So, after Kari and I got off the pirate ship, we came to the nearest town that we could find. It's a coastal town called Aoi-Umi. For me, it's a very nice town, and I don't think Kari finds it all that bad either. Not only was there a nice inn that we stayed at for the rest of the night, but in the day there are great restaurants with even better food! Sure, the beaches and the waters are nice and all, but the best part about the sea is the seafood!
"Gee..." Kari mutters. I look up at him and acknowledge, though my mouth is kinda' full. Mmm, this shrimp is good! "Yeah Kari? What?" He pauses and I wonder. Soon enough, he comes out with it. "... you sure do eat a lot, for a little girl." I cock a brow, "Excuse me? I'm not a little girl!" Kari smiles. For gods' sake; I could swear that that is the fourth time I have told him that! I look back at him. He starts yapping again, "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were a guy." I grit my teeth and scowl. I feel like biting his head off for that comment, but everyone deserves a second chance, or a third, or a fourth... or a fifth...
Kari keeps eating, but he then slides a saucer of soup over to me, "Here, you want this?" I smile and hold a hand up, shaking my head no. "Oh no, thanks. I'm stuffed, see?" I point to my belly, which is slightly bulged. How embarrassing, heh. Kari seems wowed, though. "Whoa. Now your chest looks even smaller," he tells me. I grit my teeth and glare. He just had his last supper, "You're gonna get it now!" As I reach for Kari, an old man walks into the place. He looks a bit distressed, and I wonder if something happened outside. He seems to notice me. I act like I'm not paying attention, like I'm too busy shaking Kari by the collar, but that does me no good. He walks over to the side of my chair and coughs. I look aside and down at him, "Um... can I help you?" The old man speaks up after coughing again, "Yehess, if you are who I think you are." I raise a brow and just 'uh-huh', letting Kari go and taking my seat. I cross my legs and nod to the old man. "Keep talking..." I say. The old-timer does what I say and keeps going, "My name is Geoff and I was just wondering if you, by any chance, happened to be the bandit killer, the dragon spooker, Rina Erris."
Kari looked at me, "You're famous?" I ignored Kari for the moment and thought. Dragon spooker? What's that? "I'm fine with this 'bandit killer' stuff, but what do you mean by dragon spooker?" The old man flattens his brows and answers my question honestly, which is unfortunate for him. "It means dragons step-past-out-of-clear-revulsion." My eyes flash and I stand up, grabbing the chair by its backrest and lifting it over my head. "WHY YOU...!!" "Eeeek!!" The old man shrieks and hides, but just before I'm going to silence him with a severe injury or two, Kari grabs both my wrists, "Take it easy, Rina! He's just a little old man!!" Saying this, he manages to persuade me to let him go. I sit back down and put a hand to my forehead, "Alright, alright. Whaddya want?" The old man regains his compusure and coughs once. "Eheh. Ye-hess... This town has been terrorized by a group of pirates for a while now. We are being blackmailed horribly, and I figured that only the great sorceress Rina Erris could help us out. It's so tragic, boo-hoo!" The old guy puts his face down on his sleeve and sniffles a bit, although I think he's just being a little dramatic. Kari scratches his temple and looks at me. He points and raises his brows. I wonder... "You're a sorceress?"
I slam my face into the table in exasperation. No, not the table. The saucer of soup that Kari had given me. I wipe that off and point to him, gritting my teeth. What an ignorant brick! "You only now notice?! Didn't the outfit give you a clue?!" What he thought I was is beyond me. I will absolutely hurt him if he thought I was a fishmonger or a schoolgirl... "Well I thought you were a schoolgirl... or a fishmonger. One of those," he says. He nods intelligibly, as if he was intelligent. I start toward him. It's lights out, I'm thinking, until something the old man said strikes me. I turn to him and raise a forefinger, both my brows as well. "Wait... were these pirates by any chance Captain Krunj and the Demon Sea Serpents?" The old man pulls his face from his sleeve and nods, "Yes, that is right. You've heard of them?" I smile nonchalantly and sit back in my chair, reclining a little after recrossing my legs. "I've already taken care of them." The man's eyes become wide. He starts exclaiming, "Y-you have?!" My smile turns into a grin. I let myself go now and then, and why not now? "Yep. I took out the captain and most of his crooked crew," I motion to Kari, "and Kari here took out the rest of them." The man jumps, "Thi-this is great news! Oh thank you, Rina! You have saved us! You truly are a great sorceress! I have to let the rest of the town know! Hahahaha!!" He runs out. I am great, aren't I? Rina Erris, the great sorceress who does even greater deeds in the pursuit of justice!
Just when I'm about to bask in the warmth and glory of victory, there's a sudden boom outside the restaurant. Kari hears it too, and we both stand up. I laugh nervously, "Well Kari, I guess that's our cue to leave! Check, please!" Kari pauses and stares upward for a second. He scratches the side of his cheek and asks distantly: "But shouldn't we check out what made that noise?" I'm about to club Kari over the head and drag him out of town when the old man comes running back in, mumbling something along the lines of 'those dirty liars.' I turn to him with question, wondering what's up with him. I get my answer soon enough, even if I didn't ask a question. He points at me accusingly and shouts, "You! YOU LIED TO MEEEE!!" I lied? About what? I smile wisely, "Mister, I don't know what you're talking about." Hey, I'm being honest here! The old man keeps yelling. He should watch his blood pressure... "You said that you had destroyed them all!" But I did! Just when I'm about to say that I did, in fact, destroy them all, the sound of a roar catches my ear. I look at Kari nervously, "Ah, you don't think that that's a--" Kari's face is filled with confusion, but he answers me with the last thing I want to hear, "A what, Rina? A dragon?"
No doubt now. All the panic outside was enough to tell me that it was a dragon alright. Moreover, I don't feel inclined to dealing with it, so I just fold my arms and start out. I motion to Kari, "C'mon, Kari. We're through here!" Kari nods and starts after, "Hey, wait up!" The old man was not so enthusiastic. He clung to my cape and slowed me down. The building itself started to shake. It looks like Mr. Dragon has found the restaurant. "Please, Miss Rina! We beg of you; help us!!" I smile flatly. This could be a lucrative opportunity. "I can help ya' if you make it worth my while. What'll you give me?" The old man looks hopeful and raises two fingers, "We will gladly pay you twenty gold pieces." Hmm. Sounds alright... but cost of living has gone up! "Make it thirty!" The old man gapes and rears back, "That's robbery!" The glass from the skylights comes down with a crash as the dragon continues its rampage. I lean down at him, my hands on my waist, "Pay up or this place is a lumber yard!" The old man comes to a quick decision, "Mmmm... twenty-five!" I grin. I guess that's as much as I'm gonna get. Any more and they would rather fight the dragon with the town militia. "It's a deal." Kari widens his eyes, "You sure drive a hard bargain." I wink at Kari as I start out with him and the old coot behind me, "A girl's gotta live." He mutters something to the effect of "this chick's no girl." No ordinary girl, he should've said!
We run, and we run until we crest the hill. "Ah!" I gape a little, being bumped by Kari and the old man as we awe at the dragon, and what an awesome sight it was. Let me tell you, there's nothing like seeing a dragon with your own eyes. You feel a sort of panic in your heart, but at the same time, a kind of excitement. This dragon is huge; around 70 or so feet long and 40 feet tall. It's a blue dragon, native to the seacoasts and lakes. Still, it can breathe fire all the same. I shake my gaze loose and look down at the old man, "Where did this thing come from?!" The old man looked down and got to explaining, "Well, the pirates' captain had a pet dragon which he had gotten from a festival when he was a child, and he had raised it since it was only an infant. He raised it quite lovingly, which probably explains why it is so large." More debris falls, and I put an arm up to my eyes to block the dust. "That must've been one hell of a festival!" I hear a rumbling nearby. Oh no; the dragon somehow got really close while we were speaking, and was right on top of us, "Kari, heads up! AH!" I dodge off to my right, not looking back. I hear the fwoom of flames soon thereafter.
I look back from where I am, hands and knees against the ground. When the smoke from the flames rushes by me and clears out, I bare my gritted teeth in a sheepish grin at what I see. Kari pokes at the old man, who happens to be deep fried. "Eh-heh. He looks a little burnt out." I stand and look up at the dragon, rubbing my gloved hands together. "Well, here goes nothing!" I open my right hand and its palm heats up with a soft glow. I hold my arms forward and sideways in front of my chest so that both palms of my hands face each other. "Source of all power, light which burns beyond crimson flame; let thy power gather in my hand. Fire... Ball!!" And with that incantation, a ball of flame appears in between my hands. I pull my right arm overhead, reach back, and hurl the sphere at the dragon's head! BOOM!!! "I got him!" I shout. Oh yeeeeah, those 25 gold pieces are as good as mine now! But then, there's a roar, and an agitated one by the sound of it. I look up, and sure enough, as the smoke curled away, the dragon stared right back down at me. I clap my hands together and laugh, masking my disappointment. "Oh well, I gave it my best shot!" I turn halfway and get ready to run, "Let's get out of here--" A blur rushes by me and my mouth hangs slightly ajar, "--Kari?" That idiot! He ran by me and now he draws his sword. He does jump very high... wow. He reaches the dragon's muzzle and swings his sword down at it with great force, but I think he forgot something: dragon scales are extremely hard.
I put my right hand over my eyes. I don't think I can watch; Kari slammed his sword, edge-first, onto the dragon's snout, but that does him no good. I pull my hand from my face, my mouth falling open. Kari's airborne now, and he looks like he's going to land on me. His yelling of 'watch out, Rina!' reassures me and I start to dash, but he apparently lands on me. I'm not sure, since everything is spinning wildly. Soon enough, my gaze is steadied and I'm conscious of my surroundings within 10 seconds. Kari isn't so respondent, and I struggle to get him off. Damn is he heavy! Then again, he is wearing dragon scale armor and is about twice or thrice my size. As I continue to struggle, my gaze wanders. What I see next startles me.
Here I am, laid up with macho man's dead weight crushing me and the blue dragon stomping towards me, err, us! "Kari! Get up, you dumb oaf! We're gonna be pancakes on that dragon's foot if we don't move it!!" He still doesn't respond! We're overshadowed by the dragon's foot... it's over! Is this how a beautiful sorcery genius's life is supposed to end!? NOOO! Losing sight for a second because of my cringing, I wait to get the expected sensation of being painfully crushed underfoot and excruciatingly having every bone in my body powdered by the combined weight of Kari and the dragon... but it never comes. I open an eye and look up at the dragon; it's eyes seem to have gone wide and it makes an agitated, almost nervous, growl. It promptly steps over and continues tromping off, flaming everything in its path. Kari comes to at an untimely moment and annoys me with an unwarranted comment. "Wow. I guess you really are a Dragon Spooker." I kick Kari off of myself and stand up, shouting curses at the dragon while likewise screaming challenges, "How dare you embarrass me like that, you overgrown iguana! I'm gonna make you pay for this!"
The stupid dragon pays me no mind, and I quickly cast a spell. "Levitationnnn!!!" Kari and I are lifted into the air, and he grabs onto my leg, thinking that he will fall. I look down at him and tell him the plan. "Okay Kari, you keep him busy while I cast a spell." He, however, doesn't see the logic behind my brilliant idea, "But Rina--" "JUST DO IT!" I shout and kick him off toward the dragon. Since he still has his sword in hand, he yells and makes a stab for the snout again. This time, he drives it through. Yet, the dragon is only annoyed and starts thrashing its head around. Luckily, Kari holds on. Now it's time for my part of the plan. I land on top of a boulder and raise my hands over my head, crossed over each other at the wrists, closing my eyes. Here goes nothing...
"Darkness beyond twighlight, crimson from blood that flows, buried in the flow of time, is where your power grows. I pledge myself to conquer all the foes that stand, against the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hand--" As I do this, I visualize the spell in my mind. I can feel the heat of the energy in my hands and through my arms, gathering over my head. When I feel the energy charged and ready, I bring it down in front of my body, at eye level with my palms facing upward. I continue the chant until it's finished: "... Let the fools who oppose us be destroyed; by the power you and I posess! Dragon Slave!!!" I let my eyes open. White sparkles in my palm materialize into marbles of light, and then they start to fuse into one larger sphere. I reach out to my side and push the spell out with my full force! A large beam of ruby red energy rips through the air, trailed by white and orange ribbons. The energy hits the dragon, and its dying roar echoes through the countryside as the light of the spell's explosion engulfs the sun's view, finally outshining it.
I land among a rock and raise my hands in victory. "Yay! I destroyed the dragon and saved the town!" Beside me, a rock rolls away and a devastated old man crawls out. I smile sweetly. "Can I have my reward now?!" He doesn't seem so happy. Eh-heh.. I know what's coming next. "Reward? Y-you...?! JUST LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE!!!" he screams and points, and Kari and I look. While I don't show it, I still laugh nervously and in my mind. It seems that a crater has taken up residence where the town was, and ocean water spilling into the crater is making it a bay. I just smile smugly and cross my arms, "Well, you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet." The old man waves his staff, a pack of angry villagers gathering, "Now we'll break you!" I laugh nervously and tap my fingers on Kari's shoulder, "Well, it's been fun! See ya' Kari." I bolt off, and Kari calls out, "Rina! They're gonna kill me! Waaaait!!" And that's how they thank me! Their savior gets chased out of town!! The nerve of them!!!
