Suikoden VI

Chapter One: Part Thirteen

Part Thirteen

It was easier than Daunte expected to slip away from Sloan Faakhir's Garrison. He was relieved to find a merchant selling supplies in the exterior of the Garrison, and he wondered if this merchant had always been there, or if they were an opportunist. But he ultimately couldn't complain about the healing items he'd received.

"Depending on where the mountains are located, we might not be able to catch up to the prince in time," Nash told them as they quickly saddled horses. "Though if we're closer to the mountain range than the prince, we might beat them there."

"We're closer," Daunte said, steering his horse northward. "I overhead Lord Bearyl say that the mountains are about four hours away from us, whereas they're almost nine hours away from the headquarters."

"Are you coming with us?" Felicity asked Nash.

"Of course," Nash said, smiling at her. "I couldn't very well leave three teenagers to clean up the messes of adults, could I?"

"...Your wife made you come here, didn't she?" Roen asked.

Nash twitched, but held onto his smile. "Let's be on our way."

The four of them made excellent time riding for the High Peak Mountains, and met minimal distractions from monsters on the open plains. Daunte wondered if luck was on their side, or if the wildlife of the area had been dispatched by both the Sheikh's forces and the Queen's Knights.

Let's hope we can find Surya and Mokuren before they run into trouble.

Night had fallen by the time they reached the base of High Peak Mountains, and the group decided to make camp until the following morning. It wouldn't have been safe to navigate the mountains at night, but this fact only made Daunte more nervous for the Falenans. As the hours ticked by he couldn't help but feel that they were wasting their time. After all, only a handful of Queen's Knights would be facing an insane Sheikh and his main military unit. How would they fare out?

Well, worrying about it won't help matters. We'll just have to move quickly.

The dirt path on High Peak Mountains was too steep and narrow to navigate the horses on, so the group was forced to leave the horses at the base. Daunte knew that the horses may very well run off by the time they came back down, but it was better to leave them than to risk their health on the mountain. But even while on foot, navigating the mountain proved to be perilous. There were many wild animals on the mountain, from the usual wild boars to harpy's and giant rabid birds. Not to mention the fact that the dirt road kept branching off in random directions, and these random directions often led to dead ends. Sometimes the dead ends led to a lone treasure chest, but more often than not it just led to a den of monsters.

At one particular dead end though, Daunte found a treasure chest weeded over and covered in moss. Felicity used one of her knives to break the lock on it and it popped open. Daunte was surprised to see a small box inside that was lighter in color. He propped it in his lap, and quickly noted words stamped onto the lid. "...'Sound set 2'?"

"Sound set?" Roen asked, frowning. "What's a sound set?"

"It worthless unless you have a Sound Rune," Nash told them. "I don't know exactly how it works, but sound sets only work with a Sound Rune."

"Oh!" Daunte exclaimed, standing up. He looked at Roen. "That woman in the Great Cistern! She had a Sound Rune!"

"Oh, her!" Roen gasped. "She said she was looking for a Sound Rune, right? What was her name again?"

"Liron, I think." Daunte looked down at the sound set. "So this is what she needed?"

"Let's worry about giving this away another time," Nash interrupted. "We still have a lot of ground to cover."