“I told you we’re lost.” Omurai Failyn complained, his exotic accent making his tone seem hardly upset. “For now on, I get to read the map.” He said, quickly snatching the parchment from his fiery friend, Asher Vasquez.
“Oh no you don’t! You aren’t even from the ground you airborne ninny.” Asher snapped, trying to take back the parchment, but failing miserably against the agile movements of his wind adept companion.
With a chuckle, Omurai slipped the parchment into his pack and waggled a finger in front of Asher’s face. “Perhaps, but at least I know how to read a map.” He retaliated.
Asher gave a few curses under his breath as he threw his hands up in defeat. “Look, we can just go down to Knollwood and get the right directions from there.” He said, pointing to the nearby city clearly distinguishable for the three massive trees that make a triangle design near the center of the city.
“Oh, like we could just waltz right in and get directions somehow…” Omurai responded, his words dripping with sarcasm.
It was true enough. The two caught the attention of many wherever they went. Omurai, a nobleman from the Cloud City Altem Tier, gave off quite the figure. He had long, black hair with a tint of brown in it, lightly colored eyes that seemed to swirl with white and green energy of the wind. That is because all who come from the Cloud City are wind adepts. Besides the racial appearances, Omurai still struck an unusual character. He wore a plated headband with the Altem Tier army symbol on it, mithril chain mail, shoulder pads, a heavy, long flowing scarf, lightly armored pants, long socks, and (which was quite the eye catcher) steel-toed sandals. Belted to his side was his masterwork katana which seemed larger than most and his wakizashi. Both mostly unseen weapons in the Liteo region.
Asher, part of the hardy race of humans from the northern Wall of Liteo, was also quite unique. He had spiky red hair, brown eyes with a hint of red, and wore a pair of alchemist goggles strapped to his head. He had a chain shirt on, with a large red acolyte robe, lightly armored pants, and heavy gloves. Most notably about him, however, was the massive blade he carried with him. A full blade by name, the huge sword was magically enhanced to allow the wielder to control its weight, which came in handy for the fire adept, who couldn’t strap the weapon to his back, and was forced to carry it at all times. He also had a falchion strapped to his side and many daggers concealed in his boots.
The two adepts had met on the road many weeks back when Omurai left his position as leading commander of the Altem Tier army to explore the world below him, for Cloud City was literally in the clouds, kept afloat by powerful ancient magic. Since then, the two had become good friends, though many couldn’t tell by the way they quarreled all the time.
With a sigh, Asher began walking down the hill they sat upon.
“Where are you going?” Omurai asked, leaping to his feet and catching up with the alchemist.
“I’m going to Knollwood. I could care less how much attention we attract. It is either there or some other town that we have to go to for directions.” Asher said.
Omurai couldn’t argue with his logic, and quickly outdistanced his friend as he lifted off the ground and flew past Asher. Omurai sat comfortably on the ground outside the gates of Knollwood by the time Asher managed his way there.
“You promised not to do that…” He whined, simply shoving past the guards and into the city.
“Ah, but it was so tempting!” Omurai said with a laugh as he followed his friend inside.
**********
Thalys found little trouble in making it to the nearest town, Galefort, in a day’s time. When he entered the town, however, he found no welcoming party, only a band of thugs harassing the locals. Being the eager hero, he found himself surrounded by the band in minutes.
Wow…I’m smart… He thought to himself as he looked at the large men around him, all of which were much larger than he. There were a total of eight of them, the leader being the largest and ugliest of the bunch. Thalys rested his hands on the hilts of his blades as he looked for the first strike.
“Lookie what we’ve got areselves here. A little rich boy causin’ trouble, eh?” The leader said with a burly laugh. He swung his mighty axe down, smashing it into the ground, and grinned with satisfaction when Thalys flinched from the move. “Scared are we?” He cackled, pulling his blade free.
Hardly cowering, Thalys merely smiled as he spoke, “You have sacked the village and torn down houses. I have come here in time to see you attempting for the women, now? How disgusting…” His eyes narrowed as he spoke the words.
“Aye, that we have been doin’. What’re ye gonna do about it?” One man asked. That man suddenly found the blade of a saber pressed against his neck.
“You’ll be leaving what you took and heading for the hills.” Thalys said, glancing back to see the other men moving in on him.