AGNPH Stories
 

A change of heart by kinny_man

 
 

Story Notes:

i havent deciced weather to put this as a one-chapter story or weather to develop it further... what do you guys think?


Chapter one: Wealcome to Avalia

Chapter one: Welcome to Avalia.

This story is set in the City of Avalia, the capital of the Demonic Empire of Revenant. All resistance was wiped out over 100 years ago, leaving the Emperor and his ancestors to do as they please. The soldiers are noble and heroic, but the same cannot be said about the city guards. Who are typically corrupt the hero in this story is an Illurian knight called steather, one of the Illurian guards' assigned to guard the Illurian ambassador in the city. We join him as he has just ended his shift.

"Yo Arain, you got your knife just incase?" Steather Shouted to his female comrade who was in the other room. Steather was a Dragon knight, although he couldn't use his dragon in this big city so let's just say he was a knight. As was customary for Dragon knights his armor and weapons where the same colour as his dragons scales, which where a beautiful shade of pearl white. He had taken off his helmet as he and his two friends where going to a bar. His job was pretty relaxed, not many rules and the hours where short as the Ambassador slept a lot and had five sets of guards. His face was handsome, a broad chin, dazzling eyes and a cute button nose. His black curly hair was badly tamed by a comb and he had washed thoroughly. Also as customary he had one of the creature's naïve to illuria. They where named 'Pokémon' for some strange reason. He had gotten one only recently and it had already evolved into a new one that was called a Furret by the sound it made. He called it Riley.

The female he had been talking to called Arain entered the room. She was a forest ranger. Special soldiers that where trained to be perfect soldiers while in forested areas, sneaky, stealthy and incredibly hard to hit. She, unlike Steather had changed from her armor and was wearing a set of casual green clothes, with a leather belt which had a dagger in a neatly made holder strapped to it. Her face was slender and curvy in all the right places, a real Illurian beauty. She had an earthy brown shaded ponytail as her hairstyle; it was thick and went all the way down to her belt. Her eyes where that of an oak leaf green and her breasts where non-to-small, but they weren't too big either.

"Why do you always go to pubs with your armor on? Doesn't it make you uncomfortable?" she asked, straightening out his Gauntlets. "Well, it came in handy when that baron got 'handsy' last week, didn't it?" "Yes but it still makes you stand out in most bars" she said. "Aah, but when I'm there no one starts fights" "I wonder why that is" Arain teased. "Where is that damned shape shifter? Well never get out if he doesn't hurry the hell up" Steather scolded. "Didn't you hear him? He shouted in earlier that he was going to wait for us there and please don't call him that, you know his name is Duro" Arain called over her shoulder as she was brushing her hair. There was no reply "You weren't listening, where you?" She teased again Steather whistled innocently, making Arain laugh loudly. "Ok, are you ready to go?" she asked, walking toward the door. "Yeah, just let me get my Sword" Steather walked toward an elegantly decorated chest in a raised platform beside his bed.

Steather and Arain lived in the apartments above the Ambassador, there was a trap door right above the entrance so they could jump into the lower room incase of an emergency. The third guard, Duro, would live there too but regulations required one guard to stay with the Ambassador while it was their shift. The other guards would live similarly during their shift, but Duro seemed to be the ambassadors' favorite. Steather opened the box and picked up his sheathed blade, felling the raw power contained in every dragon blade flow into him, the blades that Dragon Knights used enabled them to communicate with each other and with their dragons, meaning that he could talk to his friends telepathically anywhere in the world, as long as they where Dragon knights also.

"Ok, lets go" they left the building and walked down the messy street toward a nearby pub called 'The Bards String'. The night was surprisingly peaceful, no birds calls obviously, but still silent. The air was not pleasant, as expected for a large city like this. They walked past a building when a mugger stepped out from the alleyway. "Give me all your money" he said, but Arain just ignored him and when he saw Steather he nearly wet himself. Steather simply picked him up and broke his spine on his knee. "Better to finish him off before he hurts someone" steather said and picked up the thieves knife. There was no time to simply break thugs arms in this empire, the motto that Illurians followed for people like this and animals they hunted was: 'don't wound what you cant kill'. And that's just what he did, but when he was about to stab, he realized that this knife was made in the great forests of Illura, the moniker on the end of the blade was clear. He simply snapped the thieves' neck and caught up to Arain.

"Here, take this knife, it is sharper and more skillfully made than your current one" Steather said, holding the thieves knife and its small scabbard. "Thanks, hey this is well balanced, that thief knew how to find a good dagger" she chuckled a little at this comment. They continued toward the pub, thugs where common, however peasants and beggars where even more common, there where several that they passed, one of the grabbed Steathers arm so Riley bit His hand, making the beggars hand bleed. When Rileys tongue encountered this beggars flesh, Riley threw up all over the pavement. Steather chuckled, "That bad, eh?" Riley gave him a filthy look which only made him laugh even more.

They finally made it to the bar, the bar was basically a converted hovel, with the standard two coloured windows, one on each side of the battered oaken door, the paintwork was worn and completely gone in some places, revealing the aged wood grain. "Aah, we finally made it. A good thing too, I need some ale to moisten my throat" Steather sighed. "Well, we'd best get in and meet Duro" Arain said, keeping her voice down for there where two men fighting nearby. She reached for the handle and pulled the door open; the street was illuminated by the light from within the bar. They both stepped inside, Steather following Arain.

The bar was Dingy and crowded, several makeshift tables had been placed at seemingly random intervals within the room and overturned barrels that had been broken in half served as chairs. The only real furniture was the stools near the aged cedar wood bar. A bards lute was barely audible for the bar was full of noisy people; from merchants to off-duty guards, all drinking away the days stress.

When Steather looked again at the bar, he saw who he was looking for, there was a cloaked figure sitting at one of the tables in the corner, his hood up and his cloak was slightly undone, revealing the rubied hilt of his prized Two handed sword. The ruby wasn't there for show either; it helped to balance the blade. It was definitely Duro, he was doing his act of being asleep but if you knew him long enough, you could see his yellow-coloured eyes peeking from under his hood.

Arain walked over to him while Steather went to the bar and got them some ale, he had noticed that Duros glass was almost empty, "Yo, what ya need?" the barkeep asked gruffly. "Three of yer best, hold the vermin droppings" Steather joked "Hey, no vermin here" the barman spat, clearly not getting the joke. "No offence intended, just playing around" Steather replied, trying not to smirk. Steather payed for the drinks while riley sniffed the ale curiously, having never seen it before. He took a sip of the amber liquid while Steather wasn't looking and wreched. He found it horrible yet he wanted more somehow, so he took another sip when steather checked to see if anyone he didn't like was in the bar.

Steather picked up the glasses and was about to walk over to Duo and Arain when someone grabbed his shoulder, he turned around to see a slave merchant looking straight into his eyes with a curious expression on his face. "Is that furry thing yours?" he asked, pointing at Riley who was now sitting on his shoulder. "Yeah, he's a furret, why" Steather thought he knew what the merchant wanted and it was confirmed with the next sentence "I want it so I can use its fur to patch up my winter cloak" he said in a gruff, earthy voice. "Well sorry no can do, it is a regulation for us illurian guards to choose one of these 'Pokémon', and I chose this one. And besides, he's too much of a friend to be sold" there was no way steather was going to sell Riley, but the slave merchant would not give up, and he was getting angry at being denied.

"YOU DARE TO DENY ME? DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE SPEAKING TO???" the slave merchants' face was now bright red, he was close to losing it. But nonetheless, Steather cooly answered "No, which means you must not be as important as you think, fool" Before turning around and started walking. The slave merchant drew his whip and swung it at Steather; he turned around and caught the whip. "Ok, that's it" Steather Growled through clenched teeth, he was now royally pissed off. He flipped the merchant on his back by swinging the whip in a wide ark then kneeled down next to him and wrapped the rope around his neck and squeezed the rope tightly. The merchant began to gag, unable to breathe. "Now, if you apologize, I might just let you live" Steather Demanded. "I...I'm...s-sor...ry" the merchant managed to say.

Steather let go of the whip and the merchant began to get up, trying to draw a small Dagger secretly but steather saw him nonetheless. The merchant swung his small blade, barely missing Steathers neck by a few centimeters. Steather ducked down and delivered a few small blows to the merchants overlarge stomach, making him double-over in pain, and finished it off with an uppercut to the bottom jaw, making him flip over once again. But this time he didn't get up and the Bouncers dragged him outside.

Steather finally got to the table with the drinks "Took you long enough" Arain teased "what did that guy want, anyway?" Duro asked. "He wanted to buy riley so he could skin him and use him to repair a coat, but of course I wouldn't let him do that. Riley is just too cute" Steather said, stroking Riley behind the left ear. "What? I oughta slit his throat for daring to even consider killing one of those cute Pokémon" Arains face turned red from anger. "Lets just forget that guy, his breath was so bad I can't wait to forget it" Steather retched slightly at remembering the smell.

"Oh by the way, have you guys heard about the Tournament that's coming up?" Duro finally changed the subject "Yeah, I hear the prize is to take two friends and meet the emperor in person" Arain blushed; it was known that she had a slight crush on the emperor. "Yeah that one, the Ambassador wants us to enter" Duro Said, abruptly ending Arains untold fantasies. "Ooh, I am so in, I really wanna meet the emperor" Arain quickly replied, "Yeah, but we can see him every time the Ambassador holds council with him, but nonetheless ill go" Steather added the last part because of the look Arain gave him. "Why does the Ambassador want us to enter, anyway?" steather was curious as to the reason.

"Oh, he wants to see how far the three of us can make it, the one of us that makes it the furthest before losing gets double pay for the next six months". "Really? I guess that's another reason to join. Anyway, whose turn is it to get the drinks?" "I think it's mine" Arain said, getting up and taking the glasses to the bar.

Duro suddenly leaned closer to Steather "where's Arains Pokémon?" He whispered. "You mean her Grovile? It has a name you know" Steather replied, imitating Arains voice from earlier. "Yes, I know its name's Roke, but it bit me yesterday so I wont talk about it kindly" Duro muttered, his voice with a hint of bitterness. Shape shifters took great pride on how difficult it was to hit them de to their natural liquid form. "Well 'Roke' is pretty tired from the four urks it helped kill yesterday so Arain let it stay at home. Where's your 'Darkle' may I ask?". Steather was referring to Duro's odd weavile that had a deeper black hue than normal weaviles; it also had a nasty attitude to everyone except Duro and Riley, whom he respected dearly.

"Right above you" was the reply that Duro gave as Arain returned, setting the drinks down and sitting back down. Steather looked up and t his great surprise, there the weavile was, sleeping peacefully on the rafters, waiting until he had to go. Riley hopped up next to Darkle and promptly nodded off next to him. "Anyway, how's your dragon doing?" Arain asked, she loved dragons and was particularly fond of Steathers dragon. "You mean Aurora? Oh, she's doing very well, those people at the dragon keep are getting good at taking care of her" Steather replied with a happy grin. "I still don't get why they assigned you to here, of all places. I mean, I like that you're here, but without your dragon all you have is your dragon blade! And if enemies had mounts, then you are completely screwed" Duro said half questioning, half musing. "Anyway, my pint's done, and I have had a long day. So I'm goanna go to sleep now, how long until the tournament anyway?" Steather asked while getting up form his chair. Riley jumped from the rafters and landed neatly on his shoulder.

"Don't sleep too long, you have to go and see the Herbalist for the Ambassadors medicine tomorrow" Arain called after him as he walked out of the bar. The moon was now at full rise and most of the beggars where now in the back alleys and the muggers and other scum where probably at their homes, if they had any. As Steather walked he heard a scream from nearby, "GODDAMNIT! Will I never get a peaceful night?" He shouted to the sky before running off in the Direction that the scream came from; he ran through two back alleys and came to an old abandoned building.

There where signs of a struggle and there where noises coming from inside. Steather ran in and saw a man who had just slit a female Merchant after obviously raping her. The man was just about to leave when Steather called after him. "Yo, where do you think you get off raping a woman then turning away from a challenger?" the man turned round, he was hard to see when the only source of light was the moon. Steather knew little magic, only what was required to become a Dragon Knight. He created a light in his palm and quickly threw it up in the air, illuminating the room.

He now saw that his opponents face had a deep scar running all down the right side of his face, barely missing his eye. He war a blue tunic with Black trousers, a black belt hung around his waist with a medium sized Saber and scabbard strapped to it. He also wore a red cape with golden inlays at the top where it was connected to his shoulder pads. "Hmmm, I've been spotted. But no matter, I'll just have to kill this guy" He was talking to himself, which seriously worried Steather. "I have only fought one person who has done that before, which ended with the guy blowing himself up and almost taking me along with him" Steather reminisced.

The guy suddenly rushed toward Steather with his Saber out, swinging it wildly. "Damnit! I think too much. Wait, I'm thinking now, STOP THINKING, DAMNIT!" Steather ordered himself, unsheathing his sword and barely blocking the first strike. But this guy was fast and he immediately struck at Steathers chest but the armor prevented the blow from doing ant damage. This guy obviously didn't know what he was doing as he struck again at the armor, not realizing that the tough Dragon scales that covered it would never break under a mall sword like that. Steather suddenly had an idea. He jumped backwards as the Rapist swung downward, making him stagger due to his too heavy sword missing. When this happened He raised his sword and struck the guy in the back of the head with the flat side of the sword, knocking him unconscious.

The man fell to the ground with a satisfying 'thud'. He bent down and removed the guys' cape, "The spoils of battle" He thought while also taking his wallet. Then he walked away, just when he reached the door he had a change of heart. He used his influence on the still burning light orb and turned it into fire, he then made it float down to the rapists' unconscious form and ignite his body. He left it to fly all around the building, setting the entire structure was alight as Steather slowly walked back to his apartment.

THE END? You decide that, Please tell me in a review.
Chapter End Notes:Ok, please answer the question and please tell me what you think of the story, hopefully you will too
 
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