Lutie: A Christmas Story

Disclaimer: I do not own Ragnarok Online, any of the job classes or anything mentioned here.

Lutie, a peaceful village secluded in the mountains, famous for its year-round snow and festive Christmas spirit.

It was the city of every child's dreams. Colorful lights everywhere, gingerbread houses people actually LIVED in, and jolly old men very unlike the fat old men who lived in the rented house next door and smoked endless chains of putrid tobacco.

No, Lutie was as much of a dream as dreams can be.

For some people, it was also the dream of a freshly started chapter in their lives. A new environment, and another chance to begin from scratch. Given its near-obscurity from the eyes of everyone else, private affairs remained private and the virtue of the townsfolk forbade gossip.

For Satsu Yamato, Bard, it was the perfect haven. He had gone from a hard-partying life in Comodo and he wanted to settle down. Perhaps, with enough practice, he could become one of those wandering bards who sang melancholic songs and chewed flowers all day. He had considered a flock of sheep, but decided that was overdoing it.

It was the opposite case for Alchemist Kalista Thebes. She wanted adventure. She had packed up all of her sharp and deadly things, anything that exploded, and, literally, brought out the big guns. Oh, and she could not forget Jello, her Vanilmirth. The thing was next to useless, really, being the gelatinous and not quite so orange version of Garfield, but still, Kalista saw potential in that wobbly square.

Something unknown to the two of them at that point, but quite obvious to us:

They were going to meet in a very dramatic manner.

They would be tied by destiny.

Jello would become a very important character later on.

There, I mentioned it once, remember Jello. Now, don't make me say it again.

Satsu picked up his guitar and looked around the Payon inn room one last time. He was not sad, the Bard life meant wandering and he had long lost the emotions of attachment.

He had lost his quiver.

He shrugged. He did not need a quiver. He was a Bard; he whacked monsters to death using the melodies of justice, no matter how gay that sounded. Besides, he could always buy another at his usual special discount. Merchants weren't the only ones who knew how to make connections.

He went outside and spoke to the Kafra.

"Hello, Satsu, how may I help you?" Blossom asked.

"Teleport, please."

"May I know your destination?"

"Geffen."

"That will be 1,200 zeny. Thank you for using the Kafra Service."

"Thanks."

Kafras, Satsu thought, they were always so mechanical. He wondered what would happen if he gave them an outrageous answer, just for kicks.

In Geffen, he bought his arrows, the cheap kind, for 500 zeny. It wasn't much and he could definitely carry more if he wanted to, but he was going to live a life of song and deep thinking. What would he need arrows for?

The irony of it all was that he would need them, during that one time when he decided to let himself go.

He wandered around Geffen, because that was what he did as a wandering bard: wander. Not to be confused with wonder, but they could do both at the same time. In fact, Satsu thought, or rather, wondered, he could make a nice tongue twister with that.

The wondering wanderer wandered while wondering about wandering.

He smiled, he was very clever, and a true poet indeed.

When he was done wandering, he set off for Al de Baran, where he would hitch a ride on Santa's sleigh to go to Lutie.

No, that was not a metaphor, that was really how people got to Lutie.

At Al de Baran, he played a few tunes for money, because he liked money as much as the next person, and because even though he was all set for a few years of hermitage, it was nice to have an emergency fund. A big emergency fund.

He saw a few female mages looking at him and giggled. Satsu looked somewhat like a lost elf. A cute lost elf, with hazel eyes and long dirty blonde hair. He was clumsy too, which added to his loveable factor. Add a shy smile into the mix and you had a Bard with the face of an angel and the tricks of a Thief. His Frost Joke was pretty sharp too.

Away from the hustle of the main square of Al de Baran, Kalista was also getting ready for her trip. She would leave a few days after Satsu first arrives at Lutie, but already you can see their lives being tied closer and closer by destiny.

I will not surprise you, we are very near to their fateful meeting. I hate surprises, because they aren't much of a surprise.

Jello was staring out the window, watching something going on in the outside world.

"What are you looking at, Jello? You have no chance of laying down a girlfriend, don't even try," Kalista said.

Jello pouted as much as a Vanilmirth could pout. Then, he looked at the direction of the small crowd beginning to form around a Bard playing the guitar.

Kalista stared at the Bard through her silver eyes. He was nothing special, just a Bard with a guitar, doing what Bards normally did to earn a living.

"Jello, I don't know what you're thinking. Do you want to go listen?" Kalista asked.

Jello said nothing. They don't usually do, but he continued looking out the window. On hindsight, perhaps Jello was psychic, but it didn't matter, because he couldn't talk. Homunculi had very strange powers that sometimes their owners could not discern. At some point, you might think that humans were the Homunculi's pets.

Outside, Satsu had finished his encore. The crowd tossed some zeny into his romantic gent while he packed up his guitar and got himself straightened out.

"Suckas," he thought as he saw the people throwing the zeny in.

Like I mentioned, no one would ever have suspected Satsu of foul play, him looking so innocent. But as he glanced at them through his dirty blonde bangs, he was scheming right then and there.

TWANG!!

"Oh my goodness! No, this can't be happening!"

The crowd looked at Satsu while he held his guitar in his hands like a dead child. The string had popped and Satsu's eyes, although shielded by his overgrown hair, were teary.

Or so they thought.

"My guitar…" he sobbed, "Now I cannot play anymore music. What is a bard without his music?"

A Crusader with a kind heart, in Satsu's terms, a wuss, looked upon the Bard with compassion that looked just about as real as Satsu's tears.

"Here, brother, have this so you can have your instrument fixed," the Crusader said.

He handed Satsu what looked to be around a thousand zeny.

"Gosh, you don't have to."

"Please, I insist. Get it fixed so you can share your music with the world."

"Well, thank you so much. One day, I will write many songs about you and your grandchildren's children will know them."

Satsu's eyes grew bigger ever so slightly, giving him a look of childish gratefulness.

He had learned that if you wanted people to believe you, you had to be a master of the slight. In this case, a slight change in the eyes or eyebrows could make anyone fall for him.

He ran off into a corner, pretending to walk to the blacksmith, but instead, he went to the Kafra, changed his guitar with the spare he kept in his storage, and then finally headed to Lutie with his pocket considerably heavier.

He smiled. It was nice being a Bard. Rogues were too conspicuous, and the other classes were just too noble for anything else.

From the window, Jello watched.