As most have you have probably already figured out by now, the one event that I'm changing is Cecil and Kain getting separated during the earthquake and resulting landslide in the village of Mist. From here on out, the story's going to start to diverge from the original plot since Kain's now tagging along with Cecil instead of playing the evil henchman to Golbez.
Comments and constructive criticism are welcomed. Flames will be laughed at.
Chapter 2
"Ugh...where am I?" the Dark Knight muttered as he slowly regained consciousness.
"Good to see that you're awake now," a voice from somewhere said.
"Huh...Kain? Is that you?" Cecil called out.
"Yeah, it's me. Stay put for a little while until you're completely awake. I'll check on the girl."
The dark knight sat up, but didn't otherwise move for another minute or two while he waited for his senses to return. When he could see clearly again, he saw that he was in a grassy clearing. The young girl who had attacked them earlier by summoning a giant was lying on the ground nearby. Kain was kneeling down next to her while he checked for something. Cecil tried to stand up, but his body rebelled against him. All of his muscles ached for some reason.
"Drink a potion like you wanted to after we left the cave two days ago," Kain said as he noticed Cecil trying to stand up, "It probably won't make the pain go away, but it'll at least make it bearable."
"Alright...wait, two days ago?" Cecil said.
"Yeah, two days. We didn't get to Mist until the day after we left the cave, and it was dawn when I woke up following that landslide. That makes at least two days. Anyway, just drink a potion, already. We really need to get going."
Taking the dragoon's advice, Cecil rummaged through a backpack that was lying near him and pulled out a potion. The bottle was chipped, but otherwise intact. He pulled the cork out and gulped downed the nasty tasting medicine. He immediately regretted doing so, and fell into a coughing fit.
"Cecil, when will you learn not to do that?" Kain said while stifling his laughter at his friend's horrible those things cough cough," was the only reply.
"Yeah, well, those of us not in the Red Wings don't always have the luxury of having a white mage on hand," Kain said, "Next time, sip the potion. It's medicine, not beer."
"I'll keep that ," Cecil replied as his coughing fit died down.
"What do we do about the girl?" Kain asked, "We can't just leave her here, but the nearest town is Kaipo."
"That's where we'll take her, then. We can take turns carrying her," the dark knight said in response.
"Are you sure about that, Cecil? Cecil! Come back here! You fool! It's probably a day's journey to Kaipo from here, and across the desert no less!" Kain shouted as his friend picked up the girl and began to walk off.
"Are you coming or not?" a rather annoyed dark knight asked.
"Sure, sure," Kain said as he ran toward Cecil, "Just let me know when you get tired of carrying her...or when you get dehydrated from walking across a desert in pitch black armor."
The two knights walked out into the nearby desert. Though it was foolish to attempt to cross it in the heat of the day, they did so anyway because the girl's life was potentially in danger. They could get a doctor's assistance in the nearby town of Kaipo. For the most part, it was a quiet trip. They were forced to rough up a small band of goblins that had attacked them on the edge of the desert, but that was it so far. Apparently, most of the region's wild beasts and monsters knew better than to move around during the day as well.
"Hey Kain?" Cecil rasped as they plodded along.
"Yeah, what is it?" The dragoon said, "Want to take a turn carrying the girl?"
"No, I wanted to ask if you had anything extra to drink. My most of the water in my canteen spilled out when we got caught in the landslide."
Kain put the girl down for a moment, and opened his backpack. He looked around for a few moments before pulling out a bottle of something. He handed it to Cecil without saying anything, put his backpack back on, picked up the girl once more, and began to walk along. Cecil looked at the bottle for a moment before going for the cork. He stopped himself at the last moment, though, and proceeded to yell at his good friend.
"Kain! When I asked for something to drink, I didn't mean a potion."
Kain stopped again and grinned at his friend before saying, "Sorry. I thought you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between that and a beer after last time."
Cecil merely stared at his friend for a few minutes before chuckling.
'Same old Kain,' he thought.
Kain had the decency to take the potion back and give Cecil a small drink out of his canteen. Before long, they were traveling across the burning sands toward Kaipo once more.
"The oasis at last," Cecil croaked.
"Yeah, it'll be dark soon, so let's find an inn. We can get out of this burning armor then and find a doctor," the dragoon said as he walked through the stone arch that served as the town of Kaipo's main gate.
"Agreed."
The two rather dehydrated soldiers from Baron marched to the nearby inn. A rather dark skinned middle-aged innkeeper started to greet them, but cut himself off when he noticed the young girl they were carrying. By this time, she was hot and dehydrated as well as unconscious.
"Go ahead and use one of the rooms, I'll call the doctor over," the man told the two knights.
"Thank you," Cecil said before carrying the green haired girl toward one of the beds in the back room.
"We'll pay you for the room when you get back," Kain shouted after the retreating innkeeper.
The two knights walked into the common room of the inn. A good number of beds filled the room, so Cecil and Kain chose three adjoining ones on the far end of the room. Kain immediately set about taking off his burning hot armor. Cecil took the time to put the summoner girl in bed before doing the same.
"Watch the girl, I'll be back in a bit," Kain hurriedly said before heading out with his backpack.
A few minutes later, the dragoon reappeared on the main floor of the inn carrying a rather wet canteen.
"Here you go, Cecil," Kain said as he handed the waterskin to his friend, "I filled up my canteen at the oasis. It's cheaper than whatever they're charging for water in the bar upstairs."
"Thanks, Kain," the dark knight replied before gulping down the precious liquid.
The two sat down on their beds to wait for the innkeeper to return with the village doctor. It wasn't until nearly half an hour later that the innkeeper returned with the doctor in tow.
"Sorry, boys," the innkeeper apologized as the doctor walked over to check the girl's condition, "It took me a while to find him. He was at the house on the northeast side of town, looking after that white wizard that someone found collapsed out on the edge of town earlier."
"No problem," Kain said, "Whoever it is may have needed help more than us."
"Hmm..." the doctor said as he spoke to the two knights for the first time, "She seems to have a light head injury that probably knocked her out to begin with, and she's dehydrated. I'll take care of the head injury and give her some water when she wakes up. You two go and take care of any business you have out on the town for now."
The two knights looked at each other for a moment. Cecil spoke first.
"We may as well get some supplies before the shops close up for the night. We need some more food, at least, and some extra potions would be good since we're traitors now."
"Cecil, not so loud," Kain whispered, "Telling everyone we're traitors is not a good idea."
"Kaipo is Damcyan's territory, not Baron's," Cecil said to this, "But I'll try to watch it in the future. I'm not exactly used to this subversive act yet."
"Ha, you'll learn, Cecil. You'll learn," Kain told his friend with a laugh.
"Yeah. After all, I'm with the king of mischief himself," Cecil replied.
"Hey, I haven't done anything since my promotion!"
And so the two friends joked around and reminisced about old times while going about their errands before the sun set. The two returned to the inn at sunset to see if the girl had woken up yet. Upon walking into the common room, the doctor greeted them with enthusiasm.
"She's up now! I got that head injury treated in no time, and the dehydration wasn't that bad at all. She's awake now, but resting. Such a sweet girl. Oh well, back to looking after that other girl now."
Cecil hurried into the commons room to check on the girl, but Kain remained behind for a moment.
'Something about that other patient bothers me. Girl...white mage...nah, it couldn't be. She's back at Baron still. No way she could have gotten all the way out here ahead of us...'
Cecil walked back into the room, snapping Kain out of his reverie.
"What?" the dragoon asked in a manner he hoped wasn't too unpleasant.
"Kain, she won't talk to me..." the dark knight simply said.
"...She might still upset about us killing her mother or burning her village down or something like that," Kain said to his friend, "Although I have no idea why she wouldn't talk to you because of something like that!"
"Point taken," Cecil replied, "Still, I feel responsible for her since I did kill her mother and destroy her home."
With that said, the dark knight left for the bedroom. Kain walked into the darkened room behind his friend. The girl was already resting, and Cecil was pulling back the covers on the bed next to the girl's bed. Kain walked over to the girl and whispered a few words before heading to bed himself.
"I'm sorry kid. It's no excuse, but we had no idea what we were doing."
Lying down, he thought he heard Cecil turn to the girl himself and say something, but all he heard was mumbling and garbled words. Just as he was about to nod off, though, he heard the door to the inn open and the sound of footsteps. Thinking that it might be a thief, Kain slowly got up.
"Cecil!" He whispered loudly as he grabbed his spear, "I think we've got company."
Cecil was up in a flash, and one look at his alert face told Kain that his friend was nowhere near falling asleep. Seeing that Kain had his spear ready, Cecil reached over and grabbed his sword from its resting place against the wall. The glow of torches could be seen in the main room. Within a few moments, four soldiers sporting the insignia of the Baronian army walked into the common room. Both Kain and Cecil recognized the leader of the group as a captain from the regular army of Baron, far below the two of them in both rank and skill.
"Sir Cecil and Sir Kain!" the man called out to them in a voice that was too loud, "We've been ordered to bring you back to the castle. You can put down your weapons, we're allies."
"What do you want?" Kain asked the captain in a rather cold tone of voice.
"Like I said, we have orders to verify that your mission in Mist is complete and to bring you back. Now put down your weapons already."
"Fine," Cecil said as he lowered his sword.
Kain saw this and reluctantly followed suit. The captain looked around the room, as though he were looking for something.
"Ah, there's that summoner girl. If you'll set aside, Cecil and Kain, we'll finish things up," the captain said.
"Finish things up?" Cecil asked.
"The fires that the Bomb Ring caused killed all of the summoners in Mist except for two. You killed one of those, the woman who had summoned the Mist Dragon. The other is that girl."
A muffled gasp could be heard coming from the far side of the room. Cecil was about to spout off an eloquent threat, but Kain beat him to the punch with a simple, "Over our dead bodies."
Cecil nodded in agreement with this sentiment, though he would have phrased it differently.
"I wish it didn't come to this, but if you've chosen to disobey the king I have no choice but to kill you as well. Get them, men!"
The other three soldiers rushed in with swords drawn. The beds in the room restricted how they could move, giving Kain the advantage here. He jumped into the air -- though not as high as normal because of the low ceiling -- and came down on one of the guards. His spear buried itself into the man's chest and struck his heart. Cecil drew his sword to ready and attacked one of the other soldiers head on. His dark blade glowed with energy before it struck the soldier on the neck. The blade cleaved through cleanly, and the newly beheaded corpse fell to the ground. The captain and the third guard didn't waste any time, though, and double teamed Cecil. The dark knight managed to dodge the captain's blade, but his left shoulder was sliced open by the third soldier's blade. The dark knight merely grimaced at the pain, and brought his sword around toward his opponent. The Baronian soldier had swung too hard, leaving him unable to parry any blows toward his chest. Cecil noticed this and thrust forward with his blade, piercing the man through the heart.
The captain, seeing that all of his men had fallen to these two knights, turned and ran. Kain pulled his spear out of the soldier's chest and jumped toward the captain, intent on cutting off the man's escape. He was too slow, however, and his spear pierced the floorboards instead of the fleeing Baronian. The captain made good on his escape, and fled into the night to report Cecil and Kain's treachery to his superiors. As Kain pulled himself up off the floor and dislodged his spear from the floorboards, the innkeeper came running down the stairs with a crossbow. He looked at Cecil and Kain with suspicion and leveled his crossbow at the dragoon. Kain merely motioned toward the dead bodies with his spear.
"Sorry about the mess we made," Kain told the innkeeper, "But these soldiers from Baron invaded the inn and tried to kill the girl. We didn't really have a choice."
The innkeeper, realizing that these men had defended themselves against at least three of Baron's soldiers, lowered his crossbow so as not to antagonize them further.
"Ah, we'd better get rid of the bodies before morning. Bad for business, you know. Could you help me carry them outside the city gates?" the innkeeper asked.
"Sure thing," the dragoon replied, "Cecil, you stay here with the girl in case anyone else comes after her."
Cecil nodded. Kain and the innkeeper painstakingly carried the bodies and the decapitated head outside the city gates, where the local wildlife could have them for a snack. While they did so, Kain noticed that Cecil had managed to get the girl to finally talk to him. When he finished carrying out the bodies and washing the gore off, he returned to the inn. He found the girl trying to get back to sleep and Cecil trying to bandage up his shoulder. Kain walked over and tied off the bandage for the dark knight.
"So..." the dragoon began, "What'd she tell you?"
"First of all, I'm going to protect her from now on. She agreed to come along so that I can look after her until this madness is over," Cecil replied, "She claimed to have some skill with black and white magic as well as with summoning. Oh, and her name's Rydia."
Kain let out a low whistle, "Black, white, and summoning, huh? Imagine how useful she could be to the cause if we got her trained..."
"Kain, don't. We're supposed to protect her, remember? Not get her killed."
"Yeah, I know. That doesn't mean we can't train her so she can defend herself, though. She might even be able to help us out from the sidelines with her magic," the dragoon said in his defense.
"...Let's get some sleep. We can talk about it tomorrow," Cecil said before lying back and closing his eyes.
"Yeah..." Kain murmured to himself as he followed suit.
The next day, the two knights decided to finish up getting supplies. Their first stop was the sundries store next door to the inn, where they bought Rydia a small backpack, a bedroll, a medical kit, and a few other necessities for travelers. While they were there, they also stocked up on traveling rations and potions and various poison antidotes. Since Baron would soon recognize them as traitors after that incident the other night, it would be wise to be prepared for battles.
The next stop of the day was the clothing and armor shop. Cecil had gone in with Rydia to buy her some sturdy traveling clothes since her dress was a mess after going through the landslide. Kain went in as well, but stayed on the opposite end of the shop, examining the meager selection of body armor in stock. The sound of a child crying shattered the peacefulness of the shop, and Kain turned from his perusal of the armor to see what had happened. On the other side of the shop, Rydia was sitting on the ground in tears as Cecil unsuccessfully attempted to placate her.
"What'd you do this time, Cecil?" Kain said, trying not to laugh at his friend's predicament.
"I just asked her to throw away that ratty old dress now that she's got some proper traveling clothes. And then she burst into tears!" Cecil said, still rather confused about the whole thing.
"Mommy gave me that dress!" Rydia screamed at the two of them from the floor, "I'm not throwing it away."
"Umm...Oops?" Cecil commented rather sheepishly.
Kain, on the other hand, burst into laughter on the spot. This made Rydia rather mad at first, until she realized that he was laughing at Cecil, not her.
"Cecil," the dragoon said when he recovered enough to talk, "You've got a lot to learn about dealing with kids..."
"I don't see you doing any better," Cecil retorted.
"I'm not the one who volunteered to take care of her."
"I wish Rosa were here," Cecil muttered darkly, "She'd know what to do."
"Speaking of which, we'd better get a move on if we want to get her out of Baron."
"One last stop, then we'll head out," Cecil called out as he walked out of the shop with Rydia in tow.
"Head out? Where are we going?" Rydia asked the dark knight.
"Yeah, where are we going, Cecil?" Kain joined in.
"Well, Damcyan's closest, so I figured we could head there to look for allies," the dark knight said, "But first, we need to get Rydia a weapon or something, just in case."
"Sure, sure," the dragoon replied, "I'll head out and look around town while I wait. Maybe I'll see what's up with that white wizard that's ill. After all, another ally would be good to have."
The two knights went their separate ways for now, Cecil taking Rydia to the weapons shop on the far side of town while Kain wandered around. The selection in the weapons shop wasn't the greatest, which made it harder to find an appropriate weapon for a child. Remembering Rosa's personal choice in weaponry, Cecil first had Rydia try out an archery set. Needless to say, he had that one put back after realizing how bad of a shot the young girl was. Then he tried a staff, which turned out to be too heavy for the girl. Finally, he handed her a wizard's rod. It was probably the worst weapon that the shop offered, but it was the right size for a young girl to use. Cecil paid for the rod and was about to leave the shop when Kain stormed in.
"Cecil, come quick," the dragoon said hurriedly.
"What is it Kain? We're ready to leave for Damcyan now," Cecil replied, puzzled at his friend's behavior.
"It's Rosa. Hurry."
Now thoroughly confused, the Dark Knight hurried along behind Kain, dragging Rydia along behind. The three made their way to the north east side of town, where the doctor lived. Kain opened the door to the doctor's house and hurried in. Cecil and Rydia followed close behind. Inside, they discovered what had Kain in such a hurry. The doctor that had helped them with Rydia the night before was working busily on the patient in the bed, trying to keep the woman's fever down. As the doctor moved away after placing a wet cloth on the patient's forehead, Cecil was able to see the face of the woman. It was Rosa, his girlfriend.
"Cecil..." the young woman uttered in her delirium.
"ROSA!" the dark knight cried out.
"Ah, so you know this girl too? What is it with you two knights and sick girls, anyway?" the doctor said as he turned around again, "This one's got the desert fever. I've been taking care of her ever since we found her outside the town a few days ago."
"Will she...be all right?" Cecil hesitantly asked, fearing the answer that might come.
"I actually don't know," the doctor answered, "This is the worst case of desert fever I've seen in a long time, and it's starting to look like I can't cure it."
Cecil's face fell, while Kain merely became silent and gloomy. Rydia, on the other hand, looked at the two grown men in confusion, not quite comprehending the gravity of the situation.
"Of course, if I had a Sand Ruby, things would be different," the doctor continued.
"Sand Ruby?" Cecil asked as hope was once more sparked within him, "Where can we get one of those?"
"The Antlion's Nest. Problem is, you need the King of Damcyan's permission to go there ever since that 'Endangered Species Law' was passed a couple of years ago."
"Yet another reason to go to Damcyan," Kain said thoughtfully.
"We're going. Now," Cecil ordered as he stormed out of the house.
"Come on, Rydia. Let's go," Kain said to the young girl who was still rather confused about Cecil's behavior, "There's no stopping him when he gets like this."
"Why?" the girl asked.
"Well, that's just the way Cecil acts when something he cares about is in danger," the dragoon responded, "And he cares about Rosa most of all..."
The young girl nodded, and followed the dragoon out.
"To Damcyan we go, then..." Kain muttered as he followed the resolute Cecil out of the oasis village.