Lost Memories (PG-16)

[Freddy Fazbear]

Rod grasped Kuro's arm, a warrior's handshake. "No more quarrels," the leader spoke. Well, at least the group should keep arguing to a minimum. Kuro felt accomplished.
The feeling did not last long. Link announced that a group of strangers were heading towards them. Kuro carefully analyzed the newcomers. There were four. Simple enough. Three were armed, the other was not. Two spears, and one sword. The spears were a problem. Those two that wielded them had a far greater range than most of the large group Kuro was a part of. These must be guards, Kuro thought. Only guards would carry spears. But then, Link also has a spear. Still, it was safe to assume this group were gaurds for the nearby village. Kuro heard Alianna, Rod, and Link arguing about what action to take. Link seemed to want to stall, while Alianna jumped into this headfirst. Rod's plan was quickly shot down, and he fell silent.
"Hey," the unarmed stranger asked. "Mind if I ask who you guys are?" His voice was friendly. It didn't quite match his appearance. Perhaps he could be trusted, but then, Kuro didn't even trust the people in his own group. How could he trust anybody from another group?
Alianna was the first to speak up. "Oh, we were just on our way back from our home town ahead," she said. "We went for a swim." There was a problem with this lie. None of the large group was wet. But, was that normal here? Kuro decided to go with it.
"Yes," he said. He knew the guards would ask for a name, so he decided to give one. "You can call me Nightfall. Yes, it's an unusual name. All my brothers and sisters have strange names, though." Kuro motioned to the group behind him. "We're all orphans. We just found each other one day, and became a family." Kuro looked at his now make-believe brothers and sisters. He hoped they would go along with the lie.

 

[MasterLink742]

Chapter 7
Stuck?

"HEY!" The leader of the group said. "Mind if I ask who you guys are?"

Link looked at him. He was… odd. His voice made him seem like you've known him forever, but his appearance said he could beat you down if he wanted.

"Oh. We were just on our way back to our home town ahead." Alianna said.
"We went for a swim."

"Yes," Kuro started. "You can call me Nightfall. Yes, it's an unusual name. All my brothers and sisters have strange names, though." Kuro motioned to the group behind him. "We're all orphans. We just found each other one day, and became a family." He looked back at the group.

Ah, so we are a family now… Alright, not a bad idea… Link thought to himself.

Link decided to stay quiet though, it'd be easier for him and probably in the best interest of the group.

It did strike him odd, though, that the leader had no weapons on his body. Or was that his weapon. Could he be a martial artist?
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"Well…. Nightfall, it is nice to meet you and your family." The man said. "My name is Basque. I am the captain of the guard in that town over there. Now which town are you from? I can escort you as far as Reole, but after that, I'm afraid you are on your own…" Basque finished. He wasn't too sure about the group. What kind of orphans carry weapons?

The rest of his group seemed uneasy too. They didn't like the fact that if they had to fight, then they would be outnumbered, and, possibly, out maneuvered.

 

[chef30]

(Ooc: Actually, we are slightly wet from falling into the ocean. PLus, we could have tried off.)

"Yes," Kuro started. "You can call me Nightfall. Yes, it's an unusual name. All my brothers and sisters have strange names, though." Kuro motioned to the group behind him. "We're all orphans. We just found each other one day, and became a family." He looked back at the group.

"And my name is Daybreak." Alianna thought, laughing on the inside.

"My name is Adrianna. You can call me Adrian." Alianna said.

"Well…. Nightfall, it is nice to meet you and your family." The man said. "My name is Basque. I am the captain of the guard in that town over there. Now which town are you from? I can escort you as far as Reole, but after that, I'm afraid you are on your own…" The man said.

"We are from the town up ahead." 'Adrian' replied.

The group looked uneasy. What would they be uneasy about? Oh, well maybe the fact that the orphans were carrying weapons.
Alianna decided to use her 'Magic Staff' as a walking stick. She hoped that they would ignore the glowing light blue orb on the end of it. Maybe they would think of it as a decoration.

 

[CyBeastSaber]

Standing alone on the beach, Rin gazed once more out onto the ocean that had brought her to this new land. Miharu and Sky had already left to join the main group and Rin was glad they had done so, even if their group needed a bit of management to say the least. Taking in the final breeze she would no longer feel after she leaves that beach side, Rin sighed loudly since there wasn't anyone there to see her. Her anxiety was still causing her to shiver inside, but she shook it off. The final image of the ocean running up and down the sandy beach became the last of that area she would see for a long time, and she wasn't even sure if she could even come back to this very place in the future.

"...Well... Time to get moving." Rin commented to herself and turned her back towards the ocean and walked in the direction of the wind that now seemed to guide her towards the others. Rin decided to dash in an attempt to clear the time difference between her position and the others, assuming if they were still walking.

Despite the small town up on the hill in the distance, it was quite farther than first assumed. After dashing for around 15 minutes, she wasn't too sure of the exact time without a clock or watch, but Rin returned to a walking pace to calm her breathing. The town wasn't too far in sight where she was and she saw a large group of people gathered in the distance who was approached by a smaller force coming from the town ahead.

"...Things do not look good if they haven't come up with a story yet..." Rin thought to herself before rushing off to join her group.

Reaching just before the other group had appeared, Rin silently took to the back of her group and waited as she tried to slow her breathing without making too much noise. Both groups exchanged some words before a few names were brought up. Everyone seemed calm but Rin could tell from a few of the uneasy looks of Basque's members that their thoughts surely didn't mean well of the group. Still, as long as Rin and her party wasn't attacked, then things seem much better than she first assumed. Rin was, however, troubled by Alianna's explanation of us being from... "the town up ahead". If we reach any town, especially the one they just came from, and they figure out that we aren't locals, then Basque would surely question our validity and even maybe branding us as decievers. From the looks of things... it was bound to become troublesome for them if they liked it or not.

 

[A Monocled Hawk]

"Ali-anna." The girl said.

"Oh, okay. Alianna, got it." Mike replied with a bit of a sheepish smile as Kuro began to speak, cutting Mike off from continuing his questioning of the group in a bit of a vain attempt to get to know some of them better. It was a bit of a long shot but since they were going to be traveling together the group might as well get comfortable with one another.

As Rod replied with a handshake to the other man, Link spoke up with some rather startling news. Mike looked up the road towards the small band heading towards them, assessing the group as they steadily walked closer. It looked like a group of three...maybe four people. From the distance between the two groups it was impossible to differentiate the details, but it looked to Mike like they had some sort of sticks - spears, maybe? - with them.

Just as the thought of getting into a fight entered his mind Rod spoke up, taking the role of leader with just a few simple words.

And, of course, the group disagreed or, to be specific, Alianna disagreed.

While Rod believed they should explain themselves and try to show the approaching group what kind of a problem they were, Alianna on the other hand thought they shouldn't, using the defense that the approaching group would think of them as crazy.

Link voiced his approval of Alianna's plan over Rod's, which Mike had to agree with. Even in a land claiming to boast the powers of magic, telling someone you fell from the sky, don't remember who you are, and are now on a journey to save the world...they would more or less be in jail by the end of the day.

As Mike stood quietly near the edge of the group he watched the scene unfold in silent anxiety. They had, almost unwillingly, followed Alianna's plan and were now lying to the Captain of the towns' Guard. While he had no idea what that title detailed, just by looking at the men behind Basque gave him a rough idea that he was someone with some pretty high authority. If they were found out...

Mike shook his head and ran a hand over his head, he shouldn't think about what would happen if their lie failed.

"You can call me Nightfall. Yes, it's an unusual name. All my brothers and sisters have strange names, though." Kuro, no, Nightfall for now, turned and looked at the group.

"...I can escort you as far as Reole, but after that, I'm afraid you are on your own…" The Captain of the Guard replied. While he looked like a generally nice guy just the doubtful looks he was giving them made Mike feel very nervous. The men behind Basque looked equally wary, and perhaps much more nervous than Mike did, but they had a good reason to be: they were heavily outnumbered. Even so, Mike took great comfort in the fact he was near the back of the group and, hopefully, unnoticed.

 

[MasterLink742]

Chapter 8
Conflict

"My name is Adrianna. You can call me Adrian." Alianna said. "We are from the town up ahead."

"I see," Basque started "Hmm… Let's get ba-"

"Captain!" One of the soldiers interrupted, "Look!"

The town in the distance, Reole, had started to show columns of smoke.
Basque's heart sank.

"No…" He whispered. "Men! You go ahead to the town, I'll be there shortly. Move out!"

Just like that, the soldiers were advancing towards the town, ready to defend it.

"I'm sure you know this, but we are on the border of Aestiva, and, naturally, we have to keep a look out for raids from those of Auttuno, and they seem to have been waiting for this kind of opening." Basque explained quickly. "If any of you can fight, now would be the time to ready up and follow after me."
Basque left quickly, running at a steady pace, hoping one of the… orphans would fight.

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"W-what?!" Link blurted out, when he heard about the attack.

Immediately, Link set out to follow Basque, but he quickly stopped himself.
"Let's go! Come on!" He tried to get some people to go with him.

"There's no way we can just let people get slaughtered like that, especially when we have a chance, and the ability to save them…. Right? I mean…"

What do I mean? No time to think about it.

He didn't want to doubt himself, not at a time like this. He ran off to follow Basque. Though, he wasn't sure if he was acting in the best of the group…

 

[MichaelaTheUchiha]

Miharu sighed as Link ran off behind Basque in order to help the people who were being attacked. Although it probably wouldn't be a good idea to choose a "side" now (who knows what side Basque was on), but she still condemned civilian killing.

"I shall follow him," she said out loud, before running after Link.

 

[IDoLikeMudkip]

Over the past few minutes, after calling him leader then not even taking a second look at his idea, Rod believed nothing had happened. Oh, of course the party approached and introduced themselves, and then there was the part where instead of maybe being truthful some of the party decided to go with an outright lie.

"Not all people are reasonable, huph!" thought Rod. "Your proving that yourself right now."

The comments were directed at Alianna who had decided to follow the plan that involved possibly immediately getting on the bad side of the townsfolk. The rest of the group just decided to play along. As stated nothing had happened. The only thing that Rod thought of as progress was they now knew the name of the captain of the guard, Basque. Then things began to happen.

"Captain! Look!" shouted on of the soldiers.

The captain wasn't the only one to look, Rod also followed the man's gaze. The town in the distance, apparently named Reole, had columns of smoke rising from it.

"So the war isn't an 'if' anymore." mumbled Rod.

Basque quickly explained the situation, asked for assistance and then quickly headed back the way he came. The "orphans" didn't take too long to respond, Link took off quickly following after Basque, and Miharu right behind him. Rod liked the way this was going, it would allow him a release for some of the frustration caused by the scene at the beach, and it would give him reason to test his new weapon, something he had be anxiously awaiting.

"Well, what are we all waiting for?" asked Rod as he began heading off. "The war isn't going to fight itself."

 

[SkyisUmbreon]

- After I had stated my reason for joining Rod's "group" I had pretty much zoned out, faintly noticing the arrival of Captain Basque and his men. I also heard the story they were fabricating, something about us being orphans with weird names, but the thing that eventually brought me back from my spacing out was when I saw smoke beginning to rise from some town over the hill. Soon, one of the soldiers noticed it and called for the captains attention. Eventually the whole troop was heading back to town, and the Captain was asking for assistance, which was understandable. I looked back at the small size of the town and saw why, and came to the conclusion that the town probably wouldn't survive without our help.
I shouldered my rifle and broke off at a sprint toward the town, not saying a word to the rest of the team, but just harboring a malicious grin on my face. I myself didn't even know why I held it, but for some reason the back of my head felt slightly cold and more sinister. The grip I retained on my rifle tightened and my eyes narrowed a bit giving me a darker expression seeming to completely be the opposite of th retainede carefree face that I had retained while "sleeping"on the beach. I began to feel as if I wasn't even in control my own body.-

 

[Freddy Fazbear]

It was really unsurprising to Kuro that so many of the large group would be so quick to respond to the fiery crisis in the town ahead. He was surrounded by relatively good-hearted and quick-thinking people. Good. IF this group was to survive here, there would need to be people like that. Already, Link, Miharu, Rod, and That other guy were rushing towards the town, following Basque and his soldiers. At least someone was taking action. Now, as long as they could fight, the town should be in good hands.

Kuro did not want to fight. He disliked it, especially in a life-or-death situation. Killing another was something Kuro was unsure if he could even do. Just the very thought appalled him. The four that had already run into town would easily be able to handle a threat. Plus, others still in the group would probably run in soon as well...

But what if they didn't? What if the threat in the town was too great for the four warriors? What if they could get killed? No, that would not do at all. Kuro unsheathed his katana. It was the first time he had actually seen it out of its sheath, and he was surprised by how well polished it was. It looked really sharp, too. It was a beautifully crafted blade, and looked like a delicate yet powerful weapon. Like a thorned rose. Those were so delicate, so beautiful, but touch a thorn and they would not be reluctant to sting. The katana was much like that.

Kuro looked ahead, seeing the pillars of black smoke, rising through the air like hikers on a mountain. Kuro himself had said earlier, "We need each other to win this 'war'. We need this whole group." That included him, as well. The group needed him right now. And he would not fail them.

As he sprinted towards the town, Kuro watched his sword carefully out of the corner of his eye, to make sure he did not hurt anything unintentionally. That sword was going to need a name.