Chapter 3: the good, the bad, the just plain stupid and insane.
My sword was dark and pulsed with my heartbeat. I licked my lips and tasted the air. Battle rage and lots of it filtered my body. This was going to be fun. I laughed and struck the first orc. My chuckles turned from light to heavy wells of laughter as I felt the wind scarring my skin and ravaging my flesh and allowing darkness to comfort me. My head tilted back as I then let my sword fly to the heart of an orc. I smiled like a demon; I could see it in the orc's eyes. The moment lasted for minutes on end when I then flipped back into the air and sliced his head clean off. My blade gleamed with black blood. My grin grew wider as the desire mounted. I looked at the rest of the orcs with a wide grin.
"What are you waiting for? Are you going to attack or stand there like pansies?" I asked, darkness infiltrating my voice, making it seem almost demonic. A few of them ran out. But ten remained. I loved this game, my mind suddenly shouted. I gave a cry of blood lust. Two orcs came from behind me with weapons made of an incredibly strong metal. The armor that was attached to my skin scraped off and disappeared, but it was enough to get me pissed. I swung my arm with my sword, slicing their heads off, yet leaving my back open for assault. Okay two down. Eight to go. I needed to make quick work of this. I smiled and stayed at eye level with all of them, which was at least three to four feet off the ground. I looked at them and felt my blood lust start to crest. I flipped into the air as I felt their . . . oh what would be the right word, hmm. . . chi. . . Level up and surround a centered point as I threw my weapon into the great climaxing target. And smiled and said in low tones," Astral Drain."
I breathed in all of their energy life force as did Dart in the back. Okay, I know he was hot and everything, but why hadn't the guy transformed yet?! I didn't have time to ponder as some orcs were becoming weak enough for me to finish off with single attacks. So I decided to play dolls with them. I flew on top of one's head causing another to slice at me. Duh, I moved and that's when we learn, class, that orc brains are not pink or black, but in fact green!! I laughed as I thought this. I swept out my weapon once again and pummeled it into an orc's head. My eyes glanced up with a cannibalistic view. I was the hunter, they were my prey. And death would become all of them.
I cracked my neck and threw my weapon down. I had six more. I leapt towards them and thrust my hand through one's chest and crushed the heart while at the same time, letting my high-heeled boot collide with another heart in another's chest. I chuckled and let the blood wash over my glove. I lifted it to my face and sniffed. It was old blood. Artificial blood. At once, I threw it aside. My senses were full of anger. Who would dare taunt the Dark Dragoon with such Indifference?! I yelled before slicing through the other four's heads. I threw the weapon down and knelt at the ground. And my armor went away. And that's when my senses stopped and I saw a darkness greater than no other.
I finally opened my eyes that looked up to the noon sky. I closed them once again and moaned. When they opened again, I saw Zeek's face peering at me. He handed me a cantine of water and Wink gave me some bread. My limbs were sore. And stiff. My eyes felt like popping out of my skull. Jeeze. Hang over of the Dragoons? Then I thought about what I had felt during the fight. I had felt desire for blood. I felt it for death. My face became suffused with a red glow. I was blushing again. Peachy.
"What happened?" I asked. Zeek gave me an indifferent look, almost that of annoyance. I hated it when I was given that look. I felt small and insignificant. And the urge to break out in tears because of a failure. But I didn't know what I had failed to do.
"The people took Mom. Dad told us to stay here while he went to save her." Zeek said, rather resentfully. I was taken aback for a moment. How would the Rose react? I sighed and placed my hand on Zeek's arm.
"Please, I want to go after him. It's my fault the orcs came." I said.
"What are orcs? Those things? I've never seen them ever before. Nor has Dad."
"They were created by someone. I call them orcs because that's what they looked((and smelled)) like." I replied. Wink looked around for a moment.
"So what are we gonna do? The town's burned up. Again." Wink said. I almost felt like laughing. How many times did a small town burn in a game?
What wink had said made me notice that we were in a forest path. There were animals all around. The place looked real and smelled real. I was starting to wonder if this was all real. I placed my hand on Zeek's arm again.
"We need to help. How long has your father been there?" I asked.
"Dawn."
I looked to the sky. It was around noon. Okay. "We'll go." I said.
"Yea!!!!!!!" Wink yelled jumping on my back. "Let's go kick some monster butt!"
"Wait, we don't even have any weapons! Not to mention, Wink would get hurt. I won't loose anymore family." Zeek said. Wink and I stared at him for a moment.
I hated to admit it, but he was right. Blunt and blatant about it, but right nonetheless. I nodded little bit when we heard a rustling behind us. A man with a large pack on his back stepped through. He had white hair and purple clothes on but had a pleasant aura about him.
"I can help ya get back on your feet again!" He said politely. He opened his sack and revealed weapons and bottled potions. "I'm Kazas, a traveling merchant. I hefted a couple of bags of gold off some dead monster things and so I guess you guys could use it more than I. I let you have a thousand gold's worth of weapons. We both nodded. Zeek merely traded ion his old bastard sword for a new one while I got some long daggers, four that is. Wink wanted to help as well, So we got her a slingshot. Gee, just imagine our luck, eh?
Remember the time in Legend of Dragoon when you go to the Hellena Prison? Try living it out. Okay, first of all, sneaking in with a kid, hot guy in red, and yourself((who should be currently stiff and lacking real rejuvenation)) into a heavily guarded fortress with ugly stinking orcs lurking around every corner. OH yeah. It was a lot harder than pushing the "X" button when you saw an exclamation point above Dart's head. Gee I couldn't wait until the valley of corrupted gravity. Well anyway, After painstaking planning and working, we got into the prison in an armor cart. Yes. It was a cart that carried armor straight from the battle fields for later use. I think Wink was eternally scarred when she saw a dismembered hand. Well, when we got out, we smelled like orcs. Dead ones anyhow. We snuck around with Wink on my back and the sexy Zeek leading the way. Okay, I'm sorry, but for a guy, his butt was kinda nice . . . what THE HECK WAS I THINKING ABOUT?!!? I sighed a little bit as I realized the dude probably thought terribly of me. Oh yeah. Good going, Mary Rose. Really, really, just great.
As I was loathing myself, I followed Zeek until he stopped abruptly at a bridge. We heard yelling and a whistle. Before we knew it, boom there were four guards around us. Joy. I puled out my daggers from my waist and went into Rikku's positon from Final Fantasy X. Well, one of the only reasons why I got daggers was because I really adored Rikku. Anyway. Went a guard attacked me, I ducked and sliced his stomach and launched him over. Zeek could handle himself pretty damn well. He finished several additions clearly a legal level twenty fighter. Wink used her weapon to annoy and distract the fighters. I really liked the kid. We disposed of the guards as we neared the lifts. Our damage was minimal, but hey, NOBODY liked pain.
Zeek walked inside the storage room and plopped down. He had cuts up and down his arms. Wink was getting tired of walking around. I wasn't all that bad. I rummaged around until I found a crate with several potions of many sorts. I gave one for energy to Wink and one of healing to Zeek. I put the rest in a potato sack I found in the corner closest to the crate of which I had found the Potions.
"We don't know where they are." Zeek said. I looked over to him past my shoulder as I checked other boxes. It was hot there, I tell you and I felt the dirt and dust cling to my skin as It clearly did his. I gazed at him a bit longer before answering.
"I'll look for keys to cells. This prison is huge. We could set everyone free and start a rebellion." I said.
"What if some people in here should be here?" Zeek retorted.
"Look, dude, Do you really think those creatures have anything to do with the cause of good? If they had a friggin' bandit, they would turn him to their side. It's that simple. Not to mention, the bigger our numbers the bigger our chances of finding your parents. Got it?" I asked. He stood up and balled up his fists.
"It's your fault they're here!"
"I know, I told you that already. Can we please get a move on?" I asked. Wink stared at us both for a moment and then huffed a sigh.
"I'm ready to go . . ." Wink said. She stood up and looked out through the door.
Zeek and I turned. At least he loved them, I thought. We walked out and followed through to the cells. Yes, I did remember the FAQs about L.O.D. We walked to the top floor, I snuck around the guards and got the keys while Zeek and Wink hid. We then went into the Prison Cells.
To put it simply, it reeked. Yeah. I thought it was cool though. NOT THE BAD SMELLING part but because I wanted to do some good in this world. I refrained this time, however from freeing any other prisoners. We walked and walked until the guards were all found hovering around a cell. Gee didn't that scream"I'm right here?"
Wink thought of it all first, but she shot her slingshot to the opposite end of the prison, hitting about ten yards off. The Guards all swarmed towards the sound. That's when Zeek unlocked his mother's cell. He looked at her with a smile but then looked for Dart.
"Dad? He came for you. . ." Zeek said.
"They took him to the top floor where Lavitz had died. . . ." Shana said, he face covered with tears.
"We have no time for a reunion. We gotta leave." I said, feeling cold-hearted.
Wink whistled like a bird. The guards were coming back. Dammit. We all ran out of the main cells and back to the lifts.
"Zeek, get your mother to the prairie. She'll be safe there. Take Wink as well." I said. Shana grabbed a bow and a quiver of arrows. Dejavu? Just a little.
"What about my father?" Zeek asked. I placed my hand on his right shoulder.
"Trust me this once. Your father will be alive when he leaves." I said.
Zeek nodded. He took Wink on his shoulders and left. I had to draw attention to myself. It was me they were after, right? So being wonderfully expert on klutziness, I ran to the guards, tripped, fell, and yelled "Oh my ankle!". They took me immediately of course. Blah. I don't really know whether it was stupid, but I had hoped they would bring me to the top floor. After all, I had to save Dart. He was cool. He had the divine Dragoon.