Just Another Story's Beginning

[Isabel]

Isabel LeFury, prodigy that she was, was in a foul mood. 

For the past few weeks (Oh god, weeeeeeeeeks...) Isabel and her new companion, that bard Calvin, had been walking along a road to Bern. They had left Tirion due to a multitude of reasons (but mostly because Isabel had gotten bored of them and had dragged the blond-haired bard with her), and had set out for Bern, Isabel looking for adventure, Calvin being dragged along behind her. They had been traveling along a often-used road that had, luckily, been devoid of bandits, although they had passed by some traveling merchants occasionally. The men had glanced at Isabel in some rather not-innocent ways, but the blue-haired pupil never seemed to notice. She just kind of smiled at them, and sometimes waved. This usually set the merchants straight, and they attempted their best to ignore her. 

But that was several days ago, and the pains of travel were beginning to settle in. She now shifted her book constantly, looking for new places to put the heavy book so she could relieve her aching arms. Her small pack wasn't exactly large enough to hold it, so, about five days ago, she had just handed the book off to Calvin in a huff. See? That was what non-magic people were good for! They could hold heavy stuff for magic people! But now, she was just irritated at everything. Irritated at Calvin, irritated at the passerby's, irritated at this weather (it was now constantly drizzling, the sky gray, in the way that just puts a damper on everyone's spirits), but, most importantly, she was irritated with HERSELF. If they had stayed back in Sacae, they would be traveling with Tirion, and probably without this annoying weather! She sighed, and ran her hand through her hair in exasperation. "How much longer until we get there?" she whined, a question she had taken to asking at random intervals (it was actually about every five minutes) about six days ago. It wasn't really directed towards anyone in particular; more of a way to vent her annoyance than anything. And then her eyes lifted from the saturated ground, and she saw the twinkle of lights a few hundred yards away. There was a sign a little ahead, and Isabel quickened her pace, not waiting to hear Calvin's response, to read the sign. The wooden sign was worn from a few years of being out in the open air, but still clearly read 'Armarilo' with an arrow beside it, pointing at the small town ahead of them. There was also a small piece of wood that read 'Sacae' with an arrow pointing backwards. Isabel's eyes lit up at this news, and she spun on her heels to look at Calvin. 

"Come on, slow poke! We're almost there! Hup two three four, boy!" she said, seemingly having completely forgotten her own doggedness from not a minute ago. "We're in Bern, and I want to sleep in a bed last week! Let's hustle!"

And, again not waiting for Calvin's response, the magical prodigy went off with a skip in her step towards the town. Roughly half an hour later, the pair would find themselves standing in front of the town's local inn. A sign hung above the door, which read 'The Blue Heron' and had a simple picture of a wading heron with a fish in it's beak. The merry lights from within glimmered through the rain-covered windows. Isabel smiled at Calvin and then opened the door. "Haha! We have arrived!" she shouted, causing everybody to stop what they were doing to look at the new arrival. When they saw it was just a young girl and boy, they returned to what they were doing. Isabel frowned for a moment, then shrugged and headed up towards the bar, where the bartender was wiping a rather large tankard clean. 

Truthfully, anyone could tell that the tankard had been clean for quite a while, but the brown haired, stout man the bartender was talking to seemed to attract the bartender's full attention. The man's huge red armor made him stand out from the others, but his loud voice and countryman's accent helped make him less conspicuous. He banged his fist on the bar, accentuating a point, and then turned to leave. He looked at the girl and the boy, raised an eyebrow, and then brushed his way past them. 

Isabel then walked up to the bartender, who had placed the tankard away and now seemed lost in thought. She rapped the bar three times with her right fist, attracting his attention. "Me and my friend here would like to rent a room and get a meal." Isabel said with a smile. The bartender, a large man with a big belly and thinning dark hair (he had a goatee as well), smiled back at her. 

"Aye, we've got a room fer ya, lassie. If ya need anythin', me name's Andersmith. Jus' call fer me!" he smiled a big toothy grin, and then pointed at an open table in the back. "Ye can sit back dere, an' I'll send someone over to get ye drinks and a meal. 'Member, if ya need anythin', jus' ask!" 

Isabel smiled her thanks, and then lead Calvin to the table. "Can I have my book back?"

[Jya]

Jya had traveled far to get away from her crime. Killing wasn't the problem but it had to be justified. The faces, the feeling, the jittery need to move into a darker space. What was wrong with her nowadays? It felt like she was a stranger to her own body. At the very least she felt reassured by her old habits.

Her mind had filtered out the sounds of everyone within the bar. It helped her concentrate as she wiped at her blade with a piece of cloth. Although the blade was already quite clean but it strangely relaxed her. It was definitely nice to have some peace to simply observe what was going on. The only problem was, there was barely any colorful people around. Being surrounded by men all the time made her yearn for another female friend.

Just as her thoughts subsided, her eyes twitched a bit and glanced towards the disturbance as more people entered. This time it wasn't the usual gruff men but someone closer to her age. Young people were a rarity nowadays or something along such lines. She swore that with the amount of adventure out there, the younger ones were more interested in the big payouts or something. At the sign of the new arrivals, she silently laid down her blade on the table, curious what these travelers were up.

Some men were just plain annoying. The loud armored man caused her to dart her attention so she was just flicking back and forth between the young ones and him. Out of some aching muscles and to get feelings back into her body, she leaned backwards on her chair and rested her boots on the table, crisscrossed to rest herself. The weather wasn't good for her body, not like she could get any sicker, the bones were the cause of trouble during humid days.

She had an eagerness to move towards and speak to them but held herself back and was content to look from afar for now. It might alarm them and she didn't want them to get any assumptions about her. Perhaps when they moved closer she could have a chat with them. Still leaning back, she took out a bag and took out a bag of green herbs. She took a pinch of the dry straw like greens and placed it onto her teeth to chew. The bitterness was barely there thanks to her taste which she was thankful for at times. Bitterness was a horrible taste and she preferred that sweet cake from Ralph. Before her attention snapped to the past, she simply looked forward and watch the two companions from a corner of her eye. It was a bit lonely looking at them through the dark corner and table she was in.

[Calvin Toros]

For the past few weeks Calvin had been travelling with his friend Isabel. Calvin however was thoroughly enjoying this new and enticing experience, never had he seen ANYTHING outside the fencing of his family’s farm. The length of the Journey was mostly on Calvin’s shoulder as at least an extra day in total was taken by Calvin having to stop and sketch every little thing he saw, the Amish equivalent of a tourist. The pair had recently left a group of mercenaries in order to travel to Bern. Even though Calvin’s original objective was to reach Bern, he seemed to be travelling there under the decision of his new partner (cough leader) and her desire to find adventure, although Calvin questions why she didn’t just stay with the mercenaries. None the less Calvin was happy Isabel decided not to, he served of no use to them and would have ended up leaving anyway, someone joining him was just a bonus.

Fortunately for the pair the road they travelled was free of bandits, especially since Calvin would know he was being robbed unless someone told him what that was. However this had taken place over a period of days, today the pain of travelling was really starting to set in on Isabel, however Calvin remained oblivious to it, he never travelled before so the walking was hurting him mildly, but not enough for Calvin to notice. Isabel managed to soothe her pains by stuffing her book onto Calvin and he’s been carrying it ever since. Calvin felt helpful so ignored the pain of carrying 2 instruments clothes and a big ass book.

“how much longer until we get there?” Isabel moaned, but before Calvin could respond a series of lights twinkled in the distance more than a few yards away. Isabel’s head scanned the worn sign post and she spun on her heels to look at Calvin. Calvin’s face light up as he saw the joy on Isabel’s face now that the walking was over. Calvin let out a cheer.
”We’re finally here! Hurray!”
Although, Isabel had left already Calvin was unsure she even heard him. Quickly Calvin scuttered after her as fast as he could with all the weight on him. Isabel burst in the door announcing their presence, and after about a minute at being glanced at then ignored Calvin caught up and entered the door in a shuffle, almost dropping everything and bumping against the door. To others he most likely looked like Isabel’s servant. Calvin followed Isabel up to the bar and let her do the talking, (mostly because he lacked funds).

The two took a seat at an open table in the back and Isabel finally asked for her book back. Calvin smiled politely.

“Okey Dokey.”

He placed the book on the table and slid it over to her. All of a sudden his arms felt like they were magnetically linking themselves to the ceiling as hte weight of the book after about 5 days had finally been lifted.

[Isabel]

Isabel was happy to feel the familiar weight of the tome in her hands again, and she ran her hands over the worn cover. She closed her eyes and sighed contentedly, and then looked up at the sound of heavy footsteps. The man, Andersmith, was approaching their table, that cloth which he had been using to clean the tankard over at the bar slung over his shoulder. They could now see that the area behind the bar must have been lowered to keep this giant of a man somewhere around the height of his sitting customers. He easily stood at about six foot five, and his footsteps caused the floor underneath him to creak from his weight. He lumbered over towards Isabel and Calvin, and then planted his huge hands on their table. "So, fer dinna, we got two options for ya. We gotchya meat and we gotchya other meat." Andersmith frowned a little, and then laughed a little. "Sorry fer de lack of options, but it's what we've got. As fer da kind of meats, it's chicken an' fish. I guess I could throw togetha a salad er somethin' fer da young lady if she wants.." 

Isabel smiled up at the giant man. "I think I'll just go with the chicken. When should we pay for our room?" Despite being all loud and proud usually, Isabel was still a courteous young lady when the situation called for it. She began to reach for a her bag, where her moneybag obviously was kept. Andersmith shook his head, and folded his arms. "No, no; don't worry! Ye can pay fer da night with yer meal." The giant man leaned in a little closer, and his booming voice dropped down to a barely audible tone. "Don't tell da otha people, but... Since da two of ya are so young and you're so nice, I think I'll give ya a discount on da room." 

Isabel smiled. "Thank you! You're a very nice man." Andersmith beamed at the compliment and then looked at Calvin. While his eyes were shifting over to the other youngster, he noticed a girl, only a little older than these two watching them. He didn't say anything, and just looked over at Calvin. 

[Jya]

Jya watched the whole thing play out from the corners of her eye. It wasn't nice to stare and often ends up causing more problem than it should. Without changing her relaxed position. she reached out for her blade and sheathed it in a routine manner. It was thanks to her experiences and adventures that she was now able to move so naturally. Her new found powers have also seemed to not be bothering her as much as it integrated itself to her lifestyle.

The waiter the young ones got was quite the loud man. Their hush hush talk got her a bit curious so she glanced over, realizing that her eyes had met. She quickly looked away as if from embarrassment. Perhaps it was just her but things such as this made her feel like she got caught red handed breaking a law of some sort. Her eyes quickly took more attention up in the ceiling. She hasn't given up looking at the new kids in town, as she looked out from a corner of her eye. With that, she whistled a tune she picked up from her travels, the origins seem to elude her.

[Calvin Toros]

Heavy footsteps could be heard as Andersmith, the man at the bar from earlier, was making his way towards them. With a cloth casually slung over his shoulder the giant placed his oversized hands on their table. The inn wasn’t very fancy, they certainly weren’t going to be famous for their selection of gourmet dishes, but at least they had food, Calvin was starving. Unfortunately for Calvin so was his wallet, he lacked the necessary funds for even a room.
“I’m not very hungry”

Calvin spoke with a little less pep in his voice, followed by a mumbled growl of his stomach; his cheeks seemed to turn a light pink. Calvin let Isabel handle the conversation; her courteous attitude even landed them a room discount. Andersmith stared at Calvin and Calvin smiled back. It was at that point Calvin noticed the girl across the way, her head darted away before Calvin could really tell what she was doing but none the less he let out a polite wave and a smile.

“She looks nice! Does anybody know who she is?

[Isabel]

"Calvin! You will be having chicken and you will like it!" Isabel said with her no-arguing-with-me voice. She would have stepped on his toes, but she was still tired from the walk here. She turned back to the giant Andersmith, and her smile returned. "He will be having the chicken. I'll be paying for both our meals." This got a smile from Andersmith, and the hulking man turned to go back to the bar before realizing Calvin ha asked a question.

"I, err, don't know, ta be honest. She seems harmless 'nough, but I've seen her take out a knife occasionally. I think she's been watchin' ya, but... Eh, I truthfully jus' noticed myself. I'll be back in a little bit with ya meals, kiddos." And with that, the huge man lumbered off, accidentally knocking over somebody making their way to the stairs. The hulking man hardly noticed, and just continued on his way to the bar. The other man, now disheveled from his brief stay on the floor, walked off in a huff. Isabel smiled as she watched the man. While he was at the bar, he laughed and talked to the regulars, hi friends. This was a man who lived a nice, simple live, and enjoyed it.

Isabel sort of wished she could have that. But, alas, she had been given the gift of magic, and mages were not destined for a simple life surrounded by friends. For now, though, there was that girl who apparently was carrying a knife... Isabel spun around in her seat to look for her, but saw no one looking at them. She turned around and whispered, "Which one is the girl you mentioned?", to the bard.

[Calvin Toros]

A sheepish smile spread across Calvin’s face as Isabel ordered him the chicken and offered to pay. Some people might feel de-masculated in this situation; in fact anyone who stands next to Isabel should probably feel a little de-masculated, but Calvin this is all just a super fun learning experience. Sadly enough Andersmith didn’t know who the girl was, only that she was staring at them suspiciously with a knife… hmm we all know what that means, new frieeeends~! Isabel whispered cautiously to Calvin as her eyes darted around the room. Calvin jut smield sweetly and stood up.

“She’s over here come on I’ll show you!”

Calvin stood up and chucked his bag over his shoulder, causing his instruments and supplies to ruffle around. He skipped over to the suspicious looking woman seated across from them and directed her.
“Hi! I’m Calvin Toros!”

[Jya]

Jya was beginning to doze off with just looking up on the ceiling and simply stopped watching the two other kids. She simply sat hidden in the dark corner, in peace once again. Then came the loud voice of a boy. It disturbed her so much that she momentarily lost herself in the surprise. Darn her and her carelessness! She began to fall backward but swung herself over, both of her feet landing square on the ground, parted and an arm swung over on the side. It was a nice save even for her standard. The way she sat made her appear as though she was a mercenary boss waiting for an explanation.

"Oh hey..." Jya responded like it was normal. She also gave a somewhat normal smile in response. She hadn't bothered to cover her mouth, with the cloth, it was strictly for the sake of business.

[Isabel]

Isabel frowned at the girl. The way she sat, the way she carried herself... Geez! Well, at least Calvin had shown some initiative and brought the pair to her. Time to let her know just what Isabel LeFury thought of people hanging around with knives watching her. Actually, since this was the first time this had occurred, Izzy would be finding out with her. "Hey! Who do you think you are, sneaking around like some..." Izzy stopped to think of something that was sneaky and also preferably human. 

"Like some kind of contract killer!" Isabel smiled triumphantly inside for that. That was witty. Most people didn't say things like that. Then again, most people weren't prodigies like Isabel LeFury! "In case you were wondering, I'm Isabel, and this here is Calvin. Who are you and why are you watching us."

[Jya]

Jya stared wide eyed at the Isabel girl's remark. Was she really that obvious? She would think she looked more like a thief then an assassin. Her awkward smile soon turned into a grin. She highly doubted that she was found out. With that thought she burst out laughing. It was just funny. The girl was right on the mark! Bulls-eye! It was just so funny, her sides heaving erratically.

"The name is Jya," she said, pounding her fist lightly on the table now that she had calmed down a bit. With that she wiped away a tear. How long was it had she laughed like that?

"Contract killer is too formal of a statement I would think a better name for my profession would be an assassin," she said, in a more hush hush tone with a genuine tone of happiness.

"I'm not out for your head or anything, I just don't see many people my age nowadays," she finished, settling down again. If the girl didn't believe her, that was fine but she was being honest and had kept a truthful tone of mutual respect.

[Calvin Toros]

Isabel didn’t seem as excited to meet this new girl as Calvin was. If anything she seemed angry, she even called her a contract killer! Whatever that was, Calvin didn’t know. However the girl seemed to burst out laughing as she corrected Isabel and introduced herself. Apparently she was Jya, an assassin. Calvin was pleased to say the least when she was the same age as him.

“You’re the same age as us? Cool! We can all be friends! I’m a bard, and Isabel studies magic! Cool, right?!? What about you? What does an assassin do?”

Calvin giggled, followed by a cute smile of innocence.

[Isabel]

Isabel allowed herself to be stunned into silence for a moment when the girl, Jya, said that she was a contract killer. Well... She said that was a little formal, that she was an assassin. Nonetheless... Oh and hey she was the same age as them! Well, close, at any rate. That was... Surprising, to say the least. Sure, Calvin and herself weren't exactly an intimidating duo, but a young woman, assassin or not, travelling by herself? That was... Yeah, suprising. Isabel just stood there for a moment, and then began to smile as the beginnings of an idea began to formulate inside her brilliant mind. She tapped her book, which she held loosely at her side in her left hand, with her left pointer finger as Calvin introduced himself and Isabel.

"Not only do I study magic, but I am a prodigy! Isabel LeFury is my name, and... Yeah. Jya, stop me when I start going wrong in my description of an assassin." Isabel said, at first with a smile and then her face got more serious as she turned to Calvin. "Calvin, Calvin, poor naïve Calvin. An assassin is someone who other people pay to kill people. Usually just one person. Although my guess is that Jya here, due to her proximity in age to us, is either a small-time and not very into it or she's a pro."

[Jya]

Jya was surprised at the change in topic. So these two were travelling alone by the way, the blonde haired bard talked like. They had a magic user and a musician... That still didn't seem very safe, even though a girl like her travelling by herself wasn't much of a difference. She had even less help considering she had mostly been by herself.

Isabel stated that she was a prodigy, then that would mean she had experience in magic quite a bit at least by Jya's definition. Could she help them in some way or form? Did they even need someone like her for help?

"Umm, sorry if it seemed like I was spying on you, just curious," she restated.

"It might be a real profession for me but I'm new at it, for most of my life I was mostly a thief," she said, just enough that nobody else could hear.

[Isabel]

Isabel waved her hand at Jya's comment. "I don't really care anymore whether or not you were spying on us! So don't worry about it." she said to Jya with a smile. Just then, the creak of the floor announced the massive Andersmith's arrival, and a shadow soon fell upon the duo and Jya. He carried two plates on a larger plate, which his right hand was only a little smaller than; both plates (neither of which were that small; they just looked it next to the bartender) were filled up with various pieces of chicken with a few sprinkles of some sort of local spice. Andersmith smiled down at Isabel, and then turned his head towards Jya. He raised one eyebrow at her, and then returned his attention to Isabel.

"Will ya be sittin' over atchya seat, or will ya be sittin' with this young lass? Er, will she be sittin' with ya...? I'm sorry, it ain't really my place ta ask... I'm just curious where I need ta set these plates down."

Isabel tapped her book absentmindedly, and then smiled. "Well, if Jya here wishes to join us at our table, we would be glad to have her company." The prodigy then turned her head to Jya. "Will you sit with us?"