FFI--The Beginning

As the four youths stepped into Castle Cornelia's top floor, they all wondered what the king would want with them. However, with the guards in front of them, they couldn't talk amongst themselves to see why. Only one of them had half the courage to ask, but he kept his mouth shut.
Upon arrival, the guards stepped away. The four youths were a little mismatched; One was tall, had dishwater blond hair, dark blue armor dabbed with horns on it. His helm was that of a dark blue shade, too, with yellow horns that were two lengths of his head protruding from the top, and he bore a scarf-cape hybrid around the neckhole of his armor the same color as his horns. His blue eyes wandered up to the king as he and his commrades bowed.
Another had green and black clothing, blond hair tied in a ponytail and little bangs peeping out from behind his green cap. His usually sneaky-looking brown eyes were now huge, due to his tension. This was the one that wanted to ask what business the Cornelian king had with them.
The second to youngest was also the only female. She wore white robes with red triangles along the bottom hemline and the openings of her sleeves. Her brown hair (which was streaked with blond) peeped out from behind her hood, which also had red triangles on its brim.
The youngest had on blue robes and a pointed hat with a wide brim that covered his face. His big glowing yellow eyes peered at the royal court from under his giant hat, as did his white bangs.
At last the king spoke. "I trust that these are the youths you asked me to bring?" he asked the guard to his left.
The youths' attentions turned to the guard that was on their right. "That is so," the guard answered.
With a nod, the king stood. "Arise, young ones," he ordered gently, "and tell me who you are."
The eldest-the one in the dark blue armor-rose. "I am Akira Souma," the man answered, "and I am a warrior."
The green and black clad one rose afterwards. "Kinki Adelle," he stated, "Thief."
This earned him an uneasy stare from the court. Kinki explained, "I only steal from my enemies, and trust me, Your Majesty, Cornelia is no enemy of mine, nor any Cornelian allies."
The girl stood. "Bianca Yukishiro, White Mage," she stated.
The youngest man rose last. "Cici Nero," he said in almost a child-like voice, "Black Mage."
"Thank you," the king answered, sitting again. "I have come to ask you four a favor. My daughter, Sarah, has been taken by our best knight, Garland."
Now the youths were staring at him. They tried to hide their astonishment, because who could stare at a king in such a manner and keep his or her head?
"You have heard of him, I trust?" the king inquired.
"Only little bits of his background," Akira answered, "and what little we have heard, we do not know if they are true or false."
"Ah. Young ones, I request that you rescue Sarah. Garland has taken her to the Old Chaos Shrine in the northwestern part of this island. Do you think you can accomplish this?"
They seemed hesitant. "We may try," Cici responded. "But I'm not certain we can guarentee some of us will live."
"You have obviously heard the rumor that Garland doesn't go easy on people who are 'new at it', as he says about fighting."
The four nodded.
"Then I suggest that you grab the best equipment you can get," the king suggested, "so you may best Garland with ease."
Again, they nodded, but it was Bianca who spoke. "Of course, it will not be cheap," she stated as she rose her left hand. A shard of red glass-like material fell out of her sleeve.
The king and his chancellor stared at it as she picked it back up. "Sorry," she stated sheepishly. "This silly thing tends to fall out a lot. I'm seriously considering getting some other way of carrying this around."
The court paid no heed to her words, however, and only stared at the thing that fell out of her sleeve. "That shard..." the chancellor began. "Could it be...?"
"Perhaps," the king responded. To the boys he asked, "Do the rest of you have something like what Yukishiro-san does, except possibly in a differing shade?"
Akira realized what he was talking about. "Why, yes, sir," he answered as he reached into the front part of his scarf. He, too, soon had a glass-like shard in his hands, but this was of a blue hue, lighter in color than that of his armor and helm.
Cici reached into his hat-Kinki did the same action-and they pulled out two different colored shards. Kinki's was green, like his clothes, and Cici's was almost the same golden brown shade as his hat.
Now the entire court was staring at them. "The shards of the crystals!" The chancellor probably intended to shout this, but he was struck with such awe, it came out just above a whisper.
Confused, Kinki held up his shard. "These things?" he asked.
The king and chancellor nodded. "What you carry with you are important items," the king stated. "Do not lose them! They are vital to your quest later."
I thought this was just a simple rescue mission?? Kinki thought, confused.
"You are the ones prophesized by Lukahn to restore light to the crystals," the king explained. "I think Sarah will explain it to you better than I. You must go now! Do not dawdle! Who knows what Garland is doing to my daughter!?"
Not wasting another minute, they made their way towards the Old Chaos Shrine.

"Shouldn't we get some new equipment first?" Cici wondered.
"Yeah," Kinki agreed, "but just because we could be a part of a legend that's been around longer than us, I don't think that means we're gonna get it for free; much less cheaply."
"He's got a point," Akira agreed. "And we'd better be prepared. I'm certain that judging by the king's words, Garland won't return Sarah without a fight."
"And while we're at it, we'll need a couple spells!" Bianca added. "While Cici and I are mages, we don't have any magic learned at all!"
She was right, for they had 500 Gil to start, and after getting two rapiers, a hammer, the leather armor, and chain mail, that left them with 371 afterwards.
"Do you think we'll have enough left for the spells?" Kinki wondered.
"Well, just to help out a little," Bianca answered, "let's sell this old stuff."
So, they sold Bianca's knife, but that did only help a little; it just earned them 2 Gil.
"That wasn't really worth it, hunh?" Cici asked in a half-rhetorical way.
"Let's see..." Akira muttered doing the math in his head. Looking up to the sky in thought, he said the following half to himself: "Spells here in Cornelia are 50 Gil each. We'll need three spells each for two mages...so 150 times 2 would be...Oh, man, I never was good at math... that totals to...300 Gil total."
This earned him a stare from the others. "Are you crazy?" the mages half-yelled in unison.
"Kinki, I think we'll need a little bit of help here," Akira stated.
"I'm not stealing from innocent people!" Kinki shot back, holding up his hands.
"Who said you had to do that?" Akira smiled at him.
"Oh, you mean monsters and such?"
"Yep."
Now Kinki grinned. "Can do!" he answered with a salute.
"In the meantime," Bianca spoke up, "we'll take the 300 Gil we need and get the spells. Don't get yourselves killed now!"
"And don't go to the Old Chaos Shrine without us!" Cici added. "We don't wanna miss all the fun!"

An hour later, they converged back at the Cornelia Square.
"How much did you get?" Bianca asked the two men.
"Meh, we managed to get about 12 Gil per battle," Kinki answered. "We were attacked by what, four goblins and maybe three of them and a guard version of them every five minutes?"
"If we faced three of them and a guard," Akira continued, "then that gave us 18."
"So, that gives us...wait, how many battles of each were there?" Cici pondered.
"The four goblins were more common, about 9 bouts with them. That's...oh, 108 or something. The other three gave us...uh...54."
"So we have..." Bianca began. She paused and asked, "What's 162 plus 73?"
"Well," Kinki responded, "it definitely lands us in the 200 range."
"We have enough for items now, don't we?" Cici asked.
"Probably a few Potions and two Phoenix Down or something."
"Before I forget," Akira cut in, "what spells did you get?"
"I received Cure, Dia, and Protect," Bianca answered.
"I got Fire, Thunder, and Sleep," Cici told them.
Akira grinned. "Good," he answered. "No doubt we'll run into some undead there."
As they started to go, a voice called out, "Wait, crystal bearers!"
The quartet turned to see the king's chancellor. He looked exhausted and out of breath. He panted, "You left...before the king...managed to...remember something...important."
"Sir, please sit down!" Akira cried, grabbing the man. "I understand you probably ran a long way here, but for what reason?"
"His Majesty said that...if Sarah is returned safely, he will rebuild the bridge connecting this island to the Northern Contienent. The dangers lie farther ahead than the reaches of Cornelia."
"Will it be that hazardous?" Kinki asked.
"Of course."
"How soon did you say you'd return?" Cici asked.
"I could take as much time as I needed."
"Then use some of it to catch your breath," Akira requested.
With that, the chancellor fell over backward. Akira, Kinki, and the mages ran over to his side.
"He's all right," Cici stated. "He's unconscious, but alive."
So, with the reassurance that the chancellor was alive, they ran northwest for the Old Chaos Shrine.

Once in there, they were greeted by the clawed hand of a zombie. Akira stabbed at it out of instinct, but it only laughed.
This is bad...! he thought.
"Dia!" Bianca called out.
A bright light filled the cavern. The zombie flinched, but that didn't work, and it disentigrated.
"Piece of cake," Bianca decided. "And I thought you boys were tough! We'll never rescue Sarah at this rate!"
Akira wanted to say to her, "I intended to do more damage to it than that!", but the words became stuck in his throat.
Kinki grabbed Akira's arm, and pulled him onward towards the center room, where a man clad in layered armor with horns on his head (that went out to the sides of his head compared to Akira's, which stood up straight), speaking softly to a sea-green haired girl.
"Now, my dear girl," he muttered, "you and I shall rule the past...as the king and queen of all bedlam there is!"
"You'll have to run that by us, though," Kinki stated.
The man turned around. "Who are you!?" he yelled.
"We were about to ask you the same, but I can probably guess. You would be Garland, right?"
"How did you know!?" Garland demanded.
"We have inside info, pal."
"I don't care about that! This girl has the potential to be the queen of entropy, and I won't let you stop that! I, Garland, will knock you down!"
With that, he jerked out a giant sword with a red handle, and swung it at the thief, who nimbly jumped out of the way.
Akira threw his shield foreward at Garland, whacking the older man upside the head, but he quickly flipped himself back up. "Nice try," he stated.
"FIRE!" Cici called out suddenly.
The spell didn't really hit Garland, but his sword, which caused him to drop it.
Kinki jumped in, and snatched up the sword carefully so he wouldn't touch the blade nor the burned handle. He quickly doused the fire, and ran back, attacked Garland with his own weapon, and this caused him to suddenly disentigrate with a noise that sounded like a groan and a scream combined.
"What a horrid sound!" Bianca cried.
The girl that Garland was talking with earlier stirred and groaned softly.
"Princess Sarah!" the group cried.
The girl sat up, and held her head in her hand. "Wh...where...?" she began before being helped to her feet by Akira.
"You're safe now," he told her. "We've gotten rid of Garland for you."
The girl looked down, but she answered, "Thank...you. I wish...I knew your names."
"I'm Akira Souma."
"The name's Kinki Adelle."
"My name is Bianca Yukishiro."
"They call me Cici Nero."
The girl looked up. "I am Princess Sarah of Cornelia," said she.
The gang looked at one another and nodded. This was the girl that the king requested them to bring back.
"Should we bring her back now," Bianca asked, "or wait for her to regain her senses?"
Sarah smiled. "I appriciate your concern," she told them, "but I'm feeling fine. Garland created some last-minute knockout gas when I began to protest against what he was going to do."
"Who wouldn't protest against it?" Cici asked.
"I haven't the faintest notion," Sarah responded. "I must return the favor for you rescuing me some way or another!"
"Let us get you back to Cornelia first," Akira told her. "Your father's worried about you."

Once back in Castle Cornelia, Sarah embraced her father.
The king turned to the little band. "I don't know how I can repay you," he told them. He then remembered his promise from earlier. "Oh, wait!" he stammered. "Yes, I do! I must rebuild the bridge to the north, as I promised."
Sarah handed a lute to Kinki. "This may prove useful later," she said, "so don't lose it."
"All right," Kinki answered.
Though, I fail to see how, he thought.
"Go on, crystal bearers!" the king urged. "Go, and cleanse the world from darkness! Fulfill the prophecy, and restore the world's light!"
Sarah looked at the crystal bearers in disbelief as they walked off, and looked at her father. "These are the ones Lukahn prophisized would save the world when darkness threatened to overwhelm it?" she asked.
Her father nodded.

"Wait!" a voice called to the gang once they reached the porticulis.
They turned to see the chancellor, but he didn't run to them this time. Instead, he walked on calmly to them.
"I trust you've recovered now?" Akira asked.
"Yes, and I have a piece of information to share with you. The dancer in the square, she overhears all kinds of information. Talk to her if you're lost."
The four looked at each other. "Should we trust her?" Kinki asked.
We wondered the same with you, the chancellor thought. Aloud, he answered, "She has been informed of your deeds, starting with carrying the crystals, then defeating Garland and rescuing Sarah. She has been told to tell you things vital to you."
"Thank you, sir," the four stated, bowing to the chancellor.
They soon departed for the Northern Contienent.

Upon arrival, Cici suddenly ran farther upwards.
"Hey!" Bianca cried.
"Cici!" Kinki called.
"Where are you going!?" Akira shouted.
"The elder Red Mage, Matoya," Cici began, "she has lost her crystal eye."
"How'd you...?"
"I checked with the dancer before we left. She said something about poor Matoya-san. We need to help her!"
"How?" Kinki asked. "We don't even know what it looks like!"
"We'll see if we can't find it later," Akira told the Black Mage. "Right now, we need to do...something." He was stunned he couldn't think of anything.
Bianca suddenly whipped her head in a southeastern direction. "Wait!" she cried.
"What's going on?" Cici asked.
"I...I swear, I heard a scream!"
The boys ran over to her. "Where at?" Akira asked.
"Down that way!" She pointed in the direction she was looking at.

When they arrived, they saw a man in a black, floppy hat swung a hooked hand at them, and held it up to Akira's throat.
"Ye'd better back outta here," he snapped, "lest ye wanna go through the most hellish experience ye ever been through!"
"I think we've been through worse," Kinki responded calmly, lowering the hook.
"Oh? Who are ye, t'say that?"
"I'm not sure if you'd care."
The pirate turned around. "Boys, we got some intruders here!" he called. "Get ridda them!"
The four found themselves quickly surrounded by nine pirate lackeys. They had green bandanas, no hair at all, stained white shirts, and breeches colored the same as their headbands.
"Okay," Kinki muttered, "we can do this."
"How!?" the other three hissed.
"Cici, you'll knock them out, Bianca, you'll have to protect us, 'cause Dia ain't gonna do squat. Akira, help me here!" He immidiatelly launched in a panther-like movement towards the one facing him.
Akira found himself with a sword with a curved blade to his throat, and beady brown eyes leering him. Akira smiled, surprisingly, and stated, "Sayōnara, sucker!" and stabbed the man in the side.
Kinki swiped his daggers at one of them, which easily knocked the left on out of his hand. "A little help!" he cried.
"Nighty night!" Cici chirped.
They suddenly fell over. Bianca bashed one upside the head with a hammer, while Cici stabbed the other in the leg, and threw him way a ways away.
"Alley oop!" Kinki crowed, shoving his hand on the back of the heads of one of the sleeping pirates. He snatched his other dagger just as the pirate woke up, but too late; Kinki jabbed his eyes out. He thew the other one out to sea to join the one Cici had thrown earlier.
Akira shish-kabobed three of them, and threw them off, along with the one Bianca bashed on the head earlier.
That just left three of them. Akira stabbed one and threw him off. Kinki kicked one up into the air and then away. Bianca bashed another's brains out, and threw him off too.
They then turned to the pirate that launched the attack earlier.
He backed up. "Eh..." he began.
"What happened to the 'hellish expecrience', hunh?" Akira asked.
"Look, ye can forgive a crazy old man, can't ye?" the man asked.
The others looked at each other.
Now the pirate stated, "Oh, don't worry, I'll pay ye back for almost killin' ye. Look, I'll give ye me ship! How about that?"
The four crystal bearers looked up to the sky in thought. They then huddled together to decide what to do.
"We do need to get around here," Cici stated. "And some places we can't get to by foot."
"Good point," Kinki agreed. "But, what about the pirate guy?"
"I say we spare him," Akira answered. "If we kill him, we'd be no better than him."
The four nodded, and turned to the pirate.
"We accept your offer," Bianca told him.
"But what are ye gonna do with me?" the man asked.
"We're sparing you," the crystal bearers responded in unison.
"Righto. You'll find that my ship is off the docks below this town."
"Where are we, anyways?" Kinki asked.
"Pravoka, the port town of the Northern Contienent."
"Thank you," the four youths answered.

"I think it's time to update our magic again," Cici spoke up.
"As the same with our equipment," Akira agreed, now looking at his sad excuse of a rapier. The majority of the blade had been sliced off, leaving only a tidbit of the crooked part and the handle.
"I dunno why I bothered with this thing," Kinki muttered, looking at his destroyed rapier. He took another glance at his bent up daggers. "And these were a family heirloom, too."
"Who said that you had to use them?" Bianca asked him. "A guy once said 'Use brings about wear, tear, and rust'. Although, he was talking about a gigantic sword that was as kinda tall as he was...Oh, well, I'm sure the same thing applies to any weapon."
"Okay, then. Akira, why don't you go with Bianca and get some spells. I'll go with Cici and get some armor, and maybe sell this old stuff. Although, I doubt we'll get much."
So, accompanied by Bianca, the two purchased the spells Invisible, ShockResist, and Silence.
Meanwhile, Kinki and Cici sold the broken rapiers, and purchased an odd looking sword with a curved blade, much like the one the pirate lackeys used earlier.
"I think this thingamajig is called a Scimitar...?" Cici's thought trailed off.
"Yeah." Kinki answered. "Hey, go ahead and find the spells you need without me, I need to make another purchase."
"Okay..." Cici answered uneasily as he walked off.
Cici caught sight of Bianca and Akira walking out of the white magic shop.
"What'd you get, Bianca?" Cici asked.
"Invisible, ShockResist, and Silence," she responded.
"Got it."
"They recommend these spells for black mages such as yourself," Akira told him, handing the young black mage a slip of paper.
Cici perused it for less than a minute, and answered, "Got it."
"Hey, where's Kinki?" Bianca asked.
Akira muttered with a scoff, "Knowing that man's reputation, he's probably gotten himself in trouble." as he crossed his arms.
"Nah," a male voice answered. "I wasn't out searching for trouble. Instead, I was finding a better weapon for you, Akira." Kinki presented Akira silver, gleaming broadsword with a handle wrapped numerous times in a medium blue ribbon.
"Uh, thanks...?" Although embarassed, Akira appriciated the offer. He gingerly took the broadsword in his hands.
"Let's go!" an impatient Cici cried as he ran back, "I'm getting worried about Matoya-san! Who knows what could be happening to her!?"
The others turned, shocked that Cici had made it back so quick.
"Did you find them?" Akira asked.
"Yep," Cici answered. "Now, we need to get to Matoya-san! If she remains like this for long, she could get seriously hurt!"
"Cici, who is Matoya, anyways?" Akira asked.
"Yeah," Kinki agreed. "I'm a thief; I'm supposed to know about everybody, but even I don't know about this 'Matoya' you keep talking about."
"She's an elder Red Mage who lives in a cave way way way north of here. She's blind, and needs a crystal eye to see. She lost it to some dark elf named Astos, somehow. The details aren't too deep, but that's just the basics."
The two blinked. "You learned all this," Akira began, "from a possibly ill-informed dancer!?"
"She's not ill-informed!" Cici shot back. "You heard the chancellor!"
"Boo!" Bianca shouted suddenly.
With a yelp, all three boys turned to face her.
Akira set his hand over his heart. "Oh God, Bianca," he moaned, "don't do that!"
Bianca giggled. "Sorry, boys," she laughed. "However, I was out getting some more items for us; after all, we never did buy those Phoenix Downs like we pledged we would."
The boys exchanged glances. "Then, where to now?" Kinki stammered.
"I vote we see this 'Matoya' Cici keeps talking about," Akira suggested.
With a nod, they set sail for the Cornelian port (although getting attacked by sharks, Sahagins, and bucchaneers in the process), and rested up temporarily. That's when they set for Matoya's Cave.

Matoya Rosso was no Red Mage like Cici and the dancer thought she was; Matoya was witch. But, she claimed that she was a Red Mage in her youth, which was a little over 20 years ago. She'd lost her eyesight in battle when a Sahagin got the bright idea to jab it out. She now had short, mouse brown hair that was shot through with grey. She wore Red Mage robes and a red witch's hat, and had bruises on her knees from bumping into random things.
"Ouch!" she yipped. "I can't see a blasted thing anymore since that damned Astos pilked me of my crystal eye!"
Kinki slapped his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing, and this in turn received him a slap on the back of his head from both Akira and Cici.
"Stop laughing!" Cici hissed. "If you were in Matoya-san's situation, you wouldn't find it very funny!"
"He's right, Kinki," Akira agreed, "so if you could please keep your mouth shut, that'd be the most helpful."
Kinki sighed, but did nothing more.
"What can we do?" Bianca asked.
"I say we find it!" Cici declared bravely in a hushed whisper.
"Find what?"
"You know! The crystal eye!" Cici attempted not to shout, as so not to startle Matoya, however, aggitation was becoming clear in his voice.
"Then, let's not waste any time!" Akira answered. "Does that dancer know where this 'Astos' could be?"
"...Didn't check with her on that."
"Then, that's the most important thing to do right now."
So, they departed back to Cornelia.