Chapter 4: Antics in Prox! 1
I woke up to a freezing cold room. By the sounds of it, there was a blizzard outside. It took some time to remember where I was, I'm always forgetful like that. I got up, and I noticed my tunic had changed back to blue in the night. I didn't know much magic; I mostly knew magic that changed it yellow. Those crystal walls were really amazing, and I took a few minutes to admire them. I then found out I had goose bumps and I was shivering. No wonder, all I had was my tunic, blue cape (I like blue) and trousers. My one shoe was bothering me, so I took it off. I walked up the stairs, and the blue haired woman was lying on the floor. I ran over to her, fearing she had been attacked. I sensed she had a hangover, and was sleeping. Feeling stupid, I crept out the door. That was embarrassing. Where was the innkeeper, anyway? And, as I suspected, there was indeed a blizzard. I casually walked around town, freezing my feet off. I didn't care, though. I had socks. I wondered if Prox had a shoe shop. I don't think so. They seemed to have a lot of blue flags, though. I could enjoy my walk, because everyone was inside. I wandered up some stairs, into a small graveyard. Something glittered there, but graveyards creep me out. I left it alone. I turned around, and saw two huge doors. I decided to enter them. They just begged to be opened! I knocked first.
"Hello?"
"Enter, child"
The voice that greeted me reminded me of the queen, but it obviously wasn't her, because it was a male voice. I felt a bit disappointed, and my tunic turned black. God knows why. I walked in.
"Welcome, weary wanderer. What do you seek?"
"Uh, shoes?"
"No, no, do you seek healing?"
"Oh, no thanks. Do you know where I can buy some shoes?"
"Sorry child, I am only a healer. However, I can-"
Blah, blah, blah, I thought. I didn't listen to his explanation; I just read his mind instead.
These catastrophes are the result of the lighthouse beacons being rekindled. The snow, the wind, it all started after Jupiter lighthouse was lit. Furthermore…
"And that is what I can do. Do you require healing?"
"What?"
He repeated what he said, only louder.
"Do you require healing?"
"What's that?
He sighed.
"This isn't going to work. Hm? What the…?" He gasped. Had he found out I was reading his mind? A feeling of guilt rose over me.
"Your…Clothes!"
"Huh? Oh!" I sighed. He had noticed that my tunic had gone purple.
"It always does that" I hastily replied.
"Could it be? I wonder…No... I must investigate..." He didn't reply to me. It's like he just completely ignored me! What planet is he on?
"Ah!" We both exclaimed. My tunic went red. I calmed down and thought now was the time to leave. As I made for the door, he spoke.
"Wait! Where are you going?"
"Out. Bye mister….healer dude guy."
"Wait! Don't go! You are in need of healing!
I pulled the door open, ignoring his cries.
"I fear you are Haunted!" He put extra emphasis on the last word. I reeled round.
"Haunted?" I replied, sarcastically.
"Yes"
"Haunted? Riiiiiiiiight. I'll be going now."
I slammed the door in his face. God, why do my powers freak everyone out! Here, at home… aw man! I mess everything up!
Queen Felon and Lyon were casually enjoying a light meal in a cave, far from the palace. They had made a fire, and Lyon was quite excited about 'going on an adventure' as he called it. The queen sighed, and took a sip of tea.
"Do you think he will survive on his own?" The queen said.
"He might. I have trained him well, but his powers are still undeveloped. He may tire himself out" Lyon replied suddenly getting serious. "He needs more training"
"I just hope the chosen one will complete his mission"
"Yes, we all do. Do you think he needs assistance?" Lyon said, getting more and more worried.
"He might. Should we send someone?"
"No, the animagi will catch us. I don't want to be that situation again" Lyon flinched at the thought of their magical torture.
"I wonder..." The queen said, before trailing off into thought. Fifteen minutes passed, without them making a sound. Finally, Lyon got up to look out of the cave and take in the view. It was a very interesting view. From the cave you could see the enterance to the town, and the sky was blood red. Only a few purple clouds lingered above, so the sky was breathtaking. Suddenly, a rustle in some bushes below attracted Lyon's attention. Down at the bottom of the rocky mountainside, something was moving around.
"Lyon! shh! get back here!" The queen suddenly spoke in a hurried whisper. When Lyon returned to the inside of the cave, the look on the queen's face told him he was in danger. "We must leave. Now. bring me my staff"
"Yes, your majesty"
I decided to tour the rest of the town and take in the sights. After quite a while, I came to the 'leader's' house. I reached the door, knocked, then entered.
It was a fairly large and spacious room, with three beds and a table. There was a warm fireplace behind it, and there was hastily scrambling around with pieces of paper. I saw him struggle to pick them all up; they were some kind of important documents. He 'sweat dropped' as he saw me. I walked up to his table.
"Th-this isn't what it looks like! I can explain!"
"Um, hi to you as well" I replied.
"Huh? And who might you be?"
"I'm Glenn. From…Uh… Somewhere abroad"
"Nice to meet you. I'm Pierre, leader of Prox. What brings you here?"
"Well…" I made sure nobody was around. "Some sort of magic"
"Hm? Magic? Tell me, where do you come from?"
"The royal palace of Théa"
"…Where might that be?"
"I don't know!" My tunic turned black. Pierre gasped.
"What? How did you do that? Was it Psynergy?"
"Psynergy? What's that?" I was as confused as he was!
"It's like this power that adepts use. One form of Psynergy is called 'move' for example"
"Oh! You mean like this?" Now I understood. My tunic changed to yellow, and I moved a stool with my powers.
"Egad! You've changed again!" I rolled my eyes. "And that was Psynergy, yes." He added.
"Cool. My tunic always changes."
"Fascinating… Do all people have this where you come from?"
"Only a few people" I replied.
"Whereabouts is this place where you come from?"
"No idea. I only just got here"
"Interesting…"
"By the way, what's an Adept?" I was still confused.
"Someone who uses Psynergy"
"Ah I get it…" I suddenly remembered last night's events. "How do you know about Vale?"
"Vale? Ah, it's a long story. Basically, it's where Mt.Aleph is located"
"I've got time. What's Mt.Aleph?"
"Grr, I give up… Okay I'll tell you. A few years ago we found out that Weyard was being consumed by Gaia Falls" Seeing the confused look on my face, he added: "huge waterfalls at the sides of the world. We also discovered that lighting the lighthouses and restoring the power of alchemy – that's a lot of Psynergy- would save the world. To light the lighthouses, we needed the elemental stars, small jewels with huge power. They were located inside Mt.Aleph, a place called Sol Sanctum. We sent a group of our strongest warriors to Vale to retrieve the stars" I was still a bit confused, but I nodded for him to continue. He cleared his throat.
"Ahem, this was about three years ago, I think. But we failed miserably: once inside the sanctum, our warriors set off a trap, and nearly all of them were killed, except for two, Saturos and Menardi. In Vale, they fought two small boys, Isaac and Garet. They were easily defeated and the two returned to Prox- with Felix and his parents. They also took Isaac's father, Kyle." His name reminded me of my master.
"Three years later, Isaac, Garet, a girl called Jenna and the scholar Kraden entered the sanctum at the same time as Saturos and Menardi. Saturos and Menardi followed them as they solved all the puzzles. The stole the elemental stars, but the wise one interfered and Isaac obtained the Mars Star"
"Okay, what's the Mars star?"
"Long story. It's the star of fire. Psynergy is broken into 4 elements: Venus is Earth, Mars is Fire, Jupiter is Wind and Mercury is Water. Venus is yellow, Mars is red, Jupiter is purple and Mercury is blue"
"Is that why my tunic changes color when I use psynergy?
"Possibly. Anyway, Saturos and Menardi tried to light the lighthouses with Isaac and Garet following, trying to stop them. They met with two more people and fought Saturos at Mercury lighthouses. Isaac's party won, but the lighthouse was still lit. I'm going to skip the bits in-between. At Venus lighthouse, Isaac's party killed Saturos and Menardi… But the beacon was lit. Agatio and Karst took over where they left off. At Jupiter, Felix fought them, and they lit the lighthouse. Agatio and Karst died trying to light Mars lighthouse." He pointed out the window, toward the tower I had seen earlier.
"Isaac and Felix joined forces and lit the final lighthouse, almost killing their own parents. Felix had convinced Isaac about Gaia Falls." He took a deep breath, and sighed.
"Well, that's it. I told you it was long."
"Oh… I don't get it"
He sighed again. He then slapped himself on the head.
"In short, Felix and Isaac's parties saved the world"
"Okay. I think I'll be going"
"No! I need to know more about yo-" At that moment I shut the door. I stepped out into the subzero temperatures, and the blizzard had stopped. In fact, some of the snow was melting. Rapidly. I noticed Mars beacon was shining very brightly, too. People could see that thing for miles! My tunic changed to red as soon as I stepped out of the door.
"There must be lots of Lava Psynergy here…"
"There he is!"
I jumped as another voice boomed out. I looked up, and saw a shadow looming over a mound of snow. I looked closer, and the healer was there, with some warriors. Suddenly, Pierre busted through the door with some more guards.
"You're surrounded! Give up and come quietly!"
"Why should I?" I yelled back at them.
"I need to examine you!" The great healer boomed back.
"Answer my questions!" Pierre yelled at the same time. They then broke into another argument over who gets to capture me.
"I saw him first!"
"No you didn't!"
"Yes I did!"
"No you didn't, you stinking liar!"
"That's it! I'm gonna SO pound you!" Pierre advanced toward the healer. I stepped back and cast cloak in the shadow of the house.
"Hehe, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT…" Upon hearing the shout, the guards joined in, and people came out to watch. Soon almost the whole town was outside yelling "FIGHT!"
I couldn't stop laughing at what I had done, so I crept away in the shadows to find a safe place to watch.
"The hell? Who said that? You all know I'd easily beat this jerk" They started smacking each other, while the crowd gathered round in a circle going 'ooh' and 'ouch'
"WHY YOU LITTLE!"
"YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THAT!"
"OH NO YOU DON'T! Ugh… PLY!"
"NO FAIR! HERB! TAKE THIS!"
"Ouch! YOU SON OF A-" Everyone gasped as they started cursing at each other. I clambered on top of a nearby igloo to watch, but suddenly realized that cloak had worn off.
Oh crap… They're looking at me.
Indeed, the crowd fell silent as someone spotted me. I hastily made for the inn, where I watched through a window. The fight had resumed, and it lasted around 15 minutes until some dudes in armor came and broke it up. Each sported a black eye; the healer was limping around and had two teeth missing. Pierre had a nosebleed and was kind of drooling. He also was saying something about his finger hurting, and how he would beat up the healer when he recovered. They all seemed to have forgotten the reason for the fight, and shot each other piercing glares. I sort of felt guilty now- but it wasn't my fault! Honest! They started it! I could hardly contain myself for laughter for a while. But that guilty twang got me down. I decided to buy them something to cheer them up (they were both in hospital beds. The healer broke his leg and Pierre's nose was broken, along with a few ankle bones) so I wandered around town looking for some kind of shop. I quickly found one. I walked up to the counter, where another lady with blue hair stood.
"Welcome, welcome! If you need it, we've got it! See anything you need?"
"Um, how about shoes?"
"Shoes? Well, you can look at our inventory" She turned around, picked up a piece of paper and handed it to me. I looked at it carefully. This is what I read:
Prox General Store-
If you need it, we've got it!
Weapons Section
Weapon... Price
Shamshir………….10, 000
Silver Blade………….12, 000
Gaia Blade………….17, 000
Ninja Blade………….8, 800
Swift Sword………….9, 400
Dragon Axe………….10, 300
Wicked Mace………….13, 800
Magic Rod………….380
Blessed Ankh………….1, 600
Crystal Rod………….13, 400
Clothes Section
Clothing... Price
Ninja Garb………….6, 900
Blessed Robe………….7, 000
Magical Cossack………….9, 000
Mythril Shirt………….2, 900
Silk Shirt………….1, 800
Muni Robe………….6, 300
Footwear Section
Footwear... Price
Hyper Boots………….2, 400
Fur Boots………….1, 200
Turtle Boots………….600
Safety Boots………….700
Not a guarantee.
I didn't bother reading the next page. I just bought some hyper boots and asked if they had anything suitable for a gift. In the end I bought:
1 pair of hyper boots
2 bottles of mist potion (for gifts)
The Gaia blade (It was the best I had ever seen!)
So, now I was down to six gold kopis. If only I had brought more with me. I have hundreds at home, yet only 10 can buy me a blade as cool as this! It once belonged to Isaac, I heard from the shopkeeper. So I walked out of the shop only to be surprised by...
End of chapter!
This is the first time in the fic I'll be doing author notes! This chapter was slightly longer than the rest, because I took more time on it. I'll try to make them this big, if not longer in future. I've got some ideas for the next chapter, so I'll probably update soon. Thanks if you've reviewed!