-Chapter 2: On The Way-
The caravan's interior was similar to its exterior, tiny, and after spending a while to cram in all the caravanners' stuff, they realized not all of them were going to fit on it. It could only afford to have four people on it at a time, one steering it, two inside it and one at the back.
"So…" Raoul began, scratching his head. Or… well, his bucket, "Are we taking turns?"
"Maybe," Luke answered calmly, "I suppose the girls would want to ride first."
"Why?" Ellanoir asked, arms crossed, "Are you saying we're weak because we're girls?"
"No," Luke replied, raising his hands defensively, "I just thought you might want to try it first, that's all."
"I'll bet you just wanted to see if it outright collapsed if four people got on," Lily grumbled, crawling onto the rickety transport. Raoul chuckled at the Lilty's comment while Azaroth grinned behind his helmet and said to Luke, "She got you there,"
"That was not my intent!" Luke protested, chuckling at the joke.
Yami said nothing and just meekly sat on the back perch while Kim whooped with joy from where she was on the front. Ellanoir rolled her eyes and got on the caravan anyway.
Luke was walking next to Gar Vul on the right of the caravan.
"So… Gar," Luke started. Since Gar Vul came to the village, he was taken in by Roland to stay at the deceased blacksmith's house. As a result, he and Luke had become good friends. Gar was Luke's nickname for him. "What do you think of the other caravanners?"
"Not much," Gar replied, "They don't seem to be weak or unlikable, so I'll give them a chance."
"Nice to know that," Luke said, adjusting his cap.
"What do you think of them?" Gar asked Luke.
"Same as you," Luke replied casually, placing his hands behind his head and yawning.
"Are you tired?"
"Nah, just bored."
"How can you be bored?" asked a feminine voice. Luke and Gar turned to see Kim leaning out from the front of the caravan and looking at them.
"What do you mean?" Luke asked, scratching the back of his head lazily.
"I mean, we're going on an adventure!" Kim exclaimed excitedly, "We'll be going to see cool places and defeat bad monsters and stuff like that."
"And how is that entertaining?" Luke replied.
"Well, It's… you know… interesting and different." Kim said, hesitating mid-sentence to find the right words to use.
"I suppose so," Luke said thoughtfully, then turning to Gar he asked, "What do you think?"
"I think that this is our service to Alastar and we shouldn't be taking this so lightly." Gar responded. Kim looked puzzled at his seriousness while Luke gave a light laugh and said, "There's no need to be so serious Gar, let her have her fun."
"Gar?" Kim said, then after thinking for a while, looked at Gar and asked, "Can I call you that?"
"Suit yourself," Gar replied.
"Thanks!" Kim said, giving a bright smile.
Suddenly, the caravan shook violently, swerving to the right a little. Kim lost her balance and had to use both her hands to grab the edge of the caravan's front perch to prevent herself from being thrown off it.
"Whoa!" She yelled, "Who's driving this thing?"
"I think it's supposed to be you." Gar said emotionlessly. At this, Kim smacked her forehead and said, "Oh yeah… that's right!"
She turned and resumed steering the caravan properly. Luke chuckled while Gar simply sighed and shook his head.
"I will probably never get used to her," Gar stated.
"Awww, don't be like that," Luke said, knocking Gar's shoulder lightly, "Just because you're taking the adventure seriously doesn't mean that everyone has to do so too."
"You could afford to be more serious and less laid back, leader," Gar retorted, dragging out the last word.
"Touché," Luke said as they continued walking.
"What were you doing Kim?" Ellanoir asked from inside the caravan as Kim slid back to the center of the caravan's front perch
"Nothing," Kim replied cheerfully, her eyes still on the road, "Just checking out what Luke and Gar were doing."
"Gar?" Lily asked, polishing her mallet.
"Yeah, Gar Vul said we could call him that," Kim explained.
"Well… Okay then, if he says so." Ellanoir replied.
"Gar seems really serious about this caravanning business," Kim said, "He looks like he just wants to get this over and done with."
"Well, seeing how if we fail our mission, Alastar will collapse and fall prey to miasma, I don't see anything wrong with him being like that." Ellanoir said.
"True," Kim replied, "But I think that he could afford to enjoy himself a little more."
"Aren't you enjoying yourself a little TOO much?" Lily scoffed, inspecting her mallet carefully as she rotated it.
"Nah," Kim said, "I think that if we are going to be doing something, then we might as well enjoy it while we can."
"You do have a point," Ellanoir admitted, "But if that enjoyment comes at the price of our ability to carry out what we were supposed to do, then I'd rather not have it."
"I second that," Lily agreed.
"Um… what are you guys talking about?" asked a shy voice from the back of the caravan. Ellanoir and Lily turned to see who it was while Kim just greeted brightly, "Hi Yami! We were just talking about how much we should enjoy this adventure while still fulfilling what we were originally sent out to do."
"Well, if my opinion matters," Yami started, "I think that we should enjoy it while we can instead of looking at it as if it was a burden."
At this, Kim leapt off the front perch backwards, in between the two girls sitting inside and grasped Yami's hands and exclaimed, "I know right!?"
Lily, Ellanoir and Yami were extremely surprised by this action, causing Ellanoir to back up against the bags behind her, Lily to drop her mallet and Yami to nearly fall off the back perch of the caravan.
"Don't do that!" Lily reprimanded Kim as she picked up her mallet and Kim crawled back to that Front perch, "You'll get my mallet dirty!"
"Um… but if you're going to kill monsters with that mallet, then isn't it bound to get dirty?" Yami asked.
"Well-er I mean," Lily began. For some odd reason, she hadn't thought of that before. "I… er… only want to have monster blood on it." She finished lamely.
"I guess that's a valid reason," Ellanoir said, sighing and adjusting her helmet, "No matter how irrational it may be."
"Irrational?!" Lily yelled angrily, "I'll have you know this was my father's first mallet, ever!"
"Oh… I'm sorry…" Yami said softly. A silence fell over the four girls. Almost all of the caravanners had lost a family member as Alastar did not have such a large population, as a result, either one of their parents or siblings was in the late caravan of Alastar.
"It's alright," Lily replied, resuming her polishing.
Yami turned to face the back of the caravan while Ellanoir took out a book to read. Kim stayed silent for a long while before trying lighten the atmosphere.
"So… what are you guys' favorite food?"
On the left of the caravan, Azaroth and Raoul were walking side by side. Raoul was attempting to strike up a conversation, and succeeding.
"So, do you like striped apples?" Raoul asked.
"No," Azaroth replied.
"Um… well what do you like to eat?"
"Star carrots."
"How can you stomach that kind or food?" Raoul inquired, pretending to gag at the memory he had of his first time eating one.
"I think that it's not the taste that matters," Azaroth explained, "It's rather the nutritional value that counts."
"Isn't meat nutritious?"
"No," Azaroth replied reaching a feathered hand into his bag, "It has too much fat for one's own go-OW!"
Azaroth was cut off by pulling his hand out of his bag quickly, shaking it around, trying to get a mouse-trap off of his hand. Beside him, Raoul was laughing out loud, clutching his sides and doubling over.
"You put it there, didn't you?" Azaroth asked as he pried the contraption off of his hand
"No I didn't," Raoul answered, still chuckling.
"Yes you did," Azaroth insisted, tossing the trap behind him.
"Hey!" Raoul cried out, getting back on his feet, "I spent a good bit of money on that!"
"So it was you!" Azaroth said, approaching the Lilty.
"Oops," Raoul muttered before he was caught in a headlock.
"This oughta teach you," Azaroth growled, clanging his hammer on the Lilty's bucket head like a drum.
"Owowowow…" Raoul muttered, stumbling back and forth after he had been released from the Yuke's grip.
"Have we learned our lesson yet?" Azaroth asked, tappig his hammer against his hand.
"Yeah, I have," Raoul said, letting out a good natured laugh as he tried to straighten out his walk. Azaroth chuckled as well. He had to admit, it was a pretty funny sight. The both of them were snapped out of their laughing when they both felt a stinging sensation course through their bodies.
"Ow! What the heck?" Raoul yelled as a second wave of pain coursed through his body.
"It's miasma," Azaroth said, not showing any signs of anguish caused by the miasma, "We must be too far from the caravan."
The both of them began running back to the caravan that had gone fortunately not too far away from them.
After about half an hour or so of travelling, they came across the Alfitarian caravan, whose leader greeted them warmly.
"Greetings caravanners," The Lilty said in an official tone, his grey armour glinting in the sunlight, "My name is Sol Racht, how are you doing today?"
"Fine, I must say," Luke replied casually.
"Might I ask which caravan you are from?" Sol Racht asked politely.
"We're from Alastar!" Kim proudly proclaimed from the perch of the caravan.
"Alastar? Then that means…" Sol Racht said, drifting off.
The caravanners looked at each other as an uncomfortable silence quashed the conversation.
"Umm… good sir?" Luke said, snapping his fingers.
"Huh? Oh yes!" Sol Racht said, "Since you are new, I will introduce you to Stiltzkin."
The amoured Lilty stepped aside to present a fuzzy little creature with a red ball of fur above its head. It had small feet, small wings, a bandanna, a small back pack and some clothes.
"A moogle…" Ellanoir commented, rubbing her chin, or at least where it would have been as she stepped out of the caravan. It was common etiquette for most members of the caravan to alight from their vehicle when encountered by another caravan.
Suddenly, they heard a squeal and before anyone could say anything, Yami leapt at Stiltzkin and tackle-hugged him.
"You're so cuuuuuuute!" Yami exclaimed, rubbing her cheek against Stiltzkin's fur.
"What the?!" Stiltzkin cried, "Help!"
Sol Racht and Kim stepped up and managed to pry Yami away from the moogle.
"Anyways," Stiltzkin said, shaking himself off, "I'm Stiltzkin and I can give you advice on anything, what do you need to know?"
"Nothing," Ellanoir replied flatly, "We intend to learn from experience."
"Really?" Stiltzkin asked, "Even so, you must learn the basics of magic an-"
"We do," Ellanoir said briskly, cutting the poor moogle off.
"Oh, okay then," Stiltzkin said, a subdued tone to his voice, "Oh well, please go ahead."
Lily stepped forward.
"Hey, Sol Racht?" She asked in a respectful tone, "Can you tell me more about Alfitaria?"
"Sure," The armored Lilty replied, "What do you want to know?"
"I wanted to know about your training regime," Lily said briskly.
Gar stepped up as well, saying, "I would like to know as well; knowing a military grade training regime would be a good reference for my own."
"Well, first we start with…" Sol Racht began, before elaborating to the other about the tough training they had and their daily practices.
"That wasn't very polite you know." Raoul said to Ellanoir, motioning to the moogle that was dejectedly pawing at the dirt.
"Well it's true." The female Yuke replied, shrugging her shoulders.
"Umm… but I kinda wanted to know how magic works." Yami said softly, but loudly enough for the others to hear.
"I can explain it to you," Ellanoir said, "Magic is energy that we draw from the environment and convert into what we call spells, for example, fire, blizzard, thunder, cure, and so on. Anyone can use magic but the time taken to gather up the energy varies from person to person. For example, Yukes tend to be able to cast magic faster than say a… Lilty."
"Hey!" Lily cried out indignantly from a far.
"Magic can also be fused with other magic to cast fusion spells, which are more powerful but take a longer time to cast," Ellanoir continued, ignoring the Lilty, "Mono-type fusion spells such as fira and blizzara take a shorter time to cast than poly-type fusion spells such as gravity and slow. This problem can be remedied by two or more people casting the spell together, also allowing for the casting of even more powerful spells such as firaga, blizzaga, slowaga or graviga."
"I see," Yami replied, bowing her head slightly, "Thank you for explaining that."
"My pleasure," Ellanoir said, beaming with pride.
"Okay guys, let's go," Lily said, making her way back onto the caravan, "We need to hurry; I don't want to need to camp in a dungeon."
"And whose fault is that?" Ellanoir muttered, shrugging.
"Whatever," Lily growled, glaring at the Yuke, "Just because I wanted to know one small thing."
"Still your fault," Ellanoir said, getting on the caravan as well.
AN:
Second chapter!
not that exciting but it still needs to be done.
Read, Review and Enjoy!