Woo! New chapter time! And I only missed the six-year anniversary by nine days! Also, I've been writing this for six years!? I literally can't believe it has been that long. I must've skipped a year somewhere.
Anyway, as promised, this chapter is technically the second half of the previous chapter, split in half for both time- and length-related reasons. But, just as a quick recap, Michael and friends were in the middle of searching The Bad Cave for Marionette when they got pulled into a difficult battle against Sarah, whom Jessica was only barely able to defeat.
Also, this chapter is particularly exciting for me personally, because this marks the point where some of my long-term story plans that I've been building up in the previous chapters finally start to pay off. Plus, I added something special at the end. I hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer
Dragon Quest IX is the property of Square Enix and not me and probably not you.
What I do own are my own original characters, including, but not limited to, Michael, Jessica, Allison, as well as some of the crazy things that happen to them.
Reviews:
outcast247: I'm glad you enjoyed the fight against Sarah. It was really fun to come up with a boss fight of my own. In regards to the boss of this chapter...well, you'll just have to wait and see.
Act 2 – Part 12: A Brush with Death Pt. 2
(Jessica's POV)
I have no idea how long I was asleep, but it feels like it was nowhere near long enough. I was very quickly reminded of how much everything hurt as my body began to wake up from its rest. Faced with the prospect of having to get up and deal with it, I decided I'd rather just stay here and not move.
That was, until I felt someone squeezing my neck.
My eyes snapped open, ready to fight whoever was in my sight. Instead, I was met with Allison's kind brown eyes, widened from the surprise of my sudden awakening. We stared at each other in silence for a few moments as my body calmed down from the brief panic it just experienced.
Once I felt that I had caught my breath, I opened my mouth to speak, but Allison silenced me with a finger over my lips. "Please don't try to talk," she asked. "Sarah did an incredible amount of damage to your throat, and I'm afraid talking might make it worse." I nodded in understanding, and she removed her finger and placed her hand back around my neck. I realized then that the pressure on my neck was her trying to heal me, but her healing seemed less powerful than it usually was.
Allison must've noticed the puzzled expression on my face, as she began explaining. "My staff helped amplify my Magical Mending abilities. Now that it's broken, the potency of my healing magic has been decreased. Meaning, until I can get a new weapon again, we'll just have to be careful not to get too injured, which includes getting our windpipe crushed…or our hands sliced in half!"
Her last comment seemed to be directed at Michael, whose hands were wrapped in bandages filled with Medicinal Herbs. He responded with an irritated look on his face. "Say what you want, but I still prefer this to the alternative. Unless you feel it would've been easier to heal a decapitation."
"That's not what I'm saying at all, Michael," Allison rebutted as she lifted a hand to look at my neck, wincing as she did so. "All I'm saying is, with our current resources, I may not be able to heal something that severe again. I can barely heal you guys now."
Sighing, Michael got up from where he was sitting and kneeled down next to where we were. "Speaking of which, how are you feeling, Jessica?" I just shrugged, not really able to say much more.
"She'll be fine," Allison explained. "It'll take a little while, but her throat should be able to fully recover. My main concern at this point is the severe bruising around her neck. It looks like…well, it looks like you were strangled, Jessica."
She pulled a small strip of cloth out of her bag and started sprinkling some Panacea onto it. "Could you try to sit up for me?" she asked. "Just try not to bend your neck too much." I nodded and began pushing myself up with my arms. It was a bit of a struggle until Michael reached behind me and helped push me up.
Now that I was sitting upright, Allison knelt beside me and wrapped the cloth around my neck, tying it off in the back under my hair. I sighed in relief as the medicine began to soothe the raw skin underneath. "Okay, so this should help repair your skin and reduce some of the bruises," Allison explained, standing back up. "Hopefully, it'll also provide some support to the magic I used internally so everything will heal more quickly."
Smiling reassuringly, I raised both my hands, both of which were taken as I was helped back onto my feet. It took me a second to fully regain my balance, as my legs were still a bit shaky from the whole ordeal, but I eventually managed. In the process, I noticed a massive hole in Allison's outfit near her shoulder. I pointed at it with a confused look on my face.
"Oh, that?" Allison asked, following my finger. "It was a really close call. That's all."
"That whole fight with Sarah was a really close call," Michael grumbled.
Speaking of Sarah, I looked around to see where she was, as I hadn't seen her yet. I found her body leaning against the back wall, still deep asleep with an upset expression on her face. Stella was hovering above her, having just finished using Sarah's own whip to bind her in place.
"Well, it's not my greatest attempt at restraining someone," Stella sighed, "but it should be good enough to keep her here until we come back for her later." She flew back over to us. "Good to see you up again, Jessica," she greeted. I nodded with a smile in response. "So, are we ready to keep going?" Stella asked.
"We're as good as we're going to get," Michael answered, somewhat grumpily.
"At least, considering the current circumstances," Allison added.
Grabbing all of our stuff, we continued deeper into The Bad Cave. The two kidnapper brothers paid us no mind as we hurried past them, as they were too busy searching around their living area for Marionette.
After unsuccessfully searching through the entire back half of the main cavern ourselves, we had no choice but to follow the caves deeper underground. This new area we found ourselves in was much darker than the previous cavern. There was just enough light to see that the area beyond the edges of the path descended into pure darkness. The sound of a nearby waterfall drowned out all other thoughts as we carefully began searching through this cavern.
About halfway through, the darkness was suddenly pierced by a trio of small fireballs that were launched in the distance. The fireballs seemed to hit some kind of four-legged mechanical creature. Covered in flames, the monster charged towards where the fireballs had come from, spinning its blade rapidly against a metallic looking stack. The sound of metal clashing against metal echoed throughout the cave as the stack collapsed and darkness returned to the area.
"So, we have good news and bad news," Michael announced.
"What's the good news?" Allison asked.
"It seems that there's currently a pack of Metal Medleys living in this cave, which means that all of the other monsters will be distracted hunting them for now."
"And the bad news?"
"There's a lot of predatory monsters hunting Metal Medleys in this cave, such as that Hunter Mech we just saw," Michael explained. "It would be very bad for us if one of them decided to hunt us instead."
"Well, that's flapping wonderful," Stella groaned.
"On the plus side, I think we can at least safely assume that Marionette's not in this cavern, either," Allison concluded.
"What makes you say that?"
"I feel like that monsters here would be having a field day trying to hunt an absurdly durable doll possessed with the power of death. Since they're not, she must have made it to the next level."
Allison's reasoning made sense, so we stopped our search on this floor and made our way even deeper still. It was a slow journey, though, as fights between monsters kept breaking out around us, and we had to stop and hide as the Metal Medleys got slaughtered around us. Between watching them get shredded by the Hunter Mechs and torn apart by the Riptides, I almost started feeling bad for the poor monsters. At one point, a swarm of Raving Lunaticks flew overhead, zapping the metallic stacks with a bunch of Zammles all at once. Allison gripped my arm tightly as the bugs passed by and didn't let go again until long after they had gone out of sight.
In the next part of the cave, parts of the ceiling had collapsed, allowing some sunlight to shine through at certain parts. Taking advantage of the improved visibility, we resumed our search for Marionette as we walked ever further into the depths.
Along the way, we came across a set of stones. In the dim light, I was able to make out something that was carved onto one of them:
Deep in the bowels, in the dark and murk,
There in the mire doth Tyrantula lurk.
Heed my warning, traveller and friend,
When Tyrantula appears, your journey doth end.
Reading the warning, I felt a knot growing in the bottom of my stomach. I tried getting everyone else's attention so they could read it for themselves, but they were already too far ahead, and I couldn't call out to them. Gulping silently, I tightened my grip on my wand and cautiously followed after them, keeping a careful eye out for any sudden danger.
Eventually, the narrow cave opened up into one more open cavern, which appeared to be the absolute bottom of the cave. The handful of magical torches that were mysteriously located in the room showed off several crumbling stone structures and large pools of bubbling poison. And, standing in the middle of the room, facing away from us, was Marionette.
She must've heard us approaching as she turned around with a sweet smile on her face. "Oh, hello!" she cheerfully greeted.
"Oh, thank the Almighty!" Allison praised. "We finally found you, Marionette."
Marionette's smile was quickly replaced with a look of surprise. "…M-Marionette!? H-How do you know my real name?" she asked fearfully.
"Well…" Michael began.
"I've made some charming new friends," Marionette quickly reassured, cutting Michael off. "One of them has a beard, and the other one has a mask is called 'Guv'!" She paused for a moment to think. "I think there was a girl, too, but she didn't seem very nice. She's still my friend, though." She lowered her gaze. "Only…I wasn't having much fun playing with them, so I decided to go for a walk. Are you on a walk, too?" she asked.
"Kind of," Allison started to explain. "You see-" She was suddenly interrupted by a quiet, yet ominous, roaring sound coming from the shadows above us.
"Oh, hello," Marionette greeted, looking around for the source of the sound. "Who are you?"
For a moment, there was silence. Then there was the sound of something shuffling around in the darkness, followed by some kind of creature descending from the shadows behind Marionette. When it passed into the light, it was revealed to be massive spider whose body oozed poison onto the floor. I could only assume this was the Tyrantula that we were warned about. As it looked at us with its skull-like face, I heard a sharp inhale of breath followed by a soft thud. I turned to look and found that Allison had completely fainted at the sight of the horrific bug, her face as white as a ghost. Great.
"Hchiiiiiiiiiiiih!" Tyrantula roared powerfully into the terrified face of Marionette, causing the whole cave to shake.
After a moment, Marionette regained her composure and gently curtsied before the monster. "Nice to meet you, too," she greeted. "You're very interesting-looking, aren't you? Will you be my friend?" I knew this doll was friendly to a fault; but, seriously!?
"Hchiiiiiiiiiiiih!" Tyrantula roared again as she raised her fangs. She struck at Marionette with such immense strength, the doll's body was launched through the air. Marionette landed roughly on the ground near a pool of poison, a look of surprised anguish on her face. She lay quietly, no longer moving.
With Marionette out of the way, Tyrantula now turned to just Michael and I, as Stella was busy dragging Allison's body somewhere safer. "Hchiiiiiiiiiiiih!" she roared, preparing to strike once again. However, this time, we were ready for it, and we both managed to dodge her attack.
Not giving up so easily, Tyrantula slashed her legs towards us several times, sending multiple Wind Sickles towards us. I managed to block the ones coming at me with my shield before countering with a Boom spell. The medium explosion caused Tyrantula to swing wildly around the cavern from her web while Michael slashed at her as she swung past.
Dripping poison from her wounds, Tyrantula roared in pain as she regained control of herself and pulled herself back up into the darkness above. "She's not so tough, is she?" Michael observed with a smirk. His smile quickly vanished, however, as a sizzling sound drew his attention to his sword, which was quickly being eaten away by the poison from Tyrantula's body. "Shit!" he exclaimed as he quickly dropped the weapon on the ground, which soon started sparking as its magical core became exposed. "Be extra careful with this poison. It's powerful enough to destroy weapons," he warned.
I couldn't help rolling my eyes, as I figured most of what he said was fairly obvious, but I didn't have time to think about it as, almost as if on cue, a bunch of Venomissiles rained down from above. I barely had time to dive out of the way before the blast of poison reached where I just was, instead making impact on a stone pillar, which immediately began crumbling as the poison burned through it.
Not wasting any time, I launched a single Frizz into the darkness, hoping to at least get some light up there. Instead, I quickly learned that Tyrantula's web was incredibly flammable, as it ignited upon impact and the flames rapidly spread across the ceiling. Roaring in fear and anger at the flames, Tyrantula scurried across the ceiling to an area that was less on fire. Bending her head backwards towards us, Tyrantula's eyes glowed with an Eerie Light, and I felt part of me growing slightly weaker. Then, before I could react, I found myself pinned to the floor, having gotten caught in Tyrantula's Wicked Web.
As I struggled to get free, the eight-legged monster quickly lowered herself onto the and crawled over to where I was lying. She raised her fangs in preparation to strike but stopped and hissed in pain instead as Michael stabbed her in the back with another sword he found.
"Why are you giving her all of the attention?" Michael taunted, throwing away the rapidly disappearing weapon and catching another one as it flew out of his bag. "I'm fighting you, too."
"You don't have that many extra weapons down here," Stella warned from within Michael's bag. "So, whatever you're planning to do, you better flapping do it quickly."
Taking advantage of Michael keeping Tyrantula distracted, I continued working on getting myself free of the web. Thankfully, I was still able to reach my wand. A quick flash of fire later, the web was reduced to nothing but smoke. Finally back on my feet, I wasted no time in hitting Tyrantula with another Boom, sending her swinging around the cavern again.
Fully enraged, Tyrantula once again pulled herself back to the ceiling, parts of which were still on fire. From above, she launched a massive combination of Wind Sickles and Venomissiles down upon us. It took everything I had to avoid all of the attacks as they fell around me, but, in the end, I still found myself once again stuck to the floor with another Wicked Web. This time, however, my wand was knocked out of my hand and I watched helplessly as it landed into a pool of poison, quickly exploding as its magic got released.
"Hang on, Jessica, I'm coming," Michael called out, seeing my current problem. "Quickly, Stella, I need another sword."
Instead of another sword, Stella herself flew out of his bag, her shoulders slumped. "No more."
. "No…more…" Michael took a moment to process what Stella had said. "Well, it doesn't matter. I'm coming anyway, Jessica!"
Unfortunately, it seemed Tyrantula had other ideas, as another quick set of Venomissiles struck the ground between me and him, melting the ground and trapping Michael on an island surrounded by the poison.
Above, Tyrantula let lose an incredibly powerful cry that caused the entire cavern to shake. I wouldn't be surprised if the cry was heard all the way up at the entrance to the cave. She moved across the ceiling until she was directly above me and stared directly at me with incredible anger. Becoming truly afraid, I struggled even harder to get free, but it was pointless. The web was just too strong for me to get out of by myself like this.
Raising her fangs, Tyrantula bent her legs in preparation to strike from above. As she launched herself off of the ceiling, I closed my eyes and tensed up in anticipation.
"Jessica, no!"
After a few moments, I realized nothing had happened. Cautiously opening my eyes, I was greeted with Tyrantula's face suspended just a few feet above my own. I slightly lifted my head to see what had happened, and I couldn't believe what I saw. Standing above me, tightly holding onto a spear that was currently stabbed deep into Tyrantula's body, shaking like crazy and hanging her head low with her eyes tightly closed, was Allison.
Tyrantula let out one last weak roar before dissolving away into a cloud of purple dust. Sensing that the giant spider was gone, Allison slowly opened her eyes and carefully looked around. Confirming that all of the immediate danger was gone, she immediately collapsed onto her knees besides me began cutting through the web with the tip of her spear.
"Oh, thank the Almighty you're alright, Jessica," Allison cried. "There was such a loud roar and I woke up and I saw that you were in trouble and there was a giant bug and I was scared but I remembered my dad's spear and I wasn't thinking and it all happened so fast and I'm just so happy you're okay." As she finished cutting away all of the web that had held me to the floor, she immediately pulled me into a tight hug and cried into my shoulder.
"Hey, I'm fine, too," Michael pointed out sarcastically, having managed to get back over to where we were. "Just thought you might want to know. No need to worry about me."
"Shut up, Michael," Stella scolded. "Let them have their flapping moment."
"Sorry," Allison apologized, pulling away from me. "I'm sorry I wasn't more help in the fight. But it was a giant horrifying bug, and I…I…" I placed a hand on her shoulder reassuringly and gave her an appreciative smile.
"You mentioned that this was your dad's spear?" Michael asked, changing the subject.
"Oh, yeah," Allison answered. "He had given it to me before we had left Dourbridge. I had completely forgotten about it until now."
"It must be incredibly strong," Michael observed.
"Yeah, my dad mentioned something about it being made of magically-reinforced steel or something like that. It's supposed to be near indestructible."
"Well, that explains why it didn't melt."
"…Why would it have melted?" Allison asked, confused.
"All of this poison that came from that giant spider," Michael explained, gesturing around the room, "is powerful enough to melt through stone and metal. That's how Jessica and I lost all of our weapons."
"You're telling me that I stood underneath and stabbed a giant spider filled with poison that is acidic enough to dissolve metal with my dad's family heirloom?"
"Yeah, honestly it's a miracle that both you and Jessica managed to come out of that unscathed," Michael answered. "I would've expected the poison to just come spilling out all over you after stabbing it like that."
Allison put a hand over her forehead and started trembling again. "Oh, I don't feel so good…" I grabbed her arms to help stabilize her so she wouldn't fall again, but she quickly shot back up again on her own. "Speaking of feeling good, I just realized something! Now that I have a weapon again, I should be able to properly heal you guys again."
"Are you sure a spear will give you the same magical boost as a staff?" Michael asked.
"Eh. Tomatoes, potatoes," Allison replied.
"I…don't think that's how that saying goes, Allison," Stella pointed out.
"No, but I figured 'Tomatoes, tomatoes' would make no sense when written down in your Battle Records."
"That's…considerate of you, I guess?" Stella shrugged.
"Anyway, let's test out my healing magic. Hold still, Jessica." Placing one hand on my neck while holding her spear in the other, I felt a soothing wave of magic flow through my neck, much more powerful than it was earlier. Undoing the cloth that was wrapped around my neck, she quickly looked me over. "Well, the outside of your neck appears to have fully healed. How's it feeling on the inside? Try saying something."
Looking around the area, I sighed, then smiled. "This sucked."
"Of course that's the first flapping thing she says," Stella groaned. "Why am I not surprised? Well, whatever. I guess I'll give you a pass for now, considering you were the only useful one in that fight."
"Excuse me?" Michael asked, offended.
"No offense to you to," Stella explained, "but between Allison fainting and your swords melting like butter, Jessica's the only one who actually flapping did anything in that fight."
"Stella, as much as I would love to agree with you," I giggled, "considering how many times these two have saved my life, I think it'd be fair to at least give them a little bit of credit. Of course, I am the only one who paid enough attention to actually figure out that there was a horrible monster that lived down here, and that its name was Tyrantula"
"Wait, what?" Allison asked.
"You just made that name up," Michael asserted.
Before we could argue about it further, a man's voice called out from behind us. "Oi! Miss!"
It took us a second to figure out what he was talking about before we remembered what was going on. "Marionette!" we all cried out together. We had forgotten about her completely.
We quickly ran over to where she was still lying, having not moved an inch since Tyrantula attacked her. We were quickly joined by the two men who had kidnapped her in the first place.
"M-Miss?" the larger man cautiously asked, seeing her still body. "Pull yerself together, love! Come on!"
No response.
The first man turned slowly towards the second. "Oh, crikey… She's a goner!"
"Watch it, Guv!" the smaller man suddenly called out.
All of a sudden, Marionette began moving again. She quickly stood up and stretched, brushing off her dress. "Oh, dearie me," she calmly exclaimed. "What a shock!"
The larger man jumped nearly a foot off the ground and spun to face Marionette. "'Ang abaht! Ain't you…s'posed to be dead?" He backed away slowly. "Th-This place is 'aunted! I-I'm getting' out of 'ere!"
The two kidnappers quickly turned and fled back to where they had come. "Heeelp!" they yelled. "There's a monster in 'ere! Help! HEEELP!"
An awkward silence filled the cavern, which was eventually broken by Marionette herself. "A…monster…?" she breathed. "Monsters are those nasty creatures that no one ever likes in story books…" Even though I knew she was just a doll, I still felt my heart break as Marionette lowered her head. "I understand now," she sniffled. "I suppose I always knew deep down… I'm sorry, Marion, but I'm just no good at being mortal…" She paused to cry for a moment. "All these people aren't really my friends. They only like me for the things I give them." She fell to her knees, unable to control her tears. "I've tried, Marion, for your sake… But I'll never be able to make true friends." She paused for a moment. "…I'm just a monster.
"You…are no monster…" a voice called out. Marion's voice. "You are…my one true friend…" Marion's ghost appeared before Marionette. "My best friend, Marionette."
Marionette quickly jumped up to her feet, her tears replaced with a joyful expression, similar to that of a puppy. "You're back!" she happily exclaimed. "Did you go out somewhere nice? Let's play! What do you want to play?"
Marion stared sadly at her doll for a moment. "I-I'm sorry, Marionette. We can't play anymore. We can't ever play again."
Marionette looked like her heart had broken. "Don't you like me anymore?" she pleaded. "Is that why you don't want to play with me?"
Marion shook her head. "I was all alone in the world, Marionette. You were the one who kept me going. But now… Now, you are all alone."
"Alone?"
"You brought me such happiness. I, I…"
"Happiness! Yes! I'm always happy when I'm with you, Marion."
"I'm so sorry," Marion apologized. "Be free now, Marionette. Forget about my dying wish. Just be free." Wiping her tears, Marion became wrapped in the familiar blue glow of a ghost coming to peace. "I am Marion. You are Marionette," she explained. "I have to go somewhere far, far away. The Celestrians are coming to take me. Don't pretend to be me anymore. You are Marionette. Go back to being a doll now."
"Thank you…Marionette… Thank you…my one true friend… May you…find happiness…" Marion closed her eyes, and with a flash of blinding light, her ghost was gone, finally free of her guilt.
"Marion has gone on a long journey," Marionette acknowledged, "so I must go back to being a doll. But first I must tell everyone that Marion's going away…" Without another word, Marionette walked out of the cavern, presumably back to Bloomingdale.
Our own journey back through the cave was rather silent and uneventful. No one really said anything until we reached the cavern where we had fought Sarah.
"Where'd she go!?" Stella exclaimed. "Don't tell me she managed to get away!"
"You don't think she's waiting nearby to attack as again, do you?" Allison asked, looking around cautiously.
"No…," I answered with a hint of pity. "I have a feeling she won't be a danger to us for a long while."
Back in the Bloome residence, everything seemed to feel almost like normal again. Much of the former staff had returned and were busy tidying up the dust that the large house had accumulated in their absence. On the way back to Marion's room, we were stopped by her nanny.
"Oh hello, dears!" she greeted us. "Ms. Marion told me all about your heroic deeds! How you saved her from those rogues and all. Oh, bless you, you little angels! I'm so glad Ms. Marion's got friends like you."
"Oh, so Marion's here already?" Michael asked.
"She was," the nanny answered. "She's set off on her travels already. She paid her respects to her dear ma and pa and then she left."
Thanking her for her help, we continued on to Marion's room. Unsurprisingly, it was empty, so we continued through into the courtyard. Once there, we headed to Marion's secret grave, hidden in the shadows of the trees. There, sitting against the stone, was a single doll, designed to be the spitting image of Ms. Marion.
We stood there in silence for a few minutes, offering our prayers for both Ms. Marion and Marionette, her one true friend. My heart weighed heavy with the events of the day, as well as the knowledge that every single being in the world that knew that Marion had passed away was currently standing in this courtyard.
After a few moments, something rolled off the doll's dress and into the grass at our feet. It was a shining golden fruit. A Fygg. Our fourth one. Carefully, Michael bent down and picked up the fruit. After glaring at it for a few seconds, he gently placed it into his bag.
"Three more to go," Michael stated.
"Over halfway done," Allison noted.
"I don't know if I can take three more of these," I sighed, fearful for whatever pain the last three Fyggs may bring.
"This was definitely one of the worst Fyggs of the bunch. Maybe the rest won't be so bad," Stella reasoned.
Another period of silence passed, this time interrupted by someone else entering the courtyard. "There it is!" a woman exclaimed. "However did Marion's doll end up here?" We turned to see that the nanny had joined us in the courtyard. "Come along, Marionette. Let's get you back to Marion's bedroom so you'll be there when she comes home."
We stepped back to let the nanny pass, who walked up to Marionette, gently picked her up, and carried her back towards Marion's bedroom. Before she opened the door, though, she turned to us once more. "Oh, yes. Mr. Michael…"
"Yes?" Michael replied.
"Marion wanted you to know that you can have her ship. Apparently, the ship's warden is waiting for you on the jetty. He's abreast of the situation, too." She smiled kindly at us. "Goodbye then, dears."
"You know," Stella shared, "I thought I would've been happier to hear that we finally got ourselves a boat."
After the day that we had had, we decided to spend the rest of the evening just hanging around in Bloomingdale. Countless rumors about what had happened that afternoon had spread around the city, leading to many curious glances towards us as we walked through the streets, but we mostly ignored them.
One of our stops that evening was at the local weapon shop, as we had all lost our weapons throughout the day. Each of us took our time looking through the different weapons they had available to buy, and when we were finished, we all met outside to share what we had chosen.
"I just decided to keep it simple and get another sword," Michael explained, showing off his new sword, whose platinum body gleamed in the setting sunlight.
"It definitely looks impressive enough," Allison reviewed. "As for me, though, I ended up not actually buying anything."
"Why not?" I asked. "Your staff got destroyed."
"Yeah, but I think I'm just going to keep using my dad's spear," Allison answered. "It just feels good to me, you know?"
"It's certainly a fine weapon," Michael agreed. "I have no complaints with it, considering what it has done for us already. What about you, Jessica? Did you end up getting another wand?"
"Actually, no," I answered. "I ended up deciding on getting a knife instead."
"A knife?" Allison asked, surprised. "Why would you choose that?"
"Well, I have had experience using a knife in the past, and I think I would be better able to defend myself if I had a short-range option that didn't involve blowing something up in my face."
"That makes sense to me," Michael responded. "Just make sure you don't accidentally stab somebody with it."
"Don't worry, Michael," I reassured. "If I'm going to accidentally stab someone, it's going to be you…that sounded a lot worse than I thought it was going to. I'm sorry."
Michael just started laughing, with the rest of us joining him shortly. "Alright," Michael breathed. "I think it's clear we're all pretty tired after today. Let's just call it a night, huh? After all, tomorrow we head out to sea in search of the last three Fyggs."
(No one's POV)
A certain thief sat silently in his boat, staring out over the ocean, an irritated look on his face. As the boat rocked gently in the wind, a young woman dressed in shadows approached from behind.
"Zachary, sir, there's still no sign of Sarah."
"So it is," Zachary sighed. "Well, we can't wait any longer for her, can we, Willow?"
"No, sir?" Willow answered cautiously.
"Exactly right," Zachary confirmed. "Destiny waits for no man nor monster, and we've got someplace to be." He turned towards the stern of the boat, where Marshall helmed the ship. "Marshall, you're familiar with Gleeban naval craft, correct?" Marshall only nodded in response, remaining ever silent. "Excellent. Take us to that one," he commanded, pointing in the direction that he was previously staring, where, just barely visible over the horizon, sailed a ship. "There's someone on that boat that I'd very much like to meet."
(No one's POV)
The Royal Gleeban Aqueus was one of the most well-known ships of the Gleeban navy. A large passenger ship, it carried folks between the Kingdom of Stornway and the Gleeban Monarchy, with a brief stop at Newid Isle along the way. Having left Newid Isle earlier in the day, the ship smoothly sailed through the open sea, on schedule to arrive at Gleeba early the next morning. Thanks to the good weather, many of the ship's passengers could be found enjoying themselves on the deck of the ship.
A maid from Stornway Castle lounged upon one of the available deck chairs, happy to finally be able to take a vacation. Sitting beside her was a warrior, who was happily sharing a story about a time when she fought countless monsters in the Doomingale Forest until she ended up passing out. A priest sat on the other side of the warrior, rolling his eyes but otherwise letting his partner tell her version of the story.
On another part of the deck, a young martial artist from Porth Llaffan was participating in some practice spars against a Coffinwellian minstrel. The minstrel easily deflected his punches with her fan but was impressed nonetheless by the sheer speed and power behind each attack.
Standing off in a corner by himself, a young man stared wistfully at a pedant that his mother had given him before she passed. Though he was nearly to Gleeba, his mind remained in Bloomingdale, where the love of his life lay ill, unable to be helped by the local priests. Taking a deep breath, he prayed that he would be able to find some exotic medicine in the desert kingdom that could save his love.
A young paladin patrolled around the deck, keeping an eye out for any potential trouble that might put someone in danger. The longer she walked, though, the faster she stepped. Probably because she was trying to escape the flirtatious advances of an arrogant warrior who had just come from Alltrades Abbey.
Elsewhere, a young boy from Dourbridge was being scolded by a martial artist on his way home to Gleeba. The boy was starting to realize that maybe it was not such a good idea to run away from home.
At the stern of the ship, a thief and a ranger were in the middle of a heated argument. Supposedly, the thief was trying to claim that he was fast enough to pull one of the ranger's arrows out of midair. In response, the ranger was telling him where he could stick one of her arrows.
Sitting in a quiet corner by himself, a brand new armamentalist was reading through a beginner's guide for his vocation, trying to get familiar with the art of Fource skills.
Standing upon a higher platform of the deck, a group of older adventurers comprised of a martial artist, a ranger, and an armamentalist stood around, reminiscing about their past experiences together and sharing their excitement to meet up with an old friend again in Gleeba.
Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration to claim that the Royal Gleeban Aqueus carried all kinds of people from all over the world; a task that it has performed without fail for decades. However, as life so unfairly ensures, there is a first time for everything.
Okay, real talk. Does anyone else just absolutely tear up during the final conversation between Marion and Marionette? I can't be the only one, right? I forgot how absolutely tragic this whole arc was until I had to go through it again to write this chapter, and let me tell you, my feels were not prepared.
But, at the very least, our heroes managed to remove one more Fygg from the world, and now finally have a boat to call their own. Plus, with four of the seven Fyggs recovered, that means that Act 2 is over halfway done at this point. That's wild to think about.
Beyond that, it seems that Zachary has another devious plan up his sleeve. What will it be this time? We'll just have to wait and see.
Also, I have an announcement that I've been waiting literally years to make: The fourth party member has officially made their first appearance in the story this chapter. One of the passengers on the Royal Gleeban Aqueus will become the final person to join Michael's party. Which one will it be? Well, you'll just have to guess until next chapter. Also, if you find that some of the passengers seem familiar, many of them are based on reviews from chapters when I had asked for suggestions on how I should introduce the remaining party members. There were so many great ideas, I decided I had to find a way to include them all, even if so briefly.
Anyway, I hope you really enjoyed this chapter. From this point on, things are going to start getting a lot more interesting in the world of my story. I hope you're as excited as I am to see what I have planned for the future.
I'd say you should expect the next chapter around August, but nothing in this world is certain anymore, so who even knows. Probably August, though. Unless it isn't (It probably is (maybe)).
In any case, until next time, this has been D~F.
