...Yes, it's late. Two months late, I get it! Dx Blame my school guys. They're giving us far too much homework to work with Dx So, sorry if this and any other of my stories aren't up to scratch... :/ Will you forgive me? xD Anyway, I do not own Final Fantasy III or its characters but I own some ideas and OCs I may have put in. So...
Enjoy...
The Warriors and Desch had made their way along the forest path – trying to avoid all monsters at any cost, as they didn't want to get too involved in the random encounters – and had reached the entrance of the Tozus, the village of gnomes.
The village was most definitely like something from a fairy tale. Flowers and grass stood tall above them and all the other gnomes. It was hard to believe that these simple things, things that the five could simply pick up with two fingers and easily discard, could have so much meaning to the gnomes. Mushrooms acted as houses – which was pretty weird and wonderful too, since mushrooms were simply used as ingredients for food or were just left for nature to have its way with them. Every little thing in nature was being used by the gnomes in their village. Luneth and the others really did begin to think about what they have and how they didn't appreciate it that much.
The gnomes in the village had a cheery sort of nature. The gnomes greeted them with polite smiles on their faces, and had welcomed them cheerfully with, "Welcome to Tozus, friends! We're teeny and you're weeny! You're the itzy to our bitzy!" It seemed that these gnomes had no problem with the Warriors and Desch, even though they weren't necessarily their size without the spell Mini and they didn't actually come from their parts. In fact, it was as if the gnomes were excited to see others not of their kind. Or maybe they just knew the Warriors of the Light, the ones destined to save the world, were passing by, and made them excited that four chosen ones would finally save the world from darkness? They couldn't be blamed. After all, they did live in a small world. Most of the news of the much, larger world that reach their small ears could easily excite them.
"Aw!" Refia cooed as she looked around, and watched all the 'little gnomes' go about their daily business. "It's all so cuteand adorable!" She giggled with glee, running over to admire more giant mushrooms and flowers.
"I'm guessing she likes this place then?" Desch asked, laughing.
They others laughed and nodded their heads in agreement.
"Well, you gotta admit, it is pretty cute." Luneth laughed, agreeing with Refia, who was still running from flower to flower.
"Do you think these guys can help us on where to go next?" Arc asked, looking around him.
"Maybe…" Luneth replied, not entirely sure of that.
"Doctor Shelco's fallen ill! We're doomed! Doomed, I say, doomed!"
The four boys turned to find a gnome freaking out to Refia. Soon enough, all the little gnomes were gathered around Refia, forming a huge crowd in the middle of the village. There were panicked murmurs and whisperings among the crowd.
"Can't he cure himself?" The boys heard Refia asked nervously, obviously uncomfortable with the fact she had a huge crowd of tiny gnomes around her.
"No one can cure him because he's the only doctor here!" The gnome replied distraught.
"If he doesn't cure himself, we're doomed!" Another gnome shouted panicked.
"What are we to do?!" Yet another gnome panicked, soon leading the whole crowd to panic and freak out.
"H-hey! Let us pass!" Desch shouted among the crowd, trying to shove the gnomes aside, with Luneth, Arc and Ingus following closely behind. Desch and the others had gotten into the middle of the crowd – where Refia was, nearly freaking out like the gnomes because of her personal bubble being burst.
"What's going on?" Luneth didn't even though why he asked that. After all, you could hear from all of the commotion what was going on. "Wait…don't answer that…" He quickly added.
"Hey, you smell funny!" A child gnome – much smaller than the rest of the other gnomes – was tugging at Arc's robe and picking up a scent from it.
Arc looked down at the child gnome, chuckling a little. But then he became worried about his scent. I was supposed these gnomes smelled like plants and flowers, and Arc could practically smell like anything.
"What are we to do?" The gnome who asked that same question repeated again.
"We'll help you, but we need you to help us." Desch bargained. "Any idea where the Miralka Basin is?"
"The Miralka Basin? Why, it's at the far end of the tunnel which goes through the Miranos Range!" The gnome explained.
"But only Doctor Shelco knows the way to the Miralka Basin!" A gnome from the crowd shouted.
"Which is why we'll cure him and he'll tell us!" Luneth grinned, much to the confusion of the other gnomes.
"But you guys aren't doctors! You'll only-"
"Please, just let us handle it." Ingus stepped in, trying to reassure the gnome. "We will do anything in our power to help."
"Yeah! Where's this Doctor's house?" Desch asked, looking around him.
The gnomes all pointed to a house not far away from them. "Over there!" They exclaimed.
"Well, thanks!" Luneth grinned as he made his way out of the crowd and walked towards the house that the gnomes had pointed to.
The others followed Luneth, thanking all of the gnomes as they walked past them. Arc gave the small child gnome one last smile before following the others.
Desch and the Warriors of Light walked into the mushroom house where Doctor Shelco was said to be lying sick. They looked around themselves. Inside the mushroom house it looked so different! There was normal wooden furniture about, the walls seemed to have a strong hold on them – despite being made out of a mushroom – and everything seemed just like what the five's houses would have normally look like, only smaller.
The five walked further into the house, looking around them. The first thing they saw was a distraught and very pale looking gnome, lying upon a bed. He didn't look too well, and he constantly moaned and groaned.
The five walked over to the gnome lying on the bed. They knew this had to be the doctor, since he was dressed differently from the other gnomes and he had many herbs and equipment a doctor would have in his house. As well as that, he had books on different herbs and remedies in his bookshelves. This had to be Doctor Shelco.
"Ungh…need antidote..." The doctor groaned. "…try fooling me...with a placebo...and I'll thump you!" He managed to blurt out. Doctor Shelco wasn't exactly a happy, cheery gnome at this time.
"I think I might have one in my fanny pack…" Luneth murmured, getting out his fanny pack and looking around in it. It didn't require much looking in it, since it was a little small and there wasn't too much in it. But then again, Luneth crammed a lot of things in there. He then pulled out a vial filled with green liquid and handed to the doctor. "There, that should be an antidote!" He grinned.
The doctor inspected the bottle. He seemed unsure of something. But his face showed anger, and he believed that he was tricked. Doctor Shelco threw the bottle at Luneth's stomach, causing Luneth to clutch onto his stomach and groan in pain.
"OW!" Luneth yelped.
"To be fair, Luneth," Desch began, trying not to grin at how Luneth got smacked in the stomach. "He did say he would thump you with a…placebo…" Desch sniggered at the last word.
"It's not funny!" Refia said sternly, picking up the bottle. She inspected it, just like the doctor had. "Luneth, this vial has green liquid. Antidotes have blue liquid."
"Oh, well, must've mixed them up…" Luneth managed to say sheepishly.
"Here." Arc handed the doctor a vial with blue liquid in it. "This should be the antidote.
"It better be…" Doctor Shelco muttered angrily, taking a huge gulp of the antidote. He blinked a couple of times, and sat up. He looked down at himself. The doctor looked a lot less pale now and he seemed to stop groaning. "Hey, I feel so much better now!"
Everyone grinned.
"That'll teach me for randomly sampling berries in the woods…" Doctor Shelco laughed to himself, getting up from the bed. "You know what? You guys deserve a reward!"
"If it's being punched in the stomach, I'd rather not take it…" Desch joked, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Well, fortunately not." Doctor Shelco reassured Desch, as he turned to a lamp on his bedside table. "I'll be sharing with you one of my most treasured secrets!" He pulled a part of the lamp holder, and all you could hear was a booming sound coming from one of the walls. "Go down the stairs to the end of that passage and you'll find the way to the Miralka Basin." Doctor Shelco nudged his head to the entrance of the passageway. "Just beware of any monsters in there; they can be quite fierce."
The five nodded and thanked the doctor, as the walked to the entrance of the tunnel. They walked further down the tunnel, thanking Doctor Shelco again.
"You may want to bring some light down there; it's a hell of a dark tunnel!" The doctor shouted after them, before the wall closed again and they couldn't get back in.
"Well, there is no turning back now…" Ingus murmured, checking for a way to get back in, just in case.
"Ingus is right; guess we just have to move forward!" Refia giggled.
"You guys have light, right?" Desch asked Luneth and Arc.
The two nodded.
"We can easily project light from our staffs by using fire," Arc explained, his staff already alit with fire to safely guide them through the tunnel. "That way, we'll have light and we'll scare off most of the monsters."
Luneth struggled to get his staff alit. He tried flinging it about him to try and get something out of it. But nothing happened. He flicked the orb on his staff. "Come on, work, you stupid thing…" He muttered impatiently.
"Here, let me try." Arc took the staff off of Luneth. He looked at it closely, trying to find if anything was wrong with it. He took the orb off of the staff and inspected it closely. "I know…the orb wasn't adjusted right…" Arc murmured, adjusting the orb in its correct position on the staff. "I swear, the sellers of these really need to be more accurate with these…" Arc murmured again. He tended to murmur about faults of something when something wasn't right. What he didn't notice was that the four were staring at him whilst he was murmuring and adjusting the orb. "There. That should be it now." Arc smiled, handing the staff back to Luneth.
Luneth smiled in return, and started fidgeting at his staff again. Soon, it down as it was commanded, and the staff was finally alit with fire. "There!" He grinned. Luneth rustled Arc's hair. "Where would we be without you?"
Arc smiled and blushed a little.
"Probably stuck down a hole." Ingus sniggered as a giant smirk made its way across Ingus' face.
"That was one time!" Luneth groaned, clearly annoyed.
"Can we please get going?" Refia said impatiently. "I'm not keen on standing here for much longer."
"Refia is right; we must get going." Ingus replied.
"We'll lead the way then!" Luneth grinned, walking on ahead of the others, with Arc following behind without another word.
The others began to follow the brothers as they all travelled down the stairs into the tunnel.
And of course, Doctor Shelco was right. It was dark; very dark. The five wouldn't have been getting very far without a bit of light. But thanks to Arc's eagerness to become a Black Mage and Luneth changing his job due to the difficulties he might face as a Warrior, they had light to guide them through the tunnel.
Refia let out a disgusted sound as a small rat scurried past her. "Ugh, this is disgusting…"
"Well, it is an abandoned tunnel, Refia." Luneth observed. "There are going to be some disgusting things in here."
"Still, it's the last place I want to be…" Refia murmured, not very comfortable with travelling through a tunnel.
"The quicker we walk, the sooner we'll be outta here!" Desch grinned, rustling Refia's hair.
Refia fixed her hair into place, trying not to give Desch any disapproving or angry looks. After all, she didn't want to come across like that to Desch at such an early stage of their friendship.
"Yeah, Desch is right." Luneth agreed with Desch. "Maybe if we think like that then we'll be out of here as soon as you know it, Refia!"
Refia shrugged her shoulders. "I guess…" She looked around – well, in the light being projected in the tunnel. She noticed that only Luneth's staff was projecting light. Arc's staff was nowhere to be found. In fact, Refia couldn't see Arc at all. "Hey, where did Arc go?"
The three boys looked around them. "I don't know…" They murmured. "He was here a minute ago…"
Refia let out a sigh and rolled her eyes as if she wasn't surprised. "Boys, will be boys…" Refia's staff managed to let out a light, blue glow, and she completely forgot about how she could be using her staff for a light guidance as well. She decided to walk on ahead without another word, using the light from her staff to guide her through the tunnel.
Though, not so keen on going on ahead to look for Arc, she decided to do so anyway, since it would be the right thing to do. Or maybe, Refia was just being motherly again. She knew Arc wasn't necessarily the strongest out of the four, and maybe this had led her to think that he might not cope too well on his own, especially in a dark tunnel. Alone. With monsters. But that was underestimating him of course. Nobody knew what he could really do.
As Refia continued up the tunnel, she saw a red, glowing light up ahead. It was bound to be Arc. Refia hurried along the pathway of the tunnel, and found Arc standing just outside of an exit. "Found an exit then?"
Arc turned his head and nodded at Refia. "We should be going back into the light again."
"Thank gods…" Refia sighed relieved, glad she wouldn't have to walk through darkness again with a minimal amount of light.
"I feel the same. I was never a big fan of the dark…"
"I don't think anyone else was." Refia chuckled.
"Well, I guess we all go through the phase at one stage or another."
Refia giggled. "I think we do."
The remaining boys had caught up to Refia and Arc. They were relieved nothing had happened to the two.
"So, Arc has found an exit?" Luneth asked, even though it was obvious he found an exit.
"Obviously." Ingus stated.
"Well, I think we should get going," Refia said, walking past Arc and out into the light. "I don't want to spend another minute in here!" She shouted back to the four boys.
"I-I'm not keen in staying in longer either!" Arc ran out of the exit after Refia.
Luneth simply folded his arms and stared after Arc, who was walking along Refia now. He smirked. He knew exactly what was going on. I think somebody has crush.
"Are we gonna move on or stand gaping at an exit into light?" Desch sniggered, rustling Luneth's hair. Luneth didn't seem to mind at all. Desch smiled. "You know, you have pretty hair!" And as soon as he said that, he made a bolt out the exit.
"Hey! It's not pretty!" Luneth shouted, running after him.
Ingus began to run after everyone as well. After all, he didn't want to lag behind with his walking.
That's the end. So yeah.
"Write what you think is right."