Trip to Mond Empire (Again)

The curving walls of Lunaris City stretched out to the distance. Standing on a small hill just a couple of yards away from the city gates, I could see the Empire's moon city in all its glory. After trudging on by foot and hitching out a ride from a passing merchant group, the innkeeper's family and I had finally arrived in our destination.

"Lunaris City..." I murmured in awe.

"Didn't you say your family had visited a couple of years ago?" Joren asked with a straight face, although I could easily sense the excitement he hid behind his nonchalance.

I nodded distractedly, still staring at the huge, white coral walls. I mumbled after a while, "Well... I haven't really gotten a good look at the city from a distance."

I recalled how I had fainted from the overuse of magic from back then. I had just saved my older brother, the Second Prince Clement, from being sabotaged by our eldest brother. Later on, I had awoken in the Moon City of the Empire, and couldn't even accompany my parents as they went on to the Empire's royal capital. Looking back, it had only been two years at most, but it felt like such a long time ago that I could almost believe that it had happened in my past life.

Sensing movement behind us, I waited a few seconds before looking behind me. Tabitha and Freud had finally arrived at the top of the hill. Freud was panting heavily, his boorish body flushed a deep red. Tabitha, though, was just calmly supporting her husband with steady arms. Observing her, I sensed how the notes surrounded her more heavily than others. 'Definitely a strong mage...' I thought.

She looked at my direction, and upon finding me staring at her, she smiled at me gently. I immediately perked up. "That must have been quite a climb."

"Right ya are, lad!" Freud bellowed in between catching his breath. "We ain't as filled wid life as da both of ya, young li'l imps!"

Tabitha gently patted her husband's back. "Take a rest there by the rock, sweetheart."

"Oh, th-tha I'd gladly do, hun." He walked off almost dejectedly towards a big rock outcropping in the middle of the grassy hill. Joren looked at his father almost comically.

"My old man surely needs some exercise, don't ya think?" the boy asked me.

Knowing how an adult body can easily turn weak (since even at 18, I had felt a lack of my usual energy), I immediately sided with the innkeeper. "Oh, Uncle Freud is healthy enough for his age. Not everyone has a large energy pool that young boys like us have."

Joren only huffed and looked away, jumping on the balls of his feet while staring off towards the city gates. Sensing his impatience, I asked him, "Are you feeling excited?"

"Y-Yeah!" he shouted, and then added with a whisper just by my ear, "And don't you know today's the last day of the entrance exams for the... that school?"

He looked cautiously back and forth towards his mother and me.

"Oh?" I asked smilingly, as though we were talking about something pleasant. Sneakily, I aided a few notes in the surroundings to stop the winds from leaving our sides, so our whispers wouldn't be easily heard by the adults. "Keep talking."

He closed an arm around my shoulders, and continued to speak in hushed tones. "I saw a pamphlet while we were travelling with those merchants. It said the examination will last five days, and today's the last day, and it'll only be until noon!"

I looked at the sky, where the sun was still just starting to rise. "Well, don't we still have a few more hours?"

"Well, Ma and Da will soon be busy talking business with our relatives, but that will probably be later in the morning. We might be cutting it close if we wait until then..."

I considered it seriously. "But, we don't have much options, right? We'll just have to do our best to help out with the goods so we can escape a bit earlier."

Joren reluctantly nodded and my gaze returned to the adults. Freud was gradually getting better and Tabitha was speaking with him with her usual smile, which brightened up her thin face. Smiling like that, she looked much like her red-headed son. My eyes then turned towards her long fingers, where an ordinary-looking sliver ring decorated it.

The silver ring didn't look like much, but I knew it was probably the most expensive object in our party. 'A spatial ring,' I thought.

The innkeeper family had probably used up a lot of money so they could get hold of such a ring. Even if it could only hold a few objects, it could already fetch a great price. Considering how Tabitha and Freud had packed up a lot of their merchandise inside the ring, I realized it should have cost a couple of gold pouches at least...

"Hey, look at that!" Joren prodded my arm. I glared at him before turning my head towards the direction he was pointing at. At the far distance, and still a long way away from the city walls, I could make out a few small figures emerging from the forest. I figured they were probably humongous if we had seen them up close. I squinted at the approaching herd. "What are those?"

Then, a mysterious sound managed to reach us from up the hill. It sounded like a mixture of gushing water and the trumpets of an elephant. I heard a woman's voice behind us. "Judging by their size and their glorious sounds, they're probably Cameliphanti."

I looked up behind me to see her gazing at the faraway herd with a melancholic smile. I asked her, "Cameliphanti?"

She looked down at me, as though I had awoken her from her thoughts. "Oh, they're sweet animals. They're a bit bigger than normal elephants, and they have four tusks, three humps on their backs, and they breathe out through their blowholes, right on top of each hump."

"... I don't think I've ever heard of such an animal," I said in awe, trying to imagine them in my mind. I painted them up as divine creatures...

"Oh, I don't believe many know of them," Tabitha told me. "They were interbred from the Lunar Academy, and they're being protected quite seriously by the professors and students."

"L-Lunar Academy?" Joren asked his mother in shock, a slight panic showing through his emerald eyes.

Tabitha looked down at her son with a small smile. "Yes, dear. The Lunar Academy for Special Mages. You've heard of it, yes?"

"Y-Yeah, Ma. I have..." he replied, but then rapidly continued on. "O-Or maybe I just thought I did? Yeah, I probably don't know."

I almost groaned out loud at his obvious show of suspicious behavior. So, I quickly grabbed at Tabitha's sleeves to distract her. "Aunt Tabitha! When will we start moving again? I'm so excited to see the City!"

She immediately broke down into a pleased smile. "Now! Let's go now, then! We shouldn't let your excitement die down any more! Freud, up we go!"

I could see how Freud was about to complain, but then his wife quickly slapped him into a stand. As our party walked down the sloping hill, I had to remind myself a few times to slow down into a steady walk. Joren, however, gave no regard to his tired father and went ahead and ran down the hill with great and accelerating speed.

"Eleftherion, sweet!" Tabitha shouted down at me. "Won't you be a dear and watch over that son of mine?"

"Alright, Aunt Tabitha!" I shouted back. And without missing a beat, I began to quicken my pace and tried to catch up to the red-headed boy. He was already growing smaller in the distance. "Joren! Monty, wait up!"

I could see his figure stopping and shouting, "Shut up, Therion! Don't call me that!"

But I kept running down until I had almost reached him. However, he started running off again when I had come to close the distance. He stared back at me, and screamed out a challenge, "First to reach the gates gets half of the other's breakfast!"

"Deal!" I shouted back, and started to get serious. I pumped up my legs and let the downwind help me. I didn't even need to use magic. My hands patted his back the next moment, and we were already running shoulder to shoulder just as we had touched upon level ground. A long expanse of plains stretched between us and the gates, and a wide, yet almost empty cemented street stood at our sides. We ran towards the street, knowing the evenly paved ground would help us accelerate more.

"Bah!" Joren panted out. "You're fast, Therion!"

"I'm not even serious yet!" I allowed myself a sideways smile, and trudged onward. Surprisingly, the boy continued to keep up with my speed. Then, a large, hulking wagon stood in our way in the middle of the street. Looking once at the boy beside me, I took the right and him the left side of the wagon. A few walking travelers shouted at us in annoyance as we passed them by. A poor maiden shrieked as the winds we caused blew her skirts up. "Sorry!" I shouted back at them each time.

The crowd soon turned a bit denser the closer we got to the city gates, and more eyes stared at our little race. I knew we couldn't exactly reach the gates at once, so I had to make do with the little sign that had the imprinted letters stating "Lunaris City".

I reached it first, and the red-haired boy tapped on it the very next moment.

"No!" he screamed in childish anguish, dropping down on his knees. I laughed at him merrily.

"I get half your breakfast," I reminded him, and offered a hand to him.

He took it grudgingly. "Yeah, yeah. But only because you can use notes really well!"

Then, I gripped at his hand tightly, making sure to show off my strength. "Who said I even used notes?"

His eyes went wide and he forced his hand out of mine. "... I thought you looked stronger than before!"

"Yeah?" I asked with a smirk. "'Cuz I did grow stronger."

He looked at me with suspicion on his small face. "What were you even up to during the year you were away?"

I grinned at him. "Oh, would you like to know!"

He pushed at my shoulders when he knew I wouldn't give him a reply. He then walked past me and stood at his tiptoes, trying to see past the long line of people. He did a few tiny hops, as though that would help him see better. "There's so many..." Joren muttered.

"Yeah," I agreed with him as I looked around the area. There was a thick line of people and carriages surrounding the city gates, probably held up from the strict checks done by the city soldiers. I asked mindlessly, "Is it because of the Lunar Academy examination?"

Surprisingly, someone else answered my question. A girl our age was leaning out through her carriage's window. She had apparently heard our conversation, and was staring down at us with her wide, chestnut colored eyes. "Don't you know the Lunar Academy examinations are a pretty big deal every year? I heard rumors about there being a herd of Cameliphanti to escort the new students to the Academy grounds this year."

"Ya seem to know a lot," Joren called up to the girl. She tilted her head, momentarily confused, her twin pigtails bouncing in the air.

"Oh, that I do!" she then replied energetically. "After all, I'll be taking the exams this morning!"

'No wonder...' I thought, observing her simple, yet obviously well-made carriage and her good quality clothes. However, she talked a bit too much for a well-born girl, though...

"Well, we're taking the exams too!" Joren shouted out proudly and thumped a fist against his chest. "So, don't feel too bad if we take your spot."

"Pft!" the girl laughed. "There's no ranking in the entrance exams. You either pass or fail."

"I know!" the boy shouted back. "If we get a token, then we pass!"

She grinned down at us. "Exactly! I hope you guys get your tokens then!"

"That's our line!" Joren screamed back at her. When he was about to shout out a bit more, I quickly held out a hand to stop him. The girl had already disappeared inside her carriage and I felt a slightly protective aura coming out from another person inside it.

'It seems like she might have a bit of a background as well.'

Then, we heard a few shouts behind us. "Eleftherion! Joren! Where are you?"

From a few distances away, Tabitha and Freud had finally arrived, although now they were hitching a ride again on another group's carriage. Tabitha was standing very steadily on the driver's seat, eyes surveying for our little bodies amidst the crowd. She opened her mouth again to shout, but then her eyes found us. She smiled happily and bounced down onto the ground. After which, she talked a bit with the carriage owner, bowed a little, and then started to walk towards us.

"I finally found you!" she said loudly, and quickly grabbed us by our shoulders. "You little rascals, you certainly left us in the dust."

We could only laugh as we were dragged back into the back of the line. Joren's family and I could only wait patiently for our turn to enter the gates. A couple of minutes later, a few exclaims of wonder and shock filled the crowds, and when I had turned to look at their source of bewilderment, I was greeted with a view of an approaching herd of what seems to be one of the most bizarre group of creatures I have ever seen.

Thick, grayish skin that formed diamond patterns on its forehead and its six, trunk-like feet. A head that only seemed to have its three, large, blinking eyes, which was framed by four, ivory tusks as long as carriages. Three humps on its back, just like a camel's. And...

A thick, geiser erupted from the tops of the humps on one of the creatures. I've heard of peaceful whales that could spout out water from its backs, and this creature looked just the same...

"It's not water, but hot air," I muttered, in awe of the creatures.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" Tabitha asked, an almost proud quality hung in her words.

"You've seen them before, Aunt Tabitha?" I asked in wonder. She seemed to awfully know a lot about these rare creatures.

"Hmmm..." She stared at the creatures with marveling eyes. "A few times, I suppose."

Silence then soon resumed and the only sounds that filled the area were the quiet gasps as we all stared at the procession of Cameliphanti.

I then had a simple thought.

I didn't know much about how my life would be like as the commoner boy Eleftherion. But, seeing the majestic beasts shaking the very ground as they moved, I can't help but feel a great excitement about it all.