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Start of a New Adventure []
<<Third-Person POV>>
After the gargoyle children finished their basic training and time of a lot of learning, they got into a daily routine. Nike loved to lead them on trips and has grown as a wiser monster too, fighting alongside them against foes threatening their camp with destruction and bounties too. Many of the trips involved chasing down bounties for fun, defeating wizards, and leveling to learn new spells. Today was the day something grave would happen, to many...
<<POV of Apprentice>>
Today was the day I would be going to a wizarding Academy on a large island far away from home. My parents said that it would be for the best, and tomorrow, I would wake up in my new home for the year to start my day and school year. I'm currently at sea in steerage; stuck for weeks in a musty, dark, and dank area of a large boat full of other students from my homeland, all wishing to become wizards to learn spells and such to make a living when we turn old enough. I haven't eaten much in the month I've been traveling; only able to restore my health occasionally by a part of a croissant or two I had to steal. I would be an immigrant to this island, what I've heard is called "Prodigy Island" and probably be treated badly at the school; the Academy sounds large, like a church, and even said to levitate magically. I'm not even sure if everyone is sane when they speak of stories like this; all I know that may be a little weird for sure is that I'm going to be a wizard.
I talk occasionally with my malnourished friends from my homeland, all pretty bad at mathematics, oddly, and I'm pretty bad in that subject too. We all try to ask around for answers to equations and things that pop into our heads to make time go faster, but it seems hopeless. I'm not very excited at all about this place; I've been in this ship for weeks and I'm already missing my parents and siblings. At least I've gotten some information on what normal academics I might be learning for the year...apart from biology and spellcasting, both what I fear are a bit different than what a regular human learns in their lives (well maybe biology).
By the way, I'm already just in first grade, not really ready to start my great adventure here in Prodigy. I have fears - I'm only seven years old, I've only lived with humans my entire life (wizards look similar but have special spellcasting power), I've heard that there's a whole different set of wild creatures living here, like werewolf cubs, dryads, leviathans, stuff I've only heard in storybooks. There's fairies, yetis, myconids, talking slime, pirates, other wizards, dwarves, elves, gnomes, other short humanoid creatures, and spritish fey that all give me the creeps. I never thought that other people's sayings might be true! For a while, I'm just shaking in fear in this disgusting, overcrowded, underwater prison until I can see light, land, and smell clean air again.
At last, one of the admirals on the ship has come down into this area and said that we've landed on Prodigy Island. The galley I've been in steerage for weeks in has had some light seeping through when the admirals opened a trapdoor from high above. The galley was wide, tall, and large; The ship seemed to run for miles bilaterally and many meters across; the trapdoor on the ceiling was only just what seemed like as high as I'd go to ring a bell after climbing a tall rope to the ceiling in my old gym class. The admiral took what seemed like hours to lower a stringy, almost ripped-apart rope ladder down to the floor of the galley, and many of the students even fought, grabbed at each other even, to climb up first. The fighting caused the ladder to break! Eventually we had to wait even longer to have a second ladder lowered, this time a bit better. The admiral made this time a bit orderly and commanded only one person to come up at a time.
After everyone came up, me as one of the last few to emerge from the ugly bottom of the ship, we each formed a line and filled out a few bits of paperwork stating what classes and schools we'd enter (chosen by either us or our parents/guardians), our name, physical description, homeroom, baggage we've brought, and more. Here's what I filled out:
Your Name: ???
Gender: ???
Grade: 1
Classes Assigned:
- Special Needs Biology Y (N)
- C-Track Biology Y (N)
- B-Track Biology Y (N)
- A-Track Biology Y (N)
- Advanced Biology (Y) N
- Special Needs Spellcasting Y (N)
- C-Track Spellcasting Y (N)
- B-Track Spellcasting Y (N)
- A-Track Spellcasting Y (N)
- Advanced Spellcasting (Y) N
- Special Needs Mathematics Y (N)
- C-Track Mathematics Y (N)
- B-Track Mathematics Y (N)
- A-Track Mathematics Y (N)
- Advanced Mathematics (Y) N
Assigned School: School of Astrallum (Astral)
Assigned Starter Pet:
- Soral
- Peeko
- Dragic
- (Creela)
Physical Description:
- Hair Color: ???
- Eye Color: ???
- Hair Style: ???
- Skin Tone: ???
Baggage (List of all your items you have right now):
Myself, one suitcase, some clothes, training wand, training cap, training shoes, training garb.
Well, that's what I filled out. My parents said that to keep my family tradition going, I would always have to choose a Creela as a starter (we hid a swarm of our own Aureate in our basement when we returned for the final time). My parents also made it tradition to sign me up for all advanced classes, even though they might be hard, and they always said that the School of Astrallum was best for me instead of the school of Airmeld (Storm), Earthshire (Earth), Fireplane (Fire), Icefields (Ice), or Waterscape (Water). I really wanted to go to other schools and get a different pet for start off with, but it's my parents' wishes I must fulfill.
After filling it out, I took a look again to see what I was doing. The paperwork was on a fresh, small rectangle of parchment with only a few scorch marks on the edges. The writing beforehand was dainty, thick, and black - in a cursive scripture of words I knew very well as I've been able to look at my family's old admission papers for generations, unchanging with format. I curiously looked/flipped to the back of the page and to my horror, a face of a very old Ice Creator was on it, with "WANTED: Multiple Ice Creators Are At Large; They Brutally Murdered, Lynching Culix the Great, circa 1500 or 1600. The Reward: catching these is ten bounty points apiece." I shaken for a second and then was stunned to realize that I was writing with a fancy-looking kind of quill I never saw before; the feather looked to be one of the large primary wings for flight and was long, thick, and gopher-red-brown. I occasionally touched the small filament parts of the feather that had a lustrous color, instantly feeling a shot of pain as though these were the feathers from a bird that would combust often. "It must be either an Ashlet's or a Smoldash's feather they gave me, because I've heard of those phoenixes, natural and endangered birds of the island." I muttered softly, handing in my paper and quill to one of the shorter admirals of the ship, looking a bit dwarven, and had a long, tangled red beard. I glanced slightly at his feet, naked yet only covered by worn, brown leather spats with large toes showing (revealing cracked and fungus-infected nails painted in an arsenic-smelling pink polish, gross). After I joined a second line to collect my starter pet, in this case Creela, something bothered me. I used no ink from any inkwell, and it was thin and red when put onto the page, somehow not bleeding. It was probably magic, and I cringed a little in fear of how widespread and skillful that magic would be.
The line lasted as long as an hour; I was getting weary as the late Summer sun was already beating down very hard. As I was getting closer, I could see the other three lines full of student wizards waiting anxiously to be handed a magical creature that would perform spells of water, fire, storm, earth, and ice. The closest line to the left of me was for Dragic, and seemed to have the most anxious excited students. If course people would want a dragon and not a large pink bug of the weakest element! I looked further to see some other students waiting to obtain a Peeko or Soral, most of those students looking more scholarly and most female. I was envious; why did I have to succumb to my parents and get the worst pet ever?
it was finally my turn, and the distributor of the pets was also dwarves and seemed identical to the other admiral. He stood behind a stack of large nets, what you'd see hanging over a sea trawler, and full of Creela buzzing and thrashing, trying to free themselves. Inhumanely, the Creela distributor went up to the net after every person and took a form grasp on one of the Creela, almost ripping them out of the net. I was handed a Creela, with the exact same features of a regular one of its kind. I decided not to nickname the beast as I probably wouldn't use or have a special bond with it. After I passed through the area and into the next line, I filed around to see what was happening. It turned out that the line emptied into a crowd of students, clutching their new pet and luggage. Once everyone else was here, a few of the dwarven admirals I recognized from earlier hurried in front of the crowd, barricading the bow of the boat, touching a dock of a large town of sorts, with cube crates of all sizes and color. The three of them stood in front of the barricade, arms crossed and with a stern look on all three of them. A small, levitating fairy-like creature was nearby, pushing through the crowd and standing on top of the barricade of wooden cargo.
The creature looked to be an infant child, more like a cherub. Somewhat neutral in gender of appearance, it wore a modest attire of a sleeveless, lapis-colored shirt having zigzag at its hem, interlocking with what looked to be a diaper having a waistband zig-zagged. The creature wore a matching white and lapis cap holding a swirling copper emblem in its center. The creature had a center tuft of swirly red hair and a squirrel tail protruding from its back end, matching in color. Levitating, the creative's small, odd and seemingly disconnected wings hung around its back. The creature announced to the crowd, "Hello students! I'm Noot, your friendly fairy guide attending to your difficulties for this school year."
I heard a few students mumbling, making a few remarks about Noot, mostly rude. Noot continued, barking even louder, "Children! Please listen; this is imperative and important! Since last year, the wardens were all defeated by an evil group of wizards and monsters alike called the Order of Influence and the school is no longer accessible. You children will either have to be sent back to a land called North America from which you came, or stay here and help against the work of the Order of Influence. "
Noot floated down and started to talk to the admirals while the students and I started to talk to each other. My Creela was busy, buzzing with its friends while I hugged it loosely. I didn't really pay attention to what my classmates were talking about really; I was thinking about how ironic that we're a bunch of magical creatures and Boot could have contacted us with telepathy from the big island so much earlier, as now I feel like I have no choice but to return home without any knowledge or I'll be stranded here for a year without a proper education.
Noot floated up to the top of the crate barricade again and started to speak, while everyone attentively stopped talking and turned so they wouldn't have to be yelled at by some high-pitched-voiced fairy again. Noot barked orders, "Well students, I was able to get you all the opportunity of a ride back to your homeland, at a cost of time, pleasure, and you will have to give up your pet. You may all go, or you have one other option. You may also stay and train, helping to serve as an ever-growing army of untrained wizards and pets against the Order of Influence. However, you'll have to stay here for as long as it takes to destroy them and their cause. For either option, your guardians will be contacted via telepathy, so I'll be doing some business and calling all of you over, family by family. So just enjoy your stay here and I'll make sure you all go where you need to. "
Noot hovered away, going down the other side of the barricade and telepathically calling each child and parent/guardian over to speak. I was one of the last to be called over, again. I went to sit by Noot, and we spoke and agreed on me staying to train as a wizard here; I might as well learn some magic and it it to good use.
Eventually, night fell, and the ship departed the dock while Creela and I waved some of our acquaintances goodbye, possibly forever. I was actually not alone; about a quarter of the students that arrived here have agreed to stay. Oddly, all of them have either chosen Creela or Dragic. The other students weren't even nearly as powerful-looking as I thought they'd be or even as brave; they looked more malnourished and nervous. I was similar; only able to munch on a few croissants over the span of many months is pretty hard to go through. I was famished, tired, and very scared; where would I start out in this island and what would I do?
Once Noot got everyone's attention after starting for many minutes, watching the sun sink in the West as fast as the ship shrinking in the South. The roughly two-hundred and fifty other students were all gathering around him as though he had something to say. I came too, rushing over after just finishing my long, blinkless stare, eyes watery. Noot proclaimed, "Well, it looks that a quarter of the entire class has stayed. The first order of business is to get you all to your dormitories. I was left here with a complete guide of all of your information, so I'll be leading you all a bit West of here to the Academy Housing facilities. Come, all of you. I don't have my shielding powers, so the people looking to fight anything chasing our tail must be tough and should already be in the back. Now, carry on everyone, follow my lead."
The students and I filed out, up some battered, tan cobblestone brick steps up to an intersection with an option to go three other ways; enter what looked like an arcade, go East to some shops, or West to more shops. Noot chose the West path, chasing the sun and making the group of us run fast like a group of heaving, panting marathon runners. We finally stopped at the edge of a clearing-like path surrounded by two coniferous forests smelling intensely of pine, dander, and blood of mosquitoes. Some lightning bugs/fireflies were already flashing their green-glowing abdomens, looking for friends. The scene was beautiful, but not to wait in for an hour! I watched as look approached a gate, opening and closing it constantly to allow and block people from coming as to slowly deliver each student to their own room. The sky had already turned dark prussian blue against a sky lit with many small stars showering a light show on the ground below. Looking into the forests, I could already see glaring pairs of eyes of all colors around; and luckily I was saved by Noot's call. Of course, I was the last one again, finally led to my one-person bungalow a few more miles into the dormitories. The front and insides were lit heavily by flaming lanterns, that seemed magical, as someone used a spell to make the insides combust and wouldn't end their deep blaze. Noot gave me a short, tired speech about the house which was small, only having a bad, a nightstand, a wooden chest, and a few other things, and then left.
I decided to set down my luggage near the chest, bothering only to unpack and place my equipment near the doorway, but keeping my training wand with me in bed in case I needed some extra kick in a Magi-Shot if some random monster would break down my door. I allowed my Creela to sleep on the foot of my four-poster bed similar to how a cat would; I instantly fell asleep, its small, delicate wings stopping from its steady, speedy beats. I crawled into the bed without a care (luckily feeling no bed bugs or any undesirable things inside), and drifted off into a slumber...
...BAM! I heard an odd poof emitted from something inside the room, waking up in an instant and making my Creela jolt a bit. Noot appeared, and hurriedly yelped, "???! I need you to come quick! Grab your things because we've already spotted a large crowd of grumpy monsters outside, near the gate! The other students are struggling to keep them contained."
Noot instantly teleported away, leaving a sparkly, opaque, cloudy dust spread throughout the room like smoke, making me cough. I set my luggage lazily lying on the ground and zipped it up, closing the container tightly. Rapidly moving around to gather my things, I slung the luggage onto my back and equipped my wizarding attire of training items. Smoothing my hair and nudging Creela to come a long, we got out of the house and scrambled to the area near the gate. I could see seven monsters already out there, posing a threat to us with snarls. The seven figures all looked like animals I've seen before but with slight strange changes to them. A small arctic wolf/fox cub with brilliant blue eyes a wild fur, a gray corgi/sheep dog crossbreed with a white underbelly, a yellow crescent moon mark on its forehead while being somewhat bipedal, a blazing orange-colored red fox with its tail flickering like fire, a fluffy juvenile ram with completely grown horns, a fawn-like faun creature with two unicorn horns, a large insectoid creature with alternating lime and evergreen-colored body parts and a humanlike face, and a large, floating humanoid with gems studded all over its lavender-lilac cloak shimmering in the morning sun, with a dark, angry face. Noot floated in behind the gaping crowd and aided us, "Everyone! They're a small army of seven of the Puppet Master's goons, part of the Order of Influence! There's the icy Arcticlaw which can counter the attacks of a Dragic with water spells, a stormy Luminite that a Creela shoudn't face, a fiery-colored Emburn fox only Creela should take on, a frosty Battaram suited best for a Dragic, a Dragic-suitable deerlike TripTrop, a Creela-suitable buggy Flikflit, and a very strong and old Ice Creator! Everyone beware the Ice Creator, Dragic, Creela, or not!"
Realizing that an Emburn would be easy pickings for Creela and I, we bravely charged over together and blasted a Magi-Shot and Water Blast at the same time. The Emburn noticed our spell attack and dodged by Magi-Shot with a cocky, infuriating slide to the left but was soaked to the bone from Creela's spell. Most of the other goons were busy battling other brave wizards, Creela, and Dragic, but a TripTrop was still very close, noticing us, and blowing its panpipe while sending over a strong gust to my Creela which contained sharp, pointed maple leaves slashing at its body, giving it severe damage. I stood up for it, using a Magi-Shot to critically leave it damaged and knocked prone. Creela still stood up after falling to the ground, countering the Emburn's next attack, a strong Dragos, with another Water Blast, making the ground soaked and landing the water, coated meteor to land on the Emburn, making it unable to fight, rushing away into the Southern coniferous forest, yelping for mercy. Creela was then shot at with a Whirlwind from the TripTrop, but I cast some of the leaves back with a swirled Magi-Shot while Creela's steady wing zephyrs were able to change the direction of the wind and weakly shoot right back at the TripTrop. It was able to canter around us and dodge the counter, conjuring another spell, a large mudball, and throwing it like a snowball at Creela. Creela was unaware of it, but used a Water Blast at it, making it drop to the ground while it continued to toy and soak up the TripTrop's fur. I used a few short flicks of my wand to get the most potent and wild of Magi-Shots, able to even track and hit critically on the TripTrop. Again, it only blew its panpipe-flute and summon more Earth spells, but I kept countering and protecting my Creela who was now very exhausted and hiding behind my back. I eventually knocked the TripTrop onto the muddy grass around me, and its panpipe rolled from its arm's paws. I battered it with a few more Magi-Shots until it eventually fainted. Creela came over and picked up the creature with its tiny paws, dragging it over slowly towards the edge of the forest sidelines. I was tired too, eventually just sitting and watching the other students battle while Noot was cheering them on like a pathetic "veteran battler" only there for support.
Creela eventually returned by my side, dropping into my lap and humming softly. The Flikflit on the other side fainted first, then the Battaram, then the Arcticlaw, and then the Luminite. Only the Ice Creator remained. That's when Creela and I gathered are energy to continue the fight. The other students were mercilessly landing their Magi-Shots on the resilient creature, only to find that it was imbued with the strength of knowing Ice to Meet You - even defeating my allies' Dragics with one pound if the Ice Creator's frosted fists. It used Glacial Shield a lot, constantly able to healing twice the health it lost the last turn. Creela and I pitched in, landing my special critical, tracking, and rapidfire Magi-Shots while Creela used its long-reaching, long-time-extending Water Blasts.
For what seemed like a few hours, the Ice Creator was still wreaking havoc on my fellow students, now half of them already dropped to the ground along with many of the pets. Creela and I were slowly lowering in health, my life even flashing before my eyes after I almost fainted from being directly under an Ice to Meet You. It surprisingly didn't hurt to much; it both exposed some of my insides, bleeding heavily now, while cooling them off from the hot early Autumn sun. Soon after I got hit from the Ice to Meet You, a bright, swirling light appeared in the clearing a bit to the South of us. Six tall, powerful wizards materialized from the light. One was female, tall and slender, with a serious gaze. Her hair was shortish and lilac-colored, her eyes a sky blue. Her right elbow was locked with a smaller female wizard, still looking powerful, with longish, bright blue hair and matching, large eyes and a face full of excitement. The taller figure wore clothing adorned with paws and catlike features, her head adorned with a shiny looplet of bright cyan gems and a pair of magenta feathers on both sides. Her teleportation partner wore regular clothing, much like a student an academic enthusiast would wear. To their right was a pair of tough-looking boys, one taller and wearing clothing similar to that of the taller wizard enchantress with his partner wearing what an apprentice of a powerful wizard would equip on himself. To their left was another pair, locked in arms, of a flame-haired, flame-eyed, and flame-colored equipment-covered male wizard, bearing a long, fiery staff at the ready. His partner was a hooded female with no formal wand, shoes, or equipment, her extremities bare in contrast to her dark cloak. The six summoned their pets, all unfamiliar, and charged forward. The cloaked woman seemed to have no pets, the fiery male wizard summoned a large red dragon with purple horns and orangey membrane on its ears/wings/tail, the tiny male apprentice-like wizard summoned another more green-and-indigo dragon, the larger more powerful male wizard brought out a large hedgehog-like creature with brown spikes and a tan underbelly as well as a white griffonlike beast, the smaller female wizard brought out a small, purple cat with horns and feathery ears, and the taller enchantress wizard summoned a gigantic bird with bright yellow feathers and a crest/tail/wingtips of a bright blue and another pet; a large icy ghoul that looks like an evil snowman that came to life from its scarf and hat.
The six wizards stopped near the crowd and the taller, male wizard in powerful clothes (not the fiery one) spoke, "Everyone! We're the Trialmasters and affiliates and we're here to assist against the Order of Influence!"
Noot, the tons and tons of students still conscious, the Ice Creator, and I all turned and stopped what we were doing. The flaming male wizard spoke like he was going to roast someone, "Have no fear, Crios is here - along with the powerful Mira Shade of the Dark Tower, Captain Aaron and his apprentice, Treasure Hunter Carter, Aria Strongrunner, and her apprentice Brianna Wintersong."
The Ice Creator seemed to make an incantation but actually sounded like he was going to argue in his own language. After a short sentence that sounded like Neekish, something I've heard from my family remark about when we sounded like we were murmuring, it spoke in our language we could hear, "I've heard of you all - The Prodigy, the Dark Tower Wizard, and the Trialmasters. I'm not easily impressed."
All of the powerful six wizards summoned a combined Zero with their hands, wand, or staff, picking up the Ice Creator high into the air and even making a vacuum, sucking in a lot of the air into the magical bubble and then blasting it out into the whole entire area. The force of the release of magic knocked all the other students and flying Creela over, even I was a bit wiped out. The Ice Creator cowered over, still wincing. It shot a strong Ice to Meet You towards the cloaked Mira, who protected herself with a conjure, summoning a small meteor to wipe out the ice. Crios ordered his Embershed to use Dragos, in which a larger, flaming ball of earth slowly hurtled from the heavens and onto the Ice Creator, struggling to hold it with an Ice Prison on himself for protection against the heat. The shell of frost quickly shattered under the pressure! Aria, the enchantress-like wizard, shot a Charclone to surround the area and make a line of fire, keeping the students and I out of the mess and the powerful beings inside. Some of the pets together conjured a large Storm’s Coming, damaging the ever-flinching Ice Creator even more, but not as strong. It was still trapped under the Dragos meteor, and some students and I were screaming at how good the battle was.
Finally, after the large storm’s coming spell ceased and left a field full of smog. It was all quickly whisked away from Captain Aaron and Aria Strongrunner’s quick flicks of their matching, paw-pad-tipped wands and seeing no more flaming rings or hot, glowing meteorites anywhere. The other side of the field revealed a limp Ice Creator, dropped to the clearing ground yet still clinging to consciousness. It let out a curse in Neekish, Noot looked offended and very agitated. The Ice Creator finally spoke in our language, “It is the Puppet Master who did all of this and not me! I’ll never give in to you, trialmasters!”
Captain Aaron stepped closer along with his white griffonlike creature and spiny hedgehog close behind, saying, “As one of the official trialmasters, it is my duty to punish all members of the Order of Influence, especially to something extra to the leader of each attack. Therefore, you, an Ice Creator, will be banished to the Lamplight Town bounty prison and never come out - for I can tell that you were taking part in centuries-old evil and responsible for the murder of Culix.”
That had instantly dawned on me - The back of the admission papers had the face of an Ice Creator on it; this was the murderer who lived for a half of a millennia at least! Captain Aaron and Aria Strongrunner stepped up with their four pets in total, side by side, and chanted an incantation causing the figure of the Ice Creator to glow and become enveloped in a white, ribbon-like band of swirly light that then dimmed, then disappeared along with the Ice Creator. We were saved!
Captain Aaron the Trialmaster and Aria Strongrunner the Trialmaster along with their pets all turned in unison to face the crowd of students. Captain Aaron continued, “Well students, that is how a proper battle takes place. And Noot - what happened that made these Academy students arrive even though the school itself is destroyed?”
Noot levitated in front of the students and answers, “These students, roughly a quarter of the entire Academy‘s would-be roster for the year, have all agreed to temporarily stay on the island to get at least a bit of education and wizard training as well as an aid to tight against the Order of Influence.”
”I thought that we needed the Head of the Trialmasters’ consent before you’d make big decisions like these!” Treasure Hunter Carter rationally blurted out.
Noot assures them, “It’s still good for us! At least we have a few hundred sapling wizards that will one day be stronger, helping out in a fight against the Order of Influence. Can I please keep them here?”
Captain Aaron hesitates suspensefully for a minute, his two pets looking at him nervously. I thought a bit as well; if Captain Aaron disagrees with Noot, I’d be forced to go back home anyway. If not, then, whoever the Head of the Trialmasters would have to decide. Before Captain Aaron could speak, a strange, Siamese cat bounded high over the gate nearby and then spoke in a voice I could understand, “I’m here fellow Trialmasters; what is the problem I’ve come for?”
Everyone in the field turned to look at the speaking Siamese Cat. Captain Aaron, Aria Strongrunner, Brianna Wintersong, and Treasure Hunter Carter all bowed in its presence. Aaron spoke, starting off stuttering, "Y-y-our highness, Head of-f the Trialmas-s-ters, we are glad to have you in our presence. Our issue is that Noot has brought us hundreds of volunteer trainee wizards to help aid against the Order of Influence. We wished to see if you'd evaluate if they could stay for as long as Noot wishes or not."
The Head of the Trialmasters mewed, "First, Noot, how long do you wish for these young wizards to stay? And, how many are there? Most importantly, what do they have to bring to our table?"
Noot quickly answers, "Head of the Trialmasters, it is my duty that I prepare them for staying as long as their lives, or as long as until the Order of Influence is defeated. There's roughly a quarter of the entire Academy, about 150 students. So far, they are already youthful and have each at least one pet, some already faint."
The Head of the Trialmasters replies, "I will allow them to stay for as long as that time under one condition; they are to help upon quests and learn about monsters, spellcasting, and a little human academics to the extent that they can fully function as 'native wizards' of the island. All of them! Or else, they will return to their homes in their faraway worlds until we are open for enrollment in the Academy again."
Noot agrees, "Understood, Head of the Trialmasters. I'll have them ready as soon as I wizardly and possibly can. I have one question before we get down to business; would any of them eventually be eligible to become Trialmasters as well?"
"We'll see about that later into the academic year; so, how is the current state of your wizard students and pets, are they okay?"
"About half of the population is severely injured from the battle and most with minor damage."
"Fine then; trialmasters and affiliates, please aid me as we use our healing pulse magic."
The Head of the Trialmasters in her Siamese cat form stood bipedially and extended her front paws forward, a fucshia magical matter extending like a tendril over all of the students, pets, my Creela, and I. Captain Aaron, Aria Strongrunner, Brianna Wintersong, and Treasure Hunter Carter did as followed, all strengthening the magical spell and making the fucshia magic glow brighter. Crios and Mira tried, only to fail and be unable to cast the spell as they weren't yet members of the trialmasters.
Energy suddenly flowed through my body and I let my eyes close, feeling pleasure and enjoyment in the spell cast onto me. A moment later, I opened to see that all the other students were unscathed and at the ready to listen to what the others had to say, so did their pets and my Creela. Noot finally broke the silence, "Thank you, Trialmasters, Crios the Prodigy and Head Duelist, and Mira Shade of the Dark Tower, for your help. Now that everyone is okay, do you want us to help with anything?"
The Head of the Trialmasters spoke again in reply to Noot, "I will have to go, I have studies and plans for the rest of the Trialmasters. All of you six, stay here and nurture the trainee wizards with knowledge and answer their questions for the day, make sure to come back to our base at nightfall; train with them and show them all around if Noot gives you consent. And Captain Aaron, thank you for notifying me of this."
The Siamese cat once again made a short bow to the rest of everyone in the field, we all returned it. She then bounded over the gate, running away in her cat form until she was out of sight. Noot then let out orders to the students and I, "Everyone, go with the trialmasters, Mira Shade, and Crios. Ask questions, battle, evolve your pets. Do what you must. I expect you all to return by sundown when they all leave. Make sure not to bother them too much! And most importantly, TODAY IS A DAY OF LEARNING! Everyone's dismissed now."
The crowd of us have all finally broke from our orderly line and came with our starter pets to hang around the area. Today, all I basically did was follow a group of Dragic-owning wizards to Firefly Forest, and looked around to battle and level up. After that, I followed some others to Bonfire Spire, a quite "alive" volcano and ate some wild-grown pineapple for lunch, fighting a Burnewt or two (I finally got to know more monster names) over the picnic. I traveled eventually to all five elemental areas and learned a lot about each, and then traveling with Captain Aaron and a brigade of others to a hot, desert-like Dyno Dig Oasis, seeing a whole preserve of colorful dinosaur-like beasts, then joining Crios to explore Lamplight Town a bit in the evening. I managed to save up some gold from today's battles and purchase a few equipment items to choose from besides my old training equipment.
I managed to make my way back home via a map I found near the gate to enter the dormitories, and got to my hut in time. Creela was exhausted from a long travel and day full of fighting wild monsters. I set up a new routine to just go to bed in exhaustion after each day, taking off most equipment but leaving my most powerful wand with me in bed (in this case, I found a multicolored Crystal Staff from deep inside Shiverchill Mountains during a tour in the morning, everyone looked at me, gaping at its power after battling a hard Squally). I hopped right into bed with my Crystal Staff and Creela by my side and I fell asleep very rapidly knowing that I might just be happy that wizarding is worthwhile.
<<Nike's POV>>
It's been a month, and my four adopted sons are doing really well. They get along most of the time and are growing up fast. They seem close to evolution too - they have had a lot of experience battling small monsters and farming them for magical stars that help their battle strength and help them physically grow much faster than ever. Everything's gone great until today, however. This was the day I would give them a trial; they would fend for themselves for the day while I would travel to the Academy's ruins to see how much the Order of Influence has done.
I started the day my awakening to them already up; playing with their powers to melt ice, summon leaves on the ground to move them around using telekinesis, setting leaves on fire, and causing small lightning strikes. Paul, Cloudmath, Cobnut, and Scamp were having a great time RUINING MY SLEEP! I was curled up, tail in my face, under the shade of my natural tent. I had to climb out slowly as I was at the time not used to gravity. I was then able to stand up to full size and catch the attention of my allies. Paul, Cloudmath, Cobnut, and Scamp turned, so then I spoke calmly and gently, "Good morning children! Today's a special day!"
Paul's face lit up with excitement. He cheered, 'What's going to happen, Nike?"
I replied, "Paul, everyone, I deed you to listen up as it's very important. Today, I'll be away for business and I'm going to return at nightfall. So, you'll have to keep each other safe today and guard camp. I won't be able to come back until then and I can't sense you from far away, so you better protect yourselves to the best of your ability. Please don't come for me, as the trip you'll take to get me would be very dangerous Understand all of that?"
The four nodded eagerly. I waved goodbye, gave each of them a small hug (something I spotted wizards affectionately do to each other before) and ran in a southern direction. Before I ran too far into the forest, I looked back and saw everyone else pretty happy except for Paul, worriedly staring at me. All I could to was give him a smile and a slight wave, continuing onto my journey. Eventually, I reached the shore and skidded to a stop to find, to my horror, a horde of wizard children talking to floatlings and spying around. There seemed to be a group leader, a tall, skinny, and frail female wizard with shortish lilac hair and sky blue eyes. She wore equipment that looked extremely rare and powerful, and held a medium-sized wand that had a top tip decorated with a brown paw pad, almost as large as mine. My mind raced; would they notice and battle me? Would the leader cast a powerful spell on me? What could I do? All I heard was the leading wizard finish up her conversation with the only floatling nearby (the floatling looked to be a young male with a backpack on, something wizards would carry with them) and looked over at me. She pointed her wand over and spoke in wizard speech, "See here? This is a Luminex. They are basically werewolves, but can't turn into wizards and are stuck in this form. They are in the top of their evolution chain, following a Lumiot, a neater and less wild-furred version of it, and then following a Luminite, that wolf cub creature I've seen you all battle before this morning."
One of the smaller, weaker-looking wizards exclaimed in a deep voice, "LET'S BATTLE IT!!!"
The leading wizard looked back at him and scowled. She told him politely, "Please don't scare or battle these creatures unless Swoopy asks us. Today's quest was already finished, remember that you helped me with defeating the six Tempests? So all of you, whenever you enter this island, it's best not to attack creatures that aren't needed to be defeated yet, because your pets aren't as powerful as these."
I was relieved. I smiled a bit at them and then plunged into the water, dog-paddling as fast as I could in gratitude for being pardoned. Who knows if their pets or their wizard selves were powerful enough to defeat me combined! For a few minutes I was swimming my heart out, but then remembered to slow myself a bit as the water here would always be a bit cold and hypothermia can do numbers on storm-element monsters even as powerful or more powerful as/than me. I slowed close to the middle of my swim, when I was just about right over an underwater trench with some unwary Funkeel swimming far below. A few more strokes took me right to the shore of the main island, in which I landed in what seemed to be the base camp area of Bonfire Spire. Not to be in view of any wizards again, I darted over to the nearest sturdy coconut palm and climbed to the top, roughly ten feet of the ground, easily. A few Flikflit were nearby, attempting to shake one of the coconuts down to the ground, crack it open with a Water Blast, and consume its insides. I at first wanted to battle them, but instead, I just broke three free of the palm and dropped it to the ground, making only a small thud on the soft, fertile brush and weed below. The roughly entire swarm of Flikflit zipped over to the coconuts and started to attack the gigantic seeds with their faces. Wow - wild bugs aren't very smart if they don't have help! It's miraculous that such creatures survive without being captured by a wizard. Nevermind that, I was still hiding from dangers that could be approaching. Just then, I heard an ear-piercing scream let out by a non-monster behind me. I shuffled my entire body, making large rustling sounds (blowing my cover, I think).
I stared at the scene; a rose-skinned girl with a peach-colored pegasus hairstyle and a Cloudstrider buddy by her side was close, running deeper into the mainland and attempting to avoid the mayhem going on a few fathom-lengths in front of me. The large, clearly upset and gigantic manticore-and-sphynx-like beasts, two without wings, battling to the death. All three looked magical as though they were brought to life as constructs; one looked to be of the water element, having a floating body shape of golden sand, glowing purple eyes, mouth, tail stinger, and claws, with a mane of fluorescent and multicolored coral in front of a cape of flowing cyan water behind. Another looked similar but of the earth element, made of dirt and had the same glowing purple features with a mane of forest flora and a cape of similar material. The third creature, as big as the other two, seemed to be made of no natural material as it was probably of a different, rarer element and not on their side. Its body/fur was pure white, with all of its otherwise purple features being of a bright aqua-turquoise. Its mane was shiny and platinum, with a texture a lot like a real lion's mane or like a porcupine's back full of quills (it was hard to determine). The flowing cape protruding from its upper back was missing, only to be replaced by a pair of humongous wings of a bat's, the tips looking sharp and matching its aqua-turquoise features. The wings were fully functional, as the mysterious manticore creature flew high above the other two, preparing to release a powerful spell coming from its mouth, fully open and revealing ivory-colored fangs. They were titan barriers. Although I have heard rumor from spying on some native wizards of the island that these were real, I've never heard of a titan with an element unknown, fighting against the other titans!!!
With a loud, noble thundering of a roar, the unknown-element Titan Barrier used Zero in the others, creating a bubble of magic that was large enough to be seem from the whole island! It quickly picked up both of the other titan barriers, but the two eventually struggled free, with moderate damage to their barrier protection yet sending shards of magic flying and the ground to shake! An earthquake formed, and I could only use what I knew of my weather spells; using Flood would be ideal, but would damage life of creatures and plants on the ground. I could also use Reverse Earthquake, but I haven't fully known how to perform it yet and missing would cause me to faint or even worse - get a concussion. Therefore, I did my best to climb down the palm tree even thought the tremor, and perform Reverse Earthquake.
I struggled to keep my concentration as I was literally doing the hula to keep myself upright. After fully being able to cast the spell, the earthquake was gone and the battle between the three Titan Barrier creatures resumed. The two purple-eyed titan summoned an Angel's Fountain and a Blitz, but the unknown-element Titan evaded by soaring higher, away from the vortex pull and the line of fire by flying maple leaves, death-cap mushrooms, and dirt-coated boulders. It shot back with a physical move, doing a forward roll in the air, releasing some of the quills from its mane to puncture the terrain-like skin of the others. They both shot back in pain, making a loud yelp similar to a whimpering domestic cat or dog. The two big glowing beasts collapsed to the ground, making all the (somehow remaining) wizards nearby run away close to me. I had to act fast, or something would go very wrong! Deciding just to watch from a safer distance, I took a route full of thick vegetation up to a higher place on Bonfire Spire. A small pack of about fifty young wizards all took flight in the path, safely away from me. I heard a sudden and strange ear-splitting sound, higher than what a wizard would be able to hear. I cowered in pain, covering my ears only leaving my other senses. I looked over to the area where the titans had fought to see the hero titan standing up on the ground, pacing back and forth around the decapitated evil titan duo. The strange noise was still able to be heard, but a pillar/column of darkness and shadow came out of the sky and touched the ground, then retreated back into where it came to reveal two figures dressed in many shades of purple. One was as tall as three average wizards, roughly the size of a king, floating, and dressed full of rich-looking wizard robes with the front bib covered in special, possibly magical runes I couldn't read, his entire body shrouded in the darkness of his cloak only to reveal an ominous sneer of a mischievous face and the cuffs of the robe open to levitating puppet controls; four-pointed wooden planks mailed together, with five stringy fingers protruding from it as though the hideous organism was a living marionette. Its partner was shortish, only slightly taller or equal to a wizard's height, looking like a regular wooden puppet except for a sentient body and being dressed up in the clothing of a jester-magician, decorated with ripped clothing, magenta, maroon-purple, royal purple, tassels, bells, and its annoying smirk. I immediately recognized them as the Lamplight Town Times, the unofficial newspaper of Prodigy Island, always had their faces in the Wanted Section, something I'd see often as wizards walk over to the Bounty Board to pick up a copy - they were the Puppet Master and Pippet, leader and co-leader (probably) of the Order of Influence.
I heard the Puppet Master speak angrily, growling like any of my species would do when mad beforehand and then facing over to the scene, "Ugh. It's another foiling creature to ruin my plans...whoever reformed one of my titans into the Astral element is in big trouble!!!"
Pippet replies meekly, "I think it was one of the Trialmasters."
"What did you say, Pippet!" the Puppet Master barks at him abruptly, "That lowly band of measly wizards couldn't possibly conjure up a boss monster like this, or even have powers of construct friendship!"
Pippet answers again in his same tone, looking downcast, "I though they could -"
"I'm still not believing it, Pippet. You'll have to go and bring up the courage to battle one of them if you want to prove their power."
"Fine then! Tell me where to go for the day."
"The Desolate Deck, Shipwreck Shore. You did it yesterday, so the Trialmasters probably wouldn't expect it again today. Good luck proving you and the Trialmasters' worth."
The Puppet Master finally turns to Pippet, gives a glare, and points a string to the Shipwreck Shore area. Pippet salutes with a wooden levitating hand and marches away, over to the area to start his own quest for the day. Before I would be defeated or noticed, I turned back and hid, letting the Puppet Master disappear towards the scene of the titans and I slunk away towards the center of the island.
A few minutes, I spent crouched and crawling just in fear of the presence of a powerful, wanted wizard. Then, I was able to let go of my rare fear and blitz my way over to the Academy Ruins. I first entered through the History District of Lamplight Town, only with a single wizard hanging out. It was cloaked in a brown robe and had no visible pets, seeming to be looking down on the doormat of one of the closed shops. I silently scampered past, traveling West into the Lamplight Outskirts. There, it was clear of any potential harm; and so was the area North (the Academy Crossroads). In fear of the possible students that may have recently arrived and hanging around The Big Tree of Firefly Forest, I sauntered over to the East side of the area and took a clear look around. From this area there are two open paths and two closed paths, guarded loosely by a patterned array of large, wooden crates similar to those found on the cargo ships that would travel occasionally to Lamplight Town's Southern Docks. Curiously, I peered over the boxes to the East. To my surprise, a creature popped out and ambushed!
Me, scared for a second, hopped back a few yards, still landing painlessly as I would usually do. The creature, way smaller than me to a surprise, climbed quickly and very alert over to the other side of the boxes, facing me. It made a chattering sound, looked mud-brown, and had the tail of a beaver's. It eyes were smaller than most other animals about its size, or even monsters! Therefore, I recognized it as a Muckster. Its wide stance and angry chatter made it look a bit feral and mad, so I backed away a bit to give it less hostility. Still giving me an evil eye, it eventually spoke in a language I could understand slightly; it had a thick accent of what you'd call Platypus (yes; every real creature has its own distinct language, but all monsters can understand animal languages but only speak monster). It grumbled, "Do not EVER go, look, hear, smell, or even sense any of the places on the other side of these here boxes! Understand?"
"Why?" I ask.
"Because, dim-witted wolf! I said so."
"Really?" I inquire further, raising a furry brow, front legs crossed.
"I'll give a fight if you ask me one more time about what's really going on behind the crates to the North and East."
"Okay then - what's actually going on behind the wooden boxes?" I dared, hopping up and barely missing a high-powered tail slap from the clearly overprotective Muckster.
I landed onto the ground, rolling a roundhouse kick to the side of the Muckster as it was recoiling from getting back on the ground. It was sent a few feet away, landing head first onto the ground. While it was still very dizzy, I questioned, "So what makes you have a right to be the guardian of these gates? And more importantly, what's going on behind them? Plus, if you are defeated by me, would you answer these questions?"
The Muckster solemnly replies, getting back on its hind legs, "You've already defeated me too far! Plus, I was told to by the Trialmasters themselves to protect them from unwary travelers who want a peek, it's all secret operations. I can only say that the ruins of the Academy are behind the North crates. That's all I can say."
"Fine then," I sigh, "Well I guess I'll return home to The Lost Island after coming all this way."
The Muckster gapes with an open mouth and then chatters, "You - you're from The Lost Island? Only one out of ten pets can ever evolve in their lifetimes and only a tenth can ever reach the island! You're one in a hundred!"
I brag, seeing if he'll let me in, "Why yes, I am one in a hundred. I can give you some pointers to help you possibly evolve or even get to live on that island if you'd let me see the Academy Ruins."
The Muckster mutters to himself, then hesitates. He answers finally, "Well, I really want that but I don't want to get a possible bounty or beating if the Trialmasters ever check in on me in the next hour - I guess I'm free!."
I nod, and we vault over the barricade of crates simultaneously. There way nothing but a craggy, cliffed ravine beyond, edged with coniferous trees. When the Muckster and I touched the grassy ground on the other side of the crate barricade, I felt a sense of urgency or danger. I turned around to see the Muckster ram his weight into my left kind knee, pushing me already close to the cliff. I realized that he was tricking me all along! I was already a meter away from falling when I pushed my weight back, startling t he Muckster. I choked him with a single paw and flung him all the way to the other side of the ravine, completely shadowed by the floating Academy, still looking intact, overhead. He wouldn't be able to return even in a few days to come get my from here! However, I still felt an odd change in the wind pattern, which was stagnant, until now, as though it was coming from my back, pushing me towards the edge of the ravine. I turned and leapt up into the sky, watching an angry Nebulite watching me! I assumed that it wanted to fight. A strange, new feeling came over me that I never never Felt before, as though all of the spells I knew had changed.
I commenced the battle with a Storm's Coming, something I still knew. It landed in a wide area, almost as though it was powerful enough to hit would-be does around the Nebulite. Not doing too much damage, it reacted by sending a Shockwave spell. Not too powerful, and since it represents a small stomping on the ground to charge a column of forward-moving electricity, I dodged to the side and mustered up an odd feeling in my throat. I regurgitated a blast of ice, clumping into a gigantic spear in the air, and landing right on top of the Nebulite, standing idle, and sent a wave of ice shards crashing around in all directions. That spell I called Spearicle Crush. They quickly melted away, and the Nebulite doubled over, dropping down onto the grassy ground. In a kneeling position, it then played dead as all gargoyles do, giving themselves the appearance of granite, marble, stone, or obsidian and a frozen body for days. Before I could finish a crouching roundhouse to make it react by unfreezing and starting to fly away, I heard rustling behind me. A group of youngish student wizards, five of them, hopped over and followed a fairy guide behind a tree. I could hear the male-ish voice of the fairy talking to them as though there was a warning, a strange puppet-like creature, Pippet, came strolling across. He snickered, "What's up here! Ah - I was going to create a portal to infiltrate the academy and take hostages of the remaining fairies there! Now what?"
He charged a small Shadow Shock which landed harmlessly on the unscathed back of the frozen Nebulite. I thought, "Isn't all the rage about the Order of Influence to wreak havoc on wizards instead of monsters, which all the others seem to be born from the evils of the shadow blast that caused them to fall under the control of the Puppet Master. Why would Pippet be attacking me - I'm a wild monster, so I should be on his side!"
Leaping back, I landed close to trees guarding the forested areas of the East. I luckily was safely far away from the ledge of the ravine to feel fine. Pippet yelled over in wizard speech, "Hey buddy! Aren't you going to help me search the area for wizards to defeat? After all, we're both on the Order of Influence's side, since you're under the mind illusions."
Come to think of it, I seemed to be the only monster I know that was never affected by the mind illusions. All newborn monsters and merchant pets and starters have never been under the control of the mind illusions...weird. Since I wasn't on his side and to give him a warning, I sent a ring of charged particles out in front of me and made it lash electricity at Pippet - it was a new spell - Unlimited Power. Since I now realize that I know way more than I expected to and that new powers were just probably given to everyone from monsters to wizards, something must be off. The next thing I knew, Pippet was charging a larger Shadow Shock at me while yelling at me again with a reproachful face, "You'll pay for this treason, Luminex traitor!"
I was able to barely dodge the dark violet blob of antimatter. Coming into view were two Brown Hamsters seemingly walking around like they were intelligent, and behind them were two pieces of sentient furniture, Piles O' Books. Following them was a pair of wizards, a teenage male with flame-colored hair, eyes, and garments, and a dark-colored hooded female with short, frosty blue hair and matching decorations on her gown. The two were mounted on a giant, tame Embershed with seemed to follow the command of the leading male. Just then, Pippet turns and the five students plus the fairy guide came out of the bushes to look at the abomination. a cloud of dark turquoise smoke appeared to suddenly shroud the four sentient small things and quickly dissipated into the air to reveal a male and a female Trialmaster, from what I know these people were rare yet powerful, and behind them were a male and a female trainee, a pupil for each. The two wizards dismounted the Embershed, and was quickly cast away into the wand of the flaming boy, and he held a Phoenix Talon. From what I've seen in the Academy Times, this was Crios and Mira Shade, two powerful wizards from the Coliseum and the Dark Tower. The Trialmaster male called over to Pippet, pointing his paw-decorated wand towards him, "Pippet! we have you now! And your Nebulite too! It's over."
Pippet made a reply, looking aloof, "Fine. You have me and the escaped Archive Nebulite, but I'm here to remake the portal back to the Academy."
The female Trialmaster wizard made the same pose as the male Trialmaster and argued, "And why so? The last time, we suspected that you were hiding behind the giant lock at the end of the Academy - Great Hall zone. Did you get anything while you were gone?"
Pippet remained furious and hollered, "Nothing but Big Coins, you petty petkeepers! And I'm not telling why."
The female trainee barked, "Tell us, or we use a combined Super Nova to get rid of you once and for all!"
”This isn’t how I’m going to be blasted off again for something so small yet to large to the Puppet Master’s plan. Well, I can say it I guess. I don’t like the feeling of ny wood-whittled stomach churning again...so...it’s for new titans, okay! I collect Big Coins from the elemental areas to forge with Shadow Magic and then I make Titans out of it!”
The trainee male wizard growled, “That sounds like an awful lot of lying, mister shady shadow element punk! What else?”
“Ugh...I was also collecting some parchment paper to make files and use those to take some Academy Pages for my own study.”
The fairy guide butted in, “Students, I think we have a bit of trouble. And to make this clear, where’s Gale?”
”Oh it’s you six...Noot, my goodness, I hate you so much! Why are you here?!?!?!” Pippet questions, sending a Shadow Shock at Noot the fairy guide.
One of the student wizards in Shiverchill-themed clothing stepped over and absorbed the blast right into her Frozen Shard wand. She then clasped her fist around her wand tighter, making a ringing sound as she had a Powerful Ice Relic on her ring finger, and sent a snowballing snowball towards Pippet in the form of Snowling Ball. An accompanying student wizard cast a large Ion Cannon onto the snowball with his Angel Wing, and let it rapidly spin around Pippet with galvanized energy, making a ring around him so he couldn’t step outside of it. In order to make myself seen, I gathered a strange energy that felt like brain freeze, but I instead summoned a Chill Out on top of Pippet. I then tried a Forest’s Hurricane followed by Embers, making him lose his balance and being blasted by the Ion-Snowball fusion attack.
Pippet was already blasted into the air, so I decided to send a Storm‘s Coming to ground him. After that, I used the storm’s light to make an escape into the forest, and to return to where I came from. It felt like evening already, and I was tired from the multiple fights.
To play it safe, I traveled to Firefly Forest and decided to take a bite from the nutritious rosebuds that grow near the fat side of Stonefish Beach, in which only had been set foot in by monsters. At this point, I was too tired to think about the time of day, my adopted children back at the Lost Island, or what had entirely happened today. I just decided to travel to the area only a few miles away, and taste of the rosebuds that were said to not have thorns or poison at all, and were supposedly pollinated by Florafox herself. When I reached Stonefish Beach, I then had to swim to the other side of the pond due to there being poison briar guarding the near shores. The only life I could see in the pond were regular animals, not even any monsters. Tadpoles, fish, roe, bug eggs, frogspawn, Creela, and Flikflit were at the shore (technically not monster).
I was only at my knees at the deepest part of the pond, and was oddly dry when I reached the other shore. It was peaceful and near shortish trees, with the loud sounds of Browls sparring in the treetops and Squawks quarreling with others. There in front of me was a large bush of rose with no blooms left anymore, only the ones that would exfoliate in later this Fall. I crept over and plucked an un-thorny stalk off and smelled it. The entire stalk was as sweet as a lady wizard wearing heavily of their perfume. I was only slightly unsettled by that part, but took a bite without reluctance. The flavor was a sweet-tart kind of way mixed with the moist taste of yellow carrot pulp and had a hint of what I thought would be like pear juice. I decided to uproot a rose sapling around to transplant back in the Lost Island; that would be nice. I then remembered one rule that civilized monsters must follow - not to damage the natural beauty of elemental areas, especially the property of the EPICS.
I then looked up to the sky to see an early evening sun falling into the West, to the left of me. I decided that I had to get food for my family some way...I had no choice but to travel to Bonfire Spire and collect what I could of uprooted plants that have fertile and edible fruit still left after the remains of the Titan battle. It only took my a quarter hour to get to the base of the volcano with my blitzing speed and rejuvenated energy. There I saw a pair of Aquaster, quarreling over what might have been the rights to nest in and use a taller-than-average peach tree somewhat strangled with mango vine. The tree had plentiful amounts of large, juicy mango and peaches, but I guess it was up to the Aquaster to do what they had to do. Traveling deeper, I came upon the same coconut palm I used before, still riddled with surrounding Flikflit trying to open yet another coconut. I ignored them and walked by, traveling a few more meters up the base of the volcanic area now inclining steeply before my feet. There were many strong footholds, those only created by the crushing in of any of the assorted gigantic fire element heavyweights like the disastrous and unfeeling Hotpot that love to occasionally battle me back in my previous starting life at the Lost Island or the about-to-evolve burnewt, singenewt, and infernewt of all kinds that inhabit the area. Now that I have given up vegan dieting that my gargoyle children are carnivorous, I could really go and find some ashlet creatures and see if i can take any of the unfertilized eggs from the nests laid upon the spire's perimeter, a few meters higher. I could see whole rookeries of unattended, large eggs the size of my fist each. They were not scaled and ombre in pattern as the eggs of a gargoyle, but instead are bright fuchsia-red, like a red-dyed Easter egg, with amber speckles and a small flame at each one's top crest that when extinguished, usually by torrential rains (it takes a lot to put out the flame of an ashlet egg), the embryo inside will die from a lack of heat at nutrients, as the burnt calcium melted into them and the heat of the flame gives them nutrients as the adult smoldash no longer care for their chicks once laid, and that's why they're rare in the spire). After a moment of small pity for the poor things I might be consuming for supper, I put a few feet up and climbed to the rookery. There were no monsters around for protection or competition, so I took an exact dozen eggs from about ten clutches.
I put them to my chest and jumped out and downwards a few meters, landing on me feet, with the result of no cracked eggs. All of their flames were smothered before I collected them, so I didn't actually have to kill any developing chicks. I decided to carry them back while holding them, as there was no other way, so I traveled about the area only to see the sky's coloration becoming red, as in a half hour was left of bright sunlight. I had no time to lose, so I scaled the rest of the main island in fifteen minutes and swam across the trench between Prodigy Island and the Lost Island for ten minutes, arriving at the shore in Central Village/Town, seeing the same flaming boy and his female partner wizard near their Embershed, unloading and packing up some things in the process. The Embershed was still awake, standing at what seemed like a foot taller than my species' natural crouching height, with its flashy, golden eyes only staring down at his trainer and trainer's friend unloading and reloading crates full of things inside. Swoopy, what I learned as the head Floatling watching over the Lost Island for a while, was talking to the flaming boy as they opened a chest together, full of scrolls which I assumed was for the Academy and from the proceeds given by the new wizards to trade in for goods inside the great hall of the now seemingly open Academy.
Luckily, the girl in the hood and cloak only turned her head towards me, and looked back at the Embershed, taking pouches and crates full of goods off of his back as he might have been used for cargo. I quickly disappeared into the deeper part of the island and to my camp, only to see the horror, excitement, and sadness all in my face as a mysterious happening was going on at my camp!
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