Legend
Episode 5: Exploring
the Meadows of Sanctuary
Maddie
laid on her bed restless, she was excited to play Legend again, but the wait
till tomorrow seemed to take forever. So, to occupy her mind, she tried to come
up with characters for her brother. She loved Legend so much all ready, and she
wanted to share that with someone she loved. But she had as much trouble coming
up with one as he did. Did you make him human or another creature? Did you make
him swift or strong? Melee or ranged? Magic or technology? There was a lot to
decide when your character had no limits on what it could be.
She groaned and rolled over, sleep
was essential but it seemed to evade her. Questions about the mysterious Shadow
Wanderer also plagued her mind. Why was he so quiet? He was mostly silent
during the duration of their journey together. Did he have something to hide?
No answers came to her so she tried to fall asleep.
After a restless night and a very
boring day, her parents finally let her back on. She logged on right away. The music box opened to reveal Sapphire
Shard. Just seeing her put a smile on her face and temporarily forget the
questions that had plagued her mind. She
pressed play and put on her head set.
She appeared in the same place as
before, still holding the Story Box. Looking around she saw Keith vigorously
working in his field, every seed he planted got him one step closer to his
dream. She waved to him and called out.
“Hey Keith!” He looked up and waved
back before returning to his work. Sapphire shifted her eyes around her and saw
Shadow leaning against the same tree as before. She walked over to him, “I hope
you weren’t waiting too long.” He shook his head to confirm that he hadn’t been
waiting for very long. “I was a little worried that you would abandon me. So
it’s great to see you here!”
He motioned to the main road out of
the village, “Shall we get going?” She rocked on her feet and nodded eagerly. He
began to walk away and she followed.
Sapphire turned the Story Box
around in her hands, it was small but her character had no pockets to put it
in. Where was she supposed to put it when she didn’t need it? Shadow noticed
her messing with it and mumbled something. She looked up with questioning eyes.
“What was that?” she asked. “It
looks like you don’t know what to do with that. Why don’t you just put it in
your inventory?” She just stared at him with confusion. He stopped and turned
to face her, “Let me guess, you don’t know how to open it. You really are a
noob.” She folded her arm angrily, “Hey!’ He sighed, “All right, I’ll show
you.”
“You’ve used your inventory before
but you just haven’t realized it. You know when you summon your sword?” She
nodded. “That’s using the quick equip option of your inventory.” He stopped to
see if she followed, she nodded to inform him to continue. “How about you try
to use the button to summon your sword but hold it down longer.”
She
nodded and did as he said. Oh her screen a semi-transparent tab opened up. It
was white in color and in a grid like system. Around its border was a swirling
ornamental. In a slot on the top right hand corner of the grid was golden in
color and a picture of her sword was inside.
“Can you
see this Shadow?” He shook his head, “No, it’s only visible to you… Anyway, do
you see a differently colored square?” She nodded, “Ok, that is your quick
equip square, just like I told you earlier. Whatever you put in there you will
be able to summon quickly.
Now. Hold out the Story Box to it.”
She held it out to her inventory, it vanished in a white light similar to how
Shadow did when he logged off. It appeared up right next to her sword. “To
close out of your inventory, just press the button again” said Shadow. And with
that, she closed out of her inventory.
“You ready to go now?” he said. “Yup!
Thanks for that quick tutorial.”
They began to head out of the town
on the main road. Since the town as surrounded with trees, the main road was
the only visible path. It was curvy so the only thing you could really see in
front of you was a wall of trees.
It was a quiet journey between them,
Shadow seemed to space out and almost looked like he was walking through a
dream. Sapphire occasionally glanced over worriedly but she said nothing. A
gentle breeze blew through the pine trees and their needles rustled. It may
have sounded like just ambient noise to someone else, but to Sapphire it almost
seemed like music.
After what must have been around 5
minutes they emerged into a field. It was massive, it stretched as far as the
eye could see. Tall grasses and wild flowers waved in the breeze, a river cut
through the green expanse, and a few trees were sprinkled here and there. Some
birds in a V pattern flew overhead in the blue sky. Other creatures also
appeared to inhabit the field.
One such creature was horse like
but had amazing camouflage. So great was it in fact, that Sapphire hadn’t
noticed that they were there until a herd of them had crossed the river. Their
main point was their mane, it was wide, thin, and ran along the length of their
spine and around their heels. It was green in color as to look like blades of
grass. Most of their upper body was a more yellow color and faded into light
brown. They were rather small in size, only about 4 ½ feet tall.
“What are those?” asked Sapphire as
she pointed to them. He took one look and them and turned back to her, “Those
are Peonies, plural for Peony.” She scrunched up her nose, “Peony? Isn’t that
some type of flower?” He shrugged, “Well, they are small like ponies and they
have a plant theme so I guess Peony makes sense.” She mouthed a silent, “Ah” and
they continued along the path.
Everything was absolutely beautiful,
Sapphire just wanted to run through the field and laugh. She wanted to play in
the river and lay on the grass and watch the clouds roll by. But her desire to
explore what was at the end of the path was even greater. So she kept walking
on and didn’t let her legs stop.
They had not been walking for more
than a few minutes when a Peony jumped out in front of them on the path. Shadow
turned to Sapphire, “Why don’t you defeat it.” She blinked at him, “Oh! Um, ok…
Let’s do it then!” He held out is hand and shook his head, “No, I want to see
if you can defeat it on your own… It’s no good to have a partner it you have to
do everything.” She folded her arms, “All right, I accept your challenge. I’ll
defeat that thing before you can say ham and pineapple pizza!”
She summoned her sword and charged
at the Peony. It saw her coming and tried to dodge. Her sword only nicked it
giving very little damage. It fled a
short distance before turning around and staring at her. They both stood ready
and staring at each other like in a western standoff. Sapphire racked her brain
for a strategy to quickly defeat it. It was quick and like most prey, had eyes
on the side of its head for a greater range of vision. If she was going to beat
it, she was going to have to either hit it from a distance, which she wasn’t the
best at, or she was going to have to out-speed it.
She counted slowly in her head
until the perfect moment. For a brief second the Peony’s stare faltered; she
struck. Using Skyward Slash she caught the Peony completely by surprise. Its
health dropped dramatically and even though it was fleeing, it moved a lot
slower. Because she was airborne after Skyward Slash, she just flew down after
it and finished it off with a few quick slashes.
Shadow raised an eyebrow, “Not bad,
when you said that you were going to defeat it quickly, I was worried that you
would keep trying to defeat it blindly. But you actually stepped back and tried
to figure out how to do it. Well done, that’s a skill you will use here in
Legend.” Sapphire smiled and curtsied, “Why thank you sir Shadow. Now then,
shall we get a move on?” He rolled his eyes but motioned for her to follow him.
“So… are we at the capital yet?”
she asked. He shook his head, “No, it’s still about 15 minutes away. That is…
If we don’t run into any interruptions.” She thought for a moment, “So, with
the time we’ve already took getting this far… Plus 15 more minutes… So the
capital is about 35 minutes away from where we started?”
“That sounds about right.”
“Jeez, I though Keith’s dad said it
wasn’t going to take long.”
“Compared to some of the distances
you have to travel later on, it’s really not.”
“Wow. How does anyone get anywhere?”
Shadow fell silent.
“You know something don’t you?”
He seemed to smirk under his scarf.
“You will just have to find out for yourself.” She sighed with annoyance. “Well
anyway, before we get to the capital there is a city just up ahead.” She jumped
up with excitement, “Oh! What is it like?” He turned and pointed up the path, “See
for yourself.”
Up ahead was a city, it was a
little larger than the last one but it still was relatively small. One thing
that it defiantly had over the last city was its large coliseum right in the
center. Its stone was a yellow shade and it had white gargoyles around its
upper rim. Several people could be seen entering it at its base, many of the
people looked like player characters with their extravagant designs.
“There are a lot of people there. Is
there some sort of event going on?” Shadow sat for a moment, thinking about it.
“I think there is a tournament today. A pair can enter and fight other players
and monsters for prizes.” Her eyes lit up with excitement, “Really?!?” He
nodded, “Yeah, I hear it’s a good way to get experience… Oh, and they also say
it’s fun to talk to your opponents afterward or whatever.”
A smile spread across Sapphire’s
face slowly, “We should enter together Shadow!” He pulled back in horror, “What?
No! Absolutely not! I am not entering any tournament of any kind!” His reaction
made Sapphire laugh, “Aw, why not! I’m sure we would make a great team!” He
turned away from her in embarrassment, “I-I just don’t want to have to deal
with so many people. Ok?”
“I understand that you like to work
alone, but why are you afraid of people?”
“…”
“Look Shadow, I don’t want to push
you too much but… Please? I promise that won’t ever ask you to go into a
tournament again. Ok?”
“…Oh…All right, let’s enter…”
With a squee of glee she ran off to
the town as fast as her legs could carry her. Shadow hurried after her.
He finally caught up to her just
outside of the coliseum. She was staring up at its arches with awe. She turned
to him and smiled, not saying anything. Her expression said it all.
They headed in and went to sign up
for the tournament.
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