With his gaze stuck on the dreamy orange blush of dawn’s light, a puff of smoke and light sizzling robbed Gazen of his bliss, “Not my hydrangeas!” He scrambled to put the flames out on the colorful pink flowers that lined the edge of his garden. First, he tried to slap it away, then conjured a splash of water when he regained his senses.
“Just who would do this?” The wayward young artificer stepped toward the edge and leaned over the wooden fence he cobbled together a few weeks ago to investigate. Noticing another small fireball coming in, he intercepted it to save his flowers the strife. “Hey quit it, would you?!”
The creature that yelled back was not what he expected, and he didn’t notice it at first hidden among the lush foliage, “Ribbit, begone plunderer!” The bipedal amphibian had shades of green across its skin to help him blend in to the surrounding environment. Now that he focused his eyes and knew what to look for, Gazen noticed many of them littered throughout the brush.
One after another they croaked, sending little tufts of flame, rocks, or dollops of water his way. Gazen let all but the fire through, taking a splash to the face. His beard bore a dark chestnut color, but it looked like a rat’s tail when wet.
I don’t have the mana to do this all day. I really need to work on my barriers… “Can you please stop it? Ow, hey!” a rock hit his shoulder. That one would surely leave a bruise. “I said cut it out! You can understand me, can’t you? I’m not here to take anything!”
“Croak! We can not trust the tallwalker’s words, no!” the first one protested.
“Ribbit, ribbit!” There was a chorus of agreement from the crowd as another volley of miniature spells pelted the side of his home.
“I’m friend, not foe!” Gazen desperately tried to sway them, “I can help you! I’m… I’m a powerful sorcerer!”
He lied. His family and everyone back home was, but he lacked the drive they possessed, focusing on crafting artifacts and magic tools which he had an innate talent for. For show, he sent a small bolt of lightning into a lone tree after confirming there was nothing alive near it. This was the greatest feat of sorcery he could muster with his own two hands. It dwindled away his aura, leaving him with less than half his mana left.
It flashed and sparked, burning marks into the tree, and startling all the frog folk in their tracks. They stumbled, making it easy to track their positions. Seeing the apparent fear on their faces, he waved his hands in the air, “No, I promise I’m not here to fight! I just travel around for fun, that’s all… This is only where the winds brought me.”
He gave a nervous laugh and hoped he would come off sincere enough, but fear was the only expression he was able to discern from them. He figured it was just as difficult for them to read his expressions or infer how he felt.
There was a long chatter of croaks and ribbits, before the first frog continued, “Do you truly offer aid to us, tallwalker? Ribbit.”
“Um, yes. This tallwalker will aid you.” Pulling the presented thread, Gazen put on a relieved smile and let out the breath he was holding. “Now, if you don’t mind me landing in this field?” He pointed to the only open space he could spy on this island as he broke through the clouds from afar earlier.
“We will allow this. Croak.” He hopped closer and looked up from below with a serious glint in his eyes, “But if you prove to be unworthy of our trust you will face the combined might of our people.”
“Agreed.” Gazen clapped his hands and smiled at them from above. “I’ll be right down.”
Breeze Haven was his magnum opus. Without it, he could never have left home. It was still, however, a work in progress—a real fixer upper if you will—but it allowed him to fly the tides which existed far above the sea, soaring freely on the winds like the transient gulls he used to longingly watch back home.
The frogs all backed away as he brought his home closer. They had begun attacking before he even made it to the shore’s edge and their croaking voices carried far. Below him still were miles of clouds and his ship pulled its way over the edge as they made room for him.
The laws which kept these islands aloft were still grossly understudied, but Gazen wouldn’t have to worry about cracking the edge off as he landed on the shoreline, though his ship was much heavier than most.
Hardly a ship at all, most would look at Breeze Haven and call it an island. The oblong mass of suspended earth was not far off, save for its lack of a water source and fully unnatural means of lift. They also shouldn’t move, but he couldn’t have left home if his island lacked the ability to fly freely.
“Oh, I better get ready.” The young artificer was excited to meet these unheard-of creatures. Their magic was interesting, if a little small, and he was eager to learn more about them. That said, a million ants could carry off a baby and at this point in his life he was but a babe on the winds. He refused to leave his humble abode without being thoroughly prepared.
Each island held new mysteries or unfathomed danger, so as a man who fancied himself a craftsman, he always made sure to keep whatever he would need on him, else his undoing would be no one’s fault but his own. Gazen wasn’t strong like his older brother and sisters, nor seemingly invincible like his parents and their friends. As the runt of his homeland, he had to go through life with caution, watching over his back and planning against what may lie ahead.
His personal island he used to run away from home was not much more than a patch of grass surrounded with a ring of common wildflowers. The shoddy fence was his newest edition, but there was a cottage on one end that he built with his own hands, ruing his lack of effort spent learning wood sorcery. Inside was where he relaxed with a little stove to cook on, but he went past it all into the backroom.
There was a single bed and shelves covered in a myriad of gadgets and weapons. A single window let dim light in through the thin curtain and he kicked books out of the way to make it across the room. Gazen opened a trunk and dug around before pulling out a ragged pair of pants and button-up vest of patched leather, scarred with cuts and burns. Magic circles and runes of various origin were etched around the different articles of clothes, and they each served a different cautionary purpose.
Quickly swapping his pants, he threw on the vest over a cotton shirt, taking a moment to dry his beard off with the one he wore yesterday. “Okay, I’m not planning to fight the frogs, but what else might I find? There’s a lot of island out there.” There was much to consider as he stroked his freshly dried beard.
The island he found on the horizon this morning was a new frontier, easily tens of miles across, but it jutted out in many directions. It wasn’t round at all, and much of that distance was spanned by offshoots landing on other, smaller islands. It was a large grouping that largely shared an ecosystem from what he saw, but there were mountains on one end, and even a desert somewhere near the center. He wanted to get a better look as the terrain inland became darker and glinted in the sun as he approached. It stoked his curiosity.
“The stone crossbow is a must,” he placed it on his belt, “fire knives… lightning knives… ring hammer, definitely. Ooh, I can’t forget my barrier rings this time.”
He raided various drawers, placing jewelry on his fingers and around his neck ranging from silver to gold, to other whimsical colors. A thick chain of pale blue metal sat on his collar with a crest engraved on the pendant. Filling a couple pouches with a last sweep of tools and weapons, he felt Breeze Haven gently touch down.
“I better grab some talismans. Never know when I’ll encounter a baleful spirit.” He swiped some scraps of paper off his desk and shoved them in his pocket before running outside, clanking across the lawn with half his weight hanging off his hip.
“Okay, let’s see what the frog people could possible need.” There was a spring in his step as he walked down the stairs from his yard, leading down to the awaiting group of amphibians. Once he made it down to the mud, Breeze Haven behind him looked like nothing more than a raised hillock.
“Tallwalker. Ribbit. I see you have come prepared.” His eyes were bulbous and glimmered a bright blue in the sun.
“I have.” He scanned the other faces. They all looked similar, standing just below waist-height. Their eyes were the biggest feature of their faces aside from the wide mouth that split at their chin. I guess that isn’t their chin though, is it…? Their eyes looked up at him with trepidation, but he thought he could see glimmers of curiosity among them. “What do you need help with?”
“Our people’s strength dwindles… Croak. At this rate, none of our spawn will ever reach Endless Moon’s Hollow. Ribbit.” The frog man’s croaks were drawn out as he spoke of this place, somewhere between reverent and desperate, if Gazen cared to guess at frog emotions. “None have completed the trial in three generations, and we lose elders every year trying to help them get there… Our people are doomed to die young if nothing changes. Will you aid us, oh tallwalker who travels on clouds?”
“Endless Moon’s Hollow?” He raised an eyebrow. The word endless never lead to anything good in these situations. Gazen had read many stories of researchers scouring the sky for places that were supposed to extend one’s lifespan, like the fountain of youth his parents spent no small number of decades searching for. He knew it to be a fairy tale, of course. To think, they wasted so much of their limited time in this world searching for fool’s gold. “Could you tell me more about this trial?”
“Of course, croak, please, follow us to the Grove.” The frog’s leader turned and hopped away, followed by the others surrounding him. They looked smaller and held lighter shades of green. Gazen took them to be younger than the one he spoke with.
Their beckoning croaks pulled the substitute sorcerer along, which quickly led him into a dense jungle hiding lush wetlands beyond the treeline. Gazen stepped carefully over thin creeks or puddles hidden beneath tall grass. The air was warm and humid, enlivened by the ensemble of ambient insect calls and birdsongs.
Many bushes rustled in his surroundings, and he could tell the scurrying feet didn’t belong to frogs, but nothing else showed itself. Local fauna seemed keen to steer clear of this large groups of spellcasting amphibians, and rightly so. Creatures that wield magic often make it to the top of the food chain, though these ones’ size was a concern. They travelled with caution, eyes always on the move, and occasionally made the odd frog sound into the distance.
Soon the trees grew sparse, and the ground got muddier. The elder urged him to follow closely so as not to sink in the ground, but he had a lot of weight on them. Okay, as soon as I leave here, I’m making boots that don’t sink.
Their progress slowed as he tried not to fall behind, wasting no small amount of mana to try and pack the mud where he stepped. By the time they reached a lake where the ground fell off into a cliff, the ground had become more solid and he was exhausted, breathing heavy with sweat pouring down his face. When he looked up there was a fallen tree held in place with piled stones to form a bridge
There was another chorus of concerned ribbits from the younger frogs before the elder croaked, holding up a webbed hand to silence them, “Tallwalker. This is a place of great importance to us. I ask you cross this bridge swiftly so that we may continue to the Grove.”
He was confused to see the fear creeping back onto everyone’s faces, but he thought it would be wrong to defy their customs—he was just visiting after all. Gazen wanted to assuage their worries, “Of course, this place is no concern of mine. let us make haste.”
Trying to conceal a pained face, Gazen threw more mana away to dry his boots off so he wouldn’t fall off the narrow tree. How am I so ill-equipped for such an environment? Have I really never been to a swamp? He vaguely remembered playing around in one with his brother as a child, but his parents quickly forbade it. I guess I avoided them ever since.
His crafting list grew, but this wasn’t the time to daydream. Each step he took felt precarious and he had to consciously avoid the muddy steps left by the elder or brush them away with a gust of wind. He’d be all shriveled up by the time they made it to the other side.
Each step was slow and careful, but he couldn’t help seeing past his feet into the waters below. Something small and dark swam around through the murky waters, bulbous with a wriggling tail. There were many of them, seeming to scamper away from the shadows cast by those crossing the bridge above.
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Tadpoles? This must be the pond where they lay their eggs. I can see why they were worried to bring me past here. I guess I landed in the wrong spot.
The elder led the way followed by Gazen, then the young. Their concerned croaks could be heard behind, but eventually they made it to solid ground again. The elder spared him a silent glance, then continued hopping away, “We have almost arrived. Ribbit. Just beyond these trees. You will meet the other elders and we will tell you everything.”
There was a line of trees with bundles of vines hanging down, making it difficult to pass through. Usually, Gazen would cut his way through, but this was probably something of a city wall to them. Once inside there was a sprawling grotto, dotted with trees which lavishly spilled moss that swayed in the breeze. Rays of sunlight poked through a sparse canopy, shimmering off crystal-clear pools of water broken up by a spiderweb of branching land-bridges. They were each paved with driftwood pushed into the dirt and caked with mud between the cracks.
Soon their ribbits and croaks were deafening as hundreds of beady eyes fell on him. Seeming to materialize out of thin air, droves of the frog people hopped towards him, breaking their camouflage as they sprang to life.
“RIBBIT!” They all halted their approach at the sound of their superior’s command. “This tallwalker has pledged us his aid. Clear a path to the Puddle of Elders!”
The frogs all jumped away, scurrying off into the brush or plopping into puddles. Some hid beneath the lily pads that dotted each pool. Offering one of the nearby onlookers an awkward wave, Gazen followed the elder closely across winding bridges wrapped around various pools and over rivers. Any time he found a frog and met eyes with them, they quickly found a new hiding spot. The young ones were no longer following either.
After a few minutes they were at the foot of a truly massive tree. Gazen saw this from the air and noted it as the largest on the island by a great margin. He was really hoping to see it up close, and the elder led him straight there. The trunk was hollowed out with a massive split up the center. As they got closer he could see a small pond with a single lily pad in the middle, a stray beam of light illuminating it like treasure at the end of a long journey.
The nervous croaks returned as he noticed a small group of frogs hopping around the pad. They seemed to have a conversation with his guide in a language he didn’t understand before one of them hopped out from the tree and landed before him. His voice was similar to the first, but rougher and he talked slow.
“The elders of Toah welcome you, Tallwalker of Clouds.” He plopped his webbed hands together and nodded his head. Taking it as a customary gesture, Gazen mimicked the action which elicited a ribbit. “Is it true you have come to shepherd our spawn to Endless Moon’s Hollow?”
“I would like to know more first. What is this place you speak of, and why do you need to go there?” The elders motioned him inside and he stood at the edge of the pond, just within the aged bark.
“Ribbit. With each generation we send a group of our young on the trial of eternity.” He paused and another jumped closer.
“To reach Endless Moon’s Hollow. Croak.” This one had darker greens in his skin and an alert gaze as he peered into the artificer’s eyes.
The first elder returned, “To grasp eternal life, ribbit, before their time runs out.”
“Wait, what?” Gazen groaned. Everybody wants to live forever… “I’m sorry to say… but there’s no such thing as eternal life. I’ve researched it extensively.”
Another frog hopped over, and his cheeks puffed up with an angry, “Ribbit! Do not tell us lies, tallwalker, when we already know the truth.”
Gazen squinted at the elder, a weary pang tickling his head. Not the first time I’ve heard that… People had claimed it before, back home. There were many stories. Those who claimed it surely outlived those they wanted to impress, but they eventually all died. Rumor of some still existed, but they weren’t taken seriously like they used to be.
“Croak.” The first elder approached him again, trying to mediate, “Tallwalker, we speak only the truth. All of us here have seen the Hollow and tasted the immortal juices of the land. The oldest of our people has already seen a hundred moons wane.”
Gazen noticed a different elder across the lily pad nodding. His skin had taken much darker tones, softening the variation and camouflage effect. He nodded his head silently.
His parents had cleared a hundred years before he was born, but a hundred moons sounded entirely shorter. A hundred moons wane, does that mean cycles of the moon? So, a hundred months… What is that… seven or eight years? “How long does your species normally live…?” Gazen’s voice was nervous as he asked the question.
Immortality was something that hadn’t crossed his mind in years. Everyone back home sought nothing but. Gazen understood the appeal in endlessly gaining power beyond the constraints of time, but he also had done the research, as many before him had. There were great libraries on his home island. It was an absolute utopia for pushing the depths of sorcery.
But why? They should know it’s a fool’s errand, they have centuries of records proving so. Countless tests have been done. Moral boundaries pushed. Yet everybody thinks they’re the one who will finally find it and nothing else will matter. Building on the failures of their forebearers as if that will help them reach ever closer something that doesn’t exist.
“Crrrroak.” The first elder answered, “Once we grow legs and leave the murk, we can hope to see ten moons if were lucky. The only way to become eternal is to pass the trial and reach the Hollow. To imbibe from the Spring of Eternal Moons.”
A spring? Surely, they’re just calling it that, water is clearly flowing in this direction already. Each island only had one, and he saw it westward from where he landed. Is this only one island, though? It’s hard to tell from above, really. Greater than ten times the normal lifespan… Could there be a spring capable of doing this? That’s better than anything I’ve read about, but these aren’t humans. Still…
Gazen tried to push immortality out of his mind. All his life he was pestered with it from every angle. He didn’t have the talent for sorcery his family did, but he still slacked off in his studies and only knows basic magic compared to anyone else. Their one-track lust for the impossible pushed him off the path. Gazen refused to waste his life withering away in vain. Instead, he would crumble away in glorious freedom as the winds slowly weathered him to a still. By then, he hoped to have found somewhere in this world worth turning to dust in, but he knew that place wasn’t home.
The inward pressure is what drove Gazen to spend his youth buried in libraries and at his forge. Humans were bound to the earth, no matter how high in the sky they were born. They could not simply leave home. Gazen knew there was more out there, he just didn’t have the means to get it. His family assured him he could fly if he mastered his sorcery, but he was also no bird. It would wear him down, and the amount he ended up travelling over the last few years since leaving home, he would be a shriveled prune by this point by relying on advanced sorcery alone.
The natural conclusion was to build a ship. Many merchants and travelers flew in and out of his homeland on a daily basis, so he knew what they looked like and mostly how they worked. Sadly, he was no carpenter, nor shipwright. Spending a decade on wood sorcery didn’t sit right with him either.
So, he spent his childhood studying, practicing, and crafting. Enchantments had a learning curve, but breadth of knowledge turned out more useful than depth. Eventually it became second nature to him, and he had a whole slew of random gear he thought might help him stay safe in the unseen skies.
Of course, those were mostly scrap by now, but after nearly two decades of putting his nose to the grindstone, he managed to enchant his favorite cliffside and disappear into the clouds. It was bumpy at first and he had to island hop, making constant adjustments to the myriad glyphs that made everything possible, but for a while Gazen was bitter.
Immortality… It still left a bitter taste in his mouth. For a few years he wanted nothing more than to find evidence to prove his parents wrong, fantasizing of a miraculous return one day with rooms full of reasons why they wasted their life, but that edge had softened as he travelled. In the open sky on a ship with no sail, he realized how little the winds at his back mattered.
He still couldn’t help a spark of curiosity from worming its way into his heart. He slapped his hands together and gave the first elder the frog gesture, “I’d love to see this Endless Moon Spring for myself. Perhaps it’s something I’ve never heard of. I’ll help you get there, but I need to recover first and prepare my boots. Getting here took a lot out of me. Maybe we could leave in tomorrow?”
“Ribbit, mana! You need mana!” Another elder approached, “Come, come, follow me. My pond will help you replenish what was lost.”
He started hopping out of the tree, and Gazen spared the first elder a glance, who nodded. Quickly following, the new frog led him around the back of the sprawling tree where a dim pool of murky water rested. It wasn’t dirty, but Gazen couldn’t see through it well. Getting closer, the smell of herbs reached him.
“Get in, you sit! Croak.” The ‘Toah’ elder plucked some nearby berries off a branch and tossed them into the pool, before hopping over and nudging Gazen closer. “Hurry now, quick. Berries go fast and melt away.”
Fully clothed, Gazen stumbled to take off his outer layers as the surprisingly strong frog man pushed him closer to the edge. Disrobed enough to not damage any equipment, he gave in and jumped into the pool. As he entered the berries all lit up with a soft white glow, which shimmered and rose off the water. The pool itself started to take on a faint effulgence as his body warmed up. Tiny fish nibbling at his toes freaked him out for a moment but the Toah promised they would only ‘remove impurities’ from his ‘flesh’.
Once the fish settled down so too had the light as the berries melted away, just like he said. Gazen crawled out and walked over to a spot in the sun to hopefully dry off. “I feel amazing… What’s in this pond?” He flexed all his muscles and felt like he’d just had a deep-tissue massage. They were all spry and full of energy, as limber as they’d ever been. Within he could feel his aura had returned completely—he wasn’t missing any mana. He took this opportunity to burn some and help the sun dry him off.
“Ancient Toah secret, crrrroak, this is not for me to tell the tallwalker.” He curtly replied.
Gazen got his clothes back on and followed the elder to the others. Another chorus of croaks arose. They seemed excited, like a conversation had happened in his absence. He noticed a couple of them missing.
“Are you ready to depart? Ribbit. The young ones should arrive here soon.” The first elder had apparently gotten things started.
Gazen waved his arms, “That’s a little too fast, I need to fix my boots. Just give me… ten minutes!”
“Crrrrrroak. Agreed.”
Gazen sat down and leaned against the splitting bark before taking his boots off and pulling a shiny golden needle from his coat pocket. This was something that he always had on him. An artificer’s needle that was about the length of his palm and covered in enchantments which forced the mana to take form at the wielder’s will. Nobody knows who enchanted the first needle, but that’s neither here nor there. It was necessary to enchant anything.
He etched runes and magic circles onto the soles and sides of his boots, gliding the shimmering needle across them effortlessly. This one was a gift from his mother. While she still pushed him one way, she supported his interests instead of snuffing them out. He was thankful, as he knew it wasn’t easy to create one of pure orichalcum.
The metal shined like gold but was many degrees harder, but it was easily the best for this purpose. He never could have made Breeze Haven without it, and hoped his mother didn’t feel too bad about that. Roughly ten minutes later there was a crowd of around twenty young Toah folk gathered around. They croaked with trepidation and stared at Gazen with big, curious eyes.
He frantically hurried his enchantments up, just enough to help him walk though the swamp. This wasn’t a difficult ordeal, as he could just mimic nature and copy the Toah. Using a spatial array, he just enlarged his footprint, while a different one compacted the mud beneath him slightly.
It made for awkward walking as he couldn’t see the bounds of his feet until they pressed into the mud, and Gazen found himself waddling like one of them. “Um, alright I guess I’m ready.”
“Ribbit! Excellent. The two warlords and I will join you and guide the path.” The first elder jumped out in front and started hopping down a path, beckoning to follow. Gazen obliged and the young ones opened a path before falling in behind. The ‘warlords’ were in back and he recognized them as two of the elders.
They returned to the jungle and started hiking the opposite direction of Breeze Haven, further into dense branches and rustling brush. “So, I’m Gazen. Travelling sorcerer, I suppose.” He introduced himself to the first elder.
“I am one called Crota,” his words here harsh and drawn out as it was spoken in their native tongue. “We are very grateful for your aid.”
“Of course, and I am very interested in your way of life. What dangers will we face in our path to the Endless Moon Spring?” He waddled the path with his stone crossbow drawn and various knives at his belt. Next to them hung a small crystal orb in case he needed to cast some emergency sorcery, but Gazen could usually take care of himself or run away in the face of great threats. Having the young Toah would make running difficult though.
“If we’re lucky we will make it there while the great ivory serpent still wanders the eastern reaches. There are still insects and fiends to contend with in the Sunken Marsh. One such as you should be strong enough, but they have forced us to retreat for three years. Last year… croak… None of the young returned…”
Children dying was a matter anyone could sympathize with. There was something to be said about sending them on a dangerous pilgrimage, but they only had so little time and the promise of increasing it many times over loomed just beyond the swamp. He wondered why they were in a hurry, but with their overwhelmingly finite existence, they had to keep reaching for that dream of endless life as it dangled in front of their face.
Is that how Mom and Dad feel? Like time is closing in on them with each passing of the moon? I get how these frog folk can feel that way as they count their lifespan in a handful of cycles of the moon. But my parents have already lived longer than most humans should. How much is enough? And will they ever gain enough to make up for the time wasted while their bodies were still strong and full of life?
But these Toah don’t know anything more than their own lifespan, so it’s exactly the same, isn’t it? Except these people don’t strive for selfish gain, they just don’t want their children to die. And for them, immortality is clearly within reach.
“I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll do everything I can to get us to that spring.”
“Croak. Don’t make it too easy on the young ones. This is a trial after all. What good is eternal life if they’re too weak to defend it?”
“SKREE!” A piercing cry came from above and forced all the Toah to the ground as their knees grew weak. Gazen and Crota stood alone as a black bird with a wingspan as wide as Gazen’s swooped down. It screeched and stretched its talons out to pluck Crota away.
“Not on my watch!” Gazen snarled, pulling his arm up a few degrees. When he pulled the trigger, a sepia radiance grew along the rail of his crossbow. A stone arrow formed and let loose in the very same instant. It stuck into the bird’s chest who let out a gurgled caw before furling towards the ground. The arrow dissipated right after it hit, leaving the bird to tumble into the mud as Crota stepped out of the way. “Uh, sorry… That looked pretty dangerous though.”
“No… I thank you. Rrrrribbit…” His green had gone pale, “We have little recourse against the sky reavers. I ask you not make this trial too easy, but please, don’t let anyone die if it is within your power.”
“Got it.” Gazen nodded resolutely. “I hope everyone here lives forever.”