Apparently the stretch of land between Iselia and Triet used to be shorter. A long time ago there were two worlds connected but separated. I never really understood how something like that could work, but then again I didn't need to. A group of people had managed to bring the two worlds together some way or another and the world was peaceful.
I laughed at that. Peaceful? For the first few years after the joining this planet had been wracked with earthquakes and all sorts of natural disasters that had changed the land. New continents had formed while others sunk to the bottom of the oceans. A process which should have taken millions of years all happened within the space of a decade. Nature has calmed down now, but we still get the occasional earthquake or volcano eruption, although people blame Gnome and Efreet for them.
Nature's calmed down, but I don't think the people living on this planet have. Sure most of the Desians are gone - though you still sometimes get a group of Desians trying to reclaim their former glory - but new threats have come together. There's this group called the Pactmakers that are obsessed with forming pacts with summon spirits, but the temples are guarded now so they're not so bad. You can still find the odd group of "angels" - those half elves that mutated thanks to Cruxis Crystals - though again they aren't so bad. Who knows where they get those Cruxis Crystals though, I thought they'd all been destroyed.
Then there's Aurion.
They aren't related to Kratos Aurion. As far as I know he's still in space destroying exspheres. I don't know why they called themselves after one of the heroes but they've set up a base on one of the newly formed islands. People have been sent over there to investigate, but whatever they've found they aren't telling the public. All we know is that they're dangerous.
I couldn't care less about all of these megalomaniacs going around. I just drift from place to place. I can never settle down in one place, and any companions that travel with me get fed up with me and travel by themselves. Not that I'm complaining. As far as I'm concerned they don't have anything to do with me.
I returned my attention to the stars, but my interest had already been lost so I rolled over to go to sleep, still thinking about the past.
-
"Excuse me...Excuse me! Please wake up!" I growled and snapped open my eyes. I heard someone yelp with suprise and saw them fall over. Picking myself up I looked down at the person. It was a boy, about ten years old with short blonde hair and a scrawny build. He quickly picked himself up and looked me in the eyes. "Please mister! My brother needs help!" I rolled my eyes at this.
"Did he fall down a well or something?" The boy shook his head quickly.
"This Wyvern appeared and attacked me but then my brother got in the way so it attacked him and now he's knocked out! Please help him!" Normally I wouldn't have bothered, but the prospect of facing a Wyvern made me reconsider. I wasn't much of a fighter but had been slowly improving. I could take out groups of Thieves and the various common monsters in the area between Iselia and Triet without working up much of a sweat and was anxious to see how much I had improved. I nodded at the boy.
"Take me to where he is." The boy gave a quick nod and started running, with me close behind.
-
"Whoa..." I couldn't help but mutter under my breath at the sight of the Wyvern. The creature was a few metres off the ground, flapping its wings and screeching at an unconscious form on the ground who I assumed was the brother. The Wyvern itself had a grey coloured skin that looked incredibly tough. I felt around in my pockets and pulled out several small but sharp daggers. I aimed at the Wyvern and threw them. Several of them missed but one or two managed to hit the Wyvern's underbelly. Giving a roar of pain the Wyvern faced me. I pulled out a short sword from my side and waited for the Wyvern to swoop. If the Wyvern knew my plan it took no heed to it and dived for me. As it approached I ducked under it and stabbed upwards hoping to inflict more pain than my daggers had. Unluckily for me my sword decided to break at that moment, the Wyvern unharmed and myself at a disadvantage. I considered fighting with only my daggers, but considering what little effect they had I raced over the unconscious brother and attempted to carry him. The Wyvern saw this and dived at me again, so I had to duck and start dragging the brother by his arms. The boy raced over to me.
"You can't drag him! He'll hit his head on rocks!" I was about to argue when I saw the Wyvern dive at me again. It was a closer miss this time and as soon as it had passed I lifted the brother over my shoulder and ran, feeling very embarassed as I did.
-
The Wyvern gave up chasing us after ten or so minutes when it saw a large group of animals grazing. We didn't stop running until we reached a small cave where we took shelter. I placed the brother on the floor and made to leave.
"Wait!" The boy yelled. "Aren't you going to help him?" I shook my head.
"Not my problem." The boy was having none of it.
"Thanks to you running away from the Wyvern it'll be even longer before he gets medical attention! The least you could do is look after him until then!" I clenched my fists at the mention of the Wyvern and turned to face the boy.
"Fine. I'll look after him. But as soon as he gets medical attention I'm going." The boy nodded.
"Let's go then!"
"Right now? In case you've forgotten there's a Wyvern around!" The boy paused, looked at me as if to confirm something then sighed and sat down. "What's his name?" I found myself asking.
"Zan. Mine's Balos. What's yours?"
"I'm...David." The boy looked at me puzzled.
"Why did you pause before saying your name?"
"Because yours seem so much weirder. I feel I've been upstaged." Balos seemed upset but said nothing and turned to tend to his brother. For a few minutes nothing was said. Then Balos broke the silence.
"I hope he doesn't die." I turned to see him with tears welling up in his eyes.
"That's a weird thing to say." Balos didn't seem to notice I was there.
"You can't die, Zan! You're too important to die! Important people CAN'T DIE!" He screamed the last part.
"Why's he so important?" I ventured to ask. Balos seemed to come to his senses. He shook his head.
"Forget I said anything." On that mysterious note he went to sleep, leaving me wondering what I'd gotten myself into.