Hey dere people. Remember how I've been saying I wanted to start a series of Etrian Odyssey one-shots using the characters from my EO4 game...? Well, I did it. And here's the first one. For those of you who have seen The Guild that Would be Great you'll recognize one of the characters here. The other has been mention though she won't make an actual appearance and the last... well, she's brand new to you all. Also, I did this for a school project hence the other two paragraphs of authors notes. You can skip over them since I only kept them since I thought it was kinda funny how I wrote them.

**WARNING: the following story may contain LOTS of unfixed typos. This is because I cannot proofread to save my life or anyone else's. So if aliens are taking over the world and the only way to stop them is to have someone proofread something: Do. Not. Pick. Me.**

This is also a fanfiction of sorts for the game Etrian Odyssey IV: The Legend of the Titan though all of the characters in this tale are mine save for their physical attributes due to the characterization part of the game. Pretty much it's "create your own character." I say "of sorts" as no characters nor anything truly relevant to the game are used. There is a mentioning of one item explained here: Ariadne's Thread transports you back to the beginning of an area so as not to make wounded party members fight. Other than what has just been mentioned the game was merely an inspiration.

The Runemaster's Sacred Trial

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" A girl's scream ripped through the quiet atmosphere of the icy plain. Small creatures who might have challenged them ran in fear of the beast chasing the trio. The smallest of the group, a girl with long white hair and a creamy complexion screamed as she ran for her life. She wore white leggings, brown snow boots, a royal blue tunic and a dark cloak. She had a snow cap pulled down over her ears, the puffs on the ends bounced as she ran. Her eyes were blue as the sky on a clear day, her cheeks freckled. She looked absolutely terrified, yet, she turned on the beast behind her. "INCENDIO!" A rune solidified itself into the frigid air and a column of hot flame shot toward the monster. It was enough to at least forecheck it for a few seconds, allowing her friends to bound farther away from it.

"Thank you!" A tall blonde yelled as she bounded past the runemaster. The younger nodded and followed in her tracks. "It's only a little farther, I can see it now," the blonde huffed as she ran. Sure enough in the distance an opening loomed.

If this is another dead end... the white-haired runemaster began to think, then quickly shook it off. No. If it was another dead end... then they were dead. She couldn't afford to think like that. Staying positive was the only way she would make it out of this tundra alive.

And she ran. She ran fast and far attempting to make it to the opening before something bad happened. But the blonde was falling behind. Her scream tore through the young runemaster's body, her stomach churned with concern and she whipped around just in time to see the beast had caught up to her and she was sailing through the air.

"Kailynne!" She found herself screaming as she doubled back to make sure she was alright. Poor Kailynne, the blonde, had collided with a tree and had fallen quite unceremoniously to the ground. She was slumped against the tree but judging as she seemed to get back up onto her feet not too long later, she was probably alright.

"I'm fine," Kailynne growled. "But we need to get to Alynn." The runemaster's eyes flicked to a form on the ground just out of their reach. Thankfully, the beast was more interested in them than poor, defenseless Alynn on the ground. Kailynne drew a sword, spells ran through the runemaster's mind.

"Okay, here's the plan: one of us distracts it, the other gets Alynn and runs for the opening," Kailynne muttered slowly and hardly audible as she lowered her sword, sizing up where would be best to strike first.

The runemaster peered up at the monster trying to size it up. It was hard to have her confidence not waver looking at it. It looked like a huge kangaroo with no pouch on it's belly. It's fur was silvery and spiked here and there. It's belly itself was a thick black hide like that of an alligator but the wrong color. It had a large maw with rows (yes, MULTIPLE rows) of sharp, needle-like, yellowed teeth. The teeth and some of it's torso was still stained red from it's last meal. It's eyes were a menacing shade of blood red and peered at the two girls with venom. The fact that was at least a story tall made it hard not to whimper like a scared little puppy. Kailynne's normally placid face was tinged with anger and determintaion, not a single trace of fear in her blue eyes.

It let out a high frequency howl catching the two midband. The runemaster and Kailynne clapped their hands to their ears a second too late. The runemaster's legs began to wobble, her stomach was beginning to feel a bit queasy. But she would not back down with Alynn's life - or any life - on the line.

The runemaster whispered something, a spell she'd learned for listening through walls backwards. For some spells saying them backwards had an adverse effect, as this one did. It blocked the high pitched noise from both her ears and Kailynne's. She even made it appear over Alynn, who much to the runemaster's dismay did not appear to be moving.

While the monster attempted to subdue them with high-pitched wails the two of them sprung to action. The runemaster shot like a bullet toward Alynn while Kailynne rushed the beast. The monster turned on the runemaster, a mistake, as it provided Kailynne with the perfect opening to attack. She jumped as high as gravity would allow and slashed at it with her sword, not making any visible damage but most certainly getting it's attention.

The runemaster slipped past the monster and reached Alynn panting. She slung the girl over one arm as she was relatively small, the same height as she herself, but she had a smaller body. Then she ran as fast as she could without causing further harm to Alynn.

Alynn was small, like the runemaster, but small-boned as well and flat-chested. Her short purple hair flopped over one side of her face, her red square-shaped glasses hanging awkwardly to the side. Her dark blue coat had been torn badly and the runemaster had to suppress the urge to shift her with all of her willpower, as in her current position her arm was curled delicately over her wound and something warm was seeping onto it. Supposedly, Alynn was an amazing healer but she'd only proven to be highly superable to the runemaster thus far. But she was friend of Kailynne's and the runemaster had known Kailynne for sometime now. Her face was unnaturally pale but the frigid air made every breath visible. She was still alive, thank the gods...

Before long she was at the opening and from the sound of heavy footsteps following her, Kailynne wasn't too far behind.

"RAWR!"

And neither was Mister Monster. Great...

The runemaster gently placed Alynn beside the opening, protected by what appeared to be a door with no hinges or any indication it might open at all. It had a strange mark carved into the center, which to the runemaster's eyes alone, glowed green.

She closed her eyes trying to remember the incantation to unlock it.

"ANYTIME NOW, ACACIA!" Kailynne called from behind them. She was a good 15-20 feet away, and ran as fast as her legs would propel her. The runemaster, Acacia, rolled her eyes like this was nothing new or she hadn't been in that same position two minutes ago. She paused in thought until the spell hit her.

She spread her hands pointing her fingers at the door and muttering strange words while varying runes shimmered in the air. The symbols on the door reacted and began interagglutinating themselves to one another. Some of the blocks began to underbevel each other, frustrating Acacia as the spell was difficult enough, but now she was doing it pressured and on a time limit. The door clicked into place just as Kailynne reached them. The door deteriorated once the spell had been performed and once it was gone Kailynne picked up Alynn and they all ran inside. Once they were past where the door had once stood it re-appeared in a flash of light.

"How the-?"

"Magical doors are magical," Acacia shrugged to answer Kailynne's question.

"Oh yeah, good job on the door. I wasn't running for my life or anything!" Kailynne huffed semiallegorically.

BANG! CRASH! BANG!

It was at this moment the trio remembered the monster behind the door who very much wanted them dead. They moved farther away from the door and settled down.

"Alynn, can you hear me?" Kailynne whispered. She made a soft whimpering noise and her eyes fluttered but she otherwise didn't move. Acacia and Kailynne exchanged looks, neither of them were healers. How were they going to help her?

"I think we should press on. What we're looking for could help her," Acacia suggested. She knew that she was sounding mean toward Alynn, but it really could help her.

"What!? No we're helping her!" Kailynne transacted.

"Think about it, neither of us know how to help her, and if we finish the mission we can use the Ariadne's Thread and get out of here. The we can get her to a hospital," Acacia trailed off as her eyes trailed to Alynn's wound. She didn't know how deep it was and didn't really want to know. All she could see was that it was bleeding heavily and was in her side.

Kailynne grudgingly agreed though she did make Acacia help wrap the wound up to stow the bleeding some first. Kailynne carried her in her arms and they continued into this part of the area without getting attacked by anything.

They found a large lake in the center of the tundra. It was frosted on the ends but the water, though sitting distilled, remained unfrozen.

Acacia walked to the edge and peered down into the water's depths. If she squinted just right... there. It was at the bottom of the lake. Acacia used her lifting spell to get the item, a small glowing blue orb that radiated power, over to them. Acacia walked over for job well done when the light the orb gave off pulsated healing their wounds. Major and minor scratches as well as the deep seated wound to Alynn's whole side were stitched up without so much as a trace left behind. Alynn's quiet sobs of pain shifted to deep breathing and it was pretty obvious that she'd been put to sleep.

With the satisfaction of a job well done the trio used the Ariadne Thread and escaped the dungeon with their item now in tow. All that was left for them now was to follow Alynn's lead and go straight to sleep.

The Runemaster's Sacred Trial - End

Well, I hope you all liked it. In case you can't tell: this was a vocab assignment. The words are a liiiiiitle difficult so I left them underlined. Even I can't remeber half of the definitions. Sad, I know. I have a really good picture I did of Alynn, Kailynne, and Robyn in my sketchbook and once I get to a scanner I'll set it as the cover for this story. I have an idea for a two-shot for this that I'll post when I get around to it and as with my HetaCapitols one-shot series this will have unscheduled updates. As in when I feel like it or have a good one updates. Or requests which I would LOVE to get for this. It can even include your own characters so long as I get a bio to base it on. Though please try to PM me for those, it's easier on me. I think that's all my tacks for the bottom so... thanks for reading and drop a review for me if you please. :D