This is a story I'm in the process of making, I just wanted to see what you all thought of it. :blush: The main female's a bit like Aeris, she really likes flowers (important to the plot) but she's a lot more innocent, shy, and a bit spunky compared to Aeris.
New Heights of Hope
Ch. 1
Before This All Happened...
Many years ago in the kingdom of Aquilla...
“Raym! You have to hurry up if you want to see my surprise!!” Shouted the voice a young girl, only fourteen now, she was princess of Aquilla and had grown up a tad materialistic. Whenever she was around her childhood friend, her face would light up like never before; something even her parents were not used to seeing. Her name was Rachel Imis, a young girl who always thought into the future. She had long, thin dark brown eyes, an angular face, and almost pinkish orange lips. She had freckles covering her cheeks and the bridge of her nose, along with a beauty mark on the lower left corner of her chin. Her hair was a mix of red and brown and was only a few inches longer than her shoulders, she looked very naturally beautiful.
“Ahh...What is it?” Raym Firestone shouted, being tugged by Rachel, even though he was quite poor and she was rich, the two had been friends since they were young, and despite their differences they were best friends. His hair reached his ears and was a dark brown along with his eyes; he usually wore all red because he liked that color so much. His eyes were thin and long like Rachel’s along with his nose which was long and pointed and his lips which were thin. His face was also angular, although being a year younger than Rachel; he had always been taller than her. Rachel then immediately came to a stop with her tugging when the two reached the shrine near her house; it had been filled with new fresh flowers everywhere, blooming beautifully in a light orange against the sun. “Is this it?” Raym said unsympathetically, making Rachel hit him on the back of his head. “Owww...” he began to rub his head fiercely but then came to a stop when he looked to the left to a girl.
“What ARE you looking at?” Rachel said, seeming fascinated, when she looked at the girl, a tone of annoyance struck her voice. “Oh.” She said in a huff, the person he was looking at was the only person she couldn’t possibly stand. The girl he saw looked very angelic. Her eyes were large and didn’t have a lot of width, her nose pointed up and her thin lips were in a smile, her eyebrows went from thin to thick unlike the usual style like Rachel. Her face was heart-shaped and she had her hair in a ponytail, except for her bangs and a good part of her hair that wasn’t long enough to reach to ponytail, framing her face. Her hair was very thick and her ponytail reached all the way to her thighs before forming another ponytail at the end. She was tending to the flowers, seeming very shy.
“Ugh...THAT’S my sister...” Rachel said in annoyance, Raym looked suddenly surprised, he had known Rachel all this time and never knew she had a sister. “Don’t worry, she got adopted by my mom not too long ago, drifted on shore or something...HER name is Melania, she’s a year younger than you, ya know.” Melania continued to walk like no one was there with her hands behind her back, she then noticed she was being watched while smiling angelically and waving at Raym, ignoring Rachel completely though. Although she resembled Rachel slightly, the two definitely weren’t sisters by blood.
“RAYM.” She said loudly, getting his attention. “Don’t make friends with her...okay..?” She said, with her voice full of worry. Rachel didn’t have many friends, so she held tight to those she did have. Raym then looked to the floor with a nod, he understood Rachel’s selfishness sometimes, he guessed. A year after these events...
“You’ll...return won’t you?” A hopeful young girl at the age of sixteen asked, her eyes glimmering with a light that wouldn’t be seen at she got older. Loreanne Lovelace, she was very strong for her age, and very in love for her age.
“Of course.” The other person spoke with kindness in his green eyes, which had always made Loreanne smile, but now it was almost a smile of sadness.
“Aren’t you afraid you’ll get killed?” Loreanne asked, her brown hair blowing in the slight breeze, her eyes were a purple-blue. The other person was Micheal, her boyfriend and long time love. “I’ve heard this war’s going to be pretty tough...” She now avoided eye-contact completely.
“Listen, Lore.” Micheal answered with his nice pet name for her, “I’m coming back, I won’t get killed, and you shouldn’t be this sad.” He was always the cheerful soul that brightened up her sometimes gloomy spirit.
“But you...I...” Loreanne paused to try to address her feelings. “I love...” She was then cut off by Micheal’s index finger on her mouth, as tears began to form within her eyes, these ‘tears’ would be very scarce in the future though.
“I know, I do too, okay?” Micheal answered with an odd cockiness; he then began to walk away to the boat he was boarding. “You shouldn’t be THIS in love and only sixteen!!” He called without looking back as he ran for the boat which was actually about to go without him for a second.
“But I do...I!!” She was cut off with words she would never speak, but his cheerfulness made her oddly optimistic now. She turned around and smiled towards him before heading back to her home. Three years after this event the true story takes place...
“Rachel!!” A voice called out from the shadows of the shrine where inside sat a young lady at the age of eighteen. Rachel’s eyes were still the same dark shade of brown, her hair still a mix of red and brown, her eyes still long and thin, her freckles and her beauty mark, all there. Her outfit was that of a priestess and changed to her liking. On her neck there was a small necklace with a yellow jewel and orange band. Her outfit had an orange hood causing a triangular collar look on her outfit, where her hood met together to form the triangular collar was an ornament to show her status formed as an upside-down pentagon with an X in the center of the colors yellow on the outside and orange in the center. Her shirt was long sleeved, where you could hardly see her long creative hands, with little decoration on the bottom of the sleeves, on her right hand the bottom of her sleeve was orange-yellow, while the one of her left was red.
The end of her shirt is where she had actually customized it, there were three bands of orange-red where in the space of each of them you could see her skin, connecting the three bands was a circular ornament with three circles of red, blue and yellow on the inside, with on the outfit of the circular ornament was another on the outside of yellow, hanging from the circles was a semi-long pink ribbon. There was one last orange-red ribbon which hung off to her skirt gently, making the last band hardly cover up her belly-button. Her skirt was plain light brown and so long you could not see her feet, but she never tripped, the skirt had a slit in the right side also. She had been raised in riches still and continued to be slightly stuck up despite her calm appearance and smile. A young-man ran into the shrine full speed, catching his breath.
“What took you so long, Raym?” Her voice sounded semi-cheery, she had lost her spunky voice she had when she was a child. His face remained the same, but his shirt was a bright red which demanded attention, his collar was triangular with short sleeves, on the edge of ever part of his shirt was a bright yellow. His shirt fit him perfectly but was kind of long, covering up part of his pants; his pants were a normal light blue tucked into black boots.
“Couldn’t you...ya know, at least make the effort to come and find ME?” He had grown up to the age of seventeen, and his attitude had also matured, he was the only one that Rachel would even think of allowing to knock her off her high-horse.
“Nah, I thought it’d be fun to see run so far...” She laughed with Raym slightly, still with her calm outer appearance. “So...what to do today...?” She put her right hand on her chin hardly in deep thought, making her sleeve reveal her hands which hardly ever happened. To outsiders she was nearly perfect, but the people who truly knew her saw she was very different, those ‘people’ being Raym.
“Ah, no use thinking about it, let’s just go!” He said, immediately grabbing Rachel’s left hand, and running as fast as he could through the streets, Rachel had no choice but to run with him, no matter how hard it was running with her long skirt, that’s actually what the two would usually do every day and never get tired of it, Aquilla was so large that they could do that. Rachel immediately turned into a child again when she was with her childhood friend and giggled along the way. Inside the castle...
“Loreanne Lovelace, head of knights?” The king called out, a nineteen year-old Loreanne came out of a large group of knights, she stood out oddly being the only woman in the group. Her eyes were large and without a lot of width like Melania’s, her eyes were very dark they now resembled a very dark shade of purple instead of blue, her nose was long but average, and while her bottom lip was large, her top was average. Her eyes had lots of mascara on them along with an almost gray black outlining the outside of her eyes, making them stand out. Her lips were covered with light purple lipstick. Her hair had only a few bangs and hardly reached her shoulder length with the color of dark brown with a slight purple in it you could only see by standing very close to her. Her eyebrows arched and average, not thin or thick, her earring were long with purple first then a small whitish-gray heart with a band-aid design on it. She also had a beauty mark on her upper-right of her right cheek.
Her face was heart-shaped but very rough, her cheeks weren’t very rounded like a child’s, and she had grown up very mature. Her shoulders were broad and she was very thin and strong. You could hardly see her shirt as it was covered up in armor, her armor had not sleeves, but it was whitish-gray like her earrings, the top part of her armor went straight but in the center was more of an upside-down triangle, the bottom of her armor was also triangular. It had many designs on the outside that looked like cartoon-like grass; in the center of her chest of the armor was a heart with a band-aid design, sharing the one of her earrings. Her shirt had two sets of sleeves, one on her shoulders, the other handing off her shoulders; both were blue with a tinge of purple, with a design with lines running through each of them vertically. Her skirt was exactly she same, except short to move and it had horizontal stripes; her outfit was often mistaken for a short dress. Her skin was very pale, and she never smiled, or so it was said.
“Would you accompany Melania today through the streets?” The king asked; he was getting very old actually. Loreanne wasn’t exactly your usual knight, from things happening in her past she trusted no one and didn’t get friendly with her workers.
“That’s a question but it is meant to be an order, Your Majesty, I don’t do favors.” She said coldly while bowing, making this ‘king’ very upset, he disliked
Loreanne very much but could do nothing about it as she was very strong.
“You will do as your king demands...” The king spoke, with an obvious anger, making sure not to go out of control as he usually did while putting up with Loreanne. The king actually looked nothing like Rachel; she resembled a lot more of her mother actually. “Before I demote you, get on it.” He tried to rival Loreanne’s coldness.
“I have never said I would do not as you command...” Loreanne responded, “And do not try to pretend to demote me, you know you need me here. Remember, I do not kiss up, but I will not disobey you.” She said, getting up from bowing and going off to follow Melania today. Melania still had always took care of the flowers in the shrine, and nothing else, she didn’t get along with a lot of people very well, she was very shy and mysterious seeming.
“Lore!” She called out happily; it had hurt Loreanne that Melania had nicknamed her the same nickname as her past boyfriend. Melania had kept the same appearance, but her outfit had changed quite a lot, she kept the same color scheme close to her ‘sister’s’. Her hair was still the same; long and thick. Her necklace was pure gold and was very long, so it was rapped around her neck twice to show the illusion there were three different gold necklaces. Her shirt had no sleeves and was a light orange-yellow, in the center of her shirt, right before her hips was a kimono-looking part of her dress which was rapped into a bow, that thick ribbon had bright yellow and orange triangles on it, standing out from the rest of her outfit. Her shirt was quite long and covered half of her butt in the back, her skirt was short and was light orange with vertical lines on it. Her hair was still a light brown; her attitude also hadn’t changed much from when she was a child.
“Yes, ma’am?” Loreanne responded, bowing before the not-blood princess. Melania, at the age of sixteen, was in her usual pose with her hands behind her back with a small smile on her face. Melania then looked down at Loreanne, who awaited commands from her.
“Don’t call me ‘ma’am’, okay?” Melania’s voice was soft unlike her sister’s, she was also quite petite. “What did my dad ask you to do?” Melania spoke quite casually unlike Loreanne, she also called the king her father even though he really wasn’t, but she never remembered any dad, so that was okay.
“Yes, ma’a....Melania.” Loreanne had to catch her tongue for a moment with her formal speech. “The king asked for me to follow you while you explore the town as you wished.” Melania seemed a bit shocked, she never really likes to go around the town, and she usually stayed and took care of the plants in the shrine.
“Well, I guess since he wants me to go...” Melania began thinking of her destination in the large town. “Why don’t we go...wherever Raym and Rachel are going?” She said cheerfully, she didn’t like Rachel very much for her selfishness, but she was actually very fond of Raym, you could actually call it a little bit of a crush even though she rarely knew him. “That would be nice, wouldn’t it?” She asked with a small smile.
“Do not ask me of my opinion of your direction; you may go wherever you wish.” Loreanne spoke, still unfeeling and bowing in the same way, making Melania giggle.
“By the way...you can stop bowing now, Lore.” She laughed, then shook her head to what she was about to say. “...But I want your opinion, you know?” Melania said, with her hands on her knees, still watching Loreanne as she was still bowing.
“Yes, ma’a....Melania,” She caught herself once more while getting out of her bowing position. “Fine, as you wish, you should actually talk to the two instead of stalk them all day.” Loreanne said coldly; she actually liked Melania, but would never admit it and would always say things like this to hide that.
“I can tell you don’t really mean that, you know.” Melania said with patients, unlike her father completely. “Ah, but don’t worry I can decipher what you mean exactly!” She said optimistically. “You mean, ‘of course your majesty’,” She began, with the greatest Loreanne impression in her voice. “‘For Raym and Rachel always go to the coolest places, but I’m going to continue to act like a meanie and insist we don’t go because I hate them both!’” Melania joked, almost making Loreanne laugh.
“Fine, I’ll tell you what I really mean...” She always noticed that she could tell her opinion openly with Melania because she would never tell anyone else. “I know of the true reason you follow those two but I will not say it, I wish to think that there is a kind person in this town who would not judge you for your wealth, but truly...I suppose the only thing to do today is where Rachel and Raym go.” Loreanne answered, making Melania nod and smile. Suddenly a large explosion came from castle, shaking the very whole land around it, making both Melania and Loreanne who were nearby almost fall down, although the two couldn’t see the explosion, they knew to go into the castle to see what was wrong. Loreanne then swiftly took out her sword while walking and the two entered the building, looking around for where the noise came from. Just as the two walked in, Melania last, a red-haired young man swiftly came down from above and stole Melania’s necklace while Loreanne attacked with her sword, but the young man was so swift he already was climbing up to the balcony, not by the stairs but by the walls, of the castle.
“My necklace...” Melania spoke to herself, she felt almost empty without it as the young man climbed his way to the top, and Loreanne instead took the way instead of thinking what was lost to follow the young man.
“Ugh, thieves!” She shouted as she noticed the pair of stairs to their left leading to the balcony, “This way!!” She yelled, signaling Melania who surprisingly was able to catch up with her as they climbed the stairs to the top of the castle. As the two got there, you could see the whole large city from up there, and thankfully the red-haired young man was almost just about to get onto an airship.
“You’re not going anywhere!” Loreanne shouted, for once informally Melania heard her speak. She swiftly took out her large and long sword, and cut where the young man was about to grab on to the ship, if it wasn’t for his swiftness, he would have lost a few fingers.
“H-hey! Watch it!!” He yelled while almost slipping down from the balcony out of the city, immediately from his many pockets he uncovered a grenade which let out gas, for a moment blinding the way for the two ladies. Loreanne, not getting afraid of the gas, then cut through it with her sword, once again blocking the way for the red-headed thief, he seemed pretty clumsy then yet swift as he again almost fell off. “Fine then, if it’s a fight you want, you’re gonna get it!” He yelled revealing two daggers from one of his many pockets.
“Just try it.” Loreanne said with confidence as she then blocked the way to the airship with a focused look on her face, she then ran to slash the criminal but he moved from her view, and as Loreanne ran she left the spot open for him to run in as Melania blocked the path, she wasn’t very strong physically but at least she was there to block the path. The young red-haired man then acrobatically flipped over Melania, who extended her hand up into the air.
“Water!” She called out, making Loreanne make a very confused face. Just then a large magical group of water exploded out of her hand, knocking the red-haired thief back in front of her.
“Melania, you can...” Loreanne was shocked, only a few people could use magic, and most of it was healing magic, not attack. Loreanne shook off her shocked look and then attacked with her sword, missing once again. Oddly enough, a ‘beep’ was heard in the distance, making the eyes of the red-haired man widen.
“Ahh, screw it!” He then swiftly grabbed both Loreanne and Melania’s hands and brought the two to the airship, both wondering what in the world was going on. The airship was giant, the two girls were too confused at what was going on to let go, the airship then quickly got away from the castle as it exploded full force.
“M-mom!!” Melania, reached out from the boat, almost in tears but not quite so. Just as the airship was about to fly out of Aquilla, there was a crash in the back because of the explosion, the airship was slowly but surely coming down, as it reached the outskirts of the city, Rachel and Raym both noticed the explosion coming down, Rachel’s dark brown eyes gleamed with anger as she then grabbed onto a rope from the airship, Raym along with her as she then climbed up to the boat to attack the thieves.
“You’re going to pay for that!!” Rachel shouted, losing her calm exterior, she then grabbed her staff via magic and was ready to attack with her
childhood friend who swiftly got out his sword.
“What kind of business do you have with the king?!” Raym interrogated, surrounding the red-haired man and group of thieves around them on the giant ship. Just as the two friends were ready to strike, a blonde-haired man came out of the group next to the red-haired one.
“It’s no use; this ship’s going to crash soon in the other continent anyway.” He said very calm and Loreanne-like, very unlike how the red-haired thief spoke. Raym then ran about to cut through the thieves when the whole ship began to crash just as the thief predicted, the whole group immediately panicked while grabbing onto various parts of the boat for safety. The whole thing then crashed in the center of a city that none of them were familiar with except for the thieves, luckily the only ones who were hurt was the group of thieves of the airship, and not any of the others. Loreanne and Melania immediately got up, looking around the place in curiosity, while Rachel approached the two.
“Ugh, what WERE you thinking?! You weren’t supposed to get near this boat, and I’m surprised with you, Loreanne, you’re supposed be the best soldier, not go onto a boat of thieves!!” Rachel scolded, making Loreanne obviously upset.
“Your majesty, I no longer have to listen to your every command now that we are in a new continent, and must I ask you don’t assume every little thing or scold me like a child when I’m older than you.” Loreanne said in a very proper way of telling someone off. The blonde-haired man oddly got up in Loreanne’s defense.
“Before this all happened...” He said calmly. “You would be treated with the utmost respect, but now...no one knows you here.” He spoke matter-of-factly as he then looked around the city, one of the only thieves not hurt from the crash. Everyone began to get curious of who these thieves were and why they did what they had done, and most of all, how to get back to their home which has been destroyed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Is it spaced okay? How is it? :ermm: :blush: I know it might be crappy, it's just an introduction........ :blush:
| QUOTE (Kusari Yarou @ Jul 9 2005, 03:41 AM) |
| I really like Lorreane. I like how you made her a strong woman but also obviously vulnerable and bitter because of Michael. |
Yeah, there was definitely an obvious change between her in the past and in the present, the fact that she talks smack to anyone makes me like her too. :lol: NEW CHAPPIE!! HAHA!!
Ch. 2 In This New Place
“Ugh, I could care less what kind of place we’re in...” Rachel began, with her hands on her hips, “I just want to know who the heck you are, why you’re doing this, and how to get out of here!” She ordered, Rachel was pretty used to getting her way.
“Too bad, ‘cause you’re not gonna take the easy route to getting back home, honey.” The red-haired boy said with confidence, “But it WOULD be kinda nice if you knew our names...I don’t wanna be called ‘hey you’ all day.” He joked; he seemed the exact opposite of the blonde-haired man he was traveling with. After all the ruckus they finally got a good view of the two young men they were traveling with, the red-haired boy had well, bright red hair and large gleaming green eyes. He had a few freckles on his face, almost just like Rachel, he was seventeen though, a year younger than the stuck-up princess. His nose was turned up quite a lot and his hair was also just a little past his ears. His face was square-shaped and his form was a lot like Raym’s except he was shorter than Rachel, He wore a short jacket with light brown feathers on the collar, his jacket had quite a few pockets as well, and its main color was dark green. His shirt was short although you couldn’t tell with his jacket, its color was light green it also had a few pockets on the sides, and its collar was high and circular along with the same design Melania had on the ‘kimono’-like part of her outfit, the bottom of his shirt was the same as well.
He had extremely baggy light tan jeans with man pockets all around, and just plain black shoes, he seemed to fit the normal description of a thief, upbeat and fast. The blonde-haired man was quite different; his hair was a dark blonde and reached the end of his face, covering up his ears. His eyes were small, blue, and long, along with incredibly arched eyebrows, his nose was pointed and long, while his mouth was short and small. He had almost a pitch black rag over him, covering the top part of his torso and reaching down to his waist. His shirt was short sleeved although you couldn’t tell, and was a light blue with a considerably large black belt in the center, his shirt reached almost to the top of his thighs, he also had pitch black jeans tucked into black boots almost like Raym. He wore dark blue gloves, and was quite muscular compared to the red-haired boy, he was also the same age as Loreanne, nineteen.
“Okay already,” The red-haired boy said, “I’m Edge, and this is Angelo, and duh, we’re thieves.” He said plainly, finally revealing their names, Loreanne seemed fed up with all this suspense.
“Fine, now where are we?” Loreanne asked, crossing her arms as her thoughts wandered off to where they might need to go to get back.
“Rinn!” Edge said cheerfully, “City of....THIEVES!” this made everyone a bit uneasy about their location. “You know, even with the airship crashing, I find it funny how we ended up exactly where we wanted.” The whole city seemed to be very lower class and there seemed escape ways and exits everywhere, Edge and Angelo then both headed for a nearby house.
“Hey, wait!” Melania called out, “None of us know how to get back!” She then shook her head with frustration as the two ignored her.
“I...” Loreanne then went silent, she decided not to finish her sentence; none of them knew she wasn’t from Aquilla, she then slowly made her way near the house the two thieves walked into.
“Hey, speak up, Lore!” Raym said in a cocky way, getting on Loreanne’s nerves completely, she then turned around to the group.
“I don’t want anyone to call me Lore! That name’s in the past!” She shouted coldly as she was about to enter the house, “I’m sorry, but I have to follow them...” She began, “This place is the exact opposite of Aquilla in each and every way, don’t get lost.” Loreanne warned and then ran into the house in lightning speed as if she’d been there before.
“Yeah, right, keep trying to act cool, Lore.” Rachel said with annoyance as she turned her head to get a better look at the surroundings. “Alright, Raym, you’re coming with me to search around, I need some sort of protection.” This most of all got Melania angry, but she tried to keep her patience with her sister. “Melania, don’t get lost...matter of fact, never mind, DO get lost.” She said coldly as walking into a house to the left of them with Raym following her.
“Hey, don’t you think that was a bit...too harsh?” He asked as the two were making there way to the house, Rachel gave a small laugh, she was an alright person despite her attitude with her sister, but when she was with her sister she got everyone around her angry.
“Yeah, so what.” Rachel said cheerfully as the two walked into the western house, leaving Melania all alone. Ever since they were little Melania never actually did understand why Rachel hated her, was it because they weren’t blood related or just because they were related? She wished that one day she would actually figure out what was going on in her sister’s mind while she expressed cruelty to her, actually, Melania never could remember a good memory of Rachel, and maybe Rachel felt the same.
“Rachel, don’t you feel bad?” Raym asked as they were exploring the western house, looking for anything, passage-ways, people, it seemed everyone was a thief here and they were very good at hiding. It might not have been a very
good idea to ask for directions.
“No.” Rachel said clearly, no one understood the feelings she kept inside and saw her usually as one-dimensional; truly Raym was probably the only one who could see her as she was. “Raym, do you remember that day when you met Melania?” He nodded, Rachel looked down, “Well, I said that because I...”
“Because I need to be with you.” Loreanne said as she had finally caught up to Edge and Angelo, both looking confused wondering who she was talking about. “It may sound crazy, but I do have my reasons...” Loreanne trailed off, not wanting to explain herself.
“Why would you want to do that? We’re thieves, we destroyed Aquilla’s castle.” Angelo said coldly, while sitting down inside the shabby house. Loreanne looked down for a moment to think aloud.
“...The resemblance is uncanny.” She said, making absolutely no sense for the two thieves who stared at her blankly. “You may not understand my past, but I must follow you, to find what I’ve been looking for, for so long.” Loreanne then looked up. “So wherever you go, take me with you, I’m not weak; I won’t be dead weight for you both to carry.” Loreanne’s face seemed to be frozen in a sad expression she kept for three years of her life.
“Hey, now, cheer up!!” Edge shouted, noticing the sadness in her face. “We’re both thieves so we’ll be sure to show you to wherever you want, right?” He said, looking over to his traveling companion.
“Fine, as long as you can fight.” Angelo responded coldly, making Loreanne’s face seem semi-shocked instead of sad for once, she then got out of her moment and nodded, trying to break a smile but failing.
“Thank you...” She began, “But you see, I’m the knight of both Melania and Rachel...I could care less about Rachel because she has her childhood friend to protect her, but Melania...” She paused and shook her head with her hands crossed. “If we bring her along I can guarantee she won’t be dead weight...there’s something she’s hiding, you saw it, didn’t you Edge?” She asked, referring to the Water spell Melania had cast earlier.
“Good point, ah, she seems nice, I wouldn’t mind traveling with her.” Edge said with utmost cheerfulness compared to the two people he was talking to her, “Besides, she’ll be a nice balance for you.” He laughed, making Loreanne nod and almost exit.
“Wait.” Angelo commanded as Loreanne did what she was told. “I’ve figured out that Melania’s the one with the light brown hair, Raym’s the one with the dark brown hair, Rachel’s the one with the reddish hair, but what’s you’re name?” He asked, he seemed not to have the best memory.
“Loreanne...just don’t call me Lore.” She said harshly, Angelo in a confused way nodded, just as Loreanne was at the exit she spoke, “You know, although the resemblance is uncanny, you two couldn’t be any more different...” Confusing the two she left to get Melania, she soon found the princess clutching to her head while on the ground, Loreanne immediately felt bad because she hadn’t stayed with her. “What’s wrong?” She asked first, rushing to Melania.
“...My head...hurts.” Melania said, making Loreanne only worry more, “D-don’t worry I think it’s just a bad migraine, heh, that’s all.” She said, still holding her head tight. “Will you please go get my necklace back for me?” Melania said, going off-topic completely. Loreanne without saying a word headed back to the two thieves inside the house’s many passage-ways.
“The necklace you stole?” Loreanne asked, getting immediately to the point, Edge took a nod and quickly went through each one of his many pockets finally finding the gold necklace and throwing it over to Loreanne as she ran off, without letting either of the thieves get a word in.
“T-thanks.” Melania said, still clutching her head as she put on her necklace the same way she had it before as she got up with a cheerful face, seeming to be better. “Thanks, I really wanted this back, you know.” Melania spoke cheerfully with a cute smile.
“What does that necklace have to do with...?” Loreanne began, knowing Melania knew what she was talking about, for some reason Loreanne couldn’t get it out of her head that the necklace was special in some other way.
“Nothing...I....nothing.” Melania said, her facial expression looked of a mixture of confused and worried, Loreanne decided not to get under her case for that, it wasn’t like her to go into other people’s business.
“Well, anyways we’re going with Edge and Angelo to wherever, you may not understand but there are things that I need to figure out for myself.” Loreanne said, Melania made a smile and nodded, Loreanne figured she’d have nothing against this.
“There are things that I want to know, too...” She mumbled, but loud enough to hear, something then went through Melania’s head. “Hey...can we please bring Raym?” Loreanne took a sigh at this, she didn’t want anything to do with Rachel or Raym, and they were both pests in her eyes.
“Wherever Rachel goes, Raym goes. I don’t want either of them to come, but if you insist...” Loreanne said, for some reason even though she wasn’t in Aquilla anymore she wanted to please Melania because she was the only one who had shown her true kindness. “So...”
“So...should we go with them?” Rachel said calmly, peaking through a window in the house they were in, making Raym sigh for a moment.
“You shouldn’t spy on them, you know.” He said, watching Rachel still look through the door, almost ignoring him. “....I want to go.” He spontaneously spoke making Rachel confused about why.
“I won’t pound you down for questions about that, but sure, I’ll go, I’d be lost without all of you, ya know.” Rachel got away from the window and waited for Loreanne to come in formally asking them a series of questions which led up to the one Rachel knew she would ask. Just as Loreanne came in to open her mouth, Rachel immediately cut her off. “Yes, we won’t hold you back, yes, I know not to interfere, yes, I know that I need to take care of myself, and yes I’ll go with you.” She said suddenly, answering most of Loreanne’s questions she was going to ask. “You know this whole adventure thing sounds pretty fun!” Rachel said cheerfully while leaving the house with Raym and then Loreanne. As the three exited the house, they were greeted by the two thieves.
“Alrighty, what’s our destination, ma’am?” Edge asked bowing, poking fun at Loreanne’s formality, which she seemed not to find at all funny.
“Cygnus.” She said plainly, already heading toward the exit. “I have...unfinished businesses there, then we have to go back to Aquilla.” Her voice was almost in monotone as she continued walking toward the exit, not looking back to her traveling companions.
“Cygnus? Geez, that’s further from Aquilla than Rinn is!” Edge exclaimed, although he was eighteen he proved to have a lot more energy in him than anyone of the group, he seemed very fast pace and didn’t like to be tied down at the same place for too long.
“I...don’t care.” Loreanne stopped as she responded as she partially turned her head, still not turning back to look at the group. “Besides, with you thieves with us we’ll be just fine, right?” Continuing for the exit leaving everyone else behind Loreanne went on.
“Edge, I’m curious...how far exactly?” Rachel asked with her calm outer appearance put to block her true, “I don’t want this to be a long trip, the people of Aquilla NEED me now.” She said, almost losing her calmness as she caught herself, “What I mean is, please get us there quickly.” Bowing very formally she then ran off to follow Loreanne who was already waiting at the exit now.
“It’ll only take a while!” Edge shouted while keeping in a little chuckle, “Yeah, right, even if we hurry it’ll take weeks to get to Cygnus, but I won’t tell her that.” He thought aloud while following the two girls who had already left, and then having Raym, Melania and Angelo follow him.
“How many cities do we have to pass?” Melania questioned, almost out of breath, as soon as she caught up with the group who was now outside Rinn making their way through the earth.
“Quite a few.” Angelo replied in monotone as he caught up with the group, trying not to show that he was actually a little tired. “First we’ll stop by Alcor; I’ve heard they’ve been having trouble lately though. Next we’ll be going to Hadar, a city of the earth, then we’ll be going to Pavo, a very colorful city, and then Cygnus, that place has turned a little gloomy for some reason but that’s where Loreanne wishes to go.” He explained; both he and Edge seemed to know a lot about their world.
“So, it’s getting late, when we get to Alcor, let’s rest.” Raym demanded calmly while walking in the group next to Rachel as usual, eventually the whole group made their way through the night only half way to Alcor, it was already three in the morning and none of them had found the city.
“Told you it would take a while.” Edge said quite matter-of-factly with a large smirk on his face, as he stopped and the whole group followed his action. “Let’s just make camp here and then head back out tomorrow, kay?” He scratched his head and then began to make a fire.
“It’s not that late.” Loreanne spoke softly, she usually stayed up until at least five or six in the morning and then only slept for a few hours, but that was mostly because of her duties she had to perform. “Hm, never mind, it’ll be nice to sleep for once.” She said in a hopeful voice, the two thieves only had a few extremely thin sheets and Loreanne, always prepared, had food. Eventually almost the whole group had fallen asleep around the fire Edge had made. Melania then went into a dream, fire was around her, burning as it almost covered the skies and was so hot she could almost feel the flames around her. A woman, only a few years older than Melania flashed in the center of the clearing where the flames didn’t reach.
“Hello.” She merely spoke, staring at Melania with her thin blood red eyes; her voice was dark then yet had softness to it at the same time. “Why...?” When speaking she had a tendency to hardly open her rose red lips which were thin. She had a slender face along with slightly arched eyebrows leading up to her oddly colored layered dark blue-purple hair which appeared short on the left side and long on the right while in the back put into an even bun. “Why do you continue on?” She continued, her body seemed to have large scratches all over but she didn’t seem hurt by them at all.
“Why do I continue on?” Melania asked back with her hands clasped in front of her while hardly biting her upper lip, “I don’t know what you mean by that, why wouldn’t I continue on? And who are you?” She questioned, slowly stepping closer to this woman.
“Hm.” The woman’s mouth then went into a sly smile, through the flames Melania wasn’t able to see what she was wearing until now. Her shirt-area of her outfit was shaped like a dark red flower, only covering up her chest; there was also a small upside-down green flower bud-looking thing after the flower. The outfit then went pitch black with a tint of blue and was very thin until it reached her lower back where it covered up about a miniskirt’s length of skin and then the skirt/dress showed both her scratched legs going thin again. “I know you have questions...” Her sleeves were dark black with a tint of blue and covered up all of her hands, where underneath were long black gloves. “The magic you used before, where did you learn it?” She asked with her smirk still planted on her face.
“I...don’t know,” Melania replied, looking down to the light brown dirt below her. “That magic, just came out of nowhere...my sister she...she trained for years just to learn her healing magic, and my attack magic just came out of nowhere...” Although she was partially thinking aloud, Melania waited what this woman would say, she had an odd feeling she knew her answers.
“You know it in your heart, you don’t need useless training,” The woman said matter-of-factly with a smirk, there seemed to be gentleness Melania could sense behind her smirk that wasn’t seen. “My name is Rose, to answer your earlier question.” Her voice was always calm and clear, unlike Rachel’s. “Soon enough you’ll find out what that magic meant, everything you can’t deny, and most of all...where you came from...that is what you want to know the most, right?” The two seemed to hardly make eye-contact during their discussion.
“That’s right...but how do you know all of this?” She asked as she then slowly walked forward to Rose once more, who just stayed still now looking Melania directly in the eyes.
“Don’t forget, you’ll find that out soon enough as well. I’ll only answer one of the questions you wish to know...” She spoke as she began to turn away from Melania, “You continue on because you have no choice.” Melania then found herself waking up immediately after those last words, gasping for air as if she had just been underwater.
“You could scare someone like that.” A voice from her left spoke, she knew who it was without looking but she did anyway. Even though it was still dark outside, Raym was awake, just gazing into the burnt out fire, the sky was getting lighter by the second.
“Why...are you awake so early...or should I say so dark?” Melania asked herself looking around the sky, “What time is it anyway?” She changed the subject quickly while rubbing her eyes; everyone seemed to still be asleep.
“I think it’s ‘early’...and I always wake up this early, it’s just a bad habit I guess. Also, I’m guessing almost six.” Raym joined in this conversation which seemed to turn into the two just asking themselves and each other questions for now. Raym’s eyes showed no sign of being tired even though it was so early; he actually looked more awake than ever now. “What were you dreaming about that made you so upset?” He then got back on his original topic.
“No, it’s nothing; a dream’s...just a dream after all, right?” Melania said assuring, mostly to comfort herself though as she still sat there trying to feel comfortable on the rocky dirt ground beneath them. “Say, Raym...have you ever had any weird dreams?” She asked, still trying to remind herself that it was only a dream.
“Nope...actually I don’t even remember if I’ve ever had dreams at all.” He said plainly still looking out to where the fire used to be the night before, he seemed to look exactly the same as the night before, his hair was in perfect place, and he was just as awake.
“Never? That’s pretty odd.” Melania said in a joking tone, she then noticed Raym’s face looked more serious as in slightly hurt. “Ah, but don’t worry, we can be odd together.” She laughed, even making him chuckle a bit. “You know, now that I think about it, this is the first time we’ve ever talked.” She said in a cheery tone always with a smile on her face.
“Yeah, you’re right...but that’s because of...” Raym began as he was cut off while noticing everyone was finally waking up as the sun began to shine again. “N-nevermind.” He stopped as everyone finally got out ready to head to Alcor.
“Listen,” Loreanne ordered, her look of seriousness still on her face, “We’re sleeping in one of Alcor’s Inns and then we pass right through, this isn’t a vacation or some kind of field trip.” She made clear as the whole group decided it would be useless to backtalk her, the trip getting there was pretty boring although it was hard to keep up with Loreanne at the speed she was running. At last the group had made it to Alcor; it was a lot smaller than expected for the part of the group from Aquilla, their city was so alive and rich while Alcor was small and almost poor-looking.
“Hey,” Edge announced, walking ahead of the group as they entered the city, it was still light outside, but it wouldn’t be for very long. “Guys, I have something to take care of, you can go ahead and get the Inn, okay?” He said as he swiftly ran farther into Alcor before anyone to speak to him about what he was doing.
“Now where’s he going?” Rachel asked, looking at Angelo for the answer, keeping her calm outer appearance once again, “You’re his friend, so you should know.” When Rachel spoke like that she really did seem like a polite, kind priestess.
“I’m not his friend.” Angelo said in monotone as he headed out to find the Inn with Loreanne who didn’t want to waste a second before reaching Cygnus she didn’t even bother to speak or explain herself.
“Hmm, wonder why that made him so mad...” Rachel said with her hands on her hips as the light breeze of the city gently blew her red-brown hair. “Raym, let’s go investigate, okay?” She asked, it was more of an order put into question, though, her calm appearance then faded into a more outgoing person once again as Rachel left with Raym following, leaving Melania alone again.
“Again? Fine...” Melania said to herself as she then decided to follow Edge who went deep into the small city; she actually began to get curious about this friend of his. It took her a while to figure out where his friend lived but she eventually found the house, it seemed pretty middle class compared to every house in Aquilla. As she had expected, she saw Edge inside the house with a young girl, probably just their age. “H-hi...” Melania spoke, getting the attention of both Edge and the young girl.
“Hey, why’d you follow me?” Edge spoke, a tone of anger in his voice as he looked over to the young girl who just smiled gently. “Forget about it, anyway this is Julia.” He pointed to the young girl next to him who smiled once more, her black hair was thin and shoulder-length, she had an angelic appearance to her that seemed to never go away. On the right side of her head Julia had bangs, and on the left she had one large curl pointing inward, adding onto her angelic looks.
“It’s alright.” She said in an optimistic tone, her gray-blue eyes were large and full of life, and her eyebrows were short and high along with a small nose and mouth, initially Melania had thought that Edge liked Julia because she was so beautiful. Melania had noticed she had a calmness that she did not. “What’s your name?” Her smile stayed on always as they continued their conversation.
“Oh, I’m Melania...” She answered, looking at Julia; she wanted to be calmer, like her. Julia’s face was the shape of a heart, Julia’s style was very elegant, more so than Melania, even when she’s a princess. Her shirt was dark blue and turtle necked. And its sleeves almost covered up all of her long artistic hands; her skirt was very playful and had beautiful light purple flowers on it with the background being a plain white, that’s what Melania had liked the most about her outfit, the flowers. “Has Edge explained to you about why he’s here?” Melania asked, holding her necklace when she noticed Julia had a necklace too, except it was also a lot more elegant, just a small pendant, a beautiful light purple just like the flowers on her skirt.
“Yes, it’s alright, there’s no need to explain yourself.” Julia answered cheerfully, Melania then noticed her shoes were also just as elegant, dark brown boots with dark purple fake fur on the edges, this made Melania look down to her own shoes, just small orange shoes with buckles, maybe if I was more elegant he would...She thought, noticing how beautiful and natural Julia seemed, why don’t I try..?
“Thank you.” Melania answered, bowing kindly, “So, how are you and Edge connected?” She spoke, trying not to remove that elegant way of speaking; she began to wonder if Julia had noticed this.
“We were friends from childhood; it’s the same with Angelo.” She said kindly, making Melania think, Angelo freaked out when Rachel thought he and Edge were friends, I wonder how he feels about Julia? Melania asked herself as she then turned away to think of an elegant way to respond to Julia.
“Um...” She began to speak, but then was pulled away forcefully by Edge into another room to the left of the small family room they were in then, millions of questions seemed to run throughout Melania’s head now.
“Before you say something you might regret...” Edge warned; he seemed to be a lot more serious now than he usually was. “Julia can’t come with us on this trip because she’s sick.” He said plainly, not helping the questions inside Melania’s mind. “She has some kind of unknown illness and can’t leave this house...” He said plainly, his tone then went from serious to sad.
“I would’ve never guessed...she’s so cheerful.” Melania said talking to herself again as she looked in the other room to Julia, she was amazed at how someone could be so happy with such misfortune. “But it’s alright Edge, thanks.” She answered with an almost sad smile, losing her elegant act once more, Julia must be very important to him if he cares this much, She said to herself as she then looked to Edge.
“Why don’t you go back to the Inn? I’ll meet back with you guys in the morning, okay?” He said cheerfully, almost with a large hidden sign telling Melania they wanted to be alone, without a word she nodded, waved to Julia and left to go back to the Inn.
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Remember, flowers=important to plot and crap