Vindi: I made Kyu post this chapter early because I worked really hard on it! So please enjoy! Commentary is greatly appreciated!
Disclaimer: Neither of us own Mabinogi, we are simply players. Mabinogi is owned by Nexon.
Outlaw Hunters: Chapter 2 – Banding Together
Together, the five of them exited the bandit hideout to find themselves on a secluded mountain pass that was probably a few miles away from the Blago Prairie main road. Skeith suggested they go ahead and try to get back to the main road and towards Tara before attempting to make any stops. Sheba explained it was more of a precaution because they did just clear out what she called a "Rookie Bandit Hideout" and it was possible that more bandits would head that way.
Slowly, they made their way towards Jaiden's original destination of Tara. They were unable to find the horses and goods Jaiden had with him originally which meant that they were possibly being transported somewhere bigger than the hideout they were just in. It didn't take them too long to reach the South Gate of Tara and once they were inside the safety of the walls, they stopped and healed the rest of Jaiden's wounds.
"We should eat something," Divine suggested as he heard his stomach begin to growl.
"There's a restaurant not too far from here that's inexpensive," Sheba suggested. "We can eat there and then stay in the inn down the street."
"I don't think I'll be able to afford it," Jaiden pat his pockets and sighed heavily. "Yeah, they took everything from me, even the swords I bought right before I started."
"Don't worry," Skeith put his hands in his pockets. "I'll pay for everything tonight. You'll just have to pay me back when you can."
"If you say so," Jaiden rubbed the back of his head and looked at Vindiara who had been silent the entire walk to the South Gate. He noticed she had been sniffling the entire time and saw how she trembled from time to time but he didn't say much to her.
"Let's go to the restaurant," Sheba ordered and marched ahead of them. "This way towards food!"
"Sheba, you're being embarrassing," Divine laughed as he scratched his cheek and followed behind her with Skeith.
"She's always embarrassing," Skeith sighed. "Come on you two, you'll get lost easily in this place if you don't know where you're going."
"We're coming," Jaiden put a hand on Vindiara's shoulder and saw her look up at him with sad eyes, eyes similar to the ones he had when he lost his parents. "Come on Vindiara, let's go, okay?"
She stared at him for a moment and nodded, "Okay…"
Jaiden moved his hand off her shoulder and walked alongside of her behind the three new people that came to his rescue. He didn't say much to any of them on the way there and didn't say much when they were sitting at dinner together at a dimly lit restaurant.
"Vindiara," Jaiden looked at her, "how are you feeling?"
Vindiara shrugged and looked at him, "I'm fine...I guess. I'm more concerned about you; you took a lot of damage from holding up that hammer."
He smiled and put a hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry about me. Protecting people is what I've always wanted to do. I don't regret saving you one bit." He was too busy smiling at her to notice Vindiara turn her blushing face away from him in order to hide.
"You practically flew towards the ogre! You were breathing so heavy!" Sheba exclaimed as she punched Jaiden's shoulder. "Your face was so serious when you saw Vindiara in trouble! Your face was like-" she mimicked the determined look on his face and grunted, "HUHUHUHUHUHUH!"
Everyone else looked at her with blank stares before they all started dying of laughter at the table. They ignored the stares from the other patrons within the facility that seemed annoyed with their loud laughter but it couldn't be helped, they were laughing too hard.
Jaiden wiped the tears from his eyes as they all recovered from the laughing fit caused by Sheba. Once he was sure he was done laughing, he looked at each of them and nodded, "I know now might not be the best time, but I'd like to explain something."
They all looked at Jaiden in confusion.
"I started my journey as a Milletian not only because it's my, let's see," Jaiden thought for a moment and snapped his fingers, "I guess I could say 'destiny.' I started this journey because I also wanted to make a guild that fought against the bandits who are running amuck all across Erinn and protect its inhabitants from these bandits."
"Is that why you randomly said 'Outlaw Hunters' after I killed that rookie bandit boss?" Skeith questioned and saw Jaiden nod.
"It's the name I'd like to give to the guild," Jaiden explained. "You're all welcome to join. Not many people are brave enough to fight against bandits and according to what you said, they were just rookies and not that difficult to fight against. I also really appreciate the three of you coming to mine and Vindiara's rescue; we both would've been dead if you hadn't shown up."
Skeith slowly nodded as he listened to Jaiden and stroked his chin, "It's true that there's barely anyone left to fight. I'm in. No doubt about it."
Divine shrugged, "It could be interesting. I'm in as well."
Sheba smiled and saluted, "Count me in!"
Vindiara stayed silent and looked up at everyone sitting at the table, rubbing her arm shyly as they all gradually turned to her.
"What about you, Vindiara? Are you with us?" Jaiden asked, with a hopeful look in his eyes as he smiled. She shook her head, looking down.
"I can't...my mother is waiting for me at home and has no idea about anything that's happened; someone's gotta tell her," she took a moment to breathe so she didn't get choked up with tears.
Jaiden nodded and pat her on the back. "I completely understand," he tilted her chin up in order to make her look into his eyes, "but just to make sure you get back safely, we'll come along with you, okay?"
Vindiara's cheeks turned a rose-colored red as she smiled and nodded, "Sounds like a plan to me."
The Next Morning
"Everyone ready?" Jaiden overlooked his new group of friends to make sure that they were all good to go. They were all being social and talking to one another. They all stood with their things over their backs, so he assumed that they were ready to go. He looked over at Vindiara, who was sheathing what he believed to be a Knight Lance.
"Where'd you get that?" he asked. She jumped a little, having been caught completely off guard.
"Oh, this? This was my dad's, I managed to salvage it out of the hideout as we were leaving." She smiled, looking down at it, "I want to be as strong as my dad some day."
Jaiden smiled, "I don't see why you couldn't be! You're practically holding the world in your hands. You can do anything you set your mind to."
She giggled shyly, and smiled back at him. "Yeah, I suppose you're right," She put the lance on her back and hopped to her feet. "Let's go, no time to lose!"
These words caught everyone's attention and they collectively left the inn.
In Taillteann
The group reached the gates of Taillteann in a few hours. The towering walls and guards were fairly intimidating. Jaiden cautiously walked past the guards on either side of the gate and into the city. Sheba followed close behind, but tracked back to look at the guards who were completely motionless in their armor. She approached one and poked his chest plate repeatedly without getting a reaction from him.
"Why do they have guards at all of the gates entering Tail?" she asked as she started making faces at the guard in an attempt to get him to react. Skeith sighed as he pulled her away from the guard by the wrist and led her away from him.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you Sheba; they get payed to stand there all day you know," he crossed his arms and walked with Divine and Sheba on either side of him. "They're there because military leaders from each race have a camp here, and they're here quite often so the gates need to be guarded for any kind of intruders. Being one of the two locations with a gate to the Shadow Realm, it's important that there's protection anyway."
"Sorry I ask," Sheba looked around and spotted some machines in the distance. "What the heck are those?"
Divine grinned, "Ah, yes...if you didn't already know this, this is the alchemy center of Uladh: Taillteann! Allow me to show you around this magnificent place created by our Goddess, Madam Morrighan." Everyone followed him up one of the hills as he ran towards the large house. He bowed towards an elderly woman who he called Dorren and he lit up when she held out a pouch for him.
"What're all these machines for?" Jaiden looked over them in curiosity.
Divine snapped out of crying over his freshly stocked crystal supply and smiled, happy that he would be able to answer, "Well, they're all used for different things. Things like Mana Crystallization, Fragmentation, Synthesizing, basic alchemy stuff. Most alchemists find it easier to make their own crystals; that's the Mana Crystallization. And then Fragmentation and Synthesizing is more of the breaking down and building of materials that anyone can use basically. Oh, and they're called Steam Ovens and Dry Ovens by the way."
"Hmm. The more you know," Skeith walked up to a small boy who stood near Dorren who was dressed in what looked like alchemist robes. Skeith knelt down and whispered into his ear, shoving a pouch of coins into his hand. The boy grinned and took the money, and placed a basic cylinder in Skeith's hand in return.
After he had done this, Skeith stood up and turned around to find the group staring at him. "What?" he asked. "You never know, I could become an alchemist one day. Maybe even as good as Divine at some point," Skeith narrowed his eyes at Divine after hearing him chuckle faintly.
"Well, that's enough of the scenic route for one day," Jaiden continued down the hill, and the rest soon followed.
"Woah, is that the giant's camp over there?" Sheba looked over in the distance.
"Looks like it, everything's huge," Vindiara smiled. "I've never seen a giant before now that I think about it."
Skeith muttered to himself beneath his breath, "Giants are disgusting..."
"Alright guys, we still have plenty of daylight ahead of us so our next stop should be the logging camp,"Jaiden continued to lead the group before his arm was pulled at eagerly by Vindiara.
"Come on Jaiden, we have to hurry! My dad's childhood friend Tracy owns that camp!" She jumped up and down and and grabbed his hand, pulling him lightly. He smiled at the sight of her being excited and let her lead him towards the western gate of Taillteann.
The Logging Camp
They reached the logging camp just as the sun sat on the horizon, carefully avoiding the bears in the woods around them. None of the bears ever bothered to enter the camp since they seemed to not like conflict. The main pathways were used often to get from Tir Chonaill to Dunbarton so the bears stayed in the forest off to the side. In the center of the area, where all of the logging went on, stood a large tree surrounded by small huts and many men at work chopping away and building.
Under the tree was a tall, goofy-looking man shouting at some of the lazier workers while he kept an axe on his shoulder. Once Vindiara caught sight of him, she took off running towards him.
"That must be Tracy," Jaiden said as he watched her drop her stuff and run to him. Both Jaiden and Sheba picked up her stuff and carried it for her.
"It's a shame she doesn't wanna stick around with us, she's fun to be with," Sheba frowned.
"I agree. But even if she did, would she be able to handle being away from home all the time and fighting bandits? After all, she is younger than the rest of us," Skeith shrugged.
"She has a strong spirit, and plenty of potential to be stronger than she already is. I like having her around too, but it's ultimately her decision," Jaiden found himself grinning as he said this, and quickly shook it off before anyone could notice.
The group began to listen in to Tracy and Vindiara's conversation as they approached them. "Wow, that's terrible…" Tracy looked over at the group as they walked up. "Did these guys accompany you all the way back here?" She nodded and looked up at Jaiden, taking her stuff back from him.
"Thanks for bringing it over here, you two," Vindiara chuckled. "I got a little anxious to see Tracy."
"No problem!" Sheba smiled and nudged Jaiden to say something, since he was just blankly staring at her.
"...-Oh, sure thing. It's no big deal," He scratched the back of his head and cleared his throat.
"Well Tracy, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like you to help me pay my condolences to my father up on the Spiral Hill," Vindiara held her hands behind her back and rocked back and forth between her toes and heels.
Tracy smiled, "With pleasure, little lady. Are the rest of you tagging along?" He looked among the rest of the group, and they all agreed in no time at all. Tracy picked up his axe and held it on his shoulder, and with Tracy and Vindiara taking the lead, they traveled towards to the hill.
"So, why did you pick this spot to-" Divine was stopped mid-sentence once he discovered the reason why. Upon reaching the top, a tree stood towards the top of the hill. Vindiara held her hand over an engraving on the tree that was in the shape of the heart that held two sets of initials. She fell to her knees as she clenched her fist over the engraving and attempted to fight back her tears.
Tracy walked up to her and put his hand on her shoulder, "Does your mother know yet?" She bit her lip and shook her head, silently beginning to cry. Sheba ran towards her and dropped down next to Vindiara and wrapped her arms around her to comfort her. "It'll be okay, I promise."
"I wouldn't be saying that just yet," said a gruesome, unfamiliar voice. Everyone quickly turned around and discovered a hoard of bandits had followed them up to the top of Spiral Hill. In front was an Ogre, and judging by his clothes, a bandit boss. "You're the little twerp whose father we killed not a day ago," he cackled, spit flying out of his mouth as he turned his gaze over to Vindiara while she stood up to face him.
Vindiara grit her teeth as she looked back at him, clenching her fists. "And you're the group of bandits we slaughtered back in Taillteann," she said, picking up her father's lance. "If we did it once, we can do it again."
Jaiden grinned, slowly unsheathing his blades. He looked among his group to find that they were all preparing for a battle.
The Ogre laughed into the early night sky, holding what looked like a two-handed sword, but carried it with one hand with ease, "What're you waiting for, outlaws? They won't die just standing here!" His henchmen all yelled and ran forwards to attack.
"Divine, front and center! Use Flame Burst!" Skeith yelled. Divine ran in front of his group, and released a powerful burst of flames around half of the bandits that charged to attack. Other bandits went around the flames while the rest were burnt to a crisp.
"God, really? That smell does NOT make fighting these monsters any easier!" Sheba stayed by Vindiara's side, but not for long as she charged forward with her lance, piercing a bandit goblin straight through the torso. "Agh, gross!" Vindiara swung her lance around to fling the dead bandit off of her lance, and knocking over two in the process.
Skeith stabbed the ones Vindiara knocked over just as they touched the ground. Divine's flame burst had ran out, and the burnt bandits charged towards Jaiden and himself. Divine hit several bandits with one burst of water one at a time while Jaiden smashed one after another.
Tracy decapacitated bandits with his two axes as they tried to approach him and Sheba. The Ogre turned and watched his forces become defeated one after another, and he roared, taking a sudden interest to Jaiden. "Hey, he's the idiot who tried commercing alone! This is all his doing!" The ogre walked through the carnage to approach Jaiden.
Vindiara took notice to this quickly, struggling to pick up her lance. With all of her strength, she ran towards the Ogre boss. The Ogre approached Jaiden as he was killing off another bandit. "I'll end you if it's the last thing that I do!" The ogre held up his gigantic sword, and swung down at Jaiden before he could get away.
"NO!" Vindiara sprinted in just in time to block his attack with her lance. She grunted, holding the lance up at her head. Jaiden had dropped to the ground to avoid being sliced by the ogre's blade, and he looked up at her with wide eyes, "What are you doing?! You're trying to get yourself killed!" Tracy ran towards Vindiara and the ogre and stood close behind her.
"No, I'm saving your life like you saved mine!" Vindiara began to break a sweat, unsure of how much longer she could hold up his sword.
The bandit boss roared with anger. "You little twerp, get out of my way!" Vindiara pushed him and his sword back.
"The name's Vindi, you sack!" she dropped her lance and grabbed one of Tracy's axes, and flung it diagonally into the ogre's face. The ogre was taken back, falling over and growling with pain. Vindi quickly grabbed Tracy's second axe, and walked up to the ogre.
She breathed heavily; sweat dripping down her forehead as she said "Don't mess with my friends ever again." She lifted up the axe and chopped his head off before falling unconscious to the ground.
Tir Chonaill
"Do you think she'll be alright?" Jaiden sat at Vindi's bedside, holding her hand.
"She'll be fine, but she needs to drink plenty of water once she wakes up," Nora, the innkeeper had taken in the group for the night. "I need to go find her mother and tell her she's okay, she's been concerned about her for days. Can you watch her while I'm gone?"
Jaiden nodded, "Of course." Nora smiled and picked up a small purse.
"Alright, then I'm off. I'll be back soon," She left the inn, and just a few minutes afterwards, Vindi began to stir, trying to sit up.
"Where am I?" her head fell back and onto her pillow, and turned to see Jaiden. "Are you okay?"
"Why did you risk your life to save mine? That was way too dangerous of you. Your body gave out and you fainted," Jaiden squeezed her hand and looked in her eyes. "You goob, don't ever do that again."
Vindi smiled, and blushed once she realized he was holding her hand. "I was just doing what you did for me. But I won't do it again, I promise."
"Good," Jaiden turned towards the door as it flew open, and Vindi's mother flew into the room and next to her bed, followed by Nora.
"Oh, my poor baby...What happened to her, where's her father?" her mother looked down at Vindi, who didn't have enough energy to speak.
"Vindi and her father were captured by bandits, and he was killed in the process. My friends and I were able to get her out," Jaiden stood and got out of the way so she could get closer to Vindi.
"I can never thank you enough," she ran her fingers through Vindi's hair and picked her up. "But it's time for me to take her home, she needs rest." Jaiden nodded in agreement and held the door open for her.
"Goodbye, Vindi. Until next time," Jaiden waved at her and smiled as Vindi picked up her and to wave back. He then went upstairs to sleep for the remainder of the night.
The Next Morning
It was an hour until noon before anyone woke up, still exhausted from the previous night's battle. Sheba gathered her stuff and walked downstairs to find Jaiden sitting in the lobby. "Where's Vindi?" She looked around the room hopelessly.
"She's gone, she's with her mother. She isn't going with us remember?" There was a look of sadness on his face as he said this, and Sheba pat him on the head.
"Ah, that's right...I'm going to miss her," she sat down next to him and watched the rest of the gang slowly emerge from their rooms.
"Me too," Jaiden stood and picked up his things, and opened the door. "Alright guys; I think our next step is to go to Dunbarton and make the guild."
"Sounds like a plan," Skeith yawned with a vaguely angered face. "I hate waking up."
"Oh, shut up Skeith. Although, you've never been a morning person," Divine was up and wide awake, as if he'd been awake for hours.
"Any-who," Jaiden interrupted, "let's get going, we're burning daylight." He walked out the door and the group followed silently.
Jaiden led them over a bridge by the fields of Tir, before stopping suddenly. "Wait, don't we need 5 people to form a guild?"
"Ah, shit, you're right," Skeith sighed. "I can get one of my buddies to join if it's necessary."
"Don't you dare fill up my spot!" said a familiar voice from behind them. They all turned around and found Vindi running towards them with a huge smile on her face. "I'm coming with you!"
Jaiden took in a deep breath in relief that she showed up. Sheba ran up to her and hugged her, jumping up and down and laughing.
Vindi laughed with her, and smiled at Sheba and the rest of the group. "I'm gonna be a Millentian!"
To Be Continued…