Good Title
Prologue
A long-lived peace is at its end. An evil emperor has raised an army and started a campaign to take over the world. Shortly after building his army a rebel force started to assemble their only purpose was to defeat this villainous emperor and restore the peace, which lay in the land off Cyn before the evil emperor. When the Evil Emperor caught wind of the new rebellion he sent hundreds of solders wearing think shiny adamant armor to conquer the rebel base, which lay in the city of fynn the small port city. After the solders arrived in the front gates of the city they issued a warning for rebels to come out peacefully, but the rebels didn't take to kindly to the warning. Hundreds upon hundreds of people appeared from the ground, hay stacks, buildings, rooftops with swords and bows and arrows ready for a fight. As the rebels charged at the solders of the emperor a brilliant flash of light came from nowhere destroying and leaving but a pile of smoldering ashes. All but four humans survived and they were only children. The solders went after the children but the emperor ordered them to let the children escape. This is where the real story begins.
Chapter 1"I think we lost them", said a young man with short spiked blonde hair, wearing an open black outer shirt and a white under shirt and white long silky pants. "We amazingly survived that massacre. Do you suspect that we are the only ones left?"
"We are the only survivors, Mike. I didn't see anyone else escape." Replied a beautiful young maiden with long blonde hair a blue bandana over her forehead. She was wearing a yellow sleeveless shirt and blue short shorts.
"Hah. You sound so positive, Tara." Said another female, her name is Maria and she has green shoulder length hair and a shirt that only covers the top part of her chest to right above her naval. And shorts just above her knees. "Always look to the bright side."
"You always look to the bright side. This time there is no bright side. Our houses, our parents, our friends, our dogs, our cats, all of our possessions are gone. We have nothing left." Said the last member of the group, which is a second guy with short black hair and a scar over his right menacing looking eye. He wears a black shirt with dark blue jeans with a hole in the right leg.
"You know that's not true, Jake! We do have things left; we "do have a bright side. There is hope!" shouted Tara. "We all have a future unless acting like you just did, Jake. We need to look to the bright side. I heard of a second rebel base in the next town, maybe we should go there and join the rebellion and defeat the evil that has stuck down our parents and everything we loved so dearly.
"Your just as big of a nuisance as Tara." Said Jake and in the middle of his sentence he is pushed down by Mike, stunned by this sudden turn of events he lays on the ground staring at the frowning friend of his.
"Treat others the way you wish to be treated. You don't see me going around an insulting other people. The ways I see fit now do you? No, I didn't think so either." Mike said "We are going to Camlyn and ask to join the rebellion and if they say no then we start our own rebellion and grow stronger by training by killing the evil in the wild and sparring with one another. Any disagreements?" There was a long silence. "Good"
And the group set of to Camlyn. They have to through a thick forest to get a third of the way there. When they get to the forest the sun is about to set.
"Maybe we should pitch camp here and wait till morning and the enter the forest." Maria proposed.
"Chicken?" Tara taunted jumping up and down.
"No! Its just… its just…"
"Yep your chicken."
"No, it's a good idea Tara, we should camp here for the night." Said Mike.
"Awwww. Your no fun." Said Tara with a wink; Mike took off a backpack filled with supplies.
"While you set up camp I'm going to get some fire wood that may be lying around." Said Jake
"Yeah you go do that while Tara and I pitch the tents and Mike gets the sleeping bags out and helps when done." Maria said.
Jake walked off all by his own upset by the turn of events. Thinking to himself he feels very upset. Why did an evil emperor have to come and destroy everything? Why am I the one by myself? I'm going to hate the next couple of months I can feel it. Whoa that's a big pile of sticks Jake picked up a huge arm full of sticks and it takes him three trips to get all of the wood that he had found. By the time he had finished, the camp area had been all set up with two tents, one for guys and one for the girls and a huge fire pit.
"Wow. Very good guys." Jake said impressed
"Heehee. Thanks. We worked hard heehee." Giggled Tara.
"It was a pain in the butt to dig that fire pit." Said Mike holding up dirt-covered fingers. The whole group laughed. They had lit a fire and sat there trying to get warm, the girls sharing their blankets and cuddled together and the guys freezing cold in the tent so they left the tent and laid down by the camp fire all night
In the morning with the crickets chirping and the crows crowing and a soft sizzle of a long burnt out fire. "How did you guys sleep? It was pretty good sleep for me considering we didn't have any mattresses." Tara said rubbing her back and her making her face look tired.
"Do you call freezing in the tent and coming out here to sleep by the fire a good sleep?" Jake said very tired.
"Yeah I think so." Maria came out in a good mood. "I see Mike is still asleep. Lets wake him up. I don't want to be here for long."
"Let him sleep, what we need to do is collect some rocks, small rocks, and sharpen the edges to make arrow tips. When we find long sturdy pieces of wood we'll tie them together and make spears. While Maria and you go looking for long sturdy sticks and small rocks I'm going to look for some long rocks and attempt to create some long rock swords. I have a feeling those spears aren't going to cut it. But when you do finish with the spears, look for a ravine then come and get me." Jake instructed carefully. The two girls left looking for rocks and Jake went looking for long rocks leaving Mike by himself.
"So Maria, how are you liking this new life so far?" Tara asked.
"Hah you have to be kidding me! This 'new life' sucks! I slept horribly!"
"Well no matter what you say, I like the new life. Better than what I used to have. I had six little sisters that cried when they didn't get their way. I feel so terrific! So free! Oh hey, here some of the small rocks that Jake wanted."
While they were away from camp Mike continued to sleep solidly. Rolling from side to side now and then. When he did wake up he had no clue were he was, jumping up is confusion he fell down with a sudden pain in his right thigh. "Ouch" he looks at his thigh and it had been bruised the whole time and he had never noticed. Looking further down his leg the bruise continued down his thigh down to his knee, his whole knee was swollen. All he could manage was to lie down and wait for the group to get back to the camp. He didn't have to wait long for anyone to come back. Maria and Tara were the first to get back
"So sleepy head how are you feeling?" Tara asked walking right next to mike.
Mike looked up right into her face with a sad face of his own. Disappointed with himself for getting bruised.
"What's wrong Mike?" Maria said walking up next to him and crouching down. Mike tries to stand up again but this time falls straight on his face. The two girls picked him up and one girl held one side of Mike, they laid him down on the ground curious to find out what had caused him to fall straight on his face like that.
"Do we really need to ask what had happened?" Tara asked worried.
"Now you see I don't even know myself. When I woke up and found myself alone, I tried to get up and I fell down and felt a pain in my right leg, so I lifted up my pant leg and checked out my right thigh and there is a giant bruise running all down my thigh to my knee." Mike explained.
"Any idea how it happened?"
"I think it was when I tried to jump off of the roof of my house into the bale of hay. I actually landed in the haystack but when I came out of the hay stack and started to run a giant slap of rock came from no were and smacked me in the side of my leg and I thought it was nothing, I was running for my very own life, and this is before we got together, so I just kept running never noticed I had a limp. I was surprised that you didn't say anything when I was walking with you guys."
"Well. Let me see your entire leg."
As Mike rolled up his pant legs to the top of his thigh Jake arrived with four rocks that were extremely long. "What happened to him? Jake asked when he saw Mike's bruised leg.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out." Tara said. Starting at the top of Mike's thigh pressing on his leg pressing very lightly and asking him to tell her how it felt and how much it hurt. As she got closer to his knee the intensity of the pain increased. A few inches above the knee, he couldn't bear the pain so Mike shoved Tara away from him and scooted away.
"Mike don't start acting childish now. Let me feel your knee. If you want it fixed." Jake said with a glare in his eyes and a frown on his eyes.
"How about this. Take some sticks and make some crutches we'll get some bark and some string made from a willow strand and wrap my knee in a splint so that when we're going through the forest I won't slow you down. Sound good to you?"
"That was pretty fast, the solution to your leg. However you did not break the bone you just bruised a muscle or tendon in your leg. The splint will help however I will go look for some herbs that makes a natural hot/cold patch, the herbs will massage the bruised tendons or muscles and it should be better in a couple of days." Tara said resourcefully. Maria got up to look for the herbs because her and Tara went to the same medical school together; they were both at the top of the class. Jake went to find the willow string and bark. After they left, Tara grabbed the sleeping bags and rolled one up and stuck it under his knee and laid the others behind him so he could sit up. She walked over to the pile for long stones grabbed two and two short stones, she showed Mike how to craft a sword from stone, and obviously Tara knows a lot of stuff for a girl of sixteen. They sat together crafting the swords, after awhile, the swords took shape. Maria was the first to arrive with the herbs and a stone shaped bowl. Maria put all the herbs in the bowl and started crushing them together and pouring a small amount of water in the bowl and continued crushing in silence.
"Roll up you pants legs." Tara said as Jake got back with thirteen ten-foot long willow strings and four pieces of willow bark. Tara grabbed the string and the sword she had crafted. Jake left to go get the wood to make some crutches."
"I'm going to cut off some of the cloth on your pants legs so we can wrap the interior of the splint. Is that ok with you?" Mike nodded his head. She cut the cloth and laid them on the ground next to her placing the top of the cloth on a piece of bark. First she lathered Mike's knee in the crushed herbs then took the piece of wood with the cloth on top and applied it to his leg. She wrapped the cloth around his leg and tucked the leftover cloth under the other cloth then had Maria hold the other bark on the sides of his while she laid a piece on top an started wrapping Mike's knee with the willow string but not too tightly. When she had wrapped it enough, she wrapped the second piece of cloth over the string then wrapped the second cloth with the string. After finishing Tara looked at Mike's face with the eyes of a caring mother always has after caring for one of her kids, and Mike looked at her with surprise on his face. The herbs had already started to do the job, his knee was warm and he could feel the pain fading away. Jake came back with crutches that were perfect for Mike. They had gotten the stuff all packed up then put Mike on his feet with one person on each side then started off on their adventure.
Chapter 2 Fynn"So does anyone know where we're going?" Maria asked walking casually on the dirt path.
"Hah, If only. We need to head west, so lets follow the sun." Jake said.
"This can really tire you out." Mike said with an angry face.
"We can take a break any time you want." Tara proposed.
"No, I said I didn't want to slow you down any, so I'm going to keep going until all of you want to take a break." Just after he said that, Maria and Jake sat down with a smirk on their faces. "Alright fine I'll take a break." They sat down and rested for a couple of minuets, then got back on their way. With only a day left to go they walked through the night and arrived exhausted the next day. Despite being tired they headed to the tall castle in the middle of the city.
"Wow. That's one big castle." Tara said wide-eyed.
"Yeah. Lets hope this is where the second group of rebels are located. They better not turn us out. Sure we ran when we should have been fighting but the whole town was wiped out in the blink of an eye." Jake said.
"Now that's thinking real positive!" They entered the castle and climbed the giant staircase. As they reached the top, there was a giant gold plated door, the town must be really rich so they must have some money to produce all the weapons they will need to fight the empire, Instead of these wimpy little stone spears and long heavy stone swords.
"What is your purpose here?" One of the tall guards in shiny steel armor asked.
"We're here to join the rebellion against the empire." Mike replied.
"Ah the rebellion. Who told you that we were supporting the rebellion?" Asked the other guard.
"We come from the city of Fynn." Tara said.
"The city was destroyed yesterday in the blink of an eye. A giant flash of light." Maria added. The guards just stood there looking at each other then looked back at the group and nodded.
"You may enter." The first guard that spoke said. One guard stayed while the other led the group inside the golden doors. They walked down a large hallway with giant portraits of what the group guessed were previous kings and queens. One portrait stood out more than any other. The picture had a fairly thin woman with bright baby blue hair and a bright red dress.
"Does she look familiar to you guys?" Maria asked the whole group. Everyone nodded. But Maria couldn't remember from were she had seen her before. "Anyone remember where you've seen her before?" Again all she got was the silent shaking of heads indicating no. Puzzled, Maria stopped and studied the portrait trying to recall when she had seen the woman before. Suddenly it hit her like a brick. She remembered where she'd seen the woman in the portrait before, it was in her dreams.
"Guys! Have you seen this woman in your dreams?" the group stopped and came back to the portrait. They stopped and stared. Then each remembered that had seen her in their dreams.
"But why was she in our dreams?" Jake asked. No one answered. They went on without a care in the world. Finally at the end of the hall was another giant golden door. The guard had already opened the door and was waiting for them to enter the giant door. When entered, the door silently closed.
"Your majesty, we have some children with a remarkable story that might interest you." The guard stated.
"Lets hear this story." The queen said impatiently.
"Your highness, we come from Fynn. The entire city was attacked from the empire. The city was struck by a blinding flash and the entire city was leveled within a blink of an eye." Mike explained. The Queen sat there with a blank face. "So we ask you, could we join your army of rebels and fight against the empire?"
"Absolutely not, you would just be throwing your lives away!" The queen said sadly.
"Please your highness!" Tara stepped in.
"If you really want to join the rebellion I want you to infiltrate the city of Modorgs, that's the headquarters of the Empire. There is a man posing as a bartender there and he's been undercover there since the empire conquered Modorgs, he has been reporting to us by secret means every night. Bring him back to me and we'll see if you can join the rebellion."
"Hah, seems easy enough, lets get a move on." Mike said.
"Hold on there little guy. You can't go with that home made cast on. We'll get our doctors to fix that right away." Said the Queen.
"Then we'll wait for him." Tara said impatiently.
"As you wish." The Queen had the guards bring a stretcher and took Mike to the infirmary Maria, Tara and Jake followed behind to find the doctors. They waited patiently for Mike to come out. Finally Mike came out with the doctors. The doctors looked rather perplexed.
"Who is the person that wrapped his leg?" The doctor asked. Tara stood up
"I wrapped his leg in the wooden cast." She said proudly
"And did you make the medicine?"
"No, I made the medicine." Maria said standing up.
"The crutches were made extremely well."
"Thanks." Jake said getting up as well.
"Well it seems that he didn't pull or bruise a muscle or tendons or broke any bones he's just got a giant bruise on his leg. So on your way to Modorgs. And may luck be on your side."
"Thanks." Jake said, and they headed off to Modorgs. Since it was taken over by the Empire they expected it to be really dark and foreboding.
"Mike, do you really think this is going to be an easy mission?" Tara asked.
"Don't make me laugh. This is gonna be a piece of cake!" Mike replied.
"Don't get to cocky kid. Don't wanna bring yourself bad luck, now do ya?" Jake said trying to sound wise and stuff.
"Bah. Don't make me laugh. Like I said this is gonna be a piece of cake." Mike replied. "Look, since I'm back on my feet I've never felt better! Watch." He jumped in the air and touched the ceiling, which was about thirty feet off of the ground, with a flat palm and landed gently. "See, no worries."
"You think your something special? We should spar before we leave! Not in the castle but in, the court yard or something." Maria said flatly.
"Your on! But I think we should have teams, Mike and me versus you and Jake, okay?" Tara proposed.
"Sounds good to me!" replied Jake with an evil smirk on his face. As they climb down the stair they got in their groups and prepared mentally for their sparring match. Mike, jumping up and down, Jake walked smiling to himself, Maria cracked her knuckles, and Tara punched the air with her fists and repeated to herself "Right left. Right left." They looked forward to the sparring session.
"Lets make this clear. No blows below the waist and use teamwork to knock your opponents unconscious. No killing, no punching to the face really hard." Maria said roughly.
"Hah. Okay no problem with that" Tara said. They walked through the front gates in a sudden run. Heading to the courtyard. When they reached the courtyard it was filled with civilians. "We can't fight here. Lets go over there in the park where we can be alone."
They jogged over to the park and separated into two groups. Mike and Jake took off their shirts for enhanced movement. Tara counted down from ten… nine…eight…seven…six…five…four three two…one. GO! They ran towards each other. Mike grabbed Tara's arm, swirling her around a couple of times. Then threw her at the two opponents charging at him, she split her legs and hit them both in the chest sending them flying on the grass. Mike hid in a tree watching Tara. He waited for the moment to strike. Suddenly, he saw his opportunity. He jumped out of the tree and into the air and landed on the ground next to Jake and Maria. They turned away from Tara and swung at Mike. They grab both Mike's hand and threw them over his shoulder.
"Think its time to start working together, Maria?" Jake asked.
"You bet it is" Maria said evilly. The two jump up and run towards Mike and Tara. Maria jumped in the air and soared for a few seconds, upon her descent, Jake grabbed her by her legs and threw her head first at the other two. Spinning quickly she knew it was going to hurt the three of them, when they collided they all skidded on the ground for a couple of feet. Maria couldn't get up; she was hurt bad but not bad enough to have her out of the mission. Jake ran at the two trying to take them on him all by himself, he failed. When he was running Mike and Tara charged at him splitting up on both sides of Jake, they came together on the sides and squished him, ending the sparring match.
They rested, exhausted on the grass, bruised and tired waiting to regain their breath.
"That was fun." Tara said breaking the silence and sounding childish.
"Hah. I haven't had that kind of exercise since I was like, well, I've never had that much exercise ever…" Mike said.
"That was pretty fun though." Jake said with a grin.
"We should wait till tomorrow to start heading to
Modorgs because we are sore and its already sun set." Maria said as she rolled over to look at Tara and Mike.
"Might as well… but where are we to stay?"
"You can harbor at the castle." Said a deep metallic voice. They turned around and it was one of the guards, they could tell by the metal echo in his voice.
"Are you sure they would let use sleep in the castle?" Tara asked.
"Yes. I'm sure they will because after all, you are doing something for the rebellion, correct?"
"Correct."
"Then there is no reason for them not to allow you to stay at the castle. Come with me I'll have the queen find you some rooms."
"Thanks." The group said together, Getting up and starting to follow the knight. By the time they had reached the castle night had fallen. The queen was waiting inside the incredibly long hallway.
"I knew that you children would fight to try and get better. That's why I prepared two rooms for you to lodge in for the night. You may drink and eat all you want. It looks like you haven't eaten for a couple of days." The queen said sympathetically. They followed her to their rooms and noticed the doors were made of gold.
"Is every door gold in this place?" Mike asked Tara in a whisper. She giggled and nodded her head yes. "I think so." The queen opened the golden door to reveal a huge room with four queen size beds each containing half a dozen pillows. Every pillow was extremely detailed. Each had gold trim and pictures of creatures that must have been found through out the kingdom.
"Wow… this is amazing!" Maria said in astonishment.
"Oh my god, look at the pillows! Mine has a squirrel on it! Its so cute!" Tara said bursting in to a childish frenzy of excitement, just over little pillows.
"I guess she likes little animals on her pillow." Mike said to Jake with one eyebrow raised and shaking his head. "I don't know about you guys but I'm hitting the sack! You might want to do the same." Hopping into bed pulling the blankets up to his chest.
"Might as well. Not like I have anything better to do." Jake said with a frown on his face.
"Aww. You're no fun, now it's just Maria and I, it's going to be really boring." Tara joked and nudged Maria playfully.
"Hah. Very funny Tara, I'm going to bed too. Good night." Maria mumbled tiredly. Tara sat there by her self, not tired at all and just stared out the window at the stars in the sky, the space between each star is vast. Considering the closest star takes four years for light to reach it from the planet. Anyway, back to the story. Tara still is sitting there with nothing to do but stare. Sick and tired of sitting by her self she gets up and walks quietly to the door. She opened it and sees no one to the left of the door and one guard on the right side of the door.
"Hi." The guard waved at Tara.
"Hello? Umm. What are you doing standing here?"
"I was told to stand guard in front of this door, queens orders. She didn't want anyone sneaking into your room and try to kill one of the rebellions brightest group of stars that had ever came to the rebellion. You are aware that when you guys fought that you had spectators. You couldn't see them but there were a lot of people watching you. The people watched in amazement praying that you and your group will be the ones that strike down the evil Empire. Now please get some sleep." Tara blushed embarrassed and closed the door and walked to her bed with red cheeks and a small smile leaking out of the side of her mouth.
"I have a feeling that this adventure is going to be very rewarding!" Tara said to herself climbing into her bed and falling asleep with a small smile on her face
Chapter 3 Their MissionMike was the first to wake up the next day. So he decided to take a look outside the window, the sun was just coming over the mountains, illuminating the sky with an orange, red color in the sky. "Red sky at night, it's a sailors delight, but a red skies in morning sailors take warning. Something's going to happen today. But I hope I'm wrong, I really do." He said to himself.
"So, I see that you're up already." Tara said putting her hand on his shoulder. "I don't think that anything bad is going to happen, nothing bad will, but some good will come out of this day."
"You guys are up way to early! And get that light out of my eye." Jake said covering his face with a pillow from the light. Mike closed the curtains and look and Tara.
"Lets go get some food." Mike said with a giant smile on his face. Tara laughed and nodded her head. The two were off to get food. Right when they left Jake had decided to wake up.
"Ok guys I'm up." Jake looked around and saw that they had left. Jake got up and nudged Maria.
"What do you want?" Maria rolled over looking over at Jake with a giant frown on her face.
"It's time to go eat breakfast. So get up, get dressed and follow me."
"Well aren't you very bossy this mourning. Go outside the door and wait for me." Jake went to the outside of the door and waited for Maria to change out of the pink sleeping gown, that the queen gave her, and into her regular cloths. It took Maria at least ten or so minuets to get dressed. She opened the door and peeked through. "Ready to go?"
"Yeah. Been waiting a long time so I feel like jogging to get the food."
"Do you even know where the chow hall is?"
"Umm…"
Maria stared blankly.
"Do you?"
Maria sighed and walked out in a gold shirt and short skirt that flailed when she walked. "Well. Lets go and ask around." Maria said as she pulled up Jake, they headed on their way down the long hallway, the hallway was different than the one they had gone down last time. The wall was blank with the occasional doors and windows. But no one seemed to be patrolling or walking down the hallway. "Strange. You also have noticed that we have yet to see anyone go down this hall besides us, lets start opening doors." Maria opened the closest door to her and there was no one in there. Just another hall, the same went for Jake the door lead to an empty hall.
"This better not take all day. C'mon lets sprint down the hallway." Jake said taking off his fastest looking down when running; Maria took off right after him. After a little while of running Jake ran right into a giant gold door. "Who the hell put this door here? And why is every door gold!" Jake said angrily rubbing his head. Maria passed him and nudged the door open, in front of them was a giant table with cooked bacon, sausage, fried omelets and Mike and Tara sitting at the table with a plate full of food in front of them. The smell of delicious food over whelmed Maria and Jake so much that they ran to get plates full of food.
"Well it's about time that you two get here." Tara said wiping food off of her face. Mike stood up and walked to Maria and Jake and smiled with the biggest grin they had ever seen.
"I'm so full I cant eat for the rest of the day. You will love the food trust me." Mike said patting Jake on the back and started to head back to their room to get ready to leave.
After they all had eaten. They packed up and headed to get the undercover bartender in Modorgs. The road to Modorgs was very peaceful with the occasional birds and squirrels. Most of the environment was lush green with a stream that they heard not far away. The green of the trees and the grass felt very refreshing to the group since they had been hiding in stone and concrete and shrouded in darkness with no hope. But, this forest had made them feel more hopeful and happy.
"Its so, beautiful." Tara said breaking the silence. "The lush green leaves on the tree and the grass. The cute little birds and little squirrels.
"Yeah. Its almost like were going to sneak into the place with no problems." Jake said.
"You don't know how much I wish that we could sneak in with no problems. But we will have some confrontations. Hopefully we will get the guy and run as fast as we can." Mike chimed in they continued to walk in the luscious green forest that separated fynn and Modorgs. After a couple of minuets more of walking they had reached a hill that had a thirty-eight degree slope, and at the top of this hill you could see the entire valley that waited to be explored. Just ahead was Modorgs; to the left of the group was the ocean with white sand beaches and to the left were the giant Ridgering mountain ranged that wrapped all around the continent, in fact it wrapped around the whole world since there was one continent that wrapped from pole to pole on both sides. And far off in the distance behind Modorgs you could see a gigantic volcano that was oozing out red lava with black smoke making a ring around the mouth of the volcano.
" Wow. This is an incredible site to see." Jake said with awe.
"Yeah. Its beautiful!" Tara added.
"Enough chit-chat its time to get this show on the road." Mike said throwing each of them a skinny piece of wood that had been smoothed from an oak tree, pretty much like a modern day snowboard. They took off down the hill gaining speed every second. The hill had a huge drop. It would take the group; at the current velocity two minuets so reach the bottom. They had plenty of room to slow down at the bottom, sure there was only twenty feet before a slight rise in the ground that was three feet tall that would boost them over a gorge. They had plenty of room.
"I really don't think this is a good idea!" Screamed Tara trying to keep her balance on her oak board.
"Just don't think about falling, it helps a lot when it's like your first time." Mike shouted out to them all.
"Right, for you it is" Maria hollered back.
"No it really is," Jake said riding backwards. "It probably would if you knew how to ride this thing and I could see were I'm going!"
"I really don't think you want to see where you're going." Tara said in a really shaky voice.
"Why?" Jake finally turned his board around and saw why. The jump was just fifty meters away.
"Oh! Crap!" Mike yelled while doing back flips in the air. Their total airtime off the jump was ten whole seconds; they had most likely gone off the jump at approximately seventy miles an hour. They stuck the landing, which made them buckle their knees; the group skidded to a halt. Tara fell over with shock, Maria stumbled to the closest tree and leaned on it, Mike plopped down on the ground laughing hard, while Jake was still standing there with wide eyes.
"That was so sick!" Mike exploded, getting up and nudging Jake. Jake fell over and just laid there. Just in total shock of what he had just done. Mike and the other two picked Jake up and moved Jake to the side of the hill where and outcrop of rocks were that was pleasantly in the shape of a chair. It Took Jake a while to get back to normal, but when he did they set off to go the undercover bartender.
They had reached the gates of the city, the huge walls looming over them almost daring them to try to break them. The giant steel gate was not locked yet it was closed. It took all of them to push it open.
"Ok guys, just sneak around the corners of houses. Try not to draw attention to some of the guards that are most likely patrolling the area. Jake and Maria you guys take the front while Tara and I will be behind you two." Mike instructed. They took off in the shadow of the houses. Watching out for any guards that were around, patrolling the area. Finally they reached a building called "The drunken horse" They looked inside through the glass window, not a single loyalist was in the tavern. The group entered and jogged to the bartender.
"Red Rose." Mike said. The other three looked at mike with a confused look on his face.
"Rebels, eh?" The bartender said with a shine in his eyes. The bartender walked around the counter and shook their hands. "Does this mean I can leave this damned place?" Mike nodded his head. "Thank the gods." The bartender left the tavern silently.
"Good. Lets go back to the castle." Tara said.
"Heh. Don't count on escaping this tavern with your life!" Taunted a deep threatening voice. "There is no way that you can get past me and my two best soldiers!"
"Just try us." Jake said with a smirk on his face. The two soldiers took off charging toward Maria. Jake suddenly appeared on the other side of the soldiers with a curved blade in one hand and an axe in the other. The soldiers fell to the ground with clanks of armor and dying groans.
"You killed my soldiers! I will kill you!" The sergeant took off at a blazing pace and knocked Jake to the wall on the other side of the room, Mike took off with a long sword in his hands ready to slice through the sergeant. Tara and Maria stood at their places muttering incantations. Jake ran past the two girls so fast that after he past a giant gust came right after him. Jake was slicing at the sergeant with his axe and mike with his long sword.
"You can never defeat me, you pathetic rebels!" The sergeant took out a giant axe with a green tint to it. He sliced and Mike but he blocked it. The force of the blow was so great that it sent mike into the wall leaving an imprint of his body, and him lying on the floor limp.
"Move Jake!" Tara shouted out. Jake jumped in the air barely dodging two giant energy strikes. The energy struck the general in the skull and chest. His armor shattered exposing a soft area of flesh. Jake jumped at the exposed flesh of the sergeant. He blocked his sword, grabbed his shirt, turned around, and threw him across the chamber. At that very moment Mike came out of no were and sliced the sergeants head off, the head rolling down to a corner in the room, the body fell to the ground with a thud and splattering blood out of its neck.
"Nice strike, Mike" Jake said pulling up his ripped pants leg. Maria and Tara came jogging to the other two with bold smiles on their faces.
"You really didn't have to cut off his head." Tara said nudging Mike. He turned around with a blood covered face and a swollen eye.
"Wow! Umm, ready to go back to the castle and rest up and take care of those cuts, mike?" Maria said with a raised eyebrow. They all headed back to the castle. When they exited the town and at the edge of the forest they saw the princess.
"I take it that you guys got the under cover agent?" she asked smiling, the group nodded. "Good. Ready to ride to the castle?" they nodded again. "Good. Hop in the airship." She turned around and walked up a black ramp leading into a big room with a crystal chandelier, there were leather, gold lined couches. Jake and the others walked slowly to the couches and fell asleep.
Tara forced her eyes open and she found herself in a bright white room. She sat up and she saw a red cross on the wall she got up and started to walk when something held her back, she looked back and saw a rope, attached was a note that said. "Your clothes are in the closet. Don't get out of bed." She looked down at her replacement clothes. The front was fine; she suddenly felt a cold breeze in the back. She turned her head and saw her bare behind. She squeaked and jumped back in her bed.
Maria was the second one to get up she sat up and saw the same thing as Tara. She looked at her and waved. "Don't get up, you wont like it. Tara hollered. But she was too late. Maria squeaked and hopped in her bed. Mike rolled over in his bed and fell off. He jumped up and looked around confused and said "where the hell am I?"
"Hospital." Jake said rubbing his eyes.
"Are you serious?"
"Do I sound like I'm joking?"
"Oh crap! I hate hospitals!"
"Hahaha. Why?"
"I hate the doctors, and I hate the shots."
"Poor, Mike" Maria said with a hint of laughter in her voice. Two doctors came in the room followed by two nurses. They were wearing clean white clothes. The nurses started untying them from their beds and handing them their clothes.
"You are free to go. Just to let you know. All of you had been sleeping for two days."
"Two days!" Mike protested.
"Yes, two days. Do I need to say it again?"
"Hmm…." Mike said as he was being untied from the bed, the nurse turned and winked at him, he smiled back, something took over Tara, she then jumped up and ran to his bed.
"Are you enjoying your stay in the hospital?" she asked with a glare.
Mike swallowed hard "Yes I am. Aren't you a little cold with your butt showing?" Tara instantly was back at her bed. She pulled the curtain around her bed and got dressed. By the time noon had rolled around they were all ready for their next assignment.
The group was heading to the throne room eagerly waiting for their next assignment. The queen was waiting patiently for them on he golden, jeweled covered chair with guards standing with steel swords. The group walked in front of the queen and kneeled. "We await the next assignment, your highness." Jake said.
"Glad to see you warriors are up to another challenge. The next one is surely to be harder, according to our under cover agent that you had recovered successfully. We now have a greater understanding of how the empire works. The have been gaining some mysterious metals from a large mining center south of Prontera. You are going to need to get a ride through one of the ports in the city Calicron, look for a person named Kanin, he'll led you a boat but you need to give him this golden rose. He'll give it to you then, hopefully he can still fight like the savage he is. We'll be waiting here for you." The queen instructed.
The group stood up and headed out the door. Mike was walking behind the other three with a frowning face. " You all know that this is going to be so much harder than the other mission we had?"
"Yes, we know what we're doing is dangerous, but anything to help out the other people I this country." Tara said. They were all silent for the rest of the way out of the castle.
Chapter 4 Another Adventure"Aaaah! The great city of Prontera, with ships and by the sea shops! This is gonna be fun!" Tara exclaimed as she ran into the cobble street. "So where are we supposed to find this Kanin guy?"
"Well, I hope that he isn't too hard too find, we cant be searching for just one guy for the whole day that we're here." Maria said. The group looked all over the town for people that look like this man; finally Maria decided to ask an old beggar man that had been watching her and the golden rose in her grasps. Maria walked over to the old beggar man, and crouched right next to him. "Excuse me, do you know who Kanin is?"
"Depends on whose asking."
"Well, all I can say is this." She pulled the golden rose from behind her back; on the steam you could make out the words "red rose".
"Well, well, well. Looks like we have a rebel on our hands." The old beggar said standing up keeping his hood over his face. "The man you seek, his name is Kanin, and I know where he is."
"Where?"
"He's right in front of you my child." The beggar threw off his black cloak revealing a man with black hare and a black goatee with blue eyes and a shirt of leather and leather pants, he carried a sword on his back and knife holsters on the sides of his boots, you could barely make out the several scares on this mans face. He had a thick body build, long scares along his arms, signs of a battle hardened man, but to Maria he had the softest blue eyes she had ever seen. Maria got up and brought the other members over to meet their new ally.
"You look like you've been in quite a few battles." Mike said.
"Yes, I have. But before we head on across the great ocean you all are going to have to choose a profession." Kanin said.
"A profession? What's that?"
"Its where you choose what you want to be, like what I am, I'm a Lord Knight. There are different ways to become what you want to be, like I had to be a knight before I was a Lord Knight, but before that I was a little swords man. How weak I was back then, so. I'll tell you all what professions you can choose from; there's Acolyte which can become into a Monk, they are healers and sometimes physical. Then another profession as a Mage, which you can turn into a Wizard, final stage you could be a High Wizard. There, like me are Knights, there are Thief's which you turn into an Assassin, then an Assassin Cross, one of the most powerful professions in the whole globe. The last profession in the group of jobs is a Hunter, after that, the next level would be a Sniper, with the art of archery at its grasp, and its uncanny ability to set traps and spot even the most skilled people at hiding, they have the ability to charm hawks which helps it out, not only kill but spot hidden enemies and allies. It's the second deadliest profession in this entire populated planet. So what will you be?" Kanin said running out of breath at the end of his sentence.
"Well, I don't know about you but I'm going for a High Wizard, I shall kill everything in our paths with mystical rhymes and incantations. Hehe." Tara said jumping up and down giggling.
"Well, mine isn't hard to choose. I'm gonna be an Assassin. The most stealthy person in the world!" Mike said while leaded against the wall of a nearby house.
"You may want to be a Assassin, but I'm going to be a Monk, I'll just sit back healing you all and making you stronger with faithful buffs, until I'm needed, then I will be unstoppable! Maria said clenching her fist in the air.
"A Monk, eh Maria?" Jake said. "Well, that's some good strategy for you to pick. I don't want to be the same as anyone here so I'm going to be a sniper. With everyone being one of the jobs we'll be unstoppable!"
"Not that I love to burst other people's bubble but there are other professions to choose from once you master the other profession choose. But the only way to get those jobs is to be reborn. To be reborn you have to be very skilled in your art and able to go to the temple of Anthell and defeat one of the infinite giant fire ants. This may sound easy, but thousands have tried at once and still have failed, I suggest that you just stay what you are. It's much safer for you and the cause of the entire world." Frowning Kanin walked to a wall and drew what one of the giant fire ants looked like. But he has never seen one for himself, so it was hard for him to draw the ant.
"So I'm guessing what we first need to do is to be trained in these skills right?" Mike said.
"Correct. And since we all chose separate jobs we will have to choose different paths. So when you have completed your training you shall go back to the castle and wait there and teach several rebel soldiers so that they can teach their own once they have mastered their jobs. In the center of this city is a giant stone building. There you will find a desk, go there and look for the letter your job starts with, then look for your job itself. Then it will show you your teacher. If you have researched correctly you will find your teacher. The person that would teach you in the way of your job, I'll be waiting for you all at the rebel castle. Bye" Kanin said vanishing in a flash of light.
"Split up?" Maria asked in shock.
"Yes, we a have to spilt up to save the world." Jake said making his way to the center of the town.
"I guess this is where we say good bye for a while." Mike said sadly, he walked to Tara and gave her a big hug, he turned to Maria and gave her a hug and headed off to the stone building in a jog.
"I hope this is going to be easier than it sounds, I really do hope so." Tara said with a small tear dropping from the side of her eye.
"We all hope that." Maria said giving Tara a hug and started on her own journey.
Chapter 5 The Path Of An AssassinMike flopped the pages eagerly looking for his teacher, finally he found it, his teacher that would teach him how to be an Assassin. His name was Gene. It said he could find him right next door. Hmm… how convenient.
Mike thought to himself. He walked down the booked covered hallway while walking he watched Jake go to the same book that he had just come from using. He opened up the door to the outside; the street was bustling with business. There were bakers setting up their stall for the dinner rush and their assistance baking their cakes and bread, the jewelers checking the diamonds for their quality and their density. He looked at the door behind him; the door was gold with a jade doorknob, obviously this guy has quite a bit of money on him, Mike walked to the door and rang the doorbell. It's ring sounded like one of the regular doorbells. The gold door crept, no one standing in the doorway. Mike walked in, the house was pitch black, he stayed on his toes since this person is supposedly an Assassin, a master of stealth and silent kills. Mike walked to a table sitting in the middle of the room.
"Who are you?" shouted out a voice from behind. Mike turned around just in time to see a sudden blur from the right; Mike jumped to the left and crouched there, waiting for the other person to make his move. The teacher moved sooner than he expected, he appeared right in front of mike and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "What are you doing here? What do you want?"
"I need to be taught the path of an Assassin, I need to learn so I can take out the evil empire trying to take over this world, I will not let that happen."
"Are you sure you want to be an Assassin?" the teacher asked putting Mike back on the floor, Mike nodded. "Tell me this first though. Who sent you here?"
"A man named Kanin, he told me to go to the building next door to look for you." Mike said fixing his shirt. The teacher walked around Mike like he was looking for something. He finally stopped right in front of Mike and looked him straight in the eye. Finally he walked away from him and turned on the lights. The teacher had a mask only over his mouth and his irises were bright red. He walked in front of Mike.
"My name is Sauruto, you will call me master, or teacher, or most common Sauruto Sensei, understood?"
"Yes sensei!" Mike said standing in attention. Mike was still not sure about his teacher, he seems to have no feeling and a personality totally different than anyone else's that he had meet before. He seems to look at the world with all-knowing smiling eyes, seeing something no one else can see.
"First you need to be fit, in shape, but first, I need to see how much more stronger you need to be, follow me into my own dojo." Sauruto instructed Sauruto. He walked to a door across the room, when he opened it there actually was a mid sized dojo. There were dents in some of the wall and on the poles. "Come, let's spar." They walked through the door to opposite sides of the dojo. They bowed to one another and got into their fighting stances instantly after that. Mike was the first to move, He ran to Sauruto as fast as he could, in the blink of an eye Sauruto was gone, he had disappeared.
"You cannot hit what you cannot see. To fight me you have to relay on more than just your sense of sight, use your other five senses." Sauruto taught
"Five senses?"
"Yes, there is a total of seven; sight, touch, smell, taste, hearing and sensing your opponent. Though you don't need the taste sense."
"How am I to 'sense' you? How am I to unlock that skill?" Mike asked as he turned around in circles looking for Sauruto. Just then a knife came from nowhere, Mike jumped out of the way of its path.
"Good, you've already got some of the technique in you, excellent. Maybe you wont be so hard to teach after all." Sauruto said as he threw another knife at Mike's head. He crouched just in time to feel the knife go by his head. Sauruto jumped out from the rafters and landed right next to Mike, He swung right for Mike's head. Mike ducked and swung his left leg in a circle. It was too slow, Sauruto had already moved, he was too fast. "Good, you know where I will strike you but you can't meet my speed just yet." Sauruto said as he struck Mike in the back. Mike went flying into a tall wooden poll and dented it. He got up and searched for his teacher, Mike could still not see him.
"I know you can do better than this, Mike." Sauruto said throwing several knifes at Mike, But Mike was getting faster and faster by the second. Mike dodged to a wooden pole, jumped on it and threw himself onto the rafters.
"Now that I see you, I can finally counter attack!" Mike said instantly appearing in front of Sauruto and threw one of his hardest punches. It didn't do a thing, it didn't hurt Sauruto, it just made his head go back a little bit.
"Now I know you are stronger than that! Or there is no point of training you. Find your inner self, find the power you need to attack me and strike harder!" Sauruto instructed as he climbed higher into the rafters. Mike followed after him, he reached the same level as Sauruto and tried to hide in some shadows, but there weren't any shadows to hide in, there was a giant glass roof just above them. He pulled out a book and started reading it.
"What the heck are you doing?" Mike shouted out.
"Well, with those weak punches I wont even need to watch you! I really shouldn't need to teach you, you have no hope! You will never be anything! No one will know who you are!"
"That's not true! I will be some one, I will be " Mike took off toward him. Sauruto jumped in the air not taking his eyes off his book. Mike turned around clasped his hands together for a couple of seconds, then made quick motions with his hands "Monkey, monkey, monkey, horse!" He shouted and threw his left hand out toward Sauruto and shouted, "Knock down!" Sauruto flew into the wall leaving a fairly large sized dent; Mike followed through and started to attack him. But Sauruto stopped him when he tried to throw a third punch.
"I see you know how to use your Chakra, and hand signs. Was that the only one you know? Monkey, horse, tiger, lion, monkey, lion, tiger." Sauruto shouted and swung his hand slashing the air. "Wind Jutsu" a strong sudden gust blew at Mike and raised the dust that had been on the floor. Mike jumped up and through the glass ceiling. And landed on the roof.
"Now you have to fight in the light!" Mike declared!
"It seems that you have broken my glass ceiling." Sauruto said. "its time to stop now.
"What why?"
"There's no need to fight anymore. I can tell that you are worthy of teaching. Though, I believe you some how have all of the basic skills necessary. Though, that's what we're going to hone, focus our concentration on. Mastering those skill so that their 3rd nature to you.
"Well, what's supposed to be 2nd nature to me?"
"Controlling your chakra."
"Shouldn't we work on that first?"
"Excuse me? I'm the teacher aren't I?"
"Yeah."
"Good. Glad that you understand that at least." Sauruto said. He walked to the edge of the building and looked down at the crowded street. "You know that this is gonna be hard a hard journey?" Mike just shook his head.
Chapter 6
A Wizard's Wandering
Tara walked into the white building alone; the place was huge, thousands upon thousands of books and records. There were many kinds of people there. She walked to the book that Maria had just walked away from. Evidentially she was finished rather quickly. Tara walked to the book and looked through the book, it really was easy to find her teacher. Though her teacher was far on the other side of the city, she would have to walk through the bustling crowds. Tara turned around and walked for the door, there were several people right beside the door being checked, incase they had stolen any books; Tara didn't need to be checked she didn't have anything to put books in.
Tara nudged her way through the crowd in the center of the town when something caught her eye. It was a blue silk robe with yellow stars and a gold headband and an Emerald gem as its centerpiece. Tara walked over to the salesman and asked, "How much for that?" as Tara pointed to it.
"That would be worth two hundred thousand zenny." The salesman said smiling at Tara.
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