Beginning of the Game Recap: Reid and Farah were hanging out in their hometown's watchtower, discussing how the view of Celestia looked kinda strange lately, as if something from there was coming in this direction - when something DOES. It crashes nearby and these two intrepid teens run to investigate. They find a weird capsule or pod, a weird squirrel-rabbit-thing and a strange girl in otherworldly clothes who speaks to them in an alien language. This is Melody.
The pod's electrical system shorts and it explodes, effectively stranding Melody on Inferia. She is brought before the town's head honcho, who decrees that she will bring ruin upon their people and decides to banish her. Farah is so furious at this - Melody is completely helpless in this alien environment - that she (and, after a little convincing, Reid) decide to go with their banished charge and help her if they can.
They agree to travel to a distant town (the name escapes me at the moment) where their childhood friend, Keele, is studying to be a Craymel Mage. They hope that he might be able to understand Melody's language and explain the mystery of her presence. Upon arrival, though, they discover that Keele has been booted from the Academy for spreading warnings of a terrible catastrophe that he says his ancient books predict. When they finally catch up to him, it turns out he can understand Melody - barely - enough to explain that she has come from Celestia to warn Inferia of this same impending disaster.
They set out on an epic quest across both worlds to discover the cause of the problem and solve it if they can. They must collect the Greater Craymels - immensely powerful spirits of the elements which can help them save Eternia - in order to face their greatest enemy, but the Craymels do not come easily. They are people in their own right, not simply mindless slaves made to do the bidding of humans, and in order to get them to help the group must befriend them, coax them, fight them, and generally convince them that they must contribute or the sky will literally fall.
Aside from the Craymels, almost nobody believes their warnings, but they find a few friends along the way. One important step - an old wise man gives the Inferian trio special earrings that allow them to understand the Celestian language. No more language barrier, though Melody does eventually learn Inferian anyway. |^_^|
The journey is hard, and collecting the Craymels is tough work - they've only managed to get three by the time of the anime.
So anyway, Farah wakes up after a dream in which most of the previous story is recapped in a few confusing images. She and Melody talk briefly about how they first met, and another flashback follows.
Cut to the guys, who are doing what they like most: Keele is deciphering runes on a huge boulder, while Reid is lying on top of it - you guessed it - staring up at the sky.
However, the group is being closely watched by a mysterious trio of masked people with scary voices. Who are they? We don't know. They discuss how to bring the group closer in order to carry out their scheme, whose objectives are as yet unclear.
Cut to evening: Reid, Farah, Keele and Melody are setting up camp for the night. A strange woman is watching them from the bushes. Reid can sense her, but he can't see or hear her and so he just says he has a bad feeling. Keele scolds him about his "hunter's sixth sense" and praises logic as much better than any instinct. |^_^|
When they sit down for dinner, it develops that Reid ate all the food last night. An enraged Farah pursues him into the woods and a hilarious chase scene ensues, as they fall off a cliff and Farah uses martial arts to get her revenge.
Since they have no food, Reid goes foraging in the woods. He chases a fox-creature up a tree and Claudia, a young minstrel with a terrible singing voice, falls out onto his head. After Reid kills the beast she praises his skill and asks to join his party. He politely refuses and she instead warns him that these woods are cursed with a horrible human-eating monster that they should avoid. Reid promises to take her advice and she continues on her way.
Meanwhile, Farah's starting to worry about Reid and goes looking for him. She sees a small lobster-creature and tries to catch it for dinner, but it leads her into a trap involving hundreds of its siblings and one HUGE lobster-creature the size of a house - the monster Claudia warned about.
Reid returns with dinner and they go looking for Farah. They discover her on the point of being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the lobsters. Reid jumps into the fray and protects her with his sword while Keele and Melody summon their Craymels to help:
Undine - Water Craymel
Efreet - Fire Craymel
Sylph - Air Craymel
It turns out that the lobsters are really water creatures (duh) so Undine's attacks don't work. Keele instructs Sylph and Efreet to take out the smaller lobsters while Reid deals with the big one. They refuse at first - they want him to say "please" - but Undine makes them do it anyway. |^_^| She's the wisest of the three and their de facto leader. Reid kills the big one with a couple of well-placed magical strikes.
In typical hungry-traveler fashion they cook their kill and start to eat it, when they are attacked by the woman who was watching them earlier. She identifies herself as Marron, a bounty hunter, and says she has come for Reid - then she nails them with one of Reid's favorite attacks (Majin-ken)!
Who is Marron? What the heck does she think she's doing? Find out next episode on Tales of Eternia!
