Dedicated to all those that have left Vana'Diel...either accidentally or on purpose, permanently or not. And to those that come back ^^ Even if they have to start all over.
The little brown haired mithra stood with her back to the fountain in Windy Woods, pole out, fishing. Her hair was mostly pulled back into a ponytail. Anyone who walked by and got a good look at her would of thought, "Hmmm. Mage." for she not only was wearing a electrum hairpin, a wand was hanging from her belt, she also had a saintly ring, as well as a electrum, winking from one hand. She was also carrying a shield; that marked her as either a red or white mage (it was hard to tell when someone was in fishing gear, as this little mithra was)
She sighed. Something reminded her of a battle that had happened quite some time ago..it had turned out to be a dragon. Only four of that group were still around. The red-headed Mithran warrior, the tall black haired Elvaan monk, and the little pointy-headed Taru who had been a black mage at the time (he liked the way of the white mage better; but two white mages for that fight just would not do). The second black mage (a tall hume; he'd slept the dragon) had vanished after leaving her and her brother a lot of gil and equipment; the nice Hume red mage who had silenced the eye monster had also disappeared, but he had left no word or anything. She wondered what had happened to him...
She pulled in her bait (the fish weren't biting; drat those moat carp), and made another cast. Just as the bait hit the water, SOMETHING bowled her over and she fell into the moat. She managed to save her pole, but once she got out she discovered three moat carp in her clothing, and one was biting on her tail (something that later when she wasn't so annoyed she found quite amusing!). There was a brown haired young Hume standing there, as if he'd stopped in a hurry. He looked to be about seventeen or eighteen. He had a familiar look about him somehow... was he that red mage?
"Poor kitty!" he said, and got the fish off her tail, then petted the tail. The mithra couldn't stay annoyed; the boy was kinda cute. But he also really looked like that red mage, somehow...tho now he was in the gear that all new Hume adventurers wore. Not only that he seemed to be a VERY new adventurer, one who'd just gotten his license.
He wrinkled his nose at the smell of wet leather from her boots. "Goodness, Sivara would laugh at this one...leather don't dry that quick. I'm sorry!"
The mithra's eyes widened. There was only a few people that would've known about that incident where Sivara dumped the red mage into the fountain in Bastok Markets. She'd only seen it out of the corner of one eye while she ran to talk to her moogle for the umpteenth time before things got started, but...it had to be!
"Ka-Karlinn? Is that you?!" she sputtered.
"The one and only, ye White Mage!" he said with a grin.
"What in Altana's name happened to you to get ya into this state, ye Red Mage?!" she asked. It was worth a try.
"Uh, you know that cave in the back of the ruins?" he said.
"Yeah?"
"Some yags kinda jumped me, next thing I knew I was in a void. When I got out..well, THIS had happened, so I have to start all over." He frowned.
The little mithra White Mage nodded. "I know the feeling. With me, the void hit me when I was behind the twinkle tree..next thing I knew, I was just a newbie white mage again. I found that I had a totally different face than I had back then. Not only that, some of my friends were gone..." She shook her head sadly. It wasn't something she talked about often, since she hated the fact she had lost almost everything at the time. The knowledge of a lot of spells, her gear (even tho it hadn't been very good at the time), some gil...the only thing she'd been able to take with her was the experiences she had gained going though it the first time. And how to make herself better the second time around.
"Aww. I didn't know, Elizara..." he said. He patted her wet tail again.
"It's alright, Karlinn. Just not somethin' ya talk about." Just then she heard a stomach growl. She saw Karlinn put one hand over his belly, and realized what was up. "Darnit. That's easily fixed. Guess fishing's borked today anyway..." She picked up her pail quickly and folded up her fishing rod. "Come with me, ye scamp. I'll go get cleaned up, and get ya something to eat. Just don't follow me into my mog house, those guards can be a bit nasty if you try to get in someone else's mog house."
He smiled and nodded, and they headed to the complex where all adventurers went to go to their mog house. It didn't take her long to find hers.
Just as she came in, her moogle looked up and said, "Kupo-Kupo! Mistress, how did you get so wet when you were just fishing?!"
"Don't ask. Just get my usual gear out, please? I'm gonna take a quick bath."
Her moogle shook its head. "You get yourself in such a mess a lot.."
Elizara shook her head. "Comes of having the results of my cooking lessons blow up in my face. Even tho makin' 'em makes money, I think sometimes that Altana likes to make yag drink get on my clothes a lot. Geesh."
Her moogle shook its head, and got out the gear while Elizara took a quick bath to get the muck of the moat off her. Seer's tunic(which had been made for her by a very nice Paladin who had also disappeared), her erm, red panties (She never called them pants. They were traditonal gear for a Mithra but unfortunately when you didn't wear the top, they looked way too much like panties.), her hard won Mycrophile Cuffs, and her Seer's Pumps. It didn't take her long to get cleaned up and dressed. Unlike a lot of her fellow Mithra, she was not one to go streaking in her undies; her mom had taught her that was bad. Some had found her a bit wierd for that hangup. After she got her other boot on, she asked her moogle, "Do you still have that stuff that nice Beastmaster gave me along with the garlic and hot pepper?"
The moogle nodded. "What do you want that for?"
"Gonna see if I can make a friend a treat."
The moogle clucked its tongue a bit. "It had better not end up on you, kupo!"
Elizara chuckled. "Prolly won't. I just seem to have bad luck with yag drinks sometimes. Don't know why, maybe it's the linkpearl." She took her linkpearl off her fishing gear and fastened it on her seer's tunic. Just then, a rather distinctive voice came on and said, "Elizara? What's going on? I don't see you at the bridge..."
She said to the pearl, "Just got knocked in the moat, I'm ok. You wouldn't believe who did the knocking..."
Several voices on the shell said, "Who? Who?"
"Karlinn, somehow he got newbied." She groaned.
"Wha?..can't be."
"Oh yes it can Sivara, when he mentions you tossing him in the fountain..."
"Oh..I think I'm gonna get him..."
She sighed, picked up a fire crystal she'd gotten when she had been training herself as a thief earlier (it wasn't her thing, but she had gotten strong enough in that job so she could use it to help her farm when such things were necessary) and went out the door. Karlinn was waiting on the mog house steps. She brought one finger to her lips, then gathered together her ingredients in one hand (cockatrice meat, wild onion, garlic from somewhere in Mhuara, and a bunch of hot peppers from the homeland of the Mithra), picked up the fire crystal with the other and concentrated. The ingredients floated in the flame, and a delicious smell rose from there. The synth finished, and six mithkabobs landed in her gloved hands.
She offered him a couple. "Go right ahead while they're still a bit hot. Oh and look out..."
He chomped on one and said, "Hm?"
"There's a certain mithra on the way, and I think she's in a pouncing mood..."
He continued to eat, but he looked around warily. Elizara doubted he'd notice; Siv had a lot more thief training than Elizara and could move pretty darn quietly if she wanted to, even if she liked the warrior's path better and wore heavy armor that should make a lot of noise. Elizara detected the footfalls just a split second before it happened. A red-headed blur jumped from the bottom of the stairs, and pounced on the red mage with a "RAWR!!", knocking him over. He barely managed to save his lunch. "AAAARGH!" he yelled.
Elizara giggled, but the whole thing made her wish she wasn't one of the twice-born. I've lived two lifetimes, had two lives., she thought. She sighed silently. There were very few in the world that had her problem; some of them she knew. Firemyst, Golddess, Citizen...they existed. No one liked to talk about what had happened. And now...some disappeared, some had to start over, some disappeared forever and never returned, but that was the price you paid for being an adventurer. Elizara shook herself quickly; there was no use dwelling on it. What was done was done, and why such things happened only Altana knew. But then again, she had more friends now, ones that weren't from her first life..
Someone familiar came on the linkshell, yawning. "Rawr! What's going on?"
Elizara muttered to the pearl, "Someone's come back. Remember that red mage? He's been newbied but it's him!"
There was a cry of surprise, and a "I'm coming!" from the pearl. It wasn't long before Linmayu came out of the mog house complex. Sivara, who had been talking to Karlinn softly, went up to the monk, and they started whispering in each other's ears for a moment. From what little Elizara caught, she thought it was something serious. Karlinn was a bit puzzled too. Elizara went up to him and whispered in one ear; "Dunno what those two are up to. It's serious tho." She shrugged. He nodded.
Siv then clearly said, "Lin, allow me." She touched her linkpearl, it glowed, and a new linkpearl fell into Sivara's hand. She placed the new linkpearl to CurseTheYagudo into Karlinn's hand. He looked at Sivara with surprise. Elizara elbowed him. "Put it on, silly!"
Karlinn did, and as she heard Sivara tell him the rules of the shell, she smiled. Hopefully she would never have to go though all this again. Being born twice was just..too much. Hopefully when she retired from adventuring, it would be peacefully, not vanishing like some had, and just live the rest of her life out. She hoped so. Yet.. sometimes you could find a old friend at the weirdest of times. Even when you were just trying to catch some moat carp to sell. She smiled quietly.