Before we start, something should be made clear. First of all, yes this does follow the –world- of Ragnarok online, however considering I've never read the manga, nore have I been in any role playing guilds amongst iro's citizens, this is a completely made up story.
Second of all, races are an all new creation in this story, and play an important part in how it flows. There are true humans, faeries, elves, unicorns, and other such creatures that will be explained further in the story.
Third of all, although the classes are generally the same (thieves are still thieves, monks are still monks) they can now pretty much wear any attire. Vihre wears a monk costume, but most of his skills will come from summoning. Kelta on the other hand wears a gm outfit, and most of her skills are wizardry. There are also no 'gms' in this story, no mention of them, server crashing, or anything else.
And fourth, finally, AND MOST IMPORTANT, almost nothing in this story belongs to me. Ragnarok in general is property of Gravity, and that guy who did the manga. All characters are either created by me, or borrowed/lent from other players of this game. The story itself, however, is of my own thoughts, and not borrowed from the game itself. I just hope you enjoy it.
The human nature is foolish; people who wish to get involved with it will only end up hurting themselves. Humans were never supposed to live alongside any other race in peace, or in war, and yet they have. It was their biggest downfall in history.
-Lihn Revel,
Lore Keeper of Destiny.
Chapter 1 – The Curse of Morroc.
The words above rung in Kelta's mind as she hid behind a curiously abandoned merchants cart, her eyes hung upon the warriors enjoying the summer breeze outside the clock tower. Every hour the enormous tower rung with a chime, or two, or three depending on the time of day, and the warriors would dash into the eerie tower. Kelta knew all about this place, it was where the ancient temple of time had originally been built, a sort of shrine for the god of past, present, and future. Unfortunately, during Ragnarok, the temple had been cursed to literally control the flow of time. For centuries this place was avoided by monster, human, or creatures of the other six races, for fear of being sucked into it and made to live their life in a perpetual loop forever cursed to stay within its walls. Sadly enough, stories like this were nothing but silly talk, and anyone who really studied the ancient lore new the real truth. Kelta was one of these, but ancient lore could only be found in two different libraries, the Juno library, and her own home-or rather past home-the temple of destiny.
She sat behind the cart for quite some time, peeking through the large wooden tires for some time before deciding to take her chances around a bunch of burly, well fought, warriors. Kelta herself was a rather frail women, her body was that of a 12 year old and it hung in a white dress under a brown vest. Her face made her look to be quite young-possibly in her early teens. Sadly though, because she was a Faella, she could look to be in her early teens for over a hundred years, due to their ability to live for four or five centuries at a time! But that occurred rarely now a days because of the wars that went on. She sighed a bit. She could remember a day when she could play on the streets of Aldebaran, and not worry about being trampled by a peco-peco riding warrior, or shoved aside by an impatient merchant, or ornery sorcerer. Not that people would take her seriously then anyways, considering she always seemed to be covered in sparkled dust, and seemed to have dyed her hair a rich blueberry colour, and her bat sized, well pierced, elven ears always put people off.. But she didn't need to be taken seriously in this world, past or present! It wasn't as if she had anything terribly important to say, after all, almost no Faella did.
But something DID interest her enough to flee from the temple of destiny, and that was to see the world for what it truly was, not what books told her. Not to mention, being cooped up anywhere for two hundred and seventy eight years was enough to make anyone grow a taste for adventure. And adventure was exactly what she was about to get. As she almost foolishly wondered the side streets of Aldebaran, hiding her face from warriors with a wide brimmed, star scattered, green wizards hat; her natural shortness, a poster caught her eye. Although she was more used to the ancient writings, the common scribing only took her a moment of peering at to realize what the poster was talking about.
"Treasure hunt, eh?" A towering man said beside her, causing her to arch her gaze up to him. He was a rather weak looking human, however he seemed to have strong arms, and a stern face. However he was different from normal humans, he was free of weaponry, and wore only a open robe that showed his lack of strength, and simple brown field pants. She wanted to guess him as a wanderer, rather then a fighter, but something in his eye told him other wize. His face was hidden like hers, with a sweet gent, which suggested he disliked the sun. He had long brown hair that was tied messily in a pony tail behind him, and his eyes were gentle, and brown like his hair. He didn't seem to be much older then his mid twenties. He was quiet for a time, staring at the poster, before speaking again. "I wonder if they'll have what I'm looking for." He smirked a bit beneath his hat, and she noticed his age showed someone of thirty, or late twenty. Due to her height she could see him quite easily, and apparently so could he, for he frowned instantly as his eye caught her gaze. "What are you looking at, Elf?" he said bluntly as he glared at her, before marching off.
She raised an eyebrow. Well that was different; I don't even resemble an elf. She made a face at him before looking at the poster again. A treasure hunt in the sands of Morroc? "I don't even know where Morroc is!" she exclaimed to the poster, knowing full well it couldn't hear her. "Well then lets see," she started as she walked up the street, and sat on a harber, letting her booted feet dangle above the waters, and stared down into her reflection, trying to look deeper into herself for an answer. "In the past three hundred years I've read everything I could of in mom's library, so why don't I know where Morroc is?" She sighed, but placed her thumb to her mouth in thought, "sands-there were sands in Osiron, so perhaps Morroc is close by? I wonder if Osiris still governs over that place though." She frowned into her reflection. "If he does, I'm not sure if I can handle so many Isis, and requiems all by my lonesome. I haven't practiced magic as an offensive mean for years!" she looked into the waters for a moment, before narrowing her eyes.
I can do this. The elementals flow all around me, they have never left my side. They will not fail me in any means, whether it be defensive, or offensive. She closed her eyes gently, and lifted her face to the sky, and shoved her hands into the ground, applying her weight into them by her sides. A light whisper escaped her lips, and ancient words filled the air. Before long, a spell circle appeared beneath her, shimmering in a light blue as an aura escaped into the sky. She lifted one palm, and held it over the water, and whispered the words 'water ball' into the air. Passer byers didn't know what was happening, and any means of magic interested them quite a bit, so she had a great circle of warriors, travelers, and all others surrounding her, their gaze hung upon her every action. One man had even more of an interest then the others, especially after she had spoken her final words. "Undine, bringeth the water!" and with that the waters below her palm cyclones gently before pushing itself into her hand, and forming in a ball. She held it hovering over her palm for a time, before she realized she was no longer alone. The water crashed into her hand, and soaked a good part of her dress, as she looked around, her sparkling face tinged with red. "Wha-?"
The man she had spoken to before realized her embarrassment at once, and to her surprise, tried to get people to flee. "She's practicing! And she needs absolute silence to do so, if you don't leave then the city wide show she has planned won't happen!" they seemed to fall for his act, for they started to leave, muttering something with distaste.
She seemed a bit annoyed with the man, despite his trying to help her, and tried to walk off without speaking to him, however he quickly caught up to her, and grabbed her shoulder. "I didn't need you to lie for me!" she yelled at him, turning a heal to look him in the face.
"Fuh, what a wonderful way to thank someone for getting them out of a situation like that! I'd want the same thing to happen to me if I were an elf using magic!"
"What? Why do you think I'm an elf?" she said sourly.
"What are those then?"
"What are what?" although judging from her flushed face, she already knew what he was talking about. "I'm a Faella."
"Faella?" he blinked at her, but he didn't seem to hold any disbelief in his face. Either he believed her, or he thought it was a joke. Probably the later. "So you are, then. I couldn't belive my eyes when I saw you casting. No elf can use magic! I thought it was against their code."
"It is. But they can use water magic. Some pledge themselves to Undine, and practice water magic as a means of medita-er. You don't need to know this." She shook her head. For a moment there I thought I could talk to someone about Elementalism. Heh. Yeah right.
"You know about Undine too?" What?
"Yeah…She's the elemental of water. I didn't know humans knew of them, let alone cared enough to remember what they were. I thought your kind was more into medicine, potionry, and money."
He took off his hat, and scratched his head a bit, before looking down at her. "We are. I was like that too."
"Of course, you want to go on a treasure hunt. For fame eh? Oh, no you were looking for something… For money then? Why can't you humans realize there is more to life then just money, and power?"
The way she glowered at him made his face flush. He didn't need some little girl telling him things he already knew! "Are you so stupid that you can't realize that people are different? No, of course not. Your kind is so rare in this world, that the only ones alive must be blind and stupid in order to fit in with the rest of the world. So you don't die! For your information, I'm looking for a tablet."
She seemed to forget the nature of their argument in a moment. "Tablet? What did you say your name was again?"
"I hadn't… But its Veihr."
"All right Veihr..? How do you know the nature of the tablet? It is supposed to have a hidden meaning from all races, human, elf, and whatever alike. That's what the gods wanted, after all."
"I know, because I've studied it for years. Juno has information on the tablet, and although it's a bit dated, it still works. But how can you know that?"
"Because I'm a Faella, we're practically the elementals pawns in life." She narrowed her eyes at him, she didn't want to tell him more then he needed to know, but judging from what he said, he probably already knew this bit.
"What do you mean?" considering he sounded rather sincere in questioning, he probably didn't know what she was talking about.
She made a mental note to kick herself later for telling him that, and simply shook her head, stating: "you don't need to know, you're a human, it's beyond you!" she screamed in his face before rather rudely, walking off.
"Yeah, if it were beyond me, then how come I know that the tablet speaks of how to practically resurrect Deva, Undine, Salamander, and Sylph?" he screamed after her. He was glad that his yelling had the right effect on her, because she stopped right in her tracks.
"You, you know of them?" she looked as if the colour had drained from her face as she turned to face him, slowly walking back.
"Don't be stupid, I told you I had studied it, hadn't I? Or were you too busy closing your ears to everything I said because I'm human?"
"That's not it! Elementalism is a dead religion! Its been buried for over seven hundred years!"
"Yes, until it was resurrected and scribed again by the druids of Osiron. Now called 'Morroc'. But you should know that, being a 'Faella' and all. You –are- the pawns of the elementals right?"
She blew a heavy sigh out her mouth, "Yes, I told you that, didn't I? Well it's only partially true. Your talking about the four true elementals, technically the 'deities' of elementalism. It's what people use in summoning, and its who they truly pray, or commune to. Although for a Faella, and in magic in general, we use the elementals themselves, the lower forms beneath Deva, Undine, Salamander, and Sylph. Those four control the elements."
"You've done your homework, little girl. The hell is your name, anyways?" he said this with a smile, which said he was rather pleased with talking with her.
She hesitated, "Kelta."
"Well, then you should also know that the tablet –also- holds the key to summoning their true forms, or as you called it, the 'deities.' You should know as well as I do that besides your kind, only the demons can use real magic. We humans aren't talented in that art."
She sighed again, he had a point, but there was something the humans had that most of them weren't aware of, it was something any magic user would give their life for. Unfortunately she wasn't about to give up that information. "So, your only going on this 'treasure' hunt to seek the tablet? You know where it is?"
"Well, no. But I'm sure clues can be found on the way. The druids were famous for leaving scribing amongst their temples, and the places that they worked in hinting about the elementals, elementalism, and the tablet itself. Considering they were very fond of Osiris, and they were in charge of laying his treasure in his tomb, they most likely placed the tablet there as well."
"And your sure of this?" she raised her eyebrow at him.
"...Yes."
"How much would I have to give you to be able to go with you?"
He blinked. He obviously wasn't prepared to take an offer to become a traveling cohort, or even a temple guide, nor did he really like this girl. She was beginning to get on his nerves…. Yet there was something about her that he did like, however. She reminds me of something, or rather someone…he said silently before nodding his head. "Just come with me, but let me warn you," he firmly grasped her shoulders, making sure that both of her emerald green eyes were planted right on his own. "This is not going to be a free for all ride, if your going to accompany me, you –will- work. I don't trust those kafra's with my money, so we'll be walking. THROUGH the desert, no short cuts, no teleporting, no fly wings, no nothing. And if I hear you complain just once…the bets off. Do I make myself clear?" She nodded in response. "I don't want you to rattle your brain, girl. Say "I hear you crystal clear sir."
She did.
The traveling didn't go as well as Kelta would of thought. Walking from the temple of destiny to Aldebaran was one thing, walking from Aldebaran all the way through a scorching desert was a completely different. Because Kelta was quite rusty in defending herself with magic, she got herself knocked out several times, which more or less bore into Vihre's self control, and had him slicing the head off of even peaceful monsters with his sword mace. Luckily they only had to bear each others company for a day and a half, for that was as long as it took for Vihre to get so annoyed with Kelta through their almost hourly arguments, or her blatant disregard for what's around her, or just her in general, that he literally broke his word and had them transported to Morroc out of his own pocket via the Kafra service.
"I can't belive I'm doing this," he said angrily as he dusted himself off. "Ten years I've gone, and not ONCE did I need to use a teleportation service-UNTIL TODAY!" he screamed in her face.
"Well its not my fault I don't have the experience needed to trudge around in front of over sized pink worms, or fan bearing locusts! I'm used to small insects getting into my garden in the mountains! Not these hideious creatures!" and with that she shuddered.
He blew a sigh through his nose in an attempt to calm down. "Well if you weren't so damned stupid you wouldn't have a problem. All you had to do was think, and the magic would work out for you," it didn't seem to work.
She kicked at the sand beneath her feet, and hid her face better in her hat to protect herself from the sun. I don't need to hear this. I'm in Morroc now…She looked over at Vihre, who had his attention planted on a gathering of people, and mumbled something. Who am I kidding? I don't belong here, I'd be killed by now if it weren't for him. She rolled her eyes, and peered into Vihre's business.
He seemed to be doing business with a local merchant, whom was located, quite conveniently, beside the cities oasis. She knelt at it, and looked up at Vihre, before being handed some earrings. "Put these in, I'm sure you can find a hole in those things somewhere. Or you can take those hideous things out," he pinched an ornate glass earring hanging from her lobe, and pulled on it, causing her to screech. "What? I didn't tug on it that much!" he smiled, mocking her.
She scowled, and threw the earrings at him. "Ask before you touch me!" she screamed as loud as she could, and re-adjusted her earrings.
"What the hell is your problem? They're just glass earrings, you can probably buy some more for about three zeny."
"..They're my mothers. My dead mothers, actually. I've vowed to never remove them from my ears, and they're the only things I can wear while sleeping. They remind me of her I guess…" she mumbled, as she looked back at him. "Why did you want me to wear those things anyways?"
"They'll help you focus." He pointed to one of the earrings, "This is an ancient earring that had been imbued with a phen card. If you wear it, it'll increase your concentration making it so you can cast and ignore being pounded on. And this one," he handed her the other, "is just a simple earring. It will also improve your concentration, but this time to make your spells more potent." He seemed to be a bit more calm now, she wondered why. "Don't just stare at me, put them in. Now then," he exteneded a hand to help her up, which surprised her even more. "I talked to the merchant about the treasure hunt, it occurs tomorrow, and it will be done in groups of four. But we'll have to sign up in the adventurers guild. I don't suppose you have any zeny though? It costs a hefty sum to join." He frowned at her.
"Oh zeny?" she handed him a pouch, "This should have enough…"
He begun to count the coins, but shook his head after getting through four of them and counting again, repeating this twice. "Kelta…. Are these one hundred thousand zeny coins?"
"No, theres some one million coins in there t-mmmf" she was silenced by his hand over her mouth, she teried to bite him but found it to be of no use.
A whisper came from his lips so low nobody would be able to hear it unless they had their ear against his mouth, "Shh, don't say things like that aloud, do you want to be robbed?" he let her go, and scratched his head. "It would be best to get a room at the inn first. You could use some rest, to be honest. Theres no sence in going through the temple with you still exhausted from using so much magic inefectivly" he said with a face that sh ereturned. Anyways, give me one of those coins."
"Which one?"
"The…um…" he dropped his voice, mumbling. "One hundred thousand." She handed it to him, and they started down south, aiming for a building shaped like a semi-circle.
"So we're going to the inn? What, to sleep?"
He was about to open the door, but found a better use for his hand, and back handed her. "Don't be a smart ass, Kelta."
She cursed at him in a language he didn't understand, and rubbed dher cheek before shouting at him, "I wanted to know that because its so bright outside still!" she whimpered a bit as she sat on one of the inn's beds, and rubbed the sting out of her cheek more.
"Get to sleep now, because we're getting up before the sun rises. It's the best time to practice ice magic." He left after a moment of staring at her.
"Stupid Vihre," she mumbled, twisting the glass earring with one hand, and rubbing her cheek a bit more with the other. What gives him the right to treat me like this? What did I do to him? She looked out the window for a moment, and frowned. Maybe I should be nicer to him…
"Oh cut that out, your not some weak little girl," Vihre said suddenly. He must of entered the room quietly.
She snorted, "You could of broke my jaw."
"I could not!"
"For someone who knows a lot about the elementals, I'm surprised you don't know jack about the Faella! We're frail creatures! It means nothing that we can live for five centuries if our bones are so frail they snap like a dead branch!" tears formed in her eyes as she shouted that.
"I'm sorry then," he mumbled quietly before crawling into his own bed not to far from hers.
She was about to scream at him, but quickly realized that he wasn't being mean, and thought better of it. She blushed a bit before removing all but her mother's earrings and letting herself doze off as well.
Kelta couldn't of hoped for a more brutal morning, unfortuantly it was far from morning when she was awoken. Her head was pounding with a sence of intution that rudely dragged her from her sleepless state. She was still half awake as she looked into the stary night. She figured she still had a few hours to sleep before Vihre would wake her up, but still she felt as if she shouldbe up now. She only spent a moment trying to locate Vihre's bed before feeling a firm hand upon her lips constricting her ability to breathe. She twitched under the grip, but tried to remain calm in her head. She was almost three hundred years old, she should know by now panicing will get her nowhere. Instead she simply stopped breathing, and let her body fall to a lifeless lump.
I hope that wasn't Vihre trying to kill me, she said mentally, keeping her eyes closed to the world, and her breath hung. However it wasn't long before her lungs itched for air, and she felt her lips start to separate as if wanting to breath, but she told herself to stop for just a moment. Great Sylph I call upon thee, fill my self with plentiful air, and let it be. She didn't think her little chant would do anything, but it did seem to resist the pressure on her lungs, and it only took a moment longer for the hand to remove itself from her mouth, and the shuffling of feet to echo amongst the quiet dark air.
She let air fill her lungs softly, as she let her eyes dart around. Her question as to if it were Vihre who had tried to kill her was quickly answered when she heard struggling in the bed near her. She quickly darted up, ripped a drawer from the dresser at the side of her bed, and hurled it best she could at the blob of shadow in the nightlight. She missed horribly, but it was enough of a distraction to save Vihre. While the man was advancing on her, Vihre smacked the man over the head with his fist, and he fell forward into not the floor, but the arms of another man.
"Lets get out of here, Krin," one of them said, "I got the little wenches' earrings, and judging from them, they seem to be worth quite a bit." And with that they were nearly tripping over themselves to get down the stairs and out of the inn.
Vihre sat on his bed breathing heavily, "w-well ah-aren-aren't you go-going to ca-"
"They're gone…" she breathed, fingering her ear lobes.
"Kelta they're just earrings! Make sure they didn't steal your money! That's what's important."
"You're a stupid fucking human! You wouldn't understand! You wouldn't understand to loose the one thing that reminded you of a loved one because your too fucking stupid to understand loosing someone! You're a stupid human I hate you Vihre!" she screamed as loud as she could, before crawling out of bed, and darting down the stairs, ignoring the fact that she was barefoot.
"Now she's going to get herself killed," Vihre sighed, before getting up rather calmly, and following her down the stairs-forgetting his shoes as well.
Kelta whipped her head around the moment she was out of the inn, her ears hung on the night desert air for any sign of the thieves. She was rejoined with Vihre the moment she heard them, but she was unable to dart after them because she felt his hands on her shoulders. "Let go of me!"
"Not until your able to think logically!"
"I don't need to be logic damnit!" and with that she wriggled out of his grasp, and ran after the thieves. They took her further south then the inn was and out near the city walls just a bit right of the gate. Oddly enough, they just stood there when they finally made it to the edge. It was if they were looking for something. Kelta was about to start casting something, when she felt a hand on her throat, it only took her a moment to know it was Vihre. "Le-"
"Quiet," he said In her ear, "just stay quiet. If they don't see you, you can freeze them in their place."
"Freeze?" she said just as quietly.
"Use frost driver."
"Frost driver!" She yelled, and she felt his hand clap over her mouth.
"Just do it. Concentrate on their bodies; see them in your mind. When you have their spot firmly in your thoughts, speak the spell, and let the ice rip towards them. That was your downfall at the argiopes."
No, my downfall was that I didn't want you to know I could do better. She mumbled something, before holding her hand before her; palm faced to the ground, and whispered the ancient words of the spell. In a moment ice erupted from the desert sands, and formed a circle between the two, freezing the patch of air. The men simply looked down at it, and stomped on it, thinking it was a mole or something.
"Kelta you freaking idiot! What the hell did I tell you?"
"This isn't working!" she shoved her arms as hard as she could in any direction to keep him out of her way, before spreading her legs, holding her hands out wide to the air, and whispering the ancient words as fast as should could. When she was done, she thrust her hands in front of her towards the group, and screamed. "Frost nova!" From her hands spikes of ice erupted from the ground in all directions and angles, shooting everywhere, and freezing what it hit. Two spikes ran right into the two, and froze them solid. Kelta smirked, but it quickly faded when she was smacked in the back of the head.
"What are you doing! Ho..How did you do that?" Vihre screamed, but he was more ecstatic to see such magic, then he was angry at her for using it.
She knew exactly why he was mad, as well. Most races cannot use magic that strong until they're ancient In age, and it often kills them. Kelta wasn't only breathing quite heavily, not distressed in any other way. She knelt to the ground, and heaved heavily, her palms against the sand. Vihre ran over to the thief-cicles, and didn't return until after he had brought something with him. They were her glass earrings. She looked up at him before taking them back, "I thought you said they were just earrings."
"I know what it feels like to loose someone very special Kelta, and only have one thing left to remember them by." He grinned at her with certain respect that she returned. At least they weren't arguing anymore.