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| | | Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. |    |
| | Author | Message |
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NinjaKitten
Paranaturalist
Posts : 1006
Join date : 2015-10-22
 |  Subject: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care.  Tue Feb 23, 2016 6:29 am | |
| The story will be posted one chapter at a time, to keep away from too much text in one post. It's still a lot of text though, so I'll stick the chapters in spoiler tags. Here are actual spoilers for the story, by the way, if anyone wants to see how it'll more-or-less turn out in the end, 'cause I only really work on this thing once a year. - All of the information about the story I have written down, including the fullish plot, backstories, and other information.:
Characters:
Yuusha Eihei: male, main character. Short blonde hair, bright blue eyes, pale skin. 21. Average height and weight. Palace guard. Uses large swords and spears. Later uses magic, mostly fire type. Can also heal
Neru: female, party member. Long, bright red hair, violet eyes, dark skin. Shorter. 20. Healer. Uses bows. Source of healing powers is pendant, but can do minor healing without one. Half-Dragon.
Kajiya: male, party member. Short black hair, brown eyes, tall, large build, tan. 27. Random guy from the mountains. Can use hammers. Also, blacksmith and miner.
Myogi: female, party member. Long black hair, red eyes, looks like a 12 year old. Very pale skin. 25. Mage. Uses magic. Wields a staff for show and hitting people. Prefers the elements of water or fire. Daughter of two underground nobles.
Burein Goman: Annoying person. Male, party member. Shorter than average, also thinner. Short brown hair, hazel eyes, very pale. 23. More interested in saving his own ass. Royal messenger, but is actually a thief. Is actually a pretty good fighter. Uses daggers and hastily constructed thingamajigs.
Lyn : A girl Yuusha saved. Brown hair, green eyes turned grey. Tanned skin. Will turn up later as a villain! She will be very powerful. Later on, she will have white hair and completely black eyes, with only a red dot in the middle. (Possessed by the evil goddess Asarel.)
Oouno: The king.
Sanzo: Bandit King. 35. Tall, tan skin, long burgundy hair tied back in a ponytail. Black eyes. Supposedly stole the princess. Is actually a very nice guy and likes to have fun and be free. Is kind of like Hermes. Enjoys being a rogue guy, and hates the politics he was forced into, though he has a knack for it.
Hime: Ouuno’s only daughter. The princess.
Komon: the king’s advisor. Tall, thin, black hair, pale skin, grey eyes. Is actually a powerful shadow mage, and is plotting to take over all of the lands. Is not the most powerful enemy. He is simply a servant of his ruler/cult leader, who wants the power of the tree for himself.
Kage: The mysterious servant of Komon’s land. Pretends to be serving Sanzo, and brings the group to Sanzo’s kingdom.
The basic story:
Yuusha, a guard in the palace, is summoned to the king’s throne room to be sent on a quest to claim an artifact of great power. Burein is sent with him. They travel together and save a villager girl, which leads them to their party’s healer, Neru. She is tired of being cooped up in the town and joins them on their quest. Then they get into a fight with bandits, where Yuusha gets knocked out. He wakes up with magic, though he does not know this yet. They continue traveling and meet Myogi in another town. This mage senses Yuusha’s untapped power and wants to train him because why not and also because she wants to have fun and do stuff. They continue into the mountains where they encounter a troll, and are saved by Kajiya, who helps to heal them. They continue to trudge on, but are captured by Kage and are brought to Sanzo’s kingdom. Sanzo then meets them in the throne room where they see Komon, pretending to be Nomok. Then Sanzo meets them in private and tells them of Komon’s plan, because he is perceptive. They then go and cross the wastelands of Sanzo’s kingdom before reaching the mountains again. They now get to the place where the old twisted purple tree is, and Yuusha is taken over. They all fight, and Yuusha eventually breaks the hold on him. (either that, or a dragon squashes all of them and brings them to their cave because they are shiny, where they talk for a while and get stuff.) They then rush back to the palace, where the king is under attack by Komon. Typical betrayal and stuff. Yuusha busts in and stops the fight with the powers he gained, and before Komon is defeated, Komon grabs the princess and disappears with a laugh and a clap and a bad omen. The group then travels to the land under the land, which was revealed by a cryptic message. On the way, they find the village that Burein originated from. Yay backstory! Myogi reveals that she was born to a high-ranked couple from the land below the land, and her parents knew that with the way things were going, their daughter would be in danger, since all magic users would be seized by the government. They brought her to the surface and hid her in an orphanage before disappearing, which turns out to be the very same orphanage that Burein originated from. They get underground, and they confront Komon again for the last time. Komon is defeated, and they progress to the head of the place, where they fight the true leader and rescue the princess she captured, because the villager girl is the leader here, and she is channeling the spirit of an ancient evil. They return to the castle and split up, with Yuusha going overseas to discover a new land and continue exploring and helping people in need.
Factions:
King’s land, Yuusha’s home country.
Bandit’s land, The supposedly evil corrupted land of outlaws
Unknown third country. This is where the advisor originates from, and is the source of most conflict. Acts like a huge cult.
Backstories:
Burein was a peasant. He was born and raised as an orphan, and looked out for all of the other orphans in the place. When the orphanage closed, due to the owner being in debt, they were forced to the streets, where Burein is forced to learn thievery to get by. Nothing he does is enough to keep the others from dying, though, so all the other children die of starvation, dehydration, hunger, being beaten to death by "guards," etc. Burein winds up alone, and then a lordly guy comes by his village and thinks that he would make a good service boy. Next thing he knows, Burein is a messenger for people. Not wanting to lose this place in life, Burein decides that he was never a peasant, and ignores everything about his past. Therefore: he is a butt because he does not want people to find out he was a peasant and kick him out.
Yuusha is a normal guy. He has a mother and a father and three sisters. His father was a guard, and taught his son a little about fighting before Yuusha went off to guard school where he became a palace guard. His mother was a seamstress, and taught Yuusha about being nice and also sewing, and Yuusha likes making clothes. It soothes him, though he is not very good. His sisters all got married and moved away and he has not really seen them since. All of his sisters are older than him, and he sends his guard money to his parents to pay for their living stuff.
Myogi was the child of two underground cultist people who was brought up to the surface to protect her from the government. She was raised in an orphanage aboveground before a wizard came by and noticed her magical abilities. They adopted her and trained her in magic before dying of old age, so she has her own magical tower, though she wants to travel instead of sitting in a dusty old tower, so she sets off and travels around the land before finding Yuusha.
Neru is a dragon girl, and the dragon that we may or may not meet in the mountains is her mother. She is also a healer, and learned how to channel these healing powers from an amulet her mom found and hoarded. Then she decided that she wanted to go and help people, so her mother delivered her to some city where she could do some good and also learn about people.
Kajiya is a smith. I think he is from a mountain village of some sort. He grew up there, and became a blacksmith. His father was a drunk, but he was nice, and died of alchohol poisoning. His mother was a nice lady, and remarried. A dragon lived near the village, and people did not like that, so people eventually left for warmer climates and dragon-less places, including his mother and her new husband and daughter. He stayed, working on his smithing skills, when eventually he is the only person left. The dragon comes over one day and is like, “hey, I like your smithing skills” and he is like “thanks” and they talk and become friends. And this dragon turns out to be Neru’s mom.
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|  | | NinjaKitten
Paranaturalist
Posts : 1006
Join date : 2015-10-22
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Tue Feb 23, 2016 2:25 pm | |
| - Chapter One:
Chapter One: Summons
The sun streams softly between the simple yet beautiful carved marble pillars, though the leaves of the trees of the palace courtyard, and into the hallway. The trees the late queen had ordered planted a few years ago had grown into beautiful maturity, almost without help from the royal gardeners, and provide ample space for the birds which now so happily chirp all over the palace. A few servants pass by, most ignoring the guards lining the right side of the hallway, away from the sunlight and pillars of the courtyard, which would bake them in their light, ceremonial armor. Yuusha sighs. This is not how he had imagined working in the palace would be like. He had been told that working in the palace was one of the greatest honors a guard could receive, and only the very best were allowed to guard the king’s house, let alone his family. His personal guard received extensive extra training and had to pass a plethora of difficult and cunning tests before being allowed to guard his Majesty’s royal personage. From what he had heard, Yuusha had expected the palace to be attacked at least once a year.[MW1]
He looks over at a guard leaning against the wall not too far from him and sighs again, but more quietly this time. In the three years he has served as a guard in the royal palace he has not once been needed to ward off any attacks. This lack of danger has slowly eroded away the strict training and high endurance and skill of the guards in the palace and replaced it with a taste for gambling and drinking, and a strong sense of laziness. The only people who keep up a moderate amount of skill were the truly dedicated who train themselves extra, as well as the king’s personal guard, who never stop their training even after passing all the tests. Yuusha leans his head back against the wall behind him and looks up at the ceiling, letting his decorated ceremonial spear rest loosely by his side, also leaning against the wall. Although the spear and armor look pretty, it most certainly would be worth little or nothing in a real fight. The armor is too thin and only exists on the chest and shins of the guards, and the spearhead is so decorated that it would snap if you even try to poke through a piece of fabric with it.
Suddenly, the birdsong stops as a man rushes down the aisle, sending servants scattering for cover and causing the guards to startle to attention. The man is wearing the red gilded robes of the king’s personal messenger, and he almost trips over the long hem as he screeches to a stop in front of Yuusha. Surprised, Yuusha pushes himself upright and picks up his spear. As the messenger tries to catch his breath, Yuusha speaks. “Yes?” He asks the tired messenger.
With one last deep breath, the messenger looks up at Yuusha and says with great urgency, “Sir! The king…the king wanted to see you! Immediately… He said to come immediately! It is urgent!”
Yuusha looks at the messenger with concern and dismay. “Are you sure he needs me?”
“Yes!” replies the messenger. “He asked for the one standing between the doors to the library and the guest rooms by the eastern courtyard! That is your post! You must go at once!”
With one last look at the messenger, Yuusha rushes off to see the king, with his spear in hand. The other guards stare at him as he passes by, wondering why he is in such a hurry. I could ask myself the same thing, Yuusha thinks to himself. But, nevertheless, he runs as fast as his feet can carry him, careening down the hall and swerving around the corner.
He bursts open the doors to the king’s throne room and yells “Your Majesty!”, panting and out of breath. The king turns away from the serving girl he had been giving orders to and looks down at Yuusha, standing there with his short blonde hair ruffled from the wind and his pale cheeks flushed from sprinting down the hall. His blue eyes are very bright as he looks around the room, wondering why the King called him so urgently. The messenger trots into the open doorway and kneels. Yuusha quickly does the same. “Your Majesty.” The messenger pants. “I have brought him, as per your request.”
“Thank you.” The king replies. He turns towards Yuusha. “I see you have responded to my summons with great speed. How nice to know my guards are so enthusiastic.”
Not quite, Your Majesty. Yuusha thinks to himself, remembering all the comments on their puffed up king which spread around the guard’s barracks at the end of the day, often after the ale keg has been passed around once or twice.
“We are, of course, always at Your Majesty’s service.” He glances up. “I believe Your Majesty wished to see me? It seemed to be a matter of importance.”
“Oh, it is nothing that important.” The king thinks for a moment. “Rise, good sir, and tell me your name.” Yuusha rises from his kneeling position, straightening up and gripping his spear securely.
“My name is Yuusha, Your Majesty.”
“Yuusha? What a fascinating name.” The king pauses a moment.
“Your…Majesty?” Yuusha inquires. “What is it you wanted to see me about?”
“Ah yes. I called you here because I have an important mission for you”
“A…mission, Your Majesty?”
“Yes, a mission. You see, I am afraid to inform you that my only daughter, the princess Hime, has been kidnapped.”
Yuusha is shocked, and so is everybody else in the room. “Kidnapped!?”
“Yes, I am afraid so. My poor daughter has been kidnapped by our old enemy, the King of Bandits who lives in the unknown land past the mountains.”
“Sanzo!” The murmur ripples through the room like wind, rushing into every corner.
“Pardon me for saying so, but…why do you summon me here to tell me this?” Yuusha asks uncertainly, confused. “Does this have anything to do with my mission?”
“It does, actually.” The king replies. “You see, I want you to go find something for me. It is a legendary artifact, said to reside in the mountains, in the precise center between the capital of our glorious country, Ainoko, and the capital of the Land of the Bandits that Sanzo rules over. It supposedly gives the owner great power.” The king looks to his left, even though it seems that nobody is there. “Is that not right, Komon?”
“Your Majesty is exactly right.” Komon replies, stepping out from the shadows behind the large golden throne the king sat on. His tall, pale figure stands out against the deep green of the Advisor’s robes, and his steel grey eyes pierce all who look at him. His lank, black hair gleams with oil as he brushes off an imaginary crumb. “There are records of an artifact such as that appearing all throughout history. Sadly, all the books on it have been destroyed, and only the bards know the stories now.”
“Yes, that is a shame is it not?” The king looks back at Yuusha. “Well, here is your quest.” He rises, his robes swinging grandly to the floor as he does so, “I, Oouno, King of Ainoko, hereby send the brave soldier Yuusha on a quest to find and recover the ancient artifact said to reside in the mountains halfway between our glorious capitol of Kubi Toshi and the capitol of the Land of the Bandits, so that we may have the power to rescue our lovely princess, Hime, from the grasp of the evil King of Bandits, Sanzo!”
Yuusha shifts, confused. “Your Magesty, I do not mean to be disrespectful, but would there not be someone better for the task than I? I am but a common soldier.”
“Oh, but it must be you. After all, my good friend Komon said so, and he is never wrong.”[MW2] [MW3] The king smiles happily at Yuusha and sends him off before he can protest. “Now, off you go!”
A messenger at the side of the king’s dais snickers. “Good luck, Hero,” he sneers, his hazel eyes gleeful.
“Oh, and as a helper, I will be sending Burein with you. He can send messages back here if anything of interest happens on your journey. Now go, and may you both have all speed in your worthy quest!” The king exclaims happily, gesturing to the short, thin messenger.
The messenger stops snickering.
“Whaaaat?!”
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| | | | NinjaKitten
Paranaturalist
Posts : 1006
Join date : 2015-10-22
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Tue Feb 23, 2016 2:26 pm | |
| - Chapter Two: The Quest Begins!:
Yuusha and Burein ride slowly down the road. Their plain brown horses trundle along at an easy pace, not paying much attention to the two people sulking on top of them as they walk towards the small city that lies a couple of miles away, the first stop of their journey. Behind them walk two packhorses, carrying rations, some water, cloth for tents and blankets, and other assorted equipment. Yuusha is still wearing light armor, but this armor is stronger and more durable, and instead of his gaudy spear he carries a broadsword on his back, with a short dagger strapped to his hip. Burein carries two longer daggers, one on either side, and a mysterious pouch, the contents of which he keeps hidden from Yuusha. They have been traveling for a couple of days, and early on in their travels, Burein made it clear that he would not accept anything except the very best of the equipment they had bought with them, and that sleeping on the side of the road would be completely unacceptable. Every night, Burein forced them to walk far away from the road to find a flat spot free of stones which Burein would deem barely adequate.
After a while of traveling in this manner, Yuusha decides that he might as well try to get to know Burein a little bit. After all, Yuusha thinks to himself, we will be traveling together, at least for a while. And who knows, he surmises, Maybe I was wrong with my first impression. Maybe he is a nice person. Unfortunately, this idea will soon be remedied.
“So…your name is Burein, right?” Yuusha asks.
Burein suddenly looks up from staring moodily at the road. “That would be correct, peasant.” He spits the word peasant at Yuusha, as if it will sully his tongue if it stays too long.
“P-peasant?!” Yuusha is surprised and a little insulted by the tone of voice Burein used.
Burein self-importantly continues, completely ignoring Yuusha. “I am Burein, official messenger of His Majesty, our king Oouno, and I do not speak with peasants so familiarly.” He turns his head away scornfully.
“Well that should not be a problem then,” Yuusha replies sarcastically, feeling a bit insulted. “After all, I am not a peasant, but a palace guard, which essentially puts me on the same level as you, a lowly messenger.”
Burein sputters angrily. Maybe I went a little too far, Yuusha thinks, a bit regretful. But just as Burein is about to respond, their horses start, rearing up and almost knocking the two men off.
“What is wrong?” Yuusha asks his horse. The horse’s ears twitch nervously, swiveling about. Yuusha looks around at the trees lining the road. There should not be any bandits around here. Yuusha considers the prospect of fighting a bit nervously, as he has very little experience with actual combat outside of training.
“Who is there? Show yourself to me at once!” Burein shouts out at the woods pompously, held secure in his station. “I, Burein, messenger of King Oouno of Ainoko, command you to show yourselves immediately!”
“Hey now,” Yuusha tries to get Burein to stop shouting at the woods, a bit uneasily. “I do not think that is the best way to get people to come out.” After a moment of silence, he continues, “Besides, I do not think there is anybody there.”
Suddenly, the brush begins to rustle loudly. Burein remains erect and puffed up, feeling secure in his sense of superiority. Yuusha’s hand, however, warily strays towards the hilt of his sword rising above his shoulder, tense for danger. The rustling suddenly stops, and out of the bushes jumps a small white rabbit, nose twitching. Yuusha relaxes, releasing his breath, and Burein sniffs, turning away. They both head out again.
I guess I am just nervous. Yuusha thinks to himself, chastising himself for being so on edge. After all, I have not left the palace in more than a year. I think the last time I left was to go check for a package for some noble, and that was only because all the messengers were busy. While Yuusha was pondering his life in the palace, Burein was muttering angrily to himself, complaining about being put on this mission with some lowly palace guard. He seems to like forgetting that he is not all that high in status himself. Yuusha glances over at Burein, wondering how someone could possibly be full of themselves to the point of insulting anyone in the vicinity.
The brush rustles again, much more violently this time. A squirrel in a nearby tree freezes for an instant, before dashing away in fright. Yuusha tenses again, and draws his sword as a person emerges from the brush. It is a girl, with brown hair and a dark complexion, tanned from working in the sunlight. Her green eyes are unnaturally bright as she staggers into the road and clings to Yuusha’s leg.
“Please, milord.” She begs, her voice little more than a faint whisper, rasping painfully. She coughs violently for what seems like several minutes before forcing herself to stop. “Might I have a bit of water?”
Before Yuusha can react, however, the girl collapses. Startled, Yuusha hurriedly sheathes his sword and dismounts his horse, going to her side. He gently lifts her head from the ground as she pants, her breath coming out in short, hot bursts, and sweat trickling down the sides of her head to drip onto the dusty road. Yuusha quickly puts his hand on her forehead.
“She is burning up.” Yuusha wrinkles his brow, worried. Burein, who has been sitting impatiently on his horse, seems unimpressed.
“So? It is just some peasant girl. Leave her there.” He shifts in his saddle, looking in the direction of the city. “If we get going now, we might be able to get to the city and an inn before nightfall, and I am not sleeping on the dirty ground again.”
Yuusha glances up suddenly. That is right, we are close to a city! “Come on,” he commands, swinging the feverish girl up onto his horse. “If we run, we should get there in time.”
“We are not taking the filthy thing with us, are we?” Burein complains, but Yuusha had already galloped off towards the town. Burein huffs grumpily, then kicks his horse to chase after him, leaving the packhorses to keep up after them.
-------- ~ ---------
The house is dim due to a lack of windows, but it is much cleaner than the road outside. Candles line the room, resting on every surface and keeping the room well lit. A young, red haired woman with violet eyes is choosing and opening various jars from shelves lining the walls of the room, deftly measuring out exactly the right amount of herbs and mixing them together in a small clay bowl, working quickly over the peasant girl. With a practiced hand, the healer opens the girl’s mouth and pours the sticky substance inside, before quickly closing it again. Placing the bowl to the side, the woman grabs hold of a small silver amulet around her neck and chants a short incantation. A soft green light seems to seep from the gemstone in the center of the amulet and illuminates the room, overpowering the candlelight and gathering around the girl’s form. The light searches for a moment before focusing on the girl’s heaving chest. Slowly, it sinks through her skin and is absorbed. For a moment, all is quiet as the healer stops her murmuring and looks at the girl. Eventually, the girl’s eyes open, revealing a now healthy shade of green. She takes a deep, smooth breath, then stops, surprised at the ease which air entered her lungs.
“I can breathe again,” she murmurs in surprise, her voice soft and clear. Turning to the healer woman, she thanks her profusely. “I do not know what I would have done if you had not healed me, milady.”
“It is not me you should be thanking!” The woman waved off the praise. “You should be thanking that guy sitting over there in the corner. If he had not brought you in when he had, your lungs would have been completely ruined from infection, and you would have died.” The healer woman gestures over to a corner of the room, but stops, as Yuusha is nowhere to be seen. “That is strange. I wonder where he could have gone.” She wonders, almost to herself. Just then, the door opens, and Yuusha steps inside, head bowed. “Ah, there he is. Hey, guy!” Yuusha looks up sharply.
“She is healed?” Yuusha asks, looking at the village girl sitting on the long, low stone table in the center of the room.
“She is, and no little thanks to you. You brought her to me in the nick of time.” The young woman replied, her hand on the villager’s back, gently pushing her off the table.
“Thank you, my lord.” The girl says, jumping off the table and sinking into a low curtsy. “I do not know how I can ever repay you. I have no money, no home, and nowhere to go. All I can offer you is myself, which you can do with as you please.” She glances up at Yuusha nervously.
“Th-there is no need for that!” Yuusha hastily replies, shocked and embarrassed. “I need no payment from you. It is enough that you are well.”
The girl turns back to the woman and curtsies again, thanking her once more before exiting the house, head held up as she tests her newly healed lungs. Yuusha looks after her, then turns to the healer woman. “I expect you want some payment,” he states, bringing out his purse. “Name your price, and I will pay it, if I can.”
The young woman looks up at the ceiling, finger on her chin as she considers this. “You will pay any price I ask for, yes?” She inquires, looking at Yuusha again.
“Th-that is right. Any price.” Yuusha replies hesitantly, unsure of what the healer has in mind as payment.
“Well then, I want to travel with you.” She states matter-of-factly. “I heard you discussing travel plans with your companion as you stood outside my house. It seems interesting to travel to different places, and I want to go with you.” Yuusha is startled, and tries to respond, but the healer cuts him off.
“Where you are going, you are sure to get wounded, and it would be good to have a healer with you then, would it not?”
“Well, yes, but-“
“No buts!” Her eyes flash at him, and it is clear her mind is set on joining them. “As my payment,” She continues, “I will have you allow me to accompany you on your journey, and that is final.” Yuusha tries to complain again, but the healer would have nothing of it. “You did say you would pay any price, did you not?” Her lips twisted upwards in a smug smile. “That is my price, and you will have to pay it. Now, I believe you will be staying here for the night. Meet me by the eastern gates tomorrow at dawn. I will be ready to go by then.” She turns to her shelves, already beginning to take down jars and small boxes. As Yuusha goes to leave, she shouts out one last thing. “Oh, and if you were planning on sneaking out during the night, the guards will not let anyone out after nightfall. You will be stuck here ‘till dawn!” And with that, she closes the door, kicking Yuusha out into the street to go back to the inn until morning.
|
| | | | NinjaKitten
Paranaturalist
Posts : 1006
Join date : 2015-10-22
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Tue Feb 23, 2016 2:29 pm | |
| I'll just post three chapters for now, I have like 10 and it's a pain to copy and paste 'em. - Chapter Three:
The sun breaks over the walls surrounding the city as Yuusha and Burein lead their horses down the cobblestone street and towards the eastern gate, just as the healer girl had requested, while Burein sulks and mutters to himself, fiddling with the bag tied to his belt. As the morning light slowly illuminates the streets behind them, the gate they are headed towards is shrouded in ever darker shadows, cast from the wall rising high above it. When they arrive at the gates, the healer girl is already there, with a horse and a bag packed with herbs and medical equipment.
“Well, you certainly took your merry time.” She huffs. “I have been waiting.”
With her comment, the gates open, creaking and groaning against their own weight, and the trio mount their horses and ride off into the woods. Almost immediately after they enter the woods, though, their group leaves it again, abandoning the ring of trees for farmlands. There are some workers already in their fields, watering the crops as they grow. The mid-spring air is warm and sweet with the scent of new growth, but underlying it is the unmistakable stench of fertilizer. After the group has established a steady pace, the healer girl starts up a conversation.
“Unless I am mistaken, I do not think we have introduced ourselves yet.”
“Well, the circumstances of our meeting did not really leave any time for polite chatter, so I suppose now would be as good a time as any.” Yuusha surmised. “My name is Yuusha Senshi. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“Likewise. People call me Neru, and that is enough of a name for me.” Neru glances over at Yuusha, her bright violet eyes studying his features, assigning the name to his face. A gold chain gleams from around her neck, the only sign of the amulet hidden under her shirt. “So, what can you do? As you already know, I am a healer.”
“Well,” Yuusha replies, “I can swing a sword pretty well, and I know how to set up campsites, but I am a terrible cook, and I can’t sew to save my life. Other than that, there is not much else to say, though I can make some okay hats.”
“I see.” Neru thinks for a moment. “So, why are you going to the mountains? The roads up there are not very safe, you know.”
“I know.” Yuusha hesitates, wondering whether or not to tell her about his quest. With a little shrug, he decides that, since she is traveling with them, she might as well know why. “You see, until recently I was a guard in the palace. Then the king summoned me to his throne room and gave me a quest. Now I have to travel to the mountains with this guy,” Yuusha gestures to Burein, “to find a legendary artifact, which is supposedly hidden in the mountains, smack dab in between our capital and the capital of the Land of Bandits.”
“Interesting.”
For a moment, they ride in silence, but then Yuusha realizes he has not told Neru Burein’s name yet. “Oh, and this guy’s name is-“
“My name is Burein Goman. I am the favored messenger of the noble king, king Oouno of Ainoko, and I do not speak to peasants, women, or lowly village shamen.” Burein breaks his silence with a loud, stuck up, and imperious voice. He looks haughtily down his nose at Neru as he calls her a village shaman, his tone implying how little he thinks of her healing abilities. Neru is outraged.
“Now, I am sure there is no need for that tone…” Yuusha worriedly tries to restore the peace, but his voice goes unheard.
“Lowly shaman?!” Neru cries, incredulous. “Lowly SHAMAN?!?!” Shrieking, Neru launches into a full-on rant. “I am most certainly not a shaman. I am a healer, who, by her own hands, figured out how to heal people for real. Shamen use paltry tricks and useless little charms to heal their patients, while I actually do them some good!” She goes on like this for a while, with Burein strictly ignoring every word she says, with poor Yuusha, riding between them, stuck in the middle of it. Sighing, he resigns himself to a rather painful journey.
As Neru continues to rant, she comes to a certain point where she gets interrupted. “…and you claim to be some sort of messenger for the king, hmm? Well, messengers, no matter who they serve, are barely any higher than guards! No offense Yuusha. And yet you act as if you are higher than anybody else?! Ridiculous! I bet you are actually a peasant yourself!”
That struck a chord. Burein suddenly snaps, his face immediately flushing a deep, furious crimson. “How dare you accuse me of being a peasant! How dare you?! Let me assure you, I have had nothing to do with any peasants what so ever! Peasants are lowly things, barely even human, and they are certainly not the kind of people who would be able to become messengers of the king! Peasants lick the dirt of the noble people’s shoes, they scrape their food off the grimy floors of marketplaces, they starve to death because they lack the money to buy any, they die of infections and diseases easily cured, they resort to dirty, useless shamen like you when they get sick or injured, and they often end up dying anyway! There is absolutely no conceivable way that I could be related to anything that low.” And with that, Burein pushes his horse forward, riding in front of Yuusha and Neru.
“Why you-!”
“That is enough, Neru.” Yuusha whips his arm out in front of Neru, restraining her from chasing after Burein. He gazes at Burein’s back, considering something. “Let him be, for now. We will have plenty of opportunities for bickering later on. This is going to be a long journey, and we do not need any more fighting.”
Neru glares at Burein for a moment before settling down again with a humph.
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| | | | Westbrook
Spectral
Posts : 533
Join date : 2015-02-17
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Wed Feb 24, 2016 12:31 am | |
| I didn't read the first post with the spoilers, but I read all three chapters, and I'm excited to see what comes of this! I didn't know you wrote stories, NinjaKitten! Really cool.  |
| | | | NinjaKitten
Paranaturalist
Posts : 1006
Join date : 2015-10-22
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Wed Feb 24, 2016 1:35 am | |
| Thanks! I'm glad you like it. (By the way another chapter BAM) - Chapter Four: Fight Time!:
They had been traveling for quite some time when one afternoon the trio stops in a nice clearing for lunch. The clearing has a few stones here and there, which make good seats, and a small river runs through the center. Burein, who, surprisingly, is the only one who could cook, is working by the fire while the other two sit by the stream and make light conversation. Suddenly, arrows fly out of the trees and strike the ground around them.
“Bandits!” Burein cries, as Yuusha and co. scramble to get hold of their weapons. However, Yuusha’s sword is lying by the horses on the other side of the clearing, and he does not have time to get to it before a bandit tries to attack him from behind.
“Yuusha, look out!” Neru screams. Yuusha whips around, drawing his dagger, and deflects the bandit’s own knife. The bandit lunges towards the left, then quickly reverses his direction and goes for Yuusha’s right instead, but Yuusha had seen through the feint and parries the blow again. The bandit makes to stab Yuusha in the gut, but as he dodges away, Yuusha’s foot slips on the muddy riverbank and he falls to the ground, landing in the river with a splash. The bandit is a little off balance from Yuusha’s dodge, which gives Yuusha a split second to glance towards the others. Neru is busy firing arrows of energy at any and all bandits who try to come near her, and Burein’s daggers are flashing in the sunlight, inflicting many a wound to his opponents.
But the daggers themselves are not in Burein’s hands. Instead, they are in the hands of two little flying machines. Burein’s pouch is open, and he is quickly constructing machine after machine, some of which explode as he throws them at bandits, while others fly in the air with little propellers and dive bomb them, acting as distractions. Giving Yuusha no time to wonder about anything he saw, the bandit recovers and heads toward him. Yuusha tries to get up as he retreats, but the riverbed is too slippery, and he simply falls over again. The bandit, realizing his advantage, grins maliciously as he creeps closer, the knife in his hand gleaming coldly. Yuusha scrambles backwards, away from the bandit, but his hand slips again, and a sharp rock slashes it open, letting his blood mix with the water.
Just then, one of Burein’s flying things swoops down and snatches the bandit’s knife away. The bandit curses, and while his assailant is distracted, Yuusha tries yet again to get up. It is no use! He despairs. The rocks are too slippery! I can’t get any traction! Still cursing, the bandit looks around for something else to use as a weapon, as the flying thing has already disappeared with the knife. As the bandit notices Yuusha’s dagger in the water behind him, another one of Burein’s little contraptions darts in and snatches it away. Very angry now, the bandit mutters some very colorful curses, many of which Yuusha had never heard before, even in his job as a guard. Seeing a pointed stone, the bandit snatches it from the ground and raises it high above his head, stomping on Yuusha as he tries to get away.
“Time to die, pretty boy!” The bandit shouts as he viciously swings the point of the rock down towards Yuusha’s head. It hits with a resounding crack and shoves Yuusha’s head below the surface of the water. The last thing Yuusha sees as his vision turns black is a blue glimmer hidden between the river stones.
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There seemed to be nothing except the pale blue mist, and Yuusha was standing in the middle of it. The mist swirled over, around, under, and through itself, forming patterns and shapes he could not recognize. Then out of the blue came a shadowy figure. It seemed to be a girl, dressed in strange garb. She wore short pants, and a short sleeved shirt, with a large ribbon sticking up from the top of her head. The only thing he could make out clearly was her golden hair, which was the same color as his, though hers reached her shoulders. “Rin?” He called out into the nothingness, not knowing how that name came to his mind, and yet he felt like he had known this mysterious figure all his existence.
Just then came a voice, barely more than a whisper. “Yuusha,” He tried to look around, but the figure approaching drew his attention away again. “Yuusha,” The whisper came again, louder this time, more insistent. “Yuusha!”
Yuusha wakes up suddenly, coughing and spluttering.
“Thank the Gods!” Neru had been leaning over him, but she now sits back on her heels as Yuusha sits up. “We thought you had died! You just lay there without moving for the longest time after we pulled you up out of the river.” Yuusha, still too out of breath to say anything, looks around. They are still in the clearing, but it is now stained with the blood of the bandits. The bodies themselves seem to have been moved away. There is no sign of the machines that Burein had built during the battle, and Burein himself is nowhere to be seen.
“Where is Burein?” Yuusha inquires. “Should he not be here?”
“He is fine,” Neru replies. “After he pulled you out of the river, he gathered up all his little contraptions and dismantled them. After he was done, he went to get some firewood.” Neru goes on. “I hope you do not mind, but I put your pendant over by that rock.” Neru gestures to the boulder next to Yuusha’s bag on the right side of the clearing. “You were really cold for a while after we got you out, but when I took the pendant off of you, you warmed right up. Do you know anything about that?”
“I…I am not sure.” Yuusha replies hesitantly, as he rises and goes over to the stone. Picking up the pendant, he sees that it is made of gold, which surrounds a deep blue gemstone, like a sapphire. The gold is what makes up the links of the chain, and the sapphire is wrapped in long tendrils of it, the gold hugging its form while leaving the front open. The color of the gem matches Yuusha’s eyes. Even though he had never seen the pendant before, Yuusha feels somehow reluctant to say so, strangely afraid that someone will come to take it away if he claims that it does not belong to him, And as he holds it in his hands, Yuusha feels more and more like the pendant does belong to him, and that it has always belonged to him. It feels as if the pendant had belonged to him all his life, and that he had been living his life partially empty, only becoming whole when he found it. “It is definitely mine, though.” Yuusha pauses. “Why did you take it off?”
“Oh, that?” Neru waves her hand. “I had to move it to get at your chest so I could pump out the river water, and it kept getting in the way.”
“I see.”
With Yuusha saying nothing else on the matter, Neru shrugs and turns to the horses, making sure that none of them had been hurt in the battle, and that their group still has all of their stuff.
A moment later, Burein returns. He comes from the left of the clearing, opposite the horses, so quietly that Yuusha and Neru have no clue that he is back. Burein stands there a while, watching them, then walks over to the fire pit and dumps the wood he had gathered onto the ground next to it. The wood clatters, startling Neru and Yuusha, but Burein ignores them. He then proceeds to walk over to a stump on the other side of the clearing from them and sits down, arms and legs crossed. Yuusha looks at him for a moment longer, then goes back to examining the pendant, turning it over and over in his hands. Neru glances at Burein as she heads towards the fire pit, but he just sniffs and turns away. Neru huffs, then builds up the fire again, as it had faded to smoldering coals during the fight. When she is done and the fire is crackling steadily, she turns and heads over to Yuusha, who has put the pendant on and is swinging it from its long chain.
“So, fearless leader, where are we going next?”
Yuusha pauses his swinging for a moment, then grabs the pendant in mid-swing and stuffs it down his shirt. He gets up and turns to Neru, drawing himself up to stand tall. “Next, we head towards the city of Chushinchi. We have need of some supplies there, and it’s a good place to stop before we start across the plains.” He looks around, and sees that the sun is dying everything crimson as it sets over the treetops, making everything seem surreal. “But first,” he adds, “We’ll go to the land of dreams.” He pulls out a couple of blankets, lays one on the ground, and pulls the other over himself. “Goodnight, Neru.”
“But are you not hungry? We have not had dinner yet!”
“I am fine. I do not really feel all that hungry.”
“Well, alright then.” Neru glances worriedly at Yuusha before heading over to bother Burein to make food, but Burein has followed Yuusha’s lead and is also getting to sleep. Neru sighs in frustration before she, too, tucks herself in for the night. As Yuusha drifts off to sleep, he pays no notice to the peculiar pendant he had gained that day, and yet that pendant was the first of many things which would change his life forever.
-----------------------------------------------------
At the same time, somewhere not far from our merry group, there rode a figure cloaked in darkness. If anyone had come down that road, they would not have noticed him or his horse, yet would have avoided them unconsciously, often accompanied by a chill in their bones. When the figure saw the light from our group’s campfire, he reined in his horse and dove into the woods, making sure to keep the firelight within his sight, even though he knew he had no need to do so. He picketed his horse on a tree by the very same stream that ran out from Yuusha’s camp, and settled down to wait ‘till dawn, when the group would move again.
|
| | | | Westbrook
Spectral
Posts : 533
Join date : 2015-02-17
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Fri Feb 26, 2016 11:39 pm | |
| Interesting! A pendant that magically attached itself to him, hmm... |
| | | | NinjaKitten
Paranaturalist
Posts : 1006
Join date : 2015-10-22
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Sat Feb 27, 2016 3:24 am | |
| Myes. - Chapter Five:
After a couple of weeks of travel, Yuusha and the rest arrive in a city, of sorts. The place our party has arrived in is not quite a city yet, but still more than a town. In this town-city, they all decide to split up, as everybody needs to get something different from different parts of town and it would be quicker to split up than to stay together. Yuusha goes off to the east after reserving rooms in an inn and stabling the horses. As he walks towards the section of the town-city’s market which sells food and water for travelers, a woman in a simple brown hooded cloak emerges from a doorway in front of him and passes him by, going in the opposite direction. Suddenly, she turns back towards him, seeming incredibly shocked.
“It can’t be,” she murmurs to herself. As Yuusha walks, a pale blue energy trails behind him, tracing his path for a few feet before it disappears into the air. Quickly, the woman tries to get Yuusha’s attention, but the crowd has already closed around him, and he is nowhere to be seen. Just then, she spots his distinct golden-blonde hair bobbing away in front of her. She forces her way through the crowd until she reaches the blob. She places her hand on his shoulder, but as he turns around, she notices that the person she found is not Yuusha. Mumbling an apology, she tries to spot Yuusha again, but he is gone, leaving the mysterious woman stranded in the middle of the road, like a boulder in an endless stream.
---------------------------:::::::--------------------------
“What took you so long?” Yuusha is greeted by Neru’s impatient comment as he rounds the corner by the inn.
“Sorry,” he replies, blushing embarrassedly. “I got caught in a huge crowd, and then a merchant tried to get me to pay 100 gold for a pack that was barely worth three.”
“Well, hurry it up next time! I am getting cold waiting out here.” Burein is standing a bit away from Neru, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed, glaring reproachingly at Yuusha.
Neru sniffs. “Well, why did you not just stay inside, then?” She shoots back at him. Burein huffs, then turns and stalks inside. Just then, a chilly breeze blows by, smelling of autumn, and Neru shivers.
“What was that about?” Yuusha looks worriedly at the door of the inn, still swinging from Burein’s entrance.
“I do not really know. When I got here, Burein was already going inside, but then he came out again and stood in front of the entrance. He seemed like he was about to go somewhere when I knocked over that stack of boxes over there and startled him,” Neru explains, gesturing to a pile of crates lying on the ground. “Then he glared at me and went and leaned against the wall. He stayed like that until you arrived”
“I see…” Yuusha murmurs. “Well, there is no point standing out here and freezing our feet off. Let us go inside.”
“Right,”
The inside of the inn is rather typical, for inns. The first floor is given over to a common room, and the second floor contains bedrooms for the guests. There are some round tables sitting here and there around the main room, all of varying sizes and with different numbers of chairs sitting around them. The floor is made of wooden planks, and is covered in scratches, dirt, and miscellaneous stains. On the ceiling, you can see the beams that hold up the second floor. In the back of the room is a small bar, where the bartender is busy cleaning out a tankard with a rag. All of the furniture in the building, as well as the building itself, seem to be made out of oak, and handmade, possibly by the bartender. There are also a few other customers in the inn, in various stages of intoxication. As Yuusha and Neru enter, the bartender looks up.
“If you are looking for your friend, he just went upstairs. Seemed to be in a bit of a dark mood, though,” He thinks for a moment. “I would be careful with him right now if I were you,”
“Thanks for the advice,” Yuusha replies as he and Neru climb the stairs to their rooms. Going down the hall, Neru turns into her room while Yuusha goes to the next door and knocks. Hearing no reply, he enters. The bedroom is long and narrow, and everything is made of oak, just like the downstairs. There are two beds in the room, with the heads facing the right wall. Next to and towards the right of each bed are chests in which the guests would store their possessions while staying at the inn. The foot of each bed has a wool blanket, neatly folded to keep out the dirt. At the end of the long room is a small square window. As this is a fairly wealthy inn, as per Burein’s “request,” the window is made of glass. Burein is seated on the bed closest to the window, and as Yuusha enters, he quickly hides what he was looking at in his pouch, which is lying on the bed next to him. Deliberately ignoring Yuusha, Burein gathers up his things and brushes past him, heading out the door. Sighing, Yuusha plops down on the other bed and prepares for the night. As he pulls the blanket up around his shoulders and drifts off to sleep, Yuusha considers the problem of winter and autumn chill coupled with the harshness of mountainous region, and worries that their group will not have enough provisions to survive.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
He was back in the misty place, but this time, he could see some shapes in the mists. Instead of the blue-white nothingness of the last visit, he could see some trees, or at least, what he took for tree trunks. Other than that, though, he saw nothing but the mists. From between some “tree trunks,” Yuusha saw a gold flash. As he turned towards it, he saw a blue eye peering at him from a different direction. He heard a girl giggle, and her laugh echoed around the space, rebounding into a million billion different sounds, disorienting him and keeping him from finding her. Yuusha caught a hint of fabric as the girl darted between the trees. Suddenly, had had the feeling that the dream was going to end, and that the girl would leave him again. He did not want that. “Wait!” He called out to her. “Who are you? How can I find you?” The girl laughed as she leaned out from behind one of the tree trunks, her short gold hair shielding her eyes. She smiled,
“You already know,”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yuusha sits up suddenly, gasping for breath, as if he had had a nightmare. Slowly, his heart stops thumping, and Yuusha takes a look around. He sees that Burein’s bed is rumpled, as if someone had slept in it, but there is no sign of Burein himself. Getting out of bed, Yuusha realizes he has not eaten since that morning, as his growling stomach pointedly reminds him. Pulling on his shirt, Yuusha grabs an apple from his pack and munches on it, thinking. Glancing out the window, he estimates that there are around three hours left until dawn. Getting the feeling that he will not be getting back to sleep again any time soon, he finishes getting dressed and creeps downstairs, careful not to disturb anybody. He exits the inn, and, getting a sudden urge, climbs up onto the roof of one of the nearby buildings. Sitting there in the moonlight, Yuusha tilts his head back and relaxes, letting out a long sigh. He pulls the mysterious pendant out of his shirt and raises it to his face, looking at the sapphire set in the middle.
“Nice night, is it not?” A girl is sitting next to him. She has a long, dark cloak, and a pointed hat with a wide brim going all the way around her head. Her dark skin blends with the night, but her hair is a luminous white, and it ripples as she turns her head to smile at him, her teeth small and white. Her eyes are closed. Startled, Yuusha dropped his pendant to his chest and scooted backwards, away from the girl.
“How did you get up here?”
The girl looked back at him curiously, eyes still shut. “I flew, of course. Did you not?”
Yuusha glanced nervously behind him, wondering if he could somehow escape this crazy girl who claimed she had flown up to the roof.
“No, I climbed.” He replied uneasily.
“But is that not just a waste of energy? Flying is so much easier, and it takes less energy, too.”
“Look, I will be honest with you.” Yuusha glanced behind himself again, judging the distance between the edge of the roof and the ground below. It is a long drop. He gulped. “I do not know who you are or how you got up here without me noticing, but I think I had better leave now.”
“You think I am crazy, do you not?”
“I-I never said that.” Yuusha stuttered nervously.
“You do. I can tell. You think I am crazy, just like everybody else.” She pouted. “But what I do not understand is why you think so. “
“Excuse me?”
“I mean, you are the same as me, right? So why would you think I am crazy?”
“I have no clue what you are talking about, and I really think I will be going now.”
“Your amulet.”
“What?”
“Your amulet.” The girl repeated insistently. “Let me see it.”
Before Yuusha could refuse, she leaned over and grabbed it from where it is lying against his chest. She brought it up close to her face, pulling Yuusha over with it.
“Wow. This is in really good condition. The gemstone is not even tarnished in the slightest! And look at the color! Such clarity! And not a single crack, either!” She is turning it over in her hands, looking at every aspect of the amulet. “It is solidly set in there, too. Not even slightly loose.” She continued wonderingly, gazing in admiration at Yuusha. “And the gold! It’s completely pure, yet it’s not in the least dented. Just as clean and shiny as if it had been made yesterday! No scratches here either! And the chain looks like it hasn’t needed to be repaired even once! Where did you get such a high-quality thing?” Yuusha had been looking at her dumbly throughout most of this exchange, but at her direct question to him, he shook himself out of it and pulled it back out of her hands.
“I found it in a riverbed. But what does it matter to you, anyway? You do not even know me, let alone have the right to interrogate me as to where I found something.”
“A riverbed, huh? Hmmm, that makes sense.”
“Look, if you will excuse me, I am going to go back to my inn and get some sleep.”
“But you do not need to sleep. After all, you are a mage.”
“Wh-what do you mean? I can’t be a wizard or a mage or-or whatever! I do not even have the slightest drop of magic in me. Besides, magic does not really exist anymore! The only magic left is healing stuff.” Yuusha backed away from the so-called wizard girl, and his foot slipped off the edge of the roof. Yuusha fell, but the girl zipped over to the edge of the roof and caught his wrist.
“You gotta be more careful!” She said with a smile. “After all, you are one of the last magicians who can still do real magic. If you are not careful…” She opened her eyes a sliver, and they stared coldly at his. Her pupils were dark slits against her blood-red irises. “I’ll kill you.” Yuusha knew in that moment that she is being serious, and he felt that she could kill him in any number of painful, drawn-out methods.
“Y-Yes ma’am.” Yuusha stammered, frightened. The magician girl smiled again and pulled him back up.
“Good! I was afraid you would say no. That would have been trouble.” She fake-pouted, then turned to Yuusha again. “Now, where were we?... Ah, right! I was just telling you that you are a magician!”
“Like I said earlier, I am not a magician. I can’t even sense magic, let alone do it!” Yuusha complained to the girl.
“Really? Let us do a test then.” She opened her eyes again and pushed him off the roof.
Yuusha fell, and this time he knew she would not save him. As the air rushed past him, he squeezed his eyes shut and was about to scream when he heard a voice in his head. Len! The girl on the roof is looking down, hand shielding her eyes as she peered at Yuusha’s falling form. Suddenly, the girl on the roof saw a pale blue mist which hovered around Yuusha’s form flare and brighten, then slow his fall so that he landed gently on the ground, feet first. Yuusha slowly cracked open his eyes and looked around, realizing that he had not died.
“See? I told you, you are a mage!” The girl floated herself down from the roof and landed with a little poof next to him.
“But-but how…?” Yuusha blinked like an owl, his brain in shock.
“You are a wizard! Obviously, you used magic, stupid. You just needed a little…push to get going.” She giggled again.
“But…how did you know?” Yuusha asked, now at least moderately used to the fact that he could use magic. “If you had been wrong, I would have died!”
“You would not have died, silly! After all, I set magic to trigger if you fell off. But the thing is, it can only be triggered once, so if you had fallen earlier, you would not have released your magic. You literally needed a push from a magical person for your powers to shake off their rust.” The girl explained patiently, dusting off her dress. Her dress is black with short, poofy sleeves and a big poofy skirt which went down to her knees. Both of these had white scalloped edges. The top of her dress went up and covered her neck, ending in a neat line under her jaw. She wore long black socks that went up past her knees, and shiny black little shoes. As she summoned a broom from thin air, the white light her magic gave off revealed that the dark cloak she wore is a dark green. As she turned to leave, Yuusha called out,
“Wait! What is your name?”
“My name?” the mage girl repeated, her voice rising in a question. She smiled again. “My name is Myogi. Nice to meet you!” And she disappeared in a black poof.
Hidden behind one of the houses, the shadowy figure melted back into the shadows, off to report this new finding to his master.
Yuusha stood there for a while before going back to the inn, wondering about this new discovery. As he is about to push open the door, he realized something. “I do not even know how to use any of this!”
Last edited by NinjaKitten on Sun Feb 28, 2016 4:12 pm; edited 1 time in total |
| | | | Westbrook
Spectral
Posts : 533
Join date : 2015-02-17
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Sat Feb 27, 2016 7:15 pm | |
| Did you fit both of the vocaloid twins into your story?  |
| | | | NinjaKitten
Paranaturalist
Posts : 1006
Join date : 2015-10-22
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Sat Feb 27, 2016 9:50 pm | |
| That's what I was thinking at the time, yes. I first had the idea for the story after I listened to/watched one of their songs. I think it was called "Death Should Not Have Taken Thee," though what I actually wound up doing was a bit different from what happens in the song. - Chapter Six: Leaving Town:
The next morning, Neru awoke early. Blearily, she gazed around, then rubbed her eyes clear and stretched. Suddenly, she heard shouting coming from the room where Yuusha and Burein slept. Quickly, she pulled on a random dress and dashed over, throwing open the door.
“What is going on!?” Yuusha and Burein both looked up, startled in the middle of packing up their things. Before either of them could speak, a voice shot through the walls.
“What are you doing!?”
“I-I am s-s-sorry, sir. I-I-I will fix it right away, s-sir.”
“DO NOT JUST STAND THERE, THEN. GET GOING!”
All three of our party looked at each other, came to a silent agreement, and rushed off to the source of the commotion. Opening the door to the room across the hall, they found a large, burly looking, red-faced man and a small, frail scholar with glasses standing in the center of their room, which is square and only had one bed. The big man is bent over at the chest, while the small man stood shouting at him.
“You are so useless, you big, brainless oaf!” Noticing that there were people standing in his doorway, he turned away from the big man, who is quietly sobbing to himself, and addressed the group, which by now had grown from our heroes to all of the people who had been sleeping at the inn. Glancing at the overall group, he made a split-second decision.
“H-hello everyone. I-I-I hope we h-have not d-d-d-disturbed any of your s-sleep. Y-you see, m-my master was y-yelling at me for not p-packing up cor-r-rrectly, a-and n-now he is doing it himself.” He stuttered, completely reversing his personality and acting like the victim as the poor abused man continued to pack up.
Just before Yuusha stepped forward, someone’s voice called out. “You are lying.” Burein emerged from the crowd, looking with hatred and real scorn at the small man in the center of the room. “Even though your acting is pretty good, you can’t fool me. You take advantage of this man’s small voice, at odds with what people normally expect, and make yourself seem like the victim, and all the while this poor fellow is being abused by you, and nobody helps him.” His eyes gleamed with a surprising amount of feeling as he spelled out these accusations to the small man. “My…companions here can verify this. After all, we saw you yelling at that big man there earlier.” Neru and Yuusha stepped out behind Burein and nodded.
The small man looked shocked, then laughed. The big man stopped sobbing and stood up, grinning. “Good catch.” The small man complimented them. “Why do you not come in?” Looking at the rest of the people, he added, “You can leave now. Bye-bye!” and shut the door in their faces. “Now then, how about we sit down and have a little chat.” He said, clapping his hands together. The big man disappeared in a poof of smoke, to be replaced with a small black kitten, which is scooped up by the former small man. The small man himself had become the magician girl Yuusha had met that night. Neru is shocked, but Burein and Yuusha were not.
Neru eventually realized that nobody else is surprised at this transformation, and glared at Yuusha and Burein.
“Why are you two not surprised? Did you know this from the beginning!?”
Burein spoke up, answering Neru’s question but ignoring her at the same time. “I thought there was something wrong with you from the moment I heard your voice. Both of your voices. There was something a little false about them, as if they were too blown up. It is not very surprising to me to find out that you were not what you seemed to be.”
“Very good!” Myogi clapped happily. “I thought you seemed to be a smart guy! You are not that good at hiding though. I knew you were on the roof with us the entire time!”
Burein’s eyes widened. “How did you know? I thought I had hidden myself perfectly.”
“From ordinary eyes, maybe, but not from mine!” Myogi replied giddily. “Although, I had to admit, I did not notice you until a little bit after I arrived, as I was busy with this guy.” She added, gesturing to Yuusha.
Neru looked from Yuusha to Myogi, confused and a little hurt. “Yuusha, what is this? What is she talking about?” Yuusha is silent, staring at the table.
“You do not know?” Myogi is surprised. “I thought you would have noticed by now. Although, since yours is too weak, it is not that surprising that you could not tell.”
“Could not tell what? Yuusha? What does she mean?” Neru pleaded. Yuusha turned his head away, busy in his own thoughts and uncharacteristically moody.
“Yuusha is a mage, of course. And a powerful one too, at that.”
Neru stopped. She turned to Yuusha, looked him over once, then turned back to Myogi. “Excuse me, I need to go get dressed.” She got up, turning her chair over, then fled, slamming the door behind her. Burein looked after her, then turned back to Myogi.
“So what you said last night was true, then?”
“Yes.” Myogi replied. “Yuusha is a mage. Not only that, but he has incredible magic power lying dormant inside him. Only a little of his capabilities were released last night, and yet it was strong enough for you to see it, yes?”
“Yeah, that is right.” Burein replied, thinking back to the flash of blue light he saw burst over the edge of the roof.
“Now, I am sure our incapacitated friend over there would like someone to tell him how to actually use his newfound powers, and to show him the limits to what he can do with them when he comes to his senses. For that reason, I have decided to join your group!” She claps her hands together and smiles amiably at Burein. “How fun this will be!” As Burein takes a breath to complain, she opens her cold eyes. “Unless you have a complaint?” Her loose and friendly pose suddenly seemed very threatening.
“N-no, not at all, miss.” Burein hurriedly corrects himself. “We will glad to have you with us.”
“Wonderful! Now, let us get healer girl and sleepy here onto their horses so we can get on our way to the mountains!”
“The mountains? But-“
“No buts! Or else.”
Burein submitted to her evil eyes. “To the mountains it is, then.” Unhappily, he grabbed Yuusha and led him to their rooms to pack up.
Before he can cross the threshold, however, Neru stops him. “Wait,” He turns. “Why did you tell that guy off so much? I would have thought that you would keep to yourself more.”
Burein turns away, as if to ignore her question, but as he steps past the door, he glances back at Neru. “I hate liars,” and the door swings shut.
Later that morning, they were all on the road again, heading towards the mountains. Yuusha was still out and Neru is sulking, red-eyed, so Burein had taken control as much as he could with the oppressive force of the little black wizard in their group. Hurry up and come back to us, Yuusha!
…back, Yuusha!
Yuusha tried to look around, but his body would not listen to his commands. Shit! How do I regain control? He swore to himself, mentally struggling against the metal bonds keeping his arms and legs in place. In his mind, his mental representation is secured to a metal table standing on its side, facing the front so he could see what is going on. The edges of the image from his eyes is blurred, blending with the metalwalls of the mind space he is trapped in. Yuusha gave a couple of tugs to his binds again, but it is in vain, as he is stuck fast and could do nothing but watch. All of a sudden, blue mist started to swirl around his feet, rising up to the ceiling and obscuring his view.
Do you want to be free from these bonds?
The girl’s voice called out to him from the mists, but Yuusha could not see her form. Yes! I do! He called out, but his voice did not work.
Are you sure? If I free you, something else will have to take your place here. Not only that, but the moment you are released, your magic will explode outwards since it has been compressed for so long. Plus, it will be especially explosive since you only recently gained magic. You do know there will not be any turning back after this, right?
I am sure. Let me free!
Well, alright then. I hope you are ready!
Burein happened to choose that moment to glance back at Yuusha, and saw his eyes flash a bright blue, eliminating the black of his pupils and his whites, before the explosion sent him and his horse flying to the side. Neru and Myogi were launched away as well, as Yuusha blinked once, twice, then a third time, eliminating the blue light. He lifted his hand to his face, looking at it as he flexed his fingers, then made a fist. He tilted his face to the sun above as he brought his hand down and took a deep breath, filling his lungs with air before bringing his head down and exhaling again. Myogi, Neru, and Burein had picked themselves and their horses up again by this time, and Myogi came over to Yuusha.
“Good job…whatever-your-name-is. You managed to break free in less time than I did, and I was pretty fast with it. What did you use as your replacement?”
Yuusha looked at her for a bit before answering. “My name is Yuusha. I found a bit of shadow stuck in a corner, so I shoved that in the cuffs instead.” He paused again. “What did you use?”
“Me?” Myogi said with fake surprise. “I replaced myself with… something I am not telling you!<3 Tehe!”
Yuusha frowned in disappointment, then took a look at his amulet. The sapphire, which once had been a pure blue, through and through, now looked slightly clouded, the edges turning yellow. Yuusha is shocked. “Why did my amulet change?” He asks, showing it to Myogi.
“Hmm…” Myogi took a look at it and considered it. “I think it is because some part of you is different. And if not that, then I have no clue, really. You say you locked up a shadow?”
“Yeah.”
“Then that is why.”
“If you say so. But why would that matter? Are you saying that that shadow is a part of me or something?”
“Maybe. Either that, or it was something in the amulet. Now, do you not want to learn magic?”
“Yeah, I guess. I mean, I do not have much choice now, do I?”
“Yup! You are completely, totally correct! Now, the first thing you need to do…”
Throughout all of this, Burein and Neru had started to ride together, purely because they did not have anybody else they could ride with. Burein is bored, and Neru only knew healing magic, which Yuusha is not learning right now. And so, they rode together while Yuusha learned magic from Myogi as they traveled across the small plains and into the mountains.
Riding a ways behind them is the shadowy figure from before. Having made his report, he returned to observing the group as they continued on their journey, unaware of the danger that they were soon to encounter.
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| | | | Apophyllite
Seeing Shades
Posts : 171
Join date : 2015-07-23
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Sun Feb 28, 2016 11:44 am | |
| (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ Words of encouragement.
One thing I'd like to point out though, is that you described the amulet as gold first and then as silver when Myogi examined it... |
| | | | NinjaKitten
Paranaturalist
Posts : 1006
Join date : 2015-10-22
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Sun Feb 28, 2016 4:07 pm | |
| Ah, right. You might find some more inconsistencies like that, since I hadn't completely solidified things like appearances and stuff when I started the story, and I changed things up at a later point in the story, so I had to go back and change things, so I might've missed something. It would be a big help if you would point out where there are more inconsistencies so I can fix them! - Chapter Seven: Troll!:
Yuusha and co fight a troll or whatever. They win with help of Onoko, but people are hurt.
It has been a few days since our party had left the city where they met Myogi behind, and they have gotten into the mountain borders between the land of bandits and Ainoko. While autumn is still in session down below, the beginnings of winter were in the mountaintops, chilling our heroes and occasionally dumping snow on them as they slept In their tents. Every morning, there is frost on the ground, and their breath puffed in cold white clouds in front of them. Yuusha had learned how to gather the misty blue stuff, or his aura, around himself and heat it to a temperature he liked, so he does not need any winter clothes, but Neru did, and so, after a bit of tailoring by Burein, who, surprisingly enough, can sew, Neru is walking around in Yuusha’s winter clothes. Of course, Myogi does not need any extra clothing either, which proved to be a bit of a bonus in the carrying capacity of the horses, as they do not need to bring bulky clothing with them, and could instead carry more water and other provisions. This morning is a bit colder than the others, and it had started to snow, leaving the white powder all over the ground. Although Yuusha had never seen snow before, Myogi does not give him a chance to admire it, and set him straight to work learning how to create and control ice.
“No no no! You are doing it all wrong!” Myogi’s reprimanding voice echoed across the valley they had camped in. “You keep heating the snow, but you are supposed to make it colder. How many times do I need to tell you that?”
“I know!” Yuusha replied, irritated, as yet another snowball melted between his hands and joined the slush surrounding his feet. “I just can’t control the temperature! I can make the water into a ball, I can use it like a whip, I can even get all the dirt out of it, but I can’t do anything with the temperature!” He huffs as stomps to the side of the clearing. Neru looks over from treating one of the horses’ legs, which had been sprained the day before.
“If you would like to take a break, I could show you how to use healing magic. It is simpler than controlling the elements, and you do not have to worry about accidentally digging up all the worms ten meters in every direction.” Neru offers to Yuusha, smiling a little at the thought of Yuusha’s earlier mistake.
“That was just that one time, Neru! Myogi already chews me up for it enough!” Yuusha complains as he goes over to the horse Neru is treating.
“Now, wait just a-” Myogi gets cut off.
“I know that you think of Yuusha as your personal pet, but he is not just yours. He gets to spend time training with you when he wants to. After all,
“Now look here-“
“After all, he is still our leader, so you need to listen to him as well. Okay?” Neru glares at Myogi full in the face without flinching. Myogi closes her eyes again.
“Hmph! I do not expect he will learn anything from you, though, ‘cause he is an elemental mage, like me, and not just some paltry healer.” Myogi floats herself over to a boulder to sulk with her cat, making sure to send a spray of snow at Neru. Just before it hits her, however, Yuusha blocks it with his aura.
“How did you do that?” Neru asks, wonderingly.
“I am not sure, really. More and more lately I have been doing stuff with my aura without really thinking about it, but Myogi does not listen to anything I say. If she says I can’t control my aura, then I can’t control my aura, even if I prove otherwise. She is like a stubborn little kid sometimes.” Yuusha feels like a weight is lifted off of him after unloading his troubles on Neru.
“I think she is exactly like a stubborn little kid.” Neru replies wholeheartedly. “But I did not call you here to talk badly of your instructor. I was going to teach you the art of healing, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Right, then, let us get started.” Neru picks up the horse’s leg. “What you need to do first when healing something is to determine where they are injured. You can use your aura to feel them out, or you can use your hands. Sometimes you can use your eyes as well. This is simple enough that anyone can do it with only the smallest amount of aura control, even if they are not trained as a healer. Try it now with this horse’s leg.” Neru holds the horse’s leg so Yuusha can get a good look at it. “Eyes first. Do you see anything obviously wrong with the leg?”
“No, not really. Yuusha replies. “I do see that the horse has a crack in its hoof, though.”
“Really?” Neru takes a look at the hoof herself. “You are right. I wonder how it managed to do that… But that is not what you are looking for. Try feeling the leg. Gently, now.”
Yuusha ran his hand up and down the horse’s leg, but could not feel anything. The horse, however, twitched when he touched a certain spot. “Is it here?” He asks, gesturing. Neru beams.
“That is right. Now, feel it out with your aura. It should be okay for you to do this, as your aura is pretty strong, but for those with weaker auras, it is a bad idea to use it for more than just the actually healing portion. After all, they could run out and wind up using their life energy instead.”
Yuusha looked shocked. “That can happen?”
Neru looked up, moderately surprised. “Yes, it can. Did Myogi not tell you the dangers of overusing your aura?”
“No, not once.” Yuusha replied, puzzled.
“That is no good. Well, I will tell you. If you go past your aura’s limit, one of three things can happen. You wind up snapping your aura’s connection to you, and you can’t use it until it has recovered, you use your own life force to fuel what you are doing, or you spontaneously combust. If you wind up using your life force, you age at an incredible rate until either you die or you finish or cut off your task. However, it is also dangerous to stop in the middle of doing something, for if you do, then you can combust there as well from the sudden release of extra energy that did not get to its destination but had already left you. This only really happens when you are performing a big thing, though, so you should be pretty safe for now. You spontaneously combust if the energy you are trying to use rebounds against you because you tried to use too much or because you simply did not concentrate hard enough on a task which requires great concentration. Luckily, at your level that does not happen often, and that almost never occurs in healing. The only reason we still know about that is because of records made by past magicians.”
“…I see.” Yuusha thought this over as he is feeling out the horse’s leg for injuries. Suddenly, he felt something that seemed wrong. “Found it!”
“Good. Now, what I would do next would be to get a sense for what kind of injury it is, then gather my aura into my hand. On other occasions, it is better to have your hand clear, but in the cases of beginners, they should keep it in their hands, as they are still learning, and it is easier to focus your aura somewhere close to you before moving on.” She waited a few moments for Yuusha to process what she said. “Now, I would take the aura I’ve accumulated and press it into the wounded part, guiding it to where it should be, and back onto the right path if it strays. And you’re done. Now let us see about your leg, horse.”
“But I healed it.” Yuusha tells Neru.
“But you are not a healer. This was mainly informational…” Neru furrows her brow.
“If you do not believe me, see for yourself.” He gestures towards the horse’s leg.
Neru checks the leg again, but Yuusha is right. He had already healed it. “Well, what do you know.” She murmurs. “You can heal things, too. That might come in handy sometime.”
Yuusha blushes, abashed but pleased about the praise. “Yeah, I guess. For now, though, I think I am gonna go help Burein with the packing up. It seems like Myogi is still sulking.”
“Right.”
Just then, a bellow rang throughout the clearing. “Troll!” Myogi shouted. “I hope you are ready to fight, Yuusha, ‘cause you’re gonna have to!”
In crashes the troll, knocking over the mountain trees surrounding the clearing and uprooting many of them in the process. As it passes one of the larger trees, it snatches it up, obviously meaning to use it as a club. The troll is at least as high as two men, with long arms that drag on the ground. Its large muscles are covered by taut, dark grey skin, the color of ash. It has no hair on the top of its head, but has lots on its arms, hands, and chest, as well as fur on its feet. As clothing, it wears a loincloth made of scraps of animal skins, some bloody and fresh, with a rope constructed of cotton cloth twisted around itself. It has large clawed feet, like a lion’s, and three-fingered hands, both of which almost twice the size of its head, showing that it is still an adolescent. It has two tusks protruding from its mouth, each as long as a human arm, and on its forehead one could see two small lumps, telling of horns to come in future years.
The troll peers around the clearing shortsightedly, then spots Myogi, clearly standing out from her pale surroundings. Letting out another roar, it leaps toward her, swinging the tree around. Myogi dodges, using her magic to propel herself back towards the others and to a safer distance from the troll.
“I do not get it. Should trolls not be hibernating around now? They hate the cold.” Neru calls, confused and also worried, but she holds her bow at the ready all the same, taking an offensive stance.
“This one appears to be a young troll. Perhaps it had gone to hibernate with its parent, but was kicked out for being too old, and was looking for some other place to sleep out the winter when it smelled our campfire. Though if that was the case, this troll should be older than this…” Myogi surmised. “What bothers me more is that this troll has a brand on its back. I saw it when it swung at me.”
“Why would a wild troll be branded?” Yuusha is perplexed.
“I do not know. All I do know is-“
“We do not have time to speculate!” Burein cut in, fear and frustration clear in his voice. The troll roars, and lumbers toward the group.
“Here it comes!”
The troll bellows again, louder this time, and charges at the group. They scatter, diving to either side. From the right, Myogi blasts the troll with freezing ice while Burein’s contraptions dart into its face and eyes, poking and stabbing. On the left, Neru sends volley after volley of arrows at the troll, while Yuusha charges it with his sword glowing red and his pendant glowing blue. But despite their efforts, the troll just shakes them off and swings its arm around in a wide arc, bowling all of them over. The tree club still has branches on it, and one of the sharper ones got Burein in the gut, piercing his side, while the top of the tree clips Myogi’s leg and the others of the party are battered by the twigs, sticks, and trunk of the tree itself. Everybody gets quickly to their feet and begin their attacks anew, but Burein is out for the count, lying on the ground, and Myogi is leaning heavily to one side, her leg bleeding. Yuusha catches a glimpse of Burein as he jumps back from yet another Swing, and he sees the snow around Burein swiftly turning a deep crimson.
“Neru, help Burein! He is dying over there!”
“Got it!” But before she can make it over, the troll spots her, and reaches out to grab at her. Neru tries to dodge, but is too slow, and, screaming, she is lifted up into the air. The troll raises her to his face, looks at her curiously for a moment, and then tosses her aside, as if he had lost interest in a boring toy. Neru hits one of the trees still standing around the clearing with a crack, then slides to the ground beneath it.
“Neru!” Yuusha tries to get to her, but he can’t look away, and the troll swings its club at him again. Myogi is still firing spell after spell at the troll, but she is visibly growing tired. It is obvious she can’t hold out for much longer, even as she heads towards Burein in an effort to protect him. She tries casting again, but the spell backfires, her aura fizzling out, and Myogi is blasted backwards, landing a ways behind Burein, screaming as her arm snaps. Her appearance fizzles and sparks, blurring as the illusions fail with no energy source left.
Now all of the troll’s attention is on Yuusha, and Yuusha knows it well. He takes a step back as the troll swipes the club at him, then one step more as a hand followed suit. The troll tries again to catch him by swinging both arms at him at the same time, and Yuusha jumps. But when he lands, Yuusha’s ankle cracks, and he topples backwards, hitting his head hard and dropping his sword to the ground. The flickering fire magic sizzles for a few seconds more before it, too, goes out. The troll approaches Yuusha, taking one small step and bending over. As the huge hand reaches for him, Yuusha squeezes his eyes shut. He hears a loud yell, a sharp cracking noise, and then the troll groans loudly. Yuusha painfully cracks his eyes open, and he sees a large creature sitting on the troll’s shoulders. Then the troll stumbles back a few steps, wavers, and falls to the ground. The creature jumped off as the troll fell, and rolls to a stop. It was beginning to approach Yuusha when Yuusha’s head throbbed. Putting his hand to the back of his skull, Yuusha brought it away bright red with his blood.
“Well that is not good,” he murmurs, then promptly passes out.
-----------------------------------------------
In the distance, the shadowy figure, which had been watching all this happen, peered out from behind a tree. The creature in the clearing suddenly looks up, searching. The shadow guy ducks behind the tree again. When the creature looks down, he gets up and continues to observe our heroes and their progress.
|
| | | | NinjaKitten
Paranaturalist
Posts : 1006
Join date : 2015-10-22
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Sat Apr 02, 2016 6:10 am | |
| Have another chapter. - Chapter Eight: Kajiya the Smith:
Kajiya joins the party. Sneaky spy gets sort of noticed by people.
People heal up, but find a scene of murder. Sneaky spy is captured, but he escapes. People are attacked by peeps, find out advisor is plotting.
By this time, the mistlands were a familiar sight. It seemed that whenever Yuusha went unconscious, he would see them again, along with the girl, Rin, although he never saw more than a fleeting image or shadow, a splash of color. But this time, it is different. This time, no matter how many times he called her name, over and over and over, she did not appear, and eventually, the blue-white mistlands turned dark, and Yuusha awoke with a start.
Directly in front of his face, Yuusha saw a metal bucket, which is still dripping from the frigid water slush that had been dumped onto him. The bucket withdrew so Yuusha could sit up. As he did so, he dragged his hand across his face, wiping away most of the slushy water. As he looked around, Yuusha saw the still forms of Neru, Burein, and Myogi lying on the ground next to him, side by side. He also notices that underneath each of them, including him, were fur blankets, although his own is slightly damp. However, he could not see Myogi very well, as she is lying at the end farthest from him, a bit of a distance away. It is clear to him that it is Myogi, though, as he spotted her weird pointy hat lying on the ground behind her. Each of them wore bandages somewhere on their body, but they all seemed to be alive. In front of their little row there is a small fire. It had been going for quite some time, and it had melted away some of the snow around it. Next to the fire a fur rug had been lain out, along with bloody bandages and bowls and jars of poultices. Lying next to these is a large iron hammer, stained darkly on one of the corners.
As he examined his surroundings more closely, Yuusha could tell that they had not been moved from their original clearing. Although the troll had disappeared, he could clearly see the destruction it had caused when it had burst into their camp. Yuusha also noticed that their things had been left exactly as they had been after the fight had ended. The horses were still tied up as they had been before, but Yuusha noticed some water had been placed in front of them, and that they had been given a little bit of food.
Then Yuusha focused on the figure bent over the fireplace, carefully mixing ingredients into a pot held suspended above it. The man is large and bulky, and is wearing a multitude of furs which cover him to the extent that only his eyes are visible. The skin he could see is pale and creased. The light from the small cook fire made his face seem red and his creases dark. The man ladled some of the food he had prepared into a clay bowl and brought it over to Yuusha, who is sitting with his hand on the bandage covering the back of his head, slightly bewildered. As the man came closer, Yuusha could see his eyes clearly. The man had two of the darkest eyes Yuusha had ever seen. They were so dark, in fact that they seemed black, blacker even than his pupils. The man crouched down next to Yuusha and offered him the bowl of food, along with a wooden spoon.
“Eat.” His voice is deep and rich, and strangely melodic. “It will help your wound to heal.”
Yuusha reluctantly took the bowl from the man and slowly began to eat.
“Quickly, now. I need your help to save your companion over here.” At this pronouncement, Yuusha stopped, then proceeded to finish the bowl in under five seconds.
“What do I need to do?”
“First, I will need you to go get fresh bandages from my pack. They should be at the top. Bring me the large green jar, as well.” Yuusha tried to get to his feet, but when he put pressure on his foot, a sharp pain shot through it, and he fell back down again. He lifted his pant leg and saw that his ankle is wrapped in bandages and splinted. “Ah, right.” The big man added as an afterthought. “You broke your ankle. I splinted it, so you should be able to walk on it just as long as you are careful.” As Yuusha hobbled off to get the items, the man muttered to himself. “That troll really did a number on these guys. Two people have some pretty serious damage done to them, that skinny one in particular.” His voice lowered. “I am not sure if he will live much longer.”
Yuusha returned with the requested items, and the man murmured his thanks. Yuusha spoke up. “Neru is a healer, and a very skilled one at that. We should wake her up first, so she can heal the others.”
“A healer, you say?” The big man looked slightly surprised, then rubbed his beard, thinking. “If she could use her powers, that would be extremely helpful. Your skinny friend over there could certainly use the help.” While he said this, he looked over in Myogi’s direction.
Yuusha noticed this. “That is Myogi. Neru is this one.” He corrected, gesturing to her.
The big man looked worried. “Oh, dear. This will be tricky. You see, she took some pretty bad damage when she smacked into that tree. She broke two of her ribs, and some of her minor organs are injured. Luckily, her ribs did not stab anything when they broke, so there are no internal puncture wounds, and I have done my best to set her rib bones, but there is not much else I can do beyond that.”
Yuusha thought for a moment. Then an idea came to him. “I can heal too, although I am not as good at it as Neru is. If I could heal her some, do you think she would regain consciousness?”
The big man looked surprised. “I suppose it is worth a shot. Be careful that you do not merge anything when healing her, though. I have met some people who had that happen to them, and it was not very pretty.” He grimaces. “Happens naturally, too, though it is usually not as bad.”
“I will do my best.” Yuusha went over to Neru and unwrapped the bandages up to the bottom of her breasts. He is about to continue, but then, blushing furiously, he stopped. Still blushing, he tried to calm his thumping heart as he did his best to recall what Neru had told him about healing things. “Okay,” he murmured to himself. “I have to search for the damage, identify what kind of damage it is, then send my aura to heal it.” He takes a deep breath. “I really hope I do not screw this up.” He gulps, then sighs. I wish I had had more time to practice.
Yuusha began to glow. His aura slowly came to life around him, misting around his body. His hair began to rise, as if he is underwater. Then, taking a deep breath once more, the aura pools into his hands. Gently, a tendril made its way towards Neru. I hovered there a moment, then slipped inside, still connected to the pool cupped in Yuusha’s hands. Yuusha, of course, is not seeing any of this, as he has his eyes closed, concentrating. Feel for the damage…Ah! As the tendril of auric energy moved along, it came across Neru’s ribs. Here we go. Now, how to go about mending it… Yuusha pondered a while, but eventually he decided on a way to heal her ribs. He repeated the process with each individual organ, as well, being careful not to fuse anything. There. He thought, sitting back, surprisingly exhausted.
“Well? How did it go?” The man asked Yuusha, curious and worried.
“She is not fully healed yet, but that should keep her from dying, at least.” The man breathed, then quickly went over to get a bit of snow to melt. But as he turned with his snow bucket towards the fire again, Neru woke up.
“Ugh…I feel woozy…” Neru sat up slowly, wincing and holding onto her side.
“Neru! I know this is pretty sudden, and just after you woke up, but we need you to heal Burein. He’s badly injured, and if he does not get help, he will probably die.” Yuusha told her urgently as he kept his hand to her back and helped her sit up. “That troll stabbed his side when he swung that branch at us, and he has lost a lot of blood.”
Neru paused a moment, then shook her head, as if clearing away fog. “Alright. Show me where he is.” Yuusha gestured next to where she is sitting. Burein is in bad shape. His breathing is fast and shallow, and his skin is very pale. The bandages that had been wrapped around him were stained with fresh blood.
“I did my best to tend to his wound, but it would not stop bleeding very much more than it had. No matter how cold I made it, there was always a little bit of blood coming out.”
Neru glanced at the man. “Right,” If she is surprised, she does not show it, and instead quickly gets to work, her face never changing expression as her pendant glows a bright emerald green. After about thirty minutes of intensive healing, Burein starts looking less pale, and his breathing stabilizes. Neru sighs in relief, then promptly falls over backwards before Yuusha catches her. “I have done the best I can with him, so he should be fine now. I am completely drained now, though, and I am afraid I cannot do anything more by way of healing.” She back at Yuusha, her eyes slightly unfocused. “I am glad I made it in time though. If I had not started healing him when I did, Burein would be dead right about now. He is badly injured, and had some pretty bad organ damage along with the hole in his side.”
During this conversation, the big man had been busy by the fire. Now he came over with a hot bowl of broth and a cup of warm mead. “Here, eat this.” He handed the bowl of broth to Neru, along with the mead. “Once you are done drinking and eating, you should get some more rest.”
Neru smiled at him. “I know, I am a doctor too. And I would not be a very good one if I did not get my rest when I needed it.”
By this time, Yuusha had brought Neru back to her blanket, and made sure that she is alright. When he is positive that she is in no danger and that she would be comfortable as she recovered, he turned his thoughts to Myogi. “Now what do I do with her?” he wondered to himself.
The big guy overheard him. “I am not sure what is wrong with her. Sure, she has a broken arm, but I set the bone alright, and I bound the gash on her leg, too. She should have woken up by now.” He scratched his beard worriedly.
Yuusha looked up. “She’s a mage. Maybe it has something to do with her aura.”
The big man is startled. “She can do magic, too? Are all of you wizards or something?”
Yuusha laughs, then winces, putting his hand up to his head. “No, it is just us three. Burein is not a magician, although he is really good with his hands. Sometimes he makes these little metal things to help us when we fight.”
“Oh, you mean these things?” The big man reaches into one of his pockets and pulls out one of the flying things that had been poking the troll in the eyes. As soon as it got out into the open, it buzzed angrily and tried to escape, but the big man is too fast for it, and so it is shoved back into his pocket.
“Yeah, that is one of them. But how did you ever manage to capture it?” Yuusha asked in surprise. “Those things are really fast, and mean too.”
“It was easy. All I had to do was try to move that guy over there,” Kajiya gestures at Burein, “and they all came rushing at me. What I did then was catch them as they dive-bombed me.” Yuusha is shocked.
“You mean to say that you caught them with your bare hands?”
“Yup.” The big man says matter-of-factly. “It was not that hard, really. But should we not be taking a look at your other magician friend?”
Yuusha starts. Shoot! I had almost forgotten. “Yeah, you are right.” He brushes some snow off him, then heads over to where Myogi is lying, but what he sees is not Myogi. The girl is dressed the same as Myogi was, and her facial structure is essentially the same, but her color scheme is completely different. Where Myogi had had long, straight, pure white hair before she now had a wavy head of hair blacker than night. Where her skin had been the color of melted chocolate, it is now paler than moonlight, and it contrasts very clearly with her hair. Yuusha is shocked, once again. “A-are you sure this is her?” he asked the man.
“Yes, I am positive. This is the only other person I found in the clearing with you people. Is something the matter?” The big man is curious.
“It is just that our friend, Myogi, she is dark of skin and has very white hair. This girl looks completely different from her!”
“Odd” the man murmured.
Yuusha is very confused. How could this be Myogi? Is there someone else in the clearing with us? If so, why did they not help? And if this girl is really Myogi, then why did she look so different before? As Yuusha pondered these questions, the man crouched down beside Myogi.
“Hey, she is waking up!” He called to Yuusha as the girl who is supposedly Myogi slowly stirred. Yuusha rushed over as she blearily blinked her eyes, which were a very bright yellow, and sat up.
“How are you feeling?” Asked the man, gently holding her upright as the girl put a hand to her head.
“I feel awful. My head is really light, and I feel shaky and weak…” She spots Yuusha. “Hey, Yuusha. Why do I feel so weak?”
“A-are you Myogi?” Yuusha asked, confused and slightly on edge.
“Well, yeah, of course I am. Could you not tell?...” But her response drifted away as she caught sight of her hand. “Oh. Oh no. NonononononoNO!”
“What? What’s wrong?” Yuusha asked, concerned.
Myogi looked up at him with tears blurring her eyes. “I have used up all my magic. ALL OF IT. I’m totally powerless.” She looked down at her hands as they trembled. Splaying her fingers out, she looked over to a small stone near her. “Rise,” She commanded it. The stone just sat there. She tried again, more firm this time. “Rise!” Again, the stone sat there, unresponsive. “Rise!” She cried again and again, but the stone refused to budge. Tears spilled from her eyes as she over and over tried to get her magic to work. “I can’t do it. I can’t do magic. I-I am useless!” She wailed, shoving her face into Yuusha’s chest and bawling. Yuusha looked helplessly at the man who had rescued all of them.
The man shrugged, “There is not much you can do now, I think. Let her cry for a while.” Yuusha realizes something.
“We have not been properly introduced yet, have we?”
The man considered this. “No, I do not suppose we have. My name is Kajiya. Nice to meet you.” He extended his hand.
“I am called Yuusha.” Yuusha replied, taking his hand. “This is Myogi, over there is Burein, and that is Neru.” He gestured with his head toward each of them as he spoke their names, as his other hand is currently petting Myogi’s wailing head. “Same to you.” Myogi suddenly stopped crying and raised her head, sniffing and rubbing her eyes. That was fast. Yuusha thought to himself. Was it not, though? Yuusha started, looking around for the source of the voice. “Who is there?”
Kajiya looked at him, confused. “What are you talking about?”
Yuusha turned back to him. “I thought I heard a voice just now, but I do not hear it anymore. It must have been my imagination.”
Kajiya scratched his head. “Hmm. Now, what I would like to know is what brought you all the way up the mountains in the middle of winter?”
Yuusha decided that it would not hurt to tell him about their quest. After all, Kajiya had saved their lives. “Well, I was summoned by the king to take Burein and go find an artifact that is supposed to be hidden somewhere in the mountains between here and The Land of Bandits. On the way here, I met Neru and Myogi, who both decided to join us on our quest for various reasons. I am not too clear on all of them myself, though, so you would have to ask them about it if you wanted to find out.”
Kajiya stroked his beard again, thoughtful. “Hmm, I see. Unfortunately, I myself have not been very far out of these mountains for a while, so I would not know very much that might be of help to you. But I will tell you, I have searched every part of these mountains, and I have never seen any such artifact.” He paused for a moment. “Why did the king send you on this quest, anyway?”
“Oh, that. Apparently, the princess has been kidnapped by Lord Sanzo, and the king needs this artifact to have enough power to challenge Sanzo and get her back.”
“Ah, that makes sense. What I wonder now, though, is how Sanzo managed to get into the palace, capture the princess, and get out again unseen.”
Yuusha pauses. “You know, I never really thought of that myself. But now that you mentioned it, it is a bit odd, is it not? Even if Sanzo had an accomplice, somebody would have noticed him carrying off the princess, even at night. His accomplice could not be a guard, because I know them, and they never said anything about a profitable relationship with anybody like Sanzo.” He made a face. “I know they would have said something about it if they did. Those guys love to brag.” He sighs in exasperation.
Myogi looks up. “Yuusha, you know that thing I noticed before, about the brand on that troll’s back?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, this may sound crazy, but that brand looked like the royal symbol of Ainoko.”
They are all shocked into silence for a moment. Kajiya is the first to speak up again. “Then something else must be going on. I do not know about you, but if the king’s mark was on a troll in the mountains in the middle of winter then perhaps this was not an accident.”
“Yeah,” Yuusha agrees. “If a troll with an imperial symbol was sent against us on purpose, then something must be going on at the castle. The king is a kind man; he would never send a troll against his people, especially if they were on an important quest.” He ponders for a moment, worried. “Only someone high ranking would have access to the beastiary - other than the keepers, of course, but the keepers would not send a troll to attack us unless someone had ordered them to...”
Burein groans and shifts. Everyone looks at him, and Neru and Kajiya go to his side.
“Is he waking up?” Yuusha asks.
After a moment, Burein is quiet again, still asleep.
“It seems not.” Kajiya grunts, getting up again. “In any case, we should not be standing around in the snow like this. Your friend needs more rest to heal properly, and lying in the snow is not the best way to accomplish this.” He paused. “I will bring you to my home. It is not far from here.”
Before the others can protest, Kajiya prepares a crude stretcher and carefully places Burein on it. He gets Yuusha to help carry the other end while Neru and Myogi start to clean up the camp. Myogi remembers that she cannot use magic partway through and starts sulking again, and Neru huffs and finishes up, loading the horses and following the stretcher as they climb further up the mountain. Myogi eventually gets up and trails along behind them.
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As they leave the clearing, the shadowy figure slinks in and examines the troll. The beast moans, and blearily opens an eye, looking at the shadow. The shadow looks back for a moment, then heads towards what was left of the campfire our heroes left behind. With a whispered word, a blue-green flame blazes up, and the figure unsheathes its sword. Heating it until the tip glows white-hot, it heads toward the troll’s shoulder, where the brand is, and presses the glowing blade tip over the image. The troll howls, but is quickly silenced by another spell. With its mouth full of poisonous black liquid, the beast can only gurgle as the brand is burned away. Once it is gone, the shadow heads over to the troll’s head, looks at it for just one more moment, then lobs off its head before cooling its sword in the snow, sheathing it, and following the tracks our heroes left.
|
| | | | NinjaKitten
Paranaturalist
Posts : 1006
Join date : 2015-10-22
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Mon Apr 04, 2016 6:10 pm | |
| - Chapter Nine:
Sharp pine scent fills the cottage as the fireplace burns, warming up the inside of the small house and its inhabitants. Burein is lying on the floor in front of the fire, wrapped in fur blankets. Yuusha, Neru, and Myogi are all seated around a table in the center of the room, sipping warm drink from wooden mugs while outside the winds begin to pick up and blow snow around, whipping it up into a small blizzard. Kajiya tends to things around the room, occasionally checking on Burein before settling down at the table with the others and a mug of his own. Now that he is not covered in so many furs, Yuusha could see that the man was very strong, and that he had a pair of long pink scars crossing both of his hands.
“So,” said Neru. “Where is everyone else?”
“Excuse me?” Kajiya sipped his drink.
“When we arrived at your home, I saw other houses, but they all seemed to be deserted or something.” She shivers. “They did not give off very welcoming vibes, and I could not sense any other people in them.”
Kajiya frowns. “They left.”
Yuusha looks up from the table. “They left? Why?”
Kajiya sighs. “It is not much of a story.” He takes a sip. The others wait expectantly for him to start, but then he gets up and takes a look at Burein’s wounds. Neru huffs, and Yuusha sighs before going back to the drink. Myogi gazes gloomily at the table. Kajiya finishes examining Burein’s wounds, nods to himself, and gets a small bottle from a shelf on the wall. He brings it over to Burein, opens it, and sticks it under his nose. With a splutter, Burein sits up with his eyes watering, coughing.
“What in the blazes was that horrible stench!?” He angrily asks, then winces, holding his side.
“Careful. Would not want you to open your wounds.” Kajiya recorks the bottle and place it back on its shelf. “That was just a little something I use to wake people up. Has a horrid stench, but that is about all it does.”
Neru is shocked. “Why did you wake him so early!? He is badly injured, and needs all the rest he can get.”
Kajiya glances her way. “If I had let him sleep much longer, he would have missed out on the story.” He smirks a little.
Neru is not amused.
Kajiya claps his hands. “Well, now that we are all conscious, how about I tell you the story of my village, and why it is so empty.” He and Yuusha get Burein to sit at the table, then take seats for themselves. “I do not know how long ago it was now. Perhaps five years or so? You see, this village was once a thriving, comfortable one. We had food, wood all around us for our houses and for warmth, a river that provided us with water, even in the winters. We were peaceful, and most everyone was happy.” Burein raised his eyebrow skeptically. Kajiya sighs. “Well, more or less. You know how people are. Anyway, everything was fine in the village, and the people liked living here. But then a dragon moved in, and took up residence in the mountains above our village. It was not a problem at first, but people were uneasy. Occasionally, some men would claim that they spotted it flying above them while they hunted, but these accounts were not paid much attention. Nevertheless, some of the more paranoid members of the community decided that they did not want to live underneath a dragon, whether it bothered the village or not, and so they packed up and moved out. That winter was colder than usual, and people started to blame the dragon for the weather, for those who claimed to have seen her said it was white as ice.”
Yuusha’s eyebrows shoot up. “Really? I thought a white dragon has not been seen in a thousand years!”
“No dragons of any color have been seen.” Burein huffs importantly. “They were all hunted and killed by the knights of old for glory and gold.” Neru fidgets nervously.
“That may be so.” Kajiya says, “But I know for a fact that this dragon does, in truth, exist. But!” He interrupts their next comments. “I will be getting to that shortly. First, let me finish my tale.” The others back down, and Kajiya waits for a moment before moving on. “Like I was saying, some men who went out hunting claimed they saw a white dragon, and that winter was colder than usual, so people started to blame the dragon for it. However, none of them were willing to go up and try to kill the beast, so more and more people began moving out and heading down to the cities on the plains.” His eyes darken. “Even my wife and daughter left eventually.”
“Your wife?” Yuusha speaks softly.
“Yes. We were married for a time, and had a daughter during our marriage, but she could not stand my father, and so we were divorced. She took custody of our daughter, married another man, and had a second child with him. My father was a kind man, though he loved his whisky more than others and always smelled of alchohol. She always said it was the stench that was the worst.” There is silence for a moment, and then Kajiya picks himself up and continues with the story.
“After about half a year, I was the only one left in the village. My father had passed on a month or so ago, and though I mourned him, I was content to continue to work at my craft up here in the mountains, where I would not be disturbed. Then one day as I worked the forge, the dragon came down to the village. I was unaware of this at the time as I was focused on my work, and she was very quiet as she examined the empty houses and such. Eventually, I felt a cold breeze on my back, and as I turned, I was staring down the snout of the great beast herself.” He laughs. “Imagine my surprise. Here, in front of me, was the reason why everyone decided to leave. And though it would have been justified to some extent, I did not feel angry at her. Why should I? After all, she had never directly interacted with the village, and the blame was simply placed on her because she happened to be a convenient place to put it. Since that first meeting, she has visited many times, and we've become good friends.”
Finished with his story, Kajiya looked around at the surprised faces of the group. “If you would like,” he offered, “you could stay until tomorrow and see her for yourselves.”
Neru squirmed. “I-I'm not sure. We really should continue our quest…”
Yuusha poked at her. She winced, her ribs still tender. Oops. “Hey, come on, we can stand to rest here a few days. And besides,” he looked at Burein. “We'll have to stay here while Burein heals anyway. And you, too.”
“But-“
“No buts! We are going to rest here, like Yuusha says.” Myogi speaks up. “I am tired of sleeping on the cold ground.”
Burein does a double take. “Are you really that witch?” He asks.
“Yes. Yes I am.” Myogi replies, irritated.
Yuusha sighs in relief. It is nice to see her feeling well enough to bicker. He thinks to himself.
“Well what happened?” Burein demands.
“Yes,” Neru looks over at Myogi. “It would be nice to know why you look so different, and why you can’t use your magic.”
Myogi nervously looks around. “Well… I suppose I have to tell you, do I not?” She takes a deep breath. “First off, this is what I really look like. No illusions, no makeup, no tricks. This is the real deal.” She makes a face at her straight black hair. “In other words, the appearance you all know me for was an illusion. A fake. That was not what I naturally look like.” Myogi sighs in a resigned manner. “For reasons I am not going to share with you now, I had to hide what I actually look like, and so I cast that illusion on myself. I never really liked my appearance anyway, to be honest, so I had a nice excuse for doing something I wanted to do for a while. Whenever I look at myself like this, it feels like I am looking at a corpse.” She shivers. “Creeps me out. As for the reason why my illusion fell, well, that is because I used up all of my magic. In the fight with the troll earlier, I was flinging a lot of magic at it, but I had to use extra juice to aim the spells so that they would not hit you guys. If I had been alone, I would not have bothered with aiming much, and there would be craters all over that clearing. Then, when that troll swung the tree at me, I was in the middle of casting a spell, and the blow interrupted me, breaking off the spell and whisking all my magic outa me.” Myogi looks down at her open, shaking hands. “To be honest, it is a miracle that I am alive at all. I have never gone without magic ever since I learned it, so it is a real shock to my system not to have it right now. It is going to take a few days at least to get it all back, at most two weeks.” She looks up in mild fear. “You are not going to abandon me now that I am useless, are you?”
Yuusha chuckles. “No, of course not. We have brought you all the way here with us, have we not? It would be rude to abandon you now. And besides,” he adds with a grin, “you will not be magicless forever, right?”
“Well, yeah, I guess…” Myogi nods uncertainly.
“So all we have to do is wait for your powers to come back.” Yuusha grimaces a little. “In the meantime, you could have me cast the magic you would normally use… as a part of training?”
Myogi’s eyes suddenly light up and she grins mischievously. “Well, I think that’s a grand idea! I will take you up on that offer.”
Yuusha groans inwardly. I knew she would do something like this. But if I did not help her, then I would feel guilty for ages. Plus, he sighs, this would actually be good practice casting spells on and for someone else.
“Well,” Kajiya says, standing up and pushing back his chair. “I think it is high time that we all went to bed. You have all had quite an exhausting experience, and I am sure you are all tired from it.” He walks over to a door in the wall. “Even if you are not, I am, and so I shall be going to bed soon. Your room is here,” he gestures to the door. “I only have the one bed, but I have two more mattresses stashed somewhere. You can decide who sleeps where. I am going to get some sleep. Goodnight.” Kajiya moves into another room and shuts the door. Before arguing can break out over who will sleep on the bed, Neru and Yuusha convince Myogi that Burein should get the bed since he is the most severely injured. The rest of them take the mattresses and lay them out on the floor, with Myogi sleeping closest to the fire.
“Goodnight everyone,” Yuusha murmurs.
“’Gnight.”
“Night.”
From the next room over, Burein grunts a little, though Yuusha is unable to tell whether it was a sleep grunt or if it was in place of a goodnight. Eventually, Yuusha falls asleep, with the amulet on his chest as always.
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Outside the hut, the shadowy figure is crouching in the snow, uncaring or oblivious to the cold and the wind, though it is difficult to determine which it is. Looking in at the warmth of the fire, it watches our group as they tell their stories, unnoticed, as always. Just then, a shadow darkens the world for a moment, and the shadow hide in a large pile of snow for the dragon to fly away. Deciding that it had heard enough, it backs away from the hut and heads back to where it had established what amounted to a camp and settled in to wait for dawn, not wanting to draw near the village while there was a dragon on the prowl.
----------------------------------------------------
The next morning, Yuusha wakes up last, and everyone else is already having breakfast. The warm smell of food wafts over to his nose and draws him up and to the table. He gratefully accepts the food while listening to the others chatter, somehow feeling like he had forgotten something important. Shrugging the feeling away, he turned to the others.
“I am just saying, do we have to meet the dragon today? Burein is still injured, and he should rest.” Neru was talking to Kajiya and Myogi while gesturing at Burein, who looked annoyed.
“Just because I am a little injured does not mean I can’t get up and walk outside!”
The others stared blankly at him with expressions that said, very loudly, ‘Seriously?’ After a moment of facing these gazes, Burein backs down and glares into his drink, flustered.
“Like you said, Kajiya,” Neru went on, “Burein was in a really bad way when we brought him here. Should he really be walking around in the snow in his condition?”
Kajiya shrugs. “He would not have to walk very far. My forge is just across the road, and I usually meet the dragon there. If need be, I would be willing to clear a way for him through the snow so he could walk with less difficulty. ”
Yuusha speaks up. “What is going on?”
Myogi glances at the others. “For some reason, Neru is trying to convince us not to go and see the dragon today. I am not sure why though. Is she maybe scared of dragons?”
“I am not-“ Neru stops, gathers herself, then continues. “Yes. Yes, that is exactly it. I am scared to death of dragons, and would very much rather not have to meet one. So, while you are all meeting the white creature, I will be sitting in here, where it is safe and warm and where there are no dragons.” She turns away and sips her drink.
There was silence for a moment. “Alright, if you say you do not want to come, then you do not need to come.” Yuusha turns to the rest of the group. “The rest of us are still going, though, right?” A general nodding of heads occurs.
Kajiya claps his hands. “Alright then. Now that that is settled, who wants to come to the forge with me and meet my dragon friend?” They get up and troop out of the house. Yuusha casts one last glance at Neru before closing the door and sees her holding her amulet in her hand, looking at it.
They tromp on over to the forge, clearing a path for Burein once he starts to struggle. The wintery sunlight is pale and weak, but it is enough to set the snow glittering, making the village seem beautiful and slightly ethereal. If he did not think about it, Yuusha could pretend that the village was not abandoned, but he knew that in every house, there were no people, and that nobody would enter or exit the other houses for a long, long time… except perhaps Kajiya, if he for some reason needed to.
As they all trooped into the forge, blinking to adjust their eyes to the dim light, Kajiya stripped off his coat, grabbed some firewood from a pile in the corner, and lit the fire. He worked at the bellows, and soon it was a warm, roaring blaze. Kajiya set to work on one of the various projects lying about the workshop.
“The dragon will be here soon, don’t you worry.” Kajiya told them as he hammered the iron. “She is not the biggest on mornings.”
Neither am I, to be honest. Yuusha thought to himself. They waited around for a while, with Yuusha looking at the tools and weapons hanging on the walls, Myogi on the other side of the room in a corner and muttering under her breath, and Burein standing by the doorway and leaning on the wall, refusing to come any further into the forge. Soon, the heat of the workshop melted the snow around the building, and the three tagalongs shed their coats and gloves and continued to wait. Eventually, being bored of waiting, Yuusha offered to help Kajiya with the forge, and so he was set to work tending the fire and working the bellows. Myogi and Burein eventually wandered off, but Yuusha didn’t notice, as he was too busy trying to keep the fires at a constant temperature. It was a few minutes later that Myogi and Burein burst into the room.
“She’s here!” Burein gasped, his messenger training taking control as they both bent over, gasping for breath. “We explored the town a little bit and were on the other side of it when we saw the dragon,” he continued. Immediately afterwards, a long white snout shoved its way into the room. It sniffed around a bit, then withdrew to be replaced by an eye before the head of the dragon came in, making sure not to crush anybody or anything.
The dragon grinned. “Hello everyone!” She glanced at Kajiya. “You never told me you were going to have visitors, Kaj.” “Kaj” put his hammer down.
“It was an unexpected visit,” He said. “I found them all collapsed down in a clearing a little way from here, with a teenaged troll sitting in the middle of ‘em. I guessed they had fought the troll, but I wanted to know for sure, and I couldn’t just leave injured people alone, so I tended to their wounds until they woke up. When they did, turns out I was right, and they did fight the troll, though one of their party was very gravely wounded, so I had to bring them back here.”
The dragon chuffed. “I see.” She flicks her eye at Burein, who flinches and draws back. Looking at the rest of them, she says “Can they be trusted?”
Kajiya looks thoughtful for a moment. “I think they can. Haven’t killed me yet or robbed me blind, so that should count for something, yeah?”
The dragon lets out a sound which Yuusha guesses is a laugh. “Well, it must count for something to you, at least, because you let them meet me.” She smirks at Kajiya.
“Yes, well, they would have found out sooner or later.”
“Fair enough.” The dragon does some more sniffing. “My, there’s a lot of magic in this room. How many here are magicians?” Yuusha raises his hand tentatively, and Myogi sort of shrugs, grimaces, and wobbles her hand a little at the same time. The dragon hmms. “I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I? How silly of me!” In the space of a split second, the dragon shrinks and morphs down to human size, until a woman stands before them, dressed in dragon scales and all white, except for her eyes, which were ice blue. “My name is Milen. Nice to meet you!” The dragon-lady sticks out her hand to Yuusha, who was closest. “…and you are?”
Yuusha shakes his head, as if to cast of the surprise of seeing the dragon shapeshift into a woman, then grasps her hand. It is cold. “My name is Yuusha, mistress Milen. My companions are Myogi and Burein.” They each sort of half-wave their hands at Milen when Yuusha mentions their names. “We have another, Neru, but she is not here currenly.”
The dragon immediately snaps to attention. “Neru, you say? Could I… meet her?” Her eyes betray her eagerness to meet their final member.
“I-I’m sorry, madam, but Neru says that she is petrified of dragons, and did not wish to come with us to meet you.”
The eager light in Milen’s eyes went out. “Oh. Alright.” She does her best to smile. “Can’t be helped, I suppose!” She wanders over to Kajiya. “You have a present for me today as well, right?”
Kajiya smirks mischeivously. “Of course! But you’ll have to find it first.”
“Found it!” Milen grins as she comes back carrying an armful of swords.
“That was fast! But, I’m afraid that I would rather keep at least some of my work, so instead you will have to settle for…this.” Kajiya hands her a large ring of intertwined iron bands, large enough to go around Yuusha’s waist without making contact with him.
“Hmmm…” Milen takes it and puts a pondering look on her face. She shifts into a dragon and slips the band on one of her wrists. “I love it!” She shrinks back down again. “A perfect fit, as always.”
During this entire conversation, the others have been slowly drifting towards a wall, feeling very much out of place. Milen notices this. “Oh, I’m sorry for ignoring you. This must be the first time you’ve all seen a dragon, yes?”
Myogi grumbles something under her breath.
“I’m sorry?”
She says it again, louder. “I said it isn’t the first time for me!” She harrumphs. “Though, it is the first time I’ve seen a dragon shapeshift like that.”
Milen grins. “I wouldn’t be surprised. It took me centuries of studying humans to be able to replicate them like I do, and even after that it took even more practice actually moving around in this form before I stopped tripping over my own feet or attempting to take off with wings I didn’t have.” She laughs. “Now, though, this form and the other are both as natural to me as anything.”
Burein finally speaks up. “So…you’re saying that all dragons have the power to shapeshift?”
“Yes, precisely! You catch on fast.” Milen smiles at Burein, and Burein backs away a little bit further. “However, most dragons prefer being dragons and don’t see the use of transforming into something less than them. I, on the other hand, enjoy humans. They are so fun to watch, but it’s even more fun to participate!” She puts a slim white finger on her chin in a fake pouty pose. “Though, it took a while before I realized that I should probably wear some clothes to cover my scales. Normal humans do not have scales, after all, and they all wear clothes. I was kicked out of some places for forgetting mine or just not knowing.” Milen smiles, and her teeth look a just little too pointy for her to seem fully human. Even so, the accuracy of the transformation was astonishing. Unless you knew what to look for, or if Milen was not wearing clothes, one would be unable to immediately tell that she was a dragon, and not a human woman.
Yuusha briefly wondered whether any dragons had had children with humans while shapeshifted, then decided that it would not be appropriate to ask this of Milen right then.
Milen grins. "I wanna tell them how we met!"
Kajiya sighs. "I already told them."
"Well then, tell them more about how we became friends." Milen huffs. "You probably skipped the details on that bit anyway!"
Kajiya sighs. “Alright then, fine. As you all already know, I was working at the forge one day when I heard a loud ‘ahem’ from behind me. I ignored it, but after a moment I heard another ‘ahem,’ though this time, it was louder. Being very focused on the sword I was forging at the time, I chose to ignore it again. I assume I must have thought I imagined it or something, since by then there was nobody else in the village.”
Milen interrupts. “He was super rude, just completely ignoring me after I tried to politely catch his attention!” She huffs grumpily, and Kajiya chuckles. “So, I did what I thought at the time to be a perfectly logical thing to do.”
“She comes up behind me, see, and she peers over my shoulder to look at the sword I was making, and she says,”
“’Nice sword.’” Milen laughs. “He was so surprised, I shocked him right out of his boots!”
Kajiya blushes. “That she did. I was very surprised to see a dragon head looming over my shoulder like that, and complimenting my work, no less! So, I offer her the sword, even though it wasn’t quite finished yet.”
“I took it, of course, (it was glowy, since it was still hot,) then fly off.”
“I thought that was the first and last time that I would see a dragon, but I was very wrong." Kajiya continued. "The very next week, she came back, and asked for something from my forge again. Of course, I give it to her. Who would dare to challenge a dragon?”
“I liked the sword he had made, and I wanted to see if he had anything else interesting to give me. Of course, I had a bunch of swords in my hoard already, but I wanted his because it was different. Though,” Milen chuckles a bit, “it was different because it wasn’t very good!”
“I told you, it wasn’t done yet!”
“I know, I know, but still.”
Yuusha breaks in, “So, all of this happened while Kajiya didn’t know you could shapeshift, right?”
Kajiya nods, “Yep, she was a big ol’ dragon every time. Then, one day, she asked me for a circlet I had hanging on the wall. I thought that maybe she wanted it as a ring or something, perhaps, but even so it seemed too small for her. But, since she asked for it, I handed it over. And then, surprise surprise, she turned into a human and put it on her head, like she did it all the time.”
Milen giggled. “He was super shocked, let me tell you. Though, by then he had sort of gotten used to a little bit of strangeness, because, you know, I am a dragon, and dragons tend to have some weirdness following them around, so he wasn’t as shocked as he would have been had I shapeshifted from the very first day, I think.” She puts her hands on her hips. “Anyway, after a while, I got tired of the crappy quality of the decorative things Kajiya made, so I started bringing him some samples from my horde that he could examine and try to replicate.”
“I was incredibly surprised that a dragon would loan me bits of her hoard like that. After all, a dragon’s horde is one of the most important things to them, right? Nevertheless, she did loan me examples of things she wanted, and I got a lot of new insights from looking at them. My smithing skills wouldn’t be nearly as good as they are now if I hadn’t had a dragon breathing down my neck for something new every day!”
“I suppose not.” Yuusha considered the amount of metal that Kajiya must have used, and that made him wonder where in the world he could have gotten all of it. Before he could ask, though, Burein asked for him.
“You say you made many different things for the dragon, right?”
“Right.”
Burein scratches his chin. “So then, where did you get all of the metal you needed? I don’t think Miss Milen would have given you any metal from her hoard to forge with.”
Milen shook her head. “No, I’d never give my hoard to anyone, even a piece of it, no matter what their purpose.”
Kajiya answers Burein’s question. “You’re right, getting all of that metal would have been extremely difficult had I not lived on a mountain. Luckily for me, I do live on a mountain, and it’s full of many different metals. I learned to mine and refine the ore to use in the forge after everyone else left, but it wasn’t exactly easy to learn something like that with no teacher.”
The forge was silent for while after this, and most of the people in the forge just stood around and looked at things again while Kajiya waited to see if there would be any more questions.
“Well,” Kajiya hefted up his hammer again. “You have now all met the dragon Milen, just like you wanted. If you are not going to help me with my work, or ask any more questions, then I suggest for you to go back to the cabin and check up on your friend.” He set to work again, and Milen leaned on the wall and watched him. It is clear that the group has been dismissed, and so they left to go check up on Neru, and to see if there was any food they could eat, as it was sometime around noon by the time they left the forge.
For the following week, Yuusha, Myogi, Burein, and Neru stayed at Kajiya’s village, recovering. The first three met with the dragon, Milen, almost every day, but each time they invited Neru, she came up with some excuse not to meet her. She did, however, listen to their stories and descriptions about what they had done with Milen or heard from her or Kajiya. Even if Neru pretended not to care, it was obvious that she was listening to them whenever they discussed their encounters with dragon.
Burein stayed close to the house or the forge most days, since he was still recovering from his injuries. Neru did her best to help speed up the healing process, but she could not fully heal his wounds all at once or she would risk combustion, so she healed only a little bit every day, which frustrated her. Yuusha and Myogi were well enough to wander around the village and the surrounding area, and they eventually used their time to train Yuusha in the things that Myogi would normally do herself, starting with Myogi’s appearance illusion.
On the third day of their stay, Kajiya had them help hunt for food, because although he did have some stored, it was only enough to get himself through the winter, and not four more people. Myogi’s powers were still recovering, little by little, so even though she could now lift pebbles and do other simple things, she was not able to kill anything, even if she tried throwing a stone, since she could not muster up enough power for anything to be lethal. So, Kajiya handed her a bow, in the hopes that she might be able to hunt that way. Unfortunately for him, Myogi proved very much useless at archery, especially since she had very little arm strength, so she was exempt from the hunting expeditions, which left just Yuusha to help out.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t very difficult to find game in the forest surrounding the village, so they usually came back with enough for everyone, including Milen, if she stuck to her human form. However, when Milen joined them for a meal, Neru always took her food and slipped away into the spare room. Milen seemed bothered by this, but she didn’t say much about it. She only sighed, once or twice.
Throughout their stay, the group talked to Kajiya about their adventures, and he in turn described the parts of his life before Milen came which he had not told them in his earlier story. His mother had died of pneumonia when Kajiya was ten. Kajiya had been apprenticed to the blacksmith for a while, but when his mother died he started working extra hard to be able to earn enough money to support his father. He then met his wife, married her, and had their daughter. His wife left him when their daughter was eight, and married her other husband a few years later. When people started noticing the dragon, her new husband was one of the ones who wanted to leave, so she left with him and her children, including Kajiya's daughter. Kajiya had once considered leaving with them, to stay with his daughter, but he stayed in the mountains in order to tend to his father, whose drinking problem had gotten worse and whose health had deteriorated. A year later, his father died, but by then everyone else had also left, and Kajiya had gotten used to living in the village alone. A few years after this, Kajiya met Milen.
In the background off all of this, the shadow had been listening at doorways and sneaking around at night, collecting all the information it could about our heroes. Once or twice Yuusha or Myogi had thought that they spotted something disappearing around a corner of building from the corner of their eye, but as soon as they looked it was always gone, and the others they were with didn’t seem to ever notice. Nevertheless, they felt uneasy, and Myogi started to teach Yuusha some protective spells, just in case they weren’t just seeing things.
Soon, everyone in the group had recovered well enough to continue on their way. After some consideration, Kajiya had decided to tag along with their group. “After all,” he said, “I’d get a little lonely after you all left, and Milen isn’t always the best company, if you know what I mean.” He winked, and Milen huffed a puff of smoke at him.
“Be careful out there.” She said, looming over them in dragon form. “I sense a darkness outside the village, but I don’t know what it’s after. Please,” she looked at each of them in turn, ending with Kajiya, “try not to get yourselves killed.”
“Don’t worry,” Yuusha spoke up. “We won’t. It might be surprising, but we’re stronger than we look!”
Milen smiled at him. “I know. Just, be careful when you’re leaving the village. I feel like something’s afoot.” She got to her feet, scales gleaming In the sunlight, and took off with three beats of her wings strong enough to tip the trees, scaring their horses. “Good luck!” She calls out, and she flies up to her cave in the mountainside.
A moment later, Neru runs up with her horse. “Are you guys all ready to go?” A general affirmative was heard. “Then let’s get out of here.” They swing up onto their horses and ride out of town.
As they pass the village boundaries, all of them shiver a little, and their horses act nervous. Yuusha thinks back to the dragon’s warning, and rests his hand near his sword as they ride. After about an hour or so, Burein has them stop, claiming that he heard something. They all look around, and then hear Myogi yelp from the back of the group, along with the whinnies of her horse. Yuusha whips around and sees a shadowy figure assailing Myogi who still has not quite gotten back her magic yet, and is struggling to fend the figure off. The rest of the group jump off their horses and rush to her aid, but suddenly the figure vanishes and reappears before Yuusha. It starts slashing at him, too quickly for Yuusha to do much other than defend, but then it disappears again to assault Burein. It continues to vanish and reappear before each of the members of the group, assailing them with lightning-fast attacks and disappearing before anyone can land a hit, moving on to the next member. The quick movement and sudden appearances and disappearances scare their horses, and they trot away from the group, getting away from the scary shadow but loyally staying close-ish. Slowly, the group is being pushed back, away from the path, and then everything goes black.
“Be careful! It’s a trap!” Myogi calls out in the pitch-colored gloom. “This is magic darkness! No matter how well you can see at night, this stuff will blind you!”
But almost immediately after Myogi's warning, Burein yells, his cry fading away as if he's falling. Then, in quick succession, the other members fall too, and they all land in a heap in a cage at the bottom of a hidden ditch. The shadowy figure closes the cage, lifts it out without touching it, and they all disappear in a blast of shadows, figure, cage, prisoners and all. The horses with all of the supplies stand confused in the middle of the path for a moment before heading back to the village, where there is some shelter, at least.
Last edited by NinjaKitten on Sun Apr 10, 2016 3:50 am; edited 2 times in total |
| | | | Westbrook
Spectral
Posts : 533
Join date : 2015-02-17
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Mon Apr 04, 2016 11:41 pm | |
| - Apophyllite wrote:
- (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ Words of encouragement.
=D Something I noticed, though; in Chapter Nine you basically retell everything twice. Kaj retells the story of meeting Milen before and after their first night, and there are a lot of differing details. Same goes for the abandoning of the town and death of his father. |
| | | | NinjaKitten
Paranaturalist
Posts : 1006
Join date : 2015-10-22
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Tue Apr 05, 2016 12:55 am | |
| Ah, oops. Wonder how that happened... I'll fix it soon. Thanks for pointing it out! |
| | | | NinjaKitten
Paranaturalist
Posts : 1006
Join date : 2015-10-22
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Sun Apr 10, 2016 3:42 am | |
| |
| | | | Westbrook
Spectral
Posts : 533
Join date : 2015-02-17
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Sun Apr 10, 2016 11:02 pm | |
| I think so. I didn't re-read the whole thing, but it looks like you took out the original explanation and left the one that happens later at the workshop, eh? |
| | | | NinjaKitten
Paranaturalist
Posts : 1006
Join date : 2015-10-22
| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. Sun Apr 10, 2016 11:46 pm | |
| I like the banter at the forge, and I had already presented the readers with a huge wall of text, so it was what seemed the most logical option to me. |
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| | Subject: Re: Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. | |
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| | | | | | Some incomplete story of mine which has absolutely nothing to do with Paranatural and I really don't know whether I should post it here or not but here you go anyway, read it if you want I don't really care. | |
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