The Mano Games VII
Smash Journeyman
This story is basically a retelling of the original Final Fantasy for the Nintendo, where the Thief is the main character, and is entirely alone in his struggle against the ne'erdowells of his world (don't want any spoilers for those who have never played the game). This is one of only two serious efforts I've ever made towards actually writing a whole story, and as such, I am very, very nervous about how good it is. If anyone has any suggestions/criticisms, I highly, highly encourage them, no matter how harsh they may be (as long as you state the reasons you don't like "this or that" part of the story that is). So anyways, here it is!
Prolouge: Introduction
Uggghhhh....hah....GAAAAAHHH!!" a man gasped in pain from within his room.
"Whoa, what are you doing?" Another man shouted, rushing into the room to find the man trying and failing to get up out of his bed. He was a somewhat small, youthful man who didn't seem any taller than 5 feet. His hair was the color of sapphires, his skin somewhat tan, and as of now, covered in bandages stained red from his wounds. The other man, the innkeeper of the building, looked on with concern as the youth shook with pain. Finally, the youth managed to squeeze out a question.
"Uh...hey, where am I?" He asked, though it didn't come out quite that clearly
"You're at an inn' the innkeeper responded. At the youths confusion, the innkeeper went on. 'The Cornerian guard found you unconscious, being put through the perpetual meat grinder by way of a quintuplet of Imps." At that, the youth began to cringe from the memory.
"How bad did I look?"
"You looked like absolute ****"
"That figures, I sure had enough of the stuff beaten out of me!" the youth laughed. But when he looked at the innkeeper, his face fell. Apparently, whatever the innkeeper had seen, he sure didn't feel like laughing about it...
"Yes, you most certainly did...enough that it's a miracle your even alive right now...now tell me, what the hell were you thinking?!" The innkeeper yelled. The youth became apprehensive.
"First off, I'm not some random kid off the streets. I've been serving as a light warrior in the Light Brigade for the past month and a half now. And well, you know what happened to us when he tried to fight Garland huh?" The youth stopped for a second as a stroke of pain struck his heart...
The Cornerian Royal Army was the official name of Cornerias militairy. But the king and his knights were so good to the people, so just and powerful, that as far as anyone was concerned, they were called the Light Brigade. For many young lads, it was their dream in life to one day be known as one of the Light Brigades light warriors.
However, even this mighty army had been brought to its knees by Garland and his army of demons. Though he was renowed as Cornerias hero many years ago, he had now become a black hearted fiend who had kidnapped the fair princess Sara and ran far away from the kingdom. With the fate of their kingdom in jeopardy, the whole army had been sent out to reclaim the princess, no matter the cost. After many long and arduous years of searching, they had finally managed to track Garland down in an old broken down temple on the other side of the continent.
But to their dismay, their rescue mission had been sent crashing down around them as they were beset by legions of monsters that Garland had amassed.
At the head of those legions was Garland, in his huge oblivion black full plate mail armor. Sporting a long cape and a helmet adorned with large horns on the sides, and towering over the subjects he had amassed, it looked looked as though a demon and his army had crawled out from the depths of hell. The youth still remembered the nervousness that had clouded his commanding officers face when he had found out just how worthy a foe Garland would prove to be...
"Garland, fiend of Corneria, enemy to the state, here our command!' the youth's commanding officer had said. 'You have ran, you have hidden, and you have murdered for the sheer sake of power until now...now it has come to this, the hour of your defeat. If you are want to avoid your final reckoning, stop this foolishness, and deliver to us the fair Princess-"
"YOU SHALL NOT HAVE HER!! NO ONE TOUCHES MY PRINCESS!! Garland roared in a low grating voice that rolled through the plains and completely shattered the mans proclamation. It had struck everyone dead, and every light warrior felt a sense of dread as it occurred to them just how hard this fight would be. If any of them felt even the slightest bit of confidence, they sure didn't act like it.
Then, Garland rumbled in laughter, and a black aura swarmed into existence around him. As the aura whined with power, Garlands laughter had become warped beyond recognition, and where their had been mere nervousness, there was now a horrible fear that consumed the hearts and minds of the light warriors.
"Now, the light warriors you say? Impotent fools, I, Garland, will KNOCK YOU ALL DOWN!!" and with that, he launched several enormous green waves of dark energy that went on to tear the youth's commanding officer, and the entire 1st legion of the Light Brigade, to shreds. Garland followed this up by ordering all his minions to come down upon the Light Brigade, and what followed next was sheer carnage.
For the first time in his life, the youth had experienced the true horror of war, had been plunged in a whole nother world filled with people and things trying to hurt him...trying to kill him...
Halfway into the battle, he lost his head and fled wherever he could flee. Eventually, he had taken to burying himself under a mound of corpses that had been strewn across the battlefield.
In that instant, he was forced to watch as all of his best friends were cut down one by one by Garland and his fiends.
"And maybe it didn't have to be all of them'. Luke thought to himself. 'Maybe I could have saved some of them, had I been stronger, had I not been such a **** coward!" Luke screamed in his mind.
But instead, he lay there capable only of watching, from seeing Garland wreak agony across the battle field, to having to watch his best friend Homac, covered in blood and maimed in ways too horrible to describe, slowly bleed to death as Garland stood over him, laughing that low, mocking laugh of his....
"Hey...hey!' the innkeeper said, knocking the youth out of his memories. 'You ok?"
"Um...yeah...yeah, I'm fine" the youth said, though he still had that telltale haunted expression of someone who had been changed by war. Feeling ashamed, the innkeeper tried to change the subject
"By the way, what's your name son?" The innkeeper asked.
"Luke' he answered. He shot straight out of the bed with new resolve, though he winced as he did so. 'And what was I thinking? Garlands a dead man, and I won't stop, until every last life he has taken has been avenged!!"
Whoa, wait, you're actually aiming for Garland himself?! How the hell do you plan on doing that?!"
"The Light Brigade slaughtered a good number of his forces, so if I can get to his hideout quick, I can kill him before he gets another chance to reorganize."
"And what will you do once your facing Garland himself? You're gonna try and face him with that toothpick of a sword you have, without even the physical prowess to kill five Imps?" Luke had to stop himself from groaning. His questions were good ones, Luke admitted to himself, but filled with rage and hotblood as he was, they only served to anger him even more. He tried to change the subject...
"Oh well. I bet those Imps gave the guard a good workout, huh?"
"More than that I'm afraid. Even chain mail can't stop a good scimitar if it happens to be thin enough. Still, at least they had sense enough to actually have armor!" By this point, the youth was just seething with rage. So it was that the man just couldn't drop, huh?!
"Okay, look, you've never been in the army before, you have no idea what it's like to try to function and fight properly in big, heavy armor! I tried it out, but I ditched it in favor of actually being able to fricken move!"
"Your right. You know what I also know? Over these past few months, our kingdom has tried time after time to overcome Garlands forces and rescue Sara, each and every time he sent the best men he had. These men have had the exact same ordeals your going to be facing, and from the sounds of it, absolutely NONE of them have had the mettle needed to survive. Some of these men have been champions amoung us for more than a decade, and even they have been slaughtered! And I'll tell you this, none of them had ever had trouble moving around in armor!" The man yelled. Luke froze.
Out of all the doubts that the man had voiced, that had been the one to give him pause. For the first time, the sheer weight of his task began to hang on his heart. He pictured himself in a room somewhere facing Garland, trying futiley to pierce his armor as Garland's sword kept tearing into his skin over and over and over and over....Luke's fists and teeth were shaking vehemently. No doubt he would be laughing in that same laugh he gave when he stood over Homac and smote him like some kind of rabid dog!
"I don't care what you or anyone else says. I know my odds, and none of that matters! I won't quit, I won't stop, I will never rest until I've either wiped Garland from the face of the earth, or die trying!" Luke pushed past the innkeeper and, rapier in hand, proceeded to march out the door.
"How can you be so foolish? Have you not seen his power first hand?! If you're going to do this, it's gonna be your life that's snuffed out, not his!"
"THAN SO BE IT!!!" Luke yelled. His face warped into a mask of sorrow and rage, Luke marched out of the building, leaving a big commotion behind him, for his ranting had drawn the attention of many of the Inns guests.
The innkeeper spent a few moments alone before going out to calm his guests, crying his eyes out for the youth who had doomed himself to almost certain death. But whatever sadness he felt at that moment, it could not compare to the sense of powerlessness and fear that Luke had been put through in their battle with Garland.
Prolouge: Introduction
Uggghhhh....hah....GAAAAAHHH!!" a man gasped in pain from within his room.
"Whoa, what are you doing?" Another man shouted, rushing into the room to find the man trying and failing to get up out of his bed. He was a somewhat small, youthful man who didn't seem any taller than 5 feet. His hair was the color of sapphires, his skin somewhat tan, and as of now, covered in bandages stained red from his wounds. The other man, the innkeeper of the building, looked on with concern as the youth shook with pain. Finally, the youth managed to squeeze out a question.
"Uh...hey, where am I?" He asked, though it didn't come out quite that clearly
"You're at an inn' the innkeeper responded. At the youths confusion, the innkeeper went on. 'The Cornerian guard found you unconscious, being put through the perpetual meat grinder by way of a quintuplet of Imps." At that, the youth began to cringe from the memory.
"How bad did I look?"
"You looked like absolute ****"
"That figures, I sure had enough of the stuff beaten out of me!" the youth laughed. But when he looked at the innkeeper, his face fell. Apparently, whatever the innkeeper had seen, he sure didn't feel like laughing about it...
"Yes, you most certainly did...enough that it's a miracle your even alive right now...now tell me, what the hell were you thinking?!" The innkeeper yelled. The youth became apprehensive.
"First off, I'm not some random kid off the streets. I've been serving as a light warrior in the Light Brigade for the past month and a half now. And well, you know what happened to us when he tried to fight Garland huh?" The youth stopped for a second as a stroke of pain struck his heart...
The Cornerian Royal Army was the official name of Cornerias militairy. But the king and his knights were so good to the people, so just and powerful, that as far as anyone was concerned, they were called the Light Brigade. For many young lads, it was their dream in life to one day be known as one of the Light Brigades light warriors.
However, even this mighty army had been brought to its knees by Garland and his army of demons. Though he was renowed as Cornerias hero many years ago, he had now become a black hearted fiend who had kidnapped the fair princess Sara and ran far away from the kingdom. With the fate of their kingdom in jeopardy, the whole army had been sent out to reclaim the princess, no matter the cost. After many long and arduous years of searching, they had finally managed to track Garland down in an old broken down temple on the other side of the continent.
But to their dismay, their rescue mission had been sent crashing down around them as they were beset by legions of monsters that Garland had amassed.
At the head of those legions was Garland, in his huge oblivion black full plate mail armor. Sporting a long cape and a helmet adorned with large horns on the sides, and towering over the subjects he had amassed, it looked looked as though a demon and his army had crawled out from the depths of hell. The youth still remembered the nervousness that had clouded his commanding officers face when he had found out just how worthy a foe Garland would prove to be...
"Garland, fiend of Corneria, enemy to the state, here our command!' the youth's commanding officer had said. 'You have ran, you have hidden, and you have murdered for the sheer sake of power until now...now it has come to this, the hour of your defeat. If you are want to avoid your final reckoning, stop this foolishness, and deliver to us the fair Princess-"
"YOU SHALL NOT HAVE HER!! NO ONE TOUCHES MY PRINCESS!! Garland roared in a low grating voice that rolled through the plains and completely shattered the mans proclamation. It had struck everyone dead, and every light warrior felt a sense of dread as it occurred to them just how hard this fight would be. If any of them felt even the slightest bit of confidence, they sure didn't act like it.
Then, Garland rumbled in laughter, and a black aura swarmed into existence around him. As the aura whined with power, Garlands laughter had become warped beyond recognition, and where their had been mere nervousness, there was now a horrible fear that consumed the hearts and minds of the light warriors.
"Now, the light warriors you say? Impotent fools, I, Garland, will KNOCK YOU ALL DOWN!!" and with that, he launched several enormous green waves of dark energy that went on to tear the youth's commanding officer, and the entire 1st legion of the Light Brigade, to shreds. Garland followed this up by ordering all his minions to come down upon the Light Brigade, and what followed next was sheer carnage.
For the first time in his life, the youth had experienced the true horror of war, had been plunged in a whole nother world filled with people and things trying to hurt him...trying to kill him...
Halfway into the battle, he lost his head and fled wherever he could flee. Eventually, he had taken to burying himself under a mound of corpses that had been strewn across the battlefield.
In that instant, he was forced to watch as all of his best friends were cut down one by one by Garland and his fiends.
"And maybe it didn't have to be all of them'. Luke thought to himself. 'Maybe I could have saved some of them, had I been stronger, had I not been such a **** coward!" Luke screamed in his mind.
But instead, he lay there capable only of watching, from seeing Garland wreak agony across the battle field, to having to watch his best friend Homac, covered in blood and maimed in ways too horrible to describe, slowly bleed to death as Garland stood over him, laughing that low, mocking laugh of his....
"Hey...hey!' the innkeeper said, knocking the youth out of his memories. 'You ok?"
"Um...yeah...yeah, I'm fine" the youth said, though he still had that telltale haunted expression of someone who had been changed by war. Feeling ashamed, the innkeeper tried to change the subject
"By the way, what's your name son?" The innkeeper asked.
"Luke' he answered. He shot straight out of the bed with new resolve, though he winced as he did so. 'And what was I thinking? Garlands a dead man, and I won't stop, until every last life he has taken has been avenged!!"
Whoa, wait, you're actually aiming for Garland himself?! How the hell do you plan on doing that?!"
"The Light Brigade slaughtered a good number of his forces, so if I can get to his hideout quick, I can kill him before he gets another chance to reorganize."
"And what will you do once your facing Garland himself? You're gonna try and face him with that toothpick of a sword you have, without even the physical prowess to kill five Imps?" Luke had to stop himself from groaning. His questions were good ones, Luke admitted to himself, but filled with rage and hotblood as he was, they only served to anger him even more. He tried to change the subject...
"Oh well. I bet those Imps gave the guard a good workout, huh?"
"More than that I'm afraid. Even chain mail can't stop a good scimitar if it happens to be thin enough. Still, at least they had sense enough to actually have armor!" By this point, the youth was just seething with rage. So it was that the man just couldn't drop, huh?!
"Okay, look, you've never been in the army before, you have no idea what it's like to try to function and fight properly in big, heavy armor! I tried it out, but I ditched it in favor of actually being able to fricken move!"
"Your right. You know what I also know? Over these past few months, our kingdom has tried time after time to overcome Garlands forces and rescue Sara, each and every time he sent the best men he had. These men have had the exact same ordeals your going to be facing, and from the sounds of it, absolutely NONE of them have had the mettle needed to survive. Some of these men have been champions amoung us for more than a decade, and even they have been slaughtered! And I'll tell you this, none of them had ever had trouble moving around in armor!" The man yelled. Luke froze.
Out of all the doubts that the man had voiced, that had been the one to give him pause. For the first time, the sheer weight of his task began to hang on his heart. He pictured himself in a room somewhere facing Garland, trying futiley to pierce his armor as Garland's sword kept tearing into his skin over and over and over and over....Luke's fists and teeth were shaking vehemently. No doubt he would be laughing in that same laugh he gave when he stood over Homac and smote him like some kind of rabid dog!
"I don't care what you or anyone else says. I know my odds, and none of that matters! I won't quit, I won't stop, I will never rest until I've either wiped Garland from the face of the earth, or die trying!" Luke pushed past the innkeeper and, rapier in hand, proceeded to march out the door.
"How can you be so foolish? Have you not seen his power first hand?! If you're going to do this, it's gonna be your life that's snuffed out, not his!"
"THAN SO BE IT!!!" Luke yelled. His face warped into a mask of sorrow and rage, Luke marched out of the building, leaving a big commotion behind him, for his ranting had drawn the attention of many of the Inns guests.
The innkeeper spent a few moments alone before going out to calm his guests, crying his eyes out for the youth who had doomed himself to almost certain death. But whatever sadness he felt at that moment, it could not compare to the sense of powerlessness and fear that Luke had been put through in their battle with Garland.
