Skies of Arcadia:Heroes Preview!Chapter 1

Author's note:  Just a preview while you wait...EDIT: Once again, italics and stuff have been removed by the blog in transition, for whatever reason .  Its just a preview, so I'm not gonna fix it now.

Skies of Arcadia: Heroes







Chapter One—“Angel’s Awakening”






Shards of a voice echoed from her memory to her dreams, as if heard from a great distance.


Fina…you…replace…Rami…Moon Elder…are…hope…Don’t allow…trust…the surface…


The voice faded away as Fina gradually became aware of her surroundings. She was lying on something soft, which was a surprise considering where she had last remembered being conscious. It was actually…soft and warm. Maybe I’m in the afterlife…no…I’m probably still in the clutches of some enemy…I should probably open my eyes and see where I am now. She slowly opened her eyes, fearful of what might be out there.


“Looks like she’s starting to come to.”


Two faces peered down at her, hardly a hand’s breadth away from her own.


“Oh good!” The other one said in a voice barely below a yell. “How do you feel?”


“F-fine,” Fina said reflexively. Actually, she felt like a sack of moonstones that had been carelessly lugged around all night and then tossed into a corner, and she thought she had a bruise on her head; but she didn’t have the presence of mind to give them the full synopsis.


The two heads backed up to let Fina sit up , letting her see the bodies they were (thankfully) attached to. Fina’s head spun a little bit as she sat up—uhg, maybe not so fine.


The one the first voice belonged to spoke. “My names Vyse,” he said. His voice was kind, and his gaze didn’t seem to betray any ill intent. He had a glass eye patch over his right eye, and a long scar ran horizontally under his left. His hair was dark brown and hung down around his ears in the front but was neatly trimmed in the back. A red bandanna contrasted with his blue uniform.


“And I’m Aika!” The one on the left said. The girl was dressed in a bright yellow one-piece uniform that flared off in a daringly short skirt that seemed to contradict her innocent face. Her bright red-orange hair was braided in two long pony tails on both sides of her head.


“You’re on board our ship, the Albatross—“ Vyse said.


“We rescued you!” Aika cut in.


“Yes,” Vyse said, unfazed by the interruption. “The Valuans captured you, but we stopped them before they could take you away.”


“Th-thank you,” Fina said. Ship? Albatross? Valuans? She wondered to herself. Oh, the Valuans must be people who ambushed me…


“It was my pleasure as a Blue Rogue! “ Vyse said, tossing a carefree salute.


“Um…What’s a Blue Rogue?”


Aika’s eyes grew wide. “You’ve never heard of the Blue Rogues?!”


“Um…No,” Fina said, embarrassed and wishing she had kept her mouth shut. She might have just insulted them, and the last thing she needed was more enemies in this place.


“The Blue Rogues are a branch of air pirate, I guess you could say,” Vyse explained, seemingly not hurt by the girl’s reaction.


“I’m sorry, but what is an air pirate?” Fina asked, since they seemed to be happy enough to answer questions, although she couldn’t restrain an embarrassed blush.


“You were out traveling and you didn’t know about air pirates?” Vyse asked slightly incredulously.


“I…don’t get out much…”


“Air pirates are people who attack other ships and steal their cargo,” Vyse explained.


“Oh, my!” Fina gasped, reevaluating her two “rescuers.”


“Don’t worry!” Aika said, seeing her obvious consternation. “We’re ‘Blue Rogues.’ We only attack armored ships, preferably Valuan ones.”


“We steal from the rich,” Vyse continued. “And we use the money to help keep the skies clear of bad guys like the Valuans and Black Pirates.”


“Yup!” Aika chirped.


“But Black Pirates—they’re another story,” Vyse said. “They will attack unarmored ships unprovoked, and are constantly looking for a fight.”


“They’re bullies with no sense of honor,” Aika said.


“The Blue Rogues fight to protect the innocent people in their airspace ,” Vyse smiled. “You’re safe in our care.”


“Um, thank you very much,” Fina said. The two teenagers called themselves pirates, but they didn’t seem to be dangerous.


“No problem!” The pirate girl said. “So, what’s your name?”


“Fina,” she said and then flinched, mentally berating herself as she recalled the Elder’s warnings. Why did I give them my name? I can’t allow myself to be tricked into a false sense of security by these people.


The girl’s discomfort didn’t escape Vyse’s notice, but he chalked it up to her still being disoriented after the earlier ordeal. “Fina, huh? That’s a nice name. Its so…feminine.”


His attempt to cheer her up was a massive failure. Fina stared at him blankly, having completely missed what he said during her contemplations.


Vyse shook his head. “Yeesh…you try to complement someone, and nothing…”


“Ahahaha!” Aika laughed. “You call that a complement? Looks like you have a lot to learn about women!”


Aika’s laugh was infectious, and Fina giggled too despite herself. Vyse sighed helplessly at the fun they were having at his expense, but he was happy to see that Fina was beginning to loosen up a bit, at least. To tell the truth, while he could communicate fine with the opposite gender, he had very little interest in the intricacies of close relationships. Relationships and eventually marriage, in his mind, were something for the far future when he was “old” (as in twenty-four or five). As long as there were new things to do and learn and discover, love was not high on his priority list.


“Vyse! Aika!” a slightly tinny voice reverberated through the room. Based on where the other two teenager’s eyes went, Fina guessed it came from a metal tube in a corner on the wall. “How long are you going to stand there chitchatting? Report to the bridge immediately for your duties, over.”


“We’d better go before Dad goes off the deep end,” Vyse said, starting towards the door. “Come up on deck later and stretch your legs if you want!”


“Nice to meet you, Fina!” Aika said, waving as she closed the door behind her.


Fina mustered up a small smile and nodded. Fina stared at the closed door for a few moments, then flopped back into her pillow. She suddenly felt really tired.


o-o-o-o

A/N:This is still mostly my work that's been sitting around since early last year.  I spruced up this and the prologue quite a bit, but its still kinda lack-luster, I think; especially after reading a bit of Strange Clothes-- another SoA fanfic.  While there's a LOT I wouldn't do that its author does, like the OT3 paring choice (which, if you don't know what it means, you're better of not knowing, I suppose) and lots of mature content like language and sexual themes, he has a very fluid and natural writing style that keeps the plot flow of the games, but makes them read more fluidly like a real novel.  That fluidity is something I still need to work on.  I want to stay true to the original dialogue and plot of the game, but I've adhered so rigidly in the prologue that I think it came out sounding more like a script.  The narrative left something to be desired.  It had flow, but not spontaneity.  Sigh, I'm rambling now.  Let's just say that as I go from about the middle of chapter 1 (which will be about 1,000 words past this point) I'll try to bump up the quality to something more befitting a novel.  I'm about 2/3rds of the way done with the first draft now, and then I'll need to take some quality time to rework something just after this part I posted, so I'll tentatively set the next chapter release at around early April.