Learning

As I laid on my back with my eyes closed I began to think of today and everything that's happened so far up to this point right now. It's been almost a full day since I've made it to this new world and in that short amount of time I've learned a little about the world, first and foremost how different it is here. In this world Magic and different species of people exist, speaking of those people I also made a new friend her name is Auriel. Auriel is an elven woman who believe it or not is hundreds of years old, but the funny thing is that even though she's older than me I feel like I've lived more. It's ironic but I guess that's just life for you.

After all that thinking I open my eyes and look up at the orange sky, signalling that the sun would be setting soon. We were walking in that forest for a while so I can see how it'd be pretty late.

"Hey Auriel, can you tell me about this world?" I ask her and she opens her eyes but stays laid down.

"Sure," She says as looks up.

"In this world lives a lot of different races, although the most prominent or rather most powerful are the Giants, Elves, Orcs, and Merfolk. Humans used to be apart of that group but as I said they were wiped out," She says as I continue to listen.

"Each of the big races have a different piece of land that they govern and have control over, these are the kingdoms. To the north you have the Elves who practice Magic and the arts, to the south you have the Orcs who focus on waging war with one another, to the east you have the Giants who do their own thing, and finally you have the Merfolk who govern the waters," She finishes.

It's as I thought, this world is full of amazing creatures that have never been seen by people from world and probably never will be. I look at Auriel to see she was peacefully looking up at the sky while she waved her foot back and forth in a non caring manner. Though something caught my attention, she said north, south, east, and even the waters but not the west.

"Hey Auriel, you mentioned all the directions except for the west, why is that?" I asked her.

After asking that, Auriel raised up and cautiously looked at me with serious eyes.

"The west belongs to the Malum, no race is dumb enough to go anywhere near there borders," Auriel said in a hard tone, conveying the seriousness of it.

This confused me, she hadn't mentioned the Malum before nor had she even hinted to their existence.

"Who are the Malum?" I ask Auriel as she looks away and sighs.

"The Malum are basically just monsters born from darkness, they cause chaos and destruction wherever they go with no care about anything, not even themselves," she says as she starts to clench her fists.

"The Malum live in the Vacuus Kingdom which resides in the west, nobody who's ever gone in has ever came back out, not even our best Elven Mages, Strongest Giants, or Toughest Orcs. So it was decided to just leave them alone for the time and hope they get sorted out," she finished.

I looked at Auriel and noticed a look on her face, it was one of pure hatred and anger. It was clear that she had a connection to these Malum individuals or monsters, one that wasn't pleasant at all.

"You seem like you have a grudge against them," I say and she looks away.

"Everyone does, they're monsters after all," she says.

"No, I mean you sound like you have a personal grudge against them like they did something to you. I know we just met a few hours ago but could you tell me?" I asked.

Auriel turns to me and I give her a slight smile, she sighed and stood up.

"Fine, but don't go spouting this off to just anybody," she said and I complied.

"It was about one hundred years ago, I was still a naive huntress who wanted to explore the world and see what life had to offer so I did what anybody else would do and joined a guild. The Guild was called "The Prideful Maiden", this would be the place that would both make and break my adventurer's spirit," She said while looking down.

I began listening more intently as Auriel gave her life's story or at least a short version of it up until this point, I wanted to know more about her so she was going to give me the full story details and all.

"Before I tell you my story, I'll explain what Guild's are. In this world Guilds are places where people like warriors, mages, craftsmen, merchants, etc. come together and form a club that has considerable power. The more power your guild is shown to have, the more missions it'll receive and this is how it's money is made," she explains.

"So kind of like a small militia?" I ask.

"Sort of," She says as he puts her hand on her chin.

"Anyway, onto my story. The first day I joined the guild I was treated greatly and in no time they became my family who I'd share drinks, laughs, and experiences. I was even apart of a small group called "The Tree Whisperers"," She said as she smiled. However the smile soon faded as she began to speak.

"One day we got a mission that was going to have us go directly into the heart of Malum territory, it was a suicide mission," she said.

"Then why go?" I ask.

She looks down.

"We were dumb kids, we were full of determination and will, thinking if we just stuck together than it'd be possible but we were wrong. We were so blinded by our confidence that we couldn't even see what happened next coming," she said as tears started to form in her eyes.

"What happened?" I asked.

She looked at me with solemn eyes.

"The Guild's extinction."