by Aaron Thomas
Kilen tried to understand the world’s politics and asked, “Why does the Fire Realm attack the other lands?”
“Partly because they have no outlet for their anger, and partly because of the type of lands that we live in. In the southern most part of the Fire Realm there is sea and coastline. This coastal land is the only land with tree’s and suitable vegetation for their people. The king lives on the coast and gets most of its supplies from bordering islands. Those islands belong to the Culcara. The Culcara people stick to coast lines and can swim miles, and dive deeper than any other human. The Culcara treat their wizards as slaves working off the debt they owe the people for the killings during the wizard wars. The Fire Realm king wishes to enslave all the water and earth wizards to build back up his desert into a land much like the Earth and Water Realms. Years ago wizards tried to help them by cutting a river into the land from the coast to Lake Leviathan. So that they could start building towns along this river all the way to the earth and Water Realm. When we sent wizards to them to help the river’s construction, the fire wizards grew angry at the our wizards inability to build it fast enough. The fire wizards struck out and nearly all the wizards were lost in the battle or by the wilderness they were forced to escape into. The river was never finished, and now the Fire Realm seeks to take our wizards to finish the work.”
“That doesn’t sound unreasonable, I mean to want the work finished,” Kilen said.
Brent held up a finger, “It really isn’t unless you consider the likelihood that you will be sending ally wizards to their deaths. If there was a way to make sure they could finish in peace, the task would be a grand one to accomplish. Unfortunately, the Earth King is becoming as his father was, in being too paranoid to let wizards go beyond the border of the Earth Realm. The canal is a small problem that has been complicated by the very anger that is the fire wizard.”
Kilen and the party continued to ride the rest of the day. They had noticed the increase of trees in number and in size. Kilen knew that they must be getting closer to the Earth Realm’s border. Leroy found excitement in almost every new plant he found, telling everyone of its rarity near Keepers. He continued to stuff his pockets and small leather pouches. Kilen couldn’t figure out how he kept them organized up sleeves, in apron pockets, and in his pack. They disappeared as soon as he found them, and his eyes started to search for more. When the trees started to thicken in size and number enveloping the party, Kilen began to feel a sort of glow inside of him. It felt like sunlight on a warm summer day breaking through the clouds. Kilen closed his eyes and opened himself to the warmth, before long nothing existed except for him and the warmth filling him. He let the warmth caress his body, feeling like he was swimming in a pool of sunlight.
Kilen started to hear shouting and began to open his eyes despite the pleasure he was in. When he had regained his vision he noticed that he was standing in the saddle with his arms stretched, with palms raised towards the sky. He felt as though he was welcoming the sunlight to caress his body, only here underneath the canopy of tree’s there was no sunlight. He felt his magic and again started to feel the sunlight grow, he could feel the tree’s, grass, and soil around him. Kilen knew that he now had the ability to feel earth along with the sight of the water. Kilen fought the desire to welcome the warmth of the earth magic, and turned to his still panicking friends. “I feel good,” was all he could say, looking at his hands.
“What happened to you just know Kilen?” Brent asked still a little scared.
Kilen answered slowly still feeling the desire to welcome the sunlight, “I feel like I have the sun on me, warming me like a cat on the porch. I want to let the warmth fill me. I feel the earth around me, everything even the grass.”
The others looked at Brent thinking Kilen had gone mad. He answered with a questioning smile, “Sounds like you have just had an awaking of a magic, only weapon bearers don’t have awakenings.” He thought to himself for a moment and then spoke again, still studying Kilen. “You are peculiar in your use of magic, and how fast you learn it. I’ll hope that Twilix is able to understand you more.”
They all looked around in wonder and awe, except for Brent. The tree’s around them only a day’s ride into the Earth Realm had thickened so much that you could hide a horse behind them. Here there was little to no underbrush and you could see for a good distance considering being in a forested land. The ground was green with moss that made it comfortable to walk on. The road here was winding in and out around overgrown trees and was sometimes moved because of tree roots coming out of the ground. With no cart, they could traverse the land easily. They found a small opening in the trees that had a ring of stones used by travelers to prepare a fire for cooking or camping. Brent moved in and dismounted, “Time for a bit of a break. The first Earth Realm town is up ahead shortly. We will want to clean up a bit before moving along. If you could fill us a pot of water for washing Kilen?”
Kilen filled the pot with water without touching his sword or hand to the pot, he had practiced constantly on the road. Leroy and Bowie went off to track a turkey from which they had found tracks in the moss. Kilen helped Brent unsaddle Kara, who complained of having to wear blue, leg sores, and some other inaudible grumblings. They sat her down and began preparing some broth for her to drink in another pot. Kilen tried to think of his sister as sick and needing to sleep all day. The thought helped him cope with not being able to talk to her.
Brent held a scrawny hand on Kilen’s shoulder, “I’m a little afraid for you boy. How are you handling the magic? Has it become more difficult to keep your mind now that we are getting closer to Deuterium?”
“No, I just had a moment there where it took me by surprise. I didn’t feel the warmth before, but I can feel it constantly now. I have it under control,” he said trying to sound confident.
Brent nodded in acceptance, “For your next bit of training, I need you to try to focus on something, and when you are focused, experiment with the earth that you felt earlier. I’ll ask you to go into the forest, away from us and do that. I hope that you can teach yourself how to use earth magic, it is not my expertise and I’m not proficient at it at all. If you are half as good with earth as you are with water it is better you teach yourself. Take an hour or so, come back and tell me what you could feel or accomplish.”
Kilen stood, ran his dirty hand through brown curly hair. He had no idea where to begin training himself. He grabbed his armor, then headed off into the forest to find a quiet place to focus on the elements around him. He began to think that he was the only one that would make this journey without a moments rest. Every time they stopped, he was healing animals or people, keeping Kara subdued, helping with cooking, or gathering supplies. He himself had not slept in four days without anyone else’s aid, and yet he supplied the energy to the others who had gotten a full night’s sleep in Keepers. He felt the determination grow in him to lie down and nap in defiance. Kilen knelt in the dry moss letting his armor fall from his hand. He could easily nap for a day and they wouldn’t be able to find him. They could get along by themselves and he would be able to catch up when he was ready. Kilen was not usually lazy or defiant. He would work to the ends of the day and still be ready to do chores for his mother. He grew mad, these new so called friends of his had taken advantage of him for four days. Kilen grew scared at the thoughts he was having. He realized why he was feeling the way. The earth magic was having an effect on him. He pushed the feelings down, concentrating on the warmth that he felt inside of him. When he opened his eyes he was no longer jealous of the other’s rest, but proud that he could provide it for them. The earth magic was pushing on his mind, telling him to get some rest. He realized that he was not even tired, not with the rings and sword to help him. He knew that this would be a constant battle as long as he depended on the magic.
Kilen donned his armor, and opened his book to chapter one, going over each detail until he felt comfortable practicing the sword forms he had written there without looki
ng at the book. He moved his stiff muscles into the forms, practicing. Using the magic in the rings and sword it felt like it made the shield and sword easier to handle. He felt like he was more graceful with the weapons than he had been before using the magic. Kilen knew that no matter how long he trained like this, he would fail to break a sweat. He closed his eyes running through the forms. He used the water vision to keep from running into anything, or tripping in a hole. He had soon developed a pattern to the forms he used and performed the movements on top of each other without stopping. Kilen fell into a kind of trance cutting and stabbing the air with the blade. Once in the trance Kilen began to feel the earth around him. It was distinct and different from the warmth inside him. He used the water vision to overlap on the magic he was feeling around him. The water was in all the trees, soil, moss, but he couldn’t feel the water in the rocks and some of the dirt. He could feel the earth and see the water when he laid them on top of each other in his mind it almost formed a sort of extension of his body. He tried moving the earth as he did an arm or leg while he danced the sword forms. Nothing moved or reacted to his urging. Kilen became confused and made a misstep in his sword forms, he slipped on the moss and turned his body to throw out his opposite leg to catch himself. The ground burst up in at an angle creating a crack in the earth behind it, and made a foothold for Kilen to gain his balance on. The trees echoed with the ground’s movement and leaves fell from the trees above with the vibration in the ground. Birds and animals fled in every direction except his.
Kilen stood looking down at the small crack in the earth. It was only a foot tall mound with a crack a foot across and three in length behind it. He started to slip, he jerked quickly to put his foot down. Kilen knew that he was going to fall and he felt the earth move. It was sudden and not graceful at all like using water magic. Kilen knew that he had moved the earth. He concentrated on the small crack and could feel the rest of the earth that shifted. There seemed to be a pain in warmth inside of him. It was different than it had been before. Kilen tried to reverse the action and close the ground and push the mound back to where it was. He stared intently at the ground to no avail. The ground did not budge. When he stopped he noticed that he had been flexing his muscles so hard that they seemed relieved to be rid of the pressure. Kilen knew that this had nothing to do with the use of his muscles so he removed his armor and sat it nearby. He untied his cloak and folded it neatly on top. Then he sat cross legged in front of the crack, laying the sword across his lap. Kilen closed his eyes and kept one hand on the hilt of the sword and the other resting on his knee. Taking a deep breath he felt the earth around him, he sought out the water also, feeling the relationship between the elements. They intertwined in everything except for the air and stones, each of those were their separate elements. Kilen could now see clearer the damage that he had done to the earth, accidentally causing the shift. He focus and with his mind he pushed the earth back into place with the loud reverberation scattering more birds and leaves from far above his head. He felt of the moss that he had ripped apart, and forced water into its roots and brought the slightest bit of materials from the ground to help it grow at unnatural speed to cover the bare earth.
Kilen opened his eyes to see the damage covered and whole once again. He smiled and felt the tree’s around him. He pushed water and earth at them and helped the re-grow new leaves to replace those that had fallen. The forest around him seemed fresh and renewed compared the trees outside it. The warm feeling had been restored to its happy state and he knew that the forest had been pained for the hurt he caused it. He felt a pull from within the warmth itself and so Kilen let the land direct his magic. Roots burst from the ground from between the trees, growing faster than he thought possible. They formed a ring around the open space and arched above Kilen’s head, standing directly in the center. He felt the magic and knew to remember how he had done it for later. He could feel it being pulled from inside the earth itself, growing in strength. The root arches met directly over his head and formed a spike with roots twisting towards the sky. A small tree burst from the top of the spike. The large trees from above leaned and moved away from the root dome structure and allowed the sunlight to break through the canopy. The flows of magic stopped and Kilen could feel the magic telling him someone was approaching, he felt the footsteps in the moss coming near the ridge behind him. He turned to see flashes of light blue robe between the root walls that was formed. Kilen felt in the magic and warmth to see that the tree on top as well as the root walls would continue to grow in this place.
Gently he moved roots out of the way to permit Brent inside the arched dome of roots. Brent moved into the place carefully and reluctantly. He began moving around inspecting the dome and moss. He sat on a moss covered log, and folded his arms considering Kilen. His dark hair and brown eyes were a contrast to his blue robes, making them seem to pierce the mind, letting you know that he knew what you were thinking. His eyebrows, long in length and thin on his face, burrowed down to show his confusion. “You impress me at every turn,” was all he said for a long time. He spoke again, raising to look at the structure once again, “All most any weapon bearer can make this type of place, but they seldom do. Most weapon and armor bearers have a mind for battle, fighting, and destruction. You have a mind so different. I wonder what wonders will come from you in your life. I think I will be happy to say that I knew you one day.” He said nothing else as he departed the dome, inspecting its doorway, once again running his hand along the arch.
Kilen gathered his belongings, and tied on his cloak , and followed the wizard, who seemed to become less and less impressive by the day. He had only ever seen wizards as they passed through Humbridge on Springfest. Brent didn’t seem to be as all powerful as he thought they would be. Kilen noticed that his legs burned from walking through the forest. It was the first time he had felt a fatigue while wearing his magical armor. Kilen knew that using that much energy, even though most of it came from the earth itself, put a tax on his body and left him exhausted. He would have to be more careful when practicing in the future. He didn’t know how much more magic that he could dispense.
Leroy and Bowie were laughing and joking about the way the turkey had flopped and twisted after Bowie put an arrow through it. They recanted the entire story to Kilen as he ate hungrily at the leg he was offered. Kilen watched the two together, and could see an instant bond of friendship between the them. He looked closer, seeing Bowie in his lordly red clothes with fancy stitching around the sleeves and cuffs, and Leroy in his humble wool breeches and white wool shirt laced up the front. These two could be made out to be a lord and his servant boy. He wondered if that was the reason Bowie had pushed for Leroy to come along. Brent said nothing, but sat away from the camp fire reading in his book once again. The two continued to tell hunting stories, and Bowie told of Kilen’s near death experience with the stag on Springfest. The sun had passed its peak in the sky and they packed their belongings and began to push along the trail once again. There was no reason for Kilen to report on what he had accomplished, Brent has seen his accomplishment formed in the roots of the tree’s. Along the trail Brent spoke to Kilen still talking loud enough for the others to hear. “Up ahead is a town called Gulrich. It is a small town, and we will be accepted with great warmth. I will watch Kara; and Leroy has worked out a sedative to help her sleep throughout the night. You will be able to restore yourself at the inn there, and won’t have to use magic to help us get our rest. I think I’ll have Bowie find you a green cloak to wear in the earth kingdom. It would help show loyalty to the King here. I would hate for our plan to be in ruin because you chose to wear a blue cloak.”
“I would like to buy Kara a couple of dresses if you don’t mind,” Kilen said checking the coins in his purse.