Warning to Previous reading: Re-read the story if you haven't finished all first three chapters. I went back and combined the first two into one chapter and cut the third into two different chapters since it was so long. Sorry for the confusion, and there may be double post of the same text, just ignore them if it did occur.
Disclaimer: This is the only time I'll probably say this but I don't own Legend of Dragoon or any of the back-story or its locations, I only own my characters and the events in which they follow. Also to note, this chapter and maybe the next won't, more than likely, be very interesting; their just introductions that need to be gotten out of the way.
Chapter I: In the Beginning…
We begin this journey with a young boy who can't be older than sixteen walking through a forest; he's wearing what used to be a white shirt but has been turned brown with the dirt and sweat that is rarely washed off. The shirt is also tearing and ripping at the seams and the hem at the bottom and looks to be that it wouldn't last another week, much less a month. His pants are in no better shape. Torn off at the knees to be made as shorts, they're just plain cotton-made, black-dyed pants with a rope used as a belt. He's very muscular for his age. His hair is much like his clothes, filthy and earthen-brown. His nose was broken years ago, you can tell by the bugled-curvature of it. From the blood coming out it, his nose may have been fractured again here recently. His brown eyes would be the only things that could shine on this pitiful boy if they weren't filled with vengeance and hate. With his knuckles bleeding a bit also, it appears he was just in a fight and now he's walking home in a fit of rage. Then out of nowhere he just stops and slams his fist into a nearby tree knocking many leaves and branches off.
As he removes his hand from the trunk he says, "I wish that was his face now."
He then shakes the pain and pieces of bark out of his hand and continues walking down the beaten path to his home.
-
We change from this gloomy scene to another in which looks to take place in a small library. Not many people come here, mostly the librarians and a few people finding various books of potions or spells on health or superstitions and few looking to know the history of their ancestors. But of these few one catches your eye. A young man about seventeen or eighteen and wearing a seemingly very expensive, long dark green robe with intricate designs of semi-circles, ovals, waves, and other simple shapes. He has it girded at the waist with an also exquisitely designed piece of dark blue silk. He has short black hair, longer on the bangs than the back and dark brown almost black eyes. He's reading a huge book which must weight as much as a small child. To be so young, he seems to be very well educated and very wealthy.
One elderly, fairly-tall librarian in his mandatory black and white robe and scholarical cap comes up to him and says in a very harsh sounding voice, "So are you going to buy that book today boy or just thumb through it again."
The boy looks up with a bit of fear in his eyes, but only starts to laugh when he realizes who has confronted him.
"Hamon!" The boy then jumps up out of his chair to hug the old man. "It's been awhile since we last meet. How long has it been?"
"Two years if memory serves me correctly."
"What have you been up to here lately?" the young boy asks.
"Mostly just reorganization work in the northern city of Basil. I just moved back down here a few weeks ago, and how have you been Sean?" Hamon asks the boy, now known as Sean.
"Just my usual studies, mother's doing much better now, and …"
Well we'll leave these two to their discussions for now.
-
A fat, middle-aged man steps out onto a porch. You tell he's been drinking by the bottle he's carrying and the disgusting smell that follows him. He takes another swig of his bottle and then shouts, "Waurin! Git bak ere an swee es fwoor! Ou etter do yo choowes wight now!" You can barely understand the old man through his gibberish, drunken slurs. He takes one more gulp of fire water before he passes out on the porch.
As he is yelling and after he passes out, there's a teenage girl in her late teens running through the deep forest. She pushes branches and small trees aside as she hurries her escape.
"I'll stay gone this time you old drunk." The girl presumably Waurin, I mean Lauren, says mostly to herself trying to boost her courage and confection to run away.
-
Now we see a wondering stranger walking through a small town with his head down watching the ground as he slowly walks down the street. He's the oldest we've seen so far, around his early twenties. He's very well built, mostly like a solider or mercenary might be. He has long, waist-length, dark brown hair tied with a low fastener below his shoulders. You can't tell much from his facial expressions because of his long hair covering most of his face. He's dressed in an Asian style, sleeveless, black shirt with the front buttons running down his shirt offset to his left. As his hair as it sways back and forth, you can see a dark grey silhouette of a dragon perched on top of the moon on the back of his shirt. His pants match his shirt, black and loose-fitting with the same dragon symbol on each outside thigh. He has a long katana holstered to his side with the curved and edged side up. A dark grey belt is tied to his pants, which holds his katana on his left side and a money pouch on his right He holds most of his belongings in a bag tied to stick slung over his right shoulder. He holds his belonging in his right hand and steadies his sword in his left while walking down the street.
Across the street there's three men talking to each other. One of the men says, "Hey who's that walking down the street. He looks pissed at something."
Another man, with his crossed arms resting on his enormous chest, stands tall at well over seven feet tall. He just shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders.
The third man starts trembling in fear. He tries to step back but trips and falls on his butt. Pointing with his shaking hand he says, "A young man… dressed in black … with a symbol of a dragon on his back…" His words are filled with terror.
The first man says, "You don't mean… he's the 'Black Massacre' everyone's been talking about lately?" When he said the words 'Black Massacre' the terrified man on the ground started to urinate on himself. The first man, mainly talking to no one in particular, then says, "I heard he got that name for slaying an entire city just because a few people saw his sword. I don't know about you but I'm getting out of this city as fast as I can!" Now he was starting to get scared.
The behemoth looked down in disgust at the coward sitting in his own waste. And then he then shook his head as he looked at his other friend. Finally he said, "I'll go get him out of our town." and then started towards the wandering stranger.
"Wait! You'll kill us all! I have a wife and kid to think about!" the man on the ground pleaded with his friend.
The giant of a man came up to him and said, "Get out of our town now! You'll only bring danger and bad luck to us."
His sheer stature would make most men cower away but with out much of a upward glance the wondering stranger said to him, "I've only come for food and supplies, then I'll be on my way."
The giant replied, "No you'll leave n…"
And before he even finished the stranger struck him with lightning fast plunge of his left hand into the belly of the giant, leaving him gasping for air on the small town road. Afterwards the stranger just walked into a small store like nothing happened. He grabbed some food and water and other supplies that he needed and started to head towards the store owner.
The owner, who just saw the single blow knock out of his city's strongest warrior, started to apologize for the other man and said that he could have everything he wanted for free.
"Nonsense, you should never hold yourself responsible for other people's actions, especially a mindless grunt like him." He then pointed out the window at the giant now being drugged to the local doctor's house by his two other friends. He laid down a few coins of gold and silver on the counter before he started on his way out, just like he said he would.
-
The young woman named Lauren is now out of the woods and has found herself in a large city. She's a beautiful young lady especially in her white skirt and matching sleeveless shirt. Her hair is shoulder length sandy blonde with bright blue almost white eyes. A homeless man whistles at her, but she doesn't pay any attention to him, she's only interested in her new life in the big city.
She starts to go from shop to shop looking to see if anyone is in need of any help, but she can't find much of anything useful. She knows she can't get very far with the small bag of gold she stole from her unconscious father. So now before her new life begins she needs to find a job.
-
"Michael! What happened to you!" A middle-aged, slightly obese woman yells at her little boy in rags with a bloody nose and bloodied up knuckles.
"It was Jarak again. He wouldn't stop calling me names and then he started talking about you, so I had to punch him, but then all his friends held me down while Jarak got in a few free licks." Michael tried to tell the story to his mother like he was the hero and he had to do it.
His mother then grabs him by the arm and starts to scold him, "I don't care if he calls you or me the devil himself, I don't want you in anymore fights you hear me Michael?"
"Yes ma'am." He fells kind of let down now and a bit embarrassed.
-
"Mother? Are you awake mother?" comes from the other side of a thick wooden door. The door leads to a very darkly lighted room, which only has one small lantern burning that's almost out of oil. An elderly woman rests in a large sized bed with four huge ringed-posts coming up from each of the legs. There's a canapé covering the top connected to each of the four posts with a small curtain of silk hanging down on each side. The woman starts to cough uncontrollably, this bed will probably become her death-bed soon enough.
She can barely get her words out between the coughs. "Sean…, is that you? …Yes I'm… awake. Come in, come in."
The young man from the Library and the man he was talking to come in through the door. The young man, Sean, is still wearing his favorite dark forest green outfit; but the old man, Hamon, is now dressed in a rather un-unique suit. The suit is fairly old with a brown sports jacket and matching trousers. He wears a white dress shirt underneath with a average black tie secured to his neck.
"Mother, do you remember Hamon? I meet him at the Library the other day and I've brought him over to see you."
"Hamon? Yes, how could I forget him." She coughs some a little after getting this last out.
Hamon leans over and kisses the old woman's forehead. "Silvia, it's been awhile. Too long actually."
"Well, I'll leave you two to your discussions about the years. Mother, I'll be down at the fishing pond. If you need me, just send Hamon or one of the servants to come fetch me." After this, Sean bows and exits the room in a gentleman's fancy.
-
Suddenly it's the sound of plates breaking and many 'I'm sorry's and the sound of angry customers. The beautiful young lady known as Lauren has finally found a job as a waitress at a local dinner and bar, but things aren't going too well for our young heroine. It seems she's about to be fired.
"Lauren, get over here." shouts a balding, overweight man behind a counter, obviously the store owner. He wears a white tank top that's drenched in his yellow sweat, his apron is filthy with grease and animal guts, and he appears also be the cook though if you saw him on the street you'd suspect him to be a butcher.
Lauren is now dressed in her official waitress outfit composed of an eggshell white dress and spotless apron. She steps over her new mess of broken glass and worthless food and starts walking over to the owner with her head held low.
"I'm sorry sir, I'm just very nervous. I'll try to…"
"Lauren, that's the fifth plate you'll broke in two days. You're a very attractive young lady, so you need to be with the customers, but if you can't learn to hold on to the plates, I'm going to have to fire you."
"No sir, I'll try harder. Yo… you just can't fire me, I need this job."
"Then you'll just have to work harder."
"I will sir."
"I hope so… you your sake. Now get back work."
"Yes sir." She then turns around and goes to help the other waitress that's started to pick up the glass and clean up the food.
"Sorry you had to clean up my mess." Lauren says to her new coworker.
"Don't worry about it. I started out just like you; breaking a bunch of plates too."
"I bet you didn't set a record with five plates in two days." Lauren kind of laughs and then looks down in shame.
She starts to laugh a bit herself then replies, "No, can't say I was that bad. But just stay with it and I bet you'll get the hang of it…. Oh my god!" With the last bit the waitress drops a piece of the broken plate.
"What's wrong?" Lauren asks with a strange bewildered look on her face.
"Hey! Stop breaking stuff over there you two!" The manger shouts again.
"But sir, look!" The unknown waitress says and points out the small window across the room.
Both the manger and Lauren look pass the customers and out the window. They don't believe their eyes though. There's a huge whirlwind tornado right outside their café.
-
"Bye mom. I'm going on to Mr. Iros's house." Michael says as he grabs a small piece of toast and starts heading out of the kitchen and to the door of their small cottage home.
"Hey, why you going so early? You don't want some more breakfast?" his mother asks him while she's still cooking the rest of the family a large morning meal.
"Mr. Iros said that he had something very special planned for us today."
"Sooo, you do like learning all that neat stuff, don't cha?" after this she puts down her pot on a cool eye and stops cooking for a moment. She then averts her motherly stare at the young boy, which seems to paralyze him in his tracks.
Michael then turns and starts pleading with his mother, "Mom, I've got to go."
"I knew you'd like it." She lets him off and watches him start to leave again. But then the other day reoccurs in her mind and she shouts, "Hey!" When he looked back she says, "No more fights with Jarak now. You hear me?"
"Yes ma'am." He lowers his head with a mixture of disappoint and embarrassment. Then he starts to leave again, but is stopped yet again.
"Hey, you not going to say goodbye to me?" A tall, kind of skinny man says while coming out of one of the back bedrooms.
"Daddy!" Michael runs and hugs his father and then says, "I thought you had already left for work, why are you still here?" he has a very confused look upon his face because he very rarely gets to see his father at all, because he always works double shifts and often triple shifts at work to support his family.
"They shut the mines down yesterday after work. There was a collapse and one of the other miners was killed and many more injured." He tries to shake the memory out of his head. "I knew that man too; he was a good worker with a good heart."
"So are you going to be here tomorrow?" He asks without even wondering about his father's other coworkers. "If so I can ask Mr. Iros if I can stay home and we ca…"
"I'll be here, but you need to keep to your studies. You don't want to end up like me working for the highest bidder and working in the lowest pits. You and your little sister will come out better than I did; even if I have to break my back getting ya'll there."
"But dad…"
"No buts now, you need to be getting to class don't you?"
"Yes sir." He says this with much disappointment in his voice.
"Well head off, we'll see you when you get back." Both his mom and dad wave to him as he walks off into the woods onto class.
-
Now we follow the dark clothed wander again. He's in the middle of a barren prairie, with not much grass or trees growing around him. He's sitting at a open fire and eating some of the food he bought. Just before he finishes his meal it starts to rain a bit, putting out his fire
"Well better get going, don't want to get caught out here when it really hits. Now where is the nearest city?" He thinks to himself for a moment then remembers there's a map in his bag. He searches through the bag, which has grown but lost its stick, until he finds the map. He tries to keep the map, and all the other contents of the bag, as dry as possible but without much success.
"Oh yeah, the town over there in the mountains, Dracils I think is what's called."
He puts the map back into the sack and picks up a small circular-pyramid shaped straw hat and starts to strap it on his chin. "I'm glad I made this now." He puts his katana back on his side and throws the bag over his right shoulder and starts heading south towards the mountain range in the distance.
-
After an hour or so of trekking through the woods, Michael gets to Mr. Iros's village. But when he gets closer, he sees a bunch of people gathered together and looking off into the sky. When he gets up there to them, one of them says in a very frightening voice, "Look at the sky! Is that SMOKE?"
"It is!" Shouts one.
"We're all going to die!" Hollers another.
Many more just run off yelling at the top of their lungs; because, you see they lived in a very dense forest and even the smallest of uncontrolled fires could burn down an entire village in mere hours.
Well when Michael noticed the smoke was coming from the west he started running back home. "Oh no! It's coming from the direction of our house! I have to get back there and warn mom and dad and sis."
AN: Well now that you read it, review it please. Tell me how good, or bad, I'm doing. This is my first fanfic so please help me out a bit. If you liked it say so in you review; if not, say so in your review. But like I said the other chapters will, hopefully, be a lot more interesting than these introductive paragraphs. I also thought it would be better to just leave you hanging there a bit. Just tell me how I'm doing, please.