Hello everyone. Here's the second chapter of the story.

It would have been up yesterday, but FanFiction is having a problem uploading documents right now. Just getting this up was a hassle.

Anyways, thanks to the people who favorited, followed, and reviewed after the first chapter. It means a lot to me.

That's all I have to say, so enjoy Chapter Two.

Disclaimer:

Dragon Quest IX is the rightful property of Square Enix and I own nothing in this story except my original characters.


Act 1 - Part 1: Grounded

(Michael's POV)

It's been three days since the incident happened, and I'm still confused about what had just happened. It's for this question that I have spent two-and-a-half days standing in front of Angel Falls' guardian statue thinking. That and my legs have grown really stiff from not moving.

There was so much to think about what had transpired over the past few days. When I first woke up after falling, I noticed my wings and halo were both gone. Now trust me, that in itself is weird, but what I found even weirder was Erinn, who had found me unconscious in the lake, and everyone else in town, could actually see me.

That fact right there disturbed me a bit, actually. It was one of the sacred lessons taught to Celestrians that mortals can never see or hear a Celestrian. But now they can see me. Why?

Beyond that little fact, I also thought of Aquila, Apus Major, and the other Celestrians who were in Observatory that night. Had others fallen with me, or was I the only one to suffer such a fate?

It was while thinking this that the carving on the base of the statue caught my eye again and I smirked while reading it: 'Michael, Guardian of Angel Falls.' This led me to think back to four days ago, when I had watched two boys from the village, Ivor and Hugo, arguing over the inscription. Ivor, who was the mayor's son and a troublemaker, kept insisting that it hadn't always said Michael, but actually used to say Aqui-something. Hugo, on the other hand, claimed that it had said Michael for as long as he could remember.

That day, a little boy had prayed that someone teach Ivor a lesson for being such a meanie to everyone else. I happily complied and smacked him upside the head. I was going to do it anyway since he said right in front of me that he didn't believe in the Guardians.

Alas, that was a different time. Now, I have nothing but my thoughts to keep me entertained. Actually, Ivor's been rather quiet as of late…

"Hey, it's that Michael character that turned up just after the earthquake the other day."

Speak of the devil…

I turned around, already annoyed with Ivor's condescending tone, and saw Ivor and Hugo walking up the hill where the statue rests. "Oi! Wakey, wakey!" Ivor shouted to me. "What are you doing there, staring off into space?"

I wasn't planning on answering him anyway, but before I could even get a chance to ignore him, Ivor continued speaking, ignoring me instead. "I don't know what Erinn thinks she's doing bothering with the likes of him. He won't tell us where he's from, his clothes are all weird…I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him!" If only I had wings…

"I bet it's his name that's got Erinn so keen." Hugo had decided to join the one-sided conversation. "It is the same as our village Guardian's, after all."

At this, Ivor snorted. "Hah! I doubt it's even his real name. I bet he's just some no-good wandering minstrel taking on a Guardian's name to get a free lunch." He turned back to me, not that I cared anymore. "Well, listen to this, oddball! I won't let you get away with any funny business on my watch."

"Yeah, watch your step!" Hugo teased. "Ivor doesn't like Erinn giving all her attention to you." I choked back a laugh at that.

Ivor spun towards Hugo and yelled at him. "Shut up, you idiot! Why would you say that?" Then something behind Hugo caught his attention. "Uh-oh!"

Erinn was walking up the hill to join us. "What's going on?" she asked. "Why do you guys keep bothering Michael?"

Ivor suddenly became very flustered, a fact that wasn't lost on anybody, especially me. "Er…hi, Erinn! Nothing's going on. Just teaching Michael here a few village rules. Anyway, we were just leaving. Come on, Hugo." They both ran down the hill and across the bridge over the lake. I couldn't help but laugh at Ivor's obvious crush on Erinn.

Erinn watched them go. "I don't know why Ivor's so full of himself these days," she murmured. "He never used to be like that." Turning back to me, she said, "Anyway, you look like you're feeling better now." She then looked around nostalgically. "Coming up here reminds me of when I found you up here." She glanced across the lake. "It was surprising, to say the least. You must have gotten caught up in the earthquake and fallen from the top of the waterfall. You're lucky you survived…" Thinking about it, I could probably credit my survival to the fact that Celestrians have stronger bodies than the mortals. While I was thinking about this, Erinn turned back to me. "Anyway, I'm heading home. There's nothing more to do at the inn for now. Enjoy your time outside, but don't overdo it, okay? I'll see you back at the house."

After watching her leave, I turned back to the statue, gave one last prayer for the safety for my fellow Celestrians, then slowly limped over to Erinn's house (My legs were still stiff).

When Erinn heard me enter, she turned away from the stove where she was working and addressed me. "Oh! Hello, Michael," she said. "You're back sooner than I expected. I'm preparing dinner at the moment, so could you please come back in a little while? Since you seem to have mostly recovered from your fall, why don't you go for a nice walk around the village and say hello to everyone?" I agreed with her and returned to the outside.

However, I didn't say hello to anybody. I was fully aware no one wanted to talk with me, so I happily ignored all of them. Many of them thought that I was the source of all the bad luck that the village had had since the earthquake – including the increased monster threat around the village and the landslide that blocked the nearby mountain pass. Not wanting any problems, I just walked around aimlessly.

As I passed Mayor Litlun's house, I heard Ivor arguing with his father. Interested, I paused outside the window to listen.

"Isn't it about time you did something useful with yourself rather than just hanging about the place causing trouble?" interrogated the mayor. "You'd do well to take a leaf out of Erinn's book. She puts in a lot of hard work at the inn, that girl."

Mentioning Erinn seemed to have touched one of Ivor's nerves, much to my humor. "Huh! What's Erinn got to do with it? I am trying to find something I want to do, anyway. And when I figure out what that is, I'll work my socks off! Probably…"

Shaking my head, I decided to head back to Erinn's. Dinner was probably ready, and I was looking forward to another one of Erinn's amazing meals. Also, I was really hungry.

When I walked in, Erinn happily greeted me. "Hello again, Michael. I've just finished supper. You look like you enjoyed your walk. I bet you're tired though, so how about we all eat than you can go to bed?"

"That sounds good," I replied. After helping her set the table, all three of us (Don't forget Flinn) ate a delicious dinner. When we had finished, I helped Erinn clean up the kitchen, then when upstairs and partook in this activity that the mortals call 'sleep.' Celestrians don't normally rest as enthusiastically as the humans do, but I found it interestingly refreshing.

The next morning, I was woken up by someone knocking softly on my bedroom door. "Michael, are you up? It's me, Erinn."

"I – yawn – am now." I'm starting to see why mortals enjoy sleep.

"Good, because Ivor's here, and he's got something or another he wants to talk to you about. He knows you're here, so I can't very well turn him away. Just give him a few minutes of you time, okay?"

After hearing here footsteps recede, I put my hand on my face and groaned. "Great."

Heading downstairs, I saw Ivor waiting nervously in the doorway. "Hey, Michael," he said. "Don't look so surprised. There's something I want to talk to you about, that's all. We can't talk about it here, though. Please come outside for a moment."

Once we left the house, we went around to the side of the house that didn't have any windows. "What do you want?" I asked him, not really in the mood for all of this drama.

"So, here's the thing," he began. "You've heard about how the pass has been blocked by a landslide, right? Well, that pass is a lifeline here in Angel Falls. We're totally cut off if we can't use it. It's a real problem for Eri- a real problem for everyone, I mean."

I smiled at his little slip-up.

"So, I was thinking: what better time for Ivor to come to rescue?"

My smile was immediately knocked off by the implied facepalm that appeared on my face.

"I'm going to clear the landslide and make it passable again. I know Erinn will be pleased as well. There's just one hitch with my perfect plan. Since the earthquake, there have been lots more monsters about, and it's pretty dangerous to leave the village now."

I had a bad feeling about where this was going…

"That's where you come in."

I knew it!

"I was thinking that maybe you could tag along. You minstrel types are generally pretty handy in a scrap, right?"

Oh, yeah. Everyone thought I was a minstrel because of my Celestial garb. Typical.

"Can I count on you to help me out?" Ivor concluded.

After taking a minute to contemplate the pros and cons of his plan, I finally answered, "Sure." I needed to get out of the village for a little while anyway. Being stuck here with nothing to do was getting really boring.

"I knew it!" he exclaimed. "Right then, you lead the way, Michael. It's easy enough to find. You just head out of the village and follow the road east. Oh, yeah, and let's keep this to ourselves, okay? We don't want everyone sticking their beaks in."

I agreed, quickly ran upstairs, grabbed my sword and bag, and headed towards the exit of the village with Ivor. However, standing by the arch at the edge of town was Hugo. "Here comes another lamb to the slaughter!" he said. "You can't go out there, you know. There are monsters about."

"Stop trying to scare people!" Ivor ordered. "We're leaving the village and there's nothing you can do to stop it."

At that moment, Hugo realized that I was standing there with Ivor. "W-wait a minute!" he said. "What are you doing with Michael, Ivor?"

"He's coming with me to help clear the landslide and stop any monsters that get in our way," Ivor explained.

"Oh, that makes everything better then. Traveling with the strange outsider with a weapon that isn't on the best terms with you into dangerous territory. That's totally safe."

"Hey!" I yelled.

"Just let us by, would you? Hold us up any longer and there'll be trouble!" threatened Ivor.

Finally, Hugo ceded, "G-go, then. I'm not stopping you." He moved aside and we walked out of the village. "But if you get tired or hurt, you'll come straight back to the village if you know what's good for you," Hugo yelled after us. "A quick rest should be enough to get your strength back up again. There's no need to be a hero!" If only he knew.

It took an hour to walk all the way to the pass, and during that time, we were attacked by seven groups of monsters: Three Slimes, two Cruelcumbers, a pack of Teeny Sanguini, a Sacksquatch, two Batterflies, a swarm of Drackys, and a Bodkin Archer. Of course, I destroyed all of them instantly with my sword. After their seventh defeat, the rest of the monsters purposely stayed out of our way.

After a while, we finally reached the pass, which was split into three paths. "Finally!" exclaimed Ivor. "We're here at last. The landslide should be around here somewhere."

I didn't really hear him, as something slightly more important had captured my attention. There, lying across the middle path, stood the engine to the Starflight Express, although it no longer had its golden glow.

Ivor seemed to have noticed that I was no longer with him, so he walked back to me. "What are you staring at?" Obviously, he couldn't see it. "There's just a bunch of fallen trees from the earthquake. I don't get what's so fascinating about it. You can be properly weird sometimes, you know that?" He turned back to the left path. "The landslide's this way. I'll go on ahead!"

After looking at it for another few seconds, I managed to turn away and follow Ivor up the path.


(No One's POV)

As Michael followed Ivor towards the landslide, a bright pink ball, unnoticed by both of them, flew out of trees and in front of the fallen locomotive. "That was weird. It was almost as if he could see the Starflight Express…"


(Michael's POV)

Ivor and I were standing in front of the landside, both surprised at how big it really was. "This is worse than I thought!" said Ivor. "Is this it? But it's so much bigger than I thought… You and I will never be able to shift this on our own. Stupid landslide. And I was all ready to see the look on Dad's face when I came back to the village a hero…" He then punched the dirt while crying. "Waaaah!" I just stood there, shaking my head.

"Hellooo!" a voice suddenly called out from the other side. "Is somebody there? Hellooo! If you're there, say something!"

We both jumped from the surprise of hearing someone else out here. "Huh?" Ivor said. "It sounds like there's someone on the other side!" I gave him a look that screamed 'No, duh!' Ignoring me, he yelled back "Hey! I'm over here. It's me, Ivor from Angel Falls. No doubt you've heard of me!" I suddenly felt a powerful desire to strangle him.

"Jings!" replied the other voice. "Someone from Angel Falls! We're soldiers sent from Stornway. King Schott sent us to clear the landslide."

"Blimey?" He turned to me. "The King of Stornway must really rate Angel Falls to bother helping us out like that."

"Yeah," I agreed. "I suppose that means we're not really needed here, then."

"Huh!" exclaimed Ivor. "Now I wish we hadn't bothered coming all this way." Finally, something we could both really agree on.

As we turned to leave, one of the soldiers called out, "Wait! There's an urgent matter we need to ask you about."

We both stopped and I yelled back, "What is it?"

"Do you know if a lass called Patty made her way to your village just after the earthquake? She works at the inn in Stornway, but she took off one day for Angel Falls and we've heard nothing of her since."

"Patty?" Ivor repeated, looking at me? I could only shrug in reply. "Nope, doesn't ring any bells," Ivor said. "Why would she come to Angel Falls anyway?"

I swear the soldier's voice sounded like it shrugged as he replied, "Aye, well, rumor has it that she was on her way there through the Hexagon. The path there's been blocked, too, so we've no way of finding out where she is."

Ivor turned to me. "The Hexagon?" he said incredulously. "That old ruin we had to go traipsing all the way through before this pass was built? No one goes there anymore. It's jam-packed with monsters and falling apart so badly it might come down on your head!" Turning back towards the soldiers, he replied, "There's no way a woman would go through there alone. The rumors must be wrong."

I somehow managed to hear a sigh from behind the wall. "Alright, well, perhaps you could just relay to your village the fact that the road will be open again soon. An if you could ask around about Patty while you're there, that'd be grand."

"No problemo!" Ivor responded. "Just leave it to me. You can always count on Ivor!" He turned to me and said, "Come on, Michael. Home time! I reckon they'll be pretty pleased to hear the news." On that note, Ivor and I turned around and left the pass, sparing one last glance towards the downed engine as I passed it.

Halfway through our walk back to the village, we were jumped by a Sacksquatch. It tackled me in the stomach, which winded me and knocked me over, but thankfully it didn't do cause a serious injury. Quickly getting back up, I drew my sword and saw that Ivor had drawn his, too. Ignoring the pain I was feeling, I ran at the menacing bag of sand and slashed it right down the middle, causing it to explode into purple dust, leaving behind a small pile of coins, which I pocketed.

Of course, now there was the problem of my now heavily bruised torso. It would be a major pain (literally and figuratively) to head all the way back to Angel Falls in my condition, so I had to come up with something fast because it was getting dark. Thinking back, I remembered a healing spell that I had been taught some time ago. Acting quickly, I placed my hand on my abdomen and began summoning the needed magic.

As I finished, I looked down and saw that all the bruises had gone away completely. "Whoa! You know magic?" shouted Ivor, surprised.

"Yeah, a bit." I replied. "Let's hurry back to the village – The sun has almost set completely."

When we finally returned to the village, the sun was barely over the horizon. Ivor headed straight home to tell his father the news and I followed. When we had finished explaining what happened, the mayor responded, "I see. So the soldiers from Stornway should have the pass cleared for us before long?"

"That's right," Ivor said. "Everyone will be so pleased to hear the news. Ivor saves the day, eh?" I sighed. Ivor clearly wasn't as observant of his father's suspiciously calm demeanor as I was.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Litlun suddenly yelled, causing Ivor to jump and me to wince. "You were foolish to go all the way out there, just the two of you. Utterly foolish!"

Confused and flustered, Ivor stuttered, "B-but! Why are you so angry? If we hadn't gone to the landslide, you'd never have known it was about to be cleared."

"So what?" replied Litlun angrily. "If I didn't know now, I'd have found out soon enough. Knowing a little bit sooner is hardly worth risking your life for. That's why I'm angry. That's why you're foolish."

"…Gah! Fine!…" Ivor said. Then he snapped his fingers. "Oh, yeah, there was something else. Something I heard from one of the soldiers. They want us to find some girl called Patty who went missing on her way here."

At this point, I have been silently walking back towards the door in order to leave the conversation, but it seems my plans were thwarted as I suddenly heard footsteps outside and Erinn ran into the room. "Wait a minute!" she yelled. "Is that true?"

Ivor nearly had a heart attack as Erinn suddenly joined our conversation. "Erinn! What are you doing here?"

Erinn angrily retorted, "What do you think? I'm here because I heard you whisked Michael off on some silly adventure!"

"I was not 'whis–'" I began to protest, but Erinn kept speaking.

"Anyway, never mind that. Is it true that Patty from Stornway has gone missing?"

"Ah, yes," Litlun said. "You're from Stornway originally, aren't you, Erinn? Do you know the woman?"

Erinn suddenly became nervous and sullen. "I seem to remember my dad talking about someone called Patty from his days in Stornway. Oh, dear! Maybe she didn't know he'd passed away and she was coming here to see him." I could see that she still missed her father as she spoke, but it quickly passed.

"Hmm…" said Litlun. "Well, I can understand everyone's concerns, but we can't very well send off a search party with no lead to go on."

"Actually," Ivor added, having recovered from the series of shocks to his system, "the soldier said something about how she might've been on her way here through the Hexagon."

Litlun's eyes widened. "Is that so? Well, even if that is the case, we still can't be of any help. The Hexagon is far too dangerous nowadays." He turned to Erinn and asked, "Erinn, why don't you take Michael home now? Try not to worry about her too much." Turning back to his son with a dangerous glare, he finished, "I'd appreciate a bit of privacy so I can talk some sense into this pig-headed son of mine."

"T-there's no need for that, Dad!" Ivor sputtered; but it was to no avail. As Erinn and I left the house, Litlun began a lengthy and scarring scolding against Ivor.

When we returned to the house, Erinn led me upstairs so we could talk. "I was so worried when I'd heard you'd left the village, Michael," she began. "You seem to be unscathed, though. You're obviously a lot tougher than I thought." I gladly accepted her praise. "Speaking of which, um…I wondered if I could ask you a favor, Michael."

"Of course," I answered. "What do you need, Erinn?"

"You see," she began, "I'm quite worried about all this talk of Patty going missing. So, I was wondering if you could-" She then stopped and shook her head. "Oh, never mind! The Hexagon is really far too dangerous. I couldn't possibly ask that much of you." She sighed. "I'm obviously worried about Patty, but it's far too dangerous to go off to the Hexagon looking for her. All we can do is pray to the Almighty to keep her safe.

Then she bowed her head and began praying right there. "Guardian Michael, please watch over Patty and see that she comes to no harm." I suddenly felt really uneasy and excused myself outside to get some fresh air.

I soon found myself before my Guardian statue once again. In the silence of the night, I was able to hear the prayers of the village in my head. Everyone in Angel Falls was praying for the same thing: for Patty and her safety.

I knelt in front of the statue. What am I supposed to do? I prayed. Help me, Almighty, please. What can I do to help all these people? To return to the Observatory? To find Patty? And what of the Starflight? The Starflight! I had completely forgotten about it in the excitement of earlier. Maybe I could use it to return to the Observatory! Oh, but I should really make sure everything is fine in the village before I leave. In that case, I know what I'm doing tomorrow.


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