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Chapter 3 New Writing

Morning rises as Iris sits up in her bed and peers out of the window. The small village starting to come alive with its townspeople opening street markets, feeding farm animals and placing fresh bread out to cool on shelves. She gets out of her bed, grabs her cloth suit, dresses, pulls her long silver hair into a ponytail and places a hat on her head.

"The search for other members begins today. I must gather more people to defend my village."

Iris leaves the room closing the door behind her, walks down the long stairs towards the door and sees Mr. Pylas following a younger woman around town, flirty as always, sighs and enters the market. An elder woman slowly walks up to Iris and lightly pulls on her sleeve, whom glances towards her confused.

"I can sense a grave danger on your journey young lady. The path you're going down will throw you into deep despair. Beware of holding secrets that will cause great harm to your team."

She then looks away from Iris and walks away, leaving her in awe.

"Holding secrets? I wonder what she means by that. It looks like my path is going to be a little more dangerous than I had intended."

Iris feels a hand glide across her hips sending chills down her back.

"Ah, Mr. Pylas!""I wouldn't take too much into her babble. She's gone almost completely insane without her youth tending to her daily.""So she isn't the village fortune teller?"

Mr. Pylas looks at Iris confused.

"Not too many villages tend to have them. Reason being not all fortunes were right or too damaging to the listener. She felt she would only lose one child during battle last red moon and lost three. Thus leaving her alone and insane."

Iris glances towards the teller and sighs.

"Is there anyone left to help the woman?""No. She refuses the help offered as well. Foretelling her own death and now waiting for it. But you have a quest to prepare for right young one?"

Iris peers at the sun setting at noon.

"Yes, I am to meet up with Selene. I better be on my way. I'm supposed to meet her at the training hall.""You remember where it's at, right?""Y-yes? Why do you ask?""Just asking. Be careful on your journey lass."

Mr. Pylas walks away from Iris and follows another younger woman. Iris traces along the bottom of her hat with her fingers and sighs.

"What is going on today?"

Iris looks into the red and blue hazed sky and spots a star shining brightly. She laces her fingers together, bows her head slightly, and places her hand in front of her chest.

"Our sacred star is still with me. As long as it shines brightly, I'm sure things will be ok. For now I must meet lady Selene."

Iris glances around the village traveling along side of the market. Upon passing the refreshing smell of freshly baked bread, Iris, unexpectedly walks into the bakery following it's butter smell.

"Welcome young lady."

Iris regains her focus and looks at the elderly baker woman, whom walks onto the floor slowly brushing her long gray hair behind her ears.

"What can I do for you?""Oh, I'm sorry. The smell of your bakery actually caught my attention." "It usually does for new comers. Here, I hear you're the young Mage leaving to protect her village soon. Take this for your group."

The elderly baker walks behind the counter and pulls out a bag filled with baked goods and gives it to Iris.

"I couldn't take these ma'am?""I insist, young warriors need their strength.""I thank you ma'am. Take this as a token of my appreciation."

Iris opens a small coin pouch, pulls out a few golden coins and places them in the baker's hand. She then bows and leaves the bakery. The baker looks in her hand at the golden coins.

"T-these are market high coins!? Where did such a young lass get these?!"

Unable to hold herself from the smell of the bread, Iris pulls out a small ration and eats it along the way to training hall where she sees Selene focusing on hand to hand combat with a trainer. After Selene notices Iris watching her training she bows to the trainer who bows back and leaves.

"Glad to see you could make it Iris. How did things go at the hotel?"

"Went fairly well, I wasn't bothered at all." "Pylas must have been at the saloon again bothering younger women." "In either case, shall we search for our additional members?" "Yeah, I've got classes selected but who will fill those are who I'm worried about.""Worried about? Why so?""Well, building a team it's good to know their skills, strengths, weaknesses and formation for the team. Since you are strictly a defensive Mage, you have to be placed behind everyone in a four point star or in the center with two people diagonally behind you and one in front. Finding a lancer means he would either be in front of everyone, thus giving him a defensive edge. My class, Rogues, mages, and archers can be generally anywhere, just as long as we can see a target. Lastly we have the berserker, it's generally best to have them outside the formation. They usually don't like to be ordered so out the group is allowing them free range as long as the rogue and mage spot the enemy for them."

Iris sighs placing her hand on her forehead.

"Well I understand that part now, but what formation should we keep?""Generally a four person formation is good to have. I think what we have now is a good start. Defense is a good beginner, even if your a defensive Mage, the spells you use will help is with surrounding attacks.""What about the other two members?" "Well that's where it gets tricky. I'm good for close combat. We'd need another close combat like a swordsman or lancer and a ranged like an archer or another mage with offensive spells." "Still looking for another member?"

Iris and Selene look at the entrance of the training hall. A young woman with long blonde hair, brown glistening eyes and a cheerful smile, walks towards them with her bow at her side.

"I heard you were looking for members from the local perv.""Pylas...""Eh? You know the ol' timer too?""I'm not sure who wouldn't. Even the women in other towns know of him." "That much of a perv hmm...that's kinda sad.""Uh...aside of talking about Mr. Pylas. You said you were interested in joining us?" "You must be Iris, I can see why Pylas insisted on you staying a few more nights."

Iris flushes bright red and crosses her hands in front of her chest.

"He-he didn't say anything bad did he?""No, just he saw a busty woman looking for a squad at the training hall. He looked kinda sad. Like there was something he wanted to do but wasn't able to."

Iris feels a tingle in her spine forcing her to shiver.

"L-let's not talk about him. I'll explain the situation to you.""Alright."

Iris takes a deep breath.

"Long story short, my village is underway of an attack. A ruthless berserker is-"

Iris loses her strength, collapses to the floor, and pants in a quick pace. She quickly looks up, runs outside and looks into the sky.

"N-no! My village star is gone! What could have caused the star to disappear?!" "Iris! What's the matter?" "My...my village star...""Village star?""It is a star that leads one back to their village and tells the status of it.""It's...it's gone...""That would mean that her village is-""Destroyed."

Tears begin flowing down Iris's face.

"I...no longer have a place to call home. What am I to do now?" "I don't believe that it's gone. When was the village to be attacked?""It wasn't until a week or so. Our hunters kept an eye on their positions, but they shouldn't have a mean to travel that fast. Our sources showed they were on foot and had days to get to us. And getting to the village would mean they would need to cross the river leading to our village. At that river there is a hunter's camp where they sit for patrol. If they fail then there is another wall behind it that our mages sit on and defend. Lastly the wall of warriors would surround the main gate. Traps are in the field with the warriors so no one advances unless they pass the traps. An unbreakable defense.""That gives all the more reason to believe the village is-""That's only if the village had it's warriors.""What happened to it's warriors?""My mission, was to stop the invasion before hand. We took a group of our finest warriors and we were still no match for them. The berserker had monstrous strength which was enough to break my shield without trying. The group Mage couldn't even break his defense. The warriors didn't have the strength to push him back. The hunters were able to damage him but it was no effect. He tore the arrows out of him and kept attacking." "Wasn't there an emergency team?""Yes, but not as advanced in their training. Only enough to be a small threat. I-I need to return to my village. I refuse to believe that it's gone.""At least form a team so you'll have some sort of backup.""That won't be needed if there is nothing left-""There can always be looters. And they're bound to be there looking for any kind of goods or survivors.""What about the royalty? Were they able to escape?""I-I dont know."

Iris turns away from the group letting the tears drop from her face. Selene walks up to her and places her hand on her back. Iris turns to Selene and completely breaks down hugging her.

"I know it's a late question, but who shall we know you as archer?""Angela. I haven't a home town that I know of.""Will you accompany me to check on Iris's village?""There's no way I can say no to a quest. When do we depart?""After we get another member in our group. We just need-""Well then let's go."

Selene and Angela look towards the training deck as a lancer tosses his lance into a training target and lowers his shield. He walks towards Selene and places the shield in front of his chest and bows.

"I'm Elek of Sabas. I'm a high defense guard looking for action." "A defensive guard? Won't you need permission to leave?""I'll get that as soon as I leave here to meet you guys when we depart. I know of the situation and would like to join.""Listening to a debriefing while looking to be training, you'd be skilled as a spy.""Your mouth archer, shut it or I'll assist you in it."

Angela takes a step back in shock and turns away from Elek.

"So serious lancer, hopefully you won't be like this on our quest.""Hmm, as long as your arrows hit our target we'd have less to worry about."

Angela turns towards Elek glaring at him. She pulls out her bow, looking at him, draws an arrow and launches it towards the training dummy. The arrow soars through air and nails it in the neck. She draws three more arrows and launches it without looking at the dummies. All three shots land in the chest of the dummies.

"Even without looking lancer, I always hit my targets. You'd best keep your wits to yourself. I already have knowledge of defeating lancers, close or far ranged."

Angela walks towards the training dummies, snatches her arrows out and leaves the training hall.

"I like her already. You have a fine pick of members." "I guess so. Hey Iris, we're...Iris."

Selene looks Iris in the face. Her eyes flash golden then return to its normal color.

"It...it can't be...""What is it Iris?"

Iris glances at her fellow comrads, unaware she looks terrified, and tries to gather words to explain. She draws a blank and sighs.

"I'm sorry for bugging you all. I shall return to check on my village.""Wouldn't it be better to go with a group rather than by yourself?"It doesn't matter anymore. The village has been completely destroyed. I am its lone surviver.""So running to your death seems to be a better method rather than attempting to keep your village's race alive?""No, but gathering other people to search for survivers is-""None of that matters now. We have a group ready to depart and help you in your time of need."

Iris looks down, hands clutched tightly, as she searches for a reasonable answer. Unable to see a fix to her solution, she nods.

"I understand, I will accept your company while I return to my village. Thank you all.""Alright, now that that's set, I'm off to get permission to leave.""Now that we've settled this, let's meet up here tomorrow here.""Alright, see you guys then."