5Disclaimer: All recognizable characters don't belong to me. They belong to Disney and Square Enix. Everything else is mine, please respect that. I am not making any monetary or other profit through this.
Treasure Hunting: Kalinth's Sleeping Beauty
Chapter 2: Order of Treasure Hunters
The steam powered train rattled and rocked on its tracks, yellow and orange glinting across its bronzed surface from the sunset as the vehicle chugged across the Sands of Time. Axel Truin, Treasure Hunter of the Third Order lounged on one of the worn wooden benches near the back of one of the train's seven passenger cars. He lay with his back pressed up against the dusty window and his long legs laid out along the bench. He had the rim of his hat pulled down over his face and his arms crossed behind his head as a cushion against the window.
The rest of the passenger car was a wreck. Benches were in splinters, bullet holes dotted some of the windowpanes, remains of luggage lay tossed about haphazardly, and red splatters and puddles of blood slowly dried on the walls and floor. Amongst this destruction, Axel shifted a bit to get more comfortable, let out a sigh, and went to sleep, knowing the carnage wouldn't be discovered until the train reached its destination in Westhaven.
With his usual impeccable timing, Axel awoke shortly before the train's arrival. He scowled as he noticed the train's decreasing speed, and felt every new bruise from his earlier fight as he rose and straightened his clothes. He pulled at his dark brown duster, the rough outfacing side of the leather comfortingly soft yet rugged under his hands, to make sure his guns were concealed. He retightened the green bandana that held his legendary red hair out of his face before placing his wide-brimmed leather hat back on his head and adjusted it to an appropriately face-hiding angle. Axel then reached for his lucky knapsack, a tattered canvas thing, and shrugged it on just in time to steady himself as the train ground to a screeching halt in Westhaven's station. When the train fully stopped with a rush of released steam, Axel pulled his last package down from the luggage rack: a long, thin, wooden box.
Axel didn't waste any time in getting off the train once he had all of his belongings. He stepped out onto the platform, grateful to be away from the smell of blood, and strode confidently down the darkening platform, disappearing into the crowd before any of the station workers could pin the fact that one of their passenger cars was a wreck, and missing several passengers, on him.
Westhaven was a large city filled with shipping company warehouses and train stations. Most of its population consisted of low-wage workers that did work for either of those businesses. However, being the center of shipping across the Sands of Time from the west had its advantages, one that several other companies and organizations had taken advantage of in the desert-edge town. One such organization was the Order of Treasure Hunters.
The Order of Treasure Hunters, or OTH, was actually a fairly new organization, created within the last hundred years, but it resided in one of Westhaven's oldest buildings. The OTH castle was also one of the tallest buildings in Westhaven, it's brown stones and bold architecture visible from nearly any location in the city. Axel was moving towards it now, catching a ride on one of the dusty city's many trams for a mile before he jumped off and got a ride on another one, and then another before he was outside the OTH's headquarters.
Axel got more and more watchful as he neared the wrought iron gates to the OTH compound. This area was well patrolled and watched by OTH security, as it wasn't uncommon for returning treasure hunters to be jumped and have their hard earned prizes stolen from them in the past, but Axel was cautious anyway. It was very nearly dark, and he'd become fairly well known for pulling difficult jobs at a young age and had been jumped before. He didn't want that to happen ever again, but especially not with this particular prize. Unconsciously, Axel dropped his hand down in a position that would allow him to quickly draw one of his guns or a knife if need be while tightening his other hand's grip on the box he carried.
Luckily, no one approached him, or even seemed to be watching him as he walked up to the gate. Well, no one except the guards on duty. He walked into the first set of gates and waited while a guard shut the door behind him.
"Alright, state your name and business," ordered a teenaged guard with dishwater-blond hair in the funny mullethawk style that had become popular along the Broken Coast.
"Axel Truin, Treasure Hunter of the Third Order," Axel bit out sharply, still feeling jumpy and out in the open, while pulling his sleeve up to reveal the OTH symbol he had tattooed on the inside of his forearm. He held out his forearm for inspection, "and my business is my business, newbie."
"A-Axel Truin?!" the guard stuttered, mouth hanging open and pale blue-green eyes going wide. He did a glance over of the man claiming to be Axel Truin, one of the OTH's rising stars. At first glance the duster, hat, and way the teen carried himself made him seem much older, "but you can't be any older than me!"
"So?" Axel said, raising an eyebrow at the shocked expression on the other teen's face.
"Demyx," a deep voice rumbled from above, causing both Axel and the young guard, Demyx, to look up to the ramparts. A huge man carrying an enormous axe-sword stood above them. "Do not let age deceive you. Just because Axel is only nineteen does not mean that he is incapable of holding a position in the Third Order."
"R-right! Sure thing, Captain Lexaeus- sir!" Demyx stumbled, obviously a bit nervous of OTH's Captain of the Guard.
Axel couldn't help but smile a bit at the sight. Lexaeus was so good at frightening the newbies. Although Axel hadn't figured out if he meant to do it on purpose or not yet. "Hiya, Lex!" Axel shouted up to him as he pulled his sleeve back down, "How are things around here? A lot of people show up for the meeting yet?"
Lexaeus nodded sagely. "Most of the lower ranked members are here. You're one of the first of the higher members to show. Besides those that don't travel much, of course."
"Ah, so it's all retirees and newbies huh? Don't worry, I'll make sure they have a good time!" Axel replied, smiling mischievously.
Lexaeus's facial expression hardly changed, but the slight deepening of his frown was the equivalent of an eye roll or sigh for anyone else. "Let him in, Demyx," was all he said in response.
Demyx, stunned to have been watching someone other than a couple of the really high ranking TH's talk to the Captain like a normal person, jumped at the use of his name and shouted, "Yes sir," before opening the gate and allowing Axel through with a sort of awed look about him. "Dude, how d' you talk to him like that? He's freakin' scary!" Demyx whispered to Axel as he passed.
Axel paused to look at him. "Oh, Lex? He wouldn't hurt a fly," then he winked at Demyx, "Unless it tried to get onto the compound any way other than the gate, that is." Then he walked away, leaving a dumbfounded Demyx behind him.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
Maybe it was just because Axel was a little sore from the fast traveling he'd been doing for the past couple of weeks, and his fight on the train, he was starting to think he'd bruised his ribs pretty good there, but the walk from the gate to the towering brown stone building seemed to take longer than it used to. The host of small steps he had to climb didn't exactly make for a pleasant 'welcome home' experience either. At the top of the steps he was greeted with two more fresh-faced guards, but luckily these remained silent and simply opened the door for him like they were supposed to.
Walking into the main entry hall felt like coming home. Axel didn't know any other way to describe it. A breeze of cooler air caressed his face comfortably, and the sight of the familiar banners and tapestries made something loosen up inside him that was always tightly coiled while he was away but went unnoticed until he returned. It was a good feeling.
Axel probably could have basked in the feeling a while longer, but the moment was quickly interrupted by yet another new face, this one an over enthusiastic girl with black hair. Her uniform's pants were cut into short shorts, and the top was cropped to reveal her midriff. Axel was starting to wonder where all these new faces were coming from.
"Hi! I'm Yuffie! Who are you? Are you here to see someone? Need any help finding you way around?"
Axel was barely able to keep up with the stream of questions, they were asked so quickly, and wondered how to turn them off. "Enough!" he shouted, bringing her to a wide-eyed halt and attracting the attention of a few of the various people wandering around. "Go tell Master Hood that Axel is back, then tell him I'll be either in my quarters or the baths if he wants to find me. Got it memorized?"
Yuffie nodded, then answered aloud when Axel raised an eyebrow at her, "Yes, sir."
"Good, then get going," Axel said sharply, causing Yuffie to scurry off in fright. Once she was gone, Axel sighed, "Sheesh, what is wrong with everyone? I keep getting the crazy ones lately." Then, seeing a few of the lower ranked members looking at him, he shot a glare their way that made them flinch, then strode off down the corridors, not even glancing at the graceful architecture, or the portraits, tapestries, and artifacts filling the vast building. He just wanted to get to his room and deposit his package before being accosted again.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
Axel's quarters, like all Third Order members, was about midway up the castle, in the east wing, and consisted of two rooms: a bedroom and a sitting room/workspace. When he was first given the room, it was completely devoid of anything other than the basics. Since then, he thought he'd done a rather good job of cluttering it up.
The walls were absolutely covered with treasures, as Axel had never much liked the feel of blank walls surrounding him. Threadbare tapestries from one era or another hung on the walls next to murky paintings and battered blades. Old shields with long forgotten house crests hung beside ragged banners of the same. And of course, worn bookshelves chocked full and spilling over onto every other available surface lined the walls. The books themselves were on various subjects, but if one looked close enough, a theme focused on Kalinth's Sleeping Beauty would emerge.
After a good deal of struggle, Axel had also managed to get a very comfortable, if patched, red velvet couch into the sitting room. He had multiple small decorative pillows for the other two solid wood chairs. His huge work desk rested along one wall, and was covered with scattered papers, pens, books, locks, and lockpicks.
To the left of his desk, a small closet with a myriad of different locks on it held some of his most valued possessions. Much of what it contained again referred to the tale of Kalinth's Sleeping Beauty, but here he stored the unusual or extremely hard to find information and notes on his search for the petrified prince of yore. He also kept a few other rare treasures and unusual weapons and tools locked up in there though. It was the most secure place to put anything, so after tossing his pack on the couch, that is where Axel went to first.
The locks didn't give him much trouble, he was quite used to opening and closing them, though if anyone else had tried it, they probably would have ended up either poisoned or with their hands blown off. He didn't just ward it with physical devices after all. He was also a pyromancer.
Once he had it open, Axel double-checked to make sure everything was exactly how he'd left it. It was, so Axel prepared to put his latest acquisition within as well. First though, he opened the wooden box to make sure it was still there. It was a nervous habit of his, feeling the need to constantly check on his treasure, one that many treasure hunters, thieves, and guardians had, but Axel always tried to reign it in lest it get him in trouble, and only fall back onto the practice when he reached a time that he knew he should check.
He set the plain wood box on his desk and unlocked it, then opened it slowly. Inside was a bundle wrapped in a pair of old war banners dotted with long-dried black bloodstains. Gently, Axel unwound the ragged red and yellow banners from the object, to reveal a long scroll case made from some kind of bleached bone with depictions of war carved onto it in relief style and sort of black, silver, and grey handles on either end made of some sort of horn. The scroll case absolutely hummed with magical power, and emitted the faintest of golden glows.
Axel cautiously lifted it up, and beheld it with reverent awe as its energy crackled along his hands. It was the great scroll of Caldi, the Scroll of Stillness, a scroll that contained the knowledge and power to halt entire armies in their tracks and has. It was a scroll about petrification. It just had to be. He didn't dare open it, not without proper precautions and help, but how his heart longed to. If this was really Caldi's Scroll of Stillness, then maybe, just maybe, it would contain the knowledge or power or both that could be the key to rousing Kalinth's Sleeping Beauty. Of course, he had to find the prince first, and the scroll might not even work on the slumbering hero, but it was another step in the right direction, and it filled him with bubbly hope that wanted to overflow.
Carefully, Axel began wrapping the scroll back in the banners to be put away. He could imagine the look on Master Hood's face when he presented him with the scroll. First there would be the typical look of shock and excitement, then, undoubtedly, it wouldn't take long for him to see the whole picture. Master Hood knew about his obsession with Kalinth's Sleeping Beauty and would probably laugh at him for having found the scroll before the thing he wanted to try using it on, but it would all be in good humor. Besides, if it really was the right scroll, it might be enough to bump him up to the Second Order.
Axel had long thought about moving up to the Second Order, but had waited for several reasons. One was the reaction he expected from his fellows. After all, he was already much further along in his career than many would ever get, and he was only nineteen, well, he'd be twenty in a few weeks, but that was beside the point. Most didn't even join the Order until they were sixteen or seventeen, when they were marked as initiates for trial and training.
Some, like Axel's father, didn't join until they were older and already a bit established as at least an average treasure hunter that finds uncommon things or occasionally rare things for people who want them. If that were the case, they joined as a member of the Fifth Order and were assigned a little bedroom with a bed, desk, chair, wardrobe, and chest. After meeting certain requirements and accomplishing more challenging tasks, a member could move up to the Fourth Order and got a bigger version of the same room. Upon completing more tasks, missions, and challenges, and meeting all the requirements, a member could move up to the Third Order and got a room like Axel's was before he cluttered it up.
There were lots of steps involved in becoming a Second Order member, but the biggest one was the discovery of a valuable lost artifact. Third Order members were very good and very experienced, but a Second Order member was truly a cut above the rest. First Order members were even higher up, having discovered something legendary and completed other tasks. Not even most of the people in charge of the Order had achieved this coveted status, but Axel was determined to reach it. Although to him the advancement was more of a perk to having found Kalinth's Sleeping Beauty than the actual goal.
Axel put the banner-wrapped scroll back in its wooden case and turned to clear a space in his closet for the item. Once he had a spot for it, he set it inside and locked it in. He finished putting the final touches on his magical wards just as a knock sounded on his door. With a sigh, Axel glared at the door. He really hoped it was just a message and not a summoning. He hadn't even gotten to take his duster off yet, and he really wanted to take a bath.
Moving to the door, Axel paused with his hand on the handle and shouted through the wood, "Who is it?"
"It's the Great Ninja Yuffie's Delivery Service! You know, me from downstairs! Where you gave me a message to deliver! I've got a reply for you!" Yuffie's voice was high and excited again, lacking the respect Axel had tried to startle into her earlier.
Axel found himself sighing again. Of course, when he tried to get rid of the overenthusiastic girl he'd forgotten that Master Hood wasn't exactly fond of that kind of personality. Yuffie had probably annoyed Hood, so instead of coming to see him himself, as he usually did, he delayed and returned Yuffie to Axel's presence as a way for her to annoy him instead. And what was with the 'Great Ninja Delivery Service' thing?
Opening the door, Axel braced himself for an onslaught.
Instead, he was greeted with a bright smile and a folded note.
Blinking in surprise at the lack of talking, Axel took the note from her slowly. "Uh, thanks?" he said uncertainly, still expecting an outburst.
"You're welcome!" Yuffie cheered. "That's it then, I'll see you around!" She waved and trotted away before Axel could even consider responding.
Well, he hadn't expected that.
Axel shut the door to his room and opened the note:
Glad you're back. No time to meet tonight. Meet for breakfast in my office tomorrow. Usual time. ~ M. Hood
So much for getting to share his discovery right away, Axel's shoulders slumped slightly. Guess I'll go take a bath and sneak something out of the kitchens to eat then, Axel thought. Brightening at the idea, Axel hung his duster on the coatrack, threw some clean clothes in a bag, and headed for the headquarters' bathhouse. A bath was just what he needed to relax and get his mind off his latest discovery and its prospective use.
Tonight he would relax. Tomorrow, he would work on unraveling the scroll's abilities.
AN: Well, that's chapter 2. How am I doing so far? It seems a little long, but I'm not sure. Anyway: Love it? Hate it? Think it's just ok? See some problems? Let me know what you think and why!