Through the Wild

The steel gates opened up and the new team of six descended down the large, grassy slope, leading to the frontier of the wild. Neither Cas nor Clement had ever seen the outside of their kingdom in person before, they had only read about it in books that they had when they were younger.

"Not far from here," Greyhart said as he turned towards the rest. "Is the kingdom closest to the south of Prismont, called Obselok. When we get there… I'll discuss the plan. Until then, follow me." They all nodded and obeyed Greyhart's order, with the exception of Arianne who decided to rush ahead on their own.

"Wait! Ahhh… should've known that would happen." Greyhart said regretfully.

Arianne was sprinting into the forest with a huge grin on her face.

"Want me to bring her back?"

"I appreciate the offer, hero boy, but it's no use. That one doesn't listen to anyone, it's a miracle I got her on the team in the first place."

Feeling as though ignoring this issue wasn't the right thing to do, Cas chased after them anyway. Using his horse-like stamina, Cas was able to chase after Arianne who was already entering a nearby forest. She seemed to be completely still but was facing away from him.

Once Cas thought he finally caught up to her, Arianne started giggling. She turned around with a creepy smile and said. "Gotcha!" She moved out of the way as a massive boar charged at him.

"W-Whoa!" Cas quickly dived to the right before the boar could reach him. As he looked around, Cas noticed that the boar was nowhere in sight. "What was that?" Cas asked, confused .

"You're pretty dumb, hero boy!" Arianne snickered.

"Hey, drop that name already, my name's Cas!"

"Don't act like you're worthy of my respect just because we're on the same team!"

I-… Whatever, what did you do just then? With that boar thing?"

"Illusion magic, perfect for tricking your opponents." She said smugly.

"Aren't you a hunter though?"

"It's simple magic, I bet a six-year-old could get the hang of it."

Cas sighed and lifted himself off the ground. "Magic can be so complicated…"

"You two done playing games now?" Greyhart said as he and the others caught up to them.

"Greyhart, is it really okay to have this boy on our team? He could get killed if he's not careful."

"What more do you want from me? I dodged your completely out of nowhere attack. You can't judge me off of that!" Cas said in his defense.

"That's unlike you to show concern for others, Arianne." Greyhart said in a teasing manner, this made Arianne clench her fist in anger. Before she could yell back at him, Greyhart quickly responded.

"But that's a really good question!… I don't know yet. We'll just have to see how useful he is in combat."

"Wait, I thought the king told you that I was a remarkable knight?"

"He hardly leaves his castle so I doubt he even knows a whole lot about you; seeing is believing!" Greyhart laughed.

"This man is unbelievable…" Cas said underneath his breath

"I-I don't think you guys should be addressing his majesty so casually." Evandrus said nervously.

"Oh be quiet, church boy! C'mon let's hurry to the next kingdom." Evandrus looked very hurt by the name Greyhart called him.

As they advanced further into the forest, Cas looked over at Clement who was extremely fixated on almost every plant and species. It was nothing like their home yet it felt familiar. When Cas and Clement were kids they would lov"e to read books about different creatures and details about nature.

"Doesn't this take you back, Clement?"

"Yes! It's just like how they looked in our books!"

It warmed Cas' heart to see his brother so ecstatic for a change. Clement was always a reserved and quiet person, it was a rarity to see someone as silent as him to be so openly joyful about something. The brothers continued to talk about the nature around them.

Time had passed, the team was still somehow progressing through the forest with exuberant energy. Cas could feel the wind blowing through his messy bed hair. In the distance, the sky could be seen. It had been slowly changing into a brighter shade of blue. They had left the gates during the middle of the night, now it was almost sunrise.

"Ugh… how much longer?" Arianne groaned out of sheer boredom.

"Didn't you say the kingdom wasn't far from here?" Cas looked towards Greyhart.

"I-uh, I meant it in comparison to the other kingdoms! Of course it will take a while to get there on foot. Just be patient, we'll be fine." Greyhart tried to sound reassuring. They eventually ran into a splitting path. One side led to a hill and the other went down into a cave. Greyhart went in the direction of the hill and the rest of the team followed.

Cas was walking slower as he sensed something was wrong. He was so concerned looking around the forest that he wasn't able to notice the root of a tree, he tripped over it and something odd occurred. The root curled itself and wrapped it around Cas' ankle, quickly pulling him into the cave. Cas yelled out, everyone in front of him turned around.

"Brother, no!" Clement yelled back, attempting to reach out to grab his hand but he was too late.

"Oh for the love of-" Greyhart grabbed Evandrus by the shoulder. "-You're coming with me." He sounded as though this type of situation was more of an inconvenience than an actual dangerous situation.

"W-wait what? I didn't volunteer for this! Why are you forcing me to go along with you?" Evandrus tried to go in the opposite direction, too afraid to enter a mysterious cave that just abducted Cas, but Greyhart's strength far outweighed Evandrus' resistance.

The remaining team watched as their commander ran into the cave, putting faith into the man they've only known for so long. Clement was still worried about his brother but he was afraid he couldn't survive there on his own for very long. Diane chose to stay silent. Arianne scoffed.

"Serves that boy right, it's his own fault for acting so overconfident just because he wants to save people. Accidents like that are bound to happen to a fool." She turned around in a lax manner, until she felt tugging at her wrist.

"Don't say that." It was Clement, he was looking at the ground, yet he still had the courage to stand up for his brother when he couldn't even stand up for himself. Clement continued before Arianne could even respond with another word. He then looked up and stared directly at her eyes.

"Don't say anything like that ever again! My brother…" He paused for a bit and then corrected himself. "Cas may not be the smartest or the most powerful warrior but he's not a fool. He does what he thinks is right, he fights for others, and no matter what happens to him, he gets back up and gives it his all. He's the strongest person I know."

Arianne remained silent for a few seconds, before she shook her head while chuckling "Greyhart was right… you two really are something else." She burst out laughing.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Clement said, frustrated by her attitude.

"It means that you both don't know when to quit, and you think things can simply change just by giving a heartwarming speech. To be quite frank, I hate people like that."

"You hate us? Your own teammates?"

"I never agreed for any of you to be my teammates, alright?" She snapped at Clement. She then took a deep breath and calmed herself down, "Well, I have better things to do, hope I don't see you later!" She leapt into the air grabbing a hold of the tree branches as she swiftly disappeared into the shadows.

Meanwhile, Cas was still trapped inside a pitch black cavern. He was dragged so deep into the cave that he couldn't see a thing.

"Hello?" he said to no one, trying to see how far the sound of his voice could travel. From the slight echo his voice made, Cas could tell the place wasn't cramped but it wasn't too spacious either. He slowly got up off the hard rock ground. While doing so, however, he felt something squishy touch his boot. The object suddenly started glowing and it quickly lit up the entirety of the part of the cave he was in. The object was what looked to be a mushroom that emanated a greenish light.

Cas now had a clear view of his surroundings, meaning that he could look for a way out. Except it wasn't that simple, the mushroom appeared to rise from out of the ground, a large boulder with two glowing eyes came out of the ground. Along with it, an entire body made of stone dug itself out. It was like a huge man of rock. Its chest was glowing in the center. Cas fell to the ground in awe of what he was seeing. He was about to get up and pull out his trusty blade, but it wasn't there. That's when Cas remembered, he didn't bring his sword with him when he left. Panic began to set in as soon as he realized he had no way of defending himself now.

"Maybe it isn't a harmful creature. Maybe it wants to lead me out of here!" He thought to himself. Cas' hope was immediately crushed when this huge rock being charged at him. Cas was able to dodge it in time, but he had nothing to attack it with. He turned around and ran for the tunnel, presumably towards where he was dragged to. Until the monster slammed its arm into the walls of the cave, causing the tunnel to cave in.

"Great, I'm in mortal danger now." Cas said deadpan. He was looking around the area, trying to see what, if anything, could be used to fight against the monster that already took up about half of the space. Something had to be done, he just had to think.

Fortunately, Cas was fairly good at thinking. He couldn't help but notice the monster had crystals all around its face. They were sparkling and shimmering green, just like the mushroom on its head. Cas just had to find a way to distract it first.

A sudden noise was heard, and the tunnel that was caved in was blasted open. The monster covered its eyes, not used to the presence of light. At the entrance of the tunnel, Greyhart could be seen holding a torch, with Evandrus hiding behind him.

"A cave golem, hm? A shame. I was hoping it would be something more intense like a dragon."

"That would be much worse…" Evandrus said with his voice trembling, as if he was about to be sick.

"You two came here to save me?-" Cas was too distracted. He wasn't watching the golem, who had just punched him with its solid and rough fist.

Greyhart and Evandrus watched as the golem buried Cas into the ground with that hit. There was no sound from him for a brief moment, until he was able to lift up the pile of rocks.

"I won't let you get the best of me, not when I have a duty to fulfill!" Cas said to the golem.

The golem, realizing that it can't keep Cas down, decided to lift him up instead and threw him across the cave. All while letting out a tremendous roar that almost made the tunnel cave in again.

"Looks like we have to step in now." Greyhart said.

Cas yelled back, "NO!" He was on the ground, clearly in immense pain. His body was covered in scratches and was coughing up after being thrown.

"I don't… I don't need to be saved, I need to do this on my own!" Cas struggled to get back up. His muscles aching and his legs shaking, but he still managed to lift himself off the ground. He was able to slowly limp his way towards the golem, getting a few punches in, but they appeared to do more damage to himself than to it. He kept moving, only to be thrown back and hit again. And again, and again, and again.

"Sir, this is getting hard to watch. We need to do something!" Evandrus said worryingly, but Greyhart put his arm in front of him and said:

"The boy's stubborn. If he says something, he's really demanding it."

"But he'll-"

"So what? Foolish or not, he's putting his life on the line. That's what many call courage. And courage is the essence of a knight."

"There's no way he'd be able to survive this on his own though!"

"That's where you're wrong…" Cas said while getting up. His breath was heavy, he was holding his injured right arm. The golem suddenly screeched while holding its face. "All those hits I made…" he paused while catching his breath. "They were all towards one area, its face… It was a risk but I felt those crystals on its face might've been important… so I destroyed them."

The golem let out another loud roar. It then started to lash out and unleash attacks aimlessly. Some damage was done to its sense of sight.

"I don't believe it." Evandrus said in awe of what Cas had done.

Greyhart smirked, "He's figured it out."

Cas was thinking in his head. "All I have to do now is to dodge all of its attacks, I know I can do that at least."

He was able to jump and duck over the golem's endless swings, evading every hit with ease.

"This is easier than training!" Cas laughed.

The golem's swings were creating even more damage by breaking the stone surrounding them. Fragments of rock were flying everywhere. Cas was running circles around the golem, passing by every shard of broken rock as well. He analyzed the area after taking cover behind a rock about the same size as him. He caught a glimpse of another pile of rocks, they looked sharp enough to be used as weapons. Cas leaped across the cave and grabbed the sharpest and longest shard he could find. It was about the size of a hunting dagger.

Keeping his distance from the golem and its wild frenzy, Cas charged at the golem from behind. He jumped onto the golem's arm with pinpoint accuracy and blazing speed. In half a second, he was also able to land on the other arm that was slightly higher as they spun around. From there, Cas made one final leap into the air as he plunged the pointed stone into the back of the golem's neck. His strength amplified the damage the rock did as it dug down to the center of its chest, destroying its glowing core. The golem let out one final, and more sad sounding, roar as it disintegrated into black dust. Cas had won the battle against his first obstacle.

"Well I'll be, you went primal on that thing!" Greyhart said, genuinely impressed with Cas' ingenuity.

Cas didn't have enough energy left to speak. He fell on his knees then onto the ground. Once again Cas was completely exhausted from pushing himself to the limit. Only this time, he proved to himself that he is a skilled knight.

"That's enough exaggerations, sir." Evandrus said while walking over to Cas. He casted a holy magic spell on him that fixed the damages done to his ribs and bones. Bright yellow light could be seen, and in an instant, all of Cas' serious injuries were miraculously fixed. "Thankfully, he's only got scratches now. He'll just need some rest to regain the energy he spent."

"To think that this boy was able to take down a golem on his own. I mean, I could've dealt with that thing in about a minute, but no 'knight apprentice' should be that skilled. I'd say Cas is indeed worthy of respect."

"Agreed, sir. But that could've been really bad. You should know that the decision he made was a reckless one that could've cost him his life."

"I'm aware of that, but nothing too scary happened and that's all that matters. Now, let's get out of here shall we?" Greyhart said while carrying Cas over his shoulder, just like last time.

"It's so dark in here though…" with the light source now being destroyed, the cave was difficult to navigate through.

"Just use your shiny white clothes to guide our way back." Greyhart said jokingly.

"Very funny, sir." Evandrus tried to laugh with him but it didn't sound very genuine.