Tales of Marancia - Chapter 1

Disclaimer- All characters in Tales of Marancia belong to their respective owners and the idea for the Tales of Series belongs to Namco.
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Tales of Marancia – Chapter 1 Thus It Begins

Light from the sky shone brightly over the forested lands that were such a lovely shade of green that it would be considered a beauty especially with the many flowers and wild friendly animals that roamed the areas nearby a small and quaint village.

Within the village many elves roamed the paths either with staffs, books and an odd few carrying a weapon in their hands. Every building that stood on the land was made from wood as if the best carpenter there made it by hand and straight down the middle of it a river was flowing from the water supply to a mill that had a its wheel turning for a purpose, where the water supply came from was a mystery as there was no obvious water source for where the water came from.

From one house a person came out wearing a extraordinary attire, he wore a red robe which was outlined with gold that was covering most of his body but still showed the rest of him, his legs were covered with strangely shaped red trousers around that went into a shape of a bell almost with a belt keeping them up, his chest was covered with a gold chest plate under his robe with a silver outline around it, a forest green jewel around his neck area is what kept his robe attached along with the armoured shoulders following the similar colour code to his chest plate but had the design of the star of the elves on each one.

The man breathed in the air of the forest that felt fresh as he breathed out while sorting out his long blond hair that was tied back and went down to his waist, from his ears it was obvious to tell that he was an elf from the village as he looked with his sapphire blue eyes at the lovely day before him.

“Ohhh such a beautiful day.” The elven man said as he stretched to be ready for today.

“Morning Felouse.” a passing elven farmer said to him with a smile on his face.

“Good morning Allen.” the elf called Felouse replied to one of the towns people he knew for a long time.

“What you doing up so early?” Allen asked obviously not remembering what today was.

“Today is the day I take my mage exams.” the wizard replied.

“Wow then good luck.” the farmer said in happy tone.

“Thanks and see you later.” Felouse said as he made his way across the small bridge over the river and past the stores to the council’s house. The elf sat down waiting patiently for his turn to come up sorting out his hair tapping his foot slightly while sighing.

He soon saw a female mage come out looking proud of herself and soon went off to enjoy whatever is left of her day.

“Felouse Farnayne?” an elderly man came out looking around and soon saw the elf mage stand before him.

“Here Gester.” Felouse replied to the old member of the council.

“Please enter.” Gester said as they both went inside to see a room with an arch table that held four people, including Gester as he took his seat, on each side and the final fifth one in the center of it, as the elven mage stood at the center of the room while looking at each member of the council was seated watching him.

“Your task is to show that you can use each element and control it, so remember take your time and begin when your ready Felouse.” the old man in the center said to the elf mage.

“Ok.” he replied with a sigh getting ready to cast a spell as he thought that he must try his best to pass and with that thought in mind he casted a bright light that filled the room that was lovely to look at but also awe inspiring to see it casted by a elven mage. The bright light soon disappeared with the council looking on conversing with one another.

“Well Felouse its just as we thought you have done something that only we could only dreamed of saying…” the man in the center of the table said while pondering on what to say to his use of magic as he continued to say “and that is that you Felouse Farnayne… have failed!” as he stood up from his seat pointing at him.

“What!?” the elf mage replied shocked at hearing this and asked “How did I fail?”

“You froze your hands.” the elderly man said while pointing to his hands.

“Ohhh ermm well it could have been worse.” Felouse replied as he looked at the council.

“You blew a hole into the wall.” the old man said while pointing behind him a hole in the wall.

“It could have been worse.” the elf mage said while looking with a nervous smile.

“You burned down three buildings outside.” the old man replied.

“It could have been worse.” Felouse said again in the same tone.

“You destroyed the elder’s garden.” the old man said to the mage.

“It could have been worse.” Felouse repeated himself as if hoping that was the end of it.

“I am the elder!” the now revealed angry elder Murile shouted as if annoyed by this.

“Ohhh!” as if it finally dawned on him what had happened

“Well what you have to say for yourself?” the elder asked as the council looked on at the failed elven mage.

Felouse could not help but look around at his surroundings and at each member of the council and the elder. Upon thinking on what he had done he let out his mouth “Whoops…”

Few Minutes Later

The mage could not believe what had happened because of his nervousness he failed the one exam that could let him go on to the next level and not spend another year of his life in learning the same thing that he already knew.

Feeling down he decided to head over to the stores for some of the things he was going to need deciding it might be best to go out and train to vent off some of his stress from this. As he walked away he went into the direction for the stores and went inside to find the item shop lady and the armoury shop man were once again staring at each other lovingly and saying many sweet promises to one another.

Felouse came up to the counter and looked to both of the store keepers and coughed slightly not wanting to disturb them but sadly he didn’t have much time to wait.

“Ohhh! Felouse how did your exams go?” the kind item seller said to him.

“Not so good I’m afraid.” he replied to her.

“What? I could have sworn you would have done great… what happened?” she asked kindly.

“Nerves.” was all the mage said and the two owners nodded, however Felouse soon got back to business as he took out his pouch of gald coins and bought a few healing items like a few apple gels, two pancea bottles and a few magic lenses.

“By any chance do we have any special upgrades for my Jewel of Efreet.” the elf mage asked the armoury owner about the gem in his glove that gave him the power to use a small burst of fire whenever he attacked an enemy. His jewel was able to harness an element to attack an enemy at a close range.

“I am afraid we do not, you would have to travel to other cities or villages for upgrades since we don’t have the money to get more advanced weaponry.” the store owner replied.

“Ohh ok.” Felouse replied while counting up the gald coins to pay the item owner for the items he bought and since there were no upgrades for his armour he be leaving.

He stopped upon noticing an apple gel was madly shaking which shocked the mage a lot. On closer inspection of the shaking apple gel a head suddenly appeared out of the gel which made the elf mage fall over and scream in fright.

“Hello!” the head said as its form jumped out revealing a female who looked to be of the Sironian race who looked similar to a ferret, she had light brown fur, and wore a chestnut striped and blue-white chequered pattern apron along with a chef’s hat on her head, she had navy pleated skirt and a formal white blouse with long dark brown hair too which looked perfectly brushed.

It was such a sight to see this type of species dancing around doing random dances like the Russian, the fandango, the limbo and many others that not many could remember. This made Felouse and the shop keepers stare at her in disbelief and soon as she stopped she raised her hand to make a strange weapon appear in her hand that was half a fork and the other half was a spoon, as she stood she placed her strange staff to her side with the fork side down.

“I am Star The Wonder Chef! And I thank you for releasing me from that small thing that I randomly jumped out of, as a token of my thanks I will teach you the wonderful dishes that only we The Wonder Chefs can create… A Sandwich!” she almost said in an energized tone.

“That’s nice and all but I already kn-“ he was cut off by a smack on his head from her spoon “OUCH!” Felouse screamed in pain while holding his head “What was that for?!” he asked like he didn’t like being hit.

“To teach you to be able to make the perfect sandwich in the whole world!” She replied while bringing out a few ingredients like bread, lettuce, tomatoes, meat and an egg. While offering the ingredients she said “Here for saving me I will give you these ingredients.”

“I don’t have enough room in my item bag you know?” he said with a look that looked like he was dumfounded by this.

“THEN MAKE ROOM! Food is important especially if you’re on a long journey!” she said while looking mad and serious.

“Ermmm ok ok I’ll make room.” he replied nervous as to what may follow after her anger.

“Good.” the wonder chef replied while looking her happy self and said to Felouse “Until we meet again Mr Elfy Mage.” she replied while raising her weapon and with a wave of her hand smoke engulfed her.

As soon as the smoke disappeared she was there still standing there like a statue while her eyes were closed with a big smile on her face. As soon as she opened her eyes she looked around shocked she was still there.

“Ahhh! Ohhh no… Ignore me I am not here!” she said out loud her voice filling the room as she quickly jumped out the closed window nearby literally breaking it.

“Ermmm ok that’s the items and the window so that will be 200 gald please.” the item lady said to Felouse who immediately looked at her shocked.

“What I have to pay for someone I don’t know!?” he replied flabbergasted by finding out he had to pay for damages.

“She is obviously a friend of yours so pay up please.” she replied while asking for the money she wanted and so with that he paid with the gald he had on him and soon put the items away in his bag including made some room for the ingredients he received.

He soon left the store heading for the back of the village where monsters roamed for training purposes. Only the brave went in on their own to face the creatures but Felouse was confident to defeat them on his own.

The elf mage opened the training gate and as he entered he made sure to close it behind him as if not to let any of the creatures out free. He started to look around the forest area that kept most of the monsters in and started to walk around looking for any creatures to fight.

While going around the forest he soon came across three flying type monsters similar to bees, to the villagers they were poisonous so he would have to be on his guard if they attacked.

Upon that he got ready and ran towards them and as soon as they tried to attack he jumped over them confusing them and soon attacked with open hands that let fire out in its wake to hit the enemy which soon killed one. As the other tried to attack him he guarded with his protected hands and found his opening and let loose a combo of fire attacks. The last one of the monsters tried to sting him and succeeded but caused little damage, so Felouse jumped back to dodge its attack and put his hands together creating a ball of magic between them with his eyes closed as if concentrating.

“Fireball!” he shouted as he put his hands forward letting loose three fire balls towards the single enemy which killed it. The elf mage soon dusted himself off and looked around for any more but once seeing no other enemies he went on.

While going around the forested areas and walked along the paths he soon heard a faint “Nya” sound and went to check it out. He found what looked like a picnic and saw the person sitting with a sandwich in his paws.

The person there looked mostly human with messy red hair with black tips and wore mostly ragged clothes, dark blue shirt with a brown jacket and trousers and had no shoes showing off his foot paws. He had cat ears and a tail too that looked feline like, Felouse had no clue what species he was from and so went up to him.

“Ermmm excuse me?” the mage asked while looking at the feline like human.

“Ahhh a stranger to the deserted island, nya.” the human feline said while looking to him with a smile while saying “I been here for months surviving on nothing but picnic baskets that I found, nya. I wish I knew where all this food was coming from, nya.”

“Deserted island? Picnic baskets?!” Felouse said shocked as if he couldn’t believe it, but thought to himself that it did explain the complaints from the villagers about the stolen picnic baskets.

“Your not on a deserted island you know? There is a village nearby.” the elven mage explained while pointing to the village that could be clearly seen from any point in the forest.

“Nya! You’re serious?! I can’t believe I didn’t see that, thank you so much, you saved my life nya.” the feline replied while smiling and wagging his tail.

“Why is it I am meeting all the strange ones today?” Felouse asked himself while looking down.

Ignoring what he said the feline said “My name is Blade of the Katz Village, for saving me I will share my experiences of life, combat and shiny things when you are in need of them nya, also I will trade shiny items with you if you have a more shiny item then I will give you mine, we could be shiny trading buddies nya!” he said excitedly while wagging his tail.

“Here is my manual on life and combat so far nya.” Blade said while giving him a manual and said “Now if you excuse me I got to go lookout.”

At that moment the male Katz went and climbed up to the top of the tree looking really happy while wagging his tail and checking the area from the top.

However he soon realised one thing “I can’t get down nya.” he said while his ears went down and had big sad teary eyes.

“Sir could yo- NYA WHERE DID YOU GO?!” he shouted while his ears and tail shot up in shock upon seeing the elven mage has disappeared.

Few Minutes Later

“He seemed like a nice guy, I hope I can see him again.” Felouse said as he came out of the training area and stretching since the day was almost going to be over.

It was then he saw the familiar plain clocked elderly man Gester come up to him “Felouse.”

“Ohhh now what? Look if it’s about the damages I said sorry and I will try my best to get the money to pay you back.” The elf mage said to the elderly man.

“No it’s not about that. The council wishes to speak with you on another matter, please follow me.” Gester replied which made Felouse wonder what would the council want with a recent failure of the mage exams.

So without further questions he followed the old man to the council’s building and entered. Gester took his seat while the others and Elder Murile looked to the recent person they failed.

“Felouse Farnayne we are glad that you could be here to attend this meeting, something has come up that we wish to discuss with you.” the elder said obviously not wasting any time.

“And what exactly is it that’s so important that I am needed?” Felouse asked them curiously.

“Do you remember the one who taught you?” a middle aged female council member said while sorting out her glasses.

“You mean the half elf heroine Master Lyris?” he enquired remembering his one to one studies with his teacher that saw potential in him “But what has that got to do with anything?” he asked not understanding what made the council so concerned about her.

“Felouse… she has disappeared.” a middle aged council member replied to his question.

“Disappeared?! But how do you know that?” Felouse asked still confused.

“She has unusually stopped contacting us three weeks ago and her last message did not mention anything too drastic was going on so something must have happened to her.” Gester said while looking to the elven mage in the center of the room.

“Ok that makes sense but what does that have to do with me?” he once again asked a question that he was wanting to know in this situation.

“Well you see Felouse we want you to go look for her?” Murile said to the young mage that now looked shocked at this.

“You’re serious?! You want me, someone who just today failed the mage exams to find a great skilled person that has disappeared?” he asked the council and the elder obviously not seeing any logic to this.

“You see Felouse, all of our best mages are either out on errands in other countries to uphold peace or here protecting the village. Also if too many of the best mages went to search the countries for Lyris then that will make things look suspicious and may cause unneeded uproar and panic.” the elder answered with a wise tone. Felouse just nodded agreeing with that logic that was given to him.

“Here is what we propose to you Felouse, if you go on this mission and succeed then we will pass you on your mage exams.” Elder Murile said to the elven mage before the council.

“So let me get this straight if I succeed on finding Master Lyris on this dangerous and perilous journey, bring her back safely then I will pass my mage exams?” the mage asked obviously a bit shocked to hear that.

“Yes.” was all the elder answered, Felouse looked to each member of the council, then looked to the elder of Murile Village in the middle.

With that in thought he bowed respectfully and said “Thank you for this opportunity, I promise I will not let you down.” as he turned around smiling not able to keep his excitement he went out of the council’s building and went home to rest for the oncoming challenge of the journey tomorrow.

In The Morning

As the sun was beginning to rise over the trees some of the elven villagers were awaiting at the entrance for the one scheduled to leave soon, its not often someone leaves for a long time to go on a journey and this was one of those times.

It was at that moment Felouse came to the entrance looking prepared with many bags on the inside of his cloak holding many items and his equipment on ready for whatever was going to be in the big wide world.

As the elf mage went up to the entrance the towns people he grown to know and care for bowed in respect, some even hugged him, lastly a priest from the church blessed him for a safe journey as it has been done for many elves that left the village before him.

Before he left with one last final look to the town, he waved goodbye to everyone leaving it behind for now to explore the world that he has only ever known through text and was now going to see with his own eyes what the world was truly like beyond the forest around his hometown. As he went past the first set of trees he kept on going to start off his first step into his own adventure.

END OF CHAPTER 1

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I hope you all liked this first write up on the Tales of Marancia project and any advice to improving my writing will be greatly appreciated. Well an authors job is never done till next time readers.