#kudos to melancholicwriteaholic for a hilarious post

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Saga of Patricia the Ferals. chapter 1

It was a rainy summer evening, when all people in the town of Newdawn had retreated to their cozy homes, too wet and muddy to work. No one wanted or needed to face the heavy rain for some puny bit of silver they could’ve earned on a normal night so they all headed to an early sleep. Even the adventurer’s pub, where singing and fighting can normally be heard from dusk till dawn, remained strangely quiet despite all the loudest member of the town all gather there. However, in a small cabin near the edge of the woods, far from the normally bustling town, light still shone from the small window.

“Come now, Patricia, be a good girl and go to sleep. You can’t expect to train in this kind of weather right?” A middle aged man calmly reminded his daughter. He tried his best to follow the child around the house, but his old wounds kept reminding him of why he retreated to that simple cabin.

“But daddy, it’s too early. Purricia don’t wana sleep yet!” His daughter answered while avoiding his hands reaching out to her. The girl was quite troublesome, running around and even crawling up the walls and cupboard, just like a cat avoiding his owner. In fact, that little girl is a cat, more exactly a Feline Feral, one of the many races that populates this land. With snow white fur and heterochromia eyes, she was of a rare breed, even amongst the Ferals.

With his daughter up on a shelf, crouching and clawing up the furniture, the man gave her an “I gave up” sign: “All right, kid. How about I read you a story before bed?” Patricia’s eyes brightened: “Really dad? We can read a story?” Her father smiled gently: “Yes, now come down here and pick one, would you.” The young Feral climbed down and dashed to her room with excitement in every step. She jumped on her bed, eagerly waited for story time. The man sat down next to her and asked: “So, what shall we read tonight?” “Can you tell me the story of the Four Heroes, dad?” Patricia answered. Her father seemed surprised by this: “But we have read this many times before. Surely you would find something else interesting? How about some fairy tales, you like it right?” Patricia whined: “No dad. That’s boring. I don’t want that silly stuff.” The man smiled: “Served me right for teaching you martial arts this early. All right. Here we go.”

Once upon a time, there was a void with nothing but chaos and darkness in it. There was no space, no time, not even magic. Then one day, a bright light shone down from the heaven and descended the five great spirits: Celcius, the flame of wrath and wisdom, Garcia, the pond of danger and adventures, Natura, the tree of cruelty and life, Adamantus, the armor of coldness and royalty and Terrapagos, the mountain of stubbornness and nurturing. With their great powers combined with the very chaos of the void, they created the vast land, the clear sky, the great sea and all the creatures living in it, giving the land order for the first time. However, other forces hated the spirit’s creation and tried their hardest to plunged them all back into the abyss. Amongst all those horrid creatures, the biggest fiend of all was the one we called Inanitus. Controlling the very emptiness of the void itself, he united all factions of monsters under his rule and destroyed everything in his path. Where ever they went, nothing remained on their tracks, all absorbed back into the void. Eventually, the five spirits created four great weapons and gifted them to warriors of their choosing. The Shield Hero whose stand so sturdy he wouldn’t move an inch under any attacks. The Staff Hero who were gifted the power of the void, to reshape reality to fit his liking. The Axe Hero whose strength so great he moved a mountain on his own. And finally, the Sword Hero who was the most noble, most courageous man in all the lands. Together, the Four Heroes defeated Inanitus, plunging him into the deepest bottom the void where nothing could ever escape. But just before his defeat, Inanitus uttered a curse: “May the land where these weapons rest never know peace, plagued forever by an avatar of my burning hatred for all things there is and will be. Should one be killed, another will take its place, till the end of all time and space.” From then on, every few hundred years, a new Demon would be born amongst all monster races and once again rise up to take over the world. Fortunately, just as the Evil one was born anew, for new Heroes, guided by faith and destiny, will once again take up the Four Weapons and cleanse the land of evil.

“Wow,” Patricia’s eyes brighten up “Do you think I can be a hero like that one day, dad?” Her father smiled: “who knows, sweetie. Maybe you could. After all, most recorded Heroes had a humble beginning.”

“YEAH! I’m gonna grow so strong and fast to fight monsters and save people and…”

Looking at his daughter bouncing around on her bed, he can only pray for her safety should she choose the path of the adventurer. He rubbed her head and gently said: “Yes, you will, my daughter, but to do all that, you should be in bed now. Can’t fight any monster when you’re tired right?” Hearing that, Patricia settled down under her blanket. They shared one last good night before she drifted into her sweet dream, unknowing all the worries in her father’s mind.

12 years later

“COME ON, DAD! We’re gonna be late!” Patricia, now a young woman, ran quickly to the adventurer’s guild in the enter of the nearby town. She’s now 19 years old and, having finished her training with her father, can be registered as an adventurer herself. “Wait, Patricia! My knees, they burn!” her father trailed behind her on his poor legs, wheezing out from all the beating he took back in his youth.

The town is still as lively as the day they moved there. All kinds of people from all races doing business with each other. The dwarves set up their work shop while arguing with the nearby elf selling books and tomes. A few Dragonian and Human adventurers gathered near the center fountain, dividing their rations for another day out in the wilderness. Avian mailmen urgently filled up every post box in town and flew away to who knows where for more mail and packages to deliver.

Eventually, they arrived at the guild, where everyone were being rowdier than usual. “Hey guys, it’s Marcus!” Someone in the back shouted and all the others adventurers followed.

“Welcome back, old man.”

“Hey, how’re you doing?”

“Little Patricia sure have grown.”

“How about some drink later, my treat?”

Amongst all the welcoming voices, Patricia can only imagine her father’s glory day. What kind of man was he before she came into his life? As she was wondering, her father called: “Patty, come here!” and lead her to the register. A beautiful woman greeted them: “Welcome to Newdawn guild, Mr. Marcus. My name is Alice. How can I help you today?”

“Yes,” Marcus answered “I would like to register for my daughter.”

“Of course. Now Patricia, can you tell me something about yourself? More specifically, your race, favorite weapons, fighting style, etc… things like that.”

“OK. First, I’m a Feral, Feline sect.”

Alice quietly asked: “So Mr. Marcus is not your birth father?”

“Yes. Sadly, they were killed by monsters when I was too young to remember. Father happened to pass by and took me in.”

“I’m very sorry about that.”

“Oh, please don’t be. I couldn’t ask for a better dad than him and you can’t live in the past, right?”

“Right. Now, how do you usually fight? With a sword perhaps, or a staff? Did your father teach you how to use weapons?”

Marcus chimed in: “She needs no weapon. I trained her so that she can fight using her claws and bare fists, just like how I did.”

“Yeah. Besides, every time I tried a weapon, I broke it by swinging too hard” His daughter add. Alice’s face brightened up: “So she’s a Monk then. Thank goodness, I don’t think the guild can provide another sword to new recruits. There’s just too many swordsmen out there.”

“Have you tried a club or a mace? Completely unbreakable I promise.” An adventurer, Dragonian Berserker by the looks of it, asked.

“Yes, we did, Harold. And somehow, she broke the handle in half and cracked the spike ball simply by smashing it at a rock.” Hearing what Marcus said, approved murmuring can be heard throughout the guild. Patricia continued: “Also, I have learned many skills from dad, like…” Alice interrupted her: “Don’t say that aloud! An adventurer’s skills are his lifeline. You must never do that, OK? On that note, you mustn’t show this to anyone else also: Your adventurer card!”

With an eager hand, Patricia grabbed the card she was given. On it, everything she had learned and can learn can be seen, inscribed with magic ink that will add things into the list should she learn them. “This is great, but” She asked “Why isn’t cooking on the list? I can cook and that is a skill, right?” Her father gave her a sorry look: “Don’t worry honey. Ferals are not known or their culinary skills. Have you ever noticed that I never let you cooked before?”

“But I have cooked before, it tasted great to me.”

“Your “cooking” means shooting ki blasts into a pond to blow fish up, cook the fish over the resulting molten rocks then almost burn your tongue eating them.”

Laughter busted out in the guild with Patricia furiously trying to stop them. At last, Marcus said goodbye to his daughter and headed home, feeling both proud and worried for her. But by the end of the day, he knew that the little kitten he found in that wreckage years ago was no more. In her place stood a strong, beautiful young woman who snapped bear’s necks on a regular basis. “She’s gonna be fine. There’s nothing around this part that can even touch her anymore.” The man told himself that and headed home.  

With her father gone home, Patricia eagerly checked the bulletin board. So many quests, all with fair rewards and great adventures waiting for her. Eventually, something caught her eyes. The biggest quest on the board, with the best reward: Cleanse the nearby cave. Such an easy job, enemies are just small, weak and stupid goblins. Even though they live in packs, none of them is cooperative enough to get much things done, easy targets for new recruits. She brought the request to the clerk.

“I would like to take this quest please.”

“Ah, yes. You know, we’ve had this for a few months now. Nobody would pay attention to it.”

“Really? But the rewards are so good.”

“And five people had died doing that quest.”

Suddenly, a young man interrupted them. He was in his late teens or early twenties, tall but not lean, with a defined but not bloated form. His short, choppy white hair was so unruly, Patricia imagined he had just got out of bed and didn’t even care about how he looks. Despite of that, both his sturdy looking dark leather pants and the knee long black coat with an alarming amount of pockets are in perfect shape. Under the coat, he wore a red tunic with chainmail lacing underneath. As for weapons, he had a big sword hung behind his back and two strange wooden sticks on the waist.

“Hey look guys, Lenox’s back!”

“Hey Len, got something cool? Bet you stole it somewhere”

“Seriously guys, get a new joke.” The man, Lenox, lightheartedly joked back to the rowdy crowd behind him and continue.

“Listen Feral, it’s not I’m looking down on you, it’s just there’s something wrong about this quest. I’ve just got back from the next town and the same quest is hung there. Four guys there had gone missing doing it. That, along with one of our guys named Marshal who went last month. I seriously think you should party up then go.”

“Thanks for the advice but I got this, Lenox. You may not know this, but I snapped a bear’s neck when I was twelve. Bunch of goblins won’t get me.”

“You’re clearly not listening, so I’m gonna say that again. You ARE NOT going to do this quest.”

Hearing that, Patricia felt underestimated. She was a master martial artist for god’s sake. She can handle herself, especially against a bunch of runty humanoid half her size.

“Oh, I’m doing this quest and YOU. ARE NOT. GOING. TO STOP. ME!” And so, angrily, she took the request and stormed off the guild.

Even long after the Feral left, an awkward silence was still presence in the building. Eventually, Alice inched over and said

“Look, Lenny. Do you think that you overreacted?”

“Me? You are the one who’s not acting right. Just look at her, no weapon, no armor, storming off like that. Oh, I know she’s a Monk but I’m pretty sure that her tunic can’t do much against knives and claws.”

“You worry too much.” An adventurer chimed in “That girl can use her ki now. She’s gonna be fine.”

“Oh, I’m telling you. She’s not gonna be fine. There’s something fishy about that cave and like hell I’m gonna stand here and watch. Anyone with me?��

At that, everyone kept murmuring about, some tried to calm Lennox down, others made dumb excuses and continued on with their business. Some even kept joking about how he would steal their wallets. “Of course it is.” Lennox muttered to himself and went out, heading for the cave. Something must be up with those goblins and he’s gonna prove it.

#fantasy #original #fiction #adventure #action #self written #kudos to melancholicwriteaholic for a hilarious post