6 months later: Luin
I watched the people go about there daily duties. I sighed as I watched the children running up and down the cobble stone roads. I was very troubled on what I could get Luke as a souvenir, because no doubt when I return he will be royally pissed. I was considering a pair of double paper fans; he could practice his swordsmanship with them and not kill himself. Hm, I liked the idea already; that boy was the clumsiest person I had ever met in my life
I watched young Emil walking out of his relative's house with a dejected expression on his face. He had probably been yelled at again. That seemed to be his relative's favorite hobby. Let's play make Emil feel like dirt, the one who can make him feel the worst wins a prize. Despicable, I think.
I had noticed the very first day that the people of Luin didn't take kindly to strangers of any sort, as in me. I worked as a mercenary most of the time, escorting people around, protecting important officials from bandits. Hell I had even had the liberty of guarding the King of Tethe'alla when he had come to discuss certain things with the chosen. I had been paid quite handsomely for that job, if I do say so myself.
"Arrooooo!" I stared down at the dry lake bed as the howl rang throughout the town. The people whom had been close enough to hear it shifted their eyes around, as if they expected something to come out and eat them. This was part of the reason I was in Luin in the first place. I had been contacted in Palmacosta that a large number of monsters were coming closer to Luin since Lake Sinoa had dried up. I was being paid rather well for this, seeing as the money was the only reason I was doing it.
I noticed that Emil seemed rather distressed when he heard the sound of the cry. That actually wasn't that surprising to me seeing as you could scare him with a stick.
"There is that howl again," I heard him mutter, "It sounds like it's coming from the fountain plaza."
He began walking towards the fountain, and I followed him by jumping on the roofs of houses. He didn't notice that he was being followed by the town fools in my opinion. They were pretty much the only people around here that happened to be around Emil's age, yet they tortured him instead of befriending him, like when he told me that he had wished he could make friends.
He stopped in front of the fountain and stared at the statue of Lloyd that had been erected there just two years before when Lloyd had practically rebuilt the town by giving them money. I only know that he paid with money out of pocket because I had been one of the few people that would lower their prices enough and except the job of guarding all the material that was forced to be moved over land.
The two idiots had moved up behind him now and I jumped down behind them. I was so quiet that they didn't even hear me.
"Hey, Emil we saw that!" they shouted when Emil began to walk away angrily from the statue.
"Bow to Lloyd the Great!" I rolled my eyes at the nickname. During the days that Luin was being rebuilt I had become vaguely acquainted with Lloyd, but enough to know that he wouldn't appreciate the name. I shifted my eyes and looked at the red haired man that had walked into town just moments before and was now watching the show with amusement.
"I already did." I slapped my forehead in frustration. I needed to work with Emil on his lying abilities.
"No you didn't!" The two shouted in unison. "You don't like Lloyd the Great, do you?"
"That's why you're trying to destroy our city; because Lloyd restored it to its former beauty." Oh yeah, I thought acidly in my head. Theirs no recognition for the ones that got all the materials here safely and then were forced to help with the building.
"What are you talking about?" Emil looked at them both like they had grown two heads. I didn't blame him; Emil, destroying a town, now that was enough to make me laugh. Emil couldn't break a toothpick if you gave him one.
"Don't act dumb!" They said.
"You don't really have the right to say that." I muttered under my breath. The red haired man that had moved closer to get a better view of what was going shook softly with laughter. I frowned a little, not understanding how someone that far away from me could hear what I had said.
"Ever since you got here Lake Sinoa's dried up and monsters have started appearing in the lake bed."
"Yeah, I bet you're going to get all of your monster friends to attack the town!"
"What, No!" Emil cried in horror. The idea of monsters attacking scared him more than anyone else.
"Then prove it," Moll said, "Swear you allegiance to Lloyd the Great."
"Come on let's hear it!" Dita cried.
Emil turned to face the statue and lowered his head to stare at the ground. I saw him shake his head and his hands trembled.
"No, Lloyd murdered my parents. I won't swear allegiance to that murderer!" I silently cheered Emil on in my head. Even though I didn't believe that it had been Lloyd at Palmacosta, at least Emil was standing up for something that he believed in.
"So that's how you really feel, huh?" Moll said in response to Emil's outburst
"No that's not what I meant to say!" I sighed in frustration. First he spouts off something that he firmly believes and then goes and changes him mind; what am I going to do with this kid.
"Shut up you monster!"
"We'll teach you a lesson!" I made to intercept them as they pushed Emil to the ground. I grabbed Moll's upraised hand and pulled him back, then swung him around until his stomach made wonderful friends with my fist.
Dita swung around to hit me but before he could get a decent hit I removed the entire scabbard of my sword off my back and hit him in the ribs with the hilt of my blade. He landed on his hands and knees, he was panting pretty hard so I assumed that I knocked the breath right out of him. Swinging my blade around I reattached it to the leather strap that ran across my torso.
I walked over to Emil. The red haired man that had been watching the entire time was helping him up by the time I got done with those nitwits. "You okay Emil?"
"Yeah I'm alright" I nodded at him and then turned back to Moll and Dita.
"I think that you two need to go home, and don't think that I won't be telling the Mayor about this little development." They stared at me like they hadn't realized that I said anything.
"You think you have the right to order us around you pathetic weakling?" Dita asked pushing himself off the ground and holding his side where my scabbard made contact.
"Get lost!" I turned to look at the red haired man, who by the way looked so pissed that he could melt ice.
"Who the hell are you?" I shook my head at Moll's stupidity, obviously no one had ever told him not to mess with a pissed off swordsman.
"I said go!" I shivered slightly at the cold look in his eyes. He had obviously seen something in his life that made him extremely dislike others being picked on. Moll and Dita obviously picked up the vibe that he was about to cut them in half and ran off.
"I, I um…" Emil started to say something and then lifted his head to look at the stranger.
"You, you are…" I furrowed my brow in confusion; he looked like he recognized Emil.
"Emil do you know this man?" I took a step forward and cursed as my blade hit the back of my leg. "Damn it all, can't even hit somebody with the damn thing with out it moving out of place!"
Emil just looked amused and the red haired man had already recovered from his shock.
"Never mind. You know, you should stand up for yourself."
"See, I'm not the only one that thinks so." I said sarcastically while trying to reach around my back to re-adjust my scabbard. The red haired man began walking away from Emil and towards the bridge, only pausing on the way to grab my blade and twist it around my body so that I could reach it. "Thank you."
I was still trying to get it back into place when Emil walked up beside me.
"I was too scared to even thank him for that," He stated sadly, "maybe that's why I haven't been able to make any friends."
I looked at him with sympathy. "Well then what are you waiting for, lets go after him so that you can thank him."
"Huh?!" Emil looked at me like I had grown two heads.
"Well come on." I started walking towards the bridge but turned back when I noticed that he wasn't following me. "Hey, come on what's wrong?"
"I wish I had friends, but I guess that will never happen." I turned to face him fully with a smile on my face.
"So, I'm not good enough to be your friend huh? I see how you are." I turned stiffly and walked across the bridge. I heard him yell and thunder after me. I saw the red haired man standing by the statue of Raine. "That's interesting." I thought.
I ran up and hid behind the statue. He stared at me like I was insane. I put a finger to my lips and then pointed to where Emil was running around looking for me, obviously to apologize. He looked at me as if asking what the kid had to do with anything and I waved him away and mouthed for him to just stand there. I sunk down behind the wide base of the statue when I saw Emil hesitantly make his way towards us.
"What is it?" The red haired man asked after Emil had been standing there for several seconds.
I could tell by the look on Emil's face that he was begging to think that this was a bad idea.
"If you've got nothing to say, then I have something to ask you?" the red haired man continued.
"Okay." Emil said hesitantly. I don't really suppose I could blame him. For someone like Emil, talking to a guy with an…well I don't really know if it's an axe or what it is, and a sword must be very intimidating.
"So that girl said that your name is Emil? Well, Emil have you seen a girl around here with a red jewel on her forehead?"
"What, I uh, no sir I haven't."
"What are you so nervous about?" Emil flinched at the question. I had been silently watching the entire thing while also pondering on whether or not that was an axe or what. Emil stuttered around for a minute and lightly lifted some dirt while moving his feet. "Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality." He stated as if it was nothing more than something that bothered him.
Emil's head snapped up to look at the man.
"They're words, a human with a few screws loose said long ago." I noticed that he said human like it was something that he didn't particularly like to some degree, but he said it this time almost like he was in the past looking at a fond memory.
I finally took a good look the man. He was tall, a little taller then most men would be. He wore cloths that didn't really seem to belong here in Sylvarant. I figured that he was probably originally from Tethe'alla. Even though humans aren't usually sensitive to magic I could feel it flowing around him. That either meant to me that he was an elf or a half-elf and the second seemed to be the more likely option seeing his contempt for humans.
"When you refused to swear you allegiance to Lloyd didn't you feel courage welling up inside you?" I twitched a little at the statement. I'm sure that Emil had courage, but I don't think he really felt it at that moment when he was being stared down by the two people that live to make his life hell. "Those who would grovel and beg at the sight of another's anger are dogs. Or even worse. Are you a dog, or are you really a man?"
Emil stepped back a little when the man turned to look at him. "I'm-uh." I smiled fondly. I knew that Emil would eventually stand up for himself, but I was beginning to think that this was the perfect guy to put some bone back into Emil.
He turned and laughed quietly at Emil. "Just do your best to be a man, Emil." And then he walked away again.
I smacked my forehead when I realized that we had not accomplished what we had come here to do. Emil still hadn't thanked the man. Oh well, so much for that. I jumped out from behind the base of the statue and Emil stared at me in shock.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that, or course you're my friend, but I guess I don't really understand the whole concept yet." I patted Emil on the shoulder.
"Don't worry, I understood what you meant, I was only playing around so that I could get you to come and say thank you to the nice man." I jumped back in shock when I saw tears well up in Emil's eyes. "Emil what's wrong!?"
"I completely forgot to thank him!" I smiled and patted him on the back as he hunched over and sniffed a few minutes before he stood all the way back up. "Well maybe we'll see him again and I can thank him then. You know what though, I'm not a monster, and I need to stand up like a human being!"
"That's the spirit, now come on you need to come and help me pick out something for me to give to Luke when I get back to Palmacosta." I laced my arm through his and we started walking towards the main part of town. When we started to cross the bridge another howl rang out.
"Arrooooo!" Emil looked at me then to the lake bed.
"It sounds like it's coming from the lake bed." I had to agree with him. I wondered vaguely if he knew what used to be under the water of Lake Sinoa, judging from his expression he probably didn't know about the cave that was down there.
"Do you want to go and see what's going on?" I could tell that he was seriously tempted to take me up on the offer, but something was holding him back. "Emil?"
"I want to go, but I would have to leave town to go down there, Aunt Flora would get mad if I leave without permission." He said
"Oh who cares, if you want to go you should go, besides I'll be with you. I won't let anything happen to you Emil."
"Well okay, but lets just talk it over until we get to the town entrance, we may not even be able to get out with the watch man standing guard." I cursed underneath my breath, I had completely forgotten about that buffoon. He didn't care to let me go the lake bed and look around since I was the one they had hired to do the job anyway, but there was no way that he would let Emil go with me.
We continued walking towards town and started up a conversation about the red haired man that we had met earlier.
"That guy was really amazing. Are you a dog or are you really a man!" I laughed at the impression that Emil had created of the intimidating man. "I could never say anything like that to someone; they would only get angry at me."
"But wouldn't that prove something to people Emil?" I stated while running my hand along the beams of the bridge. "Wouldn't that prove to people that you're no longer afraid of them and that even someone like you can stand up and be your own person?"
He rubbed his chin and thought about it. "Well yeah I suppose but people just don't understand that it's not my fault that all these monsters just keep appearing like they do. I have no control over anything." He sighed. "I wish I could just go back in time six months before the blood purge happened and somehow get my parents to leave the city so that they would still be here with me."
"I know Emil, but life doesn't work that way, we can't go back and change the things that we don't like. If we could I would've tried to change Luke's parents. I don't know what they were thinking running off and leaving the poor boy to defend himself. Just be happy that your parents actually loved you Emil." I frowned thinking of poor little Luke.
"Yeah I guess you're right, I should appreciate the time that I did have with my parents." By this time we had already reached the town entrance in front of the inn. I was surprised to see Alba, Emil's uncle, Run up the path with small blood patches all over his shirt and stop in front of the town watchman.
"Alba, what is it, is something wrong?" The watchman looked at all the blood on Alba's shirt, from what I could tell, none of it was his own, therefore it was either monster blood or human from one of the other townsmen.
"Uncle Alba…" Emil took a step back at the sight of his uncle. Alba turned to look at us.
"What do you want, get the hell out of here you little nuisance." My blood boiled under my skin.
"I'm sorry." Emil stated hanging his head. I felt bad for him, all the courage that the red haired man had inspired in him had vanished at the first sight of Alba.
"Always getting in the way; just go home and stay out of trouble." Alba shouted. "Just the sight of you puts the whole town in distress."
"Forget about the Vanguard loving brat Alba, did something happen?" The watchman pulled Alba away from his nephew and listen to what happened.
"Monsters that I have never seen before appeared in the lake bed just a little while ago, members of the city watch are down. I'm going to gather reinforcements; you tell the mayor what happened." Alba turned to look me in the eye. "You need to go down there and help out; none of us are really trained on how to fight."
Then he and the watch member ran off to different parts of town.
"Arrooooo!" I lifted my head up towards the sky at the sound of the howling.
"Emil, this is our chance, we should go now while no ones looking." He looked at me with a scared expression for a minute before putting on a brave face and nodding his head at me. "Okay follow me."
I lead him out of town not knowing what would happen next.