Notes:
Hey it's been a little while, the only time I've got to work on the story right now is the morning while I'm at college before lessons begin, I usually get about 30 minutes-1 hour and it's not necessarily per day, hence why the chapter takes so long to come out. Thanks for bearing with me, my first exam is in 18 days as of 2/5/2019 (Or 5/2/2019 if you use the other format of M/D/YYYY) Enjoy the chapter, I gotta go!
Reviews:
SugarQueen97 - The idea of Ophelia believing she has to lose everything to get redemption is a neat idea, I might try it at some point - probably not with the idea of paralysing her. Getting amnesia is a good call, that could be fun. I've got something else in mind for Ophelia right now so I won't say anymore :)
The team wandered around the town, keeping their heads down and avoiding eye contact with strangers, thankfully, from the previous day's rain there was less people out due to more people trying to make use of the rainfall for their crops or just making safe drinking water from it. But there were still enough people to fill up the town square twice over if they all converged on it. After about 12 minutes of walking down one street they saw when seemed to be a rusted, chipped tailor icon outside of a wooden cottage-like building. "Think they'll have any new clothes?" Marco whispered.
"Probably." Emilia responded, "Last time we were here, Phil ended up vomiting on his clothes from drinking too much and we had to find somewhere to get new dress-wear, it was a place with a similar icon."
It seemed like their best-bet so the group entered. Immediately, the deathly smell had been displaced by a powerful stench of bleach, cotton and burnt wool. "Ah dammit!" A guy from the back shouted, he came out beating the air around him that was slightly discoloured from fumes. "Oh?! Customers?!" He seemed odd, his voice was chirpy and high-pitched, it would get annoying after talking to him for a short time. He also looked to be shocked that someone had actually entered his shop, never mind the fact that it was six people who entered. Sam seemed a little off-put by the man.
He wore a green apron, a tight black vest with gold trimmings and similarly coloured trousers. His shoes had looked like they were significantly more worn compared to the rest of his clothing, were those his work-shoes? "Hello…" Star replied rather awkwardly; she was a little unsure of how to deal with his… Excited personality. "What were you doing back there?"
"Stuff." He replied quickly.
"What kind of stuff?" Emilia asked.
"Stuffy stuff." Emilia sighed and Tom also seemed ticked at his 'game'. "What brings you to my shop?" He asked, swiping down on his apron to dust himself off.
"We need some new clothes." Star replied, stepping in front of the group.
"A simple matter indeed, do you have money?" The man asked, leaning on the counter.
That was when Emilia stepped out, holding the bag of coins before jingling them, "Will this suffice?"
"That will." Looking further into an inspection you could find that the pricing of the clothing were:
40 coppers for a plain dress.
45 coppers for a detailed dress.
30 coppers for a plain shirt.
35 coppers for a detailed shirt.
35 coppers for regular suit pants.
40 coppers for silk suit pants.
25 coppers for a flat cap.
10 coppers for 2 pairs of socks (cotton).
40 coppers for vests.
There were many more clothing choices, but those were the first page.
The group spent quite a while in the shop, Emilia, Star and Sam browsed the dress-wear together. Marco and Tom spent free time trying on different ridiculous hats. Kelly, on the other-hand just picked some random dark clothing and stuck with it, she was the first to finish. Sam brought out a lovely simple dress, to be honest it was her smile that made the outfit come together. "Wow, that looks amazing!" Star exclaimed while Samantha gazed around herself, trying to eye up how she looked from an outside view.
"Yes, it's a lovely dress." Emilia complimented. Before this, Sam had been wearing a pale green tunic and some random pants that were in the Tavern. Emilia herself was currently wearing ripped servant clothing, it wasn't too ripped, but the end parts of the shirt which connected to the hand were tattered and ripped on her right side. She had done away with the vest that she wore, it drew too much attention and was now in a white shirt that had a few ripped near the ends. Star was wearing the remains of one of her dresses too, she hadn't picked any new clothes up and so had a light blue dress still on. The girl had ripped the frills at the bottom herself to try and allow more movement, thankfully it wasn't needed as they didn't run into any troubles on the road or in Arcanretia. The group decided to settle on that dress for Samantha. Emilia picked up a new shirt and a sports bra, she wanted to avoid wasting too much money so only bought the essentials before heading over to the changing rooms to try on her selection. Star and Sam were stood near the racks of clothing, they were 50% trying to find clothes for Star and 50% playing around.
It took Star a while to find something she felt comfortable in, the outside of her changing room looked like a trash-heap. Eventually, she thought to get a white dress that puffed out to be faint pink. Emilia gave the thumbs up because she genuinely liked the dress, while Samantha gave a thumbs up because she was fed up with sitting there.
Simultaneously, Marco and Tom both managed to finish shopping, Tom grabbed a flat cap and a black shirt with dark pants. Marco went for his signature plain white shirt, black pants and a new pair of shoes. They were simple shoes, black and laced – slightly worn because of the fact that they were second-hand, but they protected his feet well enough and were easier to move in than his previous ones.
In total, the group had 4 silvers and 45 coppers. "Say you folks don't look like you're from around here?" The guy asked as the group began to leave with their bags.
"That obvious?" Tom replied; he had his bag slung around his shoulder.
"There's a festival on some time this week, if you're interested. Usually it's good entertainment, this year they have rocket lights."
"Rocket lights?"
"It's a little something I've invented myself; they are quite the spectacle if I do say so myself." The man seemed rather proud of himself for this so-called invention of 'rocket lights'.
"We might check it—" Star was halfway through her response when her eyes caught a glimpse of Sam's ginormous grin, "Looks like we're going." She finished, "Do you know how much admission is?"
"If I remember, it's about 40 coppers per person." Kelly's face seemed to drop at the news; the girl seemed to be rather stingy with money.
"240 coppers is a lot of money." Emilia scratched her chin in thought. "That doesn't even include food or drinks while we're in there."
"But I wanna go…" The grin had shifted into a frown.
"I don't mind staying at the inn." Tom mentioned, but was dismissed by Star.
"No, if we're going, we should go together. How many days til the event?" She addressed the shop keeper.
"Two." He replied.
"… Okay. We'll go." Star said, looking around for confirmation from the group, they all seemed up for it.
Outside the Shop
"We're going to need more money." Emilia informed, "With just the admission and the next day of stay at the inn, we'd have only 1 silver and 30 coppers left." If we include food and drinks it'll probably go down to 30 coppers. That would barely be enough to cover 1 night for 1 room."
"What do you have in mind?" Star asked.
"We won't be able to get a full-job in time, so the only option is day work where you get paid at the end of each day… It's usually manual labour so that would probably narrow down who they'd pick to young men." The two then turned to Marco and Tom who seemed a little disappointed but had already accepted their fate.
"Yeah, okay." They replied.
Next Morning – Butterfly Castle – River
The brute was already awake and training, he had a habit on going long hunts with some of the nobles. He always brought him a bear-skin or something as a treasure for Moon, I think he thought it was endearing but it honestly made her rather disgusted. Moon, Ophelia and Matt were enjoying breakfast by the table. "How are you enjoying it here so far?" Moon addressed Matthew; the two youngsters hadn't been wed yet, however; it was planned in the near future.
"It's excellent, your majesty." He answered, careful not to say anything too informal. Now that the Choosing was over it put a lot of pressure on him to constantly keep up the formalities.
"That's great, how about you 'Phe?"
"It's fine." She responded, poking at her sausage with a fork.
"Your majesty!" A servant burst through the door, "Urgent message!" Those at the table seemed shocked at the sudden intrusion.
"What is it Manfred?"
"Your highness, there's been a message from a nearby city 'Arcanretia', it says that the rebels have been spotted there." Ophelia seemed to nearly jump up at the news, Matthew gulped – he didn't want them to be killed, Moon was only concerned about Star. Of course she knew Marco would be there, he was a genuinely decent kid from what she could tell in the short time they spent talking.
"Get the King." Moon commanded.
River was brought to the room immediately, he walked in angrily as his training had been disrupted. "What's all the fuss about?" He asked.
"Father, Star's group has been spotted—" The King's veins had nearly burst just hearing about the failure, "—near a place called 'Arcanretia'."
There wasn't much time to discuss what their choices were, River exploded with commands…
Arcanretia
The previous night went without a hitch, they hadn't the time to work during that day, but Marco and Tom did find somewhere to work today. It was pretty easy to find, with the massive plague that had just passed through it left a lot of job spots open. Emilia wanted to go sight-seeing but the rest of the female team wanted to relax so they visited the rec room provided by the hotel. It had a few things to do like fussball… and… fussball: They had to improvise to spend an entire day there.
It was quite a luxurious room, nothing compared to the castle's rooms, a few nice couches were dotted around to rest on; Kelly spent most of her time there. That was until a woman who worked at the inn came over, "You don't look like you're having much fun." She observed.
Kelly shrugged her comment off, "If it ain't got something I can hit, I ain't interested."
"We've got a backroom, officially it doesn't exist. But we've all gotta make money somehow right? You seem like the kind of person that'd be interested in, that stuff?" The assassin seemed intrigued by the employee's mention of something in the back.
"Cool." Kelly said with newfound energy, she followed the woman to the back where they went through multiple doors before arriving at a dark room. Faint thuds could be heard from hits connecting with a punching bag. After another few seconds of walking, Kelly's eyes began to adjust and she found herself in an underground fighting arena, not many people were here now – a few men cleaning the floors and then a handful of others training. Kelly could see a few women down there too; they had formed their own little gang from the looks of it. There was a small rock formation that resembled stairs which Kelly descended down. In the centre of this massive room was a basic ring, it had a small wooden cage going around it and a little bit of padding on the floor, it looked to originally be white but seemed stained dark red from the dried blood that had seeped into its molecules. "Cool."
Back in the Rec Room
They had a chalk board in the rec room that had seen years of use, different colours had blended into the innards of the rough sandpaper-like material. The chalk sticks that the inn had were quite short, but they did have multiple colours – for some reason the green stick looked brand new, it was still about 10cm long while the others were barely 3cm. The trio had a lot of fun with the blackboard, the three were currently playing hangman. Sam was up, so far, she had 'C _ _ _ e / C _ _ e' written down, and the duo had three lives left, Emilia was sat on one of the sofas while Star laid front-down on the ground, supporting her head in her hands. "A!" Star shouted. Sam returned to the board and scribbled, 'C _ _ e / C a _ e'. By that point, Emilia and Star both knew what the answer was but decided to play a long a bit more.
"Z!" Emilia cried. Sam giggled and continued her drawing of the hang man: Two lives.
"K!" Star responded, Sam pouted a little, she was awfully competitive. 'C _ _ _ e / C _ k e'
Star proceeded, "M!"
"Nope!" One life.
"A!" Emilia cried.
Samantha began to shift around after adding the letter 'C _ _ e / C a k e'. Emi and Star exchanged a glance and then the Princess said "Y!"
"Nope!" She laughed and finished off the hang man, "I win!" She shouted before filling in the rest of the word ' / C a k e', giggling the whole way through. Star and Emi smiled sweetly at the Sam, it was nice that they could still enjoy life like this.
"Hey has anyone seen Kelly?" Star asked the other two companions but they both shook their heads, the group finally became aware of Kelly's absence. They decided to ignore it, she wasn't the type to say where she'd be going anyway.
A Few Hours Later
The trio were playing eye-spy now, it was in the middle of Star's turn when the door to the rec room opened up revealing a pink-haired ruffian, he was gasping heavily, another man appeared shortly after – he had ruffled brown hair and came in with dirt covering every pour. It almost looked like he had taken a mud bath, he wasn't breathing nearly as hard as the other guy. "Who're you?" Star asked.
"It's me." Marco replied… No response. "Marco?" He pushed, a little more confused
"Oooooohhhhhhhhh…" She exclaimed. "Right…"
"Looks like it's been a long day." Emilia chipped in.
"You've no idea…" Tom replied, he had his eyes closed and was slumped against the door frame.
"It wasn't that bad." Marco stated, "It was pretty normal work."
"Freak." Tom commented.
Marco began to walk over to the couch but the trio of females screamed, "STOP!" He froze in place, scared from the sudden backlash. "Look at yourself!" Star exclaimed, after taking a moment to examine his body, it finally clicked why they screamed at him to stop.
"Valid point. I'll go get a wash."
"Same." Tom replied, but before the two could get out the room they had been furtherly stopped by the Butterfly.
"How much did you earn?" The two males looked at each other with disappointed faces before holding out their pockets to reveal a grand total of 35 coppers. "Only 35 coppers?" She asked, a little bewildered.
"It is cheap work." Marco explained, "You'd only be able to make a frugal living off it; trust me I know."
"We need more money." Star huffed out, slightly deflated from the news. They only had 405 coppers left now. After tonight they'd have 330 coppers, leaving them with after admission: 90 coppers.
Luckily, Kelly decided to burst through the opposite door, she had a bloody nose, a few bruises forming on her arms and legs, along with a black-eye. Her hair was a mess, frazzled and I think there had been some pulled out, it was like an afro. The teen was wearing a wicked smile and came limping towards the group before dropping a hand-load of coins on the ground. "93 coppers."
"Where'd you get that?" Star asked.
"I won it." She replied casually.
"How'd you win it?"
"I fought for it."
"You fought?!" The group shouted in unison.
"Where?" Emilia asked.
Kelly pointed to the door she came from, "There's an underground fighting ring there. It seems I've become something of a champion, it's amazing what training in assassination does to your body after 5+ years."
The team wasn't sure what to be more surprised about: The fact that she became a champion or the fact that this sweet little inn had an underground fighting arena. "Well… That's good." Star eventually choked out, "That brings our money for the festival up to 183 coppers. We can make that work." Her smile returned.
"How much did you guys make?" Kelly asked Marco and Tom.
"30 coppers. Between us." An annoyed Tom replied.
"Between you?! Oh my God, I made 90+ alone!"
"Bite me." Marco snapped back, "I'm off for a shower."
"Same dude." Kelly replied.
"I'll go too." Tom said, dragging himself off the floor, leaving a small sweat patch.
End Notes: As you can probably tell I didn't spell check it, this was collated together over the course of about a week and a half so it might jump around in writing a few times. Anyway, lessons will begin in 15 minutes so I gotta go, but thanks for reading!
Review! Any suggestions are welcome and I like hearing your comments! :D
Thanks,
vK