Unlikely Heroes, Chapter 1: "Like Fireworks in the Sky"
 

Darres growled as loud noises disturbed him from his sleep. Yesterday had not been a good day. He had gone to the castle... again... with a plea for a second shot at getting into the royal guard.... or was it his 25th shot? He couldn't keep track.

In any case, the loud noises outside were not welcome to the brooding Darres, as he opened one eye and peered out through his gorgeous locks of curly hair. "What could so important that commoners seem to feel the need to disturb me from my rest?" He wondered as he lazily stumbled to the balcony window from his lavish room.

Outside, street vendors were setting up shop earlier than usual; people where hustling and bustling throughout the streets. "What are these fools doing? You would think it was...." Then it hit him like a dragon running into a hillside, "The Festival of Light!" He said, his demeanor suddenly turning gleeful.

In his state of mourning, he had almost forgotten that today was the start of the Festival of Light: A three-day festival held in the Kingdom of Light to celebrate the end of the war between the Light, Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water regions.

Oh it was a momentous celebration indeed. Sometimes Darres would spend all three days drunk, and gracing the beautiful lady-visitors with his presence.

With a glee of excitement, Darres ran back in his room to get ready for the days to come, after all... he had to look his best... or at least try to improve on the perfection that is Darres.

Olyrk couldn't say that he was a perfect man; in fact, all it took was a simple glance for anyone to tell that he wasn't a perfect man at all. Just look at his hair, his face, and his physique-how could anyone dare to call him a perfect man, by any stretch of the imagination?

"They couldn't," he said, nodding to his reflection in the mirror. "After all, I am a God."

Of course, even Gods have trouble; even as one as magnificent as Olyrk was. For, while he had indeed found someone as Godlike as he, Olyrk was unable to win that divine being's heart. However, it did not distress Olyrk, for he some day would show the great and mighty Darres that they were meant to be together, if only because Olyrk said so, and that's really the only reason anyone needs.

Putting on his best suit (for, the commonfolk were not worthy of seeing his beauty in its pure form), Olyrk set forth into a city, on a journey all his own. Truly, the Festival of Lights would be the most oppourtune event to bind his heart with that of his beloved.

Or hell, at the very least Olyrk could take advantage of Darres while they got drunk.

After much internal debate, Caity had forced herself to come to the Festival of Light. She didn't really want to, but part of her felt compelled to go. Maybe it was the fact that she had gone since she was a child. She walked around the stands and weaved in and out of the crouds. "Why am I here?" she mumbled to herself. "There's nothing to do," she said. But, there was plenty to do. She just didn't care for any of it. Caity decided that she would get bored if she didn't get any sleep, so she found a nice, shady tree to sit under. Except there was one problem.

She couldn't sleep. At all. Caity began to conjure water from her fingertips; it was a habit she had for when she couldn't sleep. She let the water fall to the ground, but she called it back to her fingertips before it hit the grass below. After a few minutes, she began to drift off to sleep.

"OH!" Jill exclaimed as the fire works exploded. She clapped. They were quite lovely. She took a small bite of the salad prepared for her at the cafe. The waitress brought her bill. Jill opened her purse to see that she would only have a few bronze coins after she paid the bill for eating at the posh restraunt.

this is wonderful, what am i supposed to do for money now.

She paid her bill and sipped the last of the clean spring water she had requested fetched for her.

Sullenly she walked down the street.

Rieard Staneleson winces at the bright light and loud sound.

"Turn off that light and quite down!" he yelled out of reflex, bolting out of his seat and waving his staff accusingly in the direction of the disturbance before realizing it was a firework going off.

With an angry sigh, he sat back down. "Stupid fireworks," he muttered to himself. "Back in my day, we didn't need fireworks to make a good celebration! Nowadays they use them to cover over what a crock this festival has become!"

Muttering, he turned in his seat. "Back in my day," he admonished no one in particular, “we’d get up before dawn on the day of the festival, to go hunt down the giant Boars of Gigack! We always lost good men in those hunts, but that was part of the fun!” he roared. “Then we’d haul the bodies of those boars back and cook ‘em over a giant fire! Then we’d eat ‘em…AND THAT’S IT!!” He yelled. “What was the whole festival! And we went to bed early because he had to catch up on all the work we didn’t do the day before.”

Rieard looked around, and noticed with a snarl that one was listening to him.

“People these days,” he muttered to himself. “Why, if I had disrespected my grandfather by not listening to him, I’d be in the middle of a fireball for weeks.”

Sarai walked quietly along the road. The priestesses of the Church of Light had decided to attend the festival in a group that day, but as usual, she was left behind.

She quietly browsed through the many booths and vendors. At one point, a rather large vendor with a fish in hand pushed forward toward her.

"Priestess! I have a great sale today! These fish are fresh and clean, you can even see the quality! All I'm asking for is 30 gold pieces for a fine catch as this.

"Umm...I..I don't think so."

"Oh, come now young lady. Surely a fine girl like you can see the untainted perfection which is this fish. Since it's the Festival of Light, howabout...20 gold pieces?"

"I'm sorry, I can't see a time I'll need it..."

"10 pieces."

"Please, I don't need any-"

"Please, Priestess. My family is poor. There are so many fish vendors, it's hard to make a deal. Please?"

Needless to say, Sarai was now walking down the street with a fish in hand and 10 gold pieces lighter in her purse. Whether the man was telling the truth or not, it didn't matter.

Marisa was a little bit overwhelmed by the sheer size of the city. It was just huge, and the fact that she showed up just when a festival was starting made it seem twice its size. "B Boy, this p place sure is big." She said to herself in a shakey nervous tone.

Somehow, after staring at the size of this city for a few minutes, she managed to start walking around. She did come here to learn more about magic, so a little festival shouldn't slow her down. Of course, she kept looking left and right constantly in sheer amazement, just impressed by its size and attractions they were holding. She jumped and almost screamed when a kid shot a little bottle rocket zooming right in front of her.

Of course as she walked, she was paying any attention to just who was in front of her. She bumped absently and apologized immediatly for what seemed like a thousand times. Then she hit this one person head on, knocking her down. She bounced a bit, with an audible "Ow". She looked up immediatly and quickly spurted "S Sorry about that."

((If anyone wants to be the person I bumped into, go right ahead.))

Jonin looked down and over the woman sprawled on the floor as he rubbed his tatoo etched stomach, the place where they had impacted. Dropping his hand to his side he said quite cheerfully "Oh its fine, I don't mind.". Taking one step, he bended over and reached down offering his enourmous callused hand to the woman. "Though I don't see how you could not have seen me" He said jokingly. It was not just a pun, he was an enourmous man and not many people would not see him. He was heads over the tallest person in the croud dwarfing them all in height, his muscles were so large too that his arm was almost as big as a normal persons waist. Hanging from his back was an enourmous 10 foot long double great axe.

"Wow you are big." Marisa said absently as she looked up at who she bumped into. She went on staring at the gian of a man for a few more seconds until she realized he had a hand out to her. She took it graciously and was up and now dusting herself off. "I'm terribly sorry about that. Its just that I've never been to such a huge place before." She said, her voice still having a touch of shakyness, but somewhat mellowing out. "I've just been surprised and have been bumping into people all morning and then there was this bottle rocket and." She stopped in mid sentence, realizing she was about to start ranting on about her morning. "Well I am sorry about bumping into you. I am Marisa." She was now trying to be polite, and tried to hold out her hand properly, but she did kind of sway a bit from side to side, showing she was very nervous about all of this.

Irin walked proudly through the road, strutting casually through crowds with a big, stupid grin on his face. He was only here for publicity, but a little bit of entertainment and grub couldn't hurt. He decided that, while he should be proclaiming his own magnificence, he would get something to eat and drink so he wouldn't falter in his rambling.

"Ah, what a wonderful day to charm people into good spirits! Their greatest defender has come to save them all in a blissful battle with true evil! What a great day this is for them!" Some people stared at this man, avoiding him mainly because of the way he talked.

If Irin had any more brains, he probably would have just sat down to eat and watch the fireworks, but he just kept walking around, yelling random things about how great he was or how he defeated something. This kept him from eating for a long time, considering he always liked talking over eating. It was just something he could never quite stop doing.