Wrath of the Empire

XI. Hiding

"Alright," I said after Sari finished the story of how she survived the attack by the Scorch. "Now that we have that covered, where does that put us?"

"Do we go into the part where we search for a way to defeat him?" Isabel suggested.

"No," Maddie replied, becoming serious at this point. "I think we should definitely have the part where he tries to fight the stone soldiers."

"Then we should include the part where we find refuge with the stone soldiers, shouldn't we?" I asked.

"I say we continue from where Sari left off," Alphonse told us, "which is basically Lion's idea, except with a little more explanation about how Sari got to be with us, as well as the fight with the Magician's Guild."

"We'll wait for the fight at the Magician's Guild, I think," Oculus edited.

Everyone thought that was a good idea. We quickly discussed who should tell this bit of the story, and everyone elected that I should always, unless it is specifically from a perspective I would never be able to understand. 

I cleared my throat.

~Lion~

It had been no more than one day after the destruction of the Outlands. Infernas had completely passed over the burned ruins that had once been plains and had returned to his fortress on the day that Sari escaped, so he had never seen her run away. 

He also had never seen Isabel and I taking a midday stroll throughout the wasteland. 

I have no clue what we had been talking about, but I know that all of our talking promptly ceased when we saw the body that was laying on the ground in front of us.

We quickly ran over and saw that it was Sari. I told this fact to Isabel.

"The Asmerian that was in your special team a year or two ago?" Isabel asked. I nodded as I picked Sari up, since she was still young at the time, so she was small and light.

Isabel and I ran back to the mountains that bordered the territory of the stone soldiers, where we had all been hiding out. By "we all," I mean Isabel, Oculus, Maddie, and I. We had been in a tent behind one of the largest peaks in the mountain pass, so we were perfectly hidden from the Molten Emperor. 

I set Sari down on a table in the tent. "She's badly hurt, it seems," I told Maddie and Oculus. "Also, I think that she's starving and probably dehydrated."

Maddie nodded and pulled out one of Minnie's favorite potions -- the Healing Salve. She poured the green liquid over all the visible wounds on Sari, and the salve soaked into the wounds as we watched Sari's skin, bones, and muscles be repaired right before our eyes. 

Sari blinked her eyes open, but didn't attempt to sit up, for she had likely been badly injured a few times before. She instead turned to Maddie and whispered, "Where am I?"

"You're where you're safe," Isabel told her as Maddie took out another bottle and finished up healing Sari. 

"I'm hungry."

"We know. We'll get something for you to eat and drink."

"Thank you."

After Sari's wounds had been healed, Isabel and I found some food and water and gave it to Sari, who ate hungrily and drank thirstily. 

Soon, Sari was as close to being well as she was going to get at this point in time, so we turned our attention to Oculus, who had been outside, behind the tent, using a mirror to communicate with the Magician's Guild.