After the Storm
You have to tell the world what happened here! You’re a coward. Fighting to protect something you love is not a waste of life. You have to tell- Enough! Garrett thought to himself while trudging through the snow. It was mere hours since the Metal Demons had stormed Artica Castle, costing his friends their lives.
Elmina... It was her who kept him from taking on the demons out of revenge. I’ll have to remind myself to thank her someday, he thought, that is, if she’s still alive. He wasn’t all that sure of his own survival either. When he left the castle, he wasn’t exactly prepared to go out into a blizzard like that one. All he had was the clothes on his back, his sword, and a chocolate bar (The kind with almonds in it!). Quite frankly, he was freezing his, um, butt off and starving by the time the storm had settled.
"Damn, it’s cold out," he muttered as he sat down to rest for a moment, "but what should I expect here? Seventy degree weather and sunshine?" He laughed dryly. "I wonder what’s left of the castle?" he thought out loud. He looked back the way he came and just barely saw the still smoldering remains of what once had been Artica Castle. He then cast his eyes downward and saw something... furry? He went down on one knee to get a better look.
"A wind rat?" he said, "How’d one of these get here?" He picked up the small creature and decided to take it with him, hoping it was one of the former inhabitants of the castle who managed to escape. Another survivor... he thought hopefully as he continued on his journey to fulfil Elmina’s last request of him...
"Aw SHIT!!" Hanpan had yelled when the fire broke out in the castle. He and the other sprite-like beings had been minding their own business in the library when the fire swept through the room like the Tasmanian Devil through a tree. He had been lucky; he got out before a beam fell in front of the window, blocking off any further escapes. He wasn’t so lucky, however, when he realized the blizzard was in full force when he got out. The winds tossed him around like a rag doll in a washing machine, while Jack Frost was doing more than nipping at his nose. By the time the storm had ended, he was in the middle of nowhere and half-dead. "I hate my life," he mumbled before he lost consciousness. He had been like that for some time when he was found by Garrett...
"Uhn... where... what...?" the small wind rat mumbled as he returned to the land of the living. He slowly arose and found that he was now in a forest. How the hell did I get here? he wondered.
"Hey, you’re alive!" Garrett said, "That’s a good sign."
"Ha, ha, ha," Hanpan said, monotone. "Who the hell are you?"
"Well, aren’t you polite," Garrett retorted, "talking that way to the guy who saved your life."
"Oh, uh, sorry, nearly being burnt and frozen to death in the same night kinda makes me grumpy."
"So you’re a survivor of the attack too?" Garrett asked.
"If you can call this surviving, then yes, I am," Hanpan said sarcastically, "Now are you going to tell me who you are, or are you just going to sit there looking stupid?"
"My name is Garrett Jonathan Van Burace of the Fenril..." he then paused. ...The Fenril Knights. Not that I’m still worthy of such a title anymore. It’s all my fault they’re dead...
"Hello? You still there?" Hanpan yelled in Garrett’s ear, snapping him out of his daze.
"Oh, sorry," he said to the small rat who was now perched on his shoulder. "What’s you name?"
"If you had been paying attention, you would know it’s Hanpan."
"Yeah, um, sorry about that. I just have a lot of things on my mind right now."
"Oh, so that noise I heard was the hamster wheel turning in your head."
"What noise?" Garrett asked. *snap!*
"Like that one." Garrett turned around and saw one of the local monsters approaching, malice in its eyes.
"Oh bugger, we do not need this right now," Garrett groaned. "Maybe would should try to lose it, Hanpan." He heard no snide comment from the rodent gallery. "Hanpan?" Nothing. Something was not right.
"Hey, you son of a simpleton! Over here!" Hanpan yelled at the massive beast, grabbing its attention. "Yeah, you! The ugly one!" He threw a stone (OK, more like a pebble) at the monster, then ran like all getout up a tree (he’s a wind rat; he can do these kind of things). The monster charged at Hanpan’s former location, passed it, and crashed into a tree, knocking it out. Hanpan then literally flew back to his perch on Garrett’s shoulder and said, "How’s that for losing it?" Garrett merely shook his head.
"You’re a strange one, Hanpan..." he muttered as he started walking to unknown places...
Several years later, at the Temple of Memory
"Jack, this place has probably been picked clean by all the other treasure hunters that’ve come through here," Hanpan chided Jack.
Jack Van Burace. That was his name now, seeing as he was trying to become a new person, he needed a new name. Garrett of the Fenril Knights was dead, leaving Jack in his place, or so he said. He and Hanpan knew this was bull, but Jack wouldn’t admit it and Hanpan just didn’t have the heart to say anything about it.
"Come on, Hanpan. It’s worth a look," Jack said before he entered the temple, unaware that his life was going to change very, very soon…