Chapter Two
Suddenly, the shokan lurched forward, as if something had slammed into it's back. It regained its balance, but only have its eyes roll up into the back of its head, its eyes close, and it collapse onto the ground, fast asleep. Directly behind where the huge shokan had stood was an odd looking trio standing there smiling. Karana could tell what only one of them was, a Gaian Natural Black Mage.
Natural Black Mages only existed in the world of Gaia for all she knew. They had been created long ago by an evil genome, which is also a species that only exists in Gaia. The evil genome, Kuja, created them to help him take over all Gaia, but a different genome defeated Kuja and helped all the Black Mages become good. Then he and an old ruler of Lindblum, Gaia's largest city, designed a way to make the Black Mages become immortal. They both also figured out how to create new ones, and the Black Mages became an actual species. She had read this in a book called Final Fantasy One. The Final Fantasy book series was one of the rarest books ever made. Each was about a different group of heroes from different worlds saving their own planet. The first was the only one she had ever seen, and it was in the Raikened Library. You had to give the library an extremely high sum of gold pieces just to read it, and then you got your money back when you finished it.
"Hi, I'm Eiko Carol," said a 20-year-old lady with short blue hair and a Gaian summoner's horn. Her blue eyes matched her hair. She wore a small yellow skirt, which turned out to be an overalls sort of thing. She had brown leather boots on also, and a wooden flute that looked exactly like a branch with holes in it. It even had green leaves poking from the brown bark, "That's Vivi Ornitier," she said, pointing to the huge 6'6" tall black mage. He had on a leather, pointy hat, green and white striped pant, and a blue turtle neck shirt with brown leather gloves. He nodded in acknowledgment of his name.
"I am Quina," said the oddest looking one, who had pale blue face, nearly white and a tongue that lolled out down to the bottom of her ribs. Karana wasn't sure if it really was a her or not, though. She has a tall chef's hat on, alon with a chef's apron and a pink shirt with a blue bib thing on her neck. She has white cloth gloves on, and small black shoes. Her long tongue lolls out and her face is a powdery white. Her eyes are shaped almost like pink flowers with a white center. Her mouth is wide, and spans across her entire face, "I'm a Qu."
"What's a Qu?" Karana blurted out, not even introducing herself.
"We live in swamp. Use fork for battle. Eat frogs." Quina had limited speech. Almost as bad as some of the ogres she'd seen back in Raikened. She waved her large golden fork in the air,. It was bigger than a human arm!
"Hello, I'm Minaki Sohagu, and the blonde next to me is Karana Joshin." Karana's friend said, trying to be polite, "Where are you three headed?"
"We're going to the closest town," Eiko said, "But we don't have a map, and we can't find it."
"We can't find the way back to the portal to Gaia either. We're completely lost." Vivi said.
"We've got a map. We'll help you, besides, safety in numbers, right?" Karana said.
The five all crowded around the map of the Outworld in Karana's hands.
"Let's see," said Minaki, poitning her finger, "We are here, at the Raikened portal, and... WOW! You guys must have been traveling for days, how'd you make it?" she asked, after seeing that the Gaia portal was clear on the other side of the continent.
"We packed food just in case. We only have a days worth left. We should use that to get to Ambrosia, the next town, and then restock once we get there." Vivi answered.
"What do you think you're going pay the shopkeepers with?" Karana said, questioningly.
Vivi removed a handful of gold pieces from his pocket and glanced at them, "These are called Render. They're shokan currency, from what I've come to understand.
"We massacred a couple shokans for it two days ago. It's all we have, besides our Gaian Gold Pieces. We packed a bunch of inflatable tents so you guys can use them, too. That is of course, if you want to go with us. You're free to travel on your own, but I wouldn't advise it, since you have no food or shelter." Eiko said.
"Alright, let's travel together," Karana said.
"You guys all have weapons, right?" Minaki asked.
The three Gaians showed their weapons. Quina her big fork, Vivi his rod and Eiko her flute.
"Good, let's go. This should be fun, we've never had seen any people of your species before. The map says Ambrosia is approximately a days journey walking."
"Humans are common in all worlds, though, so we've seen you." Vivi added.
They were just about to start walking southest, (Minaki had a compass) when the sleeping shokan woke up with a roar. "I Mishoro, will kill you invaders! DIE!" he roared and slashed at them.
Minaki leapt back and drew her blade with a ching sound. Karana backed away also wielding her dark opal rod. Vivi shot fire from his rod, which was already wielded. Quina ran forward and stabbed the burning shokan. Quina had aimed right for its heart and had aimed well. The shokan was dead, but unfortunatley his yell had called upon more shokans to the area. About fifteen.
"Stay back, i'll take care of this," Vivi told his companions, glaring at the foolish shokans, who were coming at them in a group, instead of surrounding them. "Firaga!" Vivi shouted and suddenly hot bursts of fire erupted from underneath each of the shokans.
After the shokans had all fallen, Eiko said, "Good. Now we can go to Ambrosia."
"One second. I want to get some of these swords, they look interesting." Minaki said. She walked over to a pile of dead shokans and took a sword, inspecting it.
It had a leather handle, and the blade was forged out of a metal she'd never seen before. In the center of the blade, a four was carved. It was an odd type of way to write a four, one that neither Karana or Minaki had ever seen before. It seemed ancient or something. Taking a total of five of the swords, dubbing them shokan swords, she put them into her scabbards which to her delight fit nicely.
They wondered if monsters or whatever else might attack. The Outworld, in Karana's opinion, was without rules. It was a complete world of chaos. All sorts of creatures were running everywhere, seemingly without purpose. It was like some sort of war, but every man against the next. They tried to remain out of the sight of anything moving, even though Vivi and Eiko knew they could take anything on.
The grass did not become different at all. Certainly not greener, but if anything, it was being more scarce with each step. They were slowly walking into a desert. Minaki took a small drink of Eiko's bottle and handed it back to her. "Thanks," she said. "No problem," Eiko said, nodding.
"It's getting dark now, I hope we're close," Vivi said.
"Yes. I want munchies!" Quina said.
Both Karana and Minaki glanced sidelong at the strange creature, "Don't worry about it," said Eiko, catching their confused looks, "she's been like that ever since we met her."
About a half-hour later, Minaki decides to spark up a conversation, "I sure hope Ambrosia isn't an entire shokan town,"
"Yeah, me too. Then they wouldn't let us in at all, I'm sure," added Eiko.
"Shokans seem to be paranoid of invaders, I wonder why," Vivi said.
"Maybe they don't want others to take their munchies!" Quina suggested loudly.
"Maybe," said Vivi.
"So what are you guys really doing here anyways?" Karana asked.
"Well, it's been a long time since our last adventure, about fourteen years, I think, and we need some action. It's boring being cooped up in a castle for two long." Eiko said.
"Really? I've never been in a castle, and neither has Minaki," Karana said.
"Quina want new munchies!" said the hungry Qu.
It was getting dark before Vivi suggested they set up a couple of tents. The three from Gaia got one and then the two girls from Raikened got the other.
"Yeah, and I bet no matter what time we wake tomorrow morning, we'll have enough time to make it to Ambrosia before sunset tomorrow. So we can rest all we want," said Karana.
Suddenly, the shokan lurched forward, as if something had slammed into it's back. It regained its balance, but only have its eyes roll up into the back of its head, its eyes close, and it collapse onto the ground, fast asleep. Directly behind where the huge shokan had stood was an odd looking trio standing there smiling. Karana could tell what only one of them was, a Gaian Natural Black Mage.
Natural Black Mages only existed in the world of Gaia for all she knew. They had been created long ago by an evil genome, which is also a species that only exists in Gaia. The evil genome, Kuja, created them to help him take over all Gaia, but a different genome defeated Kuja and helped all the Black Mages become good. Then he and an old ruler of Lindblum, Gaia's largest city, designed a way to make the Black Mages become immortal. They both also figured out how to create new ones, and the Black Mages became an actual species. She had read this in a book called Final Fantasy One. The Final Fantasy book series was one of the rarest books ever made. Each was about a different group of heroes from different worlds saving their own planet. The first was the only one she had ever seen, and it was in the Raikened Library. You had to give the library an extremely high sum of gold pieces just to read it, and then you got your money back when you finished it.
"Hi, I'm Eiko Carol," said a 20-year-old lady with short blue hair and a Gaian summoner's horn. Her blue eyes matched her hair. She wore a small yellow skirt, which turned out to be an overalls sort of thing. She had brown leather boots on also, and a wooden flute that looked exactly like a branch with holes in it. It even had green leaves poking from the brown bark, "That's Vivi Ornitier," she said, pointing to the huge 6'6" tall black mage. He had on a leather, pointy hat, green and white striped pant, and a blue turtle neck shirt with brown leather gloves. He nodded in acknowledgment of his name.
"I am Quina," said the oddest looking one, who had pale blue face, nearly white and a tongue that lolled out down to the bottom of her ribs. Karana wasn't sure if it really was a her or not, though. She has a tall chef's hat on, alon with a chef's apron and a pink shirt with a blue bib thing on her neck. She has white cloth gloves on, and small black shoes. Her long tongue lolls out and her face is a powdery white. Her eyes are shaped almost like pink flowers with a white center. Her mouth is wide, and spans across her entire face, "I'm a Qu."
"What's a Qu?" Karana blurted out, not even introducing herself.
"We live in swamp. Use fork for battle. Eat frogs." Quina had limited speech. Almost as bad as some of the ogres she'd seen back in Raikened. She waved her large golden fork in the air,. It was bigger than a human arm!
"Hello, I'm Minaki Sohagu, and the blonde next to me is Karana Joshin." Karana's friend said, trying to be polite, "Where are you three headed?"
"We're going to the closest town," Eiko said, "But we don't have a map, and we can't find it."
"We can't find the way back to the portal to Gaia either. We're completely lost." Vivi said.
"We've got a map. We'll help you, besides, safety in numbers, right?" Karana said.
The five all crowded around the map of the Outworld in Karana's hands.
"Let's see," said Minaki, poitning her finger, "We are here, at the Raikened portal, and... WOW! You guys must have been traveling for days, how'd you make it?" she asked, after seeing that the Gaia portal was clear on the other side of the continent.
"We packed food just in case. We only have a days worth left. We should use that to get to Ambrosia, the next town, and then restock once we get there." Vivi answered.
"What do you think you're going pay the shopkeepers with?" Karana said, questioningly.
Vivi removed a handful of gold pieces from his pocket and glanced at them, "These are called Render. They're shokan currency, from what I've come to understand.
"We massacred a couple shokans for it two days ago. It's all we have, besides our Gaian Gold Pieces. We packed a bunch of inflatable tents so you guys can use them, too. That is of course, if you want to go with us. You're free to travel on your own, but I wouldn't advise it, since you have no food or shelter." Eiko said.
"Alright, let's travel together," Karana said.
"You guys all have weapons, right?" Minaki asked.
The three Gaians showed their weapons. Quina her big fork, Vivi his rod and Eiko her flute.
"Good, let's go. This should be fun, we've never had seen any people of your species before. The map says Ambrosia is approximately a days journey walking."
"Humans are common in all worlds, though, so we've seen you." Vivi added.
They were just about to start walking southest, (Minaki had a compass) when the sleeping shokan woke up with a roar. "I Mishoro, will kill you invaders! DIE!" he roared and slashed at them.
Minaki leapt back and drew her blade with a ching sound. Karana backed away also wielding her dark opal rod. Vivi shot fire from his rod, which was already wielded. Quina ran forward and stabbed the burning shokan. Quina had aimed right for its heart and had aimed well. The shokan was dead, but unfortunatley his yell had called upon more shokans to the area. About fifteen.
"Stay back, i'll take care of this," Vivi told his companions, glaring at the foolish shokans, who were coming at them in a group, instead of surrounding them. "Firaga!" Vivi shouted and suddenly hot bursts of fire erupted from underneath each of the shokans.
After the shokans had all fallen, Eiko said, "Good. Now we can go to Ambrosia."
"One second. I want to get some of these swords, they look interesting." Minaki said. She walked over to a pile of dead shokans and took a sword, inspecting it.
It had a leather handle, and the blade was forged out of a metal she'd never seen before. In the center of the blade, a four was carved. It was an odd type of way to write a four, one that neither Karana or Minaki had ever seen before. It seemed ancient or something. Taking a total of five of the swords, dubbing them shokan swords, she put them into her scabbards which to her delight fit nicely.
They wondered if monsters or whatever else might attack. The Outworld, in Karana's opinion, was without rules. It was a complete world of chaos. All sorts of creatures were running everywhere, seemingly without purpose. It was like some sort of war, but every man against the next. They tried to remain out of the sight of anything moving, even though Vivi and Eiko knew they could take anything on.
The grass did not become different at all. Certainly not greener, but if anything, it was being more scarce with each step. They were slowly walking into a desert. Minaki took a small drink of Eiko's bottle and handed it back to her. "Thanks," she said. "No problem," Eiko said, nodding.
"It's getting dark now, I hope we're close," Vivi said.
"Yes. I want munchies!" Quina said.
Both Karana and Minaki glanced sidelong at the strange creature, "Don't worry about it," said Eiko, catching their confused looks, "she's been like that ever since we met her."
About a half-hour later, Minaki decides to spark up a conversation, "I sure hope Ambrosia isn't an entire shokan town,"
"Yeah, me too. Then they wouldn't let us in at all, I'm sure," added Eiko.
"Shokans seem to be paranoid of invaders, I wonder why," Vivi said.
"Maybe they don't want others to take their munchies!" Quina suggested loudly.
"Maybe," said Vivi.
"So what are you guys really doing here anyways?" Karana asked.
"Well, it's been a long time since our last adventure, about fourteen years, I think, and we need some action. It's boring being cooped up in a castle for two long." Eiko said.
"Really? I've never been in a castle, and neither has Minaki," Karana said.
"Quina want new munchies!" said the hungry Qu.
It was getting dark before Vivi suggested they set up a couple of tents. The three from Gaia got one and then the two girls from Raikened got the other.
"Yeah, and I bet no matter what time we wake tomorrow morning, we'll have enough time to make it to Ambrosia before sunset tomorrow. So we can rest all we want," said Karana.