Chapter 2: My Name is Alani

In southern Elysia one a rocky bluff overlooking the sea, there sat a young girl of about twenty. She wore simple hunting clothes: a green hooded tunic trimmed a pale green, tan pants, and brown boots. Her hair was a chestnut brown, only slightly darker than her skin, and dyed a dark green at the tips. It was tied back in a ponytail, while her bangs covered half her face. One of her hazel eyes was visible, with the black line and dots signifying her age, 22, rested on her cheek. Her eyes darted back and forth, watching the horizon for any suspicious activity. The sun was still rising as she went to wake her compatriots.

Nestled soundly asleep in their tents were the two men the girl was looking for. She laughed as she looked at the two, twisted in their sheets and drooling over one another. She wondered what she had done to earn herself such goofy retainers, and went to work waking the two up. Standing at the entrance to the tent, she straightened up and shouted, "DRAKE. ALEXIAN. WAKE UP!" With a jolt and a small shout of fear from Drake the two bolted out from under their blankets. From the corner of the tent, a small silver dragon with a face similar to a bat yawned and stretched.

The first to be fully alert and dressed was Drake. Drake was noticeably shorter than Alani by about four inches. He frantically adjusted his red goggles over his messy copper hair as he finished putting his black boots on. His tunic was traditional myrmidon garb, colored in dark green with red striped sides. His pants followed a similar color scheme. With a small flick of his hand, the dragon that previously been napping in the corner was on his shoulder.

As the dragon hopped on Drake's shoulder, Alexian finished preparing himself. He ran his large hands through his spiked black hair and finished putting on his silver armor around his shoulders and chest. The rest of his body was simply covered in a grey tunic and pants with silver colored boots, to keep his movement free. He stood noticeably taller than both Drake and Alani, and three distinct scars were visible over his left eye as the sun shone on his face from the entrance of the tent.

"Sorry to give you all such a rude awakening," Alani chuckled, "But it's time to get moving out. We want to try and get back to the capital by dinner after all." "Torgils? We're trying to get back in one day? According to the map we're only at Puehl Village, it's another two days march without horses. Forgive me for speaking out of place, milady, but I don't think we'll make it today." Alexian responded. "Going traditional trade routes," Alani said, "Then yes, that's a two day march. But, Drake and Wilderwind are familiar with this area," she motioned to Drake and the dragon on his shoulder, "And if he remembers as well as I think he does than I'm sure he remembers that small forest pass between Puehl and Torgils."

Drake reached into a bag in the back of the tent and pulled out a map. The dragon, Wilderwind, held it up as Drake read. "Yep, looks about right to me. Most merchants avoid that area because of the overgrowth and high population of Piccadarries, but with an anima," he motioned to Wilderwind, "We should have no issue fending them off. We should really stop and arm ourselves at Puehl first, I need a blade in my hand already. Next time we're sent on a simple message delivery mission, I want to have my swords with me." "I know Drake, I would've liked to have my bow and I know Alexian wanted his axe, but father was adamant that we make this trip unarmed so we would look like commoners to any Uspalian spies. That's why Alexian had to hide his face and you had to hide Wilderwind after all. We were too conspicuous otherwise.

"Anyway," Alani continued, "We really should be on our way. I see some ships moving into Puehl's port over there and I'd like to get through the village before there's a huge influx of people. Wilderwind?" "Yep!" the small dragon perked up, "What can I do for ya?" "I need you to scout ahead and map out some of our trail while we stock up on armaments." "Can do!" With a flap of his wings, Wilderwind took flight and headed out of the tent "Well?" Alani asked, "Should we head out?" "Certainly milady!" Drake responded, resulting in a dirty look from Alani. "Don't call me that! I hate those formal titles, I'm just Alani, ok?" "Sure thing, 'Just Alani'" Drake chuckled to himself. Alexian softly swatted him on the back of the head. "You're insufferable, you know that?"

The three began their march into Puehl Village, one of Elysia's smallest port towns, all the while watching the ships sailing in off the horizon. "Strange," Drake stated after a few minutes of walking in relative silence, "I don't recognize those sails. They certainly aren't Petrean and they don't match any Elysian banners, no crescent moon insignia." "Probably just merchants from the Bay Kingdoms," Alani replied, "According to the books I read, there's an upward of 20 kingdoms in that area, and they're almost always changing power. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a new revolt and we just haven't gotten word of it yet. Can't really tell from here, the ships are too far off." Alexian merely stared stoically at the ships, eyes narrowing slightly. After another half hour of walking, he spoke up.

"Milday-" "Alani" "-Alani those appear to be pirate vessels. I'd recognize that bow carving anywhere." Alexian said, turning to the others. "Ack!" Drake exclaimed, "If they're pirates, and they're headed straight for Puehl, then the village is in a ton of trouble! We need to step in, and now!" Before the others could say anything, Drake was off in a mad dash for the village. "DRAKE!" Alani shouted after as she began running for him, "YOU'RE UNARMED YOU DAMN FOOL!" Alexian sighed and dashed after his liege and companion.

The three were late when they finally reached the village. The pirates had already landed and had begun wreaking havoc, tipping over stalls, robbing citizens, and putting several structures to the torch. Drake stopped on the edge of town before the pirates saw him, giving Alani and Alexian time to catch up. "So?" he asked, "What's the plan? We're unarmed and one of our country's villages are under attack. I vote we go forth to save the day, however possible." "If we knew where a blacksmith was," Alani replied, "Then we'd be in better shape. I could theoretically dash in and grab what we need. I can't make one out from here!" "…Found it."

Alani and Drake immediately turned to Alexian. "What? How?" Alani asked, confused. "Right there. I was looking while you all were panicking." Alexian pointed to a small shop on the edge of town, not far from their current location overlooking the village. "We could probably reach it without the pirates noticing us." "I've got an idea too!" Drake hopped up excitedly, "Look at how those pirates are operating! They seem to be following orders from that one guy at the edge of the docks there! Thanks to the town's layout, we could probably take him out, sow some chaos, and escape to go get help from Torgils. It's a straight shot along the docks from here to the road we plan to take anyway." Alani grinned. "You two are smarter than you lead on sometimes. Here's the plan, I'll get arms from the blacksmith, and as soon as I'm back we'll get to work taking these guys out. Once we take out the captain there, we make a break for it and get help. We have a plan."

Alani immediately vaulted over the bush they had been hiding behind and made a dash for the blacksmith, Alexian and Drake close behind. She quickly dashed inside while the duo stood guard outside.

"Excuse me? Is there anyone here?" And older, balding man with jet black hair and a grimy green apron hopped up from behind the counter of the small store, wielding a red hot poker. "Back off you filthy heathen! I'll send you to Libera I will! You ain't touchin' crap!" Alani quickly ducked as he took a stab at her. "Sir please! I just need some weapons to help protect the town!" "How do I know you ain't just a filthy theivin' pirate?" Alani sighed and stood up. She lifted the sleeve of her tunic and showed the man the tattoo on her forearm. It was simple, the design of a crescent moon with two quarter circle shapes within done in black ink, dark enough to stand out against her tan skin. "My name is Alani Onyota'aka, I hope this proof here will suffice?" She rolled her sleeve back down as the man turned pale. "My deepest apologies milady, I-" "Alani" "What?" "My name is Alani. You need only address me as that." "My humblest apologies Miss Alani. I will do my best to help you however possible."

At that moment, a thud was heard from outside. Drake poked his head in the door. "If we could get that sword and axe soon that'd be great. Alexian says he's tired of taking these guys out with his hands. Thanks, you're fantastic!" The blacksmith turned to Alani as Drake shut the door. Another thud was heard from outside as the blacksmith spoke. "So you need a sword, and axe, and a bow I presume? You plant to fight too, correct?" "Certainly, I can't leave those two to all the fun after all. Another thud followed by a shout of "Damn Alexian, was that really necessary?" was heard from outside. "I seriously cannot leave them to all the fun." Alani repeated. "Well I happen to have what you need right here. Here, take it and drive those bloody pirates out of here!" Alani took the weapons from the man and thanked him. "I promise I'll get you the bronze needed for this soon, sir!" With that, she ran out and handed her retainers their axes and sword.

"Iron, nice! Better than that bronze practice crap we normally use! Let's get to work!" Drake exclaimed, swinging the sword around in his hand. Alexian merely nodded in thanks. Alani tried not to notice the three beaten bodies by the door as she stung her bow. "Keep me covered," she stated, "I need to have some distance between me and the enemy to shoot, I haven't mastered point-blank yet." With that, the fight began.

Gauging the enemy, Alani noted about six pirates of real threat, including the captain. She made it her goal to ensure that these few were taken down. One that had been pillaging fruit carts along the docks took note of the bodies by the blacksmith's door, and dashed at the three in a rage while swinging his axe. He made a move at Drake, who deftly parried his attack and slashed right back with his own blade. "You should've know better, swords and much more elegant and agile than axes. You're going to have a hard time hitting me!" he said, proudly. Alexian quickly moved in for a follow up, swinging his iron axe down into the enemy's back. "That's the teamwork I like to see!" Alani said with a smile as she shot an arrow into another pirate.

By this point, the five remaining threats had taken notice of the three and had begun making moves to take them down. The captain appeared to take notice of the direction they were heading, and moved to block the path leaving town. Alexian suddenly shouted "MAGE!" Alani looked up just in time to take a fireball to the chest. She quickly hopped back to her feet and brushed herself off, finally catching a glimpse of the red robed pirate holding a red tome standing in front of her. He appeared to be muttering something, and before she noticed what he was saying, another fireball was launched in her direction. With quick thinking, Drake jumped in front of the attack, shouting "I won't let you harm them!" and took the attack head on. Alani panicked for a second, before Drake turned to her with a smile. "I'm pretty good at taking magical hits, remember? Take the shot!" Before the mage could fire off another round at Drake, Alani strung her bow and launched an arrow into the enemy's chest. He flopped over, dead.

Meanwhile Alexian found himself surrounded on both sides by two more pirates. They were landing decent hits, but he was able to shake most of them off. He swung and missed one as another axed collided with his shoulder plate. Taking quick note of the enemy's stance when he swung the first time, Alexian stuck again, this time aiming for the pirate's leg, shouting "I don't miss twice!" He took the pirate down, and quickly rolled to the side to avoid an attack from behind. Drake began moving towards the captain while Alani struck the pirate assaulting Alexian in the back. Taking the momentary distraction provided by Alani to his advantage, Alexian butted the enemy in the chest with the bottom of his axe's handle to knock him over. With another swing, the pirate was done for. All that remained was the captain.

Drake was the first to confront the captain, who laughed upon getting a clear view of the swordsman. He stood there, dressed in fine red robes, his face rough from the years being beaten by the salty sea spray. He brandished a lance proudly. "Well, look at this! A challenger for ol' captain Rosh. I'm hopin' yer not as weak as you look, child, otherwise this won't be much fun." Drake rushed in, sword ready, only to be quickly swatted away by Rosh's lance. Drake stood once again to deliver another attack, only to receive a sharp blow to his side from the lance once more. 'Damn,' he thought to himself, 'I need to be careful, lances have a hell of a range when compared to my sword. I don't think I can land a solid hit.' As he stood once more to attack again, he heard a whistling sound from behind him as he watched an arrow barely graze Rosh. Seeing his opportunity, Drake lunged forward, shouting "Spotlight's on me!" His attack connected with Rosh's side, obviously dealing a good bit of damage. However, Rosh still stood, and once again jabbed at Drake with his lance, only barely missing.

Alani shouted behind her as she shot off another arrow, "Alexian! We need you NOW!" Alexian quickly made a move over to Rosh's position, but wasn't quite able to make it before Drake took another lance to the side. Drake was noticeably hurt and exhausted by this point, and Alexian knew this next move was all or nothing. He swung with his axe and brought it down on the captain's lance with a cry of "Get out of my way!" Alani quickly followed up from behind, shouting "I will make my people proud!" With an arrow directly to his chest and a broken lance, Rosh was finally taken down. Silence followed.

Suddenly, cheers erupted from the citizens that had been hiding from the pirates as the remainder of the crew took note of the situation. The remaining few quickly reconvened as villagers took up broken bottles and stones and began chasing them back to their ship. The crew made an attempt to escape, but not before a man chucked a flaming bottle of ale onto the deck of the ship. It sailed off into the horizon, alight in a glorious blaze and villagers cheered and congratulated the man who threw the bottle. When they turned to finally thank the three who led the charge, they were nowhere to be found.

Alani, Drake, and Alexian were much further along the trail leaving town before anyone had noticed they had left. They dashed to the point they were able to find Wilderwind, who had been leaving marks on trees for them. They stopped to rest once they had reconvened, Drake finally taking the opportunity to chug a vulnerality and heal his wounds. Sarcastically, Wilderwind asked "So, how was the little party down there? Looks like you all had fun." Drake shot him a dirty look.

"I'm not sure where those pirates even came from. I thought for sure the Elysian navy was patrolling this coast for that kind of activity. This area hasn't had a pirate problem in years! And, to top it all off, why attack Puehl of all places? They aren't even particularly notable in this area, not like Sickle Bay up the coast," Alani said, panting. "They were Uspalian." "Uh, what Alexian?" Drake asked, confused. "They were Uspalian. Their flags had a scale on them." "Seriously, nothing gets past you does it?" Wilderwind stated, surprised, "If you're right we things just got a hell of a lot harder for everyone." Alani stood up and immediately began running down the path once again. "Hey! Where are you going? Milady!" Drake attempted to stand, but fell over due to his wounds.

"I'm going to Torgils, someone has to let Raginmund know! War is about to start and we have to be ready for anything!

"And my name is Alani!"