The following morning came, and with it came the responsibilities of being
a Dragon Knight for Fratley and Frato. However, this didn't stop the two
from sleeping heavily as usual; but this time, instead of April constantly
pleading and nagging them to get out of bed they were woken by in a
different and rather more disturbing way.
"Come on you two! Get up!" Lion-heart shouted in the upstairs corridor. He then marched straight into Fratley's bedroom, which was the closest to his. He went straight over to Fratley and shook him rather violently.
"Come on Junior! Wake up!" Lion-heart said in a raised voice, straight to Fratley's face. This caused Fratley to wake up rather startled.
Lion-heart then left Fratley's room as Fratley rose quickly into a sitting position so he wouldn't be hassled further to get out of bed. Lion-heart now headed straight to Frato's room a repeated the process of shaking the sleeping half-caste awake.
"Come on! Wake up! You'll be late for your duties!" Lion-heart half shouted straight at Frato as he shook him in his bed.
Frato almost screamed as he was shaken out of his dreams by his father. He too, quickly rose out of bed so Lion-heart wouldn't disturb him further. Lion-heart, now seeing that both of his children were awake, left the room to get ready for today's duties.
The two brothers quickly got dressed into their Dragon Knight uniforms which consisted of a blue battle shirt which was threaded with mythril so it would be tough to pierce; some rather baggy dark blue pants which were held up by a black leather belt.
After the two had finished getting dressed the two scurried downstairs to get their breakfast. Lion-heart was already downstairs eating a bowl of muesli. Fratley and Frato quickly did the same and made their own breakfasts (both consisting of muesli) and sat themselves down to eat.
The three sat in silence as they ate. Not one word was said. This was rather uncomfortable for both Fratley and Frato as they were already fairly tense about their first as Dragon Knights, not to mention they had wrestled out of their beds by Lion-heart.
Finally, the three finished their breakfast and cleared the table. The three then finished getting ready by getting washed, brushing their hair, brushing their teeth and all the usual things you do in the morning to get ready for something.
The three then left the house and walked into Burmecia towards the Royal Palace. The Burmecian rain was heavy, as is symbolising that the hardship of being a Dragon Knight was already upon the young warriors.
As the trio continued to walk, Lion-heart finally said something to his children other than "WAKE UP!".
"So today is the big day isn't it Sirs?" Lion-heart asked with a little smile. "Your first day of working in Burmecia as a Dragon Knight."
"Yes." Both Fratley and Frato replied at the same time rather nervously. Well, I suppose it would be alright to be nervous walking next to someone who had shook you violently only about an hour ago just to get you out of your bed; wouldn't you?
"You nervous?" Lion-heart asked noticing the two being rather quiet. "I was nervous on my first day in the Dragon Knights too. Don't worry about it, you'll be fine, trust me."
"Thanks, Sir." Fratley replied. "I'm just a little concerned about what impression the other knights are going to have of me."
"Count yourself lucky!" Frato said still looking anxious. "Just think about me! What kind of impression am I going to make? I'm not even a full-blooded Burmecian!"
"I wouldn't worry about that too much. You were knighted as a Burmecian, were you not Sir Frato?" Lion-heart responded rather thoughtfully.
"Yes I was." Frato replied. "Though that might make other Burmecians think worse of me rather than better of me."
There was a short moment of silence before Fratley and Lion-heart quickly changed the subject.
"Rather heavy rain today, don't you think?" Lion-heart asked, giving a quick glance at the pelting rain.
"Sir, that isn't even half of an understatement." Fratley said with a light smirk.
Sir Fratley seemed to ease up a little after that. He was becoming more comfortable and less anxious as he walked with his father towards the Royal Palace.
Sir Frato however, started to straggle slightly as he fell behind the two knights and started to think.
"Will I be accepted by the Dragon Knights?" Frato thought. "Will the Burmecians accept me?"
After a small period of thinking; another thought occurred in Frato's mind.
"Does it really matter?"
Another small period of hard thought Frato reached his rather brief conclusion.
"...Nah."
The way Frato saw it, either the Burmecians accepted him as a Dragon Knight despite his race, or there would be trouble.
The three Burmecian knights finally reached the Royal Palace, where a group of other Burmecian Dragon Knights were gathered. There was a small notice on the door which stated where each knight was to stand guard for the day...
---
Sometime later, Frato found himself taking guard at one the gates, next to the person he hated more than anyone else on Gaia: Freya Crescent. For some reason which Frato was unable to figure out, the two had been put together to guard the Southern gate of Burmecia. They were not the only ones there of course; there were two more experienced Dragon Knights on the other side of the gate.
Not that there was much to guard against, as the kingdoms of the Mist Continent were currently at peace. Very few beasts actually roamed close to the gates of Burmecia, and those that did were usually taken out by the guards very easily.
Frato found this rather disappointing. He wanted a challenge. He wanted something that was worth fighting. The monsters that roamed the rainy plains outside of Burmecia were child's play to Frato.
Frato then gave a quick glance to Freya, who returned it with a glance of her own. This caused Frato to look away again as he didn't really want to start a conversation with Freya.
Frato couldn't start a fight with her right now anyway. They were supposed to be guarding and protecting the city from any danger; not slashing each others brains out.
Frato just stood in front of the gate keeping his guard. He was nearly falling asleep with the sheer dullness of it all.
"Stay awake." Freya said sternly as she saw Frato start to doze. "You're supposed to be guarding the city."
Frato turned and glared at Freya angrily; only to have the glare returned by Freya. Frato then broke his eye-contact with Freya and looked back out onto the dull plains.
Freya was determined not to let the arrogant warrior standing next to her ruin her first day as a Dragon Knight. They had a job to do. Freya just wanted to get on with it.
---
Fratley had been selected to stand guard at the west gate of Burmecia. Just recently, news of a Red Dragon roaming the land there had been spread throughout the city and the Burmecians were slightly anxious about it.
Fratley had been paired with his father: Lion-heart. On the other side of the gate was Leo, who had aided Frato when he was mugged. Next to Leo, stood another experienced Dragon warrior.
The four took their positions at the gate. They waited patiently together.
After a few moments, a sound could be heard.
Boom. Boom.
It seemed quite far away for be of any threat, but then the same sound was heard again.
Boom! Boom!
It was louder than before, and quite evidently closer. The four knights started to become suspicious of the noise and held their lances slightly firmer. The sound came again.
BOOM! BOOM!
Lion-heart went into a battle stance: he put his left leg behind him, crouched slightly and pointed his lance out in front of him.
Fratley followed suit and did the same. The other two knights had also taken their place behind the two warriors as they saw what the noise was coming from.
The next sound wasn't a boom, this time it was something that was hauntingly familiar.
"RRRRRAAAAAOOOOORRRRR!"
Redwind was standing in front of the group, growling angrily. He had seen the same Burmecian who had wounded him in his wing: Lion-heart. As Redwind figured Lion-heart would be the greatest threat of the group of four, he dived straight at Lion-heart.
Lion-heart detected this and jumped into the air. He swung his lance into his left hand and used it to impale the dragon in the same wing he had injured before as he landed.
Redwind screamed at the searing pain in his left wing and immediately started to thrash around. He swung his left wing in a craze, trying to remove the lance from his wing and at the same time preventing Lion-heart from regaining his weapon.
The other three warriors charged at the opening that was available in the right side of Redwind. Three lances impaled Redwind's right wing causing the dragon to scream even more. The three warriors then removed their lances to try another assault.
Then, a lash of Redwind's incredibly long and scaly tail sent the three warriors on his right flying backwards and onto the ground with a painful splat. Redwind then turned to Lion-heart to focus his assault on him once again.
Lion-heart was preparing a dragon knight ability, but Redwind didn't know which one. Redwind instead braced himself and prepared to either defend or evade Lion-heart's next attack.
Lion-heart continued to prepare and chant this skill, but then he did something unusual. He stopped in his chant and let his arms fall at ease.
Redwind then felt more agonising pain in his right wing as the three warriors on his right had evidently recovered and charged at him again.
Lion-heart was only buying time!
Redwind then decided that enough was enough, and he would rely on his ultimate move. He smacked the warriors on his right with his tail once again as they removed the lances from his wing. He then used his powerful legs to leap back as far as he could from the group.
The warriors paused for a moment, thinking that the dragon might be retreating. However, this hope was out of their minds in a few short seconds, as Redwind began to inhale as much air as he could.
The warriors charged together in hope they would reach the dragon before it could unleash the technique. They were quick enough, they reached the dragon time.
However, when they did, Redwind leapt backwards once again. He landed on his clawed feet just in time to fire the attack.
A short burst of whirling wind was fired straight from Redwind's mouth to the four warriors in front of him. He moved his head horizontally to ensure that the magical attack hit the four who were attacking him. The group of warriors were hit by the twister attack and were sent flying backwards.
Lion-heart and Fratley landed back-first onto the ground. Leo and his comrade had flipped in the air by the attack and had landed front first on the ground.
Redwind gave a startled grunt as he saw the warriors struggle to get back onto their feet and decided to turn around and stomp back into the mountains. Redwind thought it would be wiser to wait in the mountains a little longer rather than risk his life further by charging into Burmecia.
Lion-heart, Fratley, Leo and the other Dragon Knight reached their feet and breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Redwind stomp back into the mountains.
"Looks like we scared the Dragon off..." Fratley said through deep breaths.
"We can't keep our guard down though." Lion-heart stated, also through deep breaths.
The four continued to guard the gate, keeping an eye out for any monsters or the Red Dragon that had attacked them. Fortunately, the Red Dragon did not return; and the monsters that did appear were disposed of quickly.
---
Later that evening; after Fratley's exciting experience of fighting a Red Dragon and Frato's even more exciting experience of standing next to Freya for more than five minutes and not breaking up into an argument with her; Fratley and Frato were eating some cooked meat and bread for their dinner.
Whilst the two were eating, Fratley decided to spark up a conversation.
"So how did you find your first day Frato?" Fratley asked in a polite tone.
"Annoying." Frato muttered sulkily after swallowing another piece of meat.
Fratley just looked at Frato with a confused expression. Frato looked back and saw the expression and explained further.
"I had to guard the Southern gate with Freya." Frato spat. "The only thing that kept me sane was the fact I managed to kill a few monsters in the time I spent with her."
Fratley stifled a laugh. It wasn't recent news that Frato and Freya hated each other.
"Well, I had a slightly more enjoyable day." Fratley started. "Other than standing guard we had to scare off the Red Dragon that had been roaming around the western mountains. It came down and attacked us for some reason..."
At the words "Red Dragon" Frato's eyes widened. One word entered Frato's mind...
"Redwind..."
---
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 9 or any of the stuff that is in it, Square-Enix does.
Author's Rant: Look, the only way I know people are reading this stuff is if I get a review. If you are reading this, it is your job to click the submit review button. So do it! Now!
Breeze of Summoners: I'm glad you liked the previous chapter, but I am still clueless as to how I would improve Chapter 14. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter, and you better had update soon...I want to read more.
"Come on you two! Get up!" Lion-heart shouted in the upstairs corridor. He then marched straight into Fratley's bedroom, which was the closest to his. He went straight over to Fratley and shook him rather violently.
"Come on Junior! Wake up!" Lion-heart said in a raised voice, straight to Fratley's face. This caused Fratley to wake up rather startled.
Lion-heart then left Fratley's room as Fratley rose quickly into a sitting position so he wouldn't be hassled further to get out of bed. Lion-heart now headed straight to Frato's room a repeated the process of shaking the sleeping half-caste awake.
"Come on! Wake up! You'll be late for your duties!" Lion-heart half shouted straight at Frato as he shook him in his bed.
Frato almost screamed as he was shaken out of his dreams by his father. He too, quickly rose out of bed so Lion-heart wouldn't disturb him further. Lion-heart, now seeing that both of his children were awake, left the room to get ready for today's duties.
The two brothers quickly got dressed into their Dragon Knight uniforms which consisted of a blue battle shirt which was threaded with mythril so it would be tough to pierce; some rather baggy dark blue pants which were held up by a black leather belt.
After the two had finished getting dressed the two scurried downstairs to get their breakfast. Lion-heart was already downstairs eating a bowl of muesli. Fratley and Frato quickly did the same and made their own breakfasts (both consisting of muesli) and sat themselves down to eat.
The three sat in silence as they ate. Not one word was said. This was rather uncomfortable for both Fratley and Frato as they were already fairly tense about their first as Dragon Knights, not to mention they had wrestled out of their beds by Lion-heart.
Finally, the three finished their breakfast and cleared the table. The three then finished getting ready by getting washed, brushing their hair, brushing their teeth and all the usual things you do in the morning to get ready for something.
The three then left the house and walked into Burmecia towards the Royal Palace. The Burmecian rain was heavy, as is symbolising that the hardship of being a Dragon Knight was already upon the young warriors.
As the trio continued to walk, Lion-heart finally said something to his children other than "WAKE UP!".
"So today is the big day isn't it Sirs?" Lion-heart asked with a little smile. "Your first day of working in Burmecia as a Dragon Knight."
"Yes." Both Fratley and Frato replied at the same time rather nervously. Well, I suppose it would be alright to be nervous walking next to someone who had shook you violently only about an hour ago just to get you out of your bed; wouldn't you?
"You nervous?" Lion-heart asked noticing the two being rather quiet. "I was nervous on my first day in the Dragon Knights too. Don't worry about it, you'll be fine, trust me."
"Thanks, Sir." Fratley replied. "I'm just a little concerned about what impression the other knights are going to have of me."
"Count yourself lucky!" Frato said still looking anxious. "Just think about me! What kind of impression am I going to make? I'm not even a full-blooded Burmecian!"
"I wouldn't worry about that too much. You were knighted as a Burmecian, were you not Sir Frato?" Lion-heart responded rather thoughtfully.
"Yes I was." Frato replied. "Though that might make other Burmecians think worse of me rather than better of me."
There was a short moment of silence before Fratley and Lion-heart quickly changed the subject.
"Rather heavy rain today, don't you think?" Lion-heart asked, giving a quick glance at the pelting rain.
"Sir, that isn't even half of an understatement." Fratley said with a light smirk.
Sir Fratley seemed to ease up a little after that. He was becoming more comfortable and less anxious as he walked with his father towards the Royal Palace.
Sir Frato however, started to straggle slightly as he fell behind the two knights and started to think.
"Will I be accepted by the Dragon Knights?" Frato thought. "Will the Burmecians accept me?"
After a small period of thinking; another thought occurred in Frato's mind.
"Does it really matter?"
Another small period of hard thought Frato reached his rather brief conclusion.
"...Nah."
The way Frato saw it, either the Burmecians accepted him as a Dragon Knight despite his race, or there would be trouble.
The three Burmecian knights finally reached the Royal Palace, where a group of other Burmecian Dragon Knights were gathered. There was a small notice on the door which stated where each knight was to stand guard for the day...
---
Sometime later, Frato found himself taking guard at one the gates, next to the person he hated more than anyone else on Gaia: Freya Crescent. For some reason which Frato was unable to figure out, the two had been put together to guard the Southern gate of Burmecia. They were not the only ones there of course; there were two more experienced Dragon Knights on the other side of the gate.
Not that there was much to guard against, as the kingdoms of the Mist Continent were currently at peace. Very few beasts actually roamed close to the gates of Burmecia, and those that did were usually taken out by the guards very easily.
Frato found this rather disappointing. He wanted a challenge. He wanted something that was worth fighting. The monsters that roamed the rainy plains outside of Burmecia were child's play to Frato.
Frato then gave a quick glance to Freya, who returned it with a glance of her own. This caused Frato to look away again as he didn't really want to start a conversation with Freya.
Frato couldn't start a fight with her right now anyway. They were supposed to be guarding and protecting the city from any danger; not slashing each others brains out.
Frato just stood in front of the gate keeping his guard. He was nearly falling asleep with the sheer dullness of it all.
"Stay awake." Freya said sternly as she saw Frato start to doze. "You're supposed to be guarding the city."
Frato turned and glared at Freya angrily; only to have the glare returned by Freya. Frato then broke his eye-contact with Freya and looked back out onto the dull plains.
Freya was determined not to let the arrogant warrior standing next to her ruin her first day as a Dragon Knight. They had a job to do. Freya just wanted to get on with it.
---
Fratley had been selected to stand guard at the west gate of Burmecia. Just recently, news of a Red Dragon roaming the land there had been spread throughout the city and the Burmecians were slightly anxious about it.
Fratley had been paired with his father: Lion-heart. On the other side of the gate was Leo, who had aided Frato when he was mugged. Next to Leo, stood another experienced Dragon warrior.
The four took their positions at the gate. They waited patiently together.
After a few moments, a sound could be heard.
Boom. Boom.
It seemed quite far away for be of any threat, but then the same sound was heard again.
Boom! Boom!
It was louder than before, and quite evidently closer. The four knights started to become suspicious of the noise and held their lances slightly firmer. The sound came again.
BOOM! BOOM!
Lion-heart went into a battle stance: he put his left leg behind him, crouched slightly and pointed his lance out in front of him.
Fratley followed suit and did the same. The other two knights had also taken their place behind the two warriors as they saw what the noise was coming from.
The next sound wasn't a boom, this time it was something that was hauntingly familiar.
"RRRRRAAAAAOOOOORRRRR!"
Redwind was standing in front of the group, growling angrily. He had seen the same Burmecian who had wounded him in his wing: Lion-heart. As Redwind figured Lion-heart would be the greatest threat of the group of four, he dived straight at Lion-heart.
Lion-heart detected this and jumped into the air. He swung his lance into his left hand and used it to impale the dragon in the same wing he had injured before as he landed.
Redwind screamed at the searing pain in his left wing and immediately started to thrash around. He swung his left wing in a craze, trying to remove the lance from his wing and at the same time preventing Lion-heart from regaining his weapon.
The other three warriors charged at the opening that was available in the right side of Redwind. Three lances impaled Redwind's right wing causing the dragon to scream even more. The three warriors then removed their lances to try another assault.
Then, a lash of Redwind's incredibly long and scaly tail sent the three warriors on his right flying backwards and onto the ground with a painful splat. Redwind then turned to Lion-heart to focus his assault on him once again.
Lion-heart was preparing a dragon knight ability, but Redwind didn't know which one. Redwind instead braced himself and prepared to either defend or evade Lion-heart's next attack.
Lion-heart continued to prepare and chant this skill, but then he did something unusual. He stopped in his chant and let his arms fall at ease.
Redwind then felt more agonising pain in his right wing as the three warriors on his right had evidently recovered and charged at him again.
Lion-heart was only buying time!
Redwind then decided that enough was enough, and he would rely on his ultimate move. He smacked the warriors on his right with his tail once again as they removed the lances from his wing. He then used his powerful legs to leap back as far as he could from the group.
The warriors paused for a moment, thinking that the dragon might be retreating. However, this hope was out of their minds in a few short seconds, as Redwind began to inhale as much air as he could.
The warriors charged together in hope they would reach the dragon before it could unleash the technique. They were quick enough, they reached the dragon time.
However, when they did, Redwind leapt backwards once again. He landed on his clawed feet just in time to fire the attack.
A short burst of whirling wind was fired straight from Redwind's mouth to the four warriors in front of him. He moved his head horizontally to ensure that the magical attack hit the four who were attacking him. The group of warriors were hit by the twister attack and were sent flying backwards.
Lion-heart and Fratley landed back-first onto the ground. Leo and his comrade had flipped in the air by the attack and had landed front first on the ground.
Redwind gave a startled grunt as he saw the warriors struggle to get back onto their feet and decided to turn around and stomp back into the mountains. Redwind thought it would be wiser to wait in the mountains a little longer rather than risk his life further by charging into Burmecia.
Lion-heart, Fratley, Leo and the other Dragon Knight reached their feet and breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Redwind stomp back into the mountains.
"Looks like we scared the Dragon off..." Fratley said through deep breaths.
"We can't keep our guard down though." Lion-heart stated, also through deep breaths.
The four continued to guard the gate, keeping an eye out for any monsters or the Red Dragon that had attacked them. Fortunately, the Red Dragon did not return; and the monsters that did appear were disposed of quickly.
---
Later that evening; after Fratley's exciting experience of fighting a Red Dragon and Frato's even more exciting experience of standing next to Freya for more than five minutes and not breaking up into an argument with her; Fratley and Frato were eating some cooked meat and bread for their dinner.
Whilst the two were eating, Fratley decided to spark up a conversation.
"So how did you find your first day Frato?" Fratley asked in a polite tone.
"Annoying." Frato muttered sulkily after swallowing another piece of meat.
Fratley just looked at Frato with a confused expression. Frato looked back and saw the expression and explained further.
"I had to guard the Southern gate with Freya." Frato spat. "The only thing that kept me sane was the fact I managed to kill a few monsters in the time I spent with her."
Fratley stifled a laugh. It wasn't recent news that Frato and Freya hated each other.
"Well, I had a slightly more enjoyable day." Fratley started. "Other than standing guard we had to scare off the Red Dragon that had been roaming around the western mountains. It came down and attacked us for some reason..."
At the words "Red Dragon" Frato's eyes widened. One word entered Frato's mind...
"Redwind..."
---
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 9 or any of the stuff that is in it, Square-Enix does.
Author's Rant: Look, the only way I know people are reading this stuff is if I get a review. If you are reading this, it is your job to click the submit review button. So do it! Now!
Breeze of Summoners: I'm glad you liked the previous chapter, but I am still clueless as to how I would improve Chapter 14. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter, and you better had update soon...I want to read more.