Ok, it's been a while but I re-posted this after we FINALLY got something
on this computer with a SPELL CHECK!! I'll have the next chappy up in no
time, promise!
~Key
Episode 1: Fated Confession Was it a dream... ...or an illusion? No, it was all real. Yes, everything began when I went out to become king by right of Dragon Slaying.
It was mid day, before I left, I got this odd sense that someone was watching me. It in fact held much of my concentration as I got ready to go, Balgus must have noticed this, for he asked. "Lord Van, are you ready?"
"I am." I replied, he was uncertain of me?
"I'm sure you can kill the dragon. Your brother's disgrace..." but no, Balgus is just being cautious. Was I being too sure? I may have been, but then there was that nagging feeling like eyes were on me, but no one else was in the room. If there was, Balgus would have sensed it. He is the best swordsman alive.
"It's alright, Balgus! I won't show my back to the enemy!" I reassured him, this seemed to please him well enough, for he bowed and walked off.
***
I sat astride my war-horse. How odd it seems, I fear not of the dragon, or of kingship. I start off towards the Forest of Elvendar, a place where magic creatures are rumored to live. Magic! Ha! What a joke! My back itches again. It always itches. It itches cause I want to sprout my wings, but I can't let anyone know, that's what mother told me.
***
He'd been looking for a dragon in Elvendar for almost one whole night now. [I hate being out here on my own like this, but I can't go back until I kill one. I have to find one soon.] Almost as if to answer his silent plea, a Turtle Dragon crashed through the trees. Four of them actually. Van, of course, wasted no time in jumping onto his horse and hightailing it out of there.
He nearly lost them. Turtle Dragons are named such not only for the fact that they resemble a turtle in appearance, but also cause they are as slow as one as well. But as he had said, he wanted to run into one, and one of them was far faster then the other three. Van's horse was suddenly no longer under him. He flew and hit a tree, standing up, he find himself a little worser for the where, but he still had enough of himself to fight with smarts.
He had forgot, however, that turtle dragons are especially fond of horsemeat, which is why one would go hunting them on horses instead of in airships. Van positioned himself in such a way that made it so he could defend myself from a sudden attack but still rest up as much as possible.
The dragon was almost done with the horse, and Van could hear the other three dragons approaching when suddenly, a light appeared all around him. He felt his feet lift off the ground. Should he sprout his wings? No, no need. He was only off the ground for a moment, like he had been picked up by a gust of wind or something. As the light faded, he looked around in confusion. He wasn't in the forest anymore... he didn't know where he was. Or where the dragon was.
Van heard something approaching from behind him, it was coming fast. He turned just in time to see the very surprised eyes of... he wasn't really sure what. It looked like a girl in facial features, but it wasn't wearing a dress and it had such short hair. Well, what ever it is, it ran into him. It fell over, squeaking very much like a girl too, and succeeded on knocking him off balance for a moment or two.
Completely baffled now, Van snapped, though he really didn't mean to, at... it "Who the hell are you? Where am I?"
"Kanzaki!" Now this one he knew was a guy, it dressed like one, sounded like one, and looked like one.
"Hitomi!" a girl from farther back called out as well. She was wearing a very short skirt and had deep crimson hair. They both ran to the confused two. Van looked down to see if 'it'--as he had already fondly learned to think of, well, it--was alright. "Are you alright, Hitomi? Hitomi...?" even though she was farther away, the little red head one was first to reach them.
'Hitomi' as she called it looked up at Van with as much confusion as he was looking with at everything else. "He's... He's the boy from my dream." it stammered.
Now Van was confused. [Dream? What dream? What's going on here?!? Where'd the Dragon go?!?]
"Hey, you..."
"Oh, be gone!" Van was not in the mood to deal with commoners. He had to find the dragon and kill it, then find out how to get back home.
"You're the one from the other world, aren't you?" Hitomi asked.
Van was simply baffled, what was going on here? Other world? [Other world... other world... other...] he looked up to the sky as was a habit for him when he was thinking. He liked looking at the moons. But... he noticed something. [The Mystic moon! I-it's missing!]
He was brought back to reality by a question. "Who are you?" Hitomi asked.
"Van. Is this place..." he replied in an absent tone, he heard a noise so unmistakably dragon, he pulled out his sword and prepared his shield. "So... it's here too."
Hitomi looked confused "What?"
"Hitomi, can you understand what this guy's on about?"
"Get out of here! A turtle dragon is coming." Van warned.
"Dragon...?" Hitomi asked
"Hurry! Do you want the dragon to eat you?" Van asked, people could be really stupid.
"Hey, you..." the guy tried to approach again. Van pushed him away, making a shooing motion with his hand impatiently. Another bolt of energy came from nearby. "Again...?"
"What? What's gonna happen..." the red head was seemingly very dense. Van had already explained it to them twice now. She stopped her question as she noticed her friend grab her mouth. "Hitomi?"
"I think I'm going to be sick." Hitomi winced, it sounded like it was feeling terrible. It looked it to.
"It's here." Van got a crazy look on his face much like a bloodthirsty smile. A dragon appeared from nearby right on time as it walked out in the open.
"What's that?"
"Idiot. I already told you! It's a turtle dragon!"
"Hitomi..." Yukari was getting more and more worried over her sandy mane friend.
The dragon looked at them. "Over here! I'm your opponent. What's wrong?! You're hungry, aren't you?! Come and eat me!"
"Your crazy, right?" the guy asked.
"Run idiot!" Van hissed, they listened this time. The dragon breathed fire. Van put up his shield and blocked it. Then put the shield away, cause it was a nuisance and restricted motion. He pulled out a crossbow and shot the dragon in the eye. It fell over.
"Did I do it?" Van asked himself in confusion. He expected it to be much harder. The Dragon swung it's tail, knocking him over. Van spit up some blood as he felt three of his ribs crack. [Gods above did that hurt.] But he had no more time to complain about it as the dragon looked at the three from the Mystic Moon.
"Go after the easy ones first, huh?" Van mused "Chicken. Hey, Hitomi or whatever you're called, run! Hurry and run!"
"Okay! Amano, let's go to the mountain!" she called, all three took of at a sprint.
[Whoa! They're fast!] Van blinked, before he grabbed his sword and slashed it at the dragon, doing no damage. The 'Idiot' and the others ran on, not noticing that the Dragon was starting after them. The red-head tripped and fell over.
"Yukari!" Hitomi called to her friend.
"It hurts." she whined as she clutched her ankle in pain. The other two stupidly turned back to help her.
That's all Van paid mind to, he had to fight the dragon after all. He was barely conscious of the fact that they had started to run again. The Dragon saw their attempts to flee and headed after them. "Damn it! Hey! Wait up! I'M your opponent! Not them! Stupid!" Van called out after it, being very not pleased.
They ran underneath a tunnel like structure. The dragon followed. [No normal human has ever been able to outrun a dragon before. What are these people of the Mystic Moon?]
Van noticed that he was loosing distance to the dragon quickly. "I won't let you get away!" he cried while sprinting with all the speed he had and grabbed hold of it's tail. As he climbed farther up its back it jumped up onto the tunnel thingy and continued to chase it's pray. "Ooh! Would-you. Hold. Still?!?" he growled at it.
The Dragon jumped off the other end of the tunnel, blocking off the teens. This caused Van to fall off the dragon's back. "Hey! Big and ugly! Over here! I'm your enemy, remember?!?"
"Is he crazy?" he heard the one called Hitomi ask out loud.
As his spectators ran to shelter, the dragon began to breathe fire again. Van attacked but the Dragon knocked him over again. "My sword can't penetrate its scales." Van announced with disappointment. [Weak point, weak point, weak point! Where's it's weak point damn it?!?] The Dragon charged Van and raised it's tail up.
"Look out! Behind you!" Hitomi called as it ran down the stairs.
Van jumped back and the tail tore his armor off. "Got you." Van cheered. He jumped on its back and slid his sword down the dragons' back. He ran to the front and stabbed it in the chest. Blood poured all over him, but he didn't care. He felt it. Warm to the point of almost being hot. Like being held in the arms of his mother back when he was still so young. For a moment, Van felt sorry for killing it, wondering if IT had a family at home somewhere, all alone and scared, now nothing but orphans having to fend for themselves in the harsh world. The Dragon fell over, dead. Van cut through its chest and took out a glowing stone. If he killed it, it may as well be for the proper purpose. [No use feeling sorry for it now, after all.] he told himself as the Dragon crumbled into dust and its blood disappeared.
"Umm... ...are you alright?" the Hitomi person asked. He noticed now it's figure... it is a girl after all.
"This wasn't so serious that I need help from a woman. Do you want thanks? If so, then come to the castle. But don't be conceited. I'll repay you for involving you in the dragon hunt. It doesn't mean that I defeated the dragon due to your help."
And she slapped him. He went into instantaneous shock. He had never been hit before in his life, especially not by a peasant girl. He was Crown Prince of Fanalia, future king, after all! He reached his hand to where it was still red and looked at her in mixed wonderment and confession.
"What's the matter with you?! I thought you were gonna get killed... I thought you were gonna get killed... so... I was scared... ...so scared! Why don't you say thanks or something? I shouldn't have saved a guy like you! You should've been eaten by that dragon!" she screamed at him, it was then he saw that she was starting to cry.
He was about to ask her what was wrong when his attention was pulled away to the stone. It was glowing. "The Energist..." he whispered in wonderment and confusion. This evening was just getting weirder and weirder with each passing moment, he thought for a moment that this may all be just some sort of screwed up dream. But then he remembered that he didn't have a good enough imagination to come up with this.
The ground then lit up underneath them. A pillar of light appeared around them once more, and they start to be lifted into the air.
"Kanzaki! Kanzaki!" he could hear the other boy, what's-his-name call to the odd 'Hitomi' girl.
"Amano!" that's right. That was his name. He and this Hitomi girl seemed close. "Amano!" she called his name out again.
The pillar of light carried them to the sky, depositing them in the woods. Van looked around him. [I'm back. It will take a good day and a half to two days to walk back to Fanalia, but at least the light didn't drop me back in the middle of those other three dragons. I could always fly back, but...] it was then he spotted the girl from the Mystic Moon, curled up in a ball and shivering like a rattlesnake's tail.
Van approached and knelt down beside her, in as gentle a tone as he could manage with his exhaustion, he said "Hey, hey. It's ok. We're safe. Nothing to fear. Dragons don't come into this part of the wood. They don't like the bugs." he tried his best to comfort the girl.
"You're..." she began but stopped as she looked up, not at him like she had originally started for, but farther up. "W-wh-where?"
"Hmm?" he asked as he followed her line of sight. "Oh. I gather from the Mystic Moon you can't see Geae like we can see you... I wonder why not." when he got no response, he continued talking. "We're about an hour or two's walk from the village of Urthas and somewhere between a day and a half and two days from the capital city of Fanalia." she was still destrot, so Van tried to reassure her again. "He-ey, don't you worry. Everything's going to be alright. You'll see."
"Urthas...? Fanellia...? Gaea? What's going on?"
Van was interrupted from answering by growl. A group of standing wolves surround them.
~Key
Episode 1: Fated Confession Was it a dream... ...or an illusion? No, it was all real. Yes, everything began when I went out to become king by right of Dragon Slaying.
It was mid day, before I left, I got this odd sense that someone was watching me. It in fact held much of my concentration as I got ready to go, Balgus must have noticed this, for he asked. "Lord Van, are you ready?"
"I am." I replied, he was uncertain of me?
"I'm sure you can kill the dragon. Your brother's disgrace..." but no, Balgus is just being cautious. Was I being too sure? I may have been, but then there was that nagging feeling like eyes were on me, but no one else was in the room. If there was, Balgus would have sensed it. He is the best swordsman alive.
"It's alright, Balgus! I won't show my back to the enemy!" I reassured him, this seemed to please him well enough, for he bowed and walked off.
***
I sat astride my war-horse. How odd it seems, I fear not of the dragon, or of kingship. I start off towards the Forest of Elvendar, a place where magic creatures are rumored to live. Magic! Ha! What a joke! My back itches again. It always itches. It itches cause I want to sprout my wings, but I can't let anyone know, that's what mother told me.
***
He'd been looking for a dragon in Elvendar for almost one whole night now. [I hate being out here on my own like this, but I can't go back until I kill one. I have to find one soon.] Almost as if to answer his silent plea, a Turtle Dragon crashed through the trees. Four of them actually. Van, of course, wasted no time in jumping onto his horse and hightailing it out of there.
He nearly lost them. Turtle Dragons are named such not only for the fact that they resemble a turtle in appearance, but also cause they are as slow as one as well. But as he had said, he wanted to run into one, and one of them was far faster then the other three. Van's horse was suddenly no longer under him. He flew and hit a tree, standing up, he find himself a little worser for the where, but he still had enough of himself to fight with smarts.
He had forgot, however, that turtle dragons are especially fond of horsemeat, which is why one would go hunting them on horses instead of in airships. Van positioned himself in such a way that made it so he could defend myself from a sudden attack but still rest up as much as possible.
The dragon was almost done with the horse, and Van could hear the other three dragons approaching when suddenly, a light appeared all around him. He felt his feet lift off the ground. Should he sprout his wings? No, no need. He was only off the ground for a moment, like he had been picked up by a gust of wind or something. As the light faded, he looked around in confusion. He wasn't in the forest anymore... he didn't know where he was. Or where the dragon was.
Van heard something approaching from behind him, it was coming fast. He turned just in time to see the very surprised eyes of... he wasn't really sure what. It looked like a girl in facial features, but it wasn't wearing a dress and it had such short hair. Well, what ever it is, it ran into him. It fell over, squeaking very much like a girl too, and succeeded on knocking him off balance for a moment or two.
Completely baffled now, Van snapped, though he really didn't mean to, at... it "Who the hell are you? Where am I?"
"Kanzaki!" Now this one he knew was a guy, it dressed like one, sounded like one, and looked like one.
"Hitomi!" a girl from farther back called out as well. She was wearing a very short skirt and had deep crimson hair. They both ran to the confused two. Van looked down to see if 'it'--as he had already fondly learned to think of, well, it--was alright. "Are you alright, Hitomi? Hitomi...?" even though she was farther away, the little red head one was first to reach them.
'Hitomi' as she called it looked up at Van with as much confusion as he was looking with at everything else. "He's... He's the boy from my dream." it stammered.
Now Van was confused. [Dream? What dream? What's going on here?!? Where'd the Dragon go?!?]
"Hey, you..."
"Oh, be gone!" Van was not in the mood to deal with commoners. He had to find the dragon and kill it, then find out how to get back home.
"You're the one from the other world, aren't you?" Hitomi asked.
Van was simply baffled, what was going on here? Other world? [Other world... other world... other...] he looked up to the sky as was a habit for him when he was thinking. He liked looking at the moons. But... he noticed something. [The Mystic moon! I-it's missing!]
He was brought back to reality by a question. "Who are you?" Hitomi asked.
"Van. Is this place..." he replied in an absent tone, he heard a noise so unmistakably dragon, he pulled out his sword and prepared his shield. "So... it's here too."
Hitomi looked confused "What?"
"Hitomi, can you understand what this guy's on about?"
"Get out of here! A turtle dragon is coming." Van warned.
"Dragon...?" Hitomi asked
"Hurry! Do you want the dragon to eat you?" Van asked, people could be really stupid.
"Hey, you..." the guy tried to approach again. Van pushed him away, making a shooing motion with his hand impatiently. Another bolt of energy came from nearby. "Again...?"
"What? What's gonna happen..." the red head was seemingly very dense. Van had already explained it to them twice now. She stopped her question as she noticed her friend grab her mouth. "Hitomi?"
"I think I'm going to be sick." Hitomi winced, it sounded like it was feeling terrible. It looked it to.
"It's here." Van got a crazy look on his face much like a bloodthirsty smile. A dragon appeared from nearby right on time as it walked out in the open.
"What's that?"
"Idiot. I already told you! It's a turtle dragon!"
"Hitomi..." Yukari was getting more and more worried over her sandy mane friend.
The dragon looked at them. "Over here! I'm your opponent. What's wrong?! You're hungry, aren't you?! Come and eat me!"
"Your crazy, right?" the guy asked.
"Run idiot!" Van hissed, they listened this time. The dragon breathed fire. Van put up his shield and blocked it. Then put the shield away, cause it was a nuisance and restricted motion. He pulled out a crossbow and shot the dragon in the eye. It fell over.
"Did I do it?" Van asked himself in confusion. He expected it to be much harder. The Dragon swung it's tail, knocking him over. Van spit up some blood as he felt three of his ribs crack. [Gods above did that hurt.] But he had no more time to complain about it as the dragon looked at the three from the Mystic Moon.
"Go after the easy ones first, huh?" Van mused "Chicken. Hey, Hitomi or whatever you're called, run! Hurry and run!"
"Okay! Amano, let's go to the mountain!" she called, all three took of at a sprint.
[Whoa! They're fast!] Van blinked, before he grabbed his sword and slashed it at the dragon, doing no damage. The 'Idiot' and the others ran on, not noticing that the Dragon was starting after them. The red-head tripped and fell over.
"Yukari!" Hitomi called to her friend.
"It hurts." she whined as she clutched her ankle in pain. The other two stupidly turned back to help her.
That's all Van paid mind to, he had to fight the dragon after all. He was barely conscious of the fact that they had started to run again. The Dragon saw their attempts to flee and headed after them. "Damn it! Hey! Wait up! I'M your opponent! Not them! Stupid!" Van called out after it, being very not pleased.
They ran underneath a tunnel like structure. The dragon followed. [No normal human has ever been able to outrun a dragon before. What are these people of the Mystic Moon?]
Van noticed that he was loosing distance to the dragon quickly. "I won't let you get away!" he cried while sprinting with all the speed he had and grabbed hold of it's tail. As he climbed farther up its back it jumped up onto the tunnel thingy and continued to chase it's pray. "Ooh! Would-you. Hold. Still?!?" he growled at it.
The Dragon jumped off the other end of the tunnel, blocking off the teens. This caused Van to fall off the dragon's back. "Hey! Big and ugly! Over here! I'm your enemy, remember?!?"
"Is he crazy?" he heard the one called Hitomi ask out loud.
As his spectators ran to shelter, the dragon began to breathe fire again. Van attacked but the Dragon knocked him over again. "My sword can't penetrate its scales." Van announced with disappointment. [Weak point, weak point, weak point! Where's it's weak point damn it?!?] The Dragon charged Van and raised it's tail up.
"Look out! Behind you!" Hitomi called as it ran down the stairs.
Van jumped back and the tail tore his armor off. "Got you." Van cheered. He jumped on its back and slid his sword down the dragons' back. He ran to the front and stabbed it in the chest. Blood poured all over him, but he didn't care. He felt it. Warm to the point of almost being hot. Like being held in the arms of his mother back when he was still so young. For a moment, Van felt sorry for killing it, wondering if IT had a family at home somewhere, all alone and scared, now nothing but orphans having to fend for themselves in the harsh world. The Dragon fell over, dead. Van cut through its chest and took out a glowing stone. If he killed it, it may as well be for the proper purpose. [No use feeling sorry for it now, after all.] he told himself as the Dragon crumbled into dust and its blood disappeared.
"Umm... ...are you alright?" the Hitomi person asked. He noticed now it's figure... it is a girl after all.
"This wasn't so serious that I need help from a woman. Do you want thanks? If so, then come to the castle. But don't be conceited. I'll repay you for involving you in the dragon hunt. It doesn't mean that I defeated the dragon due to your help."
And she slapped him. He went into instantaneous shock. He had never been hit before in his life, especially not by a peasant girl. He was Crown Prince of Fanalia, future king, after all! He reached his hand to where it was still red and looked at her in mixed wonderment and confession.
"What's the matter with you?! I thought you were gonna get killed... I thought you were gonna get killed... so... I was scared... ...so scared! Why don't you say thanks or something? I shouldn't have saved a guy like you! You should've been eaten by that dragon!" she screamed at him, it was then he saw that she was starting to cry.
He was about to ask her what was wrong when his attention was pulled away to the stone. It was glowing. "The Energist..." he whispered in wonderment and confusion. This evening was just getting weirder and weirder with each passing moment, he thought for a moment that this may all be just some sort of screwed up dream. But then he remembered that he didn't have a good enough imagination to come up with this.
The ground then lit up underneath them. A pillar of light appeared around them once more, and they start to be lifted into the air.
"Kanzaki! Kanzaki!" he could hear the other boy, what's-his-name call to the odd 'Hitomi' girl.
"Amano!" that's right. That was his name. He and this Hitomi girl seemed close. "Amano!" she called his name out again.
The pillar of light carried them to the sky, depositing them in the woods. Van looked around him. [I'm back. It will take a good day and a half to two days to walk back to Fanalia, but at least the light didn't drop me back in the middle of those other three dragons. I could always fly back, but...] it was then he spotted the girl from the Mystic Moon, curled up in a ball and shivering like a rattlesnake's tail.
Van approached and knelt down beside her, in as gentle a tone as he could manage with his exhaustion, he said "Hey, hey. It's ok. We're safe. Nothing to fear. Dragons don't come into this part of the wood. They don't like the bugs." he tried his best to comfort the girl.
"You're..." she began but stopped as she looked up, not at him like she had originally started for, but farther up. "W-wh-where?"
"Hmm?" he asked as he followed her line of sight. "Oh. I gather from the Mystic Moon you can't see Geae like we can see you... I wonder why not." when he got no response, he continued talking. "We're about an hour or two's walk from the village of Urthas and somewhere between a day and a half and two days from the capital city of Fanalia." she was still destrot, so Van tried to reassure her again. "He-ey, don't you worry. Everything's going to be alright. You'll see."
"Urthas...? Fanellia...? Gaea? What's going on?"
Van was interrupted from answering by growl. A group of standing wolves surround them.