Escort on a Train

Spoiler:

They had spent their time in Magnolia and it was time to leave. Unfortunately for Elliot, that meant that they had to take the train back to Clover Town.

“This is so not going to be fun.” He whined as he continued walking beside Leivinia. It wasn’t that he was a coward or was scared of taking vehicles. In fact, there was nothing more in the world he wished he could do than take a train or boat passively.

Well, finding out his real parents identities was a bit more important but anyways…

But ever since he was young he couldn’t seem to find any relaxation on moving vehicles. It was a curse, he supposed, that was handed down from his real parents. Or maybe it was just rotten luck.

“Hey, I just wanted to say that...despite everything, I actually had a lot of fun today.” He said to Lei, grinning from ear to ear.

"Did you?" Was her response. She didn't have any fun. Between waiting in long lines, being crashed into by an overweight pedophile, having to wait in even more long lines and being harassed by a deaf and poor teen mom genius, being indirectly called stupid and punching Eliot into a wall--

Huh? When did she start...

Smiling?

"I think I did too!" she exclaimed happily. She definitely didn't enjoy those acts as they were happening, but thinking of the alternative-- of still standing near the job request board at the guild-- she was genuinely happy that she had gone on a job.

No, it was more than that. She was happy that it had been Eliot that was standing there, despite his odd vehicle phobia. Looking ahead, he didn't seem to be the only one, either. There was a woman towering over a man and asking various people that passed by something. The man seemed to be terrified of the train yet even more scared of the woman.

It was a relief to see that she was smiling. And when she exclaimed that she had enjoyed herself as well, it felt like everything was going to be okay. Of course it wasn't because he was getting on a train and in a few minutes he would be a gurgling ball of near-death...

But that was besides the point.

Even as he thought that, he noticed a couple standing near the train dock. One of them, a very pretty woman, was pleading with passersby for aid with something. One glance at the man kneeling on the ground and he knew immediately what it was. He was quaking where he sat, his body practically convulsing. He was terrified of getting on the train. Eliot felt his pain.

"Excuse me? I noticed the guild tattoo on your arm." She said, running up to the Dragon Slayer and Lei. "Please I don't know what else to do. My husband is a wreck. He needs to be on this train for his job but he's...he's absolutely terrified of them. Please, I have money if that's what you want. I just need some help."

"How much money?" The question was almost instant which caused the woman to do a double-take before opening her purse.

"It's not much," she honestly admitted. "Money is tight, and this is all the spending money we've saved up." She pulled out 500 jewels and Leivinia's eyes lit up. "I see this as an investment though," the woman explained. "The promotion is basically his. He just needs to get there, but he has this childish fear of trains."

In the blink of an eye the jewels were gone and Leivinia was taking her hands out of her pocket. "Job accepted!" she shouted out with enthusiasm. The woman stood there for a moment, hesitant to leave her husband. However, she was ultimately convinced and began to walk away.

And that's when he took advantage of the opening.

The man madly dashed away, knocking people over in a crazed attempt at freedom. He ran in a zig-zag, not knowing where his destination was but rather where it wasn't.

"Money is no i-..." Eliot had began to say. While earning jewels was the way to make a living as a wizard, this seemed more like a favor than anything else. And he couldn't rightly just take this woman's money, the spending money they had saved up. Even if it was an investment it didn't seem right to just take it.

But alas, Lei had grabbed the money like it was her own life blood and accepted the job without a second thought. Eliot had thought for a moment to give her a nasty look but decided against it. They had shared a moment earlier and it would be wrong to let his personal annoyance get in the way of it. After all it was a job and jewels came hand in hand with that.

But the husband, clearly more skittish than he even let on, let out a yelp and sprang into a wild dash for an exit. Being on a platform he didn't have much options and rather looked like a chicken running around with its head cut off. He would have continued his mad adventure were it not for Eliot tackling him, knocking them both off their feet and sliding into the doorway of the train.

Then it jerked. And begun to pull away.

Eliot's body immediately went limp and his face swelled up, turning a purplish-blue. The man was yelling, trying to get the boy off of him but was in fact trapped (if only for the moment) under the Dragon Slayer's slack form.

"Wah!" Leivinia cried out as Eliot and the man flew into the train together. While that was definitely a mission success, the young girl hadn't had the chance to board the train yet! They had been gone all day doing various jobs and solving various problems and the time had slipped away. This was the last train heading for Clover Town!

"Don't leave without meeeeeeeeeee...!" As if she was yelling at the train itself, the wizard ran as fast as she could after the locomotive until she finally caught up with the open door which held Eliot and the client's husband. "What...!"

The train picked up speed, causing her to disappear until she ran faster.

"....are....!

A tunnel was fast approaching and it was do-or-die at this point, figuratively speaking.

"....you waiting for!!"

The man was huddled in a fetal position underneath the weight of Eliot, whom at this point looked more like a sad blueberry than a person. Leivinia leaped into the train on top of the other two, making a dogpile.

Eliot could hear Lei's cries from outside the door but he had been rendered into useless putty. He was able to slide a bit on his spot (though he remained on top of the squirming husband) to look at her, his face expanded and white as a sheet. He watched her disappear, his inner turmoil to help her nearly causing his arm to stretch out. He focused as much energy as he could into just bringing his hand up, open and ready to grab her when she came back and then they could easily-...

CRASH! Leivinia leapt onto the train and landed on the duo; a safe, soft pile for her crazy last ditch effort to get aboard. But the air was almost completely driven out of the boy's stomach (and possibly his lunch too) and he groaned loudly as the girl lay on top of him.

"We made it." He managed to grumble out through pursed lips. Now it was just about riding out the trip with a very sick Eliot and a skittish husband.

"Ow..." Leivinia complained despite being the one best off in that situation. "You're a mess." With a sigh, she rolled the sick Dragon Slayer aside and picked the man up. He instantly began to squirm and struggle yet she didn't use her magic to make him stay still. It was infinitely more difficult, but did this situation require magic?

Finally, they reached a seat in the farthest row back on the train. It took every ounce of strength, dexterity, and patience that Leivinia held in her body but eventually she strapped the man inside the train. At that point, he scrunched up and held his knees into his chest as if not quite accepting defeat, but simply being immobilized by fear.

"Eliot probably needs help too," she observed as she took a seat and looked out the window. The passing scenery was like a reflection of her long day spent in Magnolia. "He's probably in a lot of pain or something." She decided to take a power nap until they all reached their destination of Clover Town.

“Hrg. Lei…”

It was about all Eliot could manage to say as the younger girl rolled the Dragon Slayer aside. It felt good to move and, at the same time, it felt like death. He watched out of the corner of his eyes as Lei took the man down the alley of seats, most like aiming to secure him in a spot. Then surely she would come back to Eliot and help him into a seat right? It wasn’t like he could force himself up to follow.

He waited for a few more moments, his stomach sickness continuing to render him numb and limp. He kept staring down the rows of seats, expecting to see the girl walking back down for him. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into more than twenty minutes. Had she forgotten about him?

He opened his mouth to say something but only a groan escaped his lips. He tried to roll over once more but yet nothing happened.

Oh boy. Was he going to spend the entire time on the floor?

It was an hour and twenty minutes on that train until it finally came to a complete stop. The man looked as pale as a ghost and he wasted no time in unbuckling himself and sprinting wildly to the exit, probably never to be seen again. "Yaaaaaaawn....." came a soft groan as the figure with blonde hair stretched her arms high into the air. "That was a good nap. I just hope I can still sleep tonight!" She joyously skipped over to retrieve Eliot and return to the guild but what she saw was....

"Hey Eliot. Are you dead or something like that?" She lightly kicked her friend's ribs to see if there would be a response with the casualty of checking to see if your plants needed more water. "There probably isn't enough time for another job, so just take me home and we can call it a day."