Alrighty now. Here's the fic that I've been building up to for, what, forever has it been? The basic premise of this story, as some of you might know already, is that Cecil and Rosa have twin daughters, Angel and Sefi, and the sisters are, well, odd. Angel wants to be a paladin, like her daddy, and Sefi wants to be a dark archer (rather than a dark knight).
So, here they are, stuck in perpetual teenage-y misery, when their 14th birthday rolls around. Of course, this calls for a celebration! Here they encounter 20 year-old Palom and Porom, and Red, Princess of Damcyan (those who've read "Someone New to Love" will know that her name is actually Rella; Red is her nickname).
Wanting to help and humor thier new friends, Palom, Porom, and Red help smuggle Angel and Sefi out of Baron and into a world that (unfortunately) the twins barely know. Adventure, chases, and desert-fever insue!
Disclaimer: Angel, Sefi, and Red (Rella) belong to me. But I do want to own Rydia...
Let's Begin!
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Chapter 1: Birthday Surprises
Angel woke up with the sun streaming through her bedroom window, filling her with a strange sort of energy. It was odd, not being woken up by her parents; they'd abndoned that long ago, when she and her purple-haired twin, Sefi, had turned 10.
That reminded Angel of something. But she didn't know what. She hated not having the answers to things that she should know.
"Angel! Angel, wake up!" Someone shouted, poking her in the shoulder. Angel cracked her eyes open and saw Sefi towering over her, midnight-purple hair everywhere.
"Did you just get out of bed?" Angel groaned, in reference to Sefi's messy hair, and pulled a pillow over her face. Sefi pushed her messy locks out of her face and started poking Angel's stomach.
"Angel, come on! Don't you know what day it is?" She asked.
Angel suddenly bolted up, sending the pillow catapulting to the foot of her bed. "It's our birthday!" She said happily. That was the answer she'd been looking for before Sefi'd started poking her.
Someone started knocking on the door and the sisters gasped at the same time, as twins sometimes do.
"Girls, it mom. Are you awake yet?" Called their mothers voice from the hallway. "Yes," They chorused. The door opened and their mother, queen Rosa, stepped into the room.
Angel had always wondered about her mother. Rosa had an aire that one expects from a queen. She was always on time, always had the last word on most things, she was an archer in a million, as well as a white mage, she always looked very pretty, and to top it off, she'd saved the world.
Angel was sad to say that she was not like her mother. At all. The day that she was on time for something was the day that rain fell in the underworld. She hadn't had the last word on anything since she was three. She couldn't hit anything with an arrow, hurt herself if she tried to use magic of any kind, looked nice enough to be a common school girl, and the only thing she'd ever saved was a stray cat that her father had treatened to kill for it's prowling about the grounds. And yet she was destined to be the next queen of Baron.
"Good morning, girls. How are you this morning?" Rosa asked.
"Good," Sefi said happily.
"Sleepy," Angel groaned, casting a glare towards Sefi and knowing that Rosa had probably already been up for hours.
"Well, I hope you're not too sleepy for a surprise. There's something for you two downstairs, in the dining room," Rosa announced. "Shall we expect you in, say, 10 minutes?" She asked, rising to leave.
"Uh... No. Give us, maybe, 15 minutes," Angel insisted, clammoring out of bed. If she had five extra minutes, mabye she could make it on time for once.
"Alright. We'll be in the dining room. Meet us there," Rosa instructed, and left the room.
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Only 10 minutes found the twins walking down the tower steps to the main floor. "You look very nice today," Sefi said to Angel, who was wearing a white cocktail dress and a magenta pink robe. Her light brown hair, however, fell over half of her face.
"But you should have pulled your hair back with something. It looks odd like that," Sefi added. Angel didn't say anyhting, but she tucked her hair behind her ear.
"I would have dressed like you," She said to Sefi, who wore a white shirt and tan pants instead of a dress, "But I wanted to make a good impression; being the one who'll take over the kindom."
"Well, at least you like magenta," Sefi pointed out, trying to cheer up her sister. Angel nodded, but again remained silent. As they walked along, neither of them saying anything, until something caught Sefi around the wrist and twisted her arm behind her back.
"I have you now, princess of Baron," Someone hissed in her ear, just loud enough for Angel to hear and turn around.
"Uncle Kain, let me go!" Sefi demanded, wrenching her wrist out of the dragoon's clutches and moving into a defensive position, just like he'd showed her the year before. Kain grinned.
"That was good," He said proudly. "Just remember that you don't have to be so gentle with me just because I'm your uncle. You can hit me next time, if you'd like," He suggested.
"I can hit you right now if you'd like," Sefi thretened.
"You can hit him later, Sef," Angel said. "We've got somehwere to be, remember?"
Kain snapped his fingers, as if just remembering something. "I have something for you, Angel," He said, reaching into his pocket. He oulled out a small box, tied in a single blue ribbon, and handed it to Angel. "Open it now," He urged. "I want to see you face when you find out what it is."
"Okay," She said and pulled the ribbon off. She tore the lid off, reached inside, and pulled out a gold barrette, etched with daffodills.
"Wow!" She said. "It's so pretty! Thank you," She added, clipping the barrette into her hair.
"I know you have a soft spot for daffodills," Kain said, grinning once more.
"By the way, have you seen what our surprise is yet?" Sefi asked Kain when they began walking down the hall.
"You're getting a surprise? How nice," Kain said casually, as if he didn't know anything about it.
Angel rolled her eyes and scoffed, "We all know that you have something to do with it. Now what is it?"
"I'm not telling you," Kain said. "Then it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?"
"Then give us a hint," Sefi pleaded.
Kain thought for a moment, and finally answered, "It's very hard to carry."
"What kind of a clue is that?" Angel demanded.
"Oh, you'll find out," Kain promised.
Angel was very surprised that they actually made it to their meeting place with two whole minutes to spare. "You open the door. I'm too exctited," She said to Sefi.
"You open it. You're older," Sefi said, too excited to open the door as well.
"You two are so imature," Kain sighed, and opened the door himself (what did he care? He already knew what it was). When the door opened, someone suddenly jumpped out and yelled "Happy Birthday!" in their faces. The sisters were so shocked that it took a second to realize who the emerald-haired woman in front of them was.
"Rydia!" The twins cried together, rushing up to hug the summoner. "We've missed you so much," Angel said, feeling unexpected tears come to her eyes; she hadn't seen Rydia for years.
"How've you been?" Sefi asked.
"Alright I, suppose. But it's never the same without you two running around," Rydia said.
"Yeah. Nothing ever breaking, and no phiscal ailments befal anyone," Someone pipped up behind them.
"Edge, that wasn't nessesary," Rydia said, turning to face her husband. Edge, the ninja, shrugged and managed to keep a straight face as Rydia continued to cast a glare in his direction.
As this exchange went on, the twins glanced around the room and noticed that, aside from themselves, Kain, Edge and Ryida, only their mother was in the room.
"Where's daddy?" Angel asked.
"He left suddenly, a few minutes before you showed up," Rydia informed.
"Did he say where he was going?" Sefi asked.
"No. He just ran out of the room," Rydia answered.
"So, how do you two like your surprise so far?" Edge asked the twins.
"I like it a lot," Sefi said, smiling widely.
"What do you mean so far?" Angel asked.
Rosa and Kain lapsed into a slight giggle-fit, and Rosa said, "There's another surprise. And hopefully your father will be back with it soon."
"Oh. Is that where Cecil went?" Rydia asked.
As Rydia finished her question, Kain, who'd been standing in the doorway, looked down the hallway and said in a cheery voice, "Cecil! There you are! Your children were wondering where you were."
"Kain! Shut up! This is supposed to be a surprise," Cecil hissed at Kain.
"What? I didn't know," Kain said innocently.
"Oh well. It happens," An unfamiliar voice said.
Sefi looked over at Rosa, hoping that her expression might say something about what was about to happen. She looked mildly amused, and very excited, so Sefi guessed that whatever was coming was going to be a lot of fun.
Cecil appeared in the door a second later with three other people. The blonde king always seemed to steal the attention of a room whenever he walked in, so no one noticed the others for a second. One was a man, a few inches shorter than Cecil, and he was wearing mostly red. The second was a lovely woman with curly brown hair, dressed in a blue dress. The third was a young girl, looking to about the twin's age.
The girl waved and said, "Hi," in a happy voice.
The girl had shoulder brown shoulder length hair, streaked with gold. Her dress, which seemed more like a mage's robe, was bright red, and tied around her waist with a berry-red scarf. Around her neck was a ruby pendant on a gold chain. She was smiling broadly, obviously pleased to be here. Angel immediately liked her. She looked like a very nice person.
"Girls," Cecil said, bring their attention back to him, "This is my friend, Edward, king of Damcyan, his wife, Alara, and his daughter, Rella."
"Actually, I prefer 'Red'," Rella interupted.
Cecil looked down at her, slightly confused. "I'm sorry: did you say 'Red'?" He asked.
"That's everyone's reaction," Rella... er, Red, said dully.
Angel stepped forward and held out her hand to Red. "I'm Angel. Nice to meet you," She said. Sefi ran up to them and introduced herself as well. Red shook Angel's hand.
"Nice to meet you, too," She said. "I like you two already."
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"So, why do you want to be called 'Red'?" Sefi asked later.
"It's my proficientcy in fire based magic. I'm a Ga-level mage," Red said proudly.
"That is so neat," Angel said. "I wanted to be a paladin, but mom and dad forbid me to become one," She added.
"Oh, that's nothing," Sefi insisted. "I want to be a dark archer." Red looked confused.
"A what?"
"A dark knight who shoots arrows," Sefi explained, as if she was explaining how to add one and two to a 34 year old. There was a short silence while Red registered what Sefi had just said.
"And they won't let you become one either?" She finally asked.
"Yup; that pretty much sums it up," Sefi said saddly.
"Why not? I bet you guys would be great at what you want to do," Red said, feeling sad for her friends.
"Daddy said that if I don't think I could handle being a queen, then I couldn't handle being a paladin," Angel said in a whiney voice.
"He told me that being a dark knight is dangerous," Sefi explained.
"Oh, parents being parents. I know how you feel," Red said sympathetically. "Especially about being queen. I'm sorta stuck with it, being an only-child," She added.
"I've sometimes considered running away on an airship, but I know someone would catch me," Angel said sullenly. In truth, it was a good plan. But what she said about getting caught was also true. After weighing the consequences, Angel had decided to stay where she was.
"That's a good idea though," Sefi stated; she'd never heard about this idea before.
"We should all run away together," Red suggested. "Wouldn't that be fun?"
"Yeah. Let's do it," Sefi urged.
"We'd get caught. It's too risky," Angel said, shaking her head.
Sefi and Red looked downcast, but they knew taht Angel was right, so they didn't say anything else on the matter and changed the subject.
Luckily, the surprises weren't over just yet. Otherwise, there wouldn't be much of a story, now would there?
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Hmmm... I don't know about this chapter. It wasn't the greatest, I know. I need your help right now. Send me your suggestions and I'll fix things so they'll be a lot better.
And, in case some of you are wondering where Palom and Porom are, they make a dramatic entrance in the next chapter. Hang tight; they'll show up and assist our scheming trio in ways that I'm still brain-storming. Off to work!
