Lutie: A Christmas Story
By: Xenos Kadmia
Disclaimer: I do not own Ragnarok Online, or any of the cities and scenes mentioned here. I also do not own Microsoft Word.
When Satsu arrived at Lutie, he was mildly surprised to see that there were more tourists than usual, more children were throwing snow around, and Santa and his reindeers were making more noise than all the Merchants, Blacksmiths and Alchemists in Prontera combined, except that Santa could carry a tune other than "50 percent off sale on arrows, ores, boots, and more!"
He mentally slapped his head. He remembered it was Christmas, and dozens upon dozens of people, especially Payonese and Morrocans, flocked to Lutie to see snow, festive lights, and their main attraction, Santa Claus.
It was also the period of time when Bosses such as Angeling, Garm, and Stormy Knight spawned more often, which attracted numerous adventurers and item collectors as well.
"Show-offs," Satsu thought, when a particular party were showing off their rare gear from all the boss-hunting they had done.
Of course, he couldn't really say that out loud, since they would jump him faster than a ninja having a spasm, and melodies of justice had hardly any effect on a bunch of big, bad, buff guys.
He had to be content with letting out a snort of disagreement and being on his merry way.
If it was any comfort, Santa gave him a present when he passed him by.
Present in hand, he headed to the house of the Lenient Aunt, who he still had connections with from the good ol' days when he changed his job from an Archer to a Bard.
Outside her house, he paused for a moment, reminiscing the time when he had knocked on her door for the first time as a young Archer, dashing, charming, and talented, with a dreamy look in his eyes.
He remembered he was freezing to death, his snot was frozen in his brain, and yet he still had to run around like crazy.
You can imagine how peeved he was when the Bard in Comodo told him he still had to bring him trunks to pass the Bard test. He nearly punched the guy in the face and told him to screw the tree next to him.
Almost.
He remembered that the Lenient Aunt had almost screamed at him for not wiping his feet when he came in the door.
Now was a different purpose, though. He was renting the little cottage she owned in the border of the town, in the most north-eastern corner from the heart. He would walk to town once a week for groceries and his post, if he had any, and he could go to Al de Baran to sing a song every so often, and maybe trick a few people into giving him money.
Just because he planned to become a hermit didn't mean he planned to live without money.
He knocked on her door, and he was careful to wipe his feet.
"Lenient my butt," he thought.
"Come in," a voice said from the other side of the door.
"Hello, Aunt, this is Satsu!" he said cheerfully as he opened the door and carefully wiped his feet.
"Satsu, yes, yes, the Bard who came for the cottage," she said, ushering him in. Sometimes she forgot who was coming and going because of all the work she had to do with the Archers knocking on her door every so often.
"That must be why they call her the Lenient Aunt," Satsu thought. On hindsight, she never really seemed to have a name other than that.
"Here are the keys," she said, "and rent is 1000 zeny a month, to be paid every first of the month. Here are the house rules."
She handed him a short piece of paper with only one line of writing on it.
"Wipe your feet," it read.
Satsu sighed. The faster he could get away from this feet-obsessed woman, the better.
He paid her six month's rent in advance, took the keys, then left, waving a cheery goodbye to her.
"She needs to have some kids," Satsu thought to himself, "her house would be so messed up, dirty shoes would be the least of her problems."
He began the long trek up to his cottage. When he got there, he was tired, but satisfied. It looked just the way he pictured it to be. A small, quaint cottage surrounded by a picket fence with a mailbox and a few winter plants outside.
There was even some smoke coming out of the chimney.
"How picturesque," Satsu thought. If he could put a border around the house, he could almost picture it in a postcard.
He entered the door and got himself settled in.
A week later, Satsu was hungry. He hadn't written any new songs yet, but he blamed that on hunger and adjusting to his new environment.
So, he packed up his guitar and his quiver, and he left for Al de Baran hoping to score some free food.
Meanwhile, Kalista was leaving Al de Baran with Jello. She had locked up her house and filled up her cart with Fire Bottles, Acid Bottles, Plant Bottles, food for Jello, and a few extra swords to fill up the weight.
"Let's go, Jello," she said to the Vanilmirth, who hadn't taken two steps and was already tired.
To make things simple, Kalista let him hitchhike on her cart.
"Stupid thing," she said quietly. Jello gurgled with delight, like it was his pleasure to annoy his master out her wits.
They talked to Santa and he sent them to the field outside of Lutie, him being the fat and lazy old man that he really is.
Kalista took out some Fire Bottles just in case some big, bad monster came by. In the cold, she began her trek to Lutie.
Satsu was making miserable progress. He slipped on every other step, his clothes were soaked, and his left butt cheek was sore and probably horribly bruised from where he frequently fell. He considered it his natural Bard luck that no aggressive monsters had crossed his path yet, since he was in absolutely no condition to fight.
He flopped down on a stump in surrender. He began singing what he thought was a melancholic tune in hopes that some party would take pity on him and accompany or teleport him to the city.
Instead of a party, he attracted what he thought looked like a small living icicle. He was no adventurer, so he was not well-termed with what monsters lived where, what more know their names and what the hell they looked like.
Which was bad preparation on his part.
The icicle growled.
"Hey there, you poor little thing, do you know the way to Al de Baran?" Satsu cooed.
The icicle nipped at his heels.
"Ow, watch it, I just had a pedicure," he said, pretending to be mad. Unfortunately for him, monsters did not know when humans were pretending. It was either they were mad or they weren't and this little monster perceived him to be the former.
The monster-icicle-thing barked then went away. Satsu sighed, and then stood up to try again. Nothing seemed to be going his way.
He took a few steps, then slipped hard. His head hit the cold ice, and he just decided to lay there, wallowing in his defeat.
"$#$!#$" he thought.
I hope that you understand cursing in the ancient Rune-Midgard language is difficult to understand and even the latest version of Microsoft Word cannot decipher it.
He thought he was delusional from when he hit his head, or that the wind was getting stronger, but he could hear some sort of breathing sound.
He listened closer, then his heart skipped a beat as he realized what deep doodoo he was in. The breathing was in low, growling sounds, and although Satsu was not an expert in adventuring or bestiaries, he knew that a sound like that could only come from a very big, very dangerous animal.
And it was coming from…
Right.
Next.
To.
His.
Ear.
He dared a look up at the creature, and he saw it was a ten times bigger version of the icicle thing he saw a while ago. He stood up slowly. He knew what it was now, it was a Garm, and the small version was a Garm Baby.
"I am dead meat," he whispered under his breath. He had his guitar in his hand already, and all he had to do was to reach for his quiver.
Then the Garm pounced.
Satsu was able to fend it off momentarily with his guitar, but suffered a hit from one of its minions. He ran while getting his guitar ready for a Musical Strike.
"Musical Strike!"
The attack missed the Garm, but hit one of the Garm Babies. Satsu ran a little more, pausing to hit it and possibly buy time.
"Musical Strike!"
"Musical Strike!"
"Musical Strike!"
It had barely any effect. Bards were not known for doing solo Boss hunts, they were not known for soloing period. Not to mention the fact that the arrows he had bought were only the normal kind, and his already short supply was steadily dwindling.
The Garm was catching up, and Satsu already felt himself losing his balance on the ice. He looked around desperately, but he was alone.
"Musical Strike!"
Garm stopped for a split second, but resumed its chase once again. A Garm Baby that was faster than the others was already at Satsu's ankles, biting and snapping.
A particularly nasty bite sent Satsu hurtling to the ground, a whole pack of Garm Babies eagerly flocking their prey.
Satsu felt blow after blow, bite after bite. Their clawing was intensified by the bitter cold of the ground below him.
Satsu knew he had no chance of winning.
"Demonstration!"
A blast of fire interrupted the Garm's feast as it hit the creature and its minions, burning Satsu, who still lay beneath them. The bomb was so close, Satsu felt a few of his nose hairs being singed.
Satsu felt more bombs explode above his head, and eventually, the bites, scratches, and blows diminished.
Satsu heard his rescuer cast a few Sphere Mines around them, maybe not to tempt the Garm or other monsters to come near.
Then, he lost consiousness.
Kalista and Jello had managed to ward off the Garm and most of its other minions. The remaining ones, she was able to kill with a few Cart Revolutions. She set up a few Marine Spheres for protection.
Kalista approached the poor bloke lying on the ground. He was bleeding like heck, and a guitar lay trampled not far from where he lay. It was obvious this Bard was in no condition to stand, let alone walk and tell her where he lived.
She grabbed a few Butterfly Wings from her cart and used them to send the two of them back to Al de Baran, where she would bring him to her house. She was a battle type Alchemist, but her Potion Pitcher wasn't too rusty and the least she could do was try to get him out of a critical condition.
Neither of them noticed it, but snow was gently falling on the ground.
Their paths had crossed.
Phew, long chapter. It was exciting though, and it wasn't as if I could just stop. Review and tell me what you think!
Xenos Kadmia