Which Is The Dream?
Chapter 2: Weapons and Animals
Summary: Tiffany and Fiona get their real weapons, before joining the fight to protect the garrison.
Author's Notes: When there is a break line, and the story starts saying 'I' instead of 'Tiffany' or 'Fiona' then it is from the perspective of whoever just went inside the tent.
"This way," Tiffany calls, running across the bridge towards the garrison.
"Coming," Fiona responds, charging after her sister, inside the garrison, they see another waypoint, Garrison Waypoint.
"Hello," says a woman, coming up to them, "Would you like to fight?"
"Yes Ma'am," Tiffany responds politely,
"This way, then, you will need to be tested for your weapon," she says, leading them toward a corner.
"Hello," says a man, "Who wants to go first?"
"I'll go," Fiona replies,
"Alright then," he says leading her into a tent, "You stay there for a minute," he says to Tiffany.
Inside the tent there are racks of weapons everywhere, I follow him into the middle of the tent, and stand in front of him. He looks me in the eyes for a minute and then heads toward one of the walls and takes down various weapons, then he comes back and lays them all down at my feet.
"These are all the weapons you will ever work well with," he tells me, "choose one for now and then we will go on to the second step."
I look at all the weapons and instantly recognize most of them. They are sorted into three piles. In the first pile there is a greatsword and a staff. In the second pile there is an axe, a scepter, and a sword. In the third pile there is a focus, a pistol, a shield, a sword, and a torch. Then there is another pile that is kind of off to the side, in it there is a spear and a trident, I know that these are underwater weapons.
"Each pile is a separate category," the man begins, "This first pile is two-handed weapons, the second pile is main-hand weapons, and the third pile is off-hand weapons, they all do different things."
"I choose these ones," I decide, as I pick up two weapons, one from the main-hand pile, and the other from the off-hand pile.
"The one you picked up from the main-hand pile is a sword, it also has a duplicate in the off-hand pile, it is the only one that has a duplicate. The one you picked up from the off-hand pile is a focus, any questions?"
"You mean...you mean, I can't use a bow any more?"
"Well...it is advised and highly recommended that you shouldn't, it will be harder to use and won't flow as easily as these weapons," here he gestures to the ones that are still lying at our feet, "With lots of practice you might be able to make it work, though never as good as any of these ones." again he points to the floor where the others rest.
"Okay, thank you," I say, as I scrutinize my new weapons, I turn to go out before i remember that he had said something about a second step, when I turn back he is putting up all the rest of the weapons on their respective racks.
"Now," he says, "Come here and we will do the second step, I follow him to the rack where he had put up the weapons that I didn't choose, there was a small pile of masks on the ground, he lays them out so I can see them more clearly, one is of a smiling face, another is of a frowning face, and the last a face of fierceness. I choose the last one.
"That," he says, as he points to the one I'm holding, "Is the Fanged Dread, your enemies will fear your face, put it on." I obeyed, then he pulls out a mirror so I can see how I look, I smile, though I can't see it in the mirror because of the mask. "Good, now take your weapons and...oh, right." he quickly shuffles to the other end of the tent, I follow him to a corner where I see a big bundle of leather, he looks at me for about ten seconds before he turns back to the pile and digs through it for a few minutes. After a while, he stands up with a belt in his hands.
"This," he says, as he starts to wrap it around my waist, "Is what you will hold your weapons in, this one only has four slots, for two weapons sets, you can buy ones with more slots at vendors or leather workers, but for now, work with this."
"Thank you," I say, as I put my weapons in the slots, one on each side of my waist, "Is that it?"
"Yes, you are done now," he says, "Your profession is mesmer, and I have chosen your weapons accordingly. Now, go get your friend and I will do her,"
"Okay," I reply before leaving, "And she's my sister,"
As Fiona walks outside the tent she sees Tiffany pulling back her bowstring before releasing it and hitting a centaur squarely between the eyes, Fiona sighs.
"Hey Fi! You're out, Finally! What's it like?"
"Figure it out for yourself,"
"Hey!" Tiffany says in exasperation, "...What's wrong Fi?"
"Figure it out for yourself," she answers again, both girls burst out laughing before Fiona says, "I can't use a bow,"
"What! What do you mean? You were using one earlier,"
"That just it, I was using it, but I was horrible with it, it didn't work out, you saw me! I have to use these weapons!" Fiona tells her sister, grinning as she gestures to her waist, "It will be really hard for me to learn to use a bow, so I'll just stick with these weapons."
"Alright, but where did you get that mask,"
"I suggest you stop worrying about my mask, and go find out."
"Alright," Tiffany says, as she walks into the tent.
"Hello," the man tells me as he walks over, "Come here,"
I walk over to the middle of the tent to stand in front of him, he looks me in the eyes intently for a while, before nodding in satisfaction and walking over to a corner of the tent. Here he lay down 4 piles of weapons.
"This first pile," he says, "Is two-handed weapons, in the second pile is main-hand weapons, and in the third pile is off-hand weapons."
"What about the fourth pile?"
"That is underwater weapons, which you won't be using," he says, putting them away, as he does this, I see that there is a harpoon gun and a spear. In the first pile there is a greatsword, a longbow, and a short bow. In the second pile there is a sword, an axe, and a dagger. In the third pile there is an axe, a dagger, a torch, and a warhorn.
"As you can see," he says, "There are some similar ones in both piles, you can use two of the same kind if you wish, or not.
"I choose these ones," I say, as I pick up two weapons from the two-handed pile,
"I'm sorry, you can only choose one weapon," he tells me,
"What, but...but Fiona has two weapons!"
"That," he says, "Is because she chose a main-hand weapon and an off-hand weapon, which together make a weapon set, but only one two-handed weapon also makes a weapon set."
"Oh...okay, that makes sense,"
"You may reconsider you options,"
I look over the weapons on the floor again and then back at the ones in my hand, "I'll take the bow,"
"Good choice," he says, "That is a longbow, now wait a minute for me to put the rest of these away and then we will go on to the second step." I am surprised that there is more than one step, Fiona didn't tell me about that, it must be where she got her mask. I watch him put away the weapons, then he motions me over, I walk over and he pulls down a quiver full of arrows.
"Since you have chosen a bow, you must also have a quiver, and you won't have a belt since both go on your back," he shows me how to put my quiver on, and how to sling my bow on my back. "There," he says when he is finished, "Come with me now," and with that he led me out of the tent.
"Shouldn't I get a mask?" I ask nervously,
"No, that is for mesmers, like your sister. You, however, have the profession of ranger. Therefore you will get a pet, you may tame more juvenile ones in the wild if you come across one around the place it lives, but for now you will have a starting pet."
When I go past Fiona, she doesn't see me, but I see her giving a centaur a finishing blow with her sword. We go out the other side of the garrison opposite the bridge and there is one big pen full of different animals. "Here," he tells me "Is where you will pick your starting pet, he or she will be with you until one of you dies, and your bond will grow together."
I'm not paying very much attention to his words, but am more focused on all the scary animals in the pen.
"I will name each of the animals as I point them out to you. There is a drake, a fern hound, a bear, a moa, a snow leopard, a stalker, a devourer, and a wolf. There are plenty of drakes around here, so I suggest you don't get one of those, you just have to find a nice young one and tame it. You might consider getting a fern hound since they live all the way back in the grove. I'm not quite sure where bears live. Moas also live around here, you could probably get Cassie to give you one, she has a moa ranch. Snow leopards live up with the norn. I'm not sure where stalkers or devourers live either, and wolves also live up around Hoelbrak."
I am eying the man incredulously, "Bears, wolves, devourers!?"
"You need something to fight for you,"
"I guess," I say, before cautiously going into the pen and standing at the entrance. The snow leopard pads forward and noses at my feet, I try not to fidget and slowly pet it. I find myself stepping a little farther in, and soon I'm surrounded by dangerous beasts. After a while with the animals, I'm sitting down with the bear playing with him, there were even times when I thought the bear was getting a little too close to me and I was uncomfortable, and it started scooting away a little bit.
In the end, when I came out of the pen, I had the male bear with me.
"What was that you said earlier about some sort of bond with your animal?"
"When a ranger has a companion that they spend a lot of time with, the ranger and their companion grow close through a special bond that only rangers have. It's almost like you can read each other's minds, you can actually, but think of it like this. There's a container for your thoughts and memories, and a container for his thoughts and memories, then there's an empty container in the middle, with tubes going from your container to the one in the middle, and one from the middle to his, and you can both put thoughts and memories into it and the other one can look at them. Though for you to get a connection that strong you'll have to practice a lot."
"Where's your mask...ahh!" suddenly Fiona is attacking the bear with swords swinging.
"Fiona!" Tiffany yells, as the bear does a running leap and knocks Fiona to the ground before standing over her with his teeth bared and growling. Fiona holds perfectly still looking up at Tiffany, wondering why she isn't attacking.
"Come here," she says, before her bear gives Fiona a look and walks back to Tiffany. Fiona stands up and dusts herself off.
"Fiona, meet my pet bear...Beorn. Beorn, Fiona is a friend, she won't hurt you...anymore." This statement seems to considerably cheer up Beorn.
"What was that all about?"
"Oh, I didn't get a mask because I'm not a mesmer, I'm a ranger, so I get a pet, and I chose a bear, which I'm naming Beorn."
"Well, I think we've dawdled here long enough, let's go kill some centaurs!"
With that, Tiffany unslings her bow, and Fiona unsheathes her sword, and they charge into the mass of centaurs. Fiona runs up a couple feet away from a centaur before a clone appears, Tiffany can't tell which one is the clone, and after a second it looks like they've switched places, before the one that was far the away runs up to the centaur and shatters, before the remaining one, slashing with her sword faster than Tiffany thought possible, blurs for a second before coming back into focus, her frenzie done and looking worn out.
Then, Tiffany shoots a mighty shot a the centaur, throwing it backwards about 15 feet, before fast-shooting like Fiona had just done with her sword.
"What did you do!?" the question is asked twice at the exact same time, "Jinx!"
"Well," Fiona begins, "I was just using my sword, it also gives me a little bit of distortion, so I blur for a second.
"I was just using my bow,"
"Then how can you take arrows out of your quiver so fast!?"
"I don't know, it just happens."
"Not so fast!" Fiona shouts as she sees an approaching centaur, "In here," she tells Tiffany. Tiffany turns toward Fiona and looks startled to see, not a clone of Fiona, but a phantasm, that had erected a large bubble. Tiffany goes inside the bubble just as an arrow from the centaur is being shot. Tiffany tenses as the arrow comes toward them, but it just bounces off the bubble onto the ground a few feet in front of them. Meanwhile the phantasm that Fiona had summoned is throwing axes at the centaur, but other centaurs also come to the lone centaurs aid.
This time, both Tiffany and Fiona have tricks up their sleeve. Fiona makes a wall (more like a curtain that springs up from the ground) that looks like it's made from mesmer magic, spring up behind them, by now the bubble is gone and the phantasm dead. Fiona turns around and runs away, Tiffany turns to look behind her, to tell Fiona not to be afraid of a couple centaurs, but when she sees the curtain that Fiona put up, she thought it must be something special, and followed her sister through, and indeed it was. When Tiffany ran across it, she ran like the wind, to stand beside Fiona ten feet away from the curtain. When the centaurs get to the curtain and cross it, they start going more slowly, the opposite of what had happened to Tiffany and Fiona. Tiffany took her chance, now that they weren't moving so fast, and shot arrows into the sky, they rained down on the centaurs slowing them even more, by the time the last centaur in the back gets close to the girls, all the rest are dead.
Tiffany does another powerful shot, and blasts the centaur back twenty feet this time, before shooting it until it dies.
"This is fun!" Fiona shouts, making another veil, that the girls run through before charging after some more centaurs, "I don't need a bow, I love my own precious weapons!" Fiona runs up to a centaur and slides under it, while doing so she creates her phantasm with the shield again, throwing the centaur in the air, while it's in the sky, Tiffany takes her chance and shoots it back into the crowd of centaurs, knocking down many, before they all come charging, Fiona puts down another veil, slowing all the centaurs, before leaping in, and slicing them all open with her sword. One of Fiona favourite things to do it make her shield in front of her, run up it, and jump on the nearest centaur, stabbing behind its neck before leaping to the next one, which Tiffany shoots down, and when Fiona jumps to the next one, she does her push-back shot, flinging it into another horde of centaurs where Fiona continues centaur hopping, the cycle continues.
Author's Notes: Hey guys! A very heartfelt special thanks to: Aina Amaria who gave me a wonderful review. One of the things she said was how much she liked the battle scenes, and that makes me happy, there is no other way to put it. It makes the story seem like a success, because that was most of the reason why I made the story.
Her review also helped me to start writing, it was like a little spurt of writing I had and planned to continue, but that never happened, but after her review, I just decided to post again, after hearing that she actually liked my story.
As always, you should read my sisters story, it started out as one story 'Tyria's Real!?' but then continued on to another story, 'Soldiers Scholars and Spies' and now she is working on the third book in the Tassof series 'United We Stand'.
I decided to stop it here because it was getting a little long and I didn't know where to stop. (I should never say that, I've always told people that a chapter is never too long!) If you want the story to go anywhere in particular for the next chapter or so, please tell me and I'll see if I can fit it in somewhere, especially if I don't have anything else planned for the chapter! And please help me brainstorm another name for the story.