The Furball

Our hearts were rushing, and me and Renomus could both feel the adrenaline rush through our veins. Our feet was starting to ache really bad, but we had no time to sit down and rest. I estimated that we had two alliances of quadavs pursuing us, so getting away would be rought at best. We tried desperately to put on a brave face, but we both realized the predicament we were in. This could turn out to be a bloody mess, but I wouldn’t go down without a fight.

We had been running for about one and a half hour by now, and the pace was pretty consistent. It was still next to pitch black, but Renomus followed me closely as I rushed through the meadows. There were a few large rocks here and there, but we were able to evade them somehow. But, we realized that Renomus’ small tarutaru body would eventually slow us down considerably. Running and climbing had always been something I was very good at, although I’m going to be honest and say I’m not too comfortable with heights — especially getting down from them.

I stopped and waited for Renomus to catch up. We were both huffing and puffing by now, but Renomus seemed to want to continue running. I got down on my knees and asked the taru to get on my back. Renomus blushed and looked away from me, «Like a taru would ever let himself be piggybacked by a mithra» he said. I just snickered and told him to get on so we could get out of here. I think Renomus could hear just as well as I could how near the quadavs were by now. He climbed up on my back and held his arms around me. «Don’t get any funny idea now,» I snickered to him and started running. Although it was a little heavy, it was still not as bad as my Paladin armor. Renomus just sighed dejectedly and pretended that he didn’t hear what I said.

With Renomus now on my back, I couldn’t jump as much or as freely as I could before, but I was still able to run as fast as the wind. The jungles back home had a lot of places to perform various forms training, so it wasn’t the first time I had carried something heavy on my back while navigating my way through the dark. My step mother, Zirah, used to send me off on the most ridiculous farming trips to get whatever she craved for that day. But I digress.

Suddenly I could smell the faint scent of gun powder. I remember reading about how the allied forces used cannons in some of the books in the Windurstian library. Gun powder being a vital part of the cannons inner working, I decided it was worth further investigation. We were now running uphill and it was getting harder and harder to run. «Over there,» Renomus suddenly whispered to me. «Is that a.. tower,» he asked me. «Beats me,&raquo, I answered, «but it looks like it’s been used recently.»

Renomus let go of me and rushed over to see if there were anyone inside the tower, but it seemed that there hadn’t been any activity there for the past few days. I tried to catch my breath again, and poured a bottle of water on my head to cool off.

I looked around, examining the area. I looked to see if there was any good places to hide, but there were no places that would provide us with enough shelter to not be detected by the quadav forces behind us. I tried to listen for a few seconds and heard a familiar sound, but yet again I couldn’t find anything remotely familiar. Everything about this place was so different from what I had ever experienced before.

Renomus patted me on the shoulder, telling me to let him get back on. We continued running south, while trying to stay away from unfamiliar monsters that could get us into any more trouble than we were already in. It was hard, but it was the only way. After about half an hour of running, we found what seemed like a path. There didn’t seem to be any hideous monsters lurking around it, so we made a joint decision to follow it. After awhile it curved and took us west.

We prayed that this path would take us out of here, but we had no idea where it would take us. For all we knew it could lead us to a monster stronghold of some sort, but with no reference or map there we didn’t have much of a choice. Or maybe we did have a reference. We had been traveling south thus far, while being just east of the Konschat Highlands we know so well from the present. The logical place to start looking would be in the western parts of the area, in hopes of finding an entrance into Bastok or Gustaberg.

We had been running for six hours now, and we it finally seemed as if we had lost the alliances that were following us. We couldn’t take any chances though, so we decided to keep going. The sun was about to rise on the horizon, so it was a lot easier to navigate now. Animals and monsters had started to wake up so we had to be a bit more careful now so we wouldn’t walk right into a pack of hounds or an armada of lizards for all we knew.

«Water! I smell water,» I told Renomus. I wasn’t sure if it was an inlet or a river, but I picked up the scent of water not too far up ahead. And surely, there it was. Sparkling water, flowing graciously through the meadows. A bridge had been built to make it easier to cross it, but the river was in no way violent or very fast. It was just so… relaxing. With all the running, we took a few moments to stop and wash our faces, fill up on water and get see if we could find something to eat. There wasn’t any fish in the river, but there were some bunnies running around nearby. I felt really bad about turning them into dinner, but we were tired and needed something to eat.

We packed our things and made sure we didn’t leave anything behind. Since we were traveling along a path now without much elevation, Renomus wanted to run using his own two feet. I didn’t mind, since my shoulders were as tired as my feet. The brief rest did wonders though.

As we continued walking west, we stumbled upon a sign. It pointed in the direction we were headed and clearly stated that we were getting close to Gustaberg. We both cheered in joy of finally having found something familiar after the mess we had just been through. We picked up our pace, and after a good 20 minutes of walking we came to an outpost leading us into the good old Gustaberg.

(too be continued…)

The afternoon sky had a pastel purple and blue color, and all the violent noises in the distant was starting to quiet down somehow. A soothing wind blew across the valley — refreshing and cool.

Me and my good friend Renomus had been traveling all day, and we were starting to get quite weary. We had just discovered a new valley that we had never seen before, and we had no idea what was ahead, so we decided to sit down and rest for awhile. Renomus ran over to a nearby tree and broke a few branches of a tree and came back with them. I put the branches on the ground and put a few rocks around it. The branches was quite dry and looked like they would easily catch fire, so I carefully put my hands on them and started concentrating. However, I was so tired I had a hard time focusing. My companion thought I was taking too long and started summoning Ifrit to finish the job.

«Wait, wait,» I said, trying to calm down the impatient taru a few notches. «Calling out Ifrit here would draw too much attention. And what would you do if we started a wildfire,» I asked the little tarutaru. I guess he was just as tired as me.

«Such a hassle,» Renomus told himself.
«What was that,» I cried out to him. I blushed as I didn’t mean to raise my voice, but having Ifrit make some bushes catch fire is just too much.

I closed my eyes and put my hands back on the branches. I started concentrating again, and thanks to Renomus I could finally draw power out of the surroundings and make a flame. It’s such an easy spell, yet so hard to cast when you are tired after a long day.

Renomus wasn’t satisfied, but he too knew that we didn’t want to get any unwanted visitors to our camp. He summoned Carbuncle though, and the two sat down at the little campfire. We had come across a body of water earlier, and we were lucky enough to get some fish there. I usually carry a bag to hold all the little things a girl could ever need when out on an adventure. Like, ingredients for the next meal, supplies to get safely to places and some makeup too I guess. For today’s supper I wanted to grill some Dark Bass topped with Kazham Peppers and Mithran Tomatos and Mhaura Garlic on the side. I had high hopes for today’s dinner, but I know Renomus doesn’t really fancy fish. I wonder why the tarutarus don’t like fish. I for one can’t get enough of the fishie~wishies.

We had plenty of time to talk about recent adventures and future plans while we were eating. I don’t think Renomus liked the peppers, but he tried his best to keep the fact a secret. I could see right through him though, as he very carefully put the peppers on the side of his plate, trying not to make it too obvious.

After the dinner I went to get some more firewood and branches before we fell asleep. While sleeping I had some very strange dreams, including one with a cat~like creature I’ve never seen before.

«Crack!»
My dreams ended quite abrupt because of the noise I heard from somewhere nearby. I got up on my feet and walked over to Renomus, nudging him to awaken him. «There’s something or someone here,» I whispered to him. He looked quite tired, but he was quick to wipe it off. I silently walked over to the campfire, reached toward it with my hand before I concentrated on engulfing the fire in water. I quickly covered up our tracks and we hid ourself behind a nearby rock.

The ground shook as the presence walked closer and closer to me and Renomus, but it didn’t seem as if he knew where we were. The presence paused a little, before taking it’s heavy and slow steps in what sounded like a circle. «I think he has found our camp,» I whispered to my taru companion. «What do we do,» he asked me.

Suddenly, a roar. It looked like the presence had discovered our camp and was enraged. I looked over the rock to get an overview of our situation. An enormous quadav was staring at the campfire I had covered up with dirt just moments before. He suddenly reached for a horn he was carrying on his waist belt. Moments after he made a loud whistling sound. «Rats! We’ve been found,» I told Renomus.

Cut off from the Pashow Marshlands, we had no other choice than to hide further into the valley. We still had no idea about what lied ahead, but we just had to take our chances. With the marshlands being just north east of us, I figured we should seek cover further south. It was almost pitch black outside, but since my eyes were used to the dark jungles outside Kazham I had no problems seeing the surroundings. I found a stick and cast fire on it, then told Renomus to follow me closely, before we rushed off into the unknown. Behind us we could here an three to four parties of quadavs form up. We were out of time, and with no map we had to rely solely on my mithran intuition.

(to be continued…)

After having been on a long trip, Renomus was finally ready to come home. I had been waiting at the docks for a few hours, eagerly looking forward to seeing my good friend again. It’s been a weird three weeks. I’ve always been so used to having him around, leveling Red or Blue Mage in some godforsaken place. Renomus is a little tarutaru who really enjoys to get his things done with his very own two hands instead of always relying on a group of people to help him out. We all know that finding helpful and reliable people can be quite hard these days, so I can understand why he prefers to solo, although it must be a little bit lonely I guess.

It was already become quite late in the evening, where I was in Bastok Port. People had gone back from work long ago and I could smell delicious cuisines being made from the residential district. I was a little envious, since I had only had two saruta oranges for lunch and a squid sushi for dinner. Not much to speak of, but it was something I guess. There were only me and a hume waiting for the airship to arrive this evening. I have found the port in Bastok to be quieter than the ports in Jeuno and Windurst for example. The woman I was standing next to seemed to be waiting for someone dear to her. It was almost like there was a twinkle in her eye as she gazed at the horizon, eager to see her loved one.

I can’t blame her, as I have done the same many a time in Windurst, waiting for my prrrecious Zelthas to return from his adventures in a far away land. A day doesn’t go by without me hoping to receive word that he finally comes home, a free man without a worry in the world. It must be tough on him, living so far away, risking his life at the service of the Star Sibyl. But, it’s also an honor being able to work for the federation. I wish I was allowed to go as well, but I am just an adventurer, so I’m expected to deal with other tasks.

It was getting close to 10pm when the airship finally arrived. Renomus jumped off the deck of the airship, but tripped as he landed and made quite the show. We all laughed at the situation, but I handed Renomus a handkerchief so he could wipe off dirt on his face. «Welcome home, my kitten,» I said smiling to my tarutaru friend before giving him a traditional kitty~hug. It’s funny how tarutarus fit just purrrfectly in the mithras arms. Nothing beats my husbands caring embrace though.

«Such a hassle,» Renomus said, trying to hide the fact that we had caught him in a quite silly situation. He just laughed it off and started walking towards the arrivals area of the port. He walked through the customs and exited the building. We talked about his trip, although I didn’t really get to ask him much about the many things he must have experienced while he was gone. I wish I had the chance, but there’s plenty of time, so no need to rush I guess.

We decided to travel to Jeuno and visit the Marble Bridge Tavern to sit down and talk over a cup of warm cocoa. I teleported us to the Konschat Highlands where we immediately found ourselves a pair of chocobos. We had decided to take the scenic route for once, and made our way through the marshlands. The place was as tedious to navigate as usual, especially since my chocobo wasn’t very fond of rainy weather and water in general. The little bird was quite hard to ride on, so we had to just take our time.

Upon entering the Rolanberry Fields, the chocobo seemed to brighten up as we were starting to get better weather and dry land to run on. The chocobos picked up their speed and off we went toward the grand duchy of Jeuno.

«What’s that,» Renomus shouted all of a sudden. Our chocobos came to a full stop and turned around, and we walked slowly around a mountain corner. «Would you look at that!» Renomus was quite puzzled by the creature.. or thing that was standing tall before us. «Have you ever seen something as ugly as that,» I asked him. I’m sure I looked quite discusted at that moment. We had stumbled upon something that looked like a cavernous maw, not too far from the entrance to the lower parts of Jeuno.

«Let’s try touching it,» Renomus said, walking slowly towards the maw. It had an evil aura around it, and I wasn’t too sure about how safe it would be to approach it. Suddenly, a blinding flash struck us and I lost consciousness.

When I woke up again, I was startled by a group of people standing around me. Behind me was the maw, but it had changed shape again. The group of people looked down on me, mumbling in some dialect I had never heard before. They told me that I should head over to the Eldieme Necropolis, but I wasn’t too sure about the merit in doing that. «I’m sorry, lady, but the entrance to Jeuno is blocked off for civilians,» one of the men told me. «Huh? Blocked off? Since when,» I thought to myself, but before I was able to ask any questions the group of soldiers had jumped back on their chocobos and were ready to ride off.

I looked around and decided I should try to look for Renomus. I used my linkpearl and tried paging him. It took a few minutes before I got a response. It looked like there was some disturbance on the linkshell channel. Things really seemed out of hand, and I had only the maw from before to blame. Renomus told me he was okay, but that he couldn’t find me anywhere. I looked around and tried to find my whereabouts. It seemed that I had been transported to Batallia Downs somehow, so I told Renomus I’d make my way down to him.

As I began running toward the entrance to Rolanberry Fields, I stumbled upon enormous castle-like brick walls. I stumbled and fell. «Rats!? Where am I,» I asked myself. I got back on my feet and continued running, using a magical map I had laying around. Things just didn’t add up, and I there were structures and monsters that I had never seen before.

I finally caught up with Renomus, who had experienced the same strange things. We looked around, trying to find some sensible answer to what may have happened. «Wait, isn’t this the buildings that were long lost during the Crystal War,» Renomus asked me. I looked at him, arguing that what he said was true, but that it made no sense that they were suddenly there. I had seen pictures of the mighty castle defending the grand duchy, but this was the first time I had actually seen it with my very own two eyes. «You don’t think we… somehow, uh.. made it to the past,» the little tarutaru asked me. We looked at each other for a few seconds before we started laughing. «Impossible,» I said while laughing. We continued laughing, while getting more and more anxious. We both knew that it was true, even though it was hard to believe that such thing could even happen.

I explained what the soldiers had told me, and we decided to make our way to Bastok. We didn’t have a chocobo, so we had to run on foot this time. Since we had no idea what to expect, we could only hope that the areas we were to travel through wasn’t infested with some of the beasts that the old scriptures was speaking of. I had come across a book in the library in Windurst a few years ago which had a detailed look on the many creatures that used to inhabit Vana’diel before they got extinct during the Crystal War.

We took every precaution possible, putting on Sneak and Invisible to make sure we wouldn’t get caught by any wild monsters just waiting to get their midday snack. We arrived in the marshlands again, which looked very different from before. We could hear what sounded like a war in the background. The sound was quite disturbing, and we decided to keep our distance and continue south-west. We saw monsters we had never seen before, including sprites that healed our wounds as we walked by. It made us both very happy to be shown such consideration at a battlefield, even though we’re not taking part of it.

But, to our dismay, the road to Konschat Highlands were blocked off, so we backtracked a little. We stumbled upon a path we had never seen before. «Shall we,» I asked Renomus. He looked at my face, looking a little nervous, but he nodded. «This seems to be the only way,» he told me.

We both looked into the distance, into a land so unfamiliar that it made our adventurer hearts beat just a wee bit harder. We were getting excited, yet at the same time nervous. What was waiting for us around this corner? Renomus took a step toward the gate, leading to the area we had never seen nor heard about before. I took another. We looked at each other’s faces, before we turned our attention to the gate again. Seconds after we leaped toward the gate, ready to fill our curious heart with new and wonderful experiences. Our fear was gone. Only our desire for the new and yet untold mysteries ahead remained.

(to be continued…)

Yesterday I was informed by the linkshell pearlsack committee on our bulletin board that I had been selected to tank for our Kirin run tonight. This came as a shock and as a surprise. I am a Paladin, sure, but I have never come as a tank for something this big. Neither have I been a damage dealer and have never really paid that much attention to those details, including when to run for my life when a certain lesser god gets angry.

I expressed my concern to the leaders, but they said they had faith in me. I’m honored that they put such trust in me, and flattered that they see me as a viable option for such events. Of course, this event was set up to see how we would do against Kirin with a minimum amount of people, and without key players on the battle field.

I knew I had Raevon and Miles, one of our main tanks there, so I knew I wouldn’t be the one taking the beating, so I came prepared: gear to help me heal others without taking too much hate. Some of this gear I could take from my White Mage, but other items was things I never considered using for my Paladin and therefor never got. So, I spent almost all my money preparing for this fight.

The fight itself started out pretty slow. The kiting party made Kirin run a few rounds before he started summoning. Byakko was the first one out, and Raevon tanked him pretty well. Suzaku was next up and Raevon got knocked out and Miles had to take over. I was confident in Miles ability to tank and knew our alliance was in good hands. I helped out curing and tossing random flashes. Sadly, I know I screwed up a few times during this first two summons. But oh well, now I know the ropes.

Seiryu came next, and at the end I heard people yell Invincible, so I used the ability, but it was sadly too late. He was at the brink of dying so the ability was wasted. Miles got knocked out himself at the end of Seiryu, and I knew it was my time to step up.

Genbu was summoned by Kirin and I ran over and provoked him and brought him back to our alliance. I was overwhelmed by how hard he hit, but I didn’t panic since a Paladin and a White Mage are the last people who should panic in a party. The big turtle slapped me quite a few times and I was near-death several times. At this point Raevon was starting to recover from his wounds, but I didn’t give up and I did everything I could to keep Genbus attention on myself. I took some very hard hits, but I managed to live and was pretty content with that. Of course, this is all thanks to the wonderful people I had around me who did their very best to keep me alive while I kept on taking Genbu’s enraged beatings.

Genbu fell, and I received a few encouraging words from my linkshell friends. This meant so much to me since I had didn’t have all that confidence in me before we started, but I had vowed to do my very best. It’s one of the few times people have sent me encouraging words (other than words congratulation during Dynamis), so I was overwhelmed with joy.

Of course, we weren’t done yet. Our alliance rested up and prepared to kill Kirin. The kiters had done a really well job while we took out the summoned monsters. I put on my healing gear and assisted people as much as possible, trying not to get hate. At two points were I struck by Kirin’s wrath, but I was never asked to tank. I stayed outside the alliance the whole time, just running around healing people up with the limited mana I have as a Paladin. Kirin’s Deadly Hold wasn’t quite as deadly as I remember it to be as a White Mage, which was kind of fun. All in all I had a blast!

But, the loot wasn’t quite as good.. just a measly N. Body and a Damascus Ingot, but at least we won and can be proud to have done it with an original setup for once.

I really wish I could’ve gotten a Wyrmal Abjuration: Legs piece though, since the Crimson Cuisses would be so useful to me.

I’ve spent a lot of time tracking down and hunting for the two birds Simurgh and Roc. They both are very rare sights, and highly sought by high level people from all across Vana’diel. They are said to hold a few very valuable pieces, which make them very popular, but hard to find.

Me and my friends in Offline has therefor spent much time camping him. People have gotten their Trotter Boots and the very shiney~ Dryad Staff. I’ve actually seen three of the staves drop, but I’ve always been outlotted by someone in my linkshell and it’s been depressing me.

Today, after having spent countless hours camping, I finally found Roc. No one had spotted him, so I got really excited. I checked the linkshell but no one was awake. I waited nearly forty minutes before someone got on, and even then we weren’t really ready to take him on. I had come as Paladin, like I’ve done the last few weeks, so I wasn’t in any danger. Hozu, one of the linkshell red mages came to help, but with only two people there wasn’t much we could do. It took almost an hour before Evilelf, our ranger also came and we were ready to take Roc head on.

I pulled Roc by provoking him and ran down the ridge, heading towards where Hozu and Evilelf were eagerly waiting. The fight was slow, but we were draining Roc of his power at a steady pace. He attempted to cast Benediction on himself, but we unleashed our damaging power at him — granted, not very significant damage — but we finally killed.

And there it was, my staff. Finally!