It had been a few hours since the big battle of a sketchy summer. Linde, Camilla, Takumi, and Tiki had been under contract to fight the Order of Heroes, but now freed they had gone on to enjoy their vacation, in the time since; bury Takumi in the sand up to his chin, and proceeded to run away giggling, much to his dismay.
But that's not what the Order of Heroes were here for, they had come to find a way to make money and save the Order from going bankrupt due in part to Anna's poor choices in making money. As the audio tome that gave off the sound of crashing waves had failed to sell, commander Anna had a new idea. The Order were too draw a picture of something related to summer that they could sell, and the group had all agreed on drawing Camilla since big boobers usually bring in lots of money. So for the past few hours the group was hard at work drawing away, and now was the time to show the fruits of their labour.
Anna gathered the group, she was practically grinning from ear to ear at the thought of how much money she was about to make.
"Okay, everyone, it's time to show your hard work! Where are those drawings?"
Being the one with the least amount of intelligence and potential; Sharena ran up first, beaming with excitement
"Oh, me first! Take a look! Pretty good, right?"
"I like your spirit!" Anna replied seizing the drawing.
"Now let's take...a...look..."
On the paper was a barely recognizable stick figure Camilla. She had a smiley face. So did the sun. It would be a insult to 3 year olds to say that a 3 year old drew this. Anna looked at Sharena with a strange mix of surprise and disgust.
"Are you serious? This is a joke right? A child could scribble better! And did you give the sun a smiley face?!"
Sharena pouted, taking back her drawing defensively.
"Hey, Hurtful! And I happen to think my sun is very cute! Anyways, it's not like yours is any better."
Sharena was right. Anna's barely looked any better. Neither would sell for any money. As Anna barked out some half baked excuse about being a big idea person, Alfonse looked at the summoner and shrugged as he got up to give Commander Anna his drawing. Anna snatched it away greedily, much to his dismay.
"Oh I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you... I hardly had time to finish the cross-hatching" Alfonse said while sheepishly scratching the back of his head.
"Let Sharena: Art Critique be the judge of that." Sharena: Art Critic chimed in as she playfully but rather painfully slapped her brother on the back.
Alfonse laughed nervously as Sharena began to hype up his work, until she pointed out that the art was rather...
"Boring!" Anna cut in.
"There's absolutely nothing alluring about this drawing!" She yelled at Alfonse as she repeatedly jabbed him on the nose
True to their words, Alfonse's drawing wasn't bad, but much like his character in book 1 was; it was incredibly bland and boring.
Alfonse blushed crimson and snatched his drawing out of Anna's hands, much like Sharena had. He reminded them that he told them not to get their hopes up, with a slightly more irritated tone. As the trio bickered, Kiran remained off to the side quietly observing the conversation with a blank expression on his face.
"This is bad. Real bad, guys" Anna groaned. "I'm starting to notice a real pattern here with us".
Then a fire ignited in her eyes.
"Wait! I almost forgot about our saviour!"
She rushed over to the summoner. "Show us what you got Kiran!"
"Of course!" Sharena cried, clasping her hands together. "Our Kiran must've been a master artist back in his world!"
The dollar signs were dancing in Anna's eyes. "A skilled summoner AND artist?! Haha! We really hit the jackpot with you!"
"Um commander?" Alfonse chimed in. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news but even if Kirans artwork is amazing, that still only leaves us with one piece to sell..."
"We'll mass produce it, duh. We have an entire army for that kind of stuff" Anna shot back.
Alfonse nervously laughed, "isn't that counter productive? We need every able man and woman in the fight against Sur-"
"Can it, bench boy" Anna said giving him a glare, before turning back to the summoner.
"Gimme, gimme, gimme!" She laughed greedily as she took Kirans drawing.
She flipped it over, and gasped.
"This... This is..."
Kirans drawing was incredibly detailed and overall well drawn, the contents however... Stretched the rules a bit. The drawing was of the conquerer Alm, however he was considerably more muscular and built than he actually is. Clad in nothing but a pair of swim trunks with cat designs, he posed dramatically over a massive fallen Grima, with his Falchion, the Chadest of all the Falchions buried deep in the Fell Dragons skull. Camilla and Linde clung to his legs, posing erotically.
Anna stared at all this.
"...Um... Summoner, is there something you're not telling us?"
She looked up and yelped at the sight of Kirans face, which was more intense than any of them have seen before. She yelped once more when he roughly grabbed her shoulders.
"Where's. Summer. Alm." He said in a dangerously low voice.
"W-What?"
Kiran brought his face close to Anna's, close enough for their noses to almost touch.
"I've been waiting... So long!" Kiran cried out in disdain. "How long has it been since the last Valentian banner, Commander?! Do you know how many Alms there are Commander?! One! One Alm! Three Celicas, but only one Alm!"
"Stop it Kiran you're scaring us!" Cried Sharena on the brim of tears.
"No!" Kiran shot back. "THERE ARE FOUR TAKUMIS! Gods help us Sharena, there are four of them! B-B-But only one Alm..."
He began shaking Anna wildly now, while crying out like a mad man.
"Four Takumi's!"
"Where Valentia?!"
"WHERE ALM?!"
in the distance Takumi cried out in fear as high tide brought the waves ever closer to him. Sharena was between Kiran and a very dizzy Anna, trying to separate them, she called to Alfonse for help. Alfonse? Alfonse did nothing. He remained still, his features darkened, his bottom sore from sitting on the bench for so long. He understood Kirans reaction, surely Commander Anna was in touch with the "higher ups", and he was going to get his damn refine, one way or another.