The duo headed towards the capital-path exit and saw that Raven was waiting for them, leaning against a building and holding his head with his hands. Smiling softly, he turned his head towards them and pushed off the building to get him walking. He held his short knife ever so closely as he raised an eyebrow and turned his head to them.
"It seems you two are ready ta shove off, eh?" Raven said cheerfully.
"Yes, we've made all our provisions and are ready to travel with you," Estelle said, nodding with a smile.
"In other words, Estelle hurried and got all we needed stat so we can book it to the capital and see these two people you're getting for Flynn asap," Tai said, putting his hands in his pockets.
"Tai!" he heard the princess said, scolding him.
"What? Isn't that the truth?" he looked at her, causing her to pout a bit and Raven to smirk.
"Well, well, yer ladyship, seems you wanna see Yuri and Repede badly, don'tcha?" Raven winked as he rubbed his chin again.
"Yes," Estelle said, finally admitting the teen was right, "I haven't seen them in so long. I know it's only been months, but I've missed them so."
"Well, have no fear, because Raven the Great will help you get ta Zaphias!" the old man cheered loudly, as if to sound heroic and mighty.
A slight wind breeze went by with silence, as if to say the man wasn't as mighty as the imagination he had suggested. It caused a brief chuckle out of the two teenagers. With a slumping of his shoulders, the purped-dressed man dropped his head in silence and let out a disappointed sigh. But his attitude uplifted with happiness as he heard that certain boy speak. Once again, Estelle was surprised at this behavior and who it was going towards as well.
"Awesome, Raven," Tai smiled, "We will need your help."
"Ahh, thanks, kid," Raven said, giving him a thumbs-up, "Seems ya know when ta compliment your adults when you need to. Respect; a smart thing a lot of youngings today don't have."
"Raven, just because Yuri and the others didn't... treat you well back then, doesn't mean we don't respect and like you," Estelle said, looking concerned at him.
"Hm? You mean this Yuri person we're picking up and the group you went out with treated him like crap?" Tai said, obviously a bit interested and not liking these people one bit.
"Oh, no, it's not like that... well... not all the time," Estelle tried to defend, but even then what Raven said was true, "They may have mistreated him from time to time, but Raven is a very respected and loved member of us who defeated the Adephagos."
"...Mhm..." the boy glared at both, and folded his arms, "Well, fair warning, I'm gonna watch out for this. If this happens again, I'm stepping in."
Fearing of what this boy might actually do, she tried to say, "Wait, Tai, please think of-"
"Now now, yer ladyship, if he wants ta stand up for ol' Raven, then let him," the old man said, smiling, "Plus, I kinda feel honored he'd wanna stick up for me."
"It's what I would want someone else to do for me," Tai said, smiling and mock-saluting with his right fingers.
"Well then, kiddos, it's time to head out. Shall we get goin'?" Raven said, winking to them as he turned towards the exit.
"Yes, let's continue our journey," Estelle said happily as they began to move towards the capital and slowly towards their destination.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Raven joined the party.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
The travel to the capital was very quiet a peaceful, except for the few monster attacks. They were relatively weaker on this side of the hold. Just a few wolves and plant-type monsters were killed in like a few seconds. Estelle and Raven didn't even need to use artes at all really; just with their weapons they could kill them with ease. But Tai kept a very close eye on the old man's fighting style. He liked his bow and arrows, how he fired them while dodging in a very unique fashion, how the short knife came into play when enemies came to close, and how despite his age, the man could jump really high and was nimble.
It was coming to the last two monsters: a wolf, and some kind of pink fungus. It was where something happened that the teen didn't want to happen. Anyways, Estelle had run up to the wolf and tried to deal a fatal strike to it, but she missed as the wolf dodged to the side. It caught her off guard and caused her to fall. Seeing her open, the enemy started to growl and charge at her. Seeing her in peril but too far away, Tai quickly scanned the area to see where Raven was, but unfortunately he was just finishing off the fungus that he turned right as the wolf charged for her.
"Darn it! We're not gonna make it in time!" Raven said, worried as he ran towards Estelle.
Tai tried to sprint as fast as he could, but he wouldn't make it either by the time he got there. Estelle widened her eyes as the wolf lunged for her and bore his fangs out at her. Causing her to scream in fear as she closed her eyes, it hit the fact that his hope for her not seeing it was inevitable. Grunting in frustration, Tai stopped running and sheathed his bat onto his back again. He slowly raised his left demonic glove towards the enemy and held his right side of his headphones. Closing his eyes for a second, Raven slyly noticed his glove show its green design with in the blackness as it glowed. Opening his eyes, Tai glared at the wolf.
Before the wolf got to her, Estelle didn't notice out of fear that the same dark liquid came out from underneath the two and slowly bubbled. Suddenly, a shout was heard.
"Shadow Spike!"
It was then that a huge impaling spike came up from underneath the wolf and went through it. With a huge yelp catching her attention, Estelle watched as the spike went in a curve and then smashed the wolf into the ground, causing a huge explosion of smoke and dirt kicked up. After a few seconds, she gasped to see the wolf was dead and the energy slowly began to disappear. Estelle and Raven both looked at Tai, who just in time had run over to her and helped her up.
"Estelle, you okay?" he asked, concerned.
"Y-Yes, but... that energy... it came back, Tai!" the princess exclaimed, a bit out of it from so much shock.
"I guess ya can thank Tai for that, yer highness," Raven walked over, smiling.
Both looked over to him with widened eyes, but each had different reasons. Estelle was surprised that the was the one who helped her all along was the teen, but Tai was scared that he slipped up.
"What are you talking about, Raven?" the boy tried to act unknowingly.
"Sorry, kiddo, but ya can't fool me. I saw your glove or whatever the thingy is glow and you yelled the arte name," the old man rubbed his chin and winked to him, "Then, that dark energy cam' out and saved Estelle. That was you, wasn't it?"
Found out, the sigh and lowering of the head signaled the man was right as Tai said, "Dang... you really did see..."
Estelle looked at the teenager and asked, "Tai, you used that energy back near Halure when you were ambushed, didn't you? Why didn't you tell me you could do that?"
"...It's just I don't like using artes if I don't need to," Tai said, turning from both of them and looked up into the sky, slightly blushing, "Plus, the last time I used that kind of arte, I scared people back in Halure because they never saw it. Not to mention every freaking person who visited Halure who caught a glimpse at it wanted to take me away and either use me as a guard or a mage wanted to pull me to Aspio to study it."
"You're respectful of what people feel about yer artes? Gotta give ya credit; that arte was incredible; can't blame people for bein' scared of that," Raven said, putting his hands on his head and causing Tai to blush more.
"So, how can you do those artes, Tai?" Estelle asked, smiling as she became interested.
"It's this glove," Tai said, showing her it, "When my blastia used to work, I could manipulate aer into this and used the glove's power: this dark sort of energy that can be twisted into any shape or form I wish. But once again, I don't like using artes."
"Well, you might need to get used ta it, ya know," Raven said, letting go of his head and standing in his stance of holding his knife, "If we're gonna be travelin', we might need your help every now and then. Not ta put stress on ya, Tai, but ya know."
"Got it... But..." Tai said, turning back and looking at them, "Can... I ask you two to promise not to tell anyone it's me if I happen to use it again?"
"Of course! If it makes you nervous for people to know about your artes, I promise I'll keep it a secret," Estelle said happily, smiling.
"And you can count on ol' Raven ta keep his trap shut about it, too," the old man winked and grinning, pointing to himself.
"Thanks, I really appreciate this. Anyways," Tai said, smiling relieved and then pointed to the capital, now only a bridge-crossing away as the three headed over it, "let's get to Zaphias and get this over with."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Skit – Just wonderin'
Raven: (neutral face) Hey, Estelle. Can I ask you a question? It's about Tai.
Estelle: (neutral face) Of course. What is it?
Raven: It seems the kid is a lot better than he's letting on when it comes to fightin'. He says that he was from Halure. Are ya sure that's true?
Estelle: Yes. According to not only him, but the mayor of Halure and some of the people I talked to in the city as well. Tai has lived for over ten years there, training himself for fighting. It's also obvious since when we first left Halure, he was trembling and looked really nervous.
Raven: Hmmm... Tremblin' with fear... (head tilts to the right, smiling) or tremblin' with excitement?
Estelle: (looks surprised) Huh?
Raven: The kid told me once you were talkin' with Flynn, he was ecstatic ta be outside of Halure for the first time. He said he'd like ta go explorin' more, but he's right now too cautious.
Estelle: So... are you implying...?
Raven: Yep. Maybe the kid was trainin' so he could take off someday.
Estelle: Really? (looks down, sad) Then why did he react so angrily when the mayor said he needed to come with me to see Flynn?
Raven: (looks up to the right, thinking face) Huh. I wonder myself...
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Skit – Stick together
Estelle: (overjoyed) I'm so excited to be able to go back into Zaphias. It's been so long since I've been able to see the castle and the quarters! And I can't wait to see Yuri and Repede again!
Tai: (head moves down, the shadows covers his eyes, his mouth covered by his hoodie) …
Raven: (eyes narrow, unimpressed face) Looks like the kid isn't really all that anxious to be goin' into the city.
Estelle: (looks surprised) Huh? Tai?
Tai: …
Raven: Hey, now, (looks up to the right, thinking face) I catch his drift. (head tilts to the right, smiling) He's nervous because since he doesn't like bein' in large groups of people. So, he's not lookin' forward to this whatsoever.
Estelle: (neutral face) It's gonna be okay, Tai. We're going to the lower quarter of Zaphias. That has the least amount of people there.
Tai: (neutral face) Oh?
Raven: (neutral face) Yup. Just a quick walk through the public quarter and then you're home free. Don't worry; as long as ya stick near ol' Raven and the princess, ya got nothin' to worry about.
Estelle: We promise we'll help you if you get shaken up, Tai.
Tai: (smiles) Thank you, guys.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Man, the huge hustle and bustle of the public quarter shot through the headphones... the people walking so close to him, the fact he felt crushed by people being everywhere, the people... he couldn't like this at all. Despite that Raven was behind him and Estelle was to his left, he felt just invaded and rotten. He dug his hands into his pockets as the hood's shadow once again covered his face. A groan came from him as they got to the middle.
"...uurrh..."
"Tai..." Estelle said, really noticing the teen wasn't joking about hating public areas.
"So noisy... so clustered... I hate this..." he muttered.
"Wow, the kid's not jokin'," Raven said, raising an eye at the teen slouching posture and the fact he quickly reached for his headphones, "He REALLY hates places with lots of people."
"Damn it... not even my music and headphones can drown out this horrible noise of people talking..." Tai grumbled as he glared out of his hood and to the two, "Can we please get to the lower dime or whatever you called it now?"
"The lower quarter is right down that pathway," Estelle said, pointing towards a ramp that lead down away from the public quarter, "Follow me, Tai. We'll get you out of here."
"Okay..." Tai said slowly as the three started to make their way towards the lower quarter.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
And Raven joins the party! I won't really go into the Tales of character artes, only the original. I also know a video link of Patty's artes, so if anyone wants to know what they look like, PM me and I can tell. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this and hold your breath; Yuri and Repede are right around the corner for entering the story!