Authors' Notes (TenshiNoAkuma): This is a collaboration between delsora and I. This project began when we both decided to make a pair of hunters on RO. Then we wanted to make an exclusive guild with just us two, so we could sneak around during WoE and lay talkie boxes in the castle to piss people off. Unfortunately, we never achieved that.

Many things have changed since the previous version. Although the tone will still be light-hearted throughout most of this, we decided to take this story a little more seriously than before. Unfortunately, this means that the free-for-all fight that we had advertised earlier will not be happening, at least not here. Apologies to the people who were looking forward to it and the people who granted us permission to use their characters. However, we will probably make a stand-alone chapter in the future of the free-for-all.

Disclaimer for the whole thing: Ragnarok Online doesn't belong to us fufufu.

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Ragnarok Online – Woosh!

Part 1 – The Loom of the Archer

Prologue

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From jellopy knife,

To wooden bow.

From blind sight,

To greater perception.

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A lone falcon circled above the forests of Payon, his hunting cry mingling with the sounds of the quiet woods. An answering howl sent birds fluttering into the sky in alarm. Payon was famed for its unique, undisturbed tranquillity, and there wasn't a better representation of this feature than its forests. Birdsong intertwined with each other and smokies scurried about Payon's bamboo groves. The quiet sounds of its resident animals added to its relaxing atmosphere. However, in a small house in the west forests, a pair of blondes, one male, the other female, were having a heated discussion.

"Okay, so who's writing this?"

The male blonde had his feet on a table as he leaned back on his chair. He was chewing on the end of his quill, an unhealthy habit he had picked up ever since he started using it. All around him and on the desk were scattered papers filled with his aimless scribbles and sketches. There was a huge stack of unwashed cups balancing precariously on top of each other to form a 'cup tower'. In a separate cup, a variety of brushes filled it, each bearing the ink stains of the owner's ventures into calligraphy. He hadn't been very successful, judging from the frustrated brush strokes and the ink stain on the floor.

The female rolled her eyes as she repeated the answer to the question he had asked her hundreds of times. "You."

The tall man nearly fell out of his chair in surprise, although he really shouldn't have been. They had been through this discussion hundreds of times. Planting his feet firmly back on the floor, he looked at her incredulously. "What! Me?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes again in exasperation. "Yes, you."

"But you've got better handwriting!"

"But people understand what you're talking about."

"…Lynn! Miara's bullying me again!"

Miara had known him for longer than needed to know his tendency to put things off until the last minute. She wasn't about to let him wriggle out of this now. Putting her hands on her hips and steeling her very best do-as-I-say-or-else glare, she said, "Oi! Don't bring her into this, or I'll convince Zao to be on my side. Zao!"

A munak and bon gun bounced through the open sliding door, wondering what all the noise was about. Their arms were held stiffly by their sides, but strapped onto the backs of the munak and bon gun was the mace known as the Punisher and a weapon called the Gravekeeper's Sword respectively. However, even though they looked ready to kill, they did no such thing. Instead, the munak, Lynn, slapped her forehead in despair. She thought she had escaped untidiness when she left Payon Caves, but living with the two blondes had tested her patience to their limits. Despite her insistence that they keep their home clean, it had fallen back into its normal state of untidiness. She had cleaned it up only yesterday! And that cup tower! No wonder she couldn't find any of the cups!

"Buck Choi!" Lynn's voice took the tone of a mother reprimanding a naughty child as she waggled her finger in front of the man. "How many times do I have to tell you to wash your cups and put them back where they belong?"

Zao, the bon gun, snickered as Buck looked thoroughly scolded. Zao always wore his signature smirk, but most of the time, it was hidden behind the torn, yellowing paper strip that dangled from his blue hat between his eyes. Watching the people around him bicker while adding a few mocking remarks was a favourite pastime of his.

"But, but…" Zao openly laughed as Buck tried to fish for the right words. "But, nature is supposed to be messy!" he told Lynn. "You don't see leaves sweeping themselves into neat little piles in the corner."

"That's no excuse!" the munak growled, waggling a finger at him. "You are living in a house, not in the forest! Houses are not part of nature. Which means the house must be clean."

Miara shared the bon gun's mirth as her brother was severely reprimanded. "Bucky, you got told!"

The munak switched her undead glare to Miara, whose smile froze in place as she realised her folly. She slowly backed away as Lynn bounced towards her. "And you!" the munak screeched uncomfortably close to her ear. "You're always eating in here! Do you know how hard it is to get glutinous rice off the floor? If you're going to eat in here, clean up after yourself so that I don't have to!"

This time, Zao laughed aloud as Miara tried to turn away the munak's continuing angry tirade. Buck ignored the noise behind him and grinned, leaning back on his chair. A wistful smile crept across his face as he looked through the window into the lush forests of Payon. They had met so many people and had made so many friends. However, with one (mis)adventure after another, life had been so busy that they never got around to meeting again. He had lots of good memories, and he was sure his sister did, although her cynical nature probably soured some of them. He touched the kitty band that lay on the table. It was probably the most poignant reminder of all the things that had happened. Buck smiled. Miara had finally stopped trying to pawn it off without him looking. That, or she had forgotten that it existed any more.

He was suddenly aware that there was a distinct lack of screaming-bloody-murder munak in the room. His sister leaned on the back of his chair to peer at the scribbles he had unconsciously marked the paper before him with. "Say, how long have we been trying to write this?" he asked Miara.

"Around a year, I think. We might have finished it if someone actually starting writing," she replied, her voice taking on that stop-procrastinating-you-lazy-bum tone he knew so well. "Honestly, all these sheets of paper are filled with your random scribblings instead of what you're supposed to be writing." To accentuate her point, Miara held up a bunch of papers and read out the titles on each one. "'Assassins with Bunny Ears'? 'The Jellopy or the Poring'? Really, who cares about whether the jellopy or the poring came first? Just start writing it already!"

Buck threw up his hands in exasperation. "Alright! Alright!" He gave in. He would have to write it eventually anyway.

Clearing away the junk on the table by dumping all the papers onto the floor (he knew he was going to get hell for doing that from Lynn later), he pulled a sheet of blank paper towards him. He dipped his quill into the inkwell with exaggerated care before he declared with mock dramatics, "This is the beginning! The start, the alpha, the unfinish, the–"

"Oh shut up and write already," Miara snapped from behind him.

Pouting at having his fun spoilt, Buck wrote one word onto the page with a flourish.

"Whoosh!"

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Authors' Notes (TenshiNoAkuma): Comments and criticism welcome :D