Doom II
The rowboat shored the island with the deep gray clouds in the skies hovering up above. After the fascinating experience, Lucien stepped onto the pale sand and spun his feet along it. The concept of the sand was not so new now to him, but he still found it interesting.
“Here we are, Doom Island,” Marianna stepped out of the rowboat and looked into the grey skies blanketing the Island from the cold night. “You know, despite the thunderclouds above this island, it rarely rains on the island at all.”
“Marianna,” Lucien looked at the mountain of rocks popping off the wall In Front of them. “Are we gonna have to climb up there…?”
“…Yeah…” At the top of the wall of jagged rock, was a haven of grass. “But don’t worry,” she walked toward it and analyzed the rock wall closely. “There’s a staircase embedded in the wall, so we don’t have to climb.”
“Oh…Ok.” Lucien followed up the long staircase of rocks leading up to the top, and each step was rather steep, “This is a pretty long way up,” he mumbled. As they continued up the staircase, the pale sand they were once on increased in distance, and Lucien felt like this had been the highest on land he’d ever been. “Are most Islands like this?” He asked
“No…I’d say most islands are right next to sea level, but there are some tall tower-sized islands.”
In the following few minutes, the two had made good progress and had almost made it to the top. Lucien looked down again, and now they were very high up from the sea, a certain unsettling feeling filled inside of him. A feeling of fear, a feeling that his safety was at stake. He had a warm sensation in his stomach like it had burned up into vapor and had become lighter. Marianna looked behind and saw Lucien’s nervous facial expression “You have a fear of heights?”
“Fear of heights? Is that what you call this terrible feeling…”
“Stop looking down. It makes things worse.” She advised.
Lucien quickly averted his vision “R-right!” He looked forward.
At the top of the island and the end of the staircase, Lucien pulled himself up from a final ledge. He and Marianna were now in a forest with darkish grass. He crouched and looked down the ledge to see a whelming view of how high they were now. He jerked his head back to the direction of the forest from the fear, a worried expression hanging from his face -will I have to go down…?-
“Lucien, look.” Marianna points in front of them to a narrow two-person wide trail cleared of grass “We can follow the trail.”
“But in which direction.”
“The trail cuts off from the left, Lucien,” Marianna said obviously
“Oh…” Lucien got to his feet. The anxiety of falling down the cliff covered his view of the path ahead. Noticing his body was still tingling, he quickly darted to the path.
Marianna onto the path with a still recovering Lucien from his experience. He just looked so cute when he was scared.
Lucien, hunched back, looked up at Marianna’s smug smile. He realized he looked cowardly in her view and immediately straightened himself up to look stoic.
They walked past the dark-colored woods, and Marianna decided to try to influence Lucien about the environment. “You aren’t scared of the trees? They look pretty…foreboding…”
“What? Why would I be scared of the trees?” Lucien turned his head to her, with no sort of fear in his eye. In fact, it was of confusion that she’d ask something like “I have shadow magic anyway. The trees actually make me feel stronger.”
“Yeah…you’re right.” Marianna looked in the distance, knowing that her efforts were futile.
After walking for a few more minutes, they got into a clearing, where they saw a village in the distance.
“A village. Is that where the Doomarians reside?” Lucien inquired
“Mhm. It must be.”
Lucien takes one more step, and it’s met with a clack. He heard the oddity of the sound. It was unlike the grass he was so used to, and it wasn’t even like the sand. It was much different. He looked down and saw a large wooden cellar door camouflaged amongst the green ground. “…Marianna…what…what is this?”
Marianna looked down as well “It looks like a trap door.”
“Why’s it hidden on the ground?”
“I don’t know, Lucien. Let’s get going to the village, then we can investigate this.”
“…”
Lucien and Marianna enter the village, where the buildings were very unique. Small conical wooden huts with peaked thatched roofs, something neither Lucien-obviously-and Marianna have ever seen.
“I knew that Doom Island had its own special architecture…but I never knew what it really looked like.”
The townsfolk looked at Lucien and Marianna as they walked through the village. They weren’t looks of disgust or hatred. Instead, they were more like looks of curiosity and hope, or maybe even concern about Lucien’s clothes.
“…Why are they looking at us like that?” Lucien whispered to Marianna
“Maybe because they think we’re wizards…or…” she paused. “We should get you some clothes.”
“Oh…yeah.”
After some confusing searching, they found a hut where the shopkeeper sold some outfits that were not so luxurious but definitely beat whatever Lucien was wearing.
“That’ll be 30 Lamina,” the shopkeeper gestures.
-Lamina? What’s that?- Lucien thought in his head as Marianna held out a bag, carefully poured some silver tokens into her palm, and sorted them out.
“Here,” she handed the shopkeeper the tokens. He nodded and handed over the outfit.
“Do you want to go somewhere to change?” she looked at Lucien
“Oh yeah. sure.”
“There’s a changing room right over there.” The shopkeeper points to a section covered in a cloth.
“Oh…” Lucien tugged his clothes and entered into the small changing area.
A few minutes passed, and Lucien exited the changing area. He now had a dark long-sleeved leather outfit. “It feels cool and soothing…”
“That’s good to hear,” Marianna smiles and looks at the shopkeeper “Say, is there anything we can do for the village? I heard-er-We heard that there’s a problem going on with your village’s chief?”
“It’s true. We have had issues with our village’s chief, Marua. You should talk to our second in command, Roran. He should know more about the issue.”
“Thank you, uh, what’s your name?”
“Logan.”
“Thank you, Logan. Come on, Lucien!”
“Oh yeah,” Lucien ran to Marianna, and the two of them left the shopkeeper’s hut. Lucien walked around, getting comfortable with his new outfit. “Feel like I’m a whole new person. Like, I’m of this new world I’ve found myself in.”
Marianna smiled in amusement at Lucien’s happy mode, but while they were walking…
“HEY! YOU TWO!”
Lucien and Marianna turned their heads and saw a man with a slim muscular build, and black spiky curved hair, in the island’s traditional clothing.
“Hey, can we help you?” Marianna asked
“The real question is, can I help you? I’m the chief of the island for the time being, and I need to know my Darksong Village is safe from any foreigners.”
“Wait, who are you?” Lucien asked next
“Roran.”
“Roran! We were looking for you! We want to help with your village’s issue!”
“Really? Are you guys wizards?”
“The both of us!” Lucien cheeped enthusiastically
“Hmph, Another wizard might be able to help us…” he mumbled to himself quietly so that Lucien and Marianna couldn’t hear “So here’s the thing: A few months ago, our chief, or former chief, Marua, found a dark staff on the shore of the island. The staff…it corrupted him. When he came back we weren’t the same…he’s attached to the staff, it’s like he can’t live without it. He’d wound some of us who tried to take it away from him. A few days after he found the staff, he hid down in a bunker out the outskirts of the village.”
“So that’s what that door was,” Lucien looked at Marianna.
“None of us here are wizards, and we can’t stand a chance against Marua. We knew another wizard needed to defeat him. He hasn’t really affected us directly, but the village’s mood has been darkening ever since. It could be that we don’t have our chief, or from the power of the staff. What is true is that we need to get rid of that staff.”
“We’re on the task!” Lucien raised his fist before Marianna could say anything
“Also…before you go and try to defeat him, just know that a week ago another wizard arrived on the Island.”
“Another?” Marianna asked
“Yeah…he was a wind mage, way over his head. He said he heard about our issue, and that he was going to defeat Marua.”
“And…?” Marianna curiously pushed Roran on to speak more
“He’s failed. Six times. Every day he goes to fight Marua, then comes back up absolutely beat. Our village medicates him up to health each time. But he still doesn’t give up. I have no doubt he will emerge from the trap door riddled with wounds this time.”
“Oh…” Lucien’s confidence shrinked
“Who knows, with three mages now you guys could actually stand a chance.”
The bunker doors ominously burst out, as a young man with smooth white-gray hair and a grayish outfit emerged out from it. His body was sore, full of withering skin and dried blood “Damn it…all to hell…” he couldn’t even move, he just trembled onto the ground on his face.