Chapter 2: The Little Sorcerers and The Wisdom of Gaeus
"Long before life and Fa'Diel existed there was only darkness and fading stars.
There was one star that wouldn't, fade. It only grew stronger and brighter, and one day,
became a sun, and that star brought light and banished the eternal darkness.
The Mana Goddess came to be from the life giving rays of the sun and decided,
She would make a beautiful land, reflecting the life she was given into a wondrous world.
The young Mana Goddess created the land of Fa'Diel a rich land devoid of any life"
My shoulders slumped as I dragged my feet back along the dirt road of Luon, the hot mid-day sun beaming and burning. I let out a big sigh, I was swindled by that sneaky rabbit again. First he gives me these useless items that steals three hundred lucre, my hard earned money from Mark. With that thought on my mind I cursed Niccolo several more times, stinking thief, I don't know why I even go with him anymore, he's stolen money from me each time I've helped him.
I kicked a tree stump in anger, not really the best idea for my toes, but it definitely helped my temper cool off a bit. I started to jog down the path, hopefully I could get back to Domina soon, I still need to do my shopping and figure out who that man was. What was his name, Eli? Elroy, no.. I know it started with an el, but I just couldn't remember the rest!
As I rounded the corner to the fork for the Wisdom I saw a young woman, pacing back and forth, almost going back to Domina turning around and almost going down the Wisdom's path. She kept pacing back and forth, and would probably continue to do so for a while. Eventually I called out to her, not wanting to approach her and scare her silly. "Hello!"
Her ear twitched back and she turned around, her tail swishing with her. "Hello, do you know if the Wisdom is down this path." I walked up and she pointed down the path that I didn't arrive from. Giving a quick nod I intended to say something when the young monk asked another question. "Domina is that way right? Once I Leave I take a right?"
"No, once you leave Luon hang a left. You'll get to Domina for sure there, there's an inn called Mana's Blessing if you need a place to stay. If you say that I sent you Miss Yuka should give you a discount. Just say Imu sent you." The young lady nodded, trying to take it all in. She gave me a quick bow, her bells singing and thanked me.
"Thank you, My name's Daena, I'm a warrior monk of Gato. I will see you in Domina later." She waved a short wave and went back to pacing.
"Good luck!" I gave a wave in return and headed to the entrance of Luon, maybe I'll visit Gaeus soon too, it's been a while since we've chatted. Eventually the telltale Boink came over the hill and I was in bliss, almost to Domina, I hope that Ren hasn't eaten any of the tablecloths at the pub.
With that thought in mind I picked up the pace, I don't want my tab to be racked up by tablecloths, I rounded the entrance to Domina and slowed down, and as I approached the small outdoor cafe Ren practically tackled me, though since he was small it was as if a cloud tackled me. Kneeling down I picked the small ball of fur up and hugged him. "I missed you too buddy, did you eat any tablecloths while I was away?"
Ren snuggled deeper into my shoulder, and I walked up, I saw a few nibbles no real holes. I straightened myself and turned to the door. "Imu, thank goodness, it's so hairy scary! Pun-punkins have taken over west Domina. Ohh~ I can't get my jobby-job done, it's so scary. I bet an evil evil~ mage is out to get us, with his army-warmy of punkins!" In a flurry of feathers Amalette rushed over to me and almost knocked me over. Feathers were sticking out in all directions and her red cap askew.
"Calm down, deep breaths. Pumpkins, in west Domina right?" Amalette took about two deep breaths and nodded. "I'll go check it out, you, um... sit here and get a nice cold drink." Without another word Amalette nodded wished me luck and waddled into the pub. Another sigh managed it's way out, and I started down the path to west Domina. "Curiosities later I guess."
As I walked along the path I saw no signs of an evil pumpkin invasion, Diddle and Capella were still playing as usual and the outer houses were fine, where were these pumpkins! I finally saw the when I reached the outskirts, and it wasn't too threatening, with all of them being jack-o-lanterns and only really three a substantial size. Honestly it felt like a Halloween contest instead of an invasion. When I inched further into the patch I saw, who must be the geniuses that thought this up, they were... elven children? With another look there was no mistaking that they were just kids.
"MWUAHAHAHAH!" Just kids who have the worst evil laugh ever. I smothered the laughter that was threatening to escape, and hunched over trying not to be seen either.
"Cut it out Bud, that laugh is terrible." The exasperated snap echoed through the small patch, she clearly was fed up with Bud and his antics.
"Can't you see Lisa, it'll be awesome! We'll rule the world as siblings, all will kneel before us!" I doubled over holding in the laughter that was begging for an escape, they were so short that I was probably taller even if I was kneeling. This kid had a serious overconfidence in his abilities, his pumpkins couldn't take over more than the outskirts of Domina, let alone all of Fa'Diel. Though for such a young elf, he was better than most, with the proper training he would make a fine mage.
"With pumpkins, were going to take over the world with... pumpkins." Lisa rolled her eyes and got off of the rock she had been sitting on, letting out a weary sigh as she approached her brother. At this point a bubble of laughter broke out, I couldn't hold it in any longer, especially because Lisa voiced my thoughts, The two stopped talking immediately after I began my giggles.
"Get out here, I know you're there. I heard you!" With my spying discovered I stood and walked over to the duo with my hands trying to gesture that I meant no harm. "We caught you peasant! Now kneel before the Malignant Bud!" I almost did kneel, but not from fear but another peal of laughter escaped, doubling me over, I didn't know kids knew words like malignant, and that he looked about the furthest from malignant you could get. I almost didn't hear the following 'I said kneel!' from Bud because of my fit of giggles.
Thankfully Lisa interjected, either to egg on Bud, or to insult him. "Maybe you should use your pumpkins to do it." Bud's face lit up as if he had and epiphany, and Lisa to groan at the look. Clearly it had the wrong affect on Bud than she was aiming for.
"That's the best idea ever Lisa, lets do that after we beat her up!" I tried to compose myself, I had to be a little serious. I stood my ground and fought another bubble of giggles at Lisa's exasperated 'geez.' In a moment though Bud started to attack.
The young elf flung the frying pan that was hanging on his back up into the air, and started a summon. So these kids knew some serious magic to be able to summon a mana, though his aim was slightly off and the deluge of boulders attacked the space next to me, they need a little refinement and then they would be excellent sorcerers.
"Stop moving!" I ran up to Lisa, catching her off guard and grabbed her around the waist. She didn't really struggle too much, but to be fair she really wasn't fighting much either. I dodged another attack from Bud, and proceeded to do almost the same thing I did to Lisa. He blinked at how fast I ran at him and struggled when I hoisted him up over my shoulder. The fight didn't last longer than a few minutes, and no one was hurt, except for a few pumpkins.
"Stop kicking me, I'm not going to hurt you!" Bud was still struggling and had started to kick my chest. I set Lisa down onto a large pumpkin, and did the same to Bud. I held both of their heads and looked them in the eyes. "So, why did you want to take over Domina with an army of twenty jack-o-lanterns?"
"It was Bud's idea!" Bud swung his head over to his sister and stared.
"Na-uh, you said we should start with Domina, since it was small!"
"Yeah, you were the one who made the dumb pumpkins!" Quickly before a fight started I turned their heads back to me.
"Okay, that question will get answered later. What are you too doing in Domina, and where are your parents?" As I asked about their parents the twins faces fell, clearly nothing good.
"We were kicked out of the Magic Academy in Geo, because of too many 'unauthorized' experiments, and for blowing up too many classrooms," and almost silently Bud whispered, "and because we couldn't pay the tuition." I looked at them, in order to have gotten into the academy the applicant needs to pass a series of aptitude tests, a long time ago I applied and got turned down in the first set of tests, these twins just needed a different style of teaching, just like I did. "Our parents, um, well..."
"They died, a while ago." I stared at the two elves, they were so young and didn't deserve such troubles, I wish I could do something for the two orphan sorcerers. I saw Bud look at me and he busted out a tirade of words.
"That was amazing Miss, so much cooler than any of the professors at the academy, you dodged all my spells and took us down without hurting us! Can you do magic too, I bet if you did you'd be super cool at that too. Is that a monster you've trained, I heard that not a lot of people raise monsters to fight for them and that it was super hard! Can you teach me how to raise monsters and fight and do cool magic like you!" I sat for a moment in complete shock, it almost sounded like the boy said it all in one breath, but now I had an idea, apprentices. They could be safe in my home learning magic and cleaning my house. "Make us you apprentices! Please!" A wide smile spread on my face, perfect.
"Sure, why not?" The twins broke out into identical smiles and bounced practically to the moons. "I live just outside of Domina, on the top of the hill. My name is Imu, and I look forward to teaching you two."
"I'm Lisa, and he's Bud. We'll be the best apprentices ever, I swear it!"
"Master, wake up, Lisa made you breakfast!" I awoke to confusion when I heard the call of a small child, I didn't remember that I had adopted two twin elves as my apprentices.
"Wha..." I couldn't get out my next sentence, Bud was ecstatic and dragged me out of bed and down the stairs, not a small feat for sure, I was still half asleep by the time that I was shoved into my dining room and into a chair.
"Here you go Master! I hope you enjoy!" I looked down at the table where the most delicious looking -and for that matter smelling- breakfast was sitting in front of me. What tine is it? I glanced out the window and saw that the sun was barely above the horizon and the sky was still pink from dawn.
"I can't wait for our first lesson Master!" I glanced to my left to see Bud and Lisa practically bouncing with excitement their smiles took up most of their tiny faces. I took a deep breath and prepared myself.
"Thank you for breakfast you too, it's amazing." Taking another breath I summoned the courage to tell them I needed to leave, that I wandered. "I need to tell you two somethings, about me. I work as a mercenary, and I'm not home a lot but I'll always come back home, no matter how long I'm gone." I watched as the twin smiles dimmed, and I wanted to just fall of of the Gato cliff side. "I, um, need to go later today, but I'll give you some books to study that I know the academy doesn't lend out to students." Their smiles weren't as beaming as before but they were back.
We sat for a few hours, mostly talking about magic and what the duo already knew. By noon Bud and Lisa were engrossed in the books I had given them and I was on my way to Domina, alone. I took Ren out of the barn to keep the twins company, not trusting him with a long journey yet, he was still too young, too inexperienced and I didn't trust him with the tablecloths at Amanda and Barrett's.
When I was finally in Domina I was a little paranoid, was Amalette going to pop out with another invasion, or was Niccolo going to propose another terrible idea that I would inexplicably go along with. So as I walked over to the inn I kept looking over my shoulder, I wanted to investigate my curiosities and not be distracted again.
"Good afternoon Imu, nice to see you in here!" I waved at Miss Yuka in greeting, hoping to catch her attention further. "I see you dear, what do you need?"
"Hi Miss Yuka, I have two people that I'm looking for, have you seen a man, greenish hair, desert attire?" She stood for a moment with her wing on her chin in thought, but shook her head soon after.
"I saw him in the market yesterday, but only for a moment. He looked stressed out!" She let out a cluck of fear and continued. "I wouldn't mess with him, if I were you honey, he looks dangerous." I waved off her concern, I could handle myself.
"I'll be fine, don't worry about me. I do wonder if you've seen a young warrior monk, she was wearing purple and had bells in her ears by name of Daena have you?" Miss Yuka nodded and looked over to Mr. Moti, and asked quickly what room Daena was In.
"She's over in room four, off to the right and down the hall. So Imu, how have you been, it's been a while since you've been in town so many days in a row. Usually you're cooped up in your workshops or off in the wilds hunting for rare ingredients. What's got you down here?"
"I don't go off 'in the wilds' I go to Geo and Lumina, and I've been vexed by my curiosity. I need to know things and the people that can tell me the answers are here in town, oh yeah, I picked up the sorcerers that caused the 'pumpkin invasion' yesterday."
"Did you cart them off to Geo to get punished? They can't be good if they tried to invade here!" I let out a guffaw, those too were definitely not good children, they were amazing ones.
"No, they were just two kids messing around, did Amalette tell you about the 'invasion'?" I let out another chuckle at her small nod. "There wasn't more than thirty, no, twenty pumpkins, and they weren't even animate, the two were twins, and Itookthemin." I rushed the end of the sentence, not wanting to draw out the huge favor that I wanted to ask, with Miss Yuka blinking in shock at me.
"Honey, you're never home. You roll in and out of here faster than a hoppin' tick in a butcher shop. How are you going to take care of them Imu, you barely take care of your self."
"That was another thing I was gonna ask you, as a huge favor. When I'm gone, can you check in on them, like once a week to see if they haven't torn everything apart?"
"Dear, don't worry about it, I'll bring my little Pee-Wee along. It'll do him good to get out sometimes." I engulfed the woman in a bear hug thanking her over and over.
"You are the best Miss Yuka! I'll see you later, adventuring 'in the wilds' awaits." She gave me a pat and pointed me on my way.
"Come around here more often okay, I get worried about you."
"Don't worry I will, I've got twins now." With that I gave a wave and jogged away, not wanting to delay any longer. Walking down the hall was fairly uneventful as it was a short way to room four. My hand hesitated for a moment, I took a deep breath and forced my hand to knock on the humble door. I waited for a moment and heard a faint 'one moment' and some shuffling before the door swung open.
"Hello, you're the person from Luon, come in I'll get you some water." The sigh of relief I released could not have been bigger. The room was cozy and warm, with just the right amount of space, somehow. I made my way over to the chair and sat. "Here you go."
"Thanks, how was your talk with the Wisdom?" She looked away and sat onto the bed, her shoulders slumped, clearly nothing good.
"I couldn't get the courage, to even go down his path." She had obviously never talked to him before, Gaeus was one of the kindest people I knew. Before I could say anything though Daena asked a perplexing question. "Do you think the Mana Tree was real?" I almost dropped the glass I was holding, not many people talk about the Mana Tree anymore, and even less question if it existed, most forgot about the legend entirely.
"I don't know anymore, but I'd like to." The answer I gave was one that Daena wasn't looking for.
"What do you think happens to your soul, when you pass on?" She rushed through her question, nervous and unsure, making me wonder what was going on in her life that she needed to see a Wisdom and as him these questions. I pondered for a while thinking, not about her question, but about what was happening to her.
"Honestly, I think they last forever, even after you die." She snapped her head towards me and stared for as long as I pondered. Her slit eyes staring almost unblinking and she stood up walked over to me and extended her paw.
"Would you go with me to see the Wisdom, I can't find the courage on my own." Nodding I took her paw and stood.
"I'll go with you, and don't worry about Gaeus, he's a friend." I started on my way to the door with the young warrior hot on my heels.
It didn't take us long to get back to the fork in the road that we met at. The walk mostly silent, the monsters scared and in hiding for the moment, giving us the quietest and quickest travel. As we traveled though I saw Daena getting more and more skittish, ears twitching in all directions and tail following suit.
When we finally rounded the final turn she was almost conducting electricity her nerves were so haywire. At this point we could see the huge pile of rocks that made up Gaeus, and his hand. I gestured for Daena to get closer she nodded and slowly approached onto Gaeus' hand with me. I almost had to stop her from bolting when his rumbling gravel voice spoke up.
"Welcome children, may I bring you in closer, my eyes are not as good as they used to be." I quickly said yes, before Daena could leave and the ground started to move. My companion was holding as still as she could be with her eyes closed and her fists tight. When we stopped moving she looked at the mound of rocks called Gaeus. "Hello Imu and friend, how can I help you two?"
Before I could say a word Daena found her courage and spoke. "My friend is dying from a demon's curse, how can I help her, save her?" I stayed staring at the young woman who couldn't be any older than her mid twenties, how did her friend get mixed up with a demon? Quickly -much faster than I would have- Gaeus spoke again.
"Do what your friend wants you to do."
"How can I do that when she doesn't ask for anything! She's just going to accept her fate and die! I want to help her." Her voice strained, almost in tears as she yelled at the wise giant.
"You must accept that, if it is her will. Do you understand why she wants it this way?"
"No I don't! A demon weakened her, took away her spiritual powers, I only want to help!" At this point Daena was in tears, screaming her voice hoarse at Gaeus, needing him to tell her how to fix her friend.
"I believe that she is trying to teach you something. People have the power to change their fate, listen to your friend's words and look again with a clear mind." Daena stood for a long time in silence, not really looking at anything or anyone.
"Thank you, I'll try to think about this, more calmly" She let out a sigh and bowed deeply to Gaeus thanking him one more time.
"Come again my child, Farewell." I waved at the Wisdom, I'd talk later, I needed to go with Daena. I saw her walking down the path and I jogged up to her cautious and worried. I tapped her shoulder, hoping to stop the loping pace she was keeping. When she did stop, she did with tears in her eyes and sadness on her tongue.
"Thank you, for coming with me, I... need to go home, but I want to give you this." She held out her paw and gave me a small ring made of wood. "It'll protect you, and others you're with. Good bye." With that she gave a bow and ran off before I could stop her. I stood standing in shock and déjà vu, as I was left in this position only mad just yesterday.
I started down the road towards home, deciding that I would need to take a trip to Gato soon, and find out the whole story.
When I finally reached Domina evening was in full effect and the moons were in the sky, and with a sigh I headed to my home. I would go back tomorrow and find that man even if I had to scour ever inch of Domina.
A/N: I am so sorry this should not have taken as long as it did. This is the third version, the first two were lost, the first my computer shut off and I hadn't saved and the second time it glitched so I had seven pages of #s. I was in a funk and hopefully I have extracted my self and will be updating regularly. I want to thank my two lovely reviewers Hobo ghost and littlesugarcat. Thank you so much I truly appreciate the feedback.
Thank you for reading, please tell me if I made any grammar or spelling mistakes. Also tell me what you liked and didn't like about this chapter.
Sincerly yours,
The Mad Desperado
P.S. I do not own the Legend of Mana
