A/N: Ok, so I have been writing for quite some time now, a little fan-fiction but mostly my own original work. To make a long story short, you could say that this is my first fan-fiction. At lest it's the first fan-fiction that I have ever posted, so please be nice (by that I mean please don't flame). Well that said and done, please read and review. Any input would be nice and I am open to constructive criticism (just not flames because those don't help an author develop meaning it isn't constructive). Hope those of you who read enjoy. ^^
Ch1. Horizons
It was already late morning, and a handful of the scavenging merchants still had not finished packing up camp. Part of the problem was that a fair few of the merchants had woken up early but had chosen to lounge around for a few hours instead of packing, while other merchants were new to the idea of setting up a highly temporary camp that would be broken down within two days, three at most, so the group could move on to another location to forge for items and materials. It was the second group of merchants that had insisted in setting up a far to lavish camp, pulling out complex tents and unpacking near bout every possession and item that they had brought with them.
A tall thin female sighed in frustration in the lack of forward progress as she slumped down at the base of a tall thick tree. "Pampered novices", she muttered to herself running her fingers through her relatively short silky blond hair causing it to spike just a little more to the back.
This particular caravan that she had signed up to work for as an armed escort was proving to be a little more annoying than she had bargained for. Enough of the members were new to the idea of scavenging that it was near maddening really, and it was those members of the group that were now costing the caravan useful traveling time…again.
With another irritated sigh, the woman pulled her dagger part way from its dark colored sheath to check, yet again, if it needed any sort of attention. Like every other time she had slipped the dagger from its sheath it glittered back up at her showing no signs of needing attention which meant she still had no task to occupy her idle time. In all honesty she could pass time by helping one of the lazy merchants that had put off packing up all morning, or by helping one of the merchants that had unpacked far too many positions when they first set up camp, but she had already vowed that they could struggle on her own. Besides, she was hired as a blade, not a maid.
So she sat at the base of her tree watching merchants rush about not that they realized, and were being yelled at by more experienced merchants, that they had almost lost a third of the travel time the could have. A quick hard breeze reminded her why she had bothered to pull on the grey cloak that now rested thrown back behind her leaving her arms exposed.
With the quick reminder she stood pulling the cloak over her shoulders to better protect her bare arms. The weather itself in this area was also just plain annoying in its own right. Starting from late morning up until just before the sun went down the air was relatively warm thanks to the powerful sun, but whenever the mountain breeze blew it came as a cold torrent of air that chilled exposed skin. But other than the poor company, and lousy traveling companions, and the odd weather, she had to find the surrounding area rather beautiful.
The young mercenary was taking in the view of the many beautifully forested slopes of the lower mountains along with the distant skyline in which mountain tips reached forcefully up into the sky creating a breath taking horizon when a sudden loud thud ran out over all the other sounds of the packing camp.
A little ways off two mercenaries had effectively dropped a large chest packed full of various stones and metals. Being merchants the two had swooped up the spilled contents and masterfully repacked into the wooden chest and were preparing for a second attempt at loading it.
To her it was already clear the chest was to heavy for the two merchants and this would mean, as any good mind would conclude, they were most likely going to drop the chest again. The dropped chest would only result in more time wasted, and at the thought of more time wasted, because two merchants were either too stubborn or too stupid to wait until another person could help them lift the chest, the women lost her resolve to stay out of doing the work the merchants had brought upon themselves.
Just as the chest began to slip from the grip of the weaker of the two merchants the woman managed to grab hold of the iron handle, steadying the swaying and shaking of the chest. With a nudge of her shoulder, she pushed the weaker merchants out of the way and hoisted her end of the chest onto the cart, reaching quickly to the other handle before the second merchant could drop it. With another small grunt, she shoved the chest the rest of the way onto the cart.
"Thanks Luc", the younger, yet surprisingly stronger, of the two merchants chimed in gratitude to the intervention.
Luc gave the boy a curt nod before striding off to untangle the hopelessly tangled ropes of a clearly novice scavenger. After giving the novice a quick shove with her shoulder she quickly set to work, her deft hangs untangling the mess in front of her. As she worked she reminded herself, 'If I just swallow my pride and do a little extra work we can finally get out of the campsite and move on to the next.'
A bright flash from skyline just off to the north-west caused Luc to look up from the snaking ropes that had entwined themselves just to help the beings of this world to drive her mad. She had seen flashes of light before but this one was odd. For starters no spell would have been so powerful as to be seen from over the mountains. Second, it was broad daylight so it most certainly was not a strangely bright shooting star or some other earth bound wonder from space. Third of all, she had never seen a flash of light followed by a heavenly glow like she was seeing now.
The light faded, but still Luc stared at the horizon. 'What the hell was that?', Luc wondered to herself.
Luc shrugged it off as soon as the light completely faded from over the mountains and continued on her pathetic task of fixing a novices mess and problem. Once finished she went about her way, pushing her way in to various other miniscule tasks if she felt it would speed up the caravan and get them moving.
Eventually her efforts were rewarded, or fate had decided she had toiled enough, and the caravan was on their way moving slowly but carefully over the uneven ground making their way back towards the eastern edge of the mountains. As far as Luc knew, the leaders of the caravan of merchants had decided that they would make only two or three more long term camps which meant only a few more scavenging spots. Once those stops were done and out of they way, they would be exiting the lower mountain range and back onto the stretch of plains where Izoold lay nestled onto the coast. It would be at this point that the caravan would only stop to rest once it had gotten dark, setting up night long camps that would hopefully break down quickly in the mornings because all the merchants would be of the same mindset. They were moving back towards an actual civilization and the faster they moved, the faster they got there.
Luc smirked at the thought of almost being done with this sorry excuse for a job. As a mercenary she did not mind playing the part of an armed escort, but she did mind, however, playing escort to a bunch of people who did not really know what they were doing. The lack of experience was draining on all those who had experience, and for a mercenary it meant a painfully slow pace of travel. Caravans were slow to begin with. Caravans with novices…you might as well have been walking backwards…or jumping of a cliff. 'Jumping off a cliff would definitely be just as good as staying with this burdened group…or', Luc smirked, 'Pushing the novices off the next cliff would definitely make this easier but that is hardly smiled upon. Besides…I think I'm being a little too harsh on them. Everyone has to start somewhere and these guys chose to start here and now. I…just happen to be the poor fool of a mercenary that was dumb enough to come with them.'
A bitter sigh escaped her lips because she knew her revelation to be true, if you could even call it a revelation. In full honesty, Luc had already come to the same conclusion multiple times since the caravan first set out into the mountains and she had first realized that there was more than a single novice present. Regardless, the thought was true. It was no one's fault but her' for being here and it was not a novices fault for not knowing the ropes.
Hell, Luc herself had been a novice at some point but it felt so long ago now. Any person that has become seasoned enough had a hard time remembering exactly what it was like to have been at a point where they were completely and utterly clueless, and Luc was no different. So for the hundredth time she reminded herself that they were just learning, that she should stop taking jobs where too many novices were involved, and that she should be grateful that more than half of the caravan was experienced.
A loud shutter from a cart just behind her pulled at her attention but she opted to ignore the loud rolling mass of junk clattering about behind her. The cart jostled about roughly once more and, Luc braced herself, a loud crash sounded out from behind her.
Luc gave a casual glance over her shoulder. A few storage bins had come lose on the cart and toppled over off the sides, slamming into the ground spilling their contents all over. 'On second thought, this particular group seems to be more unlucky, or just dumber, than any other group I have had the pleasure of working for. Just, come on. I don't expect them all to know how a scavenging expedition works, but I do expect that they at least know how to pack their carts correctly and stuff. I mean, surely they are least a little bit experienced in traveling between towns. Which would mean they should know how to secure their cargo and junk', Luc thought bitterly to herself. This was not the first time a person had not properly secured the contents of their cart and it was beginning to piss her off.
Hours had passed since the caravan had finally moved out from their camp, and thanks to the spill, along with a few other minor set backs, the caravan had failed to make any significant progress. The reality of her situation nagged at her mind driving Luc to vow to not work with these kinds of caravans again for at least six months.
Another flash of light emitted from the horizon. This time it was not just a glow arched like a globe from over the mountains reaching up into the skyline, and this time it was not from the north-west. It was a long streak of light reaching up into the very heavens to the north-east of the group.
As the light petered out the group was able to start making out the form of a large white tower. The light faded the rest of the way leaving the tower reaching high into the sky, so high, in fact, that one could not see the top. It was if the tower literally reached up beyond the earth into the heavens, and such a thing just was not natural.
The many members of the caravan began to cheer, slapping each other on the back whooping and hollering as if they had just been told that every last Desian had simply dropped dead. The cries of "the tower of Salvation", "the world regeneration has begun", "the Chosen will save us", and "it's only a matter of time now" along with other variations of the phrases were coming from all up and down the caravan.
Luc, however, was not rejoicing. Her crystalline blue eyes remained fixed on the tower for a few more moments before she finally tore them away to look up and down the rejoicing caravan. It was all true, all the things the merchants and few other body guards were crying out.
The tower now standing erect on the horizon could be none other than the Tower of Salvation, and the appearance of the tower could only mean that the Chosen was beginning her journey of world regeneration. So, the tower's appearance was probably the best thing that a person living in this haunted world could ever hope to see, but…
Luc simply shook her head, letting her gaze fall to the ground. She just couldn't bring herself to rejoice like the others. She felt as if she should be rejoicing, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Something deep inside her prevented her from celebrating as it uncovered a feeling that something just wasn't right. Something about the tower just seemed false, or maybe just too good to be true.
Some random merchant slapped Luc on the back assuring her "It's only a matter of time before the Chosen regenerates the world now, saving us from the Desians." The merchant gave her shoulder a squeeze, so she gave him a meek smile hoping it was enough to pass her off as being exited internally.
Unable to join in the spirit of things, Luc started to wonder to the front of the caravan. When stopped by one of the head merchants up at the front Luc explained that she was going to scout ahead. The merchant leader gave her a nod of approval and Luc started out ahead of the caravan.
In truth, she just wanted to get away from the overly giddy merchants. Merchants had a thing for over reacting, and their response to the tower was beginning to get at her. To avoid snapping, Luc had decided it would be best if she separate herself from them. The best way to do that was to, well, scout ahead.
And so Luc walked ahead 'scouting'. She walked quietly consumed by her thoughts. Surprisingly, Luc wasn't even sure what half her thoughts were. It was like something was nagging at the back of her min, pushing her mind to racing speeds, producing mass responses, but she was unable to decipher any of it.
A chilling wind blew threw the mountains, and Luc pulled her grey cloak tightly about herself to guard against the oncoming guests. On she walked, attempting to leave the sounds of the over active merchants far behind her.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
A/N: Thanks for reading and my biggest hope is that you don't want the time you spent reading this back XD. But seriously, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. Please review and let me know what you think. Ch 2 will be up pretty quick seeing as I am finishing it up now.