Tale of Eldramir

Birds flew through the air as trees fell and the sound of the earth being trampled by countless beasts and Spirits echoed through the jungle.

The voices of several people could be heard as the carelessly ran through the thick overgrowth.

“Quickly! We need to get to the meeting area!” A man with green hair and eyes, wearing an elaborate brown robe with bright green highlights and enchantments yelled as he dashed between several large trees.

As he moved, the small brush, roots, and vines that stood in his way were pushed aside to create a clearer, flatter, pathway for him and his companions.

“Dammit George! You just had to poke the bear, didn’t you!” A woman with red hair and red eyes, also wearing an elaborate brown and red robe screamed at the man in green as she trailed up behind him.

“Shut up Fiana, I had an opportunity to bond with a Tier three Spirit and I took it! That is not a crime, so stop treating me like a criminal!” George, the man in the brown and green robe, called back as he continued running.

“When your actions piss off the regional guardian, making it call down every Spirit and beast in the area to hunt us down, I would say that yes, it is a crime!” The woman in the brown and red uniform replied.

“Can you both stop fighting while we need to keep running! Escape first, fight later!” Two more figures ran out from behind George and Fiana.

The one who just spoke was a brown haired, brown eyed woman dressed in a uniform with two shades of brown, one light and one dark. In her arms was a groundhog that was whistling and squeaking furiously in its partner’s arms.

“No one asked you, Sasha!” George and Fiana called out at the same time.

“DUCK! The fourth figure, a young man who looked to be in the midst of his teenage years, dressed in a uniform with white highlights hollered as he tackled Sasha to the side. They rolled for several feet as wooden spikes sailed over their heads.

Fiana sent a wave of fire backwards, incinerating the wooden spikes as George continued running. She made a sound of annoyance as she noticed this happening.

Coming out of his roll into a standing crouch, the fourth figure picked Sasha up in a princess carry and began running forward as fast as he could. His eyes took on a black and white ripple pattern as his iris turned white with a black outer ring.

“Thank you, Ezekiel.” Sasha wheezed out as she and her Spirit were carried forward.

They moved past Fiana who had taken a moment to counter the wooden projectiles that were now flying toward them.

“No worries. Fiana! Let’s go!” Ezekiel called out as he channeled more mana into his legs, causing him to move even faster.

Fiana recalled her fires, releasing a controlled blast from both her feet and hands, launching her forward into an assisted lift. She landed not too far from Ezekiel and Sasha, who hadn’t stopped running.

Ahead of them, George had continued to move, pushing the overgrown undergrowth out of the way for them to run more easily.

“Ezekiel, how’s your mana? Will you be able to make the climb?” Fiana asked as she ran alongside Ezekiel and Sasha.

“I’m okay. I’ve still got two steps left for now. Haven’t been on the offense like you three were.” Ezekiel said as they continued to run.

“Well, pass Sasha to me. Otherwise, I know you’ll be wiped when we reach the other side.”

“Can’t. You need your hands free to focus your flames to launch you high enough to make the climb yourself. When we get up there, you two will just have to carry me for a bit. Sorry.”

“Fine. But after this, no more holding back. You focus only on breaking through before we do anything like this again. Understood!?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Sasha stayed silent as Fiana and Ezekiel spoke. Mentally, she was preparing herself for the aforementioned climb.

“Ancients, I wish I still had my Tempest Boots right now.”

Ezekiel’s frustrated mutterings were met by a nervous chuckle coming from the back of his head.

“I’ve apologized for that before, haven’t I?”

“Yes, Shine, you’ve apologized plenty, and I don’t blame you for what happened. That doesn’t mean I don’t wish I still had them.”

“Oh. Good. Watch you seven!”

Ezekiel sent an extra burst of mana to his feet, jolting forward as a small boulder landed right where he had just passed through.

“Dammit!” Fiana cursed as she also moved to dodge.

“You good?” Ezekiel directed at Sasha.

“Yes.” She whispered as she held her Spirit tighter. The little groundhog was chittering and whistling and generally making a ruckus as it furiously cursed out all the Spirits that were still chasing them.

“Why did I always think the Cruor were the scariest things in the world?” Ezekiel asked himself.

“Because you hadn’t really seen the world yet. Wild Spirits are dangerous since many grow up without even knowing what a human even is.” Sasha muttered weakly in response.

“Rhetorical question but thank you. Now clench up!” Ezekiel said as the trio broke through the tree line.

Roughly three hundred meters past the edge of the jungle was a jagged cliff face spanning the horizon. If one were to take a birds eye view, they would see that the jungle that they had just broken out of was, if fact, within a large caldera with a sheer drop surrounding all sides.

Ahead of them, George had nearly reached the cliff face, and was screaming at the group of Hunters and Scholars that had set up camp at the base of the couple hundred meter tall cliff.

Many of them looked confused at George’s yelling, but a loud crash from behind Ezekiel had them all staring in shock and awe.

Just breaking through the edges of the forest, a large brown and green bear was lumbering forward. It was not particularly fast, and it had a wide stout tree growing from its back, but it was nearly ten meters tall at the shoulder on all fours, and was accompanied by dozens, if not hundreds, of Tier two Spirits of all sorts that were following after them.

Still channeling his mana into his legs, it only took Ezekiel about ten seconds to reach the base camp, and by then most of the others were already halfway up the cliff face.

Upon reaching the bottom of the cliff, Ezekiel channeled a full hundred motes of mana through his body. Putting as much force into his legs as he could, he launched himself upwards, cracking the ground beneath him in the process.

As he rose through the air, the sound of fire roaring could be heard beside him, and he could feel the heat of Fiana’s flames as she too used her mana to launch herself upwards.

As Ezekiel’s foot made contact with a small ledge on the cliff, his foot found itself partially embedded before he immediately kicked off once again, sending himself, Sasha, and her Spirit higher and higher as this repeated over and over again, until they eventually reached the top of the cliff.

Upon landing at the top, Ezekiel continued to run in order to get some distance between himself and the edge of the caldera. Something that Fiana copied as the rest of the Hunters and Scholars continued to move away.

“Quickly! We need to get to the beach! The Spirits shouldn’t be willing to follow us too much farther. We can relax when we make some distance.” Another man in robes as elaborate as George’s, but in brown and violet, yelled to the various people gathered around.

By this point, Ezekiel was nearly out of mana, and he wasn’t sure he would make it at full speed to the beach. He nearly dropped Sasha, who managed to recover and land on her feet, as his body felt weak and fatigued from the effects of the mana that he’d been channeling had worn off.

“C’mon. We need to keep moving.” Fiana’s hand reached out to steady Ezekiel and help him stay up as he caught his breath.

“Not sure I can-”

Ezekiel found himself cut off as he was lifted into the air by the red eyed woman and thrown over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She immediately began running, and Sasha ran beside her as they made their way down the slope towards the beach.

Behind them, Ezekiel could see that the large Life Bear Spirit had climbed up to the edges of the caldera, and had begun roaring at them, and was commanding the dozen or so Spirits at Tier two that had managed to climb out of the caldera to continue to chase them.

However, as the group of Hunters and Scholars got further and further away, the Bear Spirit let out another roar, and the various Tier two Spirits slowed down and turned back towards the caldera.

However, none of the people there were willing to stop running until they reached the fortified camp near the edges of the beach where their ship was moored to a small, hastily created dock within the small bay located on the south side of the island.

Being the last to arrive, Fiana, Sasha, and Ezekiel were all able to see as George was standing in front of a man in pure white robes with blue trimmings. This was the Grand Scholar that had accompanied them on this journey, and he was not looking pleased at George right now.

He and the rest of the people from the caldera base camp were standing outside the camp, all of them trying to explain what had happened, only for the Grand Scholar to silence them with a raised hand.

Glancing over to the three late arrivals, he fully turned his attention to each of them and gestured to them to come forward.

“Grand Scholar Carrian, I can explain.” George tried to speak up first, but an angry glare from the Grand Scholar shut him up quickly.

“So. Does someone want to tell me just what happened here?” He asked.

The trio shared a brief look before answering in unison.

“George poked a bear.”

Carrian just sighed, while George looked both furious and sheepish as everyone’s eyes turned directly towards him.

“Get inside. Now.”

Carrian’s words were filled with haste as they all moved into the camp.

The brief excitement brought about several changes in the current plans that the Hunters and Scholars had arranged beforehand. Since much of the equipment for the caldera base camp was destroyed by the wild and rampaging Spirits that George had managed to piss off.

“I still don’t get why I need to be the one doing this! I’m not built for it, nor is this my actual job!”

Currently, George was shoveling ditches that would be turned into latrines for the fortified beach base camp. Usually, it would be the cavern mages that would do this, as they could simply reshape the earth as they wished by expending a large amount of mana.

However, upon learning that George had once again caused a mess, this time one that would set them back potentially weeks, it was decided that he needed to be punished. Even worse, for him at least, was the fact that his supervisor for his punishment would stop needling him with useless directions.

“Whether or not you get it doesn’t matter. Just that you do it. But if you really want to know, Carrian wants you doing something where it won’t really matter if you mess up or not, since you’ve proven that simple tasks are too much for you.”

Fiana’s words were biting and filled with frustration, annoyance, and a hint of malice topped with sadistic glee. She had told him several times not to go off on his own, but he had insisted on going to try to speak with that Tier three bear Spirit.

All three of them, Ezekiel, Fiana, and Sasha, had told him that they should only do their job. That they were to finish scouting a path to the Ruins in the center of the caldera and return to camp.

“Like you wouldn’t take the chance to bond with a Tier three Spirit if one was literally right in front of you!”

“I wouldn’t, actually. Not if I’m in the middle of a job, at least.”

Ezekiel and Sasha remained silent as they filled out their reports regarding the parts of their scouting mission that was actually successful.

Unfortunately, due to this region’s Spirit guardian being pissed off, they would need to find a different route to get into the center of the caldera.

Considering the fact that it was roughly a little over two hundred kilometers in diameter, ninety percent of that being the very large caldera, according to the math and the measuring instruments used by a few Hunters with flying Spirits, that meant that they had ample room to map out a new route.

The unfortunate factor that they had to deal with was time, but anyone who’d ever worked for a living would tell you that there’s never enough time for anything considered important.

“You know, I don’t think that that Spirit would’ve bonded with him even if he hadn’t pissed it off.”

Shine silently chimed in as they silently shifted in their sheath.

“Honestly, I very much agree with you, but there’s no point in telling him that. Not if we don’t want to get into another argument about how he believes that it’s only a matter of Spirits being ‘too ashamed to by their own ineptitude to bond with him.’”

Ezekiel could hear Shine chuckling in the back of his head. A comforting feeling and a wonderful distraction from the monotony of the paperwork he was currently trying to finish.

“Having trouble, Ezekiel?” Sasha asked when she noticed him stop working for a moment.

“No. Thank you Sasha, but I’m alright. Just a funny thought about George. You know how it is.”

“HEY!”

Ezekiel and Sasha ignored George’s indignant shout as they continued with their paperwork.

“Well, if it’s not too much trouble, can you please look over my report before I hand it in? I don't want the Guild Leader getting mad at me for handing him something that doesn’t make sense again.”

Sasha was quiet and embarrassed with her request. This wasn’t the first time she had asked for help, but it was never any easier for her to do.

“No worries. And don’t feel bad about asking for help. I asked for a lot when I first joined the Island Hoppers. You’ll get the hang of it.” Ezekiel tried to reassure her that everything was fine, but if anything, that just made her feel worse. Something that her Spirit caught on to, as it nuzzled into her to try and give her some form of comfort.

“Yeah, but you joined the Guild when you were twelve, that was only a year ago. That means you’re thirteen years old, whereas I’m eighteen, and have been with the Guild for a couple months now. I should’ve already been able to do this when I first joined.”

Sasha couldn’t help but pout as she held her Spirit closer to her chest.

“You’re the only one who really gets me, Fredrin.” Sasha said as she buried her face into her Spirit’s fur.

Fredrin let out a few whistles and squeaks as he reassured her that he’d always be there for her.

Ezekiel ignored this as he finished his report, grabbing Sasha's from where she had placed it on the bench beside her. He began going over it to see if there were any flaws, overly flowery words, general nonsensical statements that were confusing to the reader.

“Sasha?” He spoke out as he got to a certain point.

“Hmm?” Said Guild porter looked up and focused her attention on her junior senior Guildmate.

“Why are you calling the Gyro Mana Compass the ‘three ringed spinney pointer ball thing-a-ma-jig’?”

Sasha’s face turned bright red as she was flooded with embarrassment at her ridiculous mistake.

“I’m sorry! I’ll redo it!” She cried as she took the report back from Ezekiel, who quickly let go, lest she accidentally rip it to pieces.

Fredrin just looked confused. As far as he was concerned, wasn’t what Sasha called it exactly what it was?

Ezekiel couldn’t help but sigh for a moment before going over his own report. Taking a few minutes to clean it up, mainly just by extrapolating his findings and providing some of his opinions on the matter of how best to proceed from what his group had found out.

It was unlikely that his suggestions would be taken into account, as he knew the Guild leader that he was sending this report to wouldn’t care for it, simply because she didn’t like him.

Perhaps Carrian would be interested in getting his hands on the report before the Island Hopper’s supervising Guild Leader could get her rotten mitts on it.

Plan in place, Ezekiel decided to head to the Grand Scholar’s tent first, rather than hand in his report to his Guild Leader right away.

“Done already, Zekey.” Fiana inquired as she saw Ezekiel stand up.

“Yeah. I figure that the Grand Scholar would want to see this so he can get a head start on figuring out how he wants us to proceed tomorrow. Also, don’t call me that. You called me Ezekiel earlier. Please do that more often.”

“Makes sense. Here, take mine with you too, would you? Also, take the dumbasses as well. Might as well get them all in at once.” Fiana replied before handing two stacks of paper that were clipped together over to Ezekiel. “And no, I won’t. Zekey is a much funnier name, and we’re not in danger, so there’s no need to be serious.”

“Hn.” Ezekiel wordlessly grunted, knowing that he wouldn’t be winning this argument.

“Wait, you’re giving your report to the Grand Scholar first?” Sasha asked in confusion. “I thought Leader Ginny wanted all the reports to go through her first?”

Ezekiel’s face twisted in distaste at the mention of their not so illustrious Guild Leader that was currently in charge of the Hunters that were with them on this expedition.

“Considering the last report that I handed in was missing several key pieces of information, which she claimed she and her team discovered separately, while stating that I had failed to do my job, when we passed the information to Carrian, You’ll need to forgive me if I don’t trust that bitch not to sabotage me again.”

“Language!” Fiana and George called out from the side.

Ezekiel might’ve laughed at the ridiculousness of their words, if not for how annoyed he was at the thought of dealing with his present Guild Leader.

Even Shine had started rattling in their sheath as they started ranting in the back of Ezekiel’s head at the amount of bullshit that Ginny had been putting them through, just because she didn’t like him.

He didn’t even get why she didn’t like him. He knew it wasn’t because he was a Void Mage, as she had no qualms with providing aid for Void Mages and was more than happy to help spread the Void mana meditation techniques the Church was handing out.

But for some reason, since day one, she had been utterly opposed to his entry into the Island Hopper Guild

It was ridiculous. He knew for a fact that, if it wasn’t for the fact that the other four Guild Leaders knew just how responsible and capable, he was, as well as just how much Ginny disliked him, he probably would’ve been forced to go back to being a ward of the Church full time.

Regardless, Sasha winced at the reminder of what had happened during the last time they had gone through a full planning session when the topics of reports were brought up.

“Well, at least nothing bad happened, right?”

Sasha’s words were not effective in the least, and she knew it.

“That’s only because I’m a man of good standing with the Church of Ten, so when I asked to be interrogated with several truth spells, my request was granted.”

Sasha winced again, but this time didn’t say anything.

‘Sigh’ “I’m not mad at you, Sasha, I’m mad at the situation.” Anyways, I’ll be back in a few minutes after I explain things to the Grand Scholar. When I return, I’ll go over your report with you, alright?”

“Sure thing. Also, thank you.” Sasha said as she bowed her head in thanks.

“No worries.”

Ezekiel then paused for a second as he thought of something while he was placing the reports in his satchel. He quickly reached into his void pouch and grabbed a crystal fountain pen.

“George, can I borrow some more paper?”

“Sure, thing brat. Just take it from my bag. But I expect a favor later on!”

“Thank you. So long as it’s a small one that will be fine.”

Ezekiel then detached a small orb from the top of the pen, where it floated above his completed report. The pen then came to life and began copying the report from onto the new stack of blank paper.

“Better to have a backup, just in case.” Ezekiel said in response to the confused looks he was getting from his team members.

Ezekiel then made his way to the large workshop and living quarters for Carrian. Several scholars were bustling about as they went over maps and inspected samples of flora and rocks from different areas of the island.

He wasn’t that interested in what was going on, mainly wanting to just hand over the reports and be done with it, but upon entering the large tent-cabin structure, he knew that his evening was about to get worse.

“Luminance, what are you doing here?”

Standing across from the Grand Scholar was Ginny Mender, the very person he was trying to avoid handing his report to.

“Handing in reports. Scholars Fiana and George asked me to hand them in since I had finished mine, and George still needed to complete his punishment.”

Carrian looked interested, while Ginny looked annoyed.

“Well, please hand them over and get out. We need to figure out how to get around that mess you made earlier today.” Ginny said in a dismissive tone.

Now it was Carrian that looked annoyed, as it was well known, and confirmed, that Ezekiel had nothing to do with the events that had happened earlier that day.

“I think you mean the events that George caused. As I distinctly remember having it confirmed, via oath and magic, that it was not my fault in any way.”

“Are you saying I’m wrong?” Ginny said in a challenging tone. The bat hanging off her shirt opened its eyes and was now glaring at Ezekiel alongside her.

“Yes. I am. Here is my report, as well as the reports of Scholars Fiana and George.” Ezekiel roughly dropped a copy of his report in front of Ginny, who was practically growling at him, and gently slid a copy of his report, alongside Fiana’s and George’s, over to Carrian.

“Before you finish here, Grand Scholar, please be aware that I have taken the liberty of creating a copy of my work with a Gemini Pen, which I have included with the reports from your Scholars. We wouldn’t want any useless fools making a mistake like last time.”

“You little brat!” Ginny exclaimed.

“Enough!” Carrian pulsed his mana for a moment, causing Ginny and her Spirit to flinch and recoil. Something that Ezekiel very clearly did not do, even though he was subjected to the same flex of power as they had been.

“Thank you, Ezekiel. I will be sure to double check this report with the one you gave Ginny, just to be sure that they are indeed the same.”

Ezekiel smiled at Carrian’s words, even though he felt a little bit guilty at causing the man additional frustration. The old man had gone through a lot for him after all, and to be given the privilege of being personally invited on this expedition was something Ezekiel was immensely grateful for.

Ginny looked like she had swallowed an entire lemon with how badly she was puckered up. But she knew that she couldn’t do anything right now, or in the near future, as she wouldn’t be able to claim that Ezekiel had given her a false report if Carrian was going to compare the two before she left.

“I will leave you to your planning then. I’ll likely be calling it an early night tonight so that I can be ready for whatever scouting and mapping you plan on having worked on tomorrow. Good night, sir.”

Ezekiel had specifically left out any form of address to Ginny, something that both senior Mages noticed, as indicated by the clenching of fists and the tired sigh that emanated from them.

“Just go.”

“Yes sir.”

Ezekiel quickly left the tent, knowing that he’d begun to push the boundaries a bit too far.

As he got further and further from the tent, he was able to reflect on his behavior, and he couldn’t help but briefly wonder if he was going through his teenage rebellious phase.

He wouldn’t have acted that way in front of a man he respected like that if he wasn’t. Even if a bitch like Ginny was in the room with them.

“What’s teenage rebellion?”

Shine’s innocent question pulled a tired chuckle from Ezekiel as he trekked back toward where George was digging more latrines.

“Well, I guess you could say it’s something like this.”

As Ezekiel explained the processes of puberty and the general behaviors of those at different ages of adolescence, he couldn’t help but calm down, and as he did he reflected on where he was now.

In the three or so years since his exile, he’d further his Void Magic with Shine’s help, advanced the Church of Ten’s understanding of Void Magic, again, fought with a pirate crew, joined a Guild, and was on his third expedition to and Ancient Ruin. This one being a newly discovered one.

A part of him couldn't wait to find out what secrets they would discover, while another part felt melancholic at the trials he had overcome to reach this point, not because he was some special key to be used and protected, but as a valued member of the team, who had earned his place among them.