Zalia floated in the sky above the snowy northern lands that bordered Endaria. She had chosen a spot that was about halfway between the mountain city of Those Born of Heat and Stone and the mountain peak that held Rozestrazix’s nest. For Zalia, that meant a half day journey to reach either location.
It had taken Zalia significantly less time to fly over this time than in the past, mostly due to her higher ranked Mobility passive.
Tin - Your speed is increased. Your stamina is less affected by movement.
Iron - You may step on air one time before stepping on a solid surface once more.
Bronze - You are able to step on air three times before resetting this ability. Additionally, you may perform a short range teleport with a long cooldown. Finally, when travelling long distances, you are able to maintain a fast pace while maintaining your stamina indefinitely.
Silver - You can set a point in space over the course of an hour. You may teleport to this point from anywhere with a seven day cooldown.
Gold - You may now set three points in space instead of just one. These points each have their own seven day cooldown. Additionally, the speed at which you can travel over long distances while maintaining your stamina indefinitely is significantly increased.
As such it hadn’t taken long at all for her to reach somewhere she liked. The spot she had chosen was a deep gorge between mountain peaks that was sheltered from the weather. A creek, currently frozen over, ran down the middle of the space, surrounded by the smaller hardy plants and trees that could survive in such a cold place that didn’t receive much sunlight.
Boreal was hanging in the air next to her, held aloft by the wings created by Zalia’s ritual.
“What do you think?” she called over the wind running off the nearby mountains.
“Nice.”
Zalia smiled at Boreal’s simple answer. Boreal and her children would live here, far away from Nature’s Reclaim yet only a single step away. It was the natural habitat of Boreal, though a few of her children were more like their father in that they were plains cats, more sleek with thinner fur, adapted to be faster and more agile but not quite as hardy. Not that the cold mattered once you gained a few levels in Cold Resistance of which Zalia’s had reached Gold with Survivalist, amongst others.
Cold resistance - passive
Tin - You take reduced damage from low temperatures and cold related magics.
Iron - You may manipulate ice and snow to a minor degree.
Bronze - You are able to channel cold from the environment to minorly heal yourself or allies
Silver - Your ability to manipulate ice and snow is increased. Additionally, you may alter your form to take on a frozen visage.
Gold - You may enter a form of stasis using your control over ice. Your perspective of time in stasis is sped up significantly, years passing quickly.
Zalia had no purpose for the Gold rank effect of Cold Resistance, though some of the other effects also scaled with rank.
They dropped from the sky so that Zalia could take a closer look at the space. It was somewhat steep, though that was perfectly fine. She didn’t really want any of the people of Endaria to move to this Grove from Nature’s Reclaim, though she wouldn’t stop them from doing so. The Grove itself would be safe enough but leaving it would bring untold dangers for most of the people of Endaria. Zalia herself had almost died more than a few times back when she had been Tin and Iron rank and that had been much, much closer to the border of Endaria then she was now.
Zalia began the ritual for establishing a Grove. She allowed her mind to drop into a meditative state and began to walk around the border of where she wanted the Grove to be. The deep snow felt like air as she passed through, the near Gold strength of her body more than capable of pushing it aside. She closed her eyes and dulled her senses, allowing nature to guide her on the path, walking slowly and deliberately.
Her path took her up one side of the gorge and then back down to cross the little creek, only to go up the other side. Once she had come full circle back to the creek once more, Zalia began a winding path through the new area for her Grove towards the centre. Each step elicited a response from the nature around her, plants growing stronger and healthier, trees deepening their roots and stretching further up towards the sky. The frozen over creek began to gurgle as the ice and snow of the Grove melted away.
Grass in beautiful hues of green, white and blue grew from the dirt now laid bare while the roots of the trees spread out above ground to form paths and three, intertwined bridges over the creek. Patches of the ground shifted and stone rose up forming small, comfortable houses dotting the whole space. The trees once stunted now grew tall, forming a canopy that spread overhead with far reaching boughs and thin, dark leaves.
A light mist of snowflakes began to fall all throughout the space, coating everything in a thin layer of snow that still allowed the beautiful dark browns and greens of the trees and the light white, green and blue hues of the grass to show. With the light fall of snow came lights like an aurora, the twinkling snow glittering like stars amidst its beauty.
Zalia finally arrived in the centre of the Grove and from that point grew another tree. This one was unlike the pine and fir trees of the north, but more like the massive ancient of life that existed in Nature’s Reclaim. It rose up until it reached the canopy above, then spread its branches over the entire Grove, its wider and lighter coloured leaves filling in the space between those of the others, finally bringing the light mist of snowflakes to a stop.
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With the creation of the Grove complete, Zalia opened her eyes and admired it with all of her senses back at their fullest. The vision of heat given to her by Boreal allowed her to see that the Grove was significantly warmer than the surroundings, though still cold. Her comforting aura was spread throughout the space twice fold, once from herself and once from the Grove.
The central tree would be the new extension of the ancient of life in this Grove, while two animals from the surrounding lands would eventually become the extensions of the ancient’s of wisdom and war.
Creating a Grove had always been a deep and meaningful experience to Zalia but this one had been the most so far. The north had been the first place she had arrived in this world and she had, to a degree, made it her own. Now though, a part of it was truly hers, just as she truly belonged to it.
Boreal was making her way through the Grove inspecting everything with her own senses, looking quite pleased.
“Nice.”
Zalia laughed, joy twinkling in her eyes.
“Thanks, I thought so too. Shall we get the others?”
Boreal came over to the ancient of life and together they walked through one of the three portals there. The other two led to the Grove in the desert and Zalia’s vault respectively, whilst the one they stepped through led to Nature’s Reclaim.
Like stepping from one room to the other, the entire atmosphere around them changed to the warmer and more humid climate. Ember, Aylie and Boreal’s five children were waiting.
Without a word from Zalia, the five cats rushed past and into the portal, their excitement and curiosity to explore the new Grove too strong to resist. Zalia stepped out of the way to not get trampled, before turning to Ember.
“Well, want to come for a walk with me?”
Ember smiled brilliantly.
“Of course!”
They stepped through together and Zalia took Ember’s arm. She showed her through the new Grove and together they inspected the inside of the houses and the borders.
“So, what do you think?”
Ember looked around again, taking in the space in its entirety.
“It’s breathtaking. I almost want to move here.”
Zalia laughed, though Ember didn’t look like she was entirely joking.
Ember gave her a light kiss.
“You’re the best girlfriend.”
Zalia smiled, happier than she might have ever been.
“I know.”
It was Ember’s turn to laugh and together they walked back towards the ancient of life.
“You know, you can come here anytime you want now.”
Ember nodded.
“I know.”
They met back up with Aylie, who had gone off to explore on her own. None of the cats had returned and Zalia could sense them frolicking around the Grove, spotting them sprinting past every now and then. She even saw Breeze jumping through the canopy above a few times.
“From here I can go see what it is that threatens Endaria. Perhaps Boreal and I can go see Rozestrazix and ask if they will show us the danger. They’ll need to tell Boreal one day anyway, if she is to take up their position.”
Ember nodded reluctantly.
“Alright. Let’s get a sense of what's out there. I would feel a lot better if the Mythic rank dragon was with you, I must admit.”
Zalia shrugged her indifference.
“There isn’t a lot that can pin me down anymore. Not only can I resist actual death, but the vault can let me escape from almost any situation.”
“It’s the ‘almost’ that gets to me, Zalia,” Ember pointed out.
Zalia did understand, and agreed, to a point. She didn’t love it when Boreal, Aylie and Ember were in danger either, and knew that they felt the same way every time she went off to do something stupidly dangerous. Reaching Gold rank though, that would waylay many of those problems.
The ability she was most excited for to reach Gold rank was Healing Presence. It was on the edge at Silver nineteen and was the ability that gave Zalia her once a day anti-death measure. In her opinion, it was the ability most likely to give her a way of evading death completely. Not that there was any surefire way. Even Ascendant beings could be so thoroughly torn apart and scattered to the wind that it would take centuries for them to reform. That was assuming that whatever did that to them didn’t keep a hold of the pieces of your power like the nature gods of Endaria had done to the Monarch.
Then there were always the beings greater than Ascendants. Zalia had met one once, a small fluffy round creature that the starlight wolf had called Balance. That thing had taken everything from the starlight wolf without needing to exert itself in any way. Who knew what something like that could do to you.
Shaking aside thoughts of greater beings, Zalia re-focussed on what was in front of her. Whatever danger was out there beyond the lands she was in now wouldn’t provide as much of a threat as something like the Monarch, at least not individually, otherwise Rozestrazix wouldn’t be able to hold it at bay by themself.
“Do you want to come see what’s out there with us?” Zalia asked.
Ember looked thoughtful, but shook her head.
“No, I’d only slow you down. You’ll be able to get out there and back within a pretty short time, maybe even within the day.”
Recognising the truth in the words, Zalia called out to Boreal through their bond.
“Alright, we’ll be quick then. Anything you want me to pick up while I’m gone? Maybe some heirloom I find laying around or another friend that happens to be a god?”
With mirth in her eyes, Ember pretended to look thoughtful.
“Actually, I’d love a baby dragon to ride around if you can find one.”
Zalia laughed, wiping a tear from her eye.
“I’ll do my best.”
Boreal found her still laughing and padded up, sitting calmly next to her.
“Are we going?”
Zalia nodded.
“Oh yeah, we sure are!”
Wings formed on Boreal’s back as Zalia cast the now second nature ritual to create them.
“Oh and Boreal, Ember says she wants a baby dragon.”
Boreal looked at her as they lifted up into the sky and away from the Grove.
“A what!?”