Author's Note: Hey all, it's me again. I'm back! So, before you all kill me, lemme just say: I did NOT stop working on A Mithran Tale... Its just on a long but temporary haitus. I do intend to finish it one day. Just be patient. In regards to this story... its a prequel so you don't have to worry about any big spoilers for A Mithran Tale if you choose to keep reading (if you decide not to, i blame the author's note XD) Because it's a prequel, that also means you don't need any knowledge of my other story. Hope you enjoy this one, its taken me forever to get out of writer's block for it.

Important Information:

1) There are no spoilers for my other story in this one. So if you're a new reader, or an old one, this story only has a few ties (Other than characters) with my other story.

2) For those of you who like really long chapters... Sorry. The length of my chapters vary, so don't be upset if some are short, and others are longer. If its any consolation, usually after a short chapter, theres a longer one coming.

3) There is no set time for me to update. I'm busy alot lately. I can go months without updating a story, so if you don't mind waiting, you can put this on your alerts, and you'll get e-mailed when I update. Saves you time of checking again and again.

4) I usually respond to reviews in messages. But if you don't have an account, and leave a question or any review in general, I'll leave a space in the author's note or the end of my story to answer you.

5) Because I have a few friends reading this who don't play the game, I'm giving a bit of info on the races and areas mentioned. Later on, when new areas are introduced, I'll give a brief description here.

Mithra: Pretty much cat people. The race is mostly female. There are male mithra, but they're rarely ever seen. Don't ask me why, i have no idea. In my opinion, having scantily clad cat guys seems kinda hot, but I guess SE disagrees with me. Shame... Mithra have cat ears, tails, and facial marking (Still can't figure out whether its paint, skin color, or fur.) Mithra also speak by rolling their R's, like a purrr.

Mithra Fun fact: I've always felt my character was missing something. Everytime i log on and see my mithra character, i feel like something is off. I've finally realized what it is... Mithra on the game are missing their eyebrows! That, or mine is just defective...

Taru-taru: small cute people, who look like children. They have dark noses (i dont know why honestly) pointy ears, and adorabley cute big heads attached to small bodies. Like teddy bears. They also speak in rhymes. And some words end in "taru" such as "thataru".

Galka: Lizard-gorrilla people. I can't decide which. They have no specific gender, but are usually reffered to as male.They are known for their large size and strength. In the game's story, you can see a tension between humes and galka.

Humes: ... Humans. Duh. xD

Elvaan: Tall, pointy long ears. Known for their high and mighty attitudes. Usually seen as noble people. They come mainly from sandoria. Sandoria and bastok have bad relations, but most elvaan in the games storyline just look down (literally and figuratively) at every other race and nation.

Hope that helped clear some confusion.

Disclaimer: This applies for every chapter of this story, and therefore is only being put here. Everything besides my original characters and storyline (Aside from the history given by FFXI: Online game) belongs to Square-Enix. I don't own FFXI. I wish I did, but it's not going to happen.

Well, now that that's done, enjoy the story. Reviews are greatly appreciated.

"Duck and coverrr!!!"

"Wha- Oof!"

Suddenly, an explosion sounded from the small, wooden building - shaking its entire foundation. Smoke billowed out the windows afterwards. The scene was rather odd, and caused a few of the passing mithra and taru-taru to walk away from it quickly, feeling slightly puzzled and disturbed. What was becoming of Windurst these days?

Inside, a young mithra, of about sixteen years, stood holding a beaker with a steaming, red potion inside of it. It was capped only with a cork. A small taru-taru, about one year younger than her, was drawing himself up, off the ground and cleaning his clothes. He looked at his older friend and scratched his head nervously. "Um... Ryukah... are you surey-wurey you should be holding that without gloves?"

Ryukah only rolled her eyes and grinned down at him. "Hey, now! Who's the alchemist herrre?" She was answered with an exasperated sigh. "Aw, come on Rehabu... Just 'cause the firrrst few times it messed up doesn't mean- Yeow! Ow, ow!" She yelped, throwing the beaker up and down dangerously. Finally, she grabbed a cloth and caught it, making sure it wouldn't touch her skin. "Oooh, it's hot..."

Rehabu shook his head and looked at Ryukah apologetically. "You knowy-wowy, there's a whole bunch of other crafts you could try... I know! Why don't you takey-wakey up cooking? That's what I'm doing."

Ryukah frowned. "Rehabu, I hate cooking... Always end up burrrning myself..." She mumbled unhappily.

Rehabu dropped his head and thought for a moment. "Well, why don'taru you go to Bastok? I think they have an alchemist guildy-wuildy there!"

"You know my mom would neverrr let me go that far! And 'sides, I don't need any help with my potions!" She received a skeptic look from her tiny friend, and flicked her tail irritatedly in response. "Look, all I need is morrre practice! I'll buy myself a book frrrom the auction house later. I will make this work!"

Rehabu shrugged his shoulders and began to make his way for the door, walking languidly. "Fine, suit yourselfy-welfy." Before Ryukah could respond, she was interrupted by a familiar, loud female voice.

"Rehabu-Nehadu, where are you?! Your father needs helpy-welpy carrying some packages to the Weaver's Guild!"

Rehabu gave his mithra friend a quick, sidelong glance before walking out the door hurriedly.

"Thanks forrr helping me clean, Rehabu..." Ryukah mumbled angrily, before turning to face her workplace. The entire room was in complete disarray. Books lay in piles by the desk and tables, papers were scattered across the ground, and various trinkets were burned or covered in soot from the explosion. "Oh man... The shop is a mess! I hope none of Mom's herbs were damaged..."

She slowly stooped over to pick up some of the books that had fallen off a shelf, before noticing a soot-covered box next to the counter. "Ah, the Monthly Exchange… Please let everything still be intact…," Ryukah prayed, silently.

The Monthly Exchange, as her mother called it, was a box full of various odds and ends adventurers who stopped at the shop would trade for potions and such. At the end of each month, Ryukah would be sent to sell the items at the Windurstian auction house. Lately things had been hard on business, due to Windurst's remoteness in comparison with the other countries, so the box wasn't as full as earlier months. The loss of even one item could be hard on her family's expenses.

Slowly, she untied the ropes on the box and lifted the cover. To her relief, everything was safe and sound. All but one item.

"An… egg?" It was large; even larger then the native carrion-birds' eggs. Although there were no visible breaks or cracks in the shell, there was a large scorch mark covering it almost entirely. Not only that, but it was also very warm to the touch. "Well, let's hope it wasn't worrrth much…"

With a sigh, Ryukah placed all the items into the box and took another glance around the room. The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning and silently hoping Rehabu would remember her and come to help.

OoooOoooOoooO

The two mithra stood face-to-face in the corridor, both of their tails twitching angrily. Ryukah was the first to break the silence.

"Mom! If you just take a look you'll see everything is fine!"

Najali shook her head. "That's not the point, Ryukah! The point is therrre's no telling what could happen during your experiments. Don't you rrrealize what could happen to us if your carelessness destroys the Monthly Exchange? We would have no money- No food, no clothes, nothing!"

"I prrromise I'll be more careful next time! I'll get morrre books; study them harder before I try again!" Ryukah pleaded.

Najali fixed a cold stare on her daughter. "There won't be a next time, Ryukah."

Ryukah took a slow step back. "What are you talking about?!"

"It's time for you to grow up! You have so much potential. I won't let you become a shop keeperrr! I won't allow you to throw away your talent just to live the same poor life that I had to! Do you underrrstand me?" It was true. Ryukah knew that her mother grew up in poverty. Her knowledge of herbs and potions had been the only thing that had kept her alive. What Najali had really wanted was to become one of the famed Sybil Guards. But her life in the shop prevented her from learning the ways of combat. Ryukah understood how hard it must be for her mother to see her daughter willingly resign herself to the life of a shop keeper. She understood- but disagreed.

"Mom, what arrre you saying?!" Ryukah demanded, already knowing it wouldn't be something she'd like.

"I've already talked to the head of the Sybil Guards, and she's agrrreed to take you in as a trainee, starting tomorrow." Seeing the look on her daughter's face, Najali softly added, "You know I only want a better life forrr you, Ryukah."

But Ryukah was already turning to run upstairs to her room. "Yeah? Well what about the life I want?" That being said, she quickly rushed into her room, leaving Najali standing alone in the corridor, wondering if what she was doing really was for the best.

OoooOoooOoooO

Finally, Najali blew out the candle on her bedside table, and went to bed.

"Alright, time to pack…," Thought Ryukah, as she quietly slinked down the stairs into the shop. Sifting through boxes, she put anything she deemed useful into her travel bag. By the time she finished going through all the boxes, her bag was nearly full, and contained all sorts of potions, antidotes, ethers, and even a few elixirs. Ryukah then tip-toed into the kitchen, grabbing a few mithkabobs, as well as some gil from their savings, which her mother hid behind the fishing bait on a shelf. She felt bad for taking it, but she would need it to pay the boat fair in Mhaura.

After getting all she needed from the shop and kitchen, Ryukah made her way to the stairs. Just as she was about to ascend back to her room, a soft, red glow coming from one of the boxes at the end of the corridor caught her eye. Something in the Monthly Exchange was glowing… but what?

Cautiously untying the ropes keeping the box closed, Ryukah peered inside.

"What the-?" She whispered, while staring in awe. The glowing red object was none other then the large egg she had scorched earlier. She slowly reached down to pick it up, expecting it to be hot. She was surprised to find it wasn't hot, but very warm. What surprised her even more was the fact that the scorch marks were all gone.

After a moment of thought, she stuffed the egg into her bag, and continued back to her room to finish packing. The small voice in her head told her it was wrong of her to take something out of the Monthly Exchange, but she brushed it off, justifying her actions by deeming them "in the name of science". Besides, she decided, as a member of the household, she had partial ownership of the egg, didn't she?

Finally, her bag was fully packed. Ryukah took off the night clothes she had on to fool her mother, and began rummaging through her drawers until she found her lizard armor. It would be a dangerous journey, and she would need the protections. Lastly, she grabbed her spear and was ready to go.

Not wanting to be seen by any of Windurst's inhabitants, Ryukah decided climbing out of her window, located at the back of the house, would be wiser than using that shop door, at the front. Looking over the window sill, Ryukah decided it was low enough that she could just jump out. And that's exactly what she did.

"Sorry, Mom…," She whispered, looking back at her home one last time. Ryukah then turned, and set out on her journey.

… Or she would have, had she not nearly trampled the small, familiar figure that quietly walked up to her, a large stack of books in his arms.

With a loud thud, the books, the taru-taru, and Ryukah all fell to the ground.

"Oof! Ryukah! You should really-weally be more careful…" Whined Rehabu, quite loudly.

Before she could reply, though, Ryukah heard a voice coming from her house. "Is someone there?" She could see a candle light up her mother's room.

Without time to spare, Ryukah picked up her bag and Rehabu, and ran down the streets, and out into the fields of Sarutabaruta.

OoooOoooOoooO

"Are you crazy-wazy!?" Rehabu shouted, pacing nervously back and forth, in front of Ryukah. On the other hand, she appeared calm and collected.

After her mad dash out of the city, Rehabu had demanded an explanation, and Ryukah decided that she could trust him enough to tell him her plans.

"Oh, come on! Rehabu, don't be like that. It's rrreally no big deal!"

He jumped and faced her. The poor taru-taru was frantic. "No big deal!? Ryukah… this is insaney-waney! Do you know how many monsters are out there, just waiting to get catchy-watchy you?"

She grinned at him, and pulled her fishing spear out from behind her. "Glad you have so much confidence in me, Rehabu," She teased.

He titled his head and seemed lost in thought for a moment. "So… you're going to spear a fishy-wishy and wave it at the monster?"

Ryukah sighed. "Yep. That's exactly what I'm going to do, Rehabu. How'd you figurrre it out?" Then, noticing his shocked expression, she rolled her eyes. "Sometimes I wonderrr what's in that big head of yours… Of courrrse I'm not going to do that! I'm gonna fight 'em. I've been practicing!"

Rehabu shook his head. "But there are some really-weally strong monsters out there! You can't take all of em alone! And even if you couldy-wouldy… Would you even know where to go? I mean, you said you've never been to Bastok before…"

"I took some of my mom's maps. Don't worrry, Rehabu, I'll be ok," She purred.

"But why Bastok? I got you some more books on alchemy, so you don't need to visit the guidly-wuildy there anymore."

Ryukah thought for a moment, before taking her bag off of her back, and opening it up. She pulled out the giant egg. "See this?"

Rehabu nodded, examining the egg in awe. "It's amazing! How is it glowing like thataru?"

She shook her head. "I'm not surrre… I think it has something to do with my experiments. During the explosion, some of the potion most have gotten into the Monthly Exchange box and covered the egg… What I don't get is that there were scorch marrrks on the egg earlier today."

Rehabu took the egg from her, and examined it. "I don't see anything. Where'd they go?"

"That's what I wanna know… And it wasn't glowing beforrre either! I wanna know exactly what kind of egg this is!" Rehabu handed it back to her, and she put it back into the bag.

"But I still don't understandy-wandy… What's that have to do with you going to Bastok?"

"The man that traded this to us said he was from Bastok, so maybe I can find him therrre and find out more about this egg." She started to walk down the trail that would lead her to Tahrongi Canyon. "I'll write to you when I get therrre, alright?"

"Are you kidding me!? I can't let you do this alone! I'm coming alongy-wongy!" After a moment he added, "'Sides, I might learny-werny some new recipes I can practice!"

"Alrrright then, we'll go together." Ryukah smiled. At least now she wouldn't have to go alone.