Yeah, I was planning on making a fic about these two and their weirdo pasts and lives, so here it is. xP Hopefully I won't run out of motivation to write this like I did with my other fic. Which I might continue later. Iunno.

And yeah, I'm aware I pay more attention to Xyka than I do to Draup, don't worry. xP I'll mess with him more in the next chapter.

The Wizard and the Alchemist

It was unknown where she came from, or who had left her there, but nonetheless, it was the duty of the orphanage to take care of the sleeping girl that had been left outside of the door.
She was quite young-- maybe only four or five years old, with purple hair that went down to her neck, and beautiful purple eyes. She was found wearing only an old, ragged tan shirt that looked as if it had not been washed in a good while, and a torn up skirt that was in the same condition as the shirt.
She had been wrapped in a large cloth with a note attached to it. The note read, "Her name is Xykanu. Please take care of her." It was not signed by anyone, and the hand-writing was almost unlegible, as if the one who wrote it was in a hurry.
Despite knowing nothing about her but her name, the Geffen orphanage took this girl in with open arms, promising to abide by the wishes of the note attached.
"Where's mommy?"
"Mommy will be back in a little while."
"What about daddy?"
"He's out as well."
The same questions were brought up everyday as Xykanu arose from bed. "Where's mommy?" she would ask. And everyday, the orphanage workers would tell her the same thing. "Mommy will be back in a little while." She would then ask, "What about daddy?" And they would tell her the same thing, "He's out as well."
While these answers were not what she was expecting, they were satisfying enough, and she would go about her day unaffected. After a while, she cared less and less about her parents, until she finally stopped asking altogether.
Xyka was a very curious child. She asked many questions, always pondering about how things worked, or why something was as it is. Because of this inquisitive personality, she was smart for her age. She could read well-- and sometimes, when the orphanage held preschool classes, she would even read to the other students at the front of the room. She was also friendly-- always sharing her toys, always being polite. But these qualities didn't prevent the other kids from disliking her as she got older.
As well as being smart, she was also very strange. When she turned six, the orphanage workers explained that on the sixth birthday of the children in their care, they would show him or her around Geffen, like a tour. She then got to go outside and see the city and all of its wonders. She noticed strange black cats with bows on their tails running this way and that.
"What are those?" She asked.
"Those are monsters called Wild Roses. They aren't very friendly-- I wouldn't bother them." they told her.
"I understand." she said. But like any child her age, she was curious and decided to have a first-hand encounter with these monsters, and surprisingly enough, they weren't hostile to her at all.
From then on, she liked to go outside everyday and play with the Wild Roses.
This may seem like a harmless sort of thing, but the other children had many bad experiences with the Wild Roses, and Xyka seemed to be the only one who got along with them. For this, they labeled her all sorts of names, calling her the Crazy Cat Lady, and other assorted things. They even claimed she was a witch, and that she cast a spell on the monsters so they would attack them.
She was outcasted from games-- she was never picked in Duck, Duck, Goose. The other kids would never try to make her 'It' in tag. Whenever the class played hide and seek, she was left to hide for hours while the other children went to do something else.
This behaviour bothered the orphanage workers, but no matter what they did, they could not stop the seemingly endless torment of Xykanu.
As she got older, the children found more things to pick at. She was quiet, always reading a book in the corner, or playing with stuffed animals by herself. They found this quietness to make her weird-- why wasn't she loud and mischievious like the other kids? If there were cookies to be stolen, Xyka was never there. If there was something to knock over and blame on monsters that broke in and tore the place up, Xyka was never there. Making trouble didn't seem to interest her.
She also seemed to take the witch comments when she was younger seriously, as she began to dabble in the magic arts. Ice seemed to be a personal favorite of hers, so she was always off in an empty corner of the city, casting down small hail storms, always trying to better herself.
"Why do you do magic?" the other kids asked her.
"Because I like it. When I get older, I'm going to be a magical sorceress who helps out those in need!" she proclaimed.
At this comment, the children would simply laugh. "All you're ever gonna be is an ugly old hag who lives in the swamp and turns people into frogs to put in her icky potions!" they replied.
She didn't care, though-- because she knew they were wrong. She was going to be the greatest sorceress in all of Rune-Midgard, and no one was going to tell her otherwise!
At the same time as all of this, there existed a boy with strange bright green hair. This boy was not interested in magic, or religion. Instead, he was a scientist. All day and all night he would spend in the library of Al De Baron, reading every scientific book he could get his hands on. He wanted knowledge so that he could get to his ultimate goal: to artificially create a human, a power that was said to only belong to the Gods. He was out to prove the the religious texts wrong-- he was out to prove that through the power of science, and not waiting around and praying, that anything could be accomplished.
In the nights that he wasn't at the library, he was locked up in the dungeon-like basement of his house, creating potions and writing down equations and formulas, trying to find the answer to human creation.
At first, his parents didn't care much. So he was interested in alchemy, so what? It was just a phase. But, as the hours in the basement grew longer, and as he began to skip meals to study the occult science he loved so much, his parents grew concerned. They'd even go so far as to wreck his lab and burn the papers that held his formulas. They didn't want their son to be punished by the Gods because of his interest, and neither did they. He disliked his parents more and more, until he finally decided that, if the secret to human creation involved human sacrifices, he would use his own mom and dad.
It wasn't just his parents that nagged at him, for he was also hassled by priests and nuns, and religious folk.
"If you don't stop this nonsense right now, Odin will punish you in the harshest of ways!"
"You'll be banished to Helheim if you don't stop this blasphemy!"
"Alchemy will only lead to a cruel and tortorous afterlife!"
He got things like this all the time, but he didn't care. Let them believe in something that, to him, didn't exist. There was no proof-- and without proof, it was nothing but a worthless theory.
His name was Draupnir, and he was striving to become the greatest Alchemist in all of Rune-Midgard.
The meeting of these two strange people could be good, or it could cause complete chaos. But, whatever the outcome, the destinies of these two were intertwined, although it was unknown to them at the time. They were going to meet, and whatever came out of it, the world would just have to put up with.

It's a grood story. All expositiony and stuff. Stay motivated, and this'll be some read. I don't know what else to say, so I'll leave the constructive criticism to the more experienced writers.

- Cenese, not on a writing rampage

All hail Drapunir!!! *bump* godd story!!! :up:

FUSSHAM. : O SECOND CHAPTER ALREADY <3


A few years came and passed, and now Xykanu was ten years old. She was much better at magic now, and was always getting closer to her goal of becoming a sorceress. Although, for now, lets leave her story, and go to one of a boy who isn't as familiar.
Draupnir worked and worked in his basement, always searching for something, anything that could put him on the right path to his goal. He was only twelve or thirteen at the time, but he seemed to grasp alchemy better than any of the older alchemists. He had to in order to get what he wanted out of this science.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. "Draupnir? Honey, I'd like to talk to you for a minute." came a woman's voice. The handle to the door jiggled, but the door itself did not open. The young alchemist had made sure it was locked before he began his daily session.
Draupnir sighed. He hated having his work interrupted like this. "Fine, fine, I'll be right up..." he said, standing from his chair and making his way to the door. He unlocked it and opened it a crack, seeing part of his mother's face. "What is it, mother?" he asked. His voice was flat and emotionless, as if he wasn't too pleased to see his mom.
"I just need to talk to you about a few things. Would you come out into the kitchen for a minute, please?"
"Alright..." he opened the door all the way and stepped out of the basement. Following his mom to the kitchen, he knew this wasn't going to be a normal mother-to-son talk.
The woman stopped and turned around, grabbing Draupnir by the collar of his shirt and lifting him up in the air. "Alright, I've had enough of your blasphemous hobbies!" she shouted, "As your mother, I demand that you give it up and go to fight in King Tristam's army, like your father, so you can die for the honor of your family instead of trying to disobey the word of the Gods!"
Draupnir scowled. "You don't care about me-- you're just scared that having a child interested in alchemy is going to get you punished!"
His mother's eyes widened and she threw her son to the ground. "Don't you DARE talk back to me like that! I'm your mother-- I know what's best!" her loud voice did not quiet even for a second.
"Just because you're my mother doesn't mean you have to treat me like pond scum!" he shouted back. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT'S RIGHT FOR ME! YOU'RE JUST AFRAID YOU'LL BE FELLED BY THE WRATH OF SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T EVEN EXIST!"
This was the straw that broke the camel's back. Outside in the middle of the night, lights in all the houses turned on as everybody within what seemed a ten-mile radius could hear the enraged shouting of a woman who was viciously beating her son with anything she could get her hands on, and the screams of pain from a boy who didn't think he'd live to see another day.
He woke up and found himself in a different house, in a different bed. He sat up and looked out the window. He was in Al De Baron. But how did he get here? He lived a town away. It hurt trying to remember, so he just stopped trying. Someone walked in through the open doorway of the room. It was a slightly chubby old lady who looked maybe 50 or 60, and she was holding a tray with a sandwich and some milk on it.
"Oh, so you're finally awake?" she said, chuckling. "Well, that's good. We thought if you were asleep any longer, we'd have to go out and hold a funeral for you!"
"H-How long was I asleep?"
"Two days."
"Two days!?"
"Yes."
"And how did I end up here?"
"Well, we were walking home from a patient's house when we saw you lying on the ground. You looked very beat up, so we took you in and helped you out."
"We?"
"Oh, yes, my husband. We're both doctors in this town. Here, you can have this food." she said, holding the tray up. "It was for my husband, but I can always make some more for him. The patients come first, as we always say." She began walking over to the bed, but Draupnir stood up and tried running over to her. Sharp pain shot up his left leg and he sat back down immediately.
"Don't try walking just yet. Your leg's broken." the woman said.
Draupnir looked down and noticed his leg was in a cast. The tray was set down on his lap, and he began scarfing it all down. "F-Fankoo for dis!" he said with his mouth full. "I habbent eaten in foreber!"
The woman smiled and walked out of the room, giving the boy time to think. He remembered the argument he had with his mother, and the abuse that followed, but the rest was a blank. He must've run out of the house and all the way to Al De Baron, with a broken leg, no less. He couldn't decide if that was a good decision, or a stupid one. He had to think carefully... all of his formulas and potions were at his house, but he couldn't go back there. Not after what his own mother had did to him. But without them, he'd have to start at the beginning again. So, he decided to go for the middle ground: Steal it all out of the house at night when his parents were sleeping. Then he would sneak back to Al De Baron with it, and continue his studies uninterrupted!
"This could be fun..." he said to himself as a mischievous grin spread across his face.

Bravo! Wonderful, I'll wait for the next chapters, if it's the only thing I'll do in this forum.

Fantastic! Way to go Xyka, this is a very good story :up: !

SHAZZAM! that your story is effing awesome

): Sorry. This chapter is shorter than the others, because I'm LAZY right now.


Xyka was now eleven years old, and she had begun to do things for the people of Geffen. If there was some sort of strange monster invasion, Xyka would take care of it. If there was a child stuck in a tree, Xyka would take care of it. She wasn't paid much for it, but this didn't bother her-- she was helping people, and that was reward enough.
One day, while delivering a package, she noticed a crowd had gathered in the center of the town. There were angry shouts and yells from the people, and some of them threw stones at something in the middle of the crowd. It was a boy dressed in the outfit of an Assassin Cross, one of the more advanced assassins.
"You killed him!" came a man's voice.
"I-It was an accident, I didn't mean to!" the boy said, trying to block his head from the stones with the broad side of his katars.
"An accident? You guys are -hired- to kill people! It was no accident!" another man's voice yelled.
"I swear! You have to believe me!"
"Believe -you?- Hah! Don't make me laugh-- your kind is made up of the most untrustworthy people out there!"
Xyka got a little closer, and people began to kick and punch at the poor boy in the center. The mage girl ran through the crowd and up to the boy, shielding him with herself. "Hey, stop! How do you know it wasn't an accident? He might be telling the tru-" her sentence was cut off by a scream. She turned around to find that the boy had began violently stabbing and tearing at one of his attackers.
"I didn't kill him! I didn't kill him!" he kept repeating as he slashed at the man, a demented smile forming as blood splattered onto his clothes and face.
Xyka had to do something to stop this. She pointed her staff at the Assassin, and large crystals of ice formed over him, freezing him.
The crowd tightened around the man's body. He was definetly dead-- all of his vital organs had been stabbed through. Whether this was an assassin's precision, or just blind hacking and slashing, it certainly got the job done.
Xyka carefully pushed the frozen boy off of the man's body. "Everybody, leave at once! The ice will melt soon-- and at that point you will all be in danger if you stay here! I will take him to the guards and they'll deal with him."
The crowd, fearing for their lives, immediately left. Xyka looked to the ice and watched it melt into a puddle on the ground, releasing the boy. He blinked and looked around, until his eyes stopped at the man he had killed.
"D-Did... I do that?" he said, his voice shaky. "Not again..."
The mage blinked. "What do you mean 'again?' Has this happened before?"
"It has... For a while now, actually. Something comes over me, and I just go insane... If you don't leave, I might kill you too."
She grinned. "You can't kill me." she said, poking his forehead. "What's your name?"
"Raikousen."
"That's kind of long... do you mind if I call you Rai?"
"Not at all. Go ahead."
"Okay! And my name is Xyka."
"Xyka? That's an unusual name."
"It is... but oh well! And today, we're gonna be friends, alright?"
"But... aren't you scared? What if I go crazy again?"
"Then I'll help you get through it."
"... Okay." he said, smiling. And this time, it wasn't a sick smile-- it was a happy one. He had finally found a friend...
The window was unlocked. Perfect. Despite how much his leg hurt, Draupnir had decided to do this early on. He didn't feel like waiting for his leg to heal. Sliding the window up, he looked into the room-- it was his own bedroom. He very carefully climbed in, and left the window open so he could get out easily.
He snuck down into the basement and gathered up all his important papers, placing them in a backpack he had brought along with him. He then began placing test tubes into the bag as well, putting corks in the unlidded ones. Soon, he had everything in the bag, and with it, he snuck back into his room. As he was about to climb out the window again, he heard a familiar voice behind him.
"Hello, son. Care to explain what you're doing?" his mother said.
Draupnir didn't bother to look back at her. He jumped out the window and ran as fast as he could, ignoring the pain that spread through his leg. He ran and ran until he made it back to Al De Baron, back to the house of the two doctors that had taken care of him.
He hid the sack under the bed and laid back down. Soon, he'd have to relocate himself to somewhere he could study. But for right now, sleep was calling him. And so, he drifted off into a deep slumber.

ZOMG! awesome!

z0mg 'kay I read it, and I'm glad I did 'cause it's teh awesome xD Write more soon lyke :o

): The chapters keep getting shorter. ;~~~~~;


"This is pretty good." the boy said, wolfing down the freshly cooked bacon and eggs the two friendly doctors had made for his breakfast. "Say, I never got your names."
"Oh, my name is Karin." the woman said. She then pointed to her husband, a tall, older-looking man who was lucky enough to have kept a full head of hair, although it was grey by this time. "And this is Bead."
"Bead? That's an odd name." Draupnir said.
"I'll have you know I got compliments on it all the time when I was your age!" the man said, chuckling.
"I don't believe we have your name, either." Karin said.
"Oh, my name? It's Draupnir."
"Draupnir? You mean like Odin's ring?" Bead asked.
The boy nodded. "Yes, that's what I was named after."
"Kind of a strange name for an alchemist, isn't it?" He said.
"How did you know I was an alchemist?"
Bead walked into his room, and came back out into the kitchen holding a test tube filled with a clear liquid. "I found this by your bed when I went to wake you up for breakfast. It's pure alcohol-- which is mostly used in alchemic potions, is it not?"
Draupnir nodded. 'It must've rolled out of my bag...' He thought.
"Well, it's good to know even kids like yourself are interested in alchemy these days!" Karin said.
The boy blinked. He had never encountered this kind of comment before-- no one had ever told him his interest in alchemy was a -good- thing, so he was slightly confused. He finally smiled. "I guess it is." he said.
"So, why are you into alchemy, anyway?" Bead asked.
"I want to create a human." he said. "A homunculus."
Karin grinned slightly. "That's a pretty big goal. Do you think you can achieve it?"
"Of course! I'm going to be the first person in the world to do it! And once I do that, maybe I'll try to find the Elixir of Life, too! I'll be the most famous alchemist anywhere!"
The old woman put her hand on Draupnir's head and ruffled his hair. "That's the spirit! Confidence is good!"
"... I think I better explain now why I'm here." he said. And so, he told the old couple about everything. About how his interest in alchemy had gotten him ridiculed by the people of his town, how his mother had beaten him up over it, how he had run to Al De Baran in the middle of the night, and how he had returned to steal all his formulas and potions the night after.
At the end of his story, Karin frowned. "That was a horrible thing your mother did. Mothers are supposed to be kind and supportive of their children, not abusive."
"I know... and now I can't go back there."
"So you don't have a home anymore?" Bead asked.
"No... I guess not."
The frown on Karin's face became a wide smile. "Then you can stay here with us!"
"Do you really mean that?"
"Of course we do!" Bead said.
Draupnir blinked a few times as his eyes welled up with tears. He hugged Karin and Bead tightly. "Thank you..."
And so, Draupnir found a new family to be part of, with the two old doctors as his new parents. He couldn't have been happier.
"So... why are we out here again? This is boring." Rai said, looking at the back of Xyka's head.
They were walking through a snowy field just outside of Lutie.
"We're here..." Xyka stopped, "because of -that.-" she said, pointing to a Poring with an odd blue coloration.
"It's a Marin. What's so special about it?"
The mage then proceeded to lightning bolt the Marin. It exploded into big lumps of blue jelly. Laying amonst it was a shiny blue gem, shaped like a teardrop. She picked it up and held it in front of Rai's face. "This is what's so special about it! Aquamarines! I want a lot of them. Soooo... you're going to help me get them!"
"What?! What do I look like, your slave!?" Rai said.
"Yes." Xyka replied, smiling. "Now GET KILLING!"
And with that, Xyka and Rai began their little massacre of the poor blue Porings.
Suddenly, a shadow was cast over the two of them. Xyka turned around and squeaked. "U-Uh, Rai..."
"What is it?" he said.
"G-G-G.. G-G-G..."
"Spit it out!"
"GARM!"
There stood a giant dog made of ice. It growled, its breath turning to steam in the cold. Behind it were several white bears, all looking quite menacing.
Xyka ran, but Rai stood there.
Garm opened its mouth, and bit down on the Assassin's arm.
"RAI!" Xyka cried. Her shocked expression was replaced with one of confusion as Garm yelped out.
Rai had angled his arm so his blade went up into the roof of Garm's mouth. "What's the matter, doggy? I don't taste good or something?" He then removed his blade and ran to Xyka, and together, they rushed back to Lutie.
Stupid Garm.