One hour later.

Nine hours since arrival.

Charles and I had left the carpentry workshop and headed up the slope of town to enter a building that stood abutting the castle and adjoining it. I thought it might simply be an outer wall at first until we fully entered and I recognized it.

It was an arena. Well, arena wasn’t the right word, really. It was half of an arena. When we were there, Charles took one of the coin-like objects that he explained as 'basic training reliquaries' and began to demonstrate to me the underhand and overhand methods of throwing them. When I tried to throw it like a frisbee?

"No, part of how it works is a ritual fabric to its being. Reliquaries are anchors to this world and for lack of other, better phrasing, pocket dimension world. If you don't throw them the right way- like you are rolling, the magic won't work."

Before I could ask the obvious- did it matter how high I rolled? He answered my question as if he was a mind reader. It was more likely he was a reader of people’s body language.

"The higher the result of your summoning toss - yeah, your roll - the greater additional power that is granted to your monster. So it's better to throw higher, and also know that sometimes, throwing a reliquary and landing on a result of one will make it malfunction and basically cause the summoning of your partner to fail."

I almost asked about it landing on two faces up at once, but was cut off by him motioning for me to try again.

So if it landed on a result of one you might essentially crit fail, like prevailing tabletop RPG gamer theory said happens on a roll of a one on a d20, though it didn't specify that in many rule books.

I threw again. Before I could take the results in, Charlie told me to repeat the process. It followed suit for a few hours like that, as if I was practicing the basics of baseball to prepare for Little League. I was sore, tired, and hungry again. Rightly so, it seemed, because it was dark above.

"Are we done yet?" I asked and before I could add a remark about being hungry and tired, as my young body demanded, a quad of monsters strode into the arena, beckoned by Charlie.

It was time.

***

Despite myself, I felt excited at the prospect. As much as my determination to find my family and save them stood; and despite the guilt, grief, and anger still floated about my psyche like an ebbing tide at my ankles? I felt excited. It might have been the exhaustion and hunger I felt. It might have been a long day which I had trudged through. It might have even been an emotional and physical shock I did not know I had.

The way my energy rose and heartbeat did with it, I was betting it nostalgia and an excitement for living out something that had been in my mind's eye since I was a child. The four creatures loped forward from the shadow and I took them in with a careful glance at each of them, from left to right.

To the far left was what seemed to be a bear cub with a sleepy grin on its face and coloration that reminded me of a black bear if it was speckled with blue-gray and orange-pink scales in places. The scales almost made it look like it had just eaten a salmon and got the fish’s scales on it. It took me a moment to realize the scales were a part of it and not simply signs of it being messy. While definitely a bear, it moved and sat as if a puppy when it came to a stop and tilted its head like that too.

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Next to it, prowled a mottled amber-colored kitten the size of a small dog. Across its body were the speckled markings that one might expect of a Jaguar, in a deep chocolate brown. Its tail was stubby, and it took a moment to realize that the chocolate brown spots were actually pebble-like natural armor. As it stopped its circular prowl and looked at me, I saw its other big difference from a Jaguar. It had two fangs from the top of its mouth which aside from their gunmetal gray coloring, made it look almost exactly like the popular depiction of a Smilodon - it was a literal Sabertooth Jaguar.

Then, hopping impatiently on its foot, was a bird chick which was almost solid black, but had the short curved beak of a peregrine falcon, and indeed had silver and seafoam green stripes on its body pointing downwards as if arrow markings. It looked fast but I couldn’t tell much besides that - it was too small to unwittingly show its potential. Its every hop brought wind up - even without moving its wings.

Finally, there was a creature that looked like a frog or a toad's young based on its eyes and demeanor - but not a tadpole, as I’d have expected if it was an absolute newborn frog. Given its spikes and entirely relaxed demeanor, my brain made the assumption it was some sort of elemental version of a horny toad from the southwestern US or a Bearded Dragon from Australia. It also bore some resemblance to the lizard-like creature I had seen helping the smiths keep fire going at the forge.

If it was a small or early-stage form of the creature, it meant it was aligned with the fire element- assuming I was even right about how elements worked here.

“Before I choose, I need to know. How do these creatures and their elements work?”

Charlie tilted his head at me and gave me a questioning look, as if accusing me of being silly for acting like an analytical adult about things - but then softened his expression.

“I don’t think anything like them Card or Video Games you may have played on Earth. Never got into that myself, past my time - but I’ll give it simply. There are no elemental weaknesses necessarily. The same as fire can be snuffed out by water or earth, it can also boil or melt them respectively - if it is strong enough.”

He gestured to the monsters, “Stay.” and gestured me over before drawing a figure in the sand.

I followed him and stood there as he finished drawing what amounted to a figure 8 - though one where the bottom loop was larger than the top. Along the bottom, he wrote, in a surprise to me, English words.

“There are five fundamental elements, which appear in creatures naturally and which are the five building blocks of the universe according to Hekatadronan thought. These elements are.” He pointed at them in time, going clockwise. Standing at about 3 as it would be on the clock, was the word “Earth.” Before I could ask for clarification, he said, “What I’m drawing in, dirt. It’s rock, dirt, sand, ore.”

Then he pointed to the next spot, which stood at 5 as it would be on the clock. There was written out the word, “Fire.” He didn’t bother to explain that one. At 7, stood the word ‘Wind’. After that, at 9 as it’d be on the clock, there was the word ‘Water’. He didn’t bother to explain those either.

Finally, at 12 was written the word ‘Nature’, which he did explain. “Bugs, vegetation, fungi - some terms use wood or plant, but it’s wider than that.”

Then he began to fill the top loop, explaining. “There are the five fundamental elements, and then there are four higher elements.” He wrote ‘Nature’ at 6, mirroring its place on the bottom loop. At 3, he wrote ‘Artifice’. At 9, he wrote ‘Fae’. At 12, he wrote ‘The Primal’. Despite knowing the words, and them being in a language I could read - I was confused.

“I’ll explain those later, though. What’s important are the fundamental elements, at least for now. These elements make up the basic building blocks of all the monsters here. The only major thing to think of is - that when you’ve gotten at least two monster partners of a specific elemental type, you unlock the ability to pick up, utilize, and modify elemental spells and abilities of your own. The eight elements also unlock different classes.”

So I had another answer regarding the elements of the monsters - though not a clear one, and another big question. Classes weren’t firmly set?

I turned back to the four lined-up monsters. I needed to make a decision - it was rude to make them wait.