Chapter 3 – Town of Snow

The ship gently bobbed up and down at the edge of the Orbis station. The five quickly scurried out of it, stretching and yawning. Their muscles ached from fighting and their butts felt flat from sitting down too long.

"It's so pretty here!" Dinah gasped as she ran away from the station and into the huge town. Fairies and pixies were seen flying everywhere with their tiny wings, carrying boxes and weapons. The whole place seemed so bright and clean. She slid her feet over the shiny pebbled ground.

Lea appeared shortly after. "Pretty, isn't it?" she smiled as Dinah spun around and let her Bazura dress slightly float as she did.

"Very! I've never been here before. I spent all of my time training in Ludibrium."

"I've only been here once. Like you, I preferred staying put at Mu Lung than travelling."

Dinah widened her eyes at the Bowmaster, "Really?"

Lea nodded and sighed happily as she saw the three guys walking towards them. It didn't seem like something new and surprising to Kyle. Maybe he travelled a lot. The flirty Corsair kept his eye on pretty fairies that passed by and occasionally winked at them. It was Ivan who stared marvellously at the cute pointy-roofed huts and the people there.

As Lea marched towards a stall vendor to ask her about the place, Dinah found herself walking towards the awe-stricken Shadower. "Don't tell me you've never seen a place like this before."

"I've never seen a place like this before."

The Bishop sighed and quickly exclaimed, immediately changing the topic, "It's beautiful, don't you think?"

"Yeah." Ivan mumbled quietly.

"Wow, such enthusiasm." Dinah said sarcastically and walked towards a cute fairy selling potions to re-pot.

"Hey, guys! Don't get yourselves too comfortable with the place. Remember, this isn't where we're going to stay. We're going to El Nath." Lea yelled at them from the tiny stall she was at. Everyone nodded sheepishly. Hanson felt slightly disappointed. "I wonder if there are pretty girls there." He nodded before getting whacked in the head by an annoyed Kyle.

"Okay. That kind vendor over there gave me this handy map." Lea smiled as she unfolded the map she had in her hands, "Here we are. And here's our destination…" she pointed a finger at a spot labelled 'Orbis Town' and drew an imaginary route with it to 'El Nath'. It looked near…on the map, that is.

"And…how do we get there?" Kyle asked lazily before yawning.

"There's some tower…ermm…somewhere. According to her," Lea pointed at the vendor she had talked to earlier, who was now busy sorting out some potions, "We have to climb down that tower. Fortunately for us, the tower is just nearby. But also, unfortunately, it has twenty floors."

The rest groaned as Lea tried to calm them down by hushing them. It didn't seem to be working.

"Twenty floors? Can someone CARRY me down?" Dinah whined as Ivan smacked the back of her head.

"Don't be silly. That'll be unfair for others." He snapped.

"Then why don't you carry everyone?"

"Guys! Guys! It's okay. We're in this together, right?" Lea forced a smile and rubbed her head, feeling a little bit depressed.

"I can carry you!" Hanson quickly offered as he hasted to Dinah's side and grinned, much to everyone's disgust.

"So…now, we're heading…oh, let's see…there." Lea pointed to her right and marched ahead, "Be quick guys. I'm getting tired and I can't wait to get into an inn and sleep."

"You lazy pig." Kyle palmed his face, running ahead to catch up with the Bowmaster.

"10th….floor…OMG!" Hanson cried out as he leaned against a fallen marble pillar, "10 more floors!"

"Quit complaining, Hanson." Lea tiredly snapped between pants.

They were only halfway down the tower and they felt like collapsing to the ground. Their journey was slightly interrupted by some robot-looking monsters that they killed easily. The four turned around in the split second they heard Dinah yell.

She had stepped on a badly cracked platform and it crumbled into pieces to the ground. She yelped as she hopped off the crumbling platform and landed softly on her feet. "Whoops."

"You scared the hell out of me, Dinah." Lea sighed as she continued hopping downwards.

"I-I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

After what seemed like HOURS, they finally reached the bottom of the tower and Lea kicked the tower door open with her heavy booted feet. Almost immediately, snow rushed in at them and the surprised Bowmaster closed the door again. "Put on your capes." She commanded.

Kyle giggled at the sight of her shock. He found it to be rather…amusing.

They slipped on their capes and braced themselves for the cold. As they stepped outside, their feet sunk about 5 inches in the thick, freezing snow. It wasn't a problem for them, though, as they were wearing high boots. Dinah jumped at the feeling of the snow covering her ankles. "Damn it…" she curse softly as she kept hopping up and down. She was wearing mere Varr shoes that barely covered her ankles.

Without hesitation, Ivan scooped her up and trudged along behind the others. "W-what are you doing?" Dinah hissed as she felt the warmness of Ivan's body heating her up.

"Are you stupid? You could get frostbitten." He simply muttered as he continued walking.

"O-okay."

"Ahh, finally, here we are!" Lea exclaimed cheerfully as she pointed at a huge castle-like building in the heart of El Nath.

"That's our own training hall? And inn?" Kyle widened his eyes, "It looks…nice! Oh wait, where's Hanson?" his eyes wandered off into the distance, only to see Hanson flirting with a rather pretty woman who seemed very uninterested in him. "Sheesh, that guy…" the warrior shook his head as he stomped off towards his friend to give him an earful.

"Let's go in, shall we?" Lea smiled as she led Ivan and Dinah inside. He slowly put her down as they entered the warm, comfy training hall. It was made up of wooden floors, wooden walls and a wooden ceiling. There were punching bags lying scattered on the floor, dummies with targets on them and dangerous looking weapons.

"OOOH!" Dinah suddenly squealed, making Ivan jump back a little bit. Lea grinned at the Bishop, knowing that she would love it.

"And our rooms are upstairs, I guess?" Ivan said softly as he glanced at the wooden stairs at the side of the huge training hall.

Lea nodded and grabbed his hand, "Come on, let's go check it out! Dinah, you stay here, okay?"

"Okay!" Dinah shouted back as she ran around exploring the hall.

"The rooms are not as beautiful as I have imagined but they're okay." Lea shrugged, rather disappointed and looked over at Ivan. He stared at the bed, the tiny cupboard and a window of a room.

"It's fine, in my opinion." He replied after a long pause.

He sat on the small bed and ruffled his golden hair as he sighed, "I'm exhausted."

Lea slowly made her way towards his sitting figure on the bed and leaned closer to him. "And so am I." she whispered as she attempted to put her hands on his shoulders. He swiftly slapped her hands away.

"I'm going down to see Dinah."

"B-but…"

"Bye."

Lea slightly clenched her fists as she played back her failure. "I-I…forget it." She said to herself as she walked towards another room to set down her stuff.

"Dinah, don't touch that, stupid!" Ivan raised his voice as she spun around in surprise, "Are you trying to kill yourself or what?"

Dinah, who had been trying to lift a huge, heavily decorated, dangerous-looking katara, snorted, "I could've done it myself." She pouted as Ivan held it up in front of her so she could have a look at it. He laughed lightly as he dropped it. It made a loud clang as it came into contact with the floor. "Why are you so interested in these?" he suddenly asked.

"Huh?"

"You're a magician. That would suit you better." Ivan pointed at a Green Dragon Staff poking out of a bunch of sharp weapons.

"Oh, I didn't see it there."

"You're blind."

"Shut up!" Dinah kicked him in the knee as her attention shifted to the beautiful staff. "I-I can't use it yet." She mumbled as she ran her small fingers over the green orb of the staff, "It requires high level."

Ivan snickered as he walked towards her again, "Well, then, too bad." "Just shut it!" the Bishop yelled again as she attempted to kick his other knee. He grabbed hold of her small wrists and tightened his grip on them. He let go when he heard her soft scream.

"Oww!" Dinah clasped her red wrists as she rubbed them furiously, "It really hurts…"

"Sorry." Ivan shrugged as he patted her wrists, "Didn't know I was that strong. Goodbye." He waved as he turned his back on her and walked up the stairs.

She glared at the Shadower and simply muttered, "Stupid."

Kyle entered the training hall with an irritated Hanson under his arm. He nodded to himself at how majestic the place looked while the Corsair continued cursing. "Sweet!" the warrior praised before whistling.

"I'm not even in the mood of training. I'm going to sleep." Hanson grumbled as he walked further away from Kyle, who stood there, grinning.

"Oh, wait…where are the rooms?" he spun around, rubbing the back of his head, embarrassed. Kyle pointed his finger towards the ceiling and Hanson automatically knew he meant 'upstairs'. He slowly half-climbed-half-crawled up the stairs in exhaustion.

Night had come and there was a new exciting day ahead of them. The last of the hall lights went off as they turned in for the night.

OMG I can't believe I made so many mistakes! I am so, so, so very sorry. I'm kinda new to this and yeah…

ImagineDragon
Thanks for pointing that out I realized that too and I have made some changes to it. I hope it's easier to read now.

Hi
I am so terribly sorry. I feel kinda embarrassed now. I've never created a thief…let alone a Shadower on Maplestory before so I was completely clueless on the weapons they use. There, I've changed it! Thank you for telling.