Industrial City Geonitrus

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The group approaches the industrial city, having left the clouds far behind still looming over the forest, in fact.
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"Alright, we've got to find a place to get Alina some medical attention," Lucas says.

"Medical attention?" Asks a Hardy voice nearby. A large man with read hair and a slightly darker beard approaches the group. "Did I hear you right, lad? The lass, here, needs medical attention?"

"Uh...yes? Who are you, exactly?"

"Ah, where are my manners?! I be Hugo, Blacksmith of these here kingdom."

Flashback to the day before the Ice Queen took over...

It was a bright, beautiful, sunny day, just like any other day in my kingdom. I remember everything about that day. It was the very last peaceful day I had. I remember exactly what I did, too. I woke up at daybreak, got changed into a eloquent blue dress, and went downstairs to the dining hall to eat my breakfast: apples, a loaf of bread, and milk. I said goodbye to my mother (my father was to busy in the throne room that day I was told), and left for archery practice. I was already far better than my teacher, but I he was my friend so I humored him, let him think I was still a defenseless princess. I was actually one of the most deadly archers in all of Soleste, but that's another story. After practice I had my lunch and went to class. And this is when the greatest day of my life began...


"Now, Alina, to be a great ruler you must..." my private tutor continued to drone on about meaningless subject that I'd already learend about and had no intention of learning about again.

As I was about to fall asleep I heard a noise coming from the window, pebbles being throw at the window. A smile creapy across my face as my mind guessed what it was, and my mind guessed right. As I looked out the window and saw the thrower of the pebbles, I broke out into a full out smile. It was my (secret) lover: Keegan.

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Ali seems to have stopped sobbing, tired out from it, and is now just down to sniffles. A small kitten, comes out of a box nearby and wanders toward her, "Oh, what are you doing here little fella? What happened to your mom?" The kitten meowed weakly at the mention of its mother, "I see. My mother's gone too..."

Cerelus sneaks Lucas and Ali into the fireworks factory. "Remeber," she says, "Be veeeery careful. One little slip and BOOMBOOM!"

(I'm going to assume you meant Aria)

"Alright," The Mage nods, then calmly surveys the area, as if she were simply looking around a store.

"There should be a trap door down into the tunnels," Lucus says.

"Yup yup, dunno where though."

"Well," Aria says, taking a step forward, "Assuming that things were just as fragile when the tunnel was made, the door would be away from most of the explodes, so I say we start looking away from most of the fireworks."

"Was this always an explosives factory?" Lucas asks.

"Yup, long as I remember."

"...Maybe I never covered this before but YOU'RE 8."

"I still don't get it."

Alina continues to pet the small kitten as it mews softly, "I don't know what I'm going to do... he's so much like him. I can't go through the same thing again..."


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I had to be with Keegan. Knowing only a wall was seperating us was too much. It's not like it'd be hard to get away from my tutor anyways. "Excuse me," I said in a loud voice raising my hand, "can I go to the bathroom please?" My tutor just waved a hand, which ment "yes". I had to walk out of the room slowly so he wouldn't suspect anything, but once I closed that door, I ran to Keegan.

Once I got out the castle and saw him, I pounced him. I jumped onto him, wrapped my legs around his waist as he supported me with his arms, and we kissed like we hadn't seen each other in years. Once we stopped making out, for about a good 10 minutes, I finally came back to earth, and greeted him properly, "Hi."

"Hi yourelf," he replied with a chuckle and a smile that made me want to kiss him for another 10 minutes.

"What brings you around these parts," I asked, a bit seductively.

"Oh, well, you know, I'm here to meet this beautiful girl who I'm madly in love with. But I just can't seem to find her. Do you know where this maiden might be?"

"Hmm...beautiful girl, beautiful girl," I said, fake pondering, "why I don't think there are any girls that fit that description around here. But, I bet if we look in the woods, we're bound to find one."

Keegan got a look of excitement on his face as I said that, "Oh well then! We'll just have to rush right over there," he said as he picked me up.

I giggled at his sillyness, "What are you doing? Put me down!"

"Nope, I'm never letting go of you," he said in a whisper.

I kissed him again as we left for the woods, him carrying me.

"I don't get it either, actually. What does her being 8 have to do with her knowing that there's an explosives factory? Actually buying things is a different subject though...." Aria sighs, "Oh well, let's just start looking."

Slowly she starts walking through the building, surveying the floor as she goes.

"This factory is WAY older than 8 years old," Lucas says to no one as he hunts for the door.

Cerelus suddenly pops up and waves to the others. "Found somethin'!"

Aria carefully makes her way over to the girl, "Is it the door?"

"Looooks like one buuuut..." Cerelus tries to yank at the handle.

Lucas then dusts it off. "It's bolted shut."

"Lacrimo," Aria says quietly, and a thin stream of water comes down from her finger tips and goes into the wood near the bolts, "Frigus."

Within a few seconds, the ice breaks the wood around the bolts slightly enough to remove them, which Aria does.

Alina seems to have completely stopped crying, with only the redness around her eyes as evidence. "I can't believe I'm telling my life story to a kitten..." The kitten meows loudly, "Well sorry! I didn't expect to tell this to an animal! Anyways, wanna know what happens next?" The kitten lays it's head back on Alina's lap and purrs quietly, "I'll take that as a yes..."


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That day in the forest, we did everything in a romance novel. We laid in a field of flowers and watched the clouds, picking out shaps in them, holding hands. He pushed me in a swing he built for me himself when we were younger, he picked flowers for me, we went hunting (he was the reason I could hunt so well in the first place), and just did everything that made the world perfect. So for this one day. The world was beautiful. But it got even better when it decided to rain...


The rain started to downpour on us both, "Let's find someplace to get away from this weather," I said grabbing his hand, leading him down an unknown path.

He chuckled a bit at my hastiness, "What? The princess doesn't wanna get wet?"

I looked back and shot him a glare, "Oh would you stop with that. It's just because this dress gains 20 more lbs when it's wet and I-" Next thing I know, my feet aren't touching the ground, Keegan is carrying me again.

"Well then we better find somewhere fast," he said as he started to run down a path that we didn't even know where it led.

The reason Keegan teases me about being the princess is, well, he's a commoner. Yes, yes, I know cliche. The beautiful princess falls for the charming commoner and they fall in love blah blah blah. Well you can't think what you want, I'm in love and I don't care. But the one time I will care about that is when my parents find out. His mom knows (his dad died when he was a kid) about us, and she's perfectly fine with it. Why wouldn't she? If her son marries me it's a one shot to a life of luxury. But Keegan doesn't think that way. He would have us run away together and never go back to our lifes right now. I want to do that so badly, but I can't abandon my kingdom or my family.

After awihle of running (for him anyways), we finally arrived at an abandoned shack. It was in good condition though, so we decided to take refuge there. There was a bed, a fire pit, a table, some chairs, and some clutter around the floor, but that was it. It was actually rather cozy.

He set me down one of the chairs and lit a fire from some matches he found on the floor and took off his shirt. "Oh baby," I said a bit seductively.

He chuckled a bit at my remark, "Calm down, little girl. I need to dry my clothes."

I looked down at my own clothes, "Well I can't really do anything now can I..."

Keegan blushed abit at my remark, "Well I could just...look away or I could-"

I cut him off before he would embarress himself further, "Just calm down, I have undergarments on underneath." I started to strip as he looked away respectfully, "It's fiiiiiiine," I said with a yawn.

Keegan turned around a bit, "Tired you can sleep in the bed and I'll just sleep on the floor so you-"

I cut him off again, "It's fine, I can see you're tired too. We'll both sleep in the bed, it's big enough. No big deal." I crossed over to the bed and laid down on it and padded the spot next me.

He slowly made his away across to the bed, and me. And before I knew what was going on I was on top of him and the rest of the night was bliss...

"Nice work," Lucas says, opening the door. "Let's go."

"Yeah," Aria says, then drops down into the hole.

Cerelus gets out a flare which Lucas suddenly swipes. "Are you trying to get ups blown up? We're still under a fireworks factory."

"Oh yeah."

I woke up next to him in a jolt. Was it still nighttime? No, just overcast. I had the strangest dream...it was so real it was- My thoughts were cut off as a "BOOM" echoed throughout the forest, waking up Keegan.

"What's going on," he asked, still half-asleep.

I hesitated a bit in answering him, because I felt like I did know what's going, "I don't know. We should head back to the castle. My parents will probably send the guard out if I'm not back soon." I was a bit worried they HADN'T sendt the guard out yet.

"Alright, let's get dressed and we'll be off," he said as he kissed me on the forehead and got up and got changed. I got changed as well, but there seemed to be a pair of clothes stashed under the bed. An archer's outfit it appeared to be, elven made too. I decided to put this on, instead of my dress. Keegan complimented me on my outfit and we left our cottage.

I could tell her wanted to talk, but I didn't give him time. I was far too worried about what was going on.

When we arrived in town, it was far too quiet. Dead quiet. There was also a chill in the air, which was odd considering it was summer and we were the SUN kingdom. We decided it was best if I went through the secret passages leading to my room we used to get away together, because we soon encountered some odd looking folk. He would head to the castle courtyard where several people were moving towards.

When I enetered my room through the wall, I grabbed only one thing. The thing I saw in my dreams: the cloak my father gave me. He said it was enchanted to always keep me warm because I was his "little sun." Seemed silly then...now I feel like it'll be what's gonna keep me alive. I put the cloak on and put the hood up and left to go down to the court yard myself.

When I get there, there was a crowd of people. I looked up to the balcony where my mother and fatehr make announcments usually but there was only one person who right now. My aunt.

This instantly got my attention. Because this was all in my dream. Which made me dread the next few events I knew would happen.

I made my way toward the front of the crowd as my aunt spoke, I seemed to have come in the middle of her speech, "You know have a new ruler! Your... loved rulers have been disposed of. And I am your new ruler!"

No, I couldn't believe it... how did all this happen?

"But! My collection is not complete! One more member of the royal family was not where she was supposed to be this morning."

I felt a chill come over my whole body. She was looking for me.

"Oh, I know you're out there, niece. Come out, come out, wherever you are." Dead silence except for the murmors going around. "No? Not gonna come out to play? Very well then, I'll have to make you." A figure came onto the balcony with a bag over their face. She swiftly removed the bag and my heart sank into a bottomless pit.

Then came something I didn't see in my dream. She had Keegan.

"Yes, that's right, Alina. I knew about your little affair with this commoner." His mother screamed, but was quickly silenced, I didn't want to know how. "Now, if you come out now, I promise not to hurt your little boyfriend."

"DON'T DO IT ALI," he screamed out, "DON'T DO IT! I'LL BE FINE. SHE'LL KILL US BOTH IF YOU COME OUT."

But he didn't know, I couldn't live without him. I stood there for maybe an hour, it was probably just a few minutes though. The world sank around me. I made up my mind though. I took a step forward but was interupted by another speech by "her majesty."

"Not going to come out to play then? Too bad," she hold Keegan's face in her disgusting hands, "he was sucha pretty boy." The thing I know, Keegan is on the ground. His throat slit.

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"And you see... Lucas will end up like Keegan. I'll love him, but he'll die, because of me. He'll be used as ammunition by the Queen to get me."

The kitten meowed loudly.

"Yea, you're right. Lucas can take care of himself. Besides, I can't just sulk here forever! They're going to the factory, and I need to join them." Alina stands up, holding the kitten, and runs to Hugo's shop.

"Hello?" She calls from the door. The place is deserted, "Oh crap! They've left without me!" She quickly grabs her pack, strings her bow on her back with her quiver and leaves the kitten in the shop and runs to the factory.

"Hold on...." Aria says as she takes out a vial of water from her bag, "Nitor Aqua."

The water starts to glow, lighting up the area around them.

Hugo suddenly drops down into the hole. Within the hour, the group is emerging inside of the castle. "Alright, you girls go find the armory and blow it to kingdom(heh) come. Lucas, with me," Hugo says as he turns and runs through the chambers of the castle.

Outside, cold clouds begin to form overhead, visable to all under the sky.

"Alright Cerelus, let's go," Aria says, then runs down another hall, not sure where exactly she is going.

Cerelus leads Aria down a chamber and into a corridor with several rooms. She hands her a small back and pulls out a bomb. "Since we're really try'na blow this place up, I got the heavy stuff! Just one bomb per room and no more should do the trick. There are six rooms. We can split the work," Cerelus says as she jets off into one.

Meanwhile, Hugo and Lucas reach an empty throneroom. "Just what I thought," he says, looking at the icy thrones.

"..... How does she know the layout of the castle?" Aria questions before grabbing three bombs and setting one up in three of the six rooms.

"Those ice devils are gonna stop at nothin'. But they wouldn't get rid of the king and queen just like that, even if they could look like them."

"How obsssservant," says a devilish half snake beast, holding the queen in its tail. "One dumb move and I crush her bones into dussssst."

Meanwhile, Cerelus returns from her task. "Okay let's go meet Hugo and Mr. Knight! I got the detona...tor...uy," she says, looking up at the large half snake and half humanoid ice creature before them, the king wrapped in her tail.

"well, that's.... Really bad...." Aria says as she takes her staff off of her belt, ready for a fight.

The first creature whips Hugo with its tail then yo-yo punches Lucas, throwing them into one another. He then beats them around some more before opening his fang filled mouth and preparing to devour them. "The ice queen sent us here to eradicate them all. But once here, we were charged with impersonating them. But no one said anything about not killing you, he says as he lunges.

The second swats the book from Aria's hand and gets closer by the second. Cerelus backs into the chambers and trips, landing sitting down.