I really fail at keeping deadlines. I'M SORRY.
Yes, so yet again, I release another chapter late. There is only one excuse I can give though…
Assassin's Creed binge.
Hit me hard.
But then it snowed the other day, which reminded me of this…so yeah. Here it is. :D
Now then: REVIEWS!
Kenegi:
Yes, you would think that. Unfortunately, she's not all that smart when it comes to not annoying people.
And we will get to her glasses when the time comes for it. XD
Angelic:
I think I could have done better with that bit too, but I had a brain fart at the end of that last chapter, and that was the best I could come up with. :/
Glad that you liked the rest of it, though!
Sylph Writer:
None of the Tales games feel right without skits. It's like…a tradition to have them. XD
Trying to put another fighting scene in here, so I hope I don't completely botch that up. Watch me fail at it anyways. :
Disclaimer: You should know by now that I don't own anything.
Chapter 6: SEEEEEEEWER
I knew I wouldn't like this place the minute I smelled it.
Now, when we last left off, I was climbing down the 'Ladder of Doom' after Yuri and Estellise. Everything was all fine and dandy for a little bit (except for my occasional slips…where I almost made the other two go deaf from my screaming)…but then I got about halfway down.
And the smell hit me.
Now, imagine that smell you get when you pass by a skunk in your car. That nice, horrible smell that fills up the inside for a bit that makes you want to gag. Go ahead, remember it well. Got it?
Add some rotten milk and diaper to that. And multiply it by two.
That's a pretty good description of what it smelled like.
The other two were lucky that I just ended up gagging, and not falling right off that damn ladder, it was THAT bad.
The rest of the way down said ladder involved me cursing under my breath, and slowly making my way down it while holding my nose closed with one hand. Hence the going down so slowly. Having only one had was really difficult, especially when it started getting darker the further down we went, but I was not willing to smell that horrendous stench the whole way.
Finally, the square box the hole had made around me disappeared, and dim light made it possible to see again. When I looked around, I immediately saw the source of the awful stench. The passageway had led us to some sort of sewer underneath the castle, complete with really dim lights and passages filled with rank water. I saw Yuri and Estellise waiting for me at the bottom, so I hurried down the rest of the way.
And then epically failed at that, as I ended up falling off the ladder about a few feet from the ground, slamming onto my butt on the concrete below.
"Ow." I mutter, which sounds kind of weird due to me plugging my nose up. I see Estellise offer me a hand, which I take gratefully. I see Yuri looking at me funny when I'm standing upright, so I give him a look. He just shrugs, then turns towards the path we're on now.
"Looks like that tunnel lead us to the underground sewer…how nice." I notice the hint if sarcasm in his voice.
I scoff. "Yeah, not really nice, if you ask me. It smells like ass down here." I get a weird look from Estellise from my remark, but it looks like she's not doing good, herself. She's got her hand covering her mouth and nose.
"I…have to agree." she says through her hand. "I had no idea some place could smell this bad…"
It looks like Yuri's about to reply, but is stopped by…something moving in front of him. I peer my head around him to see what it was…
…Is that supposed to be a rat?
I think it is…but it looks kind of weird. It round, like a ball, with a long pink tail swishing around behind it. In the dim light, I can see its' beady eyes staring at us, reddish in color. It hisses at us, but it's not so intimidating, seeing as it's bouncing up and down. Just makes it look silly.
I see Yuri draw his sword (which I totally forgot about), casting its' sheath to one side. "So there are monsters down here too…"
…Monsters?
Estellise lowers her hand next to me. "…Monsters…That's what these things are?"
"They just look like rats, to me." I glance at it again. "…Albeit, really weird rats." Yuri looks at both of us.
"You mean you guys have never seen one before?" He raises an eyebrow. Estellise blushes.
"Uh…ummm…" She's interrupted when the rat…thing hisses again, and starts coming towards us.
"…Well, let's hurry up and take care of this, shall we?" Yuri says, and he steels himself, staring down the little creature in front of us.
"Wait," I say, realizing what he just said, "We're gonna fight that thing? It doesn't look all that dangerous." I'd say we'd have to worry if they're were, like, ten of them. Not just this one puny thing.
And as karma is a crazy bitch, as soon as that thought left my mind, Estellise gasps, and points to the right of me. "Yuri, they're coming from the front, too!"
And sure enough, when I turn to look, I see about…seven pairs of beady eyes staring back at us. Counting the little nasty we had at the start, that makes eight of these guys. All of them, somehow, looking malicious.
Hate my life right now.
I hear Yuri make some sort of 'ugh' noise, and I see him staring at the new pack. "This is annoying."
And then , just to make things worse, they swarm us. All at once.
Me being the wuss I am, I immediately yelp and backpedal like hell as one of them jumps at my face. It misses, thank god, but it's now staring at me from it's place on the floor, looking very much like a rabid beach ball. And looking scary at the same time.
"Demitri, what do I do?" I shout in my head, trying my best not to freak out and run. "This thing looks like it wants to eat my face!"
"Draw your sword, you idiot!" he replies angrily, "That's what it's there for!"
"I'm not even gonna consider doing that!" I scream back, dodging yet another one of those things by doing a face plant. "I don't even know how to use it!"
"If you don't want to die in this place, then you're gonna have to learn, and now's probably the best time to start!"
I contemplate that for a second…before making a half-annoyed, half-panicky sound, getting to my feet, and clumsily drawing the sword that is still tied to my side. I point it in what I think is a threatening way at the rat monster, waiting for it to do something. Somehow, it looks a lot more wary to approach me with the sword out.
However, I only seem to achieve pissing it off more, as it then hisses and jumps at my face again. It doesn't get far, though, as I end up panicking again and smack it through the air with the flat end of the sword. It goes flying, and just barely misses hitting Yuri in the head (oops). He doesn't notice, though, as he's beating off a couple of other rats.
I hear more hissing at me feet, and see that I now have two of the little devils to deal with. However, since I know next to nothing about using a sword (as I've mentioned to Demitri at least twice), I start randomly swinging the thing at the monsters like I'm trying to hit a golf ball.
However, in this case, the golf ball is two little furry balls with sharp teeth.
"Don't do that, you idiot!" screams Demitri in my head, "You'll damage the blade that way! Swing it the right way!"
I completely ignore him though, as I scream again when I end up actually hitting one of them with the sharp end of my blade. It ends up effectively impaling the monster's side with a loud squelch, and blood sprays onto the sewer floor.
"Eweweweweeeeeew!" I shriek, violently shaking my sword in a vain attempt to dislodge the (now dead) rat from the blade. The other little freak is trying to bite my feet at the same time, so as I'm doing this, I'm hopping from one foot to the other to prevent being nibbled on.
I'm pretty sure I look ridiculous.
Finally, the dead rat flings off of my blade, and without bothering to looks where it landed, I kick the other one away from my feet, and, when it leaps at me again, whack it with the flat side of the sword. It goes flying, landing in some of the sewage water with a comical splash sound.
After that, I look around for a couple of seconds, seeing how many more there are…only to see that there aren't any. Seems that while I was flailing like a madwoman, Yuri and Estelle had managed to take care of the rest of them, and were watching me take care of my own group.
Which is why they are now staring at me with weird looks.
Cue my entire face turning red in embarrassment.
"…That should take care of it." Yuri says after a moment, and after sparing me one more look, goes to look for his sword sheath…which for some reason, he tossed to the side before the battle started. I take the opportunity to quickly (and clumsily) put my own blade back in it's sheath, almost cutting myself in the process.
"Do they, um, always attack in groups like that?" I ask, my face still slightly red. I frown outwardly when I hear Demitri snort in my head. I tell him to shut up, then look back to Yuri, who is still trying to find his sheath.
"I was thinking the same thing, actually." Estellise says, doing the same as me and looking at our third companion. "I didn't know what to do when they all attacked at once."
"You generally have to defeat each monster one by one," replies Yuri, not looking in our direction, "But sometimes they come in groups."
"Really?" Estellise puts a hand to her chin for a moment, before nodding to herself. "We should be more careful when we go ahead, then."
"No kidding." I mutter, half to myself. I'm not heard by the other two, and Yuri continues with his little explanation.
"You can take on a monster one at a time, or take them on in a group. Your choice." He stops for a second, then crouches down next to a small crate near the edge of the walkway. When he stands up again, he's holding his sheath, and proceeds to replace his sword.
"Um, Yuri." Estellise pipes up, gaining his attention. "Which way should we go?" She points down the walkway, and as I look, I see that farther down, it splits off into different directions, all leading to further areas.
Yuri looks for a second, then shrugs. "Whichever. Let's just get out of here."
"Ditto to that." I say aloud. I get a strange look from Estellise, then we both follow Yuri, who had started on without us.
Just as we leave the area, I take one last look back to the monster corpses we left behind. I give an involuntary shudder, then quickly follow behind the other two.
At least my mind's off the horrible smell now.
Flynn - Part 1
Yuri: Have you and Flynn known each other a long time?
Estellise: Umm…Two, maybe three years…? Something like that…
Yuri: Huh…So he's been getting along all right in the castle?
Estellise: Flynn is a very hard-working and honest knight. It seems like everyone trusts him. The other day, he told me that they've been giving him more responsibility lately, too.
Yuri: Hard-working and honest. Right. In other words, hard-headed and obsessive.
Estellise: Hmm?
Be Thankful to Strangers
Estellise: I really need to thank whoever told you about this underground passage.
Yuri: Why would you need to be thankful for something like that?
Estellise: I'm trying to get out of the castle, same as you.
Yuri: That's all well and good…but there's no need to be thankful because of it.
Estellise: Oh no. We must show courtesy to those who show us kindness.
Cassie: I'm gonna agree with Estellise here…though they could have told us of a place that didn't smell so bad.
Yuri: Sort of weird to be polite to someone you've never met, don't you think?
Cassie: …Not really, no.
Estellise: Manners are never so important as when dealing with those whom we have yet to be acquainted.
Yuri: You really think so, huh?
Estellise: I know so.
Cassie: Yep. You can be impolite with people after you get to know them.
Estellise: …That isn't right either!
I'm gonna kill whoever thought it was a good idea to put large crates in an underground sewer.
Since our fight with the rat monsters, our little group has been traveling farther down the walkways of the sewer…which was smelling worse the farther we went, I might add. And there was a lot of stuff further in too. Apparently, the people of wherever-we-are have just decided to throw the most random crap down their toilets, because there's a whole bunch of random stuff down here. At one point we were stopped because there was a table in our way (the hell…?).
However, the object that's causing us the most trouble is the one previously mentioned above.
I have absolutely no idea why, but for some reason, somebody decided to leave massive crates all over the walkways. I don't know what they're fillled with, or why they're even in a sewer to begin with, but they're taller than I am, and about twice as heavy. And due to their size, we couldn't just walk around them, and we couldn't see over them to let us know if we were going the right way.
So our only option was to push them around and see where they lead.
"This is…friggin'…ridiculous." I gasp, putting all my strength at pushing forward the box I'm currently working on. Due to the sheer number of crates down here, we all decided to split up into three of the largest walkways and see where they took us. So far, on my path, I've managed to push about three crates out of the way (rather difficultly), and now I'm working on the fourth.
Which, for whatever reason, seems to be bigger and heavier than the others.
I guess it's just life fucking with me again.
"Quit complaining and put your back into it. You're not gonna get out of here quicker, otherwise."
"Easy… for you to say!" I retort in my head, now digging my heels into the floor in order to push the crate. "You aren't the one…doing the heavy lifting here!"
He scoffs, but otherwise remains silent. One achievement, I suppose.
I let out a small yelp when the box behind me suddenly lurches, causing me to fall flat on my back, but not before my head slams into the side of the crate. I'm then left on the ground clutching my head, uttering a few choice swear words.
Sudden sense of déjà vu.
After a few seconds of that, something suddenly catches my eye. It's hard for me to make it out at first, since I'm looking at it upside down, but after a while I finally see what it is.
A ladder. Leading up to a square plate in the ceiling.
"Hey, guys." I call out, rolling onto my stomach as I do. "I think I found something."
"And what would that be?" Yuri's voice comes from my right somewhere.
"I'm preeeetty sure it's a way out." I call back, pulling myself all the way onto my feet, then proceed to walk over to the ladder, looking it over. "You might wanna come over here to make sure."
"On it." This is followed by a loud scraping noise, which I guess is him pushing a box out if the way. While I wait for him (and possibly Estellise), I continue to look over the ladder.
It looks about the same as the ladder that led us down here, just a more blue-ish color. It doesn't look slimy at all, so that's a plus. I'm guessing that the plate up there is about the same as a manhole cover, so I'm gonna assume that this leads somewhere outside.
"Wow, brilliant deduction there. I'm pretty sure a five year old could figure that out."
"Oh, shut up." Before he can retort, I hear footsteps behind me, and suddenly Yuri appears by my side, Estellise right behind him. He looks over the ladder for a second, before nodding.
"This looks like the way out." he says, confirming my theory. He looks over to me. "Good work finding it."
I shrug. "It was just dumb luck. Don't get used to it." He gives me a half shrug, before starting up the ladder, motioning Estellise and I to follow.*
I let Estellise go ahead of me so I can grab my bag off the floor (I dropped it when I was pushing the crates), then run back and follow them up the ladder, being careful not to let my bag strap snag on anything.
When I'm about halfway up the ladder, I hear a large scraping noise above me, and when I look up, I see that Yuri's fiddling around with the large plate. This continues for a second, then suddenly, light appears at one of the sides, effectively blinding me and causing me to shut my eyes. The noise continues for a few more seconds as the light grows stronger, then stops. I slowly open my eyes, and see that the plate has now been replaced by a hole showing a blue sky, slightly obscured as Yuri climbs out of the hole. I follow Estellise up the rest of the way, and we all finally emerge from the sewer.
Yuri helps me out of the opening, and when I'm standing upright, I get a look around. It seems the hole led us to a courtyard just outside of the castle, and judging by the bright sky, I'd say it's morning by now. I see that the hole we just came out of wasn't covered by a plate, but by some sort of statue…that actually looks similar to the one covering the opening leading into the sewer.
I have no idea why I noticed that.
"Man, it's bright." I hear Yuri say, and I see him looking up at the sky. He sighs. "It's already morning. I wasted an entire night." Even though I have no idea what he's talking about, I pay attention to him as he looks around. "Looks like it led to the Royal Quarter."
"…Royal Quarter?" I ask Demitri. I could just ask Yuri, but I don't want to look stupid.
"It's what they call the rich district of this city, Zaphias. Please try and remember that."
"Yeah, yeah." I tune back in to the other two. Estellise is looking around at every thing, kind of like I was, with a sort of amazed expression.
"Everything looks so different from the windows of the castle." she says, and I notice slight awe in her voice. I raise an eyebrow. Has she never been out of that place, or something?
Yuri seems to read my mind, turning to Estellise. "Aw c'mon. You sound like this is your first time out of the castle."
I see her blush at this, and then starts fiddling with her fingers. "…Um, well, I…"
The swordsman spares her a glance, then shrugs. "I guess a lady who lives in a castle can't just take a walk outside whenever she wants." He gives a little grin, then holds a hand up towards her. "Well, hey, at least we made it out of the castle."
She walks over to Yuri, and gives his hand a confised look. After a second, she just…gives his palm a little poke. I have no idea why she did that, as I'm pretty sure he was looking for a high five, but Yuri doesn't seem to mind. He just chuckles a bit.
Estellise lowers her hand as I hold back my own giggles. "Um. Was that not right?"
"Nah…" he replies, and I can tell he's holding back a laugh. "It's fine." He shakes his head a bit, then continues. "So Estellise, what are you gonna do now that you're out?"
She gives him a determined look. "I'm going to find Flynn."
Yuri raises an eyebrow. "Do you know where he went?"
"The other day, he said he was going off on a knight's pilgrimage."
"Ooh, that thing." Yuri puts a hand on his hip. "Going around the cities of the empire piling up good deeds?"
Estellise nods. "Yes. That's why I'm going to the City of Blossoms, Halure. Halure is the first place that the knights traditionally visit on a pilgrimage."
"I don't understand a thing they're saying, Demitri."
"Just listen, you nitwit."
I listen back in as Yuri puts a hand to his chin. "So you'll need to go outside the barrier."
"Have you ever been outside the barrier?" Estellise asks him.
"Demitri, what the hell are they talking about?"
"Ugh. Look up!"
I do as he asks, ignoring the other two for a moment. I don't know why I'm doing this…until I see a giant glowing ring above my head. As I watch it, I see some weird letters of sorts spinning around inside the ring, though I have no idea what they say.
"…What is that?" I ask Demitri, staring at it in awe.
"That is what they call a barrier. It's what protect the cities in this world from roaming monsters. It's made by a type of one of those blastia things they have here."
"So it's like a force field of sorts?" Pause. "Cool."
"Hey, you coming?"
"Whu-" I snap out of my daze to see Yuri and Estellise standing a distance away, staring at me. It seems that they had started going ahead of me, but noticed that I wasn't following.
Cue me blushing again. "Uh…sorry. I'm coming." I run to catch up with them as we walk into the city.
"Try not to get lost along the way, will you? We don't need any more trouble."
Fuck you, Demitri.
Wheeeeeeeee, DONE.
I thought that was a kind of weird way to end a chapter, but well…couldn't think of anything else. XD
Christmas break is coming up soon, so I maaaaay just get a chapter up much sooner next time! YAY.
'Nother random play list time!:
*This Is Gonna Hurt - Sixx.A.M
*Monster - Skillet
*Awake and Alive - Skillet
*Burn - Papa Roach
*All the Same - Sick Puppies
*Ezio's Family - Assassin's Creed II Soundtrack
*Venice Rooftops - Assassin's Creed II Soundtrack
Snuck some AC in there. I will stop doing these sooner or later.
Also, gonna go back and edit the chapters because of some stupid mistakes. Let me know if there are any in here that I missed so I can fix them too.
**Forgot to add this, but I finally have a pic of Demitri up in my deviantART! Go see for yourself! Just remove the spaces first. (if it doesn't work, just check out the link to my homepage.)
htt p:/ natsu kiayaka. dev iant art. com/ art/O C-Dem itri-2 731 953 11
Next time: OH SHIT GIANT STAMPEDE OF PEOPLE AAAAAAAAAA