Ryle hummed softly to himself.
“SHUT THE *&#% UP, RYLE!” Yanille shouted.
Ryle hummed louder, composing a tune that could hardly be called musical. Yanille stooped down and picked up a rock. He tossed it up in the air and caught it, testing its weight before chucking it at Ryle’s face. Fortunately, right at that moment Ryle sneezed, so the rock flew harmlessly past his head.
Amara still seemed enamored with her magical necklace and hardly noticed when the horse she was riding strayed off the path and started grazing on some straggly grass.
Caelia was flat on her horses back, hanging on for dear life. The horse didn’t seem to mind her vice-like grip and ambled along after the others.
Aliane, however, was the picture of grace, her posture perfect on the pretty black horsie. She was the only one who looked as though she belonged on a horse, except, of course, Yanille, who had chosen to walk.
KABOOM!
“Wassthat?” Caelia asked, her grip on the horse strong as ever.
Ryle looked around and paled. “I do believe it’s a dragon!”
“Hehe,” Amara giggled. “Dragons don’t exist!”
“Wanna bet?”
“Yeah!”
“How much?”
“Twenty gil!”
“Deal! Now turn around!”
Amara turned. “Oh, dear.”
Amazingly calm, she dug a few coins out of her pocket. “Here you are, Ryle,” she said as she handed him the coins. He counted them. “Thank you.”
Yanille, meanwhile, had picked up another rock. This time, instead of throwing it at Ryle, he chucked it at the dragon. Unfortunately, the dragon sneezed just at that moment, releasing a stream of fire upon the group.
All the girls screamed. (Well, the boys did, too, although they would never admit it.)
Again, Yanille chucked at rock at the dragon. Again, it sneezed. This process repeated for several minutes. At long last, Ryle unsheathed his sword and snuck up behind the dragon while Caelia threw daggers at it and Amara shot a bunch of arrows. The dragon swerved its neck around, dodging the weapons. While it was distracted Ryle climbed onto its neck, determined to get to its head and stab it.
Yanille through another rock.
The dragon sneezed.
Ryle went flying through the air, flailing his limbs in panic. In the flurry of motion, he dropped the sword. He landed hard, and the breath was jolted out of him. As he lay wheezing, the sword came down from the sky and landed just below the fork of his legs, pointy side down. Ryle sat up and looked at the sword and where it had almost landed just before fainting like a lady whose corset is too tight.
Caelia was crying. “RUUUUUN!” she yelled.
Everyone obliged, hopping on their horses and galloping away. They had gone nearly a mile when Aliane made a very astute observation. “We left Ryle behind.”
“Damnit!” Yanille exclaimed. “I’ll get him.” He immediately changed into wolf form and ran back to the site of the dragon field. He found the dragon gently licking Ryle’s face. The dragon opened its jaws wide to take a taste.
“Damnit…” Yanille said again as he ran to pull Ryle out of harm’s way. It was a long journey back to the others with Ryle’s dead weight to drag back. Especially since the others hadn’t waited for them. It was long past dark when Yanille caught up to them, and Ryle still hadn’t woken up.
“Aww, he’s so cute!” Caelia squealed, poking his cheek with a stick.
“Hey, look what I caught!” Amara yelled. She proudly held up a dead mouse. Or at least, it seemed to be dead until it squealed and leaped from her hands. Amara screamed. Ryle sat straight up, panicking. Caelia saw the mouse and started screaming, too. Yanille was knocked out asleep by this time, exhausted from hauling Ryle up the mountain. The mouse ran across his face.
It was then that a small, fuzzy face poked out of Ryle’s shirt. In a blur, it leaped out after the mouse, onto Yanille’s peaceful face. He didn’t even notice the squeal of the mouse, or the blood that ran down his face as the small body went limp.
Purring, the small, fuzzy creature carried the officially dead mouse to Ryle. “Good kitty!” he murmured, scratching the kitten behind the ears. “That thing was about as big as you!”
Aliane asked, “Um, Ryle, why do you have a cat?”
Ryle blushed. Caelia squealed in delight and ran over to poke his cheeks. Yanille twitched in his sleep and tripped her. She fell with a ‘thunk.’
“You know the girl who loaned us the horses? Well, her cat had just had kittens not long ago..And they were finally weaned…And she gave me one!” his face glowed with pride. “Isn’t she cute?”
The kitten certainly was cute. She looked like a small bundle of orange and white fluff, and her eyes glowed green from beneath the many layers of fur. Ryle picked her up and shoved her back in his shirt.
Just then, the ground trembled. Rocks collapsed and fell from the cliffsides all around the group. “Take cover!”
Everyone hit the ground and covered their heads with their hands. After a moment, the trembling ceased. They got up and checked out the damage. It was pretty bad.
“Well! Moving on!” someone yelled.
So they moved on. Until they came to a house. They went in the house. There was a witch in the house. “Hello!” Ryle called.
“Oh, hi Ryle!” the witch called back. It is unknown how she knew his name.
“Well! Moving on!” someone yelled again.
So they moved on again. And finally, at last, the long anticipated city of Letherblanca came into view.
...
Oh, gosh. I'm so sorry, guys. But hey! We're there! Take it from here, Ian.
Aliane had spotted a group of people leaving the house and decided to follow and investigate. She cast a stealth spell on her and her horse so she could get a closer view on the situation. A girl with raven black hair had a knife to a guy who was a few inches taller than her. The boy smelt of dry blood and Aliane narrowed her eyes at the young man with silver hair and gold eyes. The boy easily batted the knife out of the girls’ hand and inhaled deeply. He looked directly at her and spoke loudly and clearly. "Planning on gracing us with your presence at any point are you?" Aliane stiffened and pulled herself and her horse out of the underbrush.
"Introduce yourself on the way." The silver haired boy said. Aliane watched as he shifted into a wolf and headed towards Letherblanca, a city that was renowned to have rare and exotic herbs amongst other healing equipment. She quickly mounted her horse and waited for everyone else to do so. “I am Aliane Farilliar. I come from the Elyowen villiage. Elyowen lies deep within the Innifer Forest.” She said hesitantly. “I am on a guest to get some items for my villiage. May I join you?”
She quickly looked at all of the people in the group. The girl with raven hair and emerald green eyes approached her on a chestnut stallion. “Hello. I am also from the Innifer Forest. My name is Amara.” Alaine smiled pleasantly and nodded. “The boy that shifted into a wolf is Prince Yanille. The girl with the short blonde hair and tan is Caelia. She is from the Kailar Empire. The boy with blonde medium hair is Ryle. He is from the Devaneir Empire and we were just in his villiage.”
Aliane looked at all of the new faces and smiled. “I am very pleased to meet you!” She said. She picked up speed on her mare until she was at an even pace with Yanille. “Nice to meet you too. You’ve got some very keen senses. I should have known better to cover all trace of me, including my scent.” The wolf quickly shifted one of its gold eyes and looked at Aliane and then focused back on running.
Aliane snorted very improperly. “I guess manners don’t exist amongst royalty. Very well.” She said offended. She slowed down so that the others in the group could catch up with her. Aliane’s eyes quickly darted to something that was reflecting the sunlight around Amara’s neck. She realized that it was a magic pendent, one used to hold the girls’ power. She scanned the group for any weapons and noticed that Ryle carried a blunt sword, Amara had a not so good quality bow and poor quality arrows, and Caelia carried a dagger.
‘I wonder how they would feel about new weapons.’ She thought to herself as she continued to keep up pace with the group with Yanille leading the way.
----------------------------------------------------
It's a lot shorter than what I had originally planned to post, but it will have to do.
"You do know, that it's much easier to hold someone hostage when the sharp side of the knife is at their neck right?" Yanille said as he batted the knife away with ease. Then he turned to face Amara, "So what was the whole point of that?"
Amara was holding the knife, shakily, in front of her. "I need supplies for my village, and...well...I thought I could hold you for ransom since you're a prince and all." Amara stammered as she stumbled backwards.
Yanille stood there watching her, contemplating his options. Just as he was about to speak, something caught his attention. He took a deep breath, there it was...that same smell as before. Yanille's amber eyes surveyed the foliage. Locking his gaze on a particularly dense area of underbrush Yanille spoke, "Planning on gracing us with your presence at any point are you?"
Out of the darkness crept a girl and her horse. Yanille looked the newcomer over with his amber eyes and then, as if deciding something, started walking in the direction of Letherblanca. "Introduce yourself on the way." Yanille called over his shoulder, before changing into his animal form and continuing up the mountain slope.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Happy now?
Sounds of laughter pierced the air of the Carne house.
Amara sighed as she pulled back the kitchen curtain and gazed out over the mountainside. How can they be so cheerful? she wondered.I mean, there’s two people in here from different empires and they’re not even worried!
It had been three days since she left Lorvale. Three days. She dreaded thinking about the things that could have happened in the village while she was gone. If her necklace hadn’t been taken by those cursed bats on the cliff, she would have all of the needed supplies and be on her merry way home.
Amara stared in horror at the blood dripping from the Kailarian’s hand. Had she really just thrown that? This was bad. She couldn’t just go around throwing daggers on other territories!
But then it hit her.
Why was someone from the Kailar Desert all the way in Devaneir?! She decided it would be best to ask later.
“P-Please, forgive me. I’ll do anything!” Amara begged.
The blonde smiled. “Hmm… Anything? Follow me!”
And so the extremely tan girl had dragged the light skinned girl up the cliff towards a small house surrounded by sheep. Amara was standing here watching--but not really listening to--people make small talk while the supplies she needed could already have been purchased.
She slowly started stepping backwards towards the door, but was stopped by Ryle’s mother.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t believe I caught your name.”
Amara squeaked and slowly looked up into the woman’s eyes. “Amara.”
“Amara, is it? Well, I’m sure you find my son very attractive. He is such a handsome boy,” she giggle mischievously. “You could not do better than my Ryle here!”
The raven-haired girl smiled as she looked towards the boy named Ryle. She wasn’t gonna lie. He was sort of cute… But there was no way in the spirits’ names that she was going to marry him. He was just a kid! A really tall kid, but a kid nonetheless.
Just as she was about to protest, a girl who looked extremely like Ryle(Ana, maybe?) walked into the room with a silver-haired, bandaged up boy.
Ryle’s mother looked delighted at the sight of him. “Hello, young sir. You can call me ‘Mother.’ What is your name?”
“Yanille.” The silveret glanced at the older woman, who ran towards him and practically crushed him by grabbing and throwing him onto the couch.
Amara snickered and looked away, figuring that he was about to get the marriage talk. As she looked out the window again, she occasionally listened to the conversation going on a few feet away.
“…Honey!” she heard Ryle’s mother call to her husband, who had somehow ended up on the floor.
“Yes?” he asked irritably.
“What is the name of that one boy? The one whose father is a king?”
A pause. Then a man’s voice spoke up. “Was is not something like Jamill, or Yanib?”
“Could it have been… Yanille?”
“Yes! That sounds about right!”
Amara’s head turned quickly at this. A prince, eh? She glanced towards Yanille. Interesting.
“You WILL marry my daughter!” The mother’s voice seemed to be a mix of a command and desperateness.
Yanille looked like he was about to kill the poor(...ish) woman, so Amara figured it would be best to intervene before a brawl broke out.
“Uhm… Soooooo!” she quickly pulled out the supply/trade list from a pocket of her robe and shoved it towards Ryle’s mother. “Any idea where I can get any of this stuff?”
Ryle’s mom looked over the paper a few times and sighed. “Sorry, kid. Last I checked, this stuff’s not coming until next month.”
She sympathetically handed the paper back to Amara, who looked like she could cry. “Ah, well… I guess I should head back to Lorvale, then...”
“Wait. You’re traveling by yourself, aren’t you?” Ryle’s mother asked.
Amara nodded.
“Well, that just won’t do at all! Ryle!” she turned towards her son. “Go to the neighbors’ house and get some horses, and then make sure Amara gets home safely!”
Ryle sighed. “Yes, Mother.” he walked past Yanille and whispered something to him that made him jump up and follow. He reached the doorway and turned. “You coming?” he asked Amara.
The forest girl nodded and followed the two.
“H-Hey! Wait up!” Caelia exclaimed as she ran after the others.
----
The “neighbors’ house’ was actually a fairly long hike, due to the mountainous terrain. Amara thought her feet were going to fall off by the time they reached the front door.
Ryle knocked on the door and after a few moments the door opened, revealing a young girl who looked around his age.
“Hello, Ryle.” the girl curtsied slightly and smiled. “What brings you here?”
“We’d like to borrow some of your horses, if that’s okay.” he answered.
“Alrighty! Just let me ask--”
The girl was cut short by a pudgy, older woman prancing up to the door. “Ryle Carne? I thought it was you~!” she greeted the boy by pinching his cheeks and smothering him in a hug.
“Um.. Gertrude. Can’t. Breathe.” Ryle gasped.
Hearing the distress in his voice, the woman named Gertrude finally released him. “Oh! I’m terribly sorry!” She craned her head around and finally seemed to notice the group behind Ryle. “Dear me, where are my manners?! I’m Gertrude--but you can just call me Gerty, and this is my daughter, Ellei.”
Ryle explained the situation and Gerty grinned. “Go right ahead! But I expect a payment eventually…” She moved dangerously close to Ryle’s face.
“Marry my daughter.”
Amara watched Ryle’s eyes widen in fear and couldn’t help but wonder if all of the mothers in Veyon were crazy or just desperate to marry their children off.
“…Okaaaay then! Let’s go get some horsies!” Caelia switched topics enthusiastically. The desert girl looked around, probably searching for Yanille who was off brooding next to a patch of wild mushrooms…
Ellei smiled and gestured the way towards a dirt path. “Follow me to the stables.”
---
The first thing Amara noticed when she walked into the stables was that the stench of horse manure was overpowering everything else. The second thing was the loud neighing and snorting of horses.
But the third thing she noticed was an extremely shiny and familiar object sticking out of one of the piles of horse dung. Amara’s eyes widened in joy as she leapt forward to claim her emerald necklace. She wiped it off on her dress and brought it to her cheek, cuddling it carefully. “Oh, my precious necklace! I thought I had lost you forever when the mean old bats attacked meeeee! But how did the horses get you? Oh well, that doesn‘t matter anymore! What matters is that I have you back and--”
Looking up, she noticed Ryle, Yanille, and Ellei giving her very peculiar looks.
After an extremely awkward pause, Caelia spoke up. “So that’s the necklace you were looking for on the cliff earlier?” she asked, and when Amara nodded she smiled. “It’s really pretty, y’know, minus the spots of horse crap that it’s rubbing all over your face.”
The forest girl’s face turned bright red as she vigorously rubbed the smears off her cheeks and chuckled. “Well… That’s embarrassing…” She placed the pendant around her neck and could feel the return of her magic pulsing through her body.
Ellei laughed. “Wow. What are the odds?” she began to walk towards the rows of horses. “If you hang on a few minutes, I can tack some horses for you guys.”
Ryle smiled softly. “That’d be great.”
It seemed like ages had passed until Ellei finally returned, leading four horses behind her. “Here you go. These are some of the best horses we have here,” she declared proudly. “Oh, and you do know that my mother was kidding about that whole marriage thing, right, Ryle?” her cheeks were tinted pink as she said this.
The blonde mountain boy ran a hand through his hair. “Sometimes I honestly don’t know what that woman is thinking.”
Ellei giggled. “Well, I promise she means no harm.” the farm girl looked at the sky. “You guys had better get going if you wanna make good time getting to the border. Stay safe!”
Everyone thanked the girl(Except Yanille, who claimed he didn’t have to thank the peasants.) and said their goodbyes.
As the group walked out of the stable with their horses and began to descend towards the cliffs, Amara swiftly drew her hunting knife from its sheathe and held it to Yanille’s neck.
“Sorry to do this,” she tried to sound brave, “but you’re coming with me.”
------------------------------------------
Oh shat. Amara’s gone badass.(Or is trying to. xD)
Title comes from here(click)8D
Word count: 1471
Heck yeahhhhh. xDD
Aliane crouched into a lush spot of growing witch hazel. She carefully inspected the plants for any imperfections and began to harvest what she needed. She placed the newly harvested witch hazel in her pouch and turned around to her black mare. “Shall we go back to Elyowen, Vanya?” She asked in a soft tone.
The mare, which was grazing, stopped and nickered at her owner. Aliane swiftly mounted the horse and began her journey back to her village.
Her long black and blue streaked hair blew in the wind as the mare picked up speed. Her lavender eyes darted around her surroundings for any oncoming threats. Aliane adjusted herself on the horse’s saddle and prompted the horse to go faster. The horse obeyed her mistress and picked up speed. Aliane was comforted as she heard the sounds of a waterfall signaling to her she was close to home. Aliane arrived into Elyowen with a few minutes to spare before she had to be at the healer’s quarters. She dismounted her horse and grabbed the reins to pull her into the barn where everyone’s horses where. “Good girl Vanya.” She said as she gave the mare a carrot.
Elyowen was a very elegant and wonderful place to live in. The entire village had been carved out of what used to have been a stone deposit. It had taken many craftsmen several years before the village was completed. The village was very open with private rooms for every person to use. The waterfall in the background and the lush vegetation gave the area a very mystical mood. The waterfall emptied into a river filled with fish and other creatures.
Aliane breathed in the fresh air that was given off of the trees and set out to finish her mission that had caused her to go searching for the plant in her pouch. She ran lithely up the stone stairs to the medics quarters and threw open the doors. The medics appeared before her quickly. “I’ve got what I was sent to get.” She said hastily as she unhooked her pouch and gave it to the healers quickly. The medics went to work with preparing the witch hazel. They grounded it up into a powder in a bowl and added some water to the mixture, creating yellowish paste.
“I’ll take it from here.” Aliane said with authority as she moved to the side to take the bowl from them. She quickly headed towards the patient who they were treating and gasped at the sight that met her. Thalion lied on a soft cot with bandages of crimson around him. He had been seriously wounded by a wyvern while he was out scouting the area for any trespassers. Aliane removed the crimson bandages from his leg and stomach and gently applied the paste to the wounds.
He flinched from the slight sting of the witch hazel but, Aliane held him down so he wouldn’t reopen his wounds. “There.” She said as she watched the wounds with a careful eye. Her lavender eyes looked into his grey ones and she smiled gently. “You are very lucky that I knew where this witch hazel was growing. If I hadn’t you would be in some very serious pain.”
Thalion lied still on the cot and chuckled slightly but, winced from his wound on his stomach. “I thank you my lady.” He said reverently. Aliane’s porcelain skin turned bright red from the formal use of her title and she had to turn around to try to gather her composure. She turned back around and cleared her throat.
“I really don’t like people using my title, but since you used it to show your appreciation I’ll let it slide. I must bid you farewell and may your wounds heal quickly.” Thalion nodded his head and started to stare outside to the open gardens.
Aliane left the medics quarters and headed to the city hall. Her father, main elder of the city, had wanted to see her when she had finished with her quest. Her blue-grey cloak billowed in the wind as she picked up speed towards the council meeting area.
Guards opened the stone doors of the meeting area and as she came in she bowed to the elders. She stood straight up when she heard her father calling her name.
“Aliane, we need you to set out on another mission. It is extremely important and we trust you can do it.” Aliane’s face grew serious as she realized just how honest her father was being. She nodded and waited patiently for her father to finish. Arthion looked at his daughter and sighed. “Aliane.”
He spoke.
Aliane watched as her father’s green eyes showed the hesitation that normally wasn’t there. “What is it my lord?” She asked curiously. Arthion cleared his throat and continued.
“We need you to gather a list of ingredients that will be difficult to find. Our people are getting sick and you are our only hope to collect the ingredients for the cure.” Aliane stiffened. Her people never got sick. That was how they lived so long. The only way for her people to die was to be slain. She nodded immediately accepting the quest.
“I’ll do it!” She said with determination. “My people need my help and I will help them.” Arthion looked at his daughter with admiration and surprise. “I shall leave at once. I will take Vayna with me and I shall gather my supplies.” Her father nodded and signaled her to come closer.
She obeyed and moved closer to his stone throne. Arthion stood up and hugged his daughter to himself. “Be careful my child. Who knows what dangers will await you on this quest.” He kissed her forehead and let her out of his grasp. She nodded and bowed again.
“I will not let you or the people down father.” She said passionately. She turned away from her father and ran quickly out of the council meeting room. She gathered her weapons, some herbs, food and water, and her spell book. She ran down the steps of her home and ran to the medics’ quarters to get the list. She said goodbye to everyone there, and with the list in her pouch, ran to the barn to mount her horse Vayna.
“Come on girl, we are going to have the adventure of our lives.” She said as she shook the horses’ reigns and left the village she had lived in for the past 1,250 years of her life. Aliane’s wavy hair and cloak blew in the wind as she and Vayna gained more speed. She quickly left the Inifer forests and three hours later had ridden into the harsh mountains of Devaneir. She decided to let Vayna rest by what appeared to be an oasis but, with her senses she could tell that the water was poisoned. She instinctively grabbed her bow and an arrow when she noticed a trail of blood and the carcass of a mountain bear. She let Vayna rest for a bit and ran towards the bear’s carcass.
“Poor thing.” She said quietly. She observed the bear for what had killed it and could easily see what had done it. Someone had thrust a sword through its heart. Aliane began to try to get some more information from the bear’s carcass and tried to bite back her tears. The bear had just had cubs and now those cubs weren’t going to make it. She hit the ground hard with her right hand, leaving a large dent in the ground.
She listened closely to her surroundings and could easily hear a voice scream at someone.
“You WILL marry my daughter!” It was a woman’s voice she heard and she quickly gathered her stuff and ran towards Vayna. She brought out her spell book and casted a spell of levitation to raise her and her horse up the mountain safely. Once she was on the cliff safely she rode towards what appeared to be a small shack with sheep around it. She decided to investigate and see if anyone knew what had happened to the bear. As she got closer the scent of two different bloods met her nose, that of the bear and someone else.
