Chapter Three : Those With Pride

Not too long after the arrival of the Golden Sun, the party almost faced the brink of destruction by a mysterious fighter named Thorn. His skills were superb in comparison to that of his opponents. Thorn's true objectives were unknown, but in order to achieve it, Thorn has taken captive of Sheba. Using mysterious weapons he refers to as the "Chains of Fate", Thorn was able to easily capture her. However, unbeknownst to the party, the weapons that Thorn wields contain a strong setback for the user.

Thorn had retreated from the battlefield with the intention of escaping; the party however saw it as an invitation to give pursuit. Knowing that in their current condition and them short one member, they could not defeat Thorn. They had no choice but to retreat as well; into the city of Vault.

Thorn treaded through the thick forest like prey escaping from its predator. The fear of defeat went through his veins as he increased his pace steadily. He was growing weaker by the moment. The wetness of the ground in which he stepped on made it hard to walk fast, and the sharp twigs faltered him even more.

"I can't keep this up," Thorn thought to himself. He suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and took a rest on the trunk of tree.

Thorn reached into his sack for the weapon he had used to capture Sheba. The chain he had taken out was emitting a neon purple color.

"Promise you won't escape if I let you free?" Thorn let out a joking comment as he sighed.

His hands gripped tightly on the rough chain. The neon grow began to fade away as Thorn lost his consciousness and fell to the damp soil. Moments later, the neon glow completely evaporated and the naked body of a young girl fell to the ground next to Thorn.

A small glimmer of light penetrated through the thick forest and struck Thorn's eyes. With his numb arm, he used all the strength in his body to try and cover his eyes.

"Heh, Lady Luck seems to be with me these days," muttered Thorn. His throat was now parched and every word struck him with pain.

"You're awake," growled a voice of an angry girl. A sharp Thorn-like object was a step from stabbing Thorn's neck. Thorn didn't bother to respond to her, knowing that he wouldn't die here right now. He laid there, waiting for the opposing side to let go of the weapon pointed at him.

"Why did you release me?" asked the still angry voice. Still keeping his cool, Thorn didn't respond but instead let a small grin out. Thorn moved his hands away to see the dirty face of a girl. It was Sheba, whom held the fate of Thorn at her hands.

Thorn managed to let out a few words, but they were weak and broken. Sheba slowly lifted her mace, knowing that it was pointless to pry some answers out of him if he had not the strength to neither speak nor move.

"The sun's going down…" Sheba thought to herself as she watched the glimmer of light fade away. The darkness began to saturate the forest. In addition to the darkness, the temperature was slowly dropping. The forest soon turned into an environment unfit for weak patients.

Sheba slowly picked herself off the damp soil with the help of a nearby tree trunk. The debate over whether to rescue Thorn battled in the head of Sheba. One side debated that it was Thorn whom held her captive and left her to die in this dangerous forest. The other argued that it was better to help him, in hopes of prying some answers out of him. Moments later, she came to a conclusion.

Sheba bent herself down to reach for one of Thorn's arms. With great force and anger, she tugged Thorn's heavy body through the forest. Without a clue of which way to go, the two took the most obvious; one where they walked until an exit was found.

Felix opened his eyes to the unfamiliar environment. He was inside a small cozy house. He climbed out of the hard wooden bed he slept on for which seemed like hours to him. Looking around the room for his equipment, he finds that they were nowhere to be found. Felix stood in the middle of the room for roughly five minutes until it hit him.

"Why am I still standing here? I'm supposed to be out looking for Sheba!" he thought to himself. He smacked himself in the face hard, hoping that it would wake him up from this terrible dream.

"I was so weak! I couldn't do anything to save her…" Felix smacked himself again, almost wanting to bang his head against the wall. A small drop of tear almost escaped from Felix's eye, but he got to it before it could fall out. Suddenly, a young scrawny boy barged into the room.

"Hey!" the boy cried out pointing his rough fingers at Felix who was dumbfounded.

"If you're awake, don't just stand there! Get out there and help out!" the boy commanded Felix who still stood there. A smile escaped out of Felix's dark mood as he bursts into a small laughter.

"That's right; I can't stand here and moan for the rest of my life. She wouldn't like that. All I can do now is do whatever I can to try and save her. Don't you worry Sheba. I'll definitely come, no matter what it takes." Felix clenched his fists in confidence.

"Hey! Stop dazing out!" yelled the boy as he lightly kicked Felix's legs to get his attention. "They're all waiting for you out there, so hurry." said the boy as he dashed out of the room.

After Felix finally left that house he was in, he quickly joined up with the rest of the party. They had to devise a plan to stop Thorn.

"Alright, so how's everybody feeling?" asked Isaac. The party had received medical assistance from the people of Vault. Regardless of their condition, they still had to go rescue Sheba from Thorn. But the fact that they weren't strong enough to beat him only dragged their confidence down.

"Look. I know we may or may not be strong enough, but we still have to try. For Sheba's sake." Isaac added to lift everyone's confidence.

"Do we have any idea where they went?" Ivan asked. Ivan had bumped into another obstacle among them. They had no idea where Thorn was headed, nor do they know what he's planning. While they were taking their sweet time resting, Thorn was probably hundreds of miles away.

Felix was not brimming with anger, but he tried his hardest not to show it to his friends. "And then there's also Piers. He's missing as well," said Mia.

After the battle with Thorn, the party had found out that Piers was nowhere to be found. They knew that he wasn't the kind of man to desert a battle to save himself. They placed their faith in him hoping that he's still alive.

"In any case, we should return to our Airship. If Thorn is heading to other continents, we'll have a better chance catching up to him on air while he's using a normal ship."

Suddenly, a boy's yelling could be heard in the distance. "Hey, I think we found another one of your friends! It's the blue haired one!"

Everyone was shocked by what they had heard. It was a blue haired man that they had found. It could only be him; the party's missing ally; Piers.

"You know, I really don't understand why you helped me. Did your pride get to your head? Or was it pity for me? Either way, you lose, again." Thorn boasted on his victory over Sheba again and again, each time in a different way. His arrogance was driving Sheba crazy with anger. She couldn't bear to look at his face anymore.

"In any case, you did save me. And I promised myself I wouldn't harm you, so we're even." Thorn added. He looked down on Sheba with a kind face, hiding his inner thoughts within him. Sheba was tied down by Thorn using some spare vines found on the ground.

With a sinister thought on his face, he rubbed his chin evilly while still looking down on Sheba. Finally, he came to a conclusion and snapped his fingers. "You're probably wondering what kind of evil plan I'm thinking of aren't you?" he asked Sheba while refraining from bursting into laughter.

Sheba was growing tired of his annoyance. She glared into his disgusting dirt covered face. With the last ounce of her saliva, she shot a mouthful of saliva at Thorn's face. The spit landed near Thorn's right eye, which is now twitching from the shock.

The smirk on Thorn's face disappeared and was replaced with a menacing face. He raised his hand to wipe the spit off his face. The dirt on his hands further added to the filth on his face.

Suddenly, the menacing look disappeared again and out came the smirk. Sheba groaned as she saw that disgusting look again and rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Anyways…I'll ask you this question again. Promise you won't escape if I let you free?"

Sheba flinched at that comment. She had heard it before, from Thorn's mouth. Many thoughts jumbled in her head. She couldn't recall when he had said it to her, but she was confident that he had said that once already.

Thorn drew his sword from the sheath that was behind him. It was stained with mud from top to bottom. "Sorry to boast again, but I had to. You really should've taken my weapons at least." With that comment, he slashed into the vines that confined Sheba's body. She wanted to ask why he had done so, but it was too late. Thorn had turned around and began to head off.

"Let's go, we're late. And if you try to run away…don't expect the same hospitality." The last comment he added was different from his usual talking. It was much deeper, and was serious. Sheba didn't dare to defy his orders at that moment and willfully followed Thorn.

Thorn stopped and turned around to face Sheba again. For the first time, the two noticed the difference in height. Thorn was at least a few feet if not twice as tall as her. He reached into one of his pockets and took out a small bag. He waved it in front of his face as he gave a playful look at Sheba. The insides of the bag jingled. Sheba knew it was either Gold Coins, or just scrap metal; she chose to believe it was the former. Thorn made sure Sheba knew what was inside the bag before chucking it to her.

"First thing when we get out of here, you're buying yourself some clothes." Thorn had referred to the fact that Sheba had taken Thorn's jacket to cover her naked body. Sheba's face blushed as she tried to cover her face with her hands.

Thorn laughed as he continued to head off into the distance.

Isaac stared petrified at the body that was laid out before him and his friends. The one person they had least expected to be in front of them laid in the ground before them. He didn't know whether to execute him right now, or spare his life.

They had found this body deep inside the remains of Vale. The body laid there in the vacant road, still bleeding from the mysterious wounds on him. They were neither dealt by sword nor weapons. After being rescued by the people, the body was still gradually bleeding. Only a couple rings of bandages kept him from bleeding to death.

Mia clutched her mouth to keep herself from yelling in terror. The body that was laid before her eyes was Alex. He was the person that almost brought the destruction of Weyard.

"Mia…you should…tend to his injuries." Isaac whispered into the ears of Mia. Her eyes were now tearing up. The sight of seeing her apprentice near the brink of death was too much of her. She had never healed a person in a condition like this before. It was perhaps too much for her to handle. But she gave it her best shot and waved her shaking hands over Alex's body. Suddenly a hand held onto Mia's hands. Garet had stopped her from performing her duties of a healer.

"What do you think you're doing Garet?" yelled Isaac. He grabbed Garet's hand and tried to shove it off of Mia's. Garet however struggled to hold on. "I think that question should be mine to ask." He replied boldly. Garet released his grip on Mia.

Garet pointed at Alex's pale face. "You're thinking about healing the person that used our family against us. He is the person that used your dad and Jenna's family to fight us. He is the person that sacrificed his comrades to achieve his own selfish goals." He forcefully shaked Isaac's hand off his own and ran off into the distance angrily.

Mia's was now filled with doubt. Her duty as a healer was to heal everyone that was injured regardless of the sins they committed. The code of the healer was to treat everyone with equal values. However, in this situation, she didn't know what to do.

Her morals told her to heal Alex. After all, Alex was her apprentice before he chose the path of greed. Regardless, Alex was a childhood friend of Mia, and she couldn't abandon him. However, everything that Garet had said was correct. It went against everything she believed in, but she chose to accept it.

Mia was now crying as she debated over the decision that was placed on her shoulders. It was as if the fate of the world rested on her decision. Then, everything evaporated. She felt a hand on her shoulders. It was a warm and kind hand. She turned around and saw that it belonged to Jenna. Mia knew how Jenna felt now; she had given her the support she needed to continue. Mia wiped her tears off her face and resumed her healing ritual.