I had always liked Final Fantasy, and the third one is a game that I always remember and struggle with for its difficulty...

Final Fantasy lll

Novelization for the Beginning

"Hah!" A silvery-gray haired young freelancer practiced his skills in swordsmanship. He stopped swinging around his knife and concentrated completely on his enemy, a straw-stuffed scarecrow. Grabbing the hilt of his knife tightly in front of his face, he calculated the best way to hack it down off its perch. His fingers twitched in determination. Slowly, with a scowl on his face, he scuffed his feet on the dew grass, wet from yesterday's downpour. Then he got into a battle pose. He sprinted towards his opponent, right foot first. And then...

SLASH!

The scarecrow was now in two pieces, one part on its wooden perch and the other on the wet grass. The sunlight glinted on Luneth's treasured knife as he got up from his kneeling position. Luneth put it away in his leg hilt.

"Luneth!" A young, slightly freckled, light red-orange haired young man called out to his best friend.

Luneth wiped his sweat off of his forehead with his sleeve. He expelled a breath of exhaustion and turned around, with a satisfied expression. "What is it, Arc?"

"Time to eat." Arc smiled slightly. "We got fine-quality bread this time."

"Luneth! Arc! Come here, please." The chef for the town inn gestured to them, half of his body in the Inn and the other half outside. The two of them halted their conversation and obediently padded towards the chef, their leather boots glistening in the wet dew.

When they got there, the chef went into the kitchen and skillfully chopped savory and tasty vegetables. He talked as he chopped the ingriedients into a salad. "I need someone to go to the field up north to find some mushrooms." He looked up from his cooking. "Can you help? If you do, I'll make you anything you like."

Luneth's bored expression turned into an excited one. "For real?! No kiddin'?!?"

Arc sighed, folding his arms around his robes. "You're so immature, Luneth."

"Let's go, Arc!" Luneth dragged Arc by the hood towards the indicated field.

"Wait! Chef, how many do we need?"

"About thirty will do. Take your time to find the good ones!"

"We're on it!" Luneth and Arc ran off to the field.

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"You look up there, in the cave...there are always good mushrooms growing in dank places like caves," Arc muttered. He settled down to pick the delicious mushrooms from the field.

"K'." Luneth bolted towards the Altar Cave.

Arc watched him in amazement. He would never have the guts to go to such a place! Besides, he was just joking...of course he couldn't catch Luneth anyway, so darn to what he thought. He crunched his fist. 'I'm such a coward. And slow, and weak, and...' Arc sighed and continued to pick the tiny, delicate mushrooms that grew in the field.

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"Phew." Luneth wiped his forehead on his sleeve. The sweat on his brow entered the fine fabric of his sleeve. Spelunking through Altar Cave wasn't a easy, or even close to easy. He perked up again, thinking to ask the chef for one of his delicious strawberry cream n' filling cake. But even the thought of the cake couldn't keep him awake. His willingness went down with every step he took.

"Hmf. No mushrooms here...just a bunch of rocks and funny-lookin' purple gems..." He continued on despite his fading hope. 'The cake, the cake, the cake.' Suddenly, the ground shook a little. Not enough for Luneth to notice because of his ponderings, though.

Then the quakes began to get more powerful, and before Luneth could say, "Help", there was a full-blown earthquake all around him.

"Urk...ow!" A piece of debris smacked him on the head, making him dizzy. The whole world was shaking...

Luneth entered the quiet peace of unconsciousness.

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"Hmm...that should be plenty." Arc counted the amount of mushrooms he picked in a basket. Walking over to Altar Cave cautiously, he yelled, "Luneth! We're done here!"

Expecting him to come out soon, Arc turned to go back to Ur, his hometown, and to give the chef his ingriedients.

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"Urgh...what happened?" Luneth looked all over the place, and he felt incredibly disoriented. When he looked up, he saw a hole. A huge hole, enough for him to go through and then some. The pieces clicked together, and he figured out that the earthquake must have blown a hole in the Altar Cave. Huge pieces of debris could do that. "Funny...I didn't know there was an underground passage here. Well, wherever I am, I better get out, quick."

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If I'm ever known for something, it will be reviews and short stories. My first one-shot, though...