Chapter Two: Piece Two

I decided that if something needs extra explaining, then I failed my duty as a writer to correctly explain it the first time around. Please let me know if anything confuses you. And don't just say, "LOL that was teh confuzin" or else I will track you down and hurt you. If something confuses you, tell me exactly what it was and why. Thank you.

                    The crackling of wood and fire along with the smell of hot stew was what Rion awake to. Anna sat by a large, crude pot that contained a sizable amount of beef stew, occasionally taming the fire. She then noticed he was awake and gave a devious smile.

"This ain't for you!" she sneered. Rion frowned and sat up.

"You're telling me that you're going to eat all of that on your own?" he questioned. He continued as Anna nodded, "I highly doubt that."

"Well ..." Anna taunted Rion by scooping a large amount of stew into a bowl, slowly, " ... if you tell me what a nuptial is, I might get into a sharing and caring mood!"

                    Rion sighed loudly. He couldn't believe she went through all the trouble of cooking, just to find out what he meant by 'nuptial'. Knowing that talking about a nuptial, or marriage, with a twelve year old girl would be senseless, he lied.

"It's ... a duck."

"A duck?!"

"Yes ... a ... blue duck ..."

"What the heck?!" Anna put her bowl aside and crawled over to Rion, glaring, "It is NOT!"

"How would you know that, hm?" Rion smirked. Anna growled and poured a bowl of stew for Rion.

"Wait. Why would I have to be at least seventeen to have one?!" she yelled. Rion quickly answered.

"It bites." he said, quickly grabbing the bowl.

"It ... bites ..." Anna computed the words then stared directly at Rion. "You might want a spoon with that."

"Yes ... that would be useful." he sighed, taking the one Anna was now offering him.

                    Anna laid down on her stomach in front of Rion, watching him eat, with a big smile on her face. Rion tried his hardest to ignore her adamant gaze, but after a while, it got to be too much. He stopped eating and glared.

"Did anyone ever teach you manners?!"

"Mister Manners and I are having a fight right now." she giggled. Rion rolled his eyes.

"Grow up."

"Can't."

"Why is that?!"

"I'm twelve." Anna rolled onto her back, laughing loudly. Rion grumbled to himself and finished off his serving of stew.

"I want to know why you did all of this for me." Rion demanded suddenly. Anna blinked.

"What?"

"Why are you helping me? What do you expect to get out of it?" Rion asked with a hint of anger in his voice. Anna smiled warmly.

"People don't need reasons to help others, do they?"

                    Rion stared blankly. It was the most mature sentence he had heard all night. He was even more stunned that she didn't expect anything in return. Rion then realized that even though she acts immaturely and is still very young, she can still take things in a serious manner. He bowed his head and chuckled a bit.

"There is nothing you want in return for helping a Master mage?"

"Oh, now you're just trying to make yourself sound important." Anna let out a loud sigh. "I don't need anything."

"Huh. Then at least allow me to speak to your parents or guardians ..."

"Don't have any that I know of." Anna cut him off, kicking the air every so often. "I really did fall from the sky, y'know. I landed in a temple or something in a place called Yggdrassil. Don't remember anything before that happened."

"Fell ... from the sky ... are you an angel, then?" Rion tried to piece together the mystery of her arrival. Anna glared.

"Do I look like an angel to you?!"

" ... I ... n ... never mind." Rion shook his head and stood up, looking at his bandaged shoulder. "You ah ... did a good job on this."

                    Anna smiled and got up. As she began to clean up the leftovers from their meal, Rion walked over and patted her on the head.

"Fell from the sky ... all alone in this world ... where are you going to go from here?" he asked her. Anna just smiled.

"I say we get some sleep, okay? Talking to you makes me tired."

"F ... fine ..." Rion laid by the fire that was still going from when Anna made the stew. He watched her lay on the other side, facing away from him, and sighed a bit. After watching her sleeping form for a bit, he fell asleep himself.

Don't you dare leave me.

Author's Note: Well ... I know that last night sounds kinda scary ^_^; but what he means by it is that he doesn't want a little girl who can't really take care of herself to just run off. That line mainly amounts to, "I want to take care of you, since you took care of me.", but it's simply not Rion's style to just spout out (or even think) such words. Please comment ^_^;

Chapter Two: Piece One

*Any phrase that is numbered (Ex: Blah(1) ...) will be explained after the piece is over.

"Who are you?"

"R ... Rion. Rion Consella."

"Rion, huh? My name's -"

" - Anna Rundae, twelve years old. You told me that already."

"Heheh, yeah, I did, didn't I? Well ... can you stand?"

"I have an open wound that could, if infected, take my arm off, as well as become quite painful if I move it around too much. Do you think I can stand?"

"... I guess not ..."

                Anna looked closely at Rion's face. It was a bit dirty from dust kicked up by the building that were recently destroyed, however, he was still quite handsome. She also noticed his eyes seemed kinder and were violet, not the glowing amber they were when she faced him earlier. Rion turned and looked deep into Anna's eyes.

"Did your parents ever tell you that staring is considered rude?"

"O ... oh! I'm sorry!" Anna jerked back and began to stand up. Rion closed his eyes and sighed as she thought up a plan of action, "Um, you ... you stay right there! I'll be right back, okay?"

                 Anna stumbled out of the clearing and into the shrubbery. Rion looked at his injuried shoulder with a slight grimace. Blood from the injury was currently seeping into the tree bark and grass. It was an excruciatingly painful injury, but with his power depleated, there was nothing he could do.

                  Back in a nearby Pantela General Store, Anna was able to take food, disinfectants, and bandages without paying, mainly because the store owner was so grateful that she stopped the complete destruction of the city. She dashed back into the Ice Woods and into the clearing once more.

"I ... I'm back!" Anna managed to pant out. Rion lazily turned his head towards her.

                  Rion's condition had greatly worsened while Anna was gone. He looked sickly pale and could barely keep his eyes open and focused. He turned away.

"I'd ... prefer to die ... alone." he muttered. Anna, not used to hearing such words from anyone, began to tear up a bit as she opened the medication and a package of bandages.

"Sh-shut up, you ...! You're not gonna die! You're not gonna, so shut up!" she started crying, letting tears fall into Rion's wound.

"That ... hurts ..." he growled through clenched teeth. Anna pulled the robe cloth away from the injury, trying not to look at the gruesome wound. She closed her eyes tightly through tears, applying disinfectant, making Rion jump a bit. "That ... hurts ... more ..."

"Oh ... oh shush!" Anna grumbled, sniffling and wiping her remaining tears away. She used healing herbs manufactured by the Elves by rubbing it directly into the wound, once again, with her eyes closed. They worked almost immediately, however ...

"Are you trying to quicken my death, you imbecile?! It hurts!! Pain! Do you know what pain is?! Have you ever felt PAIN before?!" Rion suddenly started shouting. Anna was scared, but she kept applying the medication.

"Quit whining. You're a big boy now." Anna scolded Rion's actions while unwrapping the cloth bandage from it's package. "Take it off."

"Excuse me?"

"Y ... your shirt. I have to put this on."

"..." Rion instead ripped the cloak and shirt sleeve off. Anna let out a sigh of relief.

"Well, we can do it this way too ..." she smiled, wrapping the bandage over the wound.

                  Rion watched Anna as she wrapped up his wound. She had clearly never done this before, but was doing a fairly good job by being extremely careful. It was at this time that he also noticed that for a very young girl, she was quite beautiful. Then, he let the words slip out.

"Have you ever considered being an apprentice?"

Anna's head snapped in his direction. "Apprentice? What's that?"

"N-no ... I shouldn't have said anything." Rion felt his face get a bit hot and turned away. Anna leaned in.

"Do you mean a magic apprentice?! As in someone teaching me magic without going to a school?!"

"Well, yes ... I just mentioned it because by graduating, I qualify to be a Master ..." Rion explained to her. Anna giggled.

"Master and apprentice? Sounds kinda kinky!" she teased, even though her young mind barely understood what those words meant. Rion's face grew hotter.

"That's enough out of you. You can't apply yet anyway."

"Why's that?"

"You can only apply once you are seventeen."

"Why's that?" Anna grinned. Rion stared directly at her face.

"That is the age you have to be in order to have a nuptial(1)." he stated bluntly. Anna blinked and cocked her head to the side.

"What's a 'nuptial'?"

"Grow up and you'll learn." Rion turned on his side. "Thank you for what you've done. You can leave now. I need to rest."

                   Anna haughtily puffed out her cheeks and stomped off, leaving her bag of supplies behind.

She would make ... an interesting apprentice ... Rion thought to himself, closing his eyes.

(1) Nuptial: It's an SAT word for "marriage". Yup.

Author's Note: Yaaay ... chapter 2! I like chapter 2 ^_^ Comment if you want ... it makes me feel like someone is reading this piece of refuse >>

Chapter One: Part Three (Final)

*Any phrase that is numbered (Ex: Blah(1) ...) will be explained after the piece is over.

              Rion paced back and forth in his room, thinking up a plan to prove himself worthy of being valedictorian of the school. Becoming more and more frustrated as he thought, he could feel a small, black flame deep within his heart, beginning to burn with more intensity. He smirked with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

"If they cannot acknowledge my power ... I will have to show it to them, won't I ..." he thought aloud, chuckling strangely to himself, "If they think I'm a bad person, then I suppose I'll have to be ..." Rion then took a hooded cloak from the rack in his room and put it on, raising the hood over his head. He then left the academy, using the side door. At this time, Anna was also pacing in her room.

"Me? Some sort of angel? No ... no way. I definately don't remember anything like that ..." she thought aloud.

               Suddenly, a bright, pale-blue light burst near the hotel, shattering the double-pan windows in Anna's room. The two elvan women slammed the door open, shouting for Anna to follow them out.

               The town of Pantela was in utter chaos. Flash fires and lightning strikes appeared all over the town, hitting civilians and setting them aflame, as well as destroying buildings. In the center of Pantela was the Academy Cathedral, and in front of the cathedral was Rion Consella, his usually violet eyes now glowing with an eerie bright amber light. Anna looked at the stairs in front of Rion. A man who looked about Rion's age with short black hair approached him. It was Fez Sanders, the valedictorion.

"Yo! What's up with the psycho episode?!" Fez yelled out to him. Rion's gaze looked down upon Fez with pure hatred. He smiled and pointed at him.

"You ... you, of all people, dare to even dream of approaching me ...?"

               Fez backed up, fear apparent in his eyes. Rion raised his hand in Fez's direction and began to gather energy. While this was occuring, Anna ran up the cathedral's side stairs. She felt she could stop him; somehow, she knew she would be able to. When she reached the top, she shouted out the only thing she could think of saying to shift his attention:

"HEY, MORON!"

               Rion jumped a bit, breaking the spell he was casting. He turned and glared wildly at her.

"You broke my concentration, you little wench!" Rion growled. Hearing footsteps running away, Rion turned to see Fez fleeing Pantela. He closed his eyes, chuckling to himself, "He's gone ... heh ..."

"You have to stop! You're hurting people!" Anna told him. Rion ignored her completely and continued to laugh. "Hey! Why aren't you listening?! I, Anna Rundae, the twelve year old who fell from the skies, demand your attention!" she proclaimed, doing a little pose to make herself seem more important. Rion stopped laughing, but continued to smile.

"You really want attention that badly, don't you?" he sneered, slowly raising his hand in her direction. "Well ... here is the greatest amount of attention you'll ever get."

                Energy gathered quickly in Rion's hand and shot foward at Anna. Not knowing what else to do, she raised her arms in front of her face. Just as the spell hit, a strange, beige barrier in the shape of ridged butterfly wings appeared in front of her, protecting her. Rion grew annoyed and strengthened the blast.

I have to get to him ... maybe if I get close enough, it'll scare him and he'll stop! Anna kept her arms in front of her and moved foward, the barrier moving with her. Rion became furious.

"S-stop it! Get away ... stay back!"

I'm almost there ... he's scared now, so when I reach him, he'll definately cut it out! Anna continued to move closer. When she was about a foot away, Rion's power exhausted itself and backfired, using the barrier around Anna as a sort of spring board. The blast overtook Rion, ripping open his left shoulder and knocking him to the ground. As he lay there, Anna fell to her knees, the barrier disapating.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" she cried. Rion, using his right arm to stablize himself, got to his knees.

"... I will ... not ... forget this." he breathed out. He then got to his feet and fled into the Ice Woods, a forest in the wilderness of Pantela.

                The townspeople gave shouts of praise and admiration as Anna rose to her feet. She paid no attention to the crowd. Instead, she ran off in the direction Rion was headed.

I don't want someone that strong and grumpy to be mad at me! I'll find him and force the forgiveness outta him! Anna reasoned. But ... I really hurt him too ... I'll have to do something to help ...

                The deeper Anna went into the woods, the warmer and greener it became. Because these woods were so close to the school, Anna's guess was that the woods were enchanted to be a higher temperature than the town and surrounding area. Soon enough, Anna could feel a strong, magical aura and heavy breathing.

"Alright. Let's see what happens next ..." she sighed, moving into the clearing.

                Leaning against a strong oak was Rion, who was making a failing attempt to heal his wounds with his completely depleted magic. A warm, white light would grow in his hands for a few moments before fading and accomplishing nothing. Giving up, Rion's body slid against the tree until he was in a sitting position. This was all he could do. He didn't even notice Anna walk up and kneel beside him.

"Hey." Anna whispered.

~End Ch. 1~

Nothing needed extra explaination.

Author's Note: Saa ... that's all for chapter one! Chapter 2 is ALOT better ... and 3 is 90x better. And it just keeps getting better and better ^_^

Chapter One: Part Two

*Any phrase that is numbered (Ex: Blah(1) ...) will be explained after the piece is over.

                          The neighboring city of Yggdrasill(1) was having its own share of incidents. One day prior to Rion's graduation, a young twelve-year-old girl suddenly fell from the sky, landing through the roof of the Sanctuary of Helm in a nearby forest, sacred to elvanfolk. This outraged the elvan elder, who placed the young girl in prison.

                          The guard who had been questioning the girl walked into the elder's home with a nervous smile.

"S ... sir ... I finished questioning the girl, as you ordered." the shake in the guard's voice faded as he continued to speak, "She is named Anna Rundae. However, she claims to not remember anything past that."

The elder turned his head towards the wall and grumbled angrily to himself before facing the guard.

"That girl is lying! Take me to the girl!" he demanded.

"I'm ... afraid that's not possible sir." as the elder looked questionably at his guard, the guard went on, "Religious zealots made off with her, thinking she was a angel of some sort. We are currently searching for them."

The elder sighed and slowly walked toward a window, looking out to the horizon.

"Were any artifacts destroyed in the crash at the Sanctuary?" the elder asked, staring out the window. The guard shook his head. "Then, she may go. Let the zealots have their 'angel'. Call off the search."

"Yes sir!"

                          Outside of Yggdrassil, two middle-aged elvan women were running in the direction of the Snow City Pantela(2), dragging Anna the whole way. Anna suddenly jerked her hand away.

"Where are you taking me?!" she shouted. One of the women stepped foward.

"You came here from the Heavens by mistake." she began. "This city of Pantela has a magic academy. The principal will be able to train you so you can send yourself home!" she finished with a smile.

                          Anna looked up to the sky with a bit of a frown. Did I really come from the Heavens? she wondered. But ... I'm so ordinary! Dark amber eyes and dark brown hair ... if anything, I'm some sort of demon! Anna sighed. The other woman grabbed her arm.

"We must hurry. The guards will be on us any minute now!"

                          Anna nodded and allowed herself to be dragged into a nearby Pantela hotel, just past the city gate.

(1) Yggdrassil: In Norse mythology, the Great Tree Yggdrassil held up the world in it's branches. The leaves and nuts from the tree were said to contain healing powers. In this story, Yggdrassil is a city with a large tree in the center of it, which is also named Yggdrassil. This city will be explained in the story itself later on.
(2) Pantela: If you can't remember, this is where the story began with Rion - the academy he graduated from is the same one the two women were babbling about.

Author's Note: I edited the everything out of this piece ... in the actual writing, I made Yggdrassil's elder seem more like a king in a castle than a simple elf elder. Oh yeah, and the third and last piece of this chapter is much .... MUCH longer. Like ... 3 or 4 times longer. Really. The rest of the chapters are seperated a little more evenly ... alright then! Ja ne ...

Chapter One: Part One

*Any phrase that is numbered (Ex: Blah(1) ...) will be explained after the piece is over.

"Saludatorion?! They had the nerve to give me such a lowly title?!"

                  Rion Consella, a man twenty-three years of age, stomped down the hallway to the main entrance of the Pantela Advance Academy for Mid-Magic(1) with his only two friends following close behind. Rion had always stood out ever since he entered the Academy twelve years ago, mainly because of his deep auburn hair that always remained about waist-length. His violet eyes only made him stand out even more. Always thought to be cold, calculating, even murderous, rumors prevented Rion from making many friends. His handsome features made him secretly popular among the ladies, but he never took advantage of such popularity and instead loathed and resented it.

"Rion, that's not bad at all! Second place out of over eight-thousand? I was lucky to be in the top five-hundred!" his best friend, Yutan Dark, reminded him.

"Yutan is right." Tabatha Natom, Rion's only female friend, agreed.

                   Yutan and Tabatha were just as outcast as Rion was. The two were Fetlen(2) ; half-human, half-elvan. Fetlen were looked down on as freakish to humans and failures to elvanfolk. It was thanks to Rion's strongarming that the two were allowed to set foot on the school campus. Yutan had long, dark purple hair, tied back, with red eyes. Tabatha had long, dark green hair with long bangs covering her ears and light green eyes.

                   When the three reached the exit of the building, Rion seperated from them, muttering curses under his breath. Fez Sanden, the schools undeserving valedictorian, was the principal's grandson and his power was nowhere near as great as Rion's. Fez rarely came to any of his classes and simply paid and flirted his way through school to get high marks without actually earning them. Rion knew complaining to the principal would not do him any justice, so he entered and locked his dormroom to fomulate a plan of action ...

(1) Mid-Magic: The ability to control elemental magic and healing magic.
(2) Fetlen: As described, it's a half-elf/half-human. They live long, but cannot use magic naturally - they have to be taught how.

Author's Note: Waaahhhhh, I hate the first chapter, especially the first and second parts T_T ... please forgive the crummyness of the writing! Nyaaaaa ...