Castiel closed his eyes, put his hand on his chest, and focused on the sphere. He started to feel its magic, and suddenly, he was inside the Eco-Sphere. He opened his eyes and found himself standing inside a jungle. What he saw was breathtaking, and the aroma of the vegetation of the whole jungle mixed all together and formed a smell that engulfed the surrounding air, creating a heavenly humid atmosphere. Castiel took a deep breath, not wanting to exhale and wishing it could be an oxygen replacement. As he basked in this atmosphere, his eyes fell upon a tree a couple of miles away, taller than the Burj Khalifa itself. Castiel remembered why he was here. He started walking towards the tree, and after 50 minutes, he reached its outskirts.
Suddenly, he saw two human-looking children with bent horns over their heads and wings behind their backs wearing woolen tunics flying towards him. Castiel almost unsheathed his sword, but seeing they were children, he stopped. When the flying children saw Castiel, he waved at them with a smiling but surprised face. The kids started screaming and went back flying; towards the tree. Castiel felt a bit embarrassed that the two children just ran away or flew away in this case, probably thinking that he was a monster or something. Castiel spread his arms in an expression of WTF!
Sigh! Seriously? …..And I guess trees, herbs, and animals are not the only things here!
He sighed and started walking again. Castiel remembered that his history teacher told him about a species that were descendants of dragons and that they went extinct a couple of centuries ago and with them the craft of rune-smithing. After walking a bit more while reflecting on what his history teacher taught him, he reached the outskirts of a big village, and suddenly an arrow landed near his feet. Hundreds of winged demihumans came out with spears and bows with nocked arrows pointed toward him. Seeing the imminent danger, Castiel immediately stopped walking and put his hands up.
“Stay where you are, human! Or you will die a painful death.” One of the winged ones ordered while slowly walking toward Castiel with a sword in his hand.
“I come in peace, good sir,” Castiel said with a fake smile and fear in his eyes. Stay cool dude! Stay cool! Nothing to fear, just a bunch of demihumans POINTING THEIR WEAPONS AT ME! Nothing to fear.
The man with the sword ordered others to bind Castiel with a rope, and then they took him inside the village. While entering the village, Castiel noticed that all of their weapons had runed markings on them, even the arrowheads. They took Castiel to an open area with chairs and benches around him, which looked like where the village’s council takes place. Winged ones of all sizes and shapes were gathering around him, eyeing him with curiosity. Castiel started to feel like a zoo animal. An old one came forward and sat before him.
“My name is Orisan Tor’El. I am the Chief of the village council. Who are you, young man? And how did you enter this place?” asked the old one.
“I am Prince Castiel of Xander. A wood elf named Elwen made me this sphere’s master and gave me this ring before he….. left the world.” Castiel answered uncomfortably.
A sudden murmur rose in the crowd, and everyone around him became sad. The old one sighed and ordered his son, the man with the sword who was the Captain of the village watch, to cut him loose.
“So he truly is dead! And he also gave you our Queen’s ring. When Lord Elwen didn't come to see us for the last four centuries, we knew something might have happened to him, but knowing for sure does make it a bit easy on the heart. Can you please tell us what happened, Your Highness?” Orisan asked with a sad voice.
“His companions betrayed him and left him to die in a forest. After that, he had become a lich searching for vengeance until I came upon him in search of a magical tree. We fought, and I….. killed him.” Castiel said with a sad expression.
The Chief looked at Castiel for a moment, then stood up and bowed, “Thank You! For ending Lord Elwen’s suffering, Your Highness. Everyone, we have a new Guardian!”
Everyone around him started to bow one after the other and started praying.
“Goddess bless the Guardian!”
“Goddess protect the Guardian!”
Castiel asked with a confused voice, “Guardian! What….. What do you mean by Guardian? And who are you people?! Why are you living inside the Eco-Sphere?”
“I will tell you everything, but first: let us get inside. Please come, Your Highness, let us talk inside my house.” The Chief graciously welcomed the new Guardian inside his home. “You have already met my son, Ruven Tor’El, Captain of the Village Watch. I hope you forgive him and us for treating you like a criminal.”
“Please fret not. It’s natural to be hostile towards the unknown. And your son was just doing his job. I completely understand.”
Master Ruven apologized again while welcoming him inside the house. While conversing with Castiel, he called for his daughter to bring some food and drinks and then left to attend to his other duties.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Chief Orisan introduced her, “Your Highness, this is my granddaughter, Amara.”
Castiel’s jaw dropped when he saw the girl. A beautiful 16-year-old girl with red hair and big dark eyes, her blackish-red horns were beautifully curved over her head, she was wearing an engraved black linen tunic, and her red wings with black borders complimented her other features, which were still growing. All in all, she’s a devilishly beautiful girl. Castiel couldn't take his eyes off of her.
“Here, Guardian! Your drink, or should I call you Your Highness?” Amara asked while bowing her head.
“Cas… Castiel is just fine! Castiel is awesome!” Castiel said with an awkward smile. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Amara.”
Amara gave a light chuckle. “It is a pleasure to meet you too, Castiel.”
Seeing the conversation, Chief Orisan smiled. Then he asked Amara to give them the room so they could talk. Amara left to do the other house chores.
Castiel jumped to ask the first question, “Are you a Dragonewt?”
“I see you have read the history books, Your Highness. But I am sure you won’t find why we went into hiding, why we are living here, the atrocities committed against us for our knowledge and blood.” Chief Orisan said, full of resentment.
Orisan started telling the unknown history of the Dragonewts, “600 years ago, our home was the Drak’oni Kingdom in the Aisorean Continent. The Dark Elves of The Kaezia Dynasty near us wanted our knowledge of rune-smithing, but they soon found out that the knowledge was useless. Because rune-smithing is only possible for people who have dragon blood within them. So, they invaded our country.”
Orisan started to get angry, “The Dark Elves tried to fuse our dragon blood with their own using Dark Magic, and when that didn’t work, they went deeper into the dark sorcery: Sacrificial Magic. At first, they started with the royalty and then with our children and kept sacrificing us, but it still didn’t work. So they enslaved us, forced us to make immeasurably powerful runed weapons and items. And those of us who tried to defy them, they made examples by torturing our families in front of us.”
Orisan continued, “Seeing no other way out of the hellish situation, our Queen put the last of our kind inside this Eco-Sphere, which is an artifact from the Dragon Era, and gave it to her dear friend Lord Elwen. She also gave him that ring you are wearing as a parting gift. Then to make sure that our kind survived and also to punish the Dark Elves, our Queen, who had mastery over Dark Magic, used herself as a sacrifice to start a plague to wipe out the Dark Elves. And thus, we have lived here for the last 600 years, detached from the outside world.”
Castiel stayed silent for a while. He could feel the anger in the room. After a minute, Chief Orisan broke the silence.
“This is not at all a bad place. There are abundant amounts of food to forage and game to hunt. A continent-sized plane filled with minerals and herbs, and no one tries to murder us. So, we named this place Oasis.” Orisan said jokingly to cheer up the mood.
“How many Dragonewts are in this village?” Castiel asked after wiping tears away.
“Around 70000.”
Daaaaaaamn, that’s a lot for a village! Or is it? If I remember correctly, back on Earth, Baniachong village of Bangladesh had a population of 235855, Shipai Village of China had 30-50000 people before its urbanization, and Uliyazhathura of India had over 27000. So, it’s not unusual. Besides, they have been stuck here for six centuries. 70000 is not that big of a population if you take that into account.
“Well, do you want to go to the outside world? In a couple of years, I am sure my country will be able to handle 70000 extra people.” Castiel asked enthusiastically.
Chief Orisan replied with a rigid voice, “Thank you for the offer, Your Highness, and I say this with the utmost respect, but if we ever go out again, it will be to build our own country.”
“I understand, and I will help you. It will take some time, but I will make sure that your people get to live in your own country.” Castiel said with conviction in his voice.
After a bit of chat, Castiel inquired about the Chameleon tree and learned that it was the big Burj Khalifa-sized tree he had already seen upon entering the Eco-Sphere. He told Chief Orisan about his plan of mass-producing amoyo fruits for his inventions. He denied helping Castiel at first, but when the Chief learned that he knew how to rune-smith, which meant Castiel had dragon blood inside him, he changed his mind. Chief Orisan took Castiel for a tour of the village and imparted his knowledge of Oasis.
Castiel learned that the saplings from the tree could also be fused, with certain magical herbs that grow here, including the Cosmically rare Dragon Ivy, capable of breaking any curse by reversing its effects. Oasis also has huge deposits of all kinds of minerals, including magistones. Before the Dragonewt Queen put them in the Eco-Sphere, it used to be some Elder Dragon’s personal chest box, and the dragon put all kinds of native, exotic, and magical flora and fauna inside it. Gradually, in the last 1000 years, the sphere became a mana-rich environment with a treasure trove of magical herbs, animals, and minerals.
After exploring the Oasis a bit more, Castiel went back home. He easily bypassed the Capital City Guards by wearing an enchanted mask to change his face and a fake ID, which he got from the adventurer guild when he registered with a different name. But he got caught trying to enter the Royal Palace by the Royal Guards because they were already trying to find their missing Crown Prince. Castiel forgot that he’s an engineer, not a ninja. Also, this was not the first time he went out adventuring. After getting scolded by the Captain of the Royal Guards and the Queen, he went to his lab to practice some alchemy with the newly gained herbs from the Oasis and created some high-grade health potions, mana potions, and poison antidotes.
“Hmm, these high-quality potions will surely take over the market,” Castiel said to himself with a deep voice.
He started to think about how to do that without taking away the jobs of his country’s alchemists. So he decided to sell the herbs instead of the potions. Better potions would still come out in the market. They wouldn’t be as high quality as his potions, but they would still be a whole lot better than what's selling out there, and it would also increase trade in the country. Castiel decided that he would only make potions for himself. Then he started to think about rune-smithing and the Dragonewts.
Let's start practicing. I have a long way to go. And don't worry, Elwen! I’ll take good care of them.