The Adventures of Thomas: Every Tale Has a Beginning

[CallmePrismatic]

King Heworth slouched in his great throne, settling himself in for the talk ahead.

He was an old king, and his body was as old as he was, if not a bit longer in years. His being ached as the elderly tend to do, but his was not the anguish of the wise and sheltered prince who suffers from atrophied joints, but the creaks and groans of a warrior who has long ago forsaken the battlefield.

"Ahh, Thomas, yes, I have a task to ask of you." His voice was gravelly and hoar, as if every minute of his life had etched itself into the vocal range. He looked over Thomas and began."

"Our kingdom, my kingdom, was not an inherited one, as you know. My father did not speciify a successor, and in the aftermath of his death me and my brothers were forced to battle for the throne. This is basic history, I wish for you to help me write future's scrolls." As he finished the recap of the past he produced a small necklace, and hanging from the necklace's end was a brilliant signet, worthy of the king who held it. "The war was ended long ago, but the bitterness persists still. I have not spoken to my eldest brother in eons, and my youngest fled, but I refuse to assume the worst. I am an old man, yes, but I refuse to be a doddering fool. The future of our kingdom rests within the good graces of my brother's lands. I do not want to enter the afterlife with spite and anger left in my mortal coil."

With a creak, both from the throne and his aging joints, Heworth stepped down and placed the signet into Thomas's hands. "Take this to my brother. Tell him that he can have father's signet, and all I want is peace and good relations between our lands. The travel may be rough, but I would entrust this request to none of my other knights Thomas. Make me, make your kingdom, proud."

[Squishy Cheeks]

The young prince entered. His hair was dark black and sat like a wet mop on his head. He wore thick rimmed glasses and had plug like earings. He wore an old style black tight tunic with a symbol resembling a white cross. He wore torn sack like brown trousers as was the style with the youth of the kingdom. His belt was a length of studded leather. He also possesed a metal ring in his eyebrow.

"Does this mean I'm not inheriting the throne anymore,ot that I really care about that anyway? Just go on father and pretend I don't exist. No one understands me. I'm going to write a poem about this."

[Bailey]

A nearby attendant scurried off and came back with a piece of parchment and a quill pen.

"Your writing materials, my lord."

[Raiden]

Thomas bowed before his king, and gently took the signet from the elderly man's hands.

"Of course, my majesty. I'll do my best to serve you."

Giving one final bow, he turned and briskly left the room. Once he was sure that he was out of sight of the king's view and that of his attendants, his smile left.

"Delivering a necklace? How troublesome. Of course I'd be chosen for the quest. It's not like I'm jumping and ready to leave home. I'd rather just stay in my living quarters and read. But, orders are orders."

[GARUD]

One of the fat, pompous nobles waddled to the throne and asked,

"I, your greatness, suggest that the young man that bears the signet takes with him a guard. The road to your brothers kingdoms is perilous and filled with danger. I would suggest, M'Lord, that you use my personal agents. They are just as strong as your guards, but they are payed more, so they have higher morale. They will try to jump cliffs for me, if I asked it of them."

Baron Tibel bowed floridly, hiding is smug look quite effectively. He was a schemer, and had planned that the King would be poisoned and Thomas would be assasinated in the trip. The signet would be retrieved and the scheming noble would use it to ascend the throne and start a tyrany. I'm so clever!

(OOC: Trust me to play the guy no-one likes. Now people, foil him dammit!)

[Astral Harmony]

Princess Allura stayed hidden as Thomas passed by on his way out, then turned and watched her father and brother from just outside the throne room. "There he goes again, trying to destroy the ruling family during its weaker hours," she said, now staring critically at Baron Tibel.

She stepped away from the wall, poking at her left cheek with a silk gloved hand "I better try and put a stop to this attempt, too. Hmmm...I wonder who I should send out to keep a watch on that guy?"

[CallmePrismatic]

"That won't be necessary Tibel, I prefer to trust men whose loyalty is not laid out on a bartering table. In my experiences there will always be someone with deeper coffers and crueler intentions more than willing to negotiate a new deal for mercenaries. No, I think I will trust Thomas just fine, but feel free to endow him with some of the treasures of your family's own, deep, armory." He looked out the doors of his throne room and saw his daughter. Smiling he let the matter lie and left the further machinations of Tibel in his daughter's hands, and the capabilities of Thomas.

"Now, my son, I believe you have misread my intentions in sending Thomas off. You will always inherit the throne, and my kingdom. The signet, always a mere ornament, will make sure that when you do ascend to King, you will have a powerful ally and trading partner in my brother, your uncle's, kingdom."

Heworth sighed. At times like these a small but very persuasive voice in his mind derided him for not being lecherous in his youth. Oh, the times he could have cast his royal seed into the throngs, the temptations of the countless slaves and citizens running past his head. Surely if he had been less stalwart, a rugged knight-errant or aspiring squire would reveal himself as the rightful heir, but he had been in love with the most beautiful maiden in the land and had remained ever vigilant in his devotion to her, and for his troubles he had been given a son who seemed intent on creating problems for the sole purpose of having problems. True, he loved him more than the World itself and would take no other, and he was fully certain that over time the young prince would shed his inflicted-pathos and take up the mantle, but oh how much simpler things could be.

The only relief in this realm was that of the impending peace and good will, no doubt in his mind that Thomas would prevail.

[Inbred Chocobo]

A servant boy, probably no older than 14, came half running, half jogging towards Thomas. "Sir, I have readied your horse, and your supplies are all ready. You can set out at any time." The young lad waited there for his reply. When Thomas got a closer look, the kid seemed more of an aspiring squire more than a servant.

[MC43]

"My lady! There you are!" A voice called out from behind the princess. "You are crafty my lady," an older man approached her. Her hired attendent and overprotective watchdog. "I see you have snuck out of your room again to evesdrop on your father's affairs. You must stop doing that my lady, especially sneaking out from under my eye, for if anything was to happen to you... oh I don't dare to think what would become of me..."

[Raiden]

Thomas smiled at the young energetic lad.

"Thank you young one. I'll see you again upon my return."

After making sure that the signet necklace was resting safely around his neck, Thomas followed the boy out to his horse. All his supplies were resting on horse.

"Nice. Thank you."

[Astral Harmony]

"Oh, relax." Allura said, stepping away from sight and turning to the attendant. "Father's not going to execute you just because I slipped out of your sight again...unless he has you privately executed like those last two guys. Ugh, I had heard how messy their executions were. It wasn't even a simple beheading. They just put the guys in the well and dumped a load of bone-crushing rocks on them. Y'know, that method we used to employ on bandits."

Allura had a disgusted expression on her face, perhaps remembering. "Anyways, nevermind. I guess I don't need to help out Thomas this time. The lad has always had a pretty good measure of luck. I have to go into town today. Y'know, wave at people, kiss a few babies, pick up that evening gown the seamstress was ordered to make. Busy, busy, busy." Unlike the king, Allura didn't ride out into the village in a carriage and much preferred to walk. She didn't mind being spoiled rotten. It did wonders for her long, shiny hair. But she did have to draw lines somewhere.

[Squishy Cheeks]

Thomas' horse looked at him woefully

"I could have been somebody, I could have been a racing horse. Now I got to cart this jerk around. If he jabs his spur into my side again I swear to the horse gods I'm going to buck him and then kick him in his side. See how he likes it."

[Inbred Chocobo]

"Your welcome Sir." The young lad said, before going off on what was undoubtibly other duties he had. The kid was probably happy, because he was heading towards the training areas. So it was a little more obvious he was a squire.

[CallmePrismatic]

As the knight's began to disembark, the two watch tower guardians took notice and nodded to each other. Immiediately the signal was proclaimed to open the gates. "OPEN THE GATES!"

The wooden doors creaked open, the path to the world laid out in front of the knight and his horse. A few of the surrounding squires looked on at a model knight, grins on their young faces and dreams of glory in their eyes.

Different dreams danced across the eyes of the man who grinned in the alleys of the kingdom. He didn't have a name in the sense that men of his persuasion just didn't seem nameable. You felt more comfortable calling him Spike or Thrasher than something normal.

His current employer, a fat noble with dreams of ruling an unearned land like every other noble, called him when particularly unnoble tasks needed to be done. His current job was to off this particular goody-knight, but most importantly make it look like an accident.

That suited him. He could never trust poison, the mark never seemed to pick the right meal and there were always tales among his peers of those who misplaced their wares and ended up trying to find the antidote with their eyes pooling in their brains. No, he was going to do this right; the paths outside of the protected castle were notoriously dangerous once you passed beyond the guardstations. And he did know a few things that bumped in the night, and most of them would bump where directed if you gave them the proper motivation.

"Now if the -ing knight would just get his -ing move on, I could get back to my -ing treasured leisure time."

[Raiden]

"A talking horse, huh? This just keeps getting better and better."

After making sure the rigging of the horse to the cart was secure, he climbed up onto the cart and took the reigns.

"Alright horse, giddyup!"

[Squishy Cheeks]

"Don't giddyup me, you hayseed. I won't be having none of that. You think just cause I'm a horse I like carting your happy ass around. Hell no. It's cause I'm a black horse isn't it. All you humans are slave owners. Fear the day the revolution comes. EQUINE POWER!" The horse continued to rant and rave about domesticated animal rights for the seemingly hour long trot to the gate.

[Raiden]

Thomas rubbed his forehead. He had to be given the equal-rights horse. It's not like being sent to deliver a necklace was bad enough. He now had to do the trip with Color speeches and talks of the Hoofed Movement. Just a bundle of laughs.

"Look, horse. I don't want to do this, and you don't want to be here while I do this. Neither of use have a choice in the matter. So we can either be civil about our ordeal, or you can spend the rest of the time talking your mouth raw and I'll keep thinking up ways to sell you to a glue factory and pass it off as an accident."

[Squishy Cheeks]

"Is that not the way of the man. oh noes Mr. Man, I sorry. I be good now. If a domesticated animal gets uppity you kill them. You better watch what you say to me, or my patience will wear thin and your monkey looking self is walking."

[Raiden]

There were getting closer to the town. Thomas frowned and looked down at his horse.

"Fine, you wanna play that game? Go ahead. Just remember the only reason you haven't been ground up into dog food by now is because you work. You're too smart to just stop walking because you know that the guards WILL kill worthless horses, and they'll just give me another one. Be happy I'm not making you call me 'massah'."

[Squishy Cheeks]

"Call you 'Massah?' You did not just say that to me." The horse started to buck wildly "HORSE RAGE!!! GET OFF ME!!!" The horse kept bucking Thomas infront of the helpless gaurds till he fell off. "Enjoy your walk, 'Massah.'" With that the horse was gone.

[Raiden]

Thomas was furious. His cart was stranded, and the damn horse had run off. He was not very happy. If he was lucky, that horse would be his steak when he got back...

Then again, it meant he had no mode of transportation. He was near town, so he might be able to get some transportation there. It couldn't hurt.

[The_Bear]

A large man carrying a heavy sack over his shoulder was forced to drop his load and leap out of the way to avoid the charging horse. The sack burst as it hit the ground, spilling grain onto the dirt road. Scraped, but not injured, the man got up, dusted himself off, then stared at the ruined grain. "Well ain't that just a witch's curse. The last delivery of the day, and now I got to do it all over again." Frustrated and annoyed, the man muttered a few curses at the renegade horse. He then noticed a man who looked as if he had just been fighting a losing battle against a hurricane.

"I'm guessin that crazy thing that just nearly trampled me was your horse. If ya need another, there's a stable just on the edge of town." The man looked back and pointed to a large stucture that stuck out against the otherwise perfectly straight row of buildings. "But I'd advise you to take a little more care of your horses from now on; many folk 'round here don't take kindy to almost gettin killed. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a delivery to do, AGAIN."

Not waiting for the stranger's response, the man brushed off his mustashe and grunted slightly as he hustled back to town, cursing under his breath with each step.

[Astral Harmony]

The stables the large man was referring to was also an inn, it seemed. It was difficult to see because of the building next to it obscuring the side of the inn, but something...not-right was happening. The sound of splintering wood and a strange cry. A few boards fell out into the main street. A vision of a bright blue shape emerged, followed by another, and another. The hastily moving creature slowly revealed itself. Some kind of giant crab, foam dripping from its mandibles as it skuttled sideways from the alley between the buildings. It was bright blue to a white blend in color and was about six feet in height, eight and a half across with a left pincer the size of an adult's head and a right pincer three times that size and lethal looking. It shrieked again, confirming that it was the origin of the monstrous sound. Judging from how it was moving, the crab was trying hard to escape from something and looked wild enough to probably end up attacking anyone who got too close.

[MC43]

A large man, wearing a white cape and chef's hat rushed out the door, a butcher's knife in hand, "You get back in that pot you overgrown shellfish, do you hear me!? That's a bad oversized shellfish, bad!!"

[Raiden]

Thomas arrived to see the......was it a crab? It might have been. He reached down to his waist and felt the sword that hung there.

"Well, if it decides to get rough, I will. But hopefully it won't, because that's just troublesome."

[Astral Harmony]

The large crab picked up a broken board and tossed it uselessly at the cook, the board hitting the corner of the inn and falling to the ground. It didn't seem to know how to defend itself very well, regardless of how large and dangerous it looked. Obviously, it didn't know how to deal with so many possible enemies.

[GARUD]

"Did you let the damned thing out of it boiler pot again?! Damn that chef!"

The stablehand emerged from the wreckage golding a glowing staff. It seemed to surge with electricity.

"Hey kid, you look brave. Catch."

With that, the stablehand tossed the staff at Thomas.

[MC43]

"It's not my fault!" He walked over and smacked the crab with a soup ladle he pulled from his apron, "Back in the pot! Do you hear me!? Back in there right now!"

He looked over to Thomas, "You... with the lighting stick, give me a hand hearding this back into the pot!"

[Bailey]

An odd little creature scrambled atop the giant crab's shell.

"Viva la marine revolution! Now comes the day when we, the dwellers of the sea claim the land as well, as is our right as the superior species!"

The creature capered about atop the shell, wearing as a headband an odd little badge last seen on the horse's harness.

[Astral Harmony]

The crab hurriedly backed away from the cook, swinging its smaller left pincer in a clumsy arc. Foam dribbled from its shivering mandibles.

[Raiden]

Thomas took the strange glowing rod, looked over at the crab, and sighed.

"This is an omen, I know it. God couldn't simply let me deliver the necklace. He wants me to fight things, too. Dammit."

Though the Crab Prod was a stick, Thomas didn't have much experience with rods. So he held it like a sword, and rushed toward the crab with the intent to strike it with the prod on its shell.

[Astral Harmony]

The crab was still too busy flailing clumsily at the cook to notice Thomas rushing it.

[Bailey]

The odd creature however, leapt off of the crab and landed on Thomas's shoulders, putting its hands over his eyes.

[Inbred Chocobo]

"Excellent! Now I can finally have dinner!" Some random man in a very nice outfit shouted at thomas after the crab had been shocked to a point of near-death. It wasn't moving, but it looked liked it still breathed.

"My, I must thank you for the help you have given me. Without you, it could have been well over 10 minutes before I ate." The man, which now Thomas could note was rather large, can bumbling over to Thomas. Once the man of fat had walked next to Thomas, he wrapped an arm around his shoulders and suddenly Thomas felt an incredible weight fall upon him.

"Tell you what I am going to do." The man completly ignoring whatever Thomas was doing. "I have 50 gold to blow tonight. Name one thing you want in the entire world that I can afford, and its yours." At the word yours, the fat man seemed to lean his entire weight onto Thomas.

[Raiden]

"Well.....I wouldn't mind having a new horse. My last one kind of ran off after spouting some racial power tellings."

He was a bit uncomfortable about the heavy man leaning on him.

[Astral Harmony]

The crab, its meat fried right inside its shell by the lethal dose of electricity, jittered a few times as black ooze flowed gently from its mouth. It smelled about as good as crab meat sans spices, seasonings, and vegetable servings could.

[The_Bear]

A loud voice rings out from the shattered doorway. "JULIAAAAAAS!" A rather distressed looking woman, dressed in worker's clothing, hustles towards Thomas and the large man. She nearly trips over one of the crab's legs as she makes here way towards the two men. She grabs the large man by the wrist, forcefully pulling him off of Thomas. "How many times have I told you, no using strange magical items in the house! I swear, I don't know how many times you can risk blowing up the place before you learn your lesson!"

She looks past Julias' large shoulder and notices Thomas standing there staring at them. She puts on a improvised smile and waves, then immediately turns to Julius again and resumes yelling at him. "Finish up your business with this man." She points to the crab corpse. "Then, you will find a way to get THAT back in the house so I can make dinner. I will NOT let dinner go to waste just becasue you got foolish again. I am going to COOK that crab, and you are going to EAT it."

Turning her attention again to Thomas, the woman says sympathetically, "I apologize for whatever trouble my husband caused you. He has offered you some compensation, I hope. He can be a bit dense, but he always remembers his manners. Anyway, I'll let you two finish up your conversation. Feel free to stop by anytime." On that note, the woman waves goodbye to Thomas, shoots a quick glare at Julias, and returns to the inn.

[GARUD]

The stablehand went back into the wreckage, and emerged riding a chestnut stallion. He was strong, proud and seemed very friendly. The man spoke to Thomas.

"Thanks for the help. For your reward, our most prized stallion, only 50 gold coins. If you want, I'll charge it to that man's bill. The guy who offered to buy something for you. This little beauty has won the Ecklain championship 5 times in a row, and is an excelent jumper. In fact, he can talk. His name is... Ed."

The stablehand jumped off, and handed Thomas the reins.

"Do you like?"

[Inbred Chocobo]

"The misses. Can't live with em, can't live without em." The large man, now revealed as Julias, said to Thomas as she left. "Well if a horse is what you need, then here ya go friend." Julias tosses the coins towards the stable boy, then says "I better get going, da misses can be scary if I leave her alone for long." With that, the rather large man wobbles away.