Chapter 3: Introductions and Other Painful Things.
"Josh. Joshy. Joshywoshy-" Shayna's annoying attempts to get my attention were silenced by me flinging a fireball in her direction. Luckily, she managed to get out of the way of it, it continuing on its merry way and setting Robbie's hair on fire.
Note to self Josh: Don't kill the White Mage.
"Josh. Seriously, snap out of it. We need to talk," said Mathew, flinging a Water spell at Robbie, nearly drowning the poor bastard.
"If it's about Kathryn, forget it," I snapped.
"Get over it for 2 seconds. Where are we? What the hell is going on?" said Shayna, hammer raised threatening.
"Ok. Once upon a time, there were a group of friends who woke up to find themselves assigned different roles, fighting monster and setting up a camp on the edge of a lake with a fucking castle on the other side. You wanna know where I think we are? Fine. I think we are in Final fucking Fantasy!" I ranted, toasting a nearby tree with a Fire spell to get the point across.
Ok, clarification time.
My name is Josh. Don't ask for a last name, you won't get one. My family can rot for all I care. Anyway, I am, well WAS, a normal high school student. You know, exams, stress, relationship issues, all that shit. And these people that are annoying the crap out of me are, mostly, my friends.
Mathew, my bestie, partner in crime and the closest thing I'll have to a brother.
Lathen, my oldest friend, the one guy who has always been there.
Robbie. My other partner in crime, and general great mate.
Kyle, Reece and Nick, the silly ones. Always doing dumb things.
Deanna, Harley, and Amylee, the voices of something that looks like reason.
Hannah, Lathen's nutty as fuck girlfriend.
Charles and Tayla, friends and my main reasons for something resembling sanity. Mostly Tayla though. Charles doesn't really help half the time.
Sam and Morgan, the bloody lovebirds.
And Kathryn. Let's just say, that she pisses me off is an understatement.
We were normal school students. Until something happened and we got dumped in the world of Final Fantasy.
End clarification!
Anyway, I was looking over the landscape, marvelling at the peacefulness of it all, when I heard footsteps.
"Final Fantasy, huh?" asked Mathew, sitting on one side of me.
"Yeap," I replied.
"For real?" said Robbie, jamming his claymore into the ground and leaning back against it.
"Yeap."
"So, that would us..." said Mathew.
"Yeap."
"And that means..." questioned Robbie.
"Yeap. Tomorrow, we go there," I said, pointing at the castle.
"Great." All three of us muttered. We looked at each other, then cracked up laughing.
We walked back to the camp, which actually looked like something of the sort, as the sun was setting, Robbie and I dragging a deer we had managed to catch. Mathew walked on ahead, due to him killing the poor creature. Dumping the deer on the ground, Robbie then produced a knife and got to work gutting it and turning it into something edible, since he had done this before and all.
"So, what's cracking?" I asked, plonking myself on a comfortable patch of dirt.
"Well, we have dirt to sleep on, and we've chased off the rest of the goblins," said Shayna, who was dusting off her robes, which I noticed had red patterns all along the each of them.
"No luck lighting a fire though," said Charles, sitting down beside me and holding up a fist. I responded by bumping knuckles with him and then by lobbing a Fire spell at the small pile of sticks that Charles had gathered.
"Well, that's one problem down," he said, scratching his head, and then standing to go find more wood. As he stood, I noticed that his clothes were very earthy coloured, all greens and browns, and very simple as well. Hanging off his left hip was a small sword, and his right was some sort of animal horn.
"Well, I say we get everyone back here and talk about this," I said, tossing a small stick into the fire.
"Ok. If this world is what I think it is, then we just became very important people," I said. It was dark by now, but luckily the fire was casting off enough light for me to see everyone. They could see me clearly, namely because I was holding a Flare orb in my right hand.
"And, if I'm right, then we are gonna go through hell and back."
"Well, it can't get any worse than those things, right?" mused Reece, his mage cap sitting on the ground beside him, one arm around Deanna.
"If I'm right, those things are the least of our worries," I said, getting a kick out of watching Reece's customary grin fade away.
"Anyway, we need to work out what we can do. What... Abilities we have. I'm a Black Mage. Mathew's a Red Mage. He can cast magic and fight decently. Robbie's a Warrior. Shayna's a White Mage, a healer. Which means she's THE most important one out of us." That got a grin from Shayna, and sighs from everyone else. "Hey. She dies, we die. Simple as that. I'm guessing that Nick is a Dragoon, and that Harley is a Holy Dragoon. Can't see much, sorry. Anyway, Deanna's a Dark Knight, and... Kathryn's a Paladin. For whatever reason. For the rest of us... I dunno. We are gonna have to sort this tomorrow," I said, finishing and letting the Flare orb dissipate.
"Wait, why?" asked Harley, shifting slightly, his armour clinking.
"Because I'm bloody tired and am, quite frankly, sick of this shit. Anyone gonna argue with me?" I said, anger flaring up. No one answered.
"Good. Now, goodnight. I need sleep. And coffee. But mostly sleep." And with that, I laid on my side and shut my eyes.