Part 1: Chapter 1: Building up strength.
I wake up the next morning, lying on the bed Kito was on without him being there. I smell food being cooked in another room of the cottage and get up to check it out. When I get into the room, I see a male Beorc cooking over a fire. "Erm. Hello." I say, nervously since I see a sword strapped to his side.
He turns and smiles, his jet black hair seeming to glow at the fire's light. "Why, hello there. You must be Elijah. Kito is out back exercising if you're looking for him." He then puts some meat on an iron pan to cook it. I step over to him and look at the spices and herbs put on the meat.
"No basil? That's odd." I then grab behind me to get out a little phial of basil out of my bag, sprinkling some on to the meat as it cooks. The basil sizzles and I can smell the scent the meat gives off now. "Hmmmm."
"You cook much." The male asks me, raising an eyebrow. I nod, still unsure about him. "My name is Dashel. I'm Kito's brother. And before you say something, I'm adopted. I've been living with these guys for eight years now. Since Begnion killed my parents really." He sits down and watches the meat cook.
"I-I'm sorry. My parents were originally from Begnion. They moved to Navessa to try to escape the evil Begnion rule and died upon getting to Navessa, leaving me alone for 12 years now. I'm 18….No one took care of me per say, except a nice Priestess that started taking care of me for 5 years. Her name was Laura. Personal friend of Micaiah….." I shudder at the name.
"Why not like Micaiah. She's a fantastic queen," Dashel says, smiling more because he wants to hear more.
"Micaiah….is different. She's doing strange things and it's happened just this year. She imprisoned a few people just not too long ago. One of them looked like a laguz even."
"But she abhorred wrongful things….What could have made her do it?" Dashel asks me, even though he knows I don't know. I just look down and close my eyes. "Hey now, don't get all weepy on me. That'll ruin your cute little face."
"Cute?" I ask, looking up at him in curiosity.
"Uh….Why don't you go out and watch Kito exercise. He's been needing someone to help him out with exercising anyways. I'll finish up here," Dashel says as he trudges me out of the cottage to where Kito is.
Kito is shirtless and his wound in clean bandaging, "I heard you met Dashel. Nice guy, huh?" He runs up a tree to backflip off and land back on his feet. "He's usually independent about his cooking though. Surprised he let you add the basil." He then stretches and I hear his back pop before he walks over to me. "So, why up so early? You don't look the type who likes mornings."
"I didn't like the idea of you being hurt because of me, so I didn't sleep well. Why did you let yourself be in danger, anyways?" I check over his bandage, fixing small places here and there. His body heat index is high. This is amazing.
Kito smiles, "Well, I helped because I like helping Beorc in the camp. They're not all bad people. Just the Grey Bandits are bad there. They even attack small children and women. No respect for anyone. We managed to take down one of the three leaders. They're going to target us from now on. We have to get to their base and eliminate them. Then we'll talk about the Micaiah problem."
"Elijah. Kito. Breakfast is ready," Dashel's voice makes me jump for a second and then I get up, Kito staying next to me. "Having fun you two?" His voice is teasing now.
"No teasing, Dashel," I hear Isador say from inside, her voice light and cheery. "You know they are just merely acquaintances and Elijah is just worried for him. He doesn't seem like a type of person who lets allies get hurt and then runs off, thinking they're useless." The words make my heart rush and I sit, looking down at the plate Dashel sets in front of me.
"Eat up. It's good food," Kito says, apparently already done with his first plate. "I'm gonna help myself to more." He then gets up and goes to where the rest of the food is. Meanwhile, I just slowly eat my food. When he gets back, he sits next to me with a big plate of food. "Mages don't have a big appetite, do they?" He pokes me in the ribs lightly. "If you don't eat right, you're easy picking for the bandits if they attack here."
"Yeah. I'd be dead if it weren't for you. Thanks, Kito. Once again, I'm sorry you got hurt." I put a big bite in my mouth and pretty quickly eat the rest of my food, making Dashel get frantic.
"Whoa, whoa. Don't scarf it down like Kito does. He's laguz. He doesn't understand Beorc appetites." He has a little bit of sweat coming down his face due to panicking.
"I would imagine he's hungrier than we thought, Dashel," Isador says, laughing a little bit. I look down again, knowing that I'm so different from the trio. "Don't worry about Dashel. He's just a bit surprised another beorc has a bigger appetite than him."
"That's not it, mom. He looks a little sad," Kito explains. "Only family he has is a priestess named Laura. And she's just his adoptive caretaker."
"I left 2 years ago. Laura said that if I ever needed anything, to just tell her. I can't get her involved with the Micaiah thing. She cares too much about Micaiah," I fiddle around in my bag and pull out my tome. "I need someone to help me with it. I don't want anyone who knows her on a personal level to help. It will only cause problems."
"Then how about the three of us," Isador suggests. "I'm not much of a fighter, but I can think up a good strategy for battles really quickly." Her smile makes me nervous, but I still smile back.
"I can't ask you to do that. You've already helped me enough as it stands now." I look at Dashel and Kito in turn as I say this.
"Nah. We insist," Dashel pats me on the back. "Not like you can find much help without us. You're too shy and quiet. We'll have to work on that, won't we?" He grins and then gets hit in the back of the head by Kito. "Oof. Alright. Alright. I'll keep my distance."
"Hm?" I look over at Kito, who's looking back at me. "Kito. I have an odd feeling." I then close my eyes. Images of bandits attacking the house appear. "I think the bandits are going to attack soon. By nightfall."
"Hm?" Dashel is behind me again. "You probably had a small premonition. It's very rare for a non-Branded to do it."
"Hey. They prefer to be called Beorc as well," I protest, remembering one of the other people who lived with Laura being a Branded.
"Whatever. I'm not trying to be prejudice. I'm just stating a fact from what I know." Dashel walks to the door. "Also, we need to get ready if we're going to keep the bandits from reaching the house, aren't we?"
"You're absolutely right, Dashel," Isador says, grabbing a few items from a small chest and bringing them to me. "Here you are, dear. It's not much, but I think since you're the one who is covering the whole Micaiah operation, you should be sort of a captain." She hands me an Elwind tome and a little bag of dust. "That dust I just gave you. Pour it onto your body and your magic will get a little stronger. It disappears upon use though."
I do as instructed with the dust and then put the tome into my bag. "Thank you, Miss Isador. Now, we need to get ready for the assholes who call themselves bandits. I won't let them get away with wanting to attack you guys as well." I walk over to the door as well and look at where the sun is. "It's after mid day. Let's rest and preserve our strength. We'll need it." I then go outside and sit.
Kito sits next to me and lets out a sigh, "This is going to be so boring to wait. Why couldn't we just ambush them and get it over with."
"Provided our numbers, it's better to just stay here. We can't afford any deaths on our end. I've seen how bandits act in Navessa. My best friend, Quincy, died at one of their hands. She was a nice girl. She was also training to become a knight. But without her horse, she couldn't do much of anything. She was quite slow with all that armor. They killed her moments before I stepped in…And I was going to get killed too if the soldier, Aran, hadn't showed up. He killed them all with such ease even though axes are usually better than spears." I grip my tome tighter and look straight up. "Don't die on me, okay. If you're going to transform back into your form like this due to exhaustion, let me and Dashel take care of the bandits until you've rested."
Kito smiles, "Alright. How about I just stay next to you? You'll be fine as long as I'm near you." His tail sways gently and then a small breeze comes in. "Ah. It's been a while since that's happened. Breezes usually come at night around here. Breeze in the day means good luck in my book."
"That's nice. I'm sure we can win the battle. But we shouldn't get your mother involved with all this. Maybe she can come along as support. Besides, I'm sure she'll flip once she knows I'll be going to Begnion. I know how people treated laguz there, but I'm willing to try finding some good people there. Not all are bad there." I lay back, letting the wind rustle my hair. "I haven't known you long, but I know something good will come of our friendship already. Not sure about what though."
"Hopefully. I'm not wanting anything too bad to happen. But after this, we need to go after the true leader of the Grey Bandits. He'll be sending Gore for us. Gore hates mages more than anything so he'll definitely target you. I won't let that happen though."
"I'm not going to let him get close enough. I have a little idea. But first, I need to take a small walk. I think I saw something last night that could help you out a bit." I stand up and smile. "I'll be right back. It's not far from here. Don't follow because I want it to be a surprise." I then walk to the woods and see what I was looking for already. Moved, but that must mean someone… I pick it up and walk back, looking around every once in a while. Kito is sitting right where I left him. "Close your eyes."
He does so, "Alright. What's the special thing you're giving me?" I put the gem into his hand and take a step back. "Wait….is this…." He opens his eyes and looks into his hand. "A laguz gem? Wow. Thanks!" He gets up and hugs me, picking me off the ground in doing so.
"You're welcome. I happened to notice it last night and when you decided to help me, I decided to go get it. But, it was in a different spot." My tome falls from my hand and I hug him back. Warmth…Thank goddess. I was starting to freeze.
"Lookie here. I see a sub-human and a Beorc. Just like what the coward was talking about. This looks promising." I hear a male's voice say and turn my head. A big, muscular bandit with a large hammer is looking at me and Kito.
Kito puts me down gently and gets in front of me, "Hello, Gore. Long time, no see." His tail is bristled and he holds the laguz gem tightly. "Dashel. Mom. They're here." The gem then glows and he transforms into his cat form, only he looks a little tougher this time.
Dashel comes outside and gets a few feet in front of Kito and myself. I see his sword drawn. Isador comes out to me, giving me an extra herb or two, "Give one to Dashel if you can. I'll be inside. Don't let those brutes in." She then walks back into the house and I throw the herbs to Dashel.
"I have enough," I say before running up to the door to protect it. Kito runs up beside me and growls at the bandits.
Gore laughs, "Alright men. Kill them all. Don't leave any alive." He then walks to stand back and let his men fight. Several come out in the open from the woods, making the number look about 20- 28. "And target the mage if you have to. He'll make alot of trouble if left alive."
Dashel runs forward into the majority of the bandits, cutting them down easily as I notice about 6 of them surrounding myself and Kito. I then lift my hand and incantate a spell to attack a few of them, not leaving my spot. Kito moves a few steps to claw down the three on his side before jumping back to my side. I manage to easily take down my three and look over to Dashel, whom is cutting down bandits with ease. I smile and then run towards Gore, seeing that the bandits are targeting Dashel instead of me.
"Elijah!" I hear Kito's voice and glance behind myself while still running. He's in my place from before and attacking two more bandits. One of them nearly hits him, but he turns on them easily.
"You're mighty confident, squirt. I'll crush your bones into dust," Gore says, confronting me with a hand axe in his hand instead of a regular axe.
I put my wind tome away and pull out the Elwind tome Isador gave me, "Confidence has nothing to do with it, you sorry piece of shit."
"Then it's just stupidity." He throws his axe and I barely dodge it before he catches it again. I then incantate my tome's spell and hit him, noticing it's not even harming him much. "That all you got, tiny." He throws his axe again and I see Dashel's sword hit it into the ground before he rushes and stabs Gore in the chest.
"Hope you meet Ley in hell, Gore. You both deserve it," He says as he sheaths his sword again. The remaining bandits retreat in different directions, Kito letting out a cry of victory.
I then fall to my knees and let out a breath of relief, "We did it. I can't believe it." Sweat still dribbles down my face.
"You idiot. What were you thinking." Both Dashel and Kito say. I look up at them.
"You could have died in doing that, Elijah. That was a big mistake," Kito looks actually worried as he says this. His usual dark face looks slightly pale, making my stomach wrench in making him worry.
"I know you're still inexperienced, but even complete tenderfoots wouldn't go up against someone like that. I don't know whether you're really brave or utterly stupid in doing that." Dashel thumps me in the forehead in a scolding motion.
"I….wasn't thinking. But I did dodge him and you know it. Right?" I look at both of them and then down at my lap. "I'm sorry. It was really immature of me. I can't expect to help Micaiah if I keep making mistakes like that."
Kito sits next to me, "As long as you're sure of your mistakes, you can learn from them to become better." He then lays back and closes his eyes. I look at him and then lay down next to him, resting some. After a while, I fall asleep and darkness surrounds me.
I hear whispers and murmurs constantly this time. They make me lightheaded and feverish as I look for a way to wake up and escape the dream. Suddenly, I'm being shaken some.
"Wake up. You're having a nightmare." Kito's voice wakes me up and I look up at him, apparently my head in his lap. "Are you alright?"
"Y-yeah. Just a little shaken. I heard some voices for the first time in a long time. It's memories of my past." I sit up completely, but he holds me close to him.
"Are you sure that's just it? You were moaning in pain and thrashing a bit when you rolled over on your arm." He gently grabs the arm that I had apparently rolled over onto and I flinch in a little pain. "See there. You're hurt."
I move my cloak to get a look, only to see no cuts. "Um…I thing I sprained it." I move my arm a bit. "Yeah. It's just a sprain. Nothing an herb won't fix." I reach into my bag, which is conveniently next to me, and pull out a little bundle of herbs, pulling out one leaf of herb from it and chewing on it, the juices healing me."See. All better." I lean into him and hum lightly in relief at the quick fix.
"You like warmth, that's for sure," Dashel says beside us, me looking over and up at him. His smile is big and he is just looking down at us.
"I'm cold natured, so sue me," I say, giving a slight grin. "Wait…Shouldn't we be getting back to sleep so we can be ready for tomorrow? I know we're going to need it." I then notice that I'm too comfortable to try to stand up to go inside.
"Alright. We'll sleep out here like we were before then. Dashel, you can go back inside," Kito insists as he continues to hold onto me.
"Alright, but don't get any ideas. I've got my eyes on you two." Dashel says in a joking tone, as if trying to confuse me. Kito becomes very still and quiet as all I can hear now is his hastened heartbeat.
Kito mutters something in ancient tongue and I close my eyes. Did he just say something about kicking Dashel's ass? I then drift off to sleep and darkness consumes me once more.
That's the end of chapter 1 of part one. Please review and give me feedback, because I actually want to know how this one is turning out in the viewer's eyes.