Chapter One

Getting By

 


It’s been one heck of a long, sunny day. Tai, the fighter, falls down to the sandy floor. “At this rate, we’ll never find the Crab King.” says Tai.

“Not with that attitude,” says Cly, cleric. “Besides, I think we’re close.”
“How can you tell?” asked Aaron, archer.

“Not sure,” answered Cly. “I’m just trying to keep things positive here.”

“Wait, what’s that ahead?” says Tai. He gets up from the sand and squints into the horizon. He starts to smile, “Ha! It’s the King Crab!”

Our three young travelers run to the King Crab, the King Crab is a bit bigger than our heroes. Tai slides on the sand and stop himself about 10 feet from the King Crab. He looks over to his partners Cly and Aaron. They both give him a nod, hinting that they have his back. Tai brings up his Long Sword and Buckler. He gives out his war cry and sprints towards the King Crab. The King Crab lashes out one of his huge pincers toward Tai. Tai quickly dodges the claw and gives a fatal slash on the side of the blue crab. Aaron runs to side a few feet away from the fresh new cut Tai left the crab and starts firing his arrows with his Long Bow. The King Crab runs to Aaron, with Aaron not having anything to defend himself with, he starts to walk back. He then raises his Long Bow and readies a power shot toward one of the crab’s legs. With the King Crab getting closer, Aaron misplaces his step and falls on his back, still holding the power shot. The crab raises one his mighty pincers and goes straight for Aaron! The second the crab can lay his pincer on Aaron, Cly jumped in right on time and bashes the pincer away with his Long Mace. The weight of the pincer caused the whole crab to turn over. Aaron spots the cut that Tai left earlier and releases his power shot straight to the wound. The King Crab squeals in pain. He gets up in frustration and charges at Cly, with Aaron behind him. Cly raises his Round Shield and gets ready for the impact. The King Crab tilts down his head and hits Cly’s Round Shield with his horn, causing a small hole. Cly falls down on his back next to Aaron.

“Aah! He’s too strong, I can’t get up,” says Cly. “Help Aaron!”

Aaron reaches back and grabs an arrow and sticks the arrow on the crab’s head. “It’s not working! He’s not backing off!” yells Aaron as the arrow snaps.

“Hey ugly!” shouts Tai. He grabs the attention of the King Crab. The crab raises its head, with Cly’s Round Shield stuck on his horn. The crab looks at Tai, and Tai gives it a snearing kick. The King Crab accepts the challenge and charges toward Tai.

Tai sinks his Long Sword deep into the sand, and lies next to it. Tired of the long battle with King Crab, he calls out to his partners to make sure they were okay. Aaron walking toward Tai to give him a hand up nods his head. Cly was over the King Crab pulling his Round Shield off of his horn. Cly manages to get the shield off. He then walks over to Tai and Aaron, “Some fight, huh?”

“You can say that twice,” says Tai. “Aaron, nice job hitting the wound I made on it.”

“No problem,” responds Aaron. “Just saw the perfect opportunity and went for it!”

“We’ll celebrate later guys,” says Cly. “Right now, we need to report to Healer Julia.”

“Let’s go then!” shouts Tai.

The three friends arrive in Roumen. A small village for traveler’s to rest, young adventures to begin their quests, and a place to visit. As the three friends walk across the stoned floor to Healer Julia, they walk by Blacksmith James shop. Blacksmith James noticed that Cly’s Round Shield was punctured. He turns to his working table and gets back to work. They arrive to Healer Julia’s house. Aaron knocks on the door. “Who is it now?” says Healer Julia, as she opens the door. “No, I don’t want your- Oh, it’s you guys.”

“You don’t want your what?” asks Aaron.

“Nothing,” says Healer Julia. “So, did you get the job done?”

“Heck yeah we did!” says Tai, giving a big thumbs up.

“Good,” says Healer Julia. “Now the big guy won’t be giving me any trouble when I go out to collect my starfish.”

“And you can get your sea mushroom’s, too!” says Cly.

“Can’t, Mushroom Fighter is always there and-“

“No biggie!” blurts out Tai. “We handled him on one of our earlier quests!”

“Wow, you guys aren’t half bad!”

“So, how about our, um … you know.” Says Aaron.

“Oh!” says Healer Julia, as she reaches in her pocket. “Here.” She drops 141 copper on Aaron’s hand. Aaron looks at the money like if it was candy. “Don’t spend this all at once!”
shouts Healer Julia as she shuts the door.

“Aha, I won’t!” says Aaron, licking his lips.

“Ehem.” says Cly and Tai, both tapping there foot on the stoned floor.

“Where’s our half?” asked Cly.

“Yeah,” said Tai. “After all, you didn’t defeat the King Crab on your own.”

“Okay, it’s only fair.” Says Aaron, as he divides the copper between the three.

After the distribution of the copper, the three friends walked down the walk way to Skill Master Ruby. They walk inside her shop and ring the bell on the counter. Skill Master Ruby comes out of from the back room.

“Hello boys, what can I do for you?” asked Skill Master Ruby.

“Here to check for new skills.” answered Tai.

“Alright, who’s first?”

“I’ll go!” shouts Aaron.

“Okay, class?”

“Um,” Aaron raises his Long Bow in confusion. “Archer isn’t it obvious.”

“How would I of known if you weren’t a Sharpshooter or a Ranger?”

“Do I look that powerful?!” shouts Aaron with excitement.

“No,” replies Skill Master Julia. “But it’s my job to ask for the class. It’s obvious that you are a beginner.

“Yeah, yeah. You have any skills for me or not?

“Let me check back.” Skill Master Ruby heads to the back room and bring back two purple scrolls.

“Whoa! Two new skills?” shouts Aaron. “No way!”

“They’re not for you, kid,” replies Skill Master Ruby, place the scrolls on the counter.

“They’re for the fighter and cleric over there.”

Tai and Cly immediately stand up.

“I didn’t think I was going to have another skill until a few more quests.” says Cly.

“Yeah, same here.” Says Tai.

“Well, you do. Here,” says Skill Master Ruby, as she tosses the skill scroll to Tai and Cly.

“Mr. Fighter has Concussive Charge. It stuns your enemy for a short period of time. And Mr. Cleric has Protect. With that, your strength and defense increases. You can also cast that on an ally.”

“Wow, I can’t wait!” says Cly with excitement.

“Yeah, bet your thrilled.” said Aaron with disappointment.

“Have fun with the new skills you two,” says Skill Master Ruby. “And Mr. Archer.”

“Hm?” said Aaron.

“Don’t worry. I feel some skills coming your way soon.”

Aaron nods his head and exits the shop. Tai and Cly follow behind.

“Where should we learn our new skills this time, Cly?” asked Tai.

“Um, how about the trail heading to the mini flower garden?” replies Cly.

“Yeah, that should be good,” says Tai. “Let’s go!” Tai starts to jog over the trail uphill to the flower garden. Cly follows, with Aaron behind.

“Cly!” yelled Blacksmith James. Cly immediately stopped causing Aaron to bump into Cly.

“Uh, yes Blacksmith James?” asked Cly.

“Please call me James, I noticed that your shield is damaged.”

“Yeah, it kind of got ruined on my recent quest.”

“Here,” Blacksmith James gives Cly a new Round Shield. “Take good care of this one.”

“Thanks!” said Cly. “Thank you so much!” Cly noticed some glowing symbols rotating around the shield. “Why does it the shield do that?” asked Cly.

“I threw a few elrue into it.” replied Blacksmith James.

“Thank you again, James.” Said Aaron, as he run uphill to the flower garden.

Tai looks over to Cly and Aaron who are barely getting to the top.

“What took you two so long?” asked Tai.

“Got a sweet new shield!” shouted Cly, showing off the glow.

“Nice!” shouted back Tai, and high fives Cly.

Tai and Cly spread open their scrolls on the floor. “Same as last time right?” Cly asked Tai. Tai gives a nod. They both sit and start to meditate, concentrating hard on the presence of the scroll. The scrolls start to glow and little by little they start to part into tiny light purple glowing specs floating around the rightful owner. The glowing specs fused around their owners and disappear. Tai and Cly get up feeling slightly more powerful than before.

“You know you don’t have to exclude me from your little friendship,” says Aaron, Tai and Cly look at him with confusion. “Just because you both are best friends, doesn’t mean you have to ignore me.”

“Um, Aaron, are you okay?” asked Cly.

“I’m fine,” says Aaron, walk past the two. “Just perfect.”

“Alright,” says Tai. “Well, if you don’t mind we’re going to see if Robin needs any help, are you tagging along?”

“See!” yells Aaron. “That’s what I’m talking about! Your both always making plans without me. I thought we were all partners.”

“Dude, we are,” says Tai. “Chill.”

“I am chilled.”

“Well, are you coming or not?”

Aaron gives a deep sigh walks with them to Robin. Before they can get there they’re interrupted by Skill Master Ruby. “Hey, kid!” says Skill Master Ruby. “Looks like you did have a new skill coming your way!” Skill Master Ruby tosses the scroll to Aaron. Aaron catches with excitement.

“What does this do?” asked Aaron.

“It poisons your enemy for a short period of time at the same time causes damage,” says Skill Master Ruby. “Have fun with that!”

“Thanks!” shouts Aaron, as he watches her leave. He then turns to his partners and says, “Look guys, new skill!”

“That’s cool, but first we got to head over to Robin,” says Cly. “Think he’s been waiting long enough.”

“Right.” Says Aaron as he puts the scroll in his inventory for safe keeping.

The group heads over up a few stoned stairs and turn to their right for Robin’s house. Grandpa Robin was resting upon a bench just outside of his house, snoozing away slowly.

“HEY GRANDPA ROBIN!” shouted Tai, making Robin to wake up from his small nap.

“Hm, eh! Who’s there?” asked Robin.

“Just us Robin,” said Cly. “Tai here just wanted to play a trick on you.”

“Aha, sorry about that.” says Tai.

“Oh, it’s you young gentlemen, and I see.” said Robin.

“So, what do you have for us this time?” asked Aaron.

Robin thinks for a second and says, “Ah, yes. The Mini Greenkies have been reported to be disturbing the peace lately. I want you to head to the Forest of Tides and take care of 5 of them.”

“Anything else?” asked Tai.

“That would be all for now,” says Robin. “Thank You.”

The three young heroes say their goodbyes and start heading to Forest of Tides.

Chapter Two

A Little Trouble

Cly

We were approaching the Sand Beach gate; we were told that Mini Greenkies would be there. When Aaron starts to blabber his mouth again about how Tai and I always leave him out of conversations and decisions. I couldn't take him nagging and I also couldn’t keep in my frustration! He just kept on talking! And he keeps talking now; it’s like a yapping Chihuahua that you can’t get off your back.

“Aaron! Shut up!” I shouted.

“Geez, what's gotten in you?” He eyed me.

“Just be quiet.” I replied trying not to look at him in the eye. Aaron may be a little Jokester at times and he’s probably our weakest link, but he’ll put up quite a fight.

Well, looking back at our last quest I somewhat question that now. “Let’s just try to get through this quest, deal with the Mini Greenkies and get home. I’m a bit tired, so I want to do this as fast as possible.” I glanced at Tai, knowing he was the leader of our group, to say something, but it wasn’t like him to butt into other people’s arguments.

“Alright,” he said. “That’s all you had to say.”

Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good friend and all that, but he’s always repeating the same complaints. And no, I am not afraid to hit the guy or anyone as a matter of fact. Even if it seems like it … I’m not.

Anyways we go through the gate; by the way this gate spins slowly while floating about a foot off the ground. It has green stones floating around it as well. Looks nice if you can actually see the thing in person, but it can be dangerous at times. I’ve heard about Isyans, that’s what the people of the world of Isya are called, actually dieing for not using the portals right. Scary, right?

We get to Sand Beach, a few Fire Mushroom around, but they’re no biggie! Tai threw around a few fatal slashes and Aaron power shots a couple Fire Mushrooms out of our way. I’m not sure if I was the only one that noticed, but Tai seemed to hesitate on which direction to go in. I wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it, so I ignored it. We kept walking along the beach shore where we encountered tons of Crabs and Blue Crabs. They were as harmless as flies, but some of them would try to run up to us and grabs us with their pincers. A lot smaller then King Crab pincers for sure, I do not want to encounter any of those!

Everything was going well; we seemed to be going on the right path when something happened. “Tai?” Aaron called.

“Yeah?” replied Tai, still looking forward.

“Are you sure you know where were going?”

“Positive, you don’t think we were going the right way or what?” asked Tai.

“Not that, it just seems like we’ve been walking forever.” Aaron complained, again. “I mean it’ll feel really nice if we dipped in that ocean real quick.”

Tai actually looked on over to the water that was just glowing, calling to him to just jump in!

“Tai,” I said, trying to focus him on our quest. “What are you thinking?”

“Uh,” Tai was trying to get his words right. “Maybe we can use a little break.”

“Yes!” shouted Aaron with glee.

“C’mon Tai,” I said. “You can’t be serious!” I watched Aaron run toward the ocean while throwing off his clothes. “You’re seriously going to do this?”

“Cly, I’m as tired as you are,” he said to me with this exhausted look. “Maybe we need to cool down a bit.”

“Fine, you stay here with him and be the babysitter,” I said. ”I’m going to go walk around.” And with that I started to walk away from the beach. Once I was a few meters away from the beach, I looked back only to see Tai jumping in the ocean with Aaron. How dare he not try to get me to stay! After all we’ve been through! Okay, maybe it was a little stupid to get mad over that, but I’m tired as heck right now!

It’s been about five minutes since I left Tai and Aaron at the beach. Still a little angry at Tai I kicked this little hill of sand. Probably a bad idea since it got all over my shoes and a little in my eyes. As I rubbed my eyes I noticed a man standing under a palm tree. He was standing next to a cave so I figured that he was a Minor. I walked up to him and asked, “Are you a minor?” Which I thought was a pretty dumb question to ask since he glanced at his pickaxe and glanced right back at me.

“What do you think, boy?” He replied with his raspy voice.

“Sorry, it’s been a long day.” I replied trying to look at him in the eye.

“Boy, it’s hardly noon.”

“Uh, I’ve been questing a lot lately.” I replied quickly trying to make up an excuse, because I didn’t know what time it was.

“What is it that you want?” he replied, his voice sounded annoyed like if I was wasting his time. I don’t see how since he was doing absolutely nothing when I found him.

“Um, do you know where the Mini Greenkies are?” I asked. “I need them to finish my quest.”

“Mini Greenkies?” he started to chuckle. “Boy, for the past years I’ve been standing at by this palm three here I’ve seen nothing but Crab, Blue Crab and King Crab! Aha! And you over here asking for Mini Greenkies?” I really saw no point of why he was laughing. A simple ‘no’ would have been fine and I’d been on my way, but no, he decides to laugh at my face. “Listen here,” he gestured his hand telling me to get closer to him. I didn’t.

“There Mini Greenkies you so called aren’t going to be around the beach. You need to go looking in the grassy area.”

“Where’s that?” I asked. Again thinking ‘why did I say that’ when he glanced to his left you can see patches of green a few feet away.

“I think you can find your way there.” He told me. He let out a creepy smile which really disturbed me and made me wish I never left Tai and Aaron at the beach.

“Thank you.” I said and started to walk down toward the grass. Hoping that I would have never had to see him again.

“Wait!” he shouted, spoke too soon. I turned raised my arm over my head. The sun was beaming straight at me. I squinted to see the Minor. “Don’t you want to go in the cave?”

“Why would I want to do that?”

“It’s fresh in there, nice and cool,” he told me. “Unless you want to stay out here in the hot sun and get a nice dark tan.” He laughed a little. I walked to the cave. Hardly a couple feet away I now knew why the Minor was standing next to the palm tree. The palm tree gave shade and the cave was giving out fresh chilly air. Just what I need right now. I took one step in, “I’d be careful in there.” He warned me.

“What do you mean?” I asked curiously.

“Well, I always see young adventurers like you go in every day and none of them come back out.” I backed off a little. “Then there are those who are too scared to go in the cave, noticing that you already took a step back, your one of those.” Angry at his little comment and from Tai for completely dissing me and Aaron for annoying me, I walked straight into the cave. Proud of myself of doing the unthinkable! I mean me in a dangerous cave! How cool am I! No pun intended. “Good luck in there! Ha-ha!” said the Minor with the creepiest laugh I can ever think of. His laugh echoed throughout the tunnel I was walking in. Just then I stumbled on a faded, ripped up sign that read, ‘Welcome to Cave of Echo!’ And I completely thought of the most horrifying things that could possibly happen to me. But I couldn’t just turn back around and let the guy laugh at me! So, I continued on walking down the creepy-like tunnel and hoped for the best!

Tai runs out of the water and quickly grabs his armor for warmth. He drops his top due to it being hot because of the sun. He looks around and notices that Cly isn’t back yet. He looks back at Aaron who was floating on his back with his eyes closed. Without a word Tai decides to go look for Cly.

As I walk down the tunnel I come across a big field of orbs. Across the room I can see Hooligan Phinofly mining them. I’ve done my research on these things and they LOVE shiny things. So, carrying this Round Shield with me isn’t the best of ideas! But I was too late; one of the Hooligan Phinofly caught their eye on my Round Shield. It crept toward me slowly, I backed up a bit. Then it began to sprint as fast as it could to me, before I had a chance to run, the other Hooligan Phinofly started to run after me as well! Now I had a whole mob of Hooligan Phinofly’s after me! Now I really wished I never had left the beach! Why couldn’t I just get in the water and drown Aaron for the hell of it! Ah! I’m going to die. ALONE!

Tai managed to find the Minor that I was taking to before entering Cave of Echo. The Minor was sitting and lying against the palm tree sleeping. Tai didn’t bother to wake him up. He felt the cool breeze coming from the cave. He crossed his arms as the breeze gave him chills. After all, he did drop his top. So, he stands in front of the cave with the top of his body naked. He hesitated to go in the cave of he thought of all the possible dangers Cly could be in. In the end, Tai decides to walk into the Cave of Echo in search for Cly.

I took a quick turn down another tunnel I had no idea where it led to. Thinking that I lost the Hooligan Phinofly’s I rested myself against the tunnel wall. As tiring as I was and completely forgetting that I had a swarm of Hooligan Phinofly after me, I shut my eyes. Going into a nice good sleep I’ve been waiting for. When I woke up I was tied up. I looked around me and there they were, Hooligan Phinofly. How can I just go ahead and sleep in the middle of them chasing me! So, now I’m tied up here. I looked around for my Long Mace and Round Shield, but they were nowhere to be found. The Round Shield that Blacksmith James has given me with the mysterious glowing symbols had just been lost, and it was my entire fault.

After getting a little sun tan, Aaron finally got out of the water. He realized that Tai wasn’t around and that his top was still there he got a bit worried. He grabbed his top, but dropped it instantly as well, because it was hot. He checked his hand to make sure he didn’t burn himself much. He didn’t. He then walks off to go looking for Tai. Without a clue to where to go, he starts to yell for help. As if he’s the one that needs it! All of his yelling and shouting woke up the Minor that got me into going into the Cave of Echo. “Boy, I swear if you don’t shut your mouth, I’m just going to go over there and do it myself!” he yelled. Aaron ran to him and completely ignored what he said right now.

“Hey, mister!” Aaron said. “Do you know where my friends are?”

“Here we go again,” said the Minor, giving out a deep sigh. “Does it look like I know who your friends are?”

“No...” said Aaron rethinking his question.

“Then why would you ask me if I know where your friends are?” the Minor said standing up.

“Heck, I don’t even know where mine are!” If you could see this guy, you’d think to yourself, ‘Does he even have any friends, besides that palm tree?’ “I had a boy, earlier today, asking me for,” he started to laugh. “Asking for Mini Greenkies. Do you know anything about that?”

“Yeah,” Aaron said looking into the cave. “My friends and I are on a quest looking for them. Do you know where they are?”

“Ha-ha!” The Minor burst in laughter once again. And with that he just went back to his nap. Aaron curiously looking into the cave, wondering if Tai or I had gone down there, stepped inside. He was a bit scared with what might come out to get him. Aaron turned on the same tunnel I did when the Hooligan Phinofly were chasing me. He managed down to the spot where I had sat down and took my nap. He heard strange sounds coming from behind a big rock. He slowly approached the massive rock. Right when he was about to peek his eyes around it, a Cave Archmage Book flew out. Aaron got scared and started to run down a tunnel. He stopped right on his tracks when he saw a couple of Hooligan Phinofly mining the orbs again. He hid behind rocks. Without his Long Bow he had no weapon to work with. He quickly grabs a rock that fit perfectly onto his palm. He waited for the Cave Archmage Book to turn the corner of the room. The second he saw the flying book appear in the room he pitched his rock straight at it. Hitting perfectly that it made it twitch on the floor, don’t worry it just blacked out. Worried that the Hooligan Phinofly heard the rock hit the floor he quickly turned around, but they kept mining as if it never happened. A few feet away from the mining Hooligan Phinofly, Aaron saw me tied up. He looked at me and I looked at him. To think that Aaron was the one that came to my rescue!

Imprint

Text: Jesus Camarillo
Publication Date: 06-09-2012

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