Discordia

"Jill and I both have weapons." Ian said, "She has a bow and arrows and I have a broadsword." "You want to take the wolf pelt mission?" Jill asks her brother. Ian nods, "Yeah, it will be good pratice for us and the money is good." "What do you think Kuro?" Jill asks turning to him.
 
"I don't mind but I am just wondering how I can help out since I don't have any weapons."


He looks at Ian and Jill and sighs.


"The only thing I have is probably Aoi-Sama."


As soon as he says her name she wakes up and smiles at him.


"What's wrong Kuro?" she lightly whispers to him since she is still very tired.


"We are trying to make some money for some better clothes but I don't know how I can contribute."


She smiles up at him and nods.


A Brilliant Light flashes on his finger for a split second and then a ring appears.


"Kuro this will aid you when I am unable to help. This is a magical ring of healing. Whenever you need to heal one of your friends just think that about saving that person. This ring will react and you will heal them. If it is something that is minor it will heal for minor wounds. If it is something major you will need to think to yourself about protecting that person. It will put a barrier over them and heal them over time. Try it now on Ian." she smiles slightly and falls back asleep.


"How am I suppose to think of protecting this little kid?" he scoffs.


"It looks like I may be some help after all. Let's go get us some pelts!" He smiles and grabs the poster then walks over to the counter. The Innkeeper greets him, takes the post and ask for their group name.


"I never thought of us having a group name." He turns to Ian and Jill. "What should our group name be?"
 
"No idea, I just woke up nearby here." Kirei said without a trace of emotion.


He stretches and jumps down from his resting spot. "So what's your name?"
 
Randy stepped backwards as the boy leaped out of the tree. "I'm Randy," he said, but suspicious, he didn't offer a hand. "So you just woke up here, without knowing how? That's just about what happened to me...." He shrugged, and motioned behind him to the distant building. "I thought I'd ask directions from the farmhouse," he said. "Why don't you come? What's your name?"
 
Sure, I have nothing better to do anyway. My name is Kirei." He said as he started walking toward the house.


As he approached it, he could see that it was pitch dark inside except for one candle which was lit near the center of the farmhouse.


"Looks like there's one person here." Kirei said as he knocked on the door.
 
Jill and Ian shrugged. Normally in games that there were groups they would name their group 'Adams Sibs', but with Kuro in their group, that name wouldn't work. "Do we need a name?" Jill asks the Innkeeper, "couldn't we just use our names?"
 
There was a bit of a scuffling sound from inside, then there was a sound of a latch- no, two- no, three- unlocking. The door opened a smidgen and an eye showed from behind it. "Who's there?" the person asked, sounding mid-50 and male.


Randy waved at the man. "My name's Randy, and this is... Kerei, I think?" He struggled to get the name correct. "We're sort of lost. Could you tell us where we are?"


"You ain't one of those tainted lads, are ya'?" came the voice once more.


"What?"


"Tainted. You ain't from the tainted lands?"


"Uh... I'm from the Applegate suburbs. Near Charlotte," Randy said. In case he was out of town somehow, he added, "North Carolina. That's not tainted, is it?"


"North Carolina?"


"Yeah, the state. Er, anyways, we're new around here, and I've never heard of these tainted lands. Could you tell us where we are?"


"Yer on the Pathway, north a' the forest. Remus forest. It's a few hours travel to Border City o'er there," replied the farmer, gesturing down the path.


Those terms were completely foreign to Randy. He looked at the other boy, wondering if he knew what those places were; as far as he could remember, there was no Remus forest or Border City in the state. Assuming I'm still in the state, he thought.
 
"So, what are the tainted lands?" Kirei said as he tilted his head. "Also, would you happen to have a map that we can use?"


The older man looked at him with a suspicious look.


"The tainted lands are where chaos rules, and monsters are everywhere. Even worse, it seems to be getting bigger these days."


The man reaches behind him and holds out a map. "Here, this should help you find where you're going, though it only marks the major towns."


He then turned around and shut the door behind him.


"Okay then...I guess we should start with the closest town, Border City." He said as he looked at Randy blankly.


He then grabbed an object out of his pocket, and grabbed Randy's arm, and they both teleported to the town.


"Okay, now what?"
 
"Whoa- holy crap!" Randy stumbled and fell as the landscape changed around them. The peaceful fields and cows gave way to a cobblestone street, ramshackle yet numerous buildings, carts, wheels, horses, people, yelling, selling, smells, and sounds. Men and women, all wearing old-age clothing, strode by them, not giving the teens a second glance.


"What the f**k was that?" he asked, wide-eyed. "How'd you- how'd you do that?" He stared incredulously at Kirei, and then at the turmoil around them, and then back at Kirei. Getting control of himself, he asked- more calmly- "And why does everything look like this?" It was a good question. Everything around them spoke of age. He noticed no cars, no smoothly paved streets, and no suits and ties. He even saw people with armor shouldering through the crowd, swords hanging at their side.
 
John woke up in the evening to the sound of a doorbell. As he got up, he looked around. He didn't really know where he was for a moment, and groggily inspected his surroundings. He saw his counter, piled up with up with bowls of ramen. He looked at the bedside table, and saw several inappropriate magazines and books. All across the walls were pictures and posters of games, so that you couldn't see the wall itself. On the other side of the bed was what at first appeared to be a mess of wires. At closer inspection however, it was a group of computers, with a great many cables coming from each. Finally, John looked to the door, where through the envelope slot, a small package had dropped though. He stumbled across the room, the floor littered with debris, and picked up the package. As he opened it, he saw the new game, Discordia. Suddenly, everything clicked back into place.


He was in his apartment, a shabby little place. It was all he could afford and still manage to pay for his gaming. He made his money through professional gaming, though limited. He spent all his time setting records in games. Chart topping and time trials were his specialty, especially in MMO games. When he heard about Discordia, he pre-ordered it thinking it was just another game to master. Little did he know...


He casually dropped the disk into the tray of one of his many computers. He was still tired, but he could finish his sleep after he started the install. He started the setup.exe, and slowly read the prompt. It asked for a name, and he thought for a moment. "Meh, I might as well go with my usual. Hail the noobs it is." He types in his name, HailTheNoobs, and clicks enter. He reads skips past the Terms Of Service agreement, as they all are the same, right? However, instead of loading, his computer blows into a flash of white light. He stares at what occurs in disbelief. He doesn't even care to think of it anymore. He walks back to bed. He picks up his alarm clock, and sets it for 15 minutes, his normal amount of sleep. He slowly lays down, and puts it all out of his mind. He decided to deal with it all when he awoke once more.
 
Randy stared at the object, too, and then at the staff when he pulled it out. He scratched his head, and then stood back up. Why was he surprised? This boy, after all, he knew nothing about, except that he woke up in this strange place like him.


He looked at the busy passerby, and echoed Kirei's question in his head. Which way should we go? Which way should we go? Which way should we go....


Whichever way led back home, he thought. "Hey, can I see that map?" Randy asked, keeping a safe and wary distance from the other teen. "I want to figure out which way my home is. And where we are, because I didn't really understand anything that farmer was talking about." The poor soul was probably senile. Tainted lands, monsters; really?
 
"Ya, sure." Kirei handed him the map. "Be right back." He then went over to a market stall nearby and started talking to someone. A few moments later he came back to Randy. "Apparently we're in a place called Discordia, and this is one of the towns, Border City." He looked around at all the people. "It's noisy here...Can we go somewhere else?" He said casually because he doesn't know the extent of what he just said to Randy.
 
Randy examined the parchment. He turned the map upside-down, then right-side-up again. "This place looks strange. I've never seen anything like it..." The only mountains close to North Carolina were the Appalachians, and as far he he knew, there wasn't or ever was a desert in the Southeast. "Don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto," he muttered.


Wait, what was that? The label on the map....


Just then, Kirei came back and confirmed his suspicions. "We're in frickin' Discordia?" he yelled. "There's literally a place called Discordia?" Randy slumped down to the floor. "What the h*ll is going on...."


At Kirei's request, he said, "yeah... Sure."
 
Kuro looks at the Innkeeper waiting for his response and then looks back at the sibilings.


"Why don't we name ourselves..... let's see......uhm....." He twirls around slowly looking at everything with his hand balled up under his chin.


"Think, Think, Think......"He does a 360 and looks back at the innkeeper and then at the siblings.


"I got it!" he pounds his fist into his other hand,"We are Black Orchid!" He smiles happily to himself.


The Innkeeper smiles and puts the registry in front of the adventurers.


"Black Orchid accepted." He smiles as he hands them the pen. "Please Sign here. Now who will be your team captain?"


Kuro looks over at the siblings and smiles "well since there is only one lady here I vote for Jill to be our captain". He holds out his hand in a gradiose pose to Jill.


"My Captain, Jill" He smiles up at her and winks.
 
Black Orchird seemed like a pretty good group name, both siblings agreed. "Yeah, Jill should be the leader of the group." Ian agreed. He would much rather his sister be leader than Kuro.
 
Kuro hands the pen for Jill to sign and slides his hands inside of his pockets.


Kuro looks around the inn once more and feels sort of drawn to the front door.


He walks outside while he waits on Jill and Ian.


Whistling to himself he stands there staring off into the distance for a while.


He frees his mind of anything that he was thinking of and leans against the wall to the right of the door.
 
Jill takes the pen and signs the paper. "Thank you." she calls back to the Innekeeper as she and Ian leave the Inn to find Kuro. "You said you saw him walk outside right Ian?" "Yes." Ian replied and pointed to Kuro. "He's right over there." Jill and Ian walk up to Kuro. "Ready to go?"
 
Kuro focuses back on the two in front of him.


"Just wait a bit, I think something will be happening soon."


He leans back against the wall and raises his eyes back up to look at the clouds floating by.
 
Ian shakes his head. He really wanted to kill some wolves. "Okay, WE will wait with you." Jill said, saying 'we' louder so her brother knew to stay put.
 
Kuro sighs as he leans forward off the wall.


"I dunno why but I thought something was about to happen." He steps forward and bumps into someone holding a map kneeling on the ground.


"So sorry," he says as he picks up the map off the ground. "Is this yours?" He hands it to the person.


Kuro walks away with the twins toward the edge of town so they can kill some wolves.


"Hey Ian, how good are you with that sword buddy?" He says as he ruffles Ian's hair and laughs.
 
Ian feels like a little kid when Kuro messes with his hair. "Quit it!" he yells backing away. "Ian!" Jill snaps and Ian shulks. "Sorry Kuro." Jill apoligizes for Ian. "And actually Ian is really good with a sword. Our mom let him take a class where they used dull swords."
 
Kuro's ears perked at the word 'Mom'.


"That must be nice to have a Mom like that." He says in a low voice. He looks around at his surroundings. The cobblestone is starting to be sparse here. He looks in front of them and notices a menacing looking forest in front of them.


"Is it me or does this forest look different then the one we came out of?" He points in front of them.
 
Jill looked at Kuro with pity in her eyes. She wondered if his mother had died, or perhapes had left him. She decided not to ask. Jill looked at the forest and shivered. It did look creepy. Ian shurged, acting unafraid. "Wolves are probally in there." He said and walked ahead. "Ian wait!" Jill called after him, running to catch up. Shortly after walking into the woods, Ian heard a deep growl. "I think we found some." he told the other two.
 
Kuro instinctively pushed Ian behind him with Jill as he stood in front he knew that this was no ordinary forest as to what the thing that was standing in front of him definitely did not look like a regular wolf.


"Uh, Captain? Is this normal?" Kuro asks in a weird tone one of mixed fear and excitement.
 
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