Chapter 3

"Wow, did you see that? That's seven in a row. How does she do that?" said a voice from the crowd as another piece of wood splintered into a thousand pieces.

Kei was used to this. She made a living doing the only thing she was ever good at, using a whip. To pay rent, Kei had been putting on a show at the Lohan fair everyday showing off her skills with a whip. She was absolutely amazing, and some locals had even given her a nickname: The Whipmistress. Kei couldn't stand how corny the name sounded, and besides, she preferred to just be called Kei.

Kei had always had an adventurous side to her, so as a side job she would occasionally work as a mercenary. The way she viewed it, working as a mercenary was like taking a vacation that she could make money while taking. So, once a week Kei would head over to the bounty office to see if there was anything that piqued her interest. Today was her lucky day.

"Look out, here comes the Whipmistress!" said Dana jokingly. He knew that Kei could whip his butt, literally, from Lohan to Mille Seseau with no problem whatsoever.

"What was that Dana? You must want me to smack you across the face" said the petite redhead jokingly back to Dana. "So, is there anything new this week that I might want to get my hands on?"

"Nothing really. Just the usual suspects: rapists, murderers, and perverts. Since I know these types of jobs are not your forte, I might as well not even go into detail," said Dana.

"Well, what about the thing Fred was talking about earlier?" said Dana's son, John.

"What was Fred talking about earlier, Dana?" asked an interested Kei.

"It's just a bunch of rumors, Kei" said Dana, "Fred said he had been in Hoax last week and there was a rumor going around town that someone had found a map stating that some ancient treasure is hidden inside Volcano Villude. It's just a rumor though, don't take it too seriously."

"Sounds interesting. Where's Fred? I want to ask him about it some more" queried Kei.

"I think he said he was heading to the market and then home. He said he was pretty tired" answered John before Dana could get anything out.

Kei decided to bypass the market completely and just head to Fred's house. Fred lived no more than a mile outside the city's walls and lived by himself. When Kei arrived at his house, there was light coming through the windows, and sure enough, Fred was home.

Kei knocked on the door three times, and within ten seconds Fred opened the door. "What can I do you for, Kei?" asked Fred.

"I just came from the bounty office, and Dana and John said you heard a rumor in Hoax about some ancient treasure. Is it true?" asked Kei.

"Based on how many mouths I heard those words pass through, I figure there has to be some truth to it. You aren't thinking about checking it out are you?" asked Fred.

"Of course. You've been my most reliable source the last couple years Fred, so I have no reason to take what you hear with a grain of salt. Besides, I need a vacation. Doing the same boring show day in and day out, while hearing people chant Whipmistress all day is definitely getting to me. I need a break" explained Kei.

"Well I know nothing I can say will make you change your mind, but you better heed what I am about to say. I take it you have never been to Volcano Villude, so all I have to say is to dress lightly. You are going to be in an active volcano and any piece of metal you carry will become too hot to touch. Good thing you use a whip, huh?" joked Fred. "Best of luck to you."

"Thanks, Fred. I'm going to go get my things ready to leave tomorrow. Just to let you know though, if I do find something, I'll split it with you for giving me the info" stated Kei.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'm just passing on a rumor that I heard. Have fun out there, but don't be careless" said Fred.

"Thanks again."

Kei headed back to her apartment in the city. Taking Fred's words into consideration, Kei picked out the clothes she would take with her tomorrow while on her little trek. It was just her luck that she always dressed rather lightly while going on her adventures. Laying across her bed was a regular white blouse, a light red leather jacket, and a pair of brown pants with a removable strap attached to it to house her whip. After everything was prepared, Kei went to bed.

Kei woke up right an sunrise, very surprising considering she is not a morning person, but her anxiousness had gotten the better of her and she just wanted to go. There was one thing she had forgotten to ask Fred the night before that she wanted to ask him before she left. Kei put on the clothes she had laid out the night before, grabbed her whip, and started towards Fred's house.

Kei knocked three times on Fred's door and was greeted by a half asleep Fred. "Is there something I can help you with Kei?" asked Fred.

"I got so excited about the possibilities all this brought that I forgot to ask probably the most obvious question. This ancient treasure…what does it look like exactly?" wondered Kei.

"I honestly have no idea. No one knew in Hoax. All they knew was that someone had found a map with an X on top of Volcano Villude. I wish I could tell you more, but that's all I know," said Fred.

"All right. I guess I'll just be going in there and looking for something that looks out of the ordinary. Talk to you later," said Kei as she walked away. Kei continued on the path out of town and headed towards Volcano Villude.

The journey to Volcano Villude took all day and when Kei finally arrived at the outskirts, her hopes all but vanished. The rumor of the treasure had spread quickly and at least one hundred people from all around Serdio had made camps surrounding the volcano.

"Shit," thought Kei, "my chances of finding a treasure with all these people here is about as good as me finding a needle in a haystack four stories high." Kei still decided to set up camp and look in the morning because this was her vacation and she wasn't going to let it go to waste.

Kei slept in the next day, because everyone there was going to get an early start anyway, so waking up early wouldn't improve her chances. Once Kei was thoroughly refreshed, she got up and headed into the volcano.

Kei walked casually through the volcano looking up, down, left, and right with each step to see if there was anything that looked out of the ordinary. All Kei saw was a bunch of rocks and lava down below her.

The one spot inside the volcano Kei noticed no one was touching was a cul-de-sac that had a tiny lip following it all the way around. She figured all the other explorers, who were almost entirely men, were either too big or clumsy to attempt to maneuver around the lip. "What the hell, thought Kei. I didn't come here to see the sights. Perhaps there is something no one is able to see inside the cul-de-sac."

Kei took three deep breaths and stepped onto the lip. After fifteen steps, Kei was no longer visible to the rest of the treasure hunters. "This could be a good thing or a bad thing," thought Kei, "If I find something, no one will see me find it and I can walk straight out of here acting like I'm empty-handed. But, if something happens to me, like if I fall, I'm pretty much screwed."

The very next step Kei took caused the lip underneath her foot to crumble and Kei fell. Everything was moving in slow motion for Kei while falling and she was thinking to herself, "Isn't that ironic?"

"Wait a minute, I have a chance" screamed Kei to herself. There in front of her eyes was a piece of rock jutting out from the side of the wall. Kei grabbed her whip and aimed for the life of her, literally, and smacked the whip. Luckily it coiled around the piece of rock and stuck. The reaction of the whip going taut was harsh and almost caused Kei to lose her grip. Kei swung back and forth on the whip for a couple minutes until the whip came to a stand still. Kei began to climb up to the jutted piece of rock and was astonished at what she saw. Planted into one of the tiniest looking alcoves Kei had ever seen was quite possibly the most beautiful looking gem Kei had ever seen. It was a spherical ruby about the size of a human hand. Kei reached out to it with her right hand and was amazed that the sphere started glowing very bright.

Once Kei finally touched it, a voice entered her head. "You have been chosen to be the new master of the Red-Eye Dragon. With this power you will be able to control the element of fire. And I'm sure you want out of the mess you're currently in right now as well. Simply hold the spirit up in front of your chest and the rest will take care of itself."

Considering she didn't have much of a choice, Kei did as the voice told her and she held the sphere up to her chest. Flames spread throughout her body, but they didn't hurt, and they soon formed a hard, red armor that completely encased Kei's body. Kei's whip went slack and turned into a beautiful coil of pure ruby. Kei did not fall, however, since a pair of wings had sprouted from the back of the new armor, and Kei hovered right below the jutting rock.

"Now what?" thought Kei.

"First off, you are not going to want the other people in this volcano to see you how you are currently. I suggest a distraction to avoid any confrontation. In order to accomplish this I will use you as a puppet to show you how to use magic."

Kei all of a sudden lost control of her body. She watched as her armed holstered her whip to her side. Both of her arms gathered in front of her chest as a ball of molten lava grew right in front of her. Once it was the size of her torso, her arms lifted the ball over her head and lunged it the opposite direction of the entrance to the volcano while her voice let out, "Flame Shot."

The ball hit the wall of the volcano and made a hole, connecting two parts of the volcano that were not connecting a moment ago. The other explorers thought it had opened up a completely new part of the volcano and started fighting each other to be the first ones through. With this distraction, Kei flew over to the entrance and landed on the ground.

"If you want to know more about this you need to head to Bale and find a man named Americ," said the voice.

When the voice stopped speaking, the red light that had illuminated from the sphere earlier that put her in the red armor, illuminated again, and Kei found herself back in her normal clothes with her normal whip on her side.

"What the hell was all that?" thought Kei. "As much as I do want to find out what the hell this is, I think I'll head back to Lohan first and ask Fred, Dana, and John if they either know what the hell this is or if they have ever heard of a man named Americ."

It was nighttime by now and Kei decided she would walk through the night and head back to Lohan as soon as possible.

She arrived at Fred's door just as the sun was coming up. She knocked three times and was greeted by a half asleep Fred once again. "What's up Kei? You couldn't have actually found something at the volcano, could you have?" asked Fred.

"I don't want to explain it right here, but meet me at my place in thirty minutes and I'll tell you everything. I need to go get Dana and John for the same reason. Don't be late," said Kei with an uncharacteristic serious look on her face.

Kei walked into town and walked up to the back of the bounty office where Dana and John lived. "Dana, John, open up. It's Kei. I need to talk to you."

Dana opened the door with a cup of coffee in his hand. "What's the matter, Kei? It's way too early for you to be awake, so this must be important" said Dana.

"Wake John up, get dressed, and meet me at my place fifteen minutes. I need to show you something important. Don't be late" stated Kei.

Kei then left and went to her place. She opened the door and sat down with a look of puzzlement on her face. She took the ruby sphere out of her pocket and placed in on the end table next to the chair she was sitting in. "What are you?" asked Kei to the sphere.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Fred, Dana, and John had all arrived at the same time. "So, what's going on exactly?" asked Dana.

"Come in, come in" said Kei. "Close the door behind you." Kei walked over to the end table, picked up the ruby sphere, and held it to her side.

"It's beautiful!" said all three men simultaneously. "Was that the ancient treasure?"

"I'm not sure, but watch this!" said Kei as she held the sphere in front of her chest. She once again found herself encased in the red armor and still had the wings on her back.

"Oh my God! What the?" shouted John

"Whoa" said Dana.

"Holy crap!" was the only phrase able to come out of Fred's mouth.

"Now I don't know what the hell this is, and obviously none of you do either based on your reactions, but I'll tell you how I came to get it" said Kei.

Kei told them the story about how many explorers were at the volcano and how no one had searched the cul-de-sac. She told how she fell and saved herself by slinging her whip around a rock. She told them where she found the sphere and how a voice had entered her head when she found it. She also explained over the magic she was capable of performing now, and how it helped her escape from the volcano unnoticed.

"Well, since none of you knew what this was, I'm guessing none of you are going to be able to answer by nest question. Right before I transformed back to my normal self at the volcano, the voice told me to head to Bale and find a man named Americ. Now does that name sound familiar to any of you?" asked Kei.

Unfortunately, all three of their responses were what she had expected; none of them knew who Americ was. Kei transformed back to her normal self and told the three men that she was tired and needed sleep. She also explained to them that she would be leaving tomorrow morning for Bale to find out if she could find this man named Americ.

"Good luck" said the three men.