"It's high noon! …Damn, I've always wanted to say that! This is AWESOME!"
-An Unnamed member of Morning Star
Chapter One: Strangers
The Freedom Eagle, the flying mount of North America. While many people use the normal way of summoning the massive bald eagles via whistle, Lord Grey was always a fan of the unorthodox way. Grip your fist, think of the star spangled flag, of apple pie, baseball and yelling 3 letters in the most obnoxious way possible, and let the cry of America fill you, "FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM!" Plus, it annoyed Grindalf to no end.
He had used his eagle in his journey to Dixie multiple times already but each time the rush of air against his face, the sight of the world, so small, below, filled him with a sense of unbridled freedom.
Lord Grey closed his eyes and laughed out loud.
I could get used to this.
Sure at the beginning he had freaked out, who wouldn't? One moment he was alternating between editing a wiki page and waiting for the download to end and them boom. No more keyboard, mouse or screen. Just his two hands, the old crumbling building of Jean Drapeau and the cries of adventurer's around him. His mind raced into possibilities. Really high spec graphics? Probably not. Hallucination? Unlikely, unless you could have tangible hallucinations. A dream then? He fell asleep at the keyboard. No, things were way to focused for this to be a dream.
He remembered looking up at the sun. It had been a while since he'd been out in the outdoors. He worked as a programmer but mostly took freelance work, not leaving the confines of his house. It felt somewhat refreshing to feel the warm ray of the sun.
And then Grindalf had called.
And he'd been an errand boy since.
Lord Grey didn't mind it much. He knew Grindalf did it to keep the members of Manifest Destiny busy on something... anything to keep them from losing hope. And the traveling had done him some good. His new body, a half-alv summoner, was a bit shorter than he was in real life but after getting used to it he realized it was a lot more fit than he was. He wasn't fat in real life, but he wasn't exactly slim either, and had a bit of a beer belly. He definitely couldn't do half the walking, climbing and running he had done in the past month in his old body.
Lord Grey chuckled to himself.
I probably couldn't have even made it down the stairs of the guildhall without losing my breath.
"Are… We there yet?" A weak voice said from behind Lord Grey.
Lord Grey snapped himself back to the present, reminding himself he wasn't alone.
"We'll be touching down soon." He said to the small, cloaked figure grabbing tightly to his robes. He grinned mischievously and added, "Why don't you take a look? We're still really high up. If we fell from this height we might ev-"
"IM NOT LISTENING! IM NOT LISTENING!" The voice cried out in horror.
The eagle descended in a slow corkscrew, gently touching its talons down on the ground and steadying itself with a quick hop.
Lord Grey slid off the side of the eagle and helped the cloaked child off the massive bird. After tossing the eagle a piece of boar meat, he patted the bird's beak once before it flew off back towards the mountains.
Now let's see if the young master hasn't soiled himself shall we?
"Was the flight satisfactory your grace?" Lord Grey said with a mock bow to the cloaked child.
"Don't call me that," the silver haired child snapped throwing off his hood. "There is no nobility in the TTR. And to answer your question," he added brushing himself off "no, it was not 'satisfactory' as usual but in these times speed is more important than comfort. I hope you're iron chariots have better accommodations."
Lord Grey sighed. As soon as the kid jumped off the eagle he went from scared child to annoying noble.
What an uncute kid.
"Regardless," Balt Shylock said, "Time is of the essence. My elder brother, while talented has an infuriatingly short attention span. If we are to win him over we must approach him while his interest is ripe and… What are you doing!"
Balt slapped Lord Grey's hand away from patting him on the head.
"Sorry, I just felt, 'Wow, he's working hard. What a good kid.' And my hand moved instinctively."
"I am not a child! I am 12 year of age, nearly a man!" Balt replied stomping his feet on the ground.
"Yes, yes," said Lord Grey "I see."
"You are not taking me seriously," Balt said glaring at him. "Is this how you adventurer's treat your business partners?"
"I wouldn't know," Lord Grey said, "I leave the business to Grindalf."
It was true. Lord Grey didn't like talking to nobles. They were too stuffy, couldn't take a joke, and self entitled. Honestly after a few minutes of talking to them he had the urge to punch them in the face. Guildleaders weren't much better either. They just cared about their guild, and were loyal to a fault to the dogma might makes right.
He almost admired Grindalf's methods of honeyed words, fear-mongering and blackmail.
The man had it down to an art.
Balt looked at Lord Grey unimpressed.
"Ah, that's right, I forgot you were a mere messenger, forgive me, I lost my temper at a commoner." Balt said smirking.
"Hm," said Lord Grey, "At this rate, I might have to make the eagle go faster on the way back." Lord Grey laughed as the color drained from Balt's face, "m'lord is sooo busy with works a commoner like myself can't understand, all I can do is speed up his arrival."
"Th- that won't be necessary." Balt stammered.
"No, no, m'lord" Lord Grey said smiling sweetly "I insist."
Balt looked like he was about to cry.
I take it back, the kid's adorable.
"Aw, come on m'lord, cheer up, we're almost here." laughed Lord Grey.
Before them was the walled city of Dixie, what would be Austin in real life.
Unlike the scrap-metal walls of Jean Drapeau the walls of Dixie were made of smooth sandstone and Lord Grey could see the adventurer's pacing the top of the ramparts high above them.
Must be nice to be able to walk around without the risk of getting tetanus.
Near the gate stood a slender man, in a battered top hat and ragged duster shuffling a deck of cards. What part of his face the shadow from the brim of his top hat didn't hide was covered by a black unkempt scruff of a beard that curled around in knots. Lord Grey felt the man's eyes on him from under the brim of his hat as they approached.
Lord Grey moved around between Balt and the man. A precaution to make it easier to defend him if anything happened.
As Lord Grey attempted to cross into the city a long boney arm rose to block him.
Oh, boy, here we go.
Lord Grey turned to the raggedy man smiling cheerfully, but glaring a warning with his eyes.
"Can I help you, sir?" he asked.
The raggedy man stood still for a second, continuing to shuffle his cards, then returned them to the folds of his duster.
Lord Grey cracked his finger's expectantly.
The raggedy man opened his mouth.
"Halt stranger," came an uncharacteristically high-pitched voice from the man "what you doing around these parts?"
He... she...?
Lord Grey almost burst out laughing.
"These parts?" He snorted.
"Don't…" the raggedy man replied in a slightly higher-pitch.
Lord Grey fell to the ground laughing.
"Laugh…" the raggedy man ended, disappointed.
" 'Halt stranger' Hahaha… 'these parts' … and your voice… Hahaha"
"Stop laughing… I... I get it 'Harharhar, look at the girl trapped in the hairy guy body', very funny." The raggedy man crossed crossed her(?) arms, annoyed.
"Sorry, I couldn't help myself," said Lord Grey, genuinely apologetic, "it's just… Hahaha" he relapsed back into a laughing fit.
"The way… haha… You… hahaha… said 'around these parts'… I was half expecting John Wayne… Ha… but I got Kim Darby… Hahah…"
The raggedy man tapped her foot waiting for Lord Grey to compose himself.
"You done?"
"Almost." Lord Grey said wiping a tear from his eyes.
"Good," said the raggedy man, "Now let's start from the beginning. Who are you and what do you want here?" She tried to sound menacing dropping her voice down an octave but the tension was already lost.
"I'm Lord Grey," Lord Grey replied, "Though my friends just call me Grey, or anyone who doesn't want to address me as 'Lord', which is surprisingly a lot of people."
The raggedy man rolled her eyes, "I can imagine."
"As to what I want here," Lord Grey continued, "I want good food, a cute girl by my side and a mansion with maids at my beck and call, but unfortunately, what I'm here for is to talk to the guildmaster of Morning Star."
The raggedy man raised an eyebrow, "And him?" she said pointing at the hooded figure behind Lord Grey.
"I am not a 'him'," Balt said slowly, shocked at the female voice coming from a male, "I am Master Balt of House Shylock. I come to seek audience with my brother."
The raggedy man smirked, "Got a lot of hearty titles coming in don't we? Don't expect anyone here to lick you're boot cause of your upbringing kid. Here, it's what good you can do for the people that matters not a bunch of fancy names some old men wrote up in dusty halls years ago."
Uh oh.
Lord Grey was half expecting Balt to shout in outrage, but what happened was different.
"I understand," Balt said meekly. "I come from a country where families rise and fall based on how quick they can make money and business deals. I know I must prove myself before I get any support." Balt looked up at the raggedy man with a cool fire burning in his eyes. "However, I am a man of profit and enterprise si… madam. And I know that if my family's and you adventurers work together, we can help benefit everyone, to make the nations of Wen stronger to combat any monster menace that opposes us. And I will do anything in my ability to see this happen."
The raggedy man reached out towards Balt, and the boy flinched for a second... until the hand rested on his head and gave him a pat on the head.
"Are you mocking me?!" Balt yelled with tears on the corners of his eyes.
"Wha-" the raggedy man said and withdrew his hand. "Sorry, I just felt, 'What a good natured kid.' And my hand subconsciously..."
"I know right?" said Lord Grey laughing.
The raggedy man sighed. "Alright follow me then," she said, signaling them to come through the gate.
"Zed," she called up to an adventurer on the rampart.
"Yeah, boss?"
"Take guard duty," she said.
"I'm taking these two to the Marshal."
Hey, Jinseino Lemon here with the new chapter!
Yay! Confetti! Applause! Slight booing that I'll pretend I don't hear!
To give credit where credit is due, I want to make a shout out to DQueenie13 and her awesome Log Horizon Fun Facts blog that I shamelessly rip information from. The Freedom Eagles was DQueenie's head cannon and the idea of people yelling FREEDOM in front of slightly annoyed Canadians converted me to this head cannon as well.
So new characters!
In my previous version of the story Lord Grey was just a dingy side character but I want to bring him back to the front just cause a necromancer seems like such a cool class. He sorta ended up becoming more like Cannibal in the old version. Meh.
Cannibal is still going to be a character but as you can tell from the prologue he may not be as happy go lucky. I will try to keep the emo levels down as far as I can.
Going to focus on Dixie a bit and the situations there before moving back to Montreal (Jean Drapeau ) with Madcross, Grindalf and the start of the railroad.
I will do my hardest to make sure Grindalf doesn't become a poor mans Shiroe (Which is what I feel might be happening DX)
Did some "research" (cough cough wikipedia) on Montreal and definitely want to include something about the Underground City. Maybe make it a raid zone or something? I don't know yet. :P
Thanks for reading as always!