Golden Sun: The Age of Light
By: Mokona-Midoki
Chapter Five
Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long to update! School and all has been really busy. Anyway, thanks to everybody who read and reviewed. Everybody else please PLEASE tell me what you think! Again to my anonymous reviewer, you bring up a very valid point. But I haven't played the game in a while, so I couldn't remember if that was the world before alchemy was sealed or not. For the sake of the story (And since I've already written a lot in the world of the game), I will be keeping the game map, but the continents will be larger, and a bit different. Please excuse this mistake. Thanks.
Disclaimer: Noa, and all other characters are mine. Everything else belongs to the game Golden Sun and whoever created it.
Noa reached the port after a few hours of easy riding. Quietly she approached the dockmaster's house, and knocked firmly on the door. There was a few minutes of silence, then the sound of stumbling as someone approached the door, and the muttering of a stream of curses. Then the door was opened half-way, and the gruff-faced dockmaster appeared holding a candle.
"What do you want?" He barked, irritated. "Don't you know what time it is? The port's closed until tomorrow morning, so scram!"
"Excuse me, sir." Noa told. "But I have a letter from the first assistant to the Great Healer of Anemos. This is urgent." She held out the letter to the man, who snatched it out her hands, and ripped it open.
She watched as his eyes scanned it, reading over what Zephyr had written. He glanced from the letter to Noa, then back to the letter again. "Girl, there is no one who will take you before sunrise." He told her.
"But I must. It's urgent." She told him. "I can pay my own fare, and it's only me and my horse."
'That doesn't matter. No one here is going to go out of their way to take you!"
"Then give me a rowboat and I'll go alone!" She said, frustrated.
He laughed. "You? Go out on your own in a rowboat?"
"Yes! If that's what it takes to get a boat around here!"
He threw his hands in the air. "Fine! There is one man who might be willing to take you."
"Where is he?"
"Slow down, I'll take you to him. Just let me warn you, he doesn't come cheap."
Noa shrugged. "I can deal with that."
"Then come on."
He led her down the dock at a quick speed, Noa hurrying to keep up. They passed a number of boats of all sorts with their crews asleep or in various states of a drunken stupor. Finally at the end of the dock they came upon a junk. It was dark, save for a single lantern hung from the mast. "Anybody up there?"
In response there came a laugh, and a girl dressed in black pants, shirt, and boots jumped from where she had been perched on the side of the boat to the dock. A scarf was tied around her head, hiding her hair, but her eyes sparkled blue. She had unusually pale skin "Hey there, dockmaster!"
"Where's Qing Yuan?"
"Asleep inside." The girl told him.
"Well wake him up; I need to talk to him."
"No need, I'm already awake." A voice came from behind the girl.
Noa peered into the darkness behind the girl to see who the voice had come from, and a young man leapt down from the side of the boat.
He too was dressed from head to toe in black, but his head was bare. He had thick, long black hair that had been pulled back, and black almond shaped eyes that held a fierce intensity.
The girl tuned to him and smiled. "Captain!"
"Lynna, you're on guard duty, correct?"
"Yes that's right!"
The young man, who Noa presumed to be Qing Yuan, sighed, and waved his hand at the ship. "Then go find something to guard."
"Yes, Captain." Turning, she took a running leap, and grabbed onto the railing of the junk. Then, in a single, fluid motion, she pulled herself up, and swung her legs over the railing and onto the deck.
Noa was impressed. It was a far jump, and the girl had made it in a single leap.
After watching her disappear over the rail, Qing Yuan turned back to Noa and the dockmaster. "Now, what can I do for you, Rodney?"
Rodney eyed Noa, and then turned back to Qing Yuan. "This girl here needs passage to Angara, now."
Qing Yuan looked at Rodney. "Now?"
He shrugged. "She insists it's urgent."
"What's so urgent about it?" Qing Yuan directed the question at Noa.
"I've been sent by the Great Healer to deliver an urgent message to the Great Healer in the village of Vale in Angara."
"You're a little young to be sent off on missions by yourself aren't you?" He asked.
She raised her eyebrows. "And you're a little young to own your own ship aren't you?"
He laughed. "I can't argue with that! Alright, listen girl,"
"My name is Noa."
"Then Noa. Listen, I will take you as far as I can to Vale for the price of 20,000 gold."
"That's rather expensive."
Qing Yuan shrugged. "It's rather far, and," He pointed to Ciro. "You've got a horse."
Noa thought for a moment, considering all her choices. On the one hand she could wait until morning and risk being caught by Ellora, or she could pay this man's price. "Alright then, I'll pay your price."
Qing Yuan smiled. "Welcome aboard the Ulysses."
"Lynna!" Qing Yuan called as he came on board the boat, Noa following, with Ciro close behind.
"Here!" Lynna slid off the railing and ran over to Qing Yuan.
"Go wake up Kenda and Troy. We're leaving."
Her eyes went wide. "What? Right now?"
"Yes, right now. Get on it!" He turned to Noa. "Now, about my money."
Noa sighed. "I can only pay you half right now."
Qing Yuan shrugged. "I'll take that if you work on the ship."
"I've never actually sailed before." She admitted.
"You'll learn." He led her over to the door to the cargo hold. "We've got a special place in there for livestock, but I've never used it, so…" He trailed off.
"That'll be alright." Noa told him.
At that moment there was a noise of a door opening and a cranky voice sounded.
"Qing Yuan! What the heck is going on?"
Noa turned to see a boy standing there. He wore a plain white shirt and pale blue shorts, and was rubbing at his blue eyes. Noa was surprised to see that the boy's hair, which was cut short, was pure white. His skin, like Lynna's was strangely pale.
"Just get up on deck, Troy." Another voice sounded from behind the boy.
Troy, still rubbing his eyes moved up onto the deck letting the girl behind him come into the circle of light cast by the lantern.
Her skin, in contrast to Lynna and Troy's, was a deep, dark brown. Her hair was black and seemed to shine in the light. It was braided into a myriad of small braids which had been pulled back into a ponytail that hung midway down her back. She was yawning. However, she was fully dressed in the black outfit that seemed to be the uniform for the ship.
Lynna followed behind her, ushering the other two forward. When they were all up on deck, Lynna took her place beside Troy. Noa was surprised to see that they were obviously twins. They looked almost exactly alike.
As soon as they had lined up, Qing Yuan began talking. "You're probably wondering why I have woken you up in the middle of the night."
"Yeah, I'd like that explained." Troy interrupted. "Cause, if you can't tell, I'm really ti-OW!" He yelled as both girls stamped on his feet.
"Shush, Troy! The captain's explaining." Lynna told her brother.
"If you'd stay quiet, you'd know why we're awake." The dark girl reprimanded.
Troy shot them both dark glares, but fell silent.
"Anyway, as I was saying, we're leaving."
"What? Leaving? Why?" Troy asked.
The dark girl was surprised as well. "We're leaving right now?"
Qing Yuan nodded. "That's right, we're sailing to Angara."
"Angara? I thought we were headed next to the Apoji."
"Change of plans. We've got a passenger."
For the first time Troy and the girl noticed Noa.
Qing Yuan motioned to his three crew members. "Noa, this is my crew. My first mate, Kenda," he motioned to the dark girl, "Our gunner, Troy, and you've already met Lynna."
Noa bowed. "Hello. My name is Noa. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"We're going to be taking Noa to Angara." Qing Yuan told his crew. "And we're leaving now. So get to it. I want this ship out of the port in less than an hour. Let's move!"
Kenda, Troy, and Lynna all began moving at once. Qing Yuan turned to Noa. "Come on, I'll show you where you can put your horse."
Half-an-hour later, the ship Ulysses was pulling out of the Atteka port and set out into the waters of the ocean.
After she had situated Ciro in a small, but serviceable stall, Qing Yuan had shown her to a small room, which consisted of a hammock, and a chest for her things.
"This is where you'll sleep." He told her. "It's probably much smaller than you're used too, but we don't have a whole lot of room on this ship as it is."
"This is alright." Noa said.
"When you're all unpacked, come up to the deck."
She nodded, and he turned and left her alone.
She opened the chest, and began to put her belongings inside. When she reached her sword, she paused, considering, then put it into the chest as well. Closing the lid, she stood up and left for the deck.
When she reached the deck, Noa looked for Qing Yuan, but didn't see him anywhere. Troy, now in his black clothing, was holding the tiller steady, and Lynna was scampering up and down the sails and ship like a monkey, tying down a rope here, letting some air in there, and tying oil lanterns to everything. But as for Kenda and Qing Yuan, they were nowhere to be seen.
"Um, excuse me?" She asked hesitantly.
"Yes?" Lynna suddenly appeared dangling in front of her face, a rope wrapped around one ankle.
"Ah!"
Lynna giggled. "Did I scare you? I'm sorry." She reached up with her hands and untied the rope, gracefully dropping to the deck in front of Noa. "What is it?" She asked.
"Um, I was wondering where Qing Yuan was." Noa told her.
"Qing Yuan's in his cabin with Kenda. They're charting our course." Troy told her from the tiller.
"Oh. Well, Qing Yuan told me to come up here when I was done putting my things away."
Lynna nodded. "That's right! You're going to be learning from me and Troy." She giggled. "I hope you're not afraid of heights."
Noa shook her head. "No, not really."
"Good!" Lynna turned back to the rope. "Let me finish with this." Then grabbing onto the rope, she began to pull herself up until she was back hanging up lanterns.
"So you're from Anemos?" Troy asked her.
Noa nodded. "Yes, that's right." She paused. "So where are you two from?"
Troy shrugged. "You've probably never heard of it."
"Well, then tell me about it."
"We're from Kalt Island." He told her. "It's a very tiny island, very far north. It's the last place you can stop before you reach the northern ice fields."
"How many people live there?"
"Not very many, probably less than two hundred. We would have more, but many people leave. You can't really blame them either. Kalt Island is harsh, and the winter is even harsher."
"And does everybody have hair like yours?"
Lynna, who had come down from the mast answered that question. "Oh yes! Everybody looks like us."
"On Kalt Island, there are only three months where the ground is not frozen. We are trapped most of the time in winter. We get very weak sunlight, and not much of it anyway. Because of this, everybody there has pale hair and, skin." Troy explained.
"Oh…" She paused. "So, how did you meet Qing Yuan?"
Lynna giggled again. "We saved his life!"
"Really?"
"Yes! The Captain came to Kalt Island because his boat was caught in a storm at sea, and he was blown off course to our island. His ship crashed into the beach. Troy and I found him and Kenda on the beach freezing to death!"
"They weren't freezing to death." Troy corrected.
"Okay, they were just knocked out, same thing." Lynna replied, perturbed.
"Not really."
"They were about to freeze to death."
"Anyway," Troy continued. "We took them back to the village. When they woke up, Qing Yuan invited us to join his crew."
"We've been with him and Kenda ever since." Lynna finished.
"Have you…ever regretted leaving your home?" Noa asked.
"No." They replied at the same time. They looked at each other, and then back at Noa. "Never." They replied simultaneously.
At that moment Qing Yuan appeared back on the deck with Kenda. "Alright, are we out of the bay yet?"
Troy called down from his post. "Yeah, we left the bay a few minutes ago."
Qing Yuan quickly ascended the steps. "Then I'll take the tiller. You go help Lynna." They switched places, and jumping up on the rail, Troy balanced skillfully for a second before leaping down.
"Alright, here we go!" Lynna called excitedly. "To Angara!"
Footnotes:
Junk: a flat-bottomed sailing boat, popular in Chinese waters, that is high at the stern and has squarish sails, each supported on several battens.
Qing Yuan and crew: Qing Yuan and his crew are from all over the world of Weyard. And since they are sailors, I went ahead and gave them all names that have something to do with water. 'Qing Yuan' means deep water or clear spring in Chinese, 'Kenda' means child of clear, cool water in English, 'Lynna' means waterfall in English, and 'Troy' means water in Celtic/Gaelic. Qing Yuan and his crew are all original characters, and will show up from time to time. (Oh, by the way, 'Rodney' means land near the water in English.)
Ship's Uniforms-Yes, all black would be very hot, but hey. Annway, the styles are basically the same for the girl's and the boy's, however, the girl's shirts are corset shirts with sleeves. (Or whatever you call the shirt that looks like a corset.) They lace up in the back, but don't squeeze the air out of you. The boy's have regular shirts. Lynna picked out the shirts for both her and Kenda.
Ulysses: This is the name of one of the summons from the game. She is a wandering mage from the island of Izumo. Since Qing Yuan is from Izumo he named his ship after her.
The Apoji Islands: A group of tropical islands on the eastern edge of Weyard. They exist hanging on the very edge of the world. In the game, they are home to Aqua Rock.
Gunner: As the name suggests, a gunner is the person who operates the guns on a ship. Qing Yuan's ship is quite small, so they only have a few. (And yes, junk ships do not usually carry cannons.)
Kalt Island: A small island in the far north. The last place you can visit before going on to Prox and the Mars Lighthouse. In the game, there is a single settlement on it. It is very, very, nondescript
Izumo: Mentioned in the footnotes above, Izumo is an island with an ancient Japanese style culture. They have a sacred mountain, Mount Mikado which is also Gaia Rock. (And yes, I realize that Qing Yuan is a Chinese name. Get over it.)