Chapter 11: How to go about making new friends

Simon was in Aska's temple at the entrance hall holding a lantern. He looked down to the dead bodies and shivered he continued down the hall but something grabbed his ankle. He turned around to see a skeleton's hand around his ankle. He shook it off, flipping the corpse. He continued down the hall then he felt something grab his ankle again, he looked down to see the same skeleton at his ankle.

'How did that get there?' He thought to himself kneeling down. The skeleton snapped its skull up and it grabbed his wrists.

"Welcome prey welcome!" It said. Simon shrieked and pushed it back but it caused the other skeletons to snap their heads and crawl towards him. The skeletons right behind him grabbed his shoulders and the back of his shirt.

"Cursed one cursed one." Some said.

"Food …" Others said. One of the skeletons took a bone and stabbed it into Simon's leg. He screamed in pain as another bit off some skin on his arm only for it to fall through the cavity where a tongue used to be.

Simon snapped awake and sat up panting on the cold floor. He then sighed to himself and curled up into a fetal position.

'Oh thank god, that was only a dream.' He thought. He heard a moan and turned his head to Kanonno.

"Mommy …" She groaned. He lay back down onto his jacket and went back to sleep hoping that he wouldn't get another nightmare.

He was in a dark floating space again, a place that seemed all too familiar by now.

"What do you want now Siela?" He sighed.

"You returning to Sakriny. Also, you should try making some new friends other than the ones you hang out with. It won't kill you, unless if who you're trying to be friends with are insane." She said. "May I suggest making friends with a summoner?"

"Why would you want me to make friends when you've been begging me to go back to Sakriny? Why do you want me back anyway."

"As I told you several times, returning to Sakriny is your duty, and you have a short life, you might as well spend it with other people."

"But what exactly is my duty? Its not like I'm made to know what exactly I'm supposed to do!" Shouted Simon. Siela looked shocked.

"This could be a problem …" She muttered to herself, she looked up to him and stated "You'll find out in due time."

He woke up to see that it was already morning to see Marianya and Laurel were gone and Kanonno was still asleep. Simon assumed that they were making breakfast like every morning since he'd been there, he would do the dishes and on occasion would help them. They also made dinner though it partially what ever they didn't eat during breakfast, just had any bites in the food cut out. He crawled over to Kanonno and shook her.

"Kanonno." He whispered, shaking her harder until she moaned and slowly opened her eyes.

"What do you want Simon?" She growled.

"I'm just telling you that breakfast is going to be ready soon." He reminded.

"Tell me when it's actually ready." She mumbled going back to sleep.

"Why must you be such a difficult person to wake?" He sighed.

"Kanonno! Breakfast!" Laurel shouted not too long after, Kanonno shot up and ran into the musty old kitchen, or half a kitchen. Simon followed her. In the tight room Marianya handed Simon a hard boiled egg chopped onto the piece of toast. He looked over to Kanonno, scarfing the thing.

"Wha?" She asked, then gulping the bread and egg.

"Kanonno, how many times do I have to tell you don't talk with your mouth full and don't shove so much into your mouth, you'll choke!" Laurel scolded.

"Gee Laurel do you always have to be such a stiff?" asked Kanonno, shoving the rest of her toast into her mouth.

"Manners are important Kanonno, the basis of society runs on them!" Laurel shouted.

"Ah-" Kanonno began.

"Don't talk until you've swallowed everything." Laurel reminded, "I swear eight years with the guild is a bad influence."

"Marianya has been with the guild for about the same time, if not longer and she turned into the "proper lady" you wanted." Kanonno argued after gulping down the bread and egg.

"Are you insane? She eats like a rappig and she's not the least bit concerned for the biggest duty of her life, marrying a great husband and raising a family!" She claimed.

"Like you should talk, you've never married!" Kanonno spat.

"She's right, no man can take your fancy. Besides, now a days a woman can't support herself off her husband's money, and weddings are expensive." Marianya stated, "It would be nice to have a family but now it just seems … inconvenient."

"I'm sorry … but I don't understand what you're talking about or why Marianya said that Laurel doesn't have any interest in men … I mean she's a cat, why would she be interested in a man and not males of her species?" Simon asked.

"This is … girl talk, it's understandable that you don't understand, boys simply don't care about these things until later in life." Laurel explained.

"Mari didn't mean she never liked human men … let's just say … she doesn't … like any male." Kanonno stated.

"Well why not?" Simon stated, the girls looked at each other and laughed nervously.

"Well … my would you look at the time! I best be going!" Said Marianya running out the door, not finishing her breakfast.

"Don't you have some spying to do?" Kanonno scolded.

"Hey don't change the subject!" Simon Shouted.

"We'll tell you later, Bye now!" Laurel shouted back nudging Simon out of the room.

"Okay?" Simon said confused, leaving the room, putting on his shoes, grabbing his sword and jacket, and getting out of the house. Kanonno and Laurel were left alone.

"You're not going to tell him that are you?" Said Kanonno.

"It's unacceptable Kanonno, you should know that." Said Laurel.

"What am I going to do about this … "Friend" thing?" Simon thought out loud going on another job hunt. 'Asch seems unapproachable, Natalia maybe, but Chloe and Asch both seem awfully protective of her. Chloe? I don't know maybe if I can get her alone … no … I guess that would leave …' He bumped into someone.

"Hey watch it!" They shouted.

"Sorry I-" Apologized Simon, turning around to see it was Luke. "Luke?"

"You're the guy from yesterday, Simon is it?" He asked.

'Perfect!' Simon thought wrapping his arm around Luke and pat him, "Luke buddy! How've ya been?"

"Fine … until now." He said.

"What's been troubling you good ol' pal?" Simon asked, squeezing his shoulder.

"You being too friendly. I mean I've only known you for a day and … well … anyone can figure out that you're an introvert." Luke said bluntly.

"Pish posh! Only for a day!"

"One of the guild members told me that you are awkward … very awkward." Stated Luke.

"Sorry …" Stated Simon letting go of Luke, "I was just trying to make friends … so far it hasn't been working out."

"If that's what you were trying to do then why didn't you ask if we could do something?" Suggested Luke.

"Um … okay … do you want to do something?" Simon asked.

"Now was that so hard?" Luke teased, "I'm free today, what do you want to do?"

"Well … what do you like doing?" Simon asked, since he doesn't have very many interests.

"I do practice sword fighting." Stated Luke.

"Great! Can you help me? I'm bad at sword fighting and self defense, I'm constantly the worry." Stated Simon over exaggerating the fact that the only time he worried a healer was one time.

"Okay, but I doubt that you're bad enough to cause healers to loose sleep."

"Well … I've been told that I fight worse than some people's mothers. And I'm rusty." Shivered Simon remembering Kanonno, Marianya, Robin, Robin's sisters, and Laurel telling him multiple times that their mothers fight better than him.

"That bad huh? I'll go get my sword at the inn, wait here." Said Luke running off. Simon stared up into the sky, for quite a while, he was beginning to think that Luke had ditched him.

"Well what are you doing here?" He heard someone say, he looked up to see that it was Robin.

"Robin? I haven't seen you for the past few days." He said.

"Well I've been doing a job down south and it took longer than I thought." Explained Robin, "What 'cha spacing out about?"

"Have you met the guild members from Cademeca?"

"Yeah?"

"Well … I've been trying to make friends with one of them and I think I scared him off." He explained.

"Which one's this?"

"Luke."

"The short haired red head?"

"Yes."

"Oh, I've seen him, he just got a little bit lost to whatever inn he's staying at." Robin said, "He doesn't seem like the type who would go back on promises. What were you going to do with him anyway?"

"Well he was going to help me with sword fighting. Would you like to join?" Simon invited.

"I'd love to, but I have to run some errands for my family." Robin turned down, "Thanks for the offer though." Robin left, and not long after Luke came in running with a sword attached to his belt.

"Do you know any places we can train?" Luke asked.

"Well there's this clearing I know of, we can go there." Said Simon.

"Great! Lead the way."

XXX

In the clearing outside of St. Gabriel Luke encouraged Simon to show him what he knows with a sparing match. Simon drew his sword and charged at him but Luke dodged. Simon's slashes and thrusts would be either dodged or parried, the only strike ares he knew were also blocked. Luke easily disarmed him.

"I think I know what your problem is." Said Luke, Simon quirked an eyebrow, "You're using the wrong weapon! This sword is not for you, you'd be better off using pistols!" Simon's eyes widened then he rubbed his chin and thought the possibility over.

"I was kidding about the pistol part, but you should probably consider long range fighting if you want. Seriously though, with the type of sword you're using you should rely more on speed. You'll break the thing if you're aggressive with it. Also, you should probably stop holding your hilt with both hands. Your parries were slow and poorly executed, you're footwork is a mess and you move like a sloth." Luke criticized, "Whoever compares you to their mother were right to do so!" Simon could have sworn he felt his heart stop as Luke threw insults at his "Technique." "Let's take it from the top!" Luke ordered. Simon grabbed his sword and the two went back with practice, Luke would throw criticisms whenever Simon did something, though they were more like shouted reminders. After a while they stopped and Luke suggested that they'd take a break. They sat under some trees to keep them dry from the sprinkling rain.

"How do you know so much about sword fighting Luke?" Simon asked.

"I don't know that much, I'm sure Asch knows more than I do, he's been studying swordsmanship longer than I have." Luke claimed. "I didn't start until seven years ago for self defense."

"Really …" The two sat there for a while.

"Do you have any pets?" Simon finally asked out of the blue.

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry, it was just so quiet I just wanted to bring up some topic-" Explained Simon before Luke stopped him.

"You're not too good at socializing are you?" Luke asked, Simon shook his head. "Don't worry about it, things like that take a while."

"Thanks Luke." Sighed Simon, "I don't know what it is I feel so comfortable around Kanonno and Marianya but I feel so nervous around you, Robin, and just about everyone else."

"Like I said, it takes a while." Luke repeated. "And to answer that pet question, Asch and I own a cheagle."

"Ah … what's a cheagle?"

"Seriously?" Said Luke giving him a disappointed look.

"What's a cheagle?" Simon asked again, Luke sighed and shook his head.

"They're a sort of wild animal that can be trained to be a popular pet among the upper class. You should be able to find them in most forests around the world or abandoned on the streets." Explained Luke. "Wanna find one?"

"What about training?" Simon asked.

"Fine, but one of these days we should go cheagle hunting." Said Luke with a smirk. The two continued their sword fighting with Luke telling him what to do whenever he did something wrong. They were interrupted by Asch.

"So this is where you've been all day. What could possibly be so important that you have to skip escorting Natalia to the king? You know the president expects her to get there safely!" he scolded.

"She has bodyguards and can fend for herself." Argued Luke.

"Idiot! Have you considered that there could be snipers on the roof?"

"That's not gonna happen. As far as St. Gabriel knows the airship yesterday was a military flight. They're not going to know Natalia's here."

"Was this an important day?" Simon interrupted, "I'm sorry … Luke told me that he was off today."

"Oh you thought you were off today huh?" Said Asch sarcastically.

"Natalia was gone and the guild was off what else would I assume?" Luke claimed.

"You could oh … I don't know ... caught up with us instead of running off." Asch pointed out. "This is an important job for our branch of the guild!"

"Why is it so important?"

"Guys you really should stop." Simon interrupted again "It's raining and its gonna get worse. I don't know about you but I don't want to get drenched!" He ran back to the city and got into the nearest building. The atmosphere was quite relaxing with a radio playing an old classic and the smell of home cooking. He saw two little girls paying with a doll.

"Mommy!" One of them cried. Simon and ran back into the rain. He then went into another building, it also had screaming kids in it as well, though it felt familiar to him.

"Oh hello Simon." He looked up to see Lediemn at the front desk with one of Robin's sisters, a toddler with blue hair named Oriole. She was throwing a fit and tugging on Lediemn's hair. "Did you- ow! Stop that!" She shouted ripping the child's hands out of her hair. Oriole started crying, Simon went up to her picked her up and held her like she was a time bomb, which made her cry more. "You and Robin practically lived together and yet you still don't know how to handle his younger sisters."

"Well Phoebe and Wren are usually out of my way, Finch follows suit. Never seen much of Oriole." Said Simon honestly.

"I see … what are you doing here?"

"I'm just seeking shelter from the rain for a bit." Said Simon, "How are Robin and his family doing?"

"His father recently got a job and they're probably gonna get out of here and rent an apartment or something soon."

"Isn't that nice."

"And thanks to you and them this inn can afford some small renovations." Lediemn grinned. "Plan to stay longer so we can get rid of our roach problem and fix our plumbing?"

"Tempting but no thanks, I'll be leaving the country soon."

"Hopefully after the conference."

"What conference?"

"If you don't know there have been tensions between Speg and Sakriny, rumor has it that they may be on the brink of war. However, Cademeca, being the nosy country, is trying to make sure it doesn't happen. So they're going to have a conference at the palace to make some terms so that they wouldn't start a war. Though it would be obvious with people crowding the streets to get a glimpse of Cademeca's president and Sakriny's … chairman." She explained.

"When will they be here?"

"Within the next few days." She told him.

XXX

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've been busy with school and such. Wow … I've written almost 60 pages of this stuff and most of it is just random tangents. Yay an Author's Note where the author is not babbling!