Finally, after exactly a year since I began writing this, I publish the first five chapters of a story I intend to make into something much longer. However, there's just something I'd like to enlighten all of you about, and that's the fact that this story contains OCs, several of the. One of them is even the deuteragonist, so if you're vehemently opposed to OCs, you should probably stop reading right now. Everybody else, I hope you'll have a good time reading this. :)

CHAPTER ONE: THE LONE MOUNTAINEER

A cloaked figure trudged through the snow, alone, teeth hacking. His head and shoulders were covered in snow and on his back hung a sword of seemingly poor quality. The snowflakes were big and their fall heavy. He had no doubt that should he not find any warm shelter soon, he'd freeze to death.

Lifting his head, averting them from the snow covered ground, he looked ahead: the ground was gleaming in a magnificent white, the snowflakes glittering in as they were sprayed with the rays of the Sun. Tall spruces surrounded him, their green branches covered with snow, creating an everwhite landscape broken only by the majestic blue of the mountain peeks that towered in the horizons of every direction. The sky was cloudy, albeit pocketed with holes, allowing the Sun's warm glow to shine through.

Up ahead the man noticed a dent in the mountainside: a cave perhaps? He made its way to it, hurrying his pace. He could hear the muffled crunching of snowflakes as he aggressively trudged towards the indentation, hoping to find a decent place to stay for the first time in many nights. Decent in that regard that mostly he has been forced to sleep under trees in the past week, ever since he'd made his decision to cross this accursed mountain range.

The closer he came, the deeper the indentation seemed and so a smile began to creep further and further across his face for every step he took. When finally there his hopes were confirmed: it really was a cave. While venturing into it he remained vigilant, his hand tensed and ready to draw his sword at any time, for who knows if this might be the lair of a bear or mountain lion? Tensing up as he approached the dark, he began to slowly move his hand up towards his sword's hilt. There was no denying the he was afraid, as the gift he'd once been blessed with was now naught but a memory: a memory of a past he coupled with joy. Now however, there was none of it, at least not to the same degree.

Drawing his sword to ease calm his nerves, he proceeded cautiously into the dark, he didn't want to camp in a cave without knowing what it held. Getting eaten in the middle of the night had never really been his idea of a worthy death. Suddenly, there was a deep clang and he gasped, hastily pulling back a few metres as he was startled. Standing there for a while, completely still, he waited for something to jump at him, preparing himself for the inevitable attack. But none came; the only sound to be heard was that of his own, heavy breaths.

A deafening silence.

Then the sword spoke, the metallic tone of its voice clear as ever.

"Ugh… that hurt, you know?"

The wanderer let out a sigh of relief, realizing that the clang had only been that of his sword hitting the stony wall of the cave, concluding that it didn't go much deeper than this; he smiled contently and went to seat himself at the wall of the cave.

"Heh… sorry about that." he apologized, grinning sheepishly as he returned his sword to its sheath, which he in turn relieved his shoulder of and leaned against the wall. Sitting down beside it, he pulled back the hood and shook his head, letting the fresh mountain air flow into his scruffy, raven black hair. His features were young, barely adult. He was still smiling, relishing in the thought of spending a night's sleep with a solid roof over his head.

"So what do you think Del? Won't it be nice not having to go to sleep without risking yourself to be buried in snow for once?" he asked his sword, smiling as he did.

"Aye, this cursed cold's killing me. Had it just been a little colder I think I'd have been cut in half by now," it replied, now in an equally content, if yet slightly annoyed tone.

"Huh? Why?"

"At extremely cold temperatures, steel becomes as brittle as clay and as effective a weapon as toothpicks."

"Eeh… I had no idea."

"You better believe me. I've been around for I don't know how long now, and in that time I've seen countless battles were swords have been shattered to pieces from striking mere anoraks. The army was beaten by a bunch of Snowfolks wielding crude spears with flint edges! Up there in the freezing north, we're practically useless." the sword, known as Derflinger, finished.

"I see," he said, thinking for a moment about what it'd said. "Then I guess you'd like to get warm too?" he asked, his smile having returned.

"Of course I do! In fact, I was just about to ask you when you'd start making a fire." the sword cried, annoyed at the cold he'd been forced to endure for days now. The man just laughed.

"Ok ok, I'll go get some wood now, but I'll take you with me," A mischievous grin formed on his face as he finished the sentence.

"What? Out there again? Into the cold? You can't be serious!"

"Come on now." He took Der, hanging him back over his shoulder. "There won't be any fire if I get eaten by a lion, you know." Derflinger just sighed, resigning himself to his predicament as he was once again enveloped by the chilly breeze. Alas, the sheath didn't provide him with much protection against the elements.

The fire was cracking under the cave ceiling, lightening up the walls, painting them in a warm, yellow colour. Just above the flames' reach hung a fir branch, suspended from the left hand of the young sword wielder. He tipped it a little to the left, the to the right, then to the left again and continued in the same way to tip it back and forth till he assumed it to be dry enough, then placed in on a small stack of branches of the same species of tree. The man then removed his cloak, lay down the stack and covered himself with said cloak, using it as a blanket. Derflinger hung above the fire, held up by two Y-shaped sticks on each end, enjoying the warmth that the flames provided him as they licked his body.

"This sure brings back memories, doesn't it, partner?" Derf asked, and let out a lusty sigh as a flame tickled his side.

"Ha? What does?"

"I mean this. You sleeping on the floor on a stack of dried vegetation and me leaning to the wall right beside you… or skip the last part, but it sure does remind me of old times," it mused.

"Hmm…" the man sat up and thought a bit on that one before getting what his metallic companion was referring to. "Oh, that! Haha, yeah… it sure does. Damn, that was a long time ago…" he said, the smile having returned to his face. Although it slowly faded as his mind got itself lost deep within its own archives.

"Oi, Saito," Derf tried to gain his masters attention, who was pulled out of the flashback he was experiencing and turned his head to the talking weapon.

"Hm, what is it?"

"I was just wondering… don't you ever miss your old friends, or those times you shared them with?" The wanderer, Saito, opened his mouth to answer, but stopped as he didn't really know what to say. He thought on it for a bit, thinking about stuff that hadn't entered his mind for weeks.

"Well… now that you're saying it, yeah, I do. I think I really do, but I haven't given it much thought. At least not these past few days, I guess trying to survive out her in this wilderness doesn't give me much time to think about that."

"Ah, I see… and what about that girl of yours?"

"Louise?"

"Aye," Derf replied curtly. Saito thought about it for a bit, but not for long.

"I don't know, Derf. I honestly don't know. I guess I do sometimes, but she's got that other guy now that she's all over and every time I thought they were fooling around to much she just came with the 'He's my familiar, so it's only natural' bullshit again. It always comes to mind when I think of her, so I try not to," he answered, his face assuming a somewhat bitter look.

Derf just sighed.

"But you still love her, don't you?" This earned him an angry look from his master, but Saito's face returned to its previous neutral, somewhat bewildered expression, and he sighed.

"Yeah, I do. Sometimes I get this feeling that I want someone… want her to be with me again, like it used to be, and then I just feel this sting in my heart." He paused, thinking over his words. "Aye, Derf… I really miss her, a lot. But I've received this mandate, a mission from the Queen to collect all the artefacts in this world that come from mine and I don't want to let her down."

"Knight's dilemma, eh? Your honour or your love. Heh, if I remember it right you've always scoffed at honour and done what you think is right. So I'm not falling for that one."

The enchanted sword just tsked at his master predicament.

"Well, if you miss her so much, why don't you just go back to her? You've come here out of your own free will, not much more is needed for you to return, comrade."

"Like I said, she's all over her new little familiar again, so what need is there for me there?" he cut back, now irritated. "If she's so close to that guy then what would she need me for? Besides, now he's her Gandalfr, not me. I can't protect her anymore, not like I could before, not enough, but he can, that's his job now and that's even more of a reason for why I'm not needed. And if she's just going to ignore me and run around whipping me and blowing me up because I happen to catch HER getting all cosy with him, then she can kiss my ass goodbye, 'cause I don't need that!" Saito was practically fuming by this time.

"Oi, oi! Calm down, partner! If you're were going to steam like that from the start you could've done so before instead going through all the work to make this fire. You're through that now, so keep cool, ok?" Saito just sighed.

"It's just… it's just… I don't know. She was fooling around with him right before my eyes and even ADMITTED to having an affair with him and yet I still love her. She said she loved him but she's never said anything like that to me, while I've told her the same thing like a hundred times. And now I still feel that empty feeling because she's not around, I… I just don't know what to think anymore, Derf." He hung his head low, gazing at the spruce branches on which he was sitting. "I mean, you saw it too, right? You were even in the room once." There was a pause, the silence only being disturbed by the cracking fire.

"Well… that was once and it was an accident but… she seemed a little too agreeable, yes…"

"You see, that's what I meant. Then when I caught her all sprawled over him and she admitted to have had a relationship with him behind my back, that was it, I didn't want anymore of it. They're probably all happy now, together, so there's no need for me to return and disturb their happy little life. I'm not going back." Saito said with finality. Derf just mumbled in agreement over it, having decided to press the matter no further. There was an awkward silence between the two.

"Derf."

"Aye?"

"What's the name of that guy again, I forgot."

Err… Jean, I think."

"Ah, yeah… that was it," Saito said, then fell asleep.

…

"I hope he doesn't snore again," Derf muttered to himself.