Whoo! I'm back. Ahem, anyway…Here's an update. Oh, and new character comes in. Have fun!
Tom Valor: Crap…Blah, I make too many mistakes. Oh well. Hope I do better in this chapter.
Kiyoko-chan: Heh, well, the mood caught me in a cliffhanger and it happened. Oops.
Chapter 4: You Stole Our Money! Jerk!
Just as the wolf was about to slice Niklason's neck open, it let out a fierce howl and fell off of him. He looked up and saw some archers shooting the two wolves that had come out of hiding. The wolf was already dead when he lifted himself up, another 4 arrows embedded in its body. He spun around to see if Radella was okay and saw that she was being helped up by a female hunter. The wolf that had brought her down was dead as well, with even more arrows stuck to its hide. The huntress walked up to Niklason and grinned. Her green eyes gleamed mischeviously as she ran a hind through her reddish-pink hair.
"Hmm…You're lucky we were out patrolling the area. That wolf would have sliced your neck in two and your friend was almost going to have the same thing happen to you."
Niklason hmphed and turned around, mumbling. "I could have taken them…Didn't need your help…"
However, the huntress overheard him and grinned more widely. "Ah…Well, I guess you won't need these potions for you and your friend either. And enough money for some lodging and equipment either, right?" She reached down to her belt and pulled out a small bag. She dangled it in front of Niklason's face. "Are you sure you don't want this?"
Niklason glared, angry at being mocked. "We don't need-" The rest of his sentence was cut off as Radella, who had just limped up, covered his mouth with her hand. She smiled and nudged Niklason in the side.
"Of course we'd be glad to take it! You're a very generous person, Miss…"
"Carylesti. Carylesti Dephalous. I'm the leader of this pack of trainees." The huntress pointed at a small group of archers behind her, who were busy rejoicing over their victory.
"Oh…I'm Radella Maeklin and this is my friend, Niklason Tirin." She bowed. "I'm glad that you were here. You really saved our lives."
"No problem, but I'd rather be in the bar. Eh, duty calls, right? Well, wish you best of luck, and don't get ambushed by wolves. Okay, little one?" She leaned down and patted Niklason on the head before setting off with her patrol.
Niklason was seething with rage and he shoved Radella's hand off his mouth. "Why'd you do that?! We can handle ourselves without any outside help!" He glared at her.
"Well…We don't have a lot of zeny now. And we needed to pay for a room at the inn. And it would never hurt to pick up some supplies in the city." Radella opened up the pouch and gasped at the amount of zeny that was in it. "Wow! There's so much here! She must be really rich!"
"Hmph…We'd better find a place to stay then. It's getting dark." Niklason winced as he tried moving his sword arm. "Do you have any potions left?"
"Here. I already drank enough to heal my wounds." She handed the pack to Niklason, who rummaged through and found some. Giving her back the bag, he uncorked the bottles and began drinking the potions.
"Urgh…I know these things help us, but why can't they ever make them tastier?" Niklason threw a disgusted glance at the empty bottle before stuffing it in one of his pouches. They passed the giant walls that covered the village and entered Payon. It was getting dark, so many of the merchants were already closing their stalls and going to the various buildings that dotted the landscape. Radella found one that appeared to be an inn and tugged at Niklason, who was busy watching a dancer and bard that were performing nearby.
They entered the inn and looked around. It seemed to be nice enough, and there weren't any drunkards or bullies lying about. There was a stairway that led to the rooms and two doors that led to a common room and the kitchen. Niklason approached the counter.
"Ah, good sir. How many rooms?" The portly innkeeper bowed to both of them.
"Just two. And we'd like to have a meal sent up in the morning."
"Very good…Hmmm…Oh, I'm sorry. It appears that there is only one room left. All of the other rooms are currently reserved or occupied." The innkeeper bowed. "I am very sorry about this. Perhaps you wouldn't mind to be stuck in the same room? I will make sure that everything is in order."
Niklason looked backwards at his brown-haired partner. She blushed and fiercely shook her head. He shrugged and turned back to the innkeeper.
"Sorry…I don't think she wants a single room. We'll go search somewhere else. But if we can't find anything, could you reserve the room for us?"
"Oh, certainly, good sir." The innkeeper bowed to them. They left the building, searching for another inn that they could stay in. However, none of the other inns had openings, so they were forced to return to the inn from before. The innkeeper smiled as he saw them approach.
"Any luck?"
Niklason sighed as he approached the man again. "No…Fine, we'll take the room. How much?"
The innkeeper tallied the results. "Hmm…Only one hundred zeny. It would have been more, but I decided to lower the price since I couldn't accommodate both of you. Here's your room key." He placed a steel key on the counter. "Have a nice night."
Niklason nodded absentmindedly and set down a gold piece that signified one hundred zeny. The innkeeper palmed the coin. "Third room to your right." He pointed to where they could find their room and went back to his work.
The swordsman opened the door and looked inside, Radella behind him. It was pretty big for an inn room, and there was almost enough space to make it a two-person room. Radella headed immediately for the bathroom.
"I'm going to get washed up, okay? Don't. Come. In." She slammed the door before Niklason had a chance to reply.
"What? Not like I'd really want to…" Niklason sighed and sat on one of the wooden chairs that were scattered around the room. He searched his belongings for a whetstone and a cloth and spent time sharpening and cleaning his katana. He heard the door open and packed his stuff back inside his bags.
"You done?"
"Well, duh?" Radella snorted at the question. She had taken time to brush her hair and wash off all of the blood that had covered her body. "It's your turn, you know. I don't want to sleep in the same room with a person who looks like he had just come back from a slaughterhouse." She sat on another chair and began reading one of her books on magic. Niklason grunted and headed inside of the bathroom.
"Well…I guess this is okay." Niklason looked expressionlessly at the bathroom. It was fairly small, but it was stocked with everything you might need. There were a couple of buckets filled with fresh water, and a large, iron tub for taking a bath. He spent around a half hour washing his clothes and himself and then exited the bathroom.
Niklason took a glance at his friend and then sat on his chair, facing her. The room was darker now, since the sun had already set and the moon was high in the sky. Radella closed her book with a sigh. "Just when I was getting to a good part…" She looked up and noticed him for the first time. He gave her a small wave, and Radella blushed.
"Hey…Where's the faerie?" She looked around. The green-haired faerie from earlier didn't seem to be around.
"Oh, she's sleeping." Niklason opened one of his pouches and showed Radella. Inside was the faerie, breathing lightly and making little snoring noises.
"That's so cute!" Radella giggled. "We'd better let her sleep."
"No kidding." Niklason placed the pouch that contained the faerie on a desk. "Well, it's time for us to get some rest as well. Today was tiring." Niklason climbed out of his chair and lie on the ground, trying to get some rest. Radella looked at him in amazement and looked at the bed.
"Wait…Aren't you going to get the bed? I mean, you did fight the hardest."
Niklason waved a hand carelessly as he was on the floor. "Hah. Only a jerk would sleep on a bed while a girl has to sleep on the floor. Forget it. The bed's yours."
Radella smiled at her blue-haired friend and crawled on the bed. "Thanks, Niklas."
"Ah, no problem. And…Hey! I told you not to call me Niklas!" Niklason shouted, his voice slightly muffled his he was facing the floor. Radella chuckled as she pulled the covers up to her head. She closed her eyes, and fell asleep.
---
It was morning, and the two travelers and their faerie were walking down the streets of Payon, searching for a place where they could buy some cheap goods. Radella spotted a stall that had puppets stacked around it. She shrieked in joy and raced for the stall. Niklason sighed and walked behind her. "Sigh…Girls…All they ever want to do is shop."
The next hour was Radella rushing towards various stalls that had various plushies, dolls, and jewelry. Niklason kept a close watch on her, and made sure she didn't give in to the merchants' bargains and offers to lower the price. They finally reached the part of the "open-air market", as Niklason had dubbed it, that sold potions. He looked around at the various merchants that were trying to outdo each other and found a stall that seemed to sell goods that were cheap. Radella joined him later, the money pouch strapped to her belt.
"Ah, I see that you desire some of my potions. I ensure only the best quality goods!" The merchant smiled and opened his arms wide. "You won't find better prices anywhere!" They both examined the potions and agrees that they sure seemed to be good enough.
"Well, okay. How much for twenty red potions and ten orange potions?" Radella searched through her money bag.
The merchant totaled up the cost. "Ah…Only two-thousand zeny!" He merchant smiled and rubbed his hands.
"Hey! What're you doing back here?! I thought I told you to beat it!"
The merchant gasped and frantically looked around. He spotted a huntress walking up to him and thrust the bag of potions to Radella, taking the coins as well. "Nice doing business with you! I'm closed now!" The merchant shoved them both out of his stall and dashed off.
"Hey! Wait!" Carylesti ran up, but was too slow to catch up to him. "Dammit! This is the third time this week!" She kicked at the stall and knocked it down.
"Miss Carylesti?" Radella looked quizzically at the angry huntress. Carylesti turned around and smiled as she saw who was addressing her.
"Ah! The swordsman and mage from earlier! Um…Niklason and Radella, right?" The huntress grinned. "Fancy meeting you two again."
"Yeah, fancy…Hmph." Niklason grumbled angrily, still upset at the huntress for what happened yesterday.
"See your friend still is angry, huh?" Carylesti turned to Radella, who nodded.
"Yep, he's not always like this though…" Radella mumbled, embarrassed by her friend's behavior. "Um…What was that about that merchant?"
"Oh!" The huntress kicked the fallen stall again. "That guy's been around here, selling fake potions to people. I assume you got tricked too?"
"Fake potions?" Radella looked stunned.
"Yeah…He always pulls this trick. He always seems to be able to escape before I'm able to catch him. Grr…When I get my hands on him he's going to suffer…" The huntress clenched her hands. "Anyway, see here?" She pulled out one of the bottles in the package. She opened the cork and showed her the contents. "Looks like a real potion, right?"
"Yeah…" Niklason looked at it nervously, afraid that they had been tricked.
"Well, it's just water with red coloring. He does that with all of his potions…You two are his newest victims."
"Argh! That damn merchant! How dare he try to con us?! I'll show him! Next time I see him, I'm separating that slimy head from his body!" Niklason stomped around, releasing his newfound rage.
"Your friend has quite a temper." Carylesti pointed at Niklason, who was busy using his sword to slice the wooden stall to pieces. Radella nodded slowly, extremely saddened by the fact that someone had tricked her out of two-thousand zeny. Carylesti noticed this and patted her on the shoulder.
"Hey, don't worry. We'll catch him. Here, have this for now." The huntress gave Radella a small package. Radella opened it and saw a small kit with five red potions and five orange potions.
"Wow! Thanks! Geez, you always seem to help us! We really appreciate it!" Radella smiled happily. Carylesti grinned at her enthusiasm.
"No problem." Carylesti waved as she ran off, searching for the merchant. Niklason had finally finished venting his rage on the stall and walked back to his friend.
"Well, we'd better find a different merchant. And this time, we better not get tricked!" Niklason balled one of his hands into a fist.
"Yeah." Radella nodded and they searched for another potions vendor. As she was walking, however, she bumped into someone and was knocked to the floor.
"Ah!" Radella winced and rubbed her behind.
"Oh man! I'm so sorry!" A brown-haired rogue rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I hope I didn't hurt you!" He helped her up. "I'm Alexstrazos. Alex for short. Geez, sorry about that." He flashed a quick smile at Radella. He had a wide-brimmed hat on and wore a bunch of pouches on his belt. He had long, blue pants and was wearing standard rogue gear and armor.
Radella blushed as the rogue took her hand. She bowed her head and stuttered, "O-Oh…Um…It-It's okay. Really!" She continued to look at the ground, extremely nervous. Niklason leaned over and looked at his friend, astounded by her weird behavior. Alex laughed.
"Well, it's nice meeting you, young lady. And you, young swordsman." He tipped the brim of his hat to both of them and walked off, whistling. Niklason saw him enter a local bar and kept the location in his mind.
"Um…Radella? Radella?" Niklason waved a hand in front of her face. She was staring at where the rogue had gone with a dreamy expression on her face. He walked in front of her and began making faces. People walking by gave strange glances at the duo, but otherwise didn't bother them. Niklason sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He had tried everything other than yelling in her ear and she still wasn't reacting. He sighed again and decided to just whisper something in her ear that would probably snap her out of it.
"Radella…I love you." Niklason whispered this in her ear, and got the desired reaction. She jumped up and looked at him with an amazed expression on her face.
"Wha?! Niklason! Do you really-?" Radella began blushing again. Niklason grimaced. He wasn't expecting this…Well, not really expecting this.
"No…It's just…You kept staring at that rogue! Geez, you were standing there for around 10 minutes just staring! I had to find a way to snap you out of it." Niklason walked off a little, his hands behind his neck.
"Oh…Okay. Fine then." Radella smiled faintly. "Well, are we going to go?" She reached down to look at their money bag. "Hey…Wait…"
"Huh? What is it?" Niklason walked back.
"My money pouch…It's gone! All the money that huntress gave us is gone!" Radella searched frantically through her bags and pouches, but the pouch that contained the zeny that Carylesti had given them was gone.
"B-But how?! We had it earlier! Right before we…bumped into that rogue…Oh…That little ass!" Niklason balled a fist.
"W-Wait…You mean, that rogue stole our money? Alex? He wouldn't have done that, would he? He seemed so charming."
"Yeah, well, sometimes charm hides things. Come on! Let's get our money back!" Niklason grabbed Radella by the arm and rushed towards the bar he had seen Alex walk into. He slammed open the doors and spotted the rogue drinking at a counter not too far away. The rogue turned at the noise and saw the swordsman and mage from earlier.
"Ah! You guys again! What's up?" The rogue waved at the both of them, a big grin on his face. There were several empty mugs in front of him and there was a half-empty mug in his hands.
"You stole our money, you thieving bastard!" Niklason ran up to the rogue and socked him in the face. Alex rocked back a little, but didn't fall from his seat. He used his free hand to rub the spot where Niklason had hit him.
"Hey! What was that for?!"
"You stole our money! What did you do with it?!" Niklason was set to give the rogue another punch in the face when the barkeep arrived.
"Hey, hey! It went to a good cause!" Alex raised his hands disarmingly, placing the mug that was in his hands on the counter.
"Here's your tab, Alex." He placed the slip of paper on the counter and left to wait on other customers. Niklason leaned over Alex's shoulder and staggered back when he saw the price.
"You spent all of our money on beer?!" Niklason looked too outraged or stunned to bring himself to sock Alexstrazos again.
"Yep! You want some?" Alex shoved the mug towards Niklason.
Niklason wrinkled his nose and stepped backwards. "No! I'm underage, dammit!"
"Since when has that ever stopped anyone?" Alex shrugged. "Well, if you don't want it, I'd better drink it. Don't want your money to go to waste."
Niklason snapped. He jumped on top of the rogue and tackled him to the ground. Soon both of them were fighting, using the various furniture and furnishings to knock each other out. The rest of the patrons either joined in, or if they weren't strong enough, placed bets on the outcome of the fight. Radella leaped away from the fighting and stood near the door, worried about who she should be cheering for.
"Please…Please! No fighting!" The barkeep cowered from behind the counter, trying to stop the fighting. No one paid attention to him, however, and he soon ran off to try to get the militia.
"Hey! What's going on here?!" The huntress from earlier, Carylesti, burst through the doors, the barkeep behind her. Seeing that this could turn into a full-scale riot, she picked up a beer bottle and starting conking it on heads. Seeing the militia commander, the mages gave a groan and took back their zeny.
After bashing a couple of more heads, Carylesti found the two people who were responsible for the fight. She was about to toss the beer bottle away when she noticed that it hadn't broken, even though she must have thumped around twenty heads with it. She shrugged and tossed it aside. It thunked against a wall and landed on the floor. She sighed as she got a good look at the two fighters.
"You again?" She hauled Alex and Niklason and surveyed their sorry forms. Niklason was sporting a black eye and various bruises covered his body. Alex seemed okay, if you discounted the fact that blood was leaking out of his nose and one of his arms was numb.
"Grr…Alex! I told you not to cause any more fights! Sheesh!"
"Hey! It's not my fault! The kid here started it!" Alex pointed an accusing finger at Niklason, who tried to jump at the rogue again.
"You stole our money and used it to buy booze! I could have used it to get some armor, you know!" Carylesti held him away from Alex and handed him over to Radella, who tried to calm him down.
"Alex, Alex, Alex…Dammit! This is the third time you've been in a fight because you stole someone's money! What do you have to say for yourself?!"
The rogue gave a grin and shrugged. "Uh…It was worth it?"
The huntress gave a short laugh. "Hah, yeah right. Well, what should we do to punish you?"
"Well, there's always the jail?"
The huntress shook her head. "No…I think the jail is a little too tame for you. How about…" Her head turned and she grinned as she spotted Radella wiping some sweat off of Niklason's face. "I've got it. Since these two have a perchance for trouble…You're going to go with them and make sure they're okay."
"WHAT?!" Alex and Niklason shouted this out at the same time. Niklason broke out of Radella's grip and they both pointed at each other.
"These shrimps?! You've got to be kidding me!" Alex groaned.
"This drunkard! That's torturing us more!" Niklason shouted at the huntress, waving his arms.
"Well, Alex might seem like a bit of a thief, but he is a strong fighter and he knows most of the basic cons so you won't get tricked again. I'd say you two make a good pair."
"SHUT UP!" Alex and Niklason yelled at her at the same time and Carylesti hid a smile.
"Have fun!" Carylesti laughed as she left the bar, which was mostly in shambles. The barkeep stalked towards the rogue, shaking violently.
"Grr! You've wrecked my bar! I demand payment! This damage totals around one hundred thousand zeny! Come on! Fork it over!"
"Uh…Heh…I seem to have spent all my money…I don't suppose that you two will cover for me?" Alex gave a nervous chuckle and looked at Niklason. He stood stunned for a while, before shuddering with rage.
"You…You…Dammit!" Niklason rushed at Alexstrazos, getting the both of them into another fight.
Here it is. It's a little bit longer, but it's funny. And I'll be updating the intro later. Review please!