Arcane Tales

Tales of Mysteria

*James is in the Capital Sephira's surrounding woods, not too far from the main gate. It's a beautiful day and he can hear birds singing on the trees. That forest area consists mostly of eucalyptus and pine trees. Being pretty close to the city, he can hear the somewhat distant sound of people talking. Suddendly, something moves behind some bushes to his left*

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*Kari and Kentauro are sitting on a bench at a small square crowned by a fountain statue of a mermaid with a bottle, in Capital Sephira. No one else is around except for three little girls, both around 5 years old, jumping rope and chatting*

Girl: <Mommy says I can be a princess when I grow up!>

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*Soul is walking down the street in Capital Alda. Everything is, as usual, covered in snow. The sun is high up in the clear sky but the temperatures are still quite low. A young boy comes running and bumps into her, knocking her over*

Boy: <S-Sorry miss!>

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*Jade is outside her house in her village. It's located at the foot of a tall cliff, which provides shade the village could not survive without. A middle aged woman walks up to her, smiling*

Woman: <Good Morning, Jade. How are you?>

*James ignores the rustling of bushes and continues enjoying the peacefulness around him*

James: <What a nice day... I wish it'd be like this forever. At the same time, it's so boring...>

*Soul stood up, staring at the boy.*

"Haven't your parents told you to be careful?"

*She continued her walking.*

[Parents...]

*She stopped, looking to the snowy sky.*

[I wish I could have mine...]

Kentaro:<Did you ever want to be a princess or something like that when you were a kid?>

"Y... yes, don't all girls at some time?"

Kentaro:<I'd say most. I'm sure a friend of my brother's wanted to be a bear or something equally scary.>

OOC: As of now, encountered monsters will be listed in the Monsterpedia topic, with a description, rank, etc.

*A monster jumps out of the bushes. It's a red fox with a glowing red circle mark on its forehead and red eyes. It opens its mouth, shooting three small fireballs at James*

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Girl: <Hoi, Maggy, don't you think that man's clothes are weird?>

*She points at Kentaro, giggling. The other two do too.*

Girl2: <Do you think he's mean?>

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*The boy apologizes and takes off. The soft breeze slowly gets stronger. An armored man walks by on a horse, shouting*

Man: <There's a snowstorm coming! There's a snowstorm coming! It'll be here in less than an hour! Hide in your houses!>

*The townspeople are surprised by him, and most of them take off towards their houses*

Kentaro:<I'm not mean... And my clothes aren't weird!>

"Don't scare them, Kentaro..."

*James quickly sees the fox and dodges the fire shot at him*

James: <I knew the peace wouldn't last... fine then, come on!>

*James takes a huge sword off of his back and points it at the fox*

James: <This will be the last thing you see. Remember it well!>

*Fire surrounds the tip of the blade, eventually shaping into a sphere half the size of James himself.*

James: <Yes! It didn't fail this time!>

*The fireball stops growing and then shoots off the sword like a bullet towards the fox, inching towards its head*

*Jade smiles at the woman*

"I am very well. I'm preparing for my trip to the Capital for the tournament."

[And am rather busy, atm... I'm no where near ready!]

*The attack blasts the fox into a tree. It gets back up and snarls at James, too scared to actually attack. A girl runs to the spot and stands in between James and the fox, glaring at him*

???: <Go away, you monster!>

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*One of the girls hides behind the other two, the three staring at them with a somewhat scared look on her faces*

Girl: <Is he going to eat us?>

Girl3: <Run!>

*They run off giggling, leaving the two alone*

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*It isn't long before the storm arrives and her windows and door begin to shake violently every few seconds, pushed by the snowy gusts. She hears scratching in the room that used to belong to the witch*

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Woman: <Oh, I see! My husband's leaving to the Capital with his merchandise tomorrow early. If you want, I can ask him to take you!>

*A man walks by and stops to wave at them*

Woman: <Speak of the devil! Honey, come here.>

*Jade politely bows as the merchant approaches*

"That would be great, the company would make the trip easier."

[But I'm not ready!]

"If we'll be leaving in the morning, I must go home and finish getting ready."

Kentaro:<Kids these days, no respect for their elders.>

*Kari giggles.*

"I'm sure you could relate. You're a big kid yourself."

Kentaro:<Yeah... Speaking of which, let's go find a playground and we both can be big kids.>

*Kentaro stands up and holds his hand out to Kari who hesitates before taking it and standing up. The two wander off hand in hand. Kari blushing.*

Kentaro: [Holy shit, I'm holding hands with a girl! I haven't done this in... ever. She's the first girl I held hands with.]

James: <What? Me?! That thing started it to begin with!>

*James points at the injured fox*

???: <Wh-That's only cause you invaded its territory...!>

*She turns around and kneels by the fox, laying her hands on it. The monster is enveloped in a bright blue light and its burns are quickly healed. It gets up and flees into the bushes*

???: <Though they seem to have been acting more aggressively lately...>

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*As they are walking out of the square, some old lady yells something about "shame" and "pray" at them before wandering off mumbling. Further ahead, an armored man starts glaring at them suspiciously.*

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*A rat's tail could be seen swining around, peaking from under an armoire at the other side of the witch's old king sized bed*

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Woman: <Oh, okay then, you better hurry!>

*They bid her farewell and take off*

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*Alto is at his office in the western wing of the Aldanian palace at Capital Alda, the wing reserved to army members only. It's a small office, with a small wooden table at the center, a cabinet and a few bookcases to its left and the wall to its right being only a big ass window out of which the snowy town can be seen*

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*Creed is also at the western wing, at the army's common room. It's a big room with big windows with a view similar to the one mentioned above, some armchairs, bookcases, trophy cases and armors and weapons in exposition here and there. There's a handful of soldiers sitting around, chatting and what not*

*James crosses his arms and turns away*

James: <Either way, it isn't safe out here alone. You should probably head back into town>

*James walks away, heading for the Sephira Capital*

Alto was doing what he always did at this time of day; polish his sword. The massive claymore sword, Fragrach, laid before him as he meticulously cleaned and polished the thing till it shined.

Meanwhile Creed was worn, Alto had dropped a ton of paperwork and parchments on his lap and told him to do it. Also Creed no longer had an office to do it in as Alto had demolished it on accident while testing out the usefulness of new explosive powder. He tested it on one of the walls blowing a massive hole in it and letting in the frigid air as well as running the structural integrity of the office.

So Creed sat in a chair with a table pulled over and was furiously scribling and filling out the paperwork.

*Jade returned to her home near the center of the village. She walked in to her room and began packing her stuff. She came across her father's Katana.*

[Hm...its strange. I grew up wanting this sword so badly, and now that its mine...]

*She placed it in the sheath on her back and continued packing.*

Kari:<Does... that happen all the time?>

"Being yelled at, glared, and other things by people? All the time."

*Kentaro sticks his tongue at the armored guy.*

???: <Hey, hey! Just so you know, you're dead if you dare touch another creature!>

*A few seconds into crossing the woods, he hears a shriek back from where he left the girl at. He can hear her yell at someone*

???: <Get off me, you retard!>

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*The man calls over two other armored man that were sitting on a table outside a pub. They start whispering to each other, pointing at Kentaro. After a few seconds one of them shouts*

Armored Man: <Hey, you!>

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*She hears a "crash" coming from the witch's room and knows the cage has fallen off the table. The wind blasts a window opened and a snowy gust invades the bedroom*

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*As she is packing up, she hears a woman's scream coming from outside, followed by the voices of the merchant and his wife*

Merchant: <Step back dear, I'll take care of it!>

Woman: <You're going to get yourself killed! Help!>

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*Someone knocks on the door. He sees a few distant flashes of red light in the horizon, at the city's western gate*

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???: <(Creed, psst!)>

*An armored soldier is sitting on an armchair a few steps to his right. Creed recognizes him but can't quite remember his name*

???: <(Me and some of the guys are going to sneak out and travel to Toros for the tournament. Wanna tag along?)>

"Come in" Alto says. As he does his attention is drawn towards the Western gate but he says nothing of it.

~~~~~~~~

Creed stairs at the men in disbelief, "You dare abandon your posts!?"

Kentaro:<Remember when we first met?>

"We're not going to run away, are we?"

Kentaro:<That is what I had in mind, but these guys don't look like the giving up type. We'll see what they want and if trouble starts brewing then we'll run. Okay?>

"...Okay."

Kentaro:<Yeah, what do you want?>

James: <That voice... it sounded like...>

*James dashes back to where the girl was, to see her struggling with a person that he couldn't see, as they were hidden by the shade from the leaves and trees surrounding the area*

James: <Hey! What's your problem?!>

*James stares menacingly at the figure*