Heya all readers old and new, and welcome to the sequel to Glitter in the Air! After a few years full of family problems, a few different jobs and writing original novels, I finally forced myself to upload the first chapter. At some point, I had to just accept it will never be perfect and just upload it, so if there are issues in it blame my bad editing. Either way, I've poured blood, sweat, tears and hard work into it and I really REALLY hope you all love it as much as I've had writing it! Especially since this story is actually part ROMANCE instead of Friendship like the last one, and I SUCK at writing romance.
Chapters are all very long too; this one used to be in the ten-thousand range before I had to split it up. Trust me, this is the shortest it gets; most of the other ones range anywhere between six to ten thousand words and that's a LOT of words to write and edit! So, updates will be around two weeks to a month in between. Story is already written but it takes a long time for me to edit anything, so don't worry about a lack of updates. I just write fast and edit slow, especially since this was originally a NaNoWriMo fic and it was rife with mistakes and scenes that had to be rewritten or cut altogether.
Also a fair note: This begins with a time skip. Around six months after the end of the game and a few weeks more since GitA. You'll read the reasons why soon enough.
As always, enjoy the read!
Chapter 1: Homecoming
Water lapped gently around the coral-red structure in the middle of the small pool. Crystal-clear spring water bubbled up out of the ground, curling around the curves of the stone before flowing down the river towards Werites Beacon. The tall pines around the clearing swayed in the breeze, and the quiet waves of the sea lapped at the shoreline down the nearby hillside. Sunlight sparkled on the glass lanterns of the scattered lampposts around the spring. The air was still and calm; completely peaceful. Once more, Lumen Spring is the location where yet another story begins aboard the Legacy.
Lying against a grassy bank near the spring, a blond man took a rare moment to relax in the sunshine. A faint sea breeze played with the fringe of hair over his closed eyes. Black sleeves clung to wrists tucked behind his head, stretching underneath a sapphire blue tunic with a white symbol adorning the collar.
Idly listening to the wind rustling through the trees and the distant waves, the blond man's fine hearing picked up on the distant sound of tromping footsteps from the direction of Werites Beacon. From the sounds of it, they weren't trying to be stealthy at all. The unknown person walked over and soon he felt their shadow fall over him like an eclipse. His eyebrows furrowed as the warmth left his face, and resisted an urge to give the person an irritated glance.
"Hey Wally, I was tryin' to find ya everywhere! You're a hard guy to find, ya know that?" He heard the drawling tone of the bandit chief Moses cut through the air, and exhaled a sigh of resignation. Lazily, he opened one of his light-blue eyes to stare at him.
Sometime after Schwartz was defeated half a year ago, most of the Fun Bunch had found their nitch in Werites Beacon. Moses Sandor was one of two who lived outside the city walls, the other being Jay the Unseen. Instead of returning to the bandit hideout that was overrun by Vaclav's forces some time ago, Moses and his bandits found a forest in the mountains close to Werites Beacon. The camp stood directly between the Misty Mountains and the nearby city, and the camp was remote enough they could maintain some sort of privacy from the nearby civilians.
Most of the time, Moses hung out with the group in Werites Beacon and let his second-in-command Csaba take care of things. Even a few bandits had begun to integrate with the civilians, including a pair that Walter had no liking for from past disagreements.
"I thought I told you guys to quit calling me that." Walter replied finally, unclasping his arms so he could rub at his eyes. All the sun beaming on his face had made the world dark in comparison, and it took a few moments for the colors to return to normal.
Moses shrugged. "Ya never tell Bubbles that. 'Sides, I thought ya got used to the nickname by now?" The bandit brought up a point. After a while of Norma and Moses refusing to call him anything but his nickname with even Shirley and Grune joining in on occasion, he had gotten used to it. The only reason he really asked anymore was to keep up appearances, even if he had given up on changing their minds a long time ago.
The Ferines sat up and looked up at the bandit, "Why did you come to find me, Moses?"
The redhead shook his head for a moment. "Always straight to the point, aren't ya?" He turned to point in the direction of the coastline, around where Port on Rage was, "Didn't ya forget Bubbles was comin' back today? And here I thought you'd be the first one there."
Realization and a hint of panic flashed across Walter's face and he jumped to the feet, "Her ship comes in today?! What time is it?"
Moses looked up towards the sun, which had already passed the center of the sky and was beginning its downward descent towards the horizon. "Well, I'd say its afternoon… Maybe around two or three, I guess."
"Damnit, I'm late!" The blond exclaimed, and he dashed towards the path to Werites Beacon, leaving the redhead in his dust. A few moments later, Moses had caught up to him as they dashed down the mountain path to Werites Beacon. "Thanks for coming to find me, by the way." He spoke up after the redhead had caught up.
"Hey, what're family for?" Moses grinned back at him.
Walter rolled his eyes in exasperation, "…for the last time, we are not brothers." Even if Jay had gotten over being called his 'little brother', Walter never had. He was older than him for Nerifes' sake!
"Ya keep sayin' that, Wally. Don't mean it ain't true." The redhead remarked.
"Well, it isn't!" He replied as they turned a corner, dashing under a small waterfall.
"….is to!" Moses retorted back playfully.
"Grr… we are not starting that again." Walter grumbled and upped his pace, passing the redhead despite the slight height disadvantage. Moses noticed and ran faster to catch up. Then Walter one-upped him again. Soon it had become an all-out race between the two towards the entrance of Werites Beacon and the duct outside the front gates.
x x x
At that moment in time, the Gadorian knight Chloe was talking a walk with Elsa and admiring the early spring colors. The winter snow had stopped falling a few weeks earlier in mid-February, and leaves were beginning to grow on the trees once more. Tiny buds of green were sprouting from a small maple they passed under, soon to grow into large star-shaped leaves. The blue sky was clear for now, but a large group of rainclouds were steadily making their way towards the Legacy.
Since Elsa's disease had been cured, she was growing healthier and stronger every day, enough that she was beginning to follow in her father's footsteps to become a herbalist and doctor. Chloe on the other hand decided to remain on the Legacy, despite her concerns about rumors that her homeland Gadoria was becoming politically unstable. She joined Senel in protecting Werites Beacon and clearing the surrounding areas of local monsters. Aside from that, she helped protect Alcott and Elsa whenever they ventured into the field to collect medicinal herbs and medicines.
The two ladies were walking down the path near the inn when they heard faint thudding sounds behind them. Chloe's head perked up in curiosity. "Huh, what's that noise?" Elsa asked, looking behind them where the sound was gradually getting closer.
Chloe followed her lead, and her eyes suddenly widened as two men sprinted around a corner, skidding on the cobblestone path and dashing straight towards them. She quickly pulled Elsa out of the way as the two blurred figures sprinted past them. The knight only saw flashes of a shirtless redhead and a blond dressed in blue and white before the two skidded around the corner of the bakery and out of sight. "…What the…?" She trailed off.
"…Was that Walter and Moses?" Elsa asked, blinking rapidly in her confusion.
"I think so…" Chloe nodded, still staring off in the direction they left. "But why the hurry?" She tapped a finger against her chin in thought, and then it clicked. The knight looked up towards the large clock near the middle of town and it confirmed her thoughts. "That's right, Norma's ship was arriving this afternoon."
"She's coming back? It'll be so nice to see her again; it's been too quiet with her gone!" The younger girl remarked with a wide smile spreading across her face.
"Yeah… It is. That would explain why they were sprinting so fast, they were late." Walter must have dozed off at Lumen Spring, and Moses went to go look for him. She thought to herself with a smile.
After the fight with Schwartz, Norma fell into a bout of depression after Grune had faded away, regardless of how the goddess asked them to be happy and keep smiling for her. The two had made up the 'laughing brigade' in their group, and Norma felt like she had lost an older sister. They all did... Not even a month later, she had received a letter from Zamaran asking her to return to the university. According to her letter, the scholars there unearthed a strange object in one of their excavations in the mountains of Coranth, and asked for her help examining it. Without much hesitation or notice, Norma left for the mainland. The group all felt one member short of the Fun Bunch with her absence. Sure, Moses tried to replace her as comedy relief, but Werites Beacon felt a little quieter without her.
None seemed to feel it like the Ferines did, though, Chloe thought to herself. After the events in the Crystal Forest, the two seemed to be inseparable; the best of friends. She would annoy him to no end, and he'd tease her insistently. After she left, he seemed to… vanish at times, as if he didn't want to return to the room they shared at the inn (which he managed to get a discount on, as they were staying there for a long period of time. The innkeeper allowed it, seeing as how Walter forced her to pay off her impressive debt she owed him.)
Still, Chloe found it odd that he would have forgotten about today, of all days. …She wondered why that was.
"Hey, Chloe?" The knight snapped out of her thoughts and looked over at Elsa again. "Could we stop by when Norma returns to Werites Beacon?"
"Sure thing, Elsa." Chloe replied with a smile on her face. "Though, we were going to go get those healing items from the item shop, right?"
"Ah, that's right. Well, we'll see her tomorrow... Let's go then~!" Elsa smiled, and the two continued down the path towards the shop.
x x x
Back near the entrance of town, Walter and Moses had sprinted nonstop to the duct, reaching it in record time. Now they lingered near to it, gasping for breath. Walter bent over with his hands on his knees, struggling to breathe normally again. Moses had sprawled out on the ground with either arm out to the side as he stared at the sky, chest heaving for air.
"Let's… not do that… again." Walter gasped out, swallowing hard and panting for air.
"Yeah…! Let's…" Moses agreed with a wheezy laugh, wiping his forehead with his arm.
After a few minutes of catching their breath, they finally went into the duct and activated the small terminal to warp them to Port on Rage, the only port on the Legacy. A small, slightly gut-wrenching trip of teleportation later, they found themselves walking under the archway above the port's entrance. The two passed a few sailors carrying heavy crates to one of the larger warehouses on the banks. Huge crates and barrels of all kinds were stacked into tall towers outside the doors, waiting to be inventoried and shipped to who-knows-where.
Walking down the long docks, they spotted a familiar figure waiting for Norma as well. A short teenager at the age of seventeen leaned against the wall of a small building, arms crossed and staring out at the horizon. His face wasn't any less pale than the last time Walter and Moses had seen him, and over the past six months it seemed even more difficult for a stranger to tell he was a boy.
Moses grinned and waved at the shinobi. "Hey Jay, good to see ya!"
A bell jingled at the end of his ponytail as Jay turned his head towards them. Large violet eyes relaxed as he saw the familiar figures approach, and he pushed himself away from the wall to greet them. "Moses, Walter. And here I thought I would be the only one here when Norma arrived."
Moses pouted, "Hey, don't blame me! Wally here was takin' a nap up at Lumen Spring, and I was busy tryin' to find him."
Walter crossed his arms and looked out towards the bay, ignoring the teen's curious gaze. "I was working all night and it slipped my mind."
Jay leaned on one foot and raised an eyebrow at him, "Did you now…? You've been doing that for the past month or so; have you ever heard of a vacation?"
The blond gave the younger member of their party a flat expression bordering on annoyance. "Does that mean you'll stop working as well? After staying up night after night trying to find out if the rumors circulating around Gadoria are true?"
"Touche." Jay responded simply and turned back toward the docks, where a large passenger ship was just beginning to pull into port. "Well at any rate, you aren't that late. Norma's ship is arriving right on time."
The three members of the Fun Bunch waited as the ship pulled next to the long wooden dock. A few salt-encrusted ropes were thrown down to sailors waiting on the dock, who tied them to large somewhat-rusty cleats bolted to the wooden platform. The ropes became taut and the ship settled to a stop close to the dock. Soon after a few sailors aboard deemed it safe, a wooden ramp was lowered down, allowing impatient passengers to finally disembark.
Walter's eyes scanned the crowd of people walking down the gangplank, searching for a familiar girl with a yellow ornament in her hair. After a small crowd of people passed them by, a few people stepped aside and a familiar figure came into view. The treasure hunter was walking towards them toting a heavy suitcase in both hands. Her light-brown eyes sparkled in the sunshine as she chatted with a blonde woman around her age. She didn't seem to have changed at all, from her yellow dress to the bobbed hair accessory she wore in her messy hair.
The Ferines couldn't help but smile seeing the crystal eren, not knowing how much he had missed her until he saw her after six long months.
Norma smiled at the girl next to her before she looked forward towards the warehouses and road out of the port. She nearly stopped in place when she saw her three friends standing at the end of the dock. Moses waved ecstatically, Jay had that small smirk upon his face, and Walter simply smiled. The brunette felt loneliness crumble away from her heart as she saw her roommate and two friends. She shoved her suitcase into the arms of the confused blonde next to her and bolted for the others at a run. "Wally! Red, Jay-Jay!" She yelled in glee.
Before Walter could react, the girl had opened her arms and launched herself at him for a hug. She tackled him, which caused him to tip backwards and slam into the wooden deck with a loud thud. "Oh, I missed you guys so much!" She chirped happily, an enormous grin on her face.
Jay chuckled as Walter groaned on the ground, rubbing the back of his head. "And yet you tackled Walter first…"
The back of the Ferines' head began to throb painfully, and he lifted his head to glare at Norma. She still was lying on top of him, her eyes sparkling mischievously. "Do you always have to do that when you see me?" He retorted, wondering if he hit the ground hard enough to earn a concussion.
Norma just laughed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders in a hug, "What can I say? It isn't as much fun without you teasing me all the time, and I missed you!"
This caused Walter's frown to slip from his face and he gently wrapped his arms around her in an embrace. He couldn't help but notice that her hair had the sweet scent of strawberry shampoo drifting from it, and wondered if he had ever noticed that before. "…I missed you too, Norma." He murmured quietly in her ear. "Now, could you please get off of me?"
Norma grinned sheepishly, and helped pull him to his feet. Afterwards, the treasure hunter turned to Moses and Jay for hugs as well. Moses swung her around like she was a little kid while Jay simply tolerated it, still not appreciating hugs that much. After teasing Jay a little about his want of personal space, she seemed to remember the blonde woman behind her.
Turning to look behind her, she saw the blond struggling to hold up both of their bags. The woman seemed to shrink under the impatient expressions and muttering of the other passengers she was blocking, and gave Norma a helpless look. The treasure hunter quickly ran forward to retrieve her bag and nodded towards her friends, pulling the group aside so they wouldn't block foot traffic. "Hey guys, this is Emilia! She's a girl I met in Rexalia; say hi!"
The girl gave them a polite smile and bowed slightly, her long wavy hair falling off her shoulders to hang in front of her brilliant aqua-blue eyes. She wore a simple cream-colored dress with a violet band across the waist and the bottom trim, paired with a pair of battered white slippers. Around her left shoulder was a khaki-tan shoulder bag, which looked a little worse for wear. The strangest item she wore was a golden-orange ornament hanging from around her neck, one that seemed very familiar to the other Ferines. "I'm pleased to meet all of you."
Walter stared at the ornament for a long moment, causing the girl to nervously shift from one foot to the other at his intense look. He slowly raised his blue-eyed gaze to look at her. "…You're a Ferines, aren't you?" He asked slowly, not so much out of suspicion as curiosity.
Emilia seemed to jolt out of her relaxed persona, her eyes growing wide with fear. "H-how did you…!?" She stammered, her face growing pale.
Walter realized she must have come to the Legacy for safety and quickly backpedaled, "Wait, calm down." He held out a hand, letting a small violet teriques with jagged wings flutter above his fingertips. "I'm a Ferines too, you're safe here…"
The moment his teriques had appeared, Emilia looked as if a large weight had fallen away from her shoulders, and she slouched in relief. "Oh… good." She mumbled quietly, color beginning to come back into her face.
After Walter let his teriques vanish, Norma motioned to him and the others with a soothing smile on her face. "Remember when I mentioned some of my friends were Ferines? Wally's one of them." She turned to her friends and grinned sheepishly, "Sorry, I should have mentioned how skittish she could be."
Jay shook his head, "It's not a problem, but we should talk elsewhere. It's crowded here, and who knows who could be listening." This made Emilia tense up again and nervously glance around her surroundings.
Moses snorted, earning a dirty look from his teammate. "Ah, quit being such a downer Jay. You're too paranoid for your own good, ya know that?"
"I prefer the word 'cautious'." The shorter teen retorted back.
"Excuuuses~!" Moses sang, and Jay's eye twitched in irritation.
Norma waved her hands at the group, "Hey come on, you guys. Let's go home already! The food on the ship can't compare to the bread bowls they sell at the inn, and I'm starving!" Jay and Moses stopped their bickering and looked towards her. Giving the other one last look, they nodded at Norma.
After watching Walter throw Norma's bag over his shoulder, the bandit chief offered to carry Emilia's much smaller bag for her. The smile she gave him was enough to make him wobble in place, and Moses practically strutted next to her with a huge grin on his face. Jay simply rolled his eyes and continued after the four. "Looks like he found a new crush…"
Meanwhile, Walter noticed the eren's bag seemed incredibly heavy for some reason, and had to catch himself from tipping over once or twice. "Norma, did you take the entire university when you left? This thing weighs a ton." He was also afraid the bag's strap would snap and what he assumed was a pile of bricks would fall onto his foot.
The eren shook her head, and a mischievous smile lit her face. "Oh, I brought some supplies back for studying. It's a surprise!"
He shook his head; make that a library of books dropping onto his foot. The Ferines readjusted the strap on his shoulder as he replied, "Somehow this makes me even more nervous about what schemes you might be coming up with…"
Norma shrugged, "Hey, I found the Everlight, so I need to go chase after something else. I wouldn't be a very good treasure hunter if I just stopped at one priceless treasure, would I?"
"At the same time Bubbles, ya nearly kicked the bucket when ya did find the Everlight…" Moses mentioned.
This caused Emilia, the only one who hadn't known about the events in the Crystal Forest, turn to the brunette in shock and horror. "Wait, you almost died!? How?" She exclaimed.
Norma rubbed the back of her head embarrassed, "It's a looong story, but… yeah. I almost died from being poisoned amongst other things. I would been six feet under right now if Wally hadn't come to save me."
Emilia turned to the other Ferines in front of her with admiration in her eyes, "Wow… You'll have to tell me what happened! How'd you save her? How did she get poisoned in the first place?"
Walter grimaced at the memory of his battle with Schwartz and its painful ending. "Ergh… like Norma said, it's a long story. Parts of it are a bit… painful to remember, and it's a story you might not entirely believe…"
Emilia frowned, but understood. "I understand… Though I would still like to hear it sometime, it sounds like quite the story."
Norma nodded eagerly, pointing over to the duct outside of the port's entrance. "Well later I'll tell you all about it. But for now, let's go home!"
x x x
How's that for a first chapter? Technically this is more like the first third of chapter 1, but I couldn't find any other way to properly split it.
Hoping to hear from you readers how you liked it! …I mean, if there's anyone left in the fandom… :sniff: God, I feel old now, I've been writing Legendia fics for nine years.