The journey
By the river bad, he drank. He saw Falgur and Sheyken playing wrestling in the river as they washed themselves, almost forgetting the monsters Sheyken was acquainted with, he took a look at him and then drank. He thought that Sheyken's Blessing was an amazing one and with a smile as he got tipsy again while in the air as Sheyken lifted him, he drank.
When Falgur pulled out a camping magic tool just like the one that Ningal gave Sheyken, he thanked him and saw him going to sleep in Sheyken's tent. He stayed up all night and wondered why Sheyken was making him go with them. He thought about it and decided to ask him when the time was right, then he drank.
He woke up with a headache in the morning having passed out outside his tent, but knowing what the best medicine for the headache he had was, he drank. It had been two days since they started their journey and all he did was drink. He thought of who was keeping watch in the night if they all slept, but decided to ask later as he was now up in the air while Sheyken was running along a steep slope, so, he did what he knew best, he drank.
Finally stopping and blood coming out of Sheyken's nose, he thought that they had done what they needed to do. He told them that it would be a risk for any beast to leave its territory just to chase after them, then he drank. Sheyken did not want to risk it but thought that he would pass out while running if he did not rest. So, he decided to take two days to stop and recuperate. Lasore smiled and then drank but when he asked for another refill of his jar Sheyken refused, telling him to sober up as he wanted to ask him some questions before they headed out again.
Going back three days, on the day they had left the village, the lion-like beast had come out of the Trial Forest looking worse for wear. It had its scorpion-like tail chopped off and one of its bat-like wings missing. It was tired and almost out of stamina. It had been about an hour since they had left and it knew they were close.
Looking at the empty village, it felt no danger going in a so unfamiliar place. Since it had lost so much in the battle, it was determined to find Sheyken as if it did not, its injuries were going to cripple its growth. Knowing that what Sheyken had taken would make it evolve, it had no fear of leaving the forest for the first time.
It went over the wall and landed on the marketplace, destroying the stalls that were there. Walking slowly and on guard, it started to be afraid as it walked through the street that had Ningal and Vitula's shops. It was not the fact that Ningals shopfront was the only one bent but it was the pieces of flesh that were dried up with all of the blood missing from them. At that point, it thought that something more terrifying than anything it knew had been there.
It reached the body that Sheyken had left and smelled it. It did not know why only a single body was in the empty village but after its initial investigation, it knew it could not go any further than that. Even though Sheyken's smell was still strong and prominent, the world it had stepped in was unfamiliar to it and it did not know what dangers lay beyond where it was right now.
Frustrated, it let out a powerful roar that blew the roof off of some of the buildings and flattened others. It turned around to leave with frustration all over its face, but only to feel a presence around it. Not wanting to find out what it was, it started running back to the forest only to run into a trap.
What it did not know was that the Snatcher, after their fight and not managing to kill either one of them, after they ran away it had stayed to eat the three beasts that it had chopped up and feeling unsatisfied, it had tracked down the lion-like beast since it was the one most injured. It had gone into camouflage mode when it saw it entering the village and went into the street to lay a trap for it.
The lion-like beast was big but it could do nothing as the Snatcher wrapped its body around it as its scythes acted like saws, cutting through flesh and bones. The lion-like beast roared, but it made no difference as the Snatcher sank in its fangs in its flesh, eating it while still alive and its scythes still chopping it. The beast regretted ever meeting Sheyken as if he was never there, it told itself it would have fought the Vatadustria and won, then it would have eaten the lighting beast and would have evolved.
After finishing its meal, the Snatcher not wanting to waste a free meal, even as innutritious it looked to it, it still took a bite at the dead body that was there, leaving only his leg behind. Feeling its core pulsing, it then leisurely went back into the Trial Forest for a long nap.
When Sheyken had finally decided to stop for two days, since he could not trust the others to keep watch, he had slept for a day and a half since he would be asleep as he kept guard. When he woke up, it was night outside. He was so refreshed that he had a spring on his step. Falgur was outside meditating. He saw that the sand around him had been pushed aside, answering a question he had which was if he had managed to conjure a defensive field yet.
Lasore was getting what he dissevered as he still had a massive hangover and sweating like it was the middle of the day in hot sunny weather.
"Come on Sheyken, I let you sleep without disturbing you. Just give me one to stop this headache please."
Lasore bagged a boy way younger than him like he was his master. Sheyken did not yield. Their bickering disturbed Falgurs concentration and he stood up and went to where they were.
"Ok, ok, old man. I'll gives you. I just need you to answer some questions for me."
Lasore finally smiled when he heard those words, but he had to know something first.
"Before that, I have to ask you something first."
Sheyken nodded in approval.
"Why are you taking me with you? I mean look at me. I am no use to you while you two seem like you can make it anywhere you go."
Sheyken knew at some point he was going to ask him that.
"Well, to keep the answer simple, believe it or not, it is not only Falgurs' first time traveling but it is mine too. We need someone who knows the area, even though getting to Senjira is as simple as following the river, we still do not know anything about this region and we need a guide. Also, I think either than Vitula and Ningal, you were the only one who was at least trying to find a way out of that situation. I do not think they would be happy if we just left you to die."
Lasore smiled and did not know what to say. He was also sweating less than before.
"Plus, not to mention that we are two seven-year-olds. Traveling alone with no adult would be inviting trouble."
Lasore thought that made sense.
"Well, to tell you the truth, I am scared of both of you but I would be horned to be your guardian for however long you would like me to be."
Sheyken would understand him being afraid of him but did not know why he would be afraid of Falgur.
"Since we do not have a map, can you give us a basic overview of where the village and Senjira are?"
Lasore thought for a second then drew a circle. After that, he drew another circle. In the inner circle, he drew a line going inside it, stopping before he reached halfway to the center. He then looked at both of them then he explained himself.
"It is very simple really. Let us say that the inner circle is the Trial Forest. The line I have just drawn going inward is the river we are currently following, where the line stops is where the village is."
His explanation answered many of his questions but Falgur already knew that much.
"Where the line starts, that is Senjira, and the inner part of the outer circle is the land surrounding the Trial Forest with the outer part being the sea."
Sheyken was now smiling. Even a little bit of information like that made his brain rejoice. He now knew that the Trail Forest was somewhat in the middle of the kingdom he was in and it also explained why they would need teleportation stations in every major city.
"So that is why they called it the Snake's end. Since if you consider the river a snake, where the village is, that would be its tail's end."
Falgur jumped in as he wanted to be part of the conversation too. Sheyken and Lasore both nodded.
"Are there any beast or bandits we have to worry about?"
"It is rare for the beast around here to come out of the forest unless something happens to force them out. Bandits would only appear when you are about to reach Senjira. Some of the thieves live outside of the city. They are usually Initiates or Mage apprentices who failed to advance among them. If we are unlucky to meet them, we just have to pay to get through."
" Now I remember something I wanted to ask. I fought Agna, who was disguised as Flosbris. She was an Initiate but was way too weak. How strong are Initiates?
"You should take into account that she was old when she became one and that for sure she was trying her hardest to keep her disguise from breaking. She must have only trained that technique for years for her to be able to fight and not break it."
Sheyken was starting to think he underestimated Initiates.
"I am not someone to ask that question to as I am not one and I was never interested in the subject, but from what I have heard, It depends on how they had been made to awaken their powers. A witch can be either of two things, a White witch or a Black/Dark witch. I have little knowledge of how they are awakened so I do not want to give you the wrong information, but I can say that when they are awakening, their bodies change through training. Slowly adapting to the power they have. So, I can say an Initiate is as strong as his training, just like a person with a Blessing."
'That does not give me much to go on.'
Sheyken thought.
"Alright, I will keep that in mind."
He said as he filled his jar with wine.
"Falgur, your father was an Initiate, did you spar with him?"
"Many times and I always had my arse kicked. I never won even once. He always said he was going easy on me."
"I guess I really underestimated them."
"Well, you have to keep in mind that not everyone practices hand-to-hand combat. They are some if not many that practice long-range spells."
"That is true but still, what did your father use?"
"He never used his spells. You have to remember that he had years of practice since my mother thought him. His body was already conditioned by his awakening and training. I was always training my Blessing and we focused on it. We did not go into detail about Initiates as I wanted to be a Beast warrior and just training my Blessing was taxing enough."
Sheyken thought that they really needed to get a book or someone who can tell or teach them how the magic of this world functioned.
"So, it is safe to assume that if we had years training our Blessing, we should treat an Initiate who could not graduate like he is as powerful as the years he had been training since being initiated. I think for now it should be how we measure their strength."
Sheyken said.
"No, because it also depends if they had proper training or had the materials needed to keep on getting stronger or advancing... I think. Well, my father said that is why he would stay an Initiate because he did not have the materials to advance."
Sheyken was getting a headache again.
"Let us just get to Senjira and take it from there. We will just keep on speculating here. We should find a guild or a school to teach us."
Falgur agreed. Lasore was now just enjoying his wine and not up for talking. They decided to stay where they where the next day. Falgur and Sheyken went into the Trail Forest and started processing the livestock he had killed. When they were about to finish, the smell attracted a pack of Pinsch. They were 6 and Falgur quickly took care of them.
Sheyken was getting insecure as Falgur was making it look easy. He had allowed 3 of them to get away the first time he hunted but Falgur had killed all of them. He also had killed two Cossowas in one go when he only killed one after allowing an attack to hit him. He now wanted to spar with him to see if he was stronger than him but it had to wait until they were at a safer place. They quickly left the area and started their journey again.
And so, he drank. Through the hills and valley, the mountains and slopes he drank. He saw a beautiful tree that he insistent on that they should camp under. It had beautiful flowers that he told them only grew on that tree and it was only found there. After insisting that they took some and store them for when they were older to present them to a girl they liked, they took them, and then he drank until he passed out. As Sheyken was getting the hang of having to lift him while running, he got full of himself and told him to run faster so he could feel the wind in his face. After Sheyken let him fall and he hurt his buttocks, he drank.
Alone in the tent on a stormy night and thinking of his family that was killed, he drank. In the morning and seeing the two kids joke around while Sheyken made Falgur float up in the air and him acting like he was flying, he smiled and felt the need to protect them even though he was weak, and then he drank.
For two weeks and 5 days, he drank and after seeing another tree that he knew from his previous travels which had purple leaves and growing by the river, he finally told them that by the speed that they were running, they would be in Senjira in two days. He told them he will walk from there on as he did not want to expose Sheyken's Blessing if they met bandits. Sheyken agreed and they estimated to arrive in Senjira in 5 days if not more because of his fat arse. That meant that Sheyken would have time to recuperate.
The next morning, they got ready and were surprised to see him not drinking.
"We have gotten this far without anything happening to us. I do not want things to go south because I was drunk if we do get into trouble."
Lasore said. Sheyken appreciated his attitude and looked at Falgur who nodded his head and then they went on to the final stretch of their journey out of the snake's end.