Tales of Faith
Formation Arc – Luca Side
Chapter 24-1: The Reunion
Limni Village. That was what the signboard outside a village read. The entire village rested on one large lake. It had quite a countryside feel to its' design. The buildings are built with some sort of special timber that can be harvested near the lake, but what most could discern is that the timber is less dense than water, and it'll still float despite having any heavy weight on it. Several spots held water farms built in large boxes of timber, mills and various other fields and structures. Overall, Limni Village is a farming village which produces the best produce known in Niata.
"Huph! Hah! Hyah!"
And elsewhere in an open field, a female Pokémon dashed along the field, holding some sort of metallic bow. She is a Slurpuff. She wore a white top which is beneath a pink vest and she also wore matching shorts. Running while drawing the bow string, she shot several arrows at targets in front of her. One arrow ricocheted on a target, another hit a target at the corner, and one landed precisely at a bulls-eye. "Here I go!" she jumped in front of her, where several other targets are planted in front of her. Suddenly, the edges of the bow closed in an instant together, forming a sword. As she descended, she quickly swung the sword with both hands and sliced the targets swiftly… at least, only about three out of the ten targets were hit.
As the Slurpuff turned around to see the results, she stared silently before nodding happily. She left the open field, passing the forest. As she looked from a ledge, she hopped off and slid down quite nicely. She continued walking until she could see a large village resting on a lake. The Slurpuff happily hums as she headed to a bridge and crossed it. As she entered the village, the villagers, which the majority of them are Water-Types, that saw her, greeted her.
"Hello, Vanille!" One villager said.
"Are you getting accustomed to using your weapon?" Another villager said.
The Slurpuff smiles at them as she answered their questions. Her name is Cloudia Vanille. However, she prefers everyone to call her Vanille. After answering the villagers' questions, she headed into a house. It had quite a refreshing atmosphere. After entering, she saw a Diancle resting on a chair in front of a table. The Diancle wore some sort of brown dress that covered her entire body.
"Princess Arche, I'm back!" Vanille said.
The Diancle turns around, smiling. "It's nice to see you, Vanille. How's training?" Arche said.
Vanille smiles. "Don't worry! I'm completely fine! How's he doing now?"
"The same as every day…" Arche sighs.
"Oh… He hasn't woken up in two months…" Vanille looked down. "So… we'd just have to wait for him to wake up!"
"You're right…" Arche said. "You should visit his room, as usual." Vanille nodded. "Okay!" She walked to a door at the corridor on her right and opened it. The room contained a bed, a desk, a bookshelf and two individuals, both Politoed. One is lying on the bed, and the other is in front of the bed. The female adult Politoed in front of the bed wore a long blue dress. An apron was also worn in front of the dress. She apparently looked at the young Politoed in blue robes lying on the bed in a bit of reluctance.
"This leaves me with only one option…" The adult Politoed said, heading out of the room. Vanille continued to look at Luca, tapping his forehead a few times. He didn't respond. Soon, the adult Politoed returned to the room, with a frying pan on one hand, and a ladle on the other hand.
'A frying pan and a ladle?' Vanille wondered. 'What's she going to do with that?'
"This may be too dangerous for you, so please leave the room for a while." The adult Politoed said, ushering Vanille out of the room, and closing the door after Vanille left the room.
'What's so dangerous about a frying pan and a ladle?' Vanille wondered.
Vanille heard some loud banging from the room, followed by a surprised scream and a loud 'thump' that said that something fell on the ground. Vanille opened the door and entered the room. Luca was now lying on the floor, apparently having fallen from the bed face-first.
"I'm awake… I'm awake…" Luca mumbled while his face was still planted on the floor. "Mom… I wanted five more minutes…" He continued to mumble before stopping. "…Mom?" He looked up quickly from his position and saw the adult Politoed directly in front of him. Luca gasped for a few moments before he suddenly shot up, wrapping his arms around the adult Politoed. "Mom…! Mom! I don't believe it…! You came all the way here…!" Luca made plenty of sobs and sniffles as his eyes tear on her shoulder. Luca received a few pats on his back. He slowly withdrew his head from her shoulder. "Don't worry, Luca… you're alright now…" Luca's mother said soothingly.
"Luca! Are you alright?" Vanille asked.
"Y-Yeah…" Luca said, rubbing his eyes. "I'm oka-huh?" Luca looked at Vanille. "You changed your clothes?" he asked.
Vanille nodded. "Yup!" She twirled around once. "So, what do you think? It's pretty, isn't it?" she said. Luca nodded. "Yeah… it is…" He looked at his right. "…Isn't this my home?!" Luca asked in surprise. "Wait… so then… I'm back at Limni Village?"
"Yeah!" Vanille said. "I've got lots of things to tell you, Luca!"
"Oh…" Luca adjusted his robes. Vanille had told him about her adventure after he fell into a two-month coma. She had wanted to explore the other parts of the continents during her adventure, so she decided to bring Luca along with her. Eventually, before she left the Kingdom, she found out that his hometown is Limni Village, located at the Southern Isle continent. Princess Arche had offered to help her on her journey, although she didn't actually inform the Kingdom about this. During one of the encounters, Vanille's bow is damaged and could no longer be used. Thus, they stopped by at a town to help find a new weapon for Vanille. Eventually, Vanille settled on using bowswords. Finally, they made it to Limni Village. Vanille and Arche became acquainted with the villagers of Limni Village while they had Luca rest in his home, and are welcome by Luca's mother, Aeris H. Ezperanda.
"Yup, that's all!" Vanille said.
Luca looked at Princess Arche. "So… err… Princess Arche–"
"Just call me Arche." Arche said.
"All right… Arche." Luca said. "Are you really certain that leaving the Kingdom is alright for… you know…?"
"…" Arche didn't say anything.
"Oh… I forgot to ask you! Luca, what happened back at the gardens?" Vanille asked Luca, remembering about the gardens after Luca mentioned the Kingdom of Namdiascar.
Luca didn't say anything as he lowered his head. His mind replayed what had happened before he passed out. Elazul suddenly pointing his weapon at him, and that mysterious armored figure. And Vanille was called… a 'reject'? 'What does that mean…?' Luca thought. 'I'd better not think about this for now…' He turned his head to Vanille. "I… don't know. I suddenly felt exhausted…" Luca said.
"Oh… okay…" Vanille said. For some reason, she felt like he was hiding something. She tapped the table, wondering what she should say next.
"…What should we do?" Luca asked.
Arche faced him. "I've got something to investigate. I've been hearing voices." She said.
"Huh?" Luca and Vanille said.
"I started to hear them about some time after the Demon King had been defeated. It tells me something about an unlocked path of destiny… As I heard the voices… I can confirm that I'm hearing them… from this." Arche took out a small gem. It's coloured in quite a dark brown. "I've been holding on to this Garnet ever since I'm the princess of my kingdom… And I've heard that this is one of the Crystals that was in the lore of the Crystal Bearers… So, I thought that I should investigate in this while I'm outside the Kingdom, to see if there are any other individuals who bear Crystals…"
"You've been hearing voices from your Crystal?" Luca said. "Vanille and I do have those from the lore, but we haven't been hearing any voices…"
"Hmm… needless to say, I have to investigate." Arche told them. "If what those voices say is true, then I can't stand around and do nothing! I have to help!"
"…Oh… I remembered something…" Vanille said. "Luca, do you remember the promise you made to me, right? About helping me find my memories?"
Luca folded his arms and looked down. Soon, he remembered that he promised to help Vanille recover her lost memories. So, that plan is sound for now. "…Yeah, that's right! I did promise to help you find your memories!" He said. "So… if we're going on a journey… Hmm… I mean, we must go on a journey, then." He got up from his seat. "I'm going to talk to my Mom and tell her that I'm going on a journey." He headed to the kitchen, where Aeris was preparing some food for them.
Later, that night, Luca was looking outside the window in his bedroom. '…So, two months had passed while I was in a coma…' Luca thought. 'I wonder how everyone's doing…?' He got off from his bed, going outside of his room to the corridor. He tapped his foot silently as he started to think.
'Thinking about all of this won't help me to sleep! I've got to talk to someone… But it's late… so I only have time to talk with either Vanille or the Princess…' Luca rubbed his head, coming to a decision.
'Who should I talk to…?'
Vanille.
Arche.
Luca's head dropped to a nod. "…I should talk to Vanille." Luca said. He headed over to the room Vanille's staying in and knocked the door. "Vanille?" He called from the door. A short while passed and Vanille's voice answered. "What is it, Luca?"
"If you don't mind, could we go outside for a walk?" Luca asked her.
"A walk? Sounds good to me! Hold on…" Vanille said. A few seconds passed and the door opened. Vanille smiled from behind the door. "This is my first time going out for a walk!" she said.
"Huh? You mean, you never had– Oh, amnesia. I nearly forgot about that…" Luca said.
"Let's go!" Vanille happily skipped out of her room, heading to the front door. Luca soon followed her out of his home. Almost immediately, he regretted going out as the chilly night breeze washed over him. His body immediately shivered, legs knocking at each other. He is wearing his robes, yet, he's still freezing.
"S-So cold…" Luca mumbled. Vanille turned around. "Huh? What is it?" she asked. Luca looked at her. "Don't worry… I-I am fine…" he told her.
"Oh. Okay…" Vanille said. The two continued to walk on the wooden roads, talking about various topics that Vanille has yet to learn, until they stopped by at a port. Luca and Vanille gazed at the lake that is just around the whole village.
"Luca, your hometown is really nice…" Vanille said.
"Huh? Oh, yeah! It is nice!" Luca said. "It's not like every day you get to walk on a village floating on a lake, right?"
"Yes! It is new to me!" Vanille said. She looked down. "Luca? Can you tell me why is there another me in the water?" Vanille pointed at the water. Luca looked down. "Oh, that's just your reflection, Vanille." Luca said.
"My reflection?"
"It's like an image of yourself." Luca explained. "You get to see it because light reflects from a reflective surface and it catches the appearance of what's in front of it."
"Oh, I see…" Vanille said. Vanille looked back at her reflection. "Can we have our own reflections come to life?" Vanille asked. Luca started to ponder. "Hmm… you could put it in a way… with a twin sibling… or so… I think that some sort of replication is also possible…"
"Oh." Vanille said. She continued to look at her own reflection for a moment before she turned to face Luca. "Can you tell me what should I do when I recover my memories?"
Luca paused, tapping the port with his foot. "Err…" he mumbled. Currently, he's feeling strange right now. It feels like his head is bouncing all around him. He looked down at the lake. His reflection is looking back at him, but what is noticeable is that it's his face. It… looked different from what he normally looks like.
"Luca, what's wrong?"
When he turned around, Vanille is standing directly in front of him. "W-Whooooaaa!" Luca yelped as he lost his balance and fell backwards from the port, creating a tremendous splash in the lake.
"Ah! A-Are you okay?!" Vanille gasped. Luca emerged from the lake, climbing back up on the port.
"C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-Cu-Cold…" Luca mumbled. He was shivering all over, rapidly rubbing his arms together. He looked at Vanille. "D-D-D-Don't worry… I'm a-a-a-alright…" He told her.
"Oh, okay." Vanille said. Vanille sighed softly as she looked up at the night skies. "I'm going on a journey… What sort of new things will I come across? Will I recover my memories?" Vanille wondered. "I can't wait!"
"W-W-We have to p-p-prepare for t-t-t-tomorrow, right?" Luca said. Vanille gasped. "Oh! That's right! We should get some sleep now!" She spun around happily. "Okay, let's go back!"
"Y-Y-Yeah…" Luca mumbled. They walked back to Luca's home. After entering the house, Vanille happily waved to him as she went into her room. Luca soon went back to his room. He looked outside the window in his room, sighing deeply.
'Elazul… where are you…?' Luca thought.
Chapter 24-1 End
If you're wondering… this chapter has two slightly different scenarios. I'll mark them with numbers to indicate a different scenario that will happen during the story and explain the choice that takes effect on a certain decision.
So, anyway, we've arrived at Limni Village, Luca's hometown. And no sooner than that, he'll be going on a journey again. This version is his talk with Vanille. The next chapter is the same, but with his decision to talk to Princess Arche