Post by lizyy on Jul 22, 2014 17:33:18 GMT
Part one: Sneevils
Rebecca’s beginning
On the planet of Lore, where heroes are born, is where we begin our story. Rebecca, a blonde warrior with fierce red eyes, stands on a cliff looking out at the view.
She finds herself constantly marveled at just how gorgeous this sight is. The sky is a beautiful blue with white fluffy clouds slowly floating around. The bright sun shines on the mountains, valleys, and forests. She can even see a few villages laying about.
Rebecca had been traveling through the forest for months now, and she’s currently planning to go to Oaklore and reside there for a while.
She is about 5’4” and in her early 20’s. Her blonde hair is done up in tight braids, and coiled into a bun on the back of her head. Her armor is silver plated with a golden lining. She always carries her longsword with her, should she run into a gorrillaphant or sneevil.
Suddenly, her red eyes widen as a large, fierce looking, red dragon comes up out of nowhere. The dragon glares at her with a hungry look. It releases a guttural growl as its saliva coats its long, sharp teeth. Rebecca, who isn’t used to fighting anything other then forest creatures her size or smaller, gets into her battle stance.
Just as she’s ready to strike, the dragon lowers its head and a small red moglin leads a beautiful woman in white, carrying a rather ornate black box, on to the cliff.
"Very sorry to disturb you" says the woman in white. "I’m Celestia and this is Twilly." She motions to the red moglin.
"Hiayas!" says the red moglin.
"Well, we must be on our way now" says Celestia as if she’s in a hurry. "We shall meet again".
They walk past Rebecca and leave rather quickly. The red dragon raises its head, looking rather annoyed, mumbles something in dragonic and leaves. Rebecca frowns, she’d been looking for a dragon amulet (which would allow her to understand the foreign language of dragons).
Rebecca then remembered her prior suspicion of the two strangers. She runs in the direction she saw them go, when she hears a loud scream.
"I’ll protect you!" she hears Twilly say before he goes flying in the air due to the power of the gorrillaphant’s fist .
"I’m coming to help you!" Rebecca yells. She runs up to the gorrillaphant, taking a powerful blow to the ribs. She gets up quickly and stabs it through the chest with her longsword. The gorrillaphant falls to the ground. Dead.
Rebecca walks over to Twilly and helps him up. “Are you okay?” she asks.
"Thankies!" Twilly enthusiastically sings.
"Thank you for saving us." says Celestia calmly. "If you do not mind, could you also do another favor for me?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"Could you go to Oaklore" she motions to a winding path a couple of meters away. "And tell Captain Rolith that I shall be taking a shortcut?"
"Sure, no problem." replies Rebecca. "I was going to go there myself right away."
"Thankies Rebecca!" says Twilly.
"How do you know my name!" asks a flabbergasted Rebecca.
"Lady Celestia talks about you all the time! She says you’re gonna get the black dragon box and-"
"Twilly…" sighs Celestia.
"What!" Twilly pouts.
"Well we must go. Thank you Rebecca." Celestia and Twilly walk away into the woods.
Rebecca sighs, thinking that this is the strangest day she’s ever had. She walks up the winding path into Oaklore. Who know what that might bring?
Mysterious Knight
The Knight strikes down the sneevil as they jump toward her. She uses her Legendary Magma Blade like a pro and stands victorious before the fallen forest creatures.
The Knight is about 5’6”, her pactogonal knights armor is large and gray. On her right hand she wears a ring of the keep and on her head is the pactogonal knights helm.
She looks around to see if there’s any useful weapons lying about. She looks and looks and looks, then she sees a singing edge on the ground. She walks over and picks up the large axe and puts it in her bag for later use.
The Knight trails back to Oaklore Keep and notices a blonde adventurer attempting to have a conversation with Captain Rolith. She snickers, Captain Rolith only talks to strong members of the pactogonal knights table about important matters or others who prove their strength to him, he’d most certainly blow some random girl off.
The blonde looks frustrated, then she grabs her side and grimaces in pain when the Captain turns and walks away.
"Hey!" the Knight calls and walks up to the blonde. "He only listens to his army and powerful heroes, so there’s no point in you trying to get his attention."
The girl looks as if she’s about to say something, then she passes out. The Knight catches her and takes her to the infirmary.
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Sir Junn looks at her apologetically.
"Well it doesn’t look too bad, but she’ll have a large bruise soon and she cracked a rib." he says. "If she stays in bed until it heals she will be just fine. But the problem is that we are out of honey! And aside from waking up patients who have been asleep for a long time, it helps them heal much faster." he sighs.
"Well where is the honey?" the Knight asks. "I’ll go and get some of it for you."
"Thank you." Sir Junn says. He gives her directions to the hive and instructions not to kill any of the bees, because they need to keep making honey.
The Knight takes the map and leaves, taking the quickest path to the hive. She gets to the outside of it and sighs. This had better be worth it, she thinks.
The Knight walks into the hive, knocking out the bees that fly at her and being extra careful not to kill them. It takes her a while but she finally knocks out the mother of the bunch and takes as much honey as she can in the jar Sir Junn gave her.
The Knight then runs back to Oaklore and heads back to the infirmary. “Here’s the honey.” she hands Sir Junn the jar.
"Thank you." Sir Junn says. "This should do the trick!"
"Can you give some to this girl first, so I can talk to her?"
"Sure." Sir Junn gives the blonde girl some honey, and she starts to blink slowly. She looks around in mild confusion and her gaze finally settles on the Knight.
"Who are you?" the Knight asks.
"I’m Rebecca. What about you?" she replies.
"I’m Sara." says the Knight. "What were you trying to say to Captain Rolith earlier? It looked important."
"It was about Lady Celestia…"replies Rebecca.
"That would be important…" says Sara.
"Could you tell him for me? You said that he listens to members of his army." asks Rebecca.
"Mainly the higher ranking ones, two years here and I still can’t get a word in edgewise with that guy!"
"Is there anything we can do?" Rebecca sighs.
"Well we could try getting his attention somehow." ponders Sara. "Like doing a bunch of quests and big jobs around Oaklore. We might be able to get him to listen for just a little while."
"Well, let’s go then!" Rebecca tries to get up but grabs her side in pain.
"Hold on sunshine! You have to get better first. I’ll come back in a couple of days to check on you, so don’t get out of bed."
"Okay…okay" replies Rebecca. "See you in a couple days I guess." Sara gets up and leaves, wondering why she was even bothering to help this strange girl in the first place.
The Treefort
Rebecca and Sara sit across from each other in the diner, munching on their chickencow burgers. One of the few times that Sara had her helm off was when she ate.
The first time Rebecca saw Sara’s face she blushed at how unexpectedly pretty the knight really is. Sara has sparkly blue eyes, ivory skin, pink lips and dark brown hair made into a single braid going down her back. When she wears her helm she uses a pin to coil the braid onto her head.
"So, Rebecca" says the knight. "I was thinking that in order to get Captain Rolith’s attention we’d talk to Sir Valence. He usually has some quests that, if someone can pull off, get a lot of attention."
"W-wait" Rebecca stutters. "Are you saying that these quests are extremely difficult?"
"Well they’re not easy." Sara sighs. "Right now he’s concerned that the sneevils are taking important resources from Oaklore. I talked to him the morning before I met you and I think this issue is worth looking into."
"Well I guess if we team up we should be fine, right?"
"That’s what I think. Speaking of which, I took some of your gold and bought you a sword and a ring."
"Huh!?" Rebecca looks flabbergasted. "You just took my money!?"
"These are investments you would’ve had to make anyway!" Sara defends.
"Well I guess you’re right, but please ask next time." She sighs.
"I’ll show you where the shop is so you can go there yourself, capish?"
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After checking out the shop the two are walking over to Sir Valence.
"Ah! Hello ladies." He greets. "Would you mind looking into a little sneevil problem for me?"
"Actually" Sara replies. "We were just going to ask you about that." Rebecca nods in agreement.
"Well honey" Sir Valence continues. "I need you to check out the treefort for me." He hands Sara a map. "I need you to go through to the box office and see if they have anything from Oaklore and you need to figure out what their goals in the area are."
"No problem." Says Sara, and the two turn around and follow the map to the treefort.
Rebecca and Sara stop and look at the massive structure in front of them. The gate is surrounded by boxes, which look like they could’ve come from Oaklore. There are two sneevils guarding the door; the pair runs up to them and takes them out easily.
"I recognize these boxes." says Sara. "I bet those sneevils snuck into Oaklore and took them."
"I wonder where they dump the contents…" Rebecca continues. "Sneevils are never interested in the contents of a box; they just like to hoard the empty ones."
"How much do you know about sneevils?" questions Sara.
"Quite a lot since I ran into them all the time during my travels." Rebecca answers.
"Well, let’s go in." says Sara. She opens the ratty door and Rebecca follows her in.
The two girls are immediately attacked by three sneevils, they finish them off quickly. They then collect all the gold off the sneevils and climb up the ladder to the second floor.
Two more sneevils come at them and follow the same fate as the last three.
On the third floor Rebecca and Sara are splitting up the gold they got off the two sneevils laying at their feet. When they finish they climb the ladder on to a totally new floor. On this floor there are two boxer sneevils guarding the door straight ahead of them and two on each path to the side.
All six boxers come running at the knight and the adventurer, they’re quite a bit tougher to take down than their previous friends. The two defeat all the sneevils but don’t come out without some battle-damage of their own.
The two girls walk up to the door and knock. They hear a gruffly voice on the other side.
"Wassa password?"
The two look at each other and neither knows what to say.
"I-uh…" Rebecca says in a gruffly voice. "Need to get more boxes, be right back."
They back away from the door.
"How are we gonna get that password?" Whispers Sara.
"Let’s find a sneevil around here and make it tell us." Rebecca replies. She walks to the right to find a sneevil, and Sara follows.
A large group of sneevils, boxers and arcas come running toward them. Sara, using her legendary magma blade and wearing her ring of the keep; and Rebecca, using her aurum blade and wearing her deep water ring, fight off the hoard as best as they can.
When only one arca is left Rebecca marches up to the snivelling creature and puts the point of her sword to its skinny neck.
"Tell us the secret password, or die." She says in a monotone voice.
"A-a-alright" Stutters the arca. "I-it’s Mr. T. Chiapet…please don’t kill me!"
Rebecca whacks the arca in the head with her aurum and walks in the direction of the door, while Sara collects the gold off of the fallen creatures.
The adventurer and the knight knock on the door again, and again a gruffly voice asks for the password.
"Mr. T. Chaipet" Rebecca grunts.
"Good…good, now do da suber secret knock."
Rebecca and Sara look at each other with confused expressions.
"I…uh" Sara grunts. "Gotta empty all this stuff outta boxes first, be right back."
Once out of hearing distance from the door Sara whispers. “Are we going to do the same thing as before?”
"Yeah" Rebecca replies. "We only have the left path to go down this time."
"I’m surprised" Sara frowns. "I really didn’t think that a group of sneevils could come up with a security system this advanced."
"It is surprising, yes, but all it really means is more work for us…" Rebecca replies.
The two walk down the left path and are almost immediately bombarded with the green dwarf-like creatures. They fight their way through them like before, and when only one is left, begging for his life, they force him to come to the door with them. This way, they won’t miss anything.
"Who’s sare?" comes the grunt from behind the door.
"Mr. T. Chiapet" replies the shaking sneevil, as Sara presses her legendary magma blade into his back.
"Good, good…now do the suber secret knock." They hear the gruffy voice again.
The sword presses harder into the sneevil’s back, shaking and crying, he does the secret knock perfectly.
"Wow, best knock I sounded in a time!" exclaims the sneevil, Rebecca and Sara roll their eyes at the terrible grammar. The door opens and the two girls burst in, the sneevil runs in the opposite direction. At first the dumb creatures look at the pair and mumble.
"Those are some tall sneevils!" says one.
"And surprisingly curvy!" exclaims the other. The box manager looks frustrated with the two boxers and smacks them in the head.
"They’re human’s stupids!" he yells.
"OH!" they exclaim. "Should we attack them?" the box manager sighs, and the boxers take the hint. They run at the pair, prepared to attack, but get defeated easily.
By the time Rebecca and Sara look up, the box manager is gone; they figure he climbed up the ladder to the above floor.
They look at each other and nod, both sure that this will be the final stage in the quest. The knight and the adventurer climb the ladder to find two boxer sneevils and the box-lord, who was about three times larger than the average sneevil. The box-lord motions for them to attack, and as soon as they run at Sara and Rebecca they get taken down with ease.
Cornered, the box-lord gets a panicked expression and takes his dagger, crafty as he is, he runs up to Sara, who dodges his attack, then he throws the dagger at an unsuspecting Rebecca and gets her in the shoulder. Rebecca yelps and reaches for her wound, when Sara stops her. She grabs Rebecca’s arm. “Don’t pull it out!” she yells. Rebecca grimaces, but listens to the knight.
Sara then turns her attention to the box-lord, who’s grin turns to a look of concern when he sees just how pissed off she is.
The knight runs up to the creature, slices both of his shoulders with her blade and punches him in the stomach. She twists her fist and he screams in pain.
When the box-lord is on the ground Sara stands over him, with her weapon to his chest she bluntly asks: “What are you goons planning?” the box-lord stutters and tries to look away from the sword. “Answer me!” she yells, thrusting the point of her legendary magma blade further into the oversized sneevil.
The sneevil finally composes himself enough to muster an answer. “The K-king wants his special box.” There’s a look of fear in his eyes.
"Special box…you don’t mean?" Sara makes an aggravated growl and kicks the box-lord on the side of the head. She gently grabs Rebecca’s arm. "We have to get back to Oaklore! Now!!"
Ninja Dojo
In the distance the knight walks back to the keep, as fast as she can but still rather slow for her. Off her shoulder hangs the blond adventurer, Rebecca, with a pained look on her face and an injured shoulder. Out of her shoulder sticks the Box Lord’s dagger, at a jagged angle and every step she takes causes a little more blood to gush out.
Rebecca sighs and grits her teeth, holding back any words which could be considered a complaint. Her eyes squint as she tries to keep a calm face. Sara turns her head to Rebecca, still wearing her helm, her expression is hidden but her voice sounds concerned and angry at the same time, her voice however, has a calm flow to it so it generally sounds soft, no matter her mood. “We can walk slower if you have to; I know the keep is strong so if there is trouble they should be able to manage it.”
Rebecca groans at this “look don’t try to pretend you are not anxious, I know how you reacted back at the treehouse so I know we have to hurry. Don’t worry about me I’ll be fine!” her face turns to the silver-gray helmet with a fierce glare, her red eyes resembling fire at that moment.
Sara turns her head away in an apologetic gesture “Alright” she manages to say calmly, which seems to soothe Rebecca some-what. The pair walks this way until they get in reach of the keep. Sir Valence sees them and runs to them with haste.
“What happened!? Are you ladies ok?” he says with a concerned and shocked tone to his voice.
Sara stops walking and the relief floods onto Rebecca’s face, which by this time is pale to the point if looking ill. Sara looks at Rebecca again, concerned that she may get sick if she doesn’t get help right away. “You need to get her to Sir Junn right away” Sara directs Sir Valence who nods and takes Rebecca on to his shoulder.
“But first tell me what happened so I can send you off again if I have to” he states, quickly as he knows this need to be taken care of right away. Sara nods and gives him a summary of what happened in the tree-house. Sir Valence nods in response “You were right in getting here fast, they are defiantly planning something. I know where I need to send you.”
“Where?” Sara says with haste.
“The Dojo” Sir Valence states, “The Sneevil Dojo holds a lot of their secrets and plots, as that is one of the bases for their spies so if you go there you will uncover the truth. Here is a map to the location.” He hands Sara the map and as he does this Rebecca pushes him away, only to waver and fall over.
“Rebecca!” Sara gasps “what are you doing!?”
“I can’t let you go alone on this!” the blond shouts back, only to be pulled up off the ground by Sara and Sir Valence.
“Look” Sara says with her flowing voice, “you are too injured to go, and you need to get that shoulder healed, I’ll go myself so shut it and get to Sir Junn, and I don’t have time to escort you.”
Rebecca opens her mouth to speak but is cut off by Sir Valence pulling her along to the keep’s hospital. He knows how to handle the situation, thankfully, as Sara really did have to get going. She takes one look at the map, pulls out her Legendary Magma Sword and runs off in the direction of the Dojo.
_____________________________________________________
Sara starts to slow down as she gets closer to her destination, slowing to a pace made of baby-steps, the ground shifting and crunching as her heavy armored boots touch down. It was already dark by the time she made it there; she knew she probably wouldn’t get back to the keep until the next day so she prayed that this wouldn’t turn out too disastrous.
The dojo isn’t overly large, but sizeable enough for a training facility. The dark tones of the outside of the building mesh with the black sky, Sara creeps toward the door, never having been here before she examines the place carefully and decides that since she needs to be swift she will just break through the door and get through the building as fast as she can.
As soon as she runs through the door, a Sneevil ninja jumps at her to attack, she takes it down with ease and moves on to the next room. She walks a little further and two more come at her, the small goblin-like creatures wrapped in dark blue stealthy outfits are not very strong but after a while they leave their mark on her, luckily Sara doesn’t have much of a problem with these two either.
The stairs to the upper floor are not far ahead, Sara moves to them swiftly; taking down the three Sneevil ninja’s who are guarding the bottom of the stairs. She quickly picks up the fallen gold the creatures had and moves up the stairs.
Sara sneaks up the stairs as quiet as she can, the five Sneevil ninja sitting just above the stairs on the second floor fail to notice her until she rushes to them and takes them down as she did to the previous ones. One of the goblins isn’t unconscious, however, and jumps at her as she walks away, since she failed to notice it was awake. It manages to stab through her armor on her right arm, the one wielding her Legendary Magma Sword, before she throws it to the ground and stomps on it to knock it out. She immediately grabs her arm once she is out of harm’s way and grimaces. A small whimper escapes her but she stays quiet and examines the area for more Sneevil ninjas.
Not so far off there are five more Sneevil ninjas; they turn to her as they hear the slight noise and make a run to get at her while she is weak. Sara lets out a fierce growl-like noise. To hell if she was going to get taken down here! The knight drops her magma blade and takes out five throwing knives from her pack, holding them in both hands she flings them at the enemy and the Sneevils fall while their blood drapes the wood floor around them.
Sara picks up her blade and walks over to the dead creatures, collecting her knives and their gold before moving on.
The helmed Knight of the Pactogonal Table speeds through the next platoon of four Sneevil ninjas. She kicks one and sends it flying, slices another across the chest, decapitates one and tosses a knife at the final one. After cleaning up what she sees fit she walks to the end of the hallway.
Lo and behold, what does she see? An oversized goblin in black gauze? The Shogun Snizix is his name and he is wearing the same outfit as his comrades were. Sara can see the dry look in his eyes as he approaches the injured Knight, sure he would have no trouble. In one hand he holds a katana and in the other a sai.
The knight rushes towards him, her adrenaline taking over and she no longer feels the pain in her arm. Her blade clashes with both of his and their eyes meet. Sara’s are glazed with intense anger and his with the pleasure of battle…yet still cold. The knight realizes her arm strength is diminished so she uses her legs, jumping up she twirls in the air and lands behind the goblin. The Snizix is reasonably surprised and she takes the opportunity to grab him, flip his back towards the wall and hold him to it using her blade against his neck.
The brunette smirks behind her helm, no longer calm and sweet; she is overcome with a fierce aura that only battle can bring upon her. “What are you planning?” her voice is low and menacing.
All that comes from the black clothed goblin is laughter, a cruel dry laughter. “You too late, human! The Kings will haves his SPECIAL BOX!” Next all the Sneevil can feel before his consciousness fades for good is the distinctive cold feeling of liquid running down his neck and chest while dark blue eyes sneer at him behind a silver helm.
Defend the Keep
The lack of sleep left her irritated…. not being able to get up and train, helping the knight was also out of the question…. To hell with it all! For here Rebecca was stuck lying, pissed off and grimacing with every movement of her damned shoulder. Sara you moron, she thinks sourly. The blond knows that if anything happens with Sara she is completely alone….. Sure she has probably been on quests before but she hardly had a moment’s breath from the tree-fort, let alone a meal…
Screw this! The adventurer stands up grabbing her pack. Thank whatever ruling force is at work that she can still move it through the bandages. Walking out in a tight white shirt and a pair of off-white shorts, lacking her much needed but left behind armor, she makes her way to the training grounds of Oaklore out back.
The keep itself is huge; being simply a stone castle functioning as a residence to the knights of the Pactogonal table. Large arched gaps provide windows that spiral to the top. Various balconies dot the stone wall, the floor of them surrounded by a short stone wall to act as a ledge (or rail if you will). Halting to take a momentary glance to admire her temporary home, Rebecca sighs again, almost out of frustration. With that, and a moment to collect her thoughts, she starts to resume her journey when something nearby catches her attention.
Across the grounds a group of knights stand loading some boxes into the back of the keep, new looking ones at that. Rebecca recognizes them from before, being transported by carriages through the forest. They were ironwood boxes. Very strong, stable contraptions used for transporting goods, storage or simply as chairs sometimes. One thing the blond remembers above all others is that Sneevils are incredibly attracted to those boxes. They freaking love them, so Rebecca on multiple occasions has helped knights and town’s workers protect their haul from the goblin pests. And these knights, by the looks of them, would need it. With upper armor left off in response to the heat, things couldn’t end well Assuming the Shogun Snizix wasn’t bluffing; then again, Rebecca knows nothing of that.
Well he wasn’t. There is movement from near where the boxes are being unloaded off the large cart. A spear pokes out from behind a bush before it hits one of the shirtless knights near his ribs. The man lets out a painful noise before reaching to grab one of his weapons to fight back. Rebecca yells “HEY!” and goes after him to help, as she is holding her sword. However as the blond is running to assist she fails to notice the Sneevils sneaking up on her, two Sneenjas on her side and a gladiator (a Sneevil wearing light armor, a helm and a long spear) behind her.
Feeling a sharp twinge of pain and slightly moist on her right hip she turns with her Aurum Blade, finding it only to impale one of the Sneenjas while the other jumps at her. Rebecca lifts her weapon to hit it in mid-air to prevent contact from the black clothed goblin. Her left shoulder locks and she calls out in pain. Rebecca can’t move, and with the knights inside the keep battling (where the other Sneevils are going) and two goblins coming at her this is not a good situation.
Next thing Rebecca knows she is on the ground with a familiar face above her own. Sara had made it in time, searched for her blond friend and found her. “You moron!” the brunette shouts, her face twisted in frustration. She quickly turns around and slices the two Sneevils down with her magma blade. She then pulls out the spear, blood spurting from the wound as she does so. Sara stands up and groans, grabbing her right side. Rebecca also stands up and notices a slice along her own right hip. “There is no time to stand here.” The brunette sighs, her helmet fell off when she saved her friend. “We have to go inside the keep!”
The two warriors resume their battle stances and make for the entrance of the keep. Jumping on the first floor, no knights are anywhere to be seen. “What the hell!?” Rebecca gasps. “Where are they?”
“Upstairs no doubt.” Sara states blankly, as she knows what box they were after. It is obvious by this point. Before the girls can make it to the stairs they encounter one Sneenja and two Gladiators, which they take out rather easily. Functioning as a team, at this moment anyway, Sara stands in front of Rebecca, as if to shield the un-armored adventurer. On the second floor they experience the same number of opponents, which are also easy enough to take out. However their wounds are continuing to bleed out and take their toll, as they leave a trail and slight spatter of red where they warriors have walked. By this point they are completely forgetting about collecting the gold from the creatures as they cut them down with their blades.
On the third floor there are two Sneenjas and one Sneevil stack attack, which is a small group of goblins sitting on a weaponized stack of boxes. Sara took out the black goblins with throwing knives in a matter of seconds; the blades fly through the air, pierce their green skin and cause them to drop. Rebecca then without a word pushes Sara out of the way as the stack attack releases a bomb at them. Rebecca has battled these before, so she knows their tricks. The blond manages to get them both out of the way of the attack, causing only her right calf to obtain a slight injury. The wound was enough to make her kneel on the ground, releasing an excruciating moan. Sara’s eyes widen as she moves in front of the blond.
“Bastards!” she cusses and runs at the stack attack with a double attack; while it doesn’t quite finish them she dodges another bomb and uses a throwing knife to finish it. Sara sighs and looks over at the kneeling blond “Can you stand?” she asks. Rebecca glares but doesn’t respond as she rises from the floor, as if to say ‘don’t you dare doubt me’. The knight smiles a tad and waits for Rebecca to walk over to her; they then ascend to the fourth and highest floor.
Upon looking around they spot two ironwood boxes. Each is guarded by two Sneenjas; the two nod at one another and split up, knowing one is a decoy. Sara has little trouble with her opponents, using one slice from the magma sword and some more throwing knives; she makes it out with only one slight flesh-wound on her leg. Looking over at the blond she can see she is having trouble. Rebecca manages to defeat one but the other seem to have gotten the better of her, and without thinking Sara rushes over while the Sneenja simply jumps away and snatches the ironwood box that the knight left. The dammed goblin rushes out of the tower, getting away. It is obvious which box is the decoy, and the real one was just stolen.
“Damn!” Sara curses, finally letting go of her calm exterior. She helps the almost unconscious blond up and takes her back to Sir Junn. Sara leaves without a word, trying to hold her anger back as much as possible while getting disappointed glances from the other knights.
She stomps up to Sir Valence “Tell me where King Splurt is located.” her voice demands, cold and stern. The man’s eyes widen and behind his helm he smiles.
“Alright” he hands her the map, and she doesn’t even thank him before taking it and rushing off.
_____________________________________________________
Waking up once more, in pain and vexed. Rebecca needs not even think of where Sara went. She already knows. The blond stirs, moving to sit up and ignores the pain her body screams at her. She grabs her armor and rushes out to talk to Sir Valence. Before she can speak he shushes her “I know, here” he hands her a map, a copy of the same one he gave Sara. “But wait” Sir Valence continues. “You might need this.” He hands her a dynamically shaped blade of the colour gold. It is a Zorchy sword. “Hand me your Aurum and it is all yours” his grin returns, he then nods over to another direction “you might also want to look over there before leaving.”
Rebecca thanks him and walks over to where he pointed, it is the area leading to the training grounds, and somehow there is an Elven Army blade lying on the ground off in the bushes. The blond grins and picks it up. These two new weapons would be useful, she thinks to herself.
And then off she goes, following the trail her knight previously had. Rebecca’s red eyes ignite with determination. There is no way she is leaving Sara alone on this one!
The Boxopolis
Sara’s wounds had taken a toll on her. She isn’t as fast as she normally is, this bothers the knight. She groans, holding onto her wound while leaning against a tree. The break is necessary. The bandage that Sir Junn wrapped around her is beginning to come loose; blood is seeping through the gaps. Thankfully, it is only in small amounts.
The knight knows she won’t pass out from blood loss or anything of the like; however she is frightened that she may not be able to react as quickly to her attackers. Shrugging it off, she glares at the sky for a moment. She must keep going and get the box of the keep back.
About fifteen minutes later she can spot the palace of boxes and barrels. It was obvious King Splurt had the box of the keep with him. He had been after it for a while before this, so it would be considered precious. Sara had heard of the Boxopolis before. Never had she travelled there, not many desired to do so. Tales of it came around to Oaklore though, especially with the outburst of Sneevils that seemed to be in the area.
It looks rather similar to the tree-house her and Rebecca had entered not too long before. Outside there are two gladiator Sneevils guarding it. Sara slices them down with her magma blade and takes a moment to realize how short on gold she is. She didn’t have time to snatch any from the Sneevils they beat when protecting the keep. Now, however, she knew she had more time, so she snags any coins the goblins have on them and carries on inside the infamous Boxopolis.
Right past the entrance, in the small room, there are two Sneevils. Sara attacks the first, she cusses as it dodges, her weapon leaving only a graze on its left forearm. The sneaky Sneevil’s friend attacks her while she gets momentum for another swing of her blade. It stabs the blade into her left calf, not getting in too deep as it barely managed to cut through the armor. Sara lets out a small scream of pain as she tosses a throwing knife at the Sneevil who dodged her first attack. She hits it square in the chest and it falls to the ground. She then turns around, decapitating the one that stabbed her.
The knight falls to the ground for a moment, no longer caring about the gold that had fallen out of the pockets of the slain creature. She looks up and sees the ladder which would take her to the above floor. What was I thinking!? Coming here alone…she grumbles and attempts to stand, ignoring the pain in her leg. She manages, though being shaky for a second.
A hand drops on Sara’s shoulder, she turns her head and through the slits in her helm she sees none other than Rebecca. “What are you doing here!?” Sara tries to sound angry, but cannot hide the utter relief flowing from her voice.
“What do you think?” Rebecca rolls her eyes and puts some gold coins into her pouch, no doubt from the dead Sneevils. “You can hardly walk, now I sure as hell am not in the best condition either but I know that you can’t do this all by your damn self.” The blond affirms. Her face carries a hard expression. She then smiles and suddenly hugs Sara. “Goodness I thought you were going to get yourself killed!”
The pair walks over to the ladder and they step off the grimy, dirty ground to climb up. On the second floor Sara takes the gladiator and the Sneevil out in one move by throwing a knife at each of them. Rebecca hops up from the ladder onto the wood floor and smiles. As injured as she was, the knight could hold her own. Rebecca is getting antsy to use the Elven Army Blade currently in her clutches. After picking up the coins Sara looks over at her and notices the new weapon. “You stalked up before coming after me?”
“Thanks to Sir Valence” Rebecca smirks and walks past Sara to begin climbing to the next floor. This floor is much different from the last two. The warriors enter on the left side and on the right, where they had entered on the past floor, is a door leading to a long bridge. “Nifty set-up.” Rebecca says while looking around for a second. They take the two gladiators out easily, Rebecca slices one down and the other two are taken out by Sara’s throwing knives. They collect their profit and head over to the bridge. Gazing out they can see just how awkwardly long it is.
Sara sighs “Let’s hope we don’t fall off it mid-battle.” On the bridge there are two stack attacks. The warriors glance at each other with a grimace. This could be dangerous. Rebecca immediately throws one of her few daggers at the first stack attack. She isn’t as trained as Sara and can only aim one knife at a time. Sara, however, is fairly good at throwing multiple in one move. Sara tosses one of her own knives at the second one; however, unlike Rebecca she doesn’t hit a bomb. The first stack attack set the bomb off, part of the stack being destroyed and the other falling off the thin bridge. The wood planks shook. Sara’s knife doesn’t do much damage on the second stack.
Rebecca jumps ahead of Sara, averting a bomb the stack fires. The bomb makes its way to Sara. She tries to move in time but fails. The bomb explodes and causes the metal of her armor to burn her skin. It also knocks one of the planks from the bridge, Sara stumbles and her burnt foot falls through the gap. She grunts and tries to get out, only causing her entire leg to fall through. Rebecca slices the second stack down and knocks it off the bridge. She gasps upon seeing the knight nearly fallen through the bridge.
“Hang on!” Rebecca throws her weapon down and grabs Sara’s arm. She uses all her strength, her shoulder beginning to hurt once more. The blond manages to get her knight back on the bridge. Sara then helps Rebecca stand, as her shoulder almost locks. “D-damn wound!” Rebecca cusses. Sara gazes at her friend. Rebecca cannot see her facial expression, if she could she would see Sara looking at her with a sort of admiration. Rebecca grabs her weapon after rolling her shoulder back into place, they continue across the wood planks onto a more steady ground.
Two gladiators await them and fall with throwing knives pierced through in their eyes. Sara takes them out in one attack. This room has a short ladder which leads to a platform. They walk past the array of empty boxes and barrels and climb up. The platform then has an opening through which is yet another bridge. Both females groan in vexation.
A Sneevil ninja, gladiator and another stack attack guard the bridge. Word must have gotten to the king that they were going to attack. The ninja and gladiator are taken out by knives. The stack attack releases a bomb, not wanting the same mishap to trouble them again, Rebecca shoves Sara out of the way and hops off the side of the bridge, hanging onto the wooden planks. Sara gasps and almost calls to Rebecca before she realizes the blond did it on purpose. Sara then smiles and stands, she distracts the stack attack by charging towards it while Rebecca hops back on the bridge behind it, stabs it and tosses it to the ground. With the bridge now clear and the two warriors gaining no new injuries, they grin at each other. Brimming with confidence, they become sure in their ability to get back the special box of the keep.
Sara and Rebecca take out the next three Sneevil ninjas with one hit of Rebecca’s Elven Blade and another of Sara’s knife tosses. They get more confident as they are having no trouble disposing of the Goblins that get in their way. As they climb up to the next floor and take out the two ninja’s awaiting them, Rebecca begins to wonder what exactly is in the box of the keep. “Sara?” she begins to ask.
Sara looks down from the ladder that she had started to climb “What is it?” her calm exterior had returned. When Rebecca first caught up with Sara she could see her having a harder time holding onto it and on the verge of acting purely from aggression. It seems Sara has shifted her mind away from that state with Rebecca’s help, and with her assurance that nothing could stop them from completing this quest. Sara is glancing at Rebecca, curious of her quarry.
“What is in the box of the keep?”
“I am not sure. It has been at Oaklore for a while now, but they seem to keep it for the higher ranked members of the Pactogonal table.” Sara answers, smoothly. It annoys her that they were searching for a box of which they had no idea of the contents. Sara also knew though, that if they don’t act fast the Sneevils would dump out the contents of the box simply to keep the empty thing, and they would have no idea where the contents would be or what to even look for.
Rebecca nods and sighs, she walks over and climbs up the ladder after Sara. The warriors realize they must be getting close to the king now. Across from them on this floor is another doorway, the other side of it looks dark with a hint of light. It is much different from the other floors to say the least. They fight the three Sneevil ninjas guarding it. These ones are desperate in their attacks; they know the adventurer and the knight are a threat now. The first two are taken out easily by Sara, as she collects her knives Rebecca goes to attack the final one. It moves to attack the blond but finds itself impaling Sara’s leg as Sara blocks the attack from hitting Rebecca.
It has come to Rebecca’s attention that Sara is overly protective of her, not that the blond didn’t enjoy the odd display but it did annoy her at times. Rebecca stabs the ninja and it falls to the ground. She is tempted to tell Sara she is a big girl and can handle herself, but upon seeing Sara now with yet another wound, Rebecca doesn’t feel annoyed with her as much and is now more frustrated with their opposition.
They enter the darker room. It has no windows and is filled with an array of candles. Along with those are stacks of high quality boxes and barrels. Some are hanging from the ceiling and the others are arranged in an impressive display around the walls. Sara throws knives at the ninja and gladiator, clearing the path to King Splurt. He does not look impressed that they are there. He stands on a throne of boxes and the best looking ones are placed behind him, under his protection.
Sara approaches the king with Rebecca but collapses on the floor before she can quite make it, the king smiles and hops off his throne, on his way to attack the injured knight. Rebecca will have none of this! She stuns the king and attacks him with two slices of her Elven Blade, missing on the second as she put too much pressure on her burnt calf. She throws a knife at him and then raises her blade to protect herself as he comes out of the stun. He attacks Rebecca with his daggers; she dodges the attack and retaliates with another two slices of her sword. She doesn’t miss this time and King Splurt is defeated before he can utter a word of cockiness or angst to the warriors.
The knight stands and adjusts her helm as she grins at the shorter warrior, proud of her friend. Rebecca puts her sword away and picks up the box of the keep. Sara looks off to the side and notices a Simple Bellstaff, she picks it up and places it in her magic pouch to be sold later. The two of them made a fine profit off the Sneevils here: fifty five gold in total.
They make their way out of the Boxopolis (having some trouble getting across the broken bridge, but managing) and through the forest on the path they came. The two of them have no trouble with forest creatures as they walk back to Oaklore Keep. Sir Valence looks anxious upon their return, and when he sees the box he grins, though they cannot see it through his helm. “At Last!” he exclaims. “This box contains a shipment of enchanted rings given to us by Good King Alteon.” Alteon is the king of the lands of Lore. Sara rolls her eyes, NOW they tell her what is inside the box. “It cost him a fortune but worth every coin to defend this keep.” Sir Valence sounds proud and relieved.
“These rings are just what we knights need to better defend Oaklore.” Sir Valence says and turns his attention to Sara. “You were given one a while back, sorry for not telling you about the box.” He laughed a little “We handed one out to every knight and put the rest away so nobody would steal them…” Sir Valence goes quiet for a second, realizing how that sounds. He then looks at Rebecca and places a ring in her hand. “Here, you’ve earned one. As far as I’m concerned, you’re an Honorary Knight of the Pactogonal Table, warrior. Thank you.” The ring he hands to the blond is not just a Ring of the Keep, it is a Dragon Ring of the Keep. Sir Valence must really be impressed with her. Sara glances at the shinier, rarer ring but doesn’t say anything. Her goal in this from the start is to help Rebecca anyway.
The two warriors go to sell the Simple Bellstaff and the Deep Water Ring and get a bit more of a profit from those nasty Sneevils.
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Outside the keep a large black and white dragon lands, on top of this glorious beast rides a small woman. She grins and slides down the beast and onto the ground. “Thanks, Celia” she smiles and an intricate red amulet around her neck glows as her dragon shrinks to the size of a small dog. The baby dragon nuzzles her leg. “I haven’t been here for a while!” the woman exclaims as she wipes her mass of black curls from her face. She glances up at the tall castle that is Oaklore Keep, her pale amber eyes wide with anticipation. It really had been a long time. She walks past the entrance and Captain Rolith smiles at her.
“Hello Sadie! What has the famous mage been up to?”
Rebecca’s beginning
On the planet of Lore, where heroes are born, is where we begin our story. Rebecca, a blonde warrior with fierce red eyes, stands on a cliff looking out at the view.
She finds herself constantly marveled at just how gorgeous this sight is. The sky is a beautiful blue with white fluffy clouds slowly floating around. The bright sun shines on the mountains, valleys, and forests. She can even see a few villages laying about.
Rebecca had been traveling through the forest for months now, and she’s currently planning to go to Oaklore and reside there for a while.
She is about 5’4” and in her early 20’s. Her blonde hair is done up in tight braids, and coiled into a bun on the back of her head. Her armor is silver plated with a golden lining. She always carries her longsword with her, should she run into a gorrillaphant or sneevil.
Suddenly, her red eyes widen as a large, fierce looking, red dragon comes up out of nowhere. The dragon glares at her with a hungry look. It releases a guttural growl as its saliva coats its long, sharp teeth. Rebecca, who isn’t used to fighting anything other then forest creatures her size or smaller, gets into her battle stance.
Just as she’s ready to strike, the dragon lowers its head and a small red moglin leads a beautiful woman in white, carrying a rather ornate black box, on to the cliff.
"Very sorry to disturb you" says the woman in white. "I’m Celestia and this is Twilly." She motions to the red moglin.
"Hiayas!" says the red moglin.
"Well, we must be on our way now" says Celestia as if she’s in a hurry. "We shall meet again".
They walk past Rebecca and leave rather quickly. The red dragon raises its head, looking rather annoyed, mumbles something in dragonic and leaves. Rebecca frowns, she’d been looking for a dragon amulet (which would allow her to understand the foreign language of dragons).
Rebecca then remembered her prior suspicion of the two strangers. She runs in the direction she saw them go, when she hears a loud scream.
"I’ll protect you!" she hears Twilly say before he goes flying in the air due to the power of the gorrillaphant’s fist .
"I’m coming to help you!" Rebecca yells. She runs up to the gorrillaphant, taking a powerful blow to the ribs. She gets up quickly and stabs it through the chest with her longsword. The gorrillaphant falls to the ground. Dead.
Rebecca walks over to Twilly and helps him up. “Are you okay?” she asks.
"Thankies!" Twilly enthusiastically sings.
"Thank you for saving us." says Celestia calmly. "If you do not mind, could you also do another favor for me?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"Could you go to Oaklore" she motions to a winding path a couple of meters away. "And tell Captain Rolith that I shall be taking a shortcut?"
"Sure, no problem." replies Rebecca. "I was going to go there myself right away."
"Thankies Rebecca!" says Twilly.
"How do you know my name!" asks a flabbergasted Rebecca.
"Lady Celestia talks about you all the time! She says you’re gonna get the black dragon box and-"
"Twilly…" sighs Celestia.
"What!" Twilly pouts.
"Well we must go. Thank you Rebecca." Celestia and Twilly walk away into the woods.
Rebecca sighs, thinking that this is the strangest day she’s ever had. She walks up the winding path into Oaklore. Who know what that might bring?
Mysterious Knight
The Knight strikes down the sneevil as they jump toward her. She uses her Legendary Magma Blade like a pro and stands victorious before the fallen forest creatures.
The Knight is about 5’6”, her pactogonal knights armor is large and gray. On her right hand she wears a ring of the keep and on her head is the pactogonal knights helm.
She looks around to see if there’s any useful weapons lying about. She looks and looks and looks, then she sees a singing edge on the ground. She walks over and picks up the large axe and puts it in her bag for later use.
The Knight trails back to Oaklore Keep and notices a blonde adventurer attempting to have a conversation with Captain Rolith. She snickers, Captain Rolith only talks to strong members of the pactogonal knights table about important matters or others who prove their strength to him, he’d most certainly blow some random girl off.
The blonde looks frustrated, then she grabs her side and grimaces in pain when the Captain turns and walks away.
"Hey!" the Knight calls and walks up to the blonde. "He only listens to his army and powerful heroes, so there’s no point in you trying to get his attention."
The girl looks as if she’s about to say something, then she passes out. The Knight catches her and takes her to the infirmary.
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Sir Junn looks at her apologetically.
"Well it doesn’t look too bad, but she’ll have a large bruise soon and she cracked a rib." he says. "If she stays in bed until it heals she will be just fine. But the problem is that we are out of honey! And aside from waking up patients who have been asleep for a long time, it helps them heal much faster." he sighs.
"Well where is the honey?" the Knight asks. "I’ll go and get some of it for you."
"Thank you." Sir Junn says. He gives her directions to the hive and instructions not to kill any of the bees, because they need to keep making honey.
The Knight takes the map and leaves, taking the quickest path to the hive. She gets to the outside of it and sighs. This had better be worth it, she thinks.
The Knight walks into the hive, knocking out the bees that fly at her and being extra careful not to kill them. It takes her a while but she finally knocks out the mother of the bunch and takes as much honey as she can in the jar Sir Junn gave her.
The Knight then runs back to Oaklore and heads back to the infirmary. “Here’s the honey.” she hands Sir Junn the jar.
"Thank you." Sir Junn says. "This should do the trick!"
"Can you give some to this girl first, so I can talk to her?"
"Sure." Sir Junn gives the blonde girl some honey, and she starts to blink slowly. She looks around in mild confusion and her gaze finally settles on the Knight.
"Who are you?" the Knight asks.
"I’m Rebecca. What about you?" she replies.
"I’m Sara." says the Knight. "What were you trying to say to Captain Rolith earlier? It looked important."
"It was about Lady Celestia…"replies Rebecca.
"That would be important…" says Sara.
"Could you tell him for me? You said that he listens to members of his army." asks Rebecca.
"Mainly the higher ranking ones, two years here and I still can’t get a word in edgewise with that guy!"
"Is there anything we can do?" Rebecca sighs.
"Well we could try getting his attention somehow." ponders Sara. "Like doing a bunch of quests and big jobs around Oaklore. We might be able to get him to listen for just a little while."
"Well, let’s go then!" Rebecca tries to get up but grabs her side in pain.
"Hold on sunshine! You have to get better first. I’ll come back in a couple of days to check on you, so don’t get out of bed."
"Okay…okay" replies Rebecca. "See you in a couple days I guess." Sara gets up and leaves, wondering why she was even bothering to help this strange girl in the first place.
The Treefort
Rebecca and Sara sit across from each other in the diner, munching on their chickencow burgers. One of the few times that Sara had her helm off was when she ate.
The first time Rebecca saw Sara’s face she blushed at how unexpectedly pretty the knight really is. Sara has sparkly blue eyes, ivory skin, pink lips and dark brown hair made into a single braid going down her back. When she wears her helm she uses a pin to coil the braid onto her head.
"So, Rebecca" says the knight. "I was thinking that in order to get Captain Rolith’s attention we’d talk to Sir Valence. He usually has some quests that, if someone can pull off, get a lot of attention."
"W-wait" Rebecca stutters. "Are you saying that these quests are extremely difficult?"
"Well they’re not easy." Sara sighs. "Right now he’s concerned that the sneevils are taking important resources from Oaklore. I talked to him the morning before I met you and I think this issue is worth looking into."
"Well I guess if we team up we should be fine, right?"
"That’s what I think. Speaking of which, I took some of your gold and bought you a sword and a ring."
"Huh!?" Rebecca looks flabbergasted. "You just took my money!?"
"These are investments you would’ve had to make anyway!" Sara defends.
"Well I guess you’re right, but please ask next time." She sighs.
"I’ll show you where the shop is so you can go there yourself, capish?"
_____________________________________________________
After checking out the shop the two are walking over to Sir Valence.
"Ah! Hello ladies." He greets. "Would you mind looking into a little sneevil problem for me?"
"Actually" Sara replies. "We were just going to ask you about that." Rebecca nods in agreement.
"Well honey" Sir Valence continues. "I need you to check out the treefort for me." He hands Sara a map. "I need you to go through to the box office and see if they have anything from Oaklore and you need to figure out what their goals in the area are."
"No problem." Says Sara, and the two turn around and follow the map to the treefort.
Rebecca and Sara stop and look at the massive structure in front of them. The gate is surrounded by boxes, which look like they could’ve come from Oaklore. There are two sneevils guarding the door; the pair runs up to them and takes them out easily.
"I recognize these boxes." says Sara. "I bet those sneevils snuck into Oaklore and took them."
"I wonder where they dump the contents…" Rebecca continues. "Sneevils are never interested in the contents of a box; they just like to hoard the empty ones."
"How much do you know about sneevils?" questions Sara.
"Quite a lot since I ran into them all the time during my travels." Rebecca answers.
"Well, let’s go in." says Sara. She opens the ratty door and Rebecca follows her in.
The two girls are immediately attacked by three sneevils, they finish them off quickly. They then collect all the gold off the sneevils and climb up the ladder to the second floor.
Two more sneevils come at them and follow the same fate as the last three.
On the third floor Rebecca and Sara are splitting up the gold they got off the two sneevils laying at their feet. When they finish they climb the ladder on to a totally new floor. On this floor there are two boxer sneevils guarding the door straight ahead of them and two on each path to the side.
All six boxers come running at the knight and the adventurer, they’re quite a bit tougher to take down than their previous friends. The two defeat all the sneevils but don’t come out without some battle-damage of their own.
The two girls walk up to the door and knock. They hear a gruffly voice on the other side.
"Wassa password?"
The two look at each other and neither knows what to say.
"I-uh…" Rebecca says in a gruffly voice. "Need to get more boxes, be right back."
They back away from the door.
"How are we gonna get that password?" Whispers Sara.
"Let’s find a sneevil around here and make it tell us." Rebecca replies. She walks to the right to find a sneevil, and Sara follows.
A large group of sneevils, boxers and arcas come running toward them. Sara, using her legendary magma blade and wearing her ring of the keep; and Rebecca, using her aurum blade and wearing her deep water ring, fight off the hoard as best as they can.
When only one arca is left Rebecca marches up to the snivelling creature and puts the point of her sword to its skinny neck.
"Tell us the secret password, or die." She says in a monotone voice.
"A-a-alright" Stutters the arca. "I-it’s Mr. T. Chiapet…please don’t kill me!"
Rebecca whacks the arca in the head with her aurum and walks in the direction of the door, while Sara collects the gold off of the fallen creatures.
The adventurer and the knight knock on the door again, and again a gruffly voice asks for the password.
"Mr. T. Chaipet" Rebecca grunts.
"Good…good, now do da suber secret knock."
Rebecca and Sara look at each other with confused expressions.
"I…uh" Sara grunts. "Gotta empty all this stuff outta boxes first, be right back."
Once out of hearing distance from the door Sara whispers. “Are we going to do the same thing as before?”
"Yeah" Rebecca replies. "We only have the left path to go down this time."
"I’m surprised" Sara frowns. "I really didn’t think that a group of sneevils could come up with a security system this advanced."
"It is surprising, yes, but all it really means is more work for us…" Rebecca replies.
The two walk down the left path and are almost immediately bombarded with the green dwarf-like creatures. They fight their way through them like before, and when only one is left, begging for his life, they force him to come to the door with them. This way, they won’t miss anything.
"Who’s sare?" comes the grunt from behind the door.
"Mr. T. Chiapet" replies the shaking sneevil, as Sara presses her legendary magma blade into his back.
"Good, good…now do the suber secret knock." They hear the gruffy voice again.
The sword presses harder into the sneevil’s back, shaking and crying, he does the secret knock perfectly.
"Wow, best knock I sounded in a time!" exclaims the sneevil, Rebecca and Sara roll their eyes at the terrible grammar. The door opens and the two girls burst in, the sneevil runs in the opposite direction. At first the dumb creatures look at the pair and mumble.
"Those are some tall sneevils!" says one.
"And surprisingly curvy!" exclaims the other. The box manager looks frustrated with the two boxers and smacks them in the head.
"They’re human’s stupids!" he yells.
"OH!" they exclaim. "Should we attack them?" the box manager sighs, and the boxers take the hint. They run at the pair, prepared to attack, but get defeated easily.
By the time Rebecca and Sara look up, the box manager is gone; they figure he climbed up the ladder to the above floor.
They look at each other and nod, both sure that this will be the final stage in the quest. The knight and the adventurer climb the ladder to find two boxer sneevils and the box-lord, who was about three times larger than the average sneevil. The box-lord motions for them to attack, and as soon as they run at Sara and Rebecca they get taken down with ease.
Cornered, the box-lord gets a panicked expression and takes his dagger, crafty as he is, he runs up to Sara, who dodges his attack, then he throws the dagger at an unsuspecting Rebecca and gets her in the shoulder. Rebecca yelps and reaches for her wound, when Sara stops her. She grabs Rebecca’s arm. “Don’t pull it out!” she yells. Rebecca grimaces, but listens to the knight.
Sara then turns her attention to the box-lord, who’s grin turns to a look of concern when he sees just how pissed off she is.
The knight runs up to the creature, slices both of his shoulders with her blade and punches him in the stomach. She twists her fist and he screams in pain.
When the box-lord is on the ground Sara stands over him, with her weapon to his chest she bluntly asks: “What are you goons planning?” the box-lord stutters and tries to look away from the sword. “Answer me!” she yells, thrusting the point of her legendary magma blade further into the oversized sneevil.
The sneevil finally composes himself enough to muster an answer. “The K-king wants his special box.” There’s a look of fear in his eyes.
"Special box…you don’t mean?" Sara makes an aggravated growl and kicks the box-lord on the side of the head. She gently grabs Rebecca’s arm. "We have to get back to Oaklore! Now!!"
Ninja Dojo
In the distance the knight walks back to the keep, as fast as she can but still rather slow for her. Off her shoulder hangs the blond adventurer, Rebecca, with a pained look on her face and an injured shoulder. Out of her shoulder sticks the Box Lord’s dagger, at a jagged angle and every step she takes causes a little more blood to gush out.
Rebecca sighs and grits her teeth, holding back any words which could be considered a complaint. Her eyes squint as she tries to keep a calm face. Sara turns her head to Rebecca, still wearing her helm, her expression is hidden but her voice sounds concerned and angry at the same time, her voice however, has a calm flow to it so it generally sounds soft, no matter her mood. “We can walk slower if you have to; I know the keep is strong so if there is trouble they should be able to manage it.”
Rebecca groans at this “look don’t try to pretend you are not anxious, I know how you reacted back at the treehouse so I know we have to hurry. Don’t worry about me I’ll be fine!” her face turns to the silver-gray helmet with a fierce glare, her red eyes resembling fire at that moment.
Sara turns her head away in an apologetic gesture “Alright” she manages to say calmly, which seems to soothe Rebecca some-what. The pair walks this way until they get in reach of the keep. Sir Valence sees them and runs to them with haste.
“What happened!? Are you ladies ok?” he says with a concerned and shocked tone to his voice.
Sara stops walking and the relief floods onto Rebecca’s face, which by this time is pale to the point if looking ill. Sara looks at Rebecca again, concerned that she may get sick if she doesn’t get help right away. “You need to get her to Sir Junn right away” Sara directs Sir Valence who nods and takes Rebecca on to his shoulder.
“But first tell me what happened so I can send you off again if I have to” he states, quickly as he knows this need to be taken care of right away. Sara nods and gives him a summary of what happened in the tree-house. Sir Valence nods in response “You were right in getting here fast, they are defiantly planning something. I know where I need to send you.”
“Where?” Sara says with haste.
“The Dojo” Sir Valence states, “The Sneevil Dojo holds a lot of their secrets and plots, as that is one of the bases for their spies so if you go there you will uncover the truth. Here is a map to the location.” He hands Sara the map and as he does this Rebecca pushes him away, only to waver and fall over.
“Rebecca!” Sara gasps “what are you doing!?”
“I can’t let you go alone on this!” the blond shouts back, only to be pulled up off the ground by Sara and Sir Valence.
“Look” Sara says with her flowing voice, “you are too injured to go, and you need to get that shoulder healed, I’ll go myself so shut it and get to Sir Junn, and I don’t have time to escort you.”
Rebecca opens her mouth to speak but is cut off by Sir Valence pulling her along to the keep’s hospital. He knows how to handle the situation, thankfully, as Sara really did have to get going. She takes one look at the map, pulls out her Legendary Magma Sword and runs off in the direction of the Dojo.
_____________________________________________________
Sara starts to slow down as she gets closer to her destination, slowing to a pace made of baby-steps, the ground shifting and crunching as her heavy armored boots touch down. It was already dark by the time she made it there; she knew she probably wouldn’t get back to the keep until the next day so she prayed that this wouldn’t turn out too disastrous.
The dojo isn’t overly large, but sizeable enough for a training facility. The dark tones of the outside of the building mesh with the black sky, Sara creeps toward the door, never having been here before she examines the place carefully and decides that since she needs to be swift she will just break through the door and get through the building as fast as she can.
As soon as she runs through the door, a Sneevil ninja jumps at her to attack, she takes it down with ease and moves on to the next room. She walks a little further and two more come at her, the small goblin-like creatures wrapped in dark blue stealthy outfits are not very strong but after a while they leave their mark on her, luckily Sara doesn’t have much of a problem with these two either.
The stairs to the upper floor are not far ahead, Sara moves to them swiftly; taking down the three Sneevil ninja’s who are guarding the bottom of the stairs. She quickly picks up the fallen gold the creatures had and moves up the stairs.
Sara sneaks up the stairs as quiet as she can, the five Sneevil ninja sitting just above the stairs on the second floor fail to notice her until she rushes to them and takes them down as she did to the previous ones. One of the goblins isn’t unconscious, however, and jumps at her as she walks away, since she failed to notice it was awake. It manages to stab through her armor on her right arm, the one wielding her Legendary Magma Sword, before she throws it to the ground and stomps on it to knock it out. She immediately grabs her arm once she is out of harm’s way and grimaces. A small whimper escapes her but she stays quiet and examines the area for more Sneevil ninjas.
Not so far off there are five more Sneevil ninjas; they turn to her as they hear the slight noise and make a run to get at her while she is weak. Sara lets out a fierce growl-like noise. To hell if she was going to get taken down here! The knight drops her magma blade and takes out five throwing knives from her pack, holding them in both hands she flings them at the enemy and the Sneevils fall while their blood drapes the wood floor around them.
Sara picks up her blade and walks over to the dead creatures, collecting her knives and their gold before moving on.
The helmed Knight of the Pactogonal Table speeds through the next platoon of four Sneevil ninjas. She kicks one and sends it flying, slices another across the chest, decapitates one and tosses a knife at the final one. After cleaning up what she sees fit she walks to the end of the hallway.
Lo and behold, what does she see? An oversized goblin in black gauze? The Shogun Snizix is his name and he is wearing the same outfit as his comrades were. Sara can see the dry look in his eyes as he approaches the injured Knight, sure he would have no trouble. In one hand he holds a katana and in the other a sai.
The knight rushes towards him, her adrenaline taking over and she no longer feels the pain in her arm. Her blade clashes with both of his and their eyes meet. Sara’s are glazed with intense anger and his with the pleasure of battle…yet still cold. The knight realizes her arm strength is diminished so she uses her legs, jumping up she twirls in the air and lands behind the goblin. The Snizix is reasonably surprised and she takes the opportunity to grab him, flip his back towards the wall and hold him to it using her blade against his neck.
The brunette smirks behind her helm, no longer calm and sweet; she is overcome with a fierce aura that only battle can bring upon her. “What are you planning?” her voice is low and menacing.
All that comes from the black clothed goblin is laughter, a cruel dry laughter. “You too late, human! The Kings will haves his SPECIAL BOX!” Next all the Sneevil can feel before his consciousness fades for good is the distinctive cold feeling of liquid running down his neck and chest while dark blue eyes sneer at him behind a silver helm.
Defend the Keep
The lack of sleep left her irritated…. not being able to get up and train, helping the knight was also out of the question…. To hell with it all! For here Rebecca was stuck lying, pissed off and grimacing with every movement of her damned shoulder. Sara you moron, she thinks sourly. The blond knows that if anything happens with Sara she is completely alone….. Sure she has probably been on quests before but she hardly had a moment’s breath from the tree-fort, let alone a meal…
Screw this! The adventurer stands up grabbing her pack. Thank whatever ruling force is at work that she can still move it through the bandages. Walking out in a tight white shirt and a pair of off-white shorts, lacking her much needed but left behind armor, she makes her way to the training grounds of Oaklore out back.
The keep itself is huge; being simply a stone castle functioning as a residence to the knights of the Pactogonal table. Large arched gaps provide windows that spiral to the top. Various balconies dot the stone wall, the floor of them surrounded by a short stone wall to act as a ledge (or rail if you will). Halting to take a momentary glance to admire her temporary home, Rebecca sighs again, almost out of frustration. With that, and a moment to collect her thoughts, she starts to resume her journey when something nearby catches her attention.
Across the grounds a group of knights stand loading some boxes into the back of the keep, new looking ones at that. Rebecca recognizes them from before, being transported by carriages through the forest. They were ironwood boxes. Very strong, stable contraptions used for transporting goods, storage or simply as chairs sometimes. One thing the blond remembers above all others is that Sneevils are incredibly attracted to those boxes. They freaking love them, so Rebecca on multiple occasions has helped knights and town’s workers protect their haul from the goblin pests. And these knights, by the looks of them, would need it. With upper armor left off in response to the heat, things couldn’t end well Assuming the Shogun Snizix wasn’t bluffing; then again, Rebecca knows nothing of that.
Well he wasn’t. There is movement from near where the boxes are being unloaded off the large cart. A spear pokes out from behind a bush before it hits one of the shirtless knights near his ribs. The man lets out a painful noise before reaching to grab one of his weapons to fight back. Rebecca yells “HEY!” and goes after him to help, as she is holding her sword. However as the blond is running to assist she fails to notice the Sneevils sneaking up on her, two Sneenjas on her side and a gladiator (a Sneevil wearing light armor, a helm and a long spear) behind her.
Feeling a sharp twinge of pain and slightly moist on her right hip she turns with her Aurum Blade, finding it only to impale one of the Sneenjas while the other jumps at her. Rebecca lifts her weapon to hit it in mid-air to prevent contact from the black clothed goblin. Her left shoulder locks and she calls out in pain. Rebecca can’t move, and with the knights inside the keep battling (where the other Sneevils are going) and two goblins coming at her this is not a good situation.
Next thing Rebecca knows she is on the ground with a familiar face above her own. Sara had made it in time, searched for her blond friend and found her. “You moron!” the brunette shouts, her face twisted in frustration. She quickly turns around and slices the two Sneevils down with her magma blade. She then pulls out the spear, blood spurting from the wound as she does so. Sara stands up and groans, grabbing her right side. Rebecca also stands up and notices a slice along her own right hip. “There is no time to stand here.” The brunette sighs, her helmet fell off when she saved her friend. “We have to go inside the keep!”
The two warriors resume their battle stances and make for the entrance of the keep. Jumping on the first floor, no knights are anywhere to be seen. “What the hell!?” Rebecca gasps. “Where are they?”
“Upstairs no doubt.” Sara states blankly, as she knows what box they were after. It is obvious by this point. Before the girls can make it to the stairs they encounter one Sneenja and two Gladiators, which they take out rather easily. Functioning as a team, at this moment anyway, Sara stands in front of Rebecca, as if to shield the un-armored adventurer. On the second floor they experience the same number of opponents, which are also easy enough to take out. However their wounds are continuing to bleed out and take their toll, as they leave a trail and slight spatter of red where they warriors have walked. By this point they are completely forgetting about collecting the gold from the creatures as they cut them down with their blades.
On the third floor there are two Sneenjas and one Sneevil stack attack, which is a small group of goblins sitting on a weaponized stack of boxes. Sara took out the black goblins with throwing knives in a matter of seconds; the blades fly through the air, pierce their green skin and cause them to drop. Rebecca then without a word pushes Sara out of the way as the stack attack releases a bomb at them. Rebecca has battled these before, so she knows their tricks. The blond manages to get them both out of the way of the attack, causing only her right calf to obtain a slight injury. The wound was enough to make her kneel on the ground, releasing an excruciating moan. Sara’s eyes widen as she moves in front of the blond.
“Bastards!” she cusses and runs at the stack attack with a double attack; while it doesn’t quite finish them she dodges another bomb and uses a throwing knife to finish it. Sara sighs and looks over at the kneeling blond “Can you stand?” she asks. Rebecca glares but doesn’t respond as she rises from the floor, as if to say ‘don’t you dare doubt me’. The knight smiles a tad and waits for Rebecca to walk over to her; they then ascend to the fourth and highest floor.
Upon looking around they spot two ironwood boxes. Each is guarded by two Sneenjas; the two nod at one another and split up, knowing one is a decoy. Sara has little trouble with her opponents, using one slice from the magma sword and some more throwing knives; she makes it out with only one slight flesh-wound on her leg. Looking over at the blond she can see she is having trouble. Rebecca manages to defeat one but the other seem to have gotten the better of her, and without thinking Sara rushes over while the Sneenja simply jumps away and snatches the ironwood box that the knight left. The dammed goblin rushes out of the tower, getting away. It is obvious which box is the decoy, and the real one was just stolen.
“Damn!” Sara curses, finally letting go of her calm exterior. She helps the almost unconscious blond up and takes her back to Sir Junn. Sara leaves without a word, trying to hold her anger back as much as possible while getting disappointed glances from the other knights.
She stomps up to Sir Valence “Tell me where King Splurt is located.” her voice demands, cold and stern. The man’s eyes widen and behind his helm he smiles.
“Alright” he hands her the map, and she doesn’t even thank him before taking it and rushing off.
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Waking up once more, in pain and vexed. Rebecca needs not even think of where Sara went. She already knows. The blond stirs, moving to sit up and ignores the pain her body screams at her. She grabs her armor and rushes out to talk to Sir Valence. Before she can speak he shushes her “I know, here” he hands her a map, a copy of the same one he gave Sara. “But wait” Sir Valence continues. “You might need this.” He hands her a dynamically shaped blade of the colour gold. It is a Zorchy sword. “Hand me your Aurum and it is all yours” his grin returns, he then nods over to another direction “you might also want to look over there before leaving.”
Rebecca thanks him and walks over to where he pointed, it is the area leading to the training grounds, and somehow there is an Elven Army blade lying on the ground off in the bushes. The blond grins and picks it up. These two new weapons would be useful, she thinks to herself.
And then off she goes, following the trail her knight previously had. Rebecca’s red eyes ignite with determination. There is no way she is leaving Sara alone on this one!
The Boxopolis
Sara’s wounds had taken a toll on her. She isn’t as fast as she normally is, this bothers the knight. She groans, holding onto her wound while leaning against a tree. The break is necessary. The bandage that Sir Junn wrapped around her is beginning to come loose; blood is seeping through the gaps. Thankfully, it is only in small amounts.
The knight knows she won’t pass out from blood loss or anything of the like; however she is frightened that she may not be able to react as quickly to her attackers. Shrugging it off, she glares at the sky for a moment. She must keep going and get the box of the keep back.
About fifteen minutes later she can spot the palace of boxes and barrels. It was obvious King Splurt had the box of the keep with him. He had been after it for a while before this, so it would be considered precious. Sara had heard of the Boxopolis before. Never had she travelled there, not many desired to do so. Tales of it came around to Oaklore though, especially with the outburst of Sneevils that seemed to be in the area.
It looks rather similar to the tree-house her and Rebecca had entered not too long before. Outside there are two gladiator Sneevils guarding it. Sara slices them down with her magma blade and takes a moment to realize how short on gold she is. She didn’t have time to snatch any from the Sneevils they beat when protecting the keep. Now, however, she knew she had more time, so she snags any coins the goblins have on them and carries on inside the infamous Boxopolis.
Right past the entrance, in the small room, there are two Sneevils. Sara attacks the first, she cusses as it dodges, her weapon leaving only a graze on its left forearm. The sneaky Sneevil’s friend attacks her while she gets momentum for another swing of her blade. It stabs the blade into her left calf, not getting in too deep as it barely managed to cut through the armor. Sara lets out a small scream of pain as she tosses a throwing knife at the Sneevil who dodged her first attack. She hits it square in the chest and it falls to the ground. She then turns around, decapitating the one that stabbed her.
The knight falls to the ground for a moment, no longer caring about the gold that had fallen out of the pockets of the slain creature. She looks up and sees the ladder which would take her to the above floor. What was I thinking!? Coming here alone…she grumbles and attempts to stand, ignoring the pain in her leg. She manages, though being shaky for a second.
A hand drops on Sara’s shoulder, she turns her head and through the slits in her helm she sees none other than Rebecca. “What are you doing here!?” Sara tries to sound angry, but cannot hide the utter relief flowing from her voice.
“What do you think?” Rebecca rolls her eyes and puts some gold coins into her pouch, no doubt from the dead Sneevils. “You can hardly walk, now I sure as hell am not in the best condition either but I know that you can’t do this all by your damn self.” The blond affirms. Her face carries a hard expression. She then smiles and suddenly hugs Sara. “Goodness I thought you were going to get yourself killed!”
The pair walks over to the ladder and they step off the grimy, dirty ground to climb up. On the second floor Sara takes the gladiator and the Sneevil out in one move by throwing a knife at each of them. Rebecca hops up from the ladder onto the wood floor and smiles. As injured as she was, the knight could hold her own. Rebecca is getting antsy to use the Elven Army Blade currently in her clutches. After picking up the coins Sara looks over at her and notices the new weapon. “You stalked up before coming after me?”
“Thanks to Sir Valence” Rebecca smirks and walks past Sara to begin climbing to the next floor. This floor is much different from the last two. The warriors enter on the left side and on the right, where they had entered on the past floor, is a door leading to a long bridge. “Nifty set-up.” Rebecca says while looking around for a second. They take the two gladiators out easily, Rebecca slices one down and the other two are taken out by Sara’s throwing knives. They collect their profit and head over to the bridge. Gazing out they can see just how awkwardly long it is.
Sara sighs “Let’s hope we don’t fall off it mid-battle.” On the bridge there are two stack attacks. The warriors glance at each other with a grimace. This could be dangerous. Rebecca immediately throws one of her few daggers at the first stack attack. She isn’t as trained as Sara and can only aim one knife at a time. Sara, however, is fairly good at throwing multiple in one move. Sara tosses one of her own knives at the second one; however, unlike Rebecca she doesn’t hit a bomb. The first stack attack set the bomb off, part of the stack being destroyed and the other falling off the thin bridge. The wood planks shook. Sara’s knife doesn’t do much damage on the second stack.
Rebecca jumps ahead of Sara, averting a bomb the stack fires. The bomb makes its way to Sara. She tries to move in time but fails. The bomb explodes and causes the metal of her armor to burn her skin. It also knocks one of the planks from the bridge, Sara stumbles and her burnt foot falls through the gap. She grunts and tries to get out, only causing her entire leg to fall through. Rebecca slices the second stack down and knocks it off the bridge. She gasps upon seeing the knight nearly fallen through the bridge.
“Hang on!” Rebecca throws her weapon down and grabs Sara’s arm. She uses all her strength, her shoulder beginning to hurt once more. The blond manages to get her knight back on the bridge. Sara then helps Rebecca stand, as her shoulder almost locks. “D-damn wound!” Rebecca cusses. Sara gazes at her friend. Rebecca cannot see her facial expression, if she could she would see Sara looking at her with a sort of admiration. Rebecca grabs her weapon after rolling her shoulder back into place, they continue across the wood planks onto a more steady ground.
Two gladiators await them and fall with throwing knives pierced through in their eyes. Sara takes them out in one attack. This room has a short ladder which leads to a platform. They walk past the array of empty boxes and barrels and climb up. The platform then has an opening through which is yet another bridge. Both females groan in vexation.
A Sneevil ninja, gladiator and another stack attack guard the bridge. Word must have gotten to the king that they were going to attack. The ninja and gladiator are taken out by knives. The stack attack releases a bomb, not wanting the same mishap to trouble them again, Rebecca shoves Sara out of the way and hops off the side of the bridge, hanging onto the wooden planks. Sara gasps and almost calls to Rebecca before she realizes the blond did it on purpose. Sara then smiles and stands, she distracts the stack attack by charging towards it while Rebecca hops back on the bridge behind it, stabs it and tosses it to the ground. With the bridge now clear and the two warriors gaining no new injuries, they grin at each other. Brimming with confidence, they become sure in their ability to get back the special box of the keep.
Sara and Rebecca take out the next three Sneevil ninjas with one hit of Rebecca’s Elven Blade and another of Sara’s knife tosses. They get more confident as they are having no trouble disposing of the Goblins that get in their way. As they climb up to the next floor and take out the two ninja’s awaiting them, Rebecca begins to wonder what exactly is in the box of the keep. “Sara?” she begins to ask.
Sara looks down from the ladder that she had started to climb “What is it?” her calm exterior had returned. When Rebecca first caught up with Sara she could see her having a harder time holding onto it and on the verge of acting purely from aggression. It seems Sara has shifted her mind away from that state with Rebecca’s help, and with her assurance that nothing could stop them from completing this quest. Sara is glancing at Rebecca, curious of her quarry.
“What is in the box of the keep?”
“I am not sure. It has been at Oaklore for a while now, but they seem to keep it for the higher ranked members of the Pactogonal table.” Sara answers, smoothly. It annoys her that they were searching for a box of which they had no idea of the contents. Sara also knew though, that if they don’t act fast the Sneevils would dump out the contents of the box simply to keep the empty thing, and they would have no idea where the contents would be or what to even look for.
Rebecca nods and sighs, she walks over and climbs up the ladder after Sara. The warriors realize they must be getting close to the king now. Across from them on this floor is another doorway, the other side of it looks dark with a hint of light. It is much different from the other floors to say the least. They fight the three Sneevil ninjas guarding it. These ones are desperate in their attacks; they know the adventurer and the knight are a threat now. The first two are taken out easily by Sara, as she collects her knives Rebecca goes to attack the final one. It moves to attack the blond but finds itself impaling Sara’s leg as Sara blocks the attack from hitting Rebecca.
It has come to Rebecca’s attention that Sara is overly protective of her, not that the blond didn’t enjoy the odd display but it did annoy her at times. Rebecca stabs the ninja and it falls to the ground. She is tempted to tell Sara she is a big girl and can handle herself, but upon seeing Sara now with yet another wound, Rebecca doesn’t feel annoyed with her as much and is now more frustrated with their opposition.
They enter the darker room. It has no windows and is filled with an array of candles. Along with those are stacks of high quality boxes and barrels. Some are hanging from the ceiling and the others are arranged in an impressive display around the walls. Sara throws knives at the ninja and gladiator, clearing the path to King Splurt. He does not look impressed that they are there. He stands on a throne of boxes and the best looking ones are placed behind him, under his protection.
Sara approaches the king with Rebecca but collapses on the floor before she can quite make it, the king smiles and hops off his throne, on his way to attack the injured knight. Rebecca will have none of this! She stuns the king and attacks him with two slices of her Elven Blade, missing on the second as she put too much pressure on her burnt calf. She throws a knife at him and then raises her blade to protect herself as he comes out of the stun. He attacks Rebecca with his daggers; she dodges the attack and retaliates with another two slices of her sword. She doesn’t miss this time and King Splurt is defeated before he can utter a word of cockiness or angst to the warriors.
The knight stands and adjusts her helm as she grins at the shorter warrior, proud of her friend. Rebecca puts her sword away and picks up the box of the keep. Sara looks off to the side and notices a Simple Bellstaff, she picks it up and places it in her magic pouch to be sold later. The two of them made a fine profit off the Sneevils here: fifty five gold in total.
They make their way out of the Boxopolis (having some trouble getting across the broken bridge, but managing) and through the forest on the path they came. The two of them have no trouble with forest creatures as they walk back to Oaklore Keep. Sir Valence looks anxious upon their return, and when he sees the box he grins, though they cannot see it through his helm. “At Last!” he exclaims. “This box contains a shipment of enchanted rings given to us by Good King Alteon.” Alteon is the king of the lands of Lore. Sara rolls her eyes, NOW they tell her what is inside the box. “It cost him a fortune but worth every coin to defend this keep.” Sir Valence sounds proud and relieved.
“These rings are just what we knights need to better defend Oaklore.” Sir Valence says and turns his attention to Sara. “You were given one a while back, sorry for not telling you about the box.” He laughed a little “We handed one out to every knight and put the rest away so nobody would steal them…” Sir Valence goes quiet for a second, realizing how that sounds. He then looks at Rebecca and places a ring in her hand. “Here, you’ve earned one. As far as I’m concerned, you’re an Honorary Knight of the Pactogonal Table, warrior. Thank you.” The ring he hands to the blond is not just a Ring of the Keep, it is a Dragon Ring of the Keep. Sir Valence must really be impressed with her. Sara glances at the shinier, rarer ring but doesn’t say anything. Her goal in this from the start is to help Rebecca anyway.
The two warriors go to sell the Simple Bellstaff and the Deep Water Ring and get a bit more of a profit from those nasty Sneevils.
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Outside the keep a large black and white dragon lands, on top of this glorious beast rides a small woman. She grins and slides down the beast and onto the ground. “Thanks, Celia” she smiles and an intricate red amulet around her neck glows as her dragon shrinks to the size of a small dog. The baby dragon nuzzles her leg. “I haven’t been here for a while!” the woman exclaims as she wipes her mass of black curls from her face. She glances up at the tall castle that is Oaklore Keep, her pale amber eyes wide with anticipation. It really had been a long time. She walks past the entrance and Captain Rolith smiles at her.
“Hello Sadie! What has the famous mage been up to?”
*in a toilet*