Chapter 2 - Friends reunited
Voldos, like most elvaans, was a thin tall man with the Elvaan pointed ears and Elvaan inflated sense of ego. However unlike most Elvaans Voldos didn't look down on the other races and make a snobbish snort, no Voldos in his naïve charm just thought of himself as perfection walking and didn't need clarifying with the usual snobbish snort and instead just smiled and looked, in his eyes, perfect. However not even Voldos could manage the trade mark 'perfect' smile as he shuffled some what uncharacteristically past the Bastok South Gate guards.
Like his fellow warriors and adventurers Voldos hadn't been to Bastok in a year, and to his mind this was a good thing. Although Voldos didn't receive the Elvaan 'better than thou' personality he did have the Elvaan distaste for anything none Elvaan, this included Bastok and as he walked through the streets of Bastok, getting the occasional stare, he was reminded why.
'Finally' Voldos thought 'this journey that could be called by less perfect creatures as hellish is over!' The Bastok fountain was a few steps away and there in front of him was his fellow adventurers, his friends. As Voldos approached first Bollo turned to the squelching sounds followed by the rest of the group. Once all were aware of Voldos's presence the laughter began. Full hearty, belly aching laughter that rang through out The Republic of Bastok that made passers by take notice and to check out the source of the laughter which seemed infectious as the passers by also chuckled along with the band of adventurers.
Needless to say Voldos was not amused. As he stood there in a soaking wet leather shirt, trousers, boots and gloves he realised that maybe he should have waited for his clothes to dry out before he went to meet his friends. To most passers by the scene of a soaking wet Elvaan was funny it didn't seem to need the kind of laughter the five adventurers who once sat at the fountain but were now in various states of side holding and floor rolling were giving it but it they weren't just laughing at Voldos's latest escapade, oh no, this brought back glorious memories of ever other Voldos mishap they had been witnessed to in the past, in fact they hadn't even been told what the latest one was.
"Are you going to let me tell you what happened?" Voldos asked being humiliated enough for one hour.
"I don't know. I think. It's funnier. This way." In any normal situation this would have been another one of Bootus's quick witty lines however, thanks to the laughter, this one line proved harder than it should have been. By now though Voldos had, had enough and decided to just tell the pile of laughing bodies the story and hope for the laughter to end.
"Well for your information I was walking through North Gusteberg and while crossing the bridge a Quadav came charging towards me. Being the perfect fighter I am I quickly drew my bow and arrow, took my shooting stance and prepared to shoot the charging beast." Up to this part of the story Voldos was coming out on top. "However I forgot to tie my boot lace and ended up tripping over it and falling over on my face."
"… So why are you wet?" Asked the newly composed Bootus.
"The Quadav was still charging and I had to role out the way into the stream to avoid him."
This was followed by a blank silence from Voldos's friends and adventures before their belly aching hearty laughter was renewed once more. This on reflection was another bad idea. Through the mangled body parts Voldos started to notice his friends new attire, Zinkata in shiny armour, Bootus in not so shiny armour, Bollo in a cool cap with a feather in it and Vivli wearing… well Vivli seemed unchanged, but the others looked different. As did Voldos in fact exchanging his suite of armour for a more flexible leather suite. This was due to the groups hiatus.
One year ago they decided that being together as group was great but after a while you need time to go your separate ways and do your own thing for a bit. During this time it would seem each adventurer had the same idea to improve there battle expertise by learning a new discipline of fighting.
Voldos had taken the root of the Ranger. Voldos was the son to a proud family of Royal Knights serving under the Elvaan royal family. Generation after generation of Voldos's forefathers had proved themselves worthy of their title of knight. So Voldos taking on the role of Ranger and taking the bow over the sword you'd think he was rebelling, but you'd be wrong and in fact his dreams are to become a royal knight he just thought his archery could be of help. Though in Voldos's dreams logic didn't enter the equation and so the thought that the Elvaans are to big headed and snobbish to take on new ideas such as archers in there proud Royal knight ranks would be looked down upon and laughed at.
Zinkata became a Paladin. If you knew Zinkata 2 years ago the thought of having such an honorary job as a Paladin would be … well it wouldn't have even been contemplated. This is mainly due to Zinkata being a thief. However meeting with the band of adventurers changed the soft hearted Hume and caused a knock on effect which caused him to, in cliché fashion, change his ways and follow the path of a warrior and eventually a Paladin. To Zinkata this was a way to get some respect from the adventurers, but unknown to Zinkata even as a thief was one of the most respectable member.
Bootus was brought up on the philosophy of your strength is your weapon. Hence he became a Monk and for the majority of his life his fists were enough to take out any enemy he came across. However with some prompting from his 'father' he ended up venturing to Norg and opened up his mind to other possibilities. Though now a Samurai he still lived by this philosophy, just the added philosophy of the Katana is apart of the spirit and an extension of their body has also been taken on.
Vivli went back to her monastery in Windurst expecting to spend the year relaxing and enjoying her home town, however this didn't go to plan. When she got to the monastery the high priestess was waiting for her, seems she had something special for young Vivli to do. In the world of Vana'diel there are special people who go by the name of Summoner. These Summoners have the ability to connect to a different world, a world of Gods and Goddess's. Through these powers the Summoner can call forth a God or Goddess of their choice to jump plains and fight for the Summoner. There are only 4 Summoners at anyone time, Vivli had picked to be the 3rd Summoner. After a good 10 minutes of protest it was concluded that refusal would be an insult on her monastery and was soon on her way to the Bras'a temple and to receive her summoning powers.
As a kid Bollo was given a flute. Through out his childhood and into adolescence Bollo would play the flute at least once a day, that is until he started going to magic school. Though Bollo tried to continue playing his flute the work load of magic school was to demanding so most of the time the flute was left un played, especially when he ended up adventuring. So when he saw a travelling Bard on his way home he couldn't resist learning about the life and powers of a Bard.
There was no jester in the whole of Vana'diel that could rival Voldos in the department of spontaneous humour and none of the 4 adventurers minded being reminded of this. Unfortunately no matter how humorous the situation the laughter inevitably stops and as the 4 got up from the ground there were met with a steaming mad Voldos who thought of his actions as kind of quick and dexterous and defiantly not something to laugh at, especially when you think of the high death risk! "If you're quite finished with laughing at my death defying feats of excellence I think we should get on with what were here to do!"