"You must go!"
"But I can't leave you!"
Fire, flames everywhere. Every single square inch was covered in riveting, orange flames. Smoke was screening the entire place making it near impossible to breathe. It was too bright…entirely too bright. The flames illuminated the hall.
"Princess, my daughter, you must leave before it's too late! You're small enough to fit through that opening, I can't go any farther! The entire palace has been barricaded!" A small opening that led to the fresh outside, small enough to fit a toddler, was not too far from the two.
"But mother! I can't! I don't want to leave you!" Tears were flooding down the little girl's cheeks as she heavily coughed up the smoky air.
Her mom, half sprawled against the ground, held out her arm, caressing her daughter's cheek. A thin stream went down her cheek.
"Mother…" Her hand was limp, falling off her cheek. Her eyes were half closed. She seemed almost lifeless.
"Mother!" The princess cried, "Please hang on! I'll find a way out for the both of us!"
Sudden explosions erupted throughout the building. Part of the wall, now turned into burning wooden chunks, fell on top of them.
The princess screamed.
Her mother's body was completely lifeless, head entirely dismembered. The sight was absolutely horrific, too much for a little girl to witness.
That was her cue to run. Her mom was not coming back. Before she made it out through the opening, all she saw was…
Fire.
"Ahhh!"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A girl immediately stood up from a bed and gasped for breath, panting heavily. Her hand was pressed against her chest, her heartbeat beating quickly. Her long locks of brown hair were matted against her damp face, green eyes wide open.
"Charlotte, is everything alright?" A young woman, dressed in a milky white nurse uniform, walked up to the girl, who looked completely traumatized.
The girl, Charlotte, noticed the nurse and instantly nodded her head.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I just had a bad dream, that's all." Charlotte said, wiping a thin layer of sweat that covered her forehead.
…For the past few days, the same one, but with slight alterations. Why won't this nightmare go away?
Charlotte dismissed her head of the thoughts and changed the subject, "So Nurse Ada, what's for breakfast today? I'm starving." The brunette stretched out her arms and let out a yawn before rubbing her eyes. Charlotte looked around to observe the other inhabitants of the hospital room she was currently in. They all were peacefully asleep on their separate hospital beds, unfazed from Charlotte's sudden yelp.
As charlotte glanced at the patients once more, Nurse Ada spoke up, "Well, Charlotte, you won't be having breakfast here today."
Charlotte raised her eyebrow.
"Why not?"
"Your leave is today."
"Seriously?" Charlotte gasped, with evident joy in her facial expression. Her green eyes were wide open, irises dancing with anticipation, her mouth curved into a grin. She was finally going to leave this hospital to get on with her life.
"Yup, the doctors got the last of your x-ray; both your broken legs seem to be completely healed." Nurse Ada said, silently clapping her hands together.
"So does this mean I can go back to my training squad to resume my quests?"
That's when Ada's joyful facial expression changed into a straight one. The nurse slightly opened her mouth but bit her lip, trying to think of a decent approach to phrase what she was about to say. She didn't want Charlotte to become too devastated in case she verbalized the news to her in the wrong way. The nurse sighed and brushed a few strands of her ginger colored haired behind her ear, Charlotte tipped her head to the side in question.
"Charlotte…your training squad sent us a letter yesterday night. They told me to tell you before your leave."
"Go on." The brunette absently rubbed her fingers against her cheek, massaging her slightly tanned skin.
"Well, um…You were injured for quite some time from your last major quest. Two broken legs definitely increase that harm, causing you to stay at Henesy's hospital for a very long duration…"
No duh.
"…Therefore, your old Training squad had to find a new replacement."
"WHAT?"
That certainly woke up all the patients in the small hospital room. The patients all gave Charlotte long, irritated stares, clearly disturbed by her sudden outburst. Charlotte was apathetic to the stares, she obviously could care less, considering the devastating news she got a few seconds ago.
"You're being relocated to a new training squad. Your old squad had trouble completing quests with just five people, so they needed a sixth person. The squad leader decided to keep that replacement over you because…she stated that his fighting skill was of better caliber than yours."
Charlotte's mouth was wide agape, completely shocked. She couldn't believe it. Her fighting wasn't good enough for them? She knew she was a skilled fighter; fighting was her whole life. Her old squad completed quests just fine with her, plus she was such close friends with the squad members, why would they get a complete stranger to replace her?
"So this means they can't kick out the replacement?" Charlotte crossed her arms, clear anger evident on her face. She tried keeping her temper inside. She didn't want to explode in front of the nurse, I mean, it wasn't her fault that she got kicked out.
"I don't know, you should talk to your Squad Leader about that."
"Oh, I will." Charlotte frowned, throwing her bed sheet off of her.
"Well, before I give you your regular clothes back, we'll check if you can walk fine."
"All right, fine by me."
After the nurse called an assistant to watch Charlotte as the brunette took her first steps in weeks, she finally got changed into her clothes from her hospital gown. Charlotte absently dusted her brown tunic with her hands before putting on her sweatpants. She shook each of her legs once more, making sure they were completely healed. No pain, Charlotte sighed in relief.
"You'll be okay on your own, right?" Nurse Ada said, as she handed Charlotte's rather large bag to her.
"Of course." Charlotte replied, effortlessly throwing the bag over her shoulder. She was used to lugging such heavy objects around, intense training with heavy built weapons helped out a lot, "Later."
She wasn't coming back. Someone like Charlotte vowed she would never require medical care like that again; it tainted her strength. It made her feel weak and helpless, which was the last thing she wanted to ever feel. The brunette opened the front doors of the hospital and inhaled the fresh, warm air that entered the room. She smiled to herself, before walking outside of the hospital, into the town of Henesys.
Now it's time to have a little talk with my squad leader.
As Charlotte quickly walked through the streets of Henesys, she calmly pushed aside the heavy crowds of people that were standing in her way. Henesys, usually, was a fairly peaceful town, but there was a fair amount of people in the streets today. She took in all the familiar sights of Henesys, ones that she wasn't able to see during her very long stay at the hospital. The orange and yellow mushroom shaped houses, the light grey brick road, the green grass, and the friendly, welcoming citizens.
Charlotte Gleicher.
That's my full name, but please call me Charlie. Yes, that's weird for a female, but it suits me. I'm a first job Swordsman, nearing to my second job. I help Henesys conduct special quests from their squad system. As a member of Henesy's official Squads, specifically the Oak Squad, I'm assigned quests and I complete them with five other members, but there are many Squads in Henesys, so we're automatically assigned to one, only from our consent, after we reach our first job advancement. I've been with my old squad for a total of five years, since I was fourteen. I've made such close friendships and bonds with them over those years and there's no way I'm going throw that all of that away just cause of some replacement.
Charlotte let out a loud huff, coming to a stop. She was right in front of Henesy's squad quarters. The building was quite massive, even bigger than Athena Pierce's home. Athena Pierce was the leader of Henesys and Bowman Job Instructor, so that was saying something. The building, however, was unlike the typical Henesys mushroom shaped homes. It was all wood and brick, built into a tall and wide structure, consisting of dorms, rooms, different hallways. Charlotte opened the door; the first thing she saw was a high ceiling hallway, containing of lights that slightly brightened the dark room. The walls and ceiling were a wooden brown, so that contributed to the darkness. On the sides, there were doors that led to other hallways and rooms.
"Charlie! Charlie! Charlie!"
Charlotte immediately jumped at the voice and whipped her head around. She relaxed her shoulders once she noticed it was one of her friends from her squad. She had a petite frame with flamboyant blue hair that reached right above her shoulders, with bright green eyes that were really noticeable. She wore a purple magician's robe with a staff secured onto her back.
"Lacy…you scared me." Charlotte sighed.
"You should be used to that by now." Lacy grinned as she ruffled her blue hair, "I'm so glad you're okay now."
"Me too." It was then Lacy's grin turned into a small frown.
"But, Charlie, I have some bad news-"
"I know what you're going to tell me." Charlotte said, as she crossed her arms, "I've been kicked out of the squad and I'm being assigned to a new one."
Lacy hesitantly nodded, her head slightly bowed down.
"But no worries, I'm going to talk Dani into putting me back."
"Are you sure about that?" The shorter girl asked.
Charlotte frowned, "What? You don't want me back?"
"No! That's not what I meant!" Lacy shook her head, "It's just that Dani isn't one to be easily persuaded."
"Like I care." Charlotte muttered, "I'm going anyways."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
SLAM!
"What?! So you're going to leave it at that?!" Charlotte yelled. Her clenched knuckles were firm on a marble desk. A woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties, who sat behind the desk, was clearly disturbed by her sudden change in voice. Lacy was behind Charlotte, her big eyes wide open in shock.
"I'm sorry, but that's the way it has to be."
"Seriously, Dani? Is that all you have to say?" Charlotte said, in an exasperated tone.
"You know we can't kick the replacement out. He has very exceptional fighting skills."
"Then move him to a different squad, you know. There's plenty of them here."
"Our squad was the only one left with five other members while you were at the hospital, we needed a sixth one. And…we are very skilled in the way we fight. You know we have Adventurers, Legends, and Cygnus Knights who are very talented and I felt that you were kind of behind…"
"Behind? On my fighting? I practice hours per day! How is my fighting not good?"
"You do have the dedication and willpower to practice that long each day, but did it pay off when it came to our quests? Not so much. You need improvement. Plus, you just came from the hospital; you need to take slow steps at a time. That's why I also decided to move you into a new squad with a lower skill level. Their quests and missions aren't as strenuous as ours; you won't have to put such sudden strain on your legs."
Charlotte couldn't say anymore; she couldn't come up with a better response. Her mouth was open, but no sound came out. Lacy looked back and forth, from Charlotte to Dani, highly nervous from the amount of tension that was building up between the two females.
Charlotte couldn't believe it; she just got called weak from her old squad leader.
"Well then, your new Squad is the Amethyst squad. Lead by Mr Gray."
She had the nerve to continue.
"It's a good thing you came here at this time because we'll have enough time to move your belongings from our Oak Squad to the Amethyst squad's dorm rooms. Plus, and I were notified of your leave last night, so he decided to start the first squad meeting today so you wouldn't be behind."
"So this is it?" Lacy spoke up.
"I'm afraid so, we're doing this both for Charlotte's safety and our squad's wellbeing."
"Okay, whatever, just show me to my new squad." Charlotte said. She had to resist rolling her eyes, but she had a great excuse for being pissed off.
"So the dorm rooms for the newly formed Amethyst squad are right around the hallway."
The Henesys squad building was divided into several dorm halls, each for the squad members to reside in during their quest durations.
Charlotte was trailing behind Lacy and Dani, obviously reluctant about heading to her new dorm room. She shifted her bag that was carefully strapped behind her back; uneasiness was harboring her. Those thoughts kept haunting her, right in the front of her mind. She never felt like such a failure, being kicked out of her squad because she wasn't strong enough for them. It was such a huge let down, especially when her best quality was her everlasting strength.
"Here we are." Dani said, pointing to a door at the end of the hallway, "That's the entrance to the Amethyst dorm, it's similar to the Oak one, but less refined."
"Less refined?" Charlotte questioned, then muttered under her breath, "Of course, cause this squad is the lowest of the low."
"Stop being so bigheaded for once, Charlie. Who knows, the Amethyst squad might grow on you." Dani replied.
Charlotte glared at Dani as she gritted her teeth, taken aback from Dani's insult. When the brunette was about to shout out a witty response to her old squad leader, Lacy interrupted.
"Dani!" The short girl sighed, she wasn't ready for another fight to escalate between the two.
"It's true." Dani crossed her arms, "Charlotte might learn a thing or two."
The swordsman huffed, before grabbing onto the doorknob of the dorm entrance.
"Well, I guess I'll see you later, Lacy." Charlotte said, ignoring Dani. She definitely wasn't in the mood to hear anymore of Dani's biting remarks.
"Later, Charlie." Lacy said, "Good luck…"
Charlotte nodded her head before opening the entrance and heading inside. She quietly closed the door behind her.
Hello, new dorm.
The residence didn't look all too bad. It certainly didn't compare to her old one though, which had larger rooms and better quality furniture in general. There was a kitchen in front of her, with a small stove and a sink. Cabinets were placed on the walls to store different types of eating and drinking utensils, just like her old dorm at the Oak Squad. The other side of the room had a couple of couches with a table in the midst of them; that looked like a lounging room of some sorts. On the far back, there was a flight of stairs that led to the second floor.
It looked like she was the only in here, so far.
Charlotte dropped her book bag and went up the flight of stairs, to explore the dorm further. There were three doors, each that led to a small spaced bedroom that contained a bunk bed, a dresser, a cabinet, and a closet. The bedrooms were pretty empty because her squad members haven't unpacked yet. Charlotte went over to the two other doors. The brunette peaked through the forth door and saw the bathroom, the only bathroom in the dorm.
"…and while we're waiting for our members to assemble."
Noise. Someone was here too…more like some people, actually, considering that the voice seemed to be talking to an audience. It had to have come from the last door she didn't check.
Charlotte tip toed, making sure to keep quiet as possible. She poked her head through the fifth door; she nearly let out a gasp.
A man, in his prime thirties, was in front of the room, he was doing all the talking. That was definitely the Amethyst's squad leader, Mr Gray. He was lecturing about something to four other people who looked not far from her age, sitting in separate desks. Those must have been the other members. had scraggly, brown hair with an unkempt appearance to his features. He wore a long lab coat-like outfit that made him look like the typical scientist. Some of the buttons of his coat were messily buttoned together, his sleeves were slightly stained and masking his hands, and his black shoes were slightly torn at the edges, making his whole composure look shabby.
Charlotte leaned her head in closer to get a better glimpse of the members that was when she tripped forward from leaning in too far. Everyone's heads immediately turned to the fallen Charlotte.
Thump!
Oh shit. Nice entrance there, Charlie.
"Are you alright?"Mr Gray immediately ran over to Charlotte and held his hand out to help her up.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Charlotte replied, as she stood up by herself, not bothering to take Mr Gray's hand. The Amethyst squad leader awkwardly placed his hand behind his back, surprised that Charlotte ignored his polite gesture. The other members took her eyes off her, as if nothing happened.
"I see you're the fifth member?"
"Yeah, I was the one kicked out from the Oak Squad." Charlotte bluntly stated, not afraid to hide her bad mood.
"Uh…What's your name…?" asked, not sure of how to respond to that.
"Charlotte Gleicher, but please call me Charlie."
He nodded his head, ignoring Charlotte's harsh tone of voice, "Welcome to the Amethyst squad; take a seat. I was going over our squad's rules and soon well go over the first quest we're going to do tomorrow, once our sixth member gets here. After that, I'll take my leave for you all to get to know each other."
The brunette nodded and walked towards the seats, looking for a good desk to sit in. She took an extra look at all the members. The first one she noticed was a girl, who looked no older than 16. She had jet black hair and dark brown eyes with a pale complexion. Her hair was straight, reaching down past her shoulders. She wore a red Nightshift with red shorts and black boots; she looked to be a first job rogue. She had an innocent, perky appearance.
The member sitting at the desk behind the jet black haired girl was a boy who looked quite anxious. He had a shy and nervous composure. His large green eyes were unsteady, irises shifting back and forth to avoid staring straight at Charlotte. He had a young face with short, disheveled dirty blonde hair. He wore an ordinary grey t-shirt with green pants that were too big. He didn't seem to be in his training armor.
The next member who was sitting in the one of the desks next to the shy kid, was a young woman who looked around Charlottes age or slightly older than her. She had a neat appearance, dressing in conservative magician armor, specifically a purple split dress with white split pants that had puffed ends. Her straight, long hair was dyed a dark purple with slight brown roots of her real hair growing in.
The fourth member, who looked to be in his early 20's looked quite intimidating. He had a medium, tall build, probably towering over the 5'5" Charlotte. He had scraggly red hair with medium sized red eyes that were quite fascinating to look at. He wore a traditional black Hwarang shirt with red lining for the sleeves and brown Jangoon pants. His shoes looked to be made of some sort of metal. This guy was probably a higher level warrior than she was.
Some from the lowest squad can definitely not have a higher skill level than me…
Charlotte sat down in a desk, which was a couple of seats behind the perky, black haired girl.
"Okay, so let's move on."Mr Gray said, "You guys will be staying in this dorm during the duration of your quests. Other squads are different, of course. Each quest of ours will take around a week to complete. They're rather simple, since this squad is starting out."
My old squad's quests took just a couple days to complete…
"As we progress, we'll get onto harder quests which will test your skills as first jobs. Since I'm new to the Henesy's Squad system, I'm going to have to adjust to all of this-"
Knock. Knock.
Everyone's heads turned to the source of that sound.
"Ah! You must be the last member!"
A guy with a rather uninterested expression stood by the edge of the door; he nodded his head. He looked pretty taciturn with his straight face and slight frown from Charlotte's perspective. He also wasn't in his training armor, only wearing a white dress shirt with a blue tie and dark blue dress pants. The guy had an eerie and cold expression, his blank, brown eyes, pale complexion, and jet black hair adding to that.
"What might your name be?"
"Noah Jeffrys." He replied; his voice was soft yet hostile at the same time. Charlotte took a short glance at Noah, in which he immediately returned with a glare. The brunette was taken aback. Noah took a seat in the way back, sitting quite far behind the others.
"Anyways, we're going to skip to our first mission…or quest, whatever you want to call it. Since this is our first; it's going to be pretty simple. Since Vayen's army is spreading; we, as the lower ranked squad, decided to help as much as we could..."
Vayen. He is the one that caused us so much grief over the past 20 years. He's gathering people from other parts of the world to increase his army; he plans to create a new world, one that will destroy. He's recruiting civilians to join his army, promising them infinite power once he takes over. Some major parts of the world even wish to side with him to help with this new world, one that is different from our struggling one today. However, some of us wish to not partake in this, a reason why the Henesy's Squad System was created by job instructor Athena Pierce to help stop the minor and major threats of Vayen's from attacking Victoria Island.
"So first order of business for you guys to travel to Ellinea to collect weapons from Ellinea's weapon shop. I contacted them ahead of time, before they built the weapons, so they'll know who you are and what you came for-"
"Well that's an awfully mundane quest."
Charlotte turned her head and saw that the older red-headed member spoke up, a scowl on his face. The brunette turned back to face and nodded her head.
"I agree." Charlotte spoke up.
The red-headed young man glimpsed at Charlotte, then back at Mr Gray.
"Well, Charlotte and Gavin-"
"Charlie." Charlotte cut him off.
"Charlie and Gavin…"Mr Gray said in a nervous tone, he surely didn't want his squad members to dislike him already, "…I already told you guys that we have to start off with easy quests, and then slowly go onwards to the harder ones. You guys are of lower skill than the other squads here, it's best to start off easy."
"I'm sure most of us are past the 'Let's take a walk over to Ellinea and deliver stuff back to Henesys' skill level. I bet a 10 year old can easily do that, without any supervision." The red-head, Gavin, said, giving the squad leader a glare.
"Yes, I bet an average 10 year old can slay off monsters in a forest."Mr Gray sarcastically stated, and then said, "This is only appropriate for your skill level."
"Like what? Snails and Orange mushrooms? That's awfully insulting to us."
"There's Stone Gollems on the way too..."Mr Gray muttered, "But this is your pilot quest, this is to test how you guys work together so we can process onto harder quests."
"Fair enough." Gavin sighed.
After went over our necessities, such as our weapons and armor, supplies, and map for our first quest, he was finally off to leave them.
"Tomorrow morning, guys. That's when I come back and start your quest. Now introduce yourselves. You guys will be working together for a very long time. It's best to get to know each other."Mr Gray said before leaving the six of them alone.
The squad leader quietly shut the door, leaving the six Amethyst members alone.
It was…
…quiet.
Every stared at each other for a while, making for a very awkward silence. Charlotte wasn't so surprised…she was sure that nobody wanted to be in this particular squad. The mean looking jet black haired guy, Noah, stretched his arms before standing up from his desk. Everyone's eyes were on him.
And you know what he did next? He left the room and shut the door behind him.
"What a nice guy…" The young jet-black haired girl spoke up. She had a lively and charming voice.
"I'm not surprised he left; I would've done the same." Gavin said, "This squad is just pitiful."
"Then why'd you come here?" The girl asked.
"I'm being forced to. I did a few violations back at my old squad and they kicked me out. In order for me to return, I have to complete a set number of quests from this squad as punishment." The red-head said as he cracked his knuckles, "The squad I was in was one of the top and most experienced squads, now I'm being demoted to this one."
"At least you can return to your old squad, mines basically kicked me out because of some replacement." Charlotte spoke up.
"Sucks for you, klutz." Gavin replied, not facing Charlotte. He referred to her not so graceful entrance earlier.
"Way to be encouraging." The brunette scoffed.
Gavin grinned, "So what about the rest of you, why are you guys here?"
"Well, I'm starting out on this squad business. I became a rogue just a month ago….so yeah, I'm actually pretty excited for this; I've never been outside of Henesys and Kerning City before." The jet blacked haired girl grinned, "…and I'm Kai Hartly. Nice to meet you all."
"Likewise." Gavin and Charlotte said at the same time, the two gave each other weird looks. Kai stiffled back a laugh.
"Is it my turn to introduce myself?" The purple haired girl spoke up.
"Go ahead!" Kai smiled.
"Alright, I'm Violet-"
"Like your hair." Gavin commented.
Violet nodded her head before continuing, "My old squad broke up and separated and this was the only squad available, so I decided to join. I like squad quests and I didn't want the breakage of my old squad to stop me from doing them."
"But this one is so dull and boring. I mean, taking a walk to Ellinea, just to pick up some weapons. That doesn't sound very fun." Charlotte said.
"Yeah, but said we'll move onto harder quests." Violet said; she ran a hand through her long purple hair, "And It'd be nice to go back to my hometown; I haven't been there in a while."
"So two out of six people are for this quest." Gavin said, "Nice fraction."
"Wait! What about him? We still have one more ." Kai said, pointing to the nervous boy with the short dirty blonde hair. He hadn't uttered a word.
The boy bit his lip and his head was slightly bowed down, exposing his uneasiness even more. His small shoulders were tense and unmoving.
"This one is pretty quiet. Say something, introduce yourself." Gavin rudely tapped at the boy's desk.
Violet tsked at Gavin before walking over to the boy's desk.
"What's your name?" Violet asked, crouching down to be eye level with the boy who was sitting in the desk at the moment.
"I-I'm Henry Sulliven." The boy spoke up; his voice was quiet and weak, just like his appearance. He had to be over 14, but looked much like a 12 year old.
"Nice to meet you, Henry." Kai said, "Why'd you join here?"
"Same reason as you." He quickly replied.
"So you basically became a Rogue exactly at the same time as Kai?" Gavin pressed, "You look more like a swordsman to me." The red head nudged the rather large axe that was behind Henry's back.
"N-no…t-that's not what I meant…" Henry stuttered, slightly twitching from the sudden touch.
"What did you mean then?" Gavin asked, obviously amused at this.
"I meant that I joined because….because I just got my first job advancement." He nodded.
"Hmm, well I'm going outside to grab something to eat. I'm hungry." The redhead said before loudly shutting the door behind him.
It was quiet for a little while until someone spoke.
"Looks like we're going to have to wait till tomorrow for our quest; I wonder if that Noah guy will come back." Kai said; she gripped the sides of her desk with her hands then she effortlessly hoisted her body from it and used her arm's force to jump onto the ground in front of her. She dusted her hands together before placing them at the sides of her hips.
"I think five people will be fine for a quest like this." Charlotte said.
"I guess so." Kai replied.
Soon enough, the four left the room and went their separate ways.
Tomorrow.
Amethyst squad's first quest begins.
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Please review! This is obviously the pilot chapter and I want to see how it turned out. Just throw suggestions and criticism at me, about the characters, the plot, anything.
And about the dream at the beginning, it will play a huge role in this story.
Yes, I added the Squad System to Henesys, and it's in Henesy's only. Feel free to ask any more questions, I'll either pm them to you or answer them in the next chapter. :D
Here are the character's ages:
Charlotte - 19
Gavin - 21
Kai - 16
Henry - 15
Violet - 20
Noah - 20