Seth stood on the road and looked left and right. He wasn’t willing to call out as he had no idea who’d won the attack on the caravan. He also didn’t know if the caravan would have kept going or made camp somewhere.
He’d used a spell after his fall into the ravine to find the wagon. He wondered if he could repeat that spell here.
He closed his eyes and tried to remember his thought process at the time. He’d needed the wagon, and the wind led him to it. He gathered his power and thought of Saben. Lead me to him, he thought to his power. His power felt off and less cooperative, like he couldn’t hear it properly and it wasn’t listening.
He paid attention to what the wind did, and tried to interpret where it was telling him to go. It started moving in one direction, but it didn’t stay focused. It swirled and shifted to over the ravine, then straight down at the wagon, then over the hills. Seth knew Saben wasn’t in most of those directions. He tried to clear his thinking and focus only on Saben. It didn’t take long before he realized wouldn’t get the spell to work properly. He was trying to over manage it, and his thoughts and opinions were muddying the answer. He’d need to practice it some more. Anyway, the very first feeling he got was that left was the way to go, and he figured that way was as good as any.
“We’re going to find my brother,” he told the cat. “I think he’s this way.”
She meowed cutely and yawned. He scratched her horn nubs and set off. He stayed along the cliff side away from the ravine edge to better conceal himself among the trees in case he encountered the people who’d attacked the caravan. The cub followed, and was better at being concealed than he was.
It was further down the road than he expected that he spotted a caravan camp. Seth didn’t call out until he recognized the person standing guard.
“Seth!” His brother cried when he saw him. Saben was a few years older with lighter hair and eyes than Seth. He snatched Seth up and pounded his back in a fierce hug. “I thought you’d been killed.” Saben let go for a second and then hugged him again. “We found the horses and sent people down to look for you or the wagon. Nobody found anything yesterday or today.”
“Of course not. The wagon broke and fell off the cliff quite a ways back there.” Seth pushed Saben back and looked him over. His shirt was bloody and his arm bandaged. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, this is just a little nick,” Saben raised his arm, “and none of this is mine,” he said, gesturing to his chest. “But you’re bloody all over! Shit, I didn’t hurt you, did I? Where are you hurt?”
“I’m fine, just sore. I used the healing potion on the wagon.”
“No lasting damage then?” Saben looked Seth up and down more thoroughly, turning and poking at him until satisfied that his brother was whole and intact. And then gave him another brief hug.
“What happened, Saben? Who were those people and why did they attack us?”
“Who they were, I don’t know. If Franco or Izzy know, they aren’t saying. As for what they were after, it was something specific I think, but no one is talking. You took the healing potion? So the wagon went over the side ? They didn’t take it or dump it?”
Seth nodded. “Everything on it was smashed to bits. And there is an entrance to Below there, and there were giant spiders and a more giant cat, and–” Seth realized he was rambling, and his hands were trembling.
“Hang on, little brother,” Saben said. “Deep breath, take your time.” He glanced over his shoulder at the caravan camp. “Come over here and sit for a minute and get calm. We’re as safe as it gets here right now. Once you’re feeling more normal, you can tell me from the beginning.”
Seth obediently sat next to a tree and took deep breaths. He then outlined the events as best as he could remember.
Saben poked curiously the makeshift pack Seth had been wearing and then noticed the cub sitting a few feet away. She’d moved out of the bushes that had hidden her.
“Right, this one is the only kitten left. The other ones were killed by the spiders. She really helped me out and is crazy smart.” Seth pulled his pack over. “I need to show you this.”
Saben glanced back at the camp again and gestured to Seth to move further into the brush. Once they were out of sight, Seth pulled one of the big cat’s prong horns from his pack, and one of its saber-like fangs.
“This is from the mom of this cub?” Saben asked, shocked. “That was the cat fighting spiders?”
“Yeah. She was really big, like bigger than a horse, big. And she was fighting a horde of spiders when I found them. All right outside a Below entrance, like I said.”
Saben rocked back on his heels a moment. “You have the most amazing luck,” he finally said. “Don’t let anyone see the horns or fangs. Actually, here, give them to me, we’ll stash them until later. Don’t tell anyone anything about these, or that the big cat had horns at all. We shouldn’t let anyone see the cub either. There are people in the caravan that will take her. If she’s willing, we could try to do a bonding when we get to town.”
Seth brightened. “That’s something we can do with her? Make her a familiar?”
Saben nodded. “There is a place I know that can do it for cheap. We’ll have to sell the hides to do it. Don’t tell Benjamin about it until after, though. I don’t want him to take her from you either.”
“He wouldn’t do that, Saben.”
“Just, a bit of caution, okay Seth? We should leave her here for a while, at least until you’ve talked to the others.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“She may wander off,” Seth said. “She might be too young to understand us.”
Saben looked at the cat. “You won’t wander off, will you?” he asked. “We will feed and take care of you if you wait for us.”
The cat walked under a bush so neither boy could see her and curled up for a nap.
“I thought so,” Saben said. “We’ll find her before the wagons leave. Let’s go,” he said to Seth and led him back to camp.
Seth repeated the brief rundown of events, with some edits, for the other caravan people. He did his best to keep it simple but true. He fell, there were dead spiders everywhere who had fought and killed a large beast. There was a Below entrance. He took the potion, and climbed up. He avoided details as much as possible and didn’t elaborate.
Izzy and Franco, the two most senior guards and skilled mercenaries, were currently with the team searching the ravine below camp and had been signaled to return. The other adults started breaking down the temporary camp.
After backtracking to where the wagon actually was it was late afternoon. Izzy and Franco went down while the others set up camp for the night. Seth realized that they were never actually looking for him in the ravine when they came back up with the busted up metal crate and the broken egg shards.
Apparently a pack of fire hounds had eaten the big cat and roasted the spider corpses. Izzy was particularly disappointed she couldn’t harvest any venom from them.
The following morning Seth rode in a wagon on the way to the city. He sat at the tail end, next to him was the sleeping cub hidden in a cloth bundle. Saben kept pace beside him, his long stride keeping up without needing to jog.
“I was afraid I’d miss the school Gauntlet,” Seth told Saben.
“Nah, we still got a couple days. We’ll be at the city by this afternoon.”
“Tell me again about the Celestial Tower, Saben,” Seth asked.
“Wind, Seth. You have a wind power. You should focus on the storm set, Wind, Lightning, and Thunder.”
“But the Celestial Tower would cover the sources of mana though, right? And how mana wells work, or mana vaults?” Seth stretched his sore legs. They weren’t bruised anymore, but had stiffened up. He wanted to kick them to work out some of the soreness, but was afraid Saben would mock him for looking like a little kid.
“Stop it, Seth,” Saben said, firmly. “I’m done talking about this. There is nothing you can do about it. I’ve talked to every teacher and every researcher at the Academy, and none of them could help. Focus on the things that will help you master your own talent, and don’t worry about mine. Besides,” he added teasingly, “you need all the help you can get.”
“Uggh.” Seth groaned, and flopped back dramatically. “I practice. I do. It just doesn’t listen to me like it did to you.”
“You’re the one that needs to listen to it, not the other way around.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. It’s my power. It belongs to me, I don’t belong to it.”
“And that’s why you suck at magic,” Saben said and sighed. “It’s not about ownership.”
“But it is though, I was thinking–” Seth cut off. He was about to say that’s why your power is gone, you didn’t own it. Saben loved magic. He had always wanted to fly, and Saben’s wind would have been strong enough to let him. It was what Saben was most excited about when leaving for the Magic Academy, and it had crushed him when his power vanished a couple months ago. But Saben wasn’t the type to stay down and made sword training his primary focus like it had been before his talent manifested. But Seth knew how much losing his power had hurt Saben.
“Yeah? Thinking what?”
“Um, do you think you could do classes using a mana vault?” Seth knew this was a touchy subject.
Saben rubbed a hand over his face. “I told you I was done talking about this. No, a mana vault won’t work for me. For one, we don’t have one. For two, I have no way of filling one. For three, I’m applying to the Combat Academy. I’m not going back to the Magic Academy.”
“But if we–”
“Shut it, Seth. Not another word. Why do you always need to push and push and push on everything?”
Seth stared at the ground rolling by behind the wagon.
“Sorry,” Saben finally said. “I know you mean well, but it’s not doing anything good.”
“I’m sorry too. I know how much you loved magic. I just want you to have it again.”
“I want that too, but it’s not going to happen. I need to accept that, and so do you. So just promise me, no more pushing. It’s not helping anyone.”
“Yes. No more pushing.”
Saben checked his sword belt and sheath. The leather was old and Saben had repaired it himself. Seth realized Saben’s buckler was missing. It’d probably been destroyed in the attack.
“We should ask Benjamin for new equipment for you,” Seth suggested.
“Didn’t you just say you weren’t going to push anymore?”
“This isn’t pushing! You need equipment. Of course we should ask for it.”
Saben shook his head. “Benjamin doesn’t owe us anything.”
“He’d help anyway.”
Saben hummed skeptically. Seth had no doubt that Benjamin wanted what was best for the two boys. He'd been a friend of their father and had prevented them from ending up on the streets after their father was killed. If they asked, Benjamin would help them.
“I don’t think you’re being fair to him Saben,” Seth said. “He’s done a lot for us when he didn’t need to. He didn’t have to give us a place to stay. Or let us hitch along on this caravan.”
“A free guard and unpaid hands for loading and unloading isn’t as generous as you think, Seth. It’s what he was already doing.”
“He still didn’t need to. He’s been good to us.”
“I’m going to see if Franco is willing to give me some pointers when we rest the horses.” Saben increased his pace.
It was afternoon when they approached Rosia, and the wagons rattled as the road transitioned from packed dirt to carved stone. Seth hadn’t been back to the city in a year and missed it. Known as the Blue Rose of the Mountains, the city was nestled in an upland valley and circled a small lake. The bluish gray walls separating older and newer sections of the city formed the expanding petals of the rose. The city was gated on this side and they entered through a tall arch carved with roses and vines. A wide thoroughfare led deeper into the city but the wagons made a quick turn and arrived at a warehouse a couple streets away.
As everyone else jumped off the wagons and prepared to unload them, Seth gathered the sleeping cub from her hiding place and stuffed her in his knapsack. He had moved all the possessions he could to his brother’s to make room for her. Fortunately the cat didn’t object and was content to sleep there while the boys helped unload the wagons. Seth, still sore from the fall and subsequent climb, wished he could nap too.
When they were done Saben looked Seth up and down. “You need clothes and shoes. We’ll take care of that and your cat right now.”
“We should go talk to Benjamin first,” Seth argued.
“He’s going to have enough on his mind, Seth, without worrying about us. What with the attack and all, I bet he’s talking with the authorities or something right now. You can’t be walking around barefoot, so let’s do that first. I’ve already told Franco.”