(August 15, 2016)
Chapter 1. The Mysterious Woman
The sun hung high in the sky, but the ever cloudy swamp was rarely treated with its rays. The shadiness of the place was a great environment to monsters, especially slimes, possessed flora, and specters who love damp and darkness. Quaggy bedding, deep ponds, and densely growing trees are good hunting grounds for such foul creatures. If someone looses themselves in such a place they end up as a meal for the lurking evil. More often than not, even most of combat trained civilians and soldiers have problems defending themselves.
However there were two people there, fighting the monsters. The first was a man with long white hair tied in a bun and olive green eyes. He wore a tight dark brown undersuit, a white sleeveless tunic, pants adorned with brown patterns and fingerless gloves with brown outlines. His look was completed with a pair of red shoes. Accompanying him was a woman with long blonde hair, a noticeable bang with green tips on the left side of her head, and magenta-colored eyes. Her attire consisted of a white top revealing a rather large amount of her stomach and lower half of her back, a white skirt with a purple and green floral pattern, and purple sleeves laced with pink laces. Knee-high light pink boots with black accents were tied to roughly two-thirds of their height, also with pink laces, completing her look.
The duo was on a yet another training session in the swamp. Out of all the terrains surrounding their village the wetlands offered monsters with which the training was most rewarding. Not many other inhabitants ventured there, preferring to keep to the calmer environment with a little number of monster attacks.
As they were heading towards the darker area of the swamp, they were suddenly attacked by a brown specter of a boar head. It cast a spell on the man causing several stones shoot out from the ground and damage him. However he brushed it off with a smirk, and charged at the monster slashing it a few times with his daggers in reverse grip. The woman joined him in the attack, quickly slashing the creature with her sword thrice. The monster was angered and started to furiously spin around the two, creating a vortex of dust and water. The two shielded their eyes when the specter rushed at the woman, leaving yellow sparkles behind itself. The strike was so strong it threw her back a few meters.
The man roared, seeing the woman wounded from the creature's attack, and charged at it. He conjured a yellow glyph on it and rushed threw it, then charged at it from another side. He then leaped into the air and with a frontal spin crashed into the enemy, stalagmites emerging from the impact zone. The monster made an angry face and large spectral spikes emerged from it at its unsuspecting attacker throwing him away at a nearby tree. Then the woman leaped into the air, pointing her blade at the enemy, and a beam of light shoot from it. With a final roar, the monster started to disperse into violet sparkles and soon after it was gone.
"You shouldn't have thrown yourself into that fiend like that," the woman helped the man stand up.
"I couldn't stand seeing you get hurt!" he replied.
"I can handle myself," she glared at him. "Come, let's get back to the village. It's getting dark."
The woman gave the man a red gel which he ate despite his initial protests, the product making him feel rejuvenated.
Their walk back home was accompanied by attacks of a few lesser monsters, but they handled them quite well. Of course, the man did come a few times between the monsters' attacks against the woman, despite her assertion that she can handle herself.
Just when they were about to enter a less forested and drier area, an explosion roared in the distance. As they turned behind themselves they noticed fires in the distance. The flames were slowly coming closer to them.
"Should we go to the village and tell the elder?" the man asked.
The woman thought for a while, waging their options.
"No, the village is farther away from us then are those fires," she replied. "We should go and see what's going on."
"What if it's something too big even for us to handle?" he worried.
"That's strange coming from you," she said with a somewhat amused face.
"Y-you think so?" the man gave a confused gaze.
And then he darted toward the fires. The woman sighed and followed him.
As she was running she noticed a strange lack of monsters. She attributed that to the fire which served as a stark change for the creatures relishing in the darkness.
She quickly caught up with the man and advanced further. The temperature was slowly rising and becoming a nuisance for the two. A burning branch suddenly fell from a tree as they were running and they managed to slide just as it was about to crash them. Then a tree burst with fire, knocking them away a few meters.
They looked at each other and as if understanding each other they stood up and rushed.
Finally after a few moments, they arrived at a large clearing where soldiers clad in red armor were attacking a lone woman with nearly white hair with blue tips. She was surprisingly handling her opponents rather well, but the overwhelming amount of them was quickly taking a toll on her. Then suddenly a large water bubble appeared above a group of soldiers and burst, splashing her enemies.
"Spirit artes!?" the man exclaimed.
"We have to help her!" the woman said, and joined the other woman with series of quick thrusts around one of the soldiers.
"Who are you?" the other woman then spoke surprised.
"No time for that," the blonde replied and continued her assault.
"She has backup!" one of the soldiers shouted. "Take them out!"
The women were then joined by the man attacking one of the soldiers with a leap over him and charging and slashing at him in midair. Then a graceful slash was performed by the blonde at the few enemies which surrounded her, followed with a powerful kick which knocked her opponents out.
Then from the back came a shot, missing the other woman. The soldiers quickly dispersed making somewhat of a path for someone. Moments later, a man with silver hair and red tips framing his face emerged, a strange weapon in his right hand. He aimed at the other woman, an angry and tired expression on his face.
"That was a warning shot. If you won't give me back the Book, I won't hesitate to kill you," he said.
"Really now?" the woman spoke, she seemed quite assured of herself even though she was vastly outnumbered, even including the two mysterious people at her side. "Can you even read that?" and she waved a rather large book with a fawn cover, an ornate dark brown V on its front, and a cheeky smile on her face.
"Once I'll get my hands on that Book you won't need to concern yourself with such details," he replied.
Then the blonde woman pointed her blade at the demanding man, a crossed look on her face as well.
"Who are you? And what do you intend to do with that book?"
"Battlecorps, kill those two," he ordered the soldiers. "They gave us enough trouble. Besides, they know too much."
And then a dozen of soldiers threw themselves at the two people. The man and woman cooperated in their swift victory, their blades cutting down all their foes in a somewhat of a dance. Just as the man was to show thumb up with a big grin on his face to his partner, a shot was heard. The woman then quickly toppled him and they both fell on the ground, the shot missing them by a few centimeters.
The man then growled and shot at them a few more times but the bullets met a wall of ice. The two looked up and saw the woman between them and the wall.
"Quick, stand up!" she rushed them. "This wall won't hold them for long."
The two looked around and it appeared they surrounded by ice.
"That's a really powerful spirit arte!" the man exclaimed. "You just gotta teach it to me!"
"We have more pressing matters at hand," the blonde said, pointing at the slowly shattering ice. "We'll help you escape from them."
"Really? We will?" the man asked surprised. He was simply ignored by the two accompanying women.
"What do you suggest we do?" the other woman asked.
"Deep within the Floodmeadow there is a powerful fiend. We'll lead them to it and wake it. That should buy us some time."
"You don't mean—?" the man started, but was interrupted by the blonde:
"Yes, I mean it." Then the ice wall shattered. "Follow me!" she quickly said to the other two and started running.
"After them, you idiots!" the man with the strange weapon yelled.
The trio then ran towards a forest which was getting denser by a minute. A few monsters appeared along the way trying to fight them but were outrun. In the distance the trio could hear soldiers' voices, some sounded to be mortally wounded by the monsters' attack judging by their cries of agony and despair.
After few minutes they arrived to a small clearing where a great tree stood. Well, it looked like a tree, but it was certainly breathing, judging by the delicate up and down movement of its branches.
The blonde then put her pointing finger to her mouth, indicating that they need to be quite and gently waved her hand signaling to follow her. They hid in a thicket and waited for the soldiers to come.
Moments later a group of soldiers, led by the man with the red tips, appeared. They were looking around, poking their swords and staffs into bushes and whatnot, but without any success.
The blonde then nodded at the man. He grinned and conjured a yellow circle which imploded and shoot several stones out of it towards the tree in the center. Nearly instantly it took effect. The monster woke up, shooting leaves out of its branches at soldiers. The soldiers' leader managed to avoid them, hiding behind a rock.
At that moment, the blonde then signaled the other two to follow her and soon after were far away from the rampaging tree. The pair was leading the mysterious woman a different path they came to the Floodmeadow as a precaution to avoid being followed by any stray soldiers if there were any.
About half an hour later the trio left the swamp, a warm sunset welcoming them. They stopped to rest; the soldiers were far away from them now. Not so far on the horizon the group could see a village.
Just as the man was about to continue their walk back to the village, his companion halted him. She turned to woman with the bright hair with blue tips, her hair were somehow styled to look like animal ears. She had amber eyes behind glasses with dark blue frames. She wore white shirt exposing her stomach and lower back, a blue bolero with a purple-blue feathery scarf around her neck, and light blue shorts wide at legs' bottom making it appear like a skirt which had white wide vertical lines at their front and back. Silver blue and white heels reaching til her knees completed her look along with blue gloves and a gold bracer on her left wrist. In her right hand she held the book she fought for a few minutes ago. However, the strangest thing about her was a presence of a tail.
"Who are you?" she asked her.
"No one you should concern yourself with," she replied with a smirk of confidence.
"Really? We did help you back there. An explanation should be in place, don't you think?"
"I didn't ask for your help." The woman nonchalantly waved her left hand close to her face, one of the bangs framing her face fluttered with the hand's wave. "But I suppose thanks are in order, so… thanks."
"Just 'thanks'!? Who do you think you are!? Talking to—!" the man started, angry.
"Ivar," the blonde interrupted him. "That is enough."
"But—!"
The blonde looked at the man with a scolding look. He immediately shut up and looked away from the two women. He felt like air, ignored.
"Let me handle this." Then she turned to the other woman, "I'm Milla." She extended her hand.
"Maybe you have some manners after all," she replied after glancing at the two for a moment. "Very well then, I'm Presa."
"Ivar," the man said, a crossed look on his face.
"So can you tell us what was that battle about?" Milla asked Presa.
"Maybe later," and after a short pause added, "If you deserve it."
"Let's get to the village," Ivar growled.
The angry man treated ahead of the two women. Milla sighed and soon joined Ivar, followed by Presa.
None would presume of the great and perilous journey which awaited them.
Author's Notes
So this an idea I've been entertaining for the past few weeks: a Zestiria-styled Xillia story. This is more or less a concept chapter, but if the reception will be good, there'll be more chapters.
I made slight adjustments to Ivar and Milla's Xillia outfits, but decided to went with something more... modest? for Presa; her outfit is simply ridiculous!
Also, since Xillias naming conventions are largely based on Slavic mythology expect a lot of references to that.