ficsnip: Deja Vu (VS), beginning
Okay, so maybe I lied about being unable to write. o.O Well, more or less. Still can't write things that I want to write, but I'm not completely dead, yet.
Beginnings of a Vagrant Story thing that I got the idea for a long time ago.
***
The wine cellars were filled with eerie noises, howls and whimpers and unholy shrieks. Wild animals, Ashley told himself; these cellars were no longer in use by their human owners, and so wild beasts had nested, taken it for their own. Nothing strange about that. And the cold breeze on his neck was just from cracks in the masonry-- He took a firmer grip on his scimitar, and stepped forward.
There was a chest, perhaps stored by people who meant to come back to it later, and never did. From the layer of dust on top of the lid, the chest had been there for a long time, and would be there longer still, unnoticed. It was not locked. Ashley knelt and opened it, and looked at the contents for a moment before taking them. There was an axe, still sharp-- he tucked the scimitar away for later use. Armor, and a shield, all of which he strapped on. Herbs, vera and cure bulbs, fresh enough; he nibbled at one of the cure bulbs, and it had the usual peppery flavor and rush of energy, so he tucked the rest away, and moved on.
The next room held a bat, shrieking with rage at Ashley's intrusion. It wasn't all that terrifying; the dragon that Losstarot had summoned, for all that it was wounded and half dead, had been harder. Ashley barely paid any attention to it as he swung the axe, intercepting its dive towards him and killing it with one stroke. It shrieked again and, wings collapsing, plummeted to the floor, where it--
--vanished.
Ashley stared. There was not even a drop of blood to mark its passing, nor a body. He took a sharp breath. So, he thought. Was this a trick of Lea Monde? The wine cellars were not in the city proper, but the stories...
He steeled himself, and moved on. Bodies that disappeared were unnatural, to be sure, but hardly something he needed to concern himself about.
As he moved through the wine cellars, keeping a mental map of where he had been, he slowly began to relax. Aside from a handful of Crimson Blades, either left behind to guard the path to Lea Monde or deliberately sent to stop him, there was nothing other than the wild beasts that one might expect: wolves and bats, creatures of darkness that had made this place their home.
It was all very straightforward, and simple enough for a Riskbreaker.
And then he saw the minotaur.
It was huge, easily several times his height, and *impossible*; such things should not exist. (...neither should dragons, whispered a part of Ashley's mind, nor floating cloudstones.) Its weapon was such a size as to kill him without effort, if it caught him wrong. But Ashley had not been trained as a Riskbreaker for nothing. Even as his mind gaped, protesting at the unreality of it, his body was moving, rushing forward, and then diving into a roll to dodge a swing from the huge mace. The minotaur had the advantage of size, but Ashley had speed on his side, and training. In short order, the minotaur was bleeding-- its weapon had caught Ashley a nasty blow on the arm that had bruised it badly, but had done no lasting damage-- and, finally, it staggered, dying, and disappeared into shadow.
This time, Ashley barely blinked. He had grown too used to the strange rules of Lea Monde; and he was, after all, a Riskbreaker.
The minotaur had left no body and no blood, but there was something there, left behind in its dying: a sigil, an ornate disc-shaped carving of a chamomile flower, made of something like bone, so thin as to be almost translucent. Ashley's hand tingled as he picked it up. Magic, then; a sigil, to unlock the door he had come across earlier? Thoughtfully, he tucked it away, and looked to see what other treasures the creature had been guarding.
ETA: Previously-written (lathough later-in-the-fic) parts here, for my own reference
Beginnings of a Vagrant Story thing that I got the idea for a long time ago.
***
The wine cellars were filled with eerie noises, howls and whimpers and unholy shrieks. Wild animals, Ashley told himself; these cellars were no longer in use by their human owners, and so wild beasts had nested, taken it for their own. Nothing strange about that. And the cold breeze on his neck was just from cracks in the masonry-- He took a firmer grip on his scimitar, and stepped forward.
There was a chest, perhaps stored by people who meant to come back to it later, and never did. From the layer of dust on top of the lid, the chest had been there for a long time, and would be there longer still, unnoticed. It was not locked. Ashley knelt and opened it, and looked at the contents for a moment before taking them. There was an axe, still sharp-- he tucked the scimitar away for later use. Armor, and a shield, all of which he strapped on. Herbs, vera and cure bulbs, fresh enough; he nibbled at one of the cure bulbs, and it had the usual peppery flavor and rush of energy, so he tucked the rest away, and moved on.
The next room held a bat, shrieking with rage at Ashley's intrusion. It wasn't all that terrifying; the dragon that Losstarot had summoned, for all that it was wounded and half dead, had been harder. Ashley barely paid any attention to it as he swung the axe, intercepting its dive towards him and killing it with one stroke. It shrieked again and, wings collapsing, plummeted to the floor, where it--
--vanished.
Ashley stared. There was not even a drop of blood to mark its passing, nor a body. He took a sharp breath. So, he thought. Was this a trick of Lea Monde? The wine cellars were not in the city proper, but the stories...
He steeled himself, and moved on. Bodies that disappeared were unnatural, to be sure, but hardly something he needed to concern himself about.
As he moved through the wine cellars, keeping a mental map of where he had been, he slowly began to relax. Aside from a handful of Crimson Blades, either left behind to guard the path to Lea Monde or deliberately sent to stop him, there was nothing other than the wild beasts that one might expect: wolves and bats, creatures of darkness that had made this place their home.
It was all very straightforward, and simple enough for a Riskbreaker.
And then he saw the minotaur.
It was huge, easily several times his height, and *impossible*; such things should not exist. (...neither should dragons, whispered a part of Ashley's mind, nor floating cloudstones.) Its weapon was such a size as to kill him without effort, if it caught him wrong. But Ashley had not been trained as a Riskbreaker for nothing. Even as his mind gaped, protesting at the unreality of it, his body was moving, rushing forward, and then diving into a roll to dodge a swing from the huge mace. The minotaur had the advantage of size, but Ashley had speed on his side, and training. In short order, the minotaur was bleeding-- its weapon had caught Ashley a nasty blow on the arm that had bruised it badly, but had done no lasting damage-- and, finally, it staggered, dying, and disappeared into shadow.
This time, Ashley barely blinked. He had grown too used to the strange rules of Lea Monde; and he was, after all, a Riskbreaker.
The minotaur had left no body and no blood, but there was something there, left behind in its dying: a sigil, an ornate disc-shaped carving of a chamomile flower, made of something like bone, so thin as to be almost translucent. Ashley's hand tingled as he picked it up. Magic, then; a sigil, to unlock the door he had come across earlier? Thoughtfully, he tucked it away, and looked to see what other treasures the creature had been guarding.
ETA: Previously-written (lathough later-in-the-fic) parts here, for my own reference