Red Roses

Chapter 11 (Fool's Gold Arc)

The sound of an engine running and familiar voices filled the silence as Ardit's eyes began to open. Crust had formed in his eyes, so he rubbed them off of his eyes as he awoke. He realized that he was no longer in the same place that he had been sleeping in last night. He yawned and realized he was sitting in an upright position. Jade noticed Ardit rubbing his eyes, gently reaching forward and tapping Zolio's shoulder. "Oh! Looks like someone's up finally." Zolio greeted him. Ardit took a few looks around to understand the situation, he still had the blanket from last night on him. The three were in Keertan's car, Ardit and Jade sat in the back of the vehicle while Zolio sat in the front next to Keertan. Ardit noticed by the expressions from his two friends who don't ride in cars often that the novelty of being in one has worn off for them, meaning they most likely have been riding for a while.

Ardit cleared his throat and spoke up, "So let me get this straight, you guys found me and just carried me into the car while I was asleep?" Keertan explained, "To be fair, you were somewhat conscious when we brought you in. You were walking on your own, we just helped you into the car." Ardit's eyebrows gave a small raise. He decided to ask, "So, we're headed to that church if I had to guess?" Keertan didn't bat an eye, instead giving a nod of confirmation.

The car ride was long and quiet. Ardit, Jade, and Zolio all felt their eyes get a bit heavy. However, their bodies nudged forward slightly as the car came to a slow halt. With a look outside to understand her surroundings, Zolio turned to Keertan. She hesitantly asked him, "Are we... here?" Jade had her cheek against the glass. While she wasn't exactly tired, she seemed to be bouncing her leg.

Keertan turned his head to Zolio. He responded to her question, "Not exactly, we're almost there! I just wanted to visit a friend who works at the pharmacy here. He's a healer who works with ganyma of the alchemist magic type, which means I can probably buy some medicine that'll help me later if I happen to get pains while driving. You guys don't mind waiting a bit in the car do you?" The bard looked around at the three to wait for their confirmation or denial.

Ardit gave a shrug as it made no difference to him. Jade gave a simple thumbs up as the little attention she had left to give was fixated on a bird attempting to grab a twig with their beak. Zolio answered directly, "Yeah no worries, we'll wait for you here! It's not like we're going anywhere anyways right?" Keertan gave a gentle smile, cranking open one of the windows to let air flow as he stepped out of the vehicle.

The occasional sounds of people chattering from outside the vehicle was the only thing that filled the silence. Ardit came to a subconscious realization that the closer to the edge of the city they were, the denser with people the area was. Ardit decided to break the silence by leaning forward and tapping Zolio on the shoulder while she was resting her head back. With a small flinch, her head turned to look at him. "What's up?" She questioned.

Ardit took a deep breath, what he was about to ask would be a painful endeavor to accomplish. He decided to explain, "Listen, I was thinking a bit last night. I want to be completely honest with you... they've got eyes pretty much everywhere we wanna hide in. There's no chance that whatever we do will let us survive the extinction event...-" Zolio was taken aback to say the least. Her expression seemed hollow and confused. Ardit continued, "-...Unless, we happen to stop the event from happening in the first place. I mean, think about it! If we can have more powerful people who share our thoughts like Keertan help us, who's to say we can't stop the event from happening?!" Ardit's voice raising caught Jade's attention as she looked at him. Zolio's eyes widened, it almost seemed like her pupils dilated at the thought of it. "You really think we can pull something that ambitious? I'm just a human, Jade's still practicing her magic, and you're just a thief! No offense." Zolio was very hesitant at this idea. Considering that she had no other option than to perish, she decided to take her chances. She gave her answer, "Alright, let's try!"

She noticed the look in Ardit's eyes, his ambition was one she hadn't seen in him before. Jade noticed it too, giving her own nod to him. With that, these three open minded individuals in a close minded world agree to set a goal to save humanity, if only to save themselves in the process.

Hearing the door of the car unlock and open, their new friend entered the driver's seat of the vehicle. He explained to the three, "Alright! Sorry for making you guys wait, as a thank you for waiting I got you guys something!" He closed the car door and turned to face the others, handing them each a small bottle. They each examined their bottles, Ardit opening the top and looking inside. Keertan confirmed the bottles, "It's medicine made by the healers and alchemists who work there, it's pretty much like having healing magic in your pocket! Just take a pill and you'll feel fine. Don't get careless though, it's not as strong as direct healing. So while you can heal cuts and bruises, don't expect a broken bone to just fix itself without an actual healer." Ardit counted a baker's dozen of pills in his bottle, the two others having the same amount. Appreciating the gift, he placed it into his hip bag.

Zolio placed hers on the cup holder. She teased, "You didn't have to do that for us! Thanks!" A nod instinctively came from Keertan. Starting up the car again, he continued their trip to the church of the golden god.