Chapter 1: Nidhogg

Finally, two months of traveling all lead up to this. The young Landsknecht peered out of the carriage, eager to see her destination. The sight of the town on the horizon excited her, and she could barely contain her impatience. At last, this was finally the day she'd been dreaming of: the day she finally arrived in the legendary city of Etria. She grinned broadly into the wind, letting the wind whip her long, red locks around her green-eyed face. Her complexion spoke of her lack of experience, as did her "armor", which consisted of her favorite leather jerkin, green cloth vest, and Treerat-hide leggings along with boots more suited for casual wear than hours upon hours of hiking and battle. Practicality was a skill she had yet to learn.

Not that she cared about that now. This was a very big day!

"Sit down, will you?!" A firm, but gentle hand yanked her back into her seat. The girl didn't need to look to know who it was: a Gladiator from Amoroad who was seeking his fame here in Etria too. She knew he'd be giving her that defensive little glare he did when she'd lean out the window.

She smiled, knowing he meant well. She stood back up, leaning her head out the window again, more to tease the warrior than anything. "I'm not a kid, Ricardo. I'm not so stupid as to fall out of the carriage."

She heard him chuckling from his seat next to her. "Right, Kylie, just wait 'till we hit a rock. You'll be in the dirt in a heartbeat."

Kylie slid out of the window and back on the bench, turning to the fellow explorer with a mischievous smile. He was a slender, dark-skinned lad with black hair and small, brown eyes. His idea of proper armor made Kylie look like a Protector: he was shirtless and wearing a baggy set of orange, leather shorts. His dark blue bandana was perpetually tied around his head, securing his scruffy hair back. He was clearly somewhat more experienced than Kylie, and bore several scars, including one rather nasty-looking scar leading across his right shoulder and down to his left side.

"Yeah, yeah dad." She couldn't help but taunt him a bit, and the Gladiator chuckled at her.

"Watch it," He teased back, "keep that up and I'll have to get you back."

"Ha, like you got the guts to hit a lady!" Traveling with Ricardo had given the two warriors plenty of time to talk, and by now she now felt pretty comfortable with him. At first, Ricardo had heeded her as hyper and almost childish, and she'd thought of him as stuffy and uncaring. Two weeks of shooting the breeze and swapping stories had forged a bond between the two; they now regarded one another with a friendly, mutual respect.

"You might be the first!" The foreign warrior lunged and grabbed Kylie in the crook of his powerful arm, rubbing his knuckles on her head and mussing her hair, "You've got a mouth, girl."

Kylie laughed and pulled out of his grip. "Sorry and you're welcome. You get to leave soon."

Ricardo's face lit up a bit, and he brushed his hair out of his eye. "Say, that reminds me of something."

"Hm?" Kylie cast him a quizzical look, "What's that?"

Ricardo shrugged. "Maybe you'd like to form a guild together. You're a Landsknecht, and I'm a Gladiator. Together, we'll be an unstoppable force!"

"Together, hm?"

"Hell, yeah!" Ricardo extended a hand to her, "Whaddya say?"

Kylie needed only a moment to think on it. Joining a fellow warrior sounded like a great idea to her. She took his hand, shaking it firmly. "Together, then."

Kylie finally stood at the entryway to the Explorer's Guild of Etria, anxious to begin her registration as an official explorer. She took a deep breath, checking her meager supplies one final time.

"Ready?" Ricardo asked her.

"Sure. Let's do it." With a nervously excited smile, Kylie strode into the open hall eagerly, a cheerfully eager gleam in her eyes and Ricardo quietly following behind her.

Striding confidently into the main hall, Kylie paused for a brief moment to take in her surroundings a bit. The room was simple and elegant, giving off an air of a formal office. Several groups of explorers were sitting about on benches, chatting away. Some looked her way, and some simply ignored her in favor of current company. Kylie guessed they must be new explorers too. Perhaps the man at the desk could help her? He seemed like an official of some sort. His scarred face, eye-patch, and tousled brown hair lent him a somewhat gruff air, and she tensed slightly as she approached.

She was greeted with a terse "What?" without even looking up from his paperwork.

The girl cleared her throat. "I'm here to register as an explorer."

"You and half the city," The man shoved a packet of papers her way, still barely bothering to pause for this, "Put your personal info here. Have your pals sign the other sheets. Settle on a group of no more than five for the initiation test."

"It's actually just us two right now." The Landsknecht's comment finally made the man look up at her. The expression on his face was one of disbelief, and perhaps exasperation.

"What's your names?"

"I'm Kylie," She answered, shifting her position uneasily, "and that's Ricardo. We're signing up together."

She did notlike the glare the man was giving her all of a sudden. "Kylie. Ricardo." The man readjusted his eye-patch, giving Kylie and Ricardo both a piercing look, "The Radha's strict about this. No guild may contain less than five members."

"What the hell?" Ricardo scratched his head, "Back in Amoroad, anyone with the balls to do it could form a guild! This is ludicrous!" Ricardo reached down and started to pick up the papers. "We'll sign anyway!"

The official put a hand on the stack, shooting that cold glare at Ricardo. "Rules are different here, foreigner. I can't let you sign up if you don't have at least three more people in your group. It's for safety's sake, and your own." He swept a hand across the room. "Of course, there's another option. Go join a pre-existing guild. Head to the Golden Deer Pub in you need to find someone. Now, if that's all...?" When his last remark elicited nothing but flustered silence from the two, he returned to his papers.

"Ugh. Stubborn old bastard." Ricardo shook his head irritably.

"Let it go. Let's just try to find someone who'll take us." Kylie sighed as she made her way outside. As she made her way across the plaza, Kylie noticed three people chatting by the fountain. There was a pink-haired, blue-eyed teenager, wearing a huge, red bow in her shoulder-length hair and a sharp, white lab-coat, a blue-haired, green-eyed man decked out head-to-toe in heavy-looking plate armor, and a blond, pony-tailed, green-eyed man wearing forest green robes, and a strange device fastened to his left arm. All three explorers seemed to be having an discussion of some sort, and Kylie couldn't help overhearing them as she passed by.

"This is getting nowhere," Grumbled the armored Protector, "Nobody's accepting new members today either!"

"Don't give up, Mathias." This from the girl, who seemed to be a Medic, judging by the satchel emblazoned with a red plus on it she was holding.

"I'm sick of this. Let's just head to the Golden Deer and call it a day over a pint." The knight looked to the Alchemist. "You with me, Kyo? Marie?"

The boy didn't seem focused on the conversation. Instead, he had turned to look at Kylie and Ricardo. "Excuse me, you two?"

"Yeah?" Ricardo answered as Kylie paused along with him.

"Are you two explorers, by chance?"

"Yeah, but we aren't in a guild yet." Kylie replied.

"I assume you've heard our predicament. It's no doubt the same as yours. With the addition of you two, we will have enough people to form a guild."

"Who's this you found, Kyo?" The girl was now looking their way too, the turning to them as she spoke.

"They're our newest recruits," Kyo smiled calmly, "If they approve."

"Approve?" Ricardo pumped a fist into the air, "Hell yeah, I'm in! Kylie?"

Kylie nodded. These three seemed like okay people. "Sure. Everyone okay with us?"

The Medic nodded her agreement, and the knight spoke up. "Welcome aboard the Nidhogg crew, kids." His grin widened. "I was hoping we'd have another lady around. Marie's no fun to tease."

The Medic, Marie, shook her head apologetically, "Ignore Mathias. That monkey'll flirt with anyone of the female persuasion."

Mathias' grin widened. "See? What a prude." This earned an exasperated sigh out of Marie.

"Well, let's start with names, shall we?" Ricardo offered, "I'm Ricardo, and this saucy little vixen is Kylie."

"Saucy little vixen?" Kylie chuckled at his snark, knowing that he was just playing again, "You're pretty sassy yourself, Ricardo!"

"Ha!" Mathias laughed, "What a pair! Call me Mathias. The kid's Kyo, and that's Marie over there." He gestured to each in turn.

"...are we done now?" All heads turned to Kyo, who had folded his arms in impatience, "I think it's time we make this official."

Kylie nodded. "Well, okay then. I suppose we can chat later, huh."

"Whatever suits ya." Kyo was already walking across the plaza back to the Explorer's Guild. "C'mon already."

"Not much for patience, huh?" Ricardo scratched his head.

"Nope," Marie sighed, "Not at all."

"Hm. Back again?" The Guildmaster's tone had not improved. "I told you, you need two more people."

"We have two more people." Kyo held out his hand. "Papers?" Without another word, the man slapped a packet into Kyo's extended hand, still writing away. Kyo handed a sheet to everyone in turn, Kylie taking the second to last paper in the stack. She grabbed a quill from the desk and started filling out the fields.There was one field that she paused at: the one labeled "Guild Leader?". Next to the question, there were two check-boxes, "Yes" and "No".

Kylie was just about to speak up when Mathias piped up, "Hey, we never decided who's the leader."

Ricardo waved his quill in the air. "I vote me. Who better a leader than a badass Gladiator like myself?"

Kyo groaned, rolling his eyes. "Oh, please. You're too bullish. You'd walk us off a cliff."

This earned a shocked stare out of Ricardo, who clearly wasn't expecting Kyo to be so harsh. "I suppose you want to be leader then?" Ricardo's expression soured as he glared at his rival.

Kyo shook his head. "No, thank you. I'm much too cerebral to waste precious time with that pointless political Kuyutha shit."

"You arrogant little brat." Ricardo grumbled back.

"Impulsive baboon." Kyo said flatly, eying the Gladiator for a reaction.

He got one. Ricardo was clearly getting steamed at Kyo's jabs, and he shot a furious glare at the smirking Alchemist. "Dumb-ass punk!"

Kylie looked at Mathias and Marie. Both of them had apparently finished their forms, and were glancing back at one another uncomfortably. Kylie made a command decision. Without saying a word, she checked the "Yes" box on her form, handing it to the Guildmaster as Ricardo and Kyo continued to hurl insults at one another heatedly.

"So," The Guildmaster's voice cut loudly through the bickering, making the two combatants turn towards him, "It is officially done. The Nidhogg Guild is hereby formed, under the command of Kylie Redstone."

"Wha?!" Ricardo sputtered, "That's not fair!" He shot the Landsknecht a look.

"She's the only one of you who checked 'Yes', so she's the leader by default. Unless you object?"

Kylie smiled sheepishly, noticing that everyone in the group was staring at her. "Er...I didn't mean to step on any toes. It just looked like you guys needed to decide. I hope this is okay?" Kylie looked between her allies, searching for any sign of malcontent.

"I like that take-command attitude, girl." Mathias slapped her on the back and made her stumble. "'Sides, I get to watch that sexy ass of yours when you're the lead." His hand slid down her back and squeezed her butt. Kylie snagged his wrist as harshly as a hawk snatching a mouse.

Kylie shot the Protector a ferocious look. "You better watch yourself! I'm not some trophy to be ogled, got that!?"

He yanked his hand back, scowling at her. "It's a compli-"

"Don't get too wound up, youngsters." The Guildmaster's sudden commentary silenced Mathias' words, "You kids still need to visit the Radha Hall to get your first mission. Remember, the first duty you explorers have is to the Radha. Now get going." He swept a hand at them, shooing them out of the room, "You lot are holding up the line."

As Kylie left the hall, keeping her distance from Mathias, her mind was abuzz with possibility. What could the Radha want with the guilds? She pondered this quietly, following the cobblestone streets. Nobody said much as they walked along, though Kyo and Ricardo were still glaring at one another. She made use of several signs, and soon came to a large, ornate building near the town center. Above the doors, a plaque read "Radha Hall". Just as she reached for the door, she heard a loud screech coming from the direction of the Labyrinth. Kylie froze up, moving only enough to turn her head to the sound.

"What was that?" She asked. Her question was answered when a huge deer came rushing through the street. Its blue and white hide was stained with blood oozing from multiple stab wounds, and its golden mane flowed in the wind as it galloped wildly about.

Kyo's eyes went wide and he backed into Mathias. "T-t-that's a Furyhorn! What the hell's a FOE doing in town!?"

"FOE?" Ricardo seemed puzzled, "What's that?"

"Formido Oppugnatura Exsquens. They're insanely powerful beasts that wander the Labyrinth."

"We gotta do something about it! People are going to get killed if we don't!" Mathias shoved his way past Kyo and charged the beast, drawing his sword as he ran.

"Mathias, don't do that you idiot!" Marie called, "It's too dangerous!" If he heard her, he ignored her plea.

"It's wounded. We can kill it!"

Kylie shook her head. That fool was going to get himselfkilled! "Come on!" Drawing her short sword, she rushed into the fray, finding Mathias with his blade already buried in the animal's side. The deer slammed its massive antlers into him, throwing Mathias to the dirt.

"Mathias!" Marie rushed to the Protector's side, "Are you alright!?"

"I'm...fine." Mathias got to his feet with the Medic's help. "Just a scratch."

"You lost your sword!" Marie drew out her mace with a resigned sigh. "It looks like I must fight now..."

"Huh?!" Mathias only just now seemed to realize his weapon was still lodged in the animal's side. "Dammit, that's no good!"

"Stand back!" Kylie saw Kyo raise his left hand, which was now glowing at the center of the device, "I'll fry this thing! Fire!" A fireball launched out of the device, landing a painful-looking hit on the deer. It flinched at the blow, and Kylie took the opportunity to strike. She rushed headlong at the animal, bringing her blade down on the beast's head and landing a blow right between the antlers. It shrieked and threw its head, knocking Kylie away with its rack. Kylie gritted her teeth in pain. The Furyhorn's horns had sliced into her side when it rammed her. As she clutched the wound, she saw Ricardo strafe around the side of the animal.

"Yeeagh!" Ricardo slammed into the red-eyed beast from behind, dealing a wicked blow with his club to its back. It was knocked to the ground, but it regained its footing quickly.

"Kylie!" She noticed Marie scramble over to her, already digging around in her satchel. Before she could react, the deer threw its head and let out a terrible screech. Instantly, Kylie's head ached and her vision swam. She braced herself on her knees and tried to steady her balance. A sudden blow from behind caught her off guard, and she fell to all fours. She looked behind her and was puzzled to see Mathias flailing his arms wildly, almost as if punching at an invisible enemy. He must have hit her in his confusion.

As she tried to regain her own bearings, she saw the Furyhorn rear up, pawing the air with ebony hooves. Then, it spun around, slamming Kylie with a double-barreled kick that sent her flying across the street and into the wall of the Radha Hall. She was vaguely aware of Marie rushing to her side and shouting her name before her world went black.

Kylie opened her eyes, groaning. "What happened?" Her head was spinning and she felt weak.

"Good." Kylie turned her head and saw Marie kneeling by her side holding a jar, "You've come to. I was hoping that Nectar would work."

"Ugh." Kylie sat up, wincing at the gash to her side. Then, she suddenly remembered what happened. There was a monster in town! Kylie shot to her feet, drawing her sword again. "The enemy!"

"It's over, Kylie." Marie put a hand on her shoulder. "Soon after you got hurt, we finished the Furyhorn." Sure enough, as she looked about, she saw the beast's fallen body sprawled across the street, blood pooling from a deep wound on its throat.

She sighed in relief, lowering her sword. "Then, we won...?"

"Somehow, yeah." Ricardo came across the street. His torso was covered in scrapes and bruises, but he seemed otherwise unharmed. Kyo had a cut across his left cheek, and Mathias' breastplate looked dented where the deer had jabbed him. Overall, nobody seemed too hurt. "Are you okay, Kylie?" Ricardo asked,"You're in pretty bad shape..."

Kylie turned to him, sheathing her sword. "I'm okay, but my side kinda hurts..."

"Hold still, please." Kylie looked over a shoulder at Marie, who was now carrying some medicine and bandages. "I think I can treat you." Before Kylie could protest, Marie was already fumbling with the buckles of her jerkin. Kylie let the Medic try her hand, since she clearly meant well.

As she consented to the bandaging, she noticed a man rush out of the Radha Hall, his armored robe jangling. The red-haired man was wielding a rapier and looking about frantically. "What happened here?!"

"It's a FOE." Kyo gestured to the Furyhorn's carcass, "Well, it wasa FOE. We finished it."

"You did what now?" The man stared at them, peering over his glasses at the scene. Kylie couldn't blame him for being surprised. She considered herself lucky to be still alive after that thing's rampage. At least it was wounded when it came by. If it were at full-strength, they never would've survived...

"You killed a FOE? Impressive!" The man sheathed his sword, a smile spreading across his face. "This is a surprising turn of events!"

"I'll say!" Kyo rubbed his injured cheek, "I thought FOEs live deeper in Yggdrasil?!"

"They normally do." The man gestured into the Hall. "Do come in. There's a lot to explain."

That was too true. Looking back at the deer one more time, Kylie was struck with a sudden thought. Something drove it here from Yggdrasil: something awful enough to force it to run.

But what could be worse than a bloodthirsty deer?

Name:Kylie Redstone

Age:23

Class: Landsknecht

Hometown:Sheba

Quote: "It's only impossible if you thinkit is."

Bio: A sassy and clever Landsknecht from a far off town who came to Etria recently. Kylie is usually quite cheerful, but this cheeky warrior is not afraid to speak her mind when the opportunity presents itself. She used to belong to a fishing fleet until the day the fleet was decimated by a swarm of Nautilus while out at sea. Her ship was heavily damaged, and she wound up drifting for a week. Luckily, a band of adventurers from Amoroad found her and brought her back to Sheba. While traveling with the warriors, she learned about their exploits and misadventures in the Labyrinth beneath Amoroad. Those stories sparked her interest in adventure, and Kylie soon left on her own journey. Unluckily, the currents shifted soon after, cutting off the route to Amoroad. When she hired a ride from Sheba to Etria, she met Ricardo. The two became fast friends, bonding quickly on the long trip from the ocean city.

Well there it is! Chapter 1, in the bag. I know, the party seems a little underdeveloped. I plan to bring out more of their personalities and histories in the next chapter. Kylie's is level-headed but sassy, Ricardo is a playful scamp with a reckless streak, Kyo is very intelligent, but kind of a prick. Mathias is a relaxed, somewhat foolish womanizer, and Marie is quiet, but surprisingly childish. There's going to be a short dossier on each party member at the end of each chapter. Count on seeing Chapter 2 soon!