Memoirs of Adventure Creative Writing Contest (NA) - Official Entry Thread

[MikeTavish]

“Has it really been four years?”

Taking a seat in the once unfamiliar, now comforting house in the Mist, I couldn’t help but reminisce on just how long it had been since the day I truly entered the lives of the people in this Free Company. Despite joining the Company long ago, it wasn’t until that one challenge that I made myself truly known. It was the ordeal that needs no introduction, the unique and unquestionably terrible force that wreaked havoc on friendships, companionships, relationships, and the overall lives of adventurers across Eorzea and beyond.

I joined in after the rest of the group had nearly given up hope. They had been trying to overcome this hurdle from the Fourth Astral Moon all the way back around to nearly the First of the next year, and the team was broken, beaten, and exhausted.

“Hey adventurer, we’ve seen you around the house and our Paladin recently decided the ordeals of saving Eorzea were too much for him. As such… we’ve got a spot open now and… anyroad… we were wondering if you’d be interested in helping to save the world!”

I jumped in and in no time at all knew I had found friends for life. Despite countless failures, we didn’t give up. We figured out how a tornado works, which way to point disembodied hands, and even learned the ins and outs of magnetism. After all of that and accompanied by a last minute Blade Dance and a Warrior Sacrifice, the unbeatable monster was finally beaten.

To this day, heroes across Eorzea wake up in cold sweats from nightmares from those days, and cower at the very mention of his name.

I shook myself as Terra’s voice woke my from my reverie.

“Sure has, can’t believe you’ve stuck with us for this long ya nitwit.”

“Nitwit? At least I don’t wet myself every time I hear the name ‘Living Liquid’!”

“THAL’S BALLS!” shouted most of the room, as they hid behind various pieces of furniture.

I shook my head, smiled silently, and hoped for another four years and beyond.


(Thank you for reading! If I am selected, I would like the Gaelicap!)

[VoiceofYumi]

Dearest Siz,

How long has it been since the day I met you? A mere four years? Yet I can hardly remember a time before you entered my life, nor do I wish to. I remember the days we spent exploring the depths of Alexander. I was a fool back then. So afraid of ruining our friendship by making my feelings known, I took up a fool of a partner who tried to push you away and spoiled any chance we had of defeating the massive mechanical Primal. I only wish I had seen my folly sooner. I only wish I was brave enough to confess to you then instead of waiting.

Now it has been two years since I found my courage, and we have both changed much in that time and added so many accomplishments to our list. We have ended wars, pushed back the Garleans, travelled across worlds, defeated enemies more powerful than any we faced before. Even now we join our comrades in reviving The Empty on The First Shard. I know that we shall succeed, as we always have. Because we are together.

Indeed I don\\'t think there\\'s anything we cannot do, any foe we cannot fell when we are together. Perhaps the words of Lady Valentione are truer than most would take them for. I certainly believe they are. I do hope you\\'ll continue travelling with me for years to come as all of my fondest memories have been with you.

Forever yours,
Yumi

(chosen prize: Noble Barding)

[Emizel]

The "Warrior of Light", so they called me. It was a title rather exhausted, a title I had worn for far too long in expectance of ease and comfort, as I had experienced with that of my previous enemies. However, at this moment, such a title was meaningless. I fought not in the name of Eorzea, nor the Scions, mayhap not even myself, but in my desperate pursuit for veracity. For once in my journey, I had realized the meaninglessness of my own being. This was not a conflict that concerned myself nor my idiosyncratic blessings, for such blessings were powerless in their faith before the might of the pitch-black dragon standing before.

For the first time in my journey, I felt wanted rather than needed, and felt shared comradery in place of feeling as though I were always being ordered around. Even with the blessings of Hydaelyn once restored to me, the Final Steps of Faith called not for the hopes of the crystal mother, but the aspirations of generations of a thousand years. I stared on ahead, yet what stood before me was not just an encompassment of ever-lasting hatred and vengeance, but also a figure filled with a pain that could not be let go of, an understanding too harsh to come to terms with, along with the changed and twisted ideals of the one who I've been able to come to call an ally through my journeys across what felt like heaven.

The hole of emptiness one is left with following traitorous deception, I knew too well. Never could I understand the skewed desires of my kind to bury the truth in more misery. Never could I understand the black dragon's unwavering longing to kill, for his brother had given onto our regrettable kind his vulnerability once more, and to me, the utmost of his strength. For the maiden of ice who's heart was the warmest of all, the dragoon who had learned to empathize with his worst enemy, and the white dragon who had undergone the worst pain; to let go, fear was absent from mine body and soul. The thousand-year Dragonsong war would end with me.

Yet, I could not take credit for that victory alone. "Warrior of Light" they called me, yet I stood as a black mage, ready to rain the lasts of bitter destruction that this war would ever need. Who stood beside me was my fond and most trusted ally, a Dark Knight who's ambitions were identical to mine. As a mage of black and a knight of darkness, our titles as Hydealyn's children were hollow. Light had already shed upon the truths of what lead us to this path. All-consuming dusk and destruction that held the misery and agony of countless generations of both humans and dragons was the only reciprocation that could be deemed deserved retribution. With two personifications of darkness standing side by side like a burning eclipse, Nidhogg would not live to see another millennium.

If selected as a winner, I would like the bluebird earrings.

[alin_laphel]

To whom it may concern,

I write this letter as a record for who I once was and who I am today. I would not be where I am if it were not for you, healer of a forgotten name. The memory is still vivid, a memory where I lack the skill and experience to guide a party. That quest where my shield often falter and our lives often at risk due to my ineptitude. The other adventurers in our team would continuously berate and mock me for my failures. You stood up for me. "We were all new once." You advise me on timing my skills and how to position myself in combat. Slowly, but surely, we made it through alive. AS you turned to leave, I wanted to say thank you but could only whimper an apology. "Don't sweat it. You'll get there. Just don't give up." And with that, you left.

How many years has it been since that moment? In those years, I have improved as a Paladin. Steadfast and brave, my shield holds true. Just as you stood up for me, I now do the same as mentor for adventurers. I wish I could tell you of all the people I have met and all the adventures I have been on. Those days are full of success and failures. Each day shaping into the person I am. Your words igniting my soul that drives me forward each day.

If the receiver of this letter is another adventurer of whom I may or may not know of, I have a few words for you. Whether you are a veteran of war or novice dipping your feet, just remember: You only failed when you have given up. Put your heart into your passion and it will return to you in kind.

If by some miniscule miracle that you are the healer from that quest so long ago, I have a few words for you. I hope you are in good health. We may have encountered each other several times unbeknownst to each other's identity. Or we may never see other again in a world as large as ours. I will always remember you for what you have done. For you, it may have been a small gesture where you stand up for the novice of the team. For you, that day may have been another passing day with strangers. Regardless of who you are and how you feel about it, there are two words I want to tell; two words that I was too timid to say all those years ago.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

A Fellow Adventurer

(Gaelicap)

[NaomiP]

The Sea of Clouds at sunset really is the best place to be, she mused to herself. The warm breeze that rolled by played with her hair and pulled gently at her fishing rod. The thought that "the warm wind is the love of everyone you have ever known, they are kissing you on the cheek!" crossed her mind, though she couldn't remember for the life of her where she might have heard something like that. Was it a Vanu teaching? It sounded like a Vanu teaching. She considered continuing with the mental goose chase, but decided her energy was better spent on the love the wind had carried to her, and allowed herself a small smile as memories of comrades came and went.

With the familiar sensation of a fish on the line, she planted her feet against the island beneath her and braced herself against a tug that threatened to snap the rod in half... but it was none other than the same moogle spirit she had caught four times now.

"I'm just feeding you dinner, aren't I?" she muttered disapprovingly.

It attempted to wriggle free, indifferent.

Throwing it back into the clouds below, she packed up her supply of crane flies and moved to the other side of the island, making herself comfortable between two ferns. Another tug -- a sky faerie this time, the last one she needed. She knew the sea butterfly was below her somewhere, but could only hope that it'd take an interest in the bait this time.

"What an intense face you've got on!" she could hear Sisipu laughing.

"Fishing isn't so serious, you know? It's passive, not active -- you're not hunting the fish, in a way the fish is hunting you! Ah, but not in a life-threatening way... most of the time. Just relax and let the water surprise you with what it’s got!"

She wondered if Sisipu also meant to include the clouds in what she said... or if Sisipu saw a cloudfisher in the small brown Miqo'te that happened to wander into the Fisherman’s Bottom that day.

Oh, a big tug! ...no, just another moogle spirit. But a different one this time, so she felt justified in calling it progress.

She wondered what Sisipu and Wawalago were doing now. She thought too of the Scions (she'd invited them all out fishing at least once, but was met with little interest) -- and moreover, even in the supposed peacetime following the Dragonsong War, how none of them could seem to catch a break except her. She immediately felt a small pang of guilt begin to gnaw at her, and the thought that she had already done so much as the Warrior of Light did nothing to quell it. This quiet time alone in the clouds, did she deserve it? Could she afford to rest on her laurels, let alone this grass?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sun who, after much colorful fanfare on the opposite side of the sky, finally broke the horizon behind her. Feeling its warmth on the back of her neck, she withdrew her rod and packed up knowing that the sea butterfly had retreated to safety once more.

Another time, then.

(Ahriman Choker)