Since I'm getting bored of waiting for awhile before I write, I'm just going to write. So, you'll probably be reading this and I'll have written a few more chapters. : P
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These people deserve my thanks for reviewing my story:
Tipry
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Aionis had rested, relaxed, and had a few more meals in his stomach by noon the next day. Now he layed on the net rigging on the ship. Hooking his arms through the net and tangling his legs in the net as well, he found that it was very comfortable. The sea breeze whiffed around him, keeping him cool in the cloudless sky. Nigel said there'd be something special today, but Aionis didn't care. His mind was wandering.
It wandered to a moment a few years ago, when he had turned 30. Everyone was glad that he was old enough to learn the spell, Tranquility, since it was getting more and more common that young night elves were being attacked by stray Nightstalkers. On that same day, they found out where he went during the weekends. He always told them he was just going to a small house with a friend. What he really did was lay on the Dolanaar Inn's roof, just staring up at the sky. They got a little mad, but didn't scold him or anything. They just told him he couldn't do it anymore, that he was too young to go up to that height.
Oh, how they'd scold me now, Aionis thought with a grin. He would have never imagined how wonderful it was to travel. He thought that, although it'd be fun, it would be a little more boring and difficult. Now he had an orc as a friend, dueled a blood elf, been saved by a Tauren, and killed an undead in about eight days. He didn't know the world was so small, yet big at the same time.
The rigging started to bounce a little. That meant someone was coming up. When he looked to see who it was, he saw Adalia, with a disappointed face, like he took her spot.
"Can't you go snooze on another rigging?" she asked in a half-mad tone while she came up beside him and curled up in the same manner as Aionis.
"The other one isn't facing the breeze," Aionis replied, calmly. The mood felt so good, even if someone that hated him was only two feet away.
"That's why I like this one," Adalia said, annoyed. Aionis expected her to nag him for awhile, but she left it at that.
After a long, silent pause, Adalia said, "So… you have any family, night elf?"
Aionis didn't move. "First of all, it's Aionis. Secondly, yeah. A set of parents and an older brother."
Adalia didn't expect him to answer, so she didn't know what to say.
"You?" Aionis asked.
Adalia kind of looked down. "All my family died during the First War when I was still Night Elf."
Aionis was puzzled. "Didn't that happen over a thousand years ago?" he asked.
"Yeah," Adalia replied. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, that means you're over a thousand years old, correct?" Aionis responded.
Adalia blushed out of instinct. "One thousand, two hundred and ninety seven, to be precise."
Aionis looked at her suddenly. "Even the Arch-druid isn't that old, and he led our people into hiding over five-hundred years ago."
"Blood elves found a way to not only retard their aging, but also to look younger, night elf," she responded. "To your standards, I only look about thirty six, right?"
"I'd say thirty eight, actually," Aionis said, chuckling. Since Adalia didn't respond, Aionis asked, "So how long have you known Nigel?"
Adalia smiled on that one. "About ten years now," she replied. "He's really a push-over, if you know how to do it."
"Not from what I know of him," Aionis responded. "He seems really stern."
"Not always," Adalia began. "For about two to three years, he was such a push-over, you could tell him to do a period and he'd try." She laughed. "Like boys could!"
"Period?" Aionis asked, quizzically. "Is that what blood elves call 'that time of the month'?"
Adalia's skin suddenly became scarlet. Shifting, she elbowed Aionis in the gut.
"Ow! What was that for?!" Aionis said, casting a Rejuvenation spell under his breath.
"That was for embarrassing me," Adalia said, still blushing. "A-anyway, as I was saying, Nigel was a push-over for a few years. Then, around the fourth year I knew him, he started getting moody. It wasn't like him. When I visited him in his hometown, he was either mad at me, lost in thought, or throwing a tantrum like some two-year old."
"That's when some high-arch druid checked him out. It turned out that he was one of few druids to be able to shapeshift."
Aionis looked up, startled. "Shapeshift?"
"Yeah, shapeshift. Apparently, only one in a hundred druids could do that. After they found out, Nigel had to train for about a year, without anyone to see him. That year was long and horrible. I was so bored back at my place. After that year, I could see him again. When I did, I knew he had changed. His personality was only a little off, but he had lost his entire characteristic of being a pushover. He also had to meditate an hour a day. For awhile, he let me down from what he had to do. I got used to it though, and we became the same kind of friends we had been before his mood swings."
Aionis was lost in thought. He had shapeshifted as well, but if it meant he would change, he didn't want anyone to find out. Who he was is all he had. His stuff never showed up with him. When he asked Nigel, he just said it wasn't with him. He didn't even have a copper to his name anymore.
But if it meant that horror-fest would never happen again, it might be worth it, he thought. He hated it when it happened. He never wanted to shape change again, even if it was a rare occurrence in the world of druids.
"Aionis! Adalia!" someone called from below. The two on the rigging looked down to see Nigel below them. He held his staff as well as Aionis', which he left below. "Can you two come down for a moment?"
"He's sweet," Adalia said, not loud enough for Nigel to hear. "He is such a good alchemist, too. That's how we kept you alive, you know."
"Didn't need to know that one," Aionis replied, climbing down.
When they got to the bottom, Nigel threw Aionis his new staff. "You put a new spell on this staff already?" he asked.
Aionis caught it. "I like my staff with some custom spells on it when I use it." He answered.
"Okay, then," Nigel said, with an odd tone in his voice. "Shall we get started, then?"
"Started?" Adalia asked before Aionis.
Nigel had begun to ignore them. He was chanting a lengthy spell. Aionis recognized the druidic casting language automatically, but there was something in the spell that seemed extremely powerful. He placed the spell a few seconds later.
"Why's he casting Entangling Roots? He doesn't seem to be targeting anything," he pointed out to Adalia.
As he finished that statement, Nigel completed the spell. The flow of nature pumped through his every vein as he shaped the spell to his desires. The sea rumbled as his spell gave way. Aionis could practically hear the roots from underwater screaming with their new magic.
That's when he saw it. The roots from underwater were coming up from the sea floor. They kept on growing and growing until a certain point, then they spread out. The roots became a wide platform, the top perfectly level, the bottom extremely rooty, like a jungle gym. As the roots slowed down, the edges became straight. When the roots stopped, there was a giant root platform emerged from the bottom of the ocean.
Nigel fell to one knee, panting heavily. He pulled out a bottle from his pack with bright blue liquid in it. He put it to his lips and drank the whole thing down.
"Nigel, you say when you do that, it's like you drank about fifty beers, it's such a bad hangover," Adalia stated, looking worried.
"It's okay," Nigel replied, suddenly himself again. "I need to live with it this time around." He turned to Aionis. "I'll see you on the platform for our duel."
As he finished, Nigel chanted a language foreign to Aionis. In front of Aionis' eyes, Nigel began a shapeshift. His arms grew feathers as he squatted down, his feet now talons. The natural snout of being a Tauren turned into the beak of a bird. After a few more anatomical disgustingness to Aionis, Nigel had become a giant bird. He spread his new wings out and took off to the platform. As soon as he landed on the new platform, he changed back into the Tauren, Nigel.
Aionis stared at Adalia. "What is it with you two challenging me to a duel?" he asked.
Adalia didn't answer. She looked speechless. Aionis didn't want to press it further.
"Hey, night elf."
Aionis looked to where the voice was coming from. Up near the wheel, about two dozen blood elves were staring at him.
"Mister Nigel has that rare look in his eyes," one of them said. "I suggest you get over there. I also suggest you do the best you can. You should actually try to kill him. He's beaten them all. He's gone to far greater lengths to duel people he deems worthy."
Aionis looked at the group, then at the "dueling platform." When he looked at the group again, he smiled. "Should I show off, or just swim?"
"I think he should show off to me," another blood elf replied.
"Me too," a third said.
"You heard the crowd," the first one said. "Show off."
Aionis had gotten the most wicked grin on his face. "Got a bow, arrow, and some hewn rope?"
A few blood elves threw him the items in question. Aionis gathered them up. "This is going in the record books," he said, and was off. He climbed to the crow's nest and tied the rope onto the arrow. Don't ask how, he just did. Then he tied the other end onto the mast. After that, he notched the arrow onto the bow.
"I'm glad I learned archery from my brother," he muttered. Pulling the bow hard, he let it loose. The arrow flew onto the platform and stuck there hard. The rope became as tight as a guitar string. Aionis heard some awes of admiration from below. "Now the fun begins," he said to himself. Jumping onto the rope, he used his boots to stop the heat from the friction as he slid down the new path. As soon as he was about to hit the bottom, he jumped off, doing a triple front flip before touching down on the platform. His staff never left his hands.
The cheers were heard from the boat. Whirling around, he decided to take a bow. The cheers didn't die down. Only when Aionis decided to turn and face Nigel when the woots and whistles died down.
"You're a major show off, you know that?" Nigel said with a disgusted look.
"Considering what you did to give us a dueling platform, I think I deserved my latest maneuver," Aionis gloated. He rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't believe how long it took to learn that."
"First lesson I'm going to teach you about the world: Druids should stay with druid techniques, as well as paladins, hunters, warriors, you name it," Nigel said with a cool head. He had already gotten into the common staff battle stance.
"If this is going to be a lesson, you're in for one of yourself," Aionis replied, fitting into his old battle stance. It was a little like the warrior's stance, but it had a lot to do with the druidic stance.
"Lesson two: that is not a druidic fighting stance," Nigel replied, circling Aionis.
Aionis, not feeling like talking, more like fighting, started the fight. Launching himself at Nigel, he did the common horizontal swing. Nigel easily blocked the attack and shouted the spell words for Moonfire. Aionis used Nigel as a focal point to pivot himself, making the Moonfire miss him easily. Pushing himself off of that pivot point, Aionis flew to the edge of the platform. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Aionis raced past Nigel, striking his staff near the midriff. Nigel deflected it, but couldn't counter-attack before Aionis was out of his reach.
When Aionis stopped to turn around, Nigel flew to Aionis. He did a 360 with his staff in his hands. Aionis blocked the strike, but barely managed to get out of another Moonfire's path from doing so. Nigel tried to ram the butt of his staff into Aionis' foot. Aionis blasted his own Moonfire at the staff. It didn't brake the staff, but it made the staff move just enough to just miss his boot. He pushed himself away from Nigel, going to the other side of the platform. Aionis skidded to a stop, then launched himself at Nigel again. Using his staff like a sword, he stabbed his staff hard. Nigel used his staff to stop the thrust with ease. Aionis countered with a high kick in the shoulder. That hide of Nigel's was so thick, Nigel barely felt it. Aionis did, though. It hurt like hell. Aionis pushed himself away again and cast a small Rejuvenation spell.
"You don't waste your energy on minimal pain. That's lesson three," Nigel responded.
"Now how would you know with that stupid hide of yours?" Aionis replied. He flew at Nigel once more.
Back at the boat, all the blood elves were watching with awe. They kept on saying things like, "The night elf is good," and, "Finally, Nigel gets someone good at fighting," and stuff like that. Adalia didn't know what to say. She has never seen Nigel do this before. All the other blood elves did, but she couldn't remember any time that he did this. She was starting to get creeped out.
Back on the platform, Aionis and Nigel were really duking it out. Neither one could break the other's defenses. Aionis threw spell after attack after spell, but Nigel blocked them all. Aionis had more difficulty. All the while, Nigel was shouting his "lessons" at Aionis. He wanted to beat Nigel just for doing it.
The roar of Nigel's Wrath spell was calmed after Aionis dodged it. They both were decently tired.
"For someone taught the ways of the druid in the wrong way, you're good," Nigel said between pants.
"How do you know how I was taught?" Aionis demanded, also between pants.
"Simple," Nigel began. "When I saw you fight Adalia, I knew you were taught wrong. You're not using your powers to their full extent. You aren't even letting the call of the animal within you take over. I know you can shapeshift." He pointed to his head. "I'm not dumb. It's time you let loose the call of the wild, Aionis."
"First of all, I am using the power of my magic to its full extent," Aionis corrected. "It's me that's holding it back. I'm just not strong enough. Secondly, I don't want to shapeshift. You might like it, but I don't."
"Say what you want, the Shapeshifting power is in you, and I plan to awaken it," Nigel replied. With that, Nigel charged again. He brought his staff down hard at Aionis' head. Aionis blocked it, but barely. Nigel automatically kicked Aionis in the gut. The force of the kick sent Aionis flying to the edge. His staff flew to the opposite edge, but didn't fall off.
"You can't win without your new powers!" Nigel screamed. "Now your either going to die or awaken your dormant powers." He blasted a Moonfire at Aionis. Aionis, having to take the blunt of the blow hard, fell off the edge. A loud splash was heard. Nigel walked over and looked down. The ripples of a heavy object remained, nothing more. After a few moments, Nigel shrugged. "Guess he chose death."
"Guess again."
Nigel spun around, just to get hit by a plasma orb. His shield took out half of the damage, but it still pitched him back. He barely stayed on the platform, but he was left wide open. Aionis swiped his staff up and shot his next spell, Entangling Roots, right at Nigel. The roots that made the platform coiled themselves around Nigel's legs. They got up to his stomach before Aionis stopped them. Unlike when Nigel called them forth, the roots didn't scream.
Nigel glared at Aionis, furious. "How did you trick me like that?!" he demanded.
Aionis shrugged. "I just blasted a Wrath spell at the water. You didn't notice the fact that I was using the roots from below to swing to the other side." Aionis tapped his head. "Looks like you were dumb."
The roots screamed again. The roots that had trapped Nigel were returning to their first form, a flat piece of the platform. Nigel grinned. As the roots screamed yet again, Aionis flew to the arrow that was still in the platform. Roots shot up right where Aionis was standing moments before. Aionis reached the arrow and pulled it out just before more roots ensnared his legs. However, they went all the way up to his mid-chest, thankfully not trapping his arms.
"It seems you were caught off guard," Nigel retorted. "I created this whole platform. Do you think I didn't have the strength to manipulate the roots that had ensnared me?"
"How can you not hear the roots screaming?" Aionis demanded. "They're practically as loud as an explosion."
"What's the point of listening to roots when they will still do as you wish!?" Nigel retorted. "Nature may be more powerful than us, but we can still control it at whim! You were never taught how to do this, which is why you are going to lose this duel!"
Aionis was angry. "You think nature's a toy?!" he shouted.
"Is it anything else?" Nigel asked.
"If you don't know the answer to that," Aionis said, calling the power of one of his staff spells to existence, "then it's time I taught you something!"
Aionis' staff was warping. Curving up, it got thinner. A now visible thread was connecting the two ends. Once the magic was done, Aionis held a bow in his hands, made just for him. He notched the arrow onto the bow and pulled back hard.
"You think a mere arrow will help you?!" Nigel retorted, laughing.
"Let's find out!" Aionis shouted. The tip of the arrow now blazed with mana. Aionis let loose the arrow. It slammed into Nigel. It didn't do any damage, but that's not what Aionis was going for.
His next spell made the roots let go of him. He tried to be as gentle as possible, but they still let out odd yelps. Aionis then charged straight for Nigel. His speed was faster than ever before. Before Nigel could block, Aionis was right in his face. He did a 360 with his staff. When they hit Nigel, Nigel thought they felt like a pair of blades cutting into him. Aionis then used his new speed to get behind Nigel, who was now stunned, and slash a dagger right through Nigel's hide. Nigel screamed, but Aionis wasn't done. Calling more mana into his hands, he brought a small ball of fire to his left hand.
"Fireball!" Aionis shouted. The flaming ball slammed into Nigel's back, sending him flying. He landed hard on the front of himself. Nigel managed to get up and spin around just as Aionis completed his next spell. A ball of ice slammed into Nigel. Everything except his head was now covered in a thick layer of ice. Nigel shouted the words for Moonfire, but his magic never came to him. Aionis, with another mad sprint, got into his face again and brought the end of his staff up to Nigel's throat.
Everyone except Aionis was stunned. From the experiences with Nigel, they knew that druids couldn't go at that speed or cast those spells. For a few moments there was silence. Then the boat erupted with cheers. All the blood elves were wooting and whistling for Aionis. Never had they seen Nigel beat, much less like that.
Aionis snapped his fingers. The ice around Nigel deteriorated. Nigel fell to one knee, panting hard. Aionis' staff left his throat.
"How… how did you do that?" Nigel said, gasping.
"I never underestimated nature," Aionis responded. "In return, it never underestimated me. I believe it was that which let me learn spells and techniques from other classes. Warrior, Mage, Rouge, Hunter, even a little Priest. I know a little of them all." Aionis glared at Nigel. "You could have too, if you hadn't been taught that nature's a toy." He waved the boat to come near. It revved up. "Next time, don't tell me how to do what I do. It might be fatal."
The boat had come right next to the platform. Aionis pulled Nigel up. He dragged the now half-limp Tauren to the boat. Adalia ran foreword and started chanting a healing spell. Aionis smiled. "That was tiring," he said, now exhausted. "I'll, uh, be going to sleep now." He hobbled off to his room.
"You know," Nigel said, hoarsely, "I think he's mad."
"Reminds me of someone I know," Adalia replied, laughing.
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Okay, I know that was so a soap opera ending, and yeah, it was also a fast ending as well, but I couldn't think of another way. Sorry!
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Some clarifications:
Moonfire always comes from above, not an odd direction at will.
One class can't learn another classes techniques.
You can't use Entangling Roots to negate another Entangling Roots.
Entangling Roots cannot be used to set up a battlefield.
There is no right or wrong way to use spells and their deities in the game.
ALL druids can shapeshift.
Roots do not scream. They just yelp.
Read & Review, please!
