Hello everybody! This is my first fan fiction. I don't know how long it will be, but I intend to finish it before November. Every chapter is told from the point of view of a different character. I heard about it in a french book I've read (Ijime, la loi du plus fort), and I thought it goes well enough with the story. Thank you, and enjoy the story!

Ten years have passed since the defeat of Fiersome. The news of the dragon's demise swept trough the land like a wildfire: who could have thought that such a massive monster was sealed in a rural area? The king of Norad decided to create a guild for explorers and archeologists, hoping to encourage the discovery of new ruins and treasures.

The town of Alvarna obviously attracted a lot of attention; the colossal Palermo shrine was discovered under the barn of a local farmer. Soon, explorers settled down in the region, hoping to find ancients treasures and forgotten knowledge. From less than thirty souls, the village grew to more than two hundred inhabitants. The small region became famous for its hard working citizens and its rich soil. The young adventurers, once full of dreams, settled down to a peaceful life of tending to their fields.

Little did they know that a mysterious discovery would shatter the peace of the country, and send shock waves trough the entire world.

Chapter 1: Mia

"Hey Mia, look at this!"

The young elf dropped her magnifying glass out of surprise.

"I told you to stop yelling! The echo is really loud, down here."

"Yeah, sorry, sorry. But come, look at this."

Mumbling to herself, the archeologist walked to the spot Aria was pointing with her finger. She instantly forgot her annoyance when she saw the tablet. Made of white stone, it was covered by text. She brought her lantern closer, to try to understand some of it.

"Don't try to read it, it's earthscript."

Mia stood up, annoyed once again. Earthscript, the scripture used by most ancient civilizations, was extremely hard to read. Mia had never bothered to learn it. Aria, however, squatted to her knee and started deciphering it. Born as an earthmate, she had the ability to read earthscript easily, a fact that made her invaluable.

"So, what's written on it, a love poem?"

"No, not really. It's some sort of text about the temple's creation."

"Really? Read some of it to me!"

"Are you crazy? The whole thing is like 3000 thousands word long."

"Well, we don't have much more time before night falls. Lets just use some carbon paper and get back home."

While Aria was busy copying the text, Mia thought that her friend's career choice was decidedly strange. Archeologists often need to be immobile in small, dark rooms for hour, looking in the dirt for something useful. Aria, on the other hand, is both impatient and full of energy. Often, Mia would watch her friend eating candies, or falling asleep on the job. On the other hand, when she did work, it was truly maddening. The young woman often spent more than 20 hour at a time trying to guess the meaning of items they dug up. Trying to take back said item was usually impossible. One day, when Mia casually said that Aria should write a book about all her findings, her friend went to work nearly immediately; two weeks later she was done. The entire manuscript was sent to the explorer's guild. The next month, the team was granted additional funds, from the king's own pocket.

Night had fallen for a long time when they finally made their way out of the shrine. Aria decided to accompany her friend back to her home.

Mia had never really understood how exactly their friendship had formed. She was a quiet, introverted elven girl, while Aria was the well-known daughter of a human couple. Her family had been one of the first to settle down in the village, nine years ago. The villagers, while nice people, were a bit startled at first. The last time somebody had arrived in town was when Aria's own father was found by his future wife. Now, a whole family had bought a plot of land outside of the town. Even more, the newcomers were elven! People wondered. Would they be like Jack and Orland?

The first villagers to meet them were Kyle and Aria. They helped the family settle down and plant some crops. Soon, Jake and Cecilia joined, and pretty much everybody followed.

Much like Kyle had helped her father, Aria made sure Mia joined the community.

It wasn't easy at first; the young elf was shy, and liked nothing more than reading alone. Ignoring her objections, the fiery girl had dragged her new friend to the other kids. Soon, the duo was inseparable. Although they had little in common, Aria took a liking to reading, and Mia proved to be as talented at magic as her friend was.

Since most of the plot of lands close to the village already belonged to either Kyle, or Herman de Sainte Coquille, Mia's farm was on the other side of Meshina valley. In fact, most of the new farms were located there. Over time, most farms were moved to the richer plain, while Alvarna gained new building. The older families of the village were thrilled to have new neighbours(or new customers, for some).

Aria was quiet, something that didn't happen very often.

"Hey, what is on your mind?"

"Huh? Nothing much. I'm just thinking about the text we found out."

"What about it?"

"... Nothing much, I said. I'm only surprised we didn't find it sooner."

This was a good explanation, but a discovery usually didn't put Aria in that kind of mood. Mia knew better than to ask more however: Aria had the tendency to shut down like an oyster when asked about stuff she didn't feel like discussing about. Still, the expression on her face was peculiar. It looked like... Fear? Confusion?

Aria stopped. She stared at her friend for a moment.

"Listen, stop trying to guess. I'll talk about it when I feel like discussing it."

"But..."

"There is your house. Good night."

Startled, Mia hurried to get inside. Before entering, she turned and saw Aria running back home.