I started playing FFTA a few days ago, and as all games mostly do, it inspired me into a new story. This one, unlike many other, I am certain I will go far with, as in make many, many chapters. It has potential, I think. I hope.
DISCLAIMER: If I owned Squaresoft or Nintendo, I would probably be working on a plan to destroy Microsoft. shifty eyes I must eliminate you now.
"Today, we have gathered to celebrate the graduation of the Hillborne High class of eighty-nine!"
The sun shone brightly upon the large grass field behind the high school of Hillborne, a small town in the south of main Ivalice. The large, sandy-yellow school seemed absolutely empty, since everyone was either outside watching the senior's graduation or they had already gone home or left for vacation. There were a few third graders from the nearby elementary school playing by the swings, laughing loudly, which seemed to irritate the short, stubby principal who was speaking at the podium in front of the long rows of chairs on which many teary-eyed mothers, grinning fathers and other family members were sitting, all showing signs of great joy, and next to the large bleachers were the actual seniors were, all in navy blue robes and square hats.
"It is with great pride that I watch these young adults go into the world, and I know that they have really grown and learned during their time here…"
A boy standing on the bleachers with short, dark hair rolled his eyes and looked away, over the people watching instead. He smiled when he saw his mother sitting at the front, blowing her nose on a handkerchief and wiping her eyes at the same time. He looked at the other students around him. His best friend, a tall, slightly freckled boy with bright, fiery red hair was standing two rows down, grinning widely and staring at the ground before him, apparently in deep thought. Just two people away from him were another friend of the dark-haired senior, a long-haired, female brunette with a pen tucked beneath her ear. She wasn't the type to be happy and optimistic, exactly, but today she seemed unnaturally perky. She seemed to be holding in her laughs. He smiled and realized he was also at the verge of laughter, although he wasn't sure why. He looked away and stared through a window on school behind him. It was apparently the Combat Training classroom, as he saw a row of different blades, all covered in liquid rubber ("Safety first!" was printed on each blade), and he fondly remembered all the good times he had experienced in this school. And for once, he was a bit sad that school was out.
"…and I know that each and everyone here will make a great life for themselves out there and become as successful, whatever they decide to do!" Warren suddenly snapped back to hear these last words before loud applauds broke out. "Now, it is time to hand out the diplomas!" Principal Quells finished and reached down behind the podium. He stood up again and bowed forwards and said into the tiny microphone;
"Anna Allison, now a certified Soldier!" He called out. A short, blonde girl walked up to the podium and took her diploma and then stepped back into the bleachers, grinning widely.
"Ayla Amberfield, newly graduated White Mage!" Another blonde girl walked up to take her diploma.
Warren's attention wore off again, and he looked away again. He looked up at the sun and smiled. His whole body was trembling with happiness. Soon, he would be a certified Thief, and he would be allowed to duel and enter tournaments and do whatever he wanted…
"Delia Emerfelt!" Quells called out. "Now a Black Mage!" Warren looked up and saw his hazel-haired friend walk over to the podium and accept her diploma.
"Elroy Finnegan!" Quells continued as Delia walked back to the bleachers, and the red-haired boy walked up to the podium. "Now a Battler!" Elroy took his diploma, raised his fists victoriously and grinned at the applauding crowd and then walked back to his place in the bleachers. Warren smiled and thought how nice it must be to really have those privileges on paper. He fell into his thoughts again and smiled to himself. He faintly heard the names being called until someone behind him pushed him lightly.
"Dude, you're up!" Someone exclaimed which earned him a few laughs. Warren looked up and his eyes widened. He hurried over to the podium and smiled as he took the diploma Quells handed him.
"Congratulations on becoming a certified Thief!" He smiled. Warren nodded briefly and went back to his place in the bleachers, holding the diploma tightly in his hand. He got back in his place and looked at the diploma. There was some text, but there, in the middle of the diploma, 'Warren Hendrickson: Graduated as Thief' read in gold letters. He sighed and looked up. The last students had taken their diplomas.
"Now that we have given you all your diplomas, and all the congratulations and good lucks have been said, it is time for you to go and begin your summer break! Once again, good luck and congratulations…" Quells stopped for a second and looked at the students again. "…on becoming the graduating class of two-thousand five!" It seemed like these last words had triggered something, as many of the people sitting in the audience took out cameras, and all the seniors took of their hats. Then, they all threw their hats into the air with shouts of joy and celebration, and the sound of cameras flashing and clicking went off.
A few hours after the graduation, everyone had left except for a few who were saying their last words to the teachers and younger students and those who were just sticking around for a while, like Warren, Delia and Elroy did.
Warren swung in his seat a little more forcefully, trying to get higher. He looked at his sides, at Delia, who was sitting tiredly on her swing and at Elroy, who was, as always, building up so much height it was becoming dangerous to be even near the swings.
"So!" Elroy shouted as he swung by Delia. "What!" He shouted again when he swung down again. "Do!" Again, he swung by. He was coming down when Delia raised her arm dully, and the swing stopped abruptly, throwing Elroy back onto the sand behind. "…we do now?" He finished.
"It's quite obvious, isn't it?" Delia said, sighing lightly. Warren rolled his eyes, and Elroy sat still. Delia sighed again as no one answered. "We have three months of freedom. We can do whatever we want…personally, I'm going to find a good clan, get some experience in practical, real use of magic and try to find a good university to go on in."
"Yeah, same here, probably." Warren added. Elroy shrugged.
"Meh. I don't think three months is enough, though."
"Enough for a while, isn't it? It's not like we HAVE to go to university afterwards, that's why I'm spending this summer finding out if I want to advance into higher academics." Delia sighed again. They all sat quietly for a while. Warren stood up and looked around the empty, silent school yard.
"Let's go, guys." He said, his voice slightly raspy.
"Honey!" Warren winced slightly as a loud voice rang through the Victorian house immediately after the front door slammed behind him. He leaned against the turquoise entrance hall wall and kicked off his tabis and threw off his grey jacket.
"Yeah, mom!" He called back and dusted off his black jeans and his dark green shirt.
"Upstairs!" He hurried across the hall and up the mahogany stairs and into another hall. "Your uncle's package is here!" Warren grinned as he emerged to the final step and sped down the hall, stopping at the entrance to the master bedroom. His mother, Eileen, was sitting on the bed with a large, brown box in her knee. "Open it!" She smiled, standing up and handing him the box. He placed it down on the floor and pulled up the top of the box. It was filled to the brim of the box, but the top was covered in a white blanket. Warren threw it off and his eyes widened at what was revealed.
It was several piles of different gear, most of them a shade of hunter green, but what interested Warren the most was the item on the top, a dagger with a rather long blade which was blunt at the back and became sharper and thinner progressing to the front. It was slightly curved at the top, although the curve stopped abruptly into the straight back. In the middle of the blade were three square sockets on an up-down row. The dark green hilt was T-shaped, with the two sticking out-parts pointing in front of and behind the blade. Black leather was wrapped around the actual handle.
"Wow…" Warren gasped and picked up the dagger. He swung it around a bit. "It seems really big for a dagger…"
"Well, we'll have to remember to send Uncle George a thank you, right?"
"Of course!" Warren set down the dagger on the floor and looked at the other things in the box. There was a whole outfit, obviously a custom variation of the standard thief outfit. It consisted of a hunter green jacket. The arms on the jacket were cut away, and the wrists of the jacket hung to the actual arm holes on strong, green dyed strings. There was also a light, baggy, cream-colored shirt. Then there were hunter green, baggy pants and a brown belt with a silver buckle. And at the very bottom of the box was a pair of hunter green tabis, along with a medium size, beige case.
"What's this?" Warren took out the boots and looked at the case. He opened it and raised a confused eyebrow at the contents. It was all sorts of small hilt-less daggers and axes, all with small squares at the end of them. He saw a note attached to the top of the case. He immediately recognized the handwriting as his uncles.
'Like the gear? Bet you do. Heh. Anyway, you might wonder what these things are. If you saw the dagger, you might have noticed the small sockets in them, right? You might also have noticed these little fidgets have squares at the end of them too, right? Well, you see, these nifty little things are parts that can be attached to your dagger, you know, like extra weapons. They're not always that useful in battle, but they can have many other uses. Always carry the case around with you, just to be sure. I made a pocket on the inside of your jacket just for it, don't worry. Well, hope you like the stuff.
From, your fellow thief.'
Warren smiled a little at the last words and muttered quietly to himself, "Fellow thief."
Elroy sat at the edge of the fountain in the middle of Hillborne square. The square was round and quite large, the cobblestones bellow with different imprints and paintings on them, of flowers, of warriors, of vieras and nu mous and moogles and bangaas and humans…
He was very happy at the moment. Not only was the feeling of freedom after the graduation the day before still ebbing, he was very happy about the surprise that awaited him when he arrived at home. Apparently, his father had asked a weaponsmith he was friends with to make a custom sword for Elroy. It was sheathed and hanging at his side on the belt he had received with his Battler gear, which consisted of a cerulean, long-sleeved shirt and jeans, a brown vest with several pockets on the front, a pair of brown fingerless leather gloves and brown boots and a short, brown mantel hanging down to the middle of his back. He fingered the gold hilt of his double-bladed sword and smiled.
Also, he was even happier because of a certain few letters he had received that morning. They were from three universities he had been thinking about, all asking him to come and join them in September. They were all very good, and he was quite surprised he had made just one of them. He was not exactly bad in school, but he had never been seen as the smart sort of person, because he was often around Warren and Delia, and around Delia anyone seemed less intelligent, and Warren was quite excellent at a few school subjects. Nonetheless, he didn't think that way at the moment. What mattered to him was that he had actual choices in his academic future, unlike the 'forced to the best possible' choice he had imagined.
He tapped his foot impatiently. He couldn't wait to tell Warren and Delia. He looked around, at the different shops and houses around the square, hoping to catch a glimpse of Warren's slightly mischievous grin or Delia's dull stare.
"Hello." That one word set Elroy off like crazy. His mind fired up and sent a rush of chills and strange feelings through him, his heartbeat increased rapidly, and he nearly threw himself forward in fright. He drew his sword quickly and swung around and sighed in relief to see Delia floating slightly above the surface of the water behind the edge where he had been sitting. She was wearing a blue robe, brown gloves and a large, brown straw hat which cast a slight shadow across her face. In her left hand was a red book.
"Oh, hi Del." He sheathed his sword and waved to her faintly. "You shouldn't sneak up on people like that." He grinned. There was a small trace of a smile on her face as she replied calmly;
"You shouldn't overreact so badly when people sneak up on you." She stepped down on the edge and then hopped down onto the cobblestone ground. "Don't do it, Warren, he gets jumpy." She added. Elroy turned around and saw Warren a few steps away with his hands behind his back.
"Whoops?" He said tentatively.
"Ugh…" Elroy shook his head. "Well, now that we're all here…"
"Yeah, why are we here? What's the big news?"
"I was just about to tell you before you INTERRUPTED me. Please be quiet. Anyway, the big news are that I got accepted into three universities, all of them pretty good, high credentials and stuff. But some of the courses focus on clan work and field work, which is cool, so I decided it would be good to get some experience with that. So, I asked dad, do you know any clans that are recruiting? And he said, yeah, my friends clan is, I'll call him to get you in, and, well…I'm in a clan."
"That's great!" Warren exclaimed, patting Elroy on the shoulder. He held out his arm in front of Elroy and said in a deep voice, "Elroy; clan Warrior. Heh."
"Congratulations." Delia smiled weakly.
"Yeah, thanks." Elroy stopped for a second and then nodded, as if remembering something. "Oh, and you guys are in it too."
"I can't believe I'm in a clan. Me. In a clan!" Warren rambled on as they walked down the street to the town's official pub. It was a large building built out of bricks that looked like they belonged to the desert, rather than the modern-looking buildings along the street. There was a large wooden board above the wooden door with 'The Chain Mallet' carved into it, the painting of a silver mallet below. On the wall next to the door, there was a golden plate which had 'Those without official job diplomas; KEEP OUT' carved into it. Elroy pushed open the door and they entered.
The pub had a very warm and welcome feeling, with slightly hot air, everything made of wood, and with pretty, small crystal lamps mounted on the ceiling and walls. The first room was quite large, with several tables and chairs placed around and a bar stretching from the middle of the left wall and turning not far from the middle of the room into the back wall. The pub was filled with people, sitting around drinking, talking, laughing and discussing. At the end of the room, there was a large crimson, almost see-through silk cloth hanging from the ceiling across the opening to another room. There was an engraving on the ceiling in front of the cloth, which said 'Clan Lounge'.
"Wow…" Warren grinned, looking around. He had never been inside the pub, only seen it from outside. He had seen people of all sizes in all sorts of exotic outfits leave and enter the pub, in groups or alone, carrying large swords and staffs, with large creatures accompanying them even. And now that he was there, inside, he felt as if he belonged. Everyone was clearly clansmen or at least those who actively used their jobs. He saw a moogle sitting on stool talking to a bangaa at a table, putting a tiny dagger at his side and apparently making a joke, judging from the bangaas breaking into hissing laughter. Warren grinned and ran his finger across the sheath of the large dagger sheathed on his back.
"Come on!" Elroy led them across the pub and past the crimson cloth and into the Clan Lounge. It was a round, wide room with purple couches placed out across the room, paintings on the walls with round tables and chairs along the walls. Sitting by a table at the end of the room was a tall man with hazel, messy hair. He seemed not much older than the three eighteen-year olds. He had silver shoulder-armors, a chain torso armor, gray pants and brown boots, along with brown gloves and a large, flat sword which was stuck on his back. He seemed to notice them and waved to them. Elroy led them to the table.
"Guys, this is Quentin, the leader of the clan. Quentin, this is Delia and Warren. They graduated with me yesterday. Delia's a Black Mage, and Warren's a Thief."
"I see…" Quentin grinned, eyeing the two. He stopped and looked at Warren. "Nice dagger."
"Thanks." Warren replied, wondering how Quentin could even have seen it behind his back.
"Anyways, you three seem good enough. There are some things you have to know first. First of all, since you recently graduated, you will be placed in an Initiate group. There are six of you, FYI. We aren't a very big clan yet, so we don't have a name or a clan house. However, we hold most of our meetings at this address," Quentin handed Elroy a piece of parchment, "and other than called meetings, we have frequent meetings, taking place Tuesday every week, each beginning at six in the afternoon. Missions will be handed out to Initiates at the meetings. Come by today and meet the rest of the clan, don't ya?"
"Yeah, of course." Elroy answered.
"Cool! Nice that you could join us. " Quentin finished, standing up and leaving.
"Wow…that was fast…" Warren mumbled.
"Yes, yes it was." Delia added.
"Well, it was cool, wasn't it? Only four more hours till we get to meet the rest of the clan!"
"Yeah…great." Delia mumbled. Elroy grinned and put his arms around Warren's and Delia's shoulders.
"I have a really good feeling about this…"
"Grasgreen Street one…this is it." Elroy looked up down from the sign. They turned on the corner and walked onto a street next to which lines of large, mostly green and yellow houses towered. They stopped at the first one, a large green house with a wooden sign on the front reading 'Clan Baltind'. They pushed open the door and entered.
There. Mandatory stuff;
READ AND REVIEW. No, I don't need reviews to make me feel special or motivated. Nor is this a way for me to boost my ego by getting a bunch of people to acknowledge my work. No, it's just good to review. I mean, someone just gave you a cookie...what's the magic word? PLEASE. language) Review(action, not saying). So, that's my explanation of why I want you to be a reviewer. Because being curt is cool...
...did I just say curt is-
