A Young Boy
"first take that rings of his out, then proceed with your chanting, dear" said the old woman toward the young girl after checking the young boy's condition. Alize grabs the young boy's hand gently and then removes his ring from his index finger. She then puts her hands on his forehead and starts to mumble something while she closes her eyes tight and tries to get more concentration. Her face distorts a bit as if she is trying to catch something which is too hard to catch. to imagine something very elusive. After a while she finishes her chanting and now there is a surge of a pale white foggy like light from her hands which slowly covers the young boy in whole.
The young boy's breathing becomes lighter and, in his face, there can be seen some notion of ease. As soon as the pale white foggy like light scatters from her hand and she sees the relaxed facial features of the young boy, she then turns her face with gleaming light of confidence and proudly looks at her grandmother. The old woman who oversaw her practice from the beginning shows her a smile and the young girl laughs with happiness of completing her first ever human trial toward becoming a real professional doctor just like her grandmother. She had done medical practice before, but she had never used her heritage, something which was in her blood. From the ancient generation of the first Archwood ancestor till now, every girl and woman of the family always inherited the blood of a witch and with it also came something else, something which they tried very hard to keep it unknown. They always had a great affinity with the healing power of this universe and they could use their own special kind of healing and medicine, which was developed from the first generation and passed down to the next one. They were one of the best healers but due to some circumstances, like people's greed and many other reasons, there are only two real Archwood left. Now, they both live in this village's vicinity.
The old woman looks at the young man again and then she looks at the young girl who is brimming with confidence and delight. She then says:
"that was a great performance of our ancient art of healing. And with that you can even heal sever internal injuries easily. A feat that even great healers and arch priests hardly can achieve. But, dear, always remember that today was your first and last time that you have used this ability of ours. Because if someone find this out then it would be very dangerous! Remember this well, dear." says the old woman as she again emphasizes "don't ever forget this."
"but granny, I always wanted to ask you that um" young girl looks a bit confused as she continues "that what is the purpose? if we have this kind of power to save others so effortlessly, but never actually use it. I know that you always save those patients of yours, who can't be saved normally, in secret but why don't we do it in broad day light so that you can live in more comfort and ease. This kind of life is hard for you granny."
"no, never." says the old woman with a decisive tone "You should never use this method to save someone so casually. Right now, we did it as a practice so that you have a real sense of it and with this you should be able to do it for your own sake in future, but you shall never save any one with this power, again. And I don't want money or comfort, when you are around me and we can live happily, as we are living like now. this is all that I want. And your happiness is all that matters to me."
The young girl didn't know what to say any more and her mouth become a bit open as it seems that she is going to say something but all she could do was just that. The old woman seeing the mixed-up feeling of her granddaughter smiles and tells her in a gentle and solid voice:
"listen dear, I know that you just want to help me and others, but sometimes not using all you can do in helping others can help you. You are so young and pure but be ware that this old world is anything but pure and young, anymore. So be careful. Now you may use your powers in secret, and in time of need, but be sure to do it like me. Let no one know about it. Even if it is the closest friend that you have. No one but your family. And remember that your safety is what I want the most, yet if you go on and use this power of yours and then some body realize what it is and the news of it spreads then this peaceful life that we have will be over. I don't want something happen to you like what happened to your father and mother." Said the old woman and she fell silent with traces of pain while tears started to fall from her eyes.
When the young girl hears of her mother and father from her grandmother she then says in a low voice "what? What exactly happened to my mother and father? Grandma, please tell me?" but as she finishes her sentence and sees her grandmother with eyes full of tears, she then becomes desperate and continues to say "granny? What happened? It is okay. I get it. I will never use this power of mine I promise so don't cry then please. Pretty please."
The old woman who became like a lost soul in her world comes back to herself and when she sees her young granddaughter desperately promising and vowing to her that she would never use her powers nonchalantly, she becomes quite calm and relaxed. Then she turns to her and says with a calm voice which one can still sense some feelings of loneliness and regret in it:
"okay, granny also promises that she won't be sad again. Okay honey. See I stopped crying." She said as she touched her eyes with her hands "Now, let's check on this young man again and while I check on him would you go and see if the guild master has come or not if not then come back here with Dalton, but wait for a while before coming in, I need to check something."
"okay, I go ASAP." Says the young girl with a happy smile.
"wait, honey you forgot the ring would you give it to me first?" said the old woman as she remembered about the black peculiar ring that the young boy had on him.
"oh, ops sorry, I just go so happy that I could save him. I forgot about the ring. Here you go granny" and she gives the ring to her grandmother.
When Alize leaves the room, the old woman looks at the young boy and mutters in a very low voice that only she can hear:
"now, now, how the hell did he survived in that desert with this sort of body constitution. How the hell did he survive from that internal injury. this is very interesting. And Alize's powers seem to have grown very much. I may have to run some experiments on him, but all these have to wait for when he wakes up." She said all these but when she thought about experimenting there was a dark smile on her face. What she was most fascinated with right now was exactly that ring of his. She could sense something from it. Something with a bad premonition. Something very powerful. That was one of reasons she asked Alize to remove it. The other reason was that it didn't show that bad and horrible vibe when Alize was near him. She looked at the ring again muttering:
"first let's just check this ring of his, again, before they come in." she then held the ring in front of her eyes trying to see through it. She touched it very hard and then she let go of her grip and hold it softly in her hands. She then closed her eyes and concentrated on that ring with her magic power. Some Bluish transparent like light flew from her hands to the ring. This light covered the whole ring and as she was smirking suddenly her face turned pale. And she tossed the ring toward the young boy who was laying in front of her. she dropped on her knees with a bam and the door suddenly opened by Alize but not fast enough for Alize to see the ring going back into the finger of the young boy.
When Alize heard something dropping, she rushed back in a hurry and anxiousness on her face yelling "grandma. What happened?"
Behind her there were two middle aged man. One of them is Dalton and the other one is a bulky man with some tattoos of dragon and fairies on his right hand. It is a big tattoo covering his whole hand.it shows some fairies riding on the back of a big red dragon. He, himself, has red hairs and big muscles. He is the guild master of this village. Known as jack the dragon. It is a nick name given to him by his old party members who are like a family to him. He, himself, was once an ace adventurer. Part of an S rank party, although he, himself, was a top A ranker. It was in one of his last quests with his comrades that he realized, he might not make it to the next one. That he has lost his edge for the adventure and peril. He knew he got lucky that he survived that hellish Dragon nest subjugation quest. So, he asked for a job behind the warzone. A job fit for a man who wants to get married and have a family. A safe job. A job behind some desk not in front of some scary wild beasts ready to tear you apart if you make a small noise. He pulled some strings from those who he had saved and those he is friend with, then he found himself the guild master of this far away village, a village near the great Desert of narahan, a quiet place with a small adventurer's guild. Now he lives in what he calls a life of leisure. But right now, he too seems rather worried, because the old woman who he believes in her talent of healing has fallen on her knees.
Alize rushes toward her grandmother and as she holds her shoulders, her grandmother opens her eyes and tells her in a low voice "it is okay dear I just need some rest, help me to a bed, I am okay, don't worry."
"alright, granny. Uncle Dalton come here, help me." Alize calls her Uncle Dalton and Dalton goes to her. jack is following behind him and he says in a firm voice "come with me to the next room, we provide her our best that we can offer, you don't need to worry for a place to stay." He, too, holds the old woman with Dalton and help him to get the old woman to the room next door. When they lay her down the old woman turns her face to the guild master and tells him in a low harsh voice "Mr. bright. Listen to me for a while. These Goblins, which we are facing now, are not your run of the mill goblins, there was some traces of magic and poison in their wounds. That trace was of different attributes. So be careful. I assume they might have more than what you guess. I could sense 3 different attributes and they all had some. I assume there might be more than five mage goblins among them."
For a second jack's eyes became big by the shock of this news. His face became solemn and he told the old woman who is now laying down and resting on the bed with a firm voice "thanks for the warning, please rest for the time being and relax. You are our guest till it is safe to leave. Actually, I wanted to offer you to stay in the village for the time being. Because we have had some reports on goblins sighted near where you live."
Dalton turns his face toward jack and there are traces of fury and anger visible on his face, he then makes fists with both his hands.
Jack sees his anger and tells him in a solemn tone "I already gave some quest to subjugate those goblins but with the estimation that I have assumed we need the power of knights to eradicate the whole nest there might be a great chief or something else leading these goblins. So, don't worry about it and just stay here for a few days. I will go now to send a request for the knight force." After jack said those words, he bid them his farewell and went out of the room, but the grip that Dalton had on his fists become so much stronger that one could see his blood falling from his hands on the ground.
In the guild master's office behind a huge desk there sits a man with red hairs writing a letter. After he finishes it, he seals it with the guild master sign and calls one of the fastest messengers of the village to deliver this letter to the closest knight fort stationed. That fort is stationed in the city of Malah and it takes 3 day to go there. In these three days he has planned to assign small and big quests for subjugation of goblins.