Round Robin - ELEMENTOPOLIS - Legacy of the 6 Elements

Alex 43 · **Posted:** August 29th, 2007, 6:25 pm

Hey, guys, it's Alex 43! If you've read and understood the title as you would have with any regular title, you will know well that we are starting a brand new Round Robin.

Unlike the other one, though, this one is completely fresh. it depicts a world in which we have completely made up, with its own unique magics, abilities, theories, and adventure possibilities.

Same rules apply. Might as well just get them down and over with. I'm going to just copy and paste this from our last Round Robin, so if you've been part of the previous one, you'll know how this goes.

NEWS: We've just accepted Cooper into the Round Robin. Applications close after we start chapter 2, so don't delay!

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RULES - READ THEM!

Ok, Karl's pretty much forced me to start ANOTHER Round Robin, mainly because I wrote the first post (Not stopping him from preceding it). I copied the rules from the first round robin (On page who-knows-what [you'll have to search for it] of the Literature [probably still there, if not, try the Runescape Related Media forums] forums if you wanna read it) with a few minor and major modifications the world should know and learn to love.

Instead of anyone joining at practically any time, they must submit their character to either me or Karl 67 (You're better off asking Karl) and wait for us to accept him in the story. The first two times, the round robin died because someone screwed it up by not only not following the rules, but extending what we didn't want. The third one, Karl wanted it over so we ... sorta rushed the ending. Sorry guys, if you were enjoying that one, but it really wasn't getting anywhere interesting except for endless fighting.

There are a few rules to a Round-robin, so I'll just quickly lay out the basics for you.

1: No killing off other peoples characters.

No one is allowed to permanently effect another person's character unless the character doesn't have a really important role, is an enemy that there are multiples of, or the creator of the character gives permission. This includes killing, crippling, converting, and giving new titles.

2: No serts.

"Serts" are basically over-powered guys that can handle any conflict without getting more then a scratch. For example, if I gave Alex 43 the ability to cast Spirit of Pureblade (A spell that severely injures anything in a 5 X 5 yard radius) as many times as he wants, then the battlefield is going to get pretty empty pretty quickly and effortlessly. A story is boring without conflict, so instead I have it that Alex 43 can only cast it once every day or so, and as a result he loses the ability to continue fighting due to fatigue. That sort of attack is OK. Whereas, if he can only cast the spell once every few hours, then there are times he is vulnerable and must actually engage in some difficult combat. No immortalities either. A character, however, is allowed to become invisible, but not for an unlimited amount of time.

Plus, Karl and I have already put enough Gods in this story to support everything, so we really don't need any more.

3: No leading off other players characters against their intentional objective.

You are allowed to have other player's characters talk to yours, travel with them, and attack with them. However, you're not allowed to actually lead another person's character so much that he would completely strive from his intentional objective, so that creator would get lost. I mean, you have your character, so you should build IT up more instead of everyone elses'. It's like player-owned houses - you're not able to tell another player what his house should be like (only give advice), but instead you should build your OWN house to whatever you want.

4: Keep to the plot. KEEP TO THE PLOT! KEEEEEP TO THE PLOT!!!

Someone makes a plot, you keep to it. It's not good to have the topic originally being searching for the legendary iron ore, then someone says your character meets up with an elf, and together, you travel to the great waterfall of Chinrela to battle the evil cave troll of Zamorak. It just doesn't make sense and ... let's face it, it kind of kills the round-robin's plot. Let's try to make this into something memorable and PREFERABLY understandable.

5: Only join when you've been given direct permission by either Karl or me.

Yeah, I changed this one around completely. You can only join at the start, and only after you have PMed one of us and described your character and how you want him to enter the story. In other words, send your first post to us rather then the round robin. If accepted, you can repeat what you told us, except in the actual post.

That's basically it. Sounds pretty tough, but in fact, it really isn't. Just have fun and type what you would, and if it's sort of breaking one of the rules ... well, there are many creative minds out there that can either re-manipulate it or ask you to change a few things. Nothing is permanent, it just has to make sense.

We are warned that we only have one shot in making this a successful (and quite possibly endless) story in the Literature section rather then the sandbox. Thereby, a few extra rules have to be known (Typed by Creepypirate).

-No double posting
-No comments on other peoples stories (you write your own part and that is all, no comments are needed. You wanna comment, PM them.)
-No less than 20 words per post
-No sexual, bad language or adult posts (You'd be surprised.)

Any questions/comments/complaints on someone else's work?

You PM them to me or Karl 67 ... or the person whose work you're referring to..

Got a question about how this works?

You PM them to me or Karl 67!

Do I have to repeat myself? Again? No? Good.

Send me a question about it, and if I haven't covered it, I'll add it along with an answer to THIS post for everyone to view. Let's make this story work for all of us, you guys. I don't want to lose this one.

And last rule. Please, no spam. If you have a question, PM us. It's not so hard to do. "Alex 43" or "Karl 67" is not as hard to guess-type as "Ch1nc40m13a34".

Ok, let's do it!

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ACCEPTED ROLE-PLAYERS
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ALEX 43
KARL 67
ANUBIS
MATT
JASON
RUNE BEAST
COOPER

(TO JOIN, PM ME OR KARL, PREFERABLY WITH SOME OF YOUR CHARACTERS' INFORMATION, AND WE WILL ... CONSIDER IT. SHOULD YOU BE ACCEPTED, USE THE POST YOU SENT TO US AS YOUR FIRST ONE IN THIS ROUND ROBIN, OPTIONALLY ADDING ONTO IT)

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THE HISTORY
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In the beginning, there were four Gods. Their names were Wie (Why), Wate (Wah-tay), Fie (Fie), and Eare (Air-ee). They lived in perfect correspondence with each other - none was better then the other at anything. The many games they played to pass the time would always end off in ties or draws, and yet they would not complain about it, for it was just perfect that none of them had to lose.

To celebrate their one millionth birthday as equals, they decided to do something with each others cooperation rather then competition for once. Using their powers, they formed the planet and cast upon it the four elements to bear life and, more importantly, human. They forged water, to quench the thirst of human. They blew air, to allow human to breathe fresh oxygen. They tilled earth, for human to grow their crops and trees. Lastly they lit fires, to keep human warm and cook their food.

The Gods, in order to govern and watch over the planet, each took over their corresponding element and used it to make themselves known to human. In celebration of this newfound life, human split into 4 tribes and built 4 temples all around the land to live in and around, each to support a different God and, in their eyes, give them a place to rest should they need it.

For many generations, they all lived in peace and used the elements to their benefit and gratitude. No one needed to sacrifice, and no one suffered.

Then, from out of nowhere, two more Gods suddenly made an appearance. Their names were Lige (Lie-jhee) and Shade (Shay-de), and they cast light and dark upon the Earth without the consult of the 4 original Gods. Shocked at this sudden move, the four Gods rebelled against the 2 intruders. However, human had already built two more corresponding temples and villages, and a portion of all the tribes had separated to take residence in the new temples. Human had demanded that these two new gifts remained, so the 4 original Gods had no choice but to accept the 2 newcomers.

In time, as a result of the influence of the elements, the humans of the temples developed traits, weapons, and magiks beneficial and correspondent to each. Some have even naturally transformed to better adapt to the element.

The humans of the wind are cautious, though fast and quick-tempered. They judge through personality, as it's the only thing the wind can blow through that human is made of. Their weapon of choice is the bow and crossbow, and their magiks include self-speedups, long ranged darts, and carrier winds that allow the user to summon other elements for battle. They have naturally adapted to become silent and swift, like the wind itself, but overall remain human. Finally, they live in a mountainous region atop a larger mountain that stands out from the rest bordering the mountainside and the prairies.

The humans of the water are wise and all knowing, as the currents of time and memory flow to them by the ancient rivers of history. However, at the cost of wisdom and knowledge comes overconfidence in themselves and the belief that all the elements are centered around water, as it can effect them all. It can put out fires, stick earth to the ground, reflect light back, creep and choke the deepest shadows and even over-humidify the wind creating a deadly suffocating fog. Their weapons of choice are whips and flails - flexible and whiplike similar to the slap of ocean spray, and their magiks involve the purification of the body, resulting in status healing and rejuvenation, as well as summoning water to sweep away foes in a large torrential strike meant to wipe out whole legions. The water dwellers, having their temple and village surrounded by and actually built into a mysterious lake, have adapted to it by mutating into a fish-like people.

The humans of the earth are kind, caring, and hopeful for the future. They use their earth powers to farm food and crops to distribute all around the world so that everybody can have a good future. Their weapon of choice is the warhammer, for it crashes down with the strength of boulders and reverts its victims to powder which is swept away and used to fertilize future crops for their allies. Their forms of magic are mostly defensive, pulling out large chunks of rock to block enemy attacks, and sending them at them with a fury of earthquakes to rattle their bones and send them crashing under the unforgiving ground with fissures and canyons. The humans haven't really physically changed to adapt to living in constant labor aside from rippling muscles in their village, which is dug out of a large canyon along with their underground temple, but recently, a number of friendly golem tribes had moved in and dispersed among the people as equals to them.

The humans of the fire are hot-tempered and dangerous; very easily annoyed and set off. There is nothing they like better then to hunt their food and roast it well done to consume for the day. They favor battle-axes; delicately crafted blades traditionally shaped like the very flame they base their lives upon. Should they swing them hard enough, they could ignite the very air around them, saving them from having to bring matches to light a campfire when adventuring. Their magics are all aggressive, from summoning a user-friendly flame to coat themselves to assist full body attacks to impressive firefights and fireballs blazing over the battlefield and raining napalm over the intimidated and trapped enemy. They too have hardly changed physically, aside from the fact that most of them are women and able to withstand heat, but they had gone to domesticating dragons over the years who live in the Mount Fie Volcano and now co-exist with some like the earth temple.

Those of light are selfless, caring only for the well-being of others without any regards to themselves, except for shadows. However, they tend to over-react, and once an enemy is made, they will do whatever it takes to remove this threat so that everyone can co-exist in perfect harmony. In a nutshell, they are perfectionists. Their main choice of weapons are maces and rods, which are outfitted with orbs of pure light energy that can prove fatal should the light make another enemy, and their magics involve healing and wide-area life absorption techniques brought at the speed of light. Their skin has grown white to reflect the harmful rays of their own element and by dressing up in full white robes, they can appear divine and superior to all by their striking, though blinding appearance. They call themselves Sentinels, living in a walled village in the middle of a large tree-less field nearby a marsh.

Finally, the humans of the shadow temple are carefree to all but themselves, ignoring the current events of the world and trying to exist without the help, or knowing, of anyone else. They are quiet and shy, and will run if they suspect someone trying to approach. Their weapons are the shadow swords of darkness, to which they swing and cleave enemies open effortlessly, and their magics, which can only be used by a rare few, are all illusionary to confuse the opponent and fill their souls with unforgiving fear and torment. They also can turn themselves invisible when in the shadows by natural magic, and it has been practiced so much, they the humans themselves gradually transformed into permanent Shadows, living with their village and temple in the midst of the Shadow Forest.

For a time, all temples got used to the newcomers and they stood together, an unstoppable force against any enemy that dared to threaten the elements.

Unfortunately, the newcomer Gods were very quarrelsome with each other, and both would always try to out-do each other mainly by violence. Lige would always try to be the better of Shade while Shade constantly ignored Lige, thinking that he would always be the better, of course. As a result, the tribes of light and dark, who respected their Gods' intentions, would always be at conflict with each other, trying to defeat each other and take over their temples.

Possessed by this quarreling power, the tribes of light and shadow slowly mutated into inhuman essences. The humans of the tribe of light became sentinels while the humans of the tribe of shadow became shadows. The sentinels sought purity among human, trying to convince others that the shadows were unnatural and shouldn't be allowed to exist, while the shadows tried to make an existence without the help or contact of human or sentinels, becoming (or at least trying to) completely independent and carefree of the world around them..

The other four tribes were torn apart by this sudden up-break of powers, and they split off into two sides, allying themselves with an element of choice. The tribes of wind and water allied with the light while the earth and fire allied with the shadow.

For many years, war against the two sides broke out and peace was but a thing of the past. Many sections of the tribes split off and refused to worship the elements any longer and became non-threateningly outcast, living a peaceful and neutral life elsewhere in small villages and kingdoms all around the planet. As a result of this warring, monsters and inuman species began to rise along with a number of unnatural diseases and mutations. Soon, the vast cities surrounding the temples became small villages, and because they hardly had any soldiers left, the wars ceased. Thus, the era of the cold conflict began.

After some convincing to the four main elements, the sentinels finally succeeded in turning the shadows into dangerous outcasts. They were hunted down and fought to near extinction, and the temple of shadow was burned to the ground. The shadows escaped into the Shadow Forest, where they hid from their bitter judgement and destiny.

To compensate for this and ensure that every shadow was destroyed, the shadow forest was ALSO burned to the ground, but the shadows escaped into the darkness of the night, completely invisible in the cold aura of twilight.

It had become a sport now for the light temple (and the others if they chose it) to hunt shadows in an attempt to finish the job, but the shadows were so difficult to fight and kill that only the bravest would attempt it. Without having to worry about them as a major threat, the 5 remaining temples finally could live in peace once again, and they all happily took to it.

Soon, though, all was about to change.

It started off with a prophecy, unknown to all.

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"So, Guardian. Are you sure about this?"

"Indeed I am, brother. Corresponding events are beginning to unfold in front of us, aren't they? It's beginning to make sense now."

"Yes, I can see that, and I have no doubt that the shadows will ally themselves with one of the other 5 temples in the near future. But how can you be certain that this action will end the Shadow Exile? In case you haven't noticed, 1 temple and the remainder of the shadows would never stand a chance against the remaining four, even if there IS a second betrayal amidst the temples."

"I never said there would have to be any fighting, my shadow. I just said that 'Once the shadows unite with an element by their will, with cooperation and timing alongside a second betrayal, the shadow exile will be a thing of the past and balance shall be restored to light and dark.' That didn't mean there was going to be war."

"The only way balance is ever achieved is by conflict, Guardian. Light and dark are always in constant conflict. Those of the light temple, nay, Lige himself will not follow with this."

"On the contrary, brother. Soon, the light will begin to realize that without the shadow, they themselves cannot exist. While Lige and Shade conflict, deep down they are brothers, and they know that they must support themselves."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. As you always say, 'There can't be darkness without light.'"

"And there can not be light without darkness. You of all beings should know that."

"You're right. Forgive me, Guardian."

"Don't worry about it, shadow. Now then, shall we watch?"

"Ah, my favorite part about one of your prophecies is its unraveling. Of course I'll watch, Guardian! Just one thing, though."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Which element is it going to be that unites with the shadows? I know it won't be the light, but what possible reason would any of the other 4 temples have to betray everyone?"

"Oh, you shall see soon enough, brother. You shall see soon enough."

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Adbot · **Posted:** August 29th, 2007, 6:25 pm

Anubis · **Posted:** August 30th, 2007, 3:28 am

He was scared.

Recalling past events he knew he could quite possibly be dead. But he was artificial; was there a place in Heaven for monsters like him?

He believed he had done his deed. He had given his life after all, he had battled for days to bring about a final peace among those he had now departed. Or so he would like to think.
But now he was in the dark. Alone. Afraid. Emotions tend not to be a trait of inhuman monsters, however he was different. He felt.

"Brother... I hope you're okay." He whispered.

He heard voices from above but chose to remain quiet. He was curious as to what these people were talking about. He could not hear everything perfectly but he did make out a few words;

"Shadow Forest" and "The Dyerfynd"
'Dyerfynd...' He thought. 'I've heard that before, somewhere.'

He heard the footsteps above walk away and decided it was time to move. He remembered most of his abilities were dependent on crystals, but realised that his were lost in battles of the past. He would have to rely on his own strength to get him out of the ground. Removing the gloves on his hands, he shifted a pair of claws and began to dig upwards, unaware of what may be above him.

As the rocks and debris fell below him and he made his way towards the surface, he found that where he had been had once been an underground laboratory. He jumped back into the small crevice he'd created, eager to find out where he had been sent. He investigated the rooms, finding nothing but old equipment which seemed to have been used in Animal Experiments, which he had remembered from his brief visit to a strange dark planet called Earth. Other than the various machines and tools, Manifest found a room which had been locked up tightly by the lab's previous inhabitants. The large steel door which stood in his way had "Elemental Disruption" and ""Access Limited" written on two rusted and worn plaques.

'I need to get into that room. Elements are my power and that room may contain something useful.' He paused. 'I don't think I'll be able to break that door down though.'

He made his way back out of the laboratory, which now he decided would be his home for the time being - Although he had no clue where he was, he knew where he was not. He was not where he wanted to be, the plant life and atmosphere was very different to 'home'. There was only two moons in the sky, which was a little more purple than the two he knew. He took some time to recognise his surroundings, he would not be able to find his way back otherwise. Unfortunately, it seemed as though the only thing around him was a field of fairly short green grass. He was sure that it would have been easy to find a place like this a year or so ago, but now...

He just walked. He didn't know which direction he was heading, but he needed to go somewhere. He needed to find out where he was and why he was here. He needed to find a way into that room and a way to recover his lost abilities. He wondered whether the crystals had been destroyed or kept by his brother. If possible, he wanted to recover the abilities of Fear. An ancient magic which few could control correctly. With it, he knew he could achieve anything he wanted. Fear, out of all things, was the one which would assure victory. There was no way to combat it.

He walked and he walked. He had much on his mind. How long it was until he saw something other than simple grass he did not know. Time is affected by many things, it's different everywhere. The size of the planet, the distance from the sun(s) and the amount of magic in the atmosphere. He found himself looking at a large group of large stone pillars with a surrounding mountain range. Looking up he saw what they were supporting; a city, being supported between the pillars and the mountain. It appeared as though they had run out of space.

'Reminds me of Donallcu,' Memories rushed into his head, 'If they're anything like those guys up there, they'll be very useful to me.'

Making his way towards a somewhat larger pillar than the rest, he found a sort of elevator - guarded by two fairly large winged men.

"Who goes there?" One shouted, pointing his bow at Manifest.
"Manifest of Endymia, I mean no threat, lay down your weapon."
"Endymia? What's that?"
"It's a small island of the coast, we're very quiet people. I need to speak to whoever is in charge here." He was a good liar.
"I've heard of no Endymia. And we Wind-People take pride in knowledge. What are your objectives?" The guards, now skeptical, were trying to catch him off-guard. But it wouldn't work, he had had experience with this before.
"Our tribe is currently experimenting with what happens when two elements are used together rather than against. We know that two opposite elements can cancel each other out, but we have found that when using two 'non-opposite' elements together in the same spell, effects can range from aesthetically pleasing to simply disastrous. I came here to discuss an alliance with your leader(s)."

The guards paused. They had no knowledge of combining elements as such experiments were normally kept behind closed doors.
"You seem legitimate. You can access our city. Wear this medallion to prove you've been accepted though, sometimes people sneak in and we have to... 'remove' them."

Pleased with his acting, Manifest made his way into the city. Watching as the ground became smaller made him want to be able to fly again. He placed this wing-shaped medallion on his chest, which fortunately was attracted like a magnet. It would have been hard to explain if that was not the case.

As he reached the top of the elevator, he saw the city. It was gigantic. The main material this city used to build appeared to be white marble, The area he stepped out into seemed to be a kind of market, which he proceeded to investigate after being acknowledged by the two guarding this side of the elevator. Various trinkets were scattered on the western market stalls, on the eastern were items which were probably used to enhance bows and crossbows. To the north, market stalls were littered with books and scrolls and to those he walked.

He looked for the book seller, who quickly rushed towards him and asked if he was interested in any of his wares.

"No, actually I was wondering if you could give me a little information."
"For free? Well I don't know, I do make my living off of selling information you know?"
"I'm afraid the currency I use is different to the one you use here" He pointed to his medallion, "I was told you'd be helpful."
"Ah, well I wouldn't want to ruin my reputation! What is it that you need?"
'Too easy.' He thought.

"I want to know two things really, the first is just something I've become interested in recently. Do you know anything of a... Dyrefynd?"
"The Dyrefynd? Let me see..."

The seller quickly skimmed through a book he had taken from underneath his market stall titled "Myths and Legends"

"There's not much here, but the Dyrefynd was told to be a monstrous Demon capable of inducing fear and pain into anyone at any time. It took seven of the best warlocks in this world to defeat the Demon and exile it." The seller looked at Manifest with curious eyes, slammed the book shut and continued speaking.

"What else were you wanting to ask me?"
"Ah yes, I'm actually here to discuss an Alliance with your leader(s) and I'm not sure where I should go."
"Ah, is that all? The tallest building in this city is visible from everywhere, that's where you need to head."

The seller pointed towards the large clock tower in the distance. Manifest thanked the man for his generosity and went on his way.

MattVortex · **Posted:** August 30th, 2007, 4:19 am

Arasoth was a resident of the great City of Light. He attended the Infinos University, the finest magical university in the land, where he was specialising in combative magic and spells. His father, Xsarath, was the greatest staff craftsman in the city, and one of the best in the world, creating staffs for clients as far afield as the city of Anathor, more than a thousand miles away.

Arasoth was becoming quite the craftsman himself, and had created his own staff - Mahogany, with a diamond and a sapphire at the top, and various smaller lightstones all around. It proved to be one of the most powerful staffs in his teaching group at the university, although of course, a powerful staff without a powerful user is worthless.

At the university, various different kinds of magic were taught. The first, and most prominent, was that which used staffs and sceptres, and a kind of expansion of consciousness - this was the most versatile form of magic, although arguably not the most powerful. With this kind of magic, pretty much any kind of spell could be cast by anyone, although the power of both the staff and caster made a difference. Try casting a city-destroyer with a glass and oak staff, and you would not get very far.

The second kind of magic was that of stones and powders - using magical crystals to make the spells. While these could be considerably more powerful, they were considerably less versatile, and you could only cast rather specific spells with specific powders or mixes of powders.

And the third was of course the elemental magic. This magic did not require a staff or any kind of stones or magical powders, although did require the same expansion of consciousness and emptying of the mind as the first kind. Obviously more advanced elemental magics were used in the university than the standard tricks people learned when they were younger, for example instead of just a quick flash of blinding light, you could make your staff erupt in a blinding, semi-permanent light, like a mini sun on the end of your staff. The university had people from all elements, and while the university was within the Light City, there were people from all over studying here. Within the university, element (or lack thereof) didn't matter. It was all about learning, advancing.

-

'Bye, dad!' Arasoth said, as he set off for university. It was only a five minute walk away, so he had no need to use the accommodation provided by the school.

He walked through the gates, as every morning. There were students on the lawns out in front of the university, talking and discussing various things - classes, spells of different sorts, stones and staffs. Some had staffs, some simply had pouches of stones or magic powders.

Tasctri, Sariel, Melchoe and Zaroff were already sitting on the lawn.

'Arasoth!' Tasctri yelled, and Arasoth ran over to them, sitting down and placing his staff down on the ground.

Tasctri, Sariel, Melchoe and Zaroff were more students of the university - Arasoth's closest friends. Tasctri was from the city of light, like Arasoth, although Sariel and Zaroff were both from Earth, and Melchoe from water. They each specialised in a different form of magic, meaning as a team they were extremely potent. Tasctri was specialised in crafting and creating spells, as well as some transfiguration; Sariel in healing, Melchoe in more cognitive spells, which ranged from a temporary insanity spell to an instant communication spell - a spell which proved exceedingly useful for telling someone a lot of information very quickly. Zaroff specialised in nature spells, for example making plants grow through solid rock.

'We think we might have finished our design for the perfect staff, Arasoth.'

'Oh, you decided on a topstone?'

'Well... no.' said Sariel. 'It has four of them.' she said, pulling out another piece of parchment with some rather intricate drawings on.

The topstone of a staff is typically the most powerful of all the stones, and resides - as the name implies - at the very top of the staff or sceptre. Most staffs had one, although it wasn't uncommon to see a staff with dual topstones, like Arasoth's own - diamond and sapphire.

'The first is diamond - double-charged.' she said, pointing to one of four stones on the diagram. 'Then we've got a Lightstone and a Powerstone. They all hold the last stone in place.'

'Which is?'

'Charmed Obsidian.'

'Ah, now that was something we would never have thought of. That piece of Lightstone, though - that's huge. Lightstones are relatively easy to get hold of in small sizes, but that looks four inches long.'

'Actually it's five.'

'I've seen a lightstone of that size once before, ever, and that was when my father received a commission from the King of Heliar for a million gold. As I recall, the stone alone cost him two hundred thousand out of that.'

'That's almost as much as my house!'

Professor Lxios came up behind them.

'Still plotting the perfect staff, you five?' he said, as the papers flew to his hand with a quick wave of his staff. 'Ha! You'll never get a lightstone that big, not a chance. Charmed obsidian, though, that is a weird one. Who thought that up?'

'Me, sir.' Sariel said.

'Yes, a very good choice there, although these plans are mere fantasies.' he said, handing them back. 'You have done your homework, haven't you Sariel?'

'Yes, sir.' she said, picking up her sceptre. 'Arasoth, you're best at setting things on fire, if you could that tree.'

Arasoth obliged with a little confusion. A blast shot out of his staff and a nearby tree instantly erupted into flame.

Sariel held her sceptre out, closing her eyes. After a few seconds, a beam of blue light cascaded out of the emerald topstone, and the fires of the tree were instantly extinguished. The charred bark and leaves of the tree seemed to reform, as if the tree had never caught fire in the first place.

'Ah, excellent.'

The magically amplified bell rang, and they all went off to their classes.

* * *

Arasoth got home to find his father hard at work, as usual. There was a silver staff base on his work table, and he was busy grinding down a ruby into a perfect sphere.

'Have a nice day?' he called, lifting the ruby up and examining it in the light.

'Was ok.'

'I got you a book. It's on table in the library. Found it when I was buying the emeralds for this staff.'

Arasoth went into the library. There was a book there, bound in what looked distinctly like green dragon scales. He opened it up.

Advanced Spellcasting Techniques

The book looked especially old, the dragon scales were worn, which takes an exceptionally long time. He opened it and flicked through some of the pages. It was describing mostly combo magic - using two or three of the three magic techniques together. The book itself looked four or five hundred years old, and while having older books wasn't unheard of, most books older books were no longer used, as what they described was either dangerous, incorrect, or they have been replaced by a newer, more full version.

'Take a look at page 212.'

There was what looked like a relatively simple spell there. A combination of powder and staff magic, to double-charge a diamond.

Xsarath placed a diamond on a plinth in the next room, and beckoned Arasoth in. Arasoth looked over the spell once more. Xsarath handed him a small mortar full of magic powder.

They stood on opposite sides of the plinth, and raised their staffs slightly.

'Three, two, one, now!' Xsarath said, as they blasted both magical powder and staff spell towards the diamond. The force of the spell threw them backwards onto the ground.

They got up, slowly. As the glowing magical residue around the stone faded, the stone was revealed. It was glowing.

Black.

'What on earth...'

Xsarath went back into the library, and took out a small book. The symbol of the fire city was upon it.

'Stone reference guide. In the Fire City, they primarily use powder and stone magic rather than staff magics.' he said, opening it to the very back, and flicking back two pages.

'I think this is it...'

The shadowstone is the most powerful of magical stones. Only two exist in the world, the first within the ruins of the Shadow Temple, protected by many incredibly powerful and dangerous magics, the second in the great museum at Anathor, protected by various charms and curses, as well as four full-time combat mages. It is important to note that the Shadowstone is not elementalised with Shadow - it has been called that for thousands of years because of its tendency to suck light in from around it.

It is an especially interesting stone for various reasons. The first is of course its incredible power - put it in a staff and you pretty much have the most powerful staff in the world, almost guaranteed. Grind it up, and its powder can be used for some incredibly powerful spells, like the instant death spell, as well as more.

The second interesting fact is that it is invincible. Whereas most stones and their powdered versions can have the magic sucked out of them and eventually dissipated, in the end making them magicless, the Shadowstone cannot have its power removed, except by using it.

The third interesting fact is that the Shadowstone is the only known stone which can create dual-elemental spells. Provided the elements are not opposites, it is possible to make a spell of, say, Light and Fire.

'Dual-elemental? We've always been taught that that is impossible.'

And the last point of interest is the fact this stone is one of the fifteen required items for the Elemental Unification - the spell capable of almost infinite power, charged with all elements, capable of bringing people back from the dead or wiping out entire cities. Ending the world, or creating a new one.

OOC:

On an unrelated note, I just copypasted everything from the old RRs into xPad.

First RR (WOTW I): 158209 words long. (Estimated average post length 458 words)
Second RR (WOTW II): 33792 words long. (Estimated average post length 750 words)
Third RR (Eastern project): 152064 words long. (Estimated average post length 921 words)

And in total, we have written 344065 words and nearly two million characters about the Mastery and their adventures, with an estimated average post length of 588 words.

Jasonmrc · **Posted:** August 30th, 2007, 10:52 am

Just posting my Bios right now, since they're so long that's all that's going to be in this post and since this is a different world they're not the same as in the RP chars post or the last RR, though they're the same basic people.

Its nice to see a new face :wink:

It'll be nice to write with you, Anubis.

Name: Jason
Home City Rank: Captain of the southern guard
Clan: Lige
Race: Human
Class: Warrior, Mage
Weapons: A pure white straight longsword, which is kept in a black scabarb.
Armor: A white chainmail but its covered with black leather
Age: 25
Description: Around 6'5" with a strong build, brown eyes and brown hair.
Weakness: Jason is great in melee combat or when uses magic, his weakness is against archers, don't know why but archers always seem to hit him unless he's fully covered.

Bio: Originally being part of the Water Clan, Jason is now one of the Captains of the guard at the Light city and is a follower of Lige.

Name: Skyrate Shadowstorm
Clan: Shade
Race: He's not human but he looks human.
Class: Warrior, Shadow Stalker
Weapons: Two midnight black Katannas that are stronger then granite.
Armor: None, but he wears black leather armor
Age: Unknown to all except him and the 4 senior elements, he just says he is 'Old enough'
Description: Skyrate is 7'1" and of a strong build. He wears a black cloak. Unlike alot of the Shade followers he can make himself look completely human without a hint of darkness.

Weakness: Mages and light

Bio: Originally belonging to the Fire clan, Skyrate joined the Shadow clan when Shade came to the world. Being one of the last remaining Shadow warriors he is very powerful in all types of combat. Skyrate does not have any hatred for any of the other element followers and usually gets along quite well with them, until they find out he's a Shade follower. One of his few friends is Jason who, though being a member of the Lige clan, is still a very close friend. Jason knows Skyrate is a Shade follower but Jason doesn't think that should stop them from being friends. Skyrate is a registered 'citizen' of the City of Light, which is very strange. He knows a few of the people in command there and that could be why. Also he is almost always in normal human form, thus only the most experienced magi could recognize that he is actually a Shadow warrior.

Name: Michael
Clan: Eare
Race: Don't know, some say he's human and just a crazy follower of Eare, others say he's a guardian of the earth.
Class: Warrior
Weapons: Two stone warhammer which hand at either side
Armor: None, everyone who has tried to harm him has said he was made of iron.
Age: Also unknown.
Description: Michael is 7'2" and of a very strong build. His skin is brown like the earth and almost feels like earth.
Weakness: Magic and wind

Bio: Belonging to the Clan of Earth, Michael is one of the strongest people in the city. Though he doesn't have any special rank in the city he is respected. Michael usually works on warhammers and mauls in his underground shop. When he makes an exceptionally good one he will work for weeks or even months to enchant it to its full potential.

Name: Celestina
Clan: Wate
Race: Human
Class: Sorceress
Weapons: A Sky blue Crystal staff with a light blue gem on the end
Armor: None, she uses water to defend her
Age: 20
Description: Slender (Not extremely thin), with Sky blue eyes and brown hair to just below her shoulders, often in a braid or ponytail. She wears blue robes and a blue headband.
Weakness: Fire is the main thing that hurts her. Also wearing no armor makes her very easy to hurt if she's caught off guard, though that is a rare thing.

Bio: From the clan of Water, Celestina is the teacher in one of the schools their. She teaches healing and rejuvination spells. Celestina is the younger sister of Jason though neither know it, they were separated at birth.

Name: Falkor
Home City Rank: Sentinel
Clan: Wie
Race: Human, but his body has changed because of the element he follows.
Class: Archer though he has somehow gained knowledge of melee combat.
Weapons: A longbow made from a branch of a special tree that grows below the Wind City.
Armor: Special made chainmail
Age: 51
Description: Looks like a lion with wings and a man's head, his hind feet are padded like a lions and his fore feet are mixed between claw hands and human hands. He stands on his hind legs making him 7 feet tall. He has golden brown hair and golden fur, his wings which have a 10 foot wingspan are golden feathered.
Weakness: He's not very good in melee combat like most of the citizens of the Light City.

Bio: Of the Wind Clan, Falkor flies around the top of the city as a sentinel and goes down to check on the bottom guards at certain times. Falkor is a good friend of Celestina and is sometimes sent to help the Water Clan when outlanders come.

Name: Timrak Corogen
Clan: Shade
Race: The same race as Skyrate
Class: Night Rider
Weapons: He has two kriss' one on either side and a scimitar on his left side.
Armor: Like Skyrate he wears merely leather armor, Shadow Warriors rarely need anything more even with the current persecution.
Age: Unlike Skyrate, Timrak's age is known but only because Skyrate saw him born, Timrak is 32
Description: Short black hair and black eyes with a reletively strong build, Timrak stands 6 ft.
Weakness: Light harms him but unlike Skyrate he has a good resistence to Magic.

Bio: Timrak Corogen is Skyrate's nephew, his parents were killed when the Shade followers started being attacked. Timrak was only a boy then, Skyrate brought him away from the Shadow City and hid him from the other elements. Unlike Skyrate, Timrak cannot make himself a shadow by himself, he must use a spell called 'Shadow Armor' too be a Shadow.

------Marina and Maiko, the Wanderers of the Light------

Name: Marina
Clan: She doesn't belong to any clan
Race: Elven, one of the few elves in the land
Class: Dracomancer / Animal handler
Weapons: None except for a Wand, her main offence is Maiko.
Armor: None, she doesn't like fighting. Instead she wears a white dress with red trim.
Age: 623 though she looks like a teenager.
Description: She looks like an average teenage girl with brown eyes and long brown hair down to her lower back, she's 5'3". She wears a modest white dress with red trim around the hands, bottom, and neck as well as a red sash.
Weakness: She has no abnormal weaknesses but because she is untrained in combat, and wears no armor, nor carries a weapon she could be harmed very easily, if Maiko wasn't nearby.

Bio: As a young girl Marina always loved chasing butterflies and squirrels. This was normal for an elven girl, but when she got older she took more interest in other animals, some of which were sometimes dangerous ones like bears. The animals she was near never harmed her for they could sense she didn't want to harm them. When her parents realized she would not be happy with a normal elven life they decided to let her have a choice between a normal life or another type of life. Marina chose to be an animal trainer, or Druid as humans call them. When she was 50 years old she started taming the more dangerous creatures. 10 years later she tamed a baby red dragon which became her pet.

During her travels around the world in search of another animal to tame she found a dieing Celestial dragon. It had been injured by a some of the warriors of the Water clan who had thought that it was the dragon that had been attacking their city. It didn't try to kill her because it knew she wanted to help, also it was too badly injured to attack anything. With the help of her pet baby red dragon (Yes, even after 10 years its still a baby) she was able to communicate with the dragon. She tried her best to heal it but nothing would heal the wounds the warriors had done. Before the dragon died she heard a voice in her head say "I now entrust the next generation to thee, may thou take care of it as I have.". At first she didn't understand, then she realized what the dragon meant it was talking about its egg!

The Dragon motioned to a stone wall, which opened by itself and inside was a white and red swirled egg. She went up to it and felt it, it was warm. When she went back to the Dragon she found that it had died. She layed down near it and wept, then fell asleep. When she awoke the body of the dragon was gone, it had just disappeared. She spent the next 2 years watching over the egg. Noone came near her except a few lost hunters who ran at the site of the Baby Dragon. Then one day it cracked, she stepped away from it and sat down and for the rest of the day she watched it, she heard nothing but occasional cracking sounds and little noises coming from the egg, she fell asleep. She was awaken during the night by something nudging her, she saw a baby dragon but it wasn't her Baby red, it was the baby that had hatched. The baby was all white except for a little red on the end of its tail. This was the baby that she'd been watching over for 2 years. The baby treated Marina as if she was its mother, for ofcourse she was the first thing it saw.

She named it 'Maiko' which means "The Great Healer". Ever since she hatched the dragon, 550 years ago, its been her pet. As for her other baby dragon she let it go free, she doesn't know what happened to it. Maiko is actually more like a friend more so then a pet. Marina can speak to him (in Draconic) just as fluently as elven or Human, and he can speak just as fluently in any of the three languages as she can.

Name: Maiko
Homeland Rank: He has no 'homeland', he travels with Marina
Race: Celestial Dragon (Health)
Class: Healer
Weapons: Four razor sharp claws, one tail, one bite.
Armor: His Dragonhide scales which are stronger then dragonite.
Age: 551
Description: He stands 10 ft. tall when on all fours or 20 ft when on his hind legs. His skin is white with red wings and the spikes on his tail are red.
Weakness: Umm...None? His dragon scales deflect any arrows and melee attacks. Because he's a dragon he can negate any magic attack. Because he's a Health Dragon he can heal himself. What weakness can he have?

Bio: Maiko was hatched by Marina, ever since she has been his 'Mommy'. She told him about his real mother and he almost attacked (and would've done severe damage to) the Water Clan but she stopped him. She told him that not all humans are like that.

Celestial Dragons have many types of abilities, each dragon only has one. Maiko's mother was not a health dragon otherwise the Warriors could not have killed her. His mother was a Star dragon. When a Celestial dragon is born his ability is pre-chosen. Some people say its whatever the parents want it to be, some say the gods choose it, others say its what certain young maidens like, still others say its completely random. Whichever the cause it is always the correct ability.

Health Dragons have the ability to cure any and every known sickness and some unknown. They can invigorate exhausted people, regrow peoples' limbs (actually start the regrowing process) take pain away, cure poisons and diseases, and in some cases (and only the oldest Health Dragons) can resurrect.

Rarely does a Celestial Dragon lay an egg in this world, they usually do it in their own realm. Maiko's mother laying an egg in just the right area was no coincidence, he was meant to be with Marina.

--------------------------------------------------------

And just to tell everyone ahead of time, if I make a wrong action or depict someone's character wrong then please PM me rather then posting it in an 'OCC:' here, as 'OCC:'s can be annoying to the neutral reader. Thanks

Karl 67 · **Posted:** August 30th, 2007, 10:53 am

Four figures flickered between trees like the flash from lightning. Instead of light, however, these were beings of shadow. They are Shadow Warriors from the recently-destroyed Shadow Temple. They were moving to prevent their ultimate demise as much as possible: To collect any other Shadow survivors from the assault by the Light Temple.

The assault, in turn, was what destroyed the Shadow Temple in the first place. The leader of the Lige Force crushed the altar with his light-enfused flail. The remainder of the Shadows then ran for their lives, as they were no match against a huge force without a base.

Now the Shadows travel either alone or in packs, outcast to everything except for those who separated from any temple to have no part in any war. In such places, they were feared, or respected out of fear. Shadow Warriors were amongst the more unstoppable. They were agile, they were strong, they were fearless. They were even hired to take on Goblin problems. Usually they returned. Others just disappeared after they left. When such an oddity was found, scouts would find the goblin camp utterly destroyed. They would see a splintered wall, blood and corpses of assorted goblin guards caught by surprise, and the ensueing conflict and remains to prove it. Crushed houses made the strength of Shadows seem impossible, yet the ruins of a nuisance of a goblin camp were enough to prove otherwise.

However, the rumors of shadows told around a campfire didn't end there. There were even rumors of the fifty-foot tall "elite" Shadows. They were just as agile, yet even more destructive than the ordinary warrior. They could easily pick up one of their own and throw them over an outpost. Their warhammers could crush an ogre's skull easily and their horned helmets and armor could take any hit.

Every Shadow was trained in their early years to be incredible. They made themselves powerful warriors due to the fact that they all lacked magical powers. The one who can use magic, however, is chosen the leader.

Their first leader was before the war. He never did anything. He died of some severe sickness caused by a backfire of him practicing spells when he decided to try to not be lazy. At least that's how the rumors went.

Their second leader, however, did stuff... but not in a way that the Shadows liked. He was a tyrant who abused his powers as the Shadow Leader. He was also the one who caused the Shadow Civil war, the Elemental War against the Shadows, and ultimately, the Shadow Exile. He disappeared days before the assault which destroyed the Shadow Temple. No one has ever seen him since then.

Some say he escaped the land of the Six Temples into the surrounding lands and kingdoms who did not want to be involved with the disputes of their ultimately superior neighbour. They have exceptions, but those exceptions are in the form of mercenaries to help some kingdom win a war against another kingdom. Those kinds of kingdoms are those who tell the campfire stories of the Shadow Warriors. Those stories are usually about a single shadow warrior cleaving through its enemies like butter.

When asked if they ever talked to one, they answered "before we could offer an alliance, he disappeared into the shadow of a tree... literally."

It was a basic skill for all shadows to be able to blend right into their element. The only way they could be detected is if a light source was shining right in their hiding place. They trained themselves to be ready for combat if such an event were to occur. They dislike involvement with things other than themselves. That suits their current isolation and those who told the stories and understood them respected them for it. They never spoke their respect out loud as it would get them in trouble with the other five Elements, especially the Light Temple.

The four figures sat down in the shade of a random tree. One of them built a fire quickly while another ran off towards a nearby hill. Twenty minutes later, the same shadow came back with a dead mountain goat on his padded shoulder. After the goat was cut up and roasted, the four finally began conversation.

"Where are we, exactly?" one asked.

"The Wie Mountain is over there..." said another, pointing towards a huge peak that dwarfed the surrounding cordillera, "and the cordillera runs down that way. I'd say that we're getting dangerously close to the Marsh."

The Shadows, ironically, hated the uninviting Marsh. At the clean end of the Marsh stood the city of Light. The Marsh worked as a natural purification for water, which the Light Temple gladly took to feed the thirst of the residents.

"Why are we nearing the marsh anyways, you know how close we are to enemy territory." Said a third.

"Check that, we ARE in enemy territory. We should just search for brethren in the outer lands."

"No," replied the second, "We're just going to pull a prank on the Light temple, irritating them enough to send out more search parties. We'll then follow them and kill them silently if they find more Shadows. In a sense, they do the work for us.

"There's only four of us, What if they send more than four parties? What if they send lots of people per search party? Ever thought of that?"

"It'll be hilarious though." The second retorted.

"It'll be risky, VERY risky. Part of me wonders why I'm still with this group if they're agreeing with a suicide mission." The fourth muttered aloud.

"You're planning on prankin' the Light guys too?" Said another voice.

All four shadows twitched and had their swords out like lightning. The four of them faced outwards with their backs to each other. There were four other shadows grouped together nearby a road two meters away from the tree the first four were resting under.

"More brethren, eh?" They all exchanged handshakes, high-fives and the occasional hug.

"Yeah, we're plannin' on pranking those Light guys for what they did to us. Wanna help us?" The third shadow asked.

"It'll be hilarious, but risky." One of the other four replied.

"That's what we covered already." The fourth mentioned.

"Are we doing it anyways?"

"Yeah, by Shade we will." The first exclaimed.

Everyone cheered. The morale boost was incredibly effective that even the ones that had doubts melted said doubts away.

-----

From another location, an old man with a short beard and a purple-trimmed wooden staff tipped by a lightning bolt-shaped amethyst, watched the conversation via magic.

"Pranking the Light temple, eh? This should be interesting. I'll see how they'll get away from it this time..." He chuckled to himself. He crouched low behind a boulder as to not be sighted by the cheering shadows.

-----

A man wearing light dragonscale padding with a menacing sword with an equally intimidating sheath was adventuring having since left his home in the Cordilerra. He moved eastward. The plains around him were vast and tan with the prairie grass. He checked his path. It was an ordinary dirt road that next to no one ever used. The man thought that an unused road would be a perfect start to find out about the world around him.

He trekked on.

Anubis · **Posted:** August 30th, 2007, 1:11 pm

OOC: I’m sorry if I appear to write too often. I lose internet for intervals of two hours a few times a day, and so I figured I’d write more during that time. After all it’s better to do something than nothing right? If you feel I’m posting too much just pm me and I’ll go play Sonic or something instead of writing more.

-----

The streets of the city were clean as though a constant breeze removed all dust, dirt and litter from within them. They were practically spotless, the houses were beautifully crafted and Manifest supposed that they were, in every sense of the word, perfect. Even the bricks which made up the paths had been carefully cut and placed so none would look any different from the rest; it seemed to him that these so-called Wind-People were perfectionists. Hardly an attractive trait, but his instinct told him that if anyone knew what Dyrefynd was, it would be these people.

He was walking directly towards the large white clock tower in the distance, through small streets housing the less wealthy of the Wind-People, back-alleys and main roads. He didn't care which path he was taking, as long as he got to where he wanted. That was really his attitude with most things, and although a lot was not as simple as 'walk from A to B", he would risk it all, and had, to reach his goal. But he would not compromise it with irrational decisions. The outcome he desired must be the ultimate outcome; he would not die in vain.

The birds on the rooftops had suddenly scattered. The flapping of a thousand wings echoed the now occupied street in front of him. A large, muscular figure stood ahead, wielding a large sword and a fierce white flame burned in its eyes.

“YOU ARE NOT OF THIS WORLD.” It bellowed, and was unmistakably a man’s voice.
“I was wondering when you would catch on. What of it?” He spoke, but kept walking towards the winged man.
“STATE YOUR BUSINESS WITH THE ELDERS. YOU WILL NOT PASS ME.”
“On the contrary, you will let me pass.” Manifest had now stopped, perhaps 5 metres away. He removed his gloves, shifting his hands into claws once again.
“I HAVE MY ORDERS. WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS?” The winged man advanced, with his brute of a sword now held firmly in his hands, now ready to attack.

With a swift movement, Manifest dodged the first swipe of the sword. Surprisingly, the man took a second swipe almost immediately, catching Manifest off guard, catapulting him into a nearby wall.
“Don’t you even abide by the rules of two handed weapons? You’re supposed to be slow…” He moaned, but stood up, brushing off the debris from his body.
“And you’re not supposed to have gotten up.” A new voice, a male’s, had spoken.

The large figure had disappeared from sight; in its place remained a somewhat frail looking old man, holding an ironically large staff pointed at Manifest.
“Put your gloves back on.” The old man demanded, with a certain degree of politeness.
“Lower your staff.”
“Do not test me.”

A moment’s silence passed, but Manifest had realised when he had hit the wall just how dependant his abilities were on elemental magic. He put on his gloves.
“Good.”
“Who are you, old man?”
“I am one of the Elders.” He paused, “You’re a very convincing liar, Manifest. But bear in mind, the Elders and Elites of this city are trained in more than one kind of magic.”
“Was that man who just attacked me an ‘Elite’?”
“Indeed. We don’t normally require them to step in; however you are a special circumstance. Mercury, I believe?”
“My creator liked to call me ‘Living Metal’”
“And who exactly, was your creator?”
“Much like you, he seemed more interested in asking questions than answering them.” Manifest was now getting irritated by this confrontation.
“Impatient are we? Very well, would you follow me to the clock tower?”

They travelled for about fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes of silence, apart from the occasional cough from the old man. Manifest had wondered what he had meant earlier by, ‘Do not test me,” but figured if he was in charge of an Elite, he might not wanted to have tested him at all.
“Manifest?”
“Yes?”
“Before we enter the clock tower; I need to know why you’re here.”
“I suppose it would be pointless to lie to you, wouldn’t it?”
“As good as you may be Manifest, I cannot be lied to.”
“When I awoke, I overheard some voices talking about Dyrefynd.”
“Excuse me?”
“I want to find out about the Dyrefynd, there is another thing though.”
“Go on.”
“Where I was created, there was a group of nine people who became to be known as the Originals. The Originals were the strongest warlocks and witches to control elements in history. However, they were killed. In their place remained Nine Crystals. These crystals allowed the holder to have almost unlimited ability within that element as their body would allow.”
“And these crystals existed?”
“I should know, I was able to hold four.” Manifest paused, admiring the bewilderment on the Elder’s face, “I take it there aren’t any similar things here then?”

Smiling, but obviously avoiding continuing the conversation, the Elder directed Manifest into the Clock Tower, dismissing the two Elites guarding its entrance and down a marble staircase into a corridor.
“I am not sure if I can trust you with what I want to show you Manifest.” The Elder paused, as if to wait for a reply.
Silence,
“Of course, I wouldn’t have brought you down here if I didn’t think you legitimate. However, I need you to prove yourself to me before I can help you with any of your problems.”
“I’m not especially keen on ‘detours’.”
“I’m sure you’re not. But this, ‘detour’ as you call it, will be beneficial to the two of us.”
“I’m listening.”
“Then listen carefully. There are a group of Shadow Warriors heading towards the Light Temple, which I will show you on a map shortly. These Shadow Warriors are planning a ‘prank’, and it will happen soon.”
“Surely not…” Manifest was taken back by what he thought he had just been asked to do. “I’m going to be your hit man?”
The Elder laughed. “No, I’m fairly certain the Light Temple will have no trouble in disposing of those particular Shadow Warriors. They have weak minds. What I want you to do is simple, make sure they die, but make your presence there minimal. The Light Temple and Wind Temple are not allies, but we are aware of what will happen if the attack goes as the Shadow Warriors plan.”
“And what am I preventing?”
“You need not worry about such things. However, I do need to give you a few things.”

From a store-room to Manifest’s left, the Elder pulled out a map and a medium sized red pouch. Telling Manifest to wait where he is, the Elder disappeared into a room with a large door ahead.

‘What a strange proposition. A moment ago he had someone attack me, now he’s telling me to go and make sure a bunch of ‘Shadow Warriors’ die?’ He had time to think now he wasn’t being spoken to, just the way he liked it.

“I’m back and I have a few things for you.” The Elder had appeared from out of nowhere. “First thing’s first, a map, some ink and a quill. We’re here, on the mountainous region, the marsh is here, and the Light Temple is here.”
“Okay…” Manifest decided it would be best to mark on the map where exactly he had to go.
“Good, I suspect the Shadow Warriors are foolish enough to cross the marsh. In which case they’re likely to arrive from the south east…”
“Excuse me.” Manifest interrupted.
“Yes?”
“I’m fine with just knowing where they’ll be heading and where they’re arriving from. They’re likely to retreat towards the forest if they fail on their attack. I’ve been involved in a few ambushes before.”
“Ah… Excellent. Then I shall carry on. There are two more items here, a red pouch to hold your items and a Shard of Wind. This shard of wind is similar to your ‘crystals’ you told me about. Its power is nowhere near limitless though, it will only last you two days at most. I advise you to use it to fly from our city to wherever it is you want to go. The red pouch is enchanted, anything will fit within it. But it can only hold eight items.”
“Interesting… Then I shall be off.”

Manifest exited the Clock Tower, not noticing the various decorations and sceptic looks from the Elites, held his Shard of Wind tightly in his hand, and blasted into the sky, happy that he could feel the wind rush against his face once again.

Adbot · **Posted:** August 30th, 2007, 1:11 pm

Rune Beast0 · **Posted:** August 30th, 2007, 1:49 pm

Name: Borgarath
Devoted to: Fire
Personality: Explosive. Even for a man of the fire, Borgarath is very quick to anger. He has a resolve to train himself to exceed the human limit, to gain power nobody else excluding the Gods have ever achieved. He loves to hunt and to fight, to watch his opponents fall before him.
Appearance: Tall and solidly built, with bright orange hair and full beard.
Age: 27
Abilities: Borgarath is still young, yet he has created several techniques that are effective and unique to him. His first and least damaging attack is when he heats up the air and sends many embers at you while simultaneously rushing you with his battleaxe (that he created himself, using a new smithing form and extreme heat). If his main plan of attack doesn't go as he planned, he flings his axe at you. While the axe flies, Borgarath ignites it and his body, rushing at you to the opposite side the axe flies. It is, as would be imagined, hard to stop either one. He also has one power consuming attack, that he only uses when it is needed. He pulls out a few throwing knives and throws a few while concealing two up his sleeve. The ones that are attacking are ignited, and Borgarath charges once more before leaping over your head. He burns his sleeves, grabs the knives, and focuses everything he has into their points. Then, he begins a whirling, expert dance with the daggers, striking quickly and accurately. However, attacking this way makes him weak and tired, so that his only true weapon is his axe (which he retrieves from his usually dead enemy), which he can barely swing.
Disadvantages: Well, water! He has a fear of the light and sentinels. His father was a great warrior, but once during a hunt (when Borgarath was a young child) he was struck by a horn. His father flew backwards, and his hunting knife speared Borgarath's left foot, making it quite vulnerable even now.

Borgarath swung the hammer in a powerful rhythm. It slammed into the hot battleaxe several times before Borgarath set the hammer down in cold water next to him. He bent over the battleaxe. It was wickedly curved on the head, strong, but surprisingly light. Borgarath stared at it awhile. There was a small chip taken out of the metal where he had hit too hard. Borgarath focused on the spot, and the metal next to it began to melt into the fault. When he was satisfied with it, he took out a long implement and began the task of creating an ornate design of dragons and flame on the middle of the axe. The door opened, and a strong but elderly man walked into the room. "Borgarath, can you stop for a few minutes and talk to me about something?" Borgarath looked up and replied, "Father, you know how I have to work on my axe while the metal is at the optimum temperature." The man sighed and said, "Well, when you are finished, come to my home." Borgarath nodded and returned to his metalwork. He stuck his tool in the water and once again examined the weapon. Borgarath turned around, opened a drawer, and took out a carving knife. He carved his name in runes on the handle, along with his crest. Grabbing the handle of his weapon carefully, Borgarath stuck the head in the water, removed his gloves, and went outside to speak to his father.

Feriag was sitting on his bed when he heard the knock on his door. He rose and opened it to see his son. Feriag greeted Borgarath with the standard fist-to-fist-to-chest salute, and sat on a chair. Borgarath took the seat next to him, and asked, "Father, why have you taken me here?" Feriag took a long look at his powerful looking son, his pride and joy. "The leader of the earth and his associates are arriving in 16 nights and 15 days. They have asked of you, the most talented fire-smith in the village, to make them a warhammer. However, this isn't any ordinary warhammer. It must be strong, like the earth, silent like the shadow, intimidating like the light, wise like the water, swift like the wind, and dangerous like the fire. This warhammer must be designed with honorable runes, crests of the gods, and most of all, some of your power." Borgarath stood angrily. "This man, who I have never met, wishes for me to create him a hammer that will take me tireless work, along with power I have trained hard for!" Feriag sighed as his son began to pace around the small hut. "Borgarath, be calm!" he shouted. Borgarath sat down hard on the chair. "Think, Borgarath. This is a leader, a man to be respected. Can you not give him a hammer? Only you can create it." Borgarath stood and kicked the chair across the dwelling. "Rape the Gods! I will be stronger than that man someday, why should I be his servant?" Feriag rose and took ahold of Borgarath's shoulders. "You must reconsider. This man is stronger than you now, and while you waste time relenting to worthless anger, the man is also training! IF you ever become as powerful as a great tribe leader, then you will have smiths that can make the weapons you desire! But for now, you are the smith! You are not the leader!" Borgarath swallowed his anger and nodded slowly. He turned and walked out of the hut.

Jasonmrc · **Posted:** August 30th, 2007, 7:59 pm

-----------------------------------------
Southern lands of the world
-----------------------------------------

Marina was cooking some salmon she had caught last night in the lake. This would be a suitable meal for her but not for Maiko, he had gone out early that morning to hunt for something for himself. He came back as Marina was getting ready to eat, he had found a deer.

"Good morning." He said dropping the deer and then laying down to eat it.

"Hello." She said in a happy voice.

She was used to his eating animals, and though she was what most people called a 'druid' she didn't mind him ending the life of one to feed himself. She knew this was the way with all things, one thing must die so another can live. Maiko knew that Marina didn't mind watching him eat but he also knew she didn't like seeing it so he always ate fast and neat so has not to upset her.

During their meal they were interrupted by a noise in the woods.

"What was that?" She asked

"It sounded like a wounded man," Maiko replied "it came from those trees."

"I'm going to go see what it is, you can stay here." she said as she put her plate down and walked to the trees.

When she reached the trees she looked around, she didn't see anyone.

"Help-p." said a voice from behind a Large targibar bush

She around to it and saw a wounded man in black clothes. Without another word she helped the man to his feet and brought him out to their campfire. Maiko had just finished his meal and was burying the bones. When the man saw the dragon he was afraid and started to make his way back to the forest in hopes the dragon wouldn't see him.

"No, don't be afraid of him." Marina said stopping the man from running away.

"Dragons don't like my people, they always attack us."

"I will not attack," Maiko said turning around and looking at the man "sit down and let her look at your wounds."

The man, though still distrusting the dragon went over and sat down near the fire with Marina's help. She sat down near him and started examining his left arm, it had been cut and not tended too. The blood was dry so she figured it was atleast 6 hours old. She took some herbs out of one of her bags and started to boil them in some water.

"Where did you get this cut? It doesn't look like a normal sword wound and its not an arrow scrape." She said as she put a cloth in the boiling herb-water.

"I was attacked by...some enemies of mine." He said

"What kind of people are they? The more you can tell me the better I can tend to your wounds."

"They were followers of Lige." he said reluctantly "They're after me because of what my god has done to their god. You know of the element wars don't you-Ow, what are you doing?"

Marina had put the hot cloth on his wound.

"The herbs will pull the infection out." She said

"Ow, well couldn't you have just put them on instead of burning my arm?"

"Raw herbs, broken or crushed, don't work as well as hot ones in boiling water and the cloth is too hold the poison, just letting the herbs hold it doesn't work as well."

"How do you know so much about healing and herbs?"

"Don't you know never to question a Doctor while she is working?" She said with a slight giggle.

"What were you saying about the followers of Lige?" Maiko asked as he moved closer to them and layed down bewtween them and the woods.

"Huh? Oh. They were after me because i'm a follower of Shade. You two have heard of the Element Wars, right?"

"Yes, but we try to stay neutral in those types of affairs." Maiko replied

"Then you probably also know that the followers of Shade are hunted. All the other Clans hunt us as if its a game. The group that attacked me are still following me, they could be here any minute. I should leave, I don't want you two to be caught in this also."

"You can't move alone until this arm is healed. You wouldn't last one minute in combat with an arm like that." She knew he used his left arm to parry since he had a parrying dagger. Though she didn't fight she still knew of alot of fighting styles, though she couldn't do any.

"You can travel with us, that is if you don't mind riding a dragon." Maiko said

"What was that?" Marina said looking into the woods.

They heard the sound of rustling leaves, it sounded like someone who was inexperienced in woodcraft was trying to sneak quietly through the woods. Infact, it sounded like 20 people were coming towards them.

"That's them! Help me over to behind the Dragon." Said the man

Marina helped him over behind Maiko and then went out infront of him, Maiko's head was still towards the campfire. The group of people in the woods came out and stopped within 10 yards of Marina, who was leaning against Maiko.

"Hail the camp." A man who looked like the leader said as he stepped forward.

"Hello, what brings a group of Lige warriors like yourself so far from the Lige temple?" She asked

"We're searching for a villain, he's tall about so high," He said putting out his hand to the height of what the wounded man probably would be at if he stood up straight. "wears black leather and has a wound on his left arm. He might be armed. We think he is around here, have you seen him?"

"What crime has he committed?" she asked

"Being alive..." said a man in the back to himself, noone else heard him.

"Well...We're not allowed to tell you all the details, let's just say he's a murderer."

"Hmm, well I guess I can't tell you if I've seen him then."

"We don't have time for games, girl." The leader said as he stepped closer.

A low growl came from Maiko as he turned his head to face the group. Up until now they hadn't noticed him, somehow.

"I don't think he likes you. I suggest you leave. We're neutral in the element wars."

"If your neutral then you wouldn't mind us looking around, would you?"

Two of the members of the group broke off, one from either side, and started going to the sides of the camp to look around. Before they got far though, they started going up and then stayed hovering a few feet off the ground near the leader.

"I didn't say you're men could look around and besides, you're out of Lige clan territory."

"The man we want better not be here, or else..." The leader replied

"Or else what? The Lige members aren't allowed to attack neutral people."

"Harboring an enemy makes you an enemy, we'll be back and next time we will search the camp. Now put my men down."

The men dropped down, rather hard and then the group of people went back into the woods. Maiko continued watching them untill he got out of his sight, which took awhile even through the dense forest. Marina walked back to the campfire and sat down to finish her meal which was now cold.

"Thank you for saving me. What is your name?" Said the wounded man

"Marina, and the Dragon is Maiko." She said as she warmed her meal and Maiko turned his head to look at them again.

"Pleasure to meet you, my name is Timrak. As i've told you before i'm one of the last remaining Shade followers." He said as he limped over to the fire.

"What's wrong with your leg?"

"Its nothing, just a sprain from when I was running from them."

"Let me look at it." She said putting her empty plate down and going over near him."

"You don't need to, it'll heal."

"Yes, it will. But untended it could heal wrong or you could always have a limp." She started examining his ankle, it was very hard to take his shoe off without hurting him. When she did what she found didn't surprise her much.

"You Shade followers sure know how to take care of yourself don't you?" She said sarcastically as she got up and went towards the woods. In a few minutes she came back with two strong branches which she used to make a splint for Timrak.

"There, that should do." She said as she finished the splint "Any other wounds I should know about?"

"No, not unless I got one from being here. Since it seems I'll have to travel with you where are we going?"

"We're going to the little town of Delteria, we've been notified that a serious disease has been spreading there."

"And you want to go there? What do you do? Travel around healing people?"

Marina smiled as she started to pack up the camp.

"We'll leave in an hour, meanwhile you should get some rest."

Alex 43 · **Posted:** August 30th, 2007, 11:38 pm

OOC: All right, guys. Way to start things off! Don't worry if you think you'll be typing too much. The more, the better, isn't it?

I believe Karl drew up a rather nice map of the actual world. I'll try to get it scanned soon.

In the meantime, my adventure posts will all be in cyan with spells and spiritual talk in italicization, and my history posts will be in italicized sky-blue posts. Just like the other round robin, I'll be adding pieces of history to further structure conflict in this world.

No worries about your posts. Should you post something against my will, I'll simply work around it so we both get what we want. This post will be a prime example to Anubis's. Enjoy.

__________________________________________________

NORTHWESTERN MOUNTAINOUS REGION - - MOUNT WIE - - THE WIND TEMPLE
__________________________________________________

The age of the training of the future generation of temple guardians is traditionally 12 years old. Rando, the son of Manya the Wind Mage and guardian of the wind temple, is now 12 years old. Traditionally, he is to begin learning the magics of the Wind Temple the day on his birthday. It just so happened that today is the day of his birthday, to which he is to begin his magic training and succeed his father as the new Guardian of the Wind Temple.

In recognition of this event, the entire town was gathered around the courtyard of the Wind Temple - the only place in the village large enough to actually support a special event without buildings and whatnot cluttering the area. It was a large circular platform with a huge statue of a phoenix on a raised section right in front of the temple entrance. The entrance itself faced the mountains, overlooking another, much larger city with an impressive-looking clock tower in the distance.

Those who lived there were also wind-based, and perhaps more over, but the temple they guarded here was much more ancient and considered more important. In fact, the militia in the city there served to protect the temple grounds, with the Wie Village being its last resort and smaller counterpart. It was predicted that in the next few hundred years that trails and buildings would be carved into the mountains and the 2 towns ultimately joined into one, but there was still a lot of distance in between to cover.

The village itself was hewn into the side of the Wie Mountain near the peak, which was hollowed out to form the inside of the temple. Corkscrewing around the mountain sides was the long trail that circled the mountain several times and swept into the village, where it forked off and lead to the many buildings inside. The world and the village were separated by a large stone gate and tall spiked stone walls that surrounded the village where the mountain wasn't. The buildings themselves, also made from stone and strongly fastened wooden roofs (had to be strong, for it was usually very windy up there), each supported a family or two or the goods and services of the local professions.

There was a single school, barracks, grocery store, alchemist, etc. After all, the village was so small that they only needed one of everything. There was even a haunted house in the far left corner of the village, or at least a place so creepy-looking that no one dared enter it, forced back by some strange fear-inducing force. Nobody knew who once lived there, but they hardly cared. It was a relic, and brought upon much needed tourism to help benefit trade and relations.

Everybody knew each other well. If somebody tried to move in secretly, everyone would find out in an instant. Of course, they would always stay at the inn for starts, because there was simply not enough room to build anymore houses. Instead, the existing houses were moved up a story, or the inn itself was expanded, should somebody decide to live there. The fact that there was hardly any space was becoming a problem, for the town's population was continuously growing by tourism or reproduction.

It was decreed by Manya that in the near future, they were going to hollow out of the mountain around the temple and ultimately turn the entire peak into one large village with the temple in the center. Work had already been started on the project, but since it was so difficult moving all that rock, it was slow. Plus, there were hardly any free hands there to see to this aside from some occasional passerby looking for a job.

Oh, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I had quite forgotten we were talking about Rando. Ahem.

Rando was a tall and skinny boy, with muscular arms and legs scared from adventure and accident alike. His long, well-trimmed, light brown hair covered the back of his long slender neck if it wasn't bound together in a ponytail. Wild blue eyes flashed from their sockets when he shot a glance around, which he often did from natural experience. His choice of clothing included a gray Wind-marked vest with a symbol of the Wind Temple; practically everyone important would wear such a symbol to easily depict which element they stood for. His was a triangular-shaped tornado, cross-waived different shades of gray for a rather detailed wind effect, stuck in the middle of a dark gray circle. Light and airy brown pants covered his long strong legs with leather boots fit and designed for hard running. He didn't wear any hats, mainly because they would all fly off while he dashed along the countryside in curious exploration. He was a wild boy, raised more in the wilderness then the temple grounds.

Rando hardly knew about this tradition, but had said to his father over and over again that he never wanted to be a mage. He had always wanted to be a scout for the Wind Temple instead. He was such a fast runner, able to dart in between trees and foliage with ease, and could pinpoint-snipe a ferret with his crossbow at 60 feet in less then a second. He simply loved to explore the lands around the mountain and even plan treks and adventures that took him all the way to the other faraway temples.

He would complain to his father when he brought up the topic of magic training. Rando would say "I refuse to be a mage when I grow up." and Manya would simply nod his head, knowing in secret that Rando would one day change his mind and see just how fantastic being a mage was. It would just take some time for him to adjust to the idea.

Now that he was finally 12, it was time to see if he has accepted his destiny or not. Rando was presented with a long slender present right after the cake, which was enjoyed by all.

The wrapping easily gave way to a long, finely crafted gray wooden staff. An orb at the tip was followed closely by two rings attached by a few thin wooden supports that would possibly break if one swung it to hit something. The lower section was covered in a thin rubber gripping area with the other end slimmed down to a spike. Ultimately, it looked quite basic.

Sure, this was a staff, but it was more then just any regular staff.

This was a Training Staff.

"What is this?" demanded Rando towards Manya after staring at it for a minute, scarcely able to believe his eyes.

"The time has now come that you can no longer put off your magic training." announced Manya, standing with his face to the wind making his long gray hair fly about proudly, "Starting tomorrow, I shall teach you about the wind element and how to control it to help you protect this temple in the name of the great Wind God Wie, as the village's new Wind Guardian after myself."

Rando was speechless. Everyone was looking at him and applauding. He was to be their new Wind Guardian - their messenger and protector of the temple and Wie. Relied on by the village and the world to protect the very essence of the air they breathe and the wind that carried it around to supply all with fresh, reused wind brought upon by the many forests of the land. He was to be the Lord Wie's messenger!

This was a nightmare!

"But I don't WANT to be a Wind Guardian!" he shouted.

The excited, applauding crowd instantly fell silent, as though it was all rehearsed.

"Why not?" asked the grocery store owner whom Rando instantly recognized as William Hallinar, "The Guardian of the Wind is a sacred position! You should be honored to receive such an opportunity."

"It's BORING!" said Rando, controlling the volume of his voice, "I tried it before. All you do is stand there and concentrate and make stuff happen by supernatural force. That's dull! I want to run around and go places and do stuff physically all on my own, not rely on the Wind God!"

It was silent once again. This was perhaps the first time in history that the position of Wind Guardian was rejected by anyone. Heck, it was the first time that the position of ANY guardian of ANY element was rejected as the opportunity to be such an important person.

"Rando, you do not know what you're saying." said Manya in a disciplinary tone. It was almost as though a fight was going to erupt between the two.. Everyone watched eagerly, not knowing whose side to take.

"Father, I have already told you my dream." Rando argued, "The dream I had already decided to dedicate myself to a few years ago. If I wasn't allowed to follow it, why did you put it off until now, when my hopes and resolve had never been better towards it?"

Manya looked a little embarrassed, "Because I didn't want to crush your ambition. To neglect your dream once it has been set would have scarred you for life at that age. Now that you are much older and can take these responsibilities as a man, I figured you would have taken to it a lot more easier."

That set Rando off like a match. He screamed at his Dad, and he screamed loud. The entire crowd jumped.

"WELL, YOU WERE WRONG! I HATE THIS! I HATE YOU, I HATE THE TEMPLE, AND I HATE THIS CRUMMY STAFF!"

Rando hurled the nice new staff to the ground in fury. It bounced twice, seemingly unharmed, and rolled away towards Manya's feet. He couldn't say anything now. Rando was upset, and saying something would just make him madder.

Rando ran off towards the house in frustration, leaving everyone to stand there and stare at Manya, who almost looked like he was going to cry. But no tears came out, and he instead turned to the temple itself and walked towards it. The large inviting carved stone doors of the hollowed-out mountain temple of the Wind loomed over him, as they did with the village. Only the Guardian of the Wind could ever make them open, and this is exactly what he did without even touching them. He didn't wait until they were finished opening when he walked right inside the darkness of the temple and closed the doors behind him.

After he vanished behind the ancient doorway, somebody in the crowd spoke illegibly. Then his companion spoke as well, starting up a conversation between the neighboring townsmen. Pretty soon, a chain reaction started, and the people were all talking amongst each other again about recent events. The party was on again, and everyone began to forget that it was really Rando's birthday and not the town's.

It didn't matter. They knew that sooner or later Manya would persuade Rando to somehow revert his dream to becoming a Wind Mage and their young new Guardian. Manya was one of the wisest and fairest Wind Guardians to exist in 700 years, with knowledge surpassing even a scholar of the Water Temple. That is where he trained, in fact, in the ways of magic - adding a bit of the water element to his already effective magics in dedication to the Wind Temple's one true ally.

The crowd finished their party and celebration, then slowly, one after the other, they all began to disperse to their homes and businesses. Some even stayed behind to clean up the party decorations and disperse the automated magics creating appealing visual effects in commendation to the event. Soon, even they went home after a good day's event, and all was as it always was once again.

All that was left now in the courtyard was the Training Staff, still half-wrapped in wrapping paper that was blowing around in the hard wind, also trying to escape it. The gray paint coating the staff was almost the exact same shade as the tiled stonework of the courtyard, which stretched and curved around to a bloated half-circle perturbing from the base of the temple itself.

The staff remained there untouched the whole day, and even the majority of the night. It looked as though it would've stayed there forever until the doors to the temple opened again and a pale-faced Manya strode out. He wasn't frightened in any way, it was just that the inside of the temple was so dark that it would leave anybody who went inside for 12 hours quite pale.

He walked straight for the staff and picked it up with one hand. He brought it alongside his own - the Great Staff of Wind, weld only by its Guardian and disobedient to anyone else. Both staffs were the same length, the same weight, and even almost the same gray. If it wasn't for the fancy twister-shaped glass orb with swirling dust inside forever spinning in itself on the Staff of Wind, one would have thought the staff themselves were twins.

That's how Manya wanted the staff built - similar to his own, so when it was time to trade staffs, Rando wouldn't have it much different.

He will talk with Rando tonight. He will discuss the benefits of this position in fuller detail and make it seem like being a scout is a child's dream compared to this. It won't be easy, but then again nothing with Rando ever was. He will try, perhaps fail, but he will just keep on trying. For their Lord Wie, and their legacy and tradition.

He entered his house, which he never locked. Nobody locked their houses. They all knew each other and were all welcome in each others homes should the time come. Such was the case to be fortunate, for had there have been locks, Rando would have most likely locked Manya out. He certainly did it for his room. The lock was set and something large and heavy prevented the door from opening that usual one inch with the lock.

"Rando?" called Manya.

No sound came out. After several attempts, Manya shook his head in disappointment.

"Rando ..." Manya said with a sigh, "I know you're awake. I knew that you were going to take it like this, and I knew that I was going to have to try and persuade you into this. I don't want to seem like I'm forcing you into anything, I'm just saying that if you break tradition, you might be looked down upon by everyone. Today was a big day for you, and you already disappointed everyone by walking out on your own party. Why, the idea itself was absurd.

"No matter, though, everyone will forgive you in time. They did to me when I turned 12. Have I ever told you what happened when I turned 12?"

Still no sound, but Manya knew Rando was listening.

"I was shocked out of my skull when my father told me I was to begin training as a Wind Mage. I had always wanted to be a professional swordsman. We fought and argued with each other all day. ALL day. I'm still regretting some of the things I shouted at my father. But at the end of the day, I accepted it and bid farewell to my dream. And after casting my first spell, I then suddenly realized that swordsmanship wasn't in my blood after all, because let me tell you, I was horrible with a sword at the time.

"But for you, I'm sure it's quite different, because you are already a very fast runner. Very quick, cautious, maneuverable, and you can even hit a rabbit while diving in mid-air. Let me tell you, that's pretty amazing.

Listen, I'll tell you what. To begin your magic training, I'm gonna teach you a spell that will make you run even faster. possibly twice as fast as your current maximum speed. How does that sound, champ?"

Still no sound.

"Rando? Oh come on, please answer me. At least say SOMETHING."

He didn't.

"... Rando? ... no, you didn't ..."

Manya took a step back, strafed to the side, and thrust his staff forward, twister-shaped orb in front.

"Windariam Sinato!"

The door was blasted off its hinges and flew across the hall where it struck and practically fused itself to the wall opposite where it had been. A large dresser fell over, with nothing left to hold it up, and Manya jumped over it, scanning the room.

He then turned and ran down the old wooden stairs and into the night towards the gate. He didn't know how long Rando was gone for, but judging by the fact that his crossbow and quiver were gone along with his life savings, he wasn't just at Maloonia's this time.

"Ho, Flaren! Flaren Avantina!" he called.

A tired looking man with ruffled red hair poked his head out from the cabin atop the right side of the wall and looked down at Manya.

"Aye, Guardian." he called down in a heavy accent, "Yer son pass'd by here not one momen' ago. Seem'd in a hurry, so ah let im through withou question. Wondered wah he wanded to leave so late at nigh' for a mo', really."

"Thank you." replied Manya, and he turned to walk for home.

"Guardian Manya." called a young girl's voice. Manya tilted his head slightly to the left to spot a young girl with long brown hair and cheerful eyes running down the path in curiosity.

"Hello, Maloonia."

"Rando ran away, didn't he?" she asked sorrily, "Aren't you going to go look for him?"

"Well, no point in sending a search party after him. He would just evade and outrun them." replied Manya informatively as though Maloonia was his grand-daughter.

"Besides, he'll come back on his own accord."

Maloonia looked up into Manya's eyes.

"How do you know?" she asked.

Manya smiled, "Because ... he is going to become this temple's new guardian someday."

Indeed, his training has already started now. There was no avoiding it.

First lesson, thought Manya to himself, is always the acceptance of the role. Harder for some people, sure, but it will be done no matter what.

Karl 67 · **Posted:** August 31st, 2007, 11:37 am

The Shadows were fast travelers, especially in the pack that they were in right now. The near-blinding walls of the city of Light were easily see able through the murky fog and foliage. The eight of them stopped and blended into the darkness of the marsh.

"So what's the plan again?" The first one asked.

"We set something that causes a loud, startling noise and creates lots of color. Right in front of their faces. The ensuing reaction will be hilarious I'd think." The third one grinned as he repeated the plan.

"Do we have that?" The fifth shadow asked. The third shadow tossed a bundle of firecrackers to the fifth.

"I know you're a Fire Shadow. You do your work." The third chuckled.

"What are you then?"

"I'm an Earth Shadow. I can't light a thing in this place."

"Very well." The fifth shadow's cape morphed into dragon wings. He scratched one of the wing claws into the side of the fireworks and a flame sparkled at the tip of the claw. He used the flame to light the firecrackers.

"Quick, Lets run for it." The fifth shadow carefully set the firecrackers in a way that they'll shoot right towards the temple. They all ran for it.

Once they were a few meters away, the firecrackers shot. The ensuing colorful explosions were pretty close to the ground behind the walls. The shadows couldn't help but laugh at whatever reaction the people there were expressing.

"Woohoo! Yeah!" The third shadow shouted.

"If only we could see their faces. That would be incredible." the sixth one added.

"Nice work, Shadows."

All of them stopped laughing.

"Where have I heard that voice before?" The second shadow muttered.

"No need to run. I'm on your side."

The shadows dared not move. the voice was not any of them and they could tell if it was a shadow or not; which it wasn't.

"Who is it?" The first shadow called.

A figure moved right into the scene in front of the eight. His features looked old, his beard was short, his hair medium-length and gray. He wore a loose-fitting brown robe top and dark brown, baggy pants. His staff was tipped with a lightning bolt-shaped Amethyst.

"Oh fudge, we're screwed, aren't we?" The second shadow whispered to the first one.

"You know who I am?" The stranger asked.

"You're Donoluth, the Legendary Thunder magi of the Earth temple." The first answered.

"Very good. But if you know me that well, you'd know that I never liked Ultima and I understood your true intentions. The other five elements were overzealous. I know you're not the mindless killers you were rumored to be." The old man continued.

"You don't think that?"

"Of course not! I, unlike most others, plan on getting you guys back to citizenship so everyone can live as equals."

"I can't do it myself, so I'll need nice shadows to help me. You eight seem like perfect candidates."

"Alright then. Where to?"

"I'll teleport us to a safer place than this. I'm sensing that Light Soldiers are coming this way."

In a swift motion, the old man twirled his staff and they all disappeared in dark purple smoke.

No sooner than that happened have twenty Light soldiers armed with Light-infused flails march in.

The captain swore. "That was Donoluth's magic... I recognize that staff anywhere. I knew he was a traitor when he started trying to persuade everyone that Shadows were not the mindless killers they are."

"Report this back to our Guardian. The Wind Temple may not be our 100% Allies, but they will help us when we need it."

"Sir, what should we do?" Another soldier asked as another ran off to deliver the message.

"We'll continue searching. We'll catch them if they came this close to our glorious temple. Why would they do this anyways? It's stupid..."

They all spread out to search through the entire marsh...

-----

He came across a ruined city on a large island. A stone bridge with a smashed gate was the only way into the city.. Charred stumps of gargantuan trees littered the place. The buildings were caved in or still standing with near-minor damage. Overall, it was suffice to say that whoever once lived here didn't live anymore.

He walked up the steps to the temple that stood at the far end of the island. A huge statue of a bat was knocked over and half-reduced to pieces. The doors were closed tight.

Night walked up to the doors and attempted to push the doors open. They seemed to open by themselves. He then entered.

The entire temple was dark as night, mainly because the windows that littered the walls were completely or mostly covered with vines. The only light shone on a figure and an altar smashed through.

"Hello?" the adventurer called to the figure.

"Hmm? A traveler..." The other muttered. His voice was double-toned, dark, and beastly. The man kept one hand on his sword in case the other was hostile.

"Who are you?" the first asked.

"You are Night, I presume," The man at the altar said, turning towards the man he called Night.

"... Yes. But who are you to know me?"

The man removed his hood. Night couldn't believe his eyes.

It was a full shadow with glowing purple eyes with snake-like eyes. He held a long straight machete.

"Everyone knows me as Ultima, the Leader of Shadows, and the Most Despicable Man on the Planet." He mocked the titles, except for Ultima, which was his actual name.

"What do you want?" Night asked as he heard the doors behind him slam shut.

"You know that I am here and I dislike intruders on my temple."

"It's not your temple anymore you traitor..." A weak voice said out of what seemed like the altar.

"This doesn't concern you, Shade. This man is a witness and I need to remove him."

Night pulled his sword out and charged towards Ultima. Ultima swung his machete, which was blocked by Night.

The fight was a duel. Occasionally, Ultima's cape would flicker into circular "portals". Beams of light shot out of them at Night, who avoided them easily.

Night took the chance of Ultima's attack to lunge. Ultima's left hand started to glow and Night swung hisa sword toward it.

A ball of fire splashed into Night's chest. Dragon scales were near-immune to magic, so Night was unaffected. Ultima didn't expect this, however, and Night got a clear stab.

Ultima groaned in pain as Night pushed Ultima towards the wall, pushing his sword in even more. Ultima swung his machete at Night, who suddenly pulled his sword out. The hook caught onto Ultima's skin and tore through even more. Ultima shrieked and dropped his machete.

"Never underestimate me..." Night shouted at Ultima.

Ultima grinned, however.

Night was hit by something completely unknown and fell to the ground, his sword gripped hard.

"Never underestimate the Master of Shadows."

He held up two Shadow Stones. He looked at them long and hard and then tossed one onto Night's limp corpse.

"Memento to you. Even though you're dead." Ultima laughed as he put his hood back on and disappeared through the doors.

-----

Night found himself in a dark purple realm. There was no ground or anything.

"Ultima's a fool..." A voice came from behind Night.

He turned to see another Shadow. His hair was black and flat at the top. His face covered by a plate shaped in the official symbol of the shadows, but upside-down.

"Are you Shade?"

"Very good. The face plate's a dead giveaway, eh?"

"You're supposed to be cold-hearted and ignorant."

"That's no everyone else, but not my brethren."

"What are you talking about?" Night asked.

"Look at yourself. You're one of the Shadows now."

Night looked at his hands. they, along with everything else that he had, was all black, including his sword. Instead of the diamond that was in his sword hilt, there was an onyx.

"I never wanted this!" Night shouted.

"I'm sorry, but since Ultima was confirmed to be such a traitorous-" He paused, trying to think of a proper, yet effective swear word to describe Ultima. "You know what I mean, right?"

Night nodded.

"Anyways, since Ultima's a traitor, the remaining Shadows need a new Leader."

"But... I'm dead."

"Nay. I brought you back to life, but I had to remove your corpse from existence as well. You're now a full-fledged shadow, yet you are still the exact same as before, you're just all-black."

He took a deep breath.

"In order for you to become the Shadow Leader, I must give you the staff that Ultima wanted, but I took away from him.

Shade's cape turned to black flames and he reached into the fire, unaffected. He pulled out a staff with an onyx orb in the shape of the Shadow Symbol. It was completely black.

"You must protect this. You and ONLY you shall use this staff. No one else. No exception. I wouldn't allow it anyways."

"Wait."

"I know what you're thinking. Yes. Being a shadow isn't about the blackness. You also must realise your Shadow Abilities."

"You can use magic, and therefore, you can perform the Shadow Split. I'll get to that soon enough."

"The basic skill of a Shadow warrior, whether he be a full shadow or just wearing black clothes is to blend right into their element. You become totally invisible if you're hiding in a shadow. If you master this, you won't be using any energy whatsoever."

"The second skill is the ability of your cape."

"I'm not wearing a cape." Night interrupted.

"You are now." said Shade. Night looked at his cape and felt it. It was perfectly shaped in the way that it won't impede movement whatsoever.

"I'll train you personally. Enter this portal." He said as a black portal appeared. Night jumped in without hesitation, followed by the God of Shadows Himself.

Alex 43 · **Posted:** September 2nd, 2007, 9:23 am

The sun combined with the movement direction and velocity of the wind told Rando that he had been running almost non-stop for nearly 3 hours. He just couldn't stop - the feeling of freedom left him numb to his complaining muscles and combined with the urge to get as far away from his destiny as he could, they had no choice but to keep at it. They continued to leap low branches, duck thick boughs, dash through brush, and slide over fallen trunks. Maintain this speed, he constantly thought to himself, do not slow down nor speed up. If I slow down, they will catch up to me, and if I speed up, I will tire myself out too quickly.

Soon, though, even his muscles gave in, and Rando was forced to abandon his method of escape and collapse himself near a spring in the middle of the forest. No worries, it will have been enough, he told himself. He was many miles from the mountainous region and had been traveling southeast most of the way, only turning when something obscured his path. He aimed for southwest because he was aiming for another temple somewhere in the land, and because north would only lead him to the ice-cold climates of the northern regions - somewhere he had learned quite well to avoid for a number of reasons.

He was lost, now. He didn't recognize any of this vast humid forest, nor the species of the dark bluish-green trees with gnarly twisted bark and branches with even bluer arrowhead-shaped leaves that covered most of the sky leaving everything below them in dark shards of light. It didn't matter much, though, because he would much rather be lost in the wilderness rather then back home. Besides, there was always someone or something out there that could give him directions should he need it. It wasn't as though he wandered into a complete and inhabited maze or anything.

Curse you, father, he muttered to himself in frustration as he gulped water from the spring in his hands, you knew I didn't want to be a wind mage. Why didn't you adopt or something so another could take my place so i could be whatever I wanted? Besides, it's not as though anything is going to attack the Wind Temple. We're all at peace now. The shadow threat is no more! Why do we even NEED guardians now?

He splashed the icy water in his face. Autumn was coming, and the snowfall was going to come in a manner of months. It got very cold atop Mount Wie in that time, but he was used to it now. He just had to keep moving in the cold temperatures and not let his body temperature fall too much. It usually required that he eat a lot of food so he would have enough energy to do this, and he did this. He even learned to salvage food like berries and roots from forests, studying what was edible and what wasn't, and how to identify such things.

He learned this from Maloonia's father, the town's alchemist. In a sense, he was like a second father, taking him in whenever Manya angered him and calming Rando down with either a task or a book on his trade. He actually enjoyed Rando's dedication and interest to his work, saying that Maloonia just didn't take as much time and attention to it as he did. It was understandable - she was only 8 and still too carefree to think about the future and her taking over her father as an alchemist. Though it wasn't as if he wasn't interested in it altogether. She would pick some herbs and mix them with other simple and familiar ones to cause easily reversible effects like skin color changing and shrinking just for a few laughs. Rando, of course, knew that alchemy was a lot more then just sticking herbs into a vial and drinking it. It was a pity that they couldn't help him now.

He stopped to catch his breath from almost drowning himself in the water, and instead resorted to looking in it. His familiar perfect blue eyed, perfect nosed, perfect mouthed, perfect everything-in-betweened face starred back, half covered in totally imperfect, messy brown hair. Just the way he liked it. Made him look tough, mysterious, and quite attractive too. Every time he entered a city or populated area, he purposely shot random looks at beautiful girls, making them blush, look away, and start giggling to whoever is nearest to them who is preferably standing in the opposite direction. He never really went on any dates, though. Just wasn't all that interested in actually intermingling with them. No matter what he did, whether it was a wink, a sneer, or an altogether funny face, the result was always the same, so he would always try something new with unfamiliar faces. Several times, he felt he should've written a journal about it or something.

The ripples in the water died away, and he saw small fish swimming around the waters, confused by his rejuvenating splashing and not knowing whether or not to approach it or stay away. Tempting them to the side was a number of long slender reeds, just beckoning something in the water or otherwise to have at them. Fish, insects, herbivores, anything that would cut them down to a more manageable size.. The water also reflected things as much as it revealed them. Copies of insects like dragonflies and Imvin Flies already close enough to the water to make it ripple. Clones of the rocks protruding from the edges creating a sort of barrier for smaller creatures. Duplicates of the heavily leafy trees that held their ground over-head, hogging up as much sun as they could over the lower plants.

It also revealed something else. The reflection of the young 7 foot long dragon across the stream, staring directly at him.

Rando stayed calm. This day and age, dragons were mostly domesticated, living as pets, companions, or their own individual souls. Only a few wild ones remained, scattered all over the world, trying to survive in the wilderness by themselves. They were a threat, but banned from hunting as their existence also helped naturally control the pest population. Besides, wild dragons hardly attacked humans unless angered by their teasing and taunting.

Served any humans mauled by a wild dragon right.

This one certainly looked wild. Its dark blue scales had a number of serious scratches and dents all over with a few patches where they were missing altogether. The left of its primary head-bashing horns was snapped off, probably naturally, and was yet to finish growing back. Long black claws were dirty, ruffled wings pulled into a resting state, muscles and belly thin from malnutrition, and underbelly and long spiked tail covered in mulch and grass.

Rando slowly stood up with a brave smile on his face, trying to make himself look ready for anything should the dragon attack. It was simple enough to test whether or not it was wild, and if it was, he could probably get directions from it or just leave it. If not ... well, it's not as though he's had to outrun something possibly faster then him before.

"Hello, Sir Dragon." greeted Rando. If the dragon could speak the common tongue, then it's had some domestication.

The dragon leapt back in shock, rearing his head up by turning its long spiny neck to a 90 degree curve.

"It TALKS!" it shouted in total realization, eyes wide and tail curved up in surprise.

Rando tilted his head in confusion. He was no longer sure of how to tell if this one was tame.

"Yes ... yes, I talk. I am human." said Rando fairly slowly.

"Ah, hello Human. I am Mitzol." replied the dragon.

"Ah." replied Rando. Good, it at least had a name. "My name's Rando."

"No, it's not." it quickly said, shaking its head.

Rando blinked, "I'm sorry?"

"Didn't you just say 4 seconds ago that you are Human?" it asked suspiciously.

"Yes, but I AM a human. You are a dragon." Rando explained.

It began mumbling to itself for a minute, but then suddenly remembered Rando was there.

"No I'm not." it quickly replied, "I am Mitzol."

"Yes, that's your NAME. I am Rando, the human. You are Mitzol, the dragon." he tried.

It then looked confused, then instantly bewildered, "I have a last name?"

"No, you ARE ... ok, yes. Yes, your last name is 'The Dragon.'" Rando said, giving up. Maybe it'll realize its mistake.

But no, it stamped the ground in joy and ran around in happy circles.

"Yippee! I have a last name now! I have always wanted a last name! Thank you so much, Rando the Human!"

"Yeah ... no problem." replied Rando.

"I'm so happy I want to give you something." it offered.

"No thanks." Rando politely declined.

"Oh, but I must!" replied Mitzol.

Letting curiosity give way to humanity, Rando accepted, "What do you have?"

"I have ..." started Mitzol, "... um ... uh ..."

It then proceeded to look around himself quickly, lifting its feet, shaking its tail, scratching its body with one claw, scanning for a bag or something which it apparently didn't have. Rando immediately took to the conclusion that it didn't have anything, and its search will end in tears.

"You don't have-"

"DON'T TELL ME. Don't tell me. I will figure it out on my own. Let's see ... what do I have ..."

Rando knew that this search as going to take forever, so he decided to give Mitzol an option.

"How about a dead rabbit?" he asked.

Mitzol immediately stopped searching and nodded obediently at Rando like a dog, "GREAT idea! Great idea! I'll get that for you! You wait right there! I'll go find one!"

With that, it turned and dashed through the forest, laughing almost maniacally to itself.

Rando just stood there. This dragon was not wild or tame, it was completely MENTAL! But maybe he would at least give it a chance. It knew what a rabbit was, and dragons were fearsome hunters. Besides, he was a little hungry, anyways, and he didn't really have anything else to do.

About half an hour of waiting, Mitzol came lumbering back empty-handed and nearly fell in the stream.

"Sorry, Rando the Human, I couldn't find a dead rabbit. The only ones I found were all alive." he shamefully said, dropping its head in self-discipline.

"That's OK." said Rando, "... uh, while you were gone, a dead rabbit came up to me and I ate it for lunch, so now I'm full. Thanks for the effort, though."

"Aw, you didn't save any, did you?" it asked.

"Sorry, it wasn't very much, and I was hungry." he replied.

"What about the bones? Can I have the bones? I know nothing eats bones, but they just feel so WIERD in my mouth!" it said.

"Yes, but they're ... uh ... invisible now." he replied, "Sorry, there was nothing I could do."

"Aw! That smells!" said Mitzol, and turned away sadly. Rando was about to try to cheer it up when it suddenly just started mumbling random words to itself, changing its emotion over and over. Then it glanced towards the pool, yelped, and jumped back, spreading its wings ready to fly if needed. It wouldn't have happen though - Rando saw that the right wing was torn and bleeding. This was a fairly recent injury.

"What?" asked Rando, "Does it hurt?"

"There's a DRAGON in there!" shouted Mitzol.

"What?" Rando asked again, this time for clarification rather then resolve.

"In there! There was another dragon. It always happens when I try to drink. It's so scarrrrrry!" it replied with an unnecessary dramatic tone in its voice, pointing with a claw right into the water.

Rando looked in the water, then beckoned Mitzol back to the stream after relizing that the only things it must have seen was its own reflection.

"That's not another dragon, that's YOU." he said, smiling humorously.

Mitzol hesitated, then slowly strode over and looked again in the water with extreme caution.

"Oooohhhhhhh!" it said, relaxing, and then nervously waved with one claw, "Hi, me!"

This can't be happening, mumbled Rando.

"... wait, wait just a second here! Everybody wait!" shouted Mitzol, calling out to a non-existant crowd of somethings.

"If I'm down there ... then who is THIS?" it demanded, pointing at itself, "This must be an impostor! I MUST DESTROY IT!"

"That's you as well." Rando quickly replied, fairly annoyed.

"Oh, thank goodness. I thought I had been possessed or something ... uh ... no. that doesn't make sense. There can't be two of me, that's just SILLY. How is there two of me?" it asked.

Rando took a few slow deep breaths. His father was the more patient one, not him.

"There is a reflection of you. A picture, in the water, that looks just like you, but it not really you." he replied.

"Ooh, you mean like a painting?" it asked, "I've seen one of those. It looked weird, so I ate it. Tasted horrible."

It then started mumbling illegibly to itself again.

"Yes, just like a painting." replied Rando, nodding and surprisingly eager to see how it will react now to this realization.

"That one's very nice! ... I want it!" it said, and it jumped into the water, trying to claw at its own reflection and splashing about.

Rando watched it practically begin to drown itself, looking for the 'painting' underwater, and decided that it would forever haunt his conscience if he just let it drowned. So, after taking a running start, he jumped right over the lake, grabbed the dragon by the tail, and heaved it away from the water with all his might. Thank goodness it was so light from not eating enough or he would have been pulled in as well.

It gasped for breath, confused and cold, "Whew. I thought my body forgot how to breathe for a second there."

"Uh, listen, Mitzol-" Rando began.

"That's ME!"

"Yeah, uh, don't you have any parents around here? Like a mom or dad looking for you or something?"

"Nope, no one here but me and you."

"Ok, do you have a mom or pop at ALL?"

"Nope. They fell asleep and wouldn't wake up, and I was bored and hungry, so I left them back at home to go find some new ones. But I couldn't find anything."

"That's too bad. I'm so sorry."

"What are you sorry for? ... unless ... did YOU make them fall asleep like that?!?"

"No I didn't! I didn't do anything!"

"I wonder if they woke up yet- AH!"

It flexed its wings, the the injured one squirted some blood, causing it to flinch in pain.

"You're bleeding."

"No, I'm Mitzol."

"No, no. There, on your wing. You have blood coming out."

"Yeah, I know. It's leaking. Some guy in white clothes made it leak, and it didn't feel good, so I stepped on him in discipline. That's what my mom did to me if I was bad. Made him leak, too."

"Here, lie down. I'll ... stop the leaking for you."

Rando pulled off his backpack. He mainly hunted for his food, so all that was in it was a spare quiver of bolts for emergencies, some money, assorted tools, and a first aid kit. He pulled out the small white container and picked out a large roll of wrapping bandage. Than, after mixing some medical herbs together into a small mortar and dipping the bandage in it, he proceeded to wrap it around Mitzol's primary wing bone. The skin attached to the secondary bones easily contracted when he folded his wings, so Rando also taped them together with extra bandage so he wouldn't accidently extend them and rip off the bandage.

"That feels weird. I like it." it said.

"It'll sting for a minute, but then it shouldn't bother you much anymore. Just don't move your wings for a few days while it heals." explained Rando.

"Sting? Did you put bees in my wings?" it asked, a little frightened.

"No, it's medicine-"

"OWWW! IT FEELS LIKE THERE'S BEES IN MY WINGS!" it shouted, shaking its head in pain.

"It's OK! When it hurts, it means your body is getting better!" said Rando.

"It shouldn't be like that. That's a dumb system! OWW!" replied Mitzol.

"Don't move your wings, or it will just hurt more!"

Mitzol immediately and without reason changed emotions from pain to eagerness.

"I want a dead rabbit. Can you help me find one?"

"What? oh, uh ... OK, sure."

Rando no longer knew if he was annoyed, entertained, or just plain sorry for this pathetic creature. But in reality he really was getting hungry, as he didn't have anything to eat besides a non-existant rabbit half an hour ago.

He pulled out his crossbow and started sneaking quietly into the thicker forest around the stream, careful not to disturb the wildlife enough to get a clear shot at something with meat on it. Mitzol seemed to think otherwise.

"Can I watch? Where do you find dead rabbits? Do they grow on bushes or hide in rocks or cracks or something? I can sing 'Merry Dragon Fires of Fie' really well. Wanna hear it?"

"Be quiet!" Rando hissed, thinking fast, "Dead rabbits are very shy. If you make ANY noise, they will disappear into thin air."

"Oh, no WONDER I never find them! I'm always tried to introduce myself with my new last name!"

Something other then Mitzol made a noise, and Rando aimed his crossbow towards the brush. A speck of movement ... a change of color. That's all that was needed. Mitzol decided to start mumbling to himself once again, but at least it was quiet enough for him to concentrate. He scanned the area around him with one quick sweep of his crossbow, focused for a minute, stooped down, grabbed a large pine cone, and hurled it to a certain area.

Something dashed through the brush and Rando fired. The swift metal bolt scored flesh and something small hit the ground.

"I think I found one." Rando quietly announced.

"You did? Where? Where is it?" Mitzol loudly whispered.

"Right over there. It's got a bit of metal in it." replied Rando, pointing, "Go get it, but remember to stay quiet, or it will vanish!"

"Yes, yes, I'll do that!" replied Mitzol, and it crawled through the forest stooping as low as it could. It looked rather ridiculous.

While he was running towards the fallen creature, Rando fired again, but all the way to the right. Another something small and alive dropped to the ground, completely devoid of life. He saw the sudden change of color, and instinctively reacted appropriately.

This one was an adult, and well-fed, meaning there was quite a bit of meat on its bones. He struck the heart, causing a quick and painless death without it having to suffer. Didn't really know why people actually did that. Probably just a show of guilt or something. Himself, he did it just so that it would immediately die and wouldn't continue to evade him. He was used to the deaths and killing of creatures large and small, so nothing ever seemed to bother him anymore. His father could probably die and he wouldn't feel much remorse towards anything.

He was about to start skinning the rabbit when a happy Mitzol came trotting back, an already torn apart rabbit in its mouth, squirting blood all over inside and out.

"You're right! Dead rabbits stay when you ARE quiet! You are so smart!" it proudly said with its mouth full.

"Thanks." Rando said, half sarcastically.

___________________________________________________________

The small specks of sunlight shining through the trees were beginning to dim away into a darkening orange-red color. Soon, it will become a faint rose, and then go out altogether, leaving the forest shrouded in total darkness.

Rando and Mitzol travelled down the stream, pausing often mainly so that Rando could show Mitzol something completely alien to him. Once, Rando had to calm it down because a fly went right into its face and he went into sudden panic and once Rando had to dive into the stream because it thought a live hornets nest was a chew-toy of some kind, leaving Mitzol to, as he quickly advised, follow suit, but the argument that he was not dirty lead to his seemingly endless punishment. Finally, Rando couldn't hold his breath any longer and yanked Mitzol in by himself. There was even one moment where they encountered a large, bear-like beast creature. Mitzol hid behind Rando in fear and Rando defended himself with several crossbow bolts to the assailant's head.

Rando did feel rather sorry for it, and even though it appeared to be trying to, it was barely making any progress at all. It probably had a physically mental condition, say from getting hit on the head once too hard. After all, he knew how to speak, and even a number of words Rando had to think back to remember the actual meaning behind them. It would've been impossible for it to have learned to speak this well if it was mental to begin with.

Well, it was easy enough to get it to follow him. The hard part was trying to get away from it.

"You're amazing! Can I follow you? I got nowhere else to go."

"Um, no thanks. I really can't have a dragon following me because I'm on the run."

"I can run too."

"No, I'm ON the run. Like, right now. Because I'm on the run, I can't have anyone or anything following me."

"But you're walking!"

"I'm trying to ... get away from somewhere I don't want to be."

"You're not there anymore, are you?"

"Uh ... no."

"Then you've already gotten away. You don't have to run anymore, meaning I can follow you."

"Ok, fine."

Now they were both sitting around a pile of wood Rando gathered with the help of his trusty hatchet. Rando was trying to light a fire with his miserably ineffective firebox, which he barely got working earlier to cook his dead rabbit, while Mitzol was ...

"What are you doing?"

"There's a BIG, EVIL SNAKE trying to bite me! I gotta catch and kill it before it harms us!"

Rando rolled his eyes.

"... that's your tail. You're just running around in circles trying to catch your own tail."

Mitzol twisted around so its head faced the sharp protruding spike on the tip of its tail. It looked for a second it was going to impale itself.

"Oh? Hey ... well, what do you know? I THOUGHT it looked familiar somehow."

The unfortunate bear-like creature Rando slew lay dead in a crumpled heap nearby. Rando had gotten Mitzol to carry it as they travelled so that they would have some food for dinner before turning in for the night. It wasn't tough, but it did have Rando sacrificing some of his dignity and reffering to the term "piggy-back ride" several times just to get the idea in its head. Thank goodness no one was watching them.

Perhaps running away has brought him some very bad luck. First, he got lost in a forest he didn't recognize, when he got stuck with a dragon with the brain of a 4 year old and the memory of a gnat, and now his firebox wasn't working so he couldn't even light a fire to keep him warm during the night. It was a nightmare. If I ever get through all this, thought Rando, maybe I SHOULD return home to be a wind mage.

He slowly turned and looked at Mitzol, who took to singing to the darkening forest. Maybe he didn't have a firebox, but it wasn't as though he couldn't use the real thing. After all, it wasn't leaving him for any reason, so he might as well make some use of it.

"Hey, Mitzol?"

"And let the moon rise, to ward off the light, so the dragon can hunt through the dark starry night ..."

"Mitzol?"

"Mitzol? That's my name! My NAME! I hear my name! Ooh, I LOVE it when I hear my name!"

"MITZOL?"

"Ohh! Rando the Human wants me. I love my name! Yes, Rando?"

It was worth a try, thought Rando. If he was to stay warm through the night, he was going to have to take this slowly and patiently.

"Do you breathe fire?"

"What's fire?"

Dang it! NO dragon should have to ask that.

"Fire. It's like this glowing orange stuff. Very hot. Goes like foom." Rando explained with appropriate hand gestures.

"Ooh! Yes! Yes! I know what that it! It's Fihrihn."

"It's wha- oh, of course. Dragon-speak."

"Yes, I did."

"Ok, then. Do you breathe fihrihn?"

"No, I breathe air."

"No no, CAN you breathe fihrihn?"

"Sorry, there's none here."

"No no ... um, can you MAKE fihrihn??"

"I can with a firebox, like that one you have."

"NO ... can you make fihrihn come out of your mouth? Like your parents do?"

"Ohh, you mean like make flames shoot out of my mouth and burn stuff in front of me."

"YES! Can you do that?"

"No. My parents did it for me."

Rando was about to snap, but another thought brought him back to sanity. Dragons that breathed something other then fire were extremely rare, but they did indeed exist. Perhaps he was just so lucky ... or unlucky enough, to stumble across one of these rare dragons.

Only one way to find out.

"Well, what CAN you breathe?"

"Air."

"No no, what can you make come out of your mouth that it not air."

"This stuff. Check it out."

It reared its head and inhaled deeply, and Rando jumped to the side to avoid getting ... well, whatever was going to happen. Once Mitzol reached its fill lung capacity, it thrust its head forward and bellowed, But it wasn't fire that came out. In fact, Rando could have hardly called it an element.

A thick, amber-colored liquid-like gas poured out of its mouth, hovering over the directed area in the campsite. It covered a large area in the strange amber fog, and Rando backed away almost into the forest to stay away from it. It covered the campsite, crept up into the tree canopies, and even surrounded the oblivious Mitzol. Finally, Mitzol stopped blowing it out and gasped for breath. Little by little the gas dispersed, revealing its effect to a shocked Rando.

The campsite and everything in it was reverted to dust. The grass, te shrub, the surrounding trees, even the logs for the fire and their would've-been dinner. Nothing remained in that now-barren, life-less area except for Mitzol, who looked impressed with himself and had some fun kicking up dust around him.

"WHAT, in the Lord Wie's name, was THAT?" he demanded, coming out of his hiding spot which was a good distance into the forest. The air in the barren area smelled very stale. Not even the wind's nutrients survived the draining.

"Neat, huh?" asked Mitzol, "I call it the Duster because it makes stuff into dust! ... aw, the dead thing vanished! We must've been too noisy. We must remember to stay very quiet or we won't be able to eat them!"

"Yeah, uh, it did." said Rando, still recovering from the experience, "Let's, uh, find another clearing and turn in for the night."

The firebox won't work, so he would have to do it the old fashioned way after hunting once more.

________________________________________________________

Mitzol understood it easily. He stay there and keep singing while Rando bring back more dead things. Simple enough for him.

Rando was quite impressed with Mitzol. Once it knew how to do something, it did it well, and Rando had no trouble finding his way back to the new campsite from following Mitzol's loud, almost illegible lyrics.

"That was 'Ballad of the Volcanic Swans'. Did you like it?"

"Yeah. Uh, fantastic."

The boar wasn't much of a challenge. A quick shot to the brain while it charged and it slid right past Rando, no longer able to turn and pose the threat it intended to be. It was the carrying-it-back-to-the-camp that was the challenge. Rando lit a fire using the old-fashioned method with rubbing specially cut sticks he sliced with his knife and got it to a manageable point before slicing off some of the boar for himself and cooking it. Mitzol just tore right into the large remainder.

"I haven't eaten anything this good and dead for ... lots long." Mitzol said with its mouth open. Rando ignored it and tucked into his own portion, which as usual tasted like he truly earned it. A pity he forgot some of his dad's spices; some vinetiza and a sprinkle of iminitian weed would've made the boar meat taste just perfect. But it didn't really matter. His mind was too distracted by unanswerable questions to fully grasp the flavor.

What was that gas Mitzol just breathed? Where were they? Would they ever get out of this forest? Why hasn't he encountered at least a search party yet? How long would he last alone out here? What was his Dad and fellow neighbors thinking that he wasn't following tradition right now?

Rando shook his head and lay down atop his sleeping bag. It was completely dark now, and the only light came from the large, seemingly never-ending fire. Sounds of insects and night-life created a tranquil background around them, helping lull Rando down to sleep. Nearby, Mitzol made one final mumbling to itself before laying down on its back - a position dragons usually didn't go into due to underbelly exposure. At least he was able to relax, thought Rando jealously. He just stared up at the trees above, trying to at least find a star or two or even the moon from amidst the leaves.

"Rando the Human?"

Rando turned his head. Mitzol was looking right at him, his back on the ground and claws numbly in the air.

"Yeah?"

"You're so cool. I'm glad I met you."

That felt good.

"Thanks."

"... could you please be my dad?"

That didn't.

"Beg your pardon?"

"My dad didn't wake up after sleeping, and I don't have a dad or mom at the moment, so I was wondering if you would be my dad until he does wake up. You know, like a temporary replacement."

Yep, definitely had to have been a head injury not too long ago.

"But ... I'm a human."

"So? Humans hunt, and so do dragons. Humans breathe, and so do dragons. Humans talk, and so do dragons. If you need to, pretend you're a dragon or I'll pretend I'm a human. I don't mind. So can you be my dad? Pleeeeeaaaaase?"

It was forbidden for dragons and humans to be directly related with each other in most areas. Sure, they could be travel companions and best friends, but they couldn't actually be soul-mates or related to each other. If he accepted this offer and someone overheard his new status, he could be in deep, deep trouble, even if it wasn't real and they weren't related in any way. But if he accepted, he would have an 8-foot dragon that could disintegrate even bone at his disposal and under his total command. He would be unstoppable against anything that threatened him.

Well, what the heck? He was in trouble as it was, anyways. It wasn't as though the baby he was going to be having with the girl of his dreams sooner or later is going to be any different. Besides, this would be good training for him. And he's always wanted a pet. Heck, it would probably even forget all about this in the morning if he was lucky enough or wander off and become separated from Rando.

"Sure. I'll be your ... 'dad'." Rando replied, smiling.

"Thanks, Dad. G'night!"

And just like that, Mitzol was asleep.

Rando closed his eyes. This was his first day as an outcast, and he had expected it to be a colossal nightmare - trying to sleep in the cold rain with a number of vicious carnivores eying him to the point where he would let down his guard instead of sleeping cosily near a large fire nearby a dragon that now called him 'father'. Its loud snores would definitely keep all predators away, so he would hardly have to worry about not completely falling asleep.

Now, if only he actually COULD sleep amidst all that snoring ...

MattVortex · **Posted:** September 2nd, 2007, 10:57 am

The explosion of the firecrackers was heard throughout half the city. The blast of colour released by them was rather large.

'Probably some pesky Shadows wanting to play some prank on the Light City.' was the general consensus around the place. 'They should leave us alone'. Whilst the university might be a violently equal place (the last person found guilty of racism had his staff snapped, crushed into a fine powder, and used to propel a spell which blasted him so far out of the city he was closer to Anathor than any of the five elemental cities), the rest of the light city were generally quite quietly racist.

'Perhaps we should try and find out what went on? You know how incredibly un-magically gifted those Guard Warriors are.' Arasoth said. The Guard Warriors usually were sent out when things like this happened, which was probably not the greatest of ideas, really, considering their training was combat and light magic. They were not skilled enough to really do any magical detective work, and as such almost all incidents like this went unsolved.

'Well... it is really the business of the authorities. Besides, it doesn't really have much to do with us.'

But something had caught their attention. There was a huge billow of black smoke erupting out of one of the buildings. This was an area of the university very close to the main wall. The main buildings were protruding their view of which university block it was.

'The same people as before...? Wait... THAT'S MY DORM BLOCK.'

Various first-year students were running out of the block. Rage erupted in Sariel's eyes, as she ran, the others barely able to catch up.

'PUT IT OUT. PUT. IT. OUT!' she yelled at those running out, raising her staff above her head. She thrust the sceptre forward, her eyes glowing pearly white. The topstone almost exploded, a huge blast of blue-white magic shooting out of the end and into the flame. It was almost instantly extinguished, the fire simply stopping while burning through the wooden roof.

'DO NONE OF YOU DO HEALING MAGIC?!' she yelled at those who had run out. Clearly they had not.

But she was distracted once more. A loud whistling sound had been released by a rocket, shooting upwards from behind the wall. Sariel span round on the spot, and a deafening crack was released by some magic from her sceptre. The rocket exploded mid-air within a magical bubble, harmlessly detonating within that.

'Ok, Arasoth. Now it has something to do with us.'

'What... what about your stuff?'

'All the important stuff is in my pack, Arasoth.' she said, tapping the bag to her side. All of you grab on.'

'What?'

'Grab my arm!'

They did so. She raised her staff above their heads, and there was a blinding flash of light. When it faded, they suddenly found they were no longer within the university.

They were outside. Outside the wall of the city.

'Here.' she said, pointing her sceptre to a point on the ground. Her eyes rolled up into her head, and with a flash of green light, that point glowed a bright yellow. Tiny figures darted across the glow, illusions, depicting what had previously happened here.

'Hmm. So it was a few Shadows. SOLIEL ILLUMINOS!'

Her staff blazed into a brilliant white light, illuminating the entire surrounding area. She stabbed her staff into the ground to keep the area illuminated, in case there were any Shadows.

'Now, who knows how to cast a spell reverser? This place is smoking with lightning and shadow elementised magical residue.'

'Erm, hang on.' Tasctri said, examining various pouches on his belt. Finally he took one of them, a small black pouch, put his hand in, drew out some powder, and throwing some around himself, blasted a spell towards the spot.

The explosion threw them backwards. The ground smoked where Tasctri had shot the spell - the caster must have been very powerful.

'We need something stronger.'

Sariel fumbled in her bag. She always seemed to have something for every occasion, although it might be because she basically took everything around with her in her Air-elementised bag. The air spells upon it made it lighter - you could hold pretty much anything in it and it wouldn't weigh more than a couple of apples.

She pulled out a stone. Black, perfectly spherical. It reflected the light of her staff which was still stuck in the ground. She pulled the staff out and deactivated the sunlight spell.

The top of her staff was four prongs of Octanium, surrounded by Ironstones and Lightstones, with a single stone suspended between the four specially-shaped prongs. Octanium had a reputation for being rather weak, and she bent two prongs back enough to get her old stone out - a diamond - and put the new orb of Charmed Obsidian in there. She had done this various times before, swapping between stones when she felt like it, and had probably ten different stones in her bag, all perfectly shaped to be the topstone of her staff.

'Now, let's try something. Tasctri, pass me some of that powder.'

Tasctri looked confused, but handed her some.

'Dual-method spells. We've just started learning them - powder and stone spells combined with staff magic.' she said, throwing the powder in the air, where it slowly fell down towards the ground. Her eyes glowed a brilliant white, and a huge purple beam erupted out of the topstone, apparently melting reality around the spot on the ground.

'Ready spells!' she yelled, forcing more magic into it. The magic vanished, and standing there were eight Shadows, and Donoluth. They all recognised him instantly. Arasoth's father had made a staff for him a few years back.

'ILLUMINAE!'

Arasoth, Tasctri, Zaroff and Melchoe's staffs glowed in a brilliant light. The Shadows' dark forms were revealed.

'I am most impressed. Not many could reverse my own magic.'

'Doroduth... we did not... we just wanted to find out who did that.' Sariel explained, pointing to the charred remains of the dorm block.

'Ah right. Yeah, while I do stand for equality of nations, these Shadows certainly don't help the cause by setting fire to Light City buildings.' he said, loudly and somewhat towards the shadows. He looked up at the charred building. 'Wait, you're from Infinos?'

'Yeah, all of us. Why?'

'Ah, the great Infinos University. The only place within all six cities where people can roam without fear of racial comments toward their element. What did they do to that young man in the end?'

'The one who was convicted of elemental racism? They snapped his staff, ground it down into a fine powder, and use the powder to blast him five hundred miles out of the city.'

'Ha.' he said, chuckling. 'I'd imagine he was closer to Anathor than any of the elemental cities. Anyway, seeing you lot has given me an idea. Shadows, stop slouching. Stand up properly, slouching is bad for your backs.

'Now, if there's one place in the Elemental metropolis where I am not outlawed, it is in that university. How am I going to get in, though..'

'There are charms to stop non-students or teachers teleporting in. You can walk through the front gates, but getting through the City might be difficult, and that burnt block is right at the back of the university. The entrance is a two mile walk through the city, and while we and the rest of the university may stand for equality, the rest of the Light City won't be so kind.' Melchoe explained.

'We could ask the Master of the university to organise an escort.' Arasoth suggested.

'He would do that? I seem to remember him being an old and boring fart.' Donoluth said, laughing again.

'Oh, no, we have a new principal now.' Tasctri said, and with that he vanished in a flash of light.

He returned two minutes later, and was closely followed by the principal.

'Donoluth! It's good to see you.'

'Linaeol? Ha, you, the principal of the university.'

'We can organise you an escort.' he said, vanishing momentarily and returning once more. 'Yeah, there will be some Infinos Guardian Mages waiting at the western gate of the city. We can teleport to there.'

They all vanished, the Shadows, how standing somewhat upright, holding onto Donoluth as he teleported.

The western gates of the light city were the biggest and most ornate of them all. Mostly marble, around six inches thick, with a gold sphere protruding from the centre. The principal put his hand on it.

'Ouvnex Luminae!'

The gates started to creak open. On the other side, people seemed to be gathering to see what the fuss was about. Twenty-five Infinos guardians were waiting there. Donoluth, Arasoth, Tasctri, Sariel, Melchoe, Zaroff, Linaeol and the eight shadows stepped into the formation.

'The eight of you, the university is a place of equality.' Donoluth explained to the Shadows. 'No funny business. You're guests.'

The half-hour walk through the streets of the Light city was more of an ordeal than Arasoth had thought it might be. Many recognised Donoluth, and started yelling abuse at him, but once they had seen the Shadows, things turned somewhat ugly. Fortunately the Infinos guardians were skilled, and any attempts to throw tomatoes or anything similar were instantly stopped.

The authorities naturally heard about the commotion, and stopped the escort in its tracks.

'Where are you going with that traitor and those filthy excuses for humans?' the commander asked. But Linaeol already had his staff out, and was pointing it at his neck.

'Move out of our way, commander. They will be out of your jurisdiction soon. Any attempts to stop us will result in injuries on your part.'

'What give you the right to bring them through my jurisdiction anyway?!'

'Get out of the way. The Infinos university is supreme.'

The four lightstones at the end of the principal's staff went from the standard white glow of lightstones to a deep, blood-red.

The commander looked Donoluth. 'He is a traitor to this cit-'

A blast of red light exploded out of the principal's staff, throwing the commander backwards and into the rest of his men. He looked knocked out, but not dead.

'Move.' the principal said to the rest of the convoy.

The procession moved through the streets, avoiding the commander's men and marching faster. When they reached the gates of the university, there was already a mob of people behind them. The gates opened enough to let them through and shut fast. Two guardians stood by the gates.

'Disperse them, Junel.' the principal called back. One of the guards raised his staff, and with a quick flash of green and blue light, the most horrible, piercing sound was released by it, deafening the mob, forcing them to push their hands to their ears. They were gone within three minutes.

'I can give you asylum here for a few days, Donoluth. Your friends will also be given rooms, although we don't have any larger rooms left, I'm afraid - we have visitors here from the university in the Water City.'

'Your hospitality is much obliged, Linaeol.'

They sat down outside in the university grounds. The Shadows were politely sitting out in the sun, although seemed to be edging closer and closer to the shade of a large oak.

'How long have you been exiled now?'

'Oh, twelve years now I think. I'm not safe in other cities now either - I lived in Terinis for a year or so, but the authorities there found me and tried to deport me back to one of the elemental cities to be executed.'

'Who are your friends, then?'

'I have no idea what their names are. I found them after they set off that first rocket. The successive rockets they left there I think.'

One of the Shadows spoke.

'Yeah, we did, under a small bush.'

'I'm assuming the reasons were spiteful?'

'Yeah, we wanted to play a prank. We had no idea such an oasis of equality existed right in the middle of the city that hates us so much.'

'The university has been like this for a few hundred years now, after its very existence was threatened by a war within. The leader at the time put a rather large magical bomb right in the middle of the university and told everyone that if they didn't stop being idiots and treated everyone as equals then he would detonate it. The bomb of course doesn't exist anymore, but the philosophy of equality for all still does.'

'So how did you get us through the streets of the city?'

'There is an ancient agreement between the city and the university. Basically, the university is superior - the authorities of the light city are not permitted to stop us from doing anything. We used to hold a vast amount of political power, and it was pretty much the university running the city - we gave that up, under the agreement that the city would run the city, and the university would run the university. Those of the university have a kind of diplomatic immunity to city-only law. The agreement we had was necessary after we got five guard arrests per night when our research mages kept making explosions in the research block.

'Some law still stands, however, with things like murder. We only trial people within the University if they break university law. If they break city law and we see fit to hand them over, we will.'

'What university-specific laws do you have?'

'There are a few. No time magic. Nothing that could drastically change the shape of the world. Both of those are pain of mind-wipe. No mind-wiping except by a court-appointed punisher. Nothing that changes someone else's judgement. And no racism. Those three are on pain of your staff being snapped, ground into a fine powder, and used to fuel a spell which blasts you out of the university. Depending on the power of the staff, it will usually throw you around five hundred miles. Rumour has it that it takes an average of twelve minutes before you land. They don't die, the catapulting spell has a side-effect which cushions their landing somewhat, although they may break an arm or leg. The main purpose is just to get people as far out of the university as possible. There are a few other rules, although it's just things like "don't kill the caretaker's ferret" and other trivial things.

'Now, what brings you to the university?'

Donoluth answered. 'Well, initially just sanctuary of some kind. You know how I have been outlawed, Linaeol.'

'In all fairness, Donoluth, you did blow a wall off of the fire temple, almost completely destroyed the Earth King's palace, and attempted to dam the river of the Water city.''

'Well yeah, but you know how it is - you have to take drastic action sometimes to get your point across.'

'And a most admirable point it is. Most admirable.'

The bell rang. It was 11am.

'Ah, you lot should probably be getting off to your classes.'

Arasoth, Sariel, Tasctri, Melchoe and Zaroff headed off.

'That Donoluth guy, does anyone know who he is?'

'Donoluth, the Lightning Mage. Incredibly powerful. He used to live in the Earth city, but was outlawed for preaching that people shouldn't treat the other elements as equals.' Zaroff explained.

'The world is pretty screwed up really, isn't it.'

'Yeah.'

'And that is why we're at Infinos.'

Karl 67 · **Posted:** September 3rd, 2007, 11:20 am

Night reappeared from the shadow of a ruined building. He collapsed in exhaustion.

"Very good. You lasted two minutes longer than last time." commented Shade. He held his hand over Night and he recovered fully.

"At this rate, you'll have mastered it by the end of the day."

"Thanks." Night simply replied. Shade stood back as Night concentrated and disappeared again.

Two hours passed. Night improved more and more until four hours later from then. He mastered the Shadow Blend perfectly.

"You learn quickly."

"I was taught under dragons. They showed me magic, combat, and survival techniques."

"Dragons, eh? You were raised by them?"

"Yeah," replied Night, "I was raised by dragons when my brother left me but didn't come back. I don't remember why it was just the two of us. I was an infant back then."

Shade nodded in interest. "Well, you mastered the Shadow Blend, Next up is the Shadow Split."

Night didn't need Shade's recovery to listen, when he mastered the Shadow Blend, he doesn't use energy.

"The Shadow Split allows you to make "echoes" of yourself. Equally powerful and agile as you, But they're not exactly you. You can make a group of Echoes if you concentrate hard enough. It's a technique all Shadow leaders learned, except for Ultima. He didn't like it. Understandable, since he used to be from the Light Temple."

"The Light temple?" Night asked, "Don't the Light Temple and Shadow Temple hate each other?"

"Yes, Lige does get on my nerves, and same with our people. But that doesn't mean that all shadows came from the other four elements. There are the extremely rare ones that convert straight from the Light Temple. Their cape abilities are especially intriguing."

"And what is that?" Night asked.

"You remember that attack Ultima did with those beams of light?"

Night recalled, during the duel, Ultima's cape morphed into small portal-like things. Rays of light shot out and nearly seared Night into ribbons if Night didn't avoid them.

"What is my cape ability then?"

"How should I know? I don't know your heritage or personality."

"What do those have to do with anything?"

"In the case of the Cape abilities, everything. Depending on your heritage and personality, your cape morphs into different things. We're yet to know what you are."

"How will I know how to morph my cape?"

"Your cape is like a fifth limb to you. You must treat it as such and it should engrave itself to your mind perfectly and allow you to change it at will. You'll need to concentrate hard though. It takes a bit of mana to actually change the cape, but it's just like an arm or a leg once you complete it. Give it a try."

Night did so. An hour passed as Night concentrated. His cape started to flicker and change into wings.

"Ah. You were once one of the Wind Temple." Shade commented.

Night looked at his cape. Instead of a cape, they were pitch-black pheonix wings.

"What do these wings do?"

Shade chuckled in the stupidity of the question. "They allow you to fly. But since they're wings of a pheonix, they allow you to fly incredibly fast."

Night started to like this whole Shadow Cape skill stuff. It's not every day you can change your cape into wings and fly everywhere.

"Lastly, the Shadow Split. It can only be done with magic, mind you. It's pretty simple. It's done the same way as your cape, except you exert the force out from your hands. A tiny piece of you is removed and replaced. But the piece removed grows into the "Echoes". You usually create two every time you cast it. Bear in mind that only a Shadow can use all three techniques. The Shadow split requires magical skill, however."

"What about the rest of my spells?"

"Oh, you can still cast those like you did before. As I said: The only difference between a Shadow and everything else is the colour."

Night stood and looked at the young-looking, yet powerful face of the Shadow God. He then nodded to the god.

"What should I do?"

"I have noticed that there are survivors somewhere in the Light City. How though is a mystery to even me. I suggest you find them and find out what's going on."

Shade held out his hand. Night grasped it and shook it proudly.

"Bring hope to this element." Shade said.

"I will." Night replied. He then left after Shade disappeared again.

-----

Night's wings proved to be very useful. He soared through the forest towards what he saw was the Marsh. If Shade's directions were correct, the Light City was right at the end of the Marsh. He could partially see in the dark too, and there was a heck of a lot of darkness everywhere.

He spotted a boy and a strange-looking dragon sleeping in the darkness. A fire was in his old stages before it turned to near-dead embers. The sound of his speedy flying might have woken them up, but he didn't hear any reactions.

It wasn't long before he reached the Marsh. The light emitting from the Light Temple was further towards the South-east. Night flexed his wings one more time and shot towards the Light Temple, flying low.

-----

Nobody expected a strange Shadow warrior shoot right through the gate (opened recently to allow merchants to enter) shoot right on for nearly two minutes and crash right into a tree in the University grounds. The eight shadows trying to hide in the shade of the tree dodged the newcomer.

Night was almost instantly knocked out on impact.

More rioters from the Light city started shouting after they realised what happened.

"Hey look, another Shadow!" One of them exclaimed.

Donoluth turned from a random university student and saw the knocked-out shadow, body sliding down the tree.

The body stopped sliding and the wings flickered back into the cape form.

"He's still alive." A shadow confirmed, expecting the morph to happen.

Donoluth and the other shadows stooped over to examine the newcomer. All of the shadows stood back suddenly and quickly bowed to the knocked out shadow. Donoluth was pulled back by one of the Shadows.

"He's not Ultima..." the shadow whispered harshly.

"What do you mean?" Donoluth whispered back.

"He's the third Leader picked by Shade himself. Haven't you seen his staff?"

"It's hard to see black things on a black background, but we should get him to a doctor or something."

Night groaned, exerted energy to move his arms, and pushed himself up. He then sat at the base of the tree. His vision was blurry and his head wavered in dizziness. Two minutes passed and Night could see eight shadows bowing in his direction and an old, energized-looking mage with a powerful-looking staff with a lightning bolt-shaped amethyst looked at Night with an expression of half-awe, half-confusion. A few university students on their break also came along to see the strange happening.

"Who are you?" the mage suddenly asked.

"I think the better question is: why am I being bowed to?" Night replied. Donoluth immediately gained a form of respect for the new shadow. Especially when he flew head-first into a tree and make recovery incredibly quickly.

"You are our new Leader." One shadow stood as he spoke.

"Well, I don't like being bowed to. It makes me nervous."

The other shadows stood up as well. To everyone, they looked like black beings, but other shadows can see the finer details of their brethren. All of them looked like veterans of combat, except for one, who still kept young features. Their hairstyles varied amongst them all, but their hoods all looked the same as Nights: pointed.

Night finally stood up and staggered slightly.

"So where am I?" he asked Donoluth.

"You're in the Infinos University. You won't need to worry about the Light people here." he said, helping Night stay standing."

"You have the Shadow Staff, right?" the young shadow asked.

Night reached into his cape and seemingly pulled the staff from nothing. It was pitch black and gave an aura of hope for the shadows, but an aura of confusion to everyone else, since they watched the shadows suddenly feel more relaxed.

"There are six staffs in the world that are made by the Gods themselves. They are the most powerful type of staff. They are weilded by onlt the Leaders of each Elemental city." Donoluth recited. "They're mainly used as keys to enter the Cahnari Temple, or the Temple of Control. The Leaders gather in that temple for meetings every four years."

"Dude, I just became the Leader of Shadows, according to Shade," Night snapped to Donoluth. "I don't even know what this "Palimary Temptress" is."

Donoluth had respect for Night already. The respect grew more.

"Very well, I'll tell you when there's time. For now, lets go to our guest dormitories. We should rest there anyways."

Everyone left, avoiding contact with as many people as possible.

Jasonmrc · **Posted:** September 3rd, 2007, 4:57 pm

Timrak slept for two hours, Marina normally would've let him sleep longer but they had to get going.

"Timrak...Wake up." She said shaking him a little bit trying to wake him up.

"Hmm? Huh? Wha?" He said waking up and sitting up.

"Its time to go, you've slept for two hours."

"Already?" He said with a yawn "I thought I just went to sleep."

"That's because you were so tired. Come now, I have everything packed up."

Marina helped Timrak up and helped him walk over to Maiko who was sitting near the few bags which held the camping gear.

"I hope you don't mind riding a Dragon, he won't bite. And his arms will be full so he can't pull you off."

"I don't mind," Timrak said looking into the young Dragon's eyes "I trust you, Maiko."

Marina helped Timrak onto Maiko's back with the help of Maiko, who didn't at all mind TImrak riding him since Marina usually did.

"Where will you sit?"

"In his hand." Marina said with a giggle

Maiko put out one hand and Marina sat down on it, his hand then carefully closed as to be a kind of seat belt. He picked up the Camp gear in his other hand.

"Hold on up there." Maiko said as he flapped his wings and went off to the north.

From up in the sky Timrak could see all the temples, except for the Water city. He saw the Great Wind city in the Wie mountains to the west and the great volcanoes of the Fire city to the North. To the far northeast he saw ruins, the ruins of the Shade temple. Then he realized, if they were going north then they were going into Elementopolis. Almost everyone in Elementopilis was against the Shadows, Marina was pretty much bringing him to his death.

"Why are we going to the North?" He tried shouting to her but she obviously didn't hear as she kept on singing an elven song.

She poked Maiko and he lowered his head down to her level and then she said in Elven "What did he say?"

"He asked why we are going north." Maiko replied in Elven

"Oh, tell him we're going to Delteria and that we won't let anyone get him."

Maiko raised his head and then said to Timrak in common "We're going to Delteria, Marina told you that before we left. We won't let any harm come to you in Elementopolis."

Timrak stayed quiet and kept still as Maiko continued to fly. If Timrak was going to continue to travel with these two then he would have to trust them. In an hour Maiko started to go down to a little town. He landed, vertically, in the middle of town. This scared the children that were playing outside the school but all the grownups knew who it was, after all, this was the only Red and White dragon that traveled with an Elf.

Maiko put the gear down and then put Marina down, then they both helped Timrak down.

"Marina!" said an elderly man who had come out of the store

"Latodin! Its good to see you again." she said as they hugged "But, where's Hellen?"

The joy in the old man's face instantly faded "She's come down with it also."

"Bring me too her then, I must visit her at once." She said picked up one of her smaller bags

"Salaria, would you watch the shop for a few minutes, dear?"

"Yes, Papa." The teenage girl replied, she looked about the same age as Marina but everyone knew Marina was an elf. Salaria was, like her mother and father, a human.

Latodin led Marina to the stairs in the back of the shop and brought her upstairs to a bedroom where Hellen was resting in a bed.

"Hellen, Marina has come to see you." The man said waking the old lady softly

"Oh, hello dear." The old lady said in a frail voice

"Hello, how are you feeling?" Marina said

"The same as I always do, Tired and worn out, I don't really feel sick I just don't seem to have the strength like I used to. Maybe i'm just getting old."

"Latodin, could you wait outside." Marina asked

He left the room and shut the door behind him and sat down in a chair nearby. An hour later Marina came out of the room and shut the door softly.

"What is it? What sickness is it?" The old man asked

"I think I know, but I won't say till i'm certain. The message we recieved said many in town had the same sickness, could you bring me to another person with it?"

"Yes, Johnson's son has it also, come i'll bring you too him." He said as he led Marina down the stairs and out of the store.

Meanwhile outside some of the towns people were asking Maiko who the man was.

"We found him near our last campsite, his name is Timrak. He doesn't trust many people and likes to keep to himself." Maiko didn't tell them what element Timrak served because he knew Shadows were exiled everywhere. And though noone in town would attack him, there were a few who would go to one of the Temples and bring a group of Warriors to kill or atleast capture Timrak, even if Maiko was there they would try.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Riot at Infinos Gates, in the Light city
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Jason's Captain ordered him to disperse the Riot at the Infinos gates, in the people kept trying to get in to kill the Shadows there would be alot of presure from the University and many Light civilians could die.

Jason, accompanied by Skyrate and a group of 25 soldiers, made there way through the crowds and to the gates.

"Alright, everyone go back to your normal business."

"We want those Shadows!"

"Dead or alive! It doesn't matter to us, we'll make 'em dead right?" This got a laugh from all the rioting people, mainly abunch of men with a few teenaged boys.

"You're not getting the Shadows and you're not going into the University, you've already had your schooling, those of you who wanted it, so go back to your homes." Jason again tried to break up the crowd

"If you won't let us in we'll come through you!" Said a tall man with broad shoulders, the man must have been a smith for he had a blacksmith's apron on and an unfinished sword in his hand. He raised the unfinished sword and ran towards Jason, before Jason was able to draw his sword the man was kicked behind the right knee thus making him completely stop his charge and fall down to his knees. His right wrist (the one holding the unfinished sword) was grabbed and he was forced to drop the sword, he was then punched in the face which rendered him unconscious.

"Rahhhh!" A few other men called as they charged at the man who had beaten the smith. He kicked one in the stomach, knocking said man down, then ducked the punch of one man (the fist of that man hit another man knocking him out) the man's hand was then grabbed and his arm twisted around and the defender used the man as a human shield against the other two men who attacked him. After recieving a few hits the (poor) human shield was unconscious and was dropped. The defender then punched one of the two remaining attackers hard enough to make him jump of the ground a few inches. Then with an easy sidestep he allowed the second attacker to accidentally knock out the first. With one swift kick the second man was on the ground moaning.

"Anyone else want to try and enter the University?" said the defender drawing a longsword from its sheath. The defender was, ofcourse, Skyrate. Even though he wasn't part of the Light city guards he still accompanied Jason on almost every assignment and being a Shadow was a great Martial artist.

The riot soon depleeted and everyone left and returned to their normal work, except for the 5 attackers who were arrested for attacking an Official Captain.

After the offenders had been brought to the jail to be held for trial next Thraydenday (that would be thursday), Jason returned to his normal post accompanied by Skyrate. Skyrate was allowed in most areas that Jason was. This was because the Light city guard wanted Skyrate to join but he never would be an 'official' guard.

"I felt a Shadow come into the city." he said to Jason

"Yea, eight of them did that's why the riot was about."

"No, I mean a stronger one. And this one flew instead of walk and he wasn't escorted."

"You think Shadows are gathering in Infinos?"

"Only a few, nothing major. I know they wouldn't gather their if they were going to attack the city. I would like to try to visit them though."

"I'll see what I can do tomorrow, meanwhile i've got a new rookie to train. Uhg most of them seem like they haven't even gone to fencing school, so annoying."

Jason and Skyrate laughed.

Karl 67 · **Posted:** September 3rd, 2007, 6:46 pm

Everyone was in their own guest room, which was the one that had the biggest balcony.

"Now we have our new leader. We should be able to get our people back." One warrior announced to the rest. Night started to get the feeling that he'll have a lot to burden during his lifetime as the Shadow Leader.

"What's the plan then?" another asked.

"We rebuild our Shadow Altar and everyone who was slain can be resurrected by Shade. Then with their help, we can rebuild the city. By the time the Light temple realises this, we'll probably have the Shadow Forest itself back up too."

"That sounds a bit predictable... And probably won't work," said Night, "I think we should first recover the rest of the Shadow stragglers everywhere."

"Do you have any plans, Leader?"

"The name's Night. I also dislike being called the leader, no offense." Night replied, not answering the latest question.

"None taken," said another shadow, "You're just like our first leader, cold-hearted, yet respectable and friendly."

Night warmed to the compliment. Perhaps Shade was right in choosing him.

"Anyways, here's my plan: You guys rebuild the Shadow city and hold off in a hidden area where the Light people can't find you even if they sent search parties. I'll go out alone and gather any other shadows that are still out there. Meaning that I'll be travelling for a long time."

"You'll probably need a map though," said the other young shadow.

"Which means I'm making you my official cartographer. You are to map out the entire world." Night said, turning towards the shadow.

"M-Me?" he stammered.

"Yes. You're a fast one, are you not?"

"Well, I'm pretty good on my feet, but I can't use my cape ability yet."

"Well, you're not that experienced of a warrior as the other seven. I also saw a few things you kept in your pocket. They looked like hand-drawn maps."

"Oh, these things. They're mainly of pieces of rivers."

"I'm giving you the chance to make a masterpiece of a map. Once the Shadow race is back on its feet, we can have the map held as a monument. What do you think?"

"It sounds great, Night. You're definitely better than Ultima."

Night twitched.

"Is something wrong?"

"Ultima, he's that Leader of Shadows guy, right?"

"Not anymore if you're our Leader. He's the Most Despicable Man on the Planet."

"I fought him."

"Did you win?!"

"Barely. Shade took me up after he killed me."

"How do you know if you killed Ultima?"

Night thought for a moment, then reached into his pocket. He pulled out the Shadow Stone Ultima left on Night's corpse back at the Shadow Temple ruins.

"Yep, you fought Ultima alright... But why did he leave one of the two stones with you?"

"Probably a way of detecting me, or a way of fear and/or respect. Either was is impossible, so I don't know why either."

All this time, Donoluth polished his lightning staff. Night pocketed the Shadow stone again.

"Well, it's worth a shot. We'll have to get out of here first thing in the morning. Afterwards, we get to the Shadow city... whatever's left of it, and you guys hold off, except for you... What's your name?" Night asked the young "cartographer"

"Irwin."

"Irwin, you're to map the world, can you handle it?"

"It's been my dream to map the world so why can't I accept this mission?"

"That's the spirit." said Night. Almost immediately, he leaned back and slept on the bed. The other Shadows just lay on the floor of the room or the balcony. One even climbed onto the roof of the Infinos university and slept there.

Donoluth took this into interest and climbed up to the other shadow, who turned out to be Irwin.

"Odd way you guys sleep."

"Even with the buildings in the Shadow City, we usually sleep on the leaves of the Shadow Forest. When fully-grown. The trees there become tougher than stone and have leaves longer than humans. Even some bigger than dragons. I remember them when I was a kid, learning the Shadow Blend."

"You sort of still are a kid." Donoluth commented.

"I'm nearing adulthood, I'm getting close to the age where I learn my cape ability. I've been wanting to know it."

"What Shadow Cape abilities to the others have anyways?" Donoluth asked, "Heck, what IS the shadow cape ability?"

"It's an ability to morph your cape into something. It all depends on your heritage and personality."

"So what are the others then?" Donoluth asked.

"Two of the others are from the Water Temple, another two from the Earth. Three are from the Fire. Night is from the Wind, apparently. Only the pheonix wings can make him fly that fast..." Irwin stopped.

"You don't know yours yet?"

"No..."

"You'll find it soon enough, I'm sure of that."

"I hope." Irwin fell asleep as well. Donoluth also slept, as did the other seven shadows below.

The night was passing by quickly.