Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 22

It took Gardenia several days to come to her decision. Eventually she met up with the rest of the Forgotten Saviors so tell them.

“I apologize but I am going to leave the Forgotten Saviors.”

Drake was silent but Perfect Zanth said, “What? You will be leaving us? But we need our tank. What is a healer supposed to do without a tank?”

Steela just nodded and said, “If that is the decision that you came too.”:

Gardenia did her best to smile back at them but it was also hard for her to leave. This place had started to become her home since she had joined.

“Yeah, I am thankful for my time here but I feel like I need to do other things. The battle against the dragon taught be a bit about what I am missing and I want to go and try and figure that out. It might take a while and I didn’t want to inconvenience any of you.”

Drake stood up and said, “The members of the Forgotten Saviors will never be forgotten. May your journeys always be exciting.” Then without another word he turned and left the guild room.

Pristallia grinned and said, “It looks like you managed to make him embarrassed. He probably doesn’t want to say it but things will be harder without you around. With you here this reckless group of idiots were capable of just doing their thing.”

Arthur shook his head, “While I would like to deny the reckless idiot part be will certainly miss you. Make sure to come back and visit sometime. All of us, including Drake, are going to miss you.”

Gardenia smiled, “Thanks. I am going to miss you guys too. For a while I felt that things might be Drake’s fault but while he might be a bit standoffish it wasn’t really his fault. I just don’t really know what I want to do. I thought fighting tough monsters might be it but I think that is just part of it. Now I want to go off and figure the rest of it out.

Vanishing Doubt looked a bit sad when he said, “I hope you find what you want. It was good to have you while you did. Not many people can put up with us for as long as you did. We will always remaining of your contact list.”

Steela nodded, “Yeah, if you ever need help just send us a message and Forgotten Saviors will be right over. Even if Drake decides to drag his feet I will twist his arm and bring him over.” She raised an arm and made a twisting motion.

They looked at each other and all at once said the same words that Drake said, “The members of the Forgotten Saviors will never be forgotten. May your journeys always be exciting.”

“May your journeys always be exiting.” Said Gardenia is farewell.

Chapter #4 — Guardian Lions

Many chance encounters can build the future and turn into something that could almost be called destiny. It began with a girl running through the streets of the city of Trezy. She wore a plain brown robe, something that practically everybody would recognize as beginner clothing. She seemed to be in a panic as she ran down the street and ducked into an alley.

She ran through alley and was just about to turn the corner onto a slightly larger street when she bumped into a woman.

“I’m sorry.” Shouted the girl as she rushed by the woman, barely giving the woman a passing look. If she had the girl would have seen a woman with long black hair wearing silver chainmail. One her back was strapped a large shield.

Indeed, the woman who had been knocked down was Gardenia. Gardenia watched in confusion as the girl ran passed her and began to head down the street. Gardenia was standing up and was about to forget the entire thing when she saw black shadows dash across the nearby roof and follow after the running girl.

That immediately sent off warning bells in Gardenia’s head. She began to run after the girl and her pursuers. Gardenia definitely had more skills than the girl since she was able to close the distance fairly quickly.

The girl ducked into another alleyway and was running down it when her rooftop pursuers dropped down. There were two of them. One appeared in front of her and the other behind her. They were wearing black clothes like a ninja and drew duel swords.

She staggered backward but wouldn’t protect her since the second one was behind her. That one was already running at her. She screamed but in a moment everything changed.

There was a flash of light and the ambusher behind her had been cut down. There standing in front of her was the shining figure of Gardenia brandishing her sword. While she had been able to surprise the first ambusher the second one was now aware of her.

He watched her carefully, before rushing in using agile movements. He attempted to dodge past her just as she swung her sword at him. He also swung his swords but they were not aimed at her, instead they were aimed at the girl.

⎡Aggression Pull⎦

Rather than hitting his intended target his blades clattered against Gardenia’s sword. His vision was fogging over and all he could see in the alley was her. She swung her sword once again and he tried to block but Gardenia adjusted her footwork in the middle of the swing and the sword passed between his swords and struck him directly in the chest.

That was all it took for him to lose all his health and die.

Gardenia took a moment to glance around and when she confirmed that there weren’t any more attackers she turned to look at the girl who was still sitting on the ground after having fallen over.

“Are you alright?” Asked Gardenia.

The girl looked up at Gardenia and it felt like there were sparkles in her eyes. She looked like she was maybe twelve or thirteen years old. Her hair was short cropped and a strange dazzling blue. She was clutching the bag she was wearing in her arms.

“Yes, you saved me.” Said the girl.

Gardenia held out her hand toward the girl who relaxed the grip on her bag and accepted the hand. Once she had been helped up she brushed the dirt off her clothes.

“Wow…” she said looking at Gardenia, “You are super strong. You managed to beat those two assassins practically instantly.”

“It wasn’t anything really. I just saw them following you and decided to get involved.” She looked over the two dead bodies who were beginning to dissolve into light particles. “Were those players who were after you?”

The girl tilted her head before saying, “I think so? They didn’t really talk to me and I was trying to give them the slip but I am not the fastest runner so they caught up to me.”

Gardenia looked the girl up and down. To Gardenia’s eyes she looked basically just like any other beginner player who had just arrived at Trezy. Back when Gardenia first arrived in the city she looked about the same.

“What did you do to get on some assassin’s bad side? Attempting pvp in a city is risky after all.” Asked Gardenia.

The girl looked nervously around before finally saying, “I think they are after Mr. Pots.”

“Mr. Pots?” Asked Gardenia. She tilted her head in confusion.

The girl opened the flap of her bag to reveal a furry black ball. The ball twisted and turned in the bag before revealing itself to actually be an animal. It looks like a ferret except Gardenia could tell it absolutely wasn’t a ferret since her monster identification skills were saying that the creature was an ⎡Unknown Creature⎦.

“And this is Mr Pots?” Asked Gardenia looked at the creature. “And what is he?”

“He is my pet!” Said the girl.

“Your pet? Does that mean you have a tamer skill?”

The girl nodded, “Yup, although, Mr Pots does not listen to me yet. I got him before I got the tamer skill and my level is still low.”

Gardenia had heard of the existence of the tamer skill. It allowed players to tame and raise monsters as companions however she had also heard that the skill wasn’t very popular. It took a lot of time and effort to train a monster.

“And why were those assassins after you? Were they trying to rob you and steal Mr. Pots?”

“I think so… maybe?”

“You don’t know?”

“Well…” she twisted her foot on the ground trying to decide whether or not to tell Gardenia. Finally she made up her mind and said, “I was given Mr. Pots and told to protect him. He also said that I needed to keep him a secret. Then… well.. I might have let Mr. Pots eat dinner with me. I think that is where they saw me.”

Gardenia looked at the ferret-like creature. She couldn’t see anything strange about the creature with just her eyes but her identification skill was still saying it was unknown. “Protect him? Why would people be after him?”

The girl shook her head, “I don’t know. The man didn’t really say much else. Mostly I thought it was just the normal protect your pets thing but thinking back I believe he actually meant that I would need to protect him.”

“You are probably going to have a hard time protecting Mr. Pots. Taming is an intermediate skill but it looks like you just finished up the tutorial zone?”

She seemed a bit embarrassed before saying, “Yeh, that is pretty much true. I’ve learned a couple of intermediate skills but they are all still level one.”

“Did you get Mr. Pots in a special quest in the tutorial zone?”

The girl nodded, “Yeah, that is right.”

Gardenia nodded herself, “I see, do you want my help protecting Mr Pots?”

“Really? You would do that? You seem really skilled and stuff. Is it already for you to help a weak player like me?” She sounded excited.

Gardenia smiled, “Yeah, no problem. If assassins are attacking little girls in the streets that sounds like something that needs to be stopped. My name is Gardenia by the way.”

“Oh, yes, my character name is Moira.”

“Nice to meet you Moira. Now let us get out of this alley. I know a safe place nearby. You know, if case more assassins come after Mr. Pots.”

Moira followed Gardenia back out of the alley and down the street they had just traveled on. Not far away was a place Gardenia was very familiar with. Equinox Smithing. A little bell rang as they entered the shop.

Equinox looked over from the counter and saw Gardenia, “Back so soon? Did you forget something.” He noticed the girl following after Gardenia, “Or is there something else?”

Gardenia asked, “Can we borrow a room to talk in? This girl’s ferret is being chased by assassins.”

Equinox looked slowed from one to another before finally saying, “You are serious aren’t you? Wow…. Sure, you can use one of the rooms. Although if assassins break in I won’t be much use. I will try to scream loudly while dying.”

“Thanks.” Gardenia lead Moira into one of the back rooms. It was more like an employee break room than anything else but it had some chairs.

“He is one of your friends?” Asked Moira.

Gardenia nodded, “We go way back. When I started playing the game he was one of the players in the same starting town as me. Although the starting towns were probably a lot busier back then. What are they like now?”

Moira pondered the question before saying, “The people there were very kind but there weren’t many other players. The man who gave me Mr. Pots, I think he was an NPCs, he took me under his wing and taught me how to fight and use magic. Once I had mastered some of my basic skills he said that learning was up to me now. So he put Mr. Pots into my care and sent me off to the city.”