Archer of the Stars

By: Aubrie1234

"You know," Jelena sluggishly stirred her drink with her straw, "I don't think we've ever gotten together like this without a crisis. And even then, it was because of Sagittarus." She, Dougal, Elleon, and Fraya were sitting together at a Velika cafe, all of them disguised.

"This was her idea, after all." Fraya added, sipping her strawless drink, "I've never actually left Allemantheia when there was no war or crisis. And even after that, with the Core events and all, I could barely leave."

"Then thank Sagittarus." Dougal put in, "I knew she was special by how she protected Stepstone all by herself. Where do you think she could be?" He glanced over his shoulder at the bustling market.

"She said she had a quest to complete before she could meet us." Elleon said, shifting his weight slightly. Sagittarus had visited him quite a bit while he had been injured and always apologized for it, even though it wasn't her fault.

"It's a miracle in itself how you can be here today." Jelena gave him a sideways glare, "I tell you to stay home, and what do you do? Try to sneak out like a drunken sabertooth with a log strapped to its side. You're lucky I didn't send you home!"

"She invited me here, there was no way I could turn her down, even with my injury." Jelena snorted.

"Okay, settle down, both of you!" Dougal tried to interfere before the impending fight could escalate, but it fell on deaf ears.

"Honestly, you two." Fraya huffed, "When it comes to a job, you work very well together, but when you're in normalcy..." She shook her head.

"You're still injured!"

"I can move fine without you."

"Pain pills!"

"Again, I can get to them fine-"

"What if your body seizes up on you? What would you do then? And what if you get yourself into trouble?"

"How can I even do that in Velika?"

"You're a trouble-magnet!"

"Jelena, I am not a trouble-magnet, as you dub it."

"You are too, Elleon! You attract trouble wherever you go! There was the First Expedition, Golden Labyrinth..." The two continued to argue, ignoring Dougal's and Fraya's words.

"Love, what a finicky thing you are." Fraya sighed quietly, "I can't be with Kaidun, but you give those two all the hints you have and they can't see it."

"Agreed." Dougal nodded, then glanced at his watch. A bit of infusion with argon technology, it not only told time, but gave the wearer a map of the area, radar for monsters, and so on. It was becoming an essential item of the Federation with how useful it was.

"She wanted us to meet her here at noon, and it's been nearly an hour since we got here. I'm getting worried." This attracted the attention of the other three, effectively stopping the arguing.

"Her quest was on the Island of Dawn, I believe." Elleon explained, "She said it wouldn't take long, only a few hours at the most."

"When did she leave?" Fraya asked.

"As early as she could. She visited us just before she left for the island." Jelena said. Seeing as Elleon was still injured (somewhat), Jelena stayed with him to help take care of him.

"Maybe her quest is taking longer than we thought. What was she working on?" Dougal asked.

"She never said anything about it." Elleon and Jelena shook their heads.

"She's never let anyone down, either. She always keeps her promises, if she can." Jelena added, "There shouldn't be any reason why she would miss this date, she even set it up."

"Unless she was hurt, or even captured." Dougal said grimly. They glanced at each other.

"Well, we have enough evidence to worry and go looking." Fraya stood. The others stood with her and they headed to the Pegasus Platform.

Unbeknownst to them, however, they were being watched by two people. One was much older than he looked, they other was very young and elin-like, though he was also male. The younger yawned and hugged the elder's leg, his height (including his ears) barely reaching the man's waist.

"Papa?" he whispered, "What are we doing here?"

"Looking for Mama." the man answered, "C'mon, we're moving again." he took the boy's hand and led him after the group. However, when they approached the platform, the man and the boy walked off, to an alley, where the man brought out a familiar staff. He had a good idea of where they might be going.

"Teletanium Aurora Helle!" A soft glowing circle surrounded them, before they disappeared.

"We're here, but I don't see any elins." Jelena shielded her eyes with a hand, looking around.

"Just be careful." Elleon warned, "This can be a dangerous place if you aren't careful. I should know."

"We know." Dougal said, "Are you sure she didn't give you any hints?" The high elf and castanic shook their heads again. Fraya, however, saw something in the distance. Was...someone watching them? She saw a hooded figure, which was about the size of a child, the clothes unnaturally black. Though, with the island's bloody history, she wasn't so surprised. Strapped to the child's back were two staffs, one familiar, but she was too far away to get a good look at the child, or the staffs. But a child shouldn't even be on the isle on the first place.

"Hello?" she called. The child jumped, startled, then grabbed something and ran. It was a glimpse, but she could see a tiny elin, smaller than the child, with black hair, running with the child.

"Something you see, Fraya?" Jelena asked.

"I saw a child, and I think a young elin, but they ran away. I wonder how they got here..."

"Maybe they know where Sagittarus could be." Dougal suggested, "Let's go after them." They ran to the place Fraya had said she had seen them (behind the side of a boulder, which was leaning against a hill), but there were no prints. It was as if they had never been there.

"Are you positive you saw them, Fraya?" Elleon asked.

"Yes." she nodded, "I just wonder why they're here, on the island. It's too dangerous."

"Well, maybe the bigger child was an older elin." Jelena said, "It's happened to all of us before."

"And again, maybe they knew where Sagittarus is." The lancer ran a hand through his hair.

Fraya saw us. She didn't seem to recognize me, but I can't risk it. Not with Karson. The man looked down to the little elin, who was looking through the vines covering the cave they hid in, watching the group.

"Papa, why can't we talk to them?" the boy closed the curtains, turning, "You think they're searching for Mama, like we are, so why don't you join them?"

"I'm afraid they would take you from me." the man lifted Karson into his arms, "They would take care of you because of who your mother is, but they wouldn't like you having me as a father."

"Why?" The man was quiet.

"...I hurt the boy elf over there very badly, which is why they hate me." the man explained, "Your Mama was there, too, when I hurt him, which is how we first met, but unlike your Mama, they still don't like me."

"So they don't know about me, or about how you and Mama are together?" The man nodded.

"Right." Karson buried his face into the rim of his father's hood.

"You might have been mean before, Papa, but you aren't mean now. Maybe if you tell them what you know, that you aren't the way you used to be, they could trust you." The man sighed.

"I don't think they'll ever trust me. Work with me, yes, but trust me, no."

"Maybe if you showed them how much you love Mama and work with them for a time, they'll trust you."

"..."

"And aren't those Mama's pets?" Karson pointed over the man's shoulder, where they looked to see that he was right.

"Mama never leaves her pets out in the open. And they look so scared..."

"She's strong. I promise we're going to find her soon, and that she'll be fine. And shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"Not as long as Mama might be in danger."

"This is one of the reasons I love you, Karson."

"I know, Papa."

"Juicy, Clawd, and Bam Bam." Jelena looked closely at the three pets that had come running up to them, "You're Sagi's three pets, right?" They nodded, then began to talk, but as they couldn't be understood, no one knew what they were trying to say. That is, until Clawd got and idea. Taking a thick stick, he began to draw words in the sand. The other two quickly caught on with what he was doing, and Bam Bam joined in. without arms, Juicy couldn't do anything except cheer. Clawd and Bam Bam took turns writing the words, where Elleon was writing them down with a notebook and pen given to him by Sagittarus.

"Quest..misleading...Kaiator...meeting..." Fraya read aloud, "Come here...ambush..."

"Did you see who ambushed you?" Dougal asked them. They shook their heads.

"Well, it seems Sagittarus did have a quest here, but went to Kaiator first for a meeting. I wonder if Tamur knows about it." Fraya said.

"But when she came here, she was ambushed." Jelena added, "As we have no idea who did it, we'll have to go to Kaiator to find some clues."

"I feel like I am in one of those mystery stories." Elleon admitted, "But let us be on our way."

"How are we supposed to take the pets with us, though?" Dougal asked, "Only Sagi can summon them and put them back, right?"

"Well..." the girls looked sheepish, "She showed us a few of her trick when we had all those sleepovers."

"The ones where you had gossip together with three other humans Sagittarus was friends with?" Elleon asked, eyebrows raised.

"And pillowfights." Fraya grudgingly admitted.

"Anyway, it was a lot of fun and we learned how to summon and return her pets." Jelena continued. However, before she or Fraya could do so, Clawd, Bam Bam, and Juicy stuck to their legs, making whimpering sounds. They didn't want to be returned until they knew Sagittarus was safe. This the others seemed to understand.

"Oh gods." Fraya sighed, "You three are going to cause us so much trouble if we try to take you on the pegasus ride." They didn't move.

"Okay, okay, we'll get you onto the ride as best as we can." Dougal said, "But it's going to be hard to get the watermelon-"

"His name's Juicy." Jelena put in.

"-on the ride. The only way to do that would be for someone to pretend to be a popori."

"Or we could hide Juicy in one of our bags. You know how big they can be." Elleon said. Juicy made a happy sound as he rolled over to Elleon, so they assumed he agreed.

"Next stop, Kaiator." Fraya said as the male high elf picked up the watermelon pet.

Notes for the story:

Teletanium is a word I created, which you can guess what it means. Aurora seems similar to Dawn, with the colors you can see at dawn, and Helle is Danish for island.

I think you can guess who the man is if you've read my other pure TERA stories. As for Karson, well... let's just say he's a surprise. And if you want to know about my male elin idea, it's in my crossover story, TERA Rising. However, if you want to wait, it will also be explained later in this story. As for the other three women in the sleepover, that will also be explained at the same time as Karson.

As for Fraya not being the Core anymore, my idea is that, after the Argon Threat was over with (along with all the other bad stuff), someone offered to be the Core so Fraya could go back to being normal.

And also, READ & REVIEW!