A Straight and Narrow Path

[Stephan]

Stephan had ridden for several hours in a direction he thought would lead him to Sacae when something dawned on him. He was horribly lost. "No matter," he thought to himself, " I'll simply ask someone... in the middle of nowhere..." The weight of his predicament was quickly becoming more sizeable. "Maybe I'll cross paths with a merchant convoy and they can point me in the right direction," he continued, trying to keep his hopes up.

It seemed the young pupil's optimism had paid off, for in the distance, he spotted what appeared to be a traveling merchant. Stephan urged his small white horse forward, towards the approaching strangers. "Hello!" he shouted from the top of the hill, "Would you happen to know which way Sacae is?" he continued still shouting. Stephan noticed that there was more than one person approaching. One of them had stopped and appeared to be notching a bow. The other two, he noticed, were holding axes and, he realized with a gulp, were now full-on sprinting straight at him. "Oh no! Bandits!" he thought frantically.

[Elias]

"In the darkest of nights, a hero shines like the brightest star!" From seemingly nowhere, a sphere of flame ripped through the daytime sky and collided right into the side of a charging brigand. The attack was enough to send the man off balance, and rolling violently down the hill. Probably broke his leg or something like that. It didn't matter, that wasn't the point. It was awesome though, totally sweet.

The other charging bandit stopped and turned to see a figure in a brown cloak posing dramatically. "I will not stand for the unjust! Your crimes have caught up to you, and now you will be judged by none other then the highest judge, death himself! I hope he will have mercy upon you as I shall not!" He shifted his pose and adopted a new one. "The brightest flame that all other follow! The Crimson Mage Elias is here to bring about your doom!"

"...what."

That archer that had his arrow trained on the kid found his self aiming instead at the obnoxious man, he'd rather kill him first so he doesn't have time to open his mouth again.

"Yikes!" Elias barely dodged the flying shaft of wood and steel. With a slight cough he called out to the kid. "Are you alright citizen?"

[Stephan]

Stephan had watched in amazement and slight confusion as the firery man had appeared almost from nowhere, easily defeating the two bandits. The archer however had come dangerously close to shooting the fire-man. Ignoring his question, Stephan pulled his tome from his robes, flipping to a page and sumoning up all the faith he could muster. The young pupil let it grow in his hands until it was the size of a large fist and sent it flying at the bandit. It hit him in the shoulder, knocking him back a little, but not scoring any significant damage. The archer readied to counter, as Stephan prepared to dodge.

[Elias]

"One down, two to go." He announced dramatically, his attack only taking down one of the two charging brigands. However, he noticed two missing, and both at the bottom of the hill twitching and stuff. The first one to fall must of knocked the second down! Talk about divine luck of the heroes! Where they gonna get back up? He looked down.

...An axe was stuck in the head of one.

Nope, they weren't gonna get back up. The foot of holy power kicked the archer in the head! This boy was no simple random civilian, but a simple random civilian with the ability to tickle people with light magic! Also he had orange hair, which is close to red, which gives him instant cool points. Now was thinking time! He couldn't allow this child to be harmed by the man's hurtful arrows of steel and wood! It was against everything Elias believed in! He hurried as fast as his legs could carry, and that was pretty fast, to get closer to the white robed red head.

He saw the archer move his fingers, and Elias knew it was mere seconds before he let go. So he did what he had to, moving quickly he twisted his body in front of the boy's receiving a nasty booboo in the shoulder and an annoying shaft of wood poking out of his red robes. He wasn't bleeding... or was he? It was really hard to tell when his clothes were already a bloody shade of red. "Ow... Are you okay citizen?" He talked through the pain. He'd never let a silly thing like 'agony' get in the way of his cheery disposition.

[Stephan]

Stephan winced as the fire-man was shot in the shoulder. Dashing forward, Stephan tapped into the light inside of him and unleashed it upon the archer. It hit his shoulder knocking him back. The archer reached for an arrow from his quiver, but it was too late. Stephan had already prepared a Kraft-ian passage that he shouted at tge enemy, combining it with his powerful faith, "Those who shy from the true light are swallowed by darkness!" He shouted as holy magic collided with the archer, knocking him to the ground, dead. The pupil brushed himself as he approached the fire-man. "Civilian, how bad are you're wounds? We must find you a healer," Stephan urged despite the fact that they were in the middle of nowhere and there were no healers anywhere near.

[Elias]

"Oh, you needn't worry. I am no mere civilian, I am The Crimson Mage. Sworn to uphold justice, defend the weak, and get shot in the should it seems." Seriously, this was the third time he's been hit in that shoulder. It, was, like archer's favorite place to aim. There was a whole body they could get, yet it was always the shoulder. "I hate archers." He moaned and sat down on to the earth to look at his wound. It wasn't bad, but his squishy magey body wasn't designed to take a lot of punishment. He was all springy and stuff with flesh, and almost no armor to block anything at all.

"Hrm... An arrow in the shoulder. How are you supposed to take care of this again? I can never remember. It was either remove it right away, or leave it there until you can get proper treatment.... Hey, Red, do you know?" He turned his head towards the pupil, an inquisitive look on his face coupled with a complete goofy grin that Elias could probably trademark.

[Stephan]

The Crimson Mage? Who does this guy think he is? Stephan thought, annoyed yet slightly amused. "Crimson Mage? I've never heard of you. Now let's see what I remeber from my few healing training sessions," the young pupil said, reaching for the arrow shaft, "Now if I remember correctly, you remove first, then apply a vulnerary to the wound." Stephan grabbed the shaft and pulled hard, the arrow resisting for a moment then coming cleanly out. He then applied the gel-like vulnerary to th wound, and it slowly closed up. "There, that looks better," Stephan said standing up.

[Elias]

"Well, I'm not famous yet. I'm working on it." He laughed as the kid went on with his work. After he was done, his shoulder felt fine enough to move. "Thanks Red, you know your stuff." He stood with a slightly pained smile, holding his arm as he moved. A slight twitch in his eye as it stung crazy bad. "So..." He added as he rose. "Just who are you Red, and why were you randomly attacked by brigands for no adequately explained reason?"

[Fran]

OoC : Can I join?^^

Fran was really happy now, she could leave Arcadia and traveled around continent. She saw mountains, trees, and cities everywhere, they didn't exist in Nabata desert. They were beautiful! She didn't feel tired at all, her excitement made her forget everything, even her fatigue. The ice dragon increased her speed and laughed as she flew higher into the sky. Her wings

She braked suddenly, and opened her bag. "It..It is not here." What was it? It was the map! Fran never went outside the desert before so she needed a map to travel. "I am sure I have..." She forgot to carry it. But that just made her more excited. "It is fun!!!" She danced in the sky, flapping her blue wings. Her dragon stone slipped out from her bag and fell to the ground. "Oh no! Not that!" Fran dove quickly trying to grasp her dragon stone.

It was not easy but finally she could catch her dragon stone before it shattered in the ground. Unfortunately, she didn't notice if she was too close to the ground, and she dove too fast. Impossible to stop diving at this speed.

Fran saw two people on the ground below, one had himself full with red color. "Watch out!" She shouted, but it was too late. She crashed against the red man.

[Elias]

"Hey..." Elias stood, shading his eyes as he looked up into the sky. "I think I see... something. What is that Red?" He turned and looked at the boy. He didn't say anything so he turned bac-

"Watch out!"

DIVEBOMBED

And thus that was the end of The Crimson Mage's story.


Or rather he was laying on the earth completely out cold with a dragon woman on him, but y'know whatever.

[Fran]

Fran expected a painful landing, and yes, she got it. That red man was lucky, if she was in her dragon form he would be...no need for me to say it. But thanks to him, at least she didn't land on the hard ground.

"Aaaw. That's hurt" The aftereffect of the impact made her dizzy. She checked her dragon stone, it was safe, she managed to catch it. Fran placed it inside her bag again. Looking around, she saw a boy there, he looked surprised by her sudden entrance. She smiled to him and patted his head.

She felt something touching her butt as she tried to stand up. "Huh?" She found herself sitting on someone. "Is he still alive?" She asked the boy.

[solon]

OoC: If it's alright with you three...

IC:
Solon briskly walked down the seemingly empty roads of Eturia; he was headed towards Sacae simply because he could not find a better way to occupy his time, and it so happened that he wanted to experience the plains.

He whistled to himself loudly enough to stir the birds, and rolled his neck to stretch out the cramp. He had been walking a good while, when he saw something that made him raise an eyebrow...

A mage, was it? Two, it would seem. And to top that off, as if it wasn't enough, a big white dragon. Solon chuckled to himself and stopped, turning towards them. There were a few bandits' bodies around too.

Solon arched his eyebrows and bit his lip quizzically. Could he take time off his leisurely walk to see what was going on? To be safe, Solon kept a hand behind him on his bow shaft and quietly approached.

He stepped to them, sharing glances between the three, where one had been crushed. "Mm, hello there."

[Stephan]

OOC: Sure the more the merrier. Just be warned, Stephans a huge bigot.

Stephan was about to reply to the mage, when out of nowhere, a filthy dragon dropped from the sky, nearly crushing the mage and knocking him unconscious. About to reply to the dragon woman, Stephan was further surprised when another man stepped out from behind a tree. What was going on here? Who were all these people? He was about to start shouting, when a thought dawned on him. He needed an escort and these people were perfect for the job. " Well hello. The name's Stephan and I'm on a very important mission. I really could use an escort. Would you fine people escort me to Sacae, please?" He asked stretching the syllables and making the biggest baby eyes he could muster. Then glancing down at the mage, he added, "Oh, I'm sure he's just unconscious."

[Fran]

Fran put her hand on Elias' chest, feeling his heartbeats. "Thanks god, he is still alive." She smiled and looked at at the boy. Killing someone just few days after leaving Arcadia was the last things she wanted. Well, this incident happened because her own fault after all. She poked his cheek, trying to wake him.

Fran couldn't turn down Stephan's request, those eyes, how could she resist it? No, absolutely not. She patted his head again. "I would. Just tell me where Sacae is and I would escort you there. But remember, I can't fly all days without rest."

Then she turned to a man who stood behind her. "Hello."

[solon]

Solon was still dazzled, and slightly confused. He arched an eyebrow, tilting his head slightly. "Yeah.. hey."

He turned to the young boy and sighed heavily, clearing his throat. "Nah, I've nowhere else to be, I figure I could uh... lend a hand, so to speak." He scratched the back of his neck and groaned. "So are you... alright? Um..." Solon was at a bit of a loss for words.