "Before, it was 'We need to fight this war because of the Mystics.' But now it seems as pointless as any other war, though I know now that Mystics have every right and reason to be fighting."

They again sat in silence, though Magus felt rather relieved that Jenica could see from the Mystics' point of view. It made the awkward situation of Mystic-explaining-to-human-he-was-attacking-the-humans-but-we're-still-friends more bearable.

The silence between the two was softly interrupted as they heard the main gate to the castle opening numerous flights below them. The sound of the troops marching and officers giving orders floated up to their ears. Magus sighed, knowing he would have to leave soon.

The warlock looked up at Jenica and saw she was looking in the general direction of the army, watching them as they left. Magus then glanced to the archway leading to his chamber and saw Nag peering out from behind the curtain. Nag pointed to Magus and Jenica with both of his hands. The serpent then gently brought his hands together. Magus looked at him curiously. Nag rolled his eyes then mouthed the words 'kiss her!' Before Magus could glare at the serpent, Jenica spoke.

"Be careful," she said quietly. Magus looked to her, surprised.

"What?"

Jenica looked at Magus. "Be careful."

Magus looked to the doorway again and saw that Nag had left. "No one's ever really said that to me before. The closest thing to that that I've heard would be along the lines of 'Watch out, you idiot!'" Magus turned back to Jenica.

"Well, I mean it," she said. "Try not to get hurt."

Magus smiled. "Thank you. I'll try my hardest not to." A moment passed. He then leaned down towards her, but paused again. But then he took her chin in his hand and brought his lips to hers, kissing her deeply. She returned the embrace, bringing her hand to his cheek.

After a moment, Magus pulled away, looking into her eyes and smiling much more than what was normal for him. He then stood and leaped to the balcony's stone railing. The warlock held out his hand, his scythe soon appearing in his grasp. With a magnificent bow and a final glance to Jenica he vanished, joining the marching army down below.