Hello there. The Tera section is so dead its not even funny. I might as well give a little life to it. Oh and I'm not writing with honorifics. I understand some people like them, but I don't want to write with them.
Chapter One
Twenty women and thirty men in white robes with gold lining stood around a round gold table in a circular fifty five meter room of white marble. The ceiling was a dome of gold leaf and in the middle on the table was a complex magical circle. It pulsed white and gold with holy energy pulsating out of it. The intensity of the circle lit the room as bright as day.
"With this spell, or lives and the Grace of God, The despicable shield hero will be cast into some other twisted universe, severing the shield permanently from the hero summoning forever. We give our lives for the dawn of a new age. The age of the Three Heroes!" The men and women chanted in unison around the golden table. Their faces were hidden by hoods and white masks with the symbol of a sword, bow and spear crossed over each other.
Then their bodies glowed brightly white and were sucked into the spell on the table before it flashed bright enough to blind anyone in the room. When the light died down, the room was empty and dark, the table blank with no circle left.
"AAAAAAAAH" Naofumi screamed as he was spun and twisted through a spiraling and disorienting field of prismatic colors that spun and glinted. This went on for what felt like a minute before he felt dirt and grass collide forcefully with him, smacking his head and body against it.
His head swam and his vision was dark, dots of light darted back and forth as he was rocked by dizziness.
Slowly he came to and found himself looking up at a bright blue sky. The two suns with their massive magical runic layers of magical text surrounding them in circles lighting up the sky and providing warmth to everything there were burning bright.
"Wait! Two suns?" Naofumi questioned in his mind. That seemed to fully wake him up.
He looked around him and saw nothing but tall rolling hills and fields. Cliffs of brown dirt rose on some sides of the grassy hills for tens of meters.
The last thing he remembered was being bit in the shoulder by the two headed dog and Raphtalia jumping through the air to desperately save him, then being thrown into some torrential spinning dimension.
"RAPHTALIA!" He screamed out desperately. Was his sacrifice in vain? Had she been torn to pieces by the monster he had so desperately defended her from?
No response other than his voice echoing slightly across the plains.
"Shit!" He cursed. His life had gone from bad to worse. Not only had he been falsely accused, but he had been torn away from the first person he could at least somewhat trust in her time of need.
Sitting up in the grass, he looked around. He was alone in a near endless plain of hills and grass. In the far off distance a mountain range poked up from the top of a hill in the far off distance.
His buckler was still on his arm and his green cloak was covered in blood. He needed to get that fixed sometime soon or else it could get infected.
He slowly got to his feet, his shoulder already aching on top of the stinging pain of the bite. He needed to get to high ground to see if there was some form of civilization within sight. Standing at the bottom of a large hill severely limited his vision. Seeing the tallest hill he could find no more than a few hundred meters in front of him he trekked forward to it, each step slow and labored.
He was exhausted and disoriented from his predicament. Five minutes later he had reached the top of the hill and put his hand over his eye like a cap to block out the sunlight as he looked out across the land. Far in front of him, at least ten or more miles by his best guess was a massive city, dwarfing anything he had ever seen in his life. Stone buildings rose up like miniature mountains around a massive wheel that he could see slowly spinning. Behind it was a mountain range that spread for miles with a huge river flowing in front of it. Massive walls larger than skyscrapers surrounded the city giving a stalwart and sturdy defense.
"Naofumi! Naofumi! Help Me!" Came the distant and terrified voice of Raphtalia from far in front of him.
"Raphtalia! I'm coming!" He yelled back, running towards the sound of her voice. It took him ten minutes of skirting around hills and cliffs to finally see her lying on the ground at the bottom of a cliff, clutching her right leg and sobbing frantically.
"Naofumi!" She squealed happily as she saw him in a limping run approaching her. Attempting to stand up and run over to him, she got two steps before falling to the ground and holding her leg in pain.
"Stay there, I'm coming" He called to her as he came up to her.
Seeing her tiny form hurt and crying was too much for even him to stomach as he fell to the ground next to her, holding her close.
"Shhhh. I'm here, it's okay" He shushed her while holding her close to comfort her as best as he could.
"Naofumi. I'm scared. Where are we?" She asked with a trembling voice full of fear.
"I don't know, but we'll make it through this" He said stroking her hair to calm her down.
It worked somewhat as she was trembling less violently and now only slightly quivering.
"There's a city off in the distance. We have to get there and get treated. Can I see your leg for a moment?" He asked her as he let go of her and lay her down.
"Naofumi, what are you doing?" She asked nervously as he gently held her leg lightly up and looked up and down it before heaving a sigh.
She had grit her teeth in pain as he touched her leg but persevered.
"There's no obvious breaks or swelling, maybe its just a fracture or sprain. We need to get out of these plains before night. Who knows what monsters will be out then. Can you try to stand or do you want me to carry you?" He asked her gently but purposefully.
"I-I-i'll try to stand" She said determinedly as she swallowed a big gulp and shut her eyes.
Naofumi knelt by her as she grapped his shoulder as leverage and pulled herself up slowly. Eventually she gingerly stood on both feet and Naofumi stood next to her.
"That's it. Lets go slow and steady" Naofumi said as Raphtalia held on his waist and they gingerly began the long walk towards the giant city in the distance.
"I was so scared I lost you. Don't ever leave me again Naofumi" Raphtalia nervously said as she stopped and gripped Naofumi tighter causing him to wince and grit his teeth in pain.
"Ghh. I won't leave you" He grunted out as he began slowly limping towards the city again.
Then Raphtalia's ears twitched and she stopped.
"NAOFUMI, DO YOU HEAR THAT? a WAGON!" She shouted excitedly with hopefull eyes brightening.
"Where? Where is it coming from?" He asked quickly.
"In front of us, its coming towards us!" She responded pointing forward to a hill that rose high in front of them.
"Behind that hill" She said as she tried to speed up.
"WAIT!" He half yelled pulling her back forcefully, causing her to wince.
"Whoever has that wagon might not be friendly, get behind me now! That's an order!" Naofumi growled causing Raphtalia's collar to spark and her the squeak out a yelp before running behind him as quick as she could.
By now the groaning of wooden wagon wheels, the thudding of hooves, and the sound of people talking could be heard from nearby.
"Altus, how many more moongourds do we need to harvest before our quota is up? I'm bored" Came the irritated voice of a young woman that sounded in her mid twenties.
"Quit complaining, without these mooongourds, the bills wouldn't get payed and we'd both be on the street faster than a gula eats a struthio" The sound of an irritated man in his mid thirties retorted.
"Tch" the woman sucked her teeth at him but didn't retort further.
Then from around the corner came a large wooden cart pulled by two horses. A bleached square hide canopy held up by four poles at each side of the wagon provided shade to the two people inside the cart.
The woman was a young woman with light reddish tan skin with blonde hair and two grayish black horns that rose from her head like blades. She wore a gray fabric shirt with short gray fabric pants that reached her knees. Her boots were of a similar fabric. She was rather flat. She held the reins to both horses.
The man was of a similar color with slightly curved horns less straight than the woman's standing in the cart. He wore a long blue robe that covered almost all of his body as a metallic disc floated next to him in the air. He was surrounded by piles of what looked like pumpkins.
"Woah!" The woman called to the horses, pulling back on the reins to stop the horses after seeing the two unfortunate travelers limping towards them.
The man named Altus quickly jumped out of the cart and ran over to Naofumi and Raphtalia.
Naofumi raised his shield in front of him defensively as the strange horned man approached.
"Woah friend, I'm not here to hurt you. Easy there" The man said, holding up his hands in a offer of peace.
"Well, then what do you want?" Naofumi asked suspiciously.
"Me and my friend saw you and your Elin Friend limping about with that bad wound and came to help out. You need a healing potion and a ride back to Velika?" The man asked Naofumi placatingly.
"Naofumi, what is he saying? I don't understand him" Raphtalia asked, poking out behind him.
"He's saying he wants to help us" He said back to her.
"Here, I have a major recovery potable for you two" The man said, pulling out a glass vial filled with a red liquid the color of blood the size of his hand from a pocket in his long navy blue robe.
"A what?" Naofumi asked, looking at the drink suspiciously.
"What, you've never seen one of these? They heal you right up. It's not poison" He said as he unscrewed the silver cap and held it above his mouth dropping a bit of it into his mouth without putting his lips on the bottle. He swallowed it and smiled back to Naofumi.
"See, no poison".
"Give it to me" Naofumi said, he had to take this opportunity or else his wound would get infected.
"NO!" Raphtalia grabbed his arm trying to pull it back and stop him from taking the drink the stranger offered.
He still took it from the man and gave it a sniff. It didn't smell bad, in fact it had a slightly sweet tint to it like mixed fruit.
Taking a small swig, he gasped as his wound nigh instantly closed up like nothing had ever happened to it in the first place. Not even an ache was felt.
"Woah" he said as he looked at the area his wound once was in.
"Here. It's okay" he gave the remaining liquid to Raphtalia who accepted it nervously before taking a small swig. Her eyes widened as her leg pain and all of her pains and injuries she had were fully healed.
"Loking alot better now hahaha" The man laughed as he saw the amazed looks on the two's faces.
"Thank you. But I don't have any money too pay for this" Naofumi said but the man waved it off.
"These things are only about three gold at the auction house, its no biggie. Now what do yo say about coming back to Velika with us. These hills get pretty bad at night. A lot of Ghiledheu and wolves around here come out and hunt" He said, waving them back to the carriage.
"Alright, come on Raphtalia" Naofumi said as they slowly followed the man back to the cart.
The smell of pumpkins was overwhelming but they walked through them to the front where there were two padded benches where they sat. Rapthalia and Naofumi across from the man.
"Say friend, what's your name? I'm Altus, Castanic herbalist at your service" He asked Naofumi giving him a smug wink.
"Naofumi, and this is Raphtalia" He answered bluntly.
"Raphtalia was it, what's an Elin like you doing out here with him all beaten up?" He asked curiously.
She just looked at him curiously as she could not understand what he was asking.
"Does she not know common?" He asked Naofumi who thought for a second and then said.
"She's from a small village that speaks their own language. I don't think she can understand any other language" He said, causing the man to raise his eyebrow.
"But you were speaking common to her right now" He responded kinda confused as the cart started moving again.
"I have a translation item" Naofumi said, not wanting to talk much about the shield.
"Oh, thats pretty neat. You don't see many of those outside of the magical and academic districts in eastern Velika. That aside, this is my wife Jeleda" He said, motioning towards the woman in the front.
Turning slightly around she gave them a wave.
"Hiya" She said with a smile.
"Hi", Naofumi responded with a nod.
"Alright, with the introductions out of the way, let's get back to Velika. These moongourds aren't going to sell themselves" The man said, motioning towards the large piles of pumpkins behind them in the cart.
"Alright, hiya" The woman took a long whip like crop from besides her and smacked the horses rears causing them to speed up as they made their way through the hills towards the city that slowly became bigger and bigger as they rode towards it.
Things seemed to be better than Naofumi first expected, when he awoke in the fields alone and without Raphtalia, but they were back together and fully healed. It was better than nothing.
And cut. I hope you enjoyed.
Till next time.