Chapter 9
The crisp morning air was a pretty good reflection as to what the Lumir forest looked like at this point in the morning, snow coated all the trees around and apart from the road, the entirety of the ground must have been covered by about 3ft of snow. Elena wrapped up in an extra scarf, despite claiming to love everything she wasn't that keen on Lumir, it was cold and barren and shown no sign of life at all. She was looking forward to getting on the steamer to Liligue, that was the fun part of this journey as there was always plenty to do on that short 1 hour journey. On the way out she had sang to the passengers on the boat and got a standing ovation for it. She felt even her gift for singing was pretty useless at the moment, after all it wasn't going to warm her up. The edge of the forest was drawing near and the steamer was sitting waiting for them in the makeshift port, "Finally!" she exclaimed. They were one step closer to their next destination.
Ryudo had been having similar feelings, the St Heim mountains were getting pretty cold near the summit, cursing himself for not having packed some extra clothes. He couldn't really beat himself up over it, traversing mountains hadn't been something he had expected they would have to do, regardless of the circumstances. Tio was clearly coping fine and Roan had been smart enough to pack extra clothes. "Damn!" Ryudo said suddenly, Roan and Tio stopped to find out what was wrong, "What's wrong Ryudo" asked Roan. "Forgot to pack my thermal underwear that's all". Roan laughed and said "Well we should hopefully be off these mountains before nightfall so it shouldn't be too big a deal". Ryudo smiled a little at that prospect and continued the arduous climb to the summit. It was at this point that Tio pointed and said "Look!", and in plain view about 150 metres ahead of them was the pinnacle point of the St Heim mountains, from there you could see the mountain town of Mirimu and the Lumir forest beyond that, on the horizon was the huge river that was formerly the Granacliffs. Finally they scraggled their way to the top, and the view was incredible, the sun had peaked over the land ahead of them and this made the huge territory of snow that was the Lumir forest glint with a pure shine of white. They were close enough to Mirimu now to be able too see that some chimneys were spouting smoke, but nonetheless getting there would probably take a good portion of the remaining day. After all getting down a mountain normally proves to be just as hard as climbing it, unless of course you take the express route but to any of the trio that just wasn't an option. "Should only take a couple of hours, hopefully!" said Ryudo. "Lets go then" said Roan with true resolve in his voice. The 3 of them then started their equally taxing descent towards Mirimu.
Millenia finally reached the edge of the baked plains, to her dismay she saw with her own eyes that Skye had not been lying to her. The once prosperous city of Liligue lay before her, almost victim to a nuclear strike to the untrained eye but there were exceptional circumstances lying all around her. The purple goop everywhere and the tall and black spikes which Skye claimed erupted from the ground as the blast was about to hit. Millenia found a small piece of ground in the shade and dozed off, still exhausted from her very own energy blast in the baked plains from before. Once she was asleep, the event which caused Liligue to vanish from the map replayed before her eyes... "She slowed to a halt when she saw Skye hovering over Mr Gadan's corpse, there were repeated slice marks on the body, it was at that point that she noticed a figure in a cape standing on a clearing perhaps 100 metres away from the scene. Her eyes widened, she could swear that she recognised the figure and began to shake her head in disbelief and shock. "Ah I remember you, how dramatic, the girl with wings correct?" said the figure in a slightly cocky voice. Millenia could barely speak but managed to stammer "M-M-Melfice!?". "Absolutely correct my dear, now have you seen my brother anywhere, I would love to pay my...ahem....regards!" Millenia suddenly feeling extremely protective shouted "I'll never let you have Ryudo", "Is that a fact?" sniggered Melfice "Well if I have to extract the information the hard way then so be it", upon these words he drew the Granasaber from his back, which had now changed to a black colour and had a blue gem in the centre of the hilt. Millenia drew aim on her crossbow and fired straight at him, however Melfice easily swatted it away and even managed to split the bolt evenly down the middle. Millenia couldn't believe what she was seeing and before she knew it Melfice had sprinted at an extremely fast speed which her eyes could barely even gauge behind her and punched her down to the ground. "Tell me what I need to know" ordered Melfice. "Never! I'll never let you have Ryu-d-d-o..." Millenia managed to croak before losing consciousness." She started to flinch in her sleep uncontrollably and woke startled and in a cold sweat, she was almost blinded as the sun glared straight into her eyes. "Dammit!" she was able to croak shielding her eyes. Feeling a bit more refreshed , she thought it would be a wise idea to hunt for some clues as to what had happened to this place or rather why.
The crisp morning air was a pretty good reflection as to what the Lumir forest looked like at this point in the morning, snow coated all the trees around and apart from the road, the entirety of the ground must have been covered by about 3ft of snow. Elena wrapped up in an extra scarf, despite claiming to love everything she wasn't that keen on Lumir, it was cold and barren and shown no sign of life at all. She was looking forward to getting on the steamer to Liligue, that was the fun part of this journey as there was always plenty to do on that short 1 hour journey. On the way out she had sang to the passengers on the boat and got a standing ovation for it. She felt even her gift for singing was pretty useless at the moment, after all it wasn't going to warm her up. The edge of the forest was drawing near and the steamer was sitting waiting for them in the makeshift port, "Finally!" she exclaimed. They were one step closer to their next destination.
Ryudo had been having similar feelings, the St Heim mountains were getting pretty cold near the summit, cursing himself for not having packed some extra clothes. He couldn't really beat himself up over it, traversing mountains hadn't been something he had expected they would have to do, regardless of the circumstances. Tio was clearly coping fine and Roan had been smart enough to pack extra clothes. "Damn!" Ryudo said suddenly, Roan and Tio stopped to find out what was wrong, "What's wrong Ryudo" asked Roan. "Forgot to pack my thermal underwear that's all". Roan laughed and said "Well we should hopefully be off these mountains before nightfall so it shouldn't be too big a deal". Ryudo smiled a little at that prospect and continued the arduous climb to the summit. It was at this point that Tio pointed and said "Look!", and in plain view about 150 metres ahead of them was the pinnacle point of the St Heim mountains, from there you could see the mountain town of Mirimu and the Lumir forest beyond that, on the horizon was the huge river that was formerly the Granacliffs. Finally they scraggled their way to the top, and the view was incredible, the sun had peaked over the land ahead of them and this made the huge territory of snow that was the Lumir forest glint with a pure shine of white. They were close enough to Mirimu now to be able too see that some chimneys were spouting smoke, but nonetheless getting there would probably take a good portion of the remaining day. After all getting down a mountain normally proves to be just as hard as climbing it, unless of course you take the express route but to any of the trio that just wasn't an option. "Should only take a couple of hours, hopefully!" said Ryudo. "Lets go then" said Roan with true resolve in his voice. The 3 of them then started their equally taxing descent towards Mirimu.
Millenia finally reached the edge of the baked plains, to her dismay she saw with her own eyes that Skye had not been lying to her. The once prosperous city of Liligue lay before her, almost victim to a nuclear strike to the untrained eye but there were exceptional circumstances lying all around her. The purple goop everywhere and the tall and black spikes which Skye claimed erupted from the ground as the blast was about to hit. Millenia found a small piece of ground in the shade and dozed off, still exhausted from her very own energy blast in the baked plains from before. Once she was asleep, the event which caused Liligue to vanish from the map replayed before her eyes... "She slowed to a halt when she saw Skye hovering over Mr Gadan's corpse, there were repeated slice marks on the body, it was at that point that she noticed a figure in a cape standing on a clearing perhaps 100 metres away from the scene. Her eyes widened, she could swear that she recognised the figure and began to shake her head in disbelief and shock. "Ah I remember you, how dramatic, the girl with wings correct?" said the figure in a slightly cocky voice. Millenia could barely speak but managed to stammer "M-M-Melfice!?". "Absolutely correct my dear, now have you seen my brother anywhere, I would love to pay my...ahem....regards!" Millenia suddenly feeling extremely protective shouted "I'll never let you have Ryudo", "Is that a fact?" sniggered Melfice "Well if I have to extract the information the hard way then so be it", upon these words he drew the Granasaber from his back, which had now changed to a black colour and had a blue gem in the centre of the hilt. Millenia drew aim on her crossbow and fired straight at him, however Melfice easily swatted it away and even managed to split the bolt evenly down the middle. Millenia couldn't believe what she was seeing and before she knew it Melfice had sprinted at an extremely fast speed which her eyes could barely even gauge behind her and punched her down to the ground. "Tell me what I need to know" ordered Melfice. "Never! I'll never let you have Ryu-d-d-o..." Millenia managed to croak before losing consciousness." She started to flinch in her sleep uncontrollably and woke startled and in a cold sweat, she was almost blinded as the sun glared straight into her eyes. "Dammit!" she was able to croak shielding her eyes. Feeling a bit more refreshed , she thought it would be a wise idea to hunt for some clues as to what had happened to this place or rather why.