The next couple of days were a whirlwind of new experiences for Vac, as Medea introduced him to all the “fun” parts of her culture. He hadn't had a proper friend in a long time, but he imagined this was what that was like.

One day while they were hanging out, Medea was called for by King Pyrrhus. As always, she left with a frown on her face.

‘I wonder why she doesn't get along with her father. He didn't seem like that bad of a guy. I had arguments with granny, but even at its worst our relationship was still solid.’

As his thoughts drifted to his granny, Vac sighed.

‘It’s been so long, and I do miss her. I wonder if she and the others are alright. Although I don't really miss home much. It's a strange feeling. I'm only beginning to realize just how much there is to this world, of how limited the scope I thought as is. Each and every culture and group has so much to explore. But I should probably broach the question again to Pyrrhus when I get a chance.

Medea came back decked out in an armor she called Lorica Squamata and armed with a dagger. She turned to him and said, “It seems that bandits have been attacking one of our main farming villages, and I've been given the duty to take care of it. Do you want to join me?”

I suppose just repelling some bandits is a good task that I can help out with.

When he agreed, she smiled and led him to the armory to get ready. She insisted that he take something, and so he studied his options.

I don't really want to wear too much. Unlike Medea, I prefer moving around while fighting. And as for weapons, I don't really want to go around stabbing people.

Eventually he settled on the lightest armor they had, the Lorica Segmenta, and a couple of Plumbatae, lead-weighted darts. As he adjusted to the weight, Medea led him to their final stop. At first he thought they were going to the stables, but she took a sudden turn and headed off to a place he hadn't seen before. Eventually they arrived at the mouth of a cave. He couldn't clearly see what it was like inside.

“Uh, what are we doing here?”

Medea just smirked and whistled sharply.

In a matter of seconds, two powerful beasts burst out. Vac yelped and stumbled backwards. Before him were two massive serpent-like creatures. They were ten feet long and as wide as a human being. Their scales were golden with black spots, with fiery red spikes around their lizard-like heads, and eyes that were somehow plain white.

He thought they were blind for a moment, but as they turned towards him, those eyes seemed to bore a hole through him. Their breath was hot, and he saw wisps of smoke accompany it. As he stood there in shock, a voice cut through.

“Come on boys, play nice. Vac, meet Solaris and Ladon, my pet sun dragons.”

‘Incredible! They look so cool. Why the hell does everyone else get cool mythical beasts?! Where's mine?!’

He tried to play it cool and said, “Hey. Nice to meet you, Solaris and Ladon. I'm Vacuus Venti, also known as Vac. Uh, which one is Solaris and which one is Ladon?”

The sun dragons began to move around him, seemingly inspecting him from every angle. Then, they suddenly wrapped around him firmly yet gently as they laid their heads next to his, leaning on his shoulders.

Medea laughed and said, “Looks like they like you. Want to give riding them a try?”

The dragons had tough scales that made sitting on them somewhat uncomfortable despite having a saddle of sorts, they flew through the air at such high speeds that he had to hold on for his life while avoiding the spikes, and their body itself felt like touching fire, though it didn't actually burn.

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In other words, it was one of the coolest experiences of his life. They tore through the air, soaring over thirty feet above the ground as they headed towards the village. Suddenly a thought hit him, and he felt guilty that he didn't think of it sooner.

“Wait, can't you just take me back to the sky island on these dragons?”

Medea shook her head and while turning her head away replied, “No, the dragons can't travel that high up, certainly not while carrying someone.”

‘Well it's pretty incredible that they can fly like this. I wonder how they do that, given that they have no wings. Is it some kind of magic?’

Eventually they landed on a small island called Monemvasia that was connected to the rest of the nation through a narrow piece of land. As they landed, the villagers converged around their location. As they got off, Medea's body language and stance changed almost immediately. For the past few days, she'd been very casual in her behavior around Vac, something she apparently took pride in. In her own words, “I'm nothing like King Pyrrhus in that respect.”

But as the villagers gathered around and knelt before her in respect, Vac observed her seamlessly transition back to how she'd acted when they'd first met. ‘Kneeling, really? A bit much, no?’

In a regal, polite, yet detached voice, Medea spoke, “Greetings, villagers of Monemvasia and loyal servants of the kingdom of Sicily. As the princess of Sicily, I come as a representative, and I am here to inform you that the bandits who raised your village will be captured and punished. As such, you may rest at ease.”

One older man who seemed to be the head of the village hobbled closer while bowing low, and asked, “We thank you and our great ruler deeply for the assistance, Princess Medea. There is but one other issue. The bandits also stole much of our harvest and ruined our crops. Could we request manual labor to help out? I'm afraid we might not be able to pay the tax on our crops. If you could send for assistance or delay our taxes, it would be greatly appreciated, honorable princess.”

Medea fixed the older man with a watchful eye and replied, “I cannot send for additional labor. You fine people will simply have to work a bit harder or make up the loss. I can give a little more time and lower your taxes a bit this one time, and if all goes well you might recover some of your harvest. For now, I ask that you show me to my room. We shall have a meeting tonight where I'll share the plans for how we will move forward. May the blessings of Ceres be with you.”

‘Huh, why is she being so cold about this? Well, not like I have anything to do, I might as well help out.’

Vac looked over to the toiling farmers, and with that thought moved to join them in their labor. Medea, who'd already started to walk away, turned around and scowled at him, though she quickly schooled her face to be calm like before. She simply nodded and turned back around as the village head led her away.

Vac helped out where he could as the entire village seemed to join in on the farming. Despite the sudden work due to depressing circumstances, it seemed like the entire village was joining in, and they treated it like an event. Even the kids joined in, running around giving water and helping pull weeds. Normally there would be no way for the crops to be grown quickly, but as Vac observed with amazement, they could use the magic of Ceres to speed up the growth of the crops. It took a while for them to reach all of the crops, and by sacrificing rocks gathered by the kids, they were able to make quite a lot of progress.

‘Incredible. It's not as cool as some other stuff, but that's awesome. We could've used that kind of magic back home. We wouldn't have had to struggle to get food.’

Vac tried to use the magic himself, but this particular branch of Ceres magic just didn't work out for him. He asked a nice older man named Caerellius to teach him to use it. Caerellius responded, “Ya don't hafta think about it too much. Our noble goddess is the goddess of earth, willpower and the plants and trees that grow from the earth. Ya just gotta root yourself to the ground and feel the plants. We're all connected through the earth, ya know? Plants are stubborn things, and need strong roots to grow right. Ya gotta be the same way, connect with them, and just give them what ya got. Pretty simple, no?”

Vac simply nodded while giving an uneasy smile.

‘I kinda understood that, but that's a pretty abstract concept. I don't know if I'd call that simple. Then again, these guys have probably been raised with that kind of mentality since birth.’

He gave it a few more tries and managed to make very slight progress while spending a lot of energy. Once they were done for the day, he asked to be shown back to where he would be staying. He and Medea were going to stay in the village head’s home. There were guards posted outside the wooden cottage, and it had been cleaned up to perfection on the inside. There were two bedrooms, and as he walked towards his one, he noticed Medea stepping out of hers.

“Hey. I just got back. It was pretty cool. I didn’t know…”

Vac’s voice faltered as Medea walked over while glaring at him. Once she was right in front of him, she spoke in a cold voice, “And what do you think you were doing, volunteering for that kind of task?”