Hey there readers! I just wanted to say thanks to Anon, my first reviewer! I'm glad I'm not the only one either! Here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy!
Bounties, Apples, Swords, and Pin Cushions~ Chapter Two
Odin knew when they were coming; he had told the lower Maajik knights to alert him at the passing of Crux and the talking butterfly into Sand Town. It was for this reason that he was waiting for them before the bridge to the Dark Sultans tower.
Crux spotted him first, her sharp grey eyes gazing into his red tinted ones. "Hey Crux, look it's Odin!" came the voice that Odin had come to associate with a small migraine.
With a slight flash of light, the butterfly was once again floating next to the brave wanderer, Crux. "How have you been, Odin?" the butterfly asked, shimmering lightly.
"I have been well Butterfly." He said, cringing at its proximity to him. He cleared his thoughts and turned to Crux. "I wanted to thank you, for everything you have done for Damien." He said, staring at the girl, who had taken off her helmet.
Her ebony hair was cut short and feathery, the slight desert breeze making it flutter about gently. "Of course." She spoke for the first time.
Her voice shocked him, as it was light and lilting where he had thought it would be deeper, rougher maybe, from disuse. As sweet as her voice was, he could tell from her eyes, sharp as razors, that she could cut with her words deeper than any blade.
The Shadow Knight made up his mind right then, that any friend of Damien's was a friend of his, and so he said, "I have protected Damien for as long as I can remember, and I would be honored to accompany a friend of his, and protect them on their travels."
"Oh wow! Odin, that's great! Now we can all go adventuring together." The butterfly spoke up, flying a looped-e-loop.
"Yes, I am quite confident of my skills to 'Kick some butt' as they say." Odin said to the butterfly, trying to warn it to shut up.
Crux's eyes lit up in laughter and small smile graced her face as she realized Odin's dislike for the butterfly.
The butterfly said something funny and Odin laughed, trying to get the paladin across from him to join in. The butterfly must have taken that as a sign that they were all best friends, because it sparkled with joy.
"We were going to see Damien, do you want to come with us?" the butterfly asked flittering to Crux's other shoulder, as if beckoning him to go with them.
"I will accompany you, anytime." Odin said, looking at Crux.
The stoic girl nodded, her eyes crinkling up at the corners in happiness. The only reason Odin noticed was all of the years of training to figure out moods before true action revealed them.
The butterfly went back to Crux and they made their way across the bridge to the Dark Fortress of Damien Hellbourne, current Dark Sultan of Al Maajik.
Once there, Damien told them of his wish to rule Reveria in peace, a land without war, and the butterfly tried to convince him to go on adventures with them.
"Now is not the time, I must see to my lands and to my people. But I will consider your offer." Damien said, smiling at Crux.
Odin was slightly disappointed that Damien wouldn't be joining them yet, as he would have looked forward to spending more personal time with the teen.
None the less, the two humans and butterfly set out to adventure or in Crux's case, take on every single request from anyone and make as much dosh by taking in bounties as possible.
"Crux, why do you fight? I would imagine someone like you to be a blacksmith, or an alchemist." Odin once asked her.
She had turned to him, pulled out her license card and showed him her trades. The only two trades she hadn't dabbled in yet were Cook and Hunter.
Odin raised his eye brows at this. "You are a mercenary?" he asked, causing her to smile.
"I am, an expert no less." She said, stowing the card away in her bag once more.
Odin was impressed, as it took real work and skill to wield broadswords.
"I would be a master already, but my Life Master has set out some difficult quests for me." She sighed, leading the Dark Mercenary across a wide field and dispatching a roaming bull.
"What would he have you do? Defeat the Lord of the Dead?" Odin joked, batting a stray radishy over the head with his blade.
Crux snorted, slicing a radishella in half and boxing it up in a crate to haul to a bounty clerk. "Not yet, but I'm sure he will. Cervantes actually wants me to cash a bounty of a Desert Tyrant first, and work on my Tornado Spin attack." She said, pulling the slightly shaking crate behind her.
Odin stopped and looked at her. "You are having problems with a certain technique?" he asked, kicking a field frog that had been trying to jump into his face.
The girl sighed again, collecting some stun powder from one of the frogs before walking on. "For some reason, I keep preforming the Hurricane technique instead, it's so frustrating." Crux said, crossing a bridge and waving to some other paladins at a look-out tower.
"Ah, you aren't pausing long enough between strikes. Both come after the Cross Cut, but you need to wait for that extra moment before you continue, or your momentum pulls you into a different stance." Odin said, sending a shockwave of energy at an approaching bandit.
Crux quickly had the leader of the petty criminals boxed up with her vegi-monster and looked at Odin. "It can't be that simple, can it?" she growled, kicking the bandits' box to shut it up.
Odin stared at the shaking crate before answering sympathetically, "It really is."
One large carrotella later, and they were moving again. "I can't believe that old pin cushion didn't tell me that." She griped, hauling the crates up a small incline before leading Odin into a quaint wooded area with a fishing bridge.
A boy sitting on the bridge waved to Crux as they passed, almost losing his balance as a fish took his bait.
"If he is old, then perhaps it simply slipped his mind." Odin said, gazing at the gentle farm land they'd come into, stables and a small airship hangar adding quiet background noise to the rustling of the grass in the wind.
"Maybe that's why Jude can't even seem to take out a carroty yet." Crux laughed, heading over a bridge and through the main gate of Castele.
The town was bustling with people, some running around with bags of groceries, others trying to get customers at their stalls. "Jude?" Odin asked, dodging a small boy chasing a cat that taken his grasshopper.
"Oh, he is Cervantes other apprentice, and he's hopeless." The girl obviously was quite used to the hustle and bustle of the kingdom, as she veered through the crowd easily, and entered a building labeled, 'Guild Office'.
A woman looked up from the counter and smiled. "Hello Crux! More bounties for me today?" she asked, beckoning the paladin closer.
Crux nodded and hefted the bounties over the counter. "One Radishella, how about 800 dosh for this one, and a nice daikon radish?" the clerk asked, shoving the crate into a back room.
Odin watched as she exchanged all of the bounties, staring as Crux didn't utter a word to the woman, and yet she seemed to know her very well.
"Okay and one carrot for you! I'm sure I'll be seeing you soon!" the bounty clerk said, handing over the orange vegetable and waving a goodbye.
Crux shoved the carrot in her bag and went over to a different counter. The man there wore a silly hat, and grinned jovially at the young paladin as she approached.
"And what'll it be today, eh Crux? Perhaps an angler or maybe you're finally getting your hunting license!" he said, pulling out his copy of her license card.
"No, I'm going to work on my Mercenary license today Darrel." She smiled, stamping paper as he handed her a scroll.
"Alright! Keep up the good work, expert mercenary!" the guild master said, waving.
Crux led Odin back the way they came after leaving the office. "My home is next to Falcon's Hangar, I have to pick up my broadsword before we go and practice anything." She said, passing a shady looking man who called after them, "Powder! Powder!"
Odin nodded, keeping his hand on the hilt of his blade while they walked, the strange man still shouting at Crux.
"What does he want?" he asked, looking back at the robed figure.
Crux glanced back and grinned. "He's a part time alchemist, and he wants me to get him combustible powder for his newest set of bombs that he pranks the paladins at the gate with."
"And will you?" Odin asked, shocked at the thought of her helping a crazy man like that.
"He has dosh, and lots of it. If it makes you feel better, I always make great quality shields for Gaites first." She laughed, walking into a fenced in area next to a log cabin.
It was a small house with a porch out front, flowers bloomed around it and a cricket chirped nearby.
"Home sweet home." Crux grinned, opening the door and welcoming him in.
Inside her home was all hard wood and green fabric, high quality Castele furniture was placed tastefully about the room, and a lazy cat snoozed on a large bed in the corner.
Crux immediately went over to a tall wardrobe and started rummaging through it for something, causing several apples to tip out and roll across the floor.
"Stupid fruit, you get back here." She grumbled, kicking an apple under her bed by accident.
Odin laughed and went to pick them up. He set them on her table and settled on a chair, admiring the craftsmanship of the cabinet next to him.
A cry of achievement brought his attention back to the girl at the wardrobe. Odin watched as she pulled a glowing purple sword from the wooden storage and sheathed it.
"I knew it was in there, stupid thing." She muttered to herself. "Alright, ready?" Crux turned to him, shutting the doors of the wardrobe behind her.
"A Demonic Blade, where did you get that?" Odin asked, rising from his seat.
"I am a blacksmith you know, it wasn't all that hard. I just needed to get the magic ore from the Ancient Ruins." She said, pulling the door open and locking it after he had stepped out.
"So that's what you did before you came to see Damien." Odin said, more to himself than her. It had been several days between the time that Crux had followed him down into the trial chamber to help Damien, and now Odin knew that she had been exploring.
"Yeah, did you know that there is a gigantic golden dragon down there that spits lightning at you?" Crux said, laughing at him as he froze to stare at her.
They talked more about the ruins as they walked through town to the shopping district, passing a rather flirtatious vendor for fruits and vegetables.
Odin didn't know they were there until Crux pointed at the building. "The Crown, the only tavern in Castele, and where my Life Master, Cervantes is." She said, ducking inside.
Odin followed her and heard a man shout, "I heard from Jude that you called me an 'Old Pin Cushion!' today!"
Shaking his head, Odin grinned and prepared for the day ahead of him. Crux was a stew pot of the unexpected, and he was enjoying himself in her company.
Damien was always on his mind though, and he wondered if the teen would be having fun with them right now.
Across Reveria, Damien Hellbourne was wondering the same thing. He sighed and stared out the window, thinking about his captain of the guard.
Odin was his only human companion, and someone he regarded with admiration. Maybe even more than that, he was starting to feel something more than simple respect and gratitude for the Shadow Knight.
"Yes, I will consider that offer, Crux and Butterfly." He said to himself, staring into space, imagining the adventures they would have, Crux, Odin, and himself.
Yay! This chapter is done and corrected! Just simple things, some sentence structure, and word changes… But anyway, please review!
~Reverian