Author's Note: See my comments here, I don't feel like paraphrasing and stuff right now, sorry. Just remove the spaces. - http: /deathbydarkness. deviantart. com/art/Six-Short-RO-Stories-260738321

Also check my gallery for the Sorcerer's and Maestro's profiles for semi-detailed info and. . . stuff. I tried to match their personalities to here. And yeah.

Introduction

It was funny, the first time I saw him, he was dancing like a gypsy; so drunk and so gay. That minstrel was having fun, laughing, smiling, moving every which way with the others that danced with him. I could never dance like that, but it wasn't as if I ever wished to. Dancing was not for me.

Soon enough, he danced his way over to the two of us and stopped. "Haven't seen either of you two around 'ere before. What's your names?"

My friend stood with his mouth slightly opened, a bit stunned at the scene before him. The dancing was hypnotic. . .

"'Scuse me," the minstrel said with a wave of his hand. "Mind telling me your names?"

I nudged my companion in the side with my elbow before he shook his head quickly and gave his name. "My name is Silver. And this is Legkna," he added before I could speak.

"Didn't the mages die in the Geffen fire?" the minstrel asked, but then shook his head. "Never mind; you can call me Noctus. Care to join me in a dance?" The minstrel named Noctus held his hand out to me.

Before I could reject, Silver shoved me forward, a sudden move that knocked us both together to the ground.

"Silver!" I cried out indignantly before pushing myself up to my feet. "I'm sorry about that." I held my hand out to the minstrel to help him up, but he ignored it.

"It's fine," Noctus said as he jumped up. Then he took notice of my hand and grabbed it, seeing it as an invitation to take me to dance. "Okay, let's go!" With that, he dragged me over to where the dancing was.

I tried to cry out but my voice was drowned out by the laughter and the singing and the music.

And that was the very first encounter with the minstrel named Noctus.

Complicated

I held the book right-side up and upside down but still I could make no sense of what was written before me.

"Never will I be able to understand the magic that you read," I grumbled to Legkna.

"And never will I be able to understand the music that you bards and minstrels and maestros read," he answered with a chuckle. Then he took the book out of my hands and began to read quietly to himself.

With the book in his possession, I sat down and simply watched as Legkna took some broken chalk and wrote on the wall. He added a stroke here, a number there, making more complicated the drawing before me. All I could make of it were some circles and triangles and strange runic symbols that I'd never seen before.

"Please tell me what you're drawing," I requested.

"Nope."

I may have made a little pout and a small sound of dejection, but he took no notice and continued to write and draw. Maybe it was a spell, as I may have recognized the circles and triangles as part of a spell circle.

"And so if I were to change the element from this to that, and. . ." I could hear him say. There was also an occasional word about ice and water and fire and wind and something about a hepatic. What, in Odin's name, is a hepatic?

However, before I could ponder about a hepatic for long, Legkna threw the book at the wall and promptly wiped away most of his hard work.

I stood up frantically as he yelled, "That stupid son of a Savage misled me! Th-This is an alchemist's book with pages from a mage's spellbook glued in it!"

Carefully, I approached the angered sorcerer from behind as he continued to spout obscenities about the person who gave him the book. Only when he began to calm down did I dared touch him.

As my fingers brushed his back, Legkna leaned forward, his forehead pressing against the wall, and grumbled. While he leaned towards the wall, I leaned towards his back, resting my cheek against the soft fur and feathers of his collar.

"Calm down, dear," I said. "Why don't you just go beat him with your staff instead?" I wrapped my arms around his chest as I said those words to him.

"Maybe," was his response.

We stayed like that for a few minutes as Legkna calmed himself down to a less angered state, his body relaxing a bit as the minutes passed.

"Hey, Noctus?" Legkna's voiced sounded a bit subdued, and I wondered if there was something else the matter.

"Yes, Legkna? Do you want something?" I inquired.

"Want to come with me as I berate the fellow for tricking me?" he asked. Sounded fun.

"Yes," I answered while getting off the sorcerer's warm back.

Legkna stood up straight and stretched a bit as he said, "Great."

As he turned around, I leaned forward to give him a light kiss; and as I pulled back to let him walk past, I saw the grin on Legkna's face as he said, "This shall be fun."

Rebirth

The angel in front of me was beautiful, literally not of this world. No, she was a Valkyrie, come from Valhalla. No, she did not come from Valhalla, she is in Valhalla right here, right now, right in front of me. I came to Valhalla some way I could not remember. How did I get here again? My mind was already failing on me after hearing the words she had said to me.

"Congratulations," she said to me. "You are now reborn into a brand new life." I looked up at her. A new life? There was a small tug in me that objected to this. I. . . I didn't want a new life. I want to keep my old one. Why did I come here in the first place? How? But there was no stopping it, it seems. I could feel as if something was disappearing from within me.

The Valkyrie continued to speak to me. "I wish that the release the goddess Urd has granted you proves to be a blessing. I hope that the memories Verdandi has recorded will always honor you. And I pray that the new life to which the goddess Skuld will guide you to will be even more honorable than your last. Farewell."

Without thinking about it, or even realizing it, I had closed my eyes and my consciousness began to fade. I could see various images flash before my mind's eye, some familiar, some not. There were people I recognized and people I didn't.

The only people that I saw that I recognized were Silver and. . . and Miuru. When I saw her, my heart gave a twinge of agony and pain, and I remembered what had happened between us.

Oh gods, why did you not take that memory away from me?

Colors

"There are seven colors in the rainbow," Legkna said.

"I know," I told him, gazing up at him as I lay on my back outside. Legkna was leaning over me so I mostly saw him and his pale skin and his messy brown hair and his vibrant green eyes. Really vibrant.

"Why?" I asked.

"The seven colors then have various different tints and shades and such within 'em, so it's truthfully not just seven, but a multitude of colors, don't you think?" He smiled.

"Uh-huh, yeah," I answered, not sure what he was getting at. "Move your head, please." With one hand, I shoved Legkna's head out of my way so I could see the sky. Cloudless and sunny, no chance of rain. No chance of rainbows then.

There was a slight whimpering coming from Legkna, but I knew he was playing. Especially when he crawled over by my side wrapped his arm over my chest, bringing the two of us nice and close.

"Rainbows are so gaudy," Legkna mumbled in my ear.

"Uh-huh," I responded, wondering what he was getting at.

"So vibrant, but honestly no harmony aside from the fact that they go in order in some way, from warm to cool," he continued. "Though they are pretty, I suppose."

"I suppose," I said. "Shame there's not one to look at right now."

As soon as I said that, Legkna sat up. "Oh, really?"

"Yes." I glanced up at him, wondering what he had in mind.

"Wish to make a small bet?" he ventured. "If I make a rainbow app-"

I stopped him before he could continue. "No. I refuse to fall for that again."

Legkna looked a bit dejected that I found him out so quickly, but he soon smiled again. "Ah, well, I can still make a rainbow for you if you wish?" He looked up at the sky, still smiling.

As I got myself up into a sitting position, groaning slightly at having laid down for so long, I could hear the soft lapping of water upon the shore, accompanied by a cool breeze that brought with it a faint scent of some sort of sweet-smelling flower. I looked to the source and saw two of Legkna's four spirits before him.

"Aqua," Legkna said, "please, create a stream of water towards the air for me. And Ventus, please use your wind prowess to disperse the water finely high into the air."

The water and wind spirits both nodded before they set forth using their powers. The water spirit set forth a stream of clear water high into the air while the wind spirit created a strong yet refreshing breeze that tore into the stream of water, scattering it into various thin streams of water, though nothing seemed to happen as a result of this.

"Oh," Legkna said, and looked thoughtful for a bit. "Perhaps. . . Aqua, Ventus, try and. . . and. . . create a thick mist or. . . or. . ."

"Make a rainbow?" I suggested.

"Or that."

With that, Aqua and Ventus changed their approach. Aqua was really all that was needed to create a rainbow due to her immense abilities in controlling water. She created a fine and heavy mist towards the sky so as to have the sun's light pass through the thin water. With all the water she had created, I began to see a numerous amount of rainbows.

"So gaudy," Legkna said as he wrapped his arms around my stomach from behind. "So very, very gaudy."

"They're not as gaudy as you," I teased with a chuckle. "What with all that fur and feathers and flowing sleeves. Just add more color and you may be as gaudy as a Grand Peco."

"And you're one to talk?" Legkna responded. "With three scarves? And that lovely hat?" He proceeded to remove one of my scarves, which I protested to with mock anger. I then proceeded to chase Legkna around in an attempt to get my scarf back. It wasn't terribly hard, as I could outrun him, and I tackled him to the ground, trying to take my scarf back.

"Give it back!" I cried, tugging at my scarf.

"You don't need that many," he replied before letting go.

"You don't need that collar of yours," I said in response as I started putting my scarf back on as I laid on Legkna. As I put the scarf back on, I thought I felt a drop of moisture upon me and looked up.

"It's raining," Legkna said, stating the obvious. When did it get so cloudy?

My hat, where's my hat?

I got off Legkna quickly and started to look for my hat, but it wasn't in sight. Oh, did Ventus blow it away somewhere?

"Looking for this?" Legkna called from behind me.

Turning around, I saw him wearing my hat and he stuck his tongue out at me, teasing me.

"Hey!" I started to chase him again, though I didn't try to overtake him or anything. In fact, I didn't get my hat back until we were under some shelter.

Eternity

"How long does an eternity last?" I asked Noctus.

"Um, forever," he answered.

"But how long does forever last?" I persisted, knowing I would eventually annoy the maestro with my questions.

"A long time," he answered. I could hear the annoyance that was creeping into his voice.

"And how-" I started before Noctus interrupted me.

"Pray tell, why are you asking?" Noctus turned over onto his side to face me, his face partially hidden by the pillow his head lay upon.

I pulled the covers up to my chin before answering. "Don't you ever like to question things?"

Noctus grabbed the part of the covers I held. "But you asked me that about five times this week already, and the week isn't even half over yet!"

"True," I answered, and turned my gaze to the off-white ceiling. It was smooth and had traces of a marbled pattern to it.

"An eternity," I said softly. "That is how long I wish to live sometimes, but. . ."

His warm body pressed against mine, his arm wrapping around my chest as he pulled close to me.

"But what?" Noctus whispered in my ear.

Struggling in his grasp slightly, I managed to turn to face Noctus before I gave him my answer. "But I would rather spend a short life with you."

I liked seeing Noctus smile. That was better than living an eternity, at least for one such as myself.

Death

The waves of energy are so visible in front of my eyes. I can feel the energy pulse across my bare skin, making me shudder. How powerful is this spell? I give a prayer, quick and silent, to Odin or any deity that it will wipe out the heinous monster that will threaten the land.

Everywhere around us the large rocks and the sharp stones continued to fall all around us; I can hardly keep them off Legkna as the spell continued to form.

In front of Legkna is the spell circle he drew with pure energy, so pure that it glows with a harsh white light. The circle continues to move slowly, almost with purpose as the spell continues, and it is either the spell itself or just the ominous situation but the wind is blowing fiercely. I just lost my hat to the winds, but I feel that it would matter not whether I went for it or not. There is the feeling inside of me that this will be my last battle, regardless of whether or not this spell destroys the monster.

Almost as if he is controlled, Legkna moves his hand to the spell circle, to the middle of it, as the waves of energy become white and lash out everywhere. I can hear him speak now, almost to the energy itself.

"Oh spirits of the wind and the water, the fire and earth, take from me my life and my soul to grant me the power to destroy this beast," he says. My heart jumps slightly at his words, but with our current situation, maybe it will not matter. Legkna continues on with his speech or spell, adding, "Take my entire being if you wish, as I now cast this one final spell with all my might."

Despite the grim situation, I almost want to laugh at the words. They sound so odd, so cliché almost. Maybe he is speaking to his own spirits.

The wind grows harsher as Legkna plunges his hand into the spell circle. It looks almost as if he is pushing the circle forward. But then he throws his hand back as if he had a spear. What he does next, I cannot tell, for the white energy becomes too much to look at, they are so blinding now.

Even with eyes shut tight, I can see the whiteness go past and a scream of pure rage and agony. Did he do it?

The white subsides but the wind does not. I hear a soft thump and open my eyes to look. All I can see now in front of me is the side of my dear love, the one whom I have spent so much of my life with. His hair obscures his face as the wind now shifts oddly, as if to hide what I do not wish to see.

Even without touching him, even without making a single attempt to find a sign of life within him, I know he is dead. His soul has left him, I can feel the loss.

Dropping down on my knees next to him, I pull his body close to mine and dare not gaze into his blank and soulless eyes. There is nothing in them anymore.

Around us the rocks continue dropping, bigger and closer. The end is near for me; I will be crushed to death.

I glance up desperately at the creature, the hideous brown wretch that has caused innumerable deaths so far in just this town alone. My heart sinks to see that the wound the spell inflicted upon the beast is nothing more than a scratch at best. It may have caused the beast some internal injury, but that is impossible for me to tell.

The falling rocks shake me to the core, as one lands directly in front of my face, nearly taking my nose off.

I'm going to die.

I'm going to die.

I'm going to. . .