Fantasia
Arc2: The Quest
Chapter1: It had just started
In the middle of their celebration of victory, the beastmen witnessed an omnipotent magic, that was recognized by Juan to be nostalgic, the young man was knocked unconscious for the light was too strong.
He woke up in the morning heading to the village, but…he found out that his village, his clan, his family and his friend Zolu, and even the powerful old sage of their village…had been petrified.
True, they were all transformed into stone statues, he panicked not knowing what to do, he ran like crazy in the streets of Ardneria shouting loudly hoping that someone is still "alive"…but it was useless, he checked every house, every corner, every room, everyone was reduced to dead rocks.
He stood on a rooftop not believing what has happened, he prayed for God that this is just a nightmare, but alas soon he realized that he's the only Ardnerian standing alive in the village of stones.
He sat embracing his legs, shedding tears like crazy, shouting highly in the sky: "Why? Why? Just when I finally felt that I'm a beastman! Not a burden to my family!…They…They…are gone!" but no one was there to hear the poor young man.
But in all that sadness he remembered the warmness he felt the night the merciless spell fell upon his clan, it somehow reminded him of the warmness he always felt when he's surrounded by his family, the wamness he felt when his father used to carry him along with Roné taking them home, the warmness he felt when his mother hugs him when he feels sad, the warmness he feels whenever Roné or Demetri stands to protect him from other beastmen.
He wiped his tears saying: "I'll save you…with my honor as a beastman…I swear that I'll save you, mom, dad, Roné, Demetri, Zolu, Lord Luffine, and everyone…I swear!".
He quickly jumped and headed to the library since he remembered that he read something before about petrification, it was the 32th book in the second shelf, a book of diseases caused by magic, he rushed to the 133th page, where there was a paragraph about petrification and mind blindness, it read like this:
"Petrification: This rare case, caused usually by strong curses, or by looking directly in the eyes of a gorgon, and sometimes by being infected with the deadly poison of the basilisc, leads to the full or partial transformation of a body into solid stone…
The case itself isn't deadly, but abondoning the petrified bodies without treatment for too long may lead their life force to perish causing death in most conditions.
….The only known treatment to this disease is the legendary spell Purus, form of pure magic manipulation Empyrean magic, the cure with this spell is instant and flawless."
"Hmm…I need to know more about this empyrean magic…" Juan told himself and so he headed to the magic bookshelf, were he took a big book named "The Byblos of ancient & modern magic" he checked the index, where he found a paragraph on the the 598th page speaking about it:
"Emyrean magic (also known as the Pure magic or the angelic magic): One of the rarest forms of magic, it's based on manipulating the particles of magic produced by the casters body as well as those found in the surrounding nature, it has many varieties, from the miraculous healing effects to exorcism and demon binding…
The magic has strict conditions that are usually impossible to find in most people, but the most noticeable of them all, is those who carries pure human blood, and who were born with an excessive magic force amount…"
"Damn it! then I cannot learn it!" Juan said to himself realizing that he can't use empyrean magic, since he barely have magic force in his body, in addition that he isn't human.
"What to do?" he asked himself then he added: "But I can't give it up yet!", he pulled some sort of magazines from his bag and started to flip pages quickly.
The magazine was "The monthly Foreteller", a popular magazine in the whole Féenian empire, it carries the news of all the villages around the empire, of different topics that most community members find interesting.
Juan was sure that he reads something interesting about magic, it was an article he found in the 15th page of the magazine, it was talking about the famous "Tower of Grimoires"
-Tower of Grimoires: It used to be considered as a part of the military force of the capital 20 years ago, but soon they rebelled and gained their independence, it's a community of mercenary mages, excelled in all types of known magic in the era, the village gained the name "Tower" because it's located in the north-eastern sea in the form of a high tower surrounded by dangerous whirlpools, their village symbol resembles somehow to an ancient Ankh (A cross-like symbol of Pharaonic civilization) with the head taking the shape of a twisting fan-
"I have no choice but to travel to that tower, and hire a mage that can perform empyrean magic…it's the only hope for my clan now…" Juan said to himself.
And so our hero set for his journey, carrying food supplies with him, a continental map, a compass, his saving's of money-and his father's- in case he needed to buy something, and his staff that he used to graze goats with it.
He walked to the entrance of his village and turned to it, shedding some tears saying: "Just wait…I'll save you all!" before running away to his journey seeking the tower of grimoires.
He started his journey by taking the plains of Zellia, which are famous to be a commercial roads between the villages of humans, and also famous of hoodlums and thieves, but it's always safer than the mountain roads, which are hard to cross, he walked for a whole day until he reached a day distance from the rich village of Clavia, where the glowing towers can be seen, but the night was there before the young man, so he decided to camp for tomorrow.
He set fire using flints he found on the road, and picked up some sausages, and started to roast them on the flames, then he remembered how he used to go camping with Demetri and Roné when he was ten years old, and how always his share ends up eaten by Roné who complains that his food was burned, he smiled a bit, saying: "Good times…" but suddenly a man approached him.
The man was tall with an unshaven beard and a noticeable scar on the right eye, with ragged clothing, but the most noted thing is a golden fancy key chain that swings from his pant.
"Hey boy! Is it possible that you have cigarettes?" the man asked.
Juan's eyes were stuck on the key chain that carried a heart and some butterflies -Which is obviously not a manly fashion- then he answered politely: "No sir, my apologizes, I don't smoke.".
The man then laughed loudly and poked Juan's head saying: "Good boy then…but beware, these roads aren't for good boys like you, farewell" before he left the young man who was interested and suspecting something wrong.
"He sure doesn't look like a good guy to me, and that key chain, it seems stolen…however that's none of my business" Juan told himself, but curiosity couldn't let him alone, he followed the man secretly, until he arrived at a vast camp placed in a small crater, this time he was sure that this is a gang of thieves, as he saw many chests, and jewelries, the men were about fifteen gathered around a large fire in the middle of the camp.
A man was seen there sitting on barrels with a large bottle of booze, he was taking a sip from time to time, and yells at the others, it was for sure their leader.
The man who asked Juan earlier for the cigarettes approached the leader.
"Barth! Where were you? You swine!" the leader asked in a harsh language.
"I'm sorry boss, I needed to smoke and the boys have no cigarettes left, so I looked nearby." He answered.
"Fool!" the boss scolded his minion, "What if someone discovered us!" he added.
"Don't worry boss, it was no one but a mere lad, he doesn't even seem rich to be robbed!" the minion answered.
Soon another thief approached, but this time what were he carrying was interesting, he was carrying a knocked out young woman, a human girl she was…
"Oi Saimon! What'cha holdin'?" the leader asked.
Barth got angered when he saw her shouting: "Saimon you bastard! Why did you bring her here!"…
"Whereas you only robbed her key chain, I robbed the whole booty!" Saimon answered the other man.
And so Saimon removed the girl's coat, with a lustful stare, but Barth punched him saying: "Not in front of everyone!".
"Ho, Ho, do we have a saint here?" Saimon said, starting an argument between him and Barth, but the leader yelled at them: "Nuff' Saimon take that harlot and beat it!"
And so he had nothing but to obey, he took the girl behind a carriage, Juan witnessed this, he couldn't take it as anger was filling him strangely, he took his staff and shoved it under a rock nearby and started to push with all his might saying: "You bastards! This is unforgiveable!"
To be continued