Thunder, the Four Fangs, and Legault
Several weeks have passed and my Fire spell has became much stronger than before. Lloyd and Linus continue to give their encouragements to me as I continue to practice every night. Sometimes, they even come to watch me, motivating me further because they often comment on how much better I'm getting. Eventually, casting Fire spells became a second nature to me, as I was became able to do it without any problems. However, as with all Mages, Sages and Valkyries, I still needed the Fire tome's influence to be able to cast the spell still. Tomes, made from magic, and that magic is what magic users use to be able to cast a spell. Simply holding a tome is enough for any magic user to be able to harness the power of the spell within the book. If you already know the chant needed, then you don't even need to open the tome. However, after a certain amount of spells, the tome's magic eventually runs out and becomes useless for anything other than reading. The most basic spells usually use less magic from the tome, so magic users tend to be able to cast more spells with one tome then with a tome of a high-level spell, like the Anima spell Fimbulvter for example. This is the basic knowledge that every magic user knows and without this knowledge, one may find themselves lost.
After I fully mastered the Fire spell, I was able to start casting the Thunder spell. Although I still could not read, I had once heard Mother chant the spell for Thunder. I took one of the tomes from Mother's room again and went out to practice with it. It was still morning. Mother had told me to meet her in the Water Temple today, so she could give me some messages to run, so I had to do this quickly. Finding a nice spot outside the Bern Keep, I took out the Thunder tome to start my practicing.
"Hirameku… Rakurai!" I shouted out with intense concentration. A bolt of lightning came down and made an impact on the tree I was targeting with a loud crash. I barely saw the lightning before it disappeared, as it was there and gone again within a second. It surprised me that my Thunder spell was so powerful the first time I tried it. When I first started out casting Fire, the fire came out but was very weak. It did not even get to the point of clashing together to form the fireball it was supposed to create. Perhaps practicing one Anima spell can help with the others.
I suddenly noticed the tree I used as a practice target was on fire. Looking around desperately, I tried to find a way to put it out. Much to my despair, although it was a cool and snowy morning, the fire continued to rage. This did not happen with the Fire spell, even though it has a fireball shooting at a target, specifically a tree in my case, usually the fire would just burn the tree, leaving burnt patches in its wake. I looked around the area where the tree was and it was hopeless. There was nothing to put the fire out with.
"Reido Ichijin No Kaze!" A voice shouted. Suddenly, an icy tornado with snow flying out of it in all directions with amazingly cold wind appeared out of nowhere. When the tornado dispersed immediately, a large mount of ice appeared, which looked like huge icy crystals, had encased around the tree and the fire, putting it out effectively. The mount of ice then immediately exploded into little shards of ice, which would be dangerously fatal to anything they hit or pierced.
I turned around to see a woman with short blue hair perched on a majestic white horse carrying a blue tome in her hands. I immediately recognized her to be Ursula, one of the Four Fangs. I remember she works with my brothers and another person whom I have somewhat heard of, but have not yet met. Ursula was a Valkyrie, something you can tell just by looking at her horse and the tome she carried, a very strong magic user who Mother opinionated as one of the best of the Four Fangs. Ursula, very loyal to Mother, would obey her every command without hesitation. Ursula, with thoughtful and kindly eyes, wore a purple outfit with golden linings. With obvious interested, she looked at me with intense observation.
"Practicing magic little girl?" The Valkyrie asked.
"Umm… Yes I am!" I said with the slight feeling of inferiority. "Thank you so much for helping me put that fire out. I would have gotten into a lot of trouble if it spread."
"Yes, of course." She said, and then asked curiously, "You are Lady Sonia's daughter are you not?"
"Yeah, I am. My name is Nino." I said. "I was practicing magic so I may be able to fight evil with the Black Fang like Mother does one day!"
"I see…" She said, pondering. "Nino, perhaps you should start practicing on rocks instead of trees. Thunder tends to light trees on fire once they strike. If you keep practicing, then perhaps Lady Sonia will consider giving you a chance to go on one of the more important missions."
"Oh thanks for the tip!" I said. "Umm… Can you not tell mother about this? I want to surprise her with my magic skills when I get better!"
"Very well then…" Ursula replied. "However, if she asks me about how all the trees around the keep becoming charred, I will not lie to her."
"Okay, that's fine I suppose." I said. "Oh no! I have to get to the Water Temple quickly or else Mother will punish me for being late!"
"I have to be there as well," Ursula said. "Climb on my horse and we can ride there together."
"Okay!" I said and got on her horse. This was not the first time I had ridden a horse, so it was not awkward for me with getting up on the saddle behind her. Ursula then tapped the horse with her heels and the horse started moving obediently. Ursula started to steer toward the water temple; it only took half an hour to get there, as it was not that far from the Bern Keep.
Once we got there, I saw many people I could not recognize. Most of them had glowing yellow eyes with raven hair, kind-of like Mother's. However, they stood there stoically, showing no emotion whatsoever. I thought they were creepy but tried to not think much of them. Ursula and I walked to Sonia's office silently; my brothers, Lloyd, Linus, and a person I did not recognize were already there. The man had red hair with tanned skin, meaning he was probably from another country, most likely Sacae. Along with them, Brendan Reed, the head of the Black Fang, as well as my father was here as well. My father looked at me with his kind eyes and smiled. I smiled back and gave him a hug. I also greeted my brothers with a happy wave, and in response, they smiled.
"Good Ursula, you are here." Mother said. "It is about time we started. I am going to give you the Four Fangs different missions that must be fulfilled for the preparation of the task that the King Desmond of Bern has requested."
"What exactly did the King of Bern request?" Lloyd asked her with curiosity.
"It is nothing of your concern, as I am going on this mission for the King with a couple of my subordinates," Mother replied sternly.
"The Four Fangs have nothing to do with this? Then what are we here for?" Linus questioned.
"Simple Linus," Mother replied. "I need you and Lloyd to patrol the cities around Bern and keep them safe from bandits. This will cause the King to be able to trust us more so he may allow his soldiers to help us out with certain tasks. Although he has already requested something of us, we need to gain his trust and support."
"Very well," said Lloyd. "Let's go Linus." With that said, Lloyd and Linus both stood up from their seats, and left the room. I followed them, out of the room and outside of the temple.
"Lloyd! Linus!" I called to them. "I want to show you something! I can do a different spell now, the Thunder spell!"
"That is amazing Nino! Come show us." Lloyd said. With excitement, I took out my Thunder tome from within my robes, then looked for a large boulder to cast Thunder spell on. This time, when I did the spell, it was fairly stronger than before and to my joy, it did not start a fire.
"Wow! Good job Nino!" Linus said while giving me a pat on the back. Lloyd looked at me with great admiration and told me that he was proud that I was able to achieve such a feat.
"Well, Nino we had better be going," Lloyd said. "Lets do something next time we see you alright? Perhaps we will be done with patrolling the villages by then."
"Yeah definitely, I can't wait!" I exclaimed, then giving then both a hug and ran back inside the temple. Mother called me back into the room soon after the mysterious man left.
"Nino, I need you to deliver a message for me." Mother told me. "I need you to deliver this to the village nearby the Bern Keep. In a house with a red tiled roof and walls painted white, you will find Legault and tell him that he is needed on Valor with Uhai. Also tell him to take the next boat in the Black Fang's port in Bern with the other members."
"Yes Mother, I will not fail you! I have not seen Uncle Legault in quite a while! I can't wait to see him!" I said with enthusiasm.
It took me about one hour and a half to get to the village. My legs were throbbing from walking nonstop from such a long distanced walk. If only someone would have given me a ride to the village, I would not be so horribly tired! I found the house I was looking for knocked politely but when no one answered, so I checked to see if the door was unlocked. It wasn't, so I walked inside and found that no one was there. It was quite empty inside the house and aside from a table that was only the first room. Tiredly, I sat down in a chair, waiting patiently for Uncle Legault. After a half hour passed, he finally showed up.
"Uncle Legault!" I exclaimed, running up to him and gave him a sudden hug.
"Nino? What are you doing here lass?" He asked. "I see that you are well."
"Yeah, I am Uncle Legault! I am here to give you a message! Mother told me to tell you that you have to get on the next boat to Valor. I believe it leaves tomorrow morning." I said to him dutifully.
"That woman wants me to go to the Dread Isle? She must be out of her mind!" He exclaimed.
"Don't worry Uncle Legault! All of those stories about Valor probably aren't true anyway!" I said, trying to reassure him.
"Nino, can you please not call me Uncle? I am not that old." He said with aspiration.
"Oh okay…" I said slightly disappointment. "Well anyway, I should be getting back to the Bern Keep…Good luck on your trip to Valor, Uncle Legault, I'm sure it will be fine!"
I ran out and started to head back to the Bern Keep. When I got there, I ventured into my room for a much needed rest. That night, like the many others, I went out to practice my Thunder spell until I was exhausted.
"I seem to be getting better…" I told myself while in bed after my exhausting practice.
"Hopefully once I show Mother that I can use magic, she will let me go on more important missions! I hope she will think of me more worthy to fight if she sees how well I can use magic…"
Woo this was beta-ed by Kochiyami!
Writer's Note: I hope this chapter is a huge improvement on the last. I tried to make it as long as I could have, it probably could have been a bit longer if I could have been able to think about it a bit more... I wonder if it was wise for me to have Nino not know who Jaffar is yet... Also I hope I did not make Ursula seem too kind... Well if you guys have any comments or tips for my story, then please do comment and help out! It is much appreciated. Also thanks to my dear friend Kochiyami for beta reading my story!
Next chapter will most likely have Nino meet and bump into Jaffar on several occasions. In the future chapters I will probably end up using dialogue from the game, as I continue to lead up to Nino's meeting of Eliwood and Co. and of course the chapter Night of Farewells. I wonder if that is allowed though...
Once again thanks for any feedback you may give!