Today was going to be an interesting day, at least that was what Nate had told himself multiple times as the newly formed expedition group was getting together for the first time. They were gathering in a small plaza at the back of the expedition hall situated in the largest city of Saher; Umkathiz. Nate stood beside his friend, Seong, looking around at the other people gathered here. Most seemed to be your run-of-the-mill explorers, however there was one that seemed to stick out to him, he was thin yet covered from head to toe despite the somewhat warm temperature today.
“Nate.” Seong said whilst nudging Nate’s side, “Stop staring at people.”
Nate quickly turned to his friend, “Sorry...” he replied somewhat downtrodden, “but that guy just gives off a weird vibe, you know?”
Seong sighed, “Just give it a rest for now. You’ll get plenty of time to meet all these people during the expedition.”
“This ought to be fun though!” Nate said, changing the subject, “A new layer, oh I can’t wait to see what it holds!” He said with a large smile on his face, “Maybe they’ll have some really cool carnivorous plants or like 4-winged flying behemoths, or...”
Seong cut him off as she pointed to the woman walking towards the gathered explorers. The woman was wearing a beautiful Victorian dress, which was navy blue in colour, and got darker as the dress got closer to the ground. She wore a small black coat which only covered the upper half of her torso. Her cherry-brown hair was neatly tied up and she walked with elegance and a sense of superiority. She was followed by a cleanly shaven man, with long white hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a neat black suit and held a large cleanly carved ivory staff, with golden accents on the ends.
As the two arrived in front of the group, the man raised his left hand, signalling the group to become silent, which they did. “Good afternoon. I am professor Brayden, authority on dimensional travel and master of the expedition hall. You have been chosen as members of the expedition to a layer recently discovered, you shall be the first to step foot onto this layer and shall be involved in making first contact with any sentient race that lives on this layer. I shall now give word to the chosen leader of this expedition, princess Adalia of the Savoy household.” He ended with a gesture towards the woman standing beside him, and then took a step backwards.
The woman took a good look at the group before eventually opening her mouth, “My name is Adalia Valentia Chriselda of the Savoy household of Kosem. I am both the leader and diplomat of this expedition. We shall be entering this layer with little knowledge of its climate and even less of its inhabitants, and thus all decisions from the moment we have crossed over, shall be made by myself. If you cannot take orders then I suggest you leave at once, however if you are capable of listening to my commands then I welcome you into this expedition.” She took a moment to gauge the groups’ reactions, noting every sigh and nod. “The actual expedition shall begin in 3 days, in this time, we must learn one-another’s strengths and weaknesses and overcome any possible obstacles that may reveal themselves.”She once again gauged the groups’ reactions before continuing. “We need to be able to trust each other if we wish for this expedition to go smoothly. If you refuse to comply with this, then I shall not allow you to join this mission. That is all.” With that, Adalia stepped back and nodded towards the professor, who then stepped forwards again.
“You will all stay here, at the Expedition hall. We have enough rooms to house all of you. Our workers will show you to your rooms shortly, also, feel free to make use of any of our facilities.” With that, both the professor and Adalia turned to walk away discussing matters between them.
“Well...” Seong began, “That was something, eh Nate? Nate?” She turned to where Nate had been standing to notice that he was no longer there, “Nate?” looking around she noticed him heading towards the same man he had been staring at earlier. She brought her palm to her forehead whilst sighing. “Honestly...” she began walking towards him but was cut off by a young man who seemed to all but jump in her way.
“Excuse me!” The young man replied, he was slightly shorter than Seong, with spikey blond hair and dull brown eyes, “You’re See-on Kwon-Ling, right, right?!” he asked, having completely butchered her name.
She looked at him for a moment, “No, I am not See-on, but I am Seong Kwon-Liang.” She replied sarcastically.
“Oh, sorry...” the young man quickly became more timid.
“You can’t really blame him, can you? I mean it is a difficult name to pronounce if no one has ever told you how to.” Another young man said, joining the conversation. He, unlike the blond, was short and had shaggy brown hair tied into a ponytail. “The name’s Lysander, nice to meet you.” He said, extending a hand in Seong’s direction, which she slowly took hold of and shook.
Having been backed up by someone else, the blond perked up again, “I’m Colt!” he said eagerly, “I’ve heard a lot about you, you’re like a really great adventurer right?!”
Seong looked at him before realizing the situation she was in, “Why yes. Yes I am.” She said confidently, “I’ve been on many expeditions before this one, and like the previous, this one will succeed with ease.”
Colt was clearly star struck and Seong was enjoying every minute of it, Lysander however, wasn’t quite as easily impressed, “Guess we’re lucky to have you with us.” He stated with a small hint of sarcasm.
“You sound doubtful.” Seong pointed out with a smile, “Perhaps retelling one of my old expeditions would help ease your mind...” without even giving Lysander a chance to reply she began telling a long story of one of her old expeditions, slightly embellished for dramatic effect, of course.
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In the mean time, Nate had made his way to the isolated man he had seen earlier.
“Are you sure we should still join this expedition?” A soft, gentle voice said, it seemed to come from where the man was standing.
“We need this to afford living.” The man said bluntly, “We aren’t in danger or anything like that, so why are you worrying?”
“Well...” The soft voice began
“Hey there!” Nate shouted as he patted the man’s back, “How you doin’ ?” He questioned inquisitively.
The man turned to look at Nate, staring at this strange person. “What do you want?” he said slightly annoyed
Nate looked at the man’s eyes noting the eye patch. He also caught a glimpse of the man’s white hair. “I’m just being friendly,” Nate began with a smile, “I mean, we’re all meant to get to know one another right? That’s what the leader just said anyway.”
The man scoffed, “You can call me Nine.” He replied, just then a small orange furred Anoan peaked out of his pocket.
“Oh wow!” Nate said, “I haven’t seen an Anoan adventurer in, like, forever!”
“My name is Abelle.” The small furry Anoan said in a rather soft voice.
“My name’s Nathaniel, but you can call me Nate!” He said with a smile, before extending his right hand towards Nine. Nine simply stared back at Nate’s hand, “It’s not that hard,” Nate said jokingly, “You just grab and shake.” After a moment of awkward silence, Nine slowly shook Nate’s hand. Neither Nine nor Abelle said anything afterwards, prompting Nate to keep the conversation alive, “So... have you two been working together long?”
Nine and Abelle looked at each other for a moment, “We’ve been a team for quite a while now, yeah.” Nine responded.
“Ever been on a new layer expedition like this one?” Nate questioned
“No.” Nine responded dryly
“You know,” Nate began as his voice dulled down a bit, “If you want to hide something, dressing so obviously and acting so isolated isn’t really going to help your efforts.” He stated
Nine starred at Nathaniel, surprised by his sudden remark. Abelle’s stare went straight to Nine’s face, then over to Nathaniel, then back to Nine, though in this time, and for several minutes thereafter, not a word was spoken between the two.
Nathaniel then broke the silence with a smile, “Well, I gotta get back to my partner!” He said, “I’ll definitely see you two around, and don’t be strangers!” with that, he hurried off back to Seong, whom was still boasting to the two men gathered near to her.
“You really sure you still want to join this expedition, Nine?” Abelle questioned, a little uncertain, “Isn’t this maybe a little unsafe?”
Nine shook his head, “We’ll be fine. That guy wasn’t threatening us.” He stated bluntly
“What? How do you know that for certain?” Abelle responded, “It seemed like a threat to me.”
“He was conveying his opinion.” Nine stated, “He has a point too, on an expedition like this, it may be better to blend in.”
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Adalia sat opposite Professor Brayden, they were inside a small lounge within the expedition hall.
“Any opinions on the recruits, Miss Savoy?” the professor questioned before taking a sip from his cup of tea
“Not quite yet, Professor.” Adalia replied, “I have some ideas but I will need to observe them a little more before I can formulate a proper opinion on them. I do believe, however, that not all of the gathered adventurers shall be joining the actual expedition.” She leaned back into her chair before looking out the window. She could see that most of the adventurers were still in the plaza, some talking in groups, others were checking their gear and making sure they had left nothing behind, and a small few were following their guides to their rooms.
The professor lay his cup down on the table, “You seem quite confident and sure for someone who is leading their first expedition, most people are rather worried their first time round.” He stated as he looked straight at her
“Well, you could say I’m not an average person.” She replied before meeting his gaze, “My family has trained me quite well, and I doubt that anything that could happen during this expedition will be beyond my abilities. They would not have chosen me as the family’s representative, were that the case.” Her words were rather confident, and it was not the fake kind of confidence. Professor Brayden had seen and organised many an expedition, and he could easily tell when someone was hiding their insecurities with fake confidence and this was not the case.
Having finished his tea, the professor grabbed his staff and stood up, before turning to Adalia one last time, “Allow me to give you one warning.” He began, “It’s nothing seriously dangerous, though you will have to keep it in mind throughout the course of your expedition.” Adalia looked at him, displaying genuine interest in what he was about to say. “Roughly half of these adventurers are seasoned veterans; they have been on many dangerous expeditions and have likely encountered a weak leader more than once. If you cannot prove yourself as a strong willed leader, then it will be difficult for you to maintain the command that you currently demand. Out there, rank is not always first on peoples’ minds.”
Adalia nodded, “Thank you.” She replied before turning to look at the plaza once more, “I shall keep that in mind.” She watched the professor through his reflection in the window, as he walked away. He came to a sudden stop when a rather beautiful woman entered the room, prompting Adalia to turn and look at her. She was likely a fellow Barad, as she had markings on her face and legs, from what Adalia could see. She had tanned skin and long pale blue hair. Her clothing was quite revealing yet she still had some aura of elegance surrounding her.
“Oh. Miss Poside, I thought you were only going to arrive tomorrow?” Professor Brayden questioned
She looked at him through her pale blue eyes and smiled, “My appointment for today had been dropped, so I no longer needed to stay in Kosem, and thus thought I should arrive as soon as possible.” She replied with a wink, “How are the plans for the expedition coming along?”
“It seems to be going quite well.” He replied, somewhat flustered, “The adventurers have been gathered together and are mingling. The leader is a young but confident woman, though I don’t know how well she will keep control throughout the journey. The expedition will begin in 3 days time. Will you still be around by then?”
“Oh most certainly!” she replied, “I would just love to see one of these expeditions from behind the scenes!”
The two of them soon left the lounge, whilst Adalia was silently watching. “What a tramp.” Adalia thought to herself as she watched the woman cling closely to the professor’s side.