Chapter 3: Unexpected Friends
Chapter 3: Unexpected friends Scia wakes to the sound of her alarm. she lays there for a few minutes listening to the sounds of Evangeline getting ready to go about her day. She then gets up and she begins doing stretches, taking deep breaths and getting ready to face the day. once she finishes her stretches she begins doing a few magical exercises. Once Scia finishes doing her exercises she goes out into the common room where she says 'Good morning' to her friend as they both get ready. "Hey Evangeline you want some pancakes for breakfast?" Evangeline grunts an affirmative. Scia looks in the pantry and rolls her eyes. "we friggin need eggs. well i will go down to the market and buy some. i will be back." she heads out the great gate of the college and stops seeing the tall golden dome of the church. it seems to shine brilliantly as though itself is another rising sun, especially compared to the rest of the city not yet bathed in the rising sun.
She arrives in the almost constantly busy market. she walks through many stalls seeing many different things for sale. she goes till she finds the man she normally gets her eggs from. she happily buys the eggs for her regular price and she puts them in the little basket she had brought with her. she begins walking back through the already crowded street. She sees that a lot of people are crowding around the college. she tilts her head wondering why such a huge group of people would be around the college at this hour. did someone die out front, or maybe a duel is going on? she looks to the great stained glass windows, and shes they are dark. like none of the light that should be inside is coming through. she begins to feel a panic. the windows should not be so dim, they shouldn't seem so empty. she begins pushing through the crowd, panic continuing to rise in her as she reaches the front gate where people are just staring and whispering quietly. she stops and she drops her basket, the eggs smashing violently against the stone street. herself and two other mages fall to their knees in despair. the doors were all sealed, and Scia knew there was no way in to her beloved college. It was under siege. A young woman puts a hand on scias shoulder and asks,"i am sorry, but i am unsure of what's going on. why can't anyone open any of the doors? why did the rocks we throw bounce off the windows?" Scia looks to the young woman and says with a soft hollow voice, "the college is under siege. there is no way in or out till the mages inside either win or lose." The girl has a confused look as she speaks in an even more confused tone, "what do you mean 'win or lose'? is there a duel going on? a war?" Scia shakes her head. "No, a siege.. its where a group of mages fights another group of mages. its usually done in times of war to stop a cities group of mages from getting involved in the physical battle. but.. why would this happen now? we arent at war.." Scia turns and sees several Shield knights come over. She covers her face in embarrassment, for she had started crying. she hated crying mainly because she always did it in times of stress. It is several hours later when sarah is released from being questioned by the Shields and the governors soldiers. she looks around trying to figure out what to do with herself now. she looks to the college, towering over the city like a dead husk. she looks away and thinks on where she can go for the time being. her mind slowly wonders to Marianna, a good friend of hers who owned a series of Inn's and trade posts across the lands. she is in town right now at one of the Inns for business. Scia starts off down the street till she comes upon a finely built Inn. she manages to get through the crowded front door, As Scia approaches, Marianne yells "O by the fires of heaven you're ok! I heard the college went under siege?" Marianne quickly walks through the huge crowd. "You must tell me what's going on!" Scia nods and they both go into Marianne's office.. Scia sits down in a chair and sighs softly. "The college is under siege... Marianne I feel something horrible coming." Marianne nods. "Honey i know this is tough for you, but the college going under siege is obviously a bad omen for Alliona. on that note where are you going to stay? I am sorry, but I don't have any rooms left. your a sweet girl and all and you know i would house you if i could." "I might be able to help with that." Scia turns to see the quite short red headed fairy from before, her golden wings shining softly in the dim fire light of the inn.
Scia looks to the fairy as she furrows her brow. "Why would you help me? I mean in a situation like this? You don't even know my name." Larona rolls her eyes and replies, "Well my name is Larona. What's your name?" Scia scoffs then after a short breath she laughs. She extends her hand with a bemused smile as she says, "I am Scia. Thank you for being kind enough to help me. I mean in such a situation as this. It's not every day that a college comes under siege." Larona takes on a rather serious look for such a young looking fairy, and says in a forlorn voice, "I learned that all kindness should be paid back in kindness. Prison changes life for you forever. Masud is the name of the huge Tygarian traveling with me. He has decided to come with me to the Elven Empire and from there we will head to my home." Scia's pointed ears twitch ever so slightly. "May I come with you? I have family there, and maybe on my way I can get help from the other colleges." Larona sits at the bar thinking when Marianne's face lights up. "you take Scia along and check on some of my trading posts on the way and you can consider the debts to me paid, and if you do so I will make sure there is a room for your group in every town," Marianne says in a strong willed manor. Larona has an unsure look when she is about to speak and Marianne quickly adds, "AND if you do something for me before you leave I will pay you all generously. That's all that I offer." Larona sighs softly knowing she would be a fool not to accept such a bargain. They both shake hands closing the deal. Marianne smiles and nods saying, "thank you, I promise you won't regret this. For now you all should go get some rest, the suns going to be setting in about four hours." Larona shakes her head and says quickly, "Ma'am I have been "resting" for much too long now. I feel the need to get back into life." Marianne nods with an understanding look; she walks over to her desk and pulls out some official looking papers. "I have a job that I think is good for testing how you guys do at working together. There is a small group of bandits to the southeast of the city pillaging any of my supplies that come down the road. Get my supplies back and I will give you each... three-thousand Pheons. I believe that's fair. Now get me back my supplies, and for the phoenixes sake, be careful." Scia looks to the other two with a curious look, wondering how they might do at combat. Surely not very well after being locked away for weeks. Though it is possible she is wrong... best to play it safe. After a short time the odd ball bunch are on their way down the south road out of Aliona. The group was mainly quite as they walked. Larona slowly looked over the fields around them viewing the randomly placed blue and red flowers scattered amongst tall gold grass. Masud turns his eyes to the skies watching the large white Soopac, similar to that of swans. Scia keeps her eyes on the road ahead, wondering where these bandits may be hiding. As Scia is looking about she notices wagon tracks that go off the road and towards three small ruined watch towers surrounded by a small wall. "Stop. You guys look at this." She points out the tracks to the other two. They gather around looking at the tracks closely. Scia turns to Larona, "they are probably hiding out in those towers. If so then it's going to become much harder to get those supplies back." Larona opens her mouth and is about to speak when Masud gets an extremely excited look and yells, "I know what made these tracks! It was large slugs!" Larona and Scia stare at him. Scia thinks to herself, why the hell have I chosen these people to go into a bandit camp with? She shakes her head as Larona calmly explains to Masud that they are wagon tracks. Scia stands, giving a quite frustrated sigh, and walks towards the tower ruins. Larona and Masud both notice and quickly follow her. They slowly approach the tower ruins, all three hear the sound of drunken shouts, and the sounds of people in a fist fight. Scia slowly peeks around the corner of the circular wall that protects the three towers. She sees a fire in the middle of the triangle formation of the towers, a wagon teeming with gold and supplies, and lastly a cage with someone in it. She quickly does a double take of the cage. Her powerful elf sight lets her see the cage on the other side of the fire thru the smoke. Inside she sees a chained up Dogmere, an anthropomorphic dog, a girl that appears to be no older than seven years old. Scia turns to her companions, trying to figure out what to do as she quietly says, "They have a hostage. I bet they are planning to sell her as a slave." Scia sighs and rubs her forehead as she tries to come up with a plan. She thinks to herself in a worried tone, I really don't want her to die. Why do things have to be so complicated?
Larona looks to Scia, her face a mix of worry and sadness, "they could be planning to do worse things to her than just sell her as a slave" Larona says pensively. Scia sighs in frustration. Scia and Larona start coming up with a plan to try to save the little girl, and not get themselves killed in the process. As the two girls' speak, Masud struts into the ruins. Scia looks around suddenly noticing the Tygerian's lack of obnoxious comments. She freezes in place as her heightened hearing picks up on swords being drawn. Scia quickly turns and looks in the ruins, seeing Masud boldly approaching the bandits. Both her and Larona say, "oh god, Masud.." under their breath. Scia listens closely as Masud begins talking to the bandits. "Hey guys! I wanna join you! I am pretty awesome you know." Masud doesn't break his stride as he walks straight up to the leader of the bandits. The leader looks him over with a displeased look. Scia holds her breath as the bandits surround him ready to kill. Making an annoyed scoff, Scia quickly begins preparing a spell. "Hey guys! I am good. I can do quite a lot with these claws." Extending his claws, he looks at them and notices dried blood. "HUH! Dried Ketchup!" The bandits look at each other with confused glances till the bandit leader laughs.
"You know what? I like you! You can help our little 'family' out." The bandit leader tosses a dagger to Masud. "But before you can become one of us you need to prove yourself. You will fight Brenner." As the bandit leader is talking Scia and Larona move into position to launch a surprise attack. Scia is about to shoot forth a spell when a flash of golden-white catches her eye. She sees a Dogmere jump out of the tower to her right. He pulls out his sword and quickly kills the two bandits near him. Masud raises his dagger high making a sound like a cross between that of a tiger's roar and an extremely disturbed howler monkey! He throws the dagger killing a bandit and then he charges at another nearby bandit, claws extended.
In the confusion Scia sends a fire ball flying at the bandit leader sending him flying off his makeshift throne. Larona uses her wings to speed like a hummingbird towards the cage to free the young Dogmere girl. She uses her magic to cause a flower to grow out of the inside of the lock, breaking it. She slowly enters the cage. The strange new Dogmere warrior stands now over the bandit leader, his short silver sword at the bandit's dirty throat. "Know this day bandit scum. That it is a Dogmere that kills you, for your lack of heart." As his sentence ends, he swiftly cuts the bandits head off. Scia runs over as Masud approaches. The stranger turns to the two.
" That was extremely stupid of you." Says Scia as she keeps the palm of her hand pointed at the stranger, ready to cast a fireball at any moment. The stranger nods and starts cleaning his blade. "Where some would say stupid, others would say bold. Thank you for coming when you did, I admit I would not have been able to clear them all out before one of them got to the girl." He looks to them both, his blue eyes glow slightly in the sunlight. "Care to give me your names?" Scia shakes her head, "How about you first?" She gives the stranger a skeptical look. Larona walks over rolling her eyes, "Scia we can't be suspicious of everyone we run into, there has to be good people somewhere. By the way my name is Larona." Larona sets the Dogmere girl down that she helped walk over to the small group. The stranger nods to Scia and Larona, "I am Lucien Maximus of Argento. I am a golden Labrador Dogmere." Masud suddenly jumps in, "I am Masud from Tygeria!"
Lucien smiles and laughs softly. "Well met Masud. It's strange to see a Tygerian outside of their lands. Why are you here?" Masud looks around as though he's checking to see if anyone else can hear. "I stole a horse," whispers Masud, "and some guys thought I killed some people." Larona turns to Masud with a shocked look, "I thought you were wrongfully blamed for stealing the horse!" Masud looks at her and says, "Well... I stole the horse from a barn and rode off yelling of my victory. Then I saw some ketchup on the road and stopped to investigate. As I was investigating a bunch of soldiers came up and grabbed me." Everyone just blankly stare at Masud for a few moments. Lucien turns to Scia, "I would like to make a request of you three. This young girl needs to be returned to her home in Canisa, but I fear I may not be enough to protect her. The border is only a day's travel away." Scia looks to others, unsure if she should help the guy, if he's planning to gut them in their sleep and steal all their money. Before Scia can answer Larona says, "of course we will help you. Were very sorry for what happened. You can come back to the inn with us, the sun is setting." Lucien helps the young girl up and they leave together. As they are heading down the south road of Aliona they see the city turned golden red in setting sunlight, the Soopac birds wings gleam a golden hue as they fly. still sitting there like a dead husk is the college, dark and ominous. They finally arrive at the south gate at the end of the twilight hour, the gates just starting to close when they come in.