Chapter 2

It was to long of a trip for them, even though the university was only a few kilometres away from Jennaton's border they couldn't risk walking the open roads. For all they knew, the specially trained individuals who attacked the school could be patrolling the roads now. It was also especially exhausting for Lori who has used up most of her mana just to light up the tunnel for their escape. Though every time she seemed to falter, Celes was there to catch her and keep her on her feet. Unfortunately, Jess wasn't in too much of a helping mood as she walked wherever her leash led her, arms folded across her barely covered chest.

“Question.” She began, although it goes unnoticed by both elves at the front.

“You okay, Lori? I keep having to nudge you back on your feet.”

“Hello?”

“I'm fine, Celes, even though that spell was simplistic I haven't had reason to use any of my magic in some time.”

“Hey!”

Celes whips around and glares at her pet jerking the leash hard, dropping Jess to the ground at her feet.

“Shut up!” She hisses before looking around. Jess makes her way up to her knees and fixes up her hair.

“Well if you were listening then I wouldn't need to yell.” Jess argues back as Lori turns and crouches down in front of her doing her best to smile as a means of calming them both down.

“What did you have to ask, Jess?”

“What are we doing as soon as we reach Jennaton? Do you even have a plan? I mean we're wandering in our dirty pyjamas, we have no money, no identification.”

“There are halfway houses.” Celes begins. “We'll see if we can't get something there.”

“Halfway house?” Jess asks tilting her head a little to the side to allow room for the bouncing question mark metaphorically appearing over her head.

“I don't know.” Lori replies before standing up to meet Celes. “With no family in the city to speak of, any halfway house might be the prime searching target for those pirates. I wouldn't feel safe.”

“Lori, we don't have any money. How can we afford to rent a room at an inn?”

~*~

“Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!” The crowd chants with cheers as some pick their side and others just watch the contest for the sport. Lori tilts her mug higher and higher as one of the bar patrons attempts to keep up. However for him, it's Lori who drops her empty mug down on the table first. She burps a little but it's barely audible over the roaring crowd as the elf holds out a hand with a friendly smile.

Still in amazement up in the hall leading to their room, Celes watches Lori as she begins to unlock their door. Once noticing the stare, Lori looks back over to Celes.

“What?”

“What...was that?”

“A fix to a dire situation. I was bound to pass out from magical exhaustion anyway, this way...” Lori doesn't even finish her sentence before she presses herself against the door opening it up swiftly. Celes barely reacts in time to catch her before she hits the floor. Grunting, she looks over at Jess still standing at the end of her leash.

“You gonna help me?”

“I'm your university slave, outside those halls--”

“Forget it.” Celes huffs her way up to one of the beds where she lies Lori down while Jess closes up the door behind her. She watches as Celes strokes some stray hairs from Lori's face and sighs before making her way to the window.

“You know, I don't have to stay here.” Her words are followed by something heavy hitting the floor. Jess looks down to see it's the leash handle.

“Then go. You're too much trouble here anyway.”

Jess looks at the leash and then Celes who takes a seat down beside Lori.

“Aren't you gonna remove this chain?”

“I don't have the key anymore.”

Jess furrows her brow and reaches down collecting up her leash and heads out of the room slamming the door behind her. Celes glares at the door and then looks down at Lori still sound asleep. After a moment, she gives the side of her head a few more strokes and leans in close to her forehead. Uncertain what she's doing, she changes her mind rapidly and turns her head a little to the side so she can whisper.

“Thanks, madam president, get some rest.” A few more gentle strokes before Celes rises up from the bed and makes her way across the room stopping by the window to watch outside. She sees Jess making her way down the street in a huff before disappearing around the corner. After shaking her head, Celes bids her good riddance and closes up the curtain.

~*~

“Celes? Celes?” Lori stands over Celes gently nudging her shoulder in an effort to wake up the elf. After a few more tries, Celes slowly begins to open up her eyes. “Celes, she's gone.”

“Mm?” Comes the answer as Celes brings a hand out from under the covers to rub at her left eye. “What?”

“Jess, Celes, she's gone.”

“Jess?” It takes a moment for everything to come back to her, or at least who Lori is talking about. When it does, Celes just looks up at her and blinks. “Oh. She left, Lori.”

“What?”

“She said she didn't wanna be here and I don't want her with us anyway. What time is it?”

“Seven in the morning. Celes, we need Jess with us.”

“Why?” Celes sits up and yawns before stretching out her arms clearly not getting why things would be so alarming. “We can make do without her.”

“No we can't. We need to get home, Celes, it's the only place where we can start figuring out what happened.”

“We'll just take a ship.”

“Where? The Valkyrie Spaceport?”

“Yeah.” Celes looks up at Lori who crosses her arms and waits until ever dot finds it's connecting point in Celes' head. When it is, Celes drops back against the pillow. “We need Jess.”

“Exactly, so get dressed. We need to find her.”

“Dressed in what?”

“Oh. Well...come on.”

~*~

“Of all the places she just had to go to a halfway house!” Celes growls out angrily as Jess looks down at the address they were given by the bartender.

“He said he sent her to this address to spend the night. She must have been desperate.”

“Why?”

Lori points to the reason. Ahead of them is the halfway house with a couple of orcs sitting out on some patio chairs just watching the world go by.

“Hopefuls for a room?”

“I doubt it.” Lori sighs as she leads the way inside to where a life sized fairy sweeps up the floor.

Not too typical to the standard belief of what one would look like, this fairy has certainly seen some rough times that her battered wings and atest to. She's dirty, sickly looking, but still keeps her mind to her duties as she sweeps along the floor. Both Lori and Celes approach her with the former taking charge.

“Excuse me, miss.” Lori begins prompting the fairy to look up. “We're looking for a...friend of ours. A human.”

“She was wearing a chain leash.” Celes adds as the fairy nods.

“Yes, your friend came by here last night.” She begins before starting up a bit of a coughing fit. Without wasting a breath, Lori reaches out touching the fairies back. Her hand begins to glow and slowly the coughing ends as the fairy looks up. “Th-thank you.”

Lori smiles back as she moves her hand away letting the fairy straighten out some. It's not a complete cure to her ailment, but it's certainly enough to get her by for the next while or so.

“Like I was saying, your friend did come here but she didn't stay for very long.”

“What happened?” Lori asks growing a little concerned over the potential of her fear coming true.

“She took one look at the place and then turned walking away.”

“That sounds like her.” Celes says.

“Do you know where she might have gone?” Lori asks.

“No, I'm afraid not.” The fairy answers back a little concerned herself now as Lori and Celes look to one another both thinking on what to do next. It's Celes who has the first idea as she turns back toward the fairy.

“Any...humans only halfway houses?”

“I don't...think so.”

“Any run by a human?”

“Oh! Yes. A couple of blocks that way.” The fairy points straight out the door and down the road.

“Thank you.” Lori offers as she hurries out followed along by Celes.

“I hope she's alright.” Lori continues to fear as Celes arches up a brow toward her.

“We just need her body, right?”

“Celes, it won't work that way. What do you think the Slutton guards will do to us if we arrive at their front gate with a dead human on our hands?”

“I didn't say dead. Just unable to move of her own will.”

“That would be worse.” Lori answers as they arrive at their next location.

Lori knocks on the door and after a bit a human male answers looking down at the two elves.

“Looking for a room? You're a little early.”

“No,” Lori answers. “But thank you.”

“I'm looking for my pet. She's about my height, brown hair?” She asks Lori looking for confirmation before turning back up at the man. “She's still wearing her leash.”

“Her name is Jess.”

“That too.”

“She may have arrived here just a couple hours ago.”

“Oh. Her. Yeah, she's here.” Both Celes and Lori look to one another, the latter a little more joyful over the news. “She's upstairs in the manager's room.”

“Manager's room?” Lori asks a little confused.

“Yep. Took one look around and say she wasn't gonna stay in a room full of 'knife ears and such.' No offense.”

“None taken.” Lori replies as Celes groans and starts heading for the stairs making her way up as Lori quickly follows behind her.

Celes doesn't waste any time going down the hall arriving at what is clearly the manager's room. After looking back and seeing if Lori was with her or not, Celes pushes her way into the room startling Jess from her slumber.

“Get up.”

“What?”

“You're coming with us.” Celes orders as she begins grabbing at the leash. Jess fights her off some and uses the blanket to start covering it up while Lori gently eases herself in between the two.

“Jess, your continued presence is requested for our journey.”

“Why? You're in the city, you don't need me as your pet anymore.”

“Jennaton was just a place for us to catch our breath, we must get to the Five Capitals to inform the Queen and Mistress of what has transpired here.”

“I'm sure they'll find out some other way.”

“But we're the only ones to have caught glimpses of the people who took the students. If we can describe them to the Queen or even the Mistress then it may put them far ahead in their own investigation.” Lori replies with a smile reaching her hand out to touch gracefully along the back of Jess'. “Please?”

Jess looks from Lori and then to Celes before falling back to Lori. “That's all well and good, but you know there's only three avenues off this planet and two of them...” Then it suddenly hits her and a smile steadily begins to creep along her face. “Oh hoh, that's why you need me.”

Celes wants to say something here, something to get that smug look off of Jess' face, but all she can do is turn away and bite hold of her tongue. Nothing said will change the fact that...

~*~

“This is the best. Day. Ever!”

Jess proclaims loudly as she skips along the road connecting Jennaton to Slutton. With open fields on either end and the sun coming up not too far off, it's easy for them to see any form of attack made against them. Whether it be slaver, pirate, or wild beast. But Jess is too happy to care about any of those as she looks down by her feet tugging hard on the leather leashes connected to the thin leather collars around the elves necks. Celes lets out a groan as she tries to keep up in crawling.

“I don't see why we have to crawl all the way from Jennaton.” She complains to Lori.

“Slutton's sight is wide, Celes, they're always watching the mountains so of course they can see these streets. If we're seen walking with Jess they'll assume we aren't her slaves.”

“We aren't.”

“It was nice of that man to give us these from the donation bin. Wasn't it, slaves?” Jess interrupts with a giggle as Celes growls under her breath. “And I think the best part is...I told you this would happen.” Jess turns with a smile aimed directly at Celes. “I told you you'd be on my leash within twenty four hours.” Another giggle as Jess turns and tugs them hard skipping along the road toward Slutton.