A/N: Helloooooo~! Everyone! Sorry for the long update on this story. I've been writing a Tales of Xillia fanfic, and that kind of gained most of my attention. I quit Mabinogi three or four months ago, so I haven't gotten the drive to update this story on the website for so long. I actually didn't want to update because I'm trying to forget about the game until one of my friends asked me about this story. Apparently, he was reading and actually waiting and it motivated me to say 'screw it' and upload for his and maybe other peoples' sake who are reading this. I just want to say sorry if this applies to you and I will try my best to upload whatever I have available for my readers.
So as always.. I do not own Mabinogi, Devcat. or Nexon. I simply own my own plot and OCs.
Hope you enjoy! Bai bai.
:)
VI
The Arc Liners
The friendly Arc Liner who welcomed us is a young female with brown shoulder length hair and emerald eyes. She looked to be younger than Zale and I, yet older than Oguri. Much like her bright personality, her dress consists of the colors orange and yellow. It is a really cute flowy dress that ended to the middle of her upper thighs, swaying to the side slanted. It is a three layered turtleneck dress that is as bright as a sunflower with a light orange scarf around her waist with two yellow ribbons and dark orange rose accessories pinned on the scarf. A dark orange rose necklace came with the dress as her left arm had a metallic yellow armband with a part of her light orange clothing underneath it. On the same side, a leg band of yellow and light orange wrapped around her left upper leg. Her shoes are bright orange, plain slip on slippers with a yellow ankle band that has the same dark orange rose.
The other two members looked as friendly as this one was being. One is an elf with light blue icy hair with dark blue eyes. She has a purple insignia under her left eye. She had to be the youngest out of the three by how short she is. No doubt in my mind that she is about Oguri's age due to her height compared to mine. Her hair has a white hairband, pulling back her left bangs behind her ear. The right side clearly showed her side bangs. She seemed to be blushing and averting her attention away from us meekly as I found it somewhat cute. I tried trailing her eye contact, which apparently led me to the young boy standing next to me.
A smirk then formed after realizing what was already happening before coughing to bring me back to my calm demeanor.
"I'm Senna Merroi. This is Kaza Lancaster," The brown haired girl gestured her hand to a dark gray haired male with golden eyes. "And this is Eve Lamia."
The both of them bowed respectively during the introduction. Senna bluntly placed her hands on her hips, giving us a bright smile.
"The other three isn't here yet, so we're gonna have to wait a bit~!"
I was surprised. I knew Katana wasn't here yet, but there were two more? Zale eased his shoulders in light disappointment, "Oh man..Well, I don't mind waiting." He then perked up with a smile, "I'm Zale Everglade!"
"Asaya Hirotomi."
"..." Oguri refused to answer as he had his arms folded, avoiding eye contact. He seemed a bit uncomfortable, so I decided to give him a quick nudge on his arm.
The boy sighed in defeat, "I'm Oguri Kisaragi."
"I saw that, you jerk! I don't appreciate your greeting!" Senna profusely yelled, aiming a kick towards the boy's head.
However, the flame warrior immediately reacted by raising his arms to block the attack and even froze the girl's leg. This startled practically everyone watching as the nonchalant boy gently pushed the leg away, forcing her to land on the ground.
"I-Ice?!" Both Kaza and Senna screamed in astonishment.
My first reaction is to look around us to see if anyone else had witnessed Oguri's flame power. Luckily, there wasn't. Zale proceeded to look guilty as much as I was as well. I didn't realize the warrior would go this far. The ice on her leg was unbreakable almost as if he had done a skill to freeze it for hopefully a certain amount of time. The group closed in on the fallen Senna, who was glaring at the kid and attempting to stand up.
"Geez, we're late for a couple minutes and my sister is already causing trouble for the guests?" We turned around at the sound of a new voice approaching the crowd behind us. There was Katana and two new people, following after the one who had spoken.
Just like Senna, the brother had emerald eyes and brown short hair with a single strand of hair sticking out on the front. He seemed to be a couple inches taller than Zale. Then, there was a much taller guy who caught my attention. I immediately recognized him as a Giant. He was probably one of the first few Giants I've ever encountered. He had a black spiky wolf cut and bright magenta eyes, wearing a simple gray robe with a blue scarf.
"Shut up, Damian! He started it!" The younger sibling retorted defensively, ignoring the ice on her leg shattering to pieces.
Katana sighed heavily at the child before looking at the three, "Sorry for making you all wait. I had to help find Kino."
The giant silently waved the moment he was mentioned. Oguri was right about the weirdos part that it was to the point Katana is probably the sanest one at the moment. Damian approached his sister to help her stand before pulling her away from the three of us in case she decided to attack the poor kid again. By the look on his face, the ice warrior didn't seem fazed at all. I place my left hand on my hip, staring down at the boy with a disappointed look. "You should apologize to her."
"Why? She attacked me. She should be the one apologizing to me."
Senna growled at his response, "You little…"
"Hey, hey! Everyone, calm down! We need to get this started before we get ourselves any more sidetracked." Damian spoke, gaining the attention from all of us. Judging by the atmosphere after this man's speech, I am willing to bet he is the leader of the Arc Liners. He then glanced over at Eve, who noticed him on cue before she meekly nodded her head.
Putting her hands together in front of her like she was praying, Eve started chanting a spell of some sort. It was spoken in another language, yet for some reason, I can understand it. While chanting the words, 'Open for us, open the door', a barrier surrounded all of us and the unicorn statue started to sink down to the ground. A set of stairs was seen then as Eve stopped chanting to join the Arc Liners who already made their way down the stairway.
"That was awesome! What was that!?" Zale exclaimed, following them.
I stayed standing, staring at the stairs in distraught. For a moment, I felt like I had recognized the language and this spell. Oguri stared at me in confusion, noticing I wasn't budging before he took my wrist and dragged me down the path. I could hear the unicorn statue moving back to its original position as the barrier dissipated around us.
"Eve is our support, so she volunteered to do this barrier spell of hers to lock our secret base." Kaza explained, patting the blue haired elf on her shoulder. She was panting out of exhaustion already? I, from afar, observed the younger girl carefully. Her outfit consisted of purple, blue, white. and dark gray on the metal parts. It looked to be a light armor she's wearing. On her back, I could see a white hood with a dark gray metallic rim around it. She had a white scarf around her neck, covering the dark gray metallic breast plate underneath two long teardrop looking flaps that is purple with white outlining. Underneath the breast plate was a purple lower vest with the same purple and white outlining. In the middle of that was a white spiral looking belt with a hanging charm in the middle of the belt. Her main dress layer is dark blue with a purple skirt, showing a metallic and bronze plate on the bottom. Her arms are then covered by attached sleeves with dark blue rolled up on the top, a purple layer, and finally a white and blue one.
"Isn't that….a kind of forbidden spell or type of magic…?" Oguri awkwardly asked, almost like he was trying to cover up something. The tone of his voice said it all.
Katana shook her head, "Nah. It's her own magic. I know what type of magic you're talking about, though."
She sounded upset, and even looked upset when she looked back at us, "That magic is dead and lost."
Oguri pursed his lips, glaring at the brunette. We ended up stopping in front of a large room with a medium-sized table in the middle and a couple of sofa chairs placed around it. It could be described as a mini version of a living room except there wasn't a TV. The room was well lit by a single tall lamp post. I didn't realize until now that the boy had stopped pulling me.
"Alright everyone, let's make ourselves comfortable and start this meeting!" The Arc Liners leader cheerfully cried out as we decided our place.
Eve and Kaza sat on one of the long sofas beside the table, Katana was leaning against the wall behind them, Damian sat on a solo sofa chair with his sister sitting on the other side from the table, Kino silently stood like a bodyguard behind the leader, and the trio I was a part of sat on the long sofa couch the other side of the elf and the gray-haired Arc Liners. Those two seems to always be together. Well, I'm not one to talk. I'm always with Zale.
I awkwardly sat between the two boys, still observing everyone unfamiliar around me. Damian got himself comfy before giving his attention to the others.
"I'll make this short and sweet for everyone. We all know about a bandit attacking merchants and how residents are possibly working for the suspect. As of right now, we'll need all the help we can get."
The leader spoke before gesturing a hand towards Zale, Oguri, and I. "Katana invited these guys to join us temporarily. And you can tell already...They can use Flames like Katana."
"What?!" I exclaimed in astonishment, staring at the calm girl who was waving.
"No way!" Zale cried out in unison.
Oguri remained silent, narrowing his eyes at the mentioned Arc Liner. The younger sister of the leader smirked, "That explains the ice."
Anyone could still hear the malice in Senna's voice as she coldly glared at the blue flame warrior. I tried my best to ignore it, and the majority of the people in the room was trying so hard to not acknowledge her hatred for Oguri at the moment. There are times when I use my flame whenever I accompany Zale while escorting bandits. Katana, the one who probably knows everything of Dunbarton in terms of rumors, must have already known about our powers from the moment she heard of us. Not to mention earlier when she had witnessed Oguri using his Flame to defend against Senna.
"So, what exactly do you want us to do?" Zale questioned, folding his arms and leaning forward.
"We separated ourselves to two teams for both night and day. Katana, Eve, and Kaza are the night team. Senna, Kino, and I are the day team. We can cover Dunbarton that way. But then we came to a conclusion…We also need to observe the coming and leaving merchants."
"That's where we come in?" I added, only to receive a nod from Damian.
It would make sense they decide to ask us for help now. Zale and I have experience on escorting merchants.
"For now on, this is what we'll do. Asaya and Zale, you two will be with Katana and I to observe the merchants day AND night. Is that okay with you three?"
The three of us nodded our heads in agreement before the leader's emerald eyes shifted to the others. "Eve and Kaza, you'll both be scouting night again with us."
He then looked at his sister with a sympathetic smile, "Sorry, sis. I'm putting you with Kino and Oguri for the day scouting team."
"I WILL PAIR UP WITH ANYONE ELSE, BUT HIM!" Senna immediately screamed in rage, slamming a hand on the table in front of her.
Oguri nonchalantly raised a hand, giving a blank stare to the Arc Liners leader. "I'm okay with this."
"Oh, you little sh-" Senna growled at the young boy before the Giant covered the brunette's mouth.
I stared at Oguri for a brief moment, curious how he was dealing with this. To my surprise, he seemed to be smirking in amusement. The boy found this entertaining? Well, in a way, I can see why. While the underground room was filled with small laughter and Senna's muffling attempts to talk, it somewhat makes me smile to feel the warm atmosphere between this small group. Maybe it really was a good idea to go on this journey, despite the situation being rather serious.
Damian stood up proudly with his fists on his sides, "Alright, it's settled! The new plan will start tomorrow!"
"Wait, what about tonight?" Kaza questioned, raising his hand for attention.
After clearing her throat, Katana pushed herself off the wall and took a step forward towards her captain. "Damian, if it's alright with you, I would like to do night duty with his friends for tonight."
Everyone else in the room fell silent, including the Arc Liners leader. I looked at the rather stoic female cautiously. A moment later, the man finally sighed and nodded his head. "I wanted you to rest after today, but that's fine. Don't push yourself, Katana."
I blink dumbfounded, noting the disappointment in his voice. We caught a glimpse of the purple-eyed girl giving us a flash of a somewhat forced smile. After the meeting, we all went our separate ways. Some of the Arc Liners stayed at the base for the night. The others left as Katana, Oguri, Zale, and I were the only ones standing in front of the unicorn statue.
As for me, my curious eyes are staring at the statue for I remembered the spell Eve had done earlier. There is no doubt in my mind that I know the language and the spell.
"I'll try to make this short, so follow me." Katana spoke before walking away. Oguri had placed his hand on my shoulder to gain my attention. I only laughed awkwardly at the young boy, despite his ruthless gray eyes just staring at me like I was an idiot. Afterwards, the both of us followed the duo who were already walking towards the west gate.
The apparent new Flame warrior led us to a clear plain just outside the gate. We could still see a huge opening where we ended up idling on. It almost seemed like the girl was thinking what to say before turning around to finally look at us face to face.
"Asaya...I would like to have a fight with you."
I blink dumbfounded by her request. Everyone else widened their eyes in shock, looking at her before me.
"Wh-What…?"