Ellon Chronicles: Dreams on the Horizon

Despite being backed into a corner, Theodahn breathed a sigh of relief as his aggressor was pacified.

"I didn't want this situation to break out into such chaos, but you gave us little choice," he spoke, strained but solemnly.

Theodahn ring his bell once again! 5 Int damage!

 

Panting heavily, Asima looked at the slumped pile of vile drunken man in front of her before turning her furious eyes to the other drunk standing next to her. "I'll give you one more chance to run." She  raised her fists. "Oh, still here? Too bad," she hissed, sending a fist towards his nose.

Asima uses Trigger Command: Fisticuffs on Mike! 8 Atk damage per hit, 2 hits!

Asima waits...

 

"Please, just... stay down."  Theo's meek voice commanded.


Theodahn ring his bell... again! 5 Int damage!

 

Fully caught up in her rage, Asima rushed over to the refugee boy, aiming for one more solid hit on his tormentor's skull--even if it was a little much.

Asima moves to D7! (D6 > D7)

Asima uses Trigger Command: Fisticuffs on Richard! 8 Atk damage per hit, 2 hits!

 

The girl's breaths came as ragged pants as she stepped over the unconscious bodies of the bums that were attacking the sandy-haired refugee. She pushed a bit of hair that was plastered to her face away, grabbing the boy's sleeve with her other hand. She practically dragged him out of the bar, not even turning to look or say anything to him. Not for a while, at least. Asima had dragged the poor soul at least a block and a half away from the tavern. "Since that's dealt with," she puffed, dropping his sleeve and turning to face him, her arms folded sternly across her chest, "I'm Asima. Miss Mayella told me you were supposed to be coming in tonight, but she hadn't seen you and was worried."

The girl paused, taking a moment to breathe. She was slowly regaining her breath. She winced slightly, feeling the bruises starting to form already. "Err, anyway, we're probably going to be living together for a while. Just thought I'd introduce myself before we got all the way back. Oh, and mind Miss Mayella, she's probably gonna bruise ya worse than those bums." She giggled, thinking of the large woman's bearhug. "You handled yourself well, by the way." Asima smiled at him, letting her arms drop to her side. Her ferocity was all gone, replaced by a kindhearted teenage girl covered in bruises.

"What's your name?"

 

Exasperated huffs and wheezes of relief escaped the weary man's throat as the brawl finally wound down to a halt. He never truly carried a knack for fighting, but thankfully delving into the mysteries of mana required that he wold have to wield it himself. He was about to collapse in exhaustion on the chair conveniently laying behind him, but, before he could react, a hand snatched him away; almost dragging him down to the floor instead. The one who had saved him was tugging him a good ways along the streets before he finally got another chance to rest his weary self.

Theo raised a curious eyebrow as the young girl dropped a familiar name, and explained her coincidental rescue, "Ah, I suppose that explains why you had such a timely arrival." He took off his spectacles for a moment, rubbing them against his robe, "Suppose it's easy for a foreigner like myself to get the names of all these taverns mixed up. The Lazy Lizard, the Drunken Duck, all of their nomenclature tends to just run together."

The spectacles were placed upon his face again, only marginally cleaner than before, but bringing the young girl back into view. Her face, only moments ago filled with fierce determination, was replaced with a sweet, inviting smile. Theo couldn't help but warmly smile back in response, despite the bruises he suffered trying to beat his mouth into a frown.

"I must thank you, Asima, and by extension Miss Mayella for coming to my aid," the battered boy spoke, "Had you not shown up, I'm sure they would've done a lot more damage. Then again, I suppose it's my fault for underestimating the... hospitality of this area."  His eyes looked skyward for a second, as if trying to search for something he was forgetting, which, he did. "A-Ah, yes, my name. It's Theodahn, Wilemet. Theodahn Wilemet," he repeated, fumbling over his words. "Theo for brevity."

 

Asima giggled. "I ended up in a lucky part of town. Same guy was bugging me though. They started a fight, stabbed me with a bottle. Then the knights showed up, but I guess that guy got away with it." Her grin waned to a smirk. She stared at the boy with wide eyes for a moment, letting him  speak. "Aww, it's really no problem. It's part of my job!" She giggled again. "Well, it will be. Y'see I'm gonna be a knight some day, and keeping people safe is a knight's job!" Asima's smile remained, her eyes twinkling with pride as she thought of the knights and being a part of their ranks.

Not allowing herself to slip into a wild daydream, she suddenly reached out and grabbed Theo's sleeve again. "A-ah! Let's hurry back! I bet you're dying for a soft bed right about now," she interjected, marching off towards the inn. She let his sleeve go after a few paces. "What made you want to leave?" the girl asked suddenly, her voice significantly quieter than moments before. It was a personal question--the answer itself was usually easy to say, but the reasons behind it were what made the question difficult to ask. Asima had her own reasons, and nobody had asked  yet, but she hadn't been in Arcedes for a whole long time yet, either. "W-well, that is if you don't mind talking about it," she added hastily.

She stopped again. This time they weren't standing in front of a random building far away from Mayella's inn, rather they were right outside of it. Her expression changed, and she stared at Theo with a look of concern.[/color]

 

A knight, huh? Theo thought to himself, that's quite a noble cause. He couldn't help but smile at her sheer optimism at the prospect of becoming a knight to serve the weak. But it wasn't long before he was dragged away once again, moving at a brisk pace to keep up with his conjoined comrade.

"What made you want to leave?" the aspiring knight questioned. The scrawny man reflected on the question for a moment, trying to find a way to put it into words.

"It might sound a bit... uncertain, but, I suppose the empire's ideas were too narrow for my liking, he spoke under harried breaths from his exhaustion, "I suppose you could say I wish to explore Alsonde's view on mana. Kind of silly sounding, but, I guess that's what I do.

His explanation came to a halt as soon as Asima's feet planted themselves into the gravel. "Wh-What's the matter? Is something wrong?"

 

The girl shook her head. "I'm sorry, it's nothing. I was just waiting to hear what you had to say so I could give you a warning." Her expression changed into a mischievous grin. "This is the inn where we're gonna stay for a while. Miss Mayella's been takin' good care of me so far, but uh...well, you'll see. Prepare your ribcage," she said, giggling slightly. She approached the door, opening it for Theo with a sarcastic flourish. "After you," she drawled.

She led the man up to the refugee quarters, peeking around the corner to where Mayella was. "I'm back, Miss Mayella," Asima announced. "Same bastards that messed with me last night were givin' him a hard time. It's alright though, he's gonna be fine. I saved him." She grinned at the woman, then put her hand on Theo's back and pushed him forward. "Introduce yourself," she whispered to him. She watched with bated breath to see if Theo's ribcage would be crushed, like hers had already been several times.

Wonder what it's like on the spectating end.

 

"My... my ribcage?"  Theo nerviously inquired, but he knew that it was going to be a show rather than a tell.

He followed Asima until she stopped and announced their arrival; promptly before shoving him into the fore, of course. The shaken man fumbled forwards, before looking up at the woman he owed just as much debt to.

"Miss... Mayella, was it? I-I'm Theodahn, Wilemet. Theo if you prefer." he recounted, "Asima saved my life in the nick of time, and I thank you for sending her after me... and of course, allowing me a place to stay."

He tossed a glance back at Asima, cocking an eyebrow at whatever she was so excited about.

 

"Ack, m-my ribcage...!" Theodahn squealed quietly as the last remaining gasps of oxygen left his lungs.

He certainly wasn't expecting such an animated welcome, nor such a bone-crushing hug. Theo wasn't much shorter than an average person and yet Ms.Mayella lifted both himself and Asima off of the ground in one big, strong embrace. After his feet graced the ground again and his chest wasn't strangling his lungs, he let out a series of strained gasps; having to deal with the brawl from earlier and running back here with his meager constitution didn't help. It's nice to see someone so welcome to my arrival for a change, the ragged man thought after listening to Mayella's speech, I'd have a hard time finding a more humble person than that.

"Hopefully we won't need to employ your uh, behind kicking services anytime soon," Theo said, nervously. I'd like to have more faith in the people being more accepting than that man.

It would be a bit odd to be in the same room as Asima, but, considering what the circumstances were, he had no room to complain about anything. He humbly bowed and thanked Ms.Mayella again before looking to what Asima thought on the matter, considering it concerns the two of them.

 

Asima's excitement soon turned to disappointment as Mayella scooped both refugees into a bone-shattering hug. The dark-skinned girl managed a gurgling breath of pain during the middle of it, yet all the same she couldn't help but grin brightly and start giggling as soon as she was released. "No no, Miss Mayella, that won't be necessary!" Asima protested. "I won't be so gentle with them next time if they dare mess with me or Theo again. Though I might bring 'em around anyways, since you'd give them a proper whoopin'," she giggled. "Thanks again for everything, Mayella!" the girl called out, grabbing Theo's sleeve and leading him to their quarters.

The aspiring knightess spent many days in her village sleeping in the same room with multiple people. Two people with their own beds sharing a room was nothing to her. "I used to sleep in the same room as my whole family," she informed Theo. "We didn't have beds either, we slept on the ground next to each other." She offered a kind smile to him. "It might be a little strange, but it doesn't bother me to share a room with you. I've got a pretty good nose for people, and my nose tells me you're all right." She winked teasingly at him.

Once Asima had led her new roommate to their quarters, she wasted no time in plopping down on her bed. "Oh, there's a bath out back, by the way. I can show you where it is if you want to bathe tonight. There may not be hot water though." She sat up a little bit, looking at Theo curiously.

 

Continuing where they left off earlier, Theo was dragged once again by Asima by the sleeve to their room. The moment their feet touched the flooring past the doorway, the bedraggled man plopped onto the nearest seat. Being weak of constitution, having the trek to Alsonde immediately lead into a tavern tussle was a very tiring experience. Not to mention having the wind knocked out of him by Miss Mayella's (apparently infamous) hugs.

He timidly scratched the jawline under his earlobe after listening to his newly appointed roommate, "Sounds like you've always been used to such a crowded, busy life. It must've been jarring to be here by yourself it the first place." He returned Asima's smile with one of his own, "It's amazing how you can take something as simple as a bed for granted. I've always had one but rarely used it; usually studying leads me to sleeping where I stood." He let out a light chuckle at his own words.

The bath situation didn't bother him much, the process was always more business than pleasure for him anyway. It was hard to enjoy them when living with dust and sand would reset your progress to zero. Although he certainly would welcome one now, considering how long it has been since his last. He gave a small, affirming nod to Asima, promptly getting up from his chair and inviting her to lead the way.

 

Asima sighed. "Truth be told, I kind of like it. I don't have to be constantly watching my back all the time. Even in the crowded parts of the city, the people are still so much nicer." She sat up, watching Theo curiously. "Anyway let's go! I'm probably gonna bathe again too. But you can go first," she said cheerfully, leading her companion out the door.

She pointed him in the direction of the tub, and continued walking. "I'll make sure the water's hot," she told him, jogging up and dipping her fingers in the water. It was still lukewarm, but not necessarily hot or anything. "I'm gonna wait around the corner, let me know if you need somethin'," she remarked, backtracking as to give her companion some privacy.

 

Theo smiled as his companion reassured him of her contentment with her current situation. Hopefully her word about the populace being generally nicer applies to him too, considering the only man that assaulted her, assaulted him as well; it was almost as if getting into a fight with a bunch of irate, inebriated people was a rite of passage in Alsonde.

When the pair made it upon the bath, the ragged man gave a respectful bow to Asima before she scurried away; part of it for acting as a guide, and part for everything she's done for him today. He tested the waters himself, finding it acceptable enough as he wouldn't be trying to stay in here too long anyway.

Theo slinked into the waters, letting the liquid ease whatever troubles he had away. With how long he's spent traveling to this city, it was almost hard to realize the man was blonde at all before the bath eroded the mess that became tangled up within it. He was never used to such hospitality, but that was to be expected; coming from a very cloistered and solitary lifestyle, he never interacted much with people on the outside. It sounded that Asima didn't receive much kindness where she came from, either, so being here has certainly improved both their lives.

Donning his robe and glasses after he finished, he poked his head out to inform Asima that her turn is up; although he worried there was enough warm water for her, too. He then decided to take initiative and head to the room so he could finally hit the hay. He didn't want to seem rude or anything, but he was simply too exhausted from the scuffle they had earlier. If the water was any warmer, he'd probably have fallen asleep in the tub, and that would've been an awkward wait for Asima.

 

The girl bid her ally good night and hurried to the tub, practically tearing her clothing off in anticipation of getting in the water. The lukewarm water stung her cuts and scrapes slightly, but she ignored it and set to diligently scrubbing herself clean from the day's work. She allowed her mind to wander during the menial task, wondering if Theo would seek out a library or archive to work out, of if he'd tag along for a while. Either way, she planned on pledging herself as a free knight-for-hire when she made it that far. She figured he would do something similar in return--they'd already been in a nice fight together, and they made a good team.

Asima's bath didn't take too terribly long. She came padding down the stairs, short hair still plastered to her scalp and face, towel wrapped tightly around her torso. She peeked around the corner, saw Theo already unconscious on the bed, and stifled a giggle. She pulled on a nightgown and crawled into bed, extinguishing the candle that was supplying a small amount of light to the room. "Good night, Theo," she whispered, grinning softly.

Sore, tired, and oddly content with herself, Asima soon drifted off to sleep.