Legami de Grazie
Rated: T for violence, swearing, and the fact that the actually game is rated T.
Pairings: None shall be decided until the Adult Phase. As such, give me feed back on what pairings you think there should be! Also...I am leaning towards Isbel/Richard...Hm.
Warning: Er, none that I can think of from the top of my head.
Disclaimer: Not Mine~ Just thought you ought to know. Ya know, so you don't sue me? I don't have any money either...
AN: I'm such a horrible person. Also, thank you dearly for the reviews! :) Hopefully, James Sungo will grow up a little in a few years...
Phase 1
Child
Chapter 3
Assassin and To Banora
Isbel Lhant began to grin like a maniac when she saw the blond haired boy known to her as Richard standing in the garden. Cheria shook her head knowingly while both Hubert and Sophie had resolved to ignore the brunette's behavior. Happily bouncing over to the boy, Isbel grabbed both his hands. "You're really going to come?!"
Richard grumbled something that sounded vaguely like 'Not like I have much of a choice here...' Meanwhile, Hubert gave his sister a stern look, pushing her glasses up. "You do know Father will most likely notice Richard missing, right?" She paused and winced. Isbel would most definitely be grounded if their father found them...
"How about me and Hubert distract them if they ask?" Cheria spoke up, putting her hands on her hips. "We'll be vague and then start asking them questions, which will confuse them! So then, you can show Richard Lhant Hill." The brunette blushed slightly, embarrassed her friend had figured her out so fast.
The blond boy frowned. "Lhant Hill?"
Her expression returned to the beaming smile. "On Lhant Hill, Flowers bloom all the time! It's really cool~! Besides..." Isbel trailed off, glancing briefly at Sophie. "If we go back, Sophie might be able to remember more of her past. Good idea, ne?" The younger children muttered their agreement. Richard's eyes shone with curiosity while the older twin tail girl merely nodded once.
With the admittedly odd plan made, the group of five split into two groups, one of three, the other of two, and set off. Cheria and Hubert were going to have their hands full, especially when a certain fact about a certain Royal Knight was going to be made clear...On the flip side, Isbel and Sophie most likely had their own hands far fuller then their comrades in arms.
"Hey, Hey! Richard? What's it like in the Capital?"
"...Boring."
"Really? That's all?...Well, that sucks...I was kinda hoping for more."
"..."
"..."
'Well, this is rather awkward, is it not?'
"...Monster."
"Wha-Where?!"
"Oh no...!"
The trio gasped for air as they slowed to a stop by a familiar spring. Jeez, somehow, in only a day, it seemed the monster population had doubled! Isbel sighed to herself before turning to the spring. "Sophie! Look! It's that spring from before!" She leans over and cups her hands, tipping back the water she caught in it into her mouth. Sophie followed her example will the blond boy who had come with them hovered in the back ground nervously.
Isbel narrowed her eyes when she noticed this. "What? Think we poisoned the spring, Mister Prince?" She teased, grinning at him. Richard squeaked, though he would later deny it, and turned away with an embarrassed huff. The brunette laughed lightly while Sophie smiled gently.
Finally, the blond boy was bullied-I mean, convinced to take a sip of the water, only to have more when he realized there really wasn't anything wrong with it. This has caused the youngest of the trio to pout childishly while Sophie's tiny smile grew slightly.
(Had Isbel noticed, she would have been overjoyed to see her newer friend smiling instead of that stoic facade she always seemed to wear. Of course, she didn't, so there's no need to embarrass the purple twin tail.)
Jumping across the path to avoid the larger rocks that stuck out of the ground-"They're the reason there isn't any carriages up here, ya know?"- and the occasional monster-"The other reason why there aren't any carriages that go up here."- to pause at the edge of a familiar green field. For both Sophie and Richard, it was a beautiful sight. For Isbel, it was still beautiful...but it was also very familiar to her.
Leading the rest of the way into the flower field, the brunette spun with a happy grin. "This is where we found Sophie yesterday!"
"Found...?" Richard tipped his head to the side, a light frown of confusion on his lips as he did so. Isbel smiled and leaned forward before explaining to the older kid what had transpired the day before. The blond gave Isbel a 'that actually happened?' look that made the brunette pout. Richard held his hands up. "No offense, but it's just that sounds like something out of a fictional book."
Isbel huffed. "Read much of those, princey?" He flushed deeply in response.
Sophie giggled.
The other two gave her a blank stare.
The twin tail clasped her lips and gave them a confused look.
Richard and Isbel suddenly burst out into laughter. Sophie, after a few moments hesitation, smiled.
Once the younger two of the trio stopped their near hysterical laughter, they began to wander around the flower field with grins. Finally, Isbel leaned over a large bough of the huge tree that occupied the far end of the field, right by the cliff. "Ne, ne! I heard if you put your name on this tree, you'll be friends for as long as you live!" The brunette grinned at her other two friends, producing a sharp rock from behind her back.
To her pleasant surprise, Richard agreed as did her purple twin tail friend. Dragging them over, she engraved the name 'Isbel' into the bark before moving back, Soon enough, both Richard and Sophie had followed her example.
'I feel kind of left out.'
The pout she could feel from her dear Lupo made the girl sigh before moving back to the tree. Richard voiced his confusion as Isbel jerked in 'Lupo' just below the other three names. "Lupo is always here." She pouted at the blond. "If you say he doesn't exist, you'll be in trouble!"
"Where is he, then?" The blond asked curiously. Isbel puffed out her chest before tapping a finger to her temple. She received a blank stare and a mutter of 'nevermind' in reply. The brunette frowned but spun around on her heel, about to open her mouth and declare something...when she spotted someone on the other end of the field.
"Isn't that your creepy Royal Knight friend, Richard?" The blond muttered 'He's not my friend' when he slid up to Isbel's side.
Richard frowned at Bryce. "What're you doing here, Bryce?" The blond man smirked at them and Isbel felt an odd chill run down her spine.
Why was she suddenly terrified?
'ISBEL!'
Lupo's shout made her jerk slightly back.
'He's going to attack you! Get out of there!'
What?
In the end, it was only Lupo's forceful take over of her body that saved both Isbel and Richard from being killed. While normally Isbel would have been a little upset with her friend for just seizing control like that, right now, she was far more focused on defending her life as she pulled out her practice blade to fight back against the supposed Royal Knight.
"You're no Royal Knight!" The brunette snapped.
Bryce sneered. "No, I'm not. How did you ever guess?" The sarcasm in his voice made Isbel tremble slightly from anger. Behind her, Sophie stepped forward, her purple eyes blazing with anger.
"Don't hurt my friends." The man began to laugh at the twin tail's earnest statement and Isbel began to bristle. This guy...was really getting on her nerves. Gripping her blade tightly, She heard Richard pull out his own while Sophie raised her fists, ready to fight. Bryce laughed again, but didn't bother making another statement towards them.
Isbel pursed her lips. "We won't lose to you!" Because if we do...We'll...
'Better not finish that thought.'
Yeah.
The mock Knight raised his hands, which were clad in a pair of claws. His hands flashed out and the two sword wielders were forced to back away from him. On the other hand, Sophie dodged under the blows and smashed fists, hard, into Bryce's gut. Growling, he forced himself back. Isbel didn't let him, tripping him up with a well placed blow to the ankles. Richard spun and his sword glanced across the man's right forearm.
Bryce roared, enraged that a bunch of kids were actually beating him. He kicked out a leg, catching one of Sophie's arms. She seemed hardly fazed, but that didn't stop Isbel from lashing out at the man. Richard followed her attack with a quick jab to Bryce's side, between the metal plates of arm. The blond howled, and flashed a hand across the blond's face.
Tearing his face lightly with the blades of the man's claws, Richard was flung across the clearing...right to the edge of the cliff. The prince tettered back and forth. Isbel panicked before forcing herself to go after the older boy. Behind her, she heard what she assumed was Sophie right on her heels while Bryce followed further behind.
She reached out a hand and managed to snag the blond's only find she was now also following Richard off the cliff. Sophie grabbed her ankles...Bu when Isbel glanced over her shoulder, she saw Bryce. And he was smiling darkly. "Sophie-! Watch out-!" The twin tail turned her head slightly just as the man stabbed one of her legs with one hand and cracked the ledge with the other.
Next thing Isbel was conscious of was tumbling down a rocky cliff side...
'Isbel...?"
...
'Oh dear...you better not be dead! Isbel!"
...shut up...Lupo idiot...
'...Yeah, you're not dead.'
The brunette groaned. What in the world happened? When she finally pushed herself up, it was to see both of her friends that had accompanied her to Lhant Hill were curled up on either side of her. Isbel blinked.
Okaaay...
Somehow, they survived falling off the edge of a cliff. Yeah, let's go with that...
Shaking the two awake, she was met with panic from the blond prince("It's night time, dammit!" "Wow! Princey can swear!") and blank acceptance from Sophie. The latter wasn't all that surprising, honestly. Isbel stood with a contemplating frown on her lips while the blond panicked by the surf of the sea and the twin tail stood off to the side, seemingly uninterested.
Finally, once Isbel had convinced Richard they really weren't dead, the trio began to search for a way back up to the Flower Field. Soon enough, Sophie found a foot hold that would allow them to get up to an above path that would lead back up to the cliff. Isbel had cheered and Richard just looked on in relief.
They were all tired.
When they returned to the top of the hill, they met a small squad of knights. Richard quickly took charge of the situation by explaining to them what had happened. Isbel ended up standing off to the side, acting as a crutch to the still injured Sophie. Once the explanation was over, the knights brought over some gels and healed most of their nicks and scratches. The brunette was just relieved to see Sophie able to walk on her own again.
Isbel rubbed her arms to warm herself up as they walked to the Lhant Manor gates. Just beyond, she knew that her father would soon be rather...upset with her actions earlier that day. Sophie touched her arm lightly, as if trying to make sure she was alright. The brunette shot her a tiny smile to show the twin tail she was fine.
Whether or not she would be once they ran into her father was another thing entirely.
Richard was soon extracted from the two girls' company, leaving them to the tender mercies of a slightly panicky Frederic. Cheria was grimacing at them from the shadows as if to say 'sorry' for not keeping the older man off their tails. Isbel merely shrugged at her in return: The brunette would have been worried if the older male hadn't shown up as he had.
In fact, she rather relieved to see Frederic, though she would never admit it.
Sophie silently clung to the back of her jacket with one hand, giving everyone a defiantly blank look. Isbel just shifted from foot to foot as she wait for Aston to show.
As it turned out, Hubert was faster than their brunette father. "Be careful." The blue haired boy muttered. "He is really mad." No kidding? She thought sarcastically as she literally felt the man's angered aura. I just thought he was mildly irritated.
Closing her eyes, she leaned back against Sophie's hand and braced herself.
"Isbel Lhant!"
There he was.
Aston Lhant stood tall, his figure casting a shadow across the hall. Hubert winced at her side and only retreated after his sister muttered at him to go to their room. Sophie was soon forcibly escorted to her own room while Isbel continued to stare at some point past her father's shoulder: She was not going to meet his eyes, as that was usually a death sentence.
'Isbel...C`mon, let's just go say bye, alright?'
The brunette coldly ignored her constant companion, instead focusing on her fascinating study of her bedroom ceiling. Lupo let out an irritated sigh at his savior's current dismal attitude. Isbel resisted her sudden urge to stick her tongue out, knowing that the being wouldn't care a bit if she did so. Flipping onto her side, she glared at her brother's bed.
He's leaving me all alone.
'Now, don't say that. Hubert is coming back, he's just going to be gone for a week. Don't act like the world is about to end..."
Whatever.
But Isbel stood and left her bed to stare out the window. The window of her and her brother's room had a perfect view of the manor gates. As such, seeing when someone was leaving or coming was easy as pie. Thanks to that, she could clearly see her brother standing, hunched, besides their father. The brunette girl pursed her lips.
She did not blame Hubert, though she was vaguely irritated that her brother hadn't defended himself or his actions the night before. What was wron was that she had the mst horrible feeling that she wouldn't see her brother for a very long time of she just let him go to Banora. Closing her eyes, she cursed silently. Isbel would never make it to Banora alone. She'd need someone who could fight alongside her, in case of...monsters...
Two birds, with one stone.
By asking Sophie to come with her, she could easily be able to find her friend's family and make sure Hubert didn't vanish on her. Grinning to herself, the brunette set out to find her twin tail friend.
After dodging a frowning Frederic, an oddly distraught Kerri, the idiotic Sungo boy, and a pouting Cheria, Isbel found the older girl seated near a patch of flowers out in the gardens. Recognizing them as Sopherias, the very same flowers that the twin tail was named after, The brunette smiled slightly to herself. "Hey, Sophie." The girl looked up, surprise in her purple eyes at the sight of the younger girl.
"Sssh." Isbel pressed a finger to her lips. "They don't know I'm out here. C`mon, we're getting out of here."
Sophie frowned slightly. "Why?"
The brunette winced. "We need to find where you're from, right? And the capital, Banora, would be the best bet to finding it! Soooo..." Isbel drifted off, frowning at her friend's confused expression. "...Besides, I've got a feeling we need to be there. Is that weird?" Sophie finally stood, shaking her head lightly.
"W-well." Isbel twiddled her thumbs, finding her feet interesting. "If you want to come, I've got enough money to get a pass onto the ship there. We can even get a ride from the Turtlez to get there, too! They do short distances for free, and the port where the ferry is real close so..." She turned away, drilling the tip of her shoe into the dirt of the garden. "I won't force you to go. But I'm still going to go, regardless!"
She glanced up when the twin tail touched her arm. "...I want...to protect my friends." Sophie murmured. "And...Isbel is a friend. So, Sophie will come." Isbel gave the older girl a bemused look at the third person reference before taking her hand and sneaking out to the back wall.
There was no point in being caught this early on, now was there?
The duo snuck out past the guards, and to the brunette's great amusement, the town gates. She found it odd that they didn't bother to even look at the people they were letting out. Something that needed to be fixed, she mused, as the girl lead the way to what she knew was a Turtlez check point. Once they arrived, Sophie eyed the people that called themselves 'Turtlez' with guarded interest, though Isbel merely ignored the vast majority of them, focusing on a single older man instead
"We need a ride to the Banora Ferry port!" She declared, glaring up at him. "And if you want money, I've got it!" The man laughed at her and just shooed her away onto the transport, reminding her that the ride to the nearby port was completely free.
Didn't hurt to be careful, now did it?
Sophie silently clung to Isbel's sleeve as the two exited out onto the Ferry Port. The port didn't just have ferries to Banora, but it was what the port was more commonly used for, so it had been declared as the Banora Ferry Port. But that was besides the point, Isbel knew as she placed the money for two passes to the capital on the checkpoint desk. The graying woman seemed wary at the idea of giving a pair of passes to the young girls, but ended up relenting as Isbel began to pout at her sadly.
"Always works." She muttered to Sophie as the two of them handed over the passes to the guards at the gangplank. Sophie hummed a hint of acknowledgement before stepping across the wooden plank onto the ship's deck. Isbel grinned at her friend as the twin tail began to sway with the barely felt waves.
Turning to the bow of the ship as she heard the bells that signaled their departure, she smiled. "Banora, here we come!"
Chapter 3
END
Isbel Lhant
NEW TITLE Kicker of Royal Knight Behinds
-Humph! Try and beat me, will you?!
Level 13
11 years old
Sophie
NEW TITLE Protector
-I won't let you hurt my friends.
Level 14
14(?) year old
Richard Windor
Princey of Windorland
-I hate you so much Isbel. Naw, you know you love me!
Level 13
12 years old
Oh my god this chapter.
I don't even.
BRYCEEE...!