Quest One: Escape

Rain falls. No, more like a storm rages. The dull, black clouds loom over the outlandish village Alryne. Well, not really outlandish, it's not a poor village. Just the section that Brinx lives in. The section where the poor orphans live. The kids with no one to call family. There are quite a few of them in Alryne, enough to group them all together into a whole section.

Brinx. A boy who's faced reality at an early age. His parents died when he was just a toddler, or so he's been told. But they actually were real, so he wasn't originally an orphan. He was told they were frail, unlike him, which made him doubt they were his actual parents. Then a "guardian" appeared at his tiny house. She was an old lady, very old. Frail, too. Frail was a word Brinx didn't like. He toughened himself up so he wouldn't die off like everyone related to him in his life. The old lady was going to die pretty soon, so he didn't bother remembering her name. She didn't even know his, let alone talk to him. She just made sure he was at least fed each day. She didn't care what he did or where he went. When Brinx would come home late at night, a plate was waiting for him. Cold though, since it would sit there for a few hours already.

When he turned fifteen, the old lady kicked the bucket. It was expected, so Brinx didn't feel anything. He doesn't really feel much in general. He wasn't raised that way. Now he was alone. Really alone. He considered the old lady some form of family, at least. Brinx pondered what he would do next. He didn't have money to buy food, and the desire of keeping a clean conscious refrained him from stealing some. Soon enough, Brinx ran out of food in his tiny house. It didn't bother him, until he became hungry that evening. Then he started to worry. He had to act for his own, something he'd never done before. What would he do? He thought a lot about it on his empty stomach, and considered to go around and beg, despite how pitiful it made him feel. Hardly anybody knew who Brinx was, as he didn't speak to anyone. He hardly ever speaks. He could ask someone for help. Maybe someone in the better part of town would take him in. He wouldn't be a nuisance to them, he thought, as he hardly did anything. That made him upset. No, angry. He felt he had no purpose and was just scraping by. But for what purpose? One less orphan kid wouldn't be a problem. Nobody would notice.

Then he saw two boys walking down the dirt path in front of his house after the rain and thunder had subsided. It was Neal, the loud bratty kid and his friend Sevrin. He could hear Neal all the way from his house, he was so loud. Neal was telling Sevrin about how excited he was that he would finally leave this dump as they passed his house. Brinx remembers that today was the day for the young kids to receive their duties by the village elder, Ingad, who had some magical power. Brinx didn't care about any of that. He had skipped his gathering two years ago, when he was thirteen. He hardly ever attended training and lessons. When he skipped, no one noticed.

But what he heard made him go outside and listen to the two boys some more. He heard Neal say to Sevrin that they should wake up very early to be by the gate by dawn. Brinx heard rumors earlier that Ingad, the village elder, discovered the two of them had some kind of special power. They were chosen to leave the village on an important mission. He thought of an opportunity. A chance to escape this place too. He knew there was nothing more for him here. He decided that he was going to sneak out when the chance arrives tomorrow at dawn. Luckily, it is autumn. The light of dawn arrives slightly later than usual. He will go near the gate and hide before the two show up.

With his plan in mind, Brinx sucks up his pride and asks a neighbor for food, just a small meal. They tell him they don't have much, but maybe enough for him to get to tomorrow. He said that was all he needed and thanked them. His hunger subsided. He quickly returned home and packed whatever he could into a worn pack. His other set of clothes, a pair of leather gloves. That was all that was of use to him. He put a knife in there, but it was just a shabby kitchen one that was slightly rusted. Won't do. He threw it back onto the wooden counter. Right next to it was a headband that he hadn't noticed before. He tied it over his forehead to keep his slightly long hair from covering his eyes. Remembering the knife, he realized he needed a weapon. Alryne was surrounded by an enormous, potentially dangerous forest, with only the ninja village Kurina the nearest establishment. He knows to stay away from it, as approaching it will cause unease to the ninjas.

Brinx looked around to find a suitable weapon. There is a small sword he found in the training field one day that seemed to be discarded, and had took it home in case of some emergency. Not that he's ever touched it since, though. It wasn't broken; far from it, in fact. It just must have been forgotten.

Brinx reaches under his bed and takes out the sword. He sets his shabby pack and sword beside the door and went to sleep. Rest was essential tonight, as he needed to wake up before dawn tomorrow.

Brinx awoke. He looked out the window, it was still dark. Perfect. He leaves his bed and gets dressed. He ties his boots tight, grabs his gear, and leaves the house quietly. Looking around carefully before stepping out onto the dirt path leading to the main part of the village, Brinx sees nobody and hears nothing. It's still quite early, as his tired eyes tell him so. But he shakes himself awake and heads for the gate. There is a perfect spot behind a large barrel to hide near the gate. The guards look tired, so he snuck behind it undetected. What do they have to guard this large, thick gate for, Brinx assumes they think. He's never seen or heard of any outsiders come to Alryne, except Sevrin, who was from Kurina. Well, duty is duty.

Brinx waits for the two to show up. They appear a few minutes later. Neal gets into an argument with a guard. A few more people come and they exchange a few words. The gate opens. Brinx's pulse increases rapidly. He breathes in and out excitedly, but slows it down to calm himself. The two men turn around and walk away. Neal sprints off with glee and Sevrin runs to catch up to him. The first guard left his station a few minutes ago for whatever reason. Only the young guard that was arguing with Neal remained by the gate. He starts to close the gate, but it's a slow process, as the doors are huge. Brinx grits his teeth; he's running out of time. But the guard starts to yawn. One of those big yawns where he closes his eyes tightly and looks up with his mouth wide open. Now! He treads quietly but quickly and dives through the crack as the gate slams shut right behind him. The huge wooden doors creaked loudly as they moved, since they were fairly old, and the sound of his footsteps were perfectly concealed. Brinx was lucky: he had slipped out successfully.

He picked himself back up quickly and dove into the bushes, in case Neal and Sevrin turned around to get a last look at the long wall surrounding the village. They probably wouldn't care if they saw me, Brinx thinks. But he wanted to be cautious anyways. He peeked out towards the path. They were gone. He decides to keep a good distance from the two, but follow them until they clear the forest, so he'll make it out too. Hopefully they don't get lost, he thinks, or else he'd get lost. But he still starts tailing them anyways, despite the worry.

The forest was as large as he had heard from inside those walls. They were travelling for days now with nothing but the trees around them. The only lessons Brinx really paid attention to recently were survival lessons: how to make a fire, how to hunt, how to cook the prey you've hunted. He felt confident enough to survive in the forest. But if only he'd attended combat lessons, he thinks reluctantly. He was eyeing the sword by his waist, secured by his belt. Using it for defense didn't look promising, but at least he had it.

Brinx killed a small rabbit and cooked it over the fire he set. His spot was far away enough from those two kids that they wouldn't hear him. They stopped for the night and set up their camp, so he backtracked for a few minutes to create the safe distance. Brinx glanced at their tent before he left and wished he had one of his own. Damn, maybe he should have stolen one before he left. After a minute of thought, he shook his head. No way.

He pulls out a metal cup from his pack. That's one thing he was glad he added to the pack right before he left the house. It was the only utensil in that house that was in decent condition. The ninja was smart; he found a river and the two of them walked parallel to it, so they could have a secure supply of water.

Brinx scoops his cup into the water and brings it back to the fire. He decides to boil the water and let it cool down before drinking it, just in case.

He sits down and leans against a tree by his fire, and begins to shivers. It's quite cold in the wilderness at night, Brinx now realized. He adds his other set of clothes as another layer once again. A little better. He still wishes he had a tent, though. He eats his cooked rabbit meat and drinks water from his metal cup. Another day has passed. Maybe tomorrow would be the day when this damned forest will end. He curls up near the dying fire and tries to sleep. On the first night, Brinx realized that a wild animal could attack at any time, and he hardly slept. But nothing happened, and the same went for the second and third night. So he decided to just go to sleep without too much worry.

Morning came. Brinx awoke, wasting no time and setting off again. He walked quickly to try to catch up to the two kids. Luckily, he finds them again. They're walking fairly slowly, since they're carrying more gear than him. Plus, Brinx sees the huge sword on Neal's back. He is amazed the kid could even carry that thing on his back. He had always bragged to the other kids about how strong he was and that only he could wield that sword. Still a brat, Brinx thinks, but at least he has pride and determination, despite being poor and an orphan. Brinx respects him in that sense.

Eventually, he trails them to the end of the forest, where there was light! He waits for them to get farther ahead and out of range. Then he steps out of the foliage himself. With wonder, Brinx looks around the large clearing in front of him. Grassy plain, hills, and only a few trees. It was a refreshing new sight to Brinx. He lifted his hands up and sucked in a large breath of air. It felt incredible! Where would life take him? He wondered this as he continued on through fresh clearing. He must have branched off from Neal and Sevrin's path, as he doesn't hear them or see any signs of them anymore. Brinx wishes them luck on their journey. But now he had to think about himself. He took a long gander at his surroundings. It looks like this plain is large, he thinks, as there are no human establishments as far as his eyes can see in all directions. From here, any path seems plausible, but Brinx decided the best way to go would be in the exact opposite of the forest. No angles. Any slight angle might make him wind his way back to that good old forest. With the completely new surroundings and atmosphere, he didn't want to take any risks.

A few hours later Brinx was met by a huge surprise. A freakish creature about half his size was standing in front of him. It had dark, smelly skin and the rags it wore were torn and dirty. It was a goblin, although he didn't know what it was or that anything like that even existed at the time. The only thought in his mind was danger; it was carrying a knife. Rusty, but still a knife.

He stepped back cautiously, reaching shakily for the hilt of the small iron sword by his waist. He clumsily pulled it out and held it in front of him. Although it was very stupid, the monster noticed him and started stepping toward him. Brinx gulped and stepped back again, but he knew he needed to be able to protect himself. If anything, he's lucky his first obstacle is this little creature, and not some enormous giant in iron armor.

The goblin snarled at him, raising its knife and shaking it wildly toward Brinx, who was shakily standing his ground. It kept getting closer to him ever slowly. Brinx breathed in and out slowly, and charged at it. He swung the small blade as hard as he could, but he didn't know the first thing about swords, so he didn't cut the goblin but knocked it back. Brinx gritted his teeth. He realized how foolish he must have looked, attacking the monster with the flat side of the blade, rather than the sharp edge. Slash, not swing, he thought, and tried another attack. This one seemed to work. He sent it reeling back in pain. Blood soaked the torn rags on its chest and it yelped. Brinx slashed at it again. He killed it. He dropped his bloody sword onto the grass after watching the motionless creature on the ground carefully to make sure it was dead. Then he dropped to his knees and threw up. He killed something! Not an animal, but not a human either. Although, since the goblin somewhat represents a human, that's the way he thought of it, and it made him feel ill. He was terrified for a while after that. His hands were stained with blood from a kill he'd made. Although it was a hostile monsters blood, it was still blood. It wasn't until he made it to a new town that he realized it was not a big deal, and that he must get used to it.

Just a day after his encounter with the goblin, Brinx found a town. A large one, much bigger than Alryne. It was very different, too. There were roads made of cobblestone. The buildings were tall. There were signs that displayed Inn, Weapons, Armor, Food. Market stalls filled with fruits and vegetables. People walking everywhere in the town. Brinx was excited. It was overwhelming to take it all in. He started walking toward the market area, but realized he had no money. Damn. What then? He could ask them if they needed help in exchange for an apple or two. Something like that. He looked down at himself and realized he was a little dirty. His clothes made him look poor and homeless, not that he wasn't. They wouldn't want a kid like that near their stalls, so he needed to find a way to clean himself and be more presentable.

Someone told him there was a small stream right outside the north gate, so he walked that way. He passed the town square, where this strange round stone thing was spouting water. It looked pretty cool, but what was the point of it, Brinx wondered. Also, people were setting up these small stalls all throughout the town square. Something was going on. A fair tomorrow, someone told him when he asked. Gariland's annual fair celebrating its fine establishment for another peaceful year. So that's what the name of this town is, Brinx thinks. Gariland. But what the hell is a fair?

He walked through the square and to the northern side of Gariland. Outside the gate, which was already open, he found the stream. Finding a secluded spot, he splashed the water on himself, cleaning his hands, face, and body. He soaked his clothes in it and hung them over a tree branch to dry. Brinx waited until they finally were, then took of his other set of clothes and put those on. Then he washed that set of clothes and set them to dry. When that was finally finished, he returned to town.

Brinx walked by all of the shops, glancing at the items seen through the window. He saw many kinds of swords, clothes, jewels, and herbs. He wished he could replace his shabby gear with all of this new stuff. He returned to the market area, where those apples looked even more red and delicious. He stomach told him to hurry up. He approached the kind lady selling the produce.

"Do I need help? What a sweet young man. Oh my, your clothing is torn! I'll tell you what: if you help me sell some fruit to the townsfolk today I'll give you enough gil to get a new outfit and a room at the inn tonight." She said. Brinx thanked her graciously then turned away for a moment. He was a little embarrassed that she still noticed how ragged he looked even though he tried to clean up as best as he could. Whatever, he thought, and shrugged. Nobody knew him, and he doesn't need to care about something like that. You have to start somewhere.

He worked with the sweet young woman for hours that day, holding fruit in his hand and exchanging it for coin. At the end of the day, she called him over to her.

"Brinx, look at this! We did excellent today! Thanks for your help!" She smiled graciously at him. He nodded his head, giving her a small smile. She handed him a handful of the coins.

"This should be enough for you, sweetie. You deserve it." She handed him more gil than just a room and a new set of clothes. He tried to refuse that much, but she put it in his pocket. She knows just by the look of him how poor he was, and wanted to help him out. He thanked her again and set off to buy some new clothes. As he waved to her as she walked, she gave him a friendly departing wink. He blushed after he turned back around. She was in her early twenties, but she sure was cute!

Brinx bought a new tunic and pants. He kept the boots he was wearing, because they were given to him recently in Alryne so they were still good. He felt better already. He couldn't help but feel slightly ashamed to be in those ragged clothes from before, as everyone in Gariland seemed well off.

He bought a room at the Inn that night and slept better than he's ever had in a long time. The bed in the room was actually soft and comfortable, unlike his awful metal frame from Alryne. Not to mention the bad sleep during the days of getting out of the forest.

The next morning, Brinx awoke to music and lots of noise. He left the Inn to see the fair has begun. There were even more people in the square than yesterday, Brinx notices. The stalls that were being set up were now complete. He saw all of the colorful signs and unique wares in them, but decided not to shop. With the remaining gil he had, he wanted to buy a little bit of food, a tent, and save the rest. After looking around enough and enjoying the fair to some extent, Brinx buys some bread and apples and takes off toward the north gate. Someone told him there was a place called Rothguard up north when he asked where a place he could find work was.

As he was about to exit the north side of the square, where the last stalls of the fair was, he noticed a strange stall that sold something called cotton candy. He had no idea what it was, but it smelled sweet. He walked past it. Up ahead of him were a few people who were heading to the fair. A tall woman holding the hands of two children. One was a girl with brown hair, and the other, who was even younger than her, was a small red haired boy.

"Ooh! Cotton candy! That's my favorite!" Said the boy, and he tugged on the woman's arm as they pass him. Brinx turns and watches as the three of them get in line at the cotton candy stall. Then he sees Neal and Sevrin in front of them, as Neal turned around with a cotton candy and takes a gigantic bite into it. The brown haired girl giggles as they walk away. So they made it safely, thought Brinx. That's good. He turns back around and heads out the north gate.

There's a sign by the road that warns of monsters. Brinx nods at the sign. He's more ready than last time. His new clothes and victories over three more goblins boosted his confidence. He's feeling more confident now.

The sign was correct. More goblins littered the field ahead of Brinx. A little more than he expected. He decided to cut down only the ones that were necessary, as sticking around to finish them all off would only end up with them ganging up on him and mobbing him over.

Brinx ran through the field, swiftly dodging the goblins that he could easily avoid. Some, however, would intercept his path. He dashed forward, sword in hand, and struck them to the side. The slowness of the inept creatures prevented them from catching up to him, and he passed through the goblin field without a scratch.

Brinx found himself on an easy path now. There were no more monsters in sight. There was even a river to his right. It was getting dark, so he stopped for the night. The usual: a fire, his cup of water boiled first then cooled down to make sure the water is clean. But this time, Brinx feels luxurious with his food and tent as a nice upgrade to his camp. He eats some of his bread and turns in.

The next morning, Brinx packs up and continues down the path toward Rothguard. These next few days are similar to his first day leaving Gariland, although with less monsters. Brinx sees buildings up ahead. Rothguard? It must be, he thinks, and he dashes toward it. It felt weird being alone in the outdoors for the last few days. He was surprised there weren't any people traveling in carriages, commuting back and forth between Gariland and Rothguard. Not a soul except Brinx was on the road. Maybe he'll discover why when he reaches town.

Rothguard was very similar to Gariland. It wasn't as big, but it was just as well off. On the other side of town was a large castle atop a hill. Brinx had heard about castles in Alryne, so he knew there were castles and villages outside that forest. But the sight of the huge stone towers on each corner were more amazing than the words he'd heard describe it. The castle was huge! He found himself staring at it for awhile. Apparently, so did someone else.

"You've never seen the castle before?" A man with a booming voice said behind him. Brinx turned around. The man looked him up and down. "Hmm…" He placed his hand under his chin and squinted his eyes, as if he was analyzing Brinx. "You're not from around here. I can tell. What's a kid like you doing here?" He asked. Brinx noticed the man was wearing a shiny suit of armor, with a crest that looked the same as the flag of the castle.

Brinx told him he was looking for work, to earn some coin. The huge knight raised an eyebrow.

"Ah… Strapped for funds? You look like a strong kid. Solid constitution." The knight said. He looked toward the castle, and Brinx did the same. Then he turned back toward Brinx.

"How would you like to become a soldier?"

AN: Hello! This is a side story to my original story "Final Fantasy: Golden Warriors of the Light", featuring all original characters and very different from the early FF games, but drawing many elements from them. If you want to pick this one up, I'd recommend reading the main one first if you want (It's quite long, though), but reading this one first might make the first one more interesting. It follows Brinx, a boy who originates from Alryne, just like Neal from the previous story. His path may cross with Neal's a few times, but the story is of his journey. It won't be as long as the first one, maybe seven chapters maximum, and I will update weekly, maybe biweekly sometimes, depending on my free time during this summer. I hope you enjoy!