Well, here I am again, giving you chapter 1B. It is not the most essential chapter right now, nor is it the most thrilling. It will help stuff later, trust me.

This feels so pointless without CHB here.
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“So father, when do we leave today?”
“You mean when do I leave, Vanessa. You’re not going anywhere.”
“But father, you promis…”
“No buts, and don’t you dare tell me what I did! You’re not coming and that’s final!”
“Now look what you’ve done Paul, she’s crying again.”
“A few hours of sobbing in her room will do her some good. Give her some time to think, and get her mind off that accursed boy, Zacharia.”

Why must father always be so cruel? He promised me just yesterday he would take me to Talcona…unless…yes, that must be it, that wretched henchman of his, Carl, must have told him the purpose of my voyage. Oh how I’d like to wring his neck. Hah! I can see it now, Carl the dirty henchman, hanging from a noose, and everyone laughing and throwing stones. My father of course realizing then what a crazy buffoon he is, and realizing that he should have never doubted his poor, sweet daughter. A funny thing, that, I have the mind for such deeds, and yet I couldn’t harm the maggots that soil and rot my food. I suppose father expects me to mope and forget all about Zack, which is why I’m going to figure out a way to go see him. I’ll be on that ship, and my father will be none the wiser.

He always was an odd boy, Zack, seeming inhuman at points, but somehow his plans always worked out. Fortunately, that little talent of his has seemed to rub off on me. It was quite simple, really; Zack would set sail in mid afternoon from Zalbai, and go along his merry little way to Talcoma and arrive sometime in the evening. He would arrive early, and late this morning, I would…rather, will go on the voyage with father, arrive there sometime this evening, and together we’ll sneak off in the dark, and none will be the wiser…

Now, what to do, what to do? Hmmm…of course! I must eliminate the one thing that stands in my way! Carl. But how? Let’s see…Carl is always at the pub around nine o’ clock…the ship leaves at eleven…that gives me two hours to get rid of him. Once I get rid of him, I’ll need a disguise…a cloak will work well. I’ll need an excuse for why I’m wearing the cloak…burns, everywhere; of course, I’ll need a small spot of truth in that to prove it. With my somewhat painful plan set for a disguise, all I had to do was put the rest into play…

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I left at about nine fifteen; just to be sure that Carl would be there. I arrived about ten minutes later; time was running out, fast. The pub was disgusting and riddled with showgirls and sailors, luckily my disguise was working. I saw Carl in a far off corner, sucking back on a cigar…disgusting. I sat next to him and made up a story on the spot…
“Look bub, I got this ship coming in, and if you do some unloading for me, I’ll give you 400 gold.” I said in my deepest voice.
“400 gold don’t buy much now a days, make it 600 and you got yourself a deal.”
Knowing I wouldn’t be paying him, I accepted. There was a ship scheduled to come in at dock seven later today…about thirty minutes after ours left from dock two. I told him to wait there about an hour early, and everything was set…

Now all that was left was to get on the ship. I sped towards the docks as quickly as possible…only five minutes left! I could hear one of the men doing last call…I made it just in time. I offered to help on the ship just for a trip over, he accepted. Strangely, he didn’t even ask about the cloak, so burning my wrist was in vain. I had a long day ahead of me, sailors didn’t get any breaks, and it was about nine hours to Talcoma.

Almost immediately, I was put to work cleaning the brig. It was bad enough to enter the place let alone be jailed in it. One poor soul asked me for a small amount of water; unfortunately, I was in no position to help. Or was I? I had been on this ship many times before, I had my own set of keys…hmmm. I offered to help by unlocking the gate, but he had to promise me he would stay in there until we reached Talcoma. Of course, he accepted. He thanked me graciously, and told me his name. Frederick. I asked what he was in for. He replied that he had disobeyed a direct order. He was one of many men in a firing line, and one day, his brother was brought up to be shot for murdering someone. He was asked specifically to shoot. He would not. I don’t blame him really. As horrible murder is, this was his own flesh and blood they asked him to kill. I thought about that. If they kill someone for murder, what makes them any better than the person they were killing? Disturbing, really. To my right I heard a noise. I had company. Nothing but a maintanence Henger…number 306; it was new to our ship.

Back up on the deck, I noticed that four other Hengers had been brought out. There was 209, 345, 145, and 402. Wow, a brand new one. Number 145 was old, but an officer among the others, as signified by its three star emblem located on its left shoulder. I asked one the time. It was now seven o’ clock, we would be arriving in about an hour. I looked off into the horizon, dreaming of what it would be like very soon. I noticed a silhouette that resembled a ship in the orange sky. I grabbed for a telescope. The ships flag read “Zalbai Crusader”. That was the ship Zack would be on! I began to work harder; faster; hoping that the time would go by faster. I was soon within fifteen minutes of my dream!

The ship began to slow as we neared the docks, I could hardly contain myself! We would be boarding in dock five, right next to Zack’s ship. The Hengers were shut down, and all the sailors waited anxiously. I ran down to the brig, just to be there when Frederick would make his escape. The ship shook violently, almost throwing me off my feet. We were here. The people started to leave the ship in hoards; Frederick and I went up and blended in with the rest of the crowd. As soon as I was off the ship, I went over to the base of the other one. They had just started to get off, so I waited at the bottom, watching for Zack. About ten minutes passed, and the ship was empty. No Zack, just some renegade Hengers, a few ColorPandoras, and the odd slave Magic, were leaving for a quick feeding. I had watched very carefully, and knew that I had not missed him. Zack was not here. Maybe he had missed the ship, the only way for me to find out would be to stay the night in a nearby inn. How disappointing…

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Chapter 2 will really kick it up a notch, I swear. And yes, this will develop more to do with MR. Hehehe.

I is better than several MR stories, given that most of them hardly put emphasis on human players at all.

Nice, now you have me addicted

Cool, thanks. :)

Man, I just now realized how sick the firing line thing was...*shudders*

"And yes, this will develop more to do with MR."

It had enough referances to the universe to get by as a Monster Rancher chapter, and I don't see why you thought I wouldn't think so?

Well, after a second successful dip into the creativity pool of this setting, maybe you'll pull together enough confidence to push out longer chapters.

Your length was good, but your writing left me wanting more.

Which sucks, so, make them longer.

Despite my dexerity with the written language, I still felt it was appropriate to say it the exact way I really said it. 0,o

The next one will be longer, I swear. I don't know exactly how much though.

Isn't you wanting more a good thing?