Solaris awoke the morning after Toan and Jinyu’s morning of memories, well rested, and hungry as usual. He sat and ate a simple breakfast with the family, and allowed Ellie to practice her knew-learned healing magic on him, which eventually healed the remainder of his minor cuts and marks.
Toan and Jinyu smiled as Ellie grinned with her accomplishment. She turned to her mother and ran over to her, tripping over the chain-linked frying pan she had at her side, and landing face first on the floor. She sniffled as she came to her feet. Solaris took that moment to practice the healing spell he’d already become familiar with, after hearing it cast so many times. Ellie’s sniffling stopped as she picked herself up off the floor, while being covered with a white glow. She stared back at Solaris curiously. “Mr. Solaris, you can use magic?”
“Well, I guess so? I heard you cast the spell quite a few times, I thought that was as good a time as any to try it” He replied with a smile.
“Thank you!” Ellie grinned and returned to her mother. Toan glanced in their direction. “You know, most people don’t run around with their weapons at all times. Also, most don’t have chain-pans either. If you’re going to walk around with it, you might as well learn how to use it better.”
Ellie stared at him and thought for a second. “Fine! I will!”
“How?” Toan said with a grin.
“Uhm…” Ellie froze, at a complete loss for an answer. Solaris interrupted.
“If you have a weapon other than a bow, I could help her learn. I just need the weapon mostly to guard with. My sword kinda broke in the last battle I was in.”
Toan and Ellie froze and stared at Solaris for a second. “Huh?” they replied in perfect unison.
This time it was Jinyu who interrupted. “Honey, can he use this?” Jinyu asked as she stepped back into the room holding a long object wrapped in heavy cloth.
“You want to give this guy, which we honestly hardly know, THAT… so that he can help our daughter practice her skills with an unusual weapon. And what makes this a good idea?” Toan questioned.
“The fact that we saved his life, he saved our daughter’s life, and…“ Jinyu was cut off before she could finish.
“Alright, alright, I understand. I already know the last part. Speaking of which…” He turned his attention to Solaris “Solaris, do you have a tattoo by chance?”
“Huh? Well, uhm…” he stuttered, quite confused by the suddenness and apparent randomness of the question. Jinyu set down the item wrapped in cloth and pointed at Solaris’s right arm.
“I believe he does. I saw it when I was bandaging him.”
Solaris looked at his right arm; just below the top of his shoulder was a tattoo of a 4-point star with a crescent moon on its left side. The moon stretched across the top, bottom, and left points on the star.
Toan raised an eyebrow. “That wasn’t exactly the symbol I was expecting to see” he muttered.
“What were you expecting?” Solaris scratched his head, still in a mild state of confusion.
“Never mind.”
“Uhm, okay?” Solaris shrugged.
“So, yes, he can use that.” Toan paused and glared at Solaris. “If you put even 1 scratch on Ellie, I’ll put an arrow right between your eyes. Understand?”
Solaris smiled and nodded, then received the cloth-bound item from Jinyu. He unwrapped it and laid the cloth to the side. In his hands rested a long sword with a black and gold hilt and sheath.
“Thank you, I’ll try not to break it. I have a tendency to destroy… a few things… while in combat.” He muttered. Solaris and Ellie headed outside. Ellie was dragging the heavy pan behind her, holding onto the chain.
“So what did you need to practice short stuff?” Solaris snickered.
Toan answered from behind. “You guys are really going to do this aren’t you? Well in that case, she should probably learn how to attack properly, and how to control her movements with something like a frying pan.”
“Even if I could remember previous techniques, I don’t think I know of a style that uses a frying pan. However, it has some similarities to the style of whip users I suppose…” Solaris muttered as he watched the child spin around in the clearing between the 3 cottages, flailing her pan and chain aimlessly.
Solaris approached cautiously, leaving his weapon lowered. He reached the edge of the flying frying pan’s range and quickly stepped forward, ready to stop its movement with the broad side of his sword. The pan swung low, at chest height for him, then suddenly took a turn up as Ellie shifted the force on the chain. “DONG!” the pan rang as is collided with the right side of Solaris’s head. He fell to the ground in a light daze as Ellie realized what she’d done.
“AAAAHH! I’M SORRY MR. SOLARIS!!!” she screamed as she ran to his side. Solaris looked up at the child, who was on the verge of tears.
“Well, if we can find a way to aim that, I think it could be somewhat effective” he replied with a laugh and pat her on the head.
Toan leaned back on the wall and chuckled quietly. “I’ll go get the shield that goes along with that sword. I don’t know why I didn’t bother to just give you the shield instead.” He went inside and returned a few moments later and presented Solaris with a matching shield for the sword.
Solaris picked himself up off the ground, held his shield in his right hand, and the sword in his left. He took a combat stance. “OK short stuff, try doing that again…”
Toan could only cringe at that statement as Ellie also took an awkward stance. Toan ran out to help her correct herself, as well as to delay the chance that Ellie may be hurt in her training. After he put suitable distance between himself and the others, Ellie and Solaris began. It was more of Solaris being a human sized target while Ellie practiced and refined various techniques she’d figured out. They kept at this for several hours before stopping for lunch, after which Ellie would practice low level magic with her mother, and Solaris would go out practice his gravity control abilities. A couple of days passed this way and Ellie already began to show a noticeable improvement in both combat and magical arts.
On the 4th day after Solaris’s awakening, Solaris, Ellie, and Jinyu were heading outside to continue training, this time to include support magic along with combat. Toan walked out, over to Solaris, and glanced in the direction of his wife and daughter. “2 versus 1 isn’t exactly fair you know.” He grinned. “Solaris, may I have a word with you?”
Solaris scratched his head and nodded, wondering what was about to happen. “Yes?” He asked nervously.
“Well, I’ve been wondering if there was anything I could do to help out, since you’re helping us. Aside from letting you keep that sword and shield, I thought maybe I could help you find out more about your abilities and such. Come with me.” They headed into the house, to a bookshelf. Toan Selected 3 books from it and placed them on a table. "These books contain what is known of the Flame Keeper race. They were purged from the academy’s library. My wife and I uhm… checked some out before this happened… and… uhm… neglected to return them for about 10 years. I’m sure the fines would be horrible by now so we just decided to keep them and never return to that library.” He chuckled.
He continued to speak while various spell chants could be heard from Jinyu and Ellie outside. “Might want to take a look at some of these skills. I think this could be of some help to you.”
Solaris nodded. “Thank you. I’ll look over them.”
The rest of the day was spent with Solaris looking over the books and Ellie practicing various support spells with Jinyu.
The next day, Solaris awoke early to practice some of the newfound skills. He’d taken a particular interest in 2: “Gravity warp” and “Summon Weapon”.
By the time everyone else had awakened, he’d already given up on them, either from just plain not knowing how to start the skills, or from having no suitable conditions in which to test if a skill actually did what he thought it should do.
He sat in the clearing under the morning sun and let out a heavy sigh. Ellie joined him a moment later and took a seat beside him. “Hi Mr. Solaris. Is something wrong?”
“Nah, just couldn’t figure something out. That’s all.”
“Ooooh.” Ellie sat and thought for a moment. “I have a question. I’ll be right back.” She got up and ran inside, returning with a rounded piece of metal. She presented it to Solaris. “What is this? I found it when we found you.”
He carefully took the rounded fragment of a thing in his hands. It felt strangely familiar, yet foreign at the same time. “Well, I’m not entirely sure. I’d have to say that it looks like a piece of a sword, but it’s not shaped like any blade I’ve ever seen.”
Ellie nodded and look up at Solaris, whose gaze was still fixed upon the blade. He activated nova and the object in his hand began to glow, reacting to the energy of nova. The process was stopped before any noticeable result was realized when Ellie asked what the day’s lessons would be. Solaris stopped focusing and nova stopped with his concentration. Neither of them had noticed the fading glow of the metal fragment as Solaris stood with a puzzled expression. “Well, I suppose that depends on what your mother was teaching you yesterday.”
Jinyu’s voice could be heard from the front door: “attribute enchanting spells, heal practice, and minor object control.”
“Minor object control?” Solaris scratched his head in confusion.
“It lets me move or redirect things. Mommy said it can be used to untie ropes or move keys, and some other stuff.” Ellie answered with a grin.
“Oh, that sounds like it may be useful” Solaris smiled in reply. “I’d like to see it. Got something to try it on?”
“No, you don’t get to see!”
“Wait, what? Why?” Solaris asked, quite surprised.
“You gave up on your new skills. You get to see my trick when you figure out how to do what it was you were trying to do” she teased and stuck out her tongue.
“That’s not fair!” Solaris whined.
“Is too!”
“Is not!”
“That’s enough children.” Jinyu interrupted them with a giggle. They then resumed, or started, the day’s magic and combat lessons.
2 more days of training, skill practice, and study came and went. After that, 2 days of rest, and preparations for the family trip plus 1 journey to Allongade Elven Academy.
They awoke early and ate a light breakfast, gathered their belongings and set foot outside in the morning sun.
“So, we’re finally heading to Allongade right?” Solaris questioned.
Toan nodded and handed him another bag, filled with the books he and Jinyu had “Liberated” from the library there. “Yes, and whatever you do, don’t let people see those books while at the academy. I doubt things will end well if you do.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Jinyu and I will explain in the way. It has a lot to do with our history, among other things.”
Solaris nodded and Toan lead them off into the forest. He was followed by Ellie, then Jinyu, and finally came Solaris at the back of the group. It wouldn’t be more than a few days now, until Solaris got closer to understanding his abilities, and closer to the Elven capital.
Fragments - Sun Book 1 - Draft 1
Following
Table of Contents
An Encounter Ch 2 - Citradel of the Flame Keepers Ch 3 -The City of Azidon Ch 4 - City of Silence Ch 5 - A brush with the Blight Ch 6 - Showdown in the Sanctuary Chapter 7 - The Runaway Guide Ch 8 - Flowers and a Dragon Ch 9 - The Royal Pain Outtake 1 Ch 10 - A Conflict of Elements Ch 11 - You Called Me What?! Ch 12a - The end of a Journey A Small Stack of Bonus Content 12b - The end of a Journey Ch 13 - Rise of the Dark Sun Ch 14 - The Trial of the Solar Eclipse Ch 15 - Beast Mode... ?! Outtake 6 - Ponies! Ch 16 - Torment at Fujima Outtake 7 - You Did What?! Ch 17 - The Binding of Frost and Flame Ch 18 - The Break of Power and Silence Ch 19a - Pages from Their Past Outtake 8 Outtake 9 Ch - 19b - Pages from their Pasts Outtake 10 Ch 20 - Home, Bittersweet Home Ch 22 - The Aftermath Ch 23 - An Unexpected Reunion Ch 24 - The Elven Scholar Ch 25 - The Student-Teacher Ch 30 - Academic Warfare Outtake 13 - And You Are...?Ch 25 - The Student-Teacher
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by 3 Armored Kittens · Prodromos v.1.1 - World Anvil 0.9.15.043 © 2017-2024 [en] | Anvil Time: 19:45, Dec 22 2024