The three of them walked into Pandora, almost immediately noticing
something was amiss. There were little people walking around, and even
then those that wandered were unusually quiet for a busy city.
"Excuse me," Justin said to a nearby soldier, "But.is something
wrong?"
The soldier only gave him a perplex look and continued walking away.
Shrugging, Justin, Eli, Matthew continued. Soon, they reached an inn, and
it was there that all three's fears were confirmed. The inn was totally
empty. There wasn't a single patron nursing a mug of ale, or a drunkard
boasting about some small thing. Instead, there was only the innkeeper, a
tall, handsome woman who seemed upset about something.
"Excuse me," Eli said this time, "But we'd like a room. However, I'd
like to ask some questions first."
The woman only stared at her for a while. "I'm.I'm sorry, yes, we
have rooms open. What with the goblin attacks and such lately, there are
few travelers, and business has been very slow. What is it you wanted to
ask?"
"Well, for starters, why is everyone so upset?" Matt asked.
"Well." the woman began, unsure on how to respond, "There's been
troubles lately, like in all villages. Just.all the attacks are disturbing
the citizens, that's all. Now, a room for all three of you will be 5 gold
each."
Justin, unperturbed, handed over the gold. "Get the feeling she was
hiding something?" he asked tensely.
"You too?" Eli said, also tense. "Something's defiantly wrong here,
I suggest we go see the king about all this. And Justin, hide that glove
before we go in; no telling what trouble that can get us into!"
Justin only nodded and put the glove into one of his pockets, hoping
the bulge wouldn't stand out too much.
When Justin entered the castle, his eyes immediately opened wide. He couldn't believe the wealth the castle must have had, what with the beautiful tapestries and such. As they finally entered the throne room itself, his eyes became wider. There, on the ground, was a large red carpet, with 8 different figures stitched on it. He looked at the figures, and realized they were the same figures on his small pouch. Eli noticed his open stare. "Don't you know? These are the eight elements! I can't believe you haven't seen any of this before. Amnesia or not, you must have lived in a pretty backwater place not to have known that." Justin only nodded dumbly, until they reached the throne itself. At this his jaw gaped. Behind the throne were a series of tapestries that seemed to be woven into one. In one section, he saw a picture of a single sword held upright. Next to it was a picture of a girl, and another person who. Justin blinked in amazement. It was the ghost! He could scarcely believe it. "Who.who IS that?!" he asked Matt, staring dumbly. Matt looked up. "Oh, that's Dyluck," he explained, "One of the hero's of the Second Mana War. His body was possessed by the dark lich Thanatos, but he managed to weaken himself enough to be killed. His sacrifice greatly weakened Thanatos, allowing him to be defeated." "Dyluck, eh." Was all Justin could say. "Yes, and those are the other heroes. The other lad there is Randi, the Mana Knight. You've heard of him, right? That odd looking creature is Popoie, a sprite. You won't be seeing one of those in your lifetime; since Mana's return, they've stayed hidden away in their forest, killing all trespassers. They aren't taking any more risks. And that last girl, she's the healer Purim. Legends say she married Randi and went with him on his last journey, to Pureland, but legends are legends, I suppose." Matt continued. Justin only continued to nod dumbly. Finally, they were brought before the king. "Outsiders," he said, giving a half smile. "Haven't had any of you since the Dark Ring became as powerful as they do. Is there anything you wish to ask us?" Before Eli or Matt could respond, Justin leapt in. "Your Majesty, I'd like to know why everyone is so.tense around here. It's just not normal. This is a big city and all, so why is everyone so silent? I mean, the inn is totally empty, and that's just not right!" A lithe man next to the king, dressed all in black, scowled. "That is concern only for Pandora, child." The man said, "and you would do well not to delve into it." The king only nodded. " Sheen is correct. This is not your business. Now, if there's nothing else, guards, escort them to the exit." 6 nearby guards grabbed the three of them and started to carry them away before they could even respond. "Wait!" Sheen said suddenly, "The arrogant lad, the one with the blonde hair. Bring him up here to me." The guards only nodded and complied, shoving Justin up to him. Sheen studied him for a while before speaking. "You have a dark aura around you boy. More then dark. It's black as void, and stretches like a shadow. But I also see a golden light about you. Both auras seem.familiar." Sheen shrugged. "No matter. The three of you, leave us at once." "Whatever." Eli said, annoyed. Matt only muttered under his breath, and Justin followed silently out of the castle.
"That.was very odd" Justin said, "Do any of you know what that was all about?" "Probably that weird-o powers you've used" Eli responded. "Hey, lets just get back to the inn, see if we can find anything out there." When they made it back to the inn, there was a single man inside, seated at one of the stools. It seemed he hadn't noticed them come in. "I'm tellin' ya, Alice, yer man's gonna come back soon enough. Th' king just got a bit worried with the lights and all, there ain't any reason that something should still be crawling in those ruins afta' all this time." "So THAT'S it!" Justin murmured. "I've heard the stories, about how long ago those ruins were really a temple built to the Underworld, and how some evil creature used them to suck away souls. I say we go investigate." "Are you crazy?!" Matt said back, not quite as quiet. When the man and innkeeper both turned and looked at them, Matt only said "Forgot some things in our room. My friend here wants us to attempt going back to our village." The innkeeper only nodded sadly to herself, and the other man went back to his beer. "Look, we're here to get you to the water palace, and that's that. I'm hoping to meet with Undine and maybe learn some magic, but that's it!" "Wait," Eli said, "If we do find out what's going on in the ruins, we can get the king's good favor. This could help us get through the Haunted Forest!" Matt considered. "True," he finally said, "You have a strong point there. Oh fine, whatever. It's not like we can be defeated with one of the Mana Weapons, eh?"
Justin shivered as they drew closer to the ruins. "Am I the only one that thinks it's awfully stupid of us to come here at NIGHT?!" He said. Matt slapped him on the back. "Shade, Justin, calm down! Speaking of Shade, he's an element too, so if it's night I guess he'll be the one watching over us. Besides, it's just old.old." Matt stopped talking as the chill run through all of them. Something very magical, and very evil was taking place inside. "I.I told you this was a bad idea! But no, we just have to come here and be the heroes, don't we?!" Matt said, irritated. "Some heroes we'll be, lying dead and unknown in some damned ruins." "Quiet you," Eli said, "This is bad enough without you jabbering. Now, lets just go in, find those soldiers, and get out." As they approached the doors, Justin suddenly stopped walking and closed his eyes. "Something is in there." He said nervously, "something powerful, evil, and very old. We can't go in.wait, no, we must go in. I don't know!" Eli looked at Justin with concern. "Hey, you alright?" "Yeah.yeah, I'm fine. Let's get this over with" he said, clenching his teeth.
They hadn't taken two steps inside when things went wrong. As soon as all of them were inside, the door shut behind them and seemed to meld into the wall. As they all turned around in surprise, the door had completely vanished. Then the music began. Maybe once it was a beautiful symphony. Maybe kings had heard it once. Maybe the greatest organist who had ever lived wrote it. Not anymore. The music was twisted so that everything sounded off key, and it was loud enough to echo inside their ears, no matter how hard the clamped them. Turning around again to face the inside of the ruins, a sudden bright light erupted from every torch scone around. In the middle of the large room, a single figure floated above the ground. The figure seemed mauled and disfigured. Instead of arms, they could clearly see his bones, and they were colored a bright red and orange. His fingers were long, bony, and a pasty color. His legs and feet were identical to his arms. On his hand, instead of hair, his scalp twisted into three long ridges, and a single bell was attached to the ends of each of them, like a sickening jester's cap. Worst of all, he gave them a wide, open mouth smiled, and he had no teeth. Instead, a small snake slithered out of the bottom gums and into the top. "Hello, hello! Good evening to all of you! And what, might I ask, are you doing in my home?" he said. His voice was shrill and high pitched. "Why, I know! You're intruding. Nasty, mean little people. I should teach you a lesson!" The figure promptly vanished as the three stared open mouthed, and they heard growling around them. As they turned, they saw three "people" slowly making their way towards them. One had a third arm stitched to it's chest, and was holding a rusted axe in all three. The second one had only one leg, and had an arm in place of its other leg. The last one had a single eye in the middle of its forehead, and instead of hands had claws. "I take the three armed, Matt, you kill the one eyed, Justin, you take the other!" Eli said, charging at her monster with her sword. As soon as she said that, Matt threw his weighted boomerang at his, and it hit the creature's arm with a sickening *crunch* that echoed through the hall. Its left arm now hanging useless by its side, it continued to stagger towards him. He ran at the creature and rolled right past it, grabbing his boomerang. Before he could try throwing it again, however, the creature dug its claw right into Matt's side. Eli swung her sword at her choice, taking out its center arm. She ducked as it swung both of it's other axes right over her head, and brought the sword straight up to cut off it's right arm. As the monster swung its last axe at her, she blocked it with her own blade and, in the same move, removed its last arm. Still, the thing kept coming for her. Justin was having much more luck then the other two. As he hit the monster in the arm, the Mana Glove on his hand, the monster screeched and stumbled back. Swinging again, he delivered a fierce uppercut to the monster. The monster managed a single glare, then turned into dust, leaving only bones behind. Matt was slowly stepping backwards, holding his bleeding side. "Someone give me a hand!" he yelled, lacking the strength to throw his weapon hard enough to hurt the zombie. Justin replied with a kick to the creature's leg, sending it to the ground. A single punch to the face finished it off. Eli, meanwhile, had now gotten rid of her monsters legs. The evil thing looked up and mouthed at her, then turned into dust and bones. "What.were those things?" Matt asked, looking pale. "I'm not sure," Justin replied, "But I have an annoying feeling that we need to go farther into these ruins to find out." "Yes, yes, find out, find out!" the hideous person said, reappearing. "Go to the top, rescue your friends!" The creature winked at Justin. "You're here, you're here! This is good, very good! Master will be pleased. Wait, he already knows. Does he? Master is strong and sees much, mostly with you." It giggled an ear-hurting screech. "But of course he knows where you are! I'll be seeing you!" It winked again and vanished. "This is all just getting too much for me." Matt murmured, holding his head. "Let's just go to the end of these ruins, find those damned soldiers, and get out of here!"
They finally reached the end of the ruins. They encountered no more of the monsters, and Justin had ripped off part of his tunic to wrap around Matt's side. When they reached the top, they noticed a large pit in the middle. Looking down, they saw something move. It was a human in a guard uniform! "Look down there!" Justin said, looking down, "But how are we supposed to get down there?" "Well, they're tied up with ropes," Eli said, "Whoever jumps down there can tie it all into one big rope and the rest of us can use it to lift them up. But who's going to do it?" "I got it" Matt said, jumping down into the pit. He quickly untied the first soldier, and noticed small runes burned into the rope. As soon as the rope left the soldier, he began stirring. "What.who are you?" he asked groggily. "'Name's Matt" he said, "Here, gimmie a hand. Untie these other fellows and tie all the ropes together, we're gonna use it to get you out. The two of them made quick time. As soon as a soldier was untied, he woke up. Although they were asked what happened, all the soldiers simply shook their head and replied that it was their duty to tell the king only. Soon, all the soldiers were awake, and the rope was ready. "Here, help me with this too," Matt told the first soldier he had woke up. "And hey, what's your name, anyways?" "I'm John," said the soldier, taking the rope and grimacing. "That music is starting to get to me. Hey, everyone above! Incoming!" He threw the rope up towards Eli and Justin. Eli grabbed it as it came, and she and Justin quickly began bringing the soldiers up, one at a time. The other soldiers helped by lifting the person who had the rope up. After a short amount of time, everyone was up, and they all quickly made their way to the castle.
It was morning when they finally reached town limits, and Justin couldn't believe all the people that had lined up. He hadn't thought much of the fact that a few people gasped when they first came out, but apparently they went and told everyone they saw. As they passed the inn, he noticed John and the innkeeper looking at each other, and the innkeeper smiled for the first time he noticed. She glanced towards him and smiled wider, and he smiled back. "Let's go see the king again," Eli murmured, smiling, "and maybe this time he'll be a bit more polite.
When Justin entered the castle, his eyes immediately opened wide. He couldn't believe the wealth the castle must have had, what with the beautiful tapestries and such. As they finally entered the throne room itself, his eyes became wider. There, on the ground, was a large red carpet, with 8 different figures stitched on it. He looked at the figures, and realized they were the same figures on his small pouch. Eli noticed his open stare. "Don't you know? These are the eight elements! I can't believe you haven't seen any of this before. Amnesia or not, you must have lived in a pretty backwater place not to have known that." Justin only nodded dumbly, until they reached the throne itself. At this his jaw gaped. Behind the throne were a series of tapestries that seemed to be woven into one. In one section, he saw a picture of a single sword held upright. Next to it was a picture of a girl, and another person who. Justin blinked in amazement. It was the ghost! He could scarcely believe it. "Who.who IS that?!" he asked Matt, staring dumbly. Matt looked up. "Oh, that's Dyluck," he explained, "One of the hero's of the Second Mana War. His body was possessed by the dark lich Thanatos, but he managed to weaken himself enough to be killed. His sacrifice greatly weakened Thanatos, allowing him to be defeated." "Dyluck, eh." Was all Justin could say. "Yes, and those are the other heroes. The other lad there is Randi, the Mana Knight. You've heard of him, right? That odd looking creature is Popoie, a sprite. You won't be seeing one of those in your lifetime; since Mana's return, they've stayed hidden away in their forest, killing all trespassers. They aren't taking any more risks. And that last girl, she's the healer Purim. Legends say she married Randi and went with him on his last journey, to Pureland, but legends are legends, I suppose." Matt continued. Justin only continued to nod dumbly. Finally, they were brought before the king. "Outsiders," he said, giving a half smile. "Haven't had any of you since the Dark Ring became as powerful as they do. Is there anything you wish to ask us?" Before Eli or Matt could respond, Justin leapt in. "Your Majesty, I'd like to know why everyone is so.tense around here. It's just not normal. This is a big city and all, so why is everyone so silent? I mean, the inn is totally empty, and that's just not right!" A lithe man next to the king, dressed all in black, scowled. "That is concern only for Pandora, child." The man said, "and you would do well not to delve into it." The king only nodded. " Sheen is correct. This is not your business. Now, if there's nothing else, guards, escort them to the exit." 6 nearby guards grabbed the three of them and started to carry them away before they could even respond. "Wait!" Sheen said suddenly, "The arrogant lad, the one with the blonde hair. Bring him up here to me." The guards only nodded and complied, shoving Justin up to him. Sheen studied him for a while before speaking. "You have a dark aura around you boy. More then dark. It's black as void, and stretches like a shadow. But I also see a golden light about you. Both auras seem.familiar." Sheen shrugged. "No matter. The three of you, leave us at once." "Whatever." Eli said, annoyed. Matt only muttered under his breath, and Justin followed silently out of the castle.
"That.was very odd" Justin said, "Do any of you know what that was all about?" "Probably that weird-o powers you've used" Eli responded. "Hey, lets just get back to the inn, see if we can find anything out there." When they made it back to the inn, there was a single man inside, seated at one of the stools. It seemed he hadn't noticed them come in. "I'm tellin' ya, Alice, yer man's gonna come back soon enough. Th' king just got a bit worried with the lights and all, there ain't any reason that something should still be crawling in those ruins afta' all this time." "So THAT'S it!" Justin murmured. "I've heard the stories, about how long ago those ruins were really a temple built to the Underworld, and how some evil creature used them to suck away souls. I say we go investigate." "Are you crazy?!" Matt said back, not quite as quiet. When the man and innkeeper both turned and looked at them, Matt only said "Forgot some things in our room. My friend here wants us to attempt going back to our village." The innkeeper only nodded sadly to herself, and the other man went back to his beer. "Look, we're here to get you to the water palace, and that's that. I'm hoping to meet with Undine and maybe learn some magic, but that's it!" "Wait," Eli said, "If we do find out what's going on in the ruins, we can get the king's good favor. This could help us get through the Haunted Forest!" Matt considered. "True," he finally said, "You have a strong point there. Oh fine, whatever. It's not like we can be defeated with one of the Mana Weapons, eh?"
Justin shivered as they drew closer to the ruins. "Am I the only one that thinks it's awfully stupid of us to come here at NIGHT?!" He said. Matt slapped him on the back. "Shade, Justin, calm down! Speaking of Shade, he's an element too, so if it's night I guess he'll be the one watching over us. Besides, it's just old.old." Matt stopped talking as the chill run through all of them. Something very magical, and very evil was taking place inside. "I.I told you this was a bad idea! But no, we just have to come here and be the heroes, don't we?!" Matt said, irritated. "Some heroes we'll be, lying dead and unknown in some damned ruins." "Quiet you," Eli said, "This is bad enough without you jabbering. Now, lets just go in, find those soldiers, and get out." As they approached the doors, Justin suddenly stopped walking and closed his eyes. "Something is in there." He said nervously, "something powerful, evil, and very old. We can't go in.wait, no, we must go in. I don't know!" Eli looked at Justin with concern. "Hey, you alright?" "Yeah.yeah, I'm fine. Let's get this over with" he said, clenching his teeth.
They hadn't taken two steps inside when things went wrong. As soon as all of them were inside, the door shut behind them and seemed to meld into the wall. As they all turned around in surprise, the door had completely vanished. Then the music began. Maybe once it was a beautiful symphony. Maybe kings had heard it once. Maybe the greatest organist who had ever lived wrote it. Not anymore. The music was twisted so that everything sounded off key, and it was loud enough to echo inside their ears, no matter how hard the clamped them. Turning around again to face the inside of the ruins, a sudden bright light erupted from every torch scone around. In the middle of the large room, a single figure floated above the ground. The figure seemed mauled and disfigured. Instead of arms, they could clearly see his bones, and they were colored a bright red and orange. His fingers were long, bony, and a pasty color. His legs and feet were identical to his arms. On his hand, instead of hair, his scalp twisted into three long ridges, and a single bell was attached to the ends of each of them, like a sickening jester's cap. Worst of all, he gave them a wide, open mouth smiled, and he had no teeth. Instead, a small snake slithered out of the bottom gums and into the top. "Hello, hello! Good evening to all of you! And what, might I ask, are you doing in my home?" he said. His voice was shrill and high pitched. "Why, I know! You're intruding. Nasty, mean little people. I should teach you a lesson!" The figure promptly vanished as the three stared open mouthed, and they heard growling around them. As they turned, they saw three "people" slowly making their way towards them. One had a third arm stitched to it's chest, and was holding a rusted axe in all three. The second one had only one leg, and had an arm in place of its other leg. The last one had a single eye in the middle of its forehead, and instead of hands had claws. "I take the three armed, Matt, you kill the one eyed, Justin, you take the other!" Eli said, charging at her monster with her sword. As soon as she said that, Matt threw his weighted boomerang at his, and it hit the creature's arm with a sickening *crunch* that echoed through the hall. Its left arm now hanging useless by its side, it continued to stagger towards him. He ran at the creature and rolled right past it, grabbing his boomerang. Before he could try throwing it again, however, the creature dug its claw right into Matt's side. Eli swung her sword at her choice, taking out its center arm. She ducked as it swung both of it's other axes right over her head, and brought the sword straight up to cut off it's right arm. As the monster swung its last axe at her, she blocked it with her own blade and, in the same move, removed its last arm. Still, the thing kept coming for her. Justin was having much more luck then the other two. As he hit the monster in the arm, the Mana Glove on his hand, the monster screeched and stumbled back. Swinging again, he delivered a fierce uppercut to the monster. The monster managed a single glare, then turned into dust, leaving only bones behind. Matt was slowly stepping backwards, holding his bleeding side. "Someone give me a hand!" he yelled, lacking the strength to throw his weapon hard enough to hurt the zombie. Justin replied with a kick to the creature's leg, sending it to the ground. A single punch to the face finished it off. Eli, meanwhile, had now gotten rid of her monsters legs. The evil thing looked up and mouthed at her, then turned into dust and bones. "What.were those things?" Matt asked, looking pale. "I'm not sure," Justin replied, "But I have an annoying feeling that we need to go farther into these ruins to find out." "Yes, yes, find out, find out!" the hideous person said, reappearing. "Go to the top, rescue your friends!" The creature winked at Justin. "You're here, you're here! This is good, very good! Master will be pleased. Wait, he already knows. Does he? Master is strong and sees much, mostly with you." It giggled an ear-hurting screech. "But of course he knows where you are! I'll be seeing you!" It winked again and vanished. "This is all just getting too much for me." Matt murmured, holding his head. "Let's just go to the end of these ruins, find those damned soldiers, and get out of here!"
They finally reached the end of the ruins. They encountered no more of the monsters, and Justin had ripped off part of his tunic to wrap around Matt's side. When they reached the top, they noticed a large pit in the middle. Looking down, they saw something move. It was a human in a guard uniform! "Look down there!" Justin said, looking down, "But how are we supposed to get down there?" "Well, they're tied up with ropes," Eli said, "Whoever jumps down there can tie it all into one big rope and the rest of us can use it to lift them up. But who's going to do it?" "I got it" Matt said, jumping down into the pit. He quickly untied the first soldier, and noticed small runes burned into the rope. As soon as the rope left the soldier, he began stirring. "What.who are you?" he asked groggily. "'Name's Matt" he said, "Here, gimmie a hand. Untie these other fellows and tie all the ropes together, we're gonna use it to get you out. The two of them made quick time. As soon as a soldier was untied, he woke up. Although they were asked what happened, all the soldiers simply shook their head and replied that it was their duty to tell the king only. Soon, all the soldiers were awake, and the rope was ready. "Here, help me with this too," Matt told the first soldier he had woke up. "And hey, what's your name, anyways?" "I'm John," said the soldier, taking the rope and grimacing. "That music is starting to get to me. Hey, everyone above! Incoming!" He threw the rope up towards Eli and Justin. Eli grabbed it as it came, and she and Justin quickly began bringing the soldiers up, one at a time. The other soldiers helped by lifting the person who had the rope up. After a short amount of time, everyone was up, and they all quickly made their way to the castle.
It was morning when they finally reached town limits, and Justin couldn't believe all the people that had lined up. He hadn't thought much of the fact that a few people gasped when they first came out, but apparently they went and told everyone they saw. As they passed the inn, he noticed John and the innkeeper looking at each other, and the innkeeper smiled for the first time he noticed. She glanced towards him and smiled wider, and he smiled back. "Let's go see the king again," Eli murmured, smiling, "and maybe this time he'll be a bit more polite.