So this here is a concept fic of an AU where the Luminary is raised in Nautica and he comes up to the surface world to meet his destiny. I don't have enough energy (heck, it took me months to finish this orz) to dedicate a full on AU for it and complying with Nautica's speech patterns is harder than I thought.

So, uh, if you want to take on this AU, go ahead. Just please don't lift word-for-word of this one shot.

This also contains pre-established Luminary x Erik so if that's not your thing, turn back now.

Tales of the Luminary

By Bilbo-sama

Land, Sea, and Sky

So the Luminary ("Ah, so you're the one who was taking a gander. My name is Xander.") was living with mermaids his whole life. Apparently they all talk in rhyme in the ocean but who is Erik to judge? I mean, have you ever met a talking slime who hasn't used goo puns?

Erik found him near Puerto Valor after searching every beach he came across (geez, couldn't the Seer be a little more specific?). He didn't know what he expected, but some guy with nice hair close to his age looking at a tree in awe wasn't it.

Xander's excitement over things Erik had taken for granted was endearing (and, he will never admit out loud, kinda cute), even if he had received odd looks whenever they visit a town. Erik, and eventually Sylvando, Serena and Veronica, was looking forward to see what the other boy would react to next.

They had entered a village called Cobblestone on their way to Heliodor when Xander immediately bee-lined to the nearest horse.

"What a majestic creature you are!" He exclaimed as he leaned over the railing of the horse's pen to look closer. His frowned as he spotted a long white line across its flank, "Oh dear...what a terrible scar..." He reached up as if to touch it.

"Excuse me, what are you doing with my horse?" asked a man with suspicion in his voice.

"Oh!" Xander withdrew his hand, startled. "I'm sorry, I should have asked first-"

"No harm done, lad. See, Topaz forgives you." The horse huffed, unimpressed.

"Are you here for the celebration?" said the villager.

"Celebration?"

"Oh yes, tomorrow our mayor's daughter will turn sixteen and undergo the Rite!"

"How wonderful!" cheered Sylvando as he approached Xander and the villager. "Darling, you shouldn't have wandered off without telling anyone! Veronica and Erik were getting worried."

Xander winced. Veronica and Erik would turn the whole village upside down if they couldn't find him. And if Veronica got impatient enough...

"Why don't you lads stay and celebrate with us?" offered the man.

"Oh, that would be lovely," smiled Sylvando, "Let's tell the others, sweetie."

Gemma at first thought the need for a couple of bodyguards as she climbed up the Tor was ridiculous. Surely nobody had needed a bodyguard when they did the ceremony. She has Sandy with her. Isn't that enough?

Apparently the boy with the nice hair (Xander apparently?), once the villagers figured out what he was saying with the rhyming thing, was about to turn sixteen soon but had no idea when. Where he was from (how can he be from the sea? That makes no sense! How can he breathe underwater?), people tracked time differently.

So he might as well take part in the ritual on top of protecting her. The blue haired guy (who had introduced himself as Erik) with the weird accent shrugged with the calm acceptance of 'what can you do?' as if this was just another day for him.

"At least you're not asking us to do a horse race disguised as somebody else," he said as they discovered that they had chosen the wrong path and turned back to return to the fork.

"How did that go?" Gemma asked.

Erik pointed to Xander, "Second place isn't so bad for a guy who never rode a horse until that day, right?"

"Crikey," Gemma's jaw dropped.

Erik huffed out an amused noise, "Yeah, it was one hell of a sight to watch. He was a natural at it too."

"The horse did most of the work," refuted Xander, blushing.

Sandy suddenly growled. The three humans turned their gaze to what the dog was glaring at and was met with a horde of slimes.

"Oh no," gasped Gemma, "monsters."

The slimes were quickly dealt with but as the three of them climbed up the Tor, they would encounter the occasional horde of monsters.

Erik wondered if that was part of the ritual thingy. To symbolize the...uh...struggle to...adulthood or something.

Or maybe the monsters moved in during the several year gap between people coming of age and he was looking too deep into this.

Gemma gave the two of them looks whenever he and Xander bantered. He ignored her because the others always did that as well. Was everyone jealous of their friendship? Were they worried his jokes would corrupt the Luminary? Unfortunately for the others, Xander already knew of a few dirty jokes long before Erik showed up. The trick is to recognize it in between his rhymes. It was probably a sign that Erik had been around the guy long enough to understand what he was actually saying. Hopefully Xander will tone it down enough before, say, Veronica catches on and Erik faces her misplaced wrath.

And then at last they reached the top and the three of them were met with a breathtaking view of the surrounding landscape.

"Oh my..." breathed Gemma as she stared out in awed wonder.

Xander looked like he was having a religious experience. Come to think of it, he never saw views of the world like this before.

This is what he had missed out on as he grew up under the water (...supposedly).

Erik wondered what his reaction to snow would be like. Would it be like this? Or would it be like when they accidentally wandered near the base of Hotto's volcano? ("It's blackened to a crisp!" "Yeah, lava can do that." "This red mud gives such heat -" "Don't touch it!")

Erik tamped down the growing excited thoughts of seeing a new source of joy from Xander as the other young man glanced up at the sky.

"It's...so blue," he managed and Gemma nodded in agreement.

Xander turned his gaze over to Erik, who was taken back by the peaceful smile on the Luminary's face, "It reminds me of you."

Erik was vaguely aware of Gemma and Sandy's presence. He felt his face turn slightly warm (why is it doing that?), "It does?"

"The sky was the first thing I saw when I left the sea. You were the next sight after the tree. I never thought I'd meet someone who would match the sky so soon as sight number three."

Somewhere near them, Gemma gasped. Was it because the last line didn't rhyme right?

"Um, uh," stammered Erik, "glad to be of service." Xander's smile seemed to shine brighter in response and Erik felt oddly satisfied by it.

The moment was broken when Sandy sat down to scratch her ear. He had the vague impression that the dog was disappointed about something.

Erik turned to Gemma, "Hey, is there anything else to this ritual we should be doing?"

"Oh!" Gemma seemed oddly disappointed, "Of course, let me show you..."

Their safe return was a cause of more celebration from the villagers and Gemma and Xander were the focus. All night both were congratulated on reaching adulthood. To Xander's confusion and Gemma's embarrassment, several of the elders hinted that the two should get together someday.

Erik wasn't sure why but he was glad Xander and Gemma weren't agreeing with the idea.

(And besides, if they did get hitched, their choices are either the village in the middle of nowhere or the alleged fish people and that doesn't sound very fair for either person)

Erik wasn't spared from the attention. Some remembered that he was there playing bodyguard and thanked him. One woman who had introduced herself as Amber was very intent on refilling his plate whenever Erik was in proximity of her.

Veronica meanwhile tried to stayed up as long as she can but started to sway on her feet an hour before midnight. She relented when Serena started to yawn.

After that, the party started to wind down as more people yelled good night to each other.

Soon it was just the mayor (Was it Justin? Dustan? Drustan? What was it again?), some guy in Heliodoran armor, Erik, Xander, and Gemma left.

"So what's it like being an official adult for nearly a day?" said Erik.

"It's strange," shrugged Gemma, "I don't feel any different."

She turned to Xander, "Do you?"

He also shrugged, "How do you know if you're an adult? Perhaps tomorrow we should track one down to consult."

"Sounds like a plan," decided Erik while pushing back the panicked realization that he counts as an adult in some places despite being 19. It was way too late (or early) to deal with that now.

He yawned, "Welp, time to hit the hay."

"I'll find you two a room for you to share," Gemma offered.

"Good idea," said Erik, "otherwise this guy," he motioned to Xander, "will stay up all night forging again."

"How sweet of him," smiled Gemma.

"Yeah but not when he's too tired to fight a slime," complained Erik.

"I'm not that terrible," argued Xander, "not when we can give the slimes a proper tremble."

"Yeah but you have to be awake to do that, buddy."

Gemma guided the bickering duo to Miss Amber's home where she knew the woman had some spare beds.

She wondered when the two men will get on the same page and truly confess to each other.

Well...I tried. orz