AN: Well here it is! The beginning of Rael's adventure through the world of Melio! I hope you will forgive the massive amount of backstory from the previous chapters, but I felt it was important to introduce you as well as I could to the world before tossing you to the behemoths. I'm excited to be posting my first novel, and while I have read a good portion of the stories here on RR, I wasn't comfortable with the LN format most authors use. Whenever I try to emulate it, some of the details that play a large part in the story end up lost.

      Well I hope you enjoy this chapter and the ones that follow! I will try to update as often as possible, which shouldn't be hard as about 80% of the story is simply awaiting PR'ing.

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                  Excitement. The only word Rael could describe how he felt at the moment, rushing through the canopy pathway towards the home he shared with his father. He had visited Sanvar this day on a routine maintenance check on the systems of steam pipes he and his father installed throughout the town that heated the majority of homes in the settlement.

                As he finished up his checks and entered the large central tree home that housed Sanvar’s Elder to give his report, he was greeted by a group of strangers. Strangers never appeared here in Sanvar, and the only reason the people knew there was land beyond their shores was the stories told by old man Oos, the current Elder. Most of these stories had been labeled as fairy tale nonsense. Settlements were the people built their Wall from the earth and stone? Great swathes of land where the largest plants would be the grasses that reached barely chest level? Impossible. Nevertheless, these stories had enamored Rael during the times his father would allow him to attend lessons at the Elders home.

                Having turned 20 just this past season turn, he was no longer able to attend the lessons. Shaking off the feeling of regret at not being able to attend more of Oos’ lessons, Rael continued his rushed trip back to his secluded home. The distance never seemed longer than it did today. While in reality it was a twenty minute walk from Sanvar to the tree home, Rael’s anxiousness caused the distance to stretch in his mind.

                Turning down the final junction, Rael saw the home he currently shared with his father and paused. Chances are the old man was still in the work room toiling away at his cluttered mess of a work bench. Letting out a sigh, he began to walk the last few meters to the door and racked his brain for ideas as to how he could break the news to his easily excitable father.

                Opening the front door, he flinched as the top hinge screamed in protest to the motion. He knew that his father wouldn’t notice even that much, though he made a mental note that it was past due to replace the old door. Making his way through what was once a living room when his mother was alive, he scanned for any changes that would indicate his father had left his seclusion. The prototype steam pulley engine still on the table in the middle of the room, dust from the past years still undisturbed. He couldn’t count how many pipes there were strewn around the room, all varying in size and purpose, though the fact they remained in the general area that he had stacked them was also a sign his father had not left the work room located at the far end of the home.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

                Another sigh escaped Rael as he made his way past the threshold separating the living room to the wood walled hallway leading to the rest of the home. he thought as he continued through, Even living in this state for over a decade, Rael still managed to injure himself once in a while on errant tubes or pipes that had rolled into the narrow walkway that was the only place the floor of the home could be seen.

                As he neared the work room door Rael’s excitement once again took hold. Forcefully restraining himself from bursting through the door and blurting out the news that had made him this way, he took a few deep calming breathes.

As quietly as possible, which was not very as this door suffered the same affliction as the one for the homes entrance, he scanned the slumped and shaggy silhouette of his father. Bax Maridyne, greatest inventor of Sanvar, sat silent and focused on his work. The only light in the room was another of his own creation that used the spirit core of a large glowing insect to produce a rather weak, but steady light. A sphere of metal with a large opening in the middle where light could be focused and a smaller hole at the bottom that could be used to attach the light to a rod. The Stafflight as he named it, had made quite a sensation in Sanvar and was quickly adapted to light the pathways that twisted and careened through the settlement.

                Most of the inventions that named Bax the greatest were created while Rael’s mother was still with them. After her death Bax became withdrawn and began to focus on teaching young Rael everything he could about invention and spirit cores, when he wasn’t lost in his own little crafters world.

                Returning his thoughts to the silhouette at the table, he sighed inwardly and approached. “Hello father,” he greets the weathered man as he nears the table. “Good morning, Rael.” His father slurs his response with obvious fatigue. “It’s midday father,” Rael corrects, “and you promised you would be getting some sleep.” “I know, I know, I’ll get some rest once I finished up here and eat something.” Bax replied grudgingly. Rael hesitates a moment, still unsure as to the reaction he would get for sharing the news that had excited him so much today.

“Dad,” he began, “something happened in Sanvar the day before yesterday.”

“Oh? Another busted pipe?” Came the uninterested response. Rael studied his father briefly, searching for some indication of what he could expect as a reaction.

               “No, all of your steam systems are working perfectly,” pressing on before he received the usual dismissive reply that would follow, “a group of mainland Hunters have landed a ship off the Eastern shore and have requested assistance in the repair work!” Rael’s excitement returned as he told his father the news.

                 The disheveled mess of hair that had just been poised over another pile of seemingly random gears and tubes shifted and turned towards Rael. A spark lit the eyes of his father, something he had not seen in a very long time and the hands that hovered above the table now pressed down on it, assisting Bax to his feet. “Well then, I may need some tools from storage.”