Ahhh! im noting a lack of reviews here, so i dunno whether you guys like it or not. Please review to let me know, coz if no one's reading i dunno if i should continue...
Enjoy!
Chapter 3: Crimea
"Ow, Ow! Stop, Lady, no. Ow!" he screamed, "For the love of the Goddess, it hurts!"
Genro sat up straight on the rattan stool, staring at his groaning companion. He toyed with his axe absently, trying to maintain his silence while the important looking people discussed incessantly. His Aniki Dieck, however, was not able to attain that much of a success.
Genro couldn't blame the boy. After all, he was just a kid, and any average kid his age would most certainly have died from that blast, however strong that barrier may have been…
"Genro… Genro?"
"What? Who… oh, yes. Dart-sama, what can I do for you?"
Genro glanced up to the legendary Berserker, famed throughout the Western Isles for his exploits with the group who eventually took down that-evil-one. He remembered the last time he saw Dart-sama. Then, he himself had been a kid.
"Well, we were hoping that you two could make introductions."
Two? What about that eerie mage guy, thought Genro. Nevertheless, he stood up and introduced himself.
"The name's Genro. I'm an axe fighter, though by class rankings I'm very much more a Pirate than a Fighter. This boy here, he's a Ranger. His name is Dieck. He hails from Etruria, although I sorta picked him up in the Isles. Don't look at his face, he's real clever, a tactician of sort."
The last line gained him a snort from the mage, who stood up and walked into the circle. The young mage fixed into place a wall of arrogance around himself, demanding respect and instaneous attention.
"My name: Soren, everything else, you don't have to know. Knowing too much will harm you."
At this Dieck began to protest, but Soren held a hand to his face. Either the urgency of the motion, or the reminder of the ripping winds in his face caused Dieck to stand down and shut up, but it worked all the same.
"Seriously, Lord Pent, do we have to bring these … people along?"
"As far as I remember you let a whole lot of people into our troupe the last time around."
"… At least they were… capable."
"We can't just leave them here, can we? I gather that they probably know something about the deserts round here."
Soren nodded, easily suppressing a need to disagree. He had been through many of these 'join-or-not' situations, and as far as he could remember, the nobles had always said yes…
Nobles…Hmph
"Fine. I suppose we'll break camp tomorrow."
- - - - - - - - - -
Dieck twisted and tossed on the ground, unable to sleep. The beds had been given to the two lords and that mage Soren, and he had to sleep on the cold hard floor. Not that it mattered too much; even Genro was already fast asleep beside him. What bothered him was this turn of events, and that now he was subordinate to some Count of Reglay in Etruria.
He had left Etruria for about a year now. He remembered leaving because of the impending arrival of the Bern army to his village. The villagers had scattered in all directions, some to Ilia by water, some heading west, as he did, to the Isles. The strongest of them went straight to Lycia for help, though it was unknown if they… survived.
Unable to sleep, he stood up, grabbed an iron sword and made his way out of the encampment. However, as he arrived, he noticed someone sitting on the cool sands. This person was gazing up at the stars, and on his face was written an expression of desire.
A yearning.
He was dressed in strange yet familiar robes, and Dieck couldn't remember ever seeing this person. He had long hair, but his face was clean shaven, revealing a flawless face that was only about 20 years old. This person had a pair of blood red eyes, but what was most unique was the mark on his forehead. It was like the capital letter 'N', but curvier, with a single vertical line drawn down the diagonal of the letter.
Like an axe…
Dieck stood there for a long while, but soon grew impatient. He realized that the only way he could ever discern the identity of the person was to just to, well, ask. Warily, he made his way to the person, and then sat down beside him.
"Uh… Hi" Said Dieck. What the hell am I saying…?
"Um… I mean, identify yourself" Goddess… help me with this…
The person shrugged, but said nothing.
"My… name is Dieck… and I, err want to know what you are doing here.
"I'm looking at the stars. Look there, that's the star of the Crimea. Where I belong," He pointed to a constellation that looked, to Dieck, like a lotus.
"It's the place I come from... But I don't know how to return."
"Really? I bet there must be a star of Etruria too! Uh there it is" Dieck pointed to the largest star that he could find.
"That's the moon."
The person stood up and wiped the sand off his robes. He walked back into the encampment, mumbling something about thanking dart for the razor.
"Eh!" Shouted Dieck, realization hitting him like a blot from the blue. "Soren?"
Dieck sat there for a while more, trying to remember and ingest all that just happened.
"Crimea…"
- - - - - - - - - -Right. It's rather short, and I won't call this a good piece, but this is an Idea I have for like, a support conversation. I'm sure you noticed, but im really trying to push Dieck and Soren together. Give me Ur opinions on whether I should write more of these convos or not.
Thanks for reading