It’s been one month and two weeks now
And I’ve finally come to a decision
I’ve decided on earth
Thinking that, feeling it, really deciding on it.
A flash of light hit my eye.
Invisible to everyone but me
Something that surprised me
Yet, felt normal.
‘Element of EARTH has been chosen’
‘Resitances to EARTH type magic serverly increased’
‘EARTH type magic Unlocked’
‘Profficiensies with EARTH type magic increased’
‘Unlocked Basic Earth manipulation’
‘Basic Earth manipulation Upgraded too Advanced Earth manipulation’
Wow
That’s a lot of information to process
Holy
How long was it since I did the dragon ritual?
One month?
Less?
This is too fast.
This feels too fast.
Looking up to the human
I see her jump-skipping.
Merrily whistling to a tune that I’ve never heard.
Something changed
She seems more
Confident about herself.
As if
She has resolved a hard decision that’s been bugging her.
A burden lifted from her chest.
Whatever it was, I’m just happy that she is herself again.
I got worried when we sat by that tree.
“Hey! I decided on Earth!”
“YOU DID?! Congrats Mister Butler!”
She yelled, turning around and running up to me.
Jump-hugging me.
Taking me by surprise as we both fell to the ground, limp in a laughing pile.
“Hahaha. Well, show me something then!”
Sitting up, she excitedly said
Looking towards me with large kitten like eyes.
“Okay, okay, wait a second”
Sitting myself up
I closed my eyes, trying to feel the energy that should be within me.
Knowing from previous knowledge that I would instinctively know how to wield the magic
Something that I had a hard time really believing.
Until now, that is.
Now, it just feels like.
A part of nature.
“I-I think I got it. Wait, a sec.”
I said, with still closed eyes.
Deep inside, I could feel something
Something solid, hard, and unyielding.
Something that I’d never felt before
But it still felt perfectly natural, as if it had always been there.
A new muscle, never used but always there
I reached within
Feeling a light shine up
Making the surrounding earth beam brightly like the sun.
Giving me an instinctive feeling of what I could move and what not I could move
And I flexed
Feeling the magical muscle being used
And quickly failing.
“Ooooooh, did you just make the ground vibrate?!”
A high voice asked me
My cheeks turned a shade redder.
Shuffling around, letting her eyes rest on my back
Ahem
Trying again.
Feeling the ground
Seeing the light
Flexing my muscle
And then I felt it
A solitary boulder trapped within the ground.
I reached for it, muscle flexing down
Clutching the boulder in my magic
Caressing it, telling it, pleading with it
Please move.
And so it did.
Shaking itself from its solitary prison
Moving up through the ground, like water through stone
Like a knife through butter.
And as it flew upwards
It quickly breached the ground, floating up to the air.
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A loud squeal of joy was heard.
“Oh haha! Congrats mister Butler! That’s freaking huge!”
Huge?
I opened my eyes, looking up where my magical muscles held the bould-
...
Yeah.
That’s fricking huge.
Infront of me floated a ten by ten meter big boulder, round.
Casting a pleasing shadow over us
Quickly noting one important detail
Making me sweat profusely
It was hovering above us.
Swallowing down saliva
I desperately moved it
Using my muscle to push and pull
As it slowly
Slowly
Moved away.
She just stared in childish delight as the sudden death boulder floated above.
And as I felt it far enough away
I dropped it.
Making us shake a bit from the impact.
That
That could have gone bad.
Feeling a light slap on my shoulder, I turned around
“That was amazing! I did not know you had such talent for Earth magic!”
Hehe
Neither did I.
“Yeah, I’m hailed as the great one in our city.”
“Oohoo, humble bragging, I can dig that.”
A smug smile meeting mine.
“But you know, it makes you less cool if you still use it.”
“Still use it?”
“Yeah, your making the ground vibrate again.”
I am doing what?
Giving her a confused look
Being met with one of her own.
“So... you're not making the ground shake?”
I shook my head.
Closing my eyes as I used my magical muscle
And feeling it myself
The vibrations travelling through the ground
Making pebbles rattle around.
Pointing towards the origins of the vibrations
“It’s coming from there.”
She looked up, peering to the horizon, hand above her eyes shielding the sun.
Not seeing anything, she quickly climbed the boulder.
Turning around, peering over the horizon
Then they opened wide.
“Eeeeh, I think we should run.”
Uuh
Quickly going up to my feet, I also climbed the tall boulder.
Peering where the vibrations were coming from
And was met with the sight of an army of horses
Riders on top.
From one end of the horizon to the other
The horses ran
Still a few kilometers from us, but gaining speed fast.
I...
That does not look good
“Yeah, we should.”
And we sped off
Running away at a normally unattainable speed
Running away from something that we did not know.
We ran for a few minutes.
Feeling tired
Muscles aching.
Glancing back, the far away silhouettes of horses and riders seemed to have gotten closer.
Way closer
And I realised something very quickly.
They were so many
Too many to make out.
Giving her a sideways glance, she also looked back
Eying the riding horsemen
But suddenly
She stopped.
Mouth wide open.
I stopped too, jogging up to her, tugging at her arm
“What are you doing?”
But she remained silent and standing still.
Looking.
Shocked?
Darn.
Why now of all times?
I looked around, searching for somewhere to hide
Only to be met with grassland
Grassland
And more, grassland.
Nothing as far as the eye could see.
I closed my eyes.
Hoping for, something
Maybe I could dig us a hole into the ground?
I can at least try.
The ground shined to my closed eyes
Giving me instinctive feel for what I could move and not.
Then I noticed something
Something below us
As if calling me
I reached down, and without really thinking about it
I tried to scoop out the ground.
And as I did so, I felt my body starting to move.
But put it out of my mind, as the task of scooping the ground felt weirdly hard
Moving the boulder was a hundred times easier than this.
But I continued.
It felt as if; The ground was calling for me
Asking me too
Take it out.
A few seconds later, the feeling dissipated as I had grabbed enough earth.
Okay, perfect
Next part
Moving it to the side
Using my Earth magic
Feeling wind brush against my head
The magic took form
Moving the pile of earth.
A few seconds later, it felt like I had moved the ground far enough to the side.
So I let the magic go.
A sense of weightlessness overcame me
Hearing a loud, screaming laughter.
“OOOOAAAAHAHAHAHA”
Opening my eyes in confusion
I saw the sky
Looking down, I saw the ground
But I still felt weightless
What
Is happening-
Then it stopped.
Pushing me down hard to the ground
Hitting my head against it
Sight going dark, head spinning.
“Woohoo hahaha, that was fun! Can you do it again?”
A mumbled yell, or scream?
Thoughts muddled.
Minutes passed before I could orientate myself.
Feeling my back against the earth, staring up at the sky.
Asking a simple question.
“What happened?”
“Haha, oh I dont know what the hell you did. But you suddenly started lifting the ground, The ground! Then we floated like really far up, I could not really see over the side, but I think we were far up. Then you just dropped us. Ooohhahaha, that was a really weird feeling.”
She said in a rapid fire
Letting her arms do half of the talking, wildly swinging around.
I did-
“What?”
“Yeah, it was really fun! But you seemed to lose control or something, cuz you hit your head pretty hard. Anyway, whatever you did seems to not have worked. They are a lot closer now.”
Pointing at the army of horse riders.
I quickly got to my feet, looking towards that direction.
But felt myself staring at something else
Not the riders
But at the massive hole in front of me
The size of a big boat
Maybe even bigger
Looking like a crater from an epic battle
From a meteor
What is...
Was that me?
How, but, what
I thought I had just taken out a small scoop?
Shaking myself from thoughts.
Remembering our situation
I looked up to her
Seeing her bright smile, staring towards the army of horses.
Looking to where she was staring, I realised why.
The army of riders had stopped
And from them, a group of maybe ten riders where coming
Maybe a kilometer away from us.
But what shocked me most
Was that they were not riders at all, but fused together with their horse half
A human upper body, and a horse’s lower body.
I think, I think they are called minotaurs?
“It’s centaurs!”
Looking down on me with a beaming smile
Oh, yeah.
And gave her back an awkward smile.
“What should we do?”
I asked, feeling that I’ve wasted too much time with my stupid earth magic
I might have doomed us.
But
If it comes to it
I’ll glady sacrifice myself for her.
“Let’s wait and see, it does not seem like they are here to kill us. Otherwise they would bring the entire herd”
Huh, that sound pretty logical.
Maybe.
But the massive swords that are hanging by their side do not instill confidence in that theory.
Nor how armored they look
Especially the one in the front.
Being the only one with a glimmering armour that looks silvery in nature
But seems to sparkle a little too much to be non-magical.
A minute passed as they trotted their way towards us
Their hands resting on swords, and weirdly enough
At a pouch by their side.
As they neared
We made sure that they saw us holding our hands far from our bows.
Looking as non-threatening as possible.
They stopped at the edge of the scooped out hole
Looking up towards us on our heightened elevation
And the silver armoured centaur spoke.
And I had no idea what she was saying.
“Uuuh, I don’t understand you”
She yelled back
A few uncertain looks was shared amongst the centaurs
And silence came upon us.
Both sides staring at one another
Then the silver one spoke up.
“Why would the common language be brought so far from the south?”
Hmm, odd question
Giving my friend a sideways glance, I searched her face for an expression.
Being met by her honesty
As she looked stupefied.
“Duuuuuuh... I dont know”
She answered, making me unconsciously hit my face.
Why must you be so unpolitical at times?
We are obviously in a tricky situation.
And you sound like your-
“This be unfortunate. Who amongst you are Earth builder?”
The centaur responded, seemingly ignoring her ignorance.
“Earth builder?... Oh you mean Earth magic! Yeah, it’s mister Butler here.”
Pointing at me with a big smile
Getting met by one of horror.
Why do you have to be so honest?
What if they are angry that we are.. Like
Destroying their sacred breeding grounds or something?
But my fears were for nothing
As the centaur rose up on its hind legs
Squeling in
Glee?
“Oh great Earth builder, please, by the honor of the great field. Please help us.”
I-
-Uuuuuh
“Yeah of course we will help! Right, mister Butler?”
An excited yelp
Looking at me with pleading eyes and a wide smile.
But I stopped myself
Feeling unwilling to go along without questioning.
“Waitwaitwait... Before I--we help. What do you need help with?”
The Silver centaur looked up to us, a big smile on its face.
Or maybe her face? It looked pretty feminine.
And answered, sounding stupidly honest.
“We want you to build us a city. We saw your great magic from a distance and realised that our prophecy was about to be fulfilled”
“Build a... City?”
Feeling as if I heard wrong
But no.
No, I heard right
“Yes, a city. To save our people”
“To save?”
“Yes, from the great locust”
“The locust?”
“Yes, the big swarm of something that will swallow our lands and kill us all.”
“A big sw-“
But before I could ask my question
The human stepped in front of me, hands pushing me back a bit.
“Sorrysorry! He’s a bit skeptical about people, but we will absolutely help!”
Then looking at me
“Hey, they obviously need help, why so skeptical?”
I let out a small sigh.
Gazing into her beautiful eyes.
“You know. Dont take this in a bad way, but you're not the best at talking in a dicey situation.”
“Hey, I’m totally good... Okay, yeah I get your point, but they are obviously friendly. What’s the harm?”
“Weeell. What if it’s just a ruse to get us down from here? We have the high ground.”
“Truuue, but it’s a fricking centaurs! Do you know how cool this is! I’m soooo totally gonna ask her if I can ride her.”
...
Sometimes I forget how simple she can be
Something I wish for myself.
“Hehe, okay, yeah let’s help them”
Getting a big smile in response
And a tight hug.
“Let’s Goooooo!”
She screamed out, jumping down into the big hole.
Getting a loud and joyous response from the ten centaurs.
Going up on their hind legs, thrusting the swords up into the air
And far, far into the distance.
A echoing from loud screams.
Sounding like a loud battle cry.
Emanating from thousands upon thousands of voices
And looking up-
...
Yes
Yes, that’s exactly what it was.
As the army of centaurs that were once far away
Had closed in, being less than a kilometer away
All with their swords high in the air
All screaming loud
All looking very
Very happy
Oh god.
What have we gotten ourselves into now?
