It had been nearly three years since Lady Freya had left Burmecia to search for Sir Fratley. Things were dull in Burmecia as usual, the rain poured down into the city as it always did, the Dragon Knights doing their usual business of patrolling the city and its gates to prevent crime and danger.
Sir Frato only managed to idle the time way by training fiercely with his father, Sir "Lion-heart" Fratley. Frato was not Lion-heart's biological son, he had been adopted. He had been abandoned as a baby, probably due to the fact he has a half-breed Burmecian, a freak that showed both human and Burmecian characteristics. This included shorter, lighter fur, a half snout and a smaller tail as well as small Burmecian ears which stuck not too far out of the top of his head. He had fierce blue eyes and short, messy brown hair and had five digits on both hands and feet, which still had long sharp nails although they were broken easier than the claw-like nails of a Burmecian.
Frato had considered leaving Burmecia a few times himself after his brother left to fight General Beatrix. Frato wanted a challenge, for something to happen other than the yearly tournament held at the Royal Palace. Although he didn't really want to leave the Dragon Knights, plus he didn't know where he would go. He had enough malicious rumours and snide looks from people in Burmecia; he daren't think what people would do to him in another city.
However, one day whilst he was on duty guarding the southern gate of the city, something did happen. News had reached Burmecia that the North Gate not far outside of the city had been breached. Only one Burmecian made it back and had suffered terrible burns. Burmecia was on high-alert and Frato found it had become rather crowded at the southern gate, with a small squadron of Dragon Knights fully armed with knives and spears. The gate was also firmly shut and locked. Frato had never witnessed anything like this before.
They were coming, a bunch of unusual black creatures with pointed hats and white gloves and unusual robes and garments. They were all marching mindlessly towards the gates, as if oblivious to the crowd of Burmecians guarding the gate. As the creatures came close to the gate, the entire first row of monsters raised their arms together. As their arms reached high above the heads, they froze for a brief second to gather energy, before...
"KILL!"
Large fireballs were thrown out of their hands and directly at the gate, the flame licked through the bars of the gate and knocked over about five of six Burmecians before they could even react.
Frato watched in horror as six of his comrades were knocked down flat with the attack, the other Burmecians barely looked at them as they were focused on the monsters in front of them. The mages were building up a second attack, obviously to finish off the Burmecians they had missed.
Frato and one or two others decided to leap onto the top of the gate so they could get out of reach of the attack and try and give the creatures a taste of steel. Lances rained down onto the mages, who were pierced through the heart but gave no blood, instead just falling over frozen in their positions. However, that wasn't enough to finish off the group of mages, who fired their second wave of fire at the squadron, this time knocking down everyone, only leaving Frato and another soldier.
Frato knew it would be him next, but he wondered if it would be possible to knock out the rest of the squad of these monsters. That was until his eyes caught the distance. Another group of mages was making its way towards the gate. Frato could not hope to try and take out a whole squad of these monsters by himself.
Another squad of Burmecian soldiers had heard the battle taking place and arrived to try and quell the attack on the front gate. Those creatures could not be allowed to infiltrate the city. The second group of soldiers reached the gate, along with Frato.
The creatures outside now tried to break down the main gate into the city by using their fire magic to blast at the lock of the gate instead of attacking Burmecians. The squadron of Burmecians reached the gate and prepared to attack, just in time to see the gate being forced open by the mages. The front row of the squad charged towards the mages with blades poised to skewer, whilst the back row of knights, which included Frato prepared Dragon Knight skills to try and blast the mages with their own magic.
"KILL!"
Fireballs flew at the entire front row of Burmecians, causing practically all of them to fall over, dead. The mages started to prepare a second wave of fire, evidently to try and wipe out the rest of the squadron. However, Frato and some of the other knights had already charged up their abilities and fired them at the mages. Streams of petals covered the mages and exploded in a massive wave of fire reducing the squad of mages to a pile of charred and lifeless dolls.
As the last mage fell, Frato breathed easy with a few of his comrades, and Frato walked towards the gate to shut and lock it for a second time. However, just as he started to pull the gates towards him he heard a shout from behind him.
"Sir Frato!" A Burmecian knight screamed. "Look out!"
Frato looked, and saw another black mage approaching, with another army of mages behind it. The black mage closest to him raised it arms and gathered the energy it needed. Frato dived out the way as the fire shot out of the mages hands, and yet it managed to hit Frato's right arm. Another Burmecian stepped in and rammed his spear through the creature's head. Frato managed to scramble to his feet and rushed back through the gateway.
"Sir, are you alright?" One of the other soldiers asked him.
"I'm fine." Frato seethed. The burn on his arm was clearly visible, and he was clutching it protectively with his other hand. He daren't move it, yet his lance was still clutched in his right hand.
The knight tried to grab his right arm to look at the burn but Frato pushed him away before pointing at the gate, which was receiving another burst of flame from the mages.
This was becoming ridiculous. It didn't seem to matter how many mages the Burmecians managed to slay, there was always another squad of them to take their place. There were only a finite number of soldiers, which was growing slimmer with each attack on the gate. It was only a matter of time before the front gate of Burmecia was breached as well.
Frato decided to try and prepare another Dragon Knight skill, whilst trying to get a good distance from the gate to try and ensure the mages would not hit him whilst he was focusing on the spell. The remaining Burmecian soldiers were leaping up into the air to evade the barrage of fire from the mages and several spears and swords rained down onto the mages below, taking out another small squadron of mages. Frato finished the spell and unleashed it; a stream of green and white steam poured out of his lance and shrouded both him and the team of Burmecians in front of him. Slowly, the magic of Rei's Wind worked as the burns of the mages slowly healed themselves on Frato and his comrades. After the spell had finished, Frato gave a little smile as he saw the pile of mages in front of him.
He walked to the gate once again, and looked out for any more signs of these mysterious mages. Frato gave a look of disbelief as he looked out into the mist, and could make out the faint shape of another group of mages coming out of the mist, the faint sounds of their chants of "KILL!" could be heard from the distance by even Frato's ears. However, this time the group of mages seemed to be even larger than most of the previous waves.
"How many of these things are there!" Frato said to himself in disbelief. He turned to alert the other knights. "There's an even bigger wave coming. Prepare yourselves."
"Sir, we have to retreat for the moment." Sir Leo spoke up. "We are becoming hopelessly outnumbered and we need to tell his majesty and protect the civilians. These monsters are going to breach this gate eventually."
Frato gave an irritated sigh before he quickly swung the gate shut. Much as he did not want to admit it, Leo was right. The group of knights guarding the gate was becoming slimmer with each assault and now there was an even bigger group of mages coming to attack the gate. These creatures would come through, and if there was no-one left to fight them they would almost certainly kill everyone and anyone in Burmecia.
"We have to retreat and regroup." Leo spoke aloud, addressing the remaining soldiers and knights. "We must warn the King and the civilians. All of you must alert the civilians and gather as many warriors as possible. The army should be on standby and should be able to stop the monsters before they get too far into the city. I will inform his majesty and see what orders he may wish to give. Now move!"
Upon that order, the remaining members of the Burmecian squad saluted and the group fled back into the city to bring more reinforcements and to protect the citizens. Meanwhile, the black mages eventually reached the gate and bombarded it with their fire magic, eventually breaking through and marching into the city.
Disclaimer: All characters and locations from Final Fantasy IX are not mine, but they belong to Sqauresoft. Unfortunately, they abused my favourite race in Final Fantasy: the Burmecians. Now I am writing about the misery Square put them though, because I am obsessed. Frato belongs to me.
Author's Rant: This is the apparent sequel to Burmecian Chronicles, as it picks up from where that left off. However, you don't really need to read it if you don't want to as this stands on its own as a full story (unlike most sequels of fanfictions posted here). I reintroduced Frato for you, who is really the only new thing that could need explaining for you. Anyway, I shall respond to the reviews from the end of Burmecian Chronicles:
Red Mage Hikaru: Glad you're enjoying it. I hope you enjoy this!
Dazz Cambo: Nice to see some people are still giving Burmecian Chronicles a chance, I took a look at the hits for this story and found that it became inexplicably popular after chapter 35. Well, I'll see how this goes. It's been so long since I wrote chapter 1 I barely remember what I wrote. You had a point with April's comment.
Breeze of Summoners: You're alive! You've started reviewing me again! And you've suggested so many things so fast my brain nearly exploded! Firstly, about the tournament, I think I made it boring mainly because I made it far too long, it took up most of the Burmecian Chronicles. It was for sport, and when I showed Fratley using Dragon's Breath you said you thought he was trying to kill his opponent. Many of the skills are too powerful, and with throwing the lance I figured it would count as being disarmed...
I thought Frato seemed himself throughout, although that scene with Freya when she leaves could be fixed up a bit to be a little more believable. You see, he is very competitive and bloodthirsty for a knight, but he wouldn't want to kill innocent Burmecians, Burmecia is really the only place he knows and he doesn't want to be thrown out or killed for murder. He doesn't even want Freya dead, he just wants her doing housework, or at the very least to prove that he is stronger than her and men are better than women at combat.
The punctuation seems to be something everyone has a problem with. I think I need to get a beta-reader from somewhere, although I have no idea where. Commas seem to be the biggest problem, and it isn't helped by this stupid grammar checker.
Puck seemed concerned about Freya and her reaction to Fratley in the game, and I think he is as stubborn as ever.
Glad to see you back though, hopefully you will stay up to date with this story. That was one long reply, but you gave a long trail of reviews! I did look at Pacifists Sword, but the setting reminded me too much of Romeo and Juliet, and I didn't like the far-future setting. Go and finish Let Fear Propel You Forward! You just abandoned it!