Fantasia

Arc1: Battle of villages

Chapter1: The daily life of Juan Rocux

In a magical world the empire of Féena existed …a vast territory ruled by the capital of Hatena, but with time the royal family came to weakness as their descendants were swallowed by tyrannic greed, terrorizing the peaceful land of their ancestors.

Even with the powerful authority the empire had, its golden era came to an end, and many small kingdoms were liberated from the main capital, forming their own free lands of different races of magical beings.

However, our story starts at the southern gulf of the main continent, at the village known as "Ardneria" a village known to be inhabited by the race called "Beastmen" as their name suggests, they are known for their brute force and short temper, not to mention their distinctive bodies; they had strong muscular builds that are somehow similiar to those of humans, thin layer of pinkish fur that covers their pale skin, feline facial features of eyes and ears, beside having only four fingers for each hand and three toes for each foot, and their special magic power, that consists of manipulating flames, eating fire and rocks as a way to replenish their stamina.

Despite they are a fight-loving clan, they forced themselves to peace as they knew that war will bring nothing but death and sorrow, so they changed to smithery and fish hunting.

Apart from that they had something toward grazing wild goats, thanks to a special member of their clan, a young man around seventeen, his name was Juan, from the family of the famous blacksmith Rocux, he was totally different among his tribe, because his skin was a bit darker, he barely had hair on his body, he had weaker build, five fingers for each hand, five toes for each foot, dark eyes, orange hair that's partially covered with a red and green bandana that has a noticeable crimson jewel with the shape of two intersected diamonds. However unlike his clan people he was gifted with the ability to communicate with animals by understanding their feelings.

He's usually seen alone on the hills with herds of goats, carrying a book of poetry or novels of adventuring, hiding his love of journeys under his shy calm appearance.

It was mid-day, as usual he leads goats back to their respective barns, while shutting the doors, he turns to meet his "twin" brother named "Roné", who was unlike him a complete beastman, with fiery red spiky hair, yellow cat-like eyes, two short diagonal lines of dark fur coming from each side of his defined face that ends with a small goatee, he wears an orange bandana in a different style than Juan does, a short green jacket that leaves his chest bare, and short red pants.

"Hi Roné, how was your day?" Juan asked his brothers nicely…

Roné calmed for a second leaving a wide giggly face, then he pulled a small wrapped gift from his pocket and gave it to his brother: "Happy birthday Bro" he said.

Juan unwrapped the gift quickly, it was an adventurer book: "This is Alexer's book about his quests on the forgotten realms…it's the complete edition! Roné how can I ever thank you?! I always wanted this you are amaz…" Juan thanked his brother before his eyes were filled with tears…

"Calm down dude! Tears are no manly, I can bring anything for my bro, remember this is what Demeteri told me once before he…you know, left us"...

"Yeah, I still visit him sometimes, but he insists that he never return to the village again" Juan added with a bit of depression…

"However, there's something I want you to see" Roné asked his brother, and started to chew some small rocks: "Just wait a little more" he said before spitting a blob of lava that burned a small pile of hay next to them…

"Incredible! You found a way to use lava magic" Juan expressed his surprise…

"Truly, now Yerra will crawl to date me!" Roné said with a sly grin…

"Who's Yerra?" Juan asked…

"You know the hottest chick around here, the one with the huge breasts that works at the inn!" Roné answered then added: "How come you not to know her?"…

Juan scratched his head: "Because as you can see girls disgust me, I am hairless, I don't look like a beastman in anyway, I can't even eat rocks nor produce fire, I'm useless" the depressed young man answered…

"Well you are not to me!" Roné tried to cheer his brother: "Here I brought this with me from the usual fishing trip I had this morning" as he pulled a bottle with a letter in it…

"Oh! so Zolu send me a reply" Juan said before taking the message from the bottle…

"Who's this Zolu anyway?" Roné asked…

"He's my pen-mate" Juan answered…

"More details please…" Roné asked…

"Well he's a ragon, he said he's a fisherman's son, he told me too much about his village of Sumeria, can you believe that they live on a giant ice land moved and manipulated by their own king and they can…"

"Boring!" Roné interrupted: "Those fish faces are just boring, I mean they always loose to us in the old days, and history book said so!"…

"Well that's your opinion, but I believe they are more peace loving creatures than us beastmen" Juan said before heading back to home.

-Ragons: another magical clan that inhabit the land of Féena, they're tall pale creatures covered in scales, bearing more resemblance to humans than beastmen do, they have usually wide black eyes and pointy noses, having the ability to breath under water thanks to gills grown on each side of their necks, and opposing to Ardnerians they are water magic specialists, and like mentioned earlier they live on their village of Sumeria, they were once in a war against Ardneria but both villages' leaders agreed on a permanent peace truce to prevent future losts of both sides-

The sunset came, Juan had his dinner, and as the usual schedule he headed to the library to read a book before he goes to sleep, there he met the village's leader who's known as Luffine the sage; a bald midget beastman around eighty years old, with a long beard and moustache, he was wearing a traditional brown robe, with the village symbol on its back; a diamond that has fire coming out of its top.

He smiled at the young man and saluted him, the young man bowed before his leader but the latter refused:

"It's okay kid, forget the formality, here we are all one family" the sage said…

"Hehe thanks lord Luffine, so what brought you here?" Juan asked…

"I couldn't sleep so I thought reading some old poems, what about you? What brought Rocux' brilliant child here?" the sage asked…

The young man blushed then he turned serious answering: "I came to read some adventure novel, then I shall head to bed then…"

"I see that you want to ask me something… go ahead" the sage said after noticing a bit of depression in Juan's eyes…

Juan hesitated a bit but he asked: "I always wondered lord Luffine, am I really a beastman? I mean I don't even look like my brothers Demeteri or even Roné who's supposed to be my twin? Is it really that my father was cursed and one of his sons had to be like this?"…

The sage closed his book and smiled a bit: "Juan…my boy I can't answer you, but remember no matter how you look, you are inside your family, you may not understand this at your young age, but once you grow up you'll learn that the true essence of being an Ardnerian isn't your appearance but it's your soul" the old man answered Juan with confidence…

These words calmed Juan's heart, and with the sage's goodbyes he returned home to take a rest for another morning, but before closing his eyes he thought of reading the letter his pen mate send him, he opened the paper to find that his friend sent him an empty message, his exclamation pushed him to suspect that something was wrong about it, he turned off his lantern to discover that the words were written in a special ink that glows in the dark, after reading that message he jumped off his bed and headed toward the shore, with fear on his face, and when he achieved the place, what Zolu warned him from was already there…

To be continued