Ellya turned around again to face Silvien. "Look, I have no idea what you're on about, but could you lay off it for a second?" She said, voice quiet but full of a cold menace, "because I'd really like to focus on where we're going, and it's hard to do that with you jabbering in my ear." Then she noticed something: a man still in the temple, leaning against a pillar. She walked over to him, a bit more proudly this time, and extended her hand, "my name's Ellya," she offered, waiting patiently for a return of the greeting.

((If S_S doesn't post soon, I guess you guys can assume his character hasn't given out his name yet. That way we can get this thing rolling.))

"Whoa," was Silvien's response, the thin man holding up his hands in a type of surrender. "Okay, okay. Whatever you say." He instantly forgot about the blonde introvert and moved away from the rest of the group, glancing back over his shoulder impatiently to see if anyone was following. "I'm off to find the gems now," he said loudly, waving his hand above his head. "You don't want me to be the first to find them, 'cause I'm keeping every one." He meant it as a joke, but he was certain that at this point the others didn't find him the slightest bit amusing.

"Well it looks like we're off," Ellya said, smiling a little, "you can tell me your name along the way." She ran to catch up with Silvien, then fell into stride with him. I'm really startin to enjoy the company of these people she thought, a smile spreading across her face, I just hope I can keep my cool in that town. "So which element is it that we're going to right now?" she asked Silvien, smiling brightly.

Adriaan sneered at Ellya's back. The poor girl didn't know any better than to hang out with that Silvien. Poor thing. She glanced at Sabin, the muscle man. He actually seemed to have some sort of sense in him. Maybe this trip wouldn't be too bad as long as Silvien kept his attention on Ellya. Adriaan smirked, thinking that if they annoyed her too much, she could leave them pretty easily, taking anything of value with her. She noticed them getting far ahead, so she shrugged off her thoughts for the moment and followed them towards the small village.

"Eh?" The dark haired man looked over at the young woman. "Oh, um...I have no idea." He chewed on the inside of his cheek. Which element are we after? "Well, it is a desert--so it's either fire or earth. Frankly, I believe that the fire gem would be hidden in the volcano...so that means we must be heading towards the earth gem. But for all we know the location has nothing to do with the element." He returned the smile, this one a bit warmer than his previous ones.

But his head turned suddenly. He had heard something. Leaves? "The bushes..." They were rustling. "Something's in--" With a loud roar, a massive white animal pounced from the shrubs, the gun mage jumping back before it could pin him down with its large paws. It was a white tiger-like creature with long, glowing whiskers--and it slowly circled them, a predatory gleam in its eye. It wasn't alone either, for another slightly smaller one that had been prowling in the shadows decided to show itself. "Coeurls," Silvien said, spell gun already in hand. "Looks like it's time for our first challenge. Bring it!"

((The Coeurls are both NPCs, so anyone can control them. In case some of you don't know what a Coeurl is, this should help.))

"Alright!" exclaimed Sabin. "It's blitz time!" He extended his arms above his head. He began to put all his energy into a ball in his hands. It soon became a small orb of energy. He then pointed his arms at the Coeurl(s?).

"Aurabolt!" yelled Sabin. A stream of white power blasted towards the coeurl(s). Unfortunately, the Coeurls were very fast and had lightning reflexes, so they avoided Sabin's blitz. Sabin was panting while regaining his lost energy. "Dang, I put alot into that shot." panted Sabin. "I guess I wasted that one..."

Adriaan saw the Coeurls jump out and stood back. Though she could fight if she had to, she'd rather not fight something this large with two knives and her hands and feet. She kept her eyes on the smaller one as the large one circled the others, though, just in case it tried something.

"Don't worry I've fought these before!" said Ellya, grinning. Only never this big... She unstrapped the gun on her back then reached into one of the pockets on her hunting jacket. After rummaging around for a moment she pulled out a small bag that clinked when it moved. She hastily peered inside. "Running out of ammo..." she said to herself, quietly, then she pulled out a bullet and attached the bag to a clip on her belt. She loaded the gun quickly and brought it to her shoulder. With a quick look down the barrel, she fired. The bullet connected with the foot of the big beast, making it whimper but not back down. Instead the Coeurl prowled slowly towards her. Close combat was not Ellya's forte, so she backstepped quickly, unclipping a Chakram from her belt.

The larger Coeurl attempted to heal itself, the animal shrouding itself in a silvery cloud...but the haze disappeared as something drew it away. Silvien's gun had absorbed the move. "Thanks for the White Wind, buddy," he said, cackling loudly. "You don't know how long I've been trying to get that move." But the mage's fun was cut short, because a thunderbolt had come from out of nowhere and hit him squarely in the shoulder. The smaller Coeurl had cast Thunder on Silvien while his back was turned. "Agh, that hurt..." he grunted, staring at his smoking shoulder. Luckily, only the cloth was badly singed, the flesh underneath undamaged. Still, the electric shock hurt like hell. "These magic using monsters annoy me to no end. And it seems like there's been a lot more of them recently too."

((flaming_fox has joined as the final member. Now we have all the chosens. ^^))

Adriaan eyes followed the two creatures around as they prowled. She waited until the little ones attention was fully on Silvien, then she threw her two knives with deadly accuracy, the first one jamming into its neck, the secong one catching it in the stomach. She sprinted over to it and quickly pulled her knives out, stepping back quickly, in case it got up and went after her.

"Wow." Silvien watched as the white tiger collapsed into a lifeless heap at his feet, his mouth open in amazement. "That was...close. Thanks." Of course, I need to remember to stay off of this chick's bad side. Scary, she is. He spun around, trying to locate the other monster. And there it was, slowly drawing nearer to Ellya. "Hey!" he roared, trying to get its attention. He pointed his gun at it and fired a shot, the bullet not quite as effective as one used by a normal gun, but enough to stop the beast in its tracks. It turned its head to glare are him, exposing its long, white teeth.

((happy to join))
Name: Rachel
Element: Fire
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Class: Warrior
Weapon(s): Spear
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Appearance: Rachel has faint red hair, that comes down to her shoulders. She is about 5'3", and wears a suit of leather armor, and an old traveling cloke.
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History: Rachel's family were peasants living in a town far away. Because they could not pay taxes, they were killed by the town law enforcement, and an old hermit who used to be a great knight took here in and trained her in use of a spear. When she was about 14, she and the hermit helped take down the local goverment by leading a revolt. Saddly however, her mentor died in the revolt, and she has been wondering around ever since.
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Personality: Rachel is very quiet, and due to how many people who were close to her who have died, she is not very social.
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((I hope this will sufficient, it is kinda hard to join an RP after it is already going))
Rachel watched the battle from the distance. She had stood in the back corner of the temple, and wasn't even sure if the other "chosen ones" had seen her. I suppose I should do some thing, I can't hang out in the backround forever. Rachel rushed towards the remaining coerl, and threw her spear at the beast. The spear stuck into the monsters flank, causing it to yelp in pain and turn it's attention towards Rachel. Oh shoot, I don't have a weapon anymore.

"Holy crap! Where'd you come from?!" Silvien exclaimed, startled by the sudden appearance of the spear wielding woman. But he quickly regained his composure, acting like nothing happened. Him? Surprised? Heh. Ah, another pretty lady. Must be my lucky day.

He then noticed Ellya sharpening her knife. "What are you doing?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and tilting his head. "Don't tell me you're actually thinking of skinning that thing. We don

Rachel walked over to the coeurl and removed her spear from the dead beast. "My name is Rachel by the way," she turned to face the majority of the group, "I was at the temple as well, guess you just missed me." She then turned her gaze towards Silvien, I don't know why, but I haven't even met him, and I don't trust him already.

Adriaan watched the new girl come up and pull her spear from the creature. She would have been more impressed if the throw had been accurate. She studied the girl's face as she introduced herself. As Rachel looked at Silvien with a hint of suspicion, Adriaan smirked; she wasn't the only one who disliked the guy. Then she glanced around. "We better get gong if you don't want to meet too many more of those." Her voice, as always, was quite, but it pierced through the silence as she glared at the girl with her knife out ((that's Ellya, if you're wondering)).

((Being away sucks doesn't it?))

Although being fairly muscular, Nikolas had always been a slow runner, and combined with his constant daydreaming, it had taken him a considerable amount of time to realize the group left without him.

By this time he had almost caught up to them "Nice way to make an introduction," he thought sarcastically. "Now they'll definatley trust me since I was too busy sleeping to even properly introduce myself."

"Hey, thanks for waiting up!", he yelled as he finally caught eyesight of the group. After panting for breath for a moment or so, he finally stood back up and said, "Nikolas Safin, Alchemist, at your service."

"Smooth, real smooth; why don't I tell them my shoe size while I'm at it."

((Just so ya'll know, we'll probably end up time skipping to the town. Let me know when you guys are ready. Also, you can go as long as you like without me guiding the RP. Sure, I have ideas for each area, but they're not set in stone. The only thing that does seem certain is that the earth gem is the first gem the group finds and the light and dark are the last. The others can be in any order.))

Silvien ignored the alchemist for a second time, not even bothering to catch his name, as he wandered over to the red haired warrior. "Rachel, huh?" he said, looking the girl over. "That's a pretty name. I don't know if you caught mine earlier. I'm Silvien, a gun mage, at your service." The last part he stole from Nikolas, though subconciously.

Ellya ignored Silvien's remark and continued to sharpen the blade. "Look," she said matter-of-factly, "we'll need gloves for that cold cavern, and couerl fur is really warm. It's absolutely perfect for that sort of thing." She leaned over the body, shielding it from the other's view, and with several quick strokes the animal was skinned. Ellya took some water from a bottle, quickly rinsed the skins, then tied them to her belt. "All done!"

Sabin saw the other girl, who he overheard was Rachel. "I'm Sabin, pleased to meet you Rachel." Sabin didn't offer a hand shake. "Well, now that we've seen each other and had our introductions..." murmured Sabin, "...I feel it's best that we head out now. Let's try not to dawdle." Sabin started to walk. Six of us....I feel that if all six of us work together well, we'll stand a fighting chance. Sabin then looked at Silvien again. Then again...perhaps five of us working together would be just as good...

Rachel ignored Sivien, instead walking over towards Nikolas. "An alchemist?" She thought for a moment, "I've heard of them before, but I've never actualy met one before, what exactly can you do. Where I come from, Alchemy is kind of rare so other than the title, I am afraid I have no clue what an alchemist even is." Great, now they probably think I am worthless, especialy after that poorly aimed throw only minutes ago.

((Urgh...stupid computer didn't post...now I have to do it again... ))

Adriaan looked around at them all. So, the adventure begins. Maybe we can all make it through this and come out better. "Hey, I agree with...Sabin, is it?" Adriaan didn't feel like revealing her word perfect memory just yet. "We need to get out of here," she motioned to the sky, slowly darkening above them. "We do have to find these jewels."

Ellya began to walk, hopefully in the right direction, with a purposeful stride. She was quite eager to reach this town and prove that she could keep her head under pressure. She looked back at the others, casting her eye around the group. But as she looked she constantly found her eyes being drawn back to Silvien. Hmm, he's a strange one. None of the others seem to like him very much... she thought, staring straight at the dark haired gun mage, there must be something good about him... there must be...

((Okay. Time skip. -fwoosh-))

It was several hours later when the town finally came into view. The assembled band of chosen ones had long since left the forest where they found the temple (as well as each other). Golden sand surrounded them from all sides, not a patch of green could be seen for miles, except for the settlement, which was built around a flourishing lake oasis. It was bigger than most towns, almost like a city of primitive clay buildings. But there was nothing primitive about it, for the streets were littered with barterers selling machinery and other high-tech items. ((Think Anakin Skywalker's hometown.))

"I don't believe I got your name earlier," Silvien said into Adriaan's ear, the mage falling into step behind her. "I usually don't forget a girl's name, so that can only mean you haven't told me yet."

Ellya walked alone, feeling a little frightened. This desolate place, a desert was what the others called it, was alien to her. It was strange and forbidding, and it frightened her. The town, however, slightly lessened her fear. It was green and alive, and she could hear faint music coming from it. Combined with the fact that she couldn't see any of it's residents yet, she felt slightly relieved.

With a slight sigh, she walked over to Nikolas. "Well, there's the town," she said quietly, "it looks quite nice." She continued to walk in silence for a few seconds before saying, a little more quietly this time, "so, what do you think of this whole adventure? I must admit that it kind of frightens me." She gave a nervous giggle and smiled at Nikolas, hoping that she wasn't being irritating in anyway.