Second try on Rune Factory 2… I was trying to go and see if Leonel and Orland went on their own adventures. The main pairings are Aria x Leonel and Orland x Leann (And there are additional pairings as well). The adults will still all show up in time, so no worries. Aria is the older sister here, and Aaron is a year younger. Leann is the same age as Aaron. Cammy and Roy are fourteen.
Also, this story happens before Kyle had come back… (Well, people should have known that already…!)
Thursday, Spring 29th. A great storm rumbled through the town of Alvarna. The strong wind was accompanied with thunder flashing all over the sky, making the scene even more frightening than ever before. Aria and Aaron stared over to the window, looking as the wind crushed the crops they had been planting. The strawberry crops were picked off their roots and squished against the big rock beside it, coloring the stone a bright red, reminiscent of the blood of the silver wolves they had slain. Thunder flared from above, as if trying to reach the siblings with its great fury. Aria looked at the window with a great hope, patiently waiting in front of the door.
"Sis, I don't think he'll come back that soon…" Aaron said, trying to comfort his older sister who was between sobs. Tears had rolled down his cheeks as well as hers, as they had always had the same feelings when a storm hits the village. Aria started to cry hysterically, and Mana couldn't help but to feel sad about it. Kyle had left them in the same storm.., it has already been a year since that fateful day that he dared to cross the storm, and he left, without telling her. The only one who saw him left was only Aria and Aaron.
"No, Aaron…" Aria replied, wiping her tears off with a handkerchief. She kept staring to the wooden door, hoping that it would suddenly creak open and reveal the body of his dad.
"You have to be strong, children…" Mana said, before handing the two of them each a cup of hot milk. Aaron slurped it slowly, but Aria nervously drank it in one gulp, resulting in the burning of her tongue. Not long after they laughed together in Aria's disagreement, a loud shriek was heard from outside. It was really loud and scary, panging through the ears of the three.
"W-what was that?" Aaron shouted in horror, not daring to guess the source of the intimidating screech.
"I don't know…" Aria answered nervously, and then she felt her head hurt like it had never been before. She screamed a bit, and her breathing was coming in pants. She closed her ear tight, falling to her knees as she did.
"Aria!" Mana called, and tended to her child. She was down there, face looking absolutely pale and almost lifeless. She was screaming her horror out, the floor trickling with the tears she shed.
"I'm scared… father… where are you…?" she called, obviously losing her mind in it. Mana immediately carried her eight-year old child and let her sleep on the bed. Her temperature was a burning inferno, and she was breathing uneasily.
"Kyle, where were you when we needed your aid?" Mana thought, staring to the stormy sky that lay above them. Not long after, the shriek resounded again, even louder this time. "These children needed you…"
In Trieste Forest, when the monsters were inside the caves, waiting for the storm to end, something strange had happened.
A crack opened itself in the ground, then an earthen spire had risen from it in the territory of the great tree. It was covered in runes, and earthscript was written all over the stone pillar. Then a clawed, scaled hand rose from the earth, still and hard as tempered steel.
Something was happening, and Trieste Forest may not survive the warning call…
It was really a nice day opposed of the previous, and it was also Friday, which also means that it was the time for children to be in school and studying lessons about how to craft things before the following day they would be free to play as they like. And this time, when Mana was explaining about how to craft an emerald brooch, everybody looked as normal. Well, looking at it again, maybe not so normal as it seems.
Orland was scribbling notes with an inhuman speed, flipping over and over on the guide book and not missing a beat. At times he would look at the blackboard and make small notes about the current lesson, but overall he was proceeding much faster than any other students did. As expected of the genius student, wasn't it?
Leann was listening contentedly, looking at Mana's neat diagram on how to shape the emerald so to would look like a tear drop, and her mind imagining how the item would fit on her dress. She copied the diagram bit by bit, and looking at the blackboard she would try to figure what was she to do to find all those gold nuggets.
Leonel was humming through the lessons, copying the notes in a rhythm and he looked awfully cheerful. Why not? It was three days to Leonel's birthday and he was really looking forward to it. His red feathered cap drooped over his face once, only to be put back into position by the mayor's grandson himself. It was as if nothing can be done to ruin Leonel's mood these days. To be put bluntly, he was as cheerful as a clam.
Aaron was looking on the blackboard in a sleepy manner, his eyes baggy of the lack of sleep yesterday. How not? He trained with that claymore (and resulting in Mana's yelling because he had practiced it upstairs near Aria's drawer) more intensely than he supposed to be. His will to find his father was in a way undefeatable, but his body was easily defeated by fatigue. He was trying very hard not to sleep, and it went out like a nodding motion.
Cammy was slightly worse off. Well, she wasn't heavily sleepy like Aaron was, but she almost paid no attention towards the teacher's… well… to her ears… sermon. It wasn't in any way worse than how Gordon would preach every holiday, and for the reason Cammy could still open her eyes. She was instead practicing how to mix the sugar and orange in the pot to make marmalades in her imagination, making strange gestures in front of her friends.
Roy was looking at the lesson seriously, her mind filled with horror fearing what her mother would do if she found out that he wasn't paying attention he was to make one of the things he learned when he came back home, so for that he had to be really ready or he might just have to feel the wrath of a moon shadow.
Sera and Serena were chatting around by them selves, sometimes listening to Mana's teachings but mainly they would go and talk and play small games in the tables or even draw on their books. They were making small noises, but not enough to beat Mana's lectures.
Aria was the worst that day. She had been snoring off the lessons all the way! Her face looked peaceful and she even drooled on her book. Her eyes were tightly shut like the gates of Palermo shrine, and her snores were as loud as a claw dragon's. Though Mana didn't mind all of these and Orland would usually shrug the topic off, this time he was really disturbed. He gave a look that might have killed Aria if she was awake and looking straight at Orland in the eyes, and threw a ball of paper towards Aaron, who spontaneously caught the thing as it was heading straight to him, and still a bit sleepy, he read the writings inside it;
"Please shut your sister's mouth up with something… or better off, wake her up so she won't be disturbing the lessons"
Aaron knew full well how his friend was pissed off by this. So he tried to shake her sister… no avail. Whispering some words… no good at all. So he picked the last way, and he knew full well that it would pretty much hurt.
The teacher's child rummaged through his backpack and grabbed a pack of heavy spice. He made a hole on the paper container and started to pour the red powder into Aria's wide-opened mouth. Then, he counted down. 3… 2… 1….
Aria jetted up, and jumped as she felt like somebody had put some damned fireballs inside her mouth. Aaron shivered as he saw imaginary flames coming from his victim's lips and Orland was getting very annoyed by the loud noise. Sera and Serena shouted, "Fireworks!" in such a cheery way- and Leonel also Leann just watched in awe as the redhead did the fire-spewing stunt. Roy would really like to see it but he was still to craft the emerald brooch at home, and Cammy was wide-eyed at this, looking as the flame died down and leaving tears on Aria's golden eyes. To put it short, the lesson was practically ruined. The only students left were Roy and also Orland.
The ruckus continued as Aria tried to beat the living daylight out of his little brother for waking her up in such a dramatic way, and the twins cheered on them fighting and raising knuckles at each other in an utmost stupid manner. Leonel was shivering, being afraid of the fighting scene, and Leann almost cried on looking at the mess. Cammy was trying fruitlessly to separate the siblings.
"Great" Orland sighed as he took a glance at the mess. "Just great" Aaron can't get more stupid than this. He had only wanted for the class to be quiet and it turned that that kid had made everything turn for the worse. The elf would have to make sure that his friend receives his deserved beating for being such a stupid human.
Mana promptly stopped her lesson as nobody was listening to her anymore. She looked at her two children and then moved to look at them more clearly. And then… that thing on the table she had not noticed before.
"Heavy spice…" She read the label aloud. It would not be so strange for Aaron to be able to go fetch some red grass in the farm. She noticed that there were a few remains from the powder and deciding to test on her son's pharmacy skills, she took a nip of the glowing red powder.
As soon as she had let her finger to enter her mouth, she immediately released it. It was really hot! So that means that Aaron wasn't slacking off her cooking lessons… wait, even if he doesn't slack off, he can't simply make such a good heavy spice. He must have practiced a lot a way or another… and hardly as well. It hasn't even been a month since Mana had taught them on how to make spices and the kind of it. No wonder Aria was actually spewing flames!
Mana had decided; after the school was done she were to give the two some lectures about how to use the lessons given in a proper way. Children, they had even forgotten when Aria was collapsing the previous day and Aaron was screaming for mercy. She looked at the clock and waited for the last minute to be done, before….
The bell rang as loudly as a squinted chipsqueek. The riot in class had diminished long ago, just the exact time when the bell had started its first vibration. And, as fast as the late students would come dashing to the classroom, they all made their way outside rather violently, Roy and Serena practically bumping at each other in the effort to fit in the east door, when Orland just packed his book and made his way from the west door. He looked at the couple still gluing their bodies in a muscular effort.
"Stupid humans…" Orland retorted, and then he simply walked outside and to the previously called cherry blossom square, sitting near the patch of moondrop flowers. The elf flipped his book open, and picked one of the blooming flowers, then put it in the book and finally closed it. If one would be concentrating enough to examine his face, there was the faintest of smile that rose on his features as he closed the book again. Then, Orland looked at the flowers which were still blooming with all their beauty. It was the 30th of spring, and that means tomorrow they would have been all picked by Aria for her seasonal flower bucket, or else they will dry and wilt because of the immense heat of the summer that was tomorrow. Summer… the swimming season… Orland caught himself daydreaming for a moment before he shook his head off the trash thought and started to browse over the extremely thick book he had borrowed from the library. About monsters that appear in seasonal dungeons… he flipped over to the first page. It's about the monsters in Trieste forest. The first one, with apple-like body, looked pretty cute, and it seems that a single knock would send it rolling down for about ten meters.
"Pomme-pomme…" Orland spelled the creature's name. "A monster that looked exactly like an apple, and though it is shaped like the fruit, is not edible" he flipped through and through on the book about the creatures he had never seen before. Although it was just some miscellaneous information for Terrable's sake, he had piqued some interest inside the books. There were such magnificent creatures outside the common buffamoos and cluckadoodles he knew. And they were so many and colorful…
Orland was so lost in his thoughts when someone patted his shoulder, almost making the elf jump off his pure white cape. Turning around with a foul mood, he saw the Mayor's grandson, Leonel, behind him. He was wearing his trademark feathered cap and a vest which was too loose for him. Orland gave his friend a cold stare, before continuing to read his book.
Leonel was trying to annoy his friend even more, as he sat beside him and started to make comments about the books and the dangerous things that may be in the dungeons and all sorts off stuffs that were enough to fill Orland's pointed ears into their limit. Finally angered, Orland stood up carrying the thick book, and moved to a place below the festively blooming cherry tree. He sat there and started to stare at the book again.
The bell rang once more, and all the students scrambled to their respective seats. Aria seemed to be more energetic after taking such a long nap and so was Aaron. Both of them had been sleeping under the cherry tree in the west corner of the Alvarna Academy when the break had started, seemingly forgotten all about the clash they had had before.
Orland had totally lost his focus on the lessons somehow, and he looked at the blackboard blankly as Barrett, who was in charge this period, explained how to make a smash blade. Leonel seemed to be having difficulty in following his father's pace. Leann was diligently taking more notes…
On the other hand, our smart elf seemed to be wondering. Her father knew how to wield, and ultimately forge a sword perfectly, and his boss was able to do this as well. His mother, Cecilia, could share the same feelings with monsters and other creatures. And His grandfather, Egan, could hear the sound of the sprits. He's an elf; why can't he do the same?
After school had ended, Aria and Aaron dashed their way into the workshop and into the forge, happy chatters about bringing the sibling's father back echoing throughout the empty corridor as they ran. They were very excited that they didn't even realize that a figure, no, two figures were stalking on them…
The male took the crafting hammer like lifting a corn. When most children would find the hammer extremely heavy, it wasn't a surprise to see Aaron lifting it like nothing. See, he had been handling a two-handed sword in the dungeons; why should he find handling a small steel hammer difficult?
Meanwhile, Aria was taking some weird ingredients from the shelf. First was this simple broadsword, and then the stem of a plant, still lively and wiggling in her hands as if it was trying to get away. She put the sword on the metal surface and grabbing the stem as if trying to choke it, she pulled out a chunk of iron, and notably a round, light green stone, which seemed to blow winds around it. Orland looked at them, and tried to guess what they were making. Just one look and he immediately knew what they were trying to make. But they were doing it totally wrong. Orland tried to step forward but immediately fell in such a dramatic way it sent out a good amount of shocked shouting and screaming around.
Aria and Aaron, alarmed of this, made their way into the corridor to see two boys wrestling over an unapparent reason.
"Orland and Leonel, what are you two doing here?" Aria asked, separating the two kids and helping Leonel to get up. Aaron got his hands on two rice balls from the refrigerator and gave them one each.
"We were… uh… having some wild tour, that's all" They said in unison. The siblings stared in disbelief. The two of them saying the same thing at the same time… it's just impossible!
And that was it for a second generation rune factory 2 fic… somehow I got motivated after having an argument with AlRoChan in a forum… so, please Review whatever you think of it… reviews motivate people, you know?