The Road

It had been a week since Aster left Initium and he was now in a clearing to the side of the road resting. It was evening and Aster was preparing his dinner.

"I am dead..." he said as he laid flat on the grass waiting for his dinner to finish cooking.

" I don't remember the last time I was this tired on so many consecutive days. This Sword felt more like a personal trainer than a weapon this past few days. "

The past days while Aster was making his way to the next town he kept an energy flow on his body and sword, as well as furthermore improving the quality of said flow according to how the sword was "guiding him". This resulted on him maintaining the flow while he walked until he reached his energy limit which in the beginning was about an hour, and then recovering his energy and restarting the process over again.

"I'm almost certain that I at least doubled my energy reserves this past week. I guess that shows just how terrible said reserves were. Even so I can barely hold it for more than 1 hour and half without taking an hour break since the speed I'm burning trough my energy also increased."

Aster summoned his Sword and pointed it upwards towards the dark sky. At this point he had mostly gotten used to the felling and It would only bother him if he focused on it. Like when you become aware that you are breathing and are unable to then breath unconsciously.

He looked at it's white blade that perfectly reflected the light from the campfire.

"Why would he give me this...?" Aster asked himself before eating the fox he had caught earlier that day and falling asleep on the grass.

...

...

...

A couple hours before dawn Aster had already packed his stuff and was now checking the map with the help of his lantern.

"I guess I should be able to arrive today at dusk if I don' t encounter any problems."

He then started to flow energy once again and began to walk.

The landscape on the Wind Continent consisted mostly of flat land and forests. Because of that with the exceptions of the port cities and the capital most villages focused on agriculture and hunting. The soil was also extremely fertile especially the closer to the capital you got.

...

...

"This is so boring... and this from a guy who spends most of his time isolated on ruins!"

It was late in the afternoon. Aster had reached his limit a few minutes ago and was now recovering while looking around. The day had been uneventful.

"I like my peace and quiet but seriously, after the third day I left Esta I can count with both hands the number of people I saw. And today I didn't see anyone. Wasn't I suppose to be arriving at a village. Thank the Elements I have my training to keep my mind busy but what am I suppose to do in between? Why didn't I remember to but a book, crossed words, riddles, I would even read "Elementalists for dummies 101". I really wished I had some funny guy to talk to right about now."

Shortly after his babbling he noticed a wagon further ahead and with a newly found will to live he quickened his pace to meet civilization. However...

"Please No!!!" Screamed a man who by the voice should be around his 30's. The scream was easily heard and immediately sent a chill down Aster's spine.

The wagon was about 100 meters (328 feet) away and the road was surrounded by trees. Aster drooped his backpack to the side of the road and sprinted to the Wagon as fast as he could.

10 seconds later he arrived and was meet with a group of 3 man and a girl.

The 30 year old man was near the wagon, he had a average build slightly on the skinny side and plain pants and a white shirt. He had a pleading expression on his face.

The other two man were probably around their 25 years of age and were wearing hunter attires. One of them was holding a knife pointing at the pleading man while the other one had one of his hands on top of the head of a 8 year old girl who had tears streaming down her face. The man's other hand was holding a knife placed on her neck.

The girl was wearing a simple bluish dress and like the pleading man had a slightly skinny physic.

All heads present turned towards Aster who had just arrived at the scene.

...

"Who he hell are you?!" Shouted the thief that was pointing the knife at the merchant.

Aster had analyzed the situation and quickly realized the landmine he had just run into.

The thief with the girl started to further push the knife into the girls neck while the other was now pointing the knife at Aster. Both of them started to release their energy.

Aster immediately reacted as he was now plaiting both his feet at the ground while looking at the thieves.

The mood was grim and it felt like time was slowing down.

In a swift movement he raised this arms.

"P-p-please don't hurt me... I'm just a traveler." Said Aster as soon as he raised his arms.

The thieves stayed nervous for a few seconds while taking a look at Aster and processing what he said as well as his reaction before decreasing the energy released, as well as relaxing their muscles and stopping pushing the dagger towards the girl's neck.

"I jus...*shiver* I just heard screaming and thought someone was hurt I don't want any trouble" Aster said in a pleading tone."

The thieves whispered something to themselves for a couple seconds before speaking to Aster.

"You make sure not to do anything funny. We will deal with you in a minute."

Of course Aster wasn't scared for his life or anything, but he had his reasons not to take the Rambo approach to solve this particular situation.

'Well the situation is pretty obvious. From what I can tell they ambushed the wagon and took the man's daughter as hostage. Also thanks to their energy release I can tell that the one holding the girl is a Wind Elementalist and the other is a "regular" thief. I almost summoned my sword, good thing I didn't.'

'I could probably take them both out. Even the one holding the girl without that much of an issue. But I sure as hell am not gonna play The Hero with someone else's life on the line. '

'Also, they are strong enough to easily kill the father anyway. If they were planing on killing him they wouldn't need a hostage to begin with, they would have just killed him in the ambush and then either killed or take the girl with them.'

'They clearly just want their stuff. Best course of action here is to do nothing.'

"We told you already pal. Credits or anything valuable." Said the thief.

"Please, I told you already that was all the credits I had. All I have left is just farming tools I was planing to sell on the village. You can take anything just let my daughter go." Said the merchant as tears started to form on his eyes.

It was clear the man wasn't lying. Aster even turned his head towards the wagon and he as well saw nothing but farming tools and equipment. In total everything was probably worth around 500 credits but again it's not like the thieves cared about such things. And even if they did, couldn't realistically carry them back.

The thieves once again whispered among themselves it was clear by their faces that they didn't like the situation and wanted to get out of there. Of course, they also didn't want to leave empty-handed and were thinking if the man was lying or trying to fool them.

Thankfully the tense situation was broken by Aster.

"I-I have something valuable." Aster said keeping the afraid persona.

He then slowly reached towards his pocket and pulled out a white crystal out of it.

The thieves eyes started to glow with greed as they quickly recognized what the traveler had just showed them.

"I-If you le-let us go I will give you this..." Said Aster pretending to act tough and scared."

The regular thief was about to say something but was cut by the Elementalist.

"The Crystal first." He said in a cold tone.

Aster tossed the crystal towards the regular thief who caught it with his free hand. After taking a look at it and giving a quick nod towards the Elementalist he let the girl go and both of them made their way into the woods.

Aster let out a sigh and a soft smile as the girl made her way towards her father's arms and both of them hugged each other while crying.