Thanks to Ambassador Garnet L. Alexander (sorry, I don't know what to call you in short form so I shall use your whole name) for reviewing and indirectly inspiring me to write this next chapter. I'm glad you like it, and for all those others out there, review and I shall write!
Disclaimer: I do not own FFTA. I own a little cartridge which I stick into my GameBoy to load the game, but not the game itself. However, the people referred to here as Clan Nutsy are mine. Except in my game they're referred to as Clan Darklight-
Alie: whack Shut up and write, kid.
That was my homicidal muse, Alie. Call her the person who stands over you waving the baseball bat threateningly. Loraine is having a flashback…
One very determined archer, walking out of the weapon shop with her first bow over her back and swinging a very depleted purse from side to side, was searching for a clan. The first notice she found was stuck on a pole outside the pub.
"Wanted: archer," muttered Loraine, reading the poster. "Well, that's me! Now…'bring own bow'? What kind of cheapskates are these people?"
"You calling Clan Archmaster cheapskates?" snarled a voice from behind her. Her heart dropped into her stomach with a cold clunk, making her curse her big mouth, not for the first time that day.
"Yes. Yes, I am," she said, as calmly as she could manage as she considered her chances of staying alive. Turning around, she faced a ninja, flanked by a blue mage on one side and a gladiator on the other. Why would you need an archer with clan members like that? Fleetingly, the thought crossed her mind as the ninja raised an eyebrow.
"Good," said the ninja briefly. "Because you could say we are. Come on, archer person."
"That's it?" she snapped in disbelief. "No initiation test? No display of my abilities?"
"Hey, if you dare to call us cheapskates, you must have all the talent you need," grinned the blue mage. "My name is Matias. That's Sotel. This is Ivolt, here," he said, waving casually at the gladiator. "Right! Let's go!" Doggedly, she followed them, ignoring the bemused looks the gladiator kept shooting her. They kept on walking, right until they reached the outskirts of Baguba, until Matias looked behind, cast a grin her way and said, "You're still here?"
"Of course I am!" she snapped, stung.
"Good. Welcome to Clan Archmaster's camp. We'll get you kitted out, and you can join us on the next mission." It didn't look much to her. Four tents, pitched side by side, a pile of spare equipment heaped in a corner and a hunter, looking gloomy as he surveyed the equipment and the new clan member.
"What?" she asked, confused. Everything was moving too fast for her at the moment.
"You heard. See, there's really just us and Nils for now, so we need all the members we can get." He looked sheepish as he spoke, entering the camp and waving at the hunter. "Hey, Nils. We've got a new member."
"Oh joy. Oh rapture. Let's not lose again, shall we?" replied the hunter, somewhat maniacally. Loraine gave him a weird look and edged nearer Matias. It was only then that she realised the gladiator and the ninja were gone.
"Where did your friends go?" she asked quizzically.
"Off. They just disappear like that. Don't mind them. Don't mind Nils either, he's a maniacal, depressive, evil fellow. I think he went over the edge a long time ago." He rummaged through a pile and threw her a pair of boots and a hat.
"No mail?" she asked. "Shall I end up a walking porcupine?"
"Do you need it?" He grinned at the look on her face and added her a Chain Plate. "That's all we can give you for now. Mind if Nils tries to shoot through the tent again. You can use mine if you want to put it on. It's the one near the heap," he added.
"Bit of an ambitious name, isn't it? I mean…Clan Archmaster?" she asked as she hopped out, pulling a Dash Boot on.
"Hey, we'll live up to it," replied Matias confidently. He had started a fire and Nils was sitting opposite him on a log, muttering to himself and slapping his own wrist occasionally. "Roasted chocobo?"
"Um…" she studied it with forced interest, not particularly enjoying the thought of eating chocobo. She had had a pet chocobo once, a fluffy creature called Gaol after the legendary hero. "No thanks, I think I'll pass."
"Sure?" Nils asked. "No giant chickens to eat until Sagemo-oooooooon…The sky in Sagemoon, which I shared with my love…" Loraine stared in horror at the insane hunter.
"He's mad," she finally forced through her teeth. "Mad."
"Told you," replied Matias, handing her a bowl of stew. "Don't worry, it doesn't have chocobo in it."
"Really?"
"Well,
chocobo egg, but yeah."
"Meh." She ate it, concentrating partly on her food, on Nils' insane singing and on the events of the day. She was part of a clan, and by the gods she'd help make it great.
"Ready, aim, fire," whispered Loraine to herself, putting an arrow through the back of the head of a nearby thief. He collapsed. Energy jolted her; she had received a judge point.
"Get ready, Loraine! No, you idiot! Go for the boss! Go for the boss!" screamed Matias.
"Don't yell in my ear!" she screamed back. "I know-" Shoot. "What-" Beso Toxico here... "I'm-" Doubleshot on the Fighter… "Doing!" Unleashing a barrage of arrows upon the nearly unconscious fencer, she took out the white mage with another shot as Ivolt slammed the fighter with a Jump attack. Matias slashed at the viera archer, who tried to dodge and was impaled by Sotel's Nosada, Nils attacked the human archer with a Sonic Boom, demolishing the last of the clan.
"That was easy!" snorted Loraine, wiping her ears of debris. "What next?"
"We go back to Cyril. We have plans. Plannies, yes, planny wanny banny canny, canny, yes, that's what we are, right on the tip of my tongue!" cackled Nils.
"Shut up, Nils," said Matias, grinning. "How's the Twin Bow, Raine? Got used to it?"
"Sort of," she said. "Still liked the Cranequin better, though."
"Understandable." Again, the other two clan members had evaporated. She sighed, ruffled through the clan's pockets for spare gil and started to head down the road to Cyril. A soft cough from behind them made them turn, as a young Viera fencer observed them quietly.
"Hello?"
she said. Loraine gave her one of her 'looks', the ones which
Matias agreed were unnerving.
"What?" she drawled, watching
the other's eyes stay impassive. Damn, she thought. This one's
good at this.
"Are you the Clan Archmaster people?" asked the fencer. "Because if you are, I wanted to join. I'm Miserie. I sent a letter to your base."
"Ah,
Miserie," said Matias, attempting a straight face. "We've been
expecting you."
"Have you?" she asked, still with that
unemotional stone mask.
"Yes, okay, how did you find us?"
asked Nils, before the other two could stop him. "Find us in a
little game of hide-and-seek? Peeping round corners again, are we?
Peekaboo!"
"Ignore Nils, Miserie, he's mad. Oh, you're Miserie!" exclaimed Loraine, memory finally jolted. Under her breath, she muttered to Matias, "That girl from Baguba. Remember? She sent a letter asking to join? And her big sister is that white mage in Lutia?"
"Yeah!" whispered back Matias, suddenly enlightened. "But…her sister's part of Clan Dip? Are you sure about this?"
"Don't worry!' Loraine said heatedly. "The younger sister has nothing on her!" All through this, Miserie observed them with her head tilted and the sense of rejection on her mind. She knew how everyone felt with her sister. It had been a mistake for Phoebe to join that clan. Finally, the blue mage turned back to her and nodded. "Let's go, Miserie."
Her heart jumped in her chest, but she kept her face still and inclined her face down slightly.
"It's a long way back," groaned Loraine, crossing her hands behind her head as Matias introduced them and gave their newest member the rundown and clan status.
"It is indeed," agreed Matias, shooting his arms out like a maniac. "It is, but oh what a day it is to travel! What is there left for us to do on this long and winding road…"
"You could shut up before I stab you with my arrow," teased Loraine. Turning to the silent fencer, she asked, "What about you, Miserie? Do you think he's crazy?"
Startled into speech, the fencer said softly, "No, but he is a little bit long-winded." Clapping her hands over her mouth a little too late, her fear turned to shock and mildly embarrassed happiness as she saw Loraine break into laughter, Matias grin sheepishly and Nils suddenly burst into a long rant on how pretty explodiful bombs were.
Well…she ignored that last one.
When they got back to camp on the city outskirts, a few unconscious bodies were strewn randomly over the place and Sotel was poking heatedly at a piece of paper as he argued with Ivolt.
"It'ssss not going to work, Ssssotel," hissed the gladiator. "We can't pull thissss one off unless we have an airsssship!" Miserie opened her mouth, about to say something, then closed it again. However, Matias, noting the movement, nudged her gently and whispered, "If you have something to say, say it. They won't care."
Nodding gratefully at the blue mage, Miserie cleared her throat quietly. The small sound diverted the two arguing clan leaders' attentions.
"Who are you?" asked Sotel, cutting her off.
"I'm Miserie, your newest clan member," she answered, with more than a bit of prompting from the sniper and blue mage.
"Your big ssssissster issss…" Ivolt glared at her narrowly, His eyes bored into her.
"Yes, she is," said the fencer. "But I know where you can get an airship."
"You do?" Sotel's eyes lit up incredulously. "Where?" Again, she hesitated, but continued, "There's a mog who runs an airship, a gadgeteer. We could overpower him if we had to. His name is Nono."
