"I will show you what a knight can't do, but I can," he smirked.
And as he said his prayers, I fell. I could not remember what had happened. The last thing in my vision was the cross – the white cross that was embedded in his armor. I felt my blood drenching my own armor. A renowned female knight in failure, I thought. I closed my eyes.
That was when Rune Midgard started to change. It used to be simple and peaceful after the long legendary battle.
Rune Midgard was a world of humans and monsters. A long time ago, there was a severe war between those two creatures. After years of long battles, humans realized that they could not annihilate the monsters wholly. Therefore, 6 brave humans sacrificed themselves and created barrier around the 6 main towns, so that no monsters could ever enter any of the towns. The nearer the location to the towns was, the less dangerous the monsters that inhabited it were, and vice versa. The barriers protected humans well enough to avoid any battles.
Each of those legendary 6 people claimed his or her job as a knight, an assassin, a priest, a hunter, a blacksmith and a wizard. However, the existence of the barriers caused the annihilation of those jobs themselves. People lived in peace; nobody needed to fight. Unfortunately, those days did not stay very long.
Part One: Rebirth of a Knight and a Wizard(From Siva Lohengrin's point of view)
I lived in Prontera, the capital city of Rune Midgard. Prontera used to be a town of knights and priests. The King, still, has been residing there to rule the city. It's just that there were no longer people who could become knights or priests.
As a little girl, I acted more like a boy, maybe even more boyish than the boys themselves. I was six when my mother first told me about that heroic story. I was aspired by it a lot. "I want to be a knight!" I would shout and my mother would laugh.
"No one needs to be a knight anymore, Siva," my mom patted me on the head, "And unlike the age of war, nobody now can really become one of those warriors. Nobody knows exactly how, and there's no need for it. Furthermore, you're a girl. You shouldn't be worried about those things!"
I gave up my determination of being a knight. However, it did not stay very long. 4 years later, my fortitude came up again when I saw a bullying right at the field in front of Prontera.
A boy, at about the same age of mine, was being bullied by a bunch of kids also at about the same age. The boy was sitting near a river; he was wearing a peasant's clothing. He had brown hair and very sad, deep looking pale brown eyes.
"You actually talk to water, don't you?" they laughed and threw rocks at him. He said nothing and sat still near the river.
"Weirdo!"
"Weirdo!"
They shouted at him, laughed, and began hitting him. I was enraged by such act. I came to them.
"What a bunch of cowards! Leave him alone!" I yelled.
They got startled at first, but then a sense of relief came to them and they laughed.
"What, just a defenseless little girl?" they chuckled.
The boy who was being bullied was staring at me with those eyes of wonder. I stood up still, clenching my fists ready to fight. They underestimated me because I was a girl. They never knew how much I trained my body in order to fulfill my dream of becoming a knight – which I later knew was no longer possible. Nevertheless, I fought them with the best I had and I found out that my childhood trainings were worth it. I could bear the pain of the hits they gave me and return the hits to them a couple times more. I won the fight with a lot of bruises on me; those kids ran away.
The boy said nothing still. "I am Siva Lohengrin!" I told him cheerfully. I expected a reply but I didn't get any. I gave a sigh and I was exhausted; I dropped my body beside him and stared at the river near us. After a while, he opened his mouth.
"They will come to get you," he said.
I smiled, "Oh! And I will give them more bruises!"
He laughed. It was the first laugh I heard coming from his expressionless face. I felt relieved.
"Why did you save this weird boy?" he asked.
"Do you really talk to water?" my eyes widened. My look made him feel uncomfortable.
"I don't. I just feel something deep towards it," he explained uneasily.
I smiled again. "I got you. Not that I feel something deep towards water, but I feel that there is something more to this world than what it seems to be."
He widened his eyes in disbelief, and then smiled.
"I'm Rion Lorvan," he said, "Glad to meet you, Siva."
I was very excited. I grabbed his hands and shook it.
It was when we started to become friends. We shared the same interest - the interest that differed from everybody else – and we played together everyday. I made a sword out of wood and we tried to kill a funny monster we called Poring, which could be found just outside of Prontera. Rion told me how to approach it and I hit it as hard as I could. Rion had deep insights and I had my admirable strength as a child; we were a perfect match to go hunting Porings. Not only kids, even mature people called us ridiculous for doing that. We could care less. We had a world of our own back then.
2 years later, I headed out of Prontera to meet Rion as usual at the nearest field at one sunny day. However, I noticed something weird. I found Rion sitting near a tree, staring at his own palms for quite a long while. As soon as Rion saw me, he shouted, "Siva, come here! This is awesome!" Then I ran to him and sat towards him.
"Look!" he stretched his palms, closed his eyes, inhaled and exhaled, and finally opened his eyes and focused on his palms. A blue light emerged from his palms. I gasped and kept looking. Very amazingly, the blue light soon transformed into a few drops of water and soaked an area of his palms. I could not close my mouth of amazement.
"That was like magic!" I screamed. He nodded. I looked back to my own strange hobby, then, something very tremendously fascinating came up to my mind.
"Rion," I said, "Remember the legendary war and its 6 warriors with their legendary roles?"
Rion gasped. "You don't say…"
"I mean it. Those warriors existed and we have their blood too!"
"But how come there has been nobody who can be what they were?"
"Because nobody has even tried to do it!" I tried to convince him.
He actually couldn't hide his excitement from my ideas. Eventually, we decided. We would train and prove the town that it was possible and necessary. I had this determination when at first I wanted to stop the bullies (and one of them was Rion's), and then I realized that no matter how peaceful Rune Midgard now was, there were still some justices needed to be done. Lately, there were many people who got killed by monsters when they were collecting herbs. No more victims should emerge. Rune Midgard needed to be redone. And someone needed to start it.
Rion and I would start it. He felt that his magic power could be useful, and I knew I could always improve my swordplay that I was sure I had the talent ever since I was small. Not wasting anymore time, we sneaked into the town's main storage house to find some necessary equipments. We found an old sword and an old wand. We also made the most interesting discovery in the storage house: the old swordsmen' and mages' uniforms. We took it secretly, went out and wore it when we reached our usual field to raise our spirits. We started training even more seriously since then. In a few months, with a lot of efforts I could kill the Poring without Rion's advice and Rion could make a sharpened ice cube and damage the Poring with it.
Things started to go well, or so I thought, when they in fact got even more painful for the two of us.
One day, Rion came to me with his parents when I was waiting at the field. He looked very sad while his parents looked annoyed. His parents told me directly that they knew I had been Rion's best friend, but they had to move to a town called Geffen. Someone saw Rion's weird magical power and he spread out the words to the townsmen. His parents didn't want to get into trouble, and so they said they had to move away. Geffen, like any other towns, was a town that could be reached only by a transportation service called Kafra because traveling by land would be too far and dangerous, but we couldn't use the Kafra until we got a permission letter from our parents, and I knew my parents would not give me one.
I didn't know how to react to this sudden bad news. The thought of being separated with my one and only best childhood friend was a nightmare. Rion spurted his last words in front of his parents.
"Siva," he looked directly at my eyes, intensely, "We will meet again. And when that time comes, we will be even closer to those legendary jobs."
Rion was not telling me a promise, nor was he telling me a compromise. He was telling me a resolution – something we sought and ought to complete.
I couldn't say any last words to him; it was too sudden and I was still in a total shock. He understood me completely. No tears fell down our cheeks, no hugging or any parting celebrations took place. We had something to resolve. He only smiled and said, "'til I see you again".
Years passed. I was 18 years old when I realized that I had traveled a few fields from Prontera with harder and harder monsters to deal with, and I could do it easily. Sometimes I would go to the field I used to meet Rion at to daydream about our childhood. Remembering all those times was funny for me. Nevertheless, I was now steps closer to our resolution and I was sure that Rion was improving swiftly too. I hadn't heard from him all these years; we never had a communication device. However, I trusted him and I trusted our decision. It had to happen.
Townsmen in Prontera had noticed my behavior all these years. They would call me weird, and some of them were scared, maybe because I had power and skills. The only ones who admired me were the kids – they said I was strong. I kept on going with my choice in life – and Rion's.
One day in winter, I dropped my jaw when I saw someone I didn't expect to see in Prontera. She was Mrs. Lorvan - Rion's mother. It seemed to me that she had just arrived at Prontera via Kafra's transportation service that could only be used by adults. She was running to my house in a hurry, wanting to talk to my parents. They had been best friends, just like Rion and me. My parents opened the door when they heard the knockings. She came in and closed the door; I followed her secretly and listened to their conversation behind the window. I heard a sobbing voice.
"Mrs. Lohengrin, I… they're gonna kill our Rion!" Rion's mother screamed.
"Now, calm down Mrs. Lorvan. What happened?"
"Our dear son, he… he is violating the rules! He believes that he is now qualified as a wizard, and he came to the minister of Geffen this morning and gave his proposal!"
I gasped.
"Oh my, he is really serious with it. I thought Rion and our Siva were only playing around when they were children." Rion's mother continued sobbing and my mom said, "But how can that violate the rules though?"
"Becoming a wizard, or any of those 6 legendary jobs, has been only a legend! There is no rule stating that anybody now can be a wizard! He is violating it!"
I fell down to my knees. Was Rion going to be killed? Executed? I took a deep breath, and I smiled. Rion was just like how I expected him to be. He kept his resolution, and he was doing it now. All of a sudden I wasn't scared of violating the rules. When I thought about it, no violation could be made to the rules that didn't even exist.
Rune Midgard was a small place considering these things. In only a day, the surprising news about Rion Lorvan was written on Prontera's official announcement board. After reading the board, I smiled again. Rion, you had made your move. I would do mine now.
I went home, grabbing all the equipments needed by a knight. When I was wearing them, my mom saw me and shrieked.
"Siva, you're not…"
"I'm sorry mother, but I am doing it." I held my sword high, "My mouth is the mouth of a knight. No foul words shall come out of it."
My mother stared at me in disbelief. It was for Rune Midgard, I thought. I hugged her and went out of the house, heading to the castle to meet the King, ready for all the consequences I might face, including death.
- End of Part 1 -