Legend of Mana: Odyssey of Shadows

Chapter 4: The Other One.

"Well this was a crappy day." Ihrie said with absolute disgust in her voice. She had just wasted a whole day in the Mindas Ruins trying to figure out which Flowerling opened which freaking door and it had proved absolutely impossible, especially with all those stupid monsters wandering about and having to fight them at every turn. Finally, to make matters worse it had been an unusually hot day and Ihrie had chosen that day to wear her vizel gold helmet and her light, full-bodied, suit of armour, that she had forged herself.

"An absolute waste of my time!" She shouted to the sky. If anything, Ihrie hated wasting time the most of all. As she sat down on a large rock at the entrance to the Mindas Ruins, which were rumored to be the last remaining pieces of the world before the War of Mana, she took off her vizel gold plated helmet and just let it fall to the ground. Shaking her light brown/blonde hair out of the suit, it was all matted with sweat, she wiped her forehead. Forgetting that she had her metal gauntlets on, she caught some of her hair in-between the metal slips.

"Ouch!" She cried in pain as a large bundle of hair was pulled free from her head. This made her furious since she was proud of her hair and she picked up the helmet and slammed it onto the rock she was sitting on. The vizel gold plated helmet was strong, but her fury turned to be too much and a large dent appeared in the helmet's side. Unfortunately this made Ihrie even more enraged.

It was close to midnight by the time Ihrie arrived home. She lived at Polpota Harbor next to the Fa'diel continent's northern ocean, which had no name. The Harbor was only several miles north of the Highway that connected Domina to the Gato Grottoes. The Gato Grottoes was the name of a city buillt into the side of a mountain. Actually the cities' name was Gato, that's how most people referred to it as. Grottoes was the mountain range's name.

Ihrie dragged herself up the bridge that connected the harbor to the mainland. The harbor was mostly made out of huge seashells and was constructed several hundred feet out into the Ocean to reduced the risk of ships running aground as they entered the harbor. After Ihrie crossed the bridge, she passed by the Sea Side Hotel, walked down a short wooden planked road past the docks, and arrived at her home. On the outside it looked like an unusually large seashell with a wooden door in the side. But on the inside the shell concealed a spiral stairway that descended several dozen feet, through the water and into the sands of the sea bed. The stairway was actually inside one of the main support struts for the docks. If the strut ever collapsed, apart from flooding Ihrie's home, half of the harbor would collapse into the Ocean.

Ihrie descended the stairs and came to a large circular stone door set in the floor beneath her feet. The stone door would stop the water from flooding her home should the strut ever collapse or leak. Stepping to the side, she opened the door, and climbed in. Making sure to close the door tightly above her. All she wanted was to take a shower and go to bed. But she hadn't counted on having guests in her dinning room. She was understandably surprised but also quite pissed.

"What the Fu..!!" She nearly cursed when she realized who her guests were.

"Larc! Sierra!" Ihrie exclaimed. Sierra walked over to Ihrie and gave her a warm hug.

"It's nice to see you again." Sierra replied. Sierra and Larc were both dog warriors. They both were well taught in the ways of the Dragoon and were brother and sister.

While it was nice to see them again, Ihrie was in no mood to entertain. Ihrie roughly broke free of Sierra's hug and looked her right in the eyes. She was about to inquire about their business when she spotted a third guest in her dinning room. A Ranger sitting at the dinner table with his cloak and long sword draped over the table. Ihrie had seem a few Rangers before but they all insisted on wearing their black cloaks on at all times. But keeping in line with their fashion sense, they wore all black underneath covering all of their body, except for their face.

"Who is that?" Ihrie snapped at the Ranger. She was very tired and didn't want to have to put up with his type. Many rumors had been circulating concerning the Rangers. Things concerning the War of Mana, the Empire of old, and Mana's return, some very serious stuff. Also the fact that they wore the Omega symbol over their left breast pocket, didn't help. They might as well have worn the Christian cross upside down, for all the good it did them. Ihrie wasn't one to trust rumors, but she remained watchful in case some of the bad rumors turned out to be true.

"We don't have much time Ihrie," Larc interrupted, "But gather your things and prepare to leave."

Ihrie's eyes went wide but her mouth twisted, "What!" she snapped at him, "Are you INSANE!? I've had a very crappy day, I'm tired, hungry, and I want some sleep!"

"We have already taken that into account." The Ranger stepped in, "we've already acquired a horse and carriage to take us to our destination."

"Don't butt in blackie." Ihrie barked, "and go where might I ask?"

"You'll find out when we get there," the Ranger answered gathering his cloak and sword off the table.

"Your just going to have to trust us." Larc quickly added before Ihrie could get violent.

"I'd trust you with my life Larc," Ihrie began to calm down, "but you know I get cranky and short-tempered when I'm tired, so why can't we wait until tomorrow to go….where we're going."

Larc and Sierra just looked at each other. "We'd let you sleep and stuff, but he won't wait that long." Larc replied, pointing to the Ranger.

"Oh," Ihrie lifted an eyebrow, "and what makes Mr. Color-blind bastard so special?"

Larc started laughing, "We'll explain everything when we get to the end of the trip." Sierra interjected while leading Ihrie off into her bedroom to start packing.

"Hey wait Sierra! I didn't say I'd go on this trip! Hey!" Ihrie complained while trying to resist.

END PART 1

"Landing successful, General." A soldier saluted. The man he saluted was dressed in a suit of heavy silver armour. The only identifying mark on the armoured man was the 5 golden stars that were displayed on the front of his helmet. Behind him was a large wooden ship, big enough to carry and army on it. The ship was embedded in the sand but the front was opened and a ramp extended from somewhere inside the ship to the shore. Troops, horses, supplied and building machinery was being offloaded in large amounts.

The beach where the ship hand landed was brimming with activity. A make- shift barracks, hospital, and storeage tent had been set up to create a temporary HQ. On another part of the beach a drill instructor was putting a large platoon of troops through movement and gun drills while a squad of engineers set up siege weaponry. In additon to that, chemists were brewing healing potions for the wounded troops. While there were no wounded yet, there was expected to be many later.

The General lifted a primitive style telescope to the eye slit in his helmet and looked through it. His eye was set on the city of eternal night, Lumina. It was a city that never experienced day, always night. The only sources of light from the city were the many lamps and nightlights that were scattered throughout its many buildings. It was like a void, around the city was daylight and sunshine, but then it suddenly would stop and enter a pitch black night sky. No one had been able to explain it, but theories said that it was a place that neither Mana nor god ever touched.

However, such trivial nonsense was not on the General's mind, only conquest. "Corporal Biggs!" the general addressed the soldier that had saluted him before.

"Yes General McAuthor." Biggs saluted again.

"That city of Lumina shall be where we set up our HQ. Tell the troops to prepare to go on the offensive."

"Yes Sir!" Biggs about-faced and started marching off to the makeshift troop barracks that had been erected.

"Captain Aga!" McAuthor addressed another soldier dressed in a more formal suit.

"General McAuthor sir. How goes the invasion?" Aga questioned the General. Even though Captain Aga was a lower rank, he was also the ambassador sent from the Emperor to watch over the General, and as such was treated with more respect that even the General.

"They have no defenses in that city over there." McAuthor gestured towards Lumina. "But I expect that once word gets out we can expect much more resistance from the neighboring towns."

"And after Lumina where to then General?"

"After that we have two ways of reaching the Magic city of Geo. Through the snowfields or the desert."

Captain Aga nodded his head in agreement. "I need not remind you but it is important that you do not fail the empire."

"I know that!" McAuthor nearly shouted. "Even if we encounter more resistance than expected we have more reinforcement arriving here in a month."

"Assuming that they aren't delayed. The Sur Ocean has become very treacherous nowadays. You were there, we barely made it ourselves."

"Leave it all to me, we shall find the Tree of Mana and even if it's not here, this land'll make a fine addition to the Empire." McAuthor laughed in anticipation.

END PART 2