• Destinies Collide
    Try to imagine it, everything you had and everything you ever cared about being burned in an uproar flames and smoke. That’s what I saw on that fateful day…The day I became a member of the Lionsguard. My name is of no importance in this story, but since it is my story to tell, I have to say it. Salvador Lowery is my name. I was only fourteen when the accident happened, that changed my life as I thought it was forever. I live now in Dunbarton a small port town filled with boats and the smell of sea slat floating in the air. Just north of Dunbarton is a trade city by the name of Garlich, which is the capital of Ivalice. This is where my story starts, in the city of Garlich…Where my fate is bound into the stone tablets of life.
    “Salvador hurry! We have to get these civilians away from that brigade as soon as possible!” The shouts were coming from a skinny young man with long blonde curly hair that he wore down to his shoulders. This young man is my lieutenant, Ollendale Halard. He is a tactics and weapons master at the Saint Adorja Solider Akademy with a very bold and powerful sense of justice that burns within him.
    “Ollendale, you take the back entrance of the building and I will take the front! And try not to risk losing any civilians!”
    I could only roughly see my lieutenant from the smoke and debris flying everywhere and anywhere. I saw Ollendale run through and with the sound of him ramming down the back door that was cue for me to also go in and do my job. No my job is to not save others, that is what the firemen in Garlich are for. I’m a freelancing mercenary, hired by the Baron Ronark to go and rescue his son from the Order of The Northern Sky. All I could remember was the smoke and bits of dirt flowing into my nose and wanting to get out as soon as I could. I ran and dodged falling support beams, and rubble trying to find anyone and get out as quickly as I could.
    Then I saw it, a child in his teens with long wavy crimson colored hair, lying on the floor near burning support beams and wood. I ran up to the young man and hoisted him on my back and quickly started to sprint down the burning hallway that would soon collapse under its own weight. I sprinted as fast as my legs could carry me up a flight of stairs onto the second floor and into another hallway that was slightly falling apart. Then the boy had awakened from his state of sleep and woke up angry and half groggy. “Where am I…? Who in the hell are you?! Let me go you-.”
    I just stared at him while I was sprinting down the hall “Unless you don’t want to die, I suggest you shut up and look and see if anything is about to fall behind or above us…”
    He had a vacant stare on his face until it lit up with fear and astonishment. “Look out you idiot, there’s a hole!” I saw the hole and immediately jumped over it and on to the other side. I quickly started to sprint over to the window ignoring the young man’s cries of ‘Stop let me go!’ and ‘We will never make it out!’ I tucked my head into my chest as I became ready for the impact of burning glass and wood hitting my face and body. I had hit the glass window and we quickly burst out of the second story window with flames roaring behind us as the building finally collapsed under its own weight. As we were falling the young man was covering his eyes as to not see himself fall to his imminent death. We landed on a large hay cart filled to the brim with nothing but hay bales and the young man finally stopped yelling and screaming and opened his eyes. “You idiot you could have gotten us killed!” He then jabbed me in the shoulder hurting his own hand in the process.
    “We didn’t die now did we…” I just said with a smile as the boy rubbed his now injured hand.
    “I don’t care! You should never treat the son of the Baron like that you-you naïve b*****d!” I just stared at him with what must have been an appearance of shock.
    “Y-You’re the Baron’s son? I was supposed to rescue you, your father offered for my services to go save you from The Order of The Northern Sky.”
    He turned around and then shifted his direction towards me and started to shout and yell in an uproar of rage.
    “That is a lie my father would never trust my life with a low life charla-” I dug into my pocket and flashed him the Baron’s symbol. A Celtic Knot with a crimson flower in the middle, the symbol of the Baron’s family.
    “Okay…So my father ‘did’ send you.” I quickly rose to my feet and began to shack off all the hay and straw from my clothing and chest mail.
    “Umm, sir…I’m sorry for treating you very unkindly back there. I-I just hoped my father would call and get help sooner.” I stared at the boy in complete awe and astonishment. He wasn’t a snot nosed brat at all…Under that look of soot and burned wood, was a young man with crimson brown hair who was actually not as the Baron depicted. He almost had a look of kindness and a calmness to his face.
    “I’m sorry for not telling you who I was, but as you could see that fire was about to kill us both if I stopped and talked.” The boy’s eyelids moved like the wings of a graceful firefly as he spoke, and he had a soft subtle tone to his voice.
    “I’m sorry for yelling at you though sir, I really am. I escaped the Order with a friend who my father had station as a jail guard in the prison. He helped me escape…But, in the process…he got killed by Mustadio the corporal’s son. I-I have to avenge Isaac, he saved me and I owe it to him to see Mustadio dead.” The young man got up, but just before he could speak his words to me, I heard an all too familiar voice calling my name. "Sal! Sal where are you! If you died on me your gonna wish you were dead!" I then heard Ollendale's voice along with the young preppy angry voice. "Ichiru, he can't wish he was dead if he 'is' dead you know! And besides I see him right over there with-" I then saw Ichiru runnign towards me, in her small black and blue gothic dress lined with buckles and straps on her legs, ankles, and waist. "Oh s**t..." Was all I could say before she tackled me with her full on force. "Don't you ever go into a burning building again Sal! Or I'll do this too you!" With that finish of her sentence she took her small, gentle hands and grabbed the end of my hair and pulled with so much force it would make any grown man cry. "Okay! Oww! Stop Ichiru!" She finally let go after a few moments and started pouting and crying. Ichiru is one of the first women I had met who was what I would define as 'fun'. She had hair that was dyed purple and black with her hair layered down to her waist and tied at the end by a small ribbon. "I'm sorry...I just worry about you to much Sal. Besides if you died I would have no one to talk to, I mean Ollen is boring~" Ollendale just stared at her and started to walk off saying 'whatever' when we heard another voice. It had a soft subtle, gentle tone to it that would sound almost faint if no one listened carefully. "Umm, Ichi isn't that a little mean to say to Ollendale. I mean he did say your life after all..." The figure came into full view, he had light brown wavy hair that was slightly bushy. His silhouette was light and poised, while his skin was as soft and gentle like a pure ether. He wore a cleric's robe with a blue cross on the chest front and carried a small brown leather notebook in his right hand. "Oh shush Yuko, Ollen know's I'm just kidding~"