First Light, page 18
Venraya paused for a moment and looked back and forth between the two young men. “Acquaintances first, at least. Maybe friends later, if you teach me how to wield a sword a little better. I may have won this time, but going one-for-five is not something I’m proud of.”
“You have got yourself a deal, Miss Venraya.”
“Drop the ‘miss’ please. It makes me uncomfortable.”
Brick smiled at the two. Something whispered in his mind that the girl’s rough exterior was most likely her being awkward with people, just different from Tayven. He had not known how bad it was when he first met her, but after spending a few weeks with her in classes, Brick could tell that it was quite the interesting personality quirk. Almost everyone in class was fair game for snide remarks or being downright ignored. Tayven and Brick were the only ones who even continued to make attempts at interacting with her, at this point.
Brick was sure that Venraya appreciated this in some small way, otherwise she would not have asked for sword lessons from Tayven. It is still strange to me that someone so small could pack such a large amount of anger and frustration in their body.
Chapter Seventeen
Jeruul
Finally, Rune’s breathing stabilized. His head was still in Teryn’s lap, her eyes wet from concern. She gently ran her fingers through his hair. Every few minutes, she seemed to test his breathing with a finger under his nose like an anxious mother over her child. The party had spent quite some time together by this point and had gotten decently close. Fighting side-by-side will do that, I suppose. Or maybe…
Dannon and Jeruul had known Teryn for the better part of a year. Though they had formed up together for the first time in Jelmoore, none of them had joined the academy. Opting instead to simply work their way into E-Rank before heading eastwards towards Hilden. The southeastern portion of the continent where they were now located was well-known for its beautiful weather and rather steady work.
Most monster hunting jobs were solidly within the E- and D-Ranks with only a handful of high-ranking quests needing to be done. Though, this was ignoring the fact that higher-level monsters in the depths of the Greatwood could decide to leave their domain for easy prey. All the locals knew that there were two places you did not venture. First was the Greatwood, as anything deeper than a few yards into the tree line was basically a death sentence. The second place to avoid were the peaks of the Wyverntooth Mountains.
Jeruul had talked a bit with Rune about why, since his village was at the base of them. Locke’s rich mineral resources were thanks to the many mines they maintained that dug into the mountain range’s depths. Rune had explained that the danger of the place resided within the peaks. The entrances of the mines Locke maintained never went higher than a thousand feet above the village. Any higher than that and they risked coming into contact with many dangerous mountain-dwelling beasts. The largest concern being the namesake for the place, Wyverns.
Wyverns were terrifying monsters, but rarely interacted with people since they lived on mountain peaks and fed mostly on Shatterhorns and other monsters and animals that made those places their home.
“Hey, brother,” Dannon whispered. “Just got done speaking with Master Jacob. He said that Karl gave Rune approval to continue work tomorrow if he wants. Says that he should be fine to fight again soon, as long as he rests up today.”
So soon?
“If they think he should be fine, then he should be fine. I trust Master Jacob and Karl,” Teryn stated. Jeruul was about to say something, but let their friend continue. “We’ve come to rely on each other as a team, and I would hate for us to mess with the plans we’ve created together. I won’t fight without him.”
Jeruul nodded. “Of course. I wouldn’t dream of leaving him behind now. Our next job was supposed to be a scouting mission just west of here. According to the quest documents, there have been some strange movements by local bandit gangs and they wanted us to check out some abandoned campsites.”
“Oh, that sounds cool. Wonder if we will find anything neat.” Dannon chimed in.
“Finding things is the point of…whatever. Anyway, need any help, Teryn?” Jeruul asked, still giving his brother a sideways glare. Teryn nodded and asked for assistance, putting Rune back on the bed. She probably could have handled it herself, but it was easier on their friend if they worked together to make the transition gentler.
“So,” Dannon asked Teryn, “you gonna spend the night with him again?”
“If that’s what’s needed.”
Dannon let out a whistle before Jeruul planted an elbow in his gut. “Shut it, idiot. Clearly not the time for your antics. Teryn, do you need anything before we go?”
“Yes, can you grab me something to eat and drink? And bring some bread and water for me to have on hand in case he wakes up.”
Jeruul nodded and left the room. He grabbed his twin by the collar and dragged him along. They headed down the stairs to the bar to just grab something quick and easy. The food was not the greatest, but quality was unnecessary. It just needed to work. Good food could come after their friend was conscious again.
Jeruul had noticed that Bordo was harassing another set of newbies at the job board. At first, he was planning to ignore the obnoxious dickhead, but Dannon decided they needed to step in.
“Hey, Bordo, picking on someone again? Forgot what getting your ass kicked by Rune felt like already?” Dannon taunted.
“You got a problem with the boss?” one of Bordo’s lackies piped in. “‘Cause, if you do, then you got a problem with us.”
“Brave to bring that shithead up. Heard the brat couldn’t hold his liquor and was nursing a headache so bad he needed to cry for the Hall Master. Maybe act tough when your wimp of a savior can actually help you out, eh?” another hissed.
“Yeah, everyone knows the runt got lucky anyway!” the first one continued.
Dannon squared his shoulders up with the lackey while Jeruul slowly readied his fists for any outburst that might start. The newbies that were being picked on had taken the opportunity to run. Silence filled the air as onlookers from the quest board, Reception, and the bar all stopped to look at the group. Their conversations had yet to develop into anything deep since many of them had just returned from checking out Teryn’s scream. A few tables of people put their hands on their weapons in the event something happened. Suddenly, the air seemed to shift, and a strange pressure weighed down on them.
“Bordo,” a dangerous voice grumbled. “How many times do I have to tell you to stop messing with the newbies? I am especially not in the mood today.”
“Well boss, maybe if you didn’t let a waste of space like that Rune kid in then maybe you wouldn’t—” Bordo began.
Jacob, who had stepped into Jeruul’s line of sight, held a terrifying expression, promising certain death to the recipient. “Do you want to try that sentence again, Bordo?”
The man’s voice caught in his throat before he could respond. Purple energy crackled between Jacob’s fingers, threatening to arc forward and strike the cowering man. Jacob was a renowned Pulser, known best for his rapid firing technique. Not only had he developed the ability to fire off nearly twice as many bolts as a normal Pulser using that ability, he was also scarily accurate. Jeruul had heard the rumors that he had ‘calmed down’ a bit after Venraya was born, but seeing how threatening his presence seemed, it was likely those rumors were exaggerated.
Bordo and his crew stood with their eyes locked on Master Jacob. All sounds and movement in the hall ceased as the entire building became eager to witness a slaughter. Finally, the ruffians grumbled something under their breath before slinking out of the building. Jacob put his hand over his eyes and sighed.
Rune
Rune groggily opened his eyes to a curtain of blonde hair and a pair of deep purple eyes that appeared to be glowing. The cheeks of the woman above him took on a slightly red hue as she jumped back in shock and emitted a small yelp. This made the young man smile in amusement as he began to slowly sit up.
“Ugh, I feel like I’m going to barf…” he grumbled as he fought back the urge for his stomach to turn itself inside out.
“How’s your head? You had a fever earlier, so that’s what I was checking when you woke up,” Teryn informed him. “Dannon and Jeruul brought up some water and bread from the bar downstairs a few hours ago.”
“Hours?”
“Yeah, it’s the afternoon now. You passed out and Karl came to help you. He came back after a… trip and said he would be back in a few days. He recommended that you take it a little easy.”
“Damn, so I guess we won’t be able to do our job.”
“No, it was just a scouting job. There will be no issue in delaying it by a day. Karl said you should be good to go tomorrow. Just try to leave most of the fighting to us. Dannon will take the close range while you can hang back with me for support. You can use a crossbow, right?”
“Yeah, I know my way around them. Dannon’s willing to let me use his, right?” he asked. “‘Cause, I don’t exactly have one of my own.”
Teryn motioned to the corner of the room, where their friend’s repeating crossbow—affectionately named Gerty, as Rune had found out—was leaning against the wall. Rune could not help but smile at it because he knew it was Dannon’s most prized possession. Repeating crossbows like that were very hard to find, as they were an exclusive product of Volar. Many people had attempted to make them, but the small internal components essentially required a Volari Metal-Weaver to be involved in the construction.
“Since you are cooped up here tonight, mind if I stick around and keep you company?” Teryn asked, not quite meeting his gaze.
“Absolutely. I am completely exhausted, physically, so I don’t really think I will move from here. But mentally, I am fully awake. So please, spare me from boredom,” Rune begged.
Teryn could not help but giggle at her pleading friend. “I can always invite Dannon to keep you company, you know. I am sure he would love to chat with you. All. Night. Long.”
“Please, no…”
Both of them laughed together at Dannon’s expense. He was a really good person and was extraordinarily friendly. Even then, sometimes he could be a bit much. After a time, the conversation shifted to how Teryn had come to meet the other members of their party.
“Well, as you already know, I am from Dena. I’m the middle child of ten and all my older siblings have already moved on with their lives, and I felt like I needed to do something different,” Teryn explained.
Rune listened as she explained her story to him. As the middle child of ten, there were a lot of times when she was ignored, though since there were so many children, basically every one of them had experienced it to some degree. Her family was the head of a small trading company that specialized in exporting goods to Jelmoore and also had dealings with a few ships out of Borros, so they never wanted for much.
That kind of life had satisfied her for a time, but eventually, as many children experienced, she felt a little bit of wanderlust. Sure, she enjoyed spending time with her siblings and friends, but the stories she heard from her parents’ trading partners stirred something within her. After seeing her older siblings get married and join the family business, she decided she wanted to pursue something different. Apparently, this did not go over positively with her father who had envisioned all of his children joining his company and becoming representatives with trading partners all over the world. He figured that having such a large family would let his business break into the realm of the larger players. Teryn shook her head as she explained his dream of owning fleets of trading ships sporting his name and finally being given a noble title.
She reminds me of Tara. They would get along well.
“Your father sounds…delightful,” Rune commented.
“You have no idea,” Teryn replied. “I love him dearly, but a long story made short: my wants and his didn’t align, and it left a sour taste in his mouth. He eventually relented and told me ‘Do whatever you want’ before I left, so I did. At least I didn’t have to sneak off.”
“After that, you left for Jelmoore and that’s where you met the guys, right? How did that happen?”
The girl laughed at the memory as she explained how she had joined up with the twins. Dannon was the one she had met first. After she had arrived on the mainland, she wandered around the docks for a few hours like a lost child. Luckily for her, Jelmoore had a significant population of Volari and Wanderers and they recognized her as a new face immediately. According to Teryn, they could have helped her out immediately, but a new face getting lost in town was some kind of informal rite of passage amongst the immigrants.
Eventually, someone pointed her toward the one place that she absolutely wanted to be. The Vanguard Academy. In Jelmoore, the Vanguard Academy also housed the Vanguard Hall. Second-year and up students could take missions from the Hall as part of their coursework, so it only made sense for such a setup. Even with a general knowledge of where to go, though, Teryn had gotten lost a second time.
Unlike on the docks, Teryn did not see any Volari who could help her and so she was forced to have her first proper conversation with a human. That human was a boy with brown hair, brown eyes, and a loudmouth. He had been talking to a street vender and asking if they had seen someone who looked like him. Teryn’s initial plan was to talk to the same vendor, since they seemed okay with helping the obnoxious boy, but when she approached, the boy switched gears and began talking to her instead. The vendor, who had apparently been stuck in a conversational trap for the better part of an hour, took his mobile cart with him and escaped from Dannon. Once he had a new conversational victim, Dannon was eager to change targets.
“I see, so he’s always been so friendly.” Rune chuckled.
“Yeah, according to Jeruul, Dannon got all the charisma and social skills, while Jeruul took all the logic and sense.” Teryn laughed. “Anyway, the guys are born-and-raised natives to Jelmoore and Dannon explained he was a newer member of the Vanguard himself, so he escorted me all the way to the Hall at the Academy. He had been looking for his brother because they got separated when Dannon was distracted, but Jeruul was already at the Hall. I guess he figured his brother would show up, eventually. Not too long after that, I took the test to join up, and the twins asked me immediately to join their party.”
Rune and Teryn continued to share stories of their childhoods and adventures. Rune noticed a slight decrease in conversational tone when he talked about his time with Tara and Ven, but decided not to mention anything. Several hours and a good meal later, Rune finally felt tired. Teryn noticed this and bid him goodnight, advising that they were planning to head out first thing in the morning.
“Remember, if you don’t feel up to it, just tell us. It’s better to be down one person than that person to become a liability,” she warned.
“You got it.” Rune shifted his feet nervously. “Thanks for taking care of me.”
“For you? Anytime!” Teryn beamed.
Tayven
“Ithink we should just form one ourselves at this point,” Tayven proclaimed suddenly.
He, Brick and Ven were in the middle of eating dinner in the dining hall when he interrupted the silence. After the first fight Ven won, the pair had finally gotten on good terms with one another. Brick was never someone she had taken issue with, so it was only natural that he grew closer with her as well.
Nowadays, their sparring sessions were friendly and educational. Tayven taught her basic sword forms, while Ven gave him experience fighting opponents that would not just stand still to trade blows. It was a mutually beneficial relationship. Ven was still a little rough around the edges when interacting with other students, but she had calmed down a smidge. On top of that, her Pulser skills were seriously impressive.
Tayven and Brick had only recently learned that her father was Hall Master Jacob, a man whose intensity in battle coupled with his rapid firing techniques had inspired a generation of Vanguard hopefuls. Ven appeared to share some of his innate skills, though hers were far from refined. Despite this, her performance in Aura Development class with Professor Lylah was enough for many of the students to ignore her personality quirk and attempt to recruit her into their parties.
By this point, she had even received offers from parties with second-years in them, which would allow her to partake in jobs for school credits. Ven, of course, had zero interest in partying up with people she neither knew nor respected. However, the increased frequency and tenacity of these offers put the fear of the gods into Tayven that his friend would be poached.
“What are you on about?” Brick asked between slurps of soup.
“We should just form a party of our own. We won’t be able to take missions until next year, but at least we will have an established party,” Tayven explained.
“And why would I join a party that won’t let me go on jobs?” Ven inquired.
Tayven gave her a sly smile. “A fair question, but at least if we formally register one with the Academy, then people finally stop pestering you,” he countered.
Ven stopped drinking her ale for a moment and pondered the offer. Brick tried and failed to contain a wide grin. He knew that Tayven’s original idea was enough on its own to get the girl to agree, but even if it did not, the chance at stopping people from bothering her absolutely sealed the deal.
“You make a good point. Let’s do it,” she agreed. “One condition though.”
“Alright, I’m listening.”
“We will not just rest on our laurels and wait till next year. I want us to seriously try and find someone we can add that will let us take jobs this year if possible.” Ven stated. Her tone and demeanor begged no chance of countering. “I know it may not happen, but I want us to try.”
