Some language in this one. :P
And so passed the days, then a week, and then two.
Keiran learned quickly and had already taken his place at the top of the class beside Darius. Both boys were told they were natural swordsmen at least once a day, but didn't allow this to inflate their heads, which was an easy task for Darius who seemed to take everything in his stride, but Keiran had to work hard to make sure he didn't snub anyone accidentally.
He seemed to be managing alright however, and had made friends with all the guys and successfully flirted with all six girls, learning their names, ages, personalities, like and dislikes.
The lessons grew more and more interesting, and as the interest rose, so did the difficulty, challenging the students every day in new ways.
They had gone from learning about attack and defence stances, to studying swords and spears, to learning about Advanced Health Recovery - a skill that allows you to heal yourself steadily over time, with little or no effort from the user. They had even had a lesson on the skill Endure, which had been a very sore lesson, since they had to learn to endure pain, allowing them to continue moving and fighting without flinching. The swordsmen had all been very bruised and battered at dinner that night until one of the female Paladins had taken pity on them and healed them up.
There had been two Friday field trips out into the fields where they hunted porings, chonchons, and the occasional creamy if there was a Paladin around to be back-up, just in case. Keiran enjoyed these trips as he was an adamant collector of all things and came back to the castle at the end of the day with his rucksack bulging with things the Paladins and Crusaders had deemed not worth picking up, such as bits of fluff dropped by fabres – a caterpillar-like monster, and feathers from the fluffy white rabbits known as lunatics.
These bits and pieces had ended up in Keiran's drawers, while his clothing had moved to their new home, also known as the floor, despite Sir Kuro's threat about having to clean out the stables if they were caught with a messy room.
Darius had started off well, folding his clothes and putting them away neatly, but now his collection of borrowed-and-not-returned library books was growing and the piles were starting to lean dangerously, usually to be knocked down by Keiran when he had nothing better to do.
After a long day prowling Prontera fields killing anything that moved, the swordsmen had returned to their dorm, their bellies full with yet another delicious meal and sleepily prepared for bed.
Keiran was sitting cross-legged on the end of his bed in his red spotty pj's that clashed terribly with his hair, twiddling him thumbs and humming to himself.
"You know what; we need to have a party. Or something."
His by-now best friend, Darius, made a noise in his throat and turned the page of his book without looking up.
Keiran gave him a withering look.
Apparently quite a secretive person, Darius had not revealed anything more about himself other than his birthday (June 9th) and a few of his hobbies, and even that valuable information had been forced out of him by a frustrated Keiran.
Darius' favourite hobby turned out to be reading, which seemed to dominate his free time these days. Even when they went to town he'd take a book and while Keiran, Arthur and Kiba talked, Darius read. Before he went to sleep at night he'd read for half an hour or so and at the dinner table he'd nearly always have a book propped up in front of him.
"We at least need a radio or something. It's so quiet." Keiran persisted.
"Quiet's good."
"..."
Darius was smiling at his book.
"What?"
"Oh nothing."
"What is it?" Keiran swivelled around to face him, "tell me!"
"It's nothing, really."
"TELL ME."
"Okay, okay... But it really is nothing." Darius sighed, "I was just thinking how alike you are to the main character in this story."
Keiran frowned, "I thought you were gonna say you had a radio or something."
"Unfortunately for you, I don't."
"... so, is he cool?"
Darius glanced up, "who?"
"The story guy."
"Oh he's not too bad. A bit of a handful sometimes, but all in all a good guy." Darius grinned.
Keiran grinned slyly back, "'s he handsome?"
"The ladies seem to think so."
"Nice."
Silence returned to the room, broken occasionally by the sound of armoured bodies heading up the stairs.
Keiran dragged himself off the bed and went over to the mirror, and started restyling his hair. "Is it just me or is my hair getting more poofy?" he asked, smoothing his fringe.
Suddenly there were voices from the hallway, accompanied by the clanking of armour that announced that a Paladin was in the area and there was a knock at the door.
"Come in!" Keiran called, before realizing Paladins at your door at 9pm could surely not be a good thing.
"Roooooooom check!" Grobyc's voice said.
Sir Kuronosu made his stately way into the room, followed by a grinning Groby, and looked around.
Keiran also looked around, his face freezing in a pained smile as he saw the room as Kuro must – resembling nothing less than a war zone, complete with blood on the wall from where he'd cut his shoulder open on a mace he'd collected without noticing and had gone and leant against the wall...
"Good God!" Kuro exclaimed, staring around himself.
Grobyc's face appeared from behind Kuro's expansive form, "wow."
"Well if we gave prizes for the most impressive mess, you guys would almost certainly take that- Is that blood?" the Paladin clanked over to investigate.
"Er yeah. My shoulder-"
"Did you think about cleaning it off, ever?" Kuro's tone was flat.
"... no, Sir." Keiran wilted, feeling stupid.
"Why?" a smile was starting to play around the corners of his mouth, but Keiran didn't notice as he was too busy staring at his feet.
"Didn't feel like it, sir... " he drooped a little more.
"It's hardly hygienic having blood on the walls." Kuro said forcefully.
"No sir."
"In future, clean it off as soon as you notice it, please."
"Yes sir" mumbled Keiran.
By now Kuronosu was grinning openly, and Grobyc was doubled over with silent laughter at the swordsman's obvious shame. Darius was watching with an expression of polite confusion on his face, his book lying forgotten on his knee.
"And as for YOU!" Kuro half-shouted, making everyone jump as he rounded suddenly on Darius, who leapt to his feet and stood to attention so fast you would have thought he'd sat on a burning coal.
Grobyc gave up trying to hide it and laughed out loud, tears of mirth streaming down his face.
Kuro was fighting to keep his face serious but was failing and so it was with a cracking voice he ordered "when your friend's bleeding bad enough to get it on the walls, take him to someone to get healed!"
Darius was lost for words and nodded hastily, "sir."
Unable to keep a straight face any longer, Kuro clapped the boys on the shoulders, roaring in laughter at their twin mallet-smacked expressions.
Keiran and Darius looked at each other, totally confused.
"Um..." Keiran hazarded.
Dragging himself upright using the swordsmen, Kuronosu cleared his throat, "so, anyway. You'll be expected in the stables at 4pm tomorrow. Don't be late. And of course you're still expected to clean this bomb-site up."
With that he and Grobyc swept from the room, chuckling to himself.
________________
At 4pm the following day, after thoroughly cleaning up their room (Darius had forced Keiran to put some of his more useless items into guild storage) to Kuronosu's standards, the boys trekked out to the stables.
In all truth Keiran was looking forward to visiting the stables where the pecopecos lived, as he'd never been in there before, and being the adventure-loving person he was, felt he had to go everywhere at least once. Sure, the guild stables weren't exactly the adventure hotspot of the world, but still.
"Hey hey" Kiba greeted them as they approached. He'd opened up a lot over the last two weeks and had turned out to be great fun to hang out with.
"Oh you guys didn't clean up either?" Keiran grinned at his other friends.
Arthur lifted his hand briefly, casting nervous glances over his shoulder when the peco's called to each other.
"Nah. Couldn't be stuffed, personally" Kiba shrugged, "Arthur kept his side tidy and Kuronosu said he didn't have to clean, but for whatever reason he said he'd help."
Keiran raised an eyebrow at the boy who was slowly edging away from the stable door, "you don't like pecos, Arthur?"
Arthur jumped, "hm?"
"Pecos. D'you not like them?"
"Oh. N-no, not really."
Kiba sighed and explained, "he says he doesn't like their beaks."
"What are you, his mother?" Keiran shoved Kiba playfully.
"Er, no." Kiba scowled, shoving him back, "It's just easier for me to tell you rather than trying to pries it out of Arthur."
"I s'pose. Anyone else coming?"
"Nah. Saphira and Astarte's room was a mess when I was in there the other day but they must've cleaned it up..."
"You were in their room?!" Keiran exclaimed.
"Yeah." Kiba grinned.
Keiran grabbed him in a headlock, "Well? What was it like?"
"Not that much different from a guy's room actually. It is Astarte we're talking about, she might as well be a guy. And Saphira isn't that much better."
"... Shhh!" Keiran glanced around, as if there was a chance the two girls were standing nearby, "did they have posters?"
"Posters? Yeah, why?"
"Gotta know what sorta guys they're into."
"Errr Astarte had like, emo half-naked stalkers and assassins and shit. Saphira had all these paintings of mounted knights going into battle or whatever."
"That's it?"
"She does have this one little picture, right by her bed..." Kiba grinned furtively.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, she kept trying to cover it up; standing in front of it and stuff, but I still saw it~"
"You gonna tell me or just beat around the bush?" Keiran tightened his grip.
Kiba choked, scrabbling at Keiran's arm, "okay, okay! I'll tell!"
"Good man," said Keiran, ruffling the boy's hair as he let him go, "so?"
"You know that group pic we had to have taken for the year book? The one where you're trying to strangle me? OH WAIT, you try strangle me in every photo!"
"I do not- Oh wait, maybe I do, but yeah, I know the one."
"Yeah, she has that by her bed, and wait, it gets better."
"Spill." Keiran brandished his fist, causing Kiba to shoot backwards a few paces before he could be caught in a headlock again.
"She's drawn a little love heart. Right-by-your-face." Kiba tried smiling sweetly but it became more of a smirk as Keiran's face developed a glazed-over expression.
"Saphira and Keiran, up a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G~" he sang.
"Shut up you fag, you're ruining the moment. Just how old are you anyway?" Keiran glared at him.
"First comes love~ Then comes marriage~"
"Shut the fuck up or I'll tell Chaku you've had a crush on her since you were seven."
Kiba broke off mid song and made a zipping motion across his lips.
"Damn this stable duty! I so could be out onna date right now!" whined Keiran, clenching his fists.
"Then maybe in future you'll keep your room a bit cleaner, hmm?" said a voice he didn't quite recognize.
He turned to see a female Crusader standing directly behind him, her hands on her hips. Keiran vaguely remembered her to be the female of the pair of Crusaders he'd met on his first day on the stairs as they'd been heading to bed.
She had green eyes and long scraggly blonde hair that was all over her face and seemed reluctant to lie flat even though it was wedged firmly in place by a brown boy's cap, which Keiran knew, was a very expensive headgear to make or buy.
"Heeey." he said.
"Hey my ass." she scowled at him, "You're not here for a picnic, you know."
"Sorry ma'am."
"Miss."
"Huh?"
"I prefer to be called 'miss', thankyouverymuch."
"Yes miss, sorry miss."
The Crusader beckoned the other boys over, "Right. My name's Ilyn, and as you know, you're here to clean the stables," she smirked evilly, "usually we'd muck out our own peco's stalls, but sometimes we get lucky and have guys like you to do it for us. ... I'd like you to know that riding the pecos while you're here is strictly forbidden, and believe me, we'll know if you have. Now if you'll follow me."
She shoved open the huge double doors with surprising strength for someone as skinny as she was and lead them down to the far end.
"What's her problem?" Keiran whispered to Kiba as they followed, "she seemed perfectly nice the other week."
"Er." said Kiba, glancing at the back of the Crusader's head nervously, "she's Saphira's older sister, mate."
"Oh." said Keiran, realization dawning on his face, "Oh no... How long was she standing behind me?"
"Long enough, it seems." Kiba patted him on the back comfortingly.
"Shit."
"Right, grab a fork and a wheelbarrow." Ilyn gestured at the tools, seating herself on a bale of hay, "pretty much you go into a stall, scoop up any wet, soiled straw and dump it in your barrow, then when it's full you take it out back to the compost piles. When you're done clearing it out, come back here and grab half a bale of straw and spread it out evenly around the stall. Move to the next stall and repeat."
The boys stared at her.
"Well, what're you waiting for?"
"Do we have to do all of them?" Kiba asked in disbelief.
Ilyn looked at him, then down the rows of stables, "I don't see why not."
"But there're easily 200 stalls in here!"
"Yeah I'd say that's about right."
"It'll take all day!"
"I think that's the idea" Darius contributed, laying his pitchfork in his wheelbarrow and heading for the nearest stall, where the resident pecopeco had been watching them curiously.
Ilyn watched him with a smile, "it's good to see someone remembers why they're here in the first place."
Arthur followed suit, nervously eyeing up the huge grand peco in the stall he'd chosen. Keiran could see the peco's evil eyes watching the boy calculatingly, probably working out the easiest way of attaining freedom.
"Yo Arthur, I'll do that one, you do the next one." Keiran nodded at the peco in the next stall, who was snoozing on one leg with her head under her wing.
With a breathless gush of thanks, Arthur disappeared into the stall. The peco opened her eye and looked at him briefly before going back to sleep.
Kiba meanwhile was still standing with his pitchfork in one hand, glaring from one friend to another, making frustrated noises.
"Nnnnh FINE." he growled, marching his wheelbarrow off into a stall.
Keiran stood outside the stall with the evil-looking peco, perfectly aware that Ilyn was watching his every move.
"Hey there," he said, sounding more confident than he felt. This peco's beak was at least three times as big as his head and was more than capable of snapping him in half like a twig.
The peco watched him with one beady eye from the back of the stall, apparently uninterested.
Keiran manoeuvred his wheelbarrow into position so that it would prevent the peco from bolting out the door as soon as he opened it. He glanced at Ilyn and saw she was smiling slightly in a pleased sort of way.
Taking confidence from this his carefully slid back the bolt and pushed the door open just enough for him to wiggle the barrow into the stall before hastily closing it and stuffing the bolt home.
Now the second problem...
He turned around slowly to face the peco. It had shifted its weight slightly but other than that, hadn't moved.
Something was telling him that if he ignored this particular peco and started cleaning, he'd find himself half way across the room with a leg missing, and so he just stood, trying to remember what he'd read in the book he'd bought; 'So you want to be a Paladin!?' It had said that pecos were extremely intelligent creatures and liked to play games with their owners and caregivers if they hadn't been out enough. Sometime they wouldn't let you near them until you'd done whatever it was they wanted, be it feed them a carrot or pat their beaks...
Keiran eyed the peco up; he certainly wasn't going to risk his leg by ignoring him.
"Right then big guy. Don't kill me please," he whispered, walking up to the peco, who turned his huge head to look at him with both eyes.
Reluctantly, Keiran held out his hand, palm up. He doubted keeping his hand flat like you were supposed to do for smaller farm animals was going to make much of a difference to a beast with a head as long as his upper body, but still.
The pecopeco glared at it for a minute, and just when Keiran had started to back up, he dropped his head so that his ear was level with Keiran's face.
"Good boy..." Keiran muttered, mystified, cautiously scratching the bird's head, causing it to make a strange rumbling noise in its throat, "you like that, do you?"
The peco honked softly and tilted his face a little more. Obligingly Keiran ruffled the bird's feathers in the new spot.
"Bravo" said a voice behind him.
Keiran turned to see Ilyn leaning on the doorway, watching him with an amused expression.
"You're one of the few who've been able to stand in Lab's stall for longer than a minute without being chased out."
As Keiran had stopped scratching when Ilyn had appeared, the peco waddled over to her instead and laid his head lightly on her shoulder.
"Is he yours?" asked Keiran.
"Mine?" Ilyn rubbed the birds face affectionately, "No, no, Labyrinth's Sir Kuronosu's peco."
"Ah..."
"Your little friend wouldn't have even got his wheelbarrow inside." she said cheerfully, nodding at Arthur, who was now onto his second stall. "You can probably muck him out now. He'll be fine."
"Yes miss." Keiran picked up his pitchfork and set to work.
Ilyn stayed put, idly grooming Kuro's purring peco as she watched the swordsman thoughtfully, "I suppose I can let you go out with Saphira, you seem pretty sensible-" (there was a snort from Kiba's stall) "-but you had better treat her well or I'll feed you to my peco."
There was a sudden squeal, the sound of ripping material and a clatter as Arthur sprinted out of the stall he'd just entered, clutching the seat of his pants and pursued by a dully coloured female pecopeco with unusually long tail feathers.
The peco skidded to a halt when she realized she was free and looked around.
"Now, now, Serres, be nice." Ilyn scolded.
The peco honked excitedly, throwing her head up and trotting to meet her mistress, shoving her head into the Crusaders chest with enough force to send one of the swordsmen flying. Ilyn, however, barely moved and rubbed the peco's huge beak roughly.
"Is that one yours then?" Keiran asked, backing off as the peco swung around to look at him with intelligent eyes.
"Yes indeed." Ilyn looked over at Arthur who had sunk onto a hay bale, "you alright?"
Arthur whimpered but nodded, jumping as Darius put his hand on the poor boys shoulder comfortingly.
"You sure? I'll be in a hell of a lot of trouble if she's hurt you; we're supposed to train all the bad habits out of them quick, but her habits weren't a problem for me so I kinda gave up..." she shoved her peco's head away playfully.
"I'm f-f-fine." Arthur stammered.
"And I'll pay for your new pants of course. I really should have warned you first-"
There was a thud as Kiba, who had until that moment been leaning over a stall door watching the proceedings grinning, was shoved from behind by a bored peco and fell flat on his back into a pile of straw, where he stayed, laughing up at the cheeky face poking over the door.
"Man you guys must smell funny or something; they're usually not this bad!" Ilyn laughed, her peco peering over her shoulder at Arthur clicking her beak.
Ilyn swatted her beak again, "Serres, go apologize, Jesus."
The peco stepped around her master and lowered her head as she walked towards Arthur, who leapt to his feet, holding an amused Darius in front of him like a shield.
Serres honked gently and sat down, laying the very tip of her beak at Arthur's feet and looking up at him with huge puppy eyes. Darius shuffled aside, despite Arthur's best attempts to keep him in front of him.
"She won't hurt you" Darius said bracingly, squatting beside the peco and rubbing just behind the ear, to her obvious delight, "see?"
Arthur shuddered and crouched down next to Darius, watching him carefully removing the casing around the base of a new feather.
"Nnh" Arthur groaned, cautiously running his finger up the peco's beak.
Serres closed her eyes and purred deeply.
Arthur's fingers reached the birds face and she shoved her head forwards so his hand was resting between her eyes. He stroked the feathers there and the peco shuffled forwards, resting her head on his lap.
The stunned swordsman looked up at his friends and Ilyn; the four of them were grinning at him. He smiled uncertainly back.
Darius clapped him on the shoulder as he pushed himself to his feet, "come on, we've got a lot of work to do."
Ilyn called to her peco and Serres allowed Arthur to pat her beak one last time before returning to her master's side, "I'm gonna take her out for a ride. If you have an emergency I'll be in the yards. But I think you're all pretty peco-savvy now."
The guys nodded and said goodbye, picking up their tools and psyching themselves up for what would turn out to be a very long and very tiring three hours.
_________________
The next morning at 8:10 am, Keiran woke up sore, smelling strongly of pecopeco (despite showering before bed), and his mind full of his dreams - girly visions of himself racing his own trusty steed through fields of flowers and butterflies.
He shook his head, then when that failed to clear the thought, slapped himself, hard.
"Ouch." he muttered, rubbing his cheek.
"And I should think so too." said Darius sleepily, "why'd you do that?"
"Stupid dream." Keiran grinned sheepishly.
Sitting up, Darius pulled a face, "my God, I smell awful."
"Oh I dunno. I think essence of peco shit, mouldy hay and sweat really works for you."
Darius biffed a pillow at him.
"What day-" started Keiran.
"It's Sunday."
"Oh. We need a calendar too."
"So long as you're paying for it."
"Sure sure..." Keiran squished the pillow boredly as he watched Darius drag himself out of bed, "What're we going to do after Church today?"
"No idea."
"You're so BORING." he chucked the pillow as hard as he could at the back of Darius's head. It bounced off and fell to the floor with a sad poof. Darius didn't even turn around.
"..." Keiran said, "that's it, we're totally going out tonight!"
"Going out?" Darius asked, stooping to pick up the pillow again.
"Yeah! To town!"
"But we went to town on Thursday..."
"Not at night we didn't!"
"What's the point in going at night? Everything will be closed."
"... You've never been out past 9pm, have you?" Keiran asked incredulously.
Darius shrugged, "no. But anyway, we're not allowed out of the castle after 7."
"Oh right... Dorm party?" Keiran suggested hopefully.
Darius smiled indulgently in reply and gathered his uniform into his arms, "I'm going to have a shower, and I'd recommend you do the same."
"'you saying I smell?"
"Yes."
"I had a shower last night though!" Keiran protested.
Darius shrugged, "well if you think Saphira likes, hm what was it? Oh, 'essence of peco shit and moldy hay', then by all means, don't shower." With that he marched from the room, smiling to himself.
Keiran watched him go with his mouth open.
"OOC much?" he muttered, dragging himself from bed.
A few hours later, after a long and unusually boring sermon (Keiran put this down to his mind being elsewhere half the time), the swordies were to be found milling around outside Prontera church waiting for the rest of the guild to finish socializing with the resident priests.
"Wow Keiran, check her out," Kiba nudged him, nodding towards the church doors.
A young High Priestess was standing in the alcove dressed entirely in purple and white, from her white puppy headband and her purple hair all the way down to her purple heeled shoes.
"Fwoooaaah..." Keiran breathed admiringly, "she looks a bit... ya' know... up herself though."
Indeed, as beautiful as she may have been, the priestess was looking down her nose at everyone as they walked past her, with an air that said quite clearly that she knew better than them.
Keiran sidled over to Darius, "yo, d'you know her?"
"Keiran, I don't know everyone in the world." he said, following Keiran's gaze, "Oh that's Jaina."
"See you do know everyone!"
"One High Priest and a few paladins is hardly everyone."
"Psh whatever."
"So what do you know?" Kiba had shuffled over too.
Darius looked from one eager face to the other and sighed, "not much. Just that apparently she's extremely talented, and is more than certainly the favourite for the priest's next guild master, despite being younger than preferred."
"Like you, you mean?" Kiba winked at Darius, who smiled very slightly and pulled a novel from his pack.
"I think Keiran would make a good guild master too." Arthur contributed, breaking out of his daydream to join in.
"Me?" Keiran snorted, "I'm hardly master material. Too much maturity and level-headedness needed for that. I'd be happy with 2IC though, Kuro looks like he still has fun."
"2IC?" Arthur asked blankly.
"Second in command." Kiba offered helpfully.
"That's the one. Though I'd be happy with the classic life, ya' know," Keiran said, glancing at the swordswomen who were sitting on the opposite wall giggling and whispering, fluttering their eyelashes at an attractive male High Priest who looked flattered by all the attention, "Adventuring 'til I had enough zeny to be comfortable... get married to a nice girl, have a hundred kids..."
"Why the fuck do you want a hundred kids?"
"Hey Blank, didn't see you there." Keiran said breezily.
"Of course you didn't; you're as blind as a freaking Familiar."
"And as usual your language is delightful!"
The other swordsman threw himself down next to Keiran, shoving his blonde ponytail over his shoulder irritably. (Kiba was pretending to read Darius's book over his shoulder and Arthur was staring into space to avoid being targeted by the livid Blank)
"And as usual you're a dickhead." he growled, "I've just sat in a stinking church, on a rock-hard bench, listening to some old fart blabber about love and peace, for the last God knows how long, wedged between Shiz and Chris of all people, do you really blame me?"
Keiran thought about this, "No, no I don't." he said soberly.
Chris and Shiz were two of the other swordsmen, and no one liked them much. At least, not when they were together anyway. When apart, Chris was pretty quiet and treated everyone nicely, especially the girls, and Shiz was hyperactive but funny. But when they were together they became totally unbearable.
They were rude to each other and to everyone around them; including the older guild members, they caused havoc whenever they were presented with an opportunity; always taking it too far, and they had made at least three of the girls cry for various reasons, and this, by Keiran's standards, was unforgivable.
They cared nothing for religion and helping others; anyone doomed to sit near them in church or during theory lessons was to be pitied, as the pair never stopped sniggering and muttering nasty things to each other under their breath, making it bloody hard to even pretend to listen. You were screwed if you actually wanted to pay attention.
It was a miracle they hadn't been thrown out of the guild, to be quite honest.
Currently they were perched on the side of a flower bed some distance away, smirking at the last swordsman who appeared to be telling them off. As Keiran watched, Chris burst out laughing, high-fiving Shiz who was wearing a sickeningly self-satisfied look. The other swordsman dropped his arms, which he had been gesturing with as he talked, spun on his heels and marched towards the larger group of swordsmen, muttering mutinously.
"Those two are hopeless." he exclaimed, plonking himself down beside Blank.
"We know." Keiran said consolingly.
"Why are they even here?!"
"Coz they have to be?"
"I meant, why are they trying to become Paladins?" the boy demanded, pulling at his shoulder-length red hair is frustration, "they should be rogues! Or assassins either!"
"That's a little stereotypical, Match."
"Oh yeah?" Blank contributed, "have you ever met a kind assassin, or a rogue that was nice to you purely because that's how they were, and not because they were trying to steal your wallet?
"No. I haven't even met a Thief yet." Keiran scratched the back of his neck thoughtfully, "I'm sure they can be nice."
Blank snorted, "My dad's a rogue, and he's a dick. So are all his friends."
"Anyway!" interrupted Match, "that's not the point here."
"There was a point?" Keiran smothered a yawn, suddenly looking forward to lunch and his afternoon off.
"Yes! The point is that those two are clearly not Paladin material and they shouldn't be allowed to continue!"
"OKAY CHILDREN, IT'S HOME TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!" yelled Grobyc, waving his arms as he emerged from inside the church, saving Keiran from having to continue this discussion he'd already had a hundred times.
"Ahem." said Jaina the purple High Priestess, her hands on her expansive hips.
"Oh hello, ma'am." Grobyc addressed her, bowing as deeply as his armour would allow.
"Kindly keep your voice down." she said stiffly.
Taken aback by her abruptness, Groby's smiled faltered, and he bowed again, more formally, "ma'am."
Jaina nodded briefly to Kuronosu who had just appeared, before she herself disappeared, hips swishing, into the church.
"Bossy little thing, isn't she?" Kuronosu said, patting the dejected Crusader on the back as he passed.
"Yeah..." Groby mumbled, falling into line behind him.
"Come on guys, let's go," the Paladin started heading for home, beckoning to the swordies over his shoulder.
The swordswomen reluctantly released the poor High Priest they had been plaiting the hair of, with many blown kisses and promises to come visit again next week. He blessed them all and waved them off, looking slightly relieved to see the back of them.
Darius put his book away and headed off, poking Arthur on the way past to wake him from the stupor he tended to fall into when nothing was happening.
Keiran dragged himself to his feet, vaguely aware that his leg had started to cramp up, and limped after them, accompanied by Kiba.
Blank and Match followed a few paces behind, starting up their conversation about assassins and rogues again.
Nobody noticed Chris and Shiz slip away in the opposite direction.
* * *
"Are all the swordsmen here?!?!" a stressed looking Paladin shrieked, her hands clasping and unclasping around her rosary as she stared up and down the rows of diners.
Silence fell upon the whole hall as everyone stared at her.
It was dinner of the same day; Sir Kuro had just finished saying grace and everyone was digging into their meals. Or had been until this frenzied Paladin had come sprinting into the room with her eyes glistening with tears and yelling at the top of her lungs.
"Anyone missing?!"
Keiran looked around himself. He hadn't noticed anyone had been absent, but now that he thought about it... he hadn't seen Chris or Shiz at lunch, or at all since they had been at church, and they certainly weren't here now.
"Shiz and Chris are missing." said the Paladin who had taken their Endure lesson, scanning the rows of faces.
The stressed lady squeaked and collapsed to her knees, causing a racket as numerous people all got up to help her at once.
Kuronosu got to her first, gesturing to the others that they should return to their seats as he squatted in front of her, "Alyssa, it's okay. Those two have been late before," he said softly, placing a comforting hand on her cheek (he had to do this as it was hardly going to be any comfort to wrap his armoured arm around her equally armoured shoulders).
"No, no!" she wailed, shaking her head, "You don't understand!"
"What don't I understand?"
She dropped her voice to a shaky whisper, but Keiran was still sitting close enough to hear, "there's been another murder... here, in Prontera this time"
Kuro gave a sharp intake of breath, "and you think-"
"The priest I heard it from said it was a first class who was killed" Alyssa shuddered.
"Shh... Don't jump to conclusions, love. We'll find them" he pressed his forehead to hers briefly, before springing up and into action.
"Shei, Mix, look after Alyssa, get her to bed," he ordered, his voice loud and clear over the nervous murmur that had broken out, "Hikari, Breakthru, Killjoy! Come with me."
He swept from the room, the three male Paladins in his wake.
The remaining guild members stayed silent for about 20 seconds after they'd left and Alyssa had been escorted from the hall by two female Paladins, then everyone started talking at once.
"You don't really think they've been murdered do you?" Kiba asked, leaning forwards to better be heard over the noise, his face worried despite his dislike of the boys.
Keiran shook his head, trying not to think too hard about this news. Sure he hated the guys, but he didn't wish them dead.
"I read in the paper the other day," said Arthur vaguely, pushing his glasses back up his nose, "there was an accident in Morroc involving a merchant girl that a lot of people thought might have actually been a m-murder."
"I saw that too! It looked like an accident except that the girl had been raped or something." Blank contributed from across the table, "and there was a mage girl in Geffen where the same thing'd happened."
Silence greeted this.
"I guess if those guys were killed then it wasn't by the same person." Match said finally.
"Why?" Kiba asked mulishly.
"Because, retard, a guy that's going around raping people before he kills them is hardly going to bother killing guys when there're plenty of girls around." Blank rolled his eyes as if this was the most obvious fact ever.
"Unless he rapes guys too," Arthur said offhandedly.
Everyone stared at him with expressions of disgust that he could even suggest such a thing.
"You don't realize what you just said, do you?" Keiran asked hesitantly.
"Huh?" Arthur looked at him blankly.
"No, apparently not..."
"We could pray for their safety" Darius said quietly. He had been silent up until now, gazing at his book without seeing it. The others looked at him.
Keiran nodded, "yeah, we should. Even if they are morons they don't deserve to be murdered."
"If anyone's killing them it'll be me." Blank agreed grudgingly.
"Will you do the honours, Darius?" asked Match.
Darius set his glasses and book down and folded his hands in front of him, eyes closed and head bowed. The other boys followed suit.
"Lord, we ask that you watch over Chris and Shiz, wherever they might be, and guide them safely home, and that you'll assist Sir Kuronosu and the others as they search, and keep them safe from harm. We pray also for the souls of those who have been lost ahead of their time, that you'll welcome them to your side warmly. We pray that the people who are committing these terrible sins be quickly captured and brought to justice before others are hurt… Amen."
"Amen." chorused the swordsmen, joined by a few other guildsmen who had been listening.
"Sir Kuro really must have been worried if he took all the top guys with him..." Keiran heard one of the Crusaders say to his friend shortly afterwards, his plate untouched before him.
"Those guys are our best riders after all." his friend shrugged, seemingly unconcerned as he munched on a banana.
"How can you be so chilled, seriously?"
"The nutcases are after first classes, aren't they? We're second class, so we're all good."
"Do you even have a heart? We were swordies not that long ago!"
"Well we aren't anymore." The Crusader finished his banana and started peeling an orange.
His friend stared at him in disbelief.
"Shouldn't Lord Ishikawa be told?" another Crusader said from the indifferent guy's other side.
(Keiran noticed Darius's hand twitch as he reached for his drink.)
Indifferent guy shrugged, "I'm sure someone's already told him."
"But what if they haven't? Isn't he going to be pissed when he finds out Sir Kuronosu's gone and taken control?"
"It's an emergency situation; I hardly think Kuro's gonna lose his guild position for not asking before he ran off to rescue swordies."
"He's not here anyway." a female Paladin offered.
"Yes, we know. He just ran out the door." indifferent guy droned, pulling a slice off his orange.
"No, you egg. Lord Ishikawa's not here."
"He's not?"
"No."
"Oh. It's not like we'd know, really; he never comes down for meals or anything. He probably spends half his time lounging around reading dirty magazines."
"He's a very busy man!" the Paladin said defensively.
"Sure he is." the Crusader chewed on another orange slice, "so, where is 'e then?"
"That's none of your business!" growled she, getting heavily to her feet and marching away to sit with another group.
"She just doesn't know."
"I think you'll find she does; she's his personal assistant."
Indifferent guy froze, his next orange slice half-way to his mouth, "oh."
"Mmhmm."
He put the slice down very carefully and cleared his throat, "I suppose I should go apologise then."
"If you ever want to be a Paladin, yes." his friend said, smirking.
"Er... I'll be right back." he stood up, bumping the table in his haste and sending oranges rolling all over the floor, before chasing after the Paladin who was squashing a bread roll in her fist angrily as she talked with her friends.
"I don't think he realised the heir to the Ishikawa family and also to this guild was sitting right across the table, either." the Crusader nodded respectfully to Darius, "I apologise on his behalf."
"No apology needed." Darius said simply, smiling evenly.
Keiran blinked, from the way this Crusader was talking it sounded as if Darius's family was a lot more influential than he'd originally thought. Were the Ishikawa's possibly one of Rune Midgard's royal families? It would make sense if they were. Having the entire Guild of Crusaders under the control of one of the King's oldest and most loyal families must surely have its benefits.
As Keiran loved learning the history behind people and places, he'd borrowed one of Darius' books on the history of Prontera and its people, especially the Priests and the Crusaders. It had been a fascinating read, fo'sho.
He'd learnt that the Crusaders guild was the largest of all the guilds, followed at a distance by the Priests guild, and that all these people he ate with every day were only a portion of the full Guild. The King held the guild in such high esteem that he had even removed the 80 member cap that was in place for the other guilds.
The larger part of the guild, namely the veteran guild members who'd given up adventuring but not their Paladin ways, lived permanently at the King's castle where they worked as guards, or were employed as members of the city's police, or if they trained enough and were lucky they could be chosen by the King himself to be a part of his personal guard – the highest honour a Paladin could hope for.
Anyway...
"Okay guys, if you're finished eating then head up to your dorms please." a Paladin said with a calming smile, "and please, please don't leave the castle, whatever you do. We'll let you know when we find out what's happening."
Keiran looked at his plate – he hadn't so much as touched the food he'd piled onto it. He pushed it away, his usually healthy appetite gone and vanished with the news of the missing swordsmen.
"I'm gonna head up." he muttered, snatching a couple of apples to eat later if he got hungry as he stood up, "see you guys tomorrow."
Darius nodded and got to his feet too. "Goodnight," he said, lifting his hand in farewell to the other swordsmen, "sleep well."
"Wow, so serious suddenly." Kiba rubbed his head wearily, looking back to his food, "Seeyas."
Arthur waved briefly, before also starting on his dinner.
"So much for a party, huh?" Keiran grinned weakly as he and Darius trekked up the stairs.
"Yeah." Darius trailed his hand along the rail. "I think they'll be fine, don't worry yourself too much."
"Who's worried?" he tried snorting callously but it sounded a bit weak, even to him.
Darius smiled knowingly, pausing at the top of the second flight of stairs to gaze out the window at the city of Prontera. Keiran joined him, eyes scanning the roads to town in the vain hope of seeing Sir Kuronosu and his party returning home with his fellow swordsmen riding on the back of someone's peco.
"Two weeks into our careers and drama's already unfolding around us." he sighed, running his hand through his hair, "I haven't felt this down for a while..."
"Welcome to the guild life." Grobyc said from behind them as he climbed the next flight, giving the boys a cheery grin, although even that looked forced. "It only gets better!"
When Keiran woke up it took him a few minutes to work out why he was so anxious, and when he did remember it hit like a lead weight in his stomach, making him feel very ill; no one had come to tell them anything last night. Was that good, or bad? Surely someone had news now? Maybe they were back?
Making his decision, he leapt out of bed, not even pausing to put a shirt on, and charged out the door and down the corridor to Chris and Shiz's room.
"Hold up, Keiran."
He turned to see one of the Paladins Sir Kuronosu had taken with him last night strolling towards him before he'd even got half way down the hall. The Paladin looked tired and worn, as if he'd been riding all night long.
"Sir! Shiz- Chris- did you find them? Are they okay?" Keiran asked, rushing to meet him. He didn't know why he suddenly cared so much about the terrible twosome, but he just had to know.
He looked up into the Paladin's grim face and his heart plummeted.
They stared at each other for a minute, with each second that passed Keiran lost a little more hope.
Then the corner of the Paladin's mouth twitched into a slight, awkward smile that didn't touch his eyes at all. "They're both fine." he said in a low, steady voice.
Keiran exhaled slowly, he hadn't realised he'd been holding his breath, "What was the look for then? Sir."
"What look?" The Paladin looked genuinely puzzled.
"Er... Never mind."
"You should go back to bed."
"But Chris-" Keiran started
"Won't appreciate you barging into his room at 4 in the morning," he cast his eyes to Keiran's attire, or lack there-of, "and half-naked at that."
"Oh right, sorry."
The Paladin observed him coolly, "off you go then."
"Yes sir." Keiran turned to go, then paused and turned back, "Can I ask your name, sir? I would introduce myself first but you already know my name..."
Looking somewhat stunned to be asked his name by a mere swordie, he replied simply, "Breakthru."
"Pleasure to meet you, sir."
He grunted in reply, "and you."
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Breakthru nodded, sitting down heavily against the wall.
Keiran wondered at this briefly as he shut the door into his and Darius' room quietly behind himself, coming to the conclusion the Paladin was on guard duty to make sure none of the swordsmen went for any night time escapades.
After dragging himself back into bed he whispered a short prayer of thanks, before drifting off to sleep.
* * *