Chapter 4: Child's Adventure

Mostly orphans or the homeless used the run-down building in the southwestern part of the village; they bothered no one and asked for nothing. It was large enough for Liem to begin training those orphan children away from any distractions. He taught them first, how to care for tools and weapons, teaching them respect for their tools and for their opponents. Next, he taught them weapon basics, discovering who would excel with what weapon. While he did teach them how to use as many weapons as possible, they each had natural skills and dispositions that would allow them to use one type of weapon better than others. After a year of training them in the use of weapons, he did find them knowledgeable enough to defend themselves and then had them focus on developing their skills through weapons exercises. He began to interact more with the community as opposed to his students, teaching the villagers how to fight with their farming tools and helping them hunt.

Liem led a party outside the village preparing for the fall hunt; this would be their last opportunity before the cold weather would drive animals into hibernation. They were heading south to the Fae Forest and would be gone for a weak at most. Little did Liem know, he and his party were being watched.

"They gone yet?" Lionne asked.

"Yeah..." Rennard replied.

The two left their position from within the farm's tall wheat crop at the edge of the village and headed back. They crossed the bridge over the river, which ran around and through the village, past shops and the small shrine and into the small residential area. There they found Ryu, Topaz and Kuroki waiting for them with large sacs and backpacks.

"So?" Ryu asked.

"He's gone and it didn't look like he was gonna turn back either." Rennard said.

"Okay then. Just in case we'll take the northern exit; we don't want to run into him accidentally." Ryu said.

"A-are you sure this is okay? I-I-I mean he did s-say n-not to go out of the village." Topaz said nervously.

"It's okay, were aren't going that far. 'Sides, didn't you want to see the Stone Idol?" Ryu said nonchalantly.

"Who died and made you boss anyways? Just 'cause your dad taught us how to use weapons an' how to fight doesn't mean you get to boss us around." Kuroki grumped.

"Liem isn't my father." Ryu said indifferently.

"Mya?" Lionne mewed inquisitively. "What d'you mean he's not you dad?"

"Just what I said: he's not my dad. He raised me 'cause my mom and dad are dead. He told me when Elle died..."

"Huh... so you're like use then." Rennard mused.

"No he's not; he's a stuck up little snot who thinks he can boss us around." Kuroki retorted.

"P-please stop fighting." Topaz begged.

"Meh... Okay then, tent and sleeping bags?" Ryu asked.

"Check!" Rennard said as he picked up a large bag containing the aforementioned items.

"Food?"

"Check, mya!" Lionne said, picking up another bag.

"Climbing stuff, ropes and things?"

"Blow it out your butt!" Kuroki said.

"Ku..." Ryu said exasperatedly.

"Check." Kuroki sneered in a very sarcastic fashion.

"Uhhh... other stuff?" Ryu said, unsure of what to call the rest.

"Ah... um... Ch-check? I think..." Topaz replied with her small pack of stuff.

"Last, but not least; Weapons?"

Ryu felt his short sword at his side; Liem had trained him in the use of a sword since he could hold one. A short sword was a good-sized sword for a child of eight. Lionne yawned and stretched, her daggers at her side, her natural agility and wild, and often reckless, behaviour made the close combat weapon a natural choice for her, though she often wished she had something fancier. Kuroki hefted the heavy mace, a large, strong boy, he could do considerable damage with the blunt weapon, but he always said he should have had a sword instead. Rennard had a full quiver of arrows and a bow slung on his back as well as the bag with the small tent and sleeping bags. He had an unnatural skill with projectiles. Topaz had her staff in hand; she was the only one who had not shown any real ability with a weapon and even now, the staff was not her real weapon.

"All right, lets go!" Ryu said.

The group snuck stealthily, stealthily for children at least, through the village. Past the houses and small shops, towards the northern exit, doing their very best to avoid being seen. Once reaching the northern exit, they ran, praying they would not be seen. They needn't have worried, for the lookouts were more concerned with the comings and goings of people of the south and the east as there was nothing of great importance in the north, save the Stone Idol. The children ran, the four orphans were making the most out of their new leather footwear that Liem had made for them. They ran next to the river, which flowed from a lake in the crescent shaped mountains to the north. The plains made it easy to run for it was very flat and there were few obstacles. There was a dirt path for travelers and the plains had trees that dotted the landscape, but there weren't any forests in the area, those lay to the west and to the south, past the volcano, Mount Zublo. Ryu and his friends came to a halt by a waterfall.

"O... okay, we can rest here for the rest of the day and head out tomorrow." Ryu said, very much out of breath.

It was not yet even noon, they had slowed down considerably since they had left the village, but they had maintained a relatively quick pace. Only Kuroki and Rennard didn't seem tired. They let down their packs and Kuroki and Ryu began to set up a small camp, unpacking things and making a general mess. Lionne smiled mischievously and jumped into the river, tucking herself into a ball as she was coming down.

"FIIIIIISH!" She yelled just before making a big splash.

Both Ryu and Topaz got soaked, but Kuroki, who stood on the opposite side of the tent they were setting up, remained dry, laughing at Ryu's misfortune passing a towel to Topaz. Topaz giggled a bit at Ryu, whose face wore a sort of apathetic-irritated expression. Rennard looked at them and smiled; he looked through the food pack and frowned.

"All you brought was flatbread?" He asked.

"I-it was all I could get away with bringing..." Topaz said embarrassed.

"S'okay... I'll just go hunt something." Rennard said.

He walked for a bit, turning to look at his friends and he marvelled at how such different people could get along. He wasn't sure what he could hunt out here; there was little to no cover for animals and most would be hiding underground, preparing to hibernate for the winter. He turned suddenly, having heard a sound; he saw a lone tree in the plain. In a single, fluid motion, he drew an arrow from his quiver, pulled back on the bowstring and let the arrow fly. It flew through the branches of the tree and struck its unsuspecting target. The bird let out a squawk and fell to the ground. The arrow was a fowling blunt, meaning the tip was a ball of metal, not a sharpened point; this would stun or even nock its target unconscious, without drawing blood. Rennard walked over to the tree and picked up the bird and sighed; it would take a lot more if they were really going to have good meals on this short trip.

The sun was setting by the time Rennard returned to camp. He had a brace of chicken-sized birds hanging from his belt and was trudging forward with a wild pig slung on his back. He hadn't meant to be gone so long, but the pig had been too tempting to pass up. Due to its sheer weight, size, being almost as big as he was, and distance from the camp it had taken him quite a while to chase it down, kill it and bring it back. When he arrived at the camp sight he saw Ryu working on making a fire by rubbing two sticks together; it was not going well as the small pile of wood didn't even heat up. Kuroki watched, smirking at Ryu's pitiful efforts and Topaz seemed to want to help but was not forthcoming with any aid. As for Lionne, she was busy entertaining herself by balancing a dagger on her nose by the point of the weapon; it was a trick that had gotten her in trouble with Liem time and time again, but she seemed to enjoy and it entertained people.

"You're never gonna light it." Kuroki said.

"Yeah, I will!" Ryu retorted, rubbing the two sticks together faster in defiance.

"Give it up and let Topaz light the fire." Kuroki smirked.

"Fine!" Ryu said tossing the sticks away in disgust and anger.

He stomped off to the tent, grabbing the dagger off of Lionne's nose as he walked passed her.

"Nyaaaa! What's his problem? Bleh!" Lionne said, sticking her tongue in Ryu's direction.

'He was probably trying to impress Topaz again.' Rennard thought.

"I bring gifts!" He said aloud.

"OOOOOH! Pig! Pig! Pig meat for supper!" Lionne squealed in delight.

Kuroki helped Rennard settle the pig corpse on the ground as Lionne danced around it in her excitement. Topaz stood over the pile of wood and began to speak softly, her hands laid upon the wood.

"Flame small, flame bright, burn with your eternal might. Flare!" She incanted, casting a first level fire spell.

It was one of the few spells Liem could teach her, he was not a mage and therefore his general experience with magic was somewhat lacking. Topaz, however, had mastered the spells easily enough as evidenced when a fire began to burn the wood and grow into a nice campfire. Rennard began to de- feather the birds by the fish that Lionne had caught in a spot by the tent; they were on a cloth blanket to keep them from getting dirty.

"How many fish did you catch?" Rennard asked.

"Oh six or seven, I think." Lionned said as she helped.

"How she caught 'em when she was flopping around in the water like that, I'll never know." Kuroki said.

"Stupid fish were trying to swim up da waterfall." Lionne said as she took out a knife.

"Hey! What do you think your doing?" Kuroki asked her, grabbing her arm.

"Skinnin' da pig! Why? You want to eat da fur to?" She asked curiously.

"No, but you can't do it." Kuroki argued.

"Can too! I've seen people skin pigs before!" Lionne pouted.

"Doesn't mean you can do it." Kroki retorted.

"Hey, hey!" Rennard intervened. "Let Ku skin and cut the pig, you can go pick out a few fish for us to eat, Li."

"M'kay!" Lionne said completely unconcerned.

"U-um... Ku? Can you apologize to Ryu?" Topaz asked timidly.

"Huh? Why should I?" Kuroki asked sourly.

"W-well, you were kind of mean to him... please?"

"It would be best, Ku. It'd be no fun to travel if he's in sour mood, don't cha think?" Rennard piped in.

Kuroki looked at Rennard, then at Topaz, rolled his eyes and grumped 'fine' under his breath. He plodded over to the tent and looked inside. Ryu was sitting there, his back to the wall and he was cleaning his sword.

"What do you want?" He asked sourly.

"Uh... Look, I want to say I'm sorry, okay?" Kuroki said, though he sounded not sorry in the least.

"Woohoo, you're sorry, great, now go away." Ryu said in a monotone voice.

"Oh for gods sake! Look... Topaz is worried about you." He said almost in disgust.

Ryu stopped and turned to look at Kuroki.

"You're sorry?" He asked.

"Yeah." Ku replied without any conviction what so ever.

"No you're not, but it's the best I'll get." Ryu said getting up and leaving the tent to join his friends.


"Union may be strength, but it is mere blind brute strength unless wisely directed." - Samuel Butler.

Music: 'Liem's Quest' (Game: Terranigma)