A/N: My VERY FIRST Tales of Vesperia fanfiction! Whoot!
Since I have a bad reputation for DELETING or DISCONTINUING my fics, don't get your hopes too high. Just don't.
But, hopefully, this will be looooong. :3 And long is good. Right?
Anyway, let's get Yuri to do the disclaimer! READY!
Yuri: Ccppfan doesn't own Tales of Vesperia, of course. But she does own Windus, Sibe and Zoma. So yeah.
Ccppfan: YOSH! Let's get a move on!
Tales of Vesperia: The Falling Star
Chapter 1: The Fire
"Hey, wait up!" Raven panted as he staggered onto the hilltop. The group was having a simple picnic (made by Karol) and were NOT WAITING FOR HIM.
"Hey, old man! When are you gonna get quicker?" Yuri joked as he threw Raven a sandwich. Raven caught the sandwich and sat down on the grass. "Who knows, at my age, I'll never catch up to ye kids."
"Then practice!" said Rita sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Trust me, if you do some training I bet you're gonna be fitter than, uh, Yuri, I guess." She stuttered at the last bit and blushed, making everyone laugh.
"You're setting the bar too high, Rita," laughed Karol.
After a happily eaten picnic, the group set off towards Danghrest, where Karol would meet up with Nan and the others. Judith looked up at the clear sky and sighed. "Sometimes, I really wish that Ba'ul was here…" she said softly, feeling the Ba'ul plushie in her bag for comfort.
Repede whined.
Rita yawned suddenly. "I'm tired…" she mumbled.
"You must have stayed up late last night again, haven't you?" scolded Estelle. "You shouldn't do that again! It's bad for your health!"
"I know…" said Rita, yawning again. "But I can't help it…"
Raven smiled. "Guess a certain genius mage and old man are tired out, huh Yuri?" he said casually. Yuri shrugged it away and asked, "Where's the closest town?"
Karol opened his map. "Aspio, I think."
"Good. Aspio it is," concluded Yuri. "Let's just call it a day."
*~*~*~*~*
It was 10:00 pm, and the group had settled down in an inn. Rita was sleeping soundly in the bed on the far left, and Raven sat near the window, enjoying his second mug of beer. To Yuri, it just seemed like a normal day.
"Hey, Rita, you awake?"
Yuri turned. Rita stirred in her bed and rubbed her eyes. "Do I look awake?" she snapped.
"Yeah."
"Then no."
"What if I said no?"
"… Still no."
"…………"
Rita got off the bed and walked towards Yuri. "Say, can I have a walk in the shops? I wanna see if there are any Apple Gels; we're running out of them."
"Okay," replied Yuri. "But be quick, we'll probably be asleep by the time you're back."
"No problem," said Rita, and ran off to the shops.
*~*~*~*~*
"… and a cupcake for Estelle…"
Rita put the last item in her shopping bag. "There."
After she paid for everything, a loud roar rang out behind her.
Knights blocked the entrance and exit of the shop. The shoppers were appalled.
"LET US OUT OF HERE!"
"What the hell is happening out there?!"
"That noise! What was it?! Let me see!!"
Rita pushed herself past the angry mob and struggled to peer through the human wall the knights had seemed to form. But then, she wished that she hadn't.
Bright orange flames were roaring outside. They licked at the walls of a building and charred the wooden frame to ashes. With a pang, Rita recognized the building. No one could mistake the spinning, yellow sign, even if it was burnt.
It was the inn.
"Oh. My. God."
She could not believe her own eyes.
The inn. Was on fire. THE INN WHERE YURI AND ESTELLE AND RAVEN AND EVERYONE ELSE WERE SLEEPING IN.
"GODAMMIT!!" she cursed.
Rita shouldered to the edge of the mob. "LET. ME. THROUGH. NOW."
The knight flinched. "N-no, miss, we're sorry! But it's dangerous!"
"I DEMAND you to LET me THROUGH or you're gonna SUFFER a LOT of PAIN."
"N-n-no, miss. I-I-I'm sorry… If you really want to go through, just ask the L-Lieutenant!! It's not my fault!"
"Lieutenant?"
Rita stalked along the line of knights, until she saw a familiar face.
"R-Rita?!" he cried, obviously surprised and a bit relieved.
"Now, look here, Flynn. What am I? A mage, right?"
"Yes…"
"And what do mages do?"
"Cast spells?"
"AND I KNOW WATER SPELLS!!"
Flynn hesitated. "Well… okay. Just this once. And only… and only because you can help… Yuri and Lady Estellise…" Flynn looked down at his boots sadly.
"I will."
Flynn nodded and made a small gap for Rita to squeeze through.
"Good luck."
"Thanks."
Rita dashed towards the inn. The Aspio mages surrounded it, casting water spells at the inn, one after another. But it wasn't enough.
"Let me help!" yelled Rita as her mind whirled with the formula for the spell.
"TIDAL WAVE!!!"
The inn was flooded instantly, but the small flickering flames that were left caught the wood planks and the inn quickly caught fire. Again.
"It's no good… Damn…" muttered a mage crossly.
No… Not the inn… Not Estelle. Not Yuri. Not the old man…
"SCREW YOU ALL!!!" screamed Rita. Her now dead blastia (which she still kept in the accessory on her neck) glowed a bright, ruby red. Rita yelled like… someone killing someone else. A huge blast of water appeared and dug into the ground, sending rocks and gravel flying everywhere as it snaked towards the burning inn. With a flick of her belt, she sent the water gun shooting up at the inn, breaking the wall and flooding the inn once again, this time drenching most of the fire.
"Wow…" breathed the other mages. Whoever said Mordio was crazy had to be crazy himself. This kid was powerful; no one could deny that.
Panting hard, Rita knelt down and looked up at the inn. "Fi-finally…"
She heard someone walk up from behind. She turned to see Flynn, wide-eyed at the sight of the inn. "That's…" He looked at Rita and patted her shoulder. "It's okay… Everything's fine now. No more danger."
"Let's go in."
"Huh?"
"The inn. Let's go into the inn…"
Flynn knelt down and helped Rita up. "Okay. Whatever you want. Whatever you want…" he whispered, as he watched a single flame flicker and die in the darkness.
A/N: OMG THAT TOOK SO LONG okay. Anyway. R&R!! And the "do I look awake" part was ripped off---uh, inspired, by an awesome ToV parody vid on YouTube.
R&R EVERYONE AND UNTIIL NEXT TIMMMEEEEE!!!!! X3