Klyde and James stepped through the door of the Corneria weapon store, setting off a small bell to alert the owner that he had guests. James looked around, taking in his surroundings. It was a musty store, colored the pale brown that signified old wood. The array was nothing special, nothing more than the bare necessities of combat. A few knifes, and some light armor. Nothing that he found necessary. He did see a pair of nunchacku that looked promising, but the king had given Klyde the money, and he didn't look the type to hand money over easily.

Klyde walked up to the counter, a broad grin on his face. "Hey! Maurice! You have costumers!"

The owner of the store, Maurice stepped out from the back room. His face looked like it had seen better days, and by the look of his clothes, so had his wallet. He pulled out his spectacles, put them on, and then frowned. "Oh. It's you, Klyde. I thought you said I had customers…"

Klyde shook his head. "Cute. But not today, old man. You still have my blade back there?"

Maurice shook his head, his eyes narrowing as he did. "I've told you a hundred times. You pawned that sword weeks ago, and I'm not giving it back to you without some money!"

James gave his companion a look. "You pawned your weapon?"

Klyde shrugged with a wry smile on his face. "I was playing cards at the bar one night… and the bill for the drinks arrived at about the same time as my last hand did…"

"Your last hand?"

Klyde rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Uh, yea… a pair of threes…"

James crossed his arms. "So you pawned your weapon?" he repeated in a nonbelieving tone.

Klyde nodded silently.

"The only means you had to make any more money?"

Another silence.

James shook his head. "I can't believe that." He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, it's none of my concern. I'm on this mission with you, and then I can continue my quest."

Klyde grinned as he reached into his pocket. "And what quest is that?"

James puffed out his chest with pride as he spoke. "I am a disciple of the great Thaddeus, strongest of the Black Belts in history. He has gotten so good, that he has evolved his fighting style from the Black Belt class to that of a Master."

Klyde was half paying attention as he haggled over the price of the sword. "300 Gil! You only gave me 175 when I pawned it!"

James shook his head and cleared his throat. Klyde turned to him and frowned. "Keep going… I was listening. Thaddeus, Master… so? What's this quest of yours?"

"Well, he has sent me off on a mission of training. I am to travel the world, doing good deeds for all I meet."

Klyde handed over some Gil, took his sword, and smiled. "Good deeds? And this is supposed to make you stronger?" He turned to Maurice and grinned. "Pleasure doing business with ya. See you later, old man!" The two class gifted warriors left the store, and began to walk towards the exit of the town.

James continued his story. "Well, I mostly slay monsters and wanted criminals. It certainly keeps me in shape."

Klyde shrugged. "Whatever works, I guess. Well, I guess we should go. Like I said, if that Garland went anywhere, he went northwest towards the old castle. If we leave now, we should be able to get there before sunset."

James gave Klyde a worried look. "Shouldn't we get some supplies?"

A small grin formed on Klyde's face. "Ummm, yea, about that. Do you have any money?"

The Black Belt's eyes went wide with disbelief. "Me? But the king gave you the money!"

"Ummm… yea."

"How much money did you give that store owner for your sword?"

Two hours later, Klyde and James were walking through a thick forest, on their way towards the abandoned castle. James was walking with an angry look on his face.

"I can't believe you gave him all the money we had for supplies!"

Klyde shrugged as they continued walking. "I really needed to get this sword back. It was important."

James crossed his arms as they walked. "No, what was important was getting potions and antidotes! They had short swords on sale for 200 Gil! We could have gotten the short sword AND potions! Now we have no way to heal!"

The two would be heroes continued to argue, unaware that they were being watched. Concealed by the trees, a pack of goblins were planning an ambush, ready to cut the adventures down at their first mark.

Out of the corner of his field of hearing, the sound of a twig snapping caught Klyde's attention. He turned to James and hissed, "shut up!". James paused mid-gripe, giving his companion a quizzical look.

"What?"

Klyde shook his head. He put a finger to his lips, signaling for quiet. There was the sound of a bowstring snapping, and before James could say anything else, Klyde tackled him to the ground. An arrow whizzed by over their heads, and Klyde groaned as he unsheathed his sword.

"Well, whoever it is, they have bows. Great…"

James rolled to his feet, concentrating his ki for battle. Out of the forest, several goblins began to unfold from the scenery. He began to curse himself for having missed the ambush. His senses were usually sharper than that. But then, how had Klyde heard it? James tried not to be a harsh judge of character, but he could think of no other words to describe the fighter than ones such as "slovenly", "goofy", and "brash".

Klyde's face flashed one of his biggest grins, bringing his sword around in front of him. Out of the corner of his mouth, he said to James, "Now you get to see why I made such a fuss over this sword." Before James could reply, Klyde dashed forward, brining his sword behind him. He swung his sword in a powerful arc, and the wind around him picked up. A small tornado formed under the feet of a group of goblins, lifting them up off the ground. As suddenly as the wind started, it stopped, smashing them all to the floor. Before any of them could recover, Klyde brought his sword down, cutting through them with one swoop of the blade.

James stared wide eyed for a moment, not quite able to believe what he was seeing. A rustling sound behind him pulled him back to the here and now, and he spun around, finding a goblin with a knife approaching his back. The goblin dashed forward, his surprise blown, thrusting the knife at the young black belt. James concentrated his ki, grabbing the dagger by it's blade, and yanking it out of the goblin's hand. He threw the knife back, lodging the weapon directly between the now dead goblin's eyes. He rubbed his hand slightly, turning around to face Klyde. The fighter had finished off the stragglers, and was coming to check on his new partner. He looked at the hand James was rubbing and frowned.

"No blood? But you grabbed that blade with your bare hands!"

James shrugged. "It's a trick you learn in your first year at Master Thaddeus' school. You concentrate your ki into your hand, and low level blades cannot pierce it."

Klyde nodded as they walked away from the carnage. "Handy trick, I bet."

"Maybe, but it was nothing compared to that little storm you brewed up back there. How the heck did you do that? I thought fighters couldn't use magic!"

Klyde flashed another grin. "We can't."

"But…?"

Klyde held up his sword, and the light managed to glint off of it, making a slight 'ting' sound. "It's all thanks to this baby. Aeolus."

"Aeolus?"

"It means 'King of Winds' in Mysidian. If you focus while using it in combat, you can conjure storms and such with it. The mage I won it off of said there were a lot of other tricks that could be done with it, but that little storm is about all I can manage."

James nodded as they exited the forest. "Now it begins to make sense… why you made such a hassle getting it back from that shop…" A little bit further north, the ancient ruins of some long forgotten castle loomed in front of them. Not much could be seen from the outside, but the front gates looked like they had been forced open recently. Klyde gave James a thumbs up. "Looks like we got a lead! Let's go!"

The fighter began to quicken his pace as he ran towards the foreboding castle. James went to follow, when a thought had struck him. "Wait a minute! You pawned off a sword like that for 175 gil! To pay a drinking tab!"

AN- well, there you are everyone. It's been a while since I worked on this story (like, um, 2 and a half years… whoops. I had lost my account information, and my life had been twisted around for a while, but now I have a chance to write again, so I'm jumping back in. That may be why chapter 2 and chapter 3 feel so distant from each other. Because they were written in a two and a half year gap. But don't worry. There won't be long gaps like that anymore. I am steadily working on three different stories besides this one, and I don't often take long to update. Usually I get a new chapter up two or three times a week. If you like, let me know. I would enjoy getting some feedback as I delve back into the world of Final Fantasy. Until next time!