Chapter 1:
The mysterious Rune makes a friend
The waves crashed gently on the shore outside of the tiny
port town of Arni. A gentle breeze blew through the usually fairly busy town,
which now stood empty save the lone visitor at the entrance. Rune found the
absence of life confusing, but not as confusing as the news he'd received in
Termina. An evil man named Serge, and all of the terror he had caused in El
Nido. Rune had never heard of Serge before, and was even more surprised to hear
that the notorious villain Lynx, the destroyer of Guardia, had evidently turned
over a new leaf. The thought sickened him, but it didn't change his resolve. He
was going to get revenge for Guardia, if it was the last thing he did.
He shook his head, fearing that this Serge character had
killed everyone. He'd hoped to get information from these people, and the
thought of another town wiped out… It was unnerving, but he knew that he had to
search the village.
It turned out that Rune's luck suddenly changed for the
better. He found a young girl sitting on the dock gathering some small fish
with a net. She had red hair that fell down to her hips, and a large frying pan
strapped to her back. As Rune approached her, she reached up and ripped the pan
from the make shift sheath, whirling around to face him. Rune held his hands
up, giving her a nervous smile.
"Don't hit me!" He exclaimed, waving his hands. "I'm a good
guy!" The girl looked him over, and narrowed her eyes.
"You're with Porre."
Rune shook his head, tearing his badge off.
"No I'm not." He said pointedly. "I used them to get a ride
out here to El Nido. I'm from Guardia… Well, North Porre…" The girl looked at
him with her green eyes, as if she understood the pain he held inside him.
"Oh…" She said softly, lowering the pan. "You're a boy from
the old country…"
Rune nodded.
"Yeah… I lived through the war. My father fought for the
king." He smiled a bit, remembering the happy times in his childhood. "He was a
great knight… He fought to his last…" He shook his head, scattering the
memories. He frowned a bit. "But that's not important right now. Are you here
all alone?"
The girl lifted the pan a bit, then nodded.
"The others are hiding at the Elder's. I came to get
baitfish for the fishermen. They go out and get us food at night."
Rune nodded and took a step back, making the girl relax.
"Well that's good." He said with a sigh. "I'm glad that
Arni wasn't wiped out. When I got here and saw how empty it was…"
"That's because of…"
The girl turned away suddenly, and went back to bait fish
catching, her head bowed. Rune sat next to her, taking a net as well.
"May I help?" He asked. The girl nodded a bit, and Rune
began to try to scoop the fish into his net. He wasn't very good at it, and in
the end, he grinned at the girl. "I'm kinda sucky at fishing. I grew up in the
woods."
The girl giggled a bit despite her evident worry.
"You won't make it in El Nido then. We're all about
fishing." She scooped some fish up, placing them in her bucket. She sat back,
looking at the sky. "What brings you to El Nido anyway, Mr. um…"
"Rune." He said, looking up at the sky. "I've come to El
Nido because I have a bit of a score to settle…" He looked at her. "What's your
name?"
The girl smiled.
"I'm Leena." She replied.
Rune grinned.
"Okay, Leena. Do you know that much about Lynx?"
Leena looked at him sharply, her eyes wide.
"You're here for Lynx too?!"
Rune blinked.
"Who else…? Oh." He said flatly. "You must have met Kid.
Quite the charmer, eh?"
"I thought you'd know her." Said Leena. "She lives to kill
Lynx."
Rune nodded.
"That's because of what he did to her, and Guardia." He
looked out across the sea to some small islands off in the distance. "He killed
her best friend. He also murdered King Chrono and his family, and burned my
hometown to the ground… He killed my family as well… He and Porre…" Rune looked
down, and Leena placed her hand on his shoulder.
"It must have been awful…" She said softly. "I can't
imagine… How old were you…?
"Three." Rune said, frowning. "I wasn't even sure what war
was… I didn't understand it until I saw my mother killed right in front of me…"
Leena bowed her head.
"Porre invaded us just after Serge…" She sighed. "I don't
understand this world…" Rune blinked at her.
"You know this Serge character?" He asked in surprise.
Leena nodded.
"Yes… I thought that he was just confused… You see… He
swore to me that he was a boy that had died here ten years ago. When Lynx
confirmed it… I was shocked. I didn't know what to say…"
Rune blinked.
"He's a ghost?"
Leena shook her head.
"No. He came… From another world."
Rune nearly dropped his net.
"Another world?! What…"
Leena stood up, gazing into the sky.
"We were told that there is another world, just like this
one in another plane." She turned back to him. "In that world, he never died.
He grew up, and became very strong. But something drew him here… I don't know
what, but whatever it was, wanted him to alter the course of this world's
future."
Rune looked down, his face paling.
"Was it… Lynx?"
Leena nodded.
"I think so. Lynx and Serge… I don't know… They switched
bodies or something the last time they fought… It's so eerie…" She looked down
this time, as if the memory was causing her great pain. "It's so eerie to see
Serge's smile on that monster's face… He came here, to try and get me to help
him beat Lynx, but I refused… I can't travel with him when he's like that… It
hurts every time I look at him…"
Rune grinned a bit.
"Can you imagine what it must be like for your friend
Serge? To wake up every morning… And see a face in the mirror that is not
his…?" Rune gazed up at the sky, his eyes burning. "To ache in the inside… Each
time he sees his own eyes on the face of another…?" He realized that Leena was
staring at him, and he quieted down a bit. "I'm sorry…"
Leena smiled weakly.
"It's okay… But you sound like you know what he's going
through first hand…"
Rune sighed.
"It's only because… I pretend to be something I'm not…" He
looked at Leena. "I've tried my whole life to live up to what my father was… He
was such a great fighter… But no matter how hard I try, I just can't live up to
him. He drew his sword and looked at his reflection as if transfixed. "And
every time I look in the mirror… I see my father staring back at me…"
"Rune…" Leena smiled at him a bit, and then tapped the hilt
of his sword. "The fact that you fight against someone as terrible as Lynx gives
you merit… You're fighting for El Nido now. You're fighting for all of us, just
like Serge is…" She stood up, and looked out towards the islands. "And I need
to fight too." She turned to him, and smiled again. "Rune, may I come with you?
We can meet up with Serge, and maybe help him become himself again."
Rune looked at the ground.
"Leena… I've always fought solo…"
Leena placed her hands on her hips, glaring at him.
"Then it's time for a duet! Come on!" She pleaded. "Please take
me with you! I'm an okay fighter, and besides… Isn't it lonely on your own?"
Rune looked at the ground.
"You remind me of my mom…" He sighed, then looked back at
her. "Okay, Leena. You can come… And don't worry, I'll protect you."
Leena smiled.
"Great! Let's get going, okay? I've got all my gear—my
mother wouldn't let me leave the elder's place without it."
Rune blinked.
"Shouldn't you tell your mother where you're going?"
Leena smiled weakly.
"Rune… Would your mother have let you fight for Guardia…?
Do you think that mine will let me leave Arni?"
"I suppose… You have a point…" He said softly. He glanced
over his shoulder towards the town. "We'd better leave quickly then."
Leena nodded. She placed the bucket of fish down near the
center of the dock, and pulled her ribbon out of her hair. She tied it to the
bucket, and then turned back to Rune.
"Mom will know I'm alright." She assured him. "If I had
been attacked, I wouldn't have had time to tie this here." Rune nodded.
"Okay then… Let's go, Leena."
The two quickly made there way out of Arni, heading back
towards Termina. A few hours after they had left, a man came in search of
Leena. When he reached the bucket, the gulls had overturned it and were picking
at the fish. Leena's ribbon had been blown into the water, and he found it
stuck in some kelp near the dock. When he brought the ribbon, and the news of
Leena's disappearance to the others, a sorrow shot through the small town, and
Leena's mother had a stroke from the shock. The pain that Arni felt that day
had only occurred a few times in the small town's history… And one of those
times was ten years ago… When a young boy named Serge had been swallowed up by
the waves…
