Chapter 3: Tataroo Valley

Asch was walking in the long hallway from the drawing room and as he was on his way to the courtyard, he heard a familiar voice and started to slow his pace as he strained he ear to listen.

"Are you sure this will work?" Asch heard Guy say to someone rather quietly for it to not be questionable. Asch was guessing that the person Guy was talking to was about to tell Guy his reply until Asch heard the only gardener in the manor greeting Asch as soon as he was out in the open.

"Ah! Master Asch, good afternoon!" Pere said to Asch with a gentle smile as both Guy and the other person Guy was talking to which turned out to be Van turned to Asch as well nonchalantly. Asch responded to Pere with a nod and continued walking towards the middle of the courtyard.

"So, what were you and Van talking about Guy?" Asch gave a questioning look to Guy while crossing his arms. Guy placed his hands behind his head and said casually with one eye closed, "Van said that some fon machine buffs in Sheridan have been working on a type of fon machinery that had the ability to fly in the air while carrying a number of passengers."

Asch hummed as a response knowing fully well in his mind that statement couldn't be true from the lack of excitement in the fon machine obsessed blonde but he didn't want nor cared to pry any further.

"Well then Asch, let's begin our training then if that is all you have to say to Guy," Van said with a stern tone as he walked towards his usual position on the courtyard for sword and fonic arte training. Asch took his stance on the other side of the courtyard as well and he took out his sword from its sheath.

"Alright, let's review some of the arcane arte skills I taught you last time." Van said after finish setting up the straw training dummy in front of Asch. Asch gripped the handle of his sword as he felt a surge of energy storming within him. Asch dashed towards the dummy and unleashed the trapped power that was welling up inside of him.

"Fang Blade!" Asch cried out as he uppercutted the dummy with his sword filled with the powers of the third fonon. Van nodded his head with pride and continued to tell Asch instructions.

"Good, now I want you to use the fonic arte that I showed you last time." Asch took a deep breath as he was gathering enough fonons from his body to perform the spell correctly.

"O mighty explosion... Energy Blast!" Asch recited the incantation loudly as a ball of controlled energy struck the poor dummy with such force that it fell down on its back. Van was smiling in approval and was about to say his next order when he suddenly felt exhausted and practically had to kneel on the ground to support his body.

Van wasn't the only one who felt the sudden lack of energy since he saw right before his eyes other servants and maids falling down to the ground one by one including Asch himself. Van couldn't figure out the reason this was all happening until he was able to hear in the distant the faint, yet familiar voice singing a soothing hymn that was laced with the support of fonons.

"Toue Rei Zue Kuroa Ryuo Toue Zue," the mysterious voice sang as the intruder was walking close to where the courtyard was.

"I finally found you, Vandesdelca!" as the intruder took a running start going for Van with her staff. Without thinking, Asch quickly went in between Van, who was still on the ground, and the intruder and he used his sword to block the intruder's spear. Sparks started to fly and the intruder flinched a bit from the sudden resistance of another being. Witnessing what his student was about to do, Van tried to stand up and get the redhead's attention.

"Asch! NO!" Van called out to Asch, trying to stop what was to happen if the two don't separate quickly. A blinding light was formed and it sucked both Asch and the intruder into a mysterious space known as the Planet Storm. Neither Asch or the intruder could comprehend what was happening as of now. All they knew what that they felt that they were being stretched apart into tiny and it didn't feel nice to either. This was the last thing Asch felt before falling unconscious.

"...up. Wake up…Wake up!" Asch could hear a woman's voice in the distant. Asch groaned in pain as he started to open his eyes slowly.

"Oh good, you're awake?" The woman said as she was rising from her kneeling position. She began to look around her surroundings and Asch decided to do the same to get an idea of what was going on.

It was a rather pretty place. The place was covered with luscious, green trees and lots of selenia flowers from where he was lying down on. Asch could tell it was nighttime since he could see the moon and stars up in the sky and it was also hard to see all of his surroundings. Asch also noted that he could see the ocean from this place well and Asch didn't know if to take this as a good or bad sign.

"From the looks of this place, I'd say we're probably in Tataroo Valley" Asch said thinking out loud and the woman had to agree.

The woman turned to Asch and held out a hand in front of him with a small smile. "I'm Tear Grants. I'm truly sorry I got you into this predicament. I'll stay with you and help you return to your manor." He hesitated at first, but he soon grabbed Tear's hand and she took note of that small gesture that he did.

Tear seemed to be around the same age as Asch and if you look at her long enough, you could see that she was a real beauty. She had long. brown-gray hair that covered her right eye and all that was visible was her left blue eye. She wore a simple brown dress with long white gloves on her hands and finally, she wore white heels with stockings on her legs.

"I'm Asch fon Fabre…." Asch said and left it at that. Tear nodded and she started to walk in the dark forest and Asch followed in suit. Tear suddenly stopped in her tracks and getting in battle stance. Asch understood her silent message and got in stance as well.

"Monsters….." Tear stated looking back at Asch for a split second looking for a response. Asch nodded and took his sword out of its sheath. The monster that was in a nearby bush finally sprung out of its hiding spot and was trying to land an attack on either of the two. Asch was the first to react as he quickly sprinted toward the monster and used one of his acrane artes that he learned.

"Fang Blade!" he cried out to no one in particular and the blow successfully hit the monster, but it wasn't enough to kill. Tear quickly ran up to the monster as well and used one of her moves on the monster to finish it off.

"Severed Fate!" She jump and threw three knives to the ground around the monster and all of a sudden, fonons emit from the makeshift triangle to finally kill the monster. "You're not so bad of a fighter for an aristocrat." Tear commented and Asch scowled back at Tear to show the distaste he started to have for her.

"Says the person who broke into private property and tried to commit an assassination." he countered back and this made Tear frown a bit.

"Look, we just need to get through this forest and to the capital and then we can be on our separate ways alright?" Tear said sternly with her gloved arms crossed.

"I can't wait for that time to come then" Asch said bluntly and continue to walk without caring if Tear was following him or not. Tear shook her head and sighed.

"This is going to be a long trip back to Baticul if he keeps that attitude." as she ran to try to catch up with Asch.

Author's Note:

I'm SO sorry that this chapter took so long to be posted. I've been having so much stress with school lately and a band event is coming up for me so I have to practice my parts in my group thingy. Anyway, I finished this chapter as a present to you guys since today is my b-day and I wanted to do something special for you guys. I'm also thinking of doing a one-shot in the same category so look forward for that~ Hopefully for the next chapter, it won't take so long. Bye-Bye!~ (For next chapter, I'll try to make it longer!)