"Tourists"
The girl tossed and turned underneath her blanket all night, trying to keep warm. She absolutely hated the cold.
She was a clone of Schala, and, as such, possessed all of her memories of Zeal since she had learned of her true origins. Schala had gone to the surface of the planet every now and then to talk to the Earthbound Ones. And while she enjoyed it, almost as much as she enjoyed being with Janus, the trips were quite grueling because of the ice age raging during that time. She just couldn't stand the cold.
Even though it was summer, the nights in Termina were fairly windy, and the shed that she had chosen was not particularly well-built. The air flowed quite freely through the many holes and cracks in the plywood wall, stealing valuable body heat along with it as it left.
And so Kid was miserable.
* * *
It was light when the dragoon privates came on duty to patrol the docks. During the night they were given sentry work. Basically, they were to stand there and look menacing to deter criminal activities, but during the middle of the night, there was little activity in Termina, even through the Viper Festival.
When dawn arose, however, one of the dockworkers came into the shed to begin his day, and discovered someone bundled up in there, and alerted the patrolling soldiers.
"Excuse me, miss?"
Kid slept on. Eventually she had managed to warm up the blanket to some extent, enough at least to keep her comfortable enough to fall asleep. It was her hard-won privilege, and she was going to milk it for all it was worth.
The dragoon repeated his request. "Excuse me, miss?" He tapped her lightly on the shoulder.
She opened her eyes blearily, and blinked a couple of times in the daylight to see what was going on.
"Miss, you are blocking the normal process of commerce here," the dragoon explained. "Would you please leave the shed so that the dockworkers may begin their work? If you need to take a rest feel free to go to the inn and sleep."
She was right in his face for that last remark. "Now ya look here, the only reason I'm here right now is 'cuz that lady canceled me reservation at the inn, and I ain't got no other place to stay!"
"I am sure that there must have been some other way to find shelter for the night..."
"Dammit, I ain't got time for this crap, Glenn!"
The dragoon froze. "What?"
Dammit, stupid mouth, speakin' faster than I can think, thought Kid immediately. Now how the hell am I s'posed to get out of this?
"Miss, how do you know my name? Have we met before?"
"Eh, maybe, mate."
Glenn sighed. "Regardless of what that is supposed to mean, the fact of the matter is that you are keeping the workers from doing their jobs. Would you please take your belongings and leave this shed? Go and enjoy the rest of the Viper Festival."
As he said this, more dragoons showed up, alerted by the local ranking officer. Nothing was to go wrong at the Viper Festival, and so security forces (run by the Acacia Dragoons, naturally) were being, if not paranoid, at least a bit touchy. Kid looked at the odds. She knew (or thought, at least) that she could easily take them all on, but the question was whether she wanted to. And if she did attack them, Glenn could be hurt.
So all she did was stand up, brush herself off, and push through the crowd of Dragoons.
The clocktower rang out eleven times slowly, the bells resonating in the late morning air, when Serge managed to rouse himself. He sat up and stretched, hearing the disconcerting sound of cracking vertebrae, and feeling generally sore.
He'd slept on the floor. After he and Leena had made it to the room, he'd looked at the bed as if it were eternal salvation, and had started to head in that direction. But there was only one bed in the room, and Leena had simply claimed it, pretty much ordering Serge to sleep on the ground. He'd initially refused, but Leena had made a rather intimidating show of taking her frying pan out of her bag, and laying it down on the bed...
So he sat there on the ground for a little while, mainly just blinking and trying to regain consciousness. Then he swung his legs out from under the blanket, and stood up.
Leena wasn't in the room. Nor was there any noise from the adjoining bathroom, although Serge was, all things considered, quite reluctant to check. If she wasn't there, then what? Was she already up and about, wandering around the town crazily? He sat there and pondered what to do.
The question resolved itself about a minute later when Serge heard the sound of the deadbolt on the door unlocking. Leena followed, carrying with her a paper bag, presumably full of food.
"Here you go! I got you breakfast!" It would have seemed like a coincidence, but Serge was so attuned to waking up at 11 that no matter where he was, he'd get up then unless external forces intervened. So it figured that she would know when exactly to bring breakfast. The more puzzling question was, why exactly did she bother? Of course, food always outweighs hanging questions about life and (interpersonal) relationships. Serge opened the bag, took out a croissant, and started eating it slowly.
As he ate, Leena took from her satchel a stack of flyers that she'd accumulated while wandering about, advertising yet more things to do and see during the Viper Festival. "There's a tour of Viper Manor at 2, and we'd get to meet General Viper and the Devas. There's..."
Why, oh, why, does she sound like such a tourist? It's a big event, sure, but still... it can't be that important to her.... can it?
"...and then of course, the concert which we'll go to at about 6." A moment of awkward silence. "Um, Serge? Did you catch all of that?"
He nodded quickly. No sense in getting yourself hurt for no reason, he figured. And about thirty minutes passed quietly while he ate, and Leena pored over the flyers again and again.
"Anyone on the tour, please follow me! You will not be permitted through the gates of Viper Manor unless you are clearly on the tour!" The throng of people obediently followed the blond-haired man as he walked backwards up the steps leading to the front door of the manor. He looked around, scanning the crowd as he walked. "Is everyone on the tour following me? And can you all hear me?"
He waited for various responses. "Alright then, let's get started.
"My name is Dario, and I am one of the four Devas of the Acacian Dragoons. Today I'm going to show you around Viper Manor..."
He continued on in that vein for a while. Leena stared at him, wide-eyed, drinking in every word he was saying, while Serge was trying his hardest not to fall asleep standing up. A noble, but losing battle.
The tour had gone into the privates' barracks and was in the kitchen when Serge fell asleep... the first time. It was a nap that lasted all of a millisecond, because he began to lose his balance as soon as he lost consciousness. Serge straightened himself out carefully, shook his head, and tried his hardest to stay awake.
The second happening was in the library, when Dario had suggested that the people on the tour sit down to rest their legs. Almost immediately, Serge leaned against a bookcase and fell asleep. Again, he woke up almost instantly, but in that second he was out, he remembered a fraction of the grand dream he'd had yesterday.
The man standing in front of them, the Deva Dario... whether he had lived or died depended on whether Serge had. It was a boost to the ego to know that his mere existence had changed things, at least in the dream, but on the other hand, it was ridiculously perplexing. What had been going on?
Before he could think any further, Dario stood everyone up and led them to the upper levels of Viper Manor.
The concert proper was to begin at 8 PM, but there were events that were going to happen onstage prior to that, which was why there were about 500 people crammed into a location that could comfortably hold about half that, or less.
Again, the Devas had been ordered into service by General Viper to run high-profile tasks. There was a little girl standing (on top of a box, of course) behind the podium bearing the Viper insignia on the stage. She had blonde hair done up in a couple of buns, and wore a chestplate of steel armor over a blue dress.
"So, like, if you all don't know who I am... I'm Marcy, one of the four Devas of the Acacia Dragoons!"
Murmurs went through the crowd, from those who had not heard that a girl of eight years could be skilled enough at fighting to rise in the ranks to such an extent.
"And I'm here to, like, be the MC tonight at the concert! But first off, before any of the acts, General Viper would like to, like, say something to you."
The distinguished man stood up from his seat near the side of the stage. He was quite the imposing figure, given that he was exceedingly tall and well-built, and wore a polished black suit of armor that covered his entire body save his head.
It was the expected, hi-I'm-General-Viper-and-enjoy-the-concert-and-the-rest-of-the-Viper-Festival type speech. The crowd loved it, of course.
"Alright, like, first up tonight is... a man from Termina, who'd love to, like, show off his swordfighting skills... Give it up for Pierre!"
The crowd cheered wildly. A man in overly royal-looking blue clothing jumped up on stage brandishing his epee.
"That iz right, mon name iz Pierre, and moi would like to challenge any comers with mon hero's sword-fighting skill!"
More murmurs in the crowd now.
"What the hell?" yelled a large guy in the front. "He looks like a wuss! I can take him!"
"Then come on..." said Pierre quite calmly.
"Hah! Sure!" And the large man dashed up to the stage.
"What iz your name, monsieur?"
"My name's Shark!" he screamed triumphantly, his hands raised in the air. His drinking buddies in the crowd cheered madly, while the rest of the crowd was slightly less enthusiastic.
"Well zen... Shark... you may proceed."
"No sweat!"
And the large man proceeded to charge at Pierre, fist pulled back, ready to make Pierre feel the impact. "Yaaaahhhhh!"
But Pierre simply sidestepped, and jabbed at the man's back. "And moi wins. Next?"
Leena looked up at Pierre, and said to Serge, "Well, he does look like a wuss, but he's not too bad..."
Three more challengers, wielding various weapons (a knife, an axe, and a katana) similarly failed to even touch Pierre or his voluminous clothing.
"Hm, not bad," he taunted, "but you cannot match up to mon hero's ability!"
That does it, thought Serge. He's not horrible, and he seems vaguely familiar... but he's got to be taken down a peg.
Serge retrieved his swallow from the bag on his shoulder that he held it in, and started towards the front, to get to the stage.
"One last challengaire, and zen the show must go on. Ah, yes! You, young man..."
Serge stepped up. Leena immediately jumped and screamed, "Go Serge!!" at the absolute loudest volume that she could. He looked down and shook his head.
"Well? Let us begin... Serge, is it?"
Serge dashed forwards, and saw that Pierre was clearly planning to simply sidestep like he had with Shark. So he stopped short, and delivered a lateral strike at about waist level.
Pierre was clearly not expecting this, and barely had his epee there in time to push the blade away from him. He looked at Serge with some measure of respect, but he still looked smug, because he pivoted around the swallow, and aimed a jab at Serge's back. Quickly Serge spun the other way and knocked away the point of the sword with the other blade of the swallow.
The crowd roared, because at this point the battle had lasted 30 seconds, more than twice as long as any of the others had lasted without losing. Leena was cheering madly.
And suddenly Serge dodged once more, watching the epee pass his ear, and thrust forwards with the swallow. It made contact with Pierre's stomach.
"Hm... quite strong. Moi congratulaite you, Serge... and I will challenge you again someday soon."
Serge got down off the stage and headed back to where Leena was, while Pierre took a bow, and left as well.
Kid left the bar. They had refused to serve her anything alcoholic. She wasn't 18, and sure didn't look it. She'd had to settle for the "Galaxy Night," which, while a great drink in its own case, didn't bring the temporary contentness that a good amount of alcohol could.
There was a large crowd gathered near the docks, and apparently something exciting was happening on stage. So what the hell, she would go check it out.
As she neared, it appeared it was a fight on stage, pitting some wuss in blue with a fencing sword against... against a kid with a swallow!
She nearly choked. "Serge!" And she began to run.
Serge apparently won, and left the stage. As he worked his way through the crowd, a girl dashed through towards him. She screamed something giddily, and then jumped on him in a hug.
Kid remembered that girl.
After helping Serge out at Cape Howl, she'd offered to accompany him... but he'd said no. What the hell?
Either way, she'd headed to Termina to continue the search for the Frozen Flame. By the time Serge had shown up (like she knew he would), she was done checking out the city, and was about to leave...
"Gawd, you're slow!? Ya made me wait forever. Makin' a lovely lady like......!? Ahaa...... So that's it. I get it! This sheila over here is yer sweetie, eh? I'm right, ain't I? No need to be shy! I'm not so bold as to break up lover's tender moments. I'm understandin'... I'll wait till yer little date's over. Well then, have a bloody good time...!!!"
And she had left.
But this was the same girl.
And Kid was not happy.
Upon learning of her origins, she'd worked on the use of magic in its own right, without the use of Elements. She hadn't, however, learned how to control it... She turned her back on the crowd and screamed in anger.
And the sky and the earth screamed along with her.
Yay! Done with chapter 2! Finally, productivity! Well, sort of...
Regarding the Pierre thing... well, he's a weakling, but he's not that horrible at swordfighting compared to the average person... is he? I don't think so, although...
On a completely different note, I'm bad at choreographing fights. That fight scene hurt my head.
This was updated very very slowly, but... a lot of my time has been taken up with National Novel Writing Month, which is a crazy insane project to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days, or by Nov. 30th. (http://www.nanowrimo.org) I have quite a lot for that written so far, and I'm definitely going to post it on FanFiction.net after I think up a decent title... :)
And college apps. I'm 17 and a senior in high school... so I've got those to work around too... grumble mumble...
Oh yeah, review... please? Make me feel as if the time spent writing this (and not essays or the novel) has been well spent... even if you hate the story or my writing or whatever else, tell me so, so I at least know that people read this... Please?
(turns on the Bambi eyes) Pleeeeeeease?
And thanks to all of those that have reviewed already! I feel special now! :)