A Chance Meeting

[Alden]

(Closed to Chibimon Blue)

It was noon-time in Scara Brae, where the thriving island city, bustling with life, truly began to shine. Merchants, selling their exotic trades from the frontier, captured their voice with renewed vigor. Travelers and entertainers alike enjoyed the city’s many sights. Housewives sang as they hung their clothes out to dry, their children played in the streets.

And the local taverns pushed out their best meals.

In such a tavern Alden sat, accompanied by Petyr, his old friend from the Guard who had first found him when the half-ling had woken up in the Brokenthorn Forest half-crazed and with no memories. The tavern was called, The Sea’s Salt, a favorite among the local sailors and dockhands of the city. Petyr himself had been a hand before the mast, long before he met his wife and settled that life aside.

The air was filled with jovial conversation and laughter, the clinking of mugs and the scent of good food. The half-ling looked around at the various patrons, most were tanned seamen, others were old codgers with no other place to go. Alden even spotted another guardsman; an elf wearing a red scarf, and what looked like a small winged creature atop his shoulder. They laughed heartily with a few others nearby, and the elf took small sips of his ale.

“I’m telling ye, Alden,” Petyr continued, “It may be the only way.” The man rubbed his face with a thick calloused hand, and sighed deep. “I’m too stressed, is all. I can barely get a’ ounce o’ sleep with all the worries I’m carrying.” Alden kept silent, listening intently, letting his friend unravel his thoughts.

“The cap’n has been cracking down ‘ard, what with the Scourge coming back in force. We got gods know what coming in from the frontier these days, and worse o’ all” – the man threw his hands wide – “we got a baby on th’ way!” The man slumped in his chair, heavy with the burdens he carried.

“What do I do, Alden?” he asked softly. He looked at the half-ling with pleading eyes. “What do I do if I’m hurt, or I go an’ get m’self killed? Who’ll look after Freda an’ the little ones then?” The man kept looking a question at Alden, and the half-ling could tell he wanted a response.

He took a moment to collect his thoughts, and answered. “You leave something behind. Something that could help them get through the pain of your loss.” The guardsman started nodding, clearly already at the same conclusion, though Alden knew they didn’t have the same answer in mind.

“Aye,” he said. “That’s what I've been trying to tell Freda all along. This so-called tournament could set us up for life! ‘It’s dangerous,’ she said. ‘You haven’t had a true fight in years,’ she said.” The man threw up his hands in dismissal and took a gulp of ale. “Bah! I can still fight.” Alden looked at the man. He doubted his friend’s ability, but not his conviction. Petyr had more fire than any one man he knew.

“Come,” the half-ling said with a smile, “let’s leave these thoughts behind.” The half-ling stood up from his chair, met by his friend’s skeptical eyes. But the man relented with a chuckle, a snort and another gulp of ale, then he too rose from his seat.

The pair left their payment on the table, and met the midday sun with a smile.

[Chibimon Blue]

Hsa woke up in a bed, the cold satin sheets over his form sending shivers down his body. He sat up, looking around slowly at first. He may have still been a child, but Hsa was wise enough to know that jerking around may have injured something further. He reached for his head, finding comfort in the fact that nobody had taken his baseball cap off, just turned it to the front. The boy shifted the clothing backwards once more, and reached down towards his belt.

His hand felt the fine leather still wrapped across his waist, the rough denim fabric of his jeans brushing against his fingertips. His eyes widened as his hands wandered around his entire waistline, trying to find the three chibiballs that were supposed to be strapped to his pants. His hand was left empty, causing a lump to form in the child’s throat. His Chibimon were gone.

He shifted out of the bed, his still throbbing as if suffering from a bad hang over. Taking more time to look around, the boy saw the linoleum black and white checkered floor below his feet. He could hear the murmurs of different people coming from the set of stairs located across from him. There was an abnormal kind of chill in the room, leaving him with a deeper sense of uneasiness. Hsa’s shoes hit the floor and began to make their way towards the stairs. Never once did he stop to question why he was fully clothed.

When he arrived downstairs, the boy saw several different types of people conversing. Some of them standing by themselves. Most importantly, Hsa noticed an attractive, tall lady. Her hair was a deep crimson red, and the nurse outfit she wore had a skirt that just barely covered the unmentionables. Hsa started to approach this woman, his eyes wandering down her white, not-quite-pasty legs. As he came closer, he was stopped by a counter. The boy shook himself out of the trance and looked downward, where before him laid a mat with six perfect chibiball-shaped indentures laid on a mat.

He looked back up towards the head of the nurse, who turned around; his shimmering blue eyes were reminiscent of perfect crystals. “Ah, there you are, Mr. Hsa!” The lady exclaimed excitedly. Hsa looked past the mesmerizing beauty for a moment, his eyes resting upon three chibiballs rolling on a machine that whirled and whizzed, and played a joyful short tune. After the music stopped, the chibiballs stopped spinning as well. The nurse made a squeaky sound and spun around, collecting the three balls and putting them before the boy on the mat.

“I’m Nurse Happiny. Me and my cousins run every Chibimon Hospital on Althanas!” The girl swayed her head back and forth as she spoke. “You took a really nasty spill when Lesnar defeated all your Chibimon. But they’re okay now! Primed and ready to go for your next try!”

Hsa reached for the chibiballs, trying to remember who Lesnar was. The name didn’t ring any bells, so Hsa assumed his ‘spill’ also came with short term memory loss. “Thank you,” the boy said as he placed the chibiballs in their proper place on his belt and turned around, only to stumble back by what he saw.

A short, fat, bald man held in his hand his own chibiballs. Hi busy brown eyes twitched, s if he were agitated with something, and his hands shook violently like they suffered from some sort of cerebral disease. “You’re a Chibimon trainer, right?!” His voice was gruff, desperate, and came as such a surprise to the youth that all he could do was nod.

“I’ve got a Chibimon I am willing to part with for five-hundred GP!” Hsa raised an eyebrow, as if to ask why this man wanted to part with his Chibimon so badly, but before he could even ask the question, the ball was in his Hsa’s hand. “There you go! Five-hundred GP please!”

~~~
“Well, that was odd,” Hsa said, his wallet feeling five-hundred GP lighter. He walked through the crowds of Scara Brae starring at his chibiball. As he wandered the beaten down streets of the town, he was unaware that he was about to be on a collision course with Alden and Petyr, and by proxy, his next big adventure…