(A/N): Our exams are finally over! Hehe. More time for my story. This time, I'll try not to rush it.
"Smirk. A condition? You're joking, right?" Paige raised her brow. The dancer shook her head.
"I didn't actually expect you to say that but I guess we have to wait for the other party members before we consider your offer, would that be alright?" Josh asked.
"Sure, we're not really in a hurry after all" Amber replied. "Uh...Amber? I think I feel sick" Trish said as she covered her mouth with her hands.
"Sigh. I guess we have to go home" Amber said to both Paige and Josh.
"We'll take you home, where do you live?" Josh asked.
"We're just staying at the Prontera inn, you?"
"The same, we're also staying there just for the night"
Paige inserted, "Yeah, Josh and I are staying there for the night"
o.O
Amber and Trish looked at each other. "It's not what you think!" Josh claimed. "Okaaay. Uhh…about that 'walking us home' thing?" Trish queried. "Yumi-chan, can you help Trish please?" Amber told the sohee who was just watching the entire scene. She nodded, walked towards her mistress and assisted her.
Amber, on the other hand, was already holding out the door for her best friend and her pet.
"How many did she drink anyway?" Paige asked as she went outside the door.
"Only one, 'twas a Tropical Sograt" Amber answered.
"One?! And she's already drunk?" Paige turned to face Trish, "Lame" she mumbled.
"D'you need help, Yumi?" Josh asked.
Yumiko shook her head as she held Trish's arm.
Inside Room 2, Trish quickly jumped on the bed even though she's still a meter away. "Guess she's really tired…or drunk" Amber muttered. "Yumi, you've mentioned you're as exhausted as she is. You can sleep if you like"
Yumiko thanked her and lay down beside her sleeping mistress. Amber turned to Josh, "Uh…thank you for taking us home"
"My pleasure, I'm just glad that you're finding time to think about our recruitment" Josh answered.
"No problem. Goodnight"
"G'night to you too" he smiled then left with Paige walking beside him.
Amber sat on the bed beside Trish who was snoring loudly. 'Will they consider my condition? Hmm…hope so' she thought whilst reaching for something in her bag. She held a clear and transparent gem above her eyes. It was a goddess tear, the last thing her big brother gave her. The moment she remembered her brother, she returned it to her bag for she didn't want to think of those horrid times of her life.
She looked at the clock on the table, it showed 10:32 but she still wasn't sleepy. For half an hour, she counted sheep inside her head but that was of no use at all. So, she stood up and went outside the inn. Amber took a walk around Prontera. Everything was serene and ideal. She saw a bench near the heart of the city. She walked towards it, sat and stared at the stars above.
Millions of diamonds sparkled above her. "The night is beautiful but you're just as gorgeous" someone said. She raised her head and saw Josh standing in front of her, smiling.
"Josh? What're you doing here?" she asked.
"Looking for some place to sleep" he said as he laughed.
"Huh? Why? I thought Paige and you are sleeping together…uh…y'know what I mean"
He laughed again, "Yeah, I get it"
"Then, why are you here?"
"I can't sleep…I think" he then sat at the opposite side of the bench.
"Oh ok. Me neither"
"Um…about your condition"
"What about it?"
"May I know what it is?"
Amber smiled, "I think it's better if the rest of your party is here"
Josh nodded and said, "That reminds me, is it okay if we warp to another town?"
"Town? What town?"
"Payon, the party's meeting place. Crimson, the leader and the others will be there tomorrow. Would that be okay?"
"Sure…Josh, can you tell me about yourself?"
"Hm?"
"I just think that you're still a stranger to me even though we've met a number of times"
"Okay, I'll tell you. I'm Josh Claymore and I'm a knight, I was born on May 6 of 1990, seventeen years old. I was born here in Prontera. How 'bout you?"
Amber smiled and said, "I'm Amber Everglade, a dancer with…distant dreams. Born on the twentieth of October, 1991 in the land of destiny, Amatsu. Sixteeen years old"
"Ah. What kind of distant dreams?"
"To be the greatest gypsy"
"Hm. That's not distant"
"For the other dancers maybe"
"No, I'm talking 'bout you. It's not distant at all"
"Yeah right"
For hours, they talked about different things and the other day…
Josh woke up and saw that Amber was leaning on his shoulder. He stroke a cluster of blonde hair. "You'll be a great dancer for sure, Amber" he whispered to her ear. Amber shifted a little, obviously not comfortable in her position so, he decided to carry her to the inn.
Room 2…
Yumiko opened the door for the knight and the dancer in his arms. Josh laid Amber on the bed. He looked up and saw Trish brushing her hair and braiding it from the back, "What happened?" she asked, worried.
"Nothing, she just fell asleep" his eyes still fixed on Amber.
"Where did she sleep last night?"
"At a bench, near the fountain"
"I'll take it from here, Josh. Thanks for your help"
"Don't mention it" with that said, he turned to the door, gave Amber one last look then left.
A while later, Amber finally woke up; she stretched and yawned. "Wanna have breakfast, Amber?" Trish asked. Amber blinked, "Huh?"
"I said, would you like to have breakfast?"
"Uh…sure. I'm just gonna ask you one thing"
"What?"
"Who are you and what have you done to Trish?"
"I'm Trish and I've done nothing to myself," she laughed sheepishly, "C'mon, I'm hungry"
"You go ahead. First, I'll take a bath"
"Okay. Yumi-chan, let's go" she said to her pet.
Amber bathed and dressed in her usual dancer outfit. She took the goddess tear from her bag then tied it to her belt. Amber then hurried downstairs and went to the pub to eat. At the table, she saw Paige and her other companions, Trish and Yumiko. "Amber!" Trish called from their table; she waved to the wizard and walked to their direction. 'Where's Josh?' she thought. She sat beside Yumiko and then looked at Trish.
"Good morning, Amber" Paige said to her with emphasis on the dancer's name.
"Uh…good morning too, Paige"
"Did you sleep well last night?" she raised her brow.
"Excuse me?"
"I think she still doesn't know what happened" Trish butted in.
"…Explain it to her then" Paige said.
"Josh said you fell asleep on a bench and brought you to our room this morning" Trish clarified.
"WHAT?! No way. Why did I-" she stopped when she saw Josh coming from the stairs.
"Morning" he greeted as he sat in front of Amber. A waiter appeared and served their order. "Josh, have you mentioned about the warp?" Paige asked changing the current topic and pretending nothing happened. "To Amber, yes. To Trish and Yumiko, no" he answered.
"What warp?" Trish asked as she ate her breakfast.
"We have to warp to another town before they consider my condition" Amber explained.
"Groan. Why can't you just approve?" Trish asked.
"…"
Josh, "It's okay. We don't mind"
"I do" Paige mumbled.
Trish, "What town, anyway?"
"Payon" Josh answered.
After breakfast, they went directly to the Kafra employee. "Payon for five including the pet and hurry up" Paige demanded. "Okay, ma'am". The change of scene quickly occurred and in a couple of seconds, they were in Forest Town.
"Follow me" Paige said as she made her way through Payon.
Amber looked around and saw a building that resembles a temple of some sort. "Let's go, Amber" Trish said as they went through town and past a few portals that the dancer lost track of it. The next thing she knew was that they were walking on a paved bridge and far beyond was a huge castle. As they neared it, Amber noticed there were not many buildings in this extent. "That's the Central Palace of Forest Town," Josh said.
"And this is our party's meeting place in Payon" Paige said from afar, "It was made especially for the party". All of them turned their heads and saw a house much larger and much splendid than the houses before but similar to the buildings that surround the Central Palace. "Awesome!" Trish exclaimed. Josh went near the door and opened it. "Looks like they were here first" he stated.
"We're here" Paige shouted as she entered the house. "Good. Where are our new members?" someone asked from at the front of Amber who was just entering the house. She jumped and looked around, panicking, "Who's there?" "Cool it, Amber. I'm just here" a guy in his early twenties in short tangerine hair with bangs uncloaked in front of her.
"It's nice to finally meet you, Amber. I'm Crimson" he said.
"Uh…nice to meet you too, Crimson" she greeted back.
"And you must be Trish and Yumiko, I'm happy to have met you" he said turning to both of them.
"Same here" Trish said while Yumiko bowed.
"Where's Amber?" Paige interrupted.
"Bought lunch somewhere," he answered "Come inside, we have plenty to talk about"
Lunch came and so did Angel carrying lots of boxes. "Here's our food!" she said excitedly. "It's herb marinade beef, pizza and for dessert, rainbow cake!" she said, Crimson laughed.
Angel glared at him, "What's so funny?"
"Did you circle Rune-Midgard just to buy lunch?"
"Not really, only half of it" she then joined the laughter, "So, what're you talking about?"
"Anything at all" Josh replied.
"Oh. Where are the others?"
"They said they'll be here-" he stopped when someone came inside, "now"
"What took you so long? Amber and her friends are getting hungry here waiting for you" the Professor asked in a concerned tone.
A Star Gladiator with light blue hair and dark blue eyes wearing a sakkat apologized. And a priestess with shoulder-length green hair wearing a flower band stood beside him. "We were delayed by a few more threats" she said.
Angel's face softened, "Again?"
Both of them nodded.
"Sigh. Here are our new friends by the way" she said as she introduced the three of them.
"Nice to meet all of you! My name's Glass and this is my girlfriend, Charm" the gladiator said and the priestess waved at them and smiled.
They sat around a table, "Where's Brick?" Charm asked.
Josh shrugged. "At a pub maybe, getting himself drunk again"
"I think it's better if we eat without him" Angel suggested.
Past seven in the evening and Brick still wasn't there. Crimson was pacing back and fort, shouting every curse he could think.
"Sweatdrop. Pardon him, he's like that when he's angry but he's actually quite kind" Angel said.
Crimson pounded his fists on the table and said, "If he's not going to be here tonight, I'll punch him 'till he pass out and never wake up for a week!"
Yumiko softly whimpered, visibly scared and Trish gasped. 'Hot tempered much' Amber thought.
A bang on the door was heard and Crimson stood up straight. "Looks like we have a visitor," he said with an evil grin and he cracked his knuckles. Angel opened the door and shouted, "Why are you-?! Oh goddess Freya!! I need help! Fast!!" she frantically yelled. Brick appeared to be battered and bruised, almost critical. Crimson ran towards him and assisted Angel. "What happened?!" he asked. "I don't know. Josh! Paige! Help!" she called out.
"Oh my!" Charm muttered as soon as she saw her injured party mate then quickly looked for potions inside a cabinet. And Glass helped carry the gunslinger towards the table and laid him there. Brick had lots of cuts in different parts of his body and blood was almost everywhere. Charm appeared with a bunch of white herbs in hand. She pounded them with a vase right on the table and applied it to Brick's wounds.
Amber, on the other hand, couldn't move. She was frozen in place while everyone was panicking, even Trish who was searching for anything that might help. She was trembling furiously for she remembered a thing in the past. Her big brother's death…
"Heal!" Charm uttered every once in a while but Amber was like in a different world, far away from the party members and her best friend. Everything was coming back to her again. That fateful day that changed everything especially her. But she snapped back when Trish shouted at her, "Amber! Help!"
She was unnerved again but tried helping nevertheless. When the anxiety slowly seized and Brick started to recover, Angel asked what happened.
The gunslinger was regurgitating blood as he talked, "An ambush in Veins"
"Who ambushed you?" Charm asked as she applied anodyne and powdered red and white herbs to Brick's wounds and cuts.
"Skull's party" he replied.
While Brick narrated what happened that day, something caught Amber's eye. "What's that?" she asked as she pointed to Brick's front pocket which contained a folded piece of paper. Crimson got hold of that paper and unfurled it. "It's a note…from Skull" he said. "What does it say?" Paige asked. All of them listened intently as Crimson read it. The note said:
When you receive this message, it will appear that your friend hasn't died on the way home.
We just wanted to show you what we can do and what abilities we possess.
You can show yours in the field of Garden City near the waterline.
At the end of the month, in the middle of the afternoon.
You should come if you don't want the people in Hugel dying in a matter of seconds.
P.S.
Don't forget to bring your new members. My party and exceptionally I would like to meet them.
With that, Amber shuddered. 'Is he crazy?' she thought to herself. "Shit! How the hell did they know?!" Crimson hit the wall as he shouted. "Skull really has connections throughout Rune-Midgard" Paige said.
"I think I've made a bad decision," Trish whispered to Amber at the middle of the party members' discussion. "Don't you always?" she told her. Trish glared back.
Angel might have noticed this because she told them, "We're not going to force you to join our party anymore" and the rest of the party members agreed. "Why?" Amber couldn't help but ask. "Skull's party has become stronger and more overpowering. We can't forgive ourselves if anything happened to you both" she explained.
"But…I-"
"I almost forgot," Crimson inserted "What was your condition?"
"I want you to…h-help me become a gypsy" Amber answered.
Crimson opened his mouth to speak but the dancer stopped him, "Even though it'll take a risk this vast, I'll do it!"
The party looked at each other and Angel smiled, "You have guts but are you really sure about that?"
Amber nodded.
"May I see your whip?" Angel asked her.
"Huh? Why?"
"Trust me" she said holding out her hand.
Amber unfastened the whip from her belt and gave it to Angel. She then observed it, "Hmm…just an ordinary whip?"
"Yes, I got it when I passed my Dancer test. I never had the time to buy another"
Angel turned to Glass then asked, "Where did our last party mate put her whip?"
"Treila? She left it in the cabinet, why?" the gladiator asked.
Angel didn't answer but just went to the cabinet and when she returned, she was carrying a whip. After that, she handed it to Amber.
"What's this?" she asked.
"A rapture rose. It was from our last party mate who was also a dancer, she left it here. I'm sure she won't mind" Angel answered.
"Y-you're giving it to me?"
Angel nodded gently. "Welcome to our party, Amber and Trish"
"Thank you" Amber said and Trish thanked from behind her also.
Amber looked at the whip. It was constructed purely of thorny stems from rosebushes. "Rapture rose" she muttered. Then she noticed something at the end of it, a carved initial. TT. "What does TT stand for?" Amber asked.
"Stands for Treila Twilight, our last member who was also a dancer like you" Crimson answered for Angel.
"Why did she leave her whip then? What happened to her?" Amber asked.
"Long story. Now, remember this, all of you must not kill anyone in Skull's party" Crimson said. "Use only stun, blind, curse or whatever as long as it won't kill a person" he explained further. "You got it?"
The rest of the party including the new members, Trish and Yumiko nodded. "Any questions, new members?" Crimson asked.
"I have," Trish said.
"Yes?"
"What's up with this Skull guy? Why is he doing this to your party?"
"The reason he's ruining our party is because of greed and dissatisfaction" Crimson said.
Afterwards, Angel added, "You see, he was a member of our party once. This party is also connected to a guild which was one of the most powerful in Rune-Midgard but Skull who wasn't contented being just a member, started his own guild but when there's still competition for him, he could and would not accept it"
"So, he started to tear down every guild that came his way" Josh put in.
"Does that mean we're also a part of that guild now?" Amber asked.
"Not yet, we still haven't told them about this" Crimson said.
"Oh…Do we have to practice or something?" Trish asked.
"It's your choice. Some of us practice while some prepare items like pots and healing herbs" Charm explained.
"Oooo. Can I be the one who prepares the items?" Trish asked.
Josh, "Sure. How 'bout you, Amber? Would you like to train with us?"
Amber gazed at her lucky charm and said, "Yeah okay"
That night, Amber went outside the porch of the house when everyone was sleeping; she took out her lucky charm. When she looked at that gem, she can recall her older brother's last words, Follow your dream…
That was it…
With not a moment too soon, he died in front of Amber…
Nothing could ever make her forget those nightmares that still haunt her until now…
Nothing and no one…
(A/N): Chapter 3 is finally over! Whew, it took me a few nights to get this finished and it seems like the more I move on to the next chapter, the longer it takes for me o finish it. Hehe.
Anyway, chap 4 will be coming soon...
Need reviews, by the way.
