Chapter 12

The person who spoke was a man of average stature, his hair was white as snow, cut short in a way that reached his ears. His eyes were like pools of crystalline water, reflective blue. A suit of armor made of silver that had blue accents protected his body.

His voice had a playful tone as he asked me for my name.

I stared at him for a few moments, still breathing quite heavily due to the battle that had just concluded.

I hesitated for a bit, thinking about how to reply and before I could -

"So, anyone in there, you still alive? You aren't obligated to answer. If you don't want to, don't." His face stretched into a wide grin, as he interrupted my thought process.

I tried to prevent my growing annoyance from showing on my face and quickly squashed it.

"Alifay." I replied, deciding to use an alias, for obvious reasons.

"Huh?" He blinked in surprise, as if not expecting me to answer. 

I had to crush my spiking annoyance once again.

"Alifay, it's my name." I repeated, sheathing my sword since I don't exactly need it currently.

"Well, a pleasure. Allow me to introduce my party." From the carriage I could see two others walking towards, and it wasn't long before they arrived.

Dalawraith pointed his hand towards one of his companions, a human girl that seemed to be in her early twenties. She had her platinum blonde hair tied up in twintails, her luscious locks demonstrated her luxury. Honey brown was the color of her eyes, sharp yet warm.

"This is Verica, our lovely little mage. Oh, you could not fathom her greatness, with every breath she takes, she changes the landscape of the universe, for every step evil is evaporated. O great Verica -" His rant was suddenly cut off, by the very person he was sarcastically praising. She had stomped on his foot.

"God, shut up." The magician said, as she rolled her eyes.

"And you." Verica turned towards me with fury shining in her pupils.

"What the hell did you think you were doing? You can't just rush into a situation like that, if we didn't intervene, you would have most likely died.

To add to that, we had to use a one use item to save your ass!" She lectured me while shouting, moving her hands around in various gestures to convey her feelings. But she just continued on, in the end, I just zoned her out.

I think I may be regretting my decision. 

"Come now Ver, the child just wanted to help. Although it may have been foolish, mistakes are the privilege of the youth. So are you doing ok kid?" A voice cut through her zoning, belonging to a tall man of at least two meters dressed in a leather tunic. Green and black dominated his outfit. 

He seemed to be a bit older than the other two, clocking in probably around his mid thirties. He also had dark brown hair and eyes with a defined facial structure. 

"My name's Bastien, I'm the ranger of our little party, so do you need a health potion or something?" Bastien asked, reaching into his bag.

"Hey! We can't just give out potions like candy!" Shouted Verica once again, obviously not wanting to waste one on me.

"Light Healing. Light Healing. Light Healing." And I proved that they didn't need to, casting three consecutive spells to heal myself.

"Oh, I guess you didn't need it after all. Though to think you were a cleric. One with those sword skills, that's something you don't see everyday." Bastien spoke with surprise.

"What are you doing around here anyway?" This time it was the man with the pretty eyes who questioned me.

I knew I had to answer somewhat satisfactorily, I could tell he wasn't the type of person to let this go. My form doesn't exactly inspire after all.

"I come from a nation far West, it fell but a few short months ago, from what I know, I alone eluded their grasp." I made something up to appease them, and since I couldn't act to save my life, I decided to just keep my blank face. 

I saw Dalawraith walking near me, and looked at me with a sad and inquisitive look upon his face as he rubbed his chin.

I stared at him straight in the eyes, waiting for whatever he wanted to say.

A handful of seconds later he spoke up.

"Hey, Fay, what do you think of adventuring?" 

'A nickname? Quite forward of him.' Before I could reply, someone else did.

"What? You can't be serious Wrai! We can't go around babysitting children, you can't just decide this on your own 'cause you're the leader.

We're an Adamantite Rank party, let's just drop her off at an orphanage, she couldn't keep up anyways." Verica complained as she tried to convince their leader against whatever he was thinking about, shaking her head along with her argument.

"She's strong, not many would have survived such a reckless charge at opponents of that caliber. And we were looking for a Cleric to join us anyways, this way we won't have to keep wasting our money away on healing potions." He presented all the reasons for the cause of his desire for me to join.

But wait a second.

Shouldn't I have a say?

As they continued to ignore me in favor of arguing over whether to let me join them, with Bastien seemingly trying to mediate, I cut them off.

"Stop. I haven't even agreed to anything." 

They both instantly ceased their discussion, and looked towards me in unison, the boy then smirked and put his arm around my shoulder.

"Ah, don't be shy, don't fret. We'll take great care of you."

"God, Wrai you sound like a damned creep." Verica insulted as I shook off his arm, while he took a step back, and dramatically clutched his heart.

"Oh, how you wound me, surely you don't mean that. I mean look at me, how can someone so beautiful be subject to such an idea." What a boisterous person. Though amusing, nonetheless.

"Come on, you're one of us now. We shall see the vastest landscapes, explore the darkest dungeons, slay the evilest of dragons, save the beauties from fortresses most defended, and be revered as the greatest heroes to have ever existed. 

We'll be engraved in history, never to be forgotten." He exclaimed with all of the passion he could muster, as if he truly believed in every word he spoke, as if Death itself wouldn't dissuade his crusade.

"Well, I still haven't agreed to anything." I said in response to his tirade. 

"How about you join us as a provisional member? Just to see how it goes. It's not like you have anywhere to go, right?" He proposed, reaching his hand towards me.

I looked at his hand, contemplating.

This could go horribly wrong, or it could just be the thing I needed.

Well, what's the worst that could happen?

I grasped his palm. Ignoring the mage's shout of protest.

He suddenly pulled me into a hug. Surprising me, and almost causing me to lash out.

"Finally, we finally have a Cleric!"

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.