by Sakomi Rose and Aumi
A/N: Our first joint fic. We're not sure if we're going to stick with this title for our story. It's in Latin, by the way, meaning Hate and Love: Opposite,although the opposite is blatantly obvious. Just a little sample of what we have so far. We're currently working on our next chapter (which is a lot less boring than this little tidbit, we assure you. ) and we should have it online in a week or two. Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy this prologue so far and feedback is always welcomed.
Begin Prologue...
Bloop! Bloop!
A little girl with long, soft pink hair tied into two ponytails behind her back was chasing after a little, pink poring. As she finally manages to corner it at the intersection of two Pronterian stone walls, a glint of determination flashes through her hazel brown eyes as she begins to advance on it. The poring looks up at her innocently, eyes pleading. She simply smiles and starts poking at it with her knife.
Poke, poke, poke. Splat.
Excitedly, she runs over to the pink goop, picking up the treasures it left behind.
"Jellopy... empty bottle... oh look! A poring card!"
Just as she bent over to pick it up, a sudden screech stopped her. A thief bug runs out from the bushes, nabs the card and runs away.
"Hey, come back here with my card!" cries the little 7-year-old novice as she starts chasing after it, running as fast as her little legs could carry her. The thief bug kept screeching, turning sharp corners and running through bushes to try and lose her. The girl starts panting and the thief bug was also getting tired. All of a sudden, it stops running and turns to her. Ylinestra stops too and looks at it, head cocked to the side. Maybe it was going to give the card back to her.
"Graaaaah!"
Nope. Instead, the thief bug suddenly starts attacking her. She screams and starts striking blindly at the insect with her knife, but she only succeeded in getting bites all over her arm.
"Help! Owww! Heeeelp!"
Suddenly, a rustle is heard behind the thief bug as another novice jumps out and attacks it. Together with the new comer, the girl manages to finally defeat the thief bug and get her card back. With a sigh, she plops down onto the ground and tucks her card safely into her pack.
"Are you okay?" asks the other novice who had helped her. She looks up and sees a boy with short pale blonde hair covering one eye. He had icy blue eyes and a soft smile on his face, along with mud smudged here and there. For some reason, Ylinestra's voice seems to have deserted her, so she simply nodded, looking up that the older youth.
"Here, take this." He hands her a red potion, which she accepts gladly. Taking a sip, she immediately begins to feel better, and after consuming the entire bottle, she was good as new.
With a blush on her face, she turns to her savor. "Um...thank you. For your help." She smiles shyly up at him. "My name is Ylinestra."
The boy grins widely before extending his right hand. "Call me Orion!"
"Yay! We finally did it!" cried Ylinestra happily, jumping up and down.
"Yep! We're finally ready!" replied Orion, with the same wide grin that seems to be permanent on his face.
After two long weeks, the two had finally gained enough experience to head down the path they had set out to.
"You know Orion, you never did tell me what you wanted to become.."
"Hm...that's right. What are you going to be?"
"Hey! I asked first!" Ylinestra said with a pout, but after looking up at Orion's smirking face, she giggled it off. "But that doesn't matter. I wanna be an acolyte!"
Orion looks at Lin's smiling face, arching an eyebrow.
"Why would you wanna be an acolyte? You wanna be a monk?"
Lin giggles, "Of course not! I wanna be a priestess. I like to help people, so I thought that if I become an acolyte, I'll be able to learn healing spells and help others."
"Well, what's wrong with being a monk?"
"Nothing! I mean, they help people too, but it seems like they'd much rather rely on their fists to solve problems rather than try to talk. That's why I don't like a lot of the other jobs. They're just there to hurt others. Especially thieves, assassins and rogues. I really don't like them. It's like they're made to do nothing but kill and play mean tricks on other people."
Orion gave a faint smile to Lin and looks away. Lin didn't look up, and continues walking cheerfully. "So what are you gonna be?"
"I... uhh... I'm gonna be a thief..." he mumbles, his eyes avoiding Lin's face.
As he says this, a blanket of silence falls over the two as they continue towards the southern gates of Prontera. The earlier feelings of happy carelessness that had surrounded the two for so long was replaced with tension so thick it could almost be seen. As they walked, neither spoke a word, allowing the soft buzzing of chonchons and the croaking of roda frogs fill the air.
End Prologue...