Page 23 - RKJ 2019 Online Flip Version

wasn’t that Merlose was an unkind person, or minutes, he had a decent sketch of the onion-
The Adventures of Merlose
by Jeremy Levesque (Kupo)
Trudging through the Paramina Rift, the
Naturalist paused. Shielding her face with the
edge of her cloak, Callo Merlose looked at the
top of the ledge. Near the edge of the ridge,
there stood what appeared to be a merry band
of… onions? Looking closer, Merlose saw that
they were, indeed, walking onions. Hopping
about in a strange sort of way, a most unusual
looking gap between the upper and lower
halves of their onion heads was observable.
“Found something, Merlose?”
Merlose turned to her assistant Einar
Kejani. “Tis some form of strange onion-beast.
Let us get a closer view.” Turning back to the
cliff side, Merlose investigated the expanse of
rock in front of her.
Einar started toward her. “Merlose, thou
must be jesting. This cliff—”
Merlose cut him off. “Shush.” Then,
muttering to herself, she started to explore the
crevices of the wall. “If I could just… Yes, this
will do. And then? Yes, yes.”
Einar’s heart sank. Once Merlose had an
idea in mind, there was no stopping her.
“Merlose, it may be best to find another way…”
he halfheartedly interjected, knowing his
opinion, at the moment, was naught but a
whisper in the wind.
“Nonsense!” Merlose cried, “Tis for the
future of Ivalice, is it not?” Turning to Einar,
she gave him a wide, proud grin, then faced
the wall. Grabbing the nearest handhold, she
hoisted herself up, then found the next tiny
ledge her hand could grip and kept climbing.
Which meant Einar would have to follow. It
that he disliked his job. However, there were
some things Einar could do without, such as
scaling cliffs that hung over the base, getting
attacked by strange creatures, and almost
dying. With heavy heart, Einar found the
minute handholds Merlose had used and
followed her up.
And it was a good thing he had, because
twice while climbing up, she slipped, and would
have been seriously injured if had she not
found another place for her foot… namely, his
face. When this happened, she would turn
around, apologize with a smile, then continue
climbing. When they reached the top, Einar
was freezing and hurting due to the cold and
double-boot to the face.
At least that’s over, he thought. Looking
over, Einar saw Merlose crouching next to the
small onion-beasts. As Einar walked over, she
turned around.
“Finally caught up? Excellent. Dost thou
have pen ready?” As Einar scrambled to find
his pen and journal, Merlose turned back
towards the creatures. “The locals know
legends of such beasts. Those in Paramina
Rift tell of how these creatures have acquired
such large, gaping mouths.”
With journal out, Einar took a moment to
stare at the creatures. They were indeed
strange creatures, without even a small hinge
holding together the top and bottom portions of
the onion head, giving them their huge mouths.
It had a single, large eye set in its face. Upon
its bodice, it wore a green jacket with a collar
that covered the entirety of the bottom part of
the head. It hopped about in a strange way,
making queer little noises as it moved about.
“What think thee?” asked Merlose. “Most
peculiar creatures.”
“Yes they are,” replied Einar, scribbling as
fast and accurately as possible. After a couple
beasts, and he started on smaller, more
detailed sections. As he did this, Merlose came
quite close to the onion-beasts, which
regarded her kindly.
“Mayhap I can attain greater foresight with a
small bout of beast-taming.” Turning to her
scribe, she grinned. “What say thee?”
Einar stared in horror. “What say I? I say
thou want to anger the beasts. I say leave the
onions be!” Ignoring her scribe, the Naturalist
faced the nearest onion. Kneeling in front of it,
she muttered a few words; Einar watched on in
absolute terror, not knowing how they would
respond. Merlose was a famed woman for
many reasons. She was a great linguist, a
fantastic sword master, and an expert
naturalist. The former was due to her ability to
Beast-Tame. Being such a gifted Beast-Tamer,
she could control creatures, given they didn’t
have too strong a will, or that the creature was
willing to allow such a mental invasion, though
such instances were rare. Such a gift is
generally looked on as negative by beasts,
however. This was why Einar was so fearful.
As Merlose chanted longer and faster, the
beasts became more and more agitated,
jumping about more, growling with greater
intensity, and looking on with hostile eyes.
Merlose finished her incantations, and
suddenly everything was eerily quiet. The
onions had stopped jumping and shouting, and
were now staring very darkly at Merlose. To
them she had just committed a most heinous
crime, and her punishment was about to be
delivered.
Opening her eyes, Merlose smiled at Einar.
Then the onions attacked.
Some opened their mouths, giving a
disorienting high-pitched shriek that burst
Einar’s eardrums. The others tackled Einar and
Merlose, which wouldn’t normally be a
problem, but they were woozy. Knocked to the