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Chapter Two
Luna's Lament

We had been travelling for six days – Luna, Leviar and I – and we were looking for a place to rest in a town called Terra Libra. This town so far consisted of eight bars, three restaurants, two convenient stores, and an exotic pet store. It was a bit dreary here but I liked it, for it was rather quaint and home-like. It had the feeling of welcome and a warming of the senses and heart. Almost too welcoming, too comfortable, and I for once didn't care. I felt like nothing could hurt me as long as I had Luna and Leviar with me, and they both felt the same. We all stopped at a building labeled with a sign missing a few letter but the outlines made out the words "Terra Libra Four Star Inn" and that made all of us laugh at the quality of this hotel. One visible window had been broken in and the door was missing a knob, the teller at the front desk looked rather sad and lonely, and there was this eerie smell in the air that reminded me of death. Leviar scoffed at this wretched scent and the teller seemed to get more depressive. Luna quickly apologized for his rudeness and asked the man for a room. He gladly handed her the key and looked at me as though he had a room ready for me already. This concerned me greatly but I took the room key and let him show me to my room, which was directly adjacent to Luna's room and across the hall from Leviar who had been give the room with the strongest area of the smell. Needless to say, he wasn't happy and he got sick from this stench and ended up bunking with me that night. In the dead of night, Leviar looked up at me from the floor he was laying on and asked me a series of small tedious questions, such as our destination, why we are headed there, how are we going to make it there with the little money we had and why particularly we left with so little money in the first place. "We will figure it out as we go Leviar," I said trying to get some rest, "and that is all we can do for now." With a slight snort he quickly scoffed my answer and said "That's all we have ever done and yet we still haven't gotten anywhere." His statement shook me as I looked back at him and said, "And when has it ever been about getting anywhere. We have done this for years now and have only done this to have fun and get by. Why in the world are you this rather cynical person as of late my friend?" Without even an attempt at a retort he rolled onto his side and ignored my question.
A simple sound can disturb sleep, yet I heard something more than a small thump or a rattle of the windows. I hurt a rather complex system of ropes and boards cracking, then a loud cry from a familiar voice. The floor had seemingly come alive in an attempt to devour Leviar, or so I thought until I saw the teller walk in with this vacant smile that faded upon seeing who had been trapped. "NO! That trap was meant for the other man. A large bounty has been place on his head and I am strapped for cash these days," the teller grabbed a board that had come loose from his hodgepodge contraption and swung it wildly at my skull, "now come with quietly you damned Serenian!" I quickly dodged and grabbed the blunt plank, but the teller's grip was firm enough to be that of a great warrior. "Do you really think that I would be some helpless old man running a hotel in a town like this? I used to be a soldier or your goddamned king Serenian." With a glimpse at the old man's face I quickly recognized who I was fighting, or at least who he used to be. "Sir Jonathan? Is that possibly you?" I asked him as I knocked away the plank from my skull. "Never a dull one, eh dart?" He looked rather ragged in his old age but I knew he could still use a blade well enough. "Why would you, a friend, try and pull a bounty on me?" I asked solemnly. "Money is a closer friend in trying times like this Dart." And with a quick lunge he had a sword in my shoulder, inches away from my heart. A cold sensation billowed through my body, not as though death touched me, rather as though it started to snow. "I will break you!" an ominous voice near the door said in a clearly demented female tone. "Let my Dart go you selfish old knight" said a figure that seemed feminine in shape but was made almost entirely out of ice with hair formed of packed snow as it said, "I am Luna, and I will crush you if you don't let him go." I quickly took aim at the now distracted Sir Jonathan and swung my fist toward his knee. It hit, and unbelievable pain engulfed my body as my movements caused the sword to inch farther in, nearing my heart even more. "Blizzard of Pain" the last words I heard as Luna cast a spell to kill Sir Jonathan, yet it missed its target instead hitting me in the forehead. "Dangerous to be throwing spells around like that isn't it little miss elemental mage. I bet Dartician didn't even know you were a monster" scoffed Jonathan as he painfully removed his blade from my shoulder, leaving me to bleed. "How dare you call the future queen a monster!" come a shout from Leviar who had just broken free of the trap set for him. "Do you truly realize who you just stabbed? That is the only remaining son of the King Hope James Utopia. The king of the Serenian Tidelands," screamed Leviar, "and further more you insulted his girlfriend and future wife!" Luna in a light inquiring tone asks "How did you know we were together?" Leviar smirks and says "It's not complex math. Figuring out you two were together could have been deciphered by a child."
Sir Jonathan, angered by the banter lunges at Leviar to no avail. Leviar, as agile as he is, dodges the wild stab and knocks the sword out of his hand with one palm thrust to the hilt of it. With one last punch it was over. Leviar, the master of fisticuffs had just punched Sir Jonathan square in the jaw and knocked him to the ground. Jonathan was not pleased but his old body could not take the pain and he stayed down. Leviar did not look the least bit pleased with what he just did but Jonathan was coming after my life. "This blade, it can't be. Where did you get one of these Sir Jonathan?" remarked Leviar after examining the blade of the sword. "What? Curious as to how I obtained a Basilisk Fang? It's rather simple boy, when I dropped out of the knight's council and left my ninety-nine brethren I needed to find a way to kill such a powerful enemy as Dartician over there." Amazed by the statement, Leviar scoffed back at him, "What do you mean 'such a powerful enemy as Dartician' and how do you figure he is?" Luna, who was standing in the doorway still, walked to Leviar and told him to calm down and forget it. "But I would still like to know what you meant Sir Jonathan." I said as I got up from where I was lying down, bleeding. "Sit back down and let me heal that up Dartician." She walked over and held her hand over my shoulder and as a flash of light struck my shoulder the wound was gone. "Luna? I didn't know you could use that kind of magic." Leviar quickly turned the conversation back to the attention of Sir Jonathan, the more pressing matter. "What to do with this traitorous insect? I'm sure this bounty came from the underground, or was it the Demon's Ride," his expression changed to a look of fearful realization, "could it have been the new barbarians?" In shock, I stumbled to stand and Luna helped me to my feet. "Tell me Sir Jonathan, was it the barbarians?" He shook his head in a disapproving manner leaving us relieved for a short period of time but then shattered it by uttering a single, spirit shattering line. "You are all trivial fools for needing to ask." This last statement of his was followed by the faint snapping of his fingers a spark, faint and small, lit behind us causing a large explosion that left a crater in the ground below with the wall being completely decimated. The blast launched each of us forward and we flew in different directions. I landed in an area near the restroom, Leviar toward the front door, and Luna landed in the worst possible. She landed directly in the arms of a man that we never noticed entered the room. The newest king of the barbarians, his name being Alabaster Maulfright. He was smarter than all other barbarians and he used that intelligence to his advantage. He knew how to use his might in a way that was actually effective, shockingly. Alabaster had a reputation for torturing his captives and I absolutely could not have him taking Luna away from me. I got stupid in the presence of smart mass of muscle and bull rushed him like one of his own kind… anything to protect Luna was the first and foremost thought in my mind and I let it consume me. I rushed him in an attempt to hit him low and take him down, and he noticed. A tactic that usually worked had backfired severely when the giant oaf swung his leg and knocked me back a few feet with my head hitting the floor first. Instantly I was unconscious and he was out the door with Luna. He actually won, a barbarian had beaten me and took Luna. I had failed to protect her.
Leviar awoke in a rage to see Luna had been taken by such an uprising oaf like Alabaster. His eyes furious with the thought of dismembering me for letting Luna fall into the hands of the barbarian hoards, Leviar also had a tendency to look at the worst possible situation and assumed the worst for Luna. He started ranting to himself, "What if they hurt her, or kill her, or eat her, or… NO! I mustn't think that way about those tremendous morons," his thoughts trailed off into forbidden territory, "they better no have their way with her!" A cackle from an old man's voice rumbled through the doorway stopping Leviar midstream and drawing his attention. "You always did jump to conclusions didn't you young one of the Levi family." This irritated Leviar, "AND WHO ARE YOU TO…" he paused mid-sentence and turned to the old man to see a familiar face, bearded and wrinkled, "it has been too long old friend." This elderly man had on a robe that hooded the top of his head as it came down to a point right above his nose. His mustache and beard a shade of grey almost stone grey but not quite there yet. "You should quit getting angry about this and act. We need to get Dartician to a safe place so he can rest and recover." This perturbed Leviar. "Why should we give a damn about this monumental failure?" The old man glared at Leviar in a way that would curdle the blood of even the strongest men. "HE IS YOUR FRIEND AND BELONGS TO THE FAMILY THAT TOOK THE BURDEN YOUR FATHER RAN AWAY FROM YOU UNGRATEFUL, SELFISH LITTLE BRAT!" Leviar took this to heart and calmed down, only to realize that he had been an idiot to be in a place that was inconvenient in the situation of a spell being shot off. "I apologize old man, my actions were a bit brash towards Dart and I need to calm myself." As he says this he moves himself to my body, lying on the ground, and contemplates his decision of how to move me to a safe place after my head hit the floor as hard as it had. The old man calmed his voice to give a suggestion, "We could use a spell to move his body safely to my house in Dronwroath where he will be safe," he suggested carefully knowing the history of that town. Dronwroath was a town of peaceful people and quiet traverse. This quaint little town was almost a perfect place to live, save one extreme detail. This town is incredibly easy to find on a map and well known by several malevolent forces including the very barbarians that just abducted Luna. But this presented an opportunity for us to get Luna back from the lumbering oafs that took her from us. "I agree with your idea. We teleport Dart to Dronwroath."
Upon arrival in Dronwroath Leviar personally carried my body into the building we arrived at and set me on a stone and hay bed. Leviar started pacing the room anxiously mumbling to himself alternately complaints about me and worries towards Luna's safety. Once in a while he would trip over himself and tried to play it off to people he hadn't realized weren't actually there. He stopped once with a look of content for a moment, which could have been two thoughts in Leviar's head, one being how exactly he would yell at me when I awoke, or precisely how he was going to blame me for Luna being abducted. "You may wear a hole in my floor Leviar, so please stop that infernal pacing of yours." the old man said as he walked in the room with a tray holding an antique tea set. "Sorry old friend, I am just a little concerned about Luna. I hate to admit it but this Utopian brute I call my best friend has done more to protect Luna than I have," Leviar sighed as he sat in an old style rocking chair near the bed he had me laying on. An interesting chair might I add, for it seemed to have markings of the very barbarian tribe that we have problems with. He took his tea and sat back sipping. "We need a plan of attack. There has to be a way for us to take on such a, dare I say it, perfect barbarian. He has several tactical advantages. He has numerous warriors waiting to crush us like insects and it seems they are all more than willing. His intelligence level is off the charts for his kind. And to boot he has the only hostage over all of Xanderclese to have the most important role of all thanks to the stupidity of two body guards that had no right being as such." The old man walked over and put his hand on Leviar's shoulder to stop him mid rant. "Calm your mind young one, and drink your tea." As he sat back to drink his tea Leviar looked over to my bed to see something amazing. I woke up this early…

Description

Chapter Two
Luna's Lament

We had been travelling for six days – Luna, Leviar and I – and we were looking for a place to rest in a town called Terra Libra. This town so far consisted of eight bars, three restaurants, two convenient stores, and an exotic pet store. It was a bit dreary here but I liked it, for it was rather quaint and home-like. It had the feeling of welcome and a warming of the senses and heart. Almost too welcoming, too comfortable, and I for once didn't care. I felt like nothing could hurt me as long as I had Luna and Leviar with me, and they both felt the same. We all stopped at a building labeled with a sign missing a few letter but the outlines made out the words "Terra Libra Four Star Inn" and that made all of us laugh at the quality of this hotel. One visible window had been broken in and the door was missing a knob, the teller at the front desk looked rather sad and lonely, and there was this eerie smell in the air that reminded me of death. Leviar scoffed at this wretched scent and the teller seemed to get more depressive. Luna quickly apologized for his rudeness and asked the man for a room. He gladly handed her the key and looked at me as though he had a room ready for me already. This concerned me greatly but I took the room key and let him show me to my room, which was directly adjacent to Luna's room and across the hall from Leviar who had been give the room with the strongest area of the smell. Needless to say, he wasn't happy and he got sick from this stench and ended up bunking with me that night. In the dead of night, Leviar looked up at me from the floor he was laying on and asked me a series of small tedious questions, such as our destination, why we are headed there, how are we going to make it there with the little money we had and why particularly we left with so little money in the first place. "We will figure it out as we go Leviar," I said trying to get some rest, "and that is all we can do for now." With a slight snort he quickly scoffed my answer and said "That's all we have ever done and yet we still haven't gotten anywhere." His statement shook me as I looked back at him and said, "And when has it ever been about getting anywhere. We have done this for years now and have only done this to have fun and get by. Why in the world are you this rather cynical person as of late my friend?" Without even an attempt at a retort he rolled onto his side and ignored my question.
A simple sound can disturb sleep, yet I heard something more than a small thump or a rattle of the windows. I hurt a rather complex system of ropes and boards cracking, then a loud cry from a familiar voice. The floor had seemingly come alive in an attempt to devour Leviar, or so I thought until I saw the teller walk in with this vacant smile that faded upon seeing who had been trapped. "NO! That trap was meant for the other man. A large bounty has been place on his head and I am strapped for cash these days," the teller grabbed a board that had come loose from his hodgepodge contraption and swung it wildly at my skull, "now come with quietly you damned Serenian!" I quickly dodged and grabbed the blunt plank, but the teller's grip was firm enough to be that of a great warrior. "Do you really think that I would be some helpless old man running a hotel in a town like this? I used to be a soldier or your goddamned king Serenian." With a glimpse at the old man's face I quickly recognized who I was fighting, or at least who he used to be. "Sir Jonathan? Is that possibly you?" I asked him as I knocked away the plank from my skull. "Never a dull one, eh dart?" He looked rather ragged in his old age but I knew he could still use a blade well enough. "Why would you, a friend, try and pull a bounty on me?" I asked solemnly. "Money is a closer friend in trying times like this Dart." And with a quick lunge he had a sword in my shoulder, inches away from my heart. A cold sensation billowed through my body, not as though death touched me, rather as though it started to snow. "I will break you!" an ominous voice near the door said in a clearly demented female tone. "Let my Dart go you selfish old knight" said a figure that seemed feminine in shape but was made almost entirely out of ice with hair formed of packed snow as it said, "I am Luna, and I will crush you if you don't let him go." I quickly took aim at the now distracted Sir Jonathan and swung my fist toward his knee. It hit, and unbelievable pain engulfed my body as my movements caused the sword to inch farther in, nearing my heart even more. "Blizzard of Pain" the last words I heard as Luna cast a spell to kill Sir Jonathan, yet it missed its target instead hitting me in the forehead. "Dangerous to be throwing spells around like that isn't it little miss elemental mage. I bet Dartician didn't even know you were a monster" scoffed Jonathan as he painfully removed his blade from my shoulder, leaving me to bleed. "How dare you call the future queen a monster!" come a shout from Leviar who had just broken free of the trap set for him. "Do you truly realize who you just stabbed? That is the only remaining son of the King Hope James Utopia. The king of the Serenian Tidelands," screamed Leviar, "and further more you insulted his girlfriend and future wife!" Luna in a light inquiring tone asks "How did you know we were together?" Leviar smirks and says "It's not complex math. Figuring out you two were together could have been deciphered by a child."
Sir Jonathan, angered by the banter lunges at Leviar to no avail. Leviar, as agile as he is, dodges the wild stab and knocks the sword out of his hand with one palm thrust to the hilt of it. With one last punch it was over. Leviar, the master of fisticuffs had just punched Sir Jonathan square in the jaw and knocked him to the ground. Jonathan was not pleased but his old body could not take the pain and he stayed down. Leviar did not look the least bit pleased with what he just did but Jonathan was coming after my life. "This blade, it can't be. Where did you get one of these Sir Jonathan?" remarked Leviar after examining the blade of the sword. "What? Curious as to how I obtained a Basilisk Fang? It's rather simple boy, when I dropped out of the knight's council and left my ninety-nine brethren I needed to find a way to kill such a powerful enemy as Dartician over there." Amazed by the statement, Leviar scoffed back at him, "What do you mean 'such a powerful enemy as Dartician' and how do you figure he is?" Luna, who was standing in the doorway still, walked to Leviar and told him to calm down and forget it. "But I would still like to know what you meant Sir Jonathan." I said as I got up from where I was lying down, bleeding. "Sit back down and let me heal that up Dartician." She walked over and held her hand over my shoulder and as a flash of light struck my shoulder the wound was gone. "Luna? I didn't know you could use that kind of magic." Leviar quickly turned the conversation back to the attention of Sir Jonathan, the more pressing matter. "What to do with this traitorous insect? I'm sure this bounty came from the underground, or was it the Demon's Ride," his expression changed to a look of fearful realization, "could it have been the new barbarians?" In shock, I stumbled to stand and Luna helped me to my feet. "Tell me Sir Jonathan, was it the barbarians?" He shook his head in a disapproving manner leaving us relieved for a short period of time but then shattered it by uttering a single, spirit shattering line. "You are all trivial fools for needing to ask." This last statement of his was followed by the faint snapping of his fingers a spark, faint and small, lit behind us causing a large explosion that left a crater in the ground below with the wall being completely decimated. The blast launched each of us forward and we flew in different directions. I landed in an area near the restroom, Leviar toward the front door, and Luna landed in the worst possible. She landed directly in the arms of a man that we never noticed entered the room. The newest king of the barbarians, his name being Alabaster Maulfright. He was smarter than all other barbarians and he used that intelligence to his advantage. He knew how to use his might in a way that was actually effective, shockingly. Alabaster had a reputation for torturing his captives and I absolutely could not have him taking Luna away from me. I got stupid in the presence of smart mass of muscle and bull rushed him like one of his own kind… anything to protect Luna was the first and foremost thought in my mind and I let it consume me. I rushed him in an attempt to hit him low and take him down, and he noticed. A tactic that usually worked had backfired severely when the giant oaf swung his leg and knocked me back a few feet with my head hitting the floor first. Instantly I was unconscious and he was out the door with Luna. He actually won, a barbarian had beaten me and took Luna. I had failed to protect her.
Leviar awoke in a rage to see Luna had been taken by such an uprising oaf like Alabaster. His eyes furious with the thought of dismembering me for letting Luna fall into the hands of the barbarian hoards, Leviar also had a tendency to look at the worst possible situation and assumed the worst for Luna. He started ranting to himself, "What if they hurt her, or kill her, or eat her, or… NO! I mustn't think that way about those tremendous morons," his thoughts trailed off into forbidden territory, "they better no have their way with her!" A cackle from an old man's voice rumbled through the doorway stopping Leviar midstream and drawing his attention. "You always did jump to conclusions didn't you young one of the Levi family." This irritated Leviar, "AND WHO ARE YOU TO…" he paused mid-sentence and turned to the old man to see a familiar face, bearded and wrinkled, "it has been too long old friend." This elderly man had on a robe that hooded the top of his head as it came down to a point right above his nose. His mustache and beard a shade of grey almost stone grey but not quite there yet. "You should quit getting angry about this and act. We need to get Dartician to a safe place so he can rest and recover." This perturbed Leviar. "Why should we give a damn about this monumental failure?" The old man glared at Leviar in a way that would curdle the blood of even the strongest men. "HE IS YOUR FRIEND AND BELONGS TO THE FAMILY THAT TOOK THE BURDEN YOUR FATHER RAN AWAY FROM YOU UNGRATEFUL, SELFISH LITTLE BRAT!" Leviar took this to heart and calmed down, only to realize that he had been an idiot to be in a place that was inconvenient in the situation of a spell being shot off. "I apologize old man, my actions were a bit brash towards Dart and I need to calm myself." As he says this he moves himself to my body, lying on the ground, and contemplates his decision of how to move me to a safe place after my head hit the floor as hard as it had. The old man calmed his voice to give a suggestion, "We could use a spell to move his body safely to my house in Dronwroath where he will be safe," he suggested carefully knowing the history of that town. Dronwroath was a town of peaceful people and quiet traverse. This quaint little town was almost a perfect place to live, save one extreme detail. This town is incredibly easy to find on a map and well known by several malevolent forces including the very barbarians that just abducted Luna. But this presented an opportunity for us to get Luna back from the lumbering oafs that took her from us. "I agree with your idea. We teleport Dart to Dronwroath."
Upon arrival in Dronwroath Leviar personally carried my body into the building we arrived at and set me on a stone and hay bed. Leviar started pacing the room anxiously mumbling to himself alternately complaints about me and worries towards Luna's safety. Once in a while he would trip over himself and tried to play it off to people he hadn't realized weren't actually there. He stopped once with a look of content for a moment, which could have been two thoughts in Leviar's head, one being how exactly he would yell at me when I awoke, or precisely how he was going to blame me for Luna being abducted. "You may wear a hole in my floor Leviar, so please stop that infernal pacing of yours." the old man said as he walked in the room with a tray holding an antique tea set. "Sorry old friend, I am just a little concerned about Luna. I hate to admit it but this Utopian brute I call my best friend has done more to protect Luna than I have," Leviar sighed as he sat in an old style rocking chair near the bed he had me laying on. An interesting chair might I add, for it seemed to have markings of the very barbarian tribe that we have problems with. He took his tea and sat back sipping. "We need a plan of attack. There has to be a way for us to take on such a, dare I say it, perfect barbarian. He has several tactical advantages. He has numerous warriors waiting to crush us like insects and it seems they are all more than willing. His intelligence level is off the charts for his kind. And to boot he has the only hostage over all of Xanderclese to have the most important role of all thanks to the stupidity of two body guards that had no right being as such." The old man walked over and put his hand on Leviar's shoulder to stop him mid rant. "Calm your mind young one, and drink your tea." As he sat back to drink his tea Leviar looked over to my bed to see something amazing. I woke up this early…