Training
The dying scream of a crab was heard as Astraea's dagger plunged through the back of its shell, the only salvageable item left behind being the crab's prized claws. She bent down and stuffed the claws into her knapsack, slinging the brown pack over her shoulder once it was securely closed.
Her booted feet sunk a few inches into the sand with each step she took along the beach, pausing only to pick up discarded crab claws left behind by others that had come to the island to train as well. A flying fish suddenly darted past her and she drew out her dagger, felling the monster in one stroke. She had only reached the rank of level 6 in her rogue class, yet this island already seemed too easy compared to the skills she had acquired. Every creature here fell to its death after a single stroke from her dagger.
Astraea sighed, both from exhaustion and boredom, and sat down upon the golden sand to gaze out across the blue waters. Her knapsack fell from her shoulder with a dull thud to the ground as she leaned back on her hands, stretching her feet before her and enjoying the way a cool breeze from across the water caressed her warm skin. She closed her eyes for a moment and was struck by a strong sense of deja vu. Her eyes opened slowly and she looked around herself, trying to place what had caused the strange feeling to arise. It was as though she'd sat here before, looking out across the water... the memory of her dream came back to her at that moment and she gasped silently.
She could remember it now, though while she had dreamt it the dream had been hazy and unclear, instead focusing more on her emotions than what was actually going on. She'd been so happy in the dream, content and warm and at peace, so much different from the nightmare that had awakened her. She shuddered lightly at the memory.
After a moment she rose to her feet, looking out across the ocean one last time before bending down to retrieve her knapsack. Sadly, a dream was all that it had been. She had no past to call her own, or even a definite future to look forward to. Still, she knew that there was something about this beach, a place she might be able to return to when she needed a moment's peace.
However right now was the time to train, not reminisce, and Astraea felt her blood stirring at the thought of slaying more monsters. She took off at a jog up the beach, remembering that she had seen the traces of a goblin village somewhere to the north. With any luck there would be plenty of them there for her play with. She grinned at the thought and drew out her dagger.
* * * * * * *
Astraea pocketed the 400 gold pieces she's made off of selling the long sword that had fallen from the dead goblin chief's body and stepped out of the weapon's shop. All in all the morning had gone pretty well. Making over 2000 gold pieces from killing monsters all over Vetra, and selling crab claws and the long sword seemed to be a good start to her. With most of her money now resting safely in the Bank of Terra she made her way to the gates of the city, recalling the words a priest of Nallyssa had whispered to her after she had reached her 8th level. She was now an assassin, and able to kill and be killed by the other people in this world.
Wary and full of caution from those words she draped her cloak of invisibility around herself and stepped outside of the city gates, taking off at a fast run through the forest. She ran unnoticed past other monsters and people, pausing after a moment to rest in an empty clearing. Though she had never traveled outside of the city before, her feet seemed to have a mind of their own and were leading her along a fairly well worn path, which was taking her closer and closer to the mountain in the east.
After a moment she took off again, unexpectedly having the dodge the ax of a goblin, who chanced to look in her direction as she came upon him on the path. Leaving him behind to scare other travelers she paused before the beginning of a rocky trail, glancing beyond it to see the mountain that had been a far off peak from Terra, now looming only a short run away. She skidded down the slope and took off running again, one part of her mind questioning how it was possible for her to know where she was going, while another was simply enjoying the feeling of running freely across the land.
Before she knew it the wall wooden gates of another town were before her and she ducked inside quickly, seeing that the entrance to it was also a popular spot for fighters to duel amongst each other. She didn't particularly feel like stepping in the way of a misdirected weapon at the moment, so she stood just inside the gates of the city, catching her breath from the exhausting, yet exhilarating run she had just made.
In order to walk around town normally she surrendered her ability to sneak and began moving up the main avenue, looking upon every building with curiosity as she attempted to memorize their locations. Her feet seemed to stop on their own in front of one particular building, the words, "Ranger's Guild," wrought in iron above the large wooden door. Wondering why she had stopped, Astraea pushed open the door and stepped into a dimly lit, dirt floored hall.
She made her way to the back of the room and was surprised to see a hidden set of stairs leading down into the basement of the guild. Cautiously she stepped down the wooden staircase, arriving at the bottom to find that she was in the thieves' guild, and that the hall branched off in three other directions. She stepped into the closest room straight ahead and was amazed to see a temple of Nallyssa before her. After paying respect to the goddess of night Astraea explored the other two rooms, discovering that they were the training guilds of the barbarians and her own class, assassins.
Back outside in front of the ranger guild, Astraea stood still a moment to watch the city around her. Upon a hill to her right she could see the framework going up for large buildings, dozens of dwarves on scaffolding and around the base of the buildings overseeing the construction. Before her and to her left were older, smaller buildings, their sign advertising gift shops, supply and magic shops, and each guild of the many classes.
A rumbling stomach was all the prompting Astraea needed as she took off towards the supply shop. She walked through the wide door, but was suddenly pushed back out of the shop, while the person who's back she had run into continued to fall out of the doorway, landing on their rear.
"Owwwwwwwww!!" the woman whined as she pushed herself back up, one hand patting her dusty bottom.
"What's a girl gotta do to buy some water around here??" she hollered into the shop, throwing a braid of thick, auburn hair over her shoulder. She grumbled loudly to herself about the degrading courtesy of the male species and turned on her heels, almost knocking into Astraea again.
"Oh!" the woman exclaimed, her eyebrows raising in surprise. "Was that you I knocked into? Shit I'm sorry, its just that some people," she bit out, glancing back sourly at the shop, "have no decency for a woman in a hurry to get someplace."
Astraea waved her hands placatingly and shook her head. "No no it's ok, I wasn't watching where I was going, really."
The woman laughed and stuck out her hand. "I'm Aquarius, it's been nice bumping into you."
Astraea laughed as well and shook the offered hand. "I'm Astraea."
Aquarius looked at their locked hands for a moment and whistled softly. "That's a nice grip you got there. You're a half-orc right?" she asked, taking a closer look at Astraea.
Astraea blushed and released the unintentionally strong grip she had on Aquarius. "I'm afraid I can't tell as easily what you are though," she replied a bit disappointedly.
"Well that's an easy one!" Aquarius replied, pointing at the short, elf-like ears she possessed. "You're looking at a gen-u-ine half elf, roundhouses and kicking ass being my specialty." At Astraea's perplexed expression Aquarius brought out the long staff she had been keeping at her side. "I'm a monk," she explained, making a few practiced swings with the weapon.
"Oh," Astraea echoed, watching with interest as Aquarius moved her staff as though it were merely just an extension of her own body. "What level are you?" Astraea asked after a moment.
"21," Aquarius announced proudly, resting the staff across the back of her shoulders. When Astraea's mouth fell open in surprise Aquarius burst out laughing. "Aww come on, don't tell me I'm the first person you've met at this level... holy shit I am!" she exclaimed when Astraea looked away embarrassedly. "Haha, its ok." Aquarius smiled and patted Astraea's shoulder reassuringly. "So what level are you then?"
"8..."
A few moments later Aquarius was still gasping for breath as her laughter finally subsided, both hands gripping her staff while she had struggled to keep from toppling over from the force of her laughter. "I'm sorry," Aquarius chuckled, seeing Astraea's embarrassed expression. "I just.. well I shoulda known, I men you were all starry eyed over me being just 21 so of course you had to be really low. But man, talk about low. Ah I mean!" Aquarius stammered, realizing her slip-up. Clearing her throat loudly before Astraea had a chance to speak she bowed low at the waist. "Please forgive me. That was rude and ignorant. Can I make it up to ya?"
Instead Astraea smiled and shook her head. "Please don't worry about it. Honestly I've had the most fun since I began training while standing here with you. But you can tell me one thing though." Aquarius nodded in understanding. "Um, is it safe to go in there?" Astraea asked, looking over Aquarius' shoulder into the supply shop.
"Eh, oh! Hmmm. You know I wouldn't step back in there for another 10min unless I had armed guards with me. I think I kinda ticked a few of the locals off with my uh.. impatient attitude. Which reminds me," she said, taking hold of Astraea's arm as she walked the two of them north up the street and a safe distance away from the supply shop. "Sorry, didn't want any of them jerks walkin out and causing trouble for us. Why do you ask anyway?"
As if on cue Astraea's stomach rumbled again quiet loudly and Aquarius laughed, dropping one of her knapsacks to the ground as she bent down to rummage through it. "Well I guess I owe ya a meal, since I did kinda make the only place with food in town a little inaccessible at the moment."
Astraea was about to protest though, when a tasty looking meal of cold chicken and rice was placed in her hands. Aquarius laughed when Astraea began eating without another word, slinging her sack back into its place over her shoulder. "You better know that I only carry the best food with me, none of this ration crap you'll find from places like that," she pointed over her shoulder back at the supply shop. "It may be a long walk, but any distance is worth a good meal, doncha think?"
Astraea nodded and shoveled the last bit of rice into her mouth, drawing out her nearly empty canteen to quench her thirst that had now arisen. "Thank you Aquarius," she replied, offering over the last drink of her water.
Aquarius shook her head though and drew out a similar looking canteen. "Hey, call me Aqua, all my friends do. But I'm pretty sure its just cause they're too lazy to say the whole thing, bastards." Aquarius laughed and took a long swig from the container's mouth. "Aggggh!" she exclaimed, puckering her lips and coughing loudly a few times. "Nothin beats a good drink of agave juice. Wanna try?"
Astraea laughed and shook her head. "If that stuff affects a level 21 like that, it'll probably kill me."
"Ah you woos," Aquarius teased with a smile. "Though you're probably right, I gotta cut back. How about I get you up to Donas when you're big enough and we share a keg of this stuff together?"
Astraea nodded and smiled as the two of them began walking down the street back towards the main road. When they reached it Aquarius turned and pointed in the direction of the castle north of the city. "Just a few steps up that way you'll find the training area, its right before you enter the palace grounds. Think you'll make it on your own?" Aquarius grinned.
"I'm sure I will," Astraea replied, smiling gratefully. "But where are you going?"
"Me, I, well... I was makin runs down to the mines and selling all those venom sacks people are too lazy to pick up, pretty good money if you ask me. But hell I got nothin better to do, let's go!" With that Aquarius grabbed Astraea's hand and began dragging her in the direction of the training grounds.