Secret of the Stars:The Forgotten Tale, Chapter Two:Departure
A Secret of the Stars fanfic by Dustin Dixon
Disclaimer:Again, I own nothing in this story, except for the redheaded bandit, Aldayne Booth's father and friends, and Gara's parents and sister, so far. Everything
else belongs to Tecmo. With that said, let's get on with Chapter Two.
Aldayne sat at the kitchen table writing his note, as Gara finished drinking the water he had brought her earlier. She walked over to
the kitchen sink and set the now-empty glass down inside of it. After a few minutes, Aldayne finally stopped writing, and began to
read the note over for errors. Finally, he grabbed a piece of tape, and posted his message on the fridge. Aldayne turned to Gara,
smiled, and said, "Sorry to keep you waiting.", to which Gara replied, "Don't apologize. It's nice that you care about your father
enough to let him know where you're going.", as she walked toward the front door. He followed behind her quickly.
The two friends made their way to the house next door, the one belonging to Rory, the oldest of Aldayne's four friends, and
knocked on the door. After a few minutes, Rory himself came to the door and answered. He looked at the two for a few seconds,
rubbing his eyes and letting out a big yawn. "Booth? What are you doing here at this time of day?" Rory asked, then continued,
"And why do you have a girl with you?"
"Just letting you know...I'm going with Gara here to find a bandit. I probably won't be back for a while." Aldayne said, "So can you
let the guys know about this? I really have to make tracks as it is."
"Why a simple bandit?" Rory's eyebrows raised as he questioned Aldayne.
"I mean, isn't your father an upperworld-famous bandit hunter? Why are you so worried about catching a bandit?"
"I think this bandit's the guy who killed my mom."
"Oh...but think about it, man. Your dad's an accomplished bounty hunter, and he couldn't find the guy for ten years! What makes you think you can?"
"I've seen his hideout. He can't have gotten far." Gara spoke up.
"Exactly what Gara said. Bottom line. He's out there, I'll find him and send word to Dad."
"You do realize this guy's probably insanely strong. He's had ten years to hone whatever skill he had." Rory tried reasoning with Aldayne, but he knew it was to no avail. As long as he'd known the fifteen year old, he'd known of his stubborn attitude. He knew there was nothing he could do to talk Aldayne out of going, so he sighed and spoke up again.
"Well, I can't stop you. That much is obvious."
"You know me all too well." Aldayne smirked.
"Just...be careful out there, okay?"
"You bet, buddy. Tell the others I went on a camping trip, 'kay?" Aldayne flashed a thumbs up, and Rory returned it.
Meanwhile, atop a hill looming over Alazina, A mysterious, shadowy winged figure looked down upon the city.
"Huh. Boring little dump. I wish he'd hurry up and get here." the figure said. As if waiting for that remark, an extremely tall man, clad in steel armor from neck to toe, and sporting "poofy" red hair, came charging up to the shadow-clad individual.
"Sorry I'm late." he said.
"We're never gonna get anywhere if we can't get any information out of this Podunk village." said the figure, who stepped out of the shadows. He was clad in steel armor as well, which had a purple hue to it., his hair was purple and spiky, and his eyes were amber in color. He was a lot shorter than Dram, but just a hair taller than Aldayne.
"Sorry about that. The locals don't like to gossip much here." Dram bowed slightly.
"Rise. I'm your equal now, remember?" the winged man chuckled.
"Right, right. Did you find anything of interest while spying from here, Godem?" Dram looked down at Godem.
"No. You were right. This place IS a toilet." Godem sighed.
"He used to come here a lot." Dram commented, looking down at the town.
"Well, too bad he doesn't still come here. We could be done with this stupid mission." Godem growled.
"Indeed."
The trip to the town gates took longer than either Aldayne or Gara had originally anticipated. As a matter of fact, both of them were nowhere near the gates. They were currently trying to strike a deal at the general store.
"Look girl, how many times do I have to tell you, we only take gold! NO TRADES!" the impatient merchant shouted.
"Not even for a solid gold watch?" Gara asked, making sure to emphasize "Gold", as she took said watch and swung it left to right. The merchant's eyes swayed back and forth, as if Gara were hypnotizing him with the watch. "Uh...I said we d...don't tak-AW HELL, WHO AM I KIDDIN'?" the merchant shouted gleefully, grabbing Gara's watch and allowing her one thousand gold in store credit.
"Thank you kindly, sir." Gara said, her eyes narrowing in satisfaction as she and Aldayne began scouring the store for items that would be useful. After ten minutes had passed, they came up to the merchant, both holding several important healing items, such as Plum-plums, Antidotes, and things that might help against whatever they would come across in their journey. The merchant thanked them heartily, and the two took off toward the town gates.
As the two walked outside the gates, they failed to notice the two strangers watching them from above. They were simply intent on pressing forward. As they walked along, the two strangers tailed them at a distance.
"Why are we following these two now, Godem?" Dram asked, scratching his head as he gazed upon Aldayne and Gara.
"I know I've seen that girl somewhere before...it's on the tip of my tongue, but I just can't remember it." Godem mused. The two continued to follow at a steady pace, not intent on revealing themselves at the current time.
"Hey, Wait a second, Godem...isn't that the missing princess of the Von Amaboss royal family?" Dram spoke up.
"...!" Godem's eyes widened in realization, as he smirked. "So...the princess of Amaboss, eh? Dram, we're going to keep following these two."
"Any particular reason?" Dram looked confused.
"HE was reported to be in this town by our contacts, right?"
"Yeah."
"And then Princess Gara shows up out of nowhere. It can't be a coincidence." Godem's smirk was ever-present. "I figure he's after her. If we tail her, he'll be showing his face to us eventually."
"And then we do him in!"
Godem's smirk turned into a grin as he said "Now you're catching on."
"What about that kid with her?"
"He's NOTHING. If for some reason we ever need to kill Gara von Amaboss, he'll be a pushover." Godem looked down upon Aldayne coldly.
"ACHOOOOOO!" Aldayne suddenly let out a mighty sneeze.
"Are you okay, Aldayne?" Gara asked.
"Yeah. I guess someone's talking about me." Aldayne shrugged, as the two continued on their way. Soon, morning turned into afternoon, and likewise, afternoon became evening. Aldayne and Gara sat in a wide open space, as they set up camp.
"Well, it sure is a lovely night to camp." Aldayne commented, just as clouds began to roll across the sky.
"You had to say something, didn't you?" Gara's eyes narrowed in frustration, as the two took shelter inside the tent.
As Dram and Godem sat inside of their own tent, a shadowy figure walked in front of the tent. Dram opened the flap and stepped outside for a few seconds, before diving back in to avoid the rain.
"Telegram from our contacts." Dram said, handing Godem the letter. Godem opened the envelope, and after a few seconds of reading the encased letter, his eyes widened in anger.
"Dammit!" Godem said angrily.
"What's wrong?" Dram asked.
"According to our contacts, he fled the ENTIRELY opposite direction of where we're heading!" Godem snarled.
"So... what do we do?" Godem just looked down, not replying at first, until a smirk found its way across his face once again.
"We're going to secure our ticket to catching him, of course." Godem gazed down
at the campsite, eying Gara like a hawk.
"Princess Gara von Amaboss." Godem then began to laugh.
End of Chapter Two.