Chapter 484: Dangers Of Leaving
Laz always had a love of music. It stemmed back to his mother who always enjoyed listening to a wide verity of genres. As for his dad, he was a classic rock fan who would have normally said that anything made after the 80’s wasn’t real music... unless it was from a band from the 80’s. Either way, Laz had always loved music and it had been a big part of his life.
After playing something on the piano and singing to himself, Laz felt a little better. It wasn’t that he was magically cured or no longer depressed. Something like that doesn’t go away. Instead, he felt like himself for the first time in a long time.
’I think they call them me days?’ Laz thought while smiling.
Turning around, he noticed that Jill was right next to him, with tears in her eyes.
"Hey hey... what’s this?" Laz said, seeing her crying and wiping the tears.
Jill didn’t respond. Instead, she just looked into his eyes for a bit, taking in the look of peace that had finally come back to his face.
Then she smiled as well.
"Song was a little sad huh?" Laz said, looking at Jill’s tear stained smile.
"Kinda," she replied.
"Well... sometimes you just got to let the pain out..."
"Can you play another one?" Jill asked, in almost a whisper.
"Hmm... Sure. But how about something a little more hopeful, hmm?"
"I would like that..." Jill said, going back to the counter to grab her drink and sitting back down.
Laz smiled and turned around, his back again to the audience.
"I, I wish I could swim
Like dolphins
Like dolphins can swim
Though nothing
Will keep us together
We can beat them
Forever and ever
Oh, we can be heroes
Just for one day
Oh, we can be heroes
Just for one day
I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing
Will drive us away
Oh, we can be heroes
Just for one day
Oh, we can be us
Just for one day
I, I can remember
Standing, standing by the wall
And the guns
Shot above our heads
And we kissed
As though nothing could fall
And the shame
The shame was on the other side
Oh, we can beat them
Forever and ever
And we can be heroes
Just for one day."
(Peter Gabriel- Heroes)
When Laz finished this time, he put the cover back on the keys and turned, this time finding Jill’s table full.
At some point, Sylvia, Ivana and Maia had made themselves comfortable.
"You’re here?" Laz asked seeing them.
It seemed like no one else had seen them come in either as Laz’s words broke the spell they were under. There weren’t many other patrons in the bar, about twenty other people, but when they noticed their queen along with the head of their holy order sitting there, they all got down, all be it somewhat drunkenly, and bowed a salute.
Sylvia laughed at those struggling to not fall over and waved them back to their seats.
"It’s been a long couple of days. Feel free to enjoy yourselves. As you can see, that’s what we are doing here as well," Sylvia laughed and the people laughed with her, returning to their seats.
"So what’s up?" Laz asked, sitting down at the table.
"We were worried about you. Ever since that final battle, you’ve seemed a bit down. Actually, even before that, you did something that risked your life so easily and yet didn’t seem to be afraid in the least," Ivana said for herself and the others.
"Ah yeah."
"I’m not sure about humans in general, but you seem to be bother by something?" Maia asked, breaking the silence for the first time since she had threatened to deal with him before the fight.
"There are a lot of reasons for that. I can’t actually say it’s one thing or another. But just as I was preparing to break the array, everything seemed to hit me at once. It’s hard to explain though. There is just so much I have to do and yet here I am, fighting another fight in another dimension while things out there just keep getting more out of hand each day..." Laz said. He was originally going to sugar coat it to not hurt anyone’s feelings as his words could be taken as saying ’all of this had nothing to do with him so why did it end up being his fight?’ But in the end, he just let the raw feeling flow. He wasn’t sure he meant it that way, but he wasn’t sure he didn’t either.
No one responded at first, until Maia herself set her hand down on Laz’s and looked at his face.
"This wasn’t your fight and yet from the start until the end, you fought to protect my people... my children. You were just a visitor here and yet you ended up involved in everything you had nothing to do with. I’m really sorry about that, truly. I have nothing to offer you in return for such a deed but maybe in the future, I can repay your kindness,:" Maia said, her face with a gentle look upon it.
Laz didn’t hesitate to respond.
"I didn’t do this because I wanted something. And I don’t regret my actions either. After all, you were fighting to protect everyone and everything here. How could I just turn my head and pretend that nothing was happening? Truth be told, I just feel like I am running from one fight to the next and I don’t even have a chance to live in the between time. I’m here, in your beautiful, if a bit small, world. And yet even now I can’t help but worry about people I haven’t seen in years," Laz replied honestly.
While he wasn’t being too detailed, the women he was talking to weren’t fools. He might have gotten over his momentary sadness, but there were still things buried that couldn’t be forgotten.
"In a few days, I will be opening the rift so that we can return to the main world. This one has been far too small for far too long. When that time comes, I get the feeling we might get into a conflict with that strange corpse man and the first family. If it comes down to it, I would like to request your help once again. I know I have no reason to ask you and I should be able to protect my people myself, but I have no choice. There are just too many risks involved. If nothing happens and they don’t try to follow us out, then they can have this fading dimension. But more likely than not, they will move as soon as we begin to move. And.. Maia hesitated, not sure she really felt comfortable putting any more pressure on him than she already did.
After all, ever since they first family had fled, others had gone missing or had been killed, sometimes in their sleep. So she knew something was going to happen, she just didn’t know what.
"It’s fine. Since I decided to help you, I will help you to the end. Deal?" Laz said, looking at Maia.
"Thank you. In fact, I’m not sure you would enjoy it, but there is a hot springs here that might be beneficial to you. Would you be interested in going? To at least have one good memory of this place before it’s gone forever?" Maia asked, almost shedding her new found maturity to act again like the little girl she was when he had first met her.
"I mean... sure. If we both can...?" Laz intended to ask for him and Jill.
"Sure. Of course. Tell you what. Ivana will lead the way. I have a few more things I need to check out on the sight of the gate so I will come see you later. Ivana, you know what to do. Sylvia, please continue to escort me," Maia said with a smile. As she got up and disappeared out the doors, she waved back at Laz.
"Well... Ok..." Laz didn’t know what to say, thinking her behavior was somewhat odd.
Laz turned back around and saw Ivana with a weird look on her face. She then sighed and got up.
"Please follow me," She said, before making her way to the bar to speak with the old man for a minute before heading to the door.
Laz and Jill were closely behind her.
"So a real, live hot spring huh?" Laz asked Ivana.
"Yes. It’s truly a wonder to behold. Normally the bath would be for Maia alone but since she has invited you, I guess she intends to share it."
’Her real body is still a massive tree, right? Why would she need a hot springs bath?’ Laz thought to himself, but only to himself. After all, did the answer matter as long as he could get a nice long soak, something he hadn’t had since... he wasn’t even sure.
When they finally arrived, Laz noticed they weren’t alone. In fact, there was nothing short of thirty elves in maid costumes who were clearly here for him.
"Uh, I’m ok doing this myself," Laz said, trying to turn the maids away.
Well, trying is the key word here since he quickly noticed at the end of the line of maids were both Maia and Sylvia, grinning from ear to ear.
Somehow Laz knew his bath wasn’t going to be as simple as he wanted.
