Ch. 2

Estelle lies on the bed in the cell listening to the guard and another prisoner talk.

"Like I was saying, the thief made off with a priceless treasure from that noble's mansion" The prisoner says.

The guard replies, "I know, I know, then the thief was caught, and the loot was returned, right?"

"No see, that's just nobility keeping things quiet. The treasure in the mansion right now is a fake.

"You're pulling my leg" The guard moves a little closer, right to the bars.

The prisoner changes topic, "Hey, you didn't hear it from me, man. The Dark Wings are going nuts looking for the hideout"

The guard snaps back, "Ahem! That's enough out of you. Almost meal time." He walks away from the prisoner.

The prisoner is laying on her back and starts talking to Estelle. "Hey, neighbor! Your awake, right? You must be getting bored from keeping so quiet"

Estelle snaps back, "You think that story up all by yourself, stranger? You must have plenty of time on your hands." She shifts so she is sitting up and leaning on her hands.

The prisoner chuckles, "So polite, 'stranger', huh. And I didn't make it up. I have eyes and ears the world over, digging up information for me."

"Sure you do, stranger." Estelle giggles, thinking the prisoner really is making stuff up.

The prisoner snorts, "I am what I am, go ahead and ask me anything, I would be able to tell you. Want to know about the treasure the pirate guild has, or how about the sorcerer who makes his home at the ends of the Earth. No, I know what you want to know . . ."

Estelle just says, "All I want to know is where that mage, Capel went. Then I'll wait out my ten days and go find him." The prisoner sighs and replies in disappointment, "You know Capel, the famous genius mage from Aspio?"

Estelle stands up and walks to the cell door. "Yeah, I need to find him. So he lives in Aspio, does he."

Alexei, the Commandant, lets the prisoner go, saying, "Out." The prisoner follows him and fall in front of Estelle.

Estelle is awed by the women in front of her. She's Krityan with long blue hair. A blue vest with gold lining is worn over a white button up half shirt, the buttons undone to show off her cleavage. A mid-thigh length blue skirt matched with blue 3 inch high heels. Finishing of the ensemble are three gold bracelets clinking as she moves.

"Find the secret beneath the Goddess."

"Hurry up!" Alexei orders, waiting for the woman. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," The woman gets up and follows Alexei out.

Estelle holds up the silver key in her hand. "Well, now I have a way out, I guess." She unlocks the door steps out turning to her left she walks past the sleeping knight and opens the chest to get her sword and shield back.

Once equipped again, she stepped out and looked around the hallway. 'Now, where in the world am I? You'd think I would remember from being in the knights.' She quickly walks down the hallway, defeating knights whenever they notice her.

Soon she comes across a large space and stands in the middle trying to remember if she's seen this before. She hears someone running down the hall so she back up and hides.

A young man with raven colored long hair runs into the area, but is quickly stopped by a few knights. He is holding a sword in its sheath by a string.

One of the knights steps forward saying, "Why don't we just go back?" The man replies, "I can't go back yet!"

The other knight steps forward. "We will take full responsibility for the 'incident'. Sir, please come with us." The young man flourishes his sword and rebuttals, "You can't say that! You haven't even helped me!"

The two knights unsheathe their swords and step closer. The man steps back and says, "Let me go, I need to warn Flynn!"

Estelle jerks slightly hearing Flynn's name. 'He knows Flynn?" As more knights came she jumped out and knocked them all out.

The young man looks around, "Flynn?"

Estelle looks back at him and shakes her head. "Sorry, I'm not Flynn." The man sighs and turns toward her. "Who are you?"

"My name is Estellise, but please, call me Estelle." The man pauses and looks at her closely. "So, you're Estelle, are you? Flynn told me about you."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"You used to belong to the Imperial Knights?" the man asks. Estelle's eye twitches and she eases her sword out of its sheath. "Is there a problem with that?" The man takes a step back and puts his hands up in surrender.

"Not at all. I was just confirming what Flynn said about you." Estelle puts her sword back and her hands land on her hips. "At least Flynn found someone he could talk to at the castle."

The man steps in front of her and says, "Estelle, I need to talk to Flynn." She puts her back to him and replies, "Hold on. Sorry, who are you anyway? I know you know Flynn, but why are the knights coming after you?"

"Over here," a voice yells. Estelle turns quickly and starts walking away. She says, "I'd love to hear the rest of it, so if you'd like you can come with me and we'll look for Flynn's room, together."

The man nods and replies, "Yes, lead the way."

Estelle walks into what looks like a dining room, smelling something delicious in the air. "Where in the world are we?" The man replies, "In the knights' dining hall."

Estelle walks toward the table and picks up a plate. She tries a bite, and then eats the rest. "Wow, this is really good!" The man nods and joins her in eating the curry.

After a few more fights, they walk down a hallway familiar to Estelle. The man stops in front of a door and looks around.

"I know his room is somewhere around here." Estelle giggles and points to the door he's next to. "That's Flynn's room, right there." The man replies, "Oh, yeah. I remember now!"

They walk into Flynn's room and the man sits on the bed, relaxing. "He doesn't seem to be here. Idiot, he just had to go on a pilgrimage now, didn't he?"

Estelle stands in front of him and asks, "Why did you need to find Flynn?" The man lays back and replies, "He's in danger and I want to warn him."

"Why don't you go and tell him then? I have my own things to care of too. As soon as everything settles down, I want to get back to the Lower Quarter."

"Take me with you then." Estelle jumps and stares at him. "What?"

"Take me with you. Other than Flynn, I have no one to depend on. At least help me get out of the castle."

Estelle sighs and gives up. "Okay, you can come with. I would like to know your name first."

BANG! The door brakes down and the man let out a startled noise. Estelle looks at the opening and takes out her sword.

A man with weird clothes and even weirder hair walks in. He shouts, "Prepare to fall victim to my blade, Flynn Scifo!" He points his blade at Estelle.

The raven haired male stands up and speaks, "First, you're an idiot. Second, Flynn's a boy, she's a girl. Third, your insane." The man growls and bites out, "I am Zagi, and just for that I'll kill you after!"

He quickly engages Estelle into combat.

Zagi continuously strikes out at her and she dodges while getting in a few hits here and there. Pretty soon she's worn down and she hits Zagi hard and he falls.

The raven haired male jumps in and shouts, "I'll help as well! Holy power come to me, First Aid!" Immediately Estelle felt better. She felt refreshed and she went after Zagi with renewed vigor.

After a few more combos, Zagi was defeated.

An assassin comes from the doorway and talks to Zagi. "The knights are coming, let's go." Zagi hits him and replies, "Not until I kill them!"

"Unless you want your fun to end here, we need to leave!" Zagi goes forth and kill the assassin, saying "Fine, let's go. I'll be back to spill your blood! Hahaha . . ." They run out the door and disappear.

Estelle states, "We need to be moving too," she stands up and walks toward the doorway, "Let's go see the goddess so we can leave."

The male turns toward her, and tells her, "By the way, my name is Yuri." Estelle raises her hand and shakes his. "Nice to meet you, Yuri."

Yuri looks at the door then back to Estelle. "Help me put the door back up." Estelle just sighs at being ordered and around and helps him.

They walk onto a catwalk and Yuri trips. Estelle helps him up and says, "You really need something better to wear."

Yuri nods, dusting off his clothes, and replies, "If we get to my room, I can change." Estelle nods and they keep on walking. After another hallway they come upon Yuri's room.

"I'm going to go change. Be right back." He walks into his room and Estelle walks up to the door, having seen some interesting things in Yuri's room.

The door quickly opens and Yuri's head pops out, a few inches from Estelle's face. Her face heats up horribly and she quickly backs away. He just smirks and closes the door again, stepping out into the hall way.

He's wearing black slacks with shoes and a white button up shirt, with sleeves down to mid-bicep. A black vest and purple tie finish the outfit. His hair is put into a loose ponytail.

Yuri smirks and says, "How do I look?" Estelle blushes and answers, "You look great."

After a few more battles they finally get to the goddess statue. Yuri walks around it looking for the secret. "I can't seem to find anything different."

"The woman said that the secret was underneath the statue. So, I think we need to push it aside."

"Yeah, okay." Yuri walks up to the statue and puts his hands on it. Estelle lightly pushes him aside and starts pushing the statue herself.
"I'll do it." He nods and watches in amazement as the statue moves to reveal a hidden passage way.

"Wow." Estelle smiles brightly and starts to the ladder; Yuri grabs her hand quickly.

"What?" Estelle asks.

"Your hand is injured, let me heal it." A magic circle quickly appears and he heals her hand. "There, we can go down now." Estelle grabs his hand and leans toward his blastia. He pulls his hand away quickly, toward his chest.

"What?" Yuri asks. Estelle just shakes her head and goes down the ladder; Yuri following.

Yuri hops off the ladder and looks around. "We're in the sewer. Great."

"You'll be fine. They're just a couple of weak monsters around but we can beat them easy." Yuri nods and follows Estelle into the sewers, beating off a few monsters in the process. They had to move a few boxes to get past but they finally managed to get through.

They climbed up a ladder and appear underneath a statue. Estelle sighs, "It's already morning! No way! At least we made it out of the castle." She lifts her hand for a high five and Yuri touches his finger to her palm.

Estelle starts giggling. "Did I do something wrong?" Yuri asks. She just shakes her head and asks back as she walks, "What are you going to do now, Yuri?"

"I'm going to go find Flynn."

"Do you know where he is?"

Yuri nods his head and replies, "He's going on a pilgrimage. Their first stop is Halure."

"So you'll need to go outside the barrier."

"Yeah, but I've been outside before."

"I suppose, but I also need to go after that blastia thief."

"Want to travel together, Estelle?" Estelle pauses and looks at Yuri. 'I think it could be a good idea.'

"Sure, Yuri." Yuri nods and they finally get to the Lower Quarter.

"Hey, you! I say, the jig is up!"

"Your under arrest!"

"Fools, stop standing around and arrest them already!" Estelle and Yuri run away from Adecor, Boccos, and Leblanc. Rushing down past the aqua blastia. Hanks sees them and calls out to them.

"Estelle, where've you been?"

Estelle turns toward Hanks and replies, "I was accidently thrown into a cell for a night."

"Of all the . . . and who's the young man?" Hanks walks up to Yuri and examines him.

"My name's Yuri, nice to meet you." Yuri shakes hands with Hank.

"Same here. And Estelle the imperial knights are so busy looking for you, that they ignored the fiasco down here. You managed to get them really mad at you."

Estelle replied, "I didn't mean for that to happen, really!"

"Yeah, Yeah. Repede came back carrying some bag. Do know what it is?"

"Yeah, where is it?" Estelle asks. Hanks replies, "It's up in your room."

"Go pick it up later. I'm sure you'll like what's inside. Capel liked it too."

"You met Capel?"

"Yeah, but he left town. I'm going to go look for him in Aspio. He's supposed to be someone famous from there."

"So you're going to go look for Capel outside the barrier, Huh?"

"Yes, and Yuri is coming with."

Estelle looks around and says, "So the blastia stopped leaking water."

Hanks replies, "Yeah, but without the core it won't budge."

Estelle starts toward the exit with Yuri following. "We need to get moving so we will see you later, Hanks."

"Estellise, stop right there! You are under arrest for breaking into a noble's house and out of prison!" Leblanc cries standing by the aqua blastia.

"Well, that's our cue, won't be seeing you for a while, Hanks," Estelle says, walking faster.

"Yeah, you are gonna owe me one Estelle." Before Estelle could ask what he meant everyone charged forward, having a complaint for the knight.

"When are you gonna fix the fountain, sir knight?"

"Hey, cool, a knight!"

"Hooray! Hooray!"

"Won't you help this old man find his dentures?"

Estelle and Yuri start running, but get slightly pushed back by a group of people giving them things.

"Don't you make her cry!"

"What?" Yuri asked, confused.

"This might come in handy if you're going to Halure." Estelle got a world map. She looks at it and says, "This thing is almost entirely blank!"

"Duh, not many people go outside the barriers, so you need to fill it in for yourself."

They finally got free of the people and exited the barrier, ready to start the journey.

Skits – Estelle, Yuri

In Jail-skit

This is the first time I've been in jail, and I have to say I don't like it in here very much. It's dark and cold and not comfortable at all! At least they give you free food.

Why did Cumore have to throw me in jail, like a criminal!

On the Run-skit

Estelle you were a knight once, right?

Didn't Flynn already tell you?

Well, you don't know your way around the castle at all.

Well, I was only a knight for three months.

Yeah, that'd explain it.

Extra Baggage-skit

I only wanted to get out of here I didn't really expect the extra baggage.

Well, I'm sorry if this extra baggage needs to get out of the castle too.

Oh, I didn't mean it like that! It's just surprising that's all.

Yeah, whatever.

The Intruder Zagi-skit

I'm glad there aren't many people like Zagi out in the world.

You've been outside the castle, Yuri?

Yeah, Flynn has taken me on some expeditions outside the barrier.

Wow, that's amazing!

Not really.

Flynn part 1-skit

Have you known Flynn for a long time?

Two, maybe three years.

So, he's been getting along at the castle?

He's very hardworking, if that's what you mean. He said he'd been given more responsibility, too.

Wow. That's amazing!