FF Entry - 6

Late that evening, the door creaked open. Sophia appeared in the doorway as she closed it. Janeil and Pierre were on their feet in an instant.

"Where had you been all day?" Janeil asked. "You had me worried."

"You, worried?" Sophia seemed surprised that he was concerned about her. "This is my domain, you know.

"Well, that aside, you didn't say a single thing about what youi went to do."

"I beg your pardon, if I told you what I was going to do, you would have wanted to come along,"
Sophia was getting a little irritated, still not answering his questions. "I needed you to keep an eye on Tamilia."

"From that Volus guy? He swung by today and reminded her that he could heal her."

Sophia sighed and lowered her head in thought, not saying a word.

Janeil was fed up with her behavior a little, walking away and let her be. Pierre looked at both them and shuffled closer to Sophia.

"Did you accomplish what you wanted?" Pierre asked in a slightly lowered voice.

"Mostly..." Sophia shook her head. "I need to be alone for a little bit. I'm under a lot of stress right now." She turned to head to a corner of the room, sitting down on the cot. Pierre took a seat nex to her, placing his large hand on her shoulder.

"Really...what's on your mind? What's troubling you?"

"I...didn't think that Volus was actually doing something this horrible." Sophia's gaze never met Pierre's eyes. "Going after your daughter, that is. But...I had gone back to my old village that I we used to live to see if Elizabeth returned. It's just a lot of painful memories..." Her voice wavered a little.

"You know Janeil deserves to know some of the things you're doing, you know. After all, you brought him along to help you." Pierre noted.

Sophia knew Pierre was right. "I know...but I was hoping to keep him out of tihs as much as I could. I want mine and Elizabeth's life to return to normal. Isn't that a good goal?"

"Well, of course. But you know that Janeil is trusting you and what you want him to do; and he's trying to help you as a friend. You have to remember that. If you leave him in the dark, he's going to start question his loyalty and your motives."

Sophia's eyes widened slightly as she looked at Pierre.

"He likes you. A lot. Enough that he left his world on your word to go find your friends. Don't you owe him anything in return?" Pierre looked out the window at the setting sun.

"I don't know how to answer that right now." Sophia turned away. "We have to keep an eye on Tamilia so that Volus can't do something to her. I just...need to sort myself out."

"We'lldo that. Just remember there are people wondering about you." Pierre patted her shoulder and got up, leaving her be.

He exited the hut through the backdoor. Janeil was leaning against the wall, staring at the twilight sky once again.

"You all right?"

"I'm fine...never got used to guard duty, but glad its just a person versus something else." Janeil looked at him. "Shouldn't we be doing something?"

"Do you feel like something should be done?" Pierre was slightly curious, folding his arms.

"Stopping Volus...or getting Tamilia out of here. He doesn't strike me as the kind of person to go through the Doorway thing to get to his goal."

"Those are plausible ideas; but I would warn you that stopping Volus won't be easy. Some say he isn't a man; and he plays tricks with your mind." He grabbed Janeil's elbow roughly. "Every single man that rushed in to kill him has never lived."

"What's your take on it?" Janeil turned to him. "What do you think we should do?"

"That surprising from you. You don't trust your own judgement?"

"I do trust my decisions. I just can't go blowing holes in everything like I please. I might screw up Sophia's repuation or worse someone's life." Janeil gave him a slighlty sharp look.

"I see...kill first ask questions later? That is the mark of someone untintelligent, isn't it?"

"Not really; and I only start fighting if its too dangerous to ask questions first. " Janeil leaned forward. "As much as I know how to fight, I don't enjoy or "get into it" like other people. But if I need to be 'in the zone' to stay alive, I'll do it."

"I didn't get some of what you said, but I'll take that as a no." Pierre let out a huff of air.

Silence fell onto the boardwalk once more. Pierre was about to talk more when Sophia walked up to them. She gave a soft cough, announcing her presence.

"I'll start getting dinnery ready." Pierre disappeared back inside.

Janeil looked at Sophia in interested surprise as Sophia shuffled to his side.

"I'm...sorry. I should have and need to be able to share with you." Sophia had a shameful look on her face, eyes looking away.

"Its all right, I guess."

"I...went to the village where I first met Elizabeth," Sophia explained. "She wasn't there. And I did some asking about Volus as well. He has...oddd interests. I wouldn't say curio is the correct world. Its like archaeology, but of unusual items. Sort of like the cryptologist researchers on your world."

"Ah, I see. Following things that seem out of the ordinary? For what reason?" Janeil was slightly interested.

"A very chilling and twisted reason; power. I don't know how much or what he's hoping to achieve, but he looks for these things for that purpose. What's more scary is that many of these "legends" are actually quite real and that he has found so many of these things already. If we have to confront him; he will be able to fight us or even more. It will be dangerous."

"Sophia...what do we do? I mean, I know you went to go for Elizabeth so that we can have somplace to base off to look for 'Jennifer', but what do we do with Tamilia and Volus?"

"I simply thought that telling the townspeople of Volus' actions would be enough to throw him out of power. Then I figured that Elizabeth could treat her and make her better."

The conversation was broken by Pierre's raised voice calling for Tamilia. Looking at each other, the dashed into the house.

Pierre skidded to a halt in front of them. "Tamilila....she's gone!"

"Gone? Is this like her?" Janeil looked at him hard.

"No...she never would leave like this. She's always with someone. I would know."

Janei exhaled in frustration and started towards his bag.

"Janeil! What are you doing?" Sophia demanded.

She didn't get an answer. Janeil yanked his assault rifle out from his belongings as he looked at
her.

"Getting Tamilia back one way or another." Was his simple reply.

"No! We can't do this like this!" Sophia grabbed his arm in an attempt to stop him.
"Do you have a better idea?"

Sophia's lips moved, wanting to tell him a piece of her mind. But the words wouldn't come. In fact, her mind was frozen. She WAS at a loss of what to do.

"No...." Sophia admitted. "I don't."

Janeil tugged Sophia off of him. "You better start your rallying soon if you want this to look like the right thing. Otherwhise this might just end up a murder." Janeil slammed a clip into the rifle, slung it onto his shoulder, and donned a combat vest and a utility belt. He strapped his pistol and a knife to his leg.

"Get moving." He told her flatly. "Time isn't on our side."

Janeil was out the door without another word.