Hell for Knowledge
Chapter One: A Contract
Erk was currently a happy man. Priscilla had said that she "Wished that Erk would escort her forever." Yes Erk had fallen deeply in love with Priscilla and it looked like she to had feeling for him. Erk felt like his heart was about to beat so fast that it would fly out of his chest. She liked him she really did! Then Erk stopped. He heard a voice, nay an evil shrill. He tried to run but the evil beast was already upon him!
"Hi Erkyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!" Serra screamed as she jumped on to Erk's back and held on to him tightly.
"No get off of me you monster!" Erk yelled, while trying to free himself from his captor's grasp. Priscilla was supposed to meet him soon! He had to get to her on time or everything would be ruined!
"Is that anyway to talk to your master, vassal!" Serra said in a pompous voice while grabbing on to Erk even tighter.
Erk was still desperately trying to get his pink haired tormenter off his back, but to no avail. Things couldn't get any worse for Erk. Or that is what he thought until…..
"ERK!" a voice cried out.
Said person then turned around, Serra still clinging, and saw his love, Priscilla. Anger was on her normally compassionate face, along with the beginning of tears.
"Pr...r…ris.....Priscilla!" Erk said, startled.
"Oh I see what's going on here!" the red haired beauty said, with no trace of the happiness that her voice usually held. "You ju... p...p…play with wo…women's hearts don't you!" she said, tears welling up in her eyes.
"It's not what it-'' Erk began until Priscilla cut him off.
"DON'T TELL ME I CAN'T SEE WHATS GOING ON HERE!" she yelled. Priscilla then ran towards her tent as fast as her legs would carry her. Erk feebly tried to call out to her. Only after all of this occurred did Serra hop of Erk's back. Erk turned around to face her.
"You! Do you realize what you've done?"
"My my she is annoying isn't she?" said Serra, seemingly oblivious to what had occurred. You and Priscilla screaming…it's very loud here I and I think that so much noise will harm my delicate ears. See ya Erky!" said Serra in a happy and bouncy voice as she walked away.
Erk debated trying to go after Serra and setting her on fire but decided that more interaction with Serra wouldn't help him try to explain everything to Priscilla. So he decided to chase after her.
"Ok ok, everything will be fine; as long as I fix this before Raven-'' he started to say in an exasperated voice. Then he hit something hard and fell to the ground. He looked up to see a certain mercenary.
"Ra…Ra….Raven?!?" gasped poor Erk.
"Erk" spat Raven in the most hateful way possible.
"No you see..."
"I saw what happened, you betrayed Priscilla's trust!" Raven said. He then remembered that the fact that he was Priscilla's brother must remain a secret and then added "I can't take it when men play with a maiden's feelings!"
Erk's screams could be heard for kilometers as Raven unsheathed his sword.
"Seriously so much screaming!" said Serra, now on the other side of the camp.
"Matthew please!" a voiced yelled.
"Not unless you pay me!"
"I have no money!"
"Then the book remains mine!"
Mark leaned on a tree, exhausted. He had been chaseing Matthew for what felt like several hours.
"Please Matthew, I have been searching for that book for ever!" said Mark, in between gasps.
"Wow Mark you really are out of shape!"
Mark only remained leaning on the tree, gasping for air. He was about to begin chasing Matthew again when he heard a distant voice. It was sing-songish.
"la la la la la la la la la la la"
Mark knew that voice. He bolted in the opposite direction. Matthew had been to busy laughing at Mark to notice the voice and he looked at Mark's retreating form.
"What got into him?" he said, bewildered.
Then he turned his head towards the left and gasped.
"Oh, it's Matthew!"
Matthew's eyes widened in shock and he tried to run away. But he had tired himself from running away from Mark, and the book that he held had several thousand pages.
"Matthew I have a job for you!" said Serra in an excited voice.
"And why do I have to do a job for you?"
"Hector said you have to stay with me always! I am frail and I need to move a lot of things!"
"And this concerns me how?"
"Because Hector told me to get you to do it!"
Matthew sighed. It would be far easier to go with her then to argue, once at camp he would find Hector and hopefully he would save him from this.
As they walked into camp Matthew immediately spotted Hector. He bolted towards him, ignoring Serra's "Hey!"
"Hector is it true that I have to do something for Serra?"
The blue haired Lord looked at him and said plainly "Yup".
"What!"
"Look Matthew, all Serra wants you to do is move some stuff that she bought earlier from a wagon and bring them into her tent, it's not that hard! Besides she wanted me to do that and I realized that I have servants to do this kind of stuff for a reason."
Defeated, Matthew allowed Serra to drag him to the wagon. Upon arriving he did a double take. It was not just a wagon, it was several. All piled high with clothing, jewelry, staffs, magic tomes, and an assortment of other odd objects.
Matthew turned towards Serra, who was ideally playing with one of her pink pony tails.
"You heard Hector, start moving them!"
"But how in Elbe did you afford all of this crap!"
"Matthew don't cuss!"
"Ok, kindly tell me, how did you buy all of this?" said a very annoyed Matthew.
"Hector gave me the money!"
"WHY?"
"Don't yell Matthew, that's very mean!" Serra ironically yelled.
Matthew gave an angry sigh. He looked at Serra and then said softly and slowly
"Why did Hector give you the money?"
"Because I kept asking him for vassals and riches and then he said no so I kept asking and asking and asking and then he said 'go away Serra' and I didn't!" She replied rapidly "So then he got mad and threw a huge bag at me! I was soooooooo angry until I looked inside the bag and it had a lot of coins! He told me to go buy my own vassals and jewelry and stuff!"
Matthew was speechless. He turned towards the gigantic pile of stuff and began to unload it, pack by pack, staff by staff, bag by bag. This repetitive process lasted hours, with Serra's constant commentary. By the end of it, around five hours later, he was ready to lay on the ground and die. Then if possible the situation got even worse.
"Hay, I forgot to buy a vassal while I was in town!" Serra said.
Matthew's eye twitched, he knew what was coming.
"Matthew you are my vassal!"
Matthew got up and started screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"
"Matthew I told you to stop screaming!"
"You can't make me!"
Serra eyed Matthew dangerously. He gave a smirk.
"Then I won't stop following you around, even when you sleep!"
Matthew's reply was lost. Serra…..following him around….ALL THE TIME! No no no….He couldn't take this, he would go insane. Then he looked at the book he had left on the ground before he had begun to unload Serra's' absurd amount of things. It was titled Tactics throughout History-The Complete Set. A light blub went up over Matthew's head.
"Wait Serra I have an offer, something better then me as a vassal!"
Serra raised an eye brow.
"What could possibly be better then a vassal?"
"What if…" he said, putting on his business man voice, "I could get you a different vassal?"
"Really Matthew?"
"Yes yes!" said Matthew excitedly
"Oh Matthew you would really do that for me!"
"Yes I would, just give me an hour!"
Serra thought for a moment and then said
"Ok, but if you are lying I won't ever stop following you!"
Matthew grabbed the large book while saying "I won't disappoint you Serra, just wait here at your tent!"
He then ran off towards the center of camp.
Mark sighed. He had always wanted that book. Heck he had even once bought what he thought was a copy, until he opened it and found out that is was just a large dirty book. He had no money left to spend on water and had fainted on the plains. If Lyn hadn't found him he would have died for nothing. Then the brown haired thief walked into his tent.
"Matthew?" Mark said startled. He had the book in his hands, had the greedy thief really come to give him it? He doubted it.
"Don't taunt me with that book Matthew; I won't chase you for your amusement." He spat.
"But Mark" Matthew said in a surprisingly happy voice "I intend to give this book to you"
Mark turned around quickly
"Really?!"
"Yes but you have to do a favor for me."
Mark's eyes narrowed.
"A favor? Just like the favors you have Guy do for you?"
"This isn't for me, it's for a friend"
"Who?"
"Serra"
"What do I have to do?"
Matthew was surprised to say the least; he thought it would take a while to convince Mark. But then again Mark hadn't got nearly as much of Serra as Matthew and other members of the army had.
"You must be her vassal, for a month."
Although Serra wanted a vassal forever he was sure that she would get used to having Mark around and thus would follow him. His plan was genius!
"Deal!" Mark said excitedly
"Ok Mark the deal is that at the end of the month you get the book okay?"
"Sure, sure!"
Mark was so close to the book he had searched for since he was fifteen. Soon it would be his! If Matthew tried to double-cross him he would get Eliwood or Hector to enforce the bargain, they usual kept the army in order.
Mark and Matthew arrived at Serra's tent; she was sitting on the wagon with a piece of paper in her hand. She looked up and said
"Matthew, your back a lot sooner then you said you would be!"
"Well I encountered a lot less trouble then I thought."
Serra looked behind Matthew and saw Mark. Matthew stepped aside and pointed to Mark, while Mark was still staring at the book still in Matthew's hands.
"Behold Serra, your new vassal Mark!"
Serra bounced up and down happily.
"Ohhhhh thank you Matthew! I thought you would just run away from me and not bring me anything but you brought me a vassal that I have seen in action! Now let me see I have a contract…"
Matthew gulped. Poor Mark, he didn't know what he was getting himself into. Simply put the man was doomed.
"Now Mark, sign right here!" said an excited Serra.
Mark signed it like and zombie and failed to read even a sentence of the document. Upon seeing this Serra's smiled became even wider. Matthew could only slowly walk away, silently praying for Mark's sanity. The results of this where sure to be interesting…
Author's Area
Well there it is, the first Chapter of Hell for Knowledge. Did it suck? Was it boring? Did it make your day great? I want to know. I didn't have a beta for this, nor am I sure I want one until I get some feedback on this. I'm hoping for a pretty good amount of hits and a few reviews, probably three at most. Five if I am lucky. So tell me how you liked the chapter by pressing that little "review" button. Sorry if it was a little short, this is the first chapter after all. If you have any suggestions I'll listen.