Fire ED-blem: The Twilight Army

By The Mauve Lantern

After running for days from a troop of bandits, the young thief Delilah was forced to go into battle against the wicked men. Thankfully, she found aid in the form of a powerful young man named Ed, whose skills with the sword were more than enough to take out the bandits of the forest.

Now, Ed, with Delilah in tow, is returning to his village, where his friends are waiting. Unbeknownst to the two, a horde of enemies are closing in on them…

Chapter 1: The Lost Boys

Walking slowly through the forest, Ed and Delilah make their way back to his village, where Ed has said that his friends are waiting. "Ed?" Delilah asks, "What's the name of your village?"

The tall boy rubs his chin with his hand and says slowly, "Well, it doesn't exactly have a real name…I'd say it would be…Peach Creek."

"What do you mean, "It doesn't have a real name."?" she questions.

"It's not really a village," Ed explains, "It was just this small, abandoned town we found, so we fixed it up and made it our own!" Before he can go on describing Peach Creek, he grimaces and steadies himself against a tree.

Delilah puts her hands on her hips and huffs, saying, "Will you just drink the vulnerary already!? You're clearly in pain!"

"Uhh, nopenopenope! I'm good," Ed tells her through grit teeth, "We're not that far from Peach Creek anyway; I'll be fine."

"If you say so," she sighs. Delilah grabs hold of the bundle of wood Ed is carrying and says, "At least let me help you carry that lumber."

The rusty-haired boy laughs, "HAHAH! Thanks, that helps a lot!" then he stretches his arms over his head, only to howl in pain from the gash in his arm. "YEEEEEOWWWW!"

Delilah giggles and asks "You're not very bright, are you Ed?"

"Hey, I am smart! I- Hey, look at that bird!"

Pushing ahead, Delilah thinks to herself, "Give me strength, o spirits of my ancestors…" while her new companion stares at a bird up in a tree.

"Cripes, where is that useless lump?!" a young man shouts.

His friend places a pale hand on his shoulder and says quietly, "Patience, Eddy; Ed will be here soon. He must have seen a bird again, lovable oaf…"

The shorter boy runs his fingers through his spiky blonde hair and grumbles, "He better be; we can't put off lunch much longer!"

Before he could carry on with his whining, he is interrupted by a loud voice hollering, "EDDY! EDDWARD!"

Both boys look at each other and simultaneously say, "Ed's here."

Sure enough, their bumbling friend bounds into town and wraps his arms around his friends, shouting, "My friends! Oh, you won't believe what's happened to me today!"

"That's great, Ed," the shorter boy gags, "But can you let us go?!"

Ed releases his friends, not realizing how he has nearly strangled his friends AGAIN. TODAY. Then, he remembers his injury, and he asks, "Eddward, do you still have those healing herbs?"

The pale boy reaches into a pouch around his waist and says, "I think I should…Ah! Here you are, Ed!" When he passes the herbs to Ed, he notices the girl standing behind him, a bundle of lumber by her feet.

"Ed," she asks, "Are these your friends?"

In front of her are two boys: a short boy with spiky blonde hair and a pale boy wearing a black cloak. The shorter boy has a dirty-yellow tunic on, with a pair of red pants on underneath; there is a blue hood attached to the tunic, and a red scarf around his neck. To complete the mismatched ensemble, there is a white chain around his neck, and a pair of red shoes on his feet. This must have been the one Ed referred to as "Eddy".

"Eddward", the pale boy, has a large black cloak with a white trim, the hood of which covers most of his head, save for his face and two jet-black bangs that hang in front of his eyes. Underneath the cloak, Delilah can see an orange tunic and a pair of dark shorts, as well as a pair of dark blue shoes. She can tell that this boy was more reserved, just by looking at him.

"Yep! These are my pals!" Ed exclaims, a beaming smile spread across his face.

Eddward makes his way over to Delilah and holds out his hand, saying, "Are you a friend of Ed's? Pleasure to meet you; I'm Eddward, with two Ds."

"I'm Delilah!" the girl tells him, "Nice to meet you, Eddward."

The pale boy turns to his friend, who has hung back, "Eddy, aren't you going to introduce yourself?"

"Nah," the blonde boy says, "You can do that for me."

"Hmmph!" Eddward gives an indignant huff of air and frowns, before turning to Delilah and telling her, "That's Eddy, but you may want to watch out around him; he has a tendency to take things from people."

Eddy takes offense to that and shouts, "HEY! I would never think of robbing a lovely lady, got that?"

Delilah smirks, "Actually, I'd probably steal from you before you could get me."

Bursting with laughter, Ed says, "Ohoho, she's got you, Eddy!"

"Just what we need," Eddward mumbles as he rubs the bridge of his nose, "Another thief…"

After getting the introductions out of the way, Eddward offers to show Delilah around the "village". He starts off by pointing to a small house and saying, "That is where we three are staying for now; there's a well in the center of the town, and we get all our food from the forest."

"What about the other houses?" Delilah asks, "Doesn't anybody live in them?"

The pale boy lowers his head and almost whispers, "No one else lives here; they were all chased away by the bandits in the surrounding area. Ed, Eddy and I have been living here for a month now, and no one has returned yet…"

Before Delilah can question her guide any further, a savage howl tears through the town, alerting the young ones to a pack of wolves that have marched in on them, hoping for some fresh meat. Eddward screams in fear and cowers behind Delilah, while Ed and Eddy run forward to discover the source of the noise.

"This is not good!" Eddward whispers to his guardian, "Those are dire wolves; they're fierce and dangerous!"

Delilah quickly looks around the village, hoping to find a safe way out, only to discover another dire wolf has blocked the way. "Well, we're stuck here," she tells the boys. "The only thing we can do is fight our way out."

"Are you insane?!" Eddy whispers loudly, "We can't take on a pack of dire wolves by ourselves! Right, Ed?...Ed?"

Ed has fallen silent again, his attention focused on the wolf pack in front of him and his friends. A steely glint passes through his eyes, and he says, slowly, "Delilah's right, lads; we can only fight. So…we must-

"ATTACK!" The tall boy tears his sword from its scabbard and hurls himself at the nearest wolf, cutting deep into the monster's flesh. Taking a cue from their friend, the others scatter themselves and prepare for battle.

Delilah dashes ahead and slashes at one of the dire wolves, slicing it across the face; howling in pain, the wolf recoils, leaving him open to another sword strike from the agile girl.

Near the cottage where the boys reside, Eddy has engaged a wolf in combat, although he does not have as much luck against his opponent. He goes for a stab at the monster's side, but it nimbly avoids his blade and counter-attacks with a swipe of its claws. The knife-like claws rip across the boy's tunic and into his torso, knocking him away as blood pours out of his wound. Staggering backwards, Eddy clutches his chest in pain; next time, he will not miss.

Eddward is having difficult time with one of the wolves as well, as he needs space for his attack to work. After running away for a moment, the boy sprints into one of the abandoned houses and locks the door. With the dire wolf on the other side, and his body out of harm's way, Eddward sighs in relief before removing a black book from his cloak. Flipping the book open, the boy holds it in one hand, while he stretches the other out in the direction of the door. He can feel the life force of the wolf outside, and he locks onto that feeling.

The boy raises his pale hand to the heavens, and chants, "Versammlung, dunkle Kräfte! FLUX!" The shadows in the cottage shoot into the air, and gather into the form of a swirling orb, teeming with black energy. Eddward lowers his hand to the ground, and the orb falls as well, pooling at his feet; it vanishes, and reappears outside, where it strikes the dire wolf, killing it in a moment. His opponent defeated, Eddward wipes a bead of sweat from his brow and opens the door, only to duck back inside to avoid a wolf that has come to avenge its fallen comrade.

Over with Ed, things have gotten trickier: two wolves have moved in for the attack; one of which is visibly more powerful than the other. One wolf dashes at Ed and bites down on his injured arm, making the swordsman holler in agony. Not to be outdone by its partner, the other dire wolf slashes at Ed's leg, tearing through the cloth and scraping the flesh.

"Bad dog," Ed mutters as he raises his sword into the air before bringing it down on the first wolf's head, releasing his arm. Next, he slashes at the wolf that sliced his leg; he swings his blade horizontally, ripping into the monster's side. The two beasts, having acknowledged that their opponent is powerful, ready themselves for another attack.

Eddy, sensing that the wolf is going to attack, readies his iron sword and bends his knees so that he may dash away quickly. The dire wolf makes a lunge for the boy, but he is too quick, and avoids the claws and fangs; to counter, Eddy slices at the wolf's face, scarring the beast. The dire wolf and Eddy growl at each other and begin to stare each other down, daring the opponent to make a move.

Delilah, having slain her foe, decides to take on the leader of the pack. She turns to find that the dire wolf at the far end of the village has not yet moved; it waits in hunger, and will only move once a human has fallen. Taking the initiative, the girl sprints at full speed towards the alpha wolf, her cloak billowing behind her and her light sword clutched in an iron grip. Once she is close enough, Delilah leaps into the air and executes a downward slash with her sword. The blade strikes the dire wolf, although it does not do much damage. Enraged, the monster launches a counterattack by lunging at his opponent and ramming his head into her stomach, throwing her back several feet.

Sensing that Delilah needs help, Ed performs a spin with his sword, slaying both of the dire wolves that face him. He dashes over to Delilah and asks, "Are you okay?"

"Just…swell…" she responds, although she is having trouble breathing.

Eddward looks through the window of the cottage in order to see if there are any more wolves approaching; once he decides it is safe to leave, he opens the door and carefully maneuvers around the fallen monsters at the doorstep. The boy looks over to Ed and Delilah, who are facing down the head of the pack, and then to Eddy, who is in the middle of a stand-off. "Hold on, Eddy!" he shouts as runs over to aid his friend, "I'm coming to help!"

His friend replies, "Don't worry about it, ghost-face!" without turning his sight from his opponent. The short boy grips his sword in his hand as he makes a sudden attack on the dire wolf. He slashes at the beast with his sword, cutting deep; landing nimbly on his feet, he goes in for a second attack. This time, the wolf has turned so that his side faces Eddy; the boy uses this to his advantage. His sword comes down and slices into the monster, effectively killing it.

At the sight of all the blood, Eddward gags and vomits on the ground slightly. He never was used to the sight of blood. "That…was barba…barbaric!" the weak boy moans in between gasps for air.

"Y'think?" Eddy tells him as he puts a hand on his friend's shoulder. "It was a do or die moment, Eddward; I did what I had to in order to survive. Now, we'll talk about this later, but right now, we have to go help Ed and the lady. Come on!" Eddy helps his friend to his feet, and the two of them walk as quickly as they can to their comrades.

The dire wolf makes his move, and he attacks Delilah again; he delivers another blow to her chest, and again the girl reels in agony. She is racked with pain to the point that it is difficult to move, so she cannot counter-attack.

"Delilah!" Ed shouts as he looks over to his friend. His eyebrow furrows, and he turns to face the alpha wolf, crying out, "I SHALL AVENGE THEE!" as he leaps into the air and slams down on the monster's back. The beast howls in pain and frustration, but it gets back on its feet for another attack. He jumps at Ed, and almost bites down into his arm; however, before he can do this, he is knocked away by the boy's sword.

Arriving for the final part of the fight, Eddward and Eddy brace themselves, and prepare to attack. "Cover me," Eddy instructs his friend, "Send out some dark energy before I strike."

Eddward nods and says, "Be careful, Eddy." Then, he pulls out his magic book and recites the incantation again, "Versammlung, dunkle Kräfte! FLUX!" Like before, the nearby shadows are pulled into a swirling mass only to vanish into the ground and reappear in front of the alpha wolf, striking it and greatly injuring the monster.

With the beast distracted, Eddy moves in for the kill. He twists his body around and launches off the ground in a spin, tearing at the beast with his sword. Finally beaten, the wolf howls one last time before falling to the ground in a bloody heap. The battle is over. Their lives saved, the young fighters can rest easy now, or so they think.

Delilah looks around the town until her eyes light up as a thought crosses her mind. She turns to her friends and tells them, "We have to leave. NOW."

"What's the problem?" Ed asks.

"The problem," the girl explains, "Is the scent of blood here. Other monsters will be coming to find out what it is, and when they come, they'll find us. We need to get out of here!"

As Ed and Eddy run into their cottage to gather a few belongings, Eddward nervously asks, "Where can we go, Delilah?"

Smiling, the girl pulls a map out of her tunic and shows it to her friend, saying, "There's a town not far from here. About a day or two of traveling, if you three can manage it."

"Oh, don't worry about us!" Eddy tells Delilah, a small satchel over his shoulder, "We'll be fine! But what about you, m'lady? It's gonna be tough and rough!"

"I think I can handle it, Eddy," she says as she wipes her blade of dire wolf blood.

Mere moments later, the four are ready to leave. On the outskirts of the abandoned village, Ed turns back and shouts, "Farewell, Peach Creek! We'll be back for you soon!"

Delilah smiles again as she says to her friends, "Okay boys, try to keep up!" and she sprints away, the three Ed boys running after her.

--

Name: Eddward

Class: Shaman

Level: 1

--

Name: Eddy

Class: Thief

Level: 1