The Courage of an Alliance

Chapter 6

Night had fallen over the jade sea, and the torches were lit around Cavalon. Paul and his allies had arrived an hour before sundown and went straight to Elder Rhea, telling her the events that occurred that day.
"The kraken was slain by another man. This is not good." Elder Rhea seemed very surprised.
"Not only that, but there are only three days until the ceremony!" Mystery said.
"Do not fret, young adventurers, I have a plan. The stars have told me that luxon sacrifice will be made in order to save many others at the ceremony, and I am sure that is me. This person would die at the hand of Jun." Paul and Taby looked at her in surprise.
"How could someone as scrawny as Jun hurt someone?"
"Dear Taby, you obviously have not heard the events that have occurred in the Aspenwood Forest. Jun was given the Count´s Insignia and he is headed on his way to Kaining city as we speak." Paul looked confused.
"Why would Jun want the Count´s Insignia? I thought that only proved that you were leader of the Kurzicks."
"Not anymore, Paul. When Shiro was locked away, two magic insignias were made. One symbolized the Count, and one symbolized the Elder. When the Count and myself have gone to the celestial ceremonies in the past we have been sure never to touch the seal of Shiro at the same time, for that would create a gateway to and from his awful realm. If what the stars tell me is true, then I would be killed and Jun would try to steal my insignia."
"How would that save many others?" Paul said.
"Well Paul, because when he kills me to take my insignia, I wont have it." The Elder then made a chant in an ancient language that she repeated over and over. The four heroes watched a strange fiery red orb come out of her hand. The Elder then held this orb up to Paul. "As I was saying, I wont have it. You will."
"Me? Why me?"
"Because I have seen you, Paul. You have a pure heart and such strong courage, even if you don´t know that. I tend to know more about people than they know about themselves. Which brings me to you, Taby." Rhea opened a small box behind her and held out two silver daggers. "There you stand in that heavy armor and that giant blade. Your body is not fit for such material. You do on the other hand have great flexibility and stamina, which is why I shall tell you this. You have been chasing the wrong profession all your life. You should not be a warrior, you should be an assassin."
"Really? The only assasins I have seen are in the Am Fah down in Kaining City and I don´t think that I can hide in shadows and jumb of giant buildings."
"It will take hard work, but you can do it. Now I really must tell you, Paul, and Mystery that if you are going to be luxons, then you should have luxon armor! Go to the armorer down the road and he will have your armor all ready for you." The three of them left which only left Rhea with Griffin. "Griffin, my child. I know that it may confuse you as to why I am sending you with these people, but what you don´t realize is that you are a great leader that can guide those three to victory. I would like to give you something that has been passed down in luxon generations as a gift of your leadership." Elder Rhea then grabbed a dark golden bow hanging off of the wall. "This was given to one of us when a Tyrian adventurer traveling all over the world visited here. It is an ebony bow made from the wood of the Maguuma Jungle."
"Thank you, I really don´t know what to say. . ." Griffin was about to say something when Paul, Taby, and Mystery walked in. Paul´s armor was a bright silver with luxon markings and sumbols on it. The armor had no helmet, so Pauls face could be seen. He had dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, and he was surprisingly tan for living in a forest all of his life. Taby´s armor was very thin and black as night for her to jump and sneak in. Assasins never wear helmets, so her face could also be seen. She had her short black hair set into a pony tail, and she had clear blue eyes. Mystery´s face could always be seen, so nothing was new there, but she had a golden dress on that looked stunning and made Grffin a tad bit attracted to her. Paul seemed uncomfortable.
"Why don´t I have a helmet?" Elder Rhea merely laughed.
"Well because I think that it is rude for soldiers to talk with helmets on. Now about that plan of mine." All five of them sat down at a long table. "Mystery will be escorting me to Kaining City as her job intailed, and Taby will be coming as my bodyguard. Paul and Griffin on the other hand will be traveling to the Zaishen Islands to get that Insignia on your hand. You could have put it on if you were a luxon, but the Kraken´s death by another person didn´t give you that option. Griffin, you must take Paul with you to the Unwaking Waters where Kuunavang rests. Tell him that you need transportation to the Islands and he shall take you. If he asks why then say that the Elder requested it. Once you have the insignia placed upon your hand, the Zaishen shall transport you to Kaining City upon one of their ships. Be sure that you get there in time to kill Jun so that was can rid ourselves of the fear of him, Shiro, and Safra. You two shall be leaving early tomorrow, so you might as well say your goodbyes tonight. After that, you should get some sleep for the adventure will not be easy. One last thing, Griffin. Try to avoid Sskai as much as possible. He will not show you any mercy if you come upon him." When Elder Rhea left, Taby squeezed Paul.
"Good luck Paul, I know that you can do it."

"Good luck, Paul I know that you can do it." The white room was becoming very dull for Safra to watch from.
"So now Paul has the Insignia! I think that it is time to get back in the game about now. Bliss! Blasphemy!" The two jesters appeared before the black knight.
"Sir! You seem to be back in your armor set!"
"And might I say it makes you look positively slimming."
"Does it really make me look slimming? I never really looked in a mirror so I wouldn´t know, but back to why I brought you here. Paul and his ally Griffin are headed their way to Kuunavang, so I need you to interrupt them."
"What do you need us to make, an earthquake?"
"A hurricane?"
"No, even better. I need you two to tell Sskai that there will be two intruders in his territory. Disguise yourself as nagas so he wouldn´t notice anything out of the ordinary. Now Go! I have much work to do." The two demons left the room, leaving Safra to himself once more.

"Wow, it is really hot out."
"You might as well live with it, because this walk is gonna take up about half of the day. Besides, we have only been walking about an hour, and the sun isn´t even up yet."
"True, True. So who is this Sskai character that Elder Rhea was talking about?"
"He is a naga with a very bad attitude. He has claimed a section of the jade sea as his territory, and if he catches you passing through then he and his five lackeys come after you."
"Then what?"
"Let´s just say that they would definitely have something for dinner that night."
"Oh. . ." They walked for what seemed like an eternity until they reached an area with giant waves."
"We must be close now, the jade sea is showing that there was a storm here."
"So where can we find Kuunavang in this storm?"
"He is inside the maelstrom."
"Umm well I think that we will have a hard time getting there now." Griffin looked at Paul.
"Why? The waves aren´t that hard to get over."
"That´s not what I am worried about. Look!" Griffin looked up and saw a small group of nagas racing towards them.
"RUN!" The two of them started sprinting through the giant waves, looking for a whirlpool.
"How can we find Kuunavang in this? It is almost impossible!"
"Almost is the key word! Hurry, they are gaining on us!" They kept running until Paul got an idea.
"Let´s go to the top of one of these waves and then maybe we can see Kuunavangs nest from there!" They raced up the biggest wave with Sskai an his gang hot on their tail. Paul and Griffin finally got to the top and looked as far out as they could see. Griffin noticed a small indent in the jade storm out in the distance and saw a golden tower sticking out of it.
"I see it! . . Now how are we going to get down from here?" Both of them looked down into a bottomless abyss on the other side of the wave.
"Stop right there, intruders! You will regret stepping upon my territory but you shall feel honored to die by my blade!" Sskai had gotten to the top of the wave too, and it seemed that all hope was lost. His teeth were yellow and his blade was huge, but the worst thing about him was that he had a terrible odor. Paul pulled out his sword and faced Sskai and his crew.
"I am not going down without a fight." Griffin seemed inspired by his heroism.
"Neither am I!"
"If it is a fight you want, then it is a fight you get. You will lose though. Attack!" Paul whispered something to Griffin as the naga were charging at them.
"You handle the cronies and I can take down Sskai."
"Got it." Paul ran straight towards the tight pack and knocked them all to the bottom of the wave with him. This gave Griffin a great ranging point. One of the naga recovered faster than Paul after the tumble and thrust his sword straight toward Paul´s heart. This attack was interrupted by Griffin´s perfect shot at the naga´s head. When Paul got up, he threw Sskai away from the rest of the crowd. Paul then pulled out his kurzick shield along with his sword to prepare for combat.
"Foolish boy! This is a fight you surely cannot win! Nagas, go after the ranger!" The nagas slithered their way towards Griffin, and he was shooting his arrows as fast as he could at them. Sskai raised his sword for a frontal attack, but while Paul wasn´t prepared, he dashed to his right side and bashed him against a jade wall. Paul tried to absorb as much shock as possible, but the pain was still searing through his arm. He then pulled something from a tiny bag he was carrying. It was the Elder´s Insignia.
"It might not be infused into me, but maybe I can still use it!" Paul held the orb out at Sskai and a ball of fire flew out and knocked the naga to the ground.
"What is this weapon that you wield? The power is tremendous! When I kill you I shall take it as my own and expand my borders with it´s energy!" Paul dropped his shield, which left him with the orb in one hand and the blade in the other. Paul looked in surprise as his blade suddenly caught fire.
"Or maybe it shall be I that slays you." Paul dashed forward and jabbed his sword through Sskai´s heart. The blade not only pierced the armor, but his shield too. Griffin was having a tad bit more difficulty with his situation, for only one naga was left and it was dashing left and right while coming at him with great speed. The naga was dashing towards Griffin with his sword pointed at him, but Griffin jumped out of the way and the naga fell to his doom. Griffin tumbled down to the bottom of the wave and Paul helped him up.
"Paul, where did you get that giant blade?"
"Oh, this? It´s Sskais sword."
"Well that is really big! We better hurry to Kuunavang now." The two weary adventurers finally got to the top of Kuunavang´s tower, and found the giant dragon resting at the top.
"So Elder Rhea wishes for me to take you to the Zaishen Islands?" Paul looked surprised, not only that but also horrified that he was in front of a dragon.
"How did you know that Elder Rhea sent us?"
"Her and I have our own ways of communication. What are you doing?" Paul was climbing on top of Kuunavang.
"Well aren´t you giving us a ride there?"
"I have more important things to do than flying you halfway across the continent of Cantha. I will teleport you on the other hand."
"Well that works too!" The dragon flew up into the sky and soared around the his shrine. Griffin and Paul watched him fly until they noticed something awkward. The sky was starting to turn white. Then the ground started to turn white. Soon everything was white and it all disappeared. Paul and Griffin were standing on a shrine surrounded by nothingness.
"Where are we?" Paul said.
"I have no clue." Suddenly the two of them saw a tan ground. It was sand, and out in the distance there was ocean. The sky started coming in, it was red since the day was almost over. Suddenly people started to appear and stare at them. One of the people walked up to them. He was a young man. He seemed to be about 20, and he wore white robes along with everyone else on the island.
"Who are you and what business do you have here?"
"I am Griffin and this is Paul, we were sent here from the Jade Sea with issues revolving around the Elder´s Insignia. And you might be? . ."
"I am sorry. This is the Zaishen Islands and I am one of the residents. My name is Feliks."

- Written by Muscle Man Paul