Chapter Two: The Abduction

Coneria City. . . .

The two of them arrived in Coneria just before dusk and Thol was getting irritable due to exhaustion. His main source of irritation came from his traveling companion who had done some damage to his sword in a scuffle with a pack of imps just outside the city.

"I'm mean geez," Tor said. "I didn't swing my sword that hard."

"Tor, you were swinging at an imp as if it was a troll or something. It's not my fault it ducked and you hit a rock."

"Yes, but do you think there's enough time left to get it repaired today? I'd hate to have to sleep having unfinished work on my conscience."

"Tor," Thol began, then thinking better of it, changed his mind and said "Never mind. Look, just find us a place to rest for the night and then you can do whatever you want with your damned sword." He was much too tired to even think of one of his sarcastic remarks.

"Yeah, all right. I'll get right to it. What are you going to do?"

"Well in case you failed to notice, we are getting rather low on food and medical supplies. I'm going to go get some. Did I say that slow enough for you?" Okay, maybe he wasn't that tired after all.

"Yeah, I got it. I'll head to the clinic if something comes up," Tor said as if he hadn't just been insulted.

"Good, now get going before I have the urge to beat you senseless."

Tor nodded and headed off toward the inn. Thol could only shake his head for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. He headed off to his destination as soon as he was sure Tor didn't get lost on the way to the inn.

His visit to the general store was uneventful, much to his liking. He wasn't in the mood to deal with anything complicated at the moment.

As he passed through the town on his way to the clinic, he glanced over at the new building being erected. He wasn't sure what the building was for, but it was going to be big when it was done. He noticed one of the workers pick up a large beam on his own and stopped. Yikes. That guy's ripped, he thought. He was quite sure he had never seen someone as built as the one with the beam before, but he had other things to worry about other then some massive guy who could lift the house up on his own so he simply shook his head again and continued on his way.

Just like at the general store, his visit in the clinic went off without problems. His exit from the store however, would not be such.

He was busy putting his newly purchased supplies in his pack and wasn't looking where he was going when he ran into someone coming around the corner. He managed to stay on his feet, but he other person fell over with a rather feminine "Ooff!"

Regaining his balance, Thol got a good look at the girl he had just knocked over and felt his eyes bug out. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Way to make a first impression Thol, he thought to himself with his usual sarcasm.

The girl in the mean time was trying to collect all the papers she had been carrying. Thol came to his senses and started helping her.

"Sorry about that. Wasn't watching where I was going," he said.

"Obviously not," she replied somewhat testily. She was irritated at the robed man who had bumped into her as she had spent all day sorting through those papers and organizing them. Now she would have to do it all over again.

Thol noticed the text on the papers and recognized them as white magic scriptures. "You're a white mage," he said stupidly.

"How observant of you," she said finishing collecting her papers. She grabbed the ones Thol had picked up for her and said "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do thanks to you." With that, she brushed passed him and entered the clinic.

"Sorry," he said again as she went by, but she didn't answer him. Thol shrugged and started toward the inn. Well, that went smoothly, he mentally berated himself. Oh well. I did apologize after all and if she wants to be a bitch about it, let her. She was pretty though, he added as an after thought. He laughed then. And you're a masked monster Thol. Forget it. She wouldn't be interested in you anyway.

He entered the inn and went up to the woman behind the counter. She was an elderly woman with gray hair and was busy reading a book of some sort. "Excuse me," he said walking up to the counter. "Did a young man with red hair come here rent out a room for the night?"

The old woman put down her book and thought for a moment. "Red hair? Can't say that I've seen anyone like that in here today. Sorry."

Idiot! he mentally screamed. "In that case," he said as if he wasn't ready to go out and commit homicide. "I'd like to rent one. Two beds please."

"Of course. The one at the end of the hall on the right is empty."

"Thanks," he said turning to go find his soon-to-be-dead partner.

"Um," the old woman said.

Thol turned and looked at her. "What?"

"That'll be 30 gil please." she said, holding out her hand. . . .

* * * *

The pub was rather quiet at this time of the evening, so no one was ready for it when the doors burst open, loudly banging on the wall, and a man stalked in and yelled "Tor!" with enough volume to make the local patrons cringe back from the noise.

"Thol," replied Tor, who was sitting at a table with another man and apparently enjoying a cup of the pubs brew. "Glad you made it. I found out something you might want to hear."

Thol's colossal rage fled for the moment when he heard this. "Like what?" he said, seating himself at the table.

"This man here works at the castle," Tor said as if that was the greatest thing since King Arthur.

"And?" Thol asked, disgusted with the other mans enthusiasm.

"He tells me that Princess Sara has been kidnapped by a former knight from the castle."

"Really? Very good, Tor. I was going to blast you to pieces for forgetting to get us a room at the inn, but it looks like you're good for something other than whacking rocks with a sword after all. What is being done about it?"

The other man spoke up then. "Well, the former knight, Garland, laid waste to over half the castle guard when he took the princess, so the king is stuck having to hire someone to go rescue her."

"Does anyone know where this Garland character took her?" Thol asked, becoming more interested by the moment.

"Well, with the bridge to Provoka out, there's only one place he could have taken her. The Temple of Fiends."

Or that damned cave, but I think if he took her there, we would have seen her, Thol thought. "Okay. Simple enough. Go to the temple, rescue the princess and get a fat payload out of it. Deal. Tor, we're going to the castle tomorrow morning."

"Um, before or after I get my sword fixed? Cause I went to the blacksmiths and he was closed."

Strength. Give me strength, Thol thought, putting his head in his hands. . . .

* * * *

The two of them stayed in the pub for a little while longer to see if they could find out any other information about the princess' kidnapping. There wasn't much, but one crazy old man kept babbling something about a prophecy. Thol just ignored him. He kept on saying that the Light Warriors would come and save them all. Light Warriors. Right. And Tor's gonna be king of the world one day, Thol thought sarcastically. He wandered over to where Tor was to see if he had found out anything useful.

Tor was talking to a young man about the same age as them. "Yeah, that's right. We're going to the castle tomorrow to offer our help in retrieving the princess from the vile Garland."

Thol had to give him one thing. When Tor got going on heroic speeches, he ranked among the best for eloquence. "Tor, you shouldn't really go around announcing our intentions to everyone you meet," he said, sitting down with them.

"I know that Thol, but Keza says that he is interested in helping us."

"Keza eh?" Thol said. Inwardly he was visioning frying Tor over a high-level fire spell. More help meant less pay in the end. "How can you help us?"

"I've had to grow up on the streets. I can hold my own in a fight," the blue haired man said.

"So you're a thief then," Thol said bluntly.

"Please. Thief is such an ugly word. I prefer the term survivor."

"A thief," Thol said finally.

"All right, if that's the way you feel about it, fine. Still, I'm sure there's a big reward from the king for getting the princess back and admit it, you could use all the help you can get."

"He does have a point Thol. That Garland person did take out half the castle guard after all," Tor said.

Thol sighed, his dreams of a rich payoff fading into dust. "I suppose. We're holed up in the inn for the night. We'll meet you here at day break."

"Excellent. I'm looking forward to working with you," Keza said with a grin on his face.

"Bull shit. You're looking forward to the gil you're going to get for the reward, that's what," Thol said.

Keza grinned even wider. "Okay. You got me. Care for a game of dice?" he said, holding up a pair.

"Yeah right. I think I'd prefer to keep my money for the time being. I don't have much of it at the moment as it is anyway. Tor," he said, wrenching his partner's attention from the girl who was currently dancing on the stage.

"What?" he said, seemingly dazed.

"I'm going to the inn now and going to sleep. Try not to trip over your tongue when you leave and if you wake me up whenever you decide to leave here I'll introduce you to a high-level fire spell." With that, Thol got up and left. . . .

* * * *