Rays of sunshine shone upon Evie's hair as she shifted comfortably in her bed. She had overslept. And she would have slept much longer, if she wasn't awoken by a loud banging on the door. "Evie!" a familiar voice filled Evie's ears, "EVIE!" the banging grew louder. Although unwillingly, she opened her eyes. "Lann, is that you?!" she screamed back at the voice.
"Yes, it is! Come downstairs!"
"I don't want!"
"You have to! You'll miss-"
"I don't care! Leave me alone!"
"Just open the damn door, Evie!"
Still half asleep, Evie scurried over to the door. As she opened it, she was greeted by Lann's furious face. "What?" she said, annoyed.
"I've been calling you for ten minutes now and this is how you reply?!"
"Ten minutes?"
"YES! I can't believe you didn't hear me!"
"Who told you to wake me up? I can take care of myself, by myself!"
"Apparently you can't. You're an hour late."
"For what?"
"You agreed to help us with the Kraken!"
"Oh."
Taken aback, Evie finally agreed to go downstairs. She slammed the door shut before she changed into her Wonderland set.
Later in Malina, all seven of them were prepared for Kraken. It would be a terrifying fight; the Kraken was the devil in water. Evie had been assigned to the top right tentacle. The thought of fighting it frightened her, but she wouldn't let it on. After all, she WAS the bubbly mage everyone adored, or was she?
Fiona made sure everyone knew their positions before departing. Although Evie didn't like the thought of Fiona giving the orders, she had to go along with it. Fiona was a quiet mercenary, respected by all – but when it came up to ordering people, Fiona did her bidding well.
"...And Evie is assigned to- Evie?" Fiona's steady voice woke her up from her daydream.
"Oh, sorry."
"What are you assigned to?"
"The top right tentacle, Fiona."
"And before we depart, once you reach the tentacles, DO NOT let them destroy the wreck. Clear?"
"Yes, Fiona."
"Okay, then we're all ready. DEPART!"
As the boat departed, Evie was, once again, lost in her own thoughts.
The boat took hours to reach the land of the Undead, or as Evie liked to call it, the Ship Graveyard. Once they reached it however, there was no turning back.
The green, starry sky, bright full moon and rain were frightening; but they had a calming effect, once you got used to it. Sometimes, Evie would wish to disappear from this world of crimson, and dream about her own world. She wanted to do so now too, but a certain person kept her from doing so.
It was Lann. Evie didn't like the strange way he was staring at Fiona. It was like he was daydreaming about her, and Evie couldn't explain why it bothered her so much. Then a thought occurred her. Did she... like him? Perhaps that would be the only logical explanation. The strange feeling she would get around him, how it bothered her to see him with other women, and even how her cheeks flushed around him. It all had one explanation: she liked him. Liking sure was a strange feeling. Evie once again glanced at Lann. He was now talking and laughing with Fiona. Evie felt her heart skip a beat, and quickly looked away. It bothered her. The way he talked to Fiona, that is. It would make her annoyed and her heart ache. And there was only one way to make it stop; to confess her feelings. In the end, she decided that once the battle was over, she would confess.
Then, suddenly, Evie stood up. She exclaimed,"Listen everyone, the Kraken is getting close. I can feel him." As she finished her sentence, she was swarmed by everyone's questions.
"Really? Where is he now?"
"You can feel him?"
"Is he slimy?"
"Scary!"
"How does he feel?"
Before Evie could answer any, Fiona shouted,"Alright! Prepare your weapons!" Evie scowled. Once again, Fiona had taken her spotlight.
Once everyone had prepared their weapons, led by Fiona, they stepped out of their current boat onto a nearby ship wreck. That was where the battle would take place. It was dangerous alright, but they couldn't dare to risk losing their only chance of escape.
As Evie stepped onto the wrecked boat (that happened to look more like a platform), she immediately started feeling uncomfortable. 'Calm before the storm.' She thought.
The rain was lightly thudding against the wood of the ship wreck. Somewhere in the distance, there were storm clouds. Evie's hair and clothes had already been soaked thoroughly. She squinted. Even if you looked as hard as you could, you couldn't see the end of the Ship Graveyard. Evie bent down and touched the platform. It was unstable and easy to lose balance on. She would've picked a different place, because- "Evie!" Her series of thoughts had been interrupted.
"WHAT!"
"Come and sit around the campfire with us!"
She spun around. There they were, her teammates sitting around the campfire. She slowly walked over to them and as she sat down, she asked, "How did you make this? It's raining."
"Just a speck of anti-water dust." Vella responded in a bored manner.
Evie didn't ask more. Over the years with her friends, she had somehow learned that there were times when you just didn't ask.
Sitting with her legs stretched together, Vella was semi conciously staring at the endless sea of wrecked ships. She was a great fighter and friend, if you got to know her well. Otherwise, she seemed reckless and hard to approach, but was an agile, twin sword wielding mercenary.
Evie smiled to herself as she stared into the burning flames of the campfire. She would've laid down, but her cloth armor was soaked enough as it was. She thought that wearing heavy armor was definitely not the thing for her, but it had its own advantages. As for example, you could-
"Hey, Evie?" Lann carefully said.
-tank hard hits like Fiona so-
"Evie?"
-if you got hit hard you wouldn't-
"Don't ignore me, goddammit Evie!" Lann screamed into her ear. As much as Evie tried to ignore him, too much was too much.
"Argh, Lann what the hell?!"
Then, she realized everyone was staring at her.
"Hey Evie, we know you're uncomfortable about being here, we all are, but you're acting really strange today." Fiona said softly, "Are you sure you're okay? We can go back if you really need to..."
"No, I'm fine, thanks."
"Seems more like she's finally cracked to me." Lann laughed.
Evie didn't reply. Instead, she was busy staring at the ground.
"Uhh, guys, she's really out of it..."
She touched the ground with her index finger gently. It was slightly vibrating, and becoming more unstable. She grabbed her scythe, and clutched it in her trembling hand.
"It's here." Vella said and stood up. Then, a large tentacle emerged from the depths. It grabbed the side of the ship and started pulling it underwater. Luckily however, the ship was quite large, making it hard for the tentacle to pull underwater. Still, the boat swayed under the tentacle's pressure. Suddenly out of nowhere, another tentacle appeared on the other side of the boat. Then several more tentacles appeared. They started pulling at the ship, to such extent it looked like the ship would break apart any moment. Evie was hopelessly staring at the tentacles. Just then, she felt someone push her away. A second after, one of the tentacles crashed into the spot she'd been standing on.
"Watch yourself Evie!" It was Lann. He was looking at her, wide eyed and breathless. She looked around and noticed that the tentacles attack anyone in sight. Her friends were struggling to keep them off.
"The ship is about to break apart. Can you do something about it? Alchemy?" Lann was serious. Evie desperately looked around for something she could use, but it didn't help. Searching in her mind at this point was like searching for a lost headband in a foggy field. She tried harder and concentrated. Her head felt heavy and unclear, it was no point. But then it hit her. She glanced over at Fiona, who seemed to be having a hard time with two of the tentacles attacking her simutaneously. Evie grabbed her scythe, and together with Lann she ran over to help her.
"Fiona, Lann will take care of them. Come with me!" Evie commanded.
"Wait what?! I never-" The poor man exclaimed surprisedly. But before he could finish his sentence, Evie and Fiona were already out of sight.
"Fiona, can I borrow your shield?"
"What for?"
"Just trust me."
As Fiona was passing her shield to Evie, there was a quick, but prominent glint in her eye that showed she was uncomfortable about it. Evie smiled nervously. It was rare for someone as distant and reserved as Fiona to show any emotion at all.
Evie placed the shield on the soaked, rotten wood of the ship, she couldn't help but wonder about all the dead spirits there. 'No, now is not the time. Focus Evie.' She thought to herself. She placed one hand on the shield and another one on the wood. First, she would have to copy the material of the shield, all of its elements. Normally, this would've been an easy task for Evie. But not now, not in the middle of nowhere with a Kraken attacking the boat. Not now, when everyone relied on her. She glanced nervously at her teammates. All of them were having a hard time, even Vella who grew up at the sea. Evie's eyes widened as a hand landed on her shoulder.
"Relax, Evie. You can do this." It was Fiona. Evie was genuinely surprised. Never has this happened to her before. But before Evie started daydreaming again, she stopped herself. Instead, she focused on the shield. After a while, she managed to successfully copy the elements of the shield. She put her hands on the wooden platform and concentrated on converting it. One by one, she changed the elements using magic.
"Finished!" She exclaimed. The wood was much more steadier and easier to walk on, and since Evie hadn't changed all the elements, the wood could still float and wasn't as heavy as a shield. Evie handed the shield back to Fiona and grabbed her scythe.
However, before she could stand up, her and everyone else were pushed back by a giant wave. Another one followed, and the platform shook uncontrollably. As Evie glanced over at her friends, she saw they were all rolling on the ground and trying to avoid the quick attacks of the tentacles. Suddenly, the boat started swaying. Evie flew to the other side of the boat and crashed into Lann, who was desperately trying to avoid the attacks of two tentacles at once.
"Goddammit watch where you're-" Lann said angrily.
"Flying? Crashing? I don't think so!" Evie snapped at him.
But before neither of them could say anything more, the boat staggered and swayed once again.
Evie felt her body losing balance. As she was about to fall over, she felt someone catch her by the arm. It was Lann. Evie felt her cheeks burn and quickly looked away.
"Won't you thank me?" Lann demanded.
"W-what? Why would I need to say thanks to someone like you?" Evie said, hiding her burning cheeks behind her fingers.
"We don't have time-" Before Lann could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by a loud, howling noise. Evie's eyes widened in surprise. The boat's swaying was wilder than before, and all the tentacles suddenly grabbed unto the boat, as if in attempt to pull it underwater.
That was, however, not it. Evie stared at the tentacles' sudden change in behavior, eyes scanning the area. She thought it was trying to pull the boat underwater, but why now? Evie gasped. A small, gray bump emerged from underwater. However, what seemed small at first quickly turned out to be a large, five foot tall octopus-like head. All of Evie's friends gasped. Evie could tell they were scared, confused, nervous. She, herself, would've run away a long time ago, weren't it for her friends.
Before going out to fight the Kraken, Evie had read many myths and stories about the Kraken. However, every one of them had failed to describe just how frightening it can be. Sharp, human sized fangs. Octopus like grey head. Eight red shining eyes. It roared. Evie's ears were filled with a sharp, screeching noise.
Evie stared at the Kraken's head with terror. She had faced death many times, yet why was she so scared now, of all times? All of her friends were taking their positions. Yet, Evie couldn't bring a muscle of her body to move, as frightened she was. 'You have to do this... Like you always do!' Evie tried telling herself, but it was no use. Her body refused to move. She was standing, hopelessly watching her teammates struggle.
"Evie." Lann said, "Get a hold of yourself!"
"I - I can't..." Evie whispered.
As she finished her last word, Lann pushed her forward and she stumbled. Instinctively, she smacked Lann's head with her scythe.
"Ouch!"
"Jeez, Lann, you-" Evie stopped mid sentence, "Oh, it's better now! Thanks, I guess." She grinned her usual, bubbly mage smile. And with that, she ran off to face the tentacles.
Lann glanced at the running Evie in a surprised manner. 'Whoa, that's unusual. I was expecting her to be really mad...'
Nervous. Scared. Uneasy. Afraid. All these feelings were jumping around in her head as she ran towards the tentacle. She was terrified of what's to come. Nevertheless, she kept on running. She couldn't back away - not now, not ever. Her friends relied on her, she couldn't let them down.
As she got close to the tentacle, or more precisely, what could've been a tentacle if it weren't so hideous, she planted a mana pistol. It was one of her own inventions; a plant like pistol that fired green goo at its target. It wasn't nearly as powerful as she intended it to, but it could work as bait for the tentacles.
And it did. As it started firing green goo at the tentacle, it immediately attracted its attention. The tentacle aggressively attacked the mana pistol. Taking advantage of that, Evie managed to land a series of hits, each consisting of violent swipes with her scythe. As her last attack of the series, she smashed her scythe into the tentacle. With her free hand, she made a gesture that seemed like she was taking an invisible object out of the air.
This was her scythe battle strategy. She had somehow managed to discover a way to apply curses, if you will. Technically however, they weren't curses. Evie was capturing small parts of the target's soul; and by snapping her fingers, she destroyed them. Its effectiveness depended on the power of the target. Were it to be small and powerless, one snap could kill it. But were it to be something as large as the Kraken, it was extremely difficult for Evie to find and capture a part of it. In most cases, she would only successfully capture a little part of its soul, making it frustratingly weak.
And that weren't all the tricks up her sleeve. She also had a special way of dodging attacks. She would disappear and appear someplace different; teleporting, if you will. Like most of her magic, she didn't really know how she did this.
Suddenly, she felt something slimy wrap around her waist. Evie's eyes widened and she gasped. It was the tentacle, which was now lifting her into the air. Evie wanted to escape, but the tentacle's grasp was too strong. It wouldn't let go of her, and Evie was overcome by a feeling of powerlessness. Just like the time she watched her parents get murdered... No, now was not the time. She had to get out. But then the tentacle did something unexpected.
To be continued...