Chapter 4: First employment

After sightseeing Rabanastre, we found a nice little inn where we retired for the night. We got two rooms for two people and one room for three. Chirox and Mutran took one room, Spiriah, Antroz and Teridax banded together in the room for three and I shared my room with young Gorast. As I laid on my back on my bed, I glanced at Gorast who was sleeping in the bed next to mine. Well, we wasn't sleeping yet, just had his eyes closed for the moment. I loved that kid, he's so cute. Seeing him snuggled so warmly under his covers in that big bed made him look even more cute. Compared to me… I had lazily thrown myself on my bed, not even bothering to get under the covers, only doing as much as removing my boots. My sword stood within reach against the wall. I pondered a bit about today. Lot's of stuff had happened! I had woken up in my familiar little room in my boring world, and now I was here, in an inn in Ivalice. Too weird for words, almost seems like some third grade fanfiction some people used to write and put on the internet, back at home. But ah, like I cared. This life appealed to me much, much more no matter what people say. Yet I still had some questions about my new companions. I had this sneaking suspicion they were hiding something from me.

"Gorast." I said slowly. The boy's eyes snapped open at the mentioning of his name.

"Yes, brother Icarax?" he asked sleepily.

"Is it me, or do all of you rather avoid talking about the battle where you lost your melee weapon?" I asked slowly, being careful not to sound pushing or suspicious. Gorast was silent for a long time. For a brief moment I wondered if he'd answer at all.

"It's just… a rather painful subject to talk about. We prefer to avoid it, if not forget it." Gorast finally said. "So no, it's not you brother, we really would be grateful if you didn't ask too much about it."

"Fine with me." I shrugged. "But am I correct if I say that you six were active quite some time before you came looking for me?"

"Yes." Gorast said, feeling uneasy. I chuckled.

"I guess it was just 'The Band of Six' huh? Whereas now we're 'The Band of Seven'!"

Gorast nodded slowly. "Yes, we were just The Band of Six then…"

"I wonder how long you all actually spent time looking for a leader." I said quietly. Gorast seemed to stop breathing as I said that. I noticed that, but said nothing of it. "Ah well, doesn't matter. What matters is that there are seven of us now and that we'll have to look for some fun tomorrow, so we better get some rest now." I smiled at the youngest member of my team. "Goodnight Gorast, sleep well."

"Thank you… Goodnight to you too, brother." The boy replied, before turning over in his bed, his back turned to me. I had decided to not dig too deep for answers and truths now, but I felt more suspicious than before that they were all hiding something. Whatever it was, I decided not to care about it then, and just sleep and rest for tomorrow.


"Wow, it still amazes me how big this city is." Gorast said as me and him walked through the streets, the next day.

"That, it is." I agreed, carrying my sword in the typical fashion on my shoulder. "But I've seen it all before in the game. Though I do admit, in real life, it's impressive."

"I wonder how the others are doing." The little one said, fiddling with his launcher.

"Probably fine." I shrugged. "They have the weapons and the power."

"Sometimes, power and weapons aren't enough to defend yourself." Gorast said with a sad voice. I glanced at him, but decided not to ask anything, it probably related to that fight in which he almost died.

"Anyway Gorast, cheer up, we're looking for a fitting job for mercenaries like us, remember?" I took off his cowboy hat and ruffled through his hairs, then put his hat back on. Just as we prepared to walk on, a voice behind us stopped us in our tracks.

"Ehm, excuse me?" We turned around and saw a young girl with blond hair which she had in two pigtails. My eyes widened slightly as I recognized her as Penelo.

"Yeah, what is it, lass?" I asked, trying to come off a bit as 'cool'.

"Well, please don't take me as rude, but…" She bit her lip and paused for a while. "I accidentally heard a part of your conversation in the Sandsea yesterday. You're warrior mercenaries, right?"

"At least we like to think so." I replied with a grin. "Why? You got a job for us?"

"Kind of…" She replied slowly. "I usually don't turn to complete strangers, but the clans wouldn't accept my problem as a hunt and these imperials aren't much of a help either."

"So, what's your problem?" I asked again.

"I'm working for a Bangaa who has a good running shop here in Rabanastre, but the last few months lots of the shipments he sends from here or he expects to arrive get robbed. Always by the same group of bandits even. It's really hurting his business, but no one seems to want to do anything about it." She answered.

"So, you want us to put an end to the robbing, right?" I asked, interested. This sounded like a good, fun job to start with.

"Yes, I'd like that. Only I'm not sure if I'm able to offer a good payment." Penelo replied with a sigh.

"Payment depends on the job." I said. "Are you able to give us some more info? Like, are these bandits dangerous, powerful, whatever? Do you know where we might find them? Or do you have perhaps a description of them?"

We began to walk towards Migello's store, Penelo walking along with us. "They always attack on the Ozmone Plains, near the entrance to the Zertinan Caves. Or most of the time they do, at least." The girl explained. "I'm not sure about their level of power, but it's quite a large group and they aren't afraid of murder if it's necessary to achieve their goal. I don't know much about their appearance, but the merchants who came back intact at least managed to tell us that there are at least three Bangaa among them."

"Sounds fun enough." I replied with a nod. "About payment, I ask thousand gil from you, to be paid after we captured them. Do you think we might get a bounty if we turn these bastards in?"

"I think so." Penelo replied with a thoughtful expression on her face. We had arrived at the store, Penelo prepared to go inside. "I'll do my best to get thousand gil, since I myself don't have that much, but if you manage to capture these bandits, I'm sure Migello will be more than willing to pay."

"Then it's a deal." I decided, holding out my hand for her to shake it. She grasped my hand hesitatingly with her own and we shook our hands firmly, as if that sealed the deal. "Don't worry, we'll get them." I promised with a grin. Penelo seemed relieved, then her eyes widened as she realized something.

"Oh I almost forgot, a new shipment has left earlier this morning, Migello warned them not to take the same route as the other shipments, but I'm afraid they might be stubborn…"

"Gotcha." I said with a nod. "If we hurry we'll catch up with them and I hope they've taken the wrong route. It'll spare me and my friends the trouble to find the bandits." I grabbed Gorast's hand. "Come Gorast, let's hurry and find the others. There's work to do."


A bit later, I had gathered my entire team again and briefed them of our job.

"Ozmone Plains is quite a journey." I said. "But we needn't hurry ourselves to death. All we need to do is catch up with the shipment that left this morning first. We'll check what route it takes and see if we can persuade them to help us. If not, I'll send two of us to escort them until they at least are out of Ozmone. If they do help us, I'll send them via the typical route for shipments. When the bandits attack then, it's our turn. We knock them out and turn them in, receive our bounty for them and then go get our payment with Penelo. Questions?"

"The way you're explaining it now sounds easy, yet we need to be ready for anything. For all we know, these bandits have a six-headed Hydra at their command." Teridax noted.

"If that were the case, I doubt they'd stick to such small scale robbing." I replied. "I'm quite certain these are just ordinary bandits, maybe they became poor because of the war and had to turn to crime, but that's none of our concern."

"Right." Spiriah agreed with a nod. "We're mercenaries after all."

"That's what I was gonna say." I added, shrugging. "Now team, let's go, we've wasted enough time talking. It's time for action."

Next chapter: The Band of Seven works on completing their first job as a band of mercenaries with Icarax as their leader, what else can I say?

For those wondering, yes, there's a plotline in this story. I've already dropped some hints in past chapters and this one...