Two Destinies Chapter 15: Craymels and Catastrophes
Author's Preface: Well, school has officially resumed, and my schedule is so jam-packed full, I don't have much time to write anymore! DX Not only that, but I have a job now, which means I'll have even LESS time to write my story. Once this and the next chapter are completed, I'm afraid I'm gonna need to go on a LONG writing hiatus until my schedule becomes less hectic (AKA next semester – I have more than one free period then). So, basically, after Chapter 16, there aren't gonna be any more updates until near my birthday in late January, maybe even February. I apologize so much, so please enjoy this while I still have a chance to write.
The snow-laden winds chilled the six adventurers to the bone. The weather had picked up so much and so quickly that Keele'd had no time to react and put up a new weather barrier. So now all six of the adventurers were cold, nearly blinded by the wind, and quite miserable.
"If we don't find Celsius very soon, I think I'm gonna freeze to death…" Reid said, shivering and trying to huddle up to his friends.
"I really don't think Celsius is waiting much farther beyond this point…" Farah said. "Don't worry, we'll find the Craymel soon."
"I think our search is already over…" Keele said. He lifted a finger up and forward into the snowy abyss. "Look!" Sure enough, there was what looked like a woman with light blue skin and darker blue hair standing with her arms crossed and looking away from the six travelers.
"So…" Chat said. "That's Celsius?" Meredy ran towards the mysterious woman a few steps, and then turned around to look at her companions.
"That must the Craymel!" She said, seemingly having shaken off any signs of coldness that she had had previously. "We are at the top, now, so there is nowhere else Celsius could be!"
"So, what are we waiting for?" Kyle said, pulling out his sword. "Let's go talk that Caramel into stopping the storm over Peruti!" Keele glared at the fair-haired boy just as he usually did when Kyle mispronounced the word "Craymel". However, before Keele could get any scolding words out, the rest of the team was hurrying towards the mysterious blue woman.
When the travelers had gotten within a few yards of the woman, a chilly voice spoke up. "Why have you come?" It said, obviously unamused.
"Are you Celsius?" Meredy said. The blue woman turned around, arms still crossed.
"I am…" She said with the same chilly voice. "Now, answer my question."
"We came to ask you to stop the snow storm over Peruti." Reid said. "So, will you please stop it?" Celsius scoffed.
"Why should I give into the requests of humans like you?" She said, still unamused. "You lack the power to defeat me."
"I wouldn't be too sure of that before you even fight us…" Kyle said, pointing his sword at the Craymel. "We're stronger than we look!" Just then, a large icicle flew through the air and impaled Kyle's scarf, and, since the icicle didn't slow down even with an extra hundred or so pounds attached to it, it dragged the helpless boy across the snow until the icicle skewered itself into another larger icicle. Kyle, still somewhat dazed from what just happened, used his Flame Drive spell to melt the icicle that held his scarf captive and stood back up again, a scowl now highlighting his face. The other adventurers looked at the fair-haired boy, and then back towards Celsius. The Craymel was smirking a little.
"Hmm, so you aren't completely helpless…" She said. "Perhaps I may get a good battle out of you humans…" Just then, Celsius uncrossed her arms and put up her fists. The adventurers took out their weapons and the battle began. Celsius quickly began the charge towards her opponents. Reid tried to counterattack her fists, but instead missed completely when the Craymel zipped around behind him to dodge his attack. Now wide open, Reid got a fist to the back and a face full of snow. However, Farah managed to punch Celsius in the side while she was attacking Reid. The Craymel jumped back away from the adventurers.
"Well, I'm impressed." She said. "You humans are actually able to match wits with me… I never expected to take a hit from you…" Just then, a magic circle appeared from underneath the Craymel as she held her hands out in front of her to begin casting magic.
"Not so fast!" Keele yelled as he threw his hand up into the air, his staff glowing red. "Take this! Eruption!" A small pit appeared under Celsius, who was wondering what was going on for half a second. Just then, it opened up, and magma flew into the air, engulfing the Craymel.
"So, you have fire magic, huh?" She said, still looking energetic enough to continue the fight. "Well, take this! Freeze Lancer!" Celsius thrust her hands towards her opponents, and more icicles zoomed out from them. Everybody moved to get away from the oncoming attack, and then moved forward to try and catch Celsius. The speedy Craymel phased through the snow and reappeared unharmed in a different spot, preparing to cast her magic once again. This time, however, she was too quick with the casting, and was done preparing the spell before could interrupt the magic. "Time for you to freeze!" The Craymel yelled. "Blizzard!" The already blustery winds grew colder and harsher, threatening to knock everybody off their feet.
"Grr…" Reid said. "She's one tough opponent…" Farah nodded in agreement.
"Perhaps it's because we're fighting in her element…" Keele said, trying to steady himself after recovering from Celsius' spell. "…But what if I changed that?"
"You cannot defeat me!" Celsius chuckled. "You will all freeze solid! Freeze Lancer!" Once again, the party dodged the spell.
"Hmm…" Keele said, examining the Craymel. "What if…"
"Keele!" Meredy said, snapping the blue-haired scholar out of his thoughts. Keele jumped back a little bit. Meredy was staring at him intensely.
"What do you want, Meredy?" Keele said, a little unnerved by Meredy's stare.
"Keele is a Craymel Mage!" The smaller girl reminded him. "Keele is supposed to use Craymel Artes to fight! Keele has Efreet! Efreet can help us win against Celsius!" Keele nodded.
"Right…" He said, about to use another fire spell on Celsius. Meredy smiled.
"Good." She said. "Now, Keele fight!" Just then, an icicle streaked by them, and another almost just as quickly nailed Meredy right in her side. Keele gasped as Meredy was sent backwards and landed side-first into the snow, unmoving.
"Meredy!" Keele yelled. There was no response from Meredy. Keele ran over to where Meredy was and saw that her dark skin looked rather pale. Keele knelt down over Meredy and checked her body. She was still alive, but was frozen in place. At this point, Keele stood up again.
"Keele, are you going to stand there all day?" Reid said, swiping wildly at Celsius. "You've gotta help… Aah!" Keele's head spun around to see Reid fall onto his back, and he too did not move.
"Heh heh heh… Two down, four to go…" Celsius chuckled, eyeing the frozen Meredy and Reid.
"You're not going to win that easily!" Chat said while pulling out a couple of Pow Hammers from her bag to throw at Celsius. Each one missed its target, but just barely. A realization hit Keele.
"Celsius is an Ice Craymel…" He said to himself. "Perhaps she can blend with the surrounding Ice Craymels, which is why our attacks are nearly worthless…" Keele twirled his staff around, nearly taking off his nose in the process, but was ready to cast a spell. "Okay, Efreet…" He said. "Let's warm things up around here! The less Ice Craymels that can thrive in these conditions, the better chance we have of winning this battle!" He threw his hand up into the air. The red gem in his staff glowed a bright red color and the air around him was instantly filling up with Fire Craymels, causing the temperature to increase.
"What's going on here?!?" Celsius said, looking at Keele. "How dare you! Freeze Lancer!" More icicles launched themselves at the somewhat oblivious Keele. The Craymel Mage was bound to get hit…
But a small green blur found its way in between Celsius and Keele. The icicles were slashed in half by a sword that glowed brightly with fire around it. That sword was Kyle's. He had used one of his Artes, Volcanic Saber (A/N: This is Bakuenrenshou in Japanese), to slice through the ice spell. The temperature continued to rise.
"You little pest…" Celsius growled. "Time for you to sleep in the snow!" She dashed forward towards Kyle, who stood his ground. Just then, there was the somewhat comical sound of a red hammer falling onto Celsius' head. The dazed Craymel looked around for some sign of what had caused her to get hit on the head. The off-guard Craymel was an easy hit for Farah, who had jumped into the sky and kicked Celsius with a fire-laden shoe. Celsius fell down into the snow.
"Take that." Farah said, hands placed contently on her hips. "Ready to give up?"
"I'm not close to calling it quits!" She said, still sounding strong. The Craymel got up again, and the four remaining adventurers prepared themselves for another round of this crazy fight.
"We need a strategy…" Keele said quietly enough so that his companions could hear, but not Celsius. "Without Reid and Meredy, we're left with one close range attacker, one close range attacker capable of magic, one long-distance fighter, and one mage."
"That's obvious!" Kyle said, his voice tone being somewhat louder than the one Keele had just used. He was almost instantaneously met with angry shushing and a glare from Keele.
"Hey, Chat…" Farah cast a glance over at the Van Eltia's captain. "Is there anything other than throwing spheres and Pow Hammers in your bag?"
"Sorry…" Chat said. "I'm still looking for my other special hammers." Farah shrugged.
Just then, a voice came from behind them saying "Are we plotting my demise over here?" Farah and Chat jumped around in surprise and there was Celsius, chuckling at the two girls.
Somewhat shaken still, Farah tried to attack the Craymel again. "Beast!" She yelled. A large blue projectile that looked somewhat like a bear's head (A/N: Yes, I know that's the Symphonia description of the move, don't sue me…) came out of Farah's hands. However, Celsius cleanly jumped around to avoid the projectile.
"Hmph…" Celsius scoffed. "What a pathetic version of this… Beast!" Celsius too caused a bear-shaped projectile to appear, but hers was larger than Farah's, and the martial artist fell over after being hit. Chat was nearby, and she pulled out a throwing sphere to help defend herself, but an idea popped into her head when she looked at it. Chat ran backward a bit while Celsius was busy trying to deal with Farah. When she had gotten a ways away, Chat yelled out at the top of her lungs.
"HEY!" She said. The Craymel looked around at Chat. "Take this! Pow Hammer!" Chat threw another Pow Hammer at Celsius's head, which it bounced off of with a hilarious noise. The Craymel rubbed her head and glared at Chat.
"So, you're the one responsible for the hammers…" She said. "It's time for you to feel my fists!" Celsius began to run towards Chat, who stood her ground and smiled. In an instant, Chat flung the throwing sphere that she had pulled out earlier low to the ground so it rolled, and Celsius just happened to trip over the sphere and land face first in the snow.
"Here's where I take over!" Keele said, pointing his staff at Celsius. "Eruption!" Once again, a pit of fire opened up under Celsius, who was in prime position to be hit by the spell. She had no time to react before her underside was scorched by the spell.
"Rrrgh…" She said, staggering to her feet. "That one really hurt…" She held out one hand toward Keele.
"You're not going to give up yet?!?" Keele said, rather surprised. Celsius chuckled, and then fell down face first into the snow. The four remaining travelers ran over to the injured Craymel to see if she was okay.
"She overdid it…" Farah said, sighing. "But just how can I heal a Craymel?"
"Oh, no…" Keele said, flipping the Craymel onto her back. Her blue skin wasn't its original hue anymore, and now had an unnatural tan where she had been hit. "I didn't help matters by going rather overboard myself…" Just then, Keele's Craymel Cage glowed red, and Efreet himself appeared before the party. His appearance caused the almost instantaneous melting of Reid and Meredy, who slowly woke up, as well as stabilized the weather. Snow was lightly falling in place of the heavy blizzard winds from earlier. The Fire Craymel hovered over to where the Ice Craymel lay motionless.
"Well now…" He said. "Didn't think you were capable of getting a tan, Celsius…" The adventurers were confused. The Craymel spoke like he was about to have just another average conversation with Celsius. The Fire Craymel touched Celsius on her chest, and her burn injuries faded. Celsius opened her eyes and sat up.
"So…" Celsius said quietly and coldly to Efreet. "You let these humans use your powers… Why?"
"I was kinda forced into it…" Efreet said. "They wanted a pact with me, and then they went and beat me up with their water magic…"
"A pact?" The Ice Craymel said, standing up.
"Yeah…" Efreet said, crossing his two bulky arms. "And now YOU owe them a pact, too. I mean, they did knock you out, so you can't say they didn't win…" Celsius groaned.
"Ugh, I never said I'd give these humans such a pact…" She turned away from Efreet.
"Said or not, you were bested by the humans, so you owe them a pact. 'Sides, these humans are going to use the powers of the Craymels to help stop the Grand Fall…" Celsius turned around quickly towards Efreet again.
"The Grand Fall, you say?!?" She said, somewhat taken aback. And then, she chuckled. "Heh, I guess you have a point, Efreet…" She turned to face the adventurers, all six regathered. "Very well, you have defeated me, so I shall accompany you on your quest to stop this cataclysmic event. I shall go into a Craymel Cage now…"
"Go into Meredy's!" The purple-haired Celestian chirped while pulling out her cage. Within a few seconds, the stubborn Greater Craymel disappeared with a flash of light blue light into Meredy's Craymel Cage. Meredy once again began to dance around.
"Meredy…" Reid said, chuckling. "You sure get excited about obtaining Craymels, don't you?" Meredy nodded.
"Keele and Meredy need to Fringe Craymels!" She said. Keele shrugged, and, after a minute or two, he completed the Fringing process with Meredy.
"We're done here." Farah said. "The weather's gotten calmer. Let's head back to Peruti and see if everything's all right there." Kyle hit his head with one of his hands.
"That's right!" He exclaimed. "I nearly forgot! Reala's waiting for us! Now, let's hurry back!" The team hurried back down the mountain, eager to get out of the chilly weather and hopefully be able to warm up once they got back to civilization.
At the bottom of the cliff, the team was able to see that most of the snow that had coated the ground when the team was making their way to the mountain was now gone. It seemed somewhat strange to the travelers that the snow had melted away so quickly, but they were all quite relieved to finally be able to see grass again.
Just then, in the distance, there was the figure of a person coming towards the heroes. It wasn't long before the team realized that the person coming towards them was Guston.
"I wonder why he came all the way out here…" Reid pondered as the Celestian man approached.
"Hello, Guston!" Meredy said, cheerful as ever. Guston, on the other hand, didn't seem as thrilled to see the adventurers as Meredy was.
"I'm glad I found you guys…" Guston said, though his voice didn't sound very glad. "While on my way here, the snow vanished, and I knew you had succeeded in convincing Celsius into stopping the storm."
"Wait, so that means you had set out for Mt. Celsius while the snow storm was still in effect, right?" Keele asked. His question got ignored.
"You have all proved yourself worthy." Guston said, walking with the team back towards Peruti. "And that's why I ask you all to come join Shileska."
"What's… Shileska?" Reid asked, taking off his hat. Guston chuckled.
"Shileska is an underground group dedicated on taking Balir out of power." Meredy gasped when she heard this.
"Baiba!" She exclaimed. "We are trying to stop Balir's Grand Fall! Shileska can help us!"
"Wait." Keele said. "So Shileska is willing to open its doors to kids like us?"
"As long as you are willing and able to help, it doesn't matter what age you guys are." Guston said. "Now, will you consider my offer?"
"Galenos asked us to find new allies." Meredy said. "Meredy thinks Shileska will be able to help! Meredy will join!"
"Anything to stop the Grand Fall." Farah said. Reid nodded in agreement.
"Brilliant!" Guston said, his mood having improved. "Our base is in Tinnsia, a city that is nearby. Now, to be able to join Shileska, you'll need proof that you'll be able to be trusted. Which is why I'll give you this as proof of your trustworthiness." He pulled out a small heart-shaped badge with an enameled cat-like animal on it.
"A badge?" Kyle said, staring at the cat on the badge for a couple seconds.
"This is a Miacis Badge." Guston said as Reid took the badge from Guston. "The leader of Shileska is obsessed with the animal on this emblem, which is a Miacis."
"Meredy knows about Miacis!" The purple-haired girl jumped up and down. "Miacis are cute!" Just then, there was a noise from Meredy's head. Quickie had scoffed in jealousy towards what Meredy had just said. Meredy removed the blue squirrel-rabbit from her head to look at it. "…But Quickie is cuter!" Quickie chirped happily, satisfied with Meredy's correction.
Somewhat changing the subject, Chat spoke up. "Hey guys, what's that?" She pointed a finger out in front of her.
"I think it's Peruti, Chat..." Kyle said, looking in the direction that Chat had pointed out. Chat groaned.
"I know that much..." She said. "But what about THAT?!?" She now pointed forward and more obviously toward grey smoke that was rising through the air.
"Smoke?" Farah said. "But since the snow is gone, shouldn't there not be a need for fireplaces to be burning anymore?"
"That's not fireplace smoke..." Keele noted. "It's too dark... Something bad must have happened."
"Uh, oh..." Meredy said. "Meredy hopes nobody has gotten hurt!"
"How quickly circumstances can change..." Guston said quietly to himself. "I certainly don't remember any such commotion when I left Peruti..." He ran along behind the six adventurers.
It wasn't long before they had returned to the now snowless Peruti. And it didn't take much longer after that to figure out the cause of the rising pillar of grey smoke.
"The hotel!" Meredy said. "The hotel is on fire!" The others in her group were too stunned to speak for a couple of seconds, when, all of a sudden, there was a gasp from Kyle.
"Reala!" He said. "I need to find Reala! I need to know if she got out of the burning building okay or not!" Before anybody could do anything to stop him, Kyle merged in with the crowd of people who were watching the building and soon disappeared.
"I hope she's okay..." Farah said. "That's the last thing we need - one of our party members gone..."
"Come on! Let's go help Kyle find Reala!" Reid said, starting to move towards the crowd of people. The others followed closely behind. It was easy to find Kyle's bright blond hair and light skin amongst the Celestians who were watching the fire, so the others quickly reunited with the frantic child and resumed their search together.
"Reala!" Kyle yelled. "Reala, where are you?!?" Just then, an unfamiliar voice called out in response.
"You there! Kid with the pale skin and yellow hair!" Kyle spun around upon hearing his description. There was a man standing in front of the burning hotel wearing what looked like some kind of weird business suit.
"Yes?" Kyle said once he was standing in front of the man. The other adventurers stood around behind.
"You're looking from somebody, correct?" Kyle nodded. The man scratched his chin. "Well, there was one individual who was removed from the premises by two other people, and it had seemed that she didn't want to go with them..."
"D-did the person who was removed have a pale skin, dark brown hair, and a frilly pink dress?" Kyle asked, a little more tense.
"I believe she did..." The man said after looking back at the blaze and then up towards the grey sky. "And I'm sure you would like to have a description of the captors, am I right?"
"Yes, we would." Keele said for Kyle, whose face made it obvious to tell what he was thinking of.
"Well, there were two men." The man said. "The first one had silver hair, a very visible Elara, and wore a purple cloak... Oh, and he had this very strange evil cackle..."
"Hyades..." Meredy said quietly, identifying the description, which was obvious with the addition of the description of his cackle.
"And the other one..." The man said. "He was... somewhat stranger..." Reid scoffed. Who could possibly be weirder than Hyades, the man with the freaky laugh? "The second guy was much larger, and he had dark skin, but his Elara couldn't be seen anywhere upon his forehead. I wonder if it was hiding under his wavy blue hair..."
"Wait, blue hair and dark skin?!?" Kyle said, somewhat surprised. "Tell me, did said weirdo have purple eyes and a really scary look permanently plastered to his face? Like this?" Kyle tried to make a scary face, but failed to do so.
"Yeah, I do believe he did!" The man said, a little surprised that this pale boy who was probably Inferian would possibly be able to know a Celestian like the one he had just described. "And he had this giant axe, too! Why do you ask?" A look of terrorized surprise quickly transmogrified Kyle's face.
"G-giant axe?" Kyle said quietly, the pupils in his eyes having constricted to a very small size in shock. "It can't be... But... And how did..."
"Kyle, are you okay?" Reid said, swiping his hand in front of the younger swordsman's face. Seconds later, Kyle had pretty much almost knocked over the man who had told them this information and demanded.
"Where are they?!?" This was the mantra of the next flurry of questions to bombard the guy. "Did you see them go?!? Did you find a clue as to where they might be headed?!?" Kyle's voice was punctuated every couple of words with a gasp, since he had quickly run out of breath in his pure terror.
"What's gotten into him?" Chat said, crossing her arms.
"He obviously knows whomever the other guy besides Hyades is..." Farah said. "And it's not making him very happy..."
"Barbatos..." Kyle said quietly, not facing his friends. "That's the name of the other guy involved... He's from my world..." Just then, there was a soft tap at one of Reid's shoes. The red haired hunter looked down at his foot and saw a small gray sphere sitting there. Reid picked it up to examine, and after touching the object in one spot, the gray dirt that had coated the sphere in that spot clung to Reid's finger, revealing something purple underneath. Meredy took a look at the strange object.
"It's covered with mud!" Meredy said. "We have to wash it off! Splash!" Before Reid could stop the eager girl from using her spell, the hunter was soaked through his extra layers of winter clothes. Not wanting to get hypothermia because of Meredy, he decided to take off his winter outfit. The rest of the team (except the preoccupied Kyle) did the same. After undressing, Reid looked at the object in his hand once more. He gasped quietly as he recognized the purple sphere as being one of Reala's hair clips. And there was a piece of paper attached to the sphere. Reid quickly removed it and opened it up to read, but the message was written in Melnics.
"Oh no..." Meredy said after reading the message to herself. "Kyle, this note is from Hyades!" The blond haired boy changed his focus towards Meredy and ran towards her.
"From Hyades?" Kyle asked. "That other guy involved? What does it say?!?" Meredy was nearly shaken to death by Kyle's anxiousness.
"Message not good..." Meredy said. "Does Kyle still want to hear it?" Kyle briskly nodded. "It says, 'The one you are looking for is no longer here. You must find a cave on a coast to find what you have lost.'" Kyle sighed when the message was done being read.
"So..." He said rather solemnly. "It's really true... They do have her..." Kyle's face changed into a determined scowl. "But I have to find Reala!" He yelled. "This is my chance to truly be Reala's hero!" Without warning, Kyle ran off before anybody could say another word, the white scarf from his winter outfit still flowing behind him. Within seconds, he was gone from sight.
"Dammit!" Keele said. "He's gone and just... run off on his own!"
"We need to catch up to Kyle and help save Reala!" Farah said, ready to give chase.
"Right! Let's go!" Reid said, and the five remaining adventurers ran off to try and catch up with their sixth companion, running through the streets of Peruti...
Author's Nota Bene: Dun dun DUN! What will be in store for next time? Speaking of which, the next chapter is hopefully going to be the conclusion for Part 1 of Two Destinies! Anyways, it may be quite a while before any updates appear beyond this one, so be lucky you have this much! I hope you're enjoying the story, and I apologize if the ending sounds a little bit rushed... Thanks for reading! Anonymous reviews are now open for this story (I think)! And stay tuned for the end of the beginning! :D