To A Thief - Chapter 10: The White Sands

Having departed from San d'Oria, Stiff makes his way to the white sands of Valkurm Dunes with a new set of group members. How will the young thief fare against the vicious goblins of the sands?

"So what's yer name, slick?" The tall, steel-blonde elvaan with spiky hair asked Stiff as the group arrived at the Crag of Holla.


The 'Crags' are large structures made of cermet that branch out to different sections of Vana'diel, mainly around the outskirts of the main cities such as San d'Oria. Each structure bears a crystal used as a teleportation device by white mages, acting as a homing point for their magic.

It was a rather lazy method of traveling, but our world is constantly advancing in technology and magic.. so what are you gonna do?


Stiff wobbled for a moment on his legs down the cermet steps leading away from the crag and catching his bearings. This had been his first teleport to a Crag in many years, as the first time he was teleported was to the Crag of Mea in the outskirts of the Federation of Windurst when he was still a child.

After the incident at the orphanage, all the children had been moved to another orphanage in Windurst.

"Urgh.. My name is Stiff." He answered as he stood up straight. "How about you guys?"

"Stiff? That's a weird name.. almost as weird as mine, hehe. Call me Salnar." The elvaan introduced himself, giving a wide smirk.

The rest of the group followed in introductions as they all began making their way through the grassy plains of La Theine Plateau; the same area Stiff had rode through on Moku's chocobo a few days ago.

"Mrrrow.. my name is Jakky.." The white-haired mithra started, giving a shy smile and curling her tail around her waist with the perk of her feline ears. She was rather cute.

"Horis." Was all the large, broad and muscular powerhouse of a galka would say as he walked behind the group. He had a head of pitch black hair that was pulled back and pale gray skin, his tree trunk of a tail swishing from side to side with each step.

"I'm Aki-Waki! But you can call me Aki.. it's a pleasure-weasure to meet you all!" The tiny tarutaru red mage bounced as he waved his hand. His robes looked so baggy and only his face poked out of the hood over his head, much like moku's robes only Aki's were of much cheaper material.

Stiff couldn't help but snicker at the taru.


He kinda reminded me of Moku, although seemingly more hyper. I just couldn't get over how tarutarus all looked and sounded like kids.. it was so weird.

Walking through this meadow seemed easier at first as it seemed so peaceful..

I didn't expect to see beastmen wandering around this area.

That's when the trouble began.


"Shh!" Salnar shushed the group as they all darted behind a wide tree just as a pair of two beastmen lancers came into view.

They were patrolling the road; most likely looking for any easy adventuring fodder to victimize.

"D-do you think they heardy-weardy us..?" Aki asked as he peeked his head out from behind the tree.

"If we can catch one by surprise, we might be able to take him out and then go for the other.. if not, sneak past." Horis said in a low tone, cracking his large knuckles.

"I don't get it.. why don't we just take em'?" Stiff asked, confused as to why they were even hiding. "The orcs in Ghelsba were cakewalk for me and my training partner.."

"These are much strrrronger.." Jakky muttered nervously, ears flat against her head.

"Aye. Ghelsba Outpost is home to the weakest orcs in Vana'diel anyway, Stiff! These fellows over yonder are trained to make a kabob outta ya in an instant.."

"What!" Stiff exclaimed in a hoarse whisper, trying not to be too loud. "So much for my confidence-boost after that training.."

A tiny rabbit-like rarab twitched its nose as it took notice of the group huddling behind the tree. Growing curious, it slowly hopped its way over to the group and stood behind Aki.

"Maybe we can sneak arrround them using the trrrees to move.." Jakky suggested.

"Aye, t'would be best." Salnar nodded.

After a moment of hearing them whispering amongst each other, the rarab leaned forward and sniffed the tarutaru in front of him, able to smell some sweets in his pockets.

Aki then turned around and was faced directly to the rarab, its large eyes catching him by surprise.

"AHHHHH!!!" He shrieked, falling on his rear, away from the cover of the tree and causing the group to jump in surprise.

The two orcish lancers quickly turned to the sudden shriek and compromised the small tarutaru, growling in alert.

"Crap! They saw him!" Stiff exclaimed.

Aki froze in terror as the orcs stared him down for a moment before charging after him.

Finding it in himself to move, he quickly hopped onto his little feet and began bouncing like a fast punted ball through the trees.

"YIKEY-WIKEYS!" He screamed, quickly darting behind another tree trying to get out sight once more, shiver-wivering.

"Stiff, nab the one on the left!" Horis ordered, pointing to the target. "Pull it to us!"

"Pull it..?" Stiff asked in surprise, not exactly knowing what he meant.

"He means git the orc's attention and bring it back'ere t'us." Salnar explained.

"What!? How am I... okay, okay! Um.." Stiff darted out from behind the tree and cleared his throat loudly.

"Uh.. HEY! HEY YOU!!" He shouted at the designated orc while pointing at it.

The orc didn't even turn to look and continued its charge towards the cowering Aki.

"Uh.. YO! ORC! BOOGA-BOOGA!!" Stiff flailed his arms, making random sounds and attempting to mock the way the orcs spoke and sounded. 

".. What is he doing?" Jakky asked in amazement.

"..." Horis didn't say anything.

"Uh.. I think he forgot to bring a ranged weapon. Usually an arrow or a dart does the trick. I figured it was standard for thieves to carry these things.." Salnar muttered.


Surprisingly, Stiff's odd display of vocal work caught the orc's attention and seemed to actually piss it off.

It growled and ran fast towards the thief, holding out the sharp end of its lance.

"Got him!" Stiff exclaimed, making his way back to the group.

"Wait! There's still one more after meee!" Aki wailed as he ran out from behind his tree with the other orc tailing him.

"Just run around for a bit..! We'll take this guy down all quick-like!" Salnar called out. "Run in circles!"

"Use the trees!" Jakky added.

"HURRY-WURRY!" Aki cried as he ran around in circles.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Stiff asked as the group engaged their target.

"He's doomed." Salnar simply stated.

So they all began bashing the orc from left to right; Horis using its face as a punching bag with his iron knuckles; Jakky wasting away at its defenses with enfeebling magic and healing wounds; Salnar taking the extent of the blows with his shield and prodding at it with his sword; Stiff causing damage to the weaker points of its body with the swift strikes of his kukri.

Just as the group had said, the orc's skin alone was much tougher than even the armor that the ghelsba orcs had worn. These orcs not only trained heavily with their weapons, but trained their bodies to sustain much more physical damage as well.

"HURRY!" Aki continued to wail as he ran around the group in circles with the other orc chasing him.

In the end, the orc had been outnumbered and easily succumbed to the might of the group. Falling to its death, the group turned their attention towards the second orcish lancer.

"Looks like yer gonna hafta reel this one in too, Stiff." Salnar caught his breath.

"I got a better idea.." Stiff said, turning to one of the many steep crevices of La Theine in thought.

Looking back at the orc, he ran towards the screaming Aki and charged at the orc directly.

The orc took a fast swing at him with the end of its bladed lance and just barely missed as he rolled under the attack. Challenged by the avoided attack, the orc turned its attention towards Stiff and snorted loudly.

It began its charge towards him, running at full speed as the thief ran away in the direction of the nearby crevice.

"He's all yours, Aki!" Stiff exclaimed as he cart-wheeled off the edge of the crevice.

"He jumped!?" Jakky gasped.

"Oi, Stiff!" Salnar shouted.

"He didn't fall." Horis stated as he watched.

The orc skidded on its heels across the grass, nearly sliding off the ledge. It stopped just in time to look down at the ledge where the thief hung holding on to the edge, looking up at the beastman with a grin.

"Take this you big, stupid jerky-werk!" Aki exclaimed with furrowed brows as he pointed his short sword towards the orcish lancer and let out a sudden stone spell.

The stones that shot out from the spell impacted the orc from behind with a hard push, making it tip off the edge and sending it falling to its doom.

Stiff struggled to get himself back up to the top, his hand nearly slipping just before he felt Horis' large hand grab him by the wrist. He was yanked onto the ledge back on his feet with ease.

"Heh, thanks.." Stiff grinned as he dusted himself off.

"Hmph." The galka grunted as they all regrouped.

"Well.. that went well!" Aki smiled as he daintily wobbled over to the group.


It's crazy how fast trouble finds its way to you out in the open. There is sure as hell no shortage of it..

Anyway, after finally traversing through the plateau, we arrived at the scorching white sands of Valkurm. It was hot as hell..

The sand was hot; the air was hot; even the waters of the many small beaches here were hot.

To be honest, I was kinda hoping this would feel more like a tropical paradise and not the actual hellish place that it was.

Man, the sand here is so white it almost looks like snow from a distance.. how deceiving.


"I don't think I'm gonna make it guys.. you go on without me.. it's over.." Stiff dragged his feet on the sand, exaggerating the heat here as he dropped to one knee.

"Quit fooling around. You've been here for two minutes." Horis mumbled.

Stiff sighed and hopped back onto his feet, crossing his arms behind his head. "I didn't think it'd be so hot, though. It was so cold when I was here in the morning a few days ago.."

"This place is the worst." Salnar said. "This is like, one of two ridiculously tough trials of the adventurer's rite of passage."

"Two trials?" Stiff asked curiously.

"Yep.. first trial is getting used to all this s**t'e in Valkurm.. then the next one is 'The Gauntlet'.. but I'll git back ta' that one some other time." Salnar replied. "For now, let's just focus on our training'ere."

"Once ya spent enough time here up ta' the point where ya can take out these here goblins without so much as having ta' keep yer eyes open, then ya know yer ready for 'The Gauntlet'." He added.


This piqued my interest.

There were so many things to look forward to as an adventurer; it was all so exciting.

Now if only I had known how much of a pain in the a*s this place would truly be..

Since they were all planning to finish their training here like I was, we all decided to stick together for the next few days in Valkurm. Although this wasn't so much as training as it was waging war against the goblins.

Every morning was the same thing. We would move on to one of the many small beaches in the area and conquer it from any invading goblins, using extreme teamwork to do so. If one of us tried to play hero, we got our asses handed to us; oven roasted and all. I found this out the hard way.

We would continue even throughout the freezing nights, stopping and going back to the Shephard's Muster tavern only for food and sleep and to get away from the undead that liked to roam the sands precisely at 12:00 every midnight. It was kind of like having a curfew.. get back inside at 12:00 midnight, or die.

I can't remember how many times I counted us all having to run away into the safety of Selbina's small port town because of being outnumbered. It looked so silly.. a bunch of newbie adventurers running around with a train of goblins behind us. We were laughed at a lot, too.

It was really frustrating at times.. and I hardly felt like I was making any progress. I guess I felt a little stronger after week two..

I began to wonder if I would have done a lot better, had Draven been with us.. or Moku coaching me.

The three of us were just so in tune with our abilities, it was like.. one full-force.

Not that I don't like my current company! Our time here may be frustrating, but we have some good laughs almost every night.. and some good arguments. But hey, what kinda friends don't argue?

That's right. They became not only my comrades, but my friends.. one of my favorite benefits of being an adventurer.

But then..


The worst happened one day when we decided to move to the final beach at the far end of Valkurm Dunes.. a.k.a 'Secret Beach'. It got its name for being so hidden within the trees and only accessible from a tunnel that stretched through the rocky hills.

Anyway, we had heard the most elite of the goblins had a tight hold on that area. It was no surprise once we saw them.. they were armored from head to toe with what looked like steel. You couldn't even see their faces.. they almost looked like robots because of their funky shape.

So we decided, if we could clear the beach of these elites.. we'd be done with this place.


"I got this one!" Horis shouted as he pounded his fist into the hard, steel face of the goblin that had approached the group while they were fighting another.

"S**t, here comes another one.." Stiff muttered as he looked to the side, where another elite goblin jumped out from within the trees.

It was endless. They just kept coming. It was bad enough taking on just one of them, but here they were faced with 3 at a time.

"I need some help, d****t!" Salnar called out as he held onto his shield tight against the goblin's vicious strikes. He couldn't guard so well with his shielding arm being shoved about like that.

"I'm sorry..! I'm trying! There's too many.." Jakky cried out as she focused on healing both Horis and Salnar at the same time while Stiff and Aki focused on the third.

"Ow!" Stiff yelped as he was head-butted by the goblin's steel head to his own, tumbling to the floor. "S**t.. this isn't working!"

He looked around for a moment, seeing the others struggling. Jakky especially was having a hard time keeping her healing magic balanced.

"Aki, you should focus on only using white magicks and helping Jakky heal!" Horis called out to the tarutaru red mage.

"Believe me, Horis-Woris, I'm trying!" Aki wailed.

"Crap..!" Stiff grunted, rolling out of the way from the goblin that continuously attempted thrusting its curved blade to the ground at him. Jumping up to his feet, he began to lead the goblin astray.

"I'll kite this one around; gonna make him chase me! Hurry up and take the other two down!" He called to the group as they all struggled.

But it was no use. These elites were smarter than to simply go on a goose chase.

Rather than chasing him, the goblin reached into its satchel and pulled out a smooth, black round object.

"Come here, you busted goblin!" Stiff shouted before shortly noticing the object. "What is that..?"

The goblin let out a deep laugh and chucked the object in between the group. It wasn't until Stiff saw the lit fuse that he saw what it was.

He sprinted for the group, shouting out, "LOOK OU-"

They barely had a chance to look at the bomb before it exploded with a large bang that sent even Stiff into the air; tumbling back hard despite having been quite a bit of distance away from the others.

Everything sounded like deep echoes now; the world spinning so fast- Stiff could hardly even see.

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Continued in Chapter 11: A Sending

Author's Note

Comments and Reviews MUCH appreciated! :)