(gasp) Naeo wrote a story! "A Minstrel's Recollection"Follow

A Minstrel's Recollection.


Prologue



There was a time, when these hands would be holding this very quill and be writing about my daily adventures. Times in Vana'diel have changed since I was trying to prove myself amongst the ranks of the Windurstian Adventurers that I had what it took to be the best. Yes indeed, no longer is there the need for my services outside of songs for birthdays, weddings, or the such.
Vana'diel has become peaceful for once in my life.
No longer is this the Crystal Era that many of those that will read this, grew up in. Many will have found other uses for their skills. The Warriors, Paladins, Dark Knights, and other 'brutes' as I once called them have all probably joined the ranks of their respective nation's armies. While the magical community benefits from the wisdom and knowledge from seasoned Bards,White Mages, Black Mages, Red Mages, Blue Mages, and the like. While some that didn't join the fields those of their peers had, have opened their own shops for whatever craft they picked up in their many travels.

Me, I'm actually content sitting in my home turning my journals into books so those that were not part of what me, and the group I belonged to: the Hotuken Knights will know of what dangers we faced, and how some of us...never made it back home to see our loved ones, or pop open a bottle of wine in celebration.

Under the stars that light our night sky, and the breeze that calms and cools our bodies. The sun once rose to greet a world filled with bloodshed, death, and war. The songs of yesterday ring forever in the voices of the deceased, and echo into eternity on the voice of the wind.

Never forget the sacrifices that have been made by people who once lived near you, or that you passed on your way to the auction house. For it is these people, that you sleep soundly at night, and you can watch the sun rise and sunset without having a sword on your back, or a spell readied on your fingertips.









I


knock, knock, knock.
It sounded muffled, distant, as if the people down the hall were throwing some giant party in celebration for something someone did that was special or some such thing. Ignoring it, I turned over and proceeded to pull the blanket back over my shoulders when it happened again.
knock, knock, knock.
'That better not be some Promathia Witness knocking on my door to ask me if I've found their lord in my life again' was all I think as I dragged myself out of the warmth of the Royal Bed I cherished and into the cold air of the late Iceday's air. The sudden drop in temperature didn't please me in the least, and caused me to fish out my robe and rub my arms to warm myself up as I shuffled my feet towards the door.
knock, knock, knock.
"Altana on an airship, I'm coming!" I shouted as I undid the chain-lock and opened the door and gave a woman with short brown hair a look that would kill if I were a Hectacomb. "Phyree..." my voice sounded as if I had the entire Beaucidine Glacier on it. "...your moogle better have imploded and took out your house. Otherwise I'm going to find my flute a new home up one of your personal areas."
All Phyree did was straighten out the edges around her signature White Mage shirt and smile a big toothy grin at me "We'll say yes, just so I don't get viciously attacked by a wooden wind instrument. Don't you remember that we were s'posed to go fishin today?"
Oh gawd I thought, signaling Phyree into my house and quickly shutting the door behind her.I forgot we planed this like, three months ago to take a day off from our hectic careers and make it a slow fishing day.
"I forgot, actually." I said rather sheepishly, trying to put on my puppy dog face as well I could do in my half-sleepy stupor.
Phyree didn't speak, she simply stripped my mannequin of my fishing clothes, pole, bait, and the signature hat of the bard and threw them at me, then she spoke. "Get dressed, Spooners. We've gotta get on the road!"
"Dressed? Without shower, brushing teeth, breakfast, or any other somethings along those lines? Are you nuts woman!" I joked at her, rushing into the bathroom and grabbing my towel from the newel post on my way in.
Twenty minutes into my shower Phyree started pounded on my door, and mocking the song I was singing in her most shrill annoying screech that could only be compared to that of a dying orc. "Na-a-a-a-a-eo!" She dragged out the 'ay' sound in my name so she could whine it at me. "Hurry up already! You should have set your alarm, or paid your moogle some money so he'd talk to mine and wake you up or something!"
She continued to whine at me for another ten minutes until I stepped out of the bathroom with an insane amount of steam rushing out of the confined space after me. My blonde hair was dried and styled already, the messy sort of look you'd expect on some teenager, not a twenty-three year old bard. The stubble that resided on my chin was shaved off and my sideburns were trimmed. "I had to get ready!" I smiled at her and got a pouty bottom lip in return.
"Get dressed" she said, sitting in my leather chair. "and do you have to have all of these creepy mannequins up in your room? They give me the heeby-jeebies." She poked the Hume Female mannequin I had dressed in a rather revealing outfit of my own design. "For a gay guy, you sure have this chick dressed rather whorishly."
Faking an insulted look I crossed my arms and pretended to sulk. "I was going to give you that outfit for your birthday so you look good on your weekends working the Jeuno street corners."
Phyree reached down and grabbed the Beetle Harness I had set up next to the chair and chucked it at me, hitting my back as I turned around to start changing. Which in turn caused my towel to drop and my rear end be exposed.
"NAEO!" She shouted and started to howl with laughter. "Is that a tattoo right above your ***?"
My face instantly filled with color, and I promptly placed a hand over it "N-n-no!"I stammered, trying to lie my way out admitting I had gotten a tribal tattoo, placed right on the tailbone during my last trip to Kazham. Phyree continued to laugh as I got dressed. Luckily my fishing clothes covered all my body so I didn't have to worry about pulling my pants up to cover it, or wearing a different shirt. Once I was dressed and Phyree got the laughter out of her system, I grabbed the dagger I cherished and an assortment of instruments then proceeded to place them in my pack. Looking at herself in the mirror to make sure her hair was perfect, Phyree ran a hand over her shirt to smooth out the creases from sitting. "Where's Kemog anyway?" she inquired in a rather nonchalant way.
"Don't really know. I just gave him vacation time an a holiday bonus since he's been crazy busy tugging everything of mine to the bazillion residential districts I stay in during our travels."
"Mogna hasn't asked for one, don't they have like, a relationship going?"
"Hell if I know, I don't wanna think about our moogles doing the naked tango while we're away, thanks. I'm guessing Kemog just missed his folks. Jamog just had a baby, so Kemog probably went to see his new baby nephew."
From there Phyree proceeded to coo and 'awe' for the next twenty minutes while I finished packing for the day.
"Chocobos or Teleport?" I asked, walking arm in arm with my lovely white mage counterpart.
"Uuuuhm. Let's Teleport, You've got Boco's whistle right?"
"Boco retired three month ago. She's only good for new eggs. I've got Tempest Wind now, and yeah, I've got the whistle for him."
"Really? Retired? That's awesome. She's been through alot of hell with you training her."
"Hey, got me to where I wanted to go a hell of a lot faster than those rental bastards can. You're gonna use Bastok Fried Chocowing, right?"
"God no, that old geezer? I'm not even sure they could make a Choco-nugget out of the meat left on his bones, if there is any." I chuckled at her and huddled close to her body, partially for warmth, but the other part was because her teleport spells were nasty buggers due to their extremely short range. Phyree chanted something about the goddess Altana and how she needed to get to the Crag of Mea and suddenly my body was being taken away piece by piece. Small pieces at first, a finger, a toe, but then segments of arm and leg, until all that was left was a floating head and all went black until I was pieced back together again at the giant crystal that everyone knew to be the Mea way pointe.
"I'm always afraid you're going to ***** up your spell and my eyeballs are going to be in my ears or something, Phyree." Before she could respond I put the Chocobo Whistle to my lips and blew, the ear piercing noise echoing off the barren canyon walls of Tahrongi. Instantly the red flurry of feathers I called my Chocobo was sitting next to the platform, waiting to be mounted and guided to where I wanted to go.
"Mhaura then?"
Phyree nodded, blowing her whistle and getting on her rather sickly green looking Chocobo.













































II
Mhaura to Selbina


Mhaura, port town of the Windurst nation. Only way to get to the other towns quickly unless you can fly or teleport. It was here that many make their first trip to the Valkrum Dunes near Selbina to take the test and learn to balance two jobs at the same time. But that's getting sidetracked.
For a costal town Mhaura wasn't so bad. Two boats came and went from this dock. The first boat always went to Aht Urghan Whitegate, a nation across the vast ocean. The second, was the short ride that took you to Selbina, that was our boat.
"I got us two tickets. It's a two minute wait time, we got here just in the nick of things." Phyree said, handing our tickets to the Galka who acted as bouncer to those that tried to skip the 100 gil fee. A gentle breeze blew through the port, whispers of better days to come riding on it's ethereal lips.
"Phyree?"
"Yessum?"
"Thanks for this. Kulgan's been working us to the bone lately. We're all hyped up about getting the items from the big beastmen, but it's just so hectic lately. I seriously just got home a few hours ago from the Temple of K-whatever out in Yhoator...god that place needs to be paved and have a twenty story chocobo stable placed on it."
She just smiled and stared out into the rising sun.
"All Aboarrrrd to Selbina!" The Mithra who stood at the end of the pier hollered, and a group of people scrambled off the ship and instantly bent over into the ocean and revisited their lunch.
"...Amateurs." I huffed out and entered onto the ship, getting quite a few disgusted and mean looks on my way in.
"I remember a certain bard lurching over the ship several times in his early days." Phyree chuckled and hugged me.
"I did no such thing..." My face turned bright red out of embarrassment. It was true that it took me quite a while to earn my sea legs, and even longer to overcome my seasickness.
The ship stayed at Mhaura for another few minutes and waited for the last stragglers to board before it shoved off and hit the Quon Sea.
Ocean winds are always the best to carry off your worries of a busy life and stress; Something about them just soothes and cures whatever ails you.
Phyree hummed the national anthem for San d'Oria while sticking raw sardine meat on her hook and flinging it across the edge of the boat into the water.
"If you fish up a monster I'm not sleeping the *****. Beat it with your wuss stick." I teased, hooking my Sabaki Rig to my rod and following Phyree's cue.
"Then I'm not going to cure your gay ***." she stuck her tongue out.
"I can cure myself, kay thanks."
So, there we sat, the ***** and the *****, though the terms are to be taken into different consideration for Phyree, as she's just the literal definition of *****.
A few times Phyree's line got a nibble and she struggled with the brute of fishes until it broke her line and ran off with the bait, each time she cursed in some elvish tongue and resent the line into the dark waters.
Storm clouds formed ahead and the fish began to become more active, Phyree getting lucky and hauling up a whopper of a fish, and myself reeling in a couple dozen sardines to turn into paste later in the day. Lightning struck the ocean, it's brilliant purple blitz of light dancing across rough waters in some bizarre ritual.
Three hours the storm lasted, the waters churning the boat this way and that. Mix the rocking with the weak stomachs of the new sea-goers and you have the recipe for a massive vomit fest.
"Splish splash sploosh goes the cookies" Phyree sung as her wind crystal turned the violent wind near her into invisible daggers that sliced through fish flesh and bone.
"That's sick." Feeling a little green from the sound of revisited lunches I sat in the captains quarters where the steering column was.
The captain, while a very quiet man for as long as I knew him somehow had a sixth sense for when undesirable things were going to happen. So with the sudden fog he got very noisy and ushered Phyree and I onto the wet deck with a simple "Defend the ship, don't die." before tossing our bags out after us then bolting the door to prevent cowardice.
"Fawk" Phyree said, pointing the ghastly shape of another boat coming closer. "Pirates."
"Altana almighty, how the hell does that man know when he's gonna be bombarded with pirates or when that sea monk is gonna terrorize the ship...and...why the hell did he pick us? The Bard and the Healer, oh yes, let us sing and heal him to death Phyree!"

The pirate's old beat up ship was an older model of the vessel we stood on, ready to defend the young adventurers below. Phyree switched out of her flimsy cloth armor and slipped into a metal breastplate and cast a load of defensive spells on the pair of us. I myself shifted through my backpack to locate my battle gear which consisted of a purple vest, my 'muffin-esqe' hat, purple shorts, a pair of purple gloves, and the deep purple pointed shoes. In my hand I held the dagger known as the Hornetneedle, a remarkable dagger that seems to latently speed up my attack without me needing to cast a spell. Following Phyree's lead I began to strum on the lone harp I packed with.
"Knight's Minne? hello mister bard we're going to need some Ballad here!" Phyree whined when she realized I was increasing our defense two fold with my spell.
"Fuh-ine." I found the correct key to play in and began again on my harp.
"With Altana's grace the magic that flows through us begins to replace.
From the endless energy of those most hallowed
grant us this, the Mage's Ballad."

---this is the end of the chapter so far...i'll put the rest up when I write it

<b>Continuation of Chapter Two!</b>


The effect was felt instantly, the stamina that was used in my mediocre white magic began to replenish.
"Incoming!" Phyree warned, lurching backwards as the pirate ship slammed into the hull of our ferry.
"Fawk! Why oh why did they have to do that?"
My eyes narrowed into annoyed slits as I brought my voice to bear.
"You!" the shout caught the attention of a nearby Pirate Raider just as my voice pitched into an ear piercing screech.
"Requiem already? Sheesh..." Phyree cringed, covering her ears while I bombarded the assailant with waves of my eerie scream. While the raider was disoriented I lunged forward, dagger held backwards in my hand so the blade rested against the back of my arm. Before the enemy knew what was going on, the dagger slashed into his flesh.
"Those of unholy origin, Banishment awaits." My white mage counterpart's spell slammed into the raider, flinging him over the edge and into the ocean below. "Naeo, behind you!"
Too late, skeletal limbs closed in around my throat, draining my energy and cutting off my voice. Phyree came to the rescue, her speed quickened and the staff she held flew across the ship, the orb sitting atop the shaft shattering the skeletal skull, and causing me to slide across the slick floor. "You alright?"
I nodded while coughing. "Breathing is good, no?" Getting to my feet, I produced my harp again. "Stand away, I don't want you getting this song."
A simple melody stretched from the plucked strings, the effect was instantaneous. The bruises across my neck began to fade, leaving me feeling brand new. "Pfft, who needs cures" I stuck my tongue out at the white mage, put the harp back in it's placement against my hip and drew my dagger.
"It's about to get a little windy up here." Rushing forward the Hornet needle pulsated with a green aura. "Phyree, stay on this ship!" Reaching the railing on the side, I leapt up and over, my landing causing me to slide into a couple pirates. "Oh, why hello boys. Yo ho ho, and a bottle of...***** it." I thrust my dagger into the chest of the nearest Pirate and a heavy wind erupted from the dagger, causing a Cyclone to brew on the ship.
"You expected me to stay? What am I, a *****?" Her staff once again came flying across the ships, slamming into the same pirate that my dagger had sunk into. The combined powers of light and wind caused what was commonly known as a skill chain. (A combination of specialized weapon attacks that have a desirable effect.) "And do you dare answer that question, spoon." she quickly added, catching her staff and bombarding more pirates with Banish.
My landing back onto the ferry was slightly more graceful. "Let's say we get em the hell out of here."
"Isn't that what we've been trying to do?!"
"Maybe. They're Pirates, maybe I just wanted to be abducted and join the ranks as a concubine."
"They're girls onry, mister."
"Awe, fine, Harem."
"Girls again."
"Fuh-ine. Let's kill the lot of em. I sleep, you unleash Holy hell on the lot of em."
"Gotchya."
Sheathing my dagger and grabbing my harp, a somber song stretched into the ranks of the enemy. "Lullaby and goodnight, goto sleep little bastards. I can't promise we wont hurt you, but you'll never feel a thing."
"That's demented..."
"Hey, I don't write the stuff. It's pre-written, I just memorize chords."
"It's still sick."
Phyree's white magic was brought to offensive use again, lights of energy falling from the heavens and obliterating the remaining pirates.
"That was too easy. We feared these why?"
"Cause normally we get anally molested by them when they bring the big boss out to play?"
"Oh yeah..wonder where old Blue Beard is."
"Selbina Ho!" The captain announced as the port town came across the horizon, and the ship that attacked us sank into the depths. "Good show you two. Though to much flair and show boating from the guy."
"Hey...bite me, sea monkey."

Solid land was never such a beauty, but alas, there is nothing solid about the Valkurm Dunes outside of Selbina. The town however, is partially solid, with it's sidewalks and whatnot.
"Why did I agree to go fishing with you?"
"Cause you love me."
"You still believe that lie, eh?"
Before Phyree could answer, I was off to the Emperor's Domain, a shoddy tavern with below-par alcohol. The interior only made the outside look like it was a palace. Run down, moldy, and that's only the people that inhabited the building. "Naeo, ye scurvy sea dog! I haven't seen ye in forever!" The barkeep shouted his greeting.
"Windurst has kept me busy as always Greshen. Anything new in the dunes?"
"Yar, just the usual. Your kind always gets eaten and requires poor Kerai to rush out and revive before their spirit goes to the goddess."
I chuckled, partially at the truth, and then other half at Kerai, still the local raise ho.
"She still charging an arm and a leg for the raise?"
He nodded, going back to cleaning the disgusting looking glass he held. "She upped it to include the team leader's first born child."
"Those poor kids. Anything safe to drink and or eat here? It looks like you've seen one to many goblin invasions."
"Unless ye want beer nuts and an ale, I got nothing for ye."
"I'll pass. Thanks for the info, Greshen."
He simply smiled a toothless grin and went back to his glass as I left.
"You actually went in there?" Phyree's face was a mixture of shock and disgust as I exited the pub. "I wouldn't ask to use the bathroom in there if it was the last on Vana'diel."
"Rumors. Always a beauty."
She shook her head. "I don't wish to know."
The sun beat down on the white sand, reflecting light and enhancing heat as we walked out of the town into the dunes. "Hell, on a physical level." Phyree commented, quickly changing into random articles of clothing to hide her healing nature. "I always hate waltzing through here. It's always, Cure him, Raise her, Beat up that ghost attacking me!"
"How many times did we beg for assistance when we came waltzing in here like we were some big badass?"
"We? unless your mog is in your pocket, I remember you being the one winning the award "Most Deaths" Naeo."
I lowered my eyes. It was true, Death seemed to sit on my shoulder and write "Attack Him" on my forehead. "We made me feel better."
"Oh well. So where to now? I've got all day clear unless our leader summons us for a sudden run with death."
"I was going to craft a bit when I eventually woke up, but it can wait." The two of us walked hand in hand across the sand. Goblins that would normally attack us recognized our faces and fled off, knowing it would be a losing battle. "What is there to do lately?"
"Hah. How abo-o-o-ut..."She placed her index finger against her forehead. "We could go hit up Jeuno."
"Nah, It's rush hour, it's gonna be hellish to get there."
"Well poo, you're no fun!"
Our plans were quickly put to rest when all hell broke loose at the beach near us. Ten Goblins were rushing after an Elvaan in brass armor. "Help!"
"I've got it." Running forward as fast as my legs could carry me, my harp was in my hand and the song known as Horde's Lullaby was being played, the Goblins slowly falling onto the ground out cold.
"Thank you" The Elvaan panted, rushing towards Selbina.
"Let's head to Yhoator, get a picnic in by the waterfall." Phyree offered, as we rested by the outskirts of Valkurm, where it turned green and became the area known as La Theine Plateau.
"Mmk."
Phyree began to chant again as she readied her Teleport Spell.
"Guys, get to Jeuno. The nation's leaders have summoned the Hotuken Knights." The deep commanding voice of Kulganflame spoke out of the linkpearl that was pierced into my ear.
"Be right there."
"Never a dull moment." Phyree commented, using her knowledge in Black Magic to warp herself.
Using the ring on my finger, I activated the magic, it's embued ability to suck me into a void that spit me out into the busy streets of Port Jeuno.



Edited, Jan 31st 2008 11:05am by Naeo

Edited, Jan 31st 2008 11:06am by Naeo

Nice. I wanna read more!

<_< Sorry, I don't post on alla very often. (#1 reason being that most people on here are @$$holes if you do something wrong.)