It was a Salamander day in early summertime, and I'd just finished harvesting crops from the orchard. I was hot, and sweaty, and tired. Tired of standing, tired of reaching up to pick those elusive mush-in-a-boxes, tired of Bud and Lisa's jabbering. So, I told them I was going into town. My only intention was to have a cold tea or two, with some light, equally cold dessert; nothing I could manage to prepare at home in this heat.
I had sponged myself off, changed my clothes, and taken my things with me. I tied my sword sheath to my belt, and took my moneybag as well.
When I arrived in town square, it was not as peaceful as I'd hoped it would be. Right in front of Amanda and Barrett's (the pub), a strange person about my age was standing, the look on his face impatient. Duelle was standing across the street; they seemed to have just finished an argument.
"Hey!" Duelle yelled at him. "At least tell me your name!"
The strange man paused, contemplating the worth of his question, no doubt. Finally, he answered. "Elazul."
He then turned around and entered the pub.
"Jeez," Duelle muttered. "He makes me sick."
I tried to shrug this off, and made my way over to the entrance of the pub. I reached for the door, and it swung open! I just barely had time to leap back before it hit me in the face. I was none the happier when I saw the person who'd rudely opened it was none other than Niccolo, the rabbit-man. "Out of the way please," he said, in his sickeningly cheerful manner. "It's important to share."
"Since when can you talk about sharing?" I muttered.
Niccolo replied, but he didn't seem to have heard me. "There I was, looking for someone to travel with, and that jerk chewed me out! How upsetting."
I snorted that off, and walked in. Aah, it was rather stuffy. It was so hot! I took a seat at the bar and ordered a cold tea. As it was near lunchtime, the place was buzzing, but behind me I thought I heard someone shouting. I turned around on my stool, and saw the person from before, this Elazul, cornering none other than poor Rachel, who worked there as a waitress. I heard her whimper, and felt disgusted. Who did this guy think he was, anyway?
"Hey," I said, stepping up to the two of them. "What are you doing, picking on her?"
He turned towards me, fire in his lapis eyes. "Silence!" he commanded me, obviously angry. "Do not interrupt!"
I raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Rachel only bit her lip and looked away.
"What are you hiding?" Elazul demanded.
I put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey!" I said.
"Leave us alone!" he retorted.
I frowned. "You're scaring her! Why are you yelling at her!? The poor girl hasn't done anything!"
Elazul gave a disgusted sigh and met my eye. "This is none of your business! Could you just go away?"
"No," I told him, coolly. "We're friends. Stop picking on my friend."
"Friends, you say?" he asked me, then scoffed. "I don't believe you!"
Rachel closed her eyes.
"Don't you have any idea?" Elazul asked her. Now his voice was changing, though, from commanding to…desperate. "Are you sure you don't know where she is?"
Rachel shook her head.
"Dammit!" Elazul swore. "I've wasted my time!"
He started to walk out, but now I was interested. "Hey!" I yelled after him.
He whirled around, glaring at me. "What now?"
I shrank back. "What happened? Are you looking for someone?" I tried to speak calmly; I wasn't after a bar fight.
He blink at my change in manner, but answered me. "A friend is missing."
"Who is she?" I asked. "What does she look like? Maybe I've seen her."
Elazul paused, looking me over, as if I might not be quite what I seemed to be. "She wears a white dress and has long hair." He paused again. "She's like a sister to me… I am worried."
There was something about his manner of speaking that made him seem so…detached, so ethereal. His voice, when calm… there was something about it. I looked him over, really well. He was wearing a blue and brown coverall, with fancy trim at the ankles. His shoes didn't look quite normal, and his ankles were wrapped in sloppy fabric. His helmet was adorned with a shield and feather, and covered in green fabric, matching that of his worn but clean cape. Most interestingly, he wore a large blue gem about his collarbone. He must be foreign. No wonder he was out this far. Instantly, I took pity.
"Let's go search for her!" I told him.
"Together, with me?" he asked, surprised.
I nodded.
"But you mustn't," he told me. Then he did a strange thing; he fingered the gem he was wearing.
"Why not? I don't see a problem with you," I said. "Besides, I'm not half bad with a sword myself!" I fingered my sheath.
When Elazul finally found his breath, he replied. "No, I would be grateful!"
"She can't have gone far," I said, thoughtfully.
Rachel, who had stayed out of the conversation for awhile, tugged on Elazul's cape. She produced, from her pocket, a tiny egg, carved out of jade.
"So..?" Elazul asked, taking it from her. "What's this..?"
Rachel whispered something unintelligible to me, but I could clearly tell it was a positive message.
"It smells like Pearl…" Elazul said. "Let's hurry!"
It smelled like Pearl? Pearl had a smell? I was confused, but I nodded a yes to him.
We exited the bar together. "Can I have your name?" he asked.
"Leora," I answered.
"All right, Leora…" he said. He fingered the egg. "There's something about this…"
"Let me see that!" I told him, recognizing something. He pressed it into my hand and my fingers closed around it. "This is jade… Mekiv jade."
"Rachel said that a lady left it in a bar the other day," Elazul told me. "It doesn't make much sense to me, but… it has Pearl's scent."
There was the scent thing again. Who was he?
"It's got to be Mekiv Caverns, then," I told Elazul. "The jade's got magical properties… if it smells like Pearl, as you say, she's got to be there."
"Where are these caverns?" asked Elazul.
"To the south of here," I replied.
Elazul took the egg back from me and gazed at it intently. He held it to his face, and closed his eyes. Then, yet another funny thing happened. The jewel he wore lit up with light for a split second, and made a sound like that of wind chimes. "Let's hurry," he said. "Pearl can only defend herself for so long."
I nodded, and we set off out of Domina. We didn't speak much on the way; though it was a bit of a walk. I was too busy thinking about Elazul. Who was he, anyway? I'd never before seen him around Domina… he was secretive, and looked at people who might be his superior as if they were out to get him. And that jewel…perhaps it was simply a magic detector? I didn't know, but something was nagging me in the back of my mind… scent…jewels… there was a connection I was just barely not making.
When we arrived at the caverns, mid-afternoon, I was slightly tired from the walk. Elazul, however, seemed to be as strong as ever. The entrance to the cavern was nestled in a combination of dry, prickly vines, and lush plants and flowers, growing from the water within through cracks in the rock. It was a lot darker when we went inside.
"I sense brilliance nearby…" Elazul murmured. "It must be Pearl! We should hurry!"
I led him through the front of the cave; this I was familiar with, but soon we were deeper than I'd ever ventured. There were Potos and blood-sucking bats attacking us at nearly every turn, but between myself and him, we took care of them. His swordplay wasn't as strong as mine, but his skills were amazing. Overall, he was the better fighter. He knew techniques that I'd never before seen… he also fought one-handed, while my sword is a two-handed blade.
At one point, we emerged into a large, hollowed-out room. The ceiling was incredibly high, even with the slight sunlight filtering in, we couldn't pinpoint the top. A Sproutling wandered around, talking to itself and smiling aimlessly.
"People don't come here often," it commented to us.
"Did you see a blonde girl in a white dress?" Elazul asked.
"She's already gone," replied the Sproutling in its calm way. The Sproutlings intrigue me, in a strange way. They're so tranquil, and soft. They don't have souls, either, so they stay forever. There's one constantly loitering outside of my house, in fact.
Elazul looked at me, and nodded. Once again, we made our way through the caverns; it grew colder and more humid. I began to shiver. I was dressed for summer, after all. After this, I'd need a vacation. I'd heard of the Gato Grottoes, and the gems that could be found there… maybe I could find something cheap and forge something out of it.
Way, way into the caves, we ran into a woman, ambling around. She didn't match Elazul's description, though. Her hair was flaming red, and tied back into a bun. There were two large orange flowers on either side, and she wore a green, Chinese-style dress, trimmed in gold. Her strong legs stuck out from the slits in the dress, on these she wore red leather ankle boots.
We were about to ask her if she'd seen anything, but she smiled coldly at us and addressed us first. "You sure are late… Pearl is this way. Hurry, go help her."
"Who are you?" demanded Elazul. "Why do you know Pearl's name?"
She didn't answer him; instead, she turned to me.
"One more thing… you'd best stay away from these people."
I blinked.
"How is it you know of us?" Elazul yelled at her. Still, she ignored him.
She brought her face level and close to mine, and smiled wickedly. "I hope you don't get turned to stone or anything…"
Stone? Me? Why? I was about to ask, when there was a scream from the next room.
"Pearl!" cried Elazul. He took me by the wrist and dragged me towards the source of the noise. This cavern appeared empty, but it couldn't have been. Elazul had definitely heard Pearl's shout coming from here. I, having researched these places, had a pretty good idea of what she had screamed at.
It appeared from behind a clump of lush, tropical plants--the kind that only grows this deep in the caverns. The large creature had matted fur, a sickly purple, mostly, but a sandy color on his belly and feet. His eyes, though wild and angry, had a certain shining of some kind of knowledge; this, however, was probably better exemplified through the large stone axe he held in his hand.
"It's a Du'Inke," I told Elazul.
"A what?" he demanded angrily. I suppose knowing its name wasn't going to help him. He unsheathed his sword and performed his Iai Strike technique. The creature stepped back, dazed. I stepped forward and began slashing.
A weapon is always created with some power of Mana… everything in this world is, after all. You and I included. When you use a weapon, with every (in my case) slash, more energy is gathered and stored. When you reach a certain peak of energy, you can let loose with the more magical techniques. Just as Elazul had done with his Iai Strike earlier, I leapt forward and struck the Du'Inke with a powerful Rising Crush. In my opinion, there is no finer weapon in this world than the two-handed sword. Slightly less powerful than the two-handed axe, yes, but so much easier to handle, especially for a lightweight like myself.
The Du'Inke struck down with its axe, making a split in the cavern floor. Elazul and I scattered; it barely missed hitting us. While it was recovering from this (see, axes are much too heavy!), Elazul and I jumped into the fray, striking with our swords. Since his was considerably faster, he filled up on energy before I did. Elazul concentrated (you could see the power flowing around him) and leaped up into the air, coming down blade-first. The Bird of Prey technique; this one I knew well. This was too much for the Du'Inke, and, badly scarred, it retreated back into the caverns.
Monsters like that are much too tough for normal swords. It would have taken considerable time to kill it, and it was simply trying to protect its territory. We couldn't really blame it, could we? The fight done, we resheathed our weapons and remembered the task at hand.
"Pearl!" Elazul called. "Where are you?"
The jewel he wore, once again, lit up and made the chiming sound. This time, however, from within the masses of tropical bushes, I heard another, higher chime and saw a light. This one was white, as opposed to Elazul's blue.
From the bushes, a very shy-looking young woman emerged. Her hair was blonde, as described, and she wore a long white dress. It was trimmed with red at her billowy skirt and sleeves… she also had a jewel in the same place that Elazul wore his, but hers was a large, round pearl. Her silver shoes were trimmed with gold and also had large pearls adorning them. I could see where she got her name.
"Elazul?" she asked. Her voice was shy, and light as a feather, but it was extremely melodious.
"Is your core all right?" Elazul asked, rushing to her side.
Core?
"Yes…" Pearl replied. She blushed. She must have been embarrassed.
Elazul's face suddenly grew incredibly stern. "I told you not to go wandering by yourself! How did you end up here?"
Pearl's face flushed even deeper. "I was, um, just thinking about things…"
"You don't need to think anymore," Elazul told her earnestly. "Right now you should just stay by my side." His face softened.
"But…" Pearl began.
Elazul's face became stern again. "That's enough!"
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Pearl hid her face.
"Hey, Elazul," I piped up. "No need to be so hard on her. She's all right, isn't that enough?"
"You stay out of this!" he retorted.
Pearl looked my way, noticing me for the first time. "Who is that?" she asked, her brown eyes sparkling with curiosity.
"Leora--" I began.
"Just someone who helped me find you," Elazul answered, cutting me off. He looked embarrassed…why? "A strange kind of person." Strange?
"Oh…" Pearl said, still looking at me.
"Well then, let's go," Elazul said, and began to walk the other way.
"But…"
"See you around."
Pearl took a step towards me and met my eyes for a fleeting moment. "Um…th-thank you…" she stuttered, her face red once more.
I smiled, and nodded.
"We're going!" Elazul barked.
"I'm sorry… I'm going, too." Pearl told him. She approached me once more, and removed a few large pouches from the pockets of her dress. "Thank you, Leora," she said. "This is for all you've done for me." She handed me the packages and ran off, following Elazul.