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Last time on Plan B: Ballad of Swords
After having arrived in Pherae and discovered Roy, the son of the Grand Duke, was in fact the Champion of Fire that Ness and Rock had been searching for, Ness caught sight of a bad omen. A carriage of the Golden Empire was left parked in front of the Pherae Manor. Diplomats of the empire, Gamgi's Vaati and Wario were meeting with Dukes Eliwood and Hector to negotiate a treaty. Unbeknownst to them, the third representative of the empire, Nabooru, had filled the room with an incense to sway emotions of the meeting to the empire's favor. The trick was discovered too late and both Eliwood and Hector signed the treaty before being poisoned in an attempt by the empire to seize full control of Pherae and bury evidence of the tampering.
With little other choice, our heroes were forced to flee Pherae. Roy's mother, Lyndis, urged her son not to worry over Pherae, and that she and his father would set things right as soon as he and Hector wake from their poison. Roy and Pit then set off with Ness and Rock to continue the mission of finding the remaining champions and saving the world from elemental imbalance. Knowing much confrontation still lies ahead they use their time to train in magic, grow stronger, and enjoy the journey.
Chapter 9: To Kill an Ogre
Commotion was spreading throughout the town. Something big was happening, or someone important was coming. The Shark Guards and the Empirical Guards were busy cleaning up the streets of Onett while Mr. Minch barked orders.
A figure wearing a hooded cloak watched the activity with interest. While walking through shadows and cutting behind buildings, the figure made his way to a shop near the center of town and entered through the back door. Holes were still visible in the frame where a bell chime had once been in place, but now was removed so certain visitors could enter in silence. An elderly woman in the back room simply nodded to the shadowy traveller as he walked past and took the stairs into a basement.
Several people were already gathered around a table in a well insulated room with no windows, "Ah, Ninten, figured all the commotion would get your attention."
The hood fell back as Ninten took a look at what information was already spread out on the table, "Do we know who's coming?"
"Hard to say," a woman sifted through a few hand written letters, "Mr. Minch gets riled up every time someone from the empire shows up, but if I had to guess then I'd say this is more than just a visit from a Gamgi, maybe not one of the kings, but definitely someone important."
A young man looked up from the table, "Then is this our chance? If we could manage to capture a high priority figure from the empire then they'd have to start listening to our demands that the empire withdraw from Onett."
"I don't think that's a good idea…" Ninten rubbed his forehead, "I'm sure Rock would say something like 'A resistance movement has to be careful to always consider how an action would affect its goals.' So far we've been doing alright picking off lone guards and poorly guarded supplies, but someone this important is sure to have a lot of guards around them, and even if we were able to kidnap the person we'd then have to deal with the empire's full force coming down on us. We're not ready for something like that. No, our job is to keep making their soldiers stationed here miserable. The more miserable we make them the less they'll want to be here."
A door was slammed from the floor above causing the occupants of the basement to flinch and watch the stairs as running footsteps approached. Tracy dashed into the room, her eyes widened as she saw everyone holding a finger to their mouth to silence her, "Sorry! Sorry! But I have a letter that Mr. Minch wants delivered to Frank, but I figured you all would like to see it first!"
"Thanks Tracy, just be careful you don't get caught doing stuff like this, okay?" Ninten smiled to his younger cousin as he took the letter. "Mr. Minch is requesting every Shark Guard that can be spared to guard the Town Hall tonight. That'll be where he's hosting the diplomat."
The others nodded, "So is there anything we should be doing about this visit at all?"
Ninten grinned as he handed the letter back to Tracy, "We sneak into the Town Hall before the guards even get there, find out everything we can from this meeting, use what we find out against them, keep making them miserable. Sounds like fun right?"
Immediately the group broke to carry out their plan.
Hours passed and by evening the sound of an airship approaching echoed through the streets of Onett. Reminiscent of the night the empire invaded, one grand airship followed by two defensive doomships began circling over the Onett airspace. The lead ship broke off formation and began to descend towards the makeshift landing dock in the center of town.
Inside the Town Hall, the mayor's office had been transformed into a banquet hall and sitting area. Mr. Minch was the first to arrive with his children in tow, "You are both to say nothing! Do you understand me? Even a peep out of either of you and I swear to all that is holy…"
Picky quickly nodded without saying anything to signify he understood the terms. Pokey paid little attention as he messed with the tie on his shirt, actually making it even more crooked than it already was before he gave up and stared at the food on the banquet table. He grinned and reached over to grab something when his father immediately ran over and shoved him away from the table. Pokey fell on his butt and looked up at his father, "You will be the LAST one to grab any food from the table, is that clear?!"
Pokey stood back up and rubbed his behind, "Yeah, I got it…"
A man in dark blue wizard robes stepped into the room and cleared his throat. Immediately Mr. Minch put his arms around both his sons, his expression changed to his best faked loving family pose.
Obviously not impressed, the mage carried on, "Announcing his excellency, Prince Bowser the Second, of Darkland."
The three Minch's stood poised and as regal as possible to varying degrees of success for each one. From the stairs to the mayor's office bounded in a boy that looked no bigger than Picky who let out an almost high pitched laugh. The entire Minch family looked slightly dumbfounded at their guest.
"Ah, loyal subjects, you have prepared a feast! Come, let's eat!" The boy with fiery red hair and a bib with a sharp tooth grin on it began grabbing food off the banquet table and tearing into it without bothering to grab himself a plate to put it on.
After eating a few chicken legs and simply tossing the bones over his shoulder, Bowser Jr. looked over at his hosts who had not yet moved, "This ain't bad, but if you want some you better hurry."
"Ah, yes, of course, thank you," Mr. Minch was obviously not sure how to respond to the situation and attempted to keep his composure by acting in a way which he thought was dignified.
"Anyway," Bowser Jr. didn't bother swallowing before speaking as he chewed his food, "I'm here because I have a few questions I'm hoping you can help me with."
"Yes, anything we can do to assist the empire, you need but ask," Mr. Minch grabbed a pair of tongs to serve himself food, however the food he was reaching for was being grabbed by Bowser Jr.'s bare hand before he could get a good grip on it.
"Glad to hear! Glad to hear!" Bowser Jr. barely took a single bite out of some of the food items before he made a face, tossed it, then reached for another one, "Then I'm wondering what you might know of a legend that talks about elemental champions saving the world kind of thing?"
"I'm not one for fairy tales really," Mr. Minch cleared his throat as he was becoming slightly perturbed that he had not been able to grab a single thing off the table for himself yet, "Something about bringing together six chosen warriors might bring elemental magic into balance, or some other hogwash."
"That's the one!" Bowser Jr. lifted an entire container of meatballs off the table and held it under his arm like a snack bag as he began to walk around the room, "I heard something interesting from one of my cousins who's way over in Lycia right now. She said there was a boy in Pherae who claimed to be the Champion of Lightning."
Slightly flustered by the poor manners of a child, Mr. Minch tried cutting in, "I fail to see…"
"All you do is fail dad..." Mr. Minch's mouth fell open, shocked that he had been cut off by his own son with such a remark.
Mr. Minch tried to hide his trembling with a grin, "Oh… Pokey… Always joking at strange times…"
"I'm not joking dad," Pokey crossed his arms, "The empire would have been able to take over this whole area much easier if you had done things properly."
Picky watched wide eyed as Mr. Minch raised a trembling hand, "I warned you…"
Instead of stopping, Pokey continued to dig into his father, "If it was actually possible for you to pay attention to things happening beyond your own nose you'd see our guest is actually here to ask about Ness."
"Ohohoho, so you have some brains to backup the smart talk after all," Bowser Jr. laughed at the family squabble while Mr. Minch could only remain in place suddenly very cognizant of the fact that he'd completely lost control of this meeting.
"Obviously, if you're asking about someone with a strong affinity to lightning, and several of your doomships were destroyed here in Onett only a month ago by powerful lightning spells, then you must believe they're related," Pokey grinned as he took a few steps closer to the table.
"I like you, are you going to eat or not?" Bowser Jr. swallowed a chunk of whatever he was chewing as he motioned to the rest of the table.
"Don't mind if I do," Showing equally horrid manners, Pokey began reaching in and pulling food straight to his mouth, "What do you need to know about Ness?"
"I need to find him, but it's not safe to just start tailing someone with enough power to take down an airship single handedly. I need to know how he thinks, how he'll respond…" Bowser Jr. actually passed the bucket of meatballs to Pokey, "Can he be made into an asset for the empire, or is he just a threat?"
Pokey nodded as he scooped out a few meatballs, "You need to come up with some scenarios to gain his trust then. I think that's possible, I used to be his best friend after all."
"Used to be?" Bowser Jr. tilted his head.
Pokey turned away for a moment, "We were always together when we were younger. Then the outsiders came. They put ideas in his head. Steered him away from what he could have been. But get them away from him and he can be all ours."
"I'm liking this already," Bowser Jr. turned his head to his servant, "Kamek! Pack up some of this food for the trip and tell the crew to prepare a cabin on board the ship for our new friend!"
"Right away," Kamek pulled out a wand with a jeweled tip. With a single wave over the table, the table cloth wrapped the food within it and floated it over to the magician, "We can be ready to depart within the hour."
"Umm… Prince Bowser the Second sir," Mr. Minch tried to regain the confidence in his voice, "Apologies sir, but it would take a little more time than an hour to make the necessary preparations for our duties here in Onett to be covered during our prolonged absence."
"Our?" Bowser Jr. chuckled and looked over to Pokey, "Do you want to bring your family with you?"
Pokey looked over his father and snorted, "Not a chance, let's go!"
"So long!" Bowser Jr. left with Pokey snickering to his father as he walked past.
"But… Pokey…" Picky held his hand out as he watched him go. Their father watched silently, completely dumbfounded that his son had apparently upstaged him in the eyes of the empire.
The moment the Minches left the room, Ninten and the other members of the Onett resistance emerged from their hiding spots behind curtains and furniture.
One of the members shook her head, "So what does this mean for us? Nothing much changes right?"
Ninten looked out the window as Pokey and Bowser Jr. climbed onto the carriage, "I need you guys to do me a favor."
The tone in Ninten's voice immediately caused worry in the group, "What's that?"
"Tell my aunt that I'm sorry for being so much trouble, and that I promise to do everything I can to look after Ness," Ninten didn't even give the others a chance to question him before he pushed open the window and climbed out of the town hall.
The columns made a good surface for Ninten to slide down to the entrance. As quietly as he could, Ninten snuck around the Shark Guards. He was pressed for time, but couldn't afford to be caught as he used alleys and bushes to hide his movement toward the airship.
The carriage was already loaded onto the ship by the time Ninten made it to the town center. There wasn't much time, so Ninten just had to hope no one would see him as he dashed across the yard behind the guards.
The spinning propellers of the airship caused fierce winds to throw dirt and grass into the air around it. In shockwave blast of air, the ship separated from the ground entirely and began to slowly gain altitude.
Only a small window of opportunity remained as the ship lifted off the ground. The ladder to the deck was already far too high for Ninten to grab onto, but the anchor dangled lower than anything else below the flying barge. There was no time to think about it, Ninten made a running leap and barely caught the steel arms of the dangling metal. He managed to use his momentum to swing his lower body onto the anchor as well and then climbed up the chain as fast as he could.
The chain was being spooled into a small compartment free of other occupants. Ninten let out a sigh of relief and willed himself to breathe normally; the last thing he needed up here was an asthma attack. The turning spool finished reeling the anchor in and began to close the porthole. Ninten took his last glimpse of home as the ship began sailing into the sky.
Far away from Onett, in a shady clearing, a boy with orangey red hair and deep blue eyes sat at a fire warming his lunch. He skewered the small animals he'd caught and leaned the skewers over his campfire to try and cook them properly. He stared at his soon to be meal unenthusiastically, "I swear I better not poison myself…"
After a few minutes of cooking though he began to look more comfortable with his choice of meal, "Finally you're starting to smell like real food!" The boy took in a deep sniff and exhaled however something behind him continued sniffing after he had long since stopped. Slowly the boy turned his head over his shoulder; taking up his entire field of vision behind him was a large mouth.
Immediately, the boy jumped with a start and scurried away from the intrusion. The beast behind him stood on two legs, it was at least five meters tall, it had no eyes, but half of its face was a gigantic mouth with pointy teeth, it had a nose on either side of its face underneath its ears. It reached for a club that it lifted high above its head and tightened its massive muscles before letting out a snarl like scream as it brought the club down over the boy.
The red headed boy rolled out of the way as the club embedded itself in the ground. The shockwave completely blew away his camp site and sent his food scattering through the area.
"Great…" The boy looked up angrily at the large beast, "You jerk! Do you know how long it took me to find something edible around here?!" The boy held his hand to his side and an intense crackling of electricity began gathering in his fingers. The hue of the clearing changed as the light became overwhelming to the eyes. The boy aimed his hand forward and let loose a roar of thunder as the lightning streaked toward his target. Such a large creature had no hopes of dodging the attack; sparks exploded on contact and set nearby shrubs and dried thatch on fire.
The boy remained with his hand outstretched while catching his breath, "Learn your lesson?"
A menacing grumble was heard through the smoke. Before the boy could assess what damage he might have caused, the club swung out from the dark haze. The boy was able to feel the club brush through his hair as he ducked out of the way. The beast walked out from the smoke with only minor singe marks on its skin and was swinging wildly. The boy lost his balance as he tried to watch the club's movements. There was no time to climb back to his feet and he frantically rolled away.
Not able to pay attention to where he was going, the boy rolled into a large tree and no longer had room to jump away. His eyes widened as the club came down again over his head. He shut his eyes and braced for the neck breaking impact. He heard the club hit. Even the ground beneath him quaked from the strike. Without opening his eyes he figured he'd either been hit so hard that his death had been completely painless, or somehow the strike had missed. He opened an eye and noticed a shadow between himself and the club. Pit smiled at the boy as he he held a huge shield over him that had anchored itself into the ground in four places to dissipate the force of impact.
Rock jumped onto Pit's shield and used the leverage to flip himself over the giant creature. His hand barely made contact with the monster, but it was enough to leave a glowing object attached to its shoulder. Rock landed behind the brute and and tackled the back of its knees as his crash bomb exploded which sent the beast cascading backwards to the ground with an earth shaking thud.
Ness held a hand out to the boy they had saved, "You looked like you could use some help."
"I was fine!" The boy looked away from the proffered hand and pushed himself to his feet.
"Maybe, but us lightning casters have to look out for each other, right?" Ness grinned as he watched the beast roll across the ground, "That's a pretty big ogre, their skin is like a beetle shell, it's so thick that if you can't puncture it then lightning magic will have no effect."
The boy grit his teeth as the ogre found solid footing and began to climb to its feet again, "So it's impossible to kill it with lightning…"
Ness shook his head, "No, you either have to hit it hard enough to break the skin, or hit it in a place that isn't protected by the thick skin."
The ogre howled loudly as it lifted its club and swung at the boys. Ness quickly pulled out his yoyo, it crackled with lightning energy as it spun and extended its sharp serrated blades. It quickly buzzed through half of the club, sending the top end flying off into the forest. The ogre stumbled at the sudden loss of weight in the momentum of his swing.
"There!" Ness got the boy's attention while pointing at the ogre's face, "A weak spot."
The red headed boy's eyes widened as he realized Ness was referring to the open mouth. Without much time to charge, the boy gathered a small ball of lightning to his hand and threw it at the open maw. The bolt entered before the ogre turned out of the way and the result was immediate. The entire creature spasmed as it hit the ground and convulsed for a moment.
As the ogre rolled on the ground, it dropped everything it was holding and began panting heavily. The boy took a step forward and began aiming a more powerful bolt at the creature.
"STOP!" Ness jumped in the way, "It's done."
The boy looked oddly at Ness as the ogre crawled away before getting up on it's feet and retreated as quickly as it could into the forest. He sighed as he lowered his hands and released the charge of energy he had built up, "What would you have done if it attacked again?"
"If it kept on fighting we wouldn't have had a choice, but it was running away so there was no reason to kill it," Ness explained.
"Gods, you sound like my brother," the boy shook his head and crossed his arms, "I guess I should say thanks still…"
"No problem!" Ness held his hand out, "I'm Ness, these are my friends Rock, Pit, and Roy."
The boy stared at Ness's hand for a moment before deciding it was okay to shake, "Claus."
Pit's shield retracted into his armor as he ran up to the two, "So do you know if there's a town nearby? We're looking for a port you see and we might have gotten… well… Rock might have gotten us a little lost?"
Rock narrowed his eyes, "Hey! You were the one who decided it would be quicker to cut through the forest instead of following the trail!"
"You were the one who actually lost the map though!" Pit defended.
"Actually…" Ness scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, "I was the one who set the map on fire…"
Roy put his hand on Ness's shoulder, "And the fire might have flared up when I got too close… I'm not really used to that yet sorry…"
Claus shook his head, "You guys are weird." He pointed off in a direction past the clearing, "If you keep cutting through that way you'll reach my village, Tazmily, there's an ocean port there, but not much else."
"Cool, want to head back together?" Ness offered.
"Nah," Claus shrugged, "I'm not going that way."
"Where are you going then?" Ness asked curiously.
Red tinged Claus's face, "That's none of your business!"
Ness put his hands up defensively, "Alright, sorry! Sorry!"
Claus sniffed and sighed, "I didn't mean… I'm sorry, things have just been rough there for a while, so I'm going on a hunt. I think that's the only thing left that will make me feel better."
"Check it out!" Roy called from the clearing, "That ogre dropped a sack, it's filled with some weird stuff."
"Dibs!" Claus called as he ran over to take a look at the bounty. Claus opened the large satchel and immediately wretched, "Oh gods! What died in there?!"
Roy held his nose as he held up a dismembered leg of some kind of bear like animal, "I guess it was holding on to this for a snack later…"
"I think it expired…" Claus was about to give up on the rest of the satchel when another smaller pouch caught his eye. He plucked the small pack and dumped its contents on the ground.
Inside the sack were several coins of varying worth amongst a few shiny stones and gems, but in the middle was something that immediately caused Roy to double take, "I don't believe it… GUYS! It's one of the shards!"
Immediately the other three surrounded the items and stared at it. "It's blue!" Ness reached over to pick up the shard but Claus beat him to it.
"This thing's kinda important huh?" Claus held it close to his eye as if he were trying to see through it.
"Important?" Ness laughed, "We need it in order to save the world!"
"Save the world?" Claus laughed sarcastically, "Alright then hotshot, how much is it worth to you?"
"What?" Ness blinked as he processed that Claus expected to be paid to hand over the item.
Claus hummed as he gripped the shard protectively, "Yeah, the way I see it, this thing never would have been found if I hadn't been cooking at the right time and place and gotten attacked by the ogre in the first place, that's gotta be worth something, right?"
Pit scowled at the snarky boy, "Umm… And you would have been ogre lunch had we not come around when we did?"
"I already told you once, I would have been fine, I could have taken it," Claus took a defensive step back, "So do I hear an offer?"
The others looked to each other for a moment as they internally tried to decide how to deal with the boy's demand. Rock cleared his throat as he smiled confidently, "Sure, name your price."
"Well... " Claus thought for a moment, "If it really is something so important that the world is depending on it…"
"Oh almost forgot," Rock interrupted, "We can pay you whatever you want, but you'll have to come with us to our ship that will be waiting for us in Tazmily."
Claus's eyes widened, "Oh… Well… That's ummm… I mean… how much do you guys have on you right now?"
"Why don't you want to go back to town?" Rock questioned.
Claus's eyes narrowed, "Does it matter?!"
Rock shrugged, "The way I see it if you're going that way then what you need more than money is food and supplies, especially after that ogre just ruined your lunch."
At that moment Claus's stomach rumbled at the thought of food causing his eyes to widen a bit, "Food wouldn't be… a bad thing you know."
"If you're really going to set off on this hunt of yours, you should really be prepared," Rock began pulling out rations and tools from his backpack. "I'll give you enough food to last about a week, there's also a few knives, a collapsable shovel, a hatchet, a lantern, some oil, a bedroll, and a blanket."
Claus looked towards the ground, he realized now he might have been really unprepared for what he wanted to do. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the shard then handed it to Rock, "Deal."
"Pleasure doing business," Rock nodded as carefully placed the shard into a pouch.
"Well then," Claus took a bite out of a dried ration, "Hey that's actually not too bad, but you guys should get going if you want to make it to town before dark. Keep going straight that way and you should make it to town in four or five hours."
Claus made sure everything fit in his backpack before he slung it over his shoulder and turned around, "Maybe I'll run into you guys again someday." He waved without turning around and started walking again, "See ya!"
Ness took a few steps closer and called out to him, "Hey Claus, I hope you find whatever you're looking for!"
Claus stopped for a moment. He looked over his shoulder and saw the others were already walking away. He nodded to himself to reaffirm his own resolve and continued on through the forest.
"Look!" As Claus had promised, several hours of riding later the group was able to see signs of a village.
By evening the four were wondering the streets, approaching the docks. Rock took a look at the boats that were moored, "I was really hoping to find some larger ships here."
Pit examined the ferries in the dock, "I'd like to find something more reliable than the last boat that left us stranded on the coast of this nowhereisland. That was a bad trade for good horses by the way…"
Roy shoved his hands into his pockets and sighed, "There were no professional ships heading in this direction that weren't waving empire colors. At least we made it most of the way to Hyrule so hopefully we can get a ride from one of these ferries the rest of the way there."
Rock patted Roy on the shoulder, "We all agreed that it was the best we could do at the time. And besides, if we hadn't ended up stranded on this island we wouldn't have found a crystal shard so it all worked out."
The pep talk helped Roy feel better as he approached someone who looked to be a captain, "Excuse me sir, are you accepting passengers to any nearby ports soon?"
The man leaned against the dock post and examined the four boys in front of him, "Ain't no one settin' sail in these waters any time soon lad."
Pit fought off the urge to speak in an accent, "Why not?"
"'Tis the season," The bearded man explained, "Sea creatures o' the blimey deep have taken nest in shallower waters to hatch their next kin. And this year they've got a hell'ova brute with 'em. A great kraken, hundreds 'o feet long. Aye, as long as that sea monster be roamin the straight 'twen here and Hyrule no vessels be settin sail."
"A kraken…" Rock thought for a moment, "It's way too warm for kraken's here…"
"As long as the kraken is here…" Roy repeated, "thank you for the information, we'll be back."
All four boys began walking back away from the docks. Pit hurried to walk alongside Roy, "Got a plan?"
"Not really a plan," Roy admitted, "But if the people won't sail because there's a kraken in the water, we could just get rid of the kraken."
"That sounds risky…" Rock hummed to himself, "If it's as violent as it sounds then it could sink a ferry like those before you have much time to do anything."
"I'm not worried," Roy put an arm around Ness's shoulder, "If it's a sea monster we have to deal with then we've got the best defense against sea monsters right here!"
Ness grinned to himself and nodded, "Yeah, anything that's based on water is weak against lightning!"
The boys weren't able to discuss much else as a voice that was almost familiar was heard calling over the sounds of the rest of the village, "Claus! Where are you Claus?"
Ness stopped and stared in the direction he heard the calling coming from, "Do you guys think?"
"Has anyone seen Claus?" the voice called again.
Roy nodded, "It must be."
Ness sighed and started walking toward the shout. Ness dodged around the people and worked his way up to the next block.
"CLAUS!" Ness rounded one last corner and saw the boy standing in the middle of the road looking around from side to side. The boy turned around and made eye contact with Ness. His blond hair was brushed forward and spiked at the end, and his deep blue eyes did little to hide the concern he was feeling.
The boy stopped shouting as his eyes met with Ness. He gulped as if already knowing something was about to happen as Ness slowly approached him, "I haven't seen you in Tazmily before."
Ness shook his head, "I'm not from here."
"Oh," The boy twitched nervously, "but you know something about my brother, Claus?"
Ness nodded, "We ran into him a few hours ago while we were walking toward Tazmily, he was walking in the opposite direction and said he wasn't coming back."
The boy's eyes widened for a moment, then he looked away and took a moment to compose himself, "He did? Just like that? I mean… did he say why?"
Ness felt bad being the one to break the news, but felt it was better knowing than not, "He didn't say much really. When we found him he was being attacked by an ogre. We helped him fight it off, but then all he said was that he had to go on a hunt, something about it being the only way he'd feel better…"
The boy's expressive eyes again turned to Ness, "A hunt… he wouldn't…"
"Do you know…?" Ness was about to ask when a hand latched onto his wrist.
"Come with me, please!" The boy turned and began running up the hill with Ness in tow, "I need you to explain to my dad what you just told me!"
Ness gulped as he didn't seem to have much of a choice. He barely had a chance to look over his shoulder and make sure his friends were still following.
After a short sprint out of town they came upon grassy fields of grazing sheep. A log home stood in the middle of the pasture with a dog standing watch in front of it. The door opened as the group approached and a man wearing brown cowboy clothes stepped out. The man took a quick look at the strange youths who were piling up on his patio, "Lucas, what's going on? Where's Claus?"
The blond haired boy, Lucas, had yet to let go of Ness's wrist as he tried to explain, "I found someone who saw Claus leaving town!"
Immediately concern washed over the man's face, "Leaving town? What happened?"
Again Ness explained what he had seen of Claus.
The man removed his hat and took in a few deep breaths, "A hunt? What the hell is that boy thinking?"
"Dad…" Lucas started quietly, "Remember the letter we got from Grandpa? He mentioned a family of dragons were nesting in the mountains."
Lucas's father looked as though a sudden realization came to him, "So he thinks…" One of his hands came to rest over his eye as he shook his head, "We need to find him before he does something stupid. You, boy!" The man pointed at Ness, "I need you and your friends to take me to where you saw him."
Ness wasn't sure what he had gotten himself into, but quickly agreed, "I can do that."
"I'll help too," Ness was almost startled by an unfamiliar voice. He turned and saw a boy with wild sandy brown hair, blue eyes, wearing black shorts and a white v-neck. The newcomer was looking almost as anxious as Lucas.
"Thanks Sora, let's go then," the man pushed past the group and whistled to the dog who followed behind as they all began the trek out of town.
The group ran quickly through the forest. Rock led the way for the most part as he backtracked through their earlier steps. The group was slowing down from fatigue when Sora hopped in front of the group. His hands gave off a pale green glow before he spoke the command, "Restore!" The glow washed over the entire group and immediately everyone felt their tiredness fade.
"That's an awesome trick!" Pit smiled gratefully to Sora as they continued at full pace again.
Lucas grinned at Sora, "He's a great spirit mage."
"Spirit magic…" Ness repeated as his mind wandered off elsewhere for a moment.
There was hardly any sunlight left once they came across the clearing. Ness pointed to what was left of the ogre's sack, "This is where we last saw him."
"Boney," the man called to the dog who ran up and wagged his tail, "I need you to find Claus, understand? Claus."
The dog barked and began sniffing around the area. It barked again and started running through the forest. Pit followed behind Boney, cutting at thick brush so everyone could keep their pace up while Rock shined a light over his shoulder.
Within another hour the forest had gone from dark to pitch black. Boney had slowed down and was sniffing at a particular spot. Again the dog started barking as it clawed at the steep cliff side.
"Up there, boy?" The man tilted his head up and saw what looked like ledges that it might be possible to climb to. From high above the group could hear the growling sounds of multiple creatures. "We don't have time, we have to get up there."
"No problem," Pit threw his shield onto the ground. It flattened out into a large disk, "Everyone stand here."
Lucas looked at the warping metal hesitantly. Ness held a hand out, "It's okay, trust us."
With a little more determination, Lucas accepted Ness's help to steady himself as he stepped onto the makeshift platform.
"Going up!" Pit waved his hand and the metal disk grew several poles that embedded themselves in the ground and began pushing the group up the mountain as they extended.
Everyone jumped onto solid ground once the disk reached the top and Pit immediately reformed the metal into his shield. At the summit of the cliff, the group found themselves surrounded by dozens of small dragons. They were mostly different shades of blue and green ranging in size from a large dog to slightly bigger than a fully grown person, most of them had two horns on their head and one at the tip of their beak.
Pit looked around at the herd, "Are these Keio Dragons?"
"What are you guys doing here?" A voice called from the other side of the summit.
"Claus!" Lucas called out as he ran a few steps closer, "Claus, none of these dragons is the one that killed our mother!"
Claus seemed to roll his eyes, "Yeah, I figured that out, thanks."
"Son," their father stepped over alongside Lucas, "You missed out on dinner, I think it's time we all went home."
Claus stared at the ground for a moment, "These dragons are kinda cute aren't they? I'd never mistake one of these for that dragon…" Claus looked up at his father, "I remember it dad; I'll never forget. Its scales were colored like gems and lava, and its eyes were red like blood. I looked in them and saw… actual evil. When it bit into mom with all of those teeth… I could see its beak was longer than she was tall… And then there was that woman… so… hideous… she stood in the flames and laughed as she ordered the dragon to kill us."
Though unnoticed by most, the color had completely drained from Rock's face. Pit wrapped his arm around Rock's shoulder and leaned close to whisper, "There's no way he's talking about the same dragon…"
"I'm sorry son," the man was looking emotional himself, "We never talk about it do we? Let's go home and I promise I'll listen to what you're dealing with."
Claus shook his head, "It's been three years dad, I don't need to talk about it, I need to do something about it." He hopped up onto the back of one of the larger blue dragons.
"What are you doing?!" Lucas shouted at his brother.
"I'm gonna call this one Spot," Claus patted the head of the friendly dragon, "We're going to find that woman and her dragon, and I'm going to kill it."
Claus's father tried approaching him, "Don't do this Claus, not like this!"
Before his father could get to close, Claus pushed his heels into Spot's side causing the dragon to jump into a sprint. The sudden start caused the other dragons to run as well in a near stampede as they dashed towards the edge of the cliff. Together their small wings opened and they dove from the cliff side.
"CLAUS!" the man shouted after them as they flew off into the night. They were almost out of sight as the man sunk to his knees. His fist began pounding against the ground, "I've already lost my wife… I can't lose my son damn it!"
Lucas remained quiet as he stood just behind his father.
The others waited in silence for the man to collect himself. Once the man finally stood the intense look in his eyes kept everyone from speaking. Pit created a platform to lower everyone from the cliff and they all hiked through the darkness.
"Dad," Lucas was the first to try and break the chokehold of the silence, "We're closer to grandpa's house than ours, I… umm… I think we should go there for the night."
Lucas's father didn't stop or even acknowledge that Lucas had spoken. After several more meters without a response Lucas tried again, "Dad?"
"Go…" the man said in a near monotone voice.
"Dad, do you need any…" Lucas tried to ask out of concern.
"LEAVE ME!" the man turned with such a sudden fury that Lucas fell backwards. The change of tone was jarring and left Lucas terrified and still. Ness ran to Lucas's side, in part to help Lucas up, but also in part to make sure his father didn't lash out in his anger.
The man saw the look in Ness's eyes, as if the boy were cat ready to leap away from a predator, "Don't judge me with those eyes boy, you have no right!"
Sora put himself between the group and Lucas's father, "Flint please stop, you're scaring everyone!"
"Even the castaway boy thinks he can tell me what to do now?" There was both an anger and a calmness to the man that made him even more intense and terrifying.
"That's enough!" Lucas pulled himself to his feet, "We're going to Grandpa Alec's!" He didn't wait for an answer as he turned and started walking. Flint watched him go for a moment before he left in a different direction. Lucas heard his father's footsteps leaving and he kneeled down beside his dog, "Boney, follow my dad, keep him safe alright?"
Boney barked quietly in acknowledgement before chasing after Flint.
Once on his feet, Lucas motioned for everyone else to follow him, "My grandpa's house should only be a few miles this way."
Roy let out a, "Thank you," as they continued to follow Lucas.
It was the middle of the night when they came to a two story house at the end of the path. Lucas walked around the house to the backdoor which was unlocked, "Wait here a minute, I'll wake grandpa up and let him know we're here."
Once Lucas was out of the room Pit leaned in closer to Sora, "Hey, so I know we all just met and this has all been kind of awkward, but is there anything we can do to, like, help?"
Sora sighed and shrugged, "Honestly, I'm not sure. Lucas has always been really quiet. It's a lot easier to talk to Claus since most of the time he made sure everyone knew how he felt. Lucas kind of bottles things inside and deals with them his own way.
Lucas came back into the room, "Grandpa said we can use the guest room, there's some spare blankets in the closet we can put on the floor and stuff. This way," Lucas led everyone up the stairs. It had been a long day and most of the boys immediately pulled off their gear and buried themselves under some covers.
Though he was also tired, Ness noticed Lucas had finished up in the bathroom but then instead of going to bed he went downstairs. The others were falling asleep so Ness quietly snuck down stairs as well.
The back door was still cracked open so Ness followed it outside into the star lit night. At first Ness couldn't spot where Lucas had gone. He walked around the house once and was about to give up when he noticed a shadow near the edge of plateau overlooking the forest. As he walked closer he could tell Lucas had his face buried in his knees, "Are you alright?"
Lucas twitched then looked over his shoulder, "Yeah, no problems…"
Though uninvited, Ness sat beside Lucas and let his legs dangle off the side of the property, "I'm sorry, I know today was really hard for you and I feel kind of responsible."
"What?" Lucas laughed slightly, "Why would you feel that way?"
"I mean…" Ness gulped as he thought through his feelings, "First I ran into your brother, and maybe if my friends and I hadn't helped him beat that ogre it would have scared him into coming back. And then we also gave him tools and stuff so he could leave. And then, I was the one who actually told you and all that."
Lucas half grinned and shook his head, "Don't feel bad about that. Honestly I'm glad you helped him."
"Oh… well…" Ness stammered as he tried to figure out what was happening in their conversation, "Then… you're welcome?"
Lucas laughed, "I'm sad that Claus is gone, but it's not because he left?" He also had a hard time explaining his feelings, "What makes me feel the worst is that he left and didn't take me with him."
"Ohhh…" Ness nodded understanding a bit.
"He's my twin brother, so we've always been together," Lucas finally relaxed his posture a bit as he leaned back, "He's talked about leaving a lot over the last three years. I knew he had been training how to use magic and stuff, but I always figured it was just talk, you know? I never thought he'd actually do it. And I guess I'm kind of jealous that he's going to be out there now on like this big adventure without me."
Ness felt he was starting to understand what was going on, "So you want to go on an adventure too?"
"Yes, well.. Maybe? I don't know…" Lucas blurted out but then clammed up again, "There's not a whole lot I could do as an adventurer. I'm not that strong, I don't have magic, there's not a lot of practical stuff that I'm any good at…" Lucas closed his eyes and smiled at Ness, "So I bet Claus didn't ask me to go with him cause he knew I'd be bad at everything!"
Ness frowned, "If you want to become something then you should work work hard and do it."
Blue eyes started blinking in surprise, "Huh?"
"Well, from what I've seen," Ness began to explain, "no one is born awesome at anything, but when you work hard at something you get better, even if you don't notice it yourself."
Lucas looked down again, "My mom always used to say things like that… Work hard and you can do anything!"
Sensing the delicate subject, Ness looked down as well, "She must have been really amazing."
Lucas smiled sadly as he looked up, "She was. She loved everyone, and everyone loved her. Her smile would make you think of sunflowers, and no matter how you were feeling you'd feel better afterwards."
Ness's mouth fell open. He'd never heard so much emotion poured out about someone. It made him miss his own mother very much, "I really wish things could have been different."
"I just…" Lucas sighed as he realized what he was about to admit, "Since she died, I haven't been able to feel the same about anything. I haven't had a real reason to… try…"
"You should though, try I mean." Ness scratched the back of his head as he tried to word what he wanted to say, "Even if it's hard, even if you don't want to, and it's fine to stop and take a break sometimes, but you should still find something you care about and work at being better at it."
Lucas blinked a few times as Ness's words sank in, "You're pretty cool, you know?"
"I'm glad you think so," Ness chuckled nervously, "Cause I thought I sounded like an idiot."
Both boys laughed and then continued to look over the mountain forest in silence for a moment.
After looking through the trees, a question struck Ness that he couldn't help but ask, "Is your dad going to be alright?"
"Yeah, he knows this forest really well, I'm not worried." A slight smile came across Lucas's lips while he was still looking away from Ness, "You looked like were ready to fight him for a minute there."
Ness cringed, "I wasn't sure what he was going to do, he was so angry. When I saw him freak out over you I wasn't sure if he was gonna stop or not."
"You remind me a bit of my brother," Lucas admitted, "Maybe that's why I'm actually telling you all these things even though we've never met before…"
"Well we are both lightning mages," Ness kept a friendly smile on his face while he drew a glowing path in the air with his finger, "I really don't mind though, tell me anything."
Lucas watched as the glowing trail left by Ness's fingers slowly dissipated, "That's cool. Actually there are a lot of things I couldn't tell him either," Lucas admitted, "He was always dad's favorite. He never saw how we were treated differently, but I could tell."
"I'm sorry," Again Ness felt at a loss for a response, "I have a sister who I always thought got more attention than I did, but that was normal because she was the baby, you know?"
Lucas finally looked up at Ness's face with a question in his eyes, "So why did you leave home?"
"I didn't have a choice…" Ness bit his lip realizing it was his turn, "My hometown was attacked. I tried to save everyone. But they were too strong… My mom told me to run. I swore I'd get stronger and go back and save them… I still have to get so much stronger." Ness was taken by surprise, he hadn't realized that deep down he was still feeling that emotional over his home.
Still dealing with the introspective shock, Ness was brought back to his senses as Lucas practically hurled himself at him and wrapped his arms around his shoulders, "I'm sorry, I had no idea."
"Hey, it's okay right," Ness assured his new friend, "No one was really hurt badly, and I know things will turn out fine in the end."
Lucas couldn't help but match Ness's smile, "Yeah."
"How about we go to sleep before the sun rises?" Ness mentioned pushing himself to his feet.
"Good idea," Lucas agreed as they returned to the house. Before they reached the staircase, Lucas grabbed onto Ness's hand, "And thank you, you know, for listening to me and all that."
Ness grinned and nodded, "Anytime."
End Chapter
Lucas has finally entered the story! And hopefully Sora was a good surprise. The Keio Dragons are totally from a Sega CD game that no one has ever heard of called Keio Flying Squadron.
I really enjoyed coming up with the dialogue in this chapter. Enough that it was all written in like two sittings. That never happens with me. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it too.
Let me know in the comments!