Vald and Trevor laughed, not caring that Oliver was pouting. "It's not funny," the small boy mumbled.
"Oh yes it is," Trevor replied. "You looked hilarious."
"Well it's his sister's fault," Vald added, stopping himself from laughing.
"And you're sure you can't undo it?" Trevor chuckled.
"I can't," Oliver sulked. "It costs 500 gold to re-dye the hair, and another 500 to get it restyled."
"What did she spend all your money on?" Vald asked.
"Cross-class skills," Oliver complained. "I'm a white-mage! I don't need to know how to fire a bow and arrow!"
"But skills cost so much you should have been left with at least a thousand," Vald pointed out.
"She also bought a familiar," Oliver sulked. "I was saving up for an awesome one, but she went and bought a rabbit instead! Argh!"
Trevor chuckled again. "So you're broke, low-powered, and girly?" Oliver grumbled a confirmation and Trevor laughed louder.
"I can help pay for you to have your hair something else," Vald suggested. "Maybe to cut it too."
Trevor shook his head. "No you can't. We spent the rest of our money on medkits, remember?"
"I'll get used to it," Oliver grumbled. "I don't care about the braids so much, it's just the pink that annoys me."
Vald nodded. They were walking around the college's campus, Oliver having insisted on showing Vald around despite the campus being small. It was getting dark and they were heading back to Trevor's car. Something flickered in Vald's vision and he turned his head, trying to see what it was.
"Is something wrong?" Oliver asked, noticing that Vald had stopped walking.
"I don't know," he answered. He saw a motion again and started walking towards it, telling the others to go on ahead.
Vald followed the dark figure, not sure why he felt the man was suspicious. It was probably just a student who was there for a late study session. Despite this, Vald still felt that the man looked suspicious and followed him. The man suddenly disappeared and Vald was left standing in the middle of a hallway, completely confused as to where the man went.
The man appeared again, running desperately at Vald. Vald jumped out of the way, but then began chasing the man. There was no reason to run, so something must have definitely been up. He only knew for certain when he saw that the man was carrying something that he didn't have before.
"Stop!" Vald called.
The man whirled around and shook the object at him. They were now under a light, the sun having gone down and them being outside, so Vald could see that the man held a red sword with a black hilt. It was huge, and for some reason it looked familiar to him.
The man laughed. "Isn't this cool?" he asked himself. "Looks just like in a movie."
"This isn't a game," Vald warned, taking a few steps toward the man. "I know you stole that, so just return it and I'll forget what you did."
"Not likely!" the man laughed. "Do you know how much this must be worth? The professor treats it so delicately. I know since I've had my eye on it for a while. No way. This is going to pay for my new car!"
Vald took another step and the man swung the sword at him. Ready to fight back, Vald was shocked to see that the man's arm seemed to bubble and boil. His arm swung wildly, not seeming to be aimed at anything in particular. Vald dodged every swing that came close to him, too confused to run.
The man gasped, and fell to the ground. He dropped the sword and screamed in pain. By now half of his body looked like it was boiling, and his good arm grabbed at the mutilated flesh in agony. He grabbed for the sword, but Vald beat him to it.
He grabbed the hilt, holding it instinctively in an attack position. A surge of energy flowed into him, making him remember his dream from a few nights ago. Glancing down at the crippled man who was trying to bring himself up, the world disappeared from view.