Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Skye Chronicles ❯ A City in Lies ( Chapter 5 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Chapter 5: A City Hidden in Lies
“Let’s go,” Ben said.
“Ben,” said Adam.
“Yeah?” Ben asked him.
“Get me out of here!” Adam yelled.
“Okay,” Ben said casually. So they started to walk.
“Wait, shouldn’t we go back to Tral?” Adam asked.
“No, the others are going ahead too,” Ben said. So they continued to walk, toward Van Adren. Soon, they came to another place where the two forked roads came together, and they saw Lyane and Dan coming up the other path. They walked forward more though, because they heard a low rumbling sound. They walked over behind a corner, and saw dozens of airships hovering above the ground preparing for takeoff. Behind them they heard a laughing, and turned around to see two Van Adren warriors. They saw that everyone else had their weapons out, and immediately put their hands up.
“Wait, Jake, what are you doing with them?” one of them said, pointing.
“Just come with us, we’ve been talking about betraying the king, so let’s just do it,” Jake told them.
“If we’re caught we’ll be killed,” the other said.
“No we won’t, this guy snuck up on me,” Jake said, pointing at Ben.
“Fine, they better, and if you weren’t our commander, we wouldn’t be doing this,” the first one said.
“I’m Aaron, he’s Erik,” the second one said, as they both walked forward to join them.
“Okay, we’ll meet back here, at this wooden house, in one hour, everybody, spread out, look for food, or anything you can find,” Adam said. Everybody nodded their heads, and walked away in different directions. Adam and Ben walked through the streets, and climbed up a ladder, and onto a roof, and saw the palace, a short ways away. They were going to go into the house, and grab some food, but when the saw the king walk out onto the balcony of the castle. A short ways away, they saw Dan on another rooftop, and they sat down on the roof. The king began the pre-war speech.
“Today, we go to war,” he shouted. “Some may die, but it will be for our final freedom, the Necros Diamond will be ours. When we win, we will be able to prevent any attack from Alexandria ever.” A mechanical door opened, and almost one million troops marched out. They walked into the airships near them. Everyone in the crowd below clapped as hard as they could.
“Recrono Nahaka Moshunoka Triel eci Alexandros,” a general shouted.
“Oh no,” Ben said.
“What?” Adam asked worriedly.
“They’re setting up a trap where they’re going to attack Tral and Alexandria,” said Ben.
“We have to warn them,” Adam said, “wait, how did you know that?”
“I... uh don’t know,” Ben said quickly.
“Whatever, let’s go,” Adam said, getting up. They climbed down the ladder, and ran back to the hut. Dan was sitting on the ground, with his back against it. Lyane was looking around in circles for her Orb of Concealment. “Where are those other three?” Adam asked.
“Not here yet, can I go find them?” Dan said with a menacing grin on his face.
“No, we’ll wait a bit longer,”Adam told him. After a few minutes, they heard laughing, as Jake, Erik, and Aaron walked up.
“So what did everyone find?” Lyane asked, “I found some food in this hut.”
“I got some weapons,” Dan said holding up swords, and bows.
“Van Adren is setting a trap for Tral and Alexandria,” Ben said.
“How did you know?” Jake asked suspiciously.
“Forget that, Jake, let’s show them,” Erik said.
“Follow us,” Jake said.
“Why?” Adam asked.
“Just c’mon,” he told them. They started to run down the streets until they came to a sewer hole, which they climbed into.
“What are we doing down here?” Dan asked.
“Sneaking into the castle,” Jake said.
“Why?” Adam asked.
“Just keep following us, and shut up,” Jake said. They kept walking, all the time, it just kept getting more and more confusing. It was like a giant maze. Adam was thinking about a story he had once heard, a lesson taught in a myth, about a labyrinth. He remembered that it was nearly impossible to get out of one, and there was a monster marauding in it, which made him a little jumpy, often looking over his shoulder. They finally got to a ladder, and Jake told each of them to go up, and then he followed them. They ended up in a room with bars around it. In the middle of the room, they saw a glass box with a black jewel inside it. It had a black pillow with gold lining around it, which was weird, because it didn’t look like anyone ever came into this room, so they didn’t need to care about looks.
“Jake, what is it?” Adam asked.
“The Necros diamond,” Jake told him.
“The king said something about this,” Adam said leaning forward to take it.
“Adam, you know there’s a box there, right?” Ben asked.
“Yeah, of course I knew that,” Adam said.
“It triggers a dragon to attack if you touch it,” Jake said.
“This is the only way to save Alexandria and Tral, if only for a short while, everyone, get ready to fight,” Adam told them. “Are there any alarms or anything the guards could hear?” he asked.
“An alarm will go off, if it’s not there after an hour, they made it that way so they could deactivate the dragon command, and clean it,” Jake told them.
“How do we deactivate the dragon command?” Dan asked.
“I’m a first ranked commander, and even I don’t knew that,” Jake said.
“How did you find out about that underground passage?” Adam asked.
“They built a big maze down there, so commanders could get into the castle if it got taken, and attack from the inside, but normal people, or enemies who got down there couldn’t find there way to another sewer without help,” Jake told them.
“Hey people, how ‘bout we get this done, and talk later?” Ben said.
“Good idea,” Adam said. He took out his sword, and slashed at the base of the glass box. The glass popped up, along with the pillow, and the diamond. Adam grabbed the diamond, and Lyane grabbed the pillow, and the glass box shattered to the ground. Everyone looked at her oddly.
“What, we could send it to them, to prove that we have it, and someone else doesn’t or something,” Lyane said, putting it in her bag, as Adam put the diamond in his.
“You don’t want to do that,” Ben said. Suddenly, the pedestal that the glass box had been on jerked upward. It slowly rose up, and into a hole in the ceiling, and under it, was a chain, with a gigantic cage attached to it. Inside the cage was a huge black dragon. The dragon’s cage door fell forward, and it took a few steps forward, and roared loudly. Everybody moved backwards, as it moved forwards. Jake took out his bow, and an arrow, and aimed it right at it’s heart. He let it go, and it whizzed through the air, and hit it’s scales, over it’s heart. It bounced right off of the scales, and fell to the ground. It barely even pierced the scale. Aaron and Erik charged forward, and started slashing at it’s feet, it stomped at them, but they just dodged, and struck again. Lyane casted protect spells on everyone, and then started casting thunder spells, because it was a water monster, therefor weak to fire. It started spitting acid in every direction out of pure rage. Dan ran through it’s legs, and then waited until it’s tail was sticking straight out, and then ran up the spikes along it’s back, but it lashed to the side, and he had to grab onto a spike to stay on. It whipped it’s head back to bite him, but it could not reach, as he hung on for his life. Jake took out another arrow, and aimed between it’s eyes, but it bounced off again. He kept firing, and firing, as fast as he could. Adam, and Ben followed Dan’s idea, and ran toward it’s back. They climbed up the spikes, and onto it’s head. Both of them stabbed their swords into it’s head, and it got angry, and began to spit it’s acid as far as it could. It got close to Lyane and Jake, so they fell back into a corner, and waited. Erik, and Aaron who were busy worrying about it’s feet, didn’t see it’s tail come, and knock them across the room, but they crawled over, and waited with Lyane and Jake. Dan slid down on his back, because of the harsh tail movements, and crawled over with the rest, leaving Adam and Ben fighting against the dragon. They both grabbed for their swords, but the dragon actually thought faster, an unusual event. It lashed it’s head, and they fell forward, and it caught them in it’s small arms. It lifted them up, above it’s mouth, and roared. Jake moved forward carefully, and took out an arrow. It aimed right at one of the dragon’s eyes, and then fired. The arrow flew into it’s eye, and it let go of Ben, and Adam. They desperately grabbed forward, and luckily caught one of it’s teeth, and climbed up fast so they didn’t fall into it’s mouth. They hid behind their swords, as Jake aimed another arrow, and hit it’s other eye. The dragon tottered forward, and then fell to the ground. Adam and Ben both jumped off right before it hit the ground, and then landed right in front of it’s mouth. Adam turned around, and then looked at it with a surprised look on his face.
“I don’t mean to sound pathetic, but that was awesome,” Adam said.
“Let’s go,” Ben said.
“Why such a rush? Let us rest,” Jake told him.
“Listen, this dragon behind me is still breathing, we’ve got about twenty-three minutes to walk back through that passage before an alarm goes off, a trap to stop, and two towns to save, and... I’m getting tired,” he finished quietly. Dan stood up, and started to walk forward, but stopped, and put his hand behind his back.
“Ouch,” he said out loud. Everybody looked over at him. He pulled his hand forward, and there were a few drops of blood on his finger. “I must have hurt it sliding down the dragon’s back,” he said. Lyane walked over, and stuck her staff at his back.
“Cure,” she said. A white beam of light shot out of it.
“That didn’t work,” he said, putting his hand on his back again. Erik helped him up, and Jake walked over to where trapdoor, opened it, and waited for everyone to climb in. Once everybody was down, Jake followed.
“Sorry, I forgot, I wasn’t going to learn magical wound healing until tomorrow,” Lyane said, as they climbed down. Once everyone was down, everyone started to run down the path behind Jake, the only one who knew the way. After about ten minutes straight of running, Ben stopped.
“Rest,” Adam told everyone, as he walked over to Ben. “What is it?” he asked.
“I hear something, a machine, like a moving cart, with spiked wheels, coming at us, from that direction,” he said pointing forward.
“Jake are there any trap doors or secret passageways here?” Adam asked.
“Why?” Jake asked, walking back to them.
“There’s a machine coming this way,” Adam told him.
“How do you know?” Jake asked.
“I can hear it, a cart, spiked wheels, seven goblins, armed with swords, and a Tigris with a mace,” Ben told him.
“It’s them,” Jake said quietly, “ Quickly, this way.” Everyone started running behind Jake. After another minute or so of running, Jake suddenly stopped, and elbowed at a wall to his right. It fell over to reveal a hidden room-type area. “We built this especially if someone came across them,” Jake told them. Once everyone was in, he lifted up the ‘wall’ which, to Adam’s surprise was just a piece of metal. It had one eye hole that Jake was looking through, and everyone else just stood there, waiting. The seconds pressed on, until finally, they heard a pounding of metal on stone. Out of the eye hole, Jake saw a metal cart with spiked wheels emerge around a corner. There were seven goblins, and a large creature he knew as a Tigris. The goblins were screaming, and cheering loudly, but the Tigris just sat there quietly. Dan, whose back was still hurting, leaned against a wall. A bad move, his sword clanged against the wall, and it rang throughout the tunnel. The noises stopped, the tunnel was silent. Jake peered out through the eye hole, and couldn’t see anything. He slowly pulled the corner of the wall down, and slid out. Suddenly, two swords emerged from either side of the passage. Everyone quickly tried to push the door back up, but an orange claw with black stripes emerged, and pushed back.
“Why is a tiger pushing against this gate?” Adam yelled, frustrated from pushing without getting anywhere.
“It’s not a tiger, it’s a Tigris, they’re entirely evil, stand on two legs, look like tigers, and love wealth, but are still purely evil,” Lyane said, “It’s in a book my father has.”
“Okay, why is it wearing clothes?” Adam asked.
“Less talk, more push,” Aaron told them. They could see all of the goblins had gathered behind the Tigris, ready to fight. Suddenly, Erik, and Aaron looked at each other, and stopped pushing.
“What are you two doing,” Adam asked.
“Helping our friend,” Erik said. Aaron slid his sword through the growing area between the metal sheet, and the wall, and then pulled it down on the Tigris’s hand. It roared in pain, and stepped back. Everyone let the door fall, and charged out. Three goblins, the two holding Jake, and another in front of them, moved to the right, and the other four moved to the left. Aaron and Erik ran at the three by Jake, and the other four ran toward the other four goblins. Aaron and Erik rolled on either side of the goblin in front of the two holding Jake, and then each stabbed the one on their side. As those two fell, Jake pulled out his bow, and an arrow, and aimed it forward as the first goblin turned around, barely realizing what had happened. Jake’s arrow was about an inch from the goblin’s face. The goblin shook in fear, but slowly moved it’s hand down toward it’s sword. Jake released the arrow, and the goblin fell to the ground silently. Meanwhile, as Adam, Dan, Ben, and Lyane ran forward, two goblins went one way, and two doubled back the other. Lyane backed off, and was prepared to cast healing spells when she needed to. Dan and Ben prepared to attack the two that had doubled back, and Adam went after the two that were farther out. Dan charged forward, and stabbed one in the stomach, as Ben leapt over the goblin, and stabbed it in the back, and then twisted the sword around. Both goblins fell to the ground, and they looked over at Adam. Adam had been surrounded by the two goblins. One on each side of him. He quickly stabbed his sword at one of them to his right. The sword plunged into it’s neck, and then Adam swung it around, and cut off the other’s head with it. They all walked back to where Jake, Aaron, and Erik were quickly, and saw the Tigris pick up a dead goblin’s body, tear off shreds of armor, and clothes, and wrap it around it’s wrist, and then drew it’s crude mace. It had dried blood on it, and the spikes were mismatched and had varied sharpness or dullness. The Tigris reached over, and picked up Aaron, and Erik, and threw them forward. They skidded into Ben and Adam who fell over. It swung it’s mace at Jake, who jumped back, but then, with it’s massive legs, it kicked him, and he fell back also. Another goblin walked down the path behind the Tigris, and when it saw everyone on the ground, it charged forward, and stood in front of the Tigris. The Tigris, after becoming tired of weak minions failing him, slammed the mace on the goblin. When he picked the mace back up, the blood dripped down. The Tigris flung it’s mace to the side, and the goblin’s body flung off, and hit the wall.
“Hey,” Lyane said, her eyes brightening. She quickly scurried over to Jake, as the Tigris slowly walked forward. They started whispering to each other. Adam couldn’t hear them very well, but he thought he heard Lyane say holy. Jake took out two arrows, and Lyane touched them with her staff. The Tigris was getting closer now, so Adam tried to get up, and stop it. He readied his sword, as the Tigris tightened it’s grip on it’s mace. Adam peered over at the goblin that the Tigris had crushed, it lay on the ground lifeless. He took a large gulp, and then prepared to fight. The Tigris was right in front of Adam now, within striking distance, and it roared menacingly. Jake picked up an arrow, and fired it. It whizzed over Adam’s shoulder, and then into the Tigris’s right shoulder, and the arrow went through, and stuck in the wall, and a hole of light opened in the Tigris’s shoulder. It roared in pain as Adam turned around to see what had just happened, and saw another arrow flying forward. He ducked down, and the arrow went right through the Tigris’s heart, making a hole of light as it had before, and the arrow stuck into the wall behind it. Good thing Adam had ducked too, because the arrow flew right where his neck had been. The Tigris fell to the ground, and everybody sat down to rest.
“What... did you... do that for?” Adam asked, trying so hard to get air, as his hear t and head were pounding.
“Most people would have responded quicker if an arrow flew right next to their head,” Jake said. Adam was silent for a few seconds.
“Okay, four questions, what were those?” Adam asked, referring to the holes of light.
“I told you, Tigris’s are pure evil, I casted holy on the arrows, and then Jake fired them at it, weird effect it had though,” she told him.
“How the heck did you know that would work?” Adam asked.
“What do you think my father gave me my own library for?” Lyane asked.
“I thought that book was in your father’s library?” Adam asked.
“It was, when I was looking at it, he let me have it, apparently he thought I would eventually run into one, maybe because I grew up in the same time as your two trouble makers,” Lyane said.
“Now hold on a minute, when have we ever caused trouble in Tral?” Adam asked.
“Well let’s see, when you drew that young dragon into town, when you took the staff of the High Priest that came to visit, and the time when you broke the vase that the king payed hundreds of gold for, for starters,” Lyane said.
“Hey, we took care of the dragon, we took the staff when we were in Northern Tral, we gave it back in Tral, so that doesn’t count, and it was never proven that we broke the vase,” Ben said.
“Yeah, you guys are really mature for fixing two of the problems you solved,” Lyane said sarcastically.
“Okay, well back to buisiness, Jake didn’t Ben cut your bowstring in the forest?” Adam asked.
“Yeah, but when we went into the town, I went to the armory, and grabbed two more, and then Dan grabbed more,” Jake told him.
“Okay, and number three, since when do you know holy?” Adam asked.
“It’s a useful little spell, doing absolutely nothing by itself, when it is used on a weapon or something else, and used against a completely evil being, it can kill them very quickly,” Lyane told them.
“Okay, another question, why was that thing wearing clothes, and what was wrong with it’s hands, they looked weird,” Adam asked.
“You really don’t get out much, do you?” Jake asked, “ it’s custom is to wear black clothes, but evidently this one’s an outcast, it’s wearing armor. It’s hands are supposed to look like that, it helps them accomplish their fighting style more, making their blows more effective,” he finished.
“Thank you very much,” Adam said, and then he flopped down on his back, and rested. After he was on the ground for about one second, a piercing alarm rang, and Adam stood up immediately.
“Keep moving,” Jake told them, and the began to run again. “Wait,” he said, stopping at a crudely carved tunnel. “This isn’t supposed to be here, I wonder where it came from,” he told them. Aaron moved forward, and grabbed something out of the slashed stone.
“Goblin,” he told Jake.
“They must be making their own tunnel ways down here, we have to warn someone,” Jake told them.
“Later, we gotta go,” Adam said. Once they made their way further, everyone started following Aaron one way, but Jake told them to go another.
“Jake, that’s not the right way,” Aaron told him.
“Trust me, this way’s quicker,” Jake told him. They followed Jake, and then ended up in a dead end.
“I thought this was the right way,” Adam said.
“Shh,” Jake said, and then he pointed up. There was light pouring through a sewer type hole. He jumped up, and caught a folded up ladder thing, and it stretched down. It was kind of rusty, but as it came down, it make a squeaking sound. “Quick,” he told them. They heard something moving at the last intersection they passed, and everyone started climbing the ladder one at a time. Jake, who was the first one up, lifted up the sewer plate. “Coast is clear,” he said, and continued climbing up. Adam was the last one to climb up, and when he was almost to the top, he saw about three people run down the hallway they were in.
“They’re not here,” one of them said. They all took their bows out, and put arrows in them.
“They’re hiding,” the leader looking one said, “be on your guard.” Adam kept climbing up, and they didn’t notice him. When he got all the way up, he began to close the plate, but his hand slipped, and the plate slammed shut. They all looked up, and saw Adam through the grates, and fired at him. He rolled to the ground, and the arrow missed by about an inch. Jake pulled him up, as three more arrows flew through the grate behind them. They ran through an alleyway, across a main road, into another alleyway, and then down the main road to a river.
They stood on the bay, and heard someone yell from one of the roads they had just crossed “Quick, I think they’re this way.”
“How will we get across?” Dan asked.
“My summon should do it,” Erik said. “Leviathan, I summon you,” he said, pointing his sword forward. I long coil sprung out of it, and into the water, where it grew to a sea beast creature. It had green, shiny scales, and teeth that looked like swords.
“What is that?” Dan asked.
“Leviathan, quick, everyone, get on it, right behind the neck fins,” Erik told them. Leviathan lowered it’s head, and then everyone climbed on. “Hold on, Leviathan, full speed,” Erik said. Leviathan began moving forward through the water at a high speed. An arrow whizzed by Adam’s head, and he looked back. There was a line of people with bows that were ready to fire.
“Take down the beast,” someone from the middle said. They released the arrows, and they flew forward. The wave was coming straight for them, and it looked like a black cloud.
“Fire,” Lyane said, and a flame came up, and all of the arrows erupted, and fell into the river in a pile of black dust.
“Thanks,” Adam said, his voice, high pitched.
“Leviathan, top speed,” Erik said. Leviathan almost straightened out it was moving so fast. The waves of arrows kept coming, but now they were too far away to hit. Leviathan slowed down a bit, once they couldn’t see shore anymore, but was still moving pretty fast.
“So where are we headed?” Ben asked.
“First, to the Fairy Realm, then through Radia Mountain Hall, up through the Alexandrian Forest, and then we’ll get to Alexandria,” Jake answered.
“Wake me when we get there,” Ben said, laying down, and closing his eyes.
“Hey, does anyone have a flying summon?” Adam asked.
“Why?” Jake asked.
“I’m getting seasick,” Adam told them.

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