… Something out of the ordinary! (Well, about me… which is actually true. VERY true, haha.) It's a quiz I took… and this was the result I got. The quiz title was "What kind of writer are you?" If you want to take it, go to google, then type in : blogthings – what type of writer should you be?
"You should be a film writer.
You don't just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind. You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life. Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling. And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen."
Anyways, back to the story:D
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Chapter 16: A Raid Has Come!
"I've come back!" the cheerful thief announced to Caden and her brother.
"Where'd you go?!"
He wagged his finger in front of her. "That will remain a mystery to you."
"Matthew…" She sighed as she knew that there wasn't a way for her to talk him out of confessing; He was cleverer than her. "Matthew, you shouldn't be working! I want you to spend some time resting. You should be spending your time doing whatever you want."
"I didn't say I was working," he said with confidence.
Half the time it was difficult for Caden to figure out if he was lying or not. She clenched her fist and held it up as if she was about to playfully punch him in the arm. Matthew still stood in front of her, knowing that if she was going to scold him, she would be passive. The tactician refrained upon doing her next action, pointing a finger to him with a "you win this time" look.
Matthew looked slyly at her. "Hm, giving up this time?" he joked.
"N-No…" She would be persistent at times, but when she knew she couldn't win the argument, she backed down. It wasn't a good trait to have when you were a tactician, but she knew that there were certain circumstances where you didn't have to act like your profession.
She turned around and crossed her arms. "Fine. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. After all, you are Ostia's spy, and very good keeping things confidential."
She half meant her sentence, but the other half was hopefully a play on reverse psychology, which she knew wouldn't work on a talented and skilled spy like him.
"Well then, our conversation is over now then," he said a little lyrically, walking past her to sit on the couch.
She turned towards the couch, taking a seat next to him. "Hey Matthew, have you ever let your guard down?"
Matthew looked towards the tactician. "Why do you ask?"
"Well… I don't know, just making assumptions from your robe that you're wearing. I don't think I've ever seen you with it off. And I also think I've overheard you talking to Guy once… about how Guy was trying to sneak up on you… and how you snuck up on him… when he was sleeping…" (1)
He chuckled when she mentioned his conversations with Guy. "Well, with all your observation, you should probably know the answer to that."
She slightly hated that how Matthew would leave this as trivial matter instead of answering her directly. Yet she liked figuring things out. Based on his encounters with Guy, and how Matthew would wake up earlier than her, she was confident that he wouldn't let his guard down. Asking him would end without him answering her if she was correct or not, so she kept it to herself.
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It has been a week since they had first came to Keinkurt. Things seemed a little unordinary, but in a good way. Even though she could be doing the same if she was in Pherae, Ostia, or Caelin, she was at her birthplace, seeing her old friends and neighbors. Sometimes she would walk around and catch up with the folks to see what she had missed, other times she would stay in the comfort of her own home, enjoying the time that she had with her family, and especially the times that she spends with Matthew.
Caden was a little upset though how Matthew would leave the village from time to time, going on his "secret missions" as she called it. She felt like a house wife when he would come back, her pestering him with questions as to where he was and whatnot.
"Well then, my wife, have more faith for your husband!" Matthew joked around once, which made Caden blush.
"Matthew, you shouldn't joke around like that," she replied as she had a smile on her face, slightly embarrassed about the situation.
"Well, didn't you say that you acted like a wife when I would come back?" He crossed his arms, entertained by what kind of responses she could come up with now.
"Well yes but… it just feels a little… awkward when you say that. We're… not married so… you know, it's just feels… a little… uncomfortable." She stopped herself from going any further with her explanation; she noticed that she had indirectly confessed to Matthew about how she feels about him.
Matthew uncrossed his arms and patted Caden's head. "Well I guess I can accept your explanation for now. If it makes you that uncomfortable, I'll keep on calling you Caden." When Caden looked up to him, he had a cheery smile on his face.
"… I would have waited for a couple of more days but now this can't wait," she thought, "Um, Matthew, would you like to go with me somewhere?"
His smile was still on his face when he opened his eyes. "Sure."
The place that she wanted to take Matthew was ten minutes away from the village. Up a hill and walking against a stream, they made it to the base of a waterfall. She stared at its beauty, realizing that it had been a very long time that she had last been there.
"I usually use this place to reflect. My brother, Alair, and I would go here when we wanted to get away from everything for just a couple of hours at most. Whether it was that we had an argument with our parents, or just felt like relaxing, we would go here."
She walked over to the rocks that were around the pool that the waterfall would dump into. She took her seat on one of the bigger rocks, taking off her boots so that she could soak her feet in the water. She turned back to Matthew, gesturing her hands for Matthew to come closer and join her. Matthew complied with her request, taking his seat on one of the rocks with his back to the pool as he didn't want to take off his boots.
She exhaled loudly as if she was clearing her thoughts. She looked towards Matthew; he hadn't said a word since they had reached this place. "So what do you think?"
"Maybe I should appreciate things like this more."
"You should! Take advantage of this break that Lord Hector has given you. Relax a little, as I said." She leaned on Matthew's shoulder who seemed to not mind at all. She was about to dose off, before she felt Matthew shift a little. She sat up straight again, turned around on her rock so that she could dry her feet and put her boots back on.
"There was something else that I wanted to show you."
She stood up and smoothed her robe. Matthew stood up right behind her as she made her way to the side of the waterfall. The waterfall wasn't steep, and the side looked like it was built so that people could climb up to the top, which was her intention. The climb wasn't that hard for her as she had done this many times before. It wasn't hard for Matthew as well as he was very dexterous and used to doing these kinds of things.
The top was a sight to see, looking outwards to the vast field of green grass. She pointed out to Matthew that he could also see her village from there. But as she observed her village, she saw something out of the ordinary.
… A figure… two figures actually. From where they were, she couldn't tell if they were just passer-bys or not.
"Matthew, what do they look like to you?"
Matthew squinted his eyes a little to get a better look. "Hm… two people in magician's robes, as it looks like."
Caden was a little worried as she had no idea who those can be. She decided that she wanted to make her way back to the village, just to see if everything was safe.
To her surprise, she knew who those two figures were when she had reached the village. The two figures averted their eyes from talking to the village magistrate and Allard when one of them saw from the corner of his eye that there were others coming.
Once they had laid eyes on each other, Caden froze. It was two people that she wasn't very fond of… the ones who she had remembered the names to after that one faithful day near the entrance of the village.
"Ah, Caden… how nice it is to see you again." His voice was very cold and empty, filling anyone with trepidation upon hearing his voice.
"… Dugan…"
An evil smile had curved upon his lips, "So glad that you have remembered me."
"Caden, you know him?" Allard had asked as he was listening to their greeting.
"Not at all. F-… Allard, let me handle talking to him." She avoided from letting Dugan know that they were related. Who knows what would happen if he knew this information? "Dugan, what are you doing here?"
"I just came by to say 'hi,' it doesn't hurt anybody."
His words had hit Caden's nerve. Who was he, trying to act like they were friends?! She clenched her fist as their conversation continued. "Don't act like we were ever friends. Now state your business here!"
"You're being a little harsh there, Caden."
"State your business here," she said with more strictness and seriousness to her voice. She wasn't in the mood for playing games with him.
"Hm, fine…" He lifted up his right arm in the air. "My business… I came here for something I want that you have." He snapped his fingers together, and figures appeared from nowhere.
"Morphs?!" she yelled in her head in surprise. "Allard, have everyone prepare for battle!" Caden took her own sword out of its sheath, and pointed the tip towards Bayle. She was going to swing her sword downwards, but upon pulling it back, Robbin had grabbed the sword's tip, restraining Caden from swinging. Caden looked back as Robbin had wagged her finger at her.
At the corner of her eye, she saw another figure running towards the village, jumping over the fence. "B-Bayle!!?" she yelled in surprise, yet she couldn't do anything about him with her current situation.
With clenched teeth, Caden pulled back her sword and faced Robbin this time. Matthew had his dagger ready in his hand for oncoming attackers. Matthew was caught in between two choices: helping Caden or going after Bayle.
The ambush seemed to be getting the better of the villagers. They were trying their best they could to try and keep all of the morphs from entering. Even Caden's father seemed to have a difficult time with this.
Caden had a thought that was hard to admit… "Dugan is a powerful shaman, almost as powerful as his father. He could become even more powerful if he had the same dark tome as Nergal."
Chances of them winning were slim. The villagers seemed to be able to fend off the morphs from coming inside, and the ones that intruded were taken care of the other magic users. However, Caden and Matthew were far from safe from where they were standing, yet no morphs went after them. Caden focused her attack on Robbin, later did Matthew tell Caden that he could take care of her. Caden then moved her way to Dugan. Dugan's power was great, but to her confusion, all his magic was focused on the other villagers.
"Hey! I'm in front of you!" Caden yelled to him, attacking once again. She managed to brush his arm with the tip of the blade, cutting the fabric. Yet with her provocation, Dugan still did not aim at her.
Dugan took out the most powerful tome that he carried around with him. "He said for me to use this only in emergencies. Well, you would call this as an emergency right now, wouldn't you, Father?"
He opened the Fenrir tome, channeling even more magic that what he usually used, chanted the elder magic's language, and pointed it at Allard. Right then, six strange symbols surfaced around Allard. The symbols burned a purple fire, then compressed towards the sage, damaging him. Allard was burning in the purple fire, he yelled in pain trying to extinguish it. When the fire subsided, he slumped on the ground, hardly keeping himself up with his hands and knees; purple residue was left as scars.
"Father!" yelled both Caden and Greg.
Caden was about to run up to her father until Matthew held Caden's robe from her going.
"Matthew, please let go of me."
"You can't let that get in the way of your fighting. Your brother knows that too. Your mother is the only one who can try to save him now," he replied.
Caden tried to hold back the tears that were going to come out, only some managed to escape. She quickly wiped them away and focused on her fighting.
"Dugan, you bastard!" Caden yelled running up to him readying to swing her sword.
She managed to succeed with one hit on his arm out of all the other attempts that she executed. He was too fast for her, but she tried to fight him anyways. Dugan hastily tucked the Fenrir tome back into his robe and took out a weaker elder magic tome, the Flux, and used that for the last duration of the battle.
Near the end of the fight, Dugan and Robbin only had minor cuts and bruises. Bayle ran out of one of the houses in the village with something in his hand.
"The Earth Seal!" Caden yelled.
Why didn't she see this coming? How did he get into the house and steal the seal? Before she could make a move, Bayle was already in front of the young shaman and sage.
"Excellent, Bayle. The mission is complete for now." Dugan looked at Allard on the ground, "Not only did we complete the mission, I've gotten more fun out of it."
The three of them teleported out of the battlefield and the rest of the enemies that attacked the village disappeared like dust.
"Allard!" Teena yelled.
The Earth Seal was stolen from their village, but that was only a small problem. The worst on the verge of happening…
Caden's world stood still.
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End of Chapter 16: It's a Raid!
… cliffhanger?
Author's Note
1) Part of Matthew's and Guy's support conversations, B and A, lol.
This whole thing seems a little fast paced to me… but keep in mind that in mind that I felt really bad for keeping this story on hold for this long and wanting to get at least two chapters done in one day. (.//.")