Ch 1 - Test of Skill, New Companion

A Chapter by Riina

Everything stinks when alone ne?

Days passed as Riina travelled the unknown lands of the planet Sakura. She was just nearing the top of the high range of mountains isolating her town called the Fumou Mountains, named so because they were devoid of tree and snow alike. Tired as she was, she contineud on until a trail of smoke caught her eye. She gathered her strength and headed towards it to find a small town called Kaze, the town of Wind. She entered the town and began to search for a place to rest.

"I hope they have decent beds at the local Inn..." Riina said with a tired sigh.

She continued looking around for the Inn, passing many shops and homes, full of travellers like her. But her strength couldn't hold out and she fell to the ground. A young man whom kept his face hidden by a muffler saw this and came to her side. He picked her up and began to carry her off someplace. She only got a short glance at him before passing out from exhaustion.

Night had fallen when Riina finally came to. She awoke startled to find she wasn't outside, but in a bed. The man was nowhere to be seen.

"Where in the world am I?" Riina asked no one in particular.

She climbed out of the bed and got to her feet shakily. She smelled food coming from another room, and it smelled good to her empty stomach. She found her bag and put no some cleaner clothes and ran to the next room.

"What on...?" She said when she entered the room.

She had stepped into a beautifully decoarated room. A huge table rested in the middle of it, covered by a crimson red table cloth. Plates full of food lined the table from one end to the other. Several chairs with a similar covering as the table lined either side of the magnificent table. A bright orb of light hovered at the ceiling, a creation of fire magic to cheaply light rooms and still look nice. What surprised ehr the most was the man that had carried her was sitting at the far end of the table, seemingly waiting for her.

He was wearing a red shirt with a golden emblem upon the front that resembled two tangled up cats. His pants held the same emblem on the right leg. He also wore a doubled sided cloak, the inner color was pure black, the outside was pure crimson blood red. On his hips were 2 sheathed short swords.

"Who are.." She started but was cut off by the man.

"We'll talk after you eat. You must be hungry." He said and gestured at the chair next to him on thr right side.

"Um...S..Sure..." She squeaked out and walked to the seat next to him and proceeded to sit down.

"What were you doing that made you so tired as to collapse in the middle of town?" He question her.

"I was travelling from Nadeshiko. Probably haven't heard of it since we are all the way down that side of the mountain." She gestured out of the window.

"The place all that smoke came from? What happened?" He asked while staring at her curiously.

"The village was attacked by some group called Tsuki no Curse..." She said in an almost whisper voice.

"Oh, sounds terrible. We'll I'll give you my name. I am Apocist Crimson. I specialize in many forms of magic and speed combat." He stated plainly.

"I'm...I'm Riina Estel, only survivor of the town of Nadeshiko. I am pretty good with a bow and can control the elements to some extent, though it seems fire likes me more than the others." She said and demonstarted by calling fire from the orb of light to dance in her hand, then sent it back.

"So you are the girl we heard word of. The first fabled one in 200 hundred years..." He trailed off.

"Mm...I decided I wanted to avenge my family and friends and also get rid of Tsuki no Curse for their crimes." She stated strongly.

"Alone? Surely you aren't going to try this alone?" He stared at her in disbelief.

"Well I don't exactly have anybody I know anymore..." She trailed off and stared outside.

"Hmm..Come outside with me." He gestured at the door.

He led Riina to what looked like a training ground. Targets were hidden everywhere, and practice weapons were strewn about everywhere.

"Lemme see what you can do, and I'll show you what I can" He said and stepped back to allow her space.

She grabbed one of the bows and a handful of arrows and proceeded to aim at the targets. She hit each and everyone one of them in the dead center. She then grabbed another handful and did the same thing again, except she imbued each arrow with a different element, scorching targets, freezing the ground, sending botls across the ground, and making ehr arrows fly faster with boosts from the wind.

"Impressive." Apocist said and stepped forward.

He began muttering words in some unknown tongue and a magic circle appeared under his feet. The circle was composed of many runes and symbols and glowed white. Balls of light formed around him and streaked off and hit all the targets. Before the circle vanished he had pulled out both daggers and was streaking across the field at a very fast speed, hitting the targets multipel times and moving on to the next.

"Sugoi..." She muttered as she stared in awe.

He landed next to her, stirring up a small cloud of dust. The moon was full, clearing showing it was midnight. The stars twinkled one after another in the perfectly clear night sky.

"Hmm....How about I come with you? I can't let a girl go on this kinda mission by herself." He said with a mischievous grin.

"Erm..Ok.." Riina stuttered.

They left that night so they could travel with the cover of night, always aware of their surroundings. They were headed towards the next town, in the forests at the bottom of the north side of the Fumou Mountains. They hoped to find more clues there...

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