Chapter 2- learning on the road

Amber woke to the creak of axels turning under her, with a slight jostle now and then. She slowly opend her eyes to see a blue haired woman standing over her, milky, Cotten blue eyes meeting her now fully awake silver ones.

"Oh good! I was wondering when you would wake up!" the woman said, smiling brightly.

Amber tried to Witt up in the narrow bunk but was pushed down by the older girl. "Now don't you start that! I may not be as good as Iris but I still know some rope magic to tie you down with!" Lorded the girl.

Amber promptly stopped struggling and looked around. It was a small wooden room with six bed in it, three pairs of bunks and a few leached windows. There was a door at one end, and almost a hatch at the other. The only other item of furniture in the room was a chest, which looked to contain clothes.

"Where am I?" She asked the other person in the room.

"Your in the Fire Storm Caravan Amber. You collapsed after talking to Finnel so we skipped town to care for you. I'm the medic of the caravan Tanaka, but please call me Maki. Your magic looks like its recovered enough for you to move, so pick some clothes out of that chest and come out to get something to eat." She rambled, starting towards the door.

"You can see my magic?" Asked the girl, confused.

Tanaka looked back, a sad smile on her face. "I'm basically blind. I can barley see people, and objects are just an outline to me. The only thing I can see clearly is magic. I can even see the types of magic they would be best at, and what they are currently using! You are perfectly suited to water and seer magic Amber, never doubt that." Her smile then brightend. "Come on, get dressed! Riely is cooking chocolate chip pancakes. Mmm... Pancakes..."

Her eyes went glassy and she literally floated out of the room...

'Okay...' Though Amber, as she just stared at where Tanaka had vanished.

Snapping out of it she shakily got out of bed and made here way over to the clothes chest. It was stuffed to the brim with all sorts of clothes and things. The twelve year old picked a blue hair band with little gold coins on it. She also chose a a blue Cotten dress that looked like the colours were running, but it was too big for her, so she tied it around the waist with a cord that matched her hair band.

Pulling her hair back into a pony tail, she looked around for shoes, but couldn't find anything in her size. Looking down at herself she sighed. Living on the streets had left her bony as a starved dog. Shaking her head she opened the door.

Finnel was sitting at a table with the woman who was singing yesterday and a man with the blue bandana, who was looking ata Tanaka and sighing. Tanaka on the other hand was hovering over the brown haired man, who was cooking pancakes. "Amber!" Cried Finnel, noticing her.

All the others looked at her and began sizing her up. The man cooking was the first to move. "Hi, I'm Riely, the cook. Now if you excuse me, someone forgot to get out the chocolate chips."

Riely moved towards Amber and lifted her down from the caravan. He closed the door and then pulled out the door nob.

Then he placed it next to a picture of a sleeping dragon, inserting it in, and pulled out a similar nob next to a picture of a king feasting and placed it in the door.

Then he opened it.

"Wha-?" Gasped Amber.

Gone was the bedroom and in its place was a massive store house, filled to the brim with all sorts of food. Riely walked in and quickly grabbed a bag of chocolate chips, Before walking out and replacing the handle again.

"Stop gawking and take a seat squirt!" Yelled the singer, causing Amber to jump.

She ran over tho the table and took a seat next to Finnel. "How?" Was all she could get out.

"When the guild was first formed, lots of dieing forms of magic were preserved in the members, and were use on the caravans. That is a form of re-equip magic that most people think is lost. There are four nobs, each re-furnishes the room as if nothing had ever changed." Finnel explained. Looking at the othe woman she added, "And don't worry about Aria. She may seem cold, but she's just shy."

"I'll give you shy!" Shouted Aria, reaching acrost the table for the caravan masters neck.

As the two grappled with each other, the last member of the caravan introduced himself. "I'm Ken Hitoshi, Maki chan's boyfriend." Smiled the bandana wearing man. "I work as the close combat specialist using my millatary style magic." He smiled evilly. "Which means I get to train you to up to guild standards in the- how many months do w have left on the road Fin?"
A cry came from what was now a wirling dust ball "three!"
"Thank you - three months we have left until we get back to the guild hall. Besides, it would be embarrassing to only have a silver charm and no bronze!" He laughed.

Then he noticed Amber's look of confusion. "Don't worry, you'll be ridding with Fin most of the time and she'll explain everything. She's the youngest caravan master ever! Been traveling since she was your age that one has, now shut up, food's here." And he promptly dived into a plate of pancakes.

XXXXX

After the stacks of plates were demolished, the caravan cleaned up in what looked like a well oiled routine, and slowly started along the road.

The men were riding two of the horses while Aria cloud watched on the roof and Takana Rested in the caravan after staying up all night looking after Amber.

Amber herself was next to Finnel in the drivers seat of the caravan, with two of the masive horses pulling them along the path. "Now," said Finnel. "You have to swear on your life that you will never tell an outsider any of he information I am about to tell you."

"Why?" Asked Amber, confused.

"I'll explain once you swear." Finnel said briskly.

"Just do it brat!" Called Aria from the roof.

"Fine! I swear on my life I won't reveal to an outsider what Finnel tells me!" Amber grumped.

"Good. Now about 150 years ago, guild started becoming more prominent and it became easier to learn magic for those of high class or in families. But orphans and the poor struggled, because they went undiscovered by masters, who passed on before taking aprentices."

"So people were just hireing tutors or books?" Asked Amber.

"That's right. But he masters also failed to pass on the locations of the seals of evil they were maintaining. Each seal bound a group of monsters, an artefact or a powerful demon. Eventually some of them broke, and the monsters started coming back to the land. My great-great grandmother Alice noticed this and bought the masters into a guild. But they were still growing old, so they adopted many orphans to learn their skills. They split the fourty eight seals that they were responsible for up, and made 12 caravan routes, each taking five months to complete.

"They were short of jewles, so they performed on street corners when they could, and collected herbs and wild food, we still do, and it's one of the things needed to qualify for a bronze pendent."

"Bronze pendent?" Asked Amber, struggling to take everything in.

"Later. Now. Eventually, everyone in the guild started to have family's, including Alice, but the seals still needed attending to, so they started to rotate people, so that there was always someone to care for the kids.

"It was decided that five was enough for a caravan and life carried on. When Alice handed the title of guild master down to her daughter, people started to worry about the strength of the caravans, and a new system was put in for all those under 15 at the time. Before you went on a route, you had to pass the criteria of the route. Things like the Icy Tears route, being able to survive in the mountains on your own for five days, or the Wirlpool route, being able to swim a kilometre. Safety things really..."

'I could do the swim because of my magic, but the rest of it!' Thought Amber.

"When you fufil the criteria of a route you gain a bronze pendant of that route. Complete a route and you get a silver, actually lead a route and you get a gold. You need two gold to qualify for the s class exams."

"So there a mages that could be s class that chose not to qualify?" Asked Amber

"Got it in one brat!" Cheerd Aria, peeking over the roof.

"Off the top of my head is Collete, because she really loves the Wirlpool route, and only Atained the other pendants so she could lead that route, Kaito, but he has cheating coy magic, so it doesn't really count, and Susan Benet, who stopped traveling to raise he daughter, but now she's qualified for the Paper Back route as a medic, Susan went to keep an eye on her. Apparently she had wanderlust for some time..."

"What's the qualification for the Paper Back route?" Asked Amber.

"Learn the dewy decimal system and know all the myths of zeref by heart. A source of income for them is assistant librarians and story tellers."

"At this rate I only qualify for Wirlpool." Groaned Amber.

"We'll, that is the most likely caravan for you to go on any way. They tend to place mages in their element. We go to hot, tropical places so we have a fire mage. It's hurricane season so we have some wind mages." Explained Finnel.

"And besides, what made you think that we wouldn't train you in that period." Aria Smirked Evilly, reminding Amber of Ken's expression at breakfast.

"Don't worry," Riely said, walking his horse, Silver, next to her.

"We all went through it too. though we are on a schedule, so your probably in for three months of pain. We get to our second seal in two days, and you need to know your part in the ritual when we get there."

A.N: pity her, my readers. For it will be a montage that rocky would cower at...

Thanks for all the great characters! Once a caravan is full, they'll be added to an omake roster. Any character submitted will be accepted, though I'm looking for some who were born in night cloud.

See ya soon

Heroes