A Warm Welcome

"Ah!" Rena's eyes went wide and her face lit up. "No! That's not food! It's a Ponggo!"

All at once, everyone else turned to her with a blend of confusion and concern on their faces.

"...What...?" Elsword blinked and his eyes narrowed as Rena continued to hum happily. Next to him, Aisha took a step forward and reached out to Rena pensively.

"Um, Rena... are you feeling okay?"

"Of course. Now that we found the Ponggos, they'll have food and beds and we can wash our clothes and relax" She pointed off toward the small furry mammal at the edge of the plains. "Onward!"

Raven glanced aside awkwardly, wondering whether or not he should take her seriously. Eve was likewise confounded.

"What are these 'Ponggos'?"

"Well, they're kind of like tiny fluffy bears, but not exactly..." Rena tilted her head as though she were shaking out loose memories. "They're really nice and they've got really good food, although I never knew they lived this far south, or on a floating island either... Anyway, let's go."

Elsword glared skeptically. "Are you serious?"

"Huh?" Rena blinked.

"It... does sound kind of strange... tiny bear people who live underground on a floating island..." Aisha averted her eyes, trying to conceal her conspicuous doubt.

"Why would that be strange?" Rena began to pout, sensing that she was the only one around who was willing to accept the existence of Ponggos. "There are Elves and Nasod and Humans and lots of other types of people in the world, so why are Ponggos strange?"

Eve scanned the horizon, failing to detect any sign of a small, fluffy, bear-like creature. "It is not that I do not believe they exist, but there have never been any animal species living on Altera. Their presence here would be unprecedented, and ridiculous."

Rena turned her eyes forward and nodded with a fierce determination. "Alright then, I'll prove it. Raven, let's go!"

Keeping his eyes down and his mouth shut, Raven marched forward with Rena on his back, in search of the elusive Ponggo. With everyone else following several yards behind, they waded through the tall, shimmering grass, heading toward the setting sun as Rena searched for a scrap of indisputable evidence to prove the existence of Ponggos. Once they were within sight of the island's edge, she found it rather unexpectedly. As Raven surveyed the horizon, his foot slipped through the ground and into a massive pit. He toppled over onto his side, barely balancing himself just enough to land back on the surface rather than in the bottom of whatever chasm lay below. By the time he turned to Rena to check on her, she was already up on her knees and peering down into the ground.

"Ah~ This is it. Hellooooooo!?" She began shouting into the underground. "Hello!? Is there anybody down there?"

Raven glared down into the darkness and moved his hand to the hilt of his blade. "Are you sure we want an answer from a place like this?"

"Don't worry." Rena smiled at him. "I wouldn't be hanging over the edge of a giant hole in the ground if I thought it might actually be dangerous."

By now, Aisha, Elsword, and Eve had arrived behind them and were gathered around Rena, wondering just what to make of her sudden fit of effervescence. As they all peered down into the pitch black of the underground, the echoes from Rena's voice were joined by a strange, high squeak.

"Hello!?" Rena called out cheerfully into the depths and awaited an answer.

"What do you want!?" A shrill, squealing voice erupted from the ground. "Stop playing around and come in already! For the love of all that's-"

Just a yard below them, a small, fluffy, fur covered creature crawled out into the sunlight and stared up at Rena, its eyes wide as a full moon. Smiling broadly, Rena waved happily. "Hi there. We're lost and really tired, do you mind if we come into your village?"

The small creature, which resembled nothing more a very fluffy bear-like badger-mole, instantly fell backward to the ground and scurried off down a broad tunnel. As it retreated, a frantic shout of "Chief! Chief!" bounced through the dark and escaped out into the air. While everyone around stared down into the ground aghast, Rena sat upright and nodded.

"See. Ponggos."

Within a few minutes, a small herd of Ponggos gathered at the mouth of the tunnel, led by a calm elder smoking a small pipe. As he emerged into the fading sunlight, he reached out to stroke his chin and hummed thoughtfully.

"Well, well... We've not had humans or elves on the island for nearly a century. What brings you all here?"

Rena leaned forward slightly and shifted to a more serious tone. "We were on a ship that crashed into the mountainside, and we're stranded here for the time being. It's been a couple days since we've had a decent amount of food or water, so if you're willing to sell us any, we'd be grateful."

"Hm..." The chief puffed on his pipe and stared off into the sky for a moment. "I thought we might see some of your kind sooner or later when I heard that the flying ship had crashed, though I didn't expect there to be so many of you. The Nasod on this island have been ruthlessly cutting down anyone who ventures onto the surface, so you must be quite the warriors."

Rena smiled faintly. "We've managed to take care of ourselves so far."

The old chief grinned. "I can see that. I am Adel, Chief of the Ponggos here on Altera. If you would come and tell me your story, I would gladly welcome you all into our village."

"Thank you!" Rena beamed brightly as she sat back on her hands and swung her feet down to hang over the edge of the tunnel. "Oh, before we come in though, I need to know if it's really alright. We've got a Nasod with us, she's different than all the other ones on the island though. Eve?"

Uneasily, Eve stepped forward and stood before the Ponggos, watching as the bulk of the crowd behind Adel shrank and retreated into the underground.

"Oh... now this is unexpected." Adel stepped forward and climbed out of the tunnel, circling around to stand face to face with Eve. "She is different indeed. If you had not said she was a nasod, I might not have noticed. Tell me, where are your weapons and armor?"

Eve stared down at him plainly. "I am not a combat model." She paused, recalling what Adel had said just moments ago. "I must apologize for the loss of your people at the hands of nasod. This should never have happened, and I am the one responsible for it..."

Adel closed his eyes slowly and stood in silent thought. As a chill gust whipped across his face and ruffled his fur, he looked up at Eve and smiled. "Well, that is most certainly a story I'd like to hear. I'd be glad if you'd come along and tell it."

Eve blinked quickly, her eyes wide as she nodded. "Y-yes. I will do that."

"Excellent." Adel clasped his hands together and looked back over to Rena. "I'll see that you all have fresh beds and warm meals for the evening. For now, let's go back to my study and you can explain just how you all found your way to an island floating in the sky over the middle of the ocean."

As the chief chuckled lightly, he hopped back down into the tunnel and motioned for everyone else to follow. Raven followed immediately, helping Rena down and lending her a shoulder as they ducked through the low passages underground. Still trying to move past their initial disbelief, Elsword and Aisha glanced to one another. Aisha opened her mouth to speak, but realized it would do her no good. After all, it's not as though badger-moles were any stranger than anything else they had encountered thus far. Sliding down into the underground, Elsword and Aisha followed along after Adel, leaving Eve to bring up the rear. After a few minutes of navigating a maze of twisting, narrow passageways cut into the stone and earth, the walls around them opened up into a vast, bustling city of Ponggos, carved into the island's underside. Passing over a bustling marketplace filled with the clamor of merchants and shoppers, through a quiet row of homes and a solemn schoolhouse, Adel led his visitors into a large, weathered building wedged into a hollow in the rock. His grizzled old hands reached for a tarnished brass knob and pulled open the front door to his home.

"Now then, I'll put on a pot of cocoa and you can tell me all about what has brought you here, hm?"

Over an hour passed as Aisha and Elsword exchanged the tale of their travels for hot cocoa and warm bread, bickering about details every step of the way until Rena intervened and carried them through to the present. Once the story of Ruben's El and its theft was finished, Chief Adel turned to Raven, coaxing him, with great difficulty, to recount his involvement in the affair. Having never heard of his history, Elsword and Aisha sat quietly and hung on every word as they began to realize that he was far different than the murderous pirate they initially took him for. When Raven had finished his reflections, the air grew still and the warmth of the cocoa faded.

Waiting in the corner with her eyes fixed and cold, Eve spoke reluctantly at first, of a time when the Nasod were a prosperous people and a time when they had fallen prey to the gnashing teeth of a long, bitter war. Her voice cracked and fell as she recalled the day when Altera's El disappeared, casting the island from the sky and back down to the sea and killing nearly every nasod in the process. The day Eve awoke, the weeks she spent searching for a way to revive her people, the hours spent planning for a single, desperate measure to restore the Nasod race to the world... these things she covered in great detail and left no room for error or misinterpretation. When she reached the moment of her awakening, however, she stopped, and ended her story with a solemn apology to the Chief. Smiling weakly, Adel nodded to her and proclaimed her innocent of any crime against the Ponggos, even if she had somehow led to the creation of the militaristic nasod on Altera.

As their stories drew to a close, Adel bid them all welcome to his village for as long as they wanted to stay. With the daylight gone and their energy spent, everyone hurried off to bed as quickly as they could, though Elsword and Aisha made sure to grab as much food as they could along the way. Perhaps, as Aisha preferred to think, getting a couple days of rest and good food would be the very best thing they could do.

Waking a half hour before the sun, Aisha sprung out of bed and stretched her arms out over her head, sighing pleasantly as she hopped up to her feet. With Rena and Eve still asleep on the other side of the room, Aisha quietly pulled on her clothes and grabbed her grimoire, heading out for an early walk and a few hours of quiet alone with her reading. While the village enjoyed the last moments of its restful sleep, Aisha paced up and down the smooth granite streets, searching for a small alcove or perch far enough away from the marketplace to afford her some level of calm. After another ten minutes of searching, she happened upon a dark, secluded hollow in the cave wall and sat down to finish the final chapters of her grimoire.

As the early morning twilight faded into day and the villagers headed out into the street, Aisha closed the back cover of her heavy tome with a fond reverence. It had taken her far longer than most books, but she had finally finished reading through every page and learning every spell the dark grimoire had to offer.

I hope it'll be enough... I doubt I'd be able to find any other spell books on this island...Aisha closed her eyes and let her breath escape her, climbing to her feet and heading off in search of something to sooth the rumbling hunger in the stomach. With her grimoire beneath her arm, she walked along the now bustling streets toward the market square and the scent of freshly baked bread. Though she was drifting off into her thoughts about the taste of warm bread and ripe fruits, she noticed that she was suddenly receiving quite a wide berth. All around her, Ponggos were backing as far away from her as they could, weaving themselves into a thick stream of fur and wary eyes as Aisha passed by. Before she could pause to wonder what they were doing, a soft bump against Aisha's leg brought her to a halt.

"Ah! I-I-I'm so-sorry!" A tiny ponggo child had run into her, stumbling backwards and dropping the tiny rubber ball he was playing with. Looking down, Aisha smiled faintly and leaned forward.

"It's alright. You're not hurt, are you?" She reached down and picked up the child's ball and offered it to him. "Here you go."

The small ponggo stared anxiously, his feet frozen in place as he slowly, cautiously reached out for his toy. The moment his paws closed around the tiny ball, he bolted back to the safety of a side street, leaving Aisha alone once again. A moment later, the shrill cry of the boy's mother filled the air.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! Please forgive him!" She rushed out into the street and bowed before Aisha, her hands trembling as she lowered her head. Confused and confounded, Aisha gave an awkward smile.

"I-It's okay, really..."

"Oh thank you! Thank you!" The boy's mother bowed her head over and over before running back after her child, leaving everyone around them to stare at Aisha with a strange, disconcerting suspicion. Seeing the glistening eyes of a hundred ponggos turned toward her, Aisha tried to wave happily, though that only seemed to send everyone scurrying further away.

What's going on with these people... She pouted and carried on toward the marketplace. I tried to act just like Rena would and they acted like I was a giant ogre stomping through their village...And what was with those dramatic apologies?

A few minutes later, Aisha managed to make her way through the marketplace, despite the three yards of personal space each ponggo insisted on giving her, and she darted toward the bakery. Plates and wire racks boasted grand stacks of steaming bread, filled with plums and figs or topped with sliced apples and roasted almonds, each drizzled with a sweet syrup and topped with confectioner's sugar. With great difficulty, Aisha held her mouth closed and walked over to the baker's stall, doing her best to hide her ravenous appetite. With her eyes fixed on her next meal, she pointed

"I would like half a loaf of the sweet one with figs in it, and half a loaf with apples." Aisha pointed to the small, plump loaves resting delicately atop a mound of similar pastries. As she eagerly awaited her breakfast, she noticed the baker's hands trembling. Scooping up two whole loaves into a small basket, he cautiously handed the bread over to Aisha.

"H-Here you are..."

Aisha blinked. "I just wanted half of each, is that-"

"No! No, it's okay, you can take all of them, no charge! Please!" The baker shrank back behind his stall, cowering behind a tower of sticky buns and honey smeared crackers. Slipping from confusion into annoyance, Aisha put on a friendly smile and nodded cheerfully.

"Okay! Thank you!" What's wrong with everyone!? Aisha stormed off with the happiest demeanor she could manage, straight through the market square and onto a small, side street where she could eat her breakfast in peace, or at the very least, away from any small creatures that found her inexplicably terrifying. As she tore into a sweet, tender loaf of fig filled bread, a stout shadow glided across the cave wall and made its way over to her.

"Oh, young lady... Aisha was it?" Chief Adel strolled up to her, one hand behind his back and the other holding his pipe. "How do you do?"

Aisha pouted. "I thought I was doing fine, but apparently I'm an eight foot fire-breathing troll out to eat small children and ruin bakeries."

The Chief chuckled. "Ah, that is troublesome then, since we do not allow trolls in the village." He puffed on his pipe briefly and Aisha smiled awkwardly. "I had heard about your visit to the market though. I must apologize for the villagers and their strange behavior, and I cannot entirely excuse it, but many people here seem to be very frightened of you."

Aisha scowled as she swallowed another chunk of bread, its delicious texture and sweetness doing little to assuage her frustration. "Why though? I would get it if they were afraid of Eve because she's a nasod, but they seemed fine around her last night... or even Raven, because he's always so severe and serious, but why would they be afraid of me?"

Adel tapped his forehead lightly. "That skull in your hair, and the large book you're carrying... you are a dark magician, aren't you? It would be obvious to anyone who took the time to speak with you that you aren't the sort of diabolical villain they've heard about in fairy tales, but it's impossible to get to know anyone if they're too afraid to talk to you. As for her majesty Eve... while my people are familiar with the nasod as ruthless and dangerous, she appears, acts, speaks, and behaves much differently than what they know of the nasod. It's easy for them to separate their image of the murderous, blade-wielding machines of the surface from Eve because she's completely different than their existing notions. On the other hand, all most people have ever heard about dark magicians is that they could easily look like anyone or anything, and that they carry their flesh-bound grimoires and wear the bones of their victims like trophies. In a way, you're the very picture of their childhood storybooks."

Gnawing on a stubborn heel of apple bread, Aisha grimaced and sighed. "That makes sense, and I understand... but I still don't like it. It feels like there's already nothing I can do to change their minds other than to throw away all my grimoires and dress like a flower girl. It'd probably be even worse if they actually saw me using magic."

"Well, you shouldn't take it too hard... It isn't as though the entire village is afraid of you." Adel tapped his pipe out into a small tin before returning it to his vest pocket. "In the morning, the streets and market are normally filled with very young children and the elderly. As the day goes on, you'll probably run into more adults who will react in a much more mature fashion, at least on the surface. Change is difficult for them, and the more radically different it is from their existing notions, the harder it is for them to accept." He grinned slyly. "Although I'd wager there are some older children who are likely to chase after you and beg you to tell them stories of the thousands of people you've enslaved and the kingdoms you've brought to ruin."

Aisha laughed lightly and sighed. "You're right though... I guess I can't expect too much from people who aren't even willing to talk to me. It's really hard to convince them that I'm not evil just because I'm using dark magic."

Adel nodded and raised an index finger. "Ah, now there is a truly difficult topic... to explain that the dark and Evil are not the same thing is something very, very difficult for many people to grasp, even among Ponggos who are born and die in the shadows of the underground. I fear you may have an uphill battle ahead of you, young lady."

Polishing off the last of her breakfast, Aisha nodded. "That's fine. I'd rather fight uphill than down, if it meant I'd have no regrets afterwards." She pushed off of the wall and turned to the Chief. "Thanks, by the way."

"Oh, don't mention it. I dealt with something similar, in my time. Though that was nearly a century ago now." Adel chuckled jovially. "Well, if you will excuse me then." He bowed his head and bid Aisha farewell, sauntering off into the marketplace and disappearing among the crowd. Satisfied, for the moment, Aisha started on her way back to her room, staring at the glow of electric lights shimmering across the smooth stone walls. Without warning, something small sparked within her mind, an obvious, inevitable connection that she only just now realized. Ever since she left Elder, she had never once encountered anyone who treated her differently or avoided her because of the magic she used, and it wasn't until this very moment that she realized why that was. Throughout the entire journey, she had been surrounded by people who never even questioned her once, who never for a moment told her that she had made the wrong decision or that she was something horrible by studying the dark grimoire. Rena, who was openly accepting of her without hesitation, and Elsword, who argued with her constantly but never looked down on her and even asked to learn from her... the sudden weight of their acceptance stood stark against the rejection and awkwardness she had encountered in Elder and now on Altera. As she walked through the busy streets, her face twisted up awkwardly as her mood shifted, a mix of frustration and excitement and exhaustion and warmth that began with a scowl and ended in a soft, subtle smile.