We were stood at the bottom of the waterfall, by the edge of the lagoon. Looking into the bright blue water, I found myself getting lost in the sound of the crashing torrent of water,, the mist sticking to my face, offering me a reprieve from the heat. There was only my reflection staring back at me, yet it felt as though I was looking at the face of a stranger, so much had changed, I had changed so much already. I was able to do things I would never of dreamed of back home, here I was free, free from the curse of being, well, of being me. No more office job, no more being pushed around and being told what to do, working stupid hours and getting nothing back in return other than a paycheque that didn’t even cover the hours I was putting here.
This place though, this place was different, I was different, people had faith in me, they had a belief in what I could do. Even Raven, who has the snark of a great white shark must have believed in me to get me to help her defeat the terror camp. She had taken herself over to the hammock where she swung from side to side, silently, I would love to know what she was thinking but until I had picked up sign language I wouldn’t have a way of figuring this out. Her arms trailed over the edge of the hammock as she stared up into the open sky above us, swinging gently, her arms lulling each time it changed direction.
She had been distant since we had got here and I could tell something was right, when we had a moment to ourselves I wanted to check in and make sure she was ok, she certainly didn’t seem herself. I also wanted to speak with Sy about why he was so hostile towards her when we first got here, after all she is just a kid, she didn’t deserve that kind of response, not from an adult.
Sy had asked us to wait down here, I had walked straight over to the lagoon to take a look at the waters, Raven over by the hammock, he hadn’t kept us waiting long and I watched as he awkwardly made his way down the rope ladders to the base where I stood. There was something about his strong frame that made me more nervous about the rope ladder giving way under neath him. Still he was a hundred more times agile than I had been when I made my way down, turns out I was a little uneasy from heights, something I had only just figured out when climbing down, who knew.
When Sy reached us he had a wide grin, I couldn’t help but notice that his oversized hoody was straining against his chest, this man was strong, he must have been training for a long time to get in the shape he was in. Mal and Magenta flew down, beside hime, settling down on the waters of the lagoon, they started bobbing their heads in the water, looking for grubs and bugs I assumed.
“There is no place like it is there?” He said, taking in a huge sniff of the air, he was right though. The air tasted cleaner here, it wasn’t musty or stale, it seemed free of the dangers of everywhere else in the forest and I was ok with that.
“How do you keep the monsters out?” I asked, “And people, you know dangerous ones like the terrors?”
“This place is protected with more magical wards and barriers than you could ever begin to imagine. Some were set up by Fidget for me when she was last here, some by artefacts that I have found and strategically placed around the oasis.” Sy pointed at an oval shaped boulder that sat just at the boundaries of the trees on the opposite side of the lagoon. “You wouldn’t want to know how long that took me to drag down here. With all of these, that is everything I need to keep the creatures around here away, they may struggle with something high level but as far as I am aware there his nothing like that around here, its been that way for years since I made this lagoon my home, when I decided I was done with the fight. As for anything other than creatures breaking into here, well I don’t think any one would be that stupid or brave. ”
“It really is a beautiful place?” I said, still mesmerised by this hidden sanctitude. “I could spend a lot of time here,”
“Good, coz you kind of are,” Sy said.
“Can I ask what made you come here? What took you away from the fight?”
“That is a story for a different time, we have a lot to be on with for now, there will be time for stories later. “Come on, there will plenty of time for that, for no I want you to head over here with me, there is something that I want to show you.”
Raven continued to swing around in the hammock, generally uninterested in anything else that was going on.
“Before we go,” I said, “What’s the deal with your hostility towards Raven. I don’t want her feeling unwelcome here, if it wasn’t for her I would definitely be dead. I need to know she is ok to be here with me, if not we can just leave.”
Sy was uncomfortable, and he leaned in closer to me, keeping his voice lowered. “Between you and me, her kind cannot be trusted, but if Fidget has said she is ok she must be different, it takes a lot to win Fidget over. As long as she doesn’t step out of line or do anything stupid like try to kill me in her sleep then we should be ok.”
I kind of felt like I still wasn’t getting the full picture but at least I had Sy’s word that he would lay of Raven, hopefully now she could open herself up a little, maybe even let her guard down. I just wanted her to feel safe, especially here, especially when she was with me.
“Ok then, where are you taking us?”
“Follow me,” he said, “You are going to love this.”
Leading the way Sy took us beyond where the stone relic he had pointed at earlier was, from a distance it had looked nothing more than a moss coloured boulder, the upturned earth tracked the path it had taken to be dragged here, leaving a large groove that went beyond the trees in front of us. The boulder itself was cracked with large indentations, like cracks that were meant to be there, wrapped around it, leaving hollowed black grooves trailing along its surface, shapes that I did not recognise were etched into it at various points, some big some small.
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“Those are runes,” Sy said, “That’s where the magic is stored, never had to use this one, I kind of hope I don’t ever have to, because if that thing has to activate well we are kind of screwed.
Well what ever it was I hoped I never had to see it after that warning. We continued a little further into the trees, Raven had decided to follow us in after I gave her a little nod. I was glad that she wasn’t completely isolating herself and felt better having also spoke to Sy, even if I wasn’t aware of the bigger picture and having told a white lie to get him to lower his guard. I didn’t regret what I had done and I hoped I wouldn’t regret it later, Raven hadn’t given me any reason to, as snarky as she was I could see she was good, albeit a little unconventional.
We tailed behind Sy until eventually he brought us to a new area where we had not explored.
“What is it?” I asked, as relaxing and calming that the oasis was, this was where all the real work took place. It was a training area, and a large one of that, crafted from the resources of the forrest.
“I call it, the jungle gym,” Sy waved his hands out like he was an estate agent, showcasing a home, he seemed oblivious to hw funny I found the name, in truth, I actually kind of liked it.
“Holy shit,” I said, “Did you make this?”
Sy stood just inferno of me like a proud father, arms folded across his chest. “Well don’t just stand there come on in.”
To the left of us were a series of monkey bars of different sizes, the kind that gymnastics use, where they can do a crazy amount of spins and twists. They were made from wood and bound together using thick vines. In the middle sat a open area, a circular stone barrier had been made to create a perimeter, in the centre of the pit sat a manikin, a large torn t-shirt with the band name Boutique’s was printed on the front, I could tell it was a band by the silhouette of four people stood beside the name. It was packed full of leaves that had been rammed inside to pad it out, some where green some were brown and others yellow. What looked like a coconut was wedged onto of a stick that protruded out of the body, with a footprint painted on the front of it, like it was the actual print of a foot, like someone had been playing around with paint. On the right hand side were a series of wights that had been fashioned from stone and thick pieces of wood, carved from the trees. The stones on the ends were of different sized, gradually increasing in size until they were just small boulders, most akin to an atlas stone.
“How long did this take you?” I asked, stepping into the jungle gym to take a closer look around.
“I’ve had a lot of time on my hands, this place has stopped me from losing my sanity at times, but in isolation there is peace. With the jungle gym we will have you ship shape in no time, it isn’t going to be easy and there is a lot to learn but I have no doubt you are up to the task.”
“So will training with you here help me level up?”
Sy burst into laughter and my cheeks burned with an embarrassment, what had I said that was so wrong.
“God no, if it was that easy we would all be indestructible. Could you imagine that. Think of it this way, levelling up, lets you increase your statistics and grants you new abilities, things like that. You might feel and be stronger and harder to kill but that doesn’t mean that you know how to fight, how to use those skills, how to tap into those abilities that you unlock.”
“That makes sense,” I said, which was odd given what we were talking about, there was absolutely no sense to this.
“So while you are here at my oasis I will train you how to hone your skills, you will learn how to fight and I will show you how to tap into that berserk ability that you have so you dont necessarily have to be all angry to start smashing things up.”
“That would be really helpful, thank you.” I looked down at Raven who had instantly run towards the monkey bars, she started swinging around like she was a kid that had been set free at a play park. As I watched her swinging around, leaping from one monkey bar to another it seemed like for once, she was just that, a kid. “What about Raven?” I asked as Sy started moving his makeshift weights around, putting them in order as if they were out of place.
“She’s good,” he said, picking up the largest weight, the one that looked like an atlas stone as if it wasn’t too difficult. “Like I said, if Fidget is ok, then I am ok, as long as you need to use the jungle gym, she can.”
I watched on a few moments as Raven continued to hop from the bars, she was adding a little bit of flare to her moves now which was impressive.
Sy finished up with weights then came and stood in front of me, “What do you think then?”
“It’s amazing,” I said, not really knowing what else to say, the jungle gym was like his house in the oasis, he had crafted it, he had put all his effort and skill into building these things but they were still part of the forest, they were still connected to the trees, roots gripped the outer edges, vines and branches and leaves, intertwining with the make shift gym as if they were one and the same.
“There’s more?” Sy said.
“More than this?” I was not a gym bunny by any stretch, in fact I had never trained in the gym in my life, apart from this one time when my friend Phil gave me free pass to try and get me to sign up. I had hated every second of it, looking at what surrounded me now though, all that did was made me want to dive in.
“No this is everything, the oasis and the jungle gym, this is all my space, ward surround it to keep us safe, well as I said earlier, from most things. No what I need you to do now is accept me as part of you party from your menu. This will allow me to open communications with you when I am not with you.”
“You mean like Fidget does?”
“Exactly, it will also mean you will be able to read all my data too, my stats, level, all those things. More importantly I will be able to see everything to do with you. It will make it easier for me to guide you with your choices if I can keep a close tab on you. Of course you can sever this connection whenever you want, if you were to find a new trainer for example.”
“I can’t see that happening,” I laughed, he seemed like he would be a great trainer, I felt lucky to have him in my corner.
“You say that now, but you haven’t completed a training session with me yet. Now open you menu, you will have a request from me.”
Surely enough I opened up my menu and there was a request to accept Symon to my party. It was easy enough to accept and straight away it came up with his information.
*Symon
*Level 57
*Class - Monk
*Subclass - Guiding Hand*
“Level fifty seven! That is insane. You must be the safest guy in the forest.”
Sy looked all coy, “and you are a monk, that’s pretty badass.”
“If you want to call it that?”
“Well it sounds badass, I don’t actually know what it means though, what kind of stuff can you do?”
“My class is more balanced, a blend of being able to fight and cast spells, with more of a focus on support than anything. My subclass, I made that my own, as far as I know I am the only one in this world with this type?”
“Why is that?”
“Because I refuse to fight, I won’t ever take a life, doesn’t matter who they are, I just don’t have it in me anymore.” Sy’s tone changed, his eyes becoming slightly vacant like he was becoming lost in his thoughts. I thought better than to press any further.
“My role now is to support and help others, though I might be a little rusty given that it has been a while. Now let’s get to it, its time to put you through your paces.”