FFXI: Chronicles of Pandemonium

Chronicle 3

A Day at Home

By: Nei

Note from Author: I'm afraid I have bad news... well at least for those who love FFXI and everything about it. I have quit playing FFXI. I'm guessing mostly that MMORPGs are just not my thing. It takes entirely too long to get anything accomplished, however... I love my character Neena (or at least the personality I have given her via this fic) and I miss my friends in the linkshell I was in, but I do not intend to give up this fic. A word of caution though, since I no longer play FFXI do not expect me to be up to date on events or changes to the game. Also expect to see some stuff that maybe a tad different. I'm hoping that this will not effect your opinions and you are reading for my story and not just because its FFXI related. Nonetheless I hope that you just enjoy reading :).

Neena sat at a table looking glumly at a pile of brass ingots she had managed to synthesize after a long days of hard work collecting the materials. She set the final ingot in its place completing a neatly stacked pyramid of the shining metal bars. The Mithra laid her head against the table, closing her eyes to give her mind a moments rest until the moogle that watched over her home piped up questioningly "Excellent work Neena... but what do you intend to do with all that brass?"

The girl stood up from the table and reached her arms up in a long stretch answering as she let her body relax again "Beats me... I'll worry about it tomorrow morning, Weimog. I'm too tired to think about it right now." She untied the simple Mithran separates she wore around the house, which wasn't much of a change from undergarments that she wore to bed in the first place.

The bed gave an audible creak as she flopped down on it and nestled herself into the sheets that were piled on top of it "I need to get a new bed... this one sounds like its about to fall ap-"A loud crack of wood echoed through-out the brick home and the mattress she slept on fell right through the middle of the simple wood frame. Neena bolted upright, half of her head covered in the beds sheets.

Weimog gave her a blank stare before bursting out in laughter at the comical scene. A chunk of wood suddenly clunked him in the head followed by the cat-girl's voice "That's not funny you useless puft of fuzz!!" She gave a defeated sigh and giggled lightly "Sorry 'bout that... I guess it is pretty funny." The moogle chuckled as he rubbed his head "See... no reason to get upset and throw stuff at me. Remind me never to laugh at you when you're tired."

Neena gathered up her sheets and wrapped herself up again answering as she flopped down in her mattress "You shoulda known better... anyhow... I guess I'm going to have to do something about this tomorrow as well... Goodnight Weimog." The moogle snuggled into his little bed next to the fireplace whispering under his breath "These Mithra are something else... but she's certainly different from my last master. I guess a Windurstian foreigner is a fresh breath."

The cat-girl laid still in her bed, having heard every word the moogle had said. Weimog was probably unaware that her ability to hear was more acute than a Humes or Galka's in which he was used to, but his words had made her feel a little bit more comfortable. Since the day she had arrived to Bastok, Eurik was still the only friend she had really made. The clients she had worked for her liked her, but they were just that, clients. She had never spoken to or seen any of them after completing her job. The girl closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep into the warm comfort of her sheets.

The next morning had welcomed Neena with a loud knock at the door of her home. She turned over in her sheets lazily mumbling "Weimog... can you see who that is?" A second knock caused her wearily sit up in the wreckage that was once her bed. She glanced over at the fire place to see that her moogle buddy was still fast asleep, then toward the window to notice that it was still dark outside.

The cat-girl stood upright and trudged toward the door, dragging her sheets half the way there before that had untangled and lost their grip on her. She swung open the door answering in a weary, slurred tone "Whaddyawant?" The man behind the door happened to Eurik who was struck with surprise in not only the way that she had answered, but the fact that she merely stood in front of him in her underwear. He couldn't help blushing as he looked away and tried explaining himself "I... uh... Sorry for waking you up so early, but I need to speak with you... It's... important."

Neena rubbed her eyes a bit and stood aside waving him in "Come on..." Her friend walked on in still trying to keep his gaze averted away from her. The trail of sheets that lead up to the collapsed bed did a pretty good job of keeping his attention away from her "Ah... Neena... what happened to your bed?" The cat-girl had moved to the other side of the room where she was preparing some Windurstian Tea on a wood burning stove "Long story short... it was old and it finally collapsed when I tried to go to sleep last night." she answered, not taking her attention off the stove.

Eurik turned around to look at her only to see that she was still in her undies. He quickly averted his attention once again, taking in the small place she had called home. It had then dawned on him that this was the first time he had ever been inside of Neena's home. "Uh... so this is your house?" he asked, trying to make some idle chit chat.

"Yea..." her answer still heavy with weariness.

"Just a single room place? A little small isn't it?"

"Yea, but it's all I could afford when I got here."

Neena set the bars of brass down on the floor and placed two cups onto the table. She shook the kettle of Windurstian Tea she had just brewed lightly "Want some? I need something to drink if I'm going to wake up." Eurik pulled out a chair and took a seat "Ah... sure..." He watched her as she poured her own cup then covered his eyes as she had to bend over the table a little in front of him to pour his cup of tea.

The cat-girl raised an eyebrow as she set the kettle down on the table "Is something wrong? Don't think I haven't noticed that you're trying to not look at me." Her friend kept his face down, but pointed a finger towards her "Uh... are you comfortable wearing your underwear in front of people?" Neena looked down at herself and shrugged "Uh... I guess... I'll go change right quick if that makes you feel better?"

The red mage finally was able to straighten up a little as the girl walked behind a folding screen she had set up in the room. Her voice called from behind the screen "So... what's wrong? You said you had something important." Eurik looked at his cup of tea, furrowing his brow as he watched the surface ripple "Yea... It seems that a Bastok scouting party had located a large Quadav camp near Bastok a few days ago." Neena came back out from behind the screen dressed in her usual Mithran separates and sat down at the table. She took a sip of her tea and answered "A large camp? Are they planning an attack or something?"

"Well... that's what everyone in the Bastok Offices thought. Since they had found out that camp they had monitored it to see what kind of activity was going on. One day the scouts didn't return. The President of Bastok assumed that the scouts were captured and sent as small detachment of knights to take care of the camp and hopefully bring the scouts back alive."

Neena blinked curiously when her friend paused "But?"

Eurik let out a long sigh after taking a swig from his cup of tea "But... when the knights had gotten there scouts and the entire camp of Quadav has been literally slaughtered."

The cat-girl's eyes widened at the news "Say what? If Bastok's knights didn't destroy them... then who did?"

The red mage gave a helpless shrug "No one knows... however... it seems that this isn't the only report... there were several reports of Quadav slaughters before this made by adventurer like you and me, but the Bostok offices and knights always dismissed them since they were just beastmen. It didn't really catch the offices attention until this happened."

Neena narrowed her eyes "Yea... when the President's scouts were found and slaughtered. I do think this is alarming... but what does this have to do with me or you?"

Eurik finished off his tea and set the cup down on the table "I thought you would never ask... it seems that our reputation of working together has really gotten out to Bastokian public. A client that is apparently in the Upper Offices of Bastok want us to find out what is going on."

Without a thought the cat girl sat up from her seat and looked at her Hume buddy with a huge grin "Really? This sounds very interesting. I'm curious as to who is doing this anyway and with the client being a worker in one of Bastok's Offices I can bet that the pay will be good." Eurik stood up from his seat giving a small nod "That's right, he's offered to pay us both 1000 gil per day for investigating."

Neena furrowed her brow, a sudden thought dawning on her "But... why would the Offices hire an adventurer to do this? Wouldn't it be cheaper for them to use their own investigators." The Red Mage chuckled lightly "Surely you don't think I didn't ask that question. He said that none of their investigators are willing to do the job. Of course coming from someone who works as a government official I'm doubting that's the real reason." His light expression became serious "That's why I want us to be very careful Neena... I have the feeling that this job is going to be a very dangerous one..."

The cat-girl blinked in surprise at Eurik comment "I'm sure it will be, but why are you telling me that?" Her friend approached her and reached a hand out to brush aside a lock of her strawberry-blonde hair "Simple... I don't want anything tragic to happen... to either of us. I don't think you've realized it yet, but... you mean a lot to me." Neena stood frozen in place, unsure of what to really say. That is... until Weimog's voice had cut the still air "Aww... now isn't that sweet? A romance in the making... it's just beautiful. My little girl is growing up." The moogle poked fun at the two as he sniffed back false tears.

Eurik jumped in surprise as he glanced over at the moogle at the fire place "W-What the hell!! There was someone else here?!" Neena grabbed the handle of her kettle and tossed it across the room nailing moogle right across the head "YEOWCH!!! What was that for?!" The Mithran girl had already had the moogle in a headlock "You know what that was for you white puffy moron!! How dare you embarrass us like that!! Couldn't you have just remained silent?!"

Note from Author: Yea... another one of these. Well... I hope you guys enjoyed this Chronicle. I know it's a little shorter than usual, but I thought maybe a chronicle of her at home would do some good for the characters. Plus I thought it would be an excellent way to start off the next chronicle. I'm sorry it took so long to get a new chronicle out, but I've been extremely busy lately with work. Thanks for reading, especially if you're one of my usual readers, then thanks for not giving up on me yet :P.