Name: Zinovia Renzimius
Class: Zodiac
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Yellow
Hometown: Armoroad
Age: 14
Charm Point: White Color Scheme
After getting lost in the wrong side of Armoroad, Zinovia's mother became an adventurer. Now retired, she taught her daughter how to cast magic and forced Carrick to recruit her. Zinovia is still inexperienced, but she is determined and almost fearless. An ice specialist, Zinovia has become somewhat notorious for her fantastic expertise in ice magic, gaining the love of teenagers across the city, but becoming the subject of hatred for other Zodiacs. Despite this, she works off of raw talent, almost never practicing or studying in private.
She has a weakness for cats, nearly putting her guild-mates in mortal danger during her first encounter with a Great Lynx. Her mother's first name is Delta.
Saturos approaches the staircase leading to B3F of the first stratum. Midday, and with Eridani trailing close behind (they are visible in the distance); Al stares down at his left hand. Unsettling feel, unfamiliar flexibility. Is his hand supposed to be this flexible? Fei slaps him in the back.
"Don't let it bother you anymore. Dorian did a great job." She gives him a reassuring smile.
"Should I be concerned? What if the joints separate again at the worst possible time?" Fei's smile didn't make him feel any better.
"You aren't here to fight. You're here to gather and scout. The four of us here are here to protect you. Besides, didn't you begin your training with Carrick yet?" Fei says.
"I imagined you would inform me about that when the time comes."
"I won't be supervising your training with Carrick. Don't expect me to be the one to start it. Carrick doesn't know anything about it yet," Fei explains. Al frowns at this. Perhaps he's afraid of being shot down? "You don't have to worry about him saying no. He might be a dumbass, but he's not uncaring."
"I'm not worried about that. I just can't imagine myself fighting. I'd just slow you guys down and get hurt. I come into harm's way as it is already, placing myself inside the action won't make it better."
Fei stops walking and sharply glances at him. "You never know until you start. These things don't happen overnight, but they will happen if you take the time do it." Al shakes his head.
"I know that. I just wish I had these abilities to begin with."
The five members of Saturos walk along in comfortable silence down the labyrinth. It is a beautiful day and any danger is slight and nothing to be concerned over. The pitchfork in Al's hand feels as though it keeps slipping. Something doesn't feel right. Fei's a monk, right? Isn't she supposed to know what to do with this kind of thing? After turning a few corners, the staircase to the third floor is in view just ahead. Perhaps they could get ahead of Eridani. That blasted guild probably mapped the entirety of B2F anyway. The idea of suddenly being ahead of them appeals to Fei. Beaming, the monk quickens her pace.
"Come on, let's go!" She orders.
The five rush forward and approach the stairs. The quicker they get there, the farther ahead they can get from Eridani. After running for about a minute, the stairs are within reach now. Al, struggling to keep up, stops to catch his breath. "Hold on," pant. "Give me a second. Let's slow down a bit."
The other four halt and turn around. Frowning, Sprit scratches her neck. "That's your stricture? We've only been runnin' for a minute! Hurry! We're almost there!" She turns around and marches forward.
Al sighs and slumps his shoulders. After catching his breath a little bit, he feels a tug on his calf. At first, he dismisses it, but then it almost causes him to trip. In desperation, Al admonishes his guild mates with a yelp. As a result, whatever was grasping his leg quickly lets go and makes a strange sound. It almost sounds human. That sound is followed by four different sounding yelps, each quieter than the last. Carrick and Zinovia, the two closest to him, rush over.
"Hey Al! Is everything alright there?" Carrick calls over, jogging. Al stumbles over himself for a minute before regaining some footing. Al quickly spins around at his assailant to find nothing.
"Uh, yeah. I think so. Let's move." Al answers, brushing himself off.
Zinovia stares Al from the top down before nodding and turning around. Carrick flashes him a grin and looks back. "Are you ready for floor three?"
Al enthusiastically nods. "Of course. Anything for the team," Glancing at Fei for a moment before turning his attention back to Carrick, Al grasps his pitchfork with both hands. "I've been thinking. I'm very useless in battle. I feel like my absence wouldn't affect this guild too much since I can't fight, I know I'm a good source of information and I have keen eyesight, and I'm knowledgeable of nature; but in the end, none of that means anything if we're dead does it?"
Carrick raises an eyebrow. "Are you trying to tell me that I'm not reliable enough to protect this guild?"
Al frowns. Carrick means well, but everything he says always comes out as rude. Honestly, Al's words came out differently than he wanted. "Sorry, that's not what I meant to imply. What I mean is…" Al pauses for a moment. Not sure what to say, he continues. "I guess, I'd be of much more use if I could fight. Me and Fei came across the idea that perhaps I can be…" his voice trails off.
"If you can be…?" Carrick repeats.
"If I… uh…" Al quickly gulps and says, "If you can teach me how to defend myself and how to fight with you guys, that'd help me a lot. Please, will you take me under your wing?"
Carrick stares at him, dumbfounded. "That's it? I don't think asking a question like that should really be hard," Carrick clears his throat and adjusts his armor. "Well, then. No question, my answer is-"
"Al, move, please," A muffled voice says. Al jumps and looks behind him. There is an arm protruding from between the roots of a tree and it is getting longer. Al screams and begins to kick at the arm. "Stop! Agh! Stop! It's me, Harvey!" Al continues to stomp on the arm. Harvey's arm slowly begins to accept its fate and allows Al to keep kicking it.
Carrick grabs his shoulder and pulls him back! "Sweet lord! Al, desist! It's just Harvey!"
Al does not stop until Carrick picks him up and places him behind. Carrick then kneels down to help Harvey out. There is a bit of struggle, but eventually Harvey's entire body is submerged from the tree. After a while, four others appear from behind him. Short with brown hair, then muscular with blond hair, then regally dressed with blond hair, and then a tall dark man.
"Hey, how are you guys?" Harvey greets, albeit apathetically. He seems to be uninterested and ready to do something else. Carrick gives him a smile.
"We're doing great, actually. We're on our way down to the third floor. We'll be ahead of you again soon since you weren't able to get far at all last time." Al could see a bit of irritation forming on Harvey's otherwise cool face. If he hadn't added 'at all' to that last sentence, he wouldn't have sounded so offensive.
"I see," Harvey grunts. "Where are the others?"
"Up ahead. They probably forgot about us. Women…" Carrick trails off before continuing again. "I will assure you that we'll be on the fourth floor before you know it."
Harvey raises an eyebrow. "We?"
Carrick nods. "Yes, us. Saturos."
Al pinches the bridge of his nose. "Carrick…"
Harvey nods. "Yes, yes. And once your guild is too far, where will you be?"
The hoplite rubs his chin for a moment. "I dunno."
"So you're telling me that you need teenage girls to do your work for you?"
Carrick raises an eyebrow. "Hmm? I'll pretend I didn't hear that. Now if you excuse me," Carrick grabs Al's wrist. "We'll be catching up to the others now. See you later!' Carrick dashes off in the direction of the stairs. Unfortunately, it is his left wrist which is grabbed. As he struggles to keep up, his left hand is beginning to feel more uncomfortable and less durable. His pitchfork. Wait, his pitchfork.
"Carrick! My weapon!"
The hoplite continues sprinting, not turning his head or wiping the grin off of his face. "I can't hear you!" Carrick suddenly increases speed.
The five members of Eridani unamusingly look on at the two men running off in the distance.
"Why are they running so fast? Is he expecting us to chase him?" Rina asks.
Harvey adjusts his hat and begins walking in their direction. "I don't know, Rina. Carrick's a difficult guy to figure out. Let's follow after them. I doubt they've gotten too far," Harvey grunts. "Heh, without Carrick, perhaps the other three are dead." The other four follow suit.
Twitch scowls. "I thought we were allies. Why are you and Fei so competitive?"
Harvey looks back at him confusedly. "We are?"
"Yes. You disregard concern of each other's survival if it means an advantage."
Harvey closes his eyes in thought for a moment before nodding. "So we are," Harvey reveals a vial of water and begins to drink its contents. "Perhaps it has something to do with being a leader. I can't exactly tell what it is, but there's this strange drive that makes me need to be ahead of them. I'm sure the opposition feels the same as well."
"Yes, but..." Twitch thinks for a minute before continuing. "You still show no worry for the other's safety. Doesn't the possibility of never seeing them again worry you?"
"Not really. That is most likely a bad thing."
"If one dies, the other has no more opposition."
Harvey sighs. "That may be the case. Still, I get this feeling of 'be better' and 'see first'. I'm sure plenty of people have seen what's ahead. I want to see what they've seen before Fei does.
Twitch adjusts his goggles and watches the sky. "Whatever you say."
Carrick reaches and jumps down the stairs. Al, clinging onto his arm for dear life, feels his shoe begin to come off. No, wait. It has already. And there goes the other one. Carrick reaches the bottom of the stairs and only becomes faster.
"Carrick! What are you-"
"I can't stop!"
The two continue running out of control, Al without shoes, and eventually see the rest of Saturos in the distance, unharmed and undaunted by their absence. Carrick eventually lets go of Al and they both move in different directions. Al, unprepared for the sudden detachment, tumbles down the lane and stops near a tree. Carrick, on the other hand, clad in full armor, decides to just dive. His speed causes him to dive very far. For someone that big and that low off the ground, he has a lot of hang time. In fact, so much that he actually comes contact with Sprit and they both go straight to the floor.
"Carrick! What the hell are you doing!?" Fei shouts, staring at the scene. It appears Sprit has lost consciousness.
Carrick, absolutely terrified right at the moment, looks in different directions trying to explain his situation. Now that he thinks of it, why did he run off? "Uh, I uh. We got attacked by monsters!" Fei doesn't buy it. "We were distracted by Harvey."
"So why were you running?"
Carrick doesn't answer.
Zinovia speaks up. "If I may, I believe that the best option here is to deduct another week of pay for Mr. Kavanagh. How about you?" Carrick's face turns to one of absolute horror.
"I like that idea. In fact, all of your pay will be going to Sprit. How do you like that, Zinovia?" Fei says.
"Well that's a wonderful idea. We should do it."
"So we will."
Al, on the floor several yards away, feels something that he shouldn't be feeling in his left hand. It feels as though something is moving in there.
*CRICK*
"Ah, shit."
Pierce picks something up from the floor. "What's this?"
Dorian peeks from behind his shoulder. "It looks like a pitchfork."
"It probably is." Pierce says.
Harvey approaches them. "What's that you have there?"
"I think it's a pitchfork. It's strange to see one lying around here."
Harvey takes a closer look at the pitchfork. "Whoa. I think this is Al's." He says.
"Okay. We need to give it back, then." Dorian says.
"If we ever reach them."
Eridani walks down the stairs in silence, Pierce holding a pitchfork in his hands.
"Hey, Twitch. This reminds me of that time when we spent a week looking for the owner of that journal we found." Pierce says.
"Haha. Yeah. That sucked." Twitch replies.
"Heh. What was the name on the book? Lion Redd? I remember it was something ridiculous."
"I think it was Lyle Redd. Louis Reed? Lance Reed? It was Reed or Redd."
"Yeah that. Eventually we found his little sister, who told us he died. That sucked."
"Uh huh." Twitch gazes up at the sky that they are walking downward from.
"I have a little sister."
Twitch does a double take. "You do?"
The other three look at him curiously as well. "Um, yeah. I have, well had a little sister. I was adopted, she wasn't really sociable. Eventually she moved out of town. Then I met you and her. Now I'm here."
"What was her name?" Twitch asks.
"I can't remember. I didn't see her too often. Both of us were always out of the house. I think it was Leah. It started with an L. Let me tell you, she was nice to look at. Unfortunately for me, I was her adopted brother. Every time I saw her wearing something she wouldn't wear out of the house, all I could think was 'I don't think she's ever wore that underwear before' or 'is that a scar? No wait, that was there before'. No sexual tension caused by her. As little time as we spent with one another, she was still just an adoptive sister who couldn't get my libido going." Pierce chuckles to himself at this. Twitch smiles.
"Pierce…" Twitch shakes his head.
"What about your adoptive parents? Is there anything memorable about them?" Rina asks.
Pierce looks up at the sky. "Not really. Sure, they gave me food and shelter. I still ended up leaving them. Da-" Pierce suddenly falls straight to the floor and tumbles down the stairs.
"Whoa!" Harvey is almost caught in Pierce's path. He jumps to the side in surprise, then a shoe softly collides with his calf. The buccaneer picks it up. "A shoe? Why is there a shoe here? It looks kind of new."
Pierce hits the stratum floor, grass breaking his fall. After laying there for a second, he slowly gets up, rubbing his shoulder. "What did I trip on?" He calls.
Dorian presents another shoe identical to the one Harvey is holding. "I think you tripped on a shoe!"
Harvey shakes his head and takes the shoe from Dorian's hands. "Give me that. This is probably Al's. From the speed Carrick was running and the way he held onto Al, his shoes probably came off. Let's get going." Harvey jogs a bit faster down the stairs.
Al stares down at his left hand once more. He has no weapon, he has no shoes, his left hand is totaled, and one member is down because of the stupidity of another. Fei better-
"Carrick, we don't have any Ariadne Threads."
Shit.
"Fei. My hand's broken again."
Fei looks up from Sprit and frowns. "Hmm," Fei thinks to herself for a moment. Her finger on her chin and her eyes o the floor. "Okay, then. It appears we'll have to withdraw for now."
Carrick threw his arms in the air. "Bullshit! I thought you were more competitive than that!"
Fei halts him with his hand. "If there are only three of us fighting and two of us incapable of any kind of action, we won't get very far. Progress will serve no reward if we are dead. We have no Ariadne Threads, and it's a long way back. We need to think up some strategies to get back."
The four conscious members of Saturos silently ponder for about thirty seconds until Zinovia puts up a finger. "I have an idea."
Fei opens her eyes and looks in her direction. "Please, Zinovia."
"I believe the optimal action here would be simply to wait for Eridani to appear and assist us in our advance. In the event of an attack, we sacrifice Carrick."
Fei grins widely. "That's exactly the kind of idea I hoped to hear. Great!' The monk lies down on the ground and rests her hands behind her head. "Al, keep watch of that direction," Fei points to where the stairs are. "Eridani should be appearing soon." The farmer frowns at her quick assent.
"Fine, fine." The shoeless biologist sets himself down on the ground. After waiting a while, the all too familiar chatting of Eridani becomes hearable in the distance. Al stands up.
"You see something?" Fei asks.
"Not yet, but I hear them," As if on cue, their unmistakable silhouettes appear. "Oh. There they are."
Dorian stops in her tracks, then jumps and waves her arms.
"Look! Over there! Saturos!" Dorian, eager to greet them, bothers Harvey.
"Yeah, yeah. We're going over there," Harvey calms the excited princess and leads them to the young guild. That princess acts as though she were a child. As a matter of fact, she can still be considered as such. There is no danger in sight and the rivers are still running at a rapid pace. The five members seem to be waiting for them. As Harvey thought, Al is without shoes and without a pitchfork and, oh. That's unfortunate. "Your hand."
Al waves him off with his right hand. "I'll worry about that later. Do you guys have any Ariadne Threads we can borrow? We're way short on men, and we have no way to escape."
Harvey looks around. "You seem relatively fine to me. Sprit should eventually wake up. She's alive, right?" Fei gives him a short nod.
"Someone big and armor clad did something stupid and knocked her out." Carrick flinches at this. Another week without pay. This time it's entirely his fault.
"I see. I suppose we will help you. Or rather, you can do something for us." Harvey suggests.
Fei furrows an eyebrow. "You have an idea? I'd love to hear it."
"We're highly unsure of the path ahead. It would delight us if in exchange for your assistance, we give you a higher chance of survival." Harvey's eye shines once he says this.
Twitch slumps his shoulders. "What happened to 'be better' and 'see first'?"
Harvey clears his throat. "There is no catch. If you give it some thought, you're getting more out of this than we are." Fei frowns, but nods.
"If that's all we can do, then I must comply." She says. Harvey smirks.
"Excellent. Get yourselves ready. We'll be moving ahead. Don't lag behind!" Harvey walks farther into the Labyrinth. His guild mates watch him go, dumbfounded.
"What the hell is up with him?" Pierce says. The gladiator shakes his head. "Harvey! Hold up for a sec!" Harvey stops and turns around.
"Hmm?"
"I've been meaning to ask. Why is it that you order us to fight by ourselves sometimes? I can't think of a reasonable, er, reason." Pierce says.
Harvey grunts. "Think a little harder. It might come to you. Survival in the labyrinth depends on team cooperation. Think about why I'd make you try and fight by yourselves."
Pierce stares at him, dully. "I have already, I've given up."
Harvey chuckles. "I didn't think you'd quit that easily, Pierce."
The young gladiator scowls and looks ahead. "Alright then."
Carrick approaches Fei. "Are you sure about this, Fei? Harvey seems like he's got something up his sleeve. I have a bad feeling about this."
Fei rubs her head. "I can't predict what he has planned, but it seems he'll be exploiting our current state at the moment. I have no choice but to abide with his offer."
Al shakes his head. "No choice now. We should go after them."
"Of course."
Eridani comes across another large door. It seems to be the only way forward. The other two branches led to dead ends. Upon returning to the door, the five encounter Saturos again.
Harvey signals to a slightly conscious Sprit. "She doesn't look so good. Do you have a way to keep her along with us?"
Sprit shakes her head, as if to clear herself up. "Nah. I'm fine. Don't worry about me any longer."
Harvey raises an eyebrow before nodding. "If you insist." Harvey opens the door to reveal a humongous clearing. There is large, open grassland and the sky is completely visible above. Any trees or rocks are very distant and border what can be considered a room of some sort into a square.
"Whoa. This is different." Rina comments as she walks in.
Dorian steps forward. "What's this clearing for? There has to be some sort of reason for this."
Al scans the area before seeing a large object many yards away. Disproportionate, red, and quadrupedal. That seems like trouble.
"Dorian, don't go any farther." He says. Dorian turns her head around.
"Hmm? Why not?"
Al glances at the undisturbed tyrant before turning his attention back to Dorian. "In the center of this clearing," The farmer then turns to Fei and Harvey. "there is a large crimson hippopotamus settling itself here. We have to tread carefully as to not alarm the beast."
Harvey opens his mouth to speak. But Fei talks over him. "Is this a problem? Sprit is a little better now, and you won't get caught up in the fight anyway."
Al shakes his head. "Excuse me. Formido Oppugnatura Exsequens."
The leader of Saturos gives a small sigh. "Oh, that thing. In that case, how should we approach it?"
The brown haired farmer turns his attention to Harvey, those not named Harvey following along with him. "I decide what we do here?" The nine younger explorers surrounding him nod. "Fine then. I guess we can try sprinting again. Here's what we do…"
Rina and Fei warily draw near the territorial beast. The other eight are grazing the walls of the clearing attempting to sneak ahead. Both girls believe that this is an outrageous idea.
"Distract the hippo and lead him to the entrance, then make him chase you to the door at the end."
"So, this is a sacrifice?"
"Sacrifice? Of course not! I'm not evil. We just need you two, the fastest, to distract him. Here, chase him to that corner, either one from which we walked into this room, and make a wide U-turn. Then, you sprint to the door all the way over there behind him. It may feel like a lot, but I'm fully sure that you will outrun him. My ideal outcome of such plan is instead of all of us running away from him, it is only the fastest, those who are not capable runners are already at the end."
Al looks ahead. "Which door will we be taking?"
Harvey rubs his chin. "Taking the middle one seems like unlikely with such a plan. We will be taking the one to the left. You, Fei, Rina, wille be approaching him from the right and making a U-turn to end up on the left-most part of this clearing."
Fei shakes her head. "And if this fails?"
Harvey smirks. "It won't."
At first, it did not seem like a bad call, but as they get closer to the beast, they begin to have second thoughts. The hippo is watching them closely.
"I think we're close enough," Fei says. "Provoke him."
Rina thinks for a moment. After contemplating for a minute, she acts. Rina jumps forward and throw s a knife at the hippo's foot. The knife strikes the hippo and it staggers back before letting out a loud roar. Rina sees the other explorers sprint to the door once this happens. Fei spins around and dashes off.
"Let's run!" She shouts. The hippopotamus charges forward. It is not nearly as fast as Rina, who dashes past Fei in a heartbeat, but Fei begins to feel uneasy about the beast.
After a bit of running, Sprit and Harvey reach the door first. "Are we supposed to leave this open for them?" Harvey shakes his head.
"I don't think that's a great idea. Opening the door means allowing the possibility of being attacked. We don't want to be under attack while Fei and Rina are running our way." Zinovia, Dorian, and Pierce are only several yards away.
"Are you sure Fei and Rina will be alright?"
"Of course. A common monster isn't going to gain an edge on those two."
"This is no common monster."
"To them it is."
Rina gains on Al and eventually dashes past him, causing him to flinch. Rina ran half of the length, the entirety of the width, and then at least three quarters of the length of the clearing. She is either extremely fast, or Al needs to get in better shape. A combination of the two is most likely, Al muses.
Fei, amazed by Rina's running ability, forces herself to run harder. Stamina eventually gets to her, and the hippopotamus begins to close the distance between them. What would happen if it were to get close? Hippos don't eat humans, do they? Al would know, but Al is too busy running. Fei looks to the sky and gets an idea. Mustering all of her energy, Fei backflips as high as she can and softly lands on the hippopotamus's nose. Upon landing, she kicks herself forward and lands right behind Al. The hippo falters for a moment before continuing its pursuit. Fei grabs Al's waist and pushes him forward.
"Run faster! We're almost there!"
Al puts himself on full sprint. He's never needed to run this fast before. All of the other explorers open the door for the two of them and go inside. Dorian, Twitch, and Carrick prepare to close the door as Al and Fei enter. The leader and the scout scurry inside, and the door closes. The hippopotamus makes no sound behind the door. After waiting for thirty seconds, everyone lets out a breath and assumes a resting position. Harvey chuckles and stands tall.
"Didn't I say we wouldn't fail?"
The explorers decide to rest for the next hour. While this progress is not what Harvey would have liked, progress is still progress, and they are much closer to the fourth floor than they were before. Harvey had ordered Rina to scout the other doors. According to her report, the nearest led to a campsite, the other goes farther into the labyrinth. Pierce recovered minerals under Al's instructions. While Pierce's handiwork wasn't nearly as good as Al's could have been, they still came out with a good supply. No reason to complain.
Harvey looks up at the sky. The sun is setting and it does not seem like a great idea to advance. Everyone is tired and there is an unstable explorer. With a sigh, Harvey calls for everybody's attention.
"That's enough for today. We've done what we can, and it seems that resting is of our best interest."
The nine younger adventurers give a look of relief before packing up.
"That isn't to say we'll be going back. To the door next to us is a campsite, which is why we've been hearing things back there."
"Why can't we just set up camp here?" Dorian asks.
"We have Al to tend to. I don't believe your 'healing powers' are of any use this time, Dorian."
Dorian glowers at him. Harvey stands up and directs them out. The beast has to have forgotten about them. They should be able to tread into the campsite without being disturbed. With the presence of such a beast, how did they make that a campsite? If they can sneak that within a monster's den, why don't they just make a campsite out of the habitat? After some pointless wondering, Harvey make his way to the door.
"Let's move." The others follow.
This campsite is not nearly as crowded as the one that Eridani had used in the second floor. There are only two other guilds here, and they both seem to be inactive and unsocial. Members occasionally come in and out of the tents. These tents are not artistically labeled, so Harvey cannot determine the names of the two guilds. He is sure that from who he is seen exit the tents, they haven't been encountered by Eridani yet,
Harvey leads Pierce and Twitch to a wide open and unpopulated area and tells them to get to work, handing them a tent. The buccaneer then proceeds to give them a long dialect about how they should handle the tent more carefully
"And don't make any holes." He concludes
The two watch as Harvey walks off to get a report on Al. Smiling, Pierce turns to Twitch.
"Alright. Do you remember how to do this?"
Twitch makes a goofy grin. "No idea."
The Rad City duo then proceeds to laugh uncontrollably as they attempt to assemble the currently flawless tent set.
Dorian walks through Saturos' tent flap and looks around the room. She couldn't find Al anywhere, so she'd decided to look in here and, there. Al is sitting on his sleeping bag reading a much worn book.
"Al! It's me!" Dorian cheerily waves and walks over. The farmer suppresses a sigh and smiles.
"Hey. What are you here for now?"
Dorian sets herself against a rock. For some reason, Carrick decided that setting up a tent over a rock was a good idea. Well, it's a blessing for her now.
"How's your hand doing?" She asks cheerily.
Al thinks to himself and frowns. "The medic in that other guild patched it up for me. I might have to sit the next exploration out. It sucks."
Dorian tilts her head. "Huh. Want me to-"
Al sets his book down and brings his hands in front of him. "No, no. I'm fine."
The princess lets out a breath. "You've been walking around a death trap with a broken hand. You should stay by me now. You're supposed to be my little brother."
"That little brother stuff again?" Al rubs his forehead. "Anyway, I think I'm well off sticking with guys like Fei and Carrick. I think you're better off fighting for yourself than for a skinny guy like me. As reckless as you are, you'd probably get us both killed."
Dorian stands up, furious. "I saved your butt back in the second floor! Don't forget that. If it weren't for me, you'd be bird poop. You acknowledged that and now you're denying more help? I can't believe you!" The princess turns around.
"Wait! I didn't mean that. I just wanted to say that you don't need to protect me. I'll be fine. Carrick and Fei are capable of defending me. You're in another guild, aren't you? We're supposed to be opposing forces. While we explorers are meant to assist each other in the conquest of this forsaken labyrinth, the only guild that gets credit is the one that makes it to the end. You should worry about yourself."
Dorian pouts. "I pronounced you my little brother. Siblings are supposed to stick together and assist each other through the thick and thin."
What? Al shakes his head. This little brother thing is going to be sticking around isn't it? "Fine then, but remember; your guild is your priority. I should be behind them in importance. You understand, don't you?" Dorian nods her head. "Good. Anything else you wanted to talk to me about?"
The princess enthusiastically nods. "Mmhmm! I was wondering if you were going in for a foray in two days. Time away from the labyrinth is boring since everyone goes off on their own. Want to walk around town with me?" Harvey had planned on taking another break.
Al looks around. He's never been asked to go out and have fun before. After wandering in his thoughts, for a while, he decides to tell her his excuse. "My guild is probably coming in to explore again. We've taken way too many days off," Dorian's face droops a little, causing Al to continue. "Well, I never said I couldn't yet! This hand shouldn't fix itself, so they might leave me behind." Dorian lights up.
"Okay!" The princess bounces a little before heading out the door. "See you!" Dorian leaves and Al is alone again. He can't help but wonder why that girl keeps bothering him. There isn't anything annoying about it; she just seems to come whenever he doesn't want her to. He also isn't too fond of being referred to as little brother. Al smiles before sighing. This isn't quite what he expected when he came to Armoroad, but it's definitely an interesting result of his decisions to come here. He's made new friends, he's an independent man (man, nobody has acknowledged his status as a man yet), and he has a form of work. Things can definitely be worse. Al finishes the current page of his manuscript before lying down in his sleeping bag. It isn't too late, and he can hear the familiar voices of Eridani and Saturos outside. It's been a long day for all of them, but Al doesn't have any extra energy left to use like they do. For the first time since he joined this guild, Al falls asleep instantly.
I feel that this is definitely one of my better works since chapter five. Sharp contrast to that useless chapter eight. Unfortunately, the only progress my characters have made map-wise is that they've crossed an FOE room. I've decided that since Harvey's backstory has gotten its introduction (sorta), and Twitch is beginning his own, Al might as well get started on his too. Some dialogue (such as Pierce's sister), I have realized, are completely unnecessary, but fun to write. I also think it lets out some trivia not mentioned in the bios. Useless trivia on my characters, but facts nonetheless. I promise B4F in the next chapter. (Do I?)
I understand that updates have come much slower than before, but school has stopped being so nice and has begun raining work on me. Nothing I can't handle, but it leaves me no time to work on this.
I played the Etrian Odyssey IV demo in these two weeks that I didn't update (sometimes, when I did have time from school, I'd play EOIV instead of work on this). All I can say is, Great Scot. I don't think there is a game series more spectacular than Etrian Odyssey (in my eyes anyway). I can't think of any other games that I can say I've enjoyed more than Etrian Odyssey. I've definitely played better games (Okami, Bioshock, Fallout 3, Donkey Kong 64), but I don't believe I've ever enjoyed any of them as much as Etrian Odyssey. The music, the gameplay, the story. Just a wonderful blend of everything.
I'm planning on re-writing chapters 1-3. I can see how much my writing has improved since then (not that I'm very good now, it's just that I was terrible back then).
Writing in Al's perspective is more fun than I'd expected. Maybe I just don't know how to write in the perspective of an aging man who's been through what he's been. That doesn't mean I won't stop writing Harvey.
The misfortune-prone Carrick is finally getting his bio. It's a shame it took this long. Also, I'm surprised of the lack of EOIV fanfiction here. Considering it's the most successful one in the series, I was expecting something to come up. (Don't get any ideas. I don't think I'd be able to handle two stories at once) Cheers.
I feel like these Author's Notes are getting way too long, by the way.
