New Recruits Arc

PHASE IV: The Red Feathers Clan?

A Hi-Potion here, a Cure Spell there and I was back on my feet in Rabanastre's square. Both Ice Queen and I awaited at the central fountain which intersected the East and West Gate. We sat in waiting for the archadian Cain to return with the fresh kill, it's been afew hours since we've arrived and we had yet to see him.

"Was it a good idea to send him? I mean we barely knew the guy." Ice Queen turned to me and I nodded.

She was right, maybe he wouldn't come back. But I had a feeling that he was going to, I'd defeated him and declared him apart of Clan INFAMOUS. If he doesn't come back then it would be a blow to his pride having lost, but then again he isn't the type of man who would care for something like pride.

As I wrapped my mind around this several times, I noticed from the corner of my eye. Ice Queen slipping off her long thigh boots to reveal her snow white legs. As bangaa and other commoners passed us by they stopped to try and gaze up her skirt and along her legs. With that she turned her back and stuck her feet in the warm rabanastran spring water.

"Ahhhh...that feels so much better." She arched her head back letting her long navy blue hair curtain down her back. "So...little boss, this is the first time we're able to sit and not say or do anything...tell me about yourself."

"Hmmm?" Maybe there was time to talk. Being a Clan Member meant being something closer than family, and if she was to trust me she had to know who I was and where I'm from. And the same for me.

I locked my fingers together resting my forearms on my knees looking with my eye peering at the West Gate. "I'm not really sure where I was born...maybe here? I've never had any real parents...I was raised by Migelo, a merchant in East End."

"An orphan? Hmmm...Perhaps the plague had gotten your parents." She replied.

"Yeah, they died when I was a baby. I had a strand of the plague myself in my right eye but I cut it out before it could spread." I rubbed my eyepatch. "What about you, Ice Queen? Where are you from?"

She looked at me, her crystal-like eyes seemingly shining in the sunlight then back at the water at her own reflection. "I originate from the Paramina Rift. It's a snowy mountains beyond Golmore Jungle, the Viera's nest. It is a covenant of ice mages, there isn't any real sickness there because the snow and ice, it freezes any type of ailment."

"So you and your people were spared of the plague then?" I rubbed my chin. "The Paramina Rift...I've never been anyplace beyond the Deserts."

"Hmmmm how cute, well there is a whole world out there for you to see little boss." She responded with a sweet motherly smile that made me alittle warm inside.

"I wish to explore it one day with a blood thirsty crew of hunters." I punched into my palm.

"You really want this huh? To form your own clan? Or rather...your own family."

I didn't say anything, I'd closed my mouth and just leered at the West Gate. Perhaps that really was the reason for my longing to create a clan, but so what? Suddenly the Western Gates opened and walking in was a group of nobles and their chocobos, afew other travelers were amongst them. But there was one noticeable one out of the bunch, a man with a dragon scaled red cape and an all white Archadian sown suit.

The guards bowed to him as if he were someone of high birth.

With his shining black hair slicked back with a strange gel and his arched face looking triumphant, he brought to me the ear of the Thextera. The blood on it was still fresh. I grinned as he presented the ear. "You're late."

He smirked back. "I'm not too savvy to these lands and deserts, my apologies."

"It's ok, as long as you showed up..." Ice Queen jumped up with pink fluffy hearts throbbing in place of her eyes. Her face was a blazing red and her the fountain water she stood in was beginning to boil.

After Ice Queen's spectacle I stood up and glared at Cain. "You're now apart of Clan INFAMOUS. Maverick." I pointed at him and so that would be his name.

"Maverick? You're still..." He started.

Interrupting him was Ice Queen. "Maverick, that's so hot. Ahem...sorry for our little pint sized leader here. He nicknames everyone who joins the clan...and your name just happens to be Maverick."

"Hmhmhmhm...well it certainly does fit." He placed his index finger on his forehead. "Very well then, as the new hunter...Maverick. I raise my sword for Infamous and no other." With that he began walking past us both towards the East End.

"Wait where are you going?" I asked.

He turned around looked at me for afew seconds. "I heard the Dalmascan Serpentwyne was the best of the land...I figured I'd go and treat myself to a drink."

"Hey wait up, this clan is on lead terms buddy. You do as I say!" I pointed at him.

Maverick simply shrugged. "I joined a hunter's clan not a dictatorship. I'll go and do as I please, my blade belongs to the clan, not my soul and dignity...you have much to learn about leadership child." With that he walked off casually, every woman and viera he passed shot him looks.

"Oi...Maverick, wait up for meeee!" With that Ice Queen grabbed her boots and began skipping off behind him.

Suddenly I was left alone near the fountain. "Damn that asshole makes me so mad!" With that I ran off. I'd caught up to Ice Queen and Maverick at the Sandsea. After exchanging the ear and the guarantee that the Thextera was dead for the 3000gil pay out, I'd rejoined my crew sitting money down in the center of the table.

Maverick was drinking a glass of the red liquid serpentwyne while Ice Queen simply leaned across the table looking at him like he was a light snack.

"I don't know much about love and all that but..." I started.

Maverick drank the rest of his wine and held a palm up to me. "Please, no need. I am very aware of the effect I have on women."

As he'd said that Tomaj came over with a round of drinks for the table, though I was only 16, wine and alcohol was no stranger. I'd had it acouple of times but it doesn't beat the Strawberry Mandragora Shake that Tomaj and the Sandsea is famous for. I'd ordered the drink and began drinking away without the spoon. The bar tender was alittle pissed that the beautiful Ice Queen was pining over Maverick, a man who he'd just met himself.

There was some strange love triangle going on between the three of them, Tomaj liked Ice Queen but she liked Maverick who in term liked only hunting. It was kind of funny.

"And who is this guy?" Tomaj asked turning his bottom lip up and looking down on the archadian.

Maverick smirked. "Cain Bloodrain Archades, but you can call me, Maverick. The newest member of Clan INFAMOUS." Tomaj glared at Maverick who in turn glared back. It was almost as if a battle was about to begin.

The doors of the bar suddenly swung open but the breeze that rolled in behind it wasn't a pleasant one. I turned towards the doors casually to see walking in was a girl, she didn't look any older than me and wore a long red dress made of feathers. Her hair was a light blond, cut short in the back whilest the front hang at her collar bones.

Her eyes were unrecognizable because she kept them closed the entire time.

She was certainly a spectacle, she wore no shoes or boots and her strange red feathered dress stopped at her knees. She almost glided over to our table, as she got close. Tomaj our waiter stepped back, there was silence in the entire bar as she stopped just afew inches front infront of my table.

"Can I help you?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Are you the one eyed dragon of Rabanastre?" She asked in a calm voice, yet I could feel the air around her was tense.

I narrowed my left eye. "And if I am."

"There is a bounty on your head from the Archadian Empire, for slaughtering three soldiers in these very streets." She said finally opening her eyes to reveal a shade of crimson.

I looked across the table at Ice Queen whom had stopped her pining over Maverick and looked back at me. Maverick simply took another sip of his serpentwyne as if the talk of murder was nothing new to him. I'd completely forgotten we were dodging the Guard because of the incident in the alleyway when I met Ice Queen.

"So the empire has put out a bounty on my head huh?" I asked with a shrug.

"Yes..."

"And you're from the Empire?" Ice Queen asked as she readied her staff.

"No...I am a Head hunter from the Red Feathers. A clan that collects the heads of wanted men such as yourself, Masamune and Blue Devil." She looked at both of us.

"If you think you can catch the dragon...I invite you to try." With that shoved my knee into the undercarriage of the table flipping it towards her. The woman simply stood still as the table instantly turned to ash infront of us. With that Ice Queen, Maverick and I slid backwards away from the beastly fire mage.

"HEY HEY HEY! NO FIGHTING IN THE PUB!" Tomaj screamed. "Please I just got the place remodeled!"

"Sorry Tomaj." I said drawing my Sirius and opening fire on the girl. POW! The flare element blast burst in her face sending her flying outside, with that me and my crew flipped out in the open streets of the East End. The fire mage stood up as if the blast didn't affect her at all.

"THIS WAY! THIS WAY! THE RENEGADES HAVE APPEARED AGAIN!"

Archadian Soldiers were coming from the North End and making their way over to us. "You guys hurry and escape." Ice Queen stepped before us. "It's because I killed and tortured those soldiers that we ended up in this situation."

I reached up and grabbed her wrist. "Ice Queen, we're in this together...we're a clan now. So whatever we go through, we go through it together go that?!"

"I hate to ruin such a tender moment...But I must collect your heads now!" The fire mage held up two spiraling fireballs and let them fly at us. Ice Queen with her Glacial Staff spun it as she casted two Blizzard spells in return which collided with the fireballs creating a misty explosion. The crowds in the streets were so used to battles taking place that they began cheering us on.

I looked towards the North End to see soldiers running at us in a huge cloister being led by a low level Judge with a rifle. "We have to escape, we can't take them all." I said turning and running off towards the Bazaar. Ice Queen came running along with me, it wasn't until we got out of the smog did I realize, Maverick wasn't with us.

He was completely gone.

"Where is..."

"I dunno...Just keep moving!" I cut her off quickly as we turned down the bazaar running through kiosks, jumping over bangaa gamblers and merchants selling fake jewelry. We cut straight through the central fountain and marched down the steps towards the gate where four Archadian spearman were waiting.

"Freeze em!" I snapped.

"You got it! Blizzara!" My ice mage slapped her staff against the earth creating a current that traveled through the floor and froze the four archadian guards into statues. With that guards out of the way now all that was left was the gate, I was getting ready to draw my three katana to punch a hole in the door but before I could it opened on it's own. I didn't question it, we both simply ran out of the city and into the Estersands.

We ran over afew dune hills and kept on running until we could only see the city on the horizon. Ice Queen fell out face first on the sand. "Gahahhhhhhhh..." She groaned in exhaust and pain.

I sat down to catch my breath as well. "Well...huff...huff...looks like we won't be able to go back to Rabanastre for awhile."

Ice Queen turned on her side. "Yeah...look at the bright side...atleast you get to explore the world sooner than you thought...huff huff..."

"What took you two so long?"

"Huh?"

We both leaned up looking over to a small desert stone stump, sitting on the stone was Maverick, he was fanning himself with a small paper fan of the head.

"WHAT!?" We both shouted.

"What the hell happened to you?! You ditched us?" I shouted pointing at him.

The Maverick simply shrugged. "Entire city guard after you, that's your cue to run away."

"Without telling anyone?" I asked.

He shrugged again. "I left it to common sense...Sir Masamune, I want you to think of me as the wandering cloud in the clan. Doing as he pleases, when he pleases. It's common in every clan for there to be one wandering member. I will fight in the name of Infamous, but only if and when I feel like it."

"I hate you." I glared at him.

"I think it makes him all the more sexier." Ice Queen with a hot red face.

Author's Note: Now forced to go on the road, Masamune must still build his clan elsewhere? But what of Old Dalan's list of savage hunters?