Chapter 6.5: Eleanor and Checky

Ellee skipped down the road from their trip into town for her ninth birthday present. Her older sister Selina, 14, and two brothers, Michal, 16, and Logan, 19, trailed behind her like a pack of wolves.

"Come on you slowpokes! We're never going to get there at this rate." Ellee called as she stopped at the top of a ridge.

"Ellee, you know you're supposed to stay with us." Her sister Selina called, brushing her reddish-brown hair out of her face. Ellee laughed as she skipped further down the road until her older brother Michal came running up behind her, scooping her up over his shoulder as she giggled and squealed. It wasn't much longer until the small group reached their house where Hillanna, their mother, stood hanging out the laundry and Derik, their father, was mending a fence where they kept horses and pigs.

"Welcome home, you four. I trust that your trip to Henesys was uneventful?" Hillanna asked as she spotted them coming up the road until she saw Ellee's dress.

"Oh, Ellee, you've soiled your best dress," she commented as Ellee looked down and saw the many mud splatters on the bright yellow fabric, making her stop and begin crying.

"It's not her fault! There was a heard of wild Boar chasing after us, and she fell into a bramble bush. We really didn't have a choice in what happened." Logan explained as Ellee began crying a bit harder, expecting a harsh punishment until her father knelt down and put his arm around her, putting her head on to his shoulder.

"Hush my child. I'm just glad that you're alright. We'll have this fixed in no time. Why don't you go inside and change, I'll try and get those stains out." He soothed. Those words always made Ellee feel better as Derik kissed her forehead.

The happy little family lived on the fringes of Ellinia and Henesys where the forest began to thin into vast and flat plains. Selina playfully punched Logan in the arm, launching them all into a game of tag that Ellee joined after she had changed. Hillanna brushed the back of her hand against her head to wipe away the sweat: the past few days had been demanding. She had begun to always feel tired, and no amount of rest could cure it. Derik came over to her, firmly massaging her shoulders as he watched their kids play and wrestle in the yard.

"How are you today, my love?" he asked, rubbing the sides of her arms before putting his arms around her waist.

"The same as always: it feels like I've run for hours, and yet all I've done is hung out the laundry." She said, placing her soft hands on Derik's: she liked hanging the laundry out to dry when the weather was warm, drenching the sheets in the scents of the forest.

"Maybe we should call Grendal and have him take a look at you." He said. Hillanna turned around and shook her head.

"Grendal has plenty of other things to concern himself with rather than looking after one housewife."

"Well then if not Grendal, why not at least go and see Dr. Faymos?" She shook her head again at this idea, but Derik insisted until she finally gave in to see the doctor in the morning. When morning did come, however, Hillanna could hardly move. She felt as if her world was tipping from side to side, and her body pulsed with pain as though she had just gotten over the flu. Derik watched as she stumbled from the bed to the door frame of their bedroom, panting with flushed cheeks. Immediately he got up and went to her just as her knees buckled and collapsed to the floor, he hand rushing to her forehead.

"You have an incredible fever! You're going to Dr. Faymos now." Derik said firmly, picking her up in his arms and taking her to his horse. When he came back inside, Logan was sitting at the table nursing a glass of water while holding his head.

"Logan? Are you feeling alright son?" Derik asked. Logan looked up from his glass and nodded.

"My head just hurts a little; I probably didn't drink enough water yesterday."

"Alright then; I need you to look after the others until we get back. We shouldn't be gone for more than 3 hours." Logan nodded and continued to nurse the cup of water. He felt ridiculously tired like all the strength had been taken away from him. In any case, Logan needed to get the others up and ready to begin the chores. He quickly washed the cup and put it in the drying rack before slowly walking his way back to his sibling's room.


"Hmmm… I don't see anything particularly wrong with you. If this were some kind of virus, then your tonsils would be all swollen, but they aren't even puffy. You say that you felt like you just got over the flu this morning and that you've been mysteriously tired?"

"Yes, that's right," Hillanna answered. Faymos cradled his chin in the space between his thumb and forefinger, thinking through his massive library of a mind to give them an answer.

"To tell the truth, I have no idea what is wrong. The only other one who could tell you is Grendal who has yet to return from going to the Temple of Time. In the meantime, just go home and get plenty of rest." Hillanna nodded and with the help of Derik, walked back to the horse where she was helped up and then taken back to their house. Faymos, however, was worried; what could cause something like this to happen? For hours he looked over his medical books, beginning to wonder if maybe this was magical instead of physical that could be taking place. He was at his wit's end and decided that he needed Grendal. If he hadn't returned, then maybe there would be something in the Ellinian library about this strange sickness.


Hillanna's head lifted from her pillow, doubling over with a gut-wrenching cough. It had been three days since their visit to Dr. Faymos, but Grendal still hadn't returned. Logan watched over her, barely able to move his own arms as he squeezed out the towel and placed it on her head.

"Logan, go and get some rest, I'll be fine," Hillanna instructed when Ellee came in, looking worried as her sister Selina stumbled in behind her, looking just as tired as Logan.

"Mommy? Selina's not looking so good." She said softly, helping her sister into a chair next to Hillanna. Michal came in too, looking like Logan had in the early morning.

"Michal, you too?" Hillanna asked, weakly holding out her hand to him. There was a knock at the door which Derik stood and answered quickly.

"Dr. Faymos! Have you found what might be causing this?" he asked, answered by Faymos's eager nod.

"It is a Magic Virus called the Life Eater. I went to Grendal's library that this virus eats away at a person's mana until the Virus's demand for it begins to eat away at the person's Life Force. It explains why she was so tired. It looks as if it has infected your children as well." Ellee held her hands to her mouth; so far, her brothers, sister, father, and mother all had this virus, and they were going to die!

"Is there a cure?" Derik asked.

"Yes, there is. But I am not skilled enough to make it. There is one in Mu Lung named Tae Sang. From what I hear, he is an old Panda extremely gifted in making potions that can cure anything. The particular one that he has developed is called the Elixir of Life. From what is mentioned here in this book that should cure it."

"Where do I go?" Ellee asked, eager to make her family what it was just two days before. Her father was beginning to become too sick to move on his own, and Ellee seemed to be the only one unaffected as of yet by this virus.

"You would be willing to go the Mu Lung?" Faymos asked in surprise. Ellee nodded her head, looking back at Logan, her oldest brother as he sat by Hillanna.

"Very well: take this bag of Meso and go to the shipyard in Ellinia. Tell the ticket master that you want to go to Orbis. Once there find a person by the name of Agatha and ask her to help you. Tell her that you want to go to Mu Lung. She will guide you through the station there in Orbis: it's a huge place. Once you reach Mu Lung, talk to a panda named Do Gong and ask for Tae Sang. Ask him for his Elixir of Life." Faymos explained. Ellee listened intently to the instructions she was given, running for Ellinia with tears streaming from her eyes. She didn't want to lose any of her family, especially Logan. He was like her security blanket, someone she went to when everything went wrong and the one person she admired almost as much as her mother.

The trip from Victoria to Orbis couldn't end soon enough, but she was the first one to run off the ship and begin searching for Agatha whom she found at the information desk. Once she had explained her situation, Agatha quickly guided Ellee through the crowds of people. She even went so far as to buy her ticket to Mu Lung. It wasn't long until she was flying through the breezes onto Mu Lung where she would meet Do Gong. He was aware of her coming since Agatha had called ahead. With every passing moment, she wanted to smack the bird that carried her to make it go faster. She felt precious hours ticking away in getting to Mu Lung. All the same, when the large crane finally landed, Ellee was met by Do Gong who took her straight to Tae Sang.

"Yes, what can I do for you, young one?" Tae Sang asked as he set both of his paws in his cane

"Please Mr. Sang, my family has come down with the Life-Eater Virus, and you're the only one that can make an Elixir of Life to save my family, please oh please make it for me!" Ellee sputtered in a continuous stream, almost incomprehensible. Tae Sang smiled, and he motioned for her to follow him into his quarters where bottles, herbs, and roots rested on the wall. On the counter was an elegant bottle with a swirling violet potion inside, which Sang reached for it and held it out to her.

"Here, take it. I just finished it, so it isn't as potent as if you were to wait a few days. But it is still strong enough to do the job. Give a spoonful to everyone, and they will be cured." Ellee gently took the bottle and hugged it close, while tears of thankfulness streamed down her cheeks.

"Now go!" Tae Sang urged as Do Gong escorted her back to the platform after she had purchased a ticket and was sent on her way back to Orbis on an emergency launch. No Gong called back to Orbis to make sure that a ship was ready to take her back to Victoria on an emergency launch.

"Are you sure about giving her the Elixir without payment?" Do Gong asked Sang as they watched the crane fly away.

"There is no need to further her anxiety. I doubt though that she will make it in time. The Life-Eater virus is a powerful strain of the Blue Fire sickness. Once symptoms of the Life-Eater begin to show, as I assume they already have, the victims have a day at most."


As Ellee had changed ships in Orbis, she noticed that she began feeling tired, just like her mother and Logan. Worry filled her heart that she was coming down with the virus herself. She thought about taking some of the Elixer but refused, telling herself that it was for her family first and then she would take some. Quietly she went below the deck of the Ticket's ship and curled into a ball, falling asleep and waiting to arrive in Ellinia. What she opened her eyes to was a world that she no longer recognized: everything was shifted and rearranged. Entire cities were engulfed in flames, people ran everywhere as strange and twisted beasts chased them, some even being caught as blood splattered everywhere.

She felt a presence behind her and turned to see a black cloud rising over the entirety of Ossyria, stretching its arms and boney fingers out until bright lavender eyes opened. The sight made her jerk out of her sleep, clutching the bottle of Elixir with white knuckles, feeling exhausted. The ship was slowing and pulling into the dock, running up the stairs and tearing down the gangplank, through the town and back to her house despite her quickly fading energy. It seemed like forever, but she finally made it back to her home just as the sun was coming up. She slowed to a walk, stumbling and leaning from side to side due to her exhaustion but forced her feet to walk, slumping into the door.

"I have it! I have the potion!" she called. However, there was no response, no weak thankful voice, just silence. She looked up to see her sister slumped over in her chair with a gaping expression and her usually sparkling brown eyes dull and lifeless. She looked back to Michal, who was collapsed on the floor beside her father slumped over with pale skin and rolled back eyes. Her mother lay still as stone, with one hand hanging over the edge. But the worst was Logan: he lay face first on the floor, reaching out for the door as if trying to go and meet her. Weakly, Ellee clambered over to him and listened to his chest: he was still breathing! Quickly she rolled him over the best she could, and patted his face, his skin beginning to feel clammy.

"Logan! Logan, can you hear me?" Logan took a ragged breath and opened his eyes to her, smiling and trying to put his hand on her shoulder, but being so weak that he could barely breathe.

"Ellee, you made it back." he wheezed. Ellee nodded as she brought the bottle up, showing it to him. Logan seemed to be saying something, but Ellee couldn't hear anything he was saying as she pulled the cork from the bottle and poured what she thought to be a spoonful into his mouth. Logan weakly swallowed, as his eyes looked back to her, and in one burst of will powered strength, reached for her hand and squeezed with every last ounce of strength he had.

"Ellee, you will never… be alone. So long as you think of me, I will live in your heart." Ellee gripped his hands, waiting in tearful anticipation for the potion to kick in, but nothing was happening. Logan smiled as he took one last breath and slowly let it out, his grip no longer there and his skin turning ashen colored. Ellee called to him, cradling his head in her small lap, but remaining unanswered. Ellee grabbed the bottle and poured half the contents into his mouth, but still, nothing happened. Ellee could no longer hold back the enormous sorrow she felt, wailing to the winds where no one heard her lonesome cries. For an hour, she stayed by Logan's body until her tears ran dry.

She felt lost, confused: she drank the rest of the potion, but nothing happened. Slowly, Ellee got up and walked out of her hut to any place that would be away from here. But where would she go? She had no other family that she knew of, and Ellee was only nine years old. She was nowhere near old enough to become an apprentice to Grendal, so what would she do? Her wonderings led her to the Sleeping Wood, where creatures watched her movements with dripping fangs and salivating mouths, waiting for the right opportunity to pounce on her. Still, she walked, falling down pathways in the dark, but getting back up, not even feeling the pain of the cuts she had received from the sharp rocks. At last, she came to the darkest part of the cave where nothing grew, and nothing came close. Ellee fell to her face when the last of her strength had been sapped by the Virus, managing to cry one final tear.

"So, this is how it ends for me?" she asked to the dark, slowly closing her eyes and letting the darkness close in around her, reaching out to her last bit of life.

"Mother… Logan… I'm sorry…"

"Your death doesn't have to be here, child." A gentle voice growled. Ellee's eyes flew open at the sound of the reassuring voice accompanied by a multitude of whispers but was too weak to move.

"Who, who are you?" she asked weakly.

"Sh, sh, sh… don't speak. I was sealed under this stone before you. If you allow me, I can cure you of your sickness." A strange black light illuminated the cave revealing a rock with a carved seal into it. Ellee wasn't sure if what she was seeing was real or if what this voice promised was even possible as she thought back to what had happened to her bother.

"I got the medicine, and drank it, but it has done nothing." She whimpered, unable to muster the energy to cry.

"Then allow me. I am someone who can take care of you. Your sorrow tells me everything. Everyone you know is gone. But I will be someone who will always be there for you." the man's voice sounded kind and sincere. Hope began to take root in her young heart. Nodding, she signified that she would allow the voice to do what needed to be done. She just didn't want to die. Arms made of pure aura reached out to her body and lifted her into the air.

"This may be somewhat painful, but please try to endure." The voice said again. Ellee took a breath and relaxed her body as the aura arms sent something painful through her small frame as if it were a jolt of electricity. She arched her body as a blue cloud began leaking from her mouth. Days went by, and the same process would be repeated up to five times a day, draining the soft chocolate color from her hair until it was a cutting silver. When at last the virus had been purged from her body, Ellee once again stood to her full height under her own strength looking over her hands and body feeling better than ever.

"If you wish, you may leave." The voice said when Ellee walked over to the rock and knelt down, putting her hand on it.

"I have nowhere left to go. Teach me; teach me to be as powerful as you. I want to help you get out from under that terrible seal!" Ellee said as the aura hands came up again and stood her to her feet.

"Very well. I will teach you, but you must be warned that it will, at times, be painful."

"I understand." She said, breathing thankfully, knowing that her entire life lay ahead of her now.

"Good. What is your name, little one?"

"Ellee, Ellee Kale."

"Ellee. From this point on, you are my apprentice, and you shall be known as Eleanor." Ellee swished the name around in her head a moment, enjoying the way it sounded.

"May I ask what your name is Master?" the aura around the rock glowed a strange bright black color as if the person in the seal was smiling.

"I am The Black Mage."


Logan yanked his head from the floor, looking around at all his family who lay dead, the smell of decay all around him. He stood up, thinking back to when he had seen Ellee return with the bottle of Elixir and pour some in his mouth. As Logan looked around for her, his foot hit the bottle the Elixir had been in. He looked around the house calling for her, but she was nowhere to be seen or heard. Logan ran through the house, grabbed his canteen of water, and was about to leave when the bathroom mirror showed his hair had become snow white. He stayed only for a moment and then quickly went to search for his little sister.

"Guys, I'll come back and bury you soon, I just need to see If I can find Ellee." He thought as he searched for days but found nothing. When he finally came back, the family had been buried with a small flower on each of the shallow graves. He wondered who had buried them and called for anyone, but no one answered. Bowing his head, he prayed for them, thankful that they were at least buried so respectfully, then left for the shipyard in Ellinia. He would start a new life somewhere else. A friend of his told him about a mining town west of Ossyria called Edelstein that was just beginning. With a heavy heart, he decided that was where he would start his life over. A few hours later he landed in the port, looking around at all the machines that clanked and hummed in the city when he bumped into a well-dressed man.

"Oh, Sorry." Logan apologized, grabbing the man before he toppled over.

"Oh no, it's quite alright. I wasn't watching where I was going. Are you new here?" the man asked.

"Yes. I actually came here on the referral of a friend to possibly find some work."

"Well, then my boy; let me be the first to welcome you to Edelstein. My name is Albert, Mayor of this town. What might your name be?" the man asked, extending his hand. Logan thought for a moment and then smiled, firmly gripping his hand in return. If he was going to start a new life, might as well start with a new name too.

"Chuck, but my friends call me Checky."