The sun shone brightly on the small town of Battleon, glancing off the top of the Guardian tower, which stood guard over all, including the Inn.
The occupants of Yulgar's Inn awoke slowly, but some quickly, eager to start a day that could lead them to fame and fortune.
One occupant seemed to be stuck in-between. She wanted to stay asleep for a few more minutes, for experience told her that everything would still be there if she took a few extra minutes. On the other hand, she had a hopeless infatuation for one of the residents of Battleon…
Warlic, the resident mage (of an age no one was sure of) who owned the town's magic shop. His hair was grey, but face was young, set with purplish grey eyes.
And Kyna had a major crush on him. And she was rather… persistent.
Everyday he dreaded opening his shop, for the young woman would pester him until she was called off for a Guardian duty, or for want to increase her gold count for better weapons or spells… or just sheer boredom. She seemed to think getting herself half-killed was fun.
In those times, if he were able, Jackel Sano, another magic user, would come up and taunt him about how he could slay a dragon but not get rid of one girl.
It was hard for Warlic to resist the rather powerful urge to throttle him. Besides, Kyna wasn't a girl. She was 18, therefore an adult.
At any rate, Kyna didn't really care (mainly because she didn't know…) and thus, clad in her guardian armour, armed with various weaponry, and followed by her numerous "pets", she went down the stairs of Yulgar's inn, and out the door. It was time to begin the day.
Warlic waited for the annoying young woman to come through his door, bracing himself for her non-stop, almost nervous, chattering. It was strange, she was level-headed with everyone else…
She didn't come in.
She was, in fact, gone for the whole day, only dropping in to obtain a better light spell, that she had finally obtained the experience to learn, so she could defend herself against the undead more successfully, since there seemed to be a rise in their numbers as of late.
Among the relief that she wasn't there to pester him, and scare away the other customers (she was quite a scary person, if she wanted to be), there was another feeling, almost of disappointment.
"It's just because it's habit," he muttered to himself, closing shop at the end of the day.
- - -
Kyna collapsed onto her bed at the inn with a loud thud, completely exhausted. The amount of undead rising up was killing her!
A small water vampragon, Vigoratus, looked up at her with an amused expression. Aww, is the big warrior all tired out? He teased, although she would be the only one hearing him- vampragons spoke with telepathy, quite handy in bad situations.
There was also that lovely side-effect of looking like you were completely mad when you talked to them.
She glared at him. "Fuck you," she muttered.
Her other seven vampragon (Nekura, a dark vampragon, Assarishita, a light vampragon, Okibi Doragon, a fire vampragon, Rakurai, an energy vampragon, Gingitsune, an ice vampragon, Kaze, a wind vampragon, and Daichi, an earth vampragon.) seemed to just roll their eyes (hard to tell with vampragons) at her and went to sleep in a corner.
"Vigoratus, this is the third day in a row that I've been attacked by THREE undead groups!" she groaned, "FATE HATES ME!"
Vigoratus rolled his eyes. Come now, you know that the amount of undead have been rising. A war's brewing.
There was a small silence.
"Blast the godforsaken place!" she growled, "Can't it stay in peace for MORE than a couple of days?"
What would be the fun in that?
A hard object was sent whizzing at Vigoratus' head.
And missed by a good three feet (this was why she had no ranged weapons. At all).
"That's it!" she muttered, "Tomorrow, I'm taking a day off!"
And I've been suggesting such for how many days? Vigoratus 'drawled'. It was hard to tell, with telepathy.
"Shut up," Kyna muttered, "It will also give me time to spend more time with Warlic…"
Vigoratus rolled his eyes. You're never going to give up on him, are you?
Kyna blinked. "… No…"
Vigoratus snorted. You're pathetic.
"At least when I clean myself I use soap and water, not my tongue."
Vigoratus hissed and flew over to the other vampragons.
"What's his problem?" she muttered to herself, then blew out the candles and drifted into blissful sleep.
- - -
There was a magic-users meeting the following day, and Jackel Sano was pacing furiously, trying to contain his anger. The mage, like Warlic, had white-grey hair, but seemed much more… dangerous.
And he had the temper of the devil himself. Therefore, the pacing… didn't work.
"Damn it, where is that fool, Warlic?" he hissed to himself, and stormed through a portal, through the Ethereal Realm, and into Warlic's shop.
He was met with a strange, if rather amusing, sight.
The shop was a mess, with spell ingredients scattered everywhere, burn marks suggesting some had mixed.
Masses of spiked rock sprouted from the ground, like they did in Warlic's favourite spell, Earth Fury. Upon following where these spikes lead to, he found, completely encased in jagged rocks…
Warlic.
Next to him was the young woman Kyna, looking just a bit horrified at what she had done.
Jackel Sano nearly passed out from laughing so much.
"Stop your god damn laughing and get me out of this!" Warlic raged, clearly annoyed, struggling to get free, as he had been for the past five minutes.
Jackel Sano rose an eyebrow. "What, can't the all-powerful Warlic get out of a spell he created?"
Warlic's sent Jackel Sano an ominous glare, which the other wizard just smiled at.
"His hand are pinned to his side," said Kyna, "He can't move- how do you except him to cast a spell?"
"Ah, that explains it…" said Jackel Sano, "And why won't you help him out?"
"I don't know how…" she mumbled, looking down to the ground.
Warlic looked ready to kill her and Jackel Sano looked ready to go into another laughing fit.
He shook his head, amused. "I'll get you out Warlic, if only so that you can get to the meeting today…"
"Shit, the meeting was today?"
There was a pause. A very long one. "Yes… didn't you know?"
"I thought it was tomorrow…"
"Sometimes I wonder how you managed to get this far in life," Jackel Sano muttered, and with a wave of his hand freed Warlic from his stony prison.
Warlic brushed the rubble off of his robes.
"Err… sorry about that…" said Kyna sheepishly. "It wasn't supposed to do… that…"
"Stick to the simple spells," he muttered, "You're better at those. "
Kyna looked hurt. "I can do some complex spells," she mumbled.
Warlic snorted. "Not without somehow trapping me or half-killing me," he muttered.
"And, if you two are quite done, I would like to go!" Jackel Sano growled, back to being impatient now that the spectacle was over.
Warlic summoned a portal, and the two magic-users stepped through, the portal closing with a fizz and a pop.
Kyna sighed, and dejectedly went out from the shop. Could she not do anything right? It was no wonder Warlic always seemed annoyed with her. She was always around, always messing things up.
She sighed again. "Maybe I should just give up on it…" she murmured to herself.
It would be better, Warlic wouldn't have her blowing spells up in his face and she could do more battling to keep the world safe.
Yes, keeping away from Warlic would be best, for both of them.
But why did it feel like she was ripping out a part of her soul?
