The Obsidian Tale
~ Troiya – southwestern entrance ~
We now return to Felix and Rina, who
were traveling with Garnett. They barely made it down the chairlifts, but the
fate of Lionel has been left unknown. Troiya was gated all around as if they
knew that the Yucan Tempa would be a passageway to the Gammel lands. By now,
Rina’s injuries were healing. [Music 14.2]
“What should we do now?” Felix
wondered.
Garnett clenched onto the fence. “It
is obvious what I’m going to.”
Rina crossed her arms. “What, are
you stupid? The Gammel military will catch you in an instant.”
“You’re
the stupid one here. If I don’t hurry and beat shit up, then my revenge will be
for nothing.”
Rina turned to Felix, “Do you hear
this girl?”
“I think she has a point though.”
“What are you saying?!”
“I’m talking about being in a hurry.
We should quickly find the others and Clyde. I need to know what’s happening to
him. For the past hour, we’ve been walking at a slow pace.”
Garnett shrugged. “Look, if you two
want to get in the safer but slower way, then that’s fine with me. You should
rest around the Aria River until nightfall. As for me, I’m just going to barge
in right now. I’m not your problem, so you don’t have to follow me all the
time.”
Felix had to think about it carefully.
“Ergh… fine. I guess nightfall would be a good idea.”
“Oh while you’re at it, watch out
for the 12-foot waterfall. I heard from recent myths that there’s some rowdy
beast behind in a cave. If you get killed, I’ll pretend I never met you two,
hahah!”
As Garnett jumped over the gate,
Rina pouted. “That damn nerve…”
A Gammel soldier gasped. “Who’s
that?! Get her!”
Felix panicked. “Should we save
her?”
Rina watched as Garnett took out an
axe that was even larger than before. She took her time, walking and negating
any gunshot with her axe.
“Nah, she seems fine.”
Felix sighed. “Er… well then, I
guess we’re going to have to wait at the Aria River. I hope the entrance is not
nearby the waterfall.” [End music]
~ Aria River – bottom of the waterfall ~
“And it is nearby the waterfall. What a surprise.” Rina said with sarcasm.
Felix covered his face in shame.
“What now? We can’t rest anywhere at this rate.” He gave a sigh, looking up at
the top of the waterfall. “I hope Lydia and the others are safe.”
“Oh? ‘Lydia and the others’?”
“Yeah. You remember them, right?”
Rina coughed. “Don’t mess with me.
You mentioned only Lydia.”
“S-So what?! You would say the
same,” Felix blushed.
Rina leaned against a tree. “It’s
different if I were to say it.” She had both hands behind her head, waiting
under the shade. She still wore her backpack on, so her back was arched
awkwardly against the tree.
Felix paused for a moment and then
he looked away. “Hey Rina, can I ask you something?” [Music 18.1]
Rina opened only one of her eyes.
“What?”
“How come you never take that
backpack off?”
“Hm, I like to keep it close to me.
If I were to ever fall asleep anywhere,
no one would be able to steal it. You can’t trust anyone these days. I
personally suggest you shouldn’t either.”
Felix sat down furthest away from
the waterfall. “You can’t trust anyone
these days…” he repeated. “King
Nader was a good example.”
“If you put it that way.”
With a few seconds of silence, Felix
continued to speak, “So, what was Lydia like? You know, before the shards were
taken away.”
“Why are you asking so many
questions? I can never have a peaceful rest with you around.”
“Sorry…” He frowned, watching the
waterfall.
Rina suddenly began, “If you really
want to know… Lydia was one of the nicest girls I have ever met. When I first
met her, she was very shy and was afraid to talk to me. She was scared of
everybody, even a girl nearly the same age as her. She told me she was
homeschooled and she had trouble communicating with her peers.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. The great thing about her is
that she’s actually pretty brave. If something were to bother her to a certain
extent, she would blast.”
Felix tried to joke. “I guess she
got that from you, huh? Hehe.”
Rina didn’t insult him. “Probably.”
“You’re not going to yell at me for
that?”
“Do you want me to?”
“I mean…”
Rina shrugged. “I’m probably too
tired right now. It has been a while since I got to see Lydia. She is pretty
much all I care about, but I don’t know how much longer I can handle this – a
life without someone I can depend on most. The closest person to that right now
is…”
Felix tilted his head. “There is
someone else?”
“Never mind. We’re talking about
Lydia here, right? Let’s keep it about her.”
“Okay, well then, that’s all I
wanted to know about her for now. I don’t want to go too much into her personal
life without her telling it herself.”
Rina shook her head. “That sounds
like a good idea. Well, I really should rest. Go to bed, Suspenders.”
Felix yawned. “You… have a point.
Goodnight, Rina.” [End music]
In the morning, several minutes
before dawn, Felix had awoken from the nicest nap ever. Well, it was more of a
10-hour sleep.
As he sat up, he noticed it was
still dark. He turned around but Rina was not by the tree anymore. She had
disappeared!
“What the- Rina? Where are you?”
Immediately standing up, he noticed
dusty footsteps going towards the waterfall. “Rina?! Don’t tell me you went
into that weird cave!”
He rushed to the waterfall and all
he could hear were loud water splashes clashing against the wall. His heart
beat faster, afraid to take a step in. At some point, reddish light appeared
and he could make out two silhouettes – one of Rina and another familiar
person.
Felix took out his crescent blade as
he headed in without thinking. At the end of the cave, he called out, “Rina,
I’m here!”
At that moment, Rina’s guard was
focused on Felix and Pria splashed water against Rina’s stomach. She fell to
the ground, angry.
“Argh… Suspenders, what the hell?!” [Music 22.1]
Felix gasped. He quickly bowed.
“L-Lady Pria! It’s a surprise that you are here!”
Pria moaned. “Oh no!~ This is
terrible! My magic…” She began to fall into graceful tears.
Rina rolled her eyes. “Cut the
drama. What is it this time?”
Pria said sadly, “It’s so… terrible.
My magic… It… It wasn’t strong enough to cut you in half.”
Felix bowed up and down faster.
“Please don’t!”
Rina pointed at Pria, “Shut it,
Suspenders. This woman likes to joke around with her first-world problems.”
Pria was still floating above water.
“Oh? But are we not living in a third-world world?”
“Yeah sure whatever. This
third-world world is a world that’s not a world of terrible grief. I know about
that Lydia and Obsidian stuff so spare me the info.”
“But if you know about the lack of
Obsidian energy, then isn’t this third-world world a world that’s a world of
grief because of the worldly…” Her voice faded in Felix’s point of view.
Felix looked around. “Hey, where’s
the beast?”
Rina smiled. “It turns out that this
Pria lady here was the ‘beast’. I should have suspected that.”
Pria glared at her. “Do you want me
to teach you water magic or not?” She sounded angry.
“I don’t have to be nice to you like
everyone else. I know you know that
I’m the only one who can use magic. Remy told me that you relied on a magic
user to help the Obsidian stop the Gammel army.”
“That child! I knew I shouldn’t have
used him as a subconscious messenger. I should have just sliced that boy in
half with water.”
Felix cried. “Nooo! Don’t say
that!!”
Rina readied her palms. Small
bubbles began to appear. “Let’s get this started.”
“Those little bubbles reek of new
magic. Let us see how well you can form those bubbles into large pools of
water! And this time, no fire or earth magic!”
After a few minutes of watching Rina
and Lady Pria clash with magic, Felix noticed that Rina’s bubbles have
transformed into tiny liquids. This made even Pria a little exhausted and
precautious about Rina’s success.
“You are quite good, little girl!”
Pria complimented her. “That should be good enough, but you still have a long
way to go with that!”
Rina clenched her fists. “You just
want to stop because I almost beat you.”
Pria glared at her. “Don’t push it.”
She tried to be friendly for once. “Ah!~ I cannot wait for you to sprout into a
successful magi-“
“’Kay bye!” Rina walked away without
giving a single thanks.
“Hey, I am not done speaking with
you!”
Felix bowed again. “Thanks, Lady
Pria! In no time, Rina will become a great magic user.”
“That was my line!” Pria shouted.
As Rina left, Felix was about to
follow her.
“Boy!”
“Huh?”
She became serious. “That magic
user… Do you know who she is?”
Felix laughed. “Of course I do!
She’s Lydia’s best friend, her guardian!”
“Guardian?”
“Yeah. Well, she’s more of a best friend
to the Obsidian.”
Lady Pria floated down towards him.
“She may be a best friend, but do realize that she is a lot more special than
you know.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“My! I am surprised you don’t see it
yet. In time, you will know. Just continue to protect her, even if she acts
like she does not need any protection. Without you, she could not have made it
this far.”
Felix shook his head. “I’ll make
sure to protect her and the Obsidian. Where will you be next?”
“Tsk, tsk. I cannot tell you that,
but I will remain on this continent until she finds me once more. The wind
element resides here on this continent, but I cannot tell you where. Until
then, I hope you all make stronger progress!” She flew out and her lighted
wings were no longer there to help Felix find his way out. [End music]
“Damn it. Gotta do this myself.”
The moment Felix crawled out of the
cavern, Rina could see slight color changes in the sky. “Took you long enough,
Suspenders.”
“Sorry. I don’t have fire powers or
Pria’s lighted wings to help me find my way out.”
“No excuses. Anyway, we should get
going. The sun is going to come up soon and we would lose our chances of
sneaking in.”
“Wait, first, how did you know Lady
Pria was in that waterfall?”
Rina stretched after a good nap
earlier in the night. “I didn’t. I wanted to challenge myself and beat whatever
beast was inside there.” She said slowly, “I felt that if I could beat some
beast that people are afraid of… I could at least redeem some pride after
failing to save Hazel.”
Felix frowned. “Hazel…”
She turned around. “Listen, didn’t
you find what Remy said a little strange? He thinks Hazel is alive, but that
can’t be. We saw her fall into an endless pit with our very own eyes.”
“I don’t really want to think about
that again.”
“I was just making a point,
Suspenders. The Lennox army is probably taking Ace, Moilin, and Remy safely
back to Ouli Brye. If we have the luxury next time, I need to ask that boy some
questions.”
“What if Hazel’s actually alive
though?”
Rina laughed. “Hah! That can’t be
possible. You think people would just fall out of the sky like that?”
As Felix was about to respond, they
could hear screams coming from above. Forrest and Leo were flying from the top
of the waterfall!!
Felix shrieked. “I think the answer
is yes?!”
Both Forrest and Leo made a large
splash into the pool of the waterfall. Felix shrieked and fell, but as usual,
Rina didn’t really care. [Music 17.1]
Leo placed his head out of the
water. “Whoa! What a rush!”
Forrest did the same, but he was
panicking. “Help! I don’t know how to swim!! I’m going to die!”
Rina moved only a finger and water
rocketed Forrest out of the pool as he landed on the dirt with his face first.
Felix ran towards him. “H-Hey, are
you alright?!”
Forrest smiled with dirt covered all
over his face. “Yepyep! That was actually fun!” As he wiped his eyes, he opened
them and he could see Felix kneeling down in front of him. “OH!!! MR. FELIX!!”
Forrest pounced on him and Felix
fell on his back. They both laughed together. Leo peacefully made his way out
of the pool.
“Good to see you again, Rina.”
“Cut the crap. Where’s Lydia?!”
Forrest and Leo suddenly stopped
smiling.
Forrest turned to Leo, “I think we
only saw her for a second up there.”
“It was very quick. But… the Gammel
army must have gotten her right before we fell down here.”
Rina clenched her teeth. “You mean
you lost her?! Where the hell could she be now? I can’t believe you two!!”
Forrest was about to cry. “B-But, we
safely protected her all the way until near the end. Does that make things
better?”
“Of course not!! Damn it!” She began
punching the tree next to her. “Lydia…!”
Felix grabbed onto her shoulders.
“Rina, we’ll get her back!”
“You think so? You think it’s going
to be THAT easy when the Gammel army has her?!”
Forrest took a step forward. “I want
to try my best too! They have my friends in jail!”
“We met a man named Warren who was
quite an interesting being,” Leo said. “It would be interesting to see what
other stuff he has to leak about the Gammel army.”
Felix turned to Leo, “Who’s that?” Then
again, Warren was rather irrelevant to his concern. He turned back to Rina, “Never
mind. At any rate, we all have someone we are trying to take back! I have
Clyde, and you have Lydia. You’re not alone, Rina.” [End music]
“I know… but it seems like we keep
failing to protect her. Sure, if we do get her back, how much longer until she
gets kidnapped again?”
Felix gave his hand out to her, “She
won’t get kidnapped from now on. I promise.”
“How can you make bleak promises
like that?!”
Felix pushed his hand closer to
hers. “They’re not. I just know it this time. With our group finally combined,
and our eagerness compared to before, we are much stronger. We will fight
together.”
Rina’s eyes were watery and pink,
but she wiped her tears immediately as she gave Felix a handshake. [Music 22.2]
“You’re on!” She said with a smile.
“If you fail, it’s all on you!”
Forrest jumped. “Yay! Our group is
unstoppable!”
Leo added, “If it helps, Lydia
retrieved two more shards. She has been growing a lot since then.”
Rina clapped her hands in extreme
joy. “You two got her to take back two shards?! Wow!” She suddenly coughed and
pretended she didn’t care. “Oh, ahem. I mean, thanks. I’m glad that you got
them for her.”
Leo bowed. “You don’t need to hide
your gratitude. We are really close to getting the last two – and the Gammel
army has both of them.”
Rina pointed towards Troiya, “Great.
Before it gets bright outside, should we get going then?” The group agreed with
her.
As they were leaving the Aria River
at last, Leo asked Rina, “Wait a minute, how did you push Forrest out of that
water earlier?”
Share the Troubles
~ Bafuul – bridge front ~
Lydia tried to struggle against
Floir, hoping for that small chance to be set free.
“Let me go, please! I didn’t do
anything wrong!”
“Stay quiet!”
“Ah, it is nice to see you with the
Obsidian, Lieutenant.” The tall man wore a military beret and his blue garment
was a mix between governmental and military design. His eyes were sharp and
aware as if he was some kind of wolf.
Next to him was a woman almost as
tall as him. She didn’t smile. Rather, she looked more concerned if anything.
Her hair was tied in a very long ponytail and she had an upper shirt rather
than an armor. This was a style for beginner lieutenants.
Lydia paused for a moment. She could
have sworn that she saw this woman before.
“What should I do with the Obsidian,
Sir Wolfram?”
Lydia gasped. “Wolfram?! You’re…!”
Ignoring her, Mr. Wolfram said to
Floir, “Take her to a nice bedroom. We will need her to have a good rest before
the extraction.” He turned to the tall woman next to him, “Because Professor
Talbot is busy at the lab in Troiya, we will have Viola do it.”
“Yes sir,” Viola saluted.
“I will have Clyde guard the front
doors. Floir, you take watch around the prison. Bailey will do the same. In the
meanwhile, I will contact Master Magnus about our success.”
Lydia looked around. “(I am familiar
with everyone here at this point, but who is Master Magnus?)”
Floir shook her head. “Very well.
Any news about Lionel?”
Mr. Wolfram sighed. “He has not
returned from his expedition down at the Yucan Tempa. A message should arrive
shortly.”
“I knew he wasn’t reliable,” Floir
shrugged. “At any rate, we should be good here in Bafuul.”
Floir handed Lydia over to Viola’s
grip. Lydia felt less afraid with Viola, and especially now was not a good time
to fight back with the leaders of the Gammel army present. So, Lydia complied
and went with Viola. Before heading in, she looked up at the giant prison that looked
like it could be as large as an entire town. The same gray clouds from Loomin
brushed atop of the prison. By now, you could tell it was raining heavily in
Loomin. Behind her was a very light cemented pathway leading back to Troiya,
but there was no way she could return. Clyde would be guarding the front
entrance after all. [End music]
~ Troiya – northwestern entrance ~
Felix, Rina, Forrest, and Leo were
at the northwestern entrance of Troiya. Before they could be sighted, the group
hid behind a sack of bushes. From what they saw, Troiya was filled with Gammel
soldiers and of course a gate blocking the way in. The same blackened clouds
from Loomin and Bafuul filled up half of the town. There were barely any
restaurants. A few civilians lived to serve the soldiers but they did not look
too ecstatic. The main noises came from horses and carriages.
Felix whispered to the group. “The
sun is coming up, but luckily the clouds can cover it.”
Forrest felt uneasy. “This is gonna
be hard. How do we sneak in? The gate is closed!”
Leo snapped his fingers. “I’ve got
it!” As the group turned to him, he went on, “How many of them were stationed
to protect Troiya?”
Rina glared. “Your point is?”
“Not every soldier should be asked
to follow the lieutenants. Therefore, they have no idea what’s going on with
the Obsidian other than the fact that she’s important. That means barely any of
them should know who she was traveling with.”
“Um, wouldn’t they find it
suspicious that four random travelers are coming in at the same time?”
“Maybe so, but how many of them
expect a kid to be walking in?”
Forrest shrieked. “Eh?!”
Felix stopped him. “Wait a minute,
but just a kid… now that’s too
suspicious. I think the soldiers would let a kid in easier if he was traveling
with some sort of mother.”
Leo turned to Rina. [Music 9.2]
“What?” Rina stopped. “Oh no- you
are NOT making me this little devil’s mother. I deserve better.”
Leo begged her. “Come on! Please? It
will be our only hope.”
Rina pouted. “For an old man like
you, you sure do have a brain of a five year old.”
“I’m not old! I’m only in my mid-twenties.”
“Okay, sure. Let’s say we do get in,
how about you two?”
“We will have to meet many familiar
faces when we reach Bafuul, so we’re going to need disguises to begin with. I
figured maybe you two could find a total of four Gammel outfits. When you find
them, wear two of the outfits and leave the other two in Rina’s bag. Then, come
back out and say you were asked to do something important. Then, come back with
us two; Felix and I will pretend we were just injured from a mission!”
Forrest shrugged. “You lost me at
the beginning but that sounds like a great idea!”
“Ugh! Why does the only woman here
have to do all the work?!”
Felix whispered, “Shh! Leo is the
tactician here. He’s good at planning, isn’t he?”
Being an Elderly Woman
Being an Elderly Woman
Rina grabbed the nearest hanging branch as she pointed it at them. “I’m going to kill you guys.”
Leo gave her a thumbs-up. “That’s
the spirit! Use that pointing stick as a cane!”
Rina suddenly slapped him a few
times on the forehead with the branch.
“I. Am. Not. Doing. This!”
~ Troiya – northwestern entrance – gate ~
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,”
Rina said.
The soldiers placed their lances in
an X position.
“Stop right there! State your reason
for being here.”
Forrest pretended to shiver. “Sir…
we need a place to stay. My mommy and I are almost out of money. And… it’s
cold.”
One of them stared at Forrest. “Just
use that cape of yours as a blanket. Scram!”
Rina tried to step forward out of
anger. “Now you listen here-…” She stopped, realizing that she was supposed to
be a crippling woman.
“Is that your mother? She looks
quite young,” The soldier said.
“Are you trying to flirt with women
again?” The other said.
Rina began feeling Goosebumps down
her spine. “Um…”
Forrest patted his stomach. “And we
are hungry!!”
“A-Alright… We’ll let you two
through, but first, we have to check your belongings. Hand over the bag,
please.”
Rina took a step back. “M-My bag?
(Lydia’s flail is in there!)”
“Yes, your bag.”
Rina said in a raspy voice, “The
oooonly thingsss in there… are female needs. You are not alloooowed to see
them!”
The two men blushed.
“H-Huh?!”
“I think she means those things, man!”
“You’re right. Should we have our
female soldiers check?”
The soldiers looked up at the
gatekeeper who happened to be female.
“Nah, she’s busy holding up the
gate.”
“Alright, we’ll let them through
then. An old woman couldn’t possibly have anything dangerous.”
Forrest walked through. “Yay, thank
you!”
One of the soldiers stopped them.
“Hold up. So, why does that woman look so young?”
The other soldier grabbed his
partner’s shoulder. “Hey man, you shouldn’t ask such rude things to a woman, no
matter how old she is.”
“Yeah, you’re right… Move along.”
“Thanks again, misters!” Forrest
tip-toed onward.
“Waaaaaaaaait a minute!”
Rina turned around as she pointed
her ‘cane’ at them. “What the **** is it now?!”
The soldier gasped. “Uh! Um, it’s
just… you two have almost the opposite hair color,” One of them said.
“She burned it,” Forrest said
bluntly.
Rina jumped. “What kind of-…”
The soldiers sighed. “Ohhhhhh, that
makes sense!” They both said together.
“Alright, now you can go! Sorry about all that!”
While walking away, Rina rolled her
eyes. “That was some sexist stuff happening there. Idiots.”
“At least they believed my awesome
lies!”
“They were terrible lies!!” Rina
tried to calm down. “Okay… All we have to do is find disguise outfits and we’re
good from there. Let’s go, little devil.”
“You said it!” Forrest agreed. [End music]
[Ending 2 music]
~~~
~~~
Next time on The Obsidian Tale, Rina and Forrest will continue to hysterically sneak into Troiya. There, they will find a band of merchants - the same from Ouli Brye? However, what relevance do they have this time compared to before? Meanwhile, things are going terribly with Lydia and Viola. They are arguing, but for what reason? Find out on the next episode!
~~~
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