The Messenger : Chapter 1
The sky turned red as the day ends. Rough noises started to settle down in the small town of Izlude. Mothers called their children home and merchants close their shops. Day guards switch shifts with Night guards, ready to keep the town safe through out the night.
"All in a day's work right Fan?" The old merchant stepped out of the shop and took a breath of fresh sea air.
"Yeah, we did a fine job too. Almost half of our products are sold now." Answered Fan as she tries to find the shop keys.
" Ho ho? We did, now did we? Well that's good news for this old man." The old merchant let out a small grin, a sign of satisfaction.
"Old is right Grandpa Mex." She replied quickly. "You shouldn't work too hard, I'm old enough to take care of the shop myself now." She locked the shop and turned to face her grandpa.
"Don't give me the "I'm too old for this" speech child, as long as I can still walk and talk, I'm not going to stop this job." He held Fan's hand and started walking home.
"More like as long you can wobble or blabber." Fan giggled as she made fun of her grandfather, covering her mouth trying to hide her smile.
" Ho ho ho. Now now, we better get home soon, your mother said she'd cook us some very delicious fish. And I do love her fishes." Said Grandpa Mex
They both started to walk down the street while watching soldiers lit the town as the sky goes dark, revealing the wondrous stars decorating the young dark sky.
The house on the right, next to the bridge, that's their house. Sturdy made out of stone, doors and windows out of fair brown woods. Grandpa Mex can barely see the smoke that is coming out the chimney.
"Here you are!" Mom exclaimed as Grandpa Mex and Fan came in the house. "I was getting worried you two were going to work over time and miss dinner."
"Don't worry mom, grandpa here couldn't wait to have some of those fish you cooked."
"Oh I cooked plenty of fish, wait at the dinner table, I'll get your dad, he's busy preparing tomorrow's fishing equipments." Mrs. Townsend came behind the house and found Mr. Townsend preparing the fishing nets.
"Come inside dear, we're almost ready for dinner." Said Mrs. Townsend. "I'll be inside soon honey." Answered Mr. Townsend.
Inside, Fan and Grandpa Mex are enjoying their cup of tea. "Hey Fan, where's that friend of yours? I haven't seen him for a while now." Grandpa Mex asked out of curiosity.
Fan's face frowned a bit, she looked out the window and said. "He probably at the Swordsman Academy, he's always there." She sighed and wondered what he could be doing at this time of hour……
"Get up!" his loud yelling isn't going helping the trainees, but for some reasons, he wouldn't stop. "Do that mambo jambo again and you will die in the battle field! Now I said get up!" Sir Windsor yelled again.
One of the four trainees had failed to dodge the incoming assaults. Although they're using wooden swords for their practice, it still hurts like hell. The trainee stood up and picked up his wooden sword and got back into position. The trainees waited for the signal from Sir Windsor to begin. It's two on two battle practice, instead of fighting useless dummies, Sir Windsor came up with the idea of first-hand battle practice.
Sir Windsor gave the signal and both teams rushed into action. When to attack, when to dodge, when to block, when to just sit and watch your defeat. It's all in the practice.
"Skein! Keep up the foot work! Samos! Put more strength in those attacks. Good work on the shielding Farrow. Harqs! Don't let up now, keep up the pressure." Sir Windsor could only hope that all this training would one day save them in the battle field.
After the practice, Sir Windsor let them go, they didn't do very well, but it's a start.
"Gee, I wonder if all this is worth it." Said Skein. "Sir Windsor is really pushing us hard, I mean really really hard."
"Relax Skein, it's not even the hard part yet." Farrow said repairing his messed up hair.
"There's more?? Awh no." Skein can't help but to jump around in frustration, throwing his academy papers around.
Harqs and Samos laughed at Skein's silliness. "Look at the bright side, at least now I know that I'm the strongest among you guys!" Samos exclaimed.
The trainees started quarrelling over who's better. Harqs only grinned a little, looked at the sky and felt that everything is all right.
Author's note: I do not own Ragnarok Online materials.^^