by Max Jager
"What is your signet?" Suki asked.
"I can shrink things down to my size. And yes I know normal magic can do that, but what is special about my signet is that it also works on living things." Pex answered.
"Can't normal magic work on living things? I mean, everything that enters Evean is shrunken down to fairy size." Suki replied.
"No that is not normal magic. Well it is, but it is a series of spells woven together that are so complicated they'd be impractical and impossible for someone to cast normally. It took four fairies to cast all the spells needed to make the enchantment for the city." Pex explained. "It was interesting to read about it all, it's a key part of the history of Evean and was the start of our communication with the other races. Well, the start of major communication and trade. It was then that we were able to-"
"I appreciate the history lesson, but if we don't get moving we could have an army of demons bearing down on us." Suki repeated. "Shrink her down and carry her to the shore with you. I will run back through the battlefield and deliver the message to Adamus then"
"Why Adamus? The message is for Alicia it needs to go to her." Pex interrupted
"Alicia is..." Suki glanced at Lillith. "busy. It must go to Adamus for now, he is in charge until Alicia returns."
Pex followed Suki's gaze over to Lillith then looked back at Suki "you don't mean…?"
"We don't know." Suki answered.
"Oh." Pex answered "do whatever needs to be done then"
Lillith frowned, her body and especially her arms were shaking. Her face was pale and she looked like she was about to puke. "Please stop treating me like a child. I'm sixteen, I'm not a kid nor am I stupid, I can understand everything you are saying." Her voice was as shaky as her body.
"Sorry" Suki replied. "Anyways, go to the shore I'll deliver the letter. Have crystal make a boat and set sail immediately, I will return to escort Cora and Lillith back to the village shortly after. Good luck, and be safe. The world is a dangerous place." She said before checking to make sure she had the letter. She then sprinted back towards the battlefield at superhuman speeds, she was gone in the blink of an eye.
"But wait! What do we do about the elementals!" Pex called out but Suki was long gone. Pex sighed and lowered her head, flying a little closer to the ground. "Well, I guess we should get moving then"
"Don't worry." Mendelen spoke up. "We will figure out how to handle the elementals. We humans may not be powerful right now, but we know how to fight." He tried to comfort her.
"I hope so." Pex said quietly. She flew over to Cora and placed a tiny hand on the woman's forehead, after a brief moment of focusing Cora shrunk until she was only six and a half inches tall, half an inch taller then Pex. She then looked up at the humans and elf that remained. "Um… You, you're a healer right? You probably have the gentlest touch out of everyone here if that's the case. Can you carry her? Need to be gentle so you don't crush her, small bodies are fragile and easily squished."
"Sure." Lillith nodded and very carefully picked up Cora, it was strange seeing her teacher this tiny.
"Alright, are we all ready to go then?" Pex asked, glancing over at Zanath and then giving Mendelen a concerned look.
Mendelen nodded "Yeah, he is ready. Let's go."
"Alright." Pex replied as she began flying south, and everyone followed. "I have control of the Air element of magic, I can also sort of use fire but not as well. In addition to that I have a couple healing and barrier spells but nothing too great, she can probably heal far better than I can. What are your names everyone?"
Everyone introduced themselves one by one, and Lillith introduced both herself and Cora.
"Good. Nice to meet you all." Pex chirped, regaining her usual cheery and bubbly demeanor. "Stick close to me, if any monsters come our way I'm just gonna blow them away with a strong gust of wind, I don't wanna fight. Just watch out for non-physical attacks like fireballs or lightning I can't blow those away. Although, I don't think anything in the area uses lightning, but still watch out for it."
"Got it." Kaden and Mendelen both answered, and everyone traveled close to Pex as they moved south. It was a long walk and would take several hours to get to the shore, Pex would stop to sit on Estellese's shoulder and rest within a few minutes of their trip and would just ride her shoulder the rest of the way there. They ran into several monsters, a few slimes, a hellhound, goblin tribes, a swarm of giant wasps, several minotaurs. Although, the group noticed that none of these minotaurs attacked them. Like the one the met in the forest, it growled, roared, and stomped towards them, but it did not attack.
All of the monsters they met out here seemed drastically different from the ones they saw in the dungeon. The ones in the dungeon attacked non-stop with seemingly no regard for their own survival whereas the monsters out here on the surface didn't always attack and seemed to value their safety and survival. As soon as they noticed they were outmatched by Pex's magic all but the slimes backed off or fled. Kaden noted in particular that the minotaurs did not seem aggressive, they looked territorial. Kaden thought they were trying to communicate "Get off my land or I will kill you." rather than trying to outright kill them. And, of course, as long as they left the area the minotaurs let them go.
They safely made it to the beach on the southern side of the mainlands, a vast ocean laid out in front of them. "So, humans right?" Pex chirped as she took flight again and hovered in front of the group. "What is your native language? What does it sound like?"
"Uh," Mendelen started. "Humans have many different native languages depending on where in the world they live."
"Really?" Pex questioned. "That seems very silly, why would you do that?"
Mendelen shrugged. "It just happened that way." He answered. "You are speaking one of the native human languages, the one the four of us all speak. English." He pointed out.
Pex looked at him in disbelief for a moment, then suddenly burst out laughing and almost fell out of the sky. "You humans think I'm speaking your language!" She laughed uncontrollably. "You really know nothing of this world. It's so funny."
"I do not understand." Mendelen stated.
"Nobody here, not even the elves, speaks your language. How could anyone possibly know a human language when you're from another world. I've never even heard of humans before." Pex explained. "I have a thing for history, so here's your history lesson for the day. A long long time ago when the alliances between the elves, dwarves, and fairies first started we only had a couple translators and it made communication difficult. It also gave the translators too much power over everyone else, and that power was abused by some." She started. "The fairies were the original creators of magic, well we didn't create it per-say but discovered it and how to use it. We discovered different elements around this time, and learned about enchanting. WIth the right magical skills and a little ectoplasm you can bind a spell to an object, or a person."
"You can enchant a person? Not just an item?" Kaden questioned.
"Yes. However enchantments will constantly drain the energy of whatever they are bound to, so enchanting a person will likely drain them of energy so rapidly they'll die unless it is incredibly low powered. It's also very difficult and dangerous to do. When put into a weapon you can at least put it down if it is sapping too much of your energy and control how much you allow it to take. Anyways, we learned of enchanting people and after a few… Tests, which a lot of people still say were immoral, we managed to enchant a fairy with a translation spell. The spell automatically took anything spoken by the elven, dwarven, anthropomorphic, fairy, pixie, gnome, and a few other races and converted it into whatever the enchanted person's natural language was. It would also take anything the enchanted person said, and convert it into the language of all of those races. So, even though we all spoke completely different languages, this spell broke down any language barriers. It doesn't work on all races though, just a couple of them." She explained. "After it was discovered, it became customary for all Fairies, El
ves, and Dwarves to place this enchantment on themselves and their children. If two people are talking only one of them needs to have the enchantment for them to be able to converse normally, so this breaks down the language barrier to all the races we see as potential allies. Apparently the enchantment also translates for humans, I am curious as to why, but it is a happy coincidence."
"Well that's interesting." Mendelen mused.
Suddenly someone shouted and Lillith jumped, only to realize that Cora had woken up. "What happened?" Cora shouted out.
"Don't worry." Lillith said quickly but quietly. "We had to move, fast, so the fairy just shrunk you down temporarily so we could transport you quickly."
Pex flew over to Cora, who was standing in the palm of Lillith's hand, and landed beside her. "Welcome back sleepyhead. It's my signet that made you fairy sized, take my hands and we will jump. Trust me, it looks like a long fall but you'll be okay. As we jump I'll undo the spell and you'll pop back to normal."
"You sure hon?" Cora asked. "I've never heard of body changing magic that worked that fast."
Pex nodded "Positive ma'am! I would bet my sugar supply on it!"
"You're pretty serious then." Cora murmured. "Okay I trust you." She moved to the edge of Lillith's hand and held onto both of Pex's hands. Then, together they jumped off Lillith's hand and as they fell suddenly Cora rapidly grew back to her normal 5'7" size. Pex started to fly and was still holding onto Cora's fingertips when Cora returned to normal.
"See? There you go." Pex chirped and smiled brightly. "Pretty cool eh?"
"Very." Cora laughed. "Why are we on the ocean shore?" She asked.
"Demons are attacking Evean, it's bad. We need to get the humans to the island so they can build whatever it was that closed your demonic rift. We need you to build a boat." Pex answered.
"I am exhausted, and I know nothing about boats." Cora pointed out, but seeing no other choice she sighed. "But I'll do my best."
"A little sailboat that can fit the four of them, one with a big sail that can withstand very strong winds, that's all we need." Pex said.
"Lillith and I are not coming?" Cora asked.
Pex shook her head. "Suki is coming back to take you two back to the village."
"Yeah I guess we'll be needed to help the wounded. Smart choice. I'll get to work on the boat just give me some time." Cora said. She focused and trees began growing out of the ground, the wood on the trees began bending themselves and forming the shape of a small sailboat. It sunk almost immediately but Cora pulled it back out of the water, dumped the water out, adjusted the wood on the boat and tried again. It took several tries to get it to float which left the Alphas feeling uneasy about riding in this boat. Once it was floating Cora made a giant leaf grow out of the pole in the middle to take the place of a sail.
"That's the best I can do" Cora said. "It floats, and the leaf will work as a sail. Don't worry about the leaf tearing I reinforced it so much that it should be able to withstand a thousand pounds of pressure before breaking. Just don't put any sharp objects near it."
"Thank you, that is plenty" pix said.
"Yes, thank you for everything." Mendelen and Estellese both said.
"What will you four do after helping the fairies?" Cora asked. "Can we expect to see you again?"
"I don't really know." Mendelen said "but as long as we survive you will probably see us again at some point. If we stay or just drop by the village is up in the air."
"Alright." Cora replied. "Well I wish you the best of luck then. Be safe out there."
Lillith nodded "yes be careful everyone. It was nice meeting you all." She looked up at them briefly and faked a smile, before turning her gaze back to the ground.
"Same to you both" Mendelen said. He noticed Pex fly onto the ship and took that and the goodbyes as a sign that they needed to go. Everyone started boarding the little sailboat.
As they boarded, Cora focused and made fruits and vegetables start growing out of the ground. She also made some leftover wood grow into a basket. She put the food into the basket and handed it to Estellese. "For the trip"
Estellese took the basket and smiled back. "Thank you. We really appreciate it." She said before joining the others on the boat.
"My two best friends are gone… Alicia is gone..." Lillith murmured almost breathlessly. She was looking down at the ground and was starting to shake again.
"Lillith, no." Cora said softly. "Relax hon, Alicia could be okay we don't know anything yet. It's okay, don't count her out yet." She placed her hands on Lillith's shoulders. "You are okay."
"Alright everyone sit down and hold on." Pex instructed. "It would normally take several days to reach the Altia islands by sailboat, we need to get there in a couple hours. I'm gonna do everything I can to make this boat go as fast as possible."
Everyone sat down and held onto the sides of the boat. "Ready when you are" Mendelen told Pex.
"I am not okay, I just watched my friend die and my other best friend is also probably dead." Lillith stated "And they are gone now, our job is done. I don't have to pretend to be okay anymore."
As soon as Pex heard that everyone was ready she blasted a powerful nonstop gust of wind at the leaf sail, causing the boat to rush forwards at incredible speeds. Everyone was thrown backwards from the sudden burst of speed but thankfully since they were sitting nobody fell off the boat or fell too far. The alphas glanced back as their boat rocketed off into the sea, watching as Lillith collapsed to her knees and broke down. Cora knelt down behind her and hugged her close, trying to comfort the young girl.
"So, humans, what is your society like? What is the history of your race and how do you survive without magic? Do you have a religion? How did you get here?" Pex began firing off question after question. Mendelen, Estellese, and Kaden answered most of the questions, only avoiding the one about how they got here. Zanath remained silent and watched the water, there was all sorts of interesting creatures swimming around below them.
The four alphas took turns on lookout duty throughout the night, while the rest slept. It was a seven hour ride before they reached the Altia Isles, a cluster of 5 islands all close together with one little island high up on a rock in the middle.
"That middle island is where Evean is located, but we need to land the boat on one of these outer islands." Pex explained.
As the boat moved closer to the isles everyone felt like they went through a fog, and oddly enough it felt like that fog was making their bodies really hyper and energetic.
"Why can't we land on the middle island?" Mendelen asked.
"These islands are magical. That fog-like feeling you feel is the density of the magic energy floating around in the air. That energy makes these islands very dangerous, not the most dangerous place in the world but dangerous. The elementals that live here survive by feeding off that energy. They couldn't exist anywhere else unless an equal energy field was there. Similar to the way the trees near the elven village are alive, that's a similar but much weaker fog of energy." Pex explained. "Or, long story short, from here on through any part of the water could be a living being. A water elemental. And you do NOT want to fight one of those things on a boat. The boat will be sunk before you even know you're under attack. Since you four can't fly, we need to leave the boat behind and travel on foot where you won't be trapped in a watery grave. Which is where we need to worry about parts of the earth under our feet being alive. But at least you can run someplace else in that scenario."
"I thought the energy in magic was the energy in your body" Estellese spoke up.
"It is. But that energy doesn't have to only exist within your body. When you cast spells or use magic, the energy exists outside your body for a short time. This is that same energy, existing outside of our bodies. Nobody really knows how or why there is such a dense amount of it here, it can't exist outside of a living host for long so all the energy you feel now will be gone in a few minutes, but it will be replaced with a new wave of energy." Pex ex
plained.
"So where is the energy coming from?" Zanath asked, suddenly getting interested and speaking after his hours of silence.
"We don't know." Pex answered. "Sorry. We theorize that something is radiating this energy but we can't find what or where it is. Our best guess is deep under the central island where our city is. There is a few places in the world where energy is radiated from something like this, but this place is by far the most radiated. And you can see its effects, like the elementals for example, on the surrounding islands."
Zanath nodded and turned back to the water.
"Sooo. Question" Pex started.
"Yes?" Mendelen asked and turned to Pex.
"Well, being a fairy I never had a need for a boat. I fly everywhere. So I was wondering, since you humans can't fly and probably use boats a lot… How do we land?" Pex asked.
"Uh, anyone here driven a boat before?" Mendelen asked, but nobody spoke up. "Well since none of us have any experience with boats your guess is as good as ours." He said.