Tycen didn’t remember the impact that sent him flying. All he had were flashes of him soaring through the air, slamming through branches, and landing on the ground with a thud. His eyes couldn’t focus on his location before he passed out. When he woke up, his arm and two wings were broken, in addition to a dislocated shoulder. He sat up, leaning against a tree, and took a deep breath.
It hurt to breathe. He groaned, plucking a health potion out of his inventory and tipping it down his throat. The warm, viscous liquid spread throughout his body. He could feel the vital energy replenishing all the blood he had lost. It was tingly. Tycen heard crunching leaves. He got up, conjured his mace in the only functioning arm, and held it in a pseudo-attacking position.
Through the trees, three alien-looking creatures popped out. Tycen audibly sighed, dismissing his blade. He knew who these creatures were, and their orange bioluminescence was a clear signal to him.
“Hi drones,” he said. They nodded their heads. “You hear to take me back to Anna and Levi?” They nodded once again. “Lead the way, mind you… I’m going to be slow.” One drone walked over to him, allowing him to have something to lean on. He nodded appreciatively. One drone took the lead, and the last fell behind as watch. Tycen had an escort back; with every step, he could feel his strength returning as the health potion was doing its job.
There was an intense popping sound as his once-broken arm had healed completely. He looked at it; it was still swollen and bruised, but at least the bone had been set. The health potion slowly faded away, along with the warmth. The warmth was a sedative, preventing the person from feeling pain. As the warmth faded, the pain returned. Tycen felt the achiness a lot. He pushed through the pain, now able to walk on his own without support.
As they walked back, Tycen thought about his life. He reflected on how he had gotten to this point. Tycen was lucky, very lucky, in fact. He was born with magic, the first one in his tiny tribal village to do so. His village had been around for centuries, a small island that no one had cared about. They were all avians that celebrated family and their own culture. They barely made enough money to survive, but his father and grandfather somehow managed to purchase a magic essence for themselves.
Tycen was now rich beyond his family’s wildest imagination. He planned to go back and help the village out, maybe even be lucky and find some magic essence of his own. His father was not thrilled that Tycen wanted to leave the tribe. He called it pure selfishness. In some aspects, he was right. Tycen understood that his tribe needed more magic users; it would help the small tribe grow and thrive.
Tycen also knew that traveling the world adventuring is a dangerous job, case and point their last fight. One minute they were hunting a strange creature, the next, they were trying to stop some freaks from raping women and children. It was a strange series of events. Tycen thought back to his family before he left—the range of emotions: anger, sadness, envy, hatred, and love. Tycen had experienced it all, but he paid no mind to it. Now that he had an almost near-death experience, it would be a priority for him to get home; he couldn’t possibly let those emotions be the last thing they remember him by.
***
“Here’s the plan,” Levi said to Serenia through the cages. She was sitting cross-legged, staring intensely at Levi. “We’re going back to the closest village, it’s where we were headed. We’ll see the state of the place. We will have to stay for awhile as half my team will be unconscious for several days.”
“You will release us once we return to that village?” Serenia asked.
“Yep,” Levi said.
“And we are supposed to trust you?”
“I don’t care if you do or don’t,” Levi said. “This was the plan that was decided. Serenia stood up, defiance in her eyes. She looked back into Levi’s tired expression. Her eyes softened when she realized he had been just as tired, if not more than she was.
After pausing to consider her words, she said, “I’m sorry. I know you have been through a lot already. I have been nothing but rude. We all cannot walk, that is without question.”
“Good,” Anna said. “We are taking only you out of the cages, the rest will stay in the caravan.”
Serenia’s eyes lingered on Anna. She nodded, “Letting everyone out would take days to travel. How do you propose to move our carts?”
“Levi can handle that issue,” Anna responded. Come on,” she said, holding out a hand as they unlocked the cage. Serenia hesitantly grabbed Anna’s hand and lowered her to the ground. She was smaller than both Levi and Anna, and her frame outside of the bars was even worse. Levi pulled out some stew for her to eat.
“We have a long journey ahead of us,” Levi said. Levi instructed a few drones to grab the individual carts of slaves and pull them in the direction they needed to go. Serenia gulped down her meal and made her way next to Levi. He was standing on a strange cloud that swirled around him and allowed him to fly.
“Do you always have a dragon on your shoulder?” Serenia asked pointedly.
“I do,” Levi said. “She is one of my familiars.”
“You are a powerful man?” She asked.
Levi chuckled but didn’t answer, “yes yes he is,” Anna answered instead.
“Don’t let her lie to you,” Levi replied. “I’m just an average summoner. Any questions about the plan?”
“No,” Serenia replied. “It makes sense, I will let the group know while you make final preparations.”
“Thank you,” Levi said. Serenia nodded, then made her way to each cage and began discussing the next step. There were a lot of complaints that Levi could make out, but he chose to ignore them and continue to see how heavy the carts were. He walked over to one with Anza by his side. She was in her alpha form, large and powerful. There was a bar that looked like a mount could move them.
Levi looked over them and saw that there were faint traces of magic. He looked around them more, searching for a rune, runic formation, or anything that could have propelled the carts forward. Levi couldn’t remember the carts moving on their own before or if they had conjured some kind of magical creature to move them.
He found nothing that could have helped him, so he resorted to plan B. “Anza can you move this?” he asked. Anza roped three tentacles around one of the carts and gave a gentle nudge. It moved with what seemed like little effort from Anza.
Easily, she replied. Two drones would be able to move this. Levi nodded creating six drones to the carts.
“Smooth,” Levi said. He walked over to the three bodies and gently picked up Piper. Anna picked up Izzy and Serenity, who were now her full size, and picked up Bradley. The three of them were all gently on the roof of one of the cages. Serenity went up there and curled around the trio, ensuring they would not fall off. After that was prepared, Levi moved up to the lead cart, the one that had Serenia in it at first. She was now making her way back toward Levi.
“They are prepared,” Serenia said.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Very good,” Levi said. “You can sit on top of Anza or any of the drones.” Levi walked over to Anza and jumped up. Anna followed his lead and jumped on top of one of the drones. The woman gave an uncertain look at the alien creatures. She was from a small village that hardly ever saw anything magical; these creatures were the scariest things she had ever seen. Serenia knew that she had gone through a lot because the dragon on the man’s shoulder hardly bothered her. In fact… she thought it was cool, and a tinge of envy sprouted inside her every time she glanced at the beautiful creature.
After some internal conversation, she made her way up to Anza. She sat behind Levi, not trusting the other monsters but putting a tiny bit of faith in Levi. Levi glanced back at the slender woman, who was grinning as he turned his head. With a mental nod, Anza and the drones took off. As they were taking a few steps, Serenity raised her head.
“Wait,” she said. “I sense Tycen.” Anna snapped her head so quickly that Levi could have sworn she broke it. Anna jumped down off her drone and ran in the direction Serenity was looking. Out from the dense forest underbrush popped a drone, then Tycen leaning on a drone.
“Tycen!” Anna cried tears in her eyes. She threw herself on the big man.
“Agh,” Tycen grimaced as she threw herself on him. “Hey Anna… glad to see you’re okay too.”
“Oh shoot,” Anna said. “I’m so sorry, did I hurt you?”
“Just a little sore,” Tycen groaned. “My wings were broken, which is why I am walking. How are the others?”
“I will update you as we travel,” Anna said, looping her arm in Tycen’s. Levi looked at the two with an assessing look. Once they had mounted a drone, and the drones traveling with Tycen continued to act as guards, they journeyed toward the next town.
As Levi sat on Anza, he started to meditate. He knew it would be helpful to reflect on the past fight. It had been some time since he had meditated. It would also help him get used to the new power that he had just gained. Most importantly, Levi would learn from the things he did wrong or could have done better.
During the fight, Levi struggled to do any lasting damage to himself. His fighting technique is mediocre at best and subpar at worst. He reflected on how quickly Piper, Bradley, and Izzy were all attacked. All it took was a straightforward spell; he had to make sure they were aware of where a sorcerer was looking. He wasn’t sure what he could have done that would have been different. Frustration grew inside him. Levi was frustrated that he couldn’t help in that situation. He was angrier that he was kicked so hard that his ribs broke without even feeling or sensing the teleportation magic.
As Levi’s emotions continued to spike, so did his agitation. He was better than the fight displayed. Sure, he won the fight, but at what cost? He could have done better. He could have summoned the right creatures for the job. He could have—Levi realized he couldn’t.
That was a 4-star opponent, Levi, he thought. What you did was the best you could have managed. Why spend time worrying about what you could have done better only to be frustrated with yourself? Adapt. Learn. Grow. After his mini pep talk, Levi acknowledged the feelings that he was experiencing and let them go. With a soft yet deep breath, he gently opened his eyes.
Levi saw that they were near the town. He felt his side; his ribs were nearly healed. This was good, as it meant his meditation was beneficial. Serenia was sitting still behind him, her eyes glued to Levi.
“What was that you were doing?” She asked.
“Meditation,” Levi responded. “It helps me get better by improving on the fight we just had.”
“Is this a magic user thing?” Serenia asked.
“Could be,” Levi said. “Not sure honestly, I’ve done meditations before I had magic but I am sure it does not have the same effect.”
“I wanted to be a magic user at one point in my life,” Serenia said.
“Never too late,” Levi said.
“It definitely is,” Serenia chuckled, the first time she had ever chuckled since meeting her. It was a stark contrast from her usual stoic and flat demeanor. “I am nearly 30, I have no business going out and fighting monsters.” She shook her head. “No… but I don’t know what I am going to do.”
“Have you ever had any dreams or aspirations?”
“They all died when I was taken as a slave,” Serenia said sadly. “Now, I just want to live in a peaceful place and be able to protect me and my people.”
“Then it seems like you need to get you some magic users in your village,” Levi said.
“That isn’t going to be you all?” Serenia asked.
“No,” Levi said, shaking his head. “We have other things to do, of course we can’t do that until those three are awake and in decent shape to travel, so you’re looking at least three weeks, maybe more.”
“Even just for helping rebuild houses, would be a major help. I am not sure how much of the town is left… I’m not even from this area.”
“We will be here to help with that,” Levi said. “We’re just over the hill.” The caravan of wounded adventurers and former slaves had arrived at the village. There was a small stone wall that was supposed to be a barrier for the village, but it wasn’t nearly tall enough to prevent magic users from jumping on it. The wall was about six feet tall and spanned the entire village, which was larger than the last town.
The town was in utter shambles. The stone wall was mostly destroyed; several houses were burnt to the ground, and others were still burning. Most of the houses had chunks missing from the frame, the body, or the roof of the house. Windows were shattered, and there was still some dried blood all over. It was truly a scene from a gruesome horror movie. As they got closer, Levi pushed out his sense, as did Dameion and Serenity. When nothing dangerous popped up, they dismounted Anza and walked toward the village.
Four smokey cloaks emerged from Levi’s body. Vapor spread out throughout the village to see if there were any survivors or places the team should avoid as much as possible. Vapor’s voice entered into his head.
“I found something that might not be good to mention to everyone,” she said. Levi appeared next to her in an instant. She led Levi into a building that was kept in peace with the stench of death and thick with blood. Levi almost gagged at the horrible stench. He slid the door open to see even more disturbing scenes. A pile of rotting corpses lay in that shed. It looked like they were mutilated as they were all naked. Once again, anger was deep within his soul.
A giant blast of fire appeared and burnt the bodies. Levi looked up to see Serenity. He nodded his gratitude, who nodded back. She dropped from the heavens and landed softly on Levi’s shoulders.
Levi continued his survey of the village, now one building less. There were plenty of buildings to house all the slaves they had rescued. The biggest thing would be getting everyone started. There was no room for his team to stay in one residence. There wasn’t a place to cook all the food for the scared, starving, and cold travelers. That was the biggest bummer; he was hoping that he wouldn’t have to just make more stew.
Before arriving, Levi had sent his drones to look for food and veggies. They were specifically instructed to bring any and everything they could find back. After finishing his assessment, Levi walked over to Anna, who was leaning on Tycen as they waited for him. He looked at the two’s body language yet said nothing about it.
“Anna how’s your mana?” he asked.
“Manageable,” She replied. “Why?”
“These people are going to need clothe and a shower, which I don’t have any powers like that.”
“That is not a bad idea,” Anna said. “I can conjure up something, it might be cold.”
“Cold is better than grim. Tycen how are you feeling?” Levi said.
“Fine, thank you,” Tycen said. “My body is mostly recovered but will need a few days to fly again.”
“Understandable, glad you’re okay bro,” Levi said.
“Can you help me create a black flattop with some rock? If we can get that done, then we can start feeding these people some food.” Levi marveled at the handy work that Tycen provided. He had worked quickly and efficiently. He was proud of his friend. By the time Tycen had finished the flat stone, Levi had checked many of the houses for anything. He ended up finding several chests of clothing, bedding, and something to clean everyone up.
“Everyone,” Levi called. “We have showers over here, once you are showered,” Levi nodded in the direction. “You come over here and grab some clothes, even if it’s a bedding or pillow case, grab one and cover up. After you have gotten some of your clothes own, you may begin eating as soon as you have taken your seat. Please, eat as much as you can. While you are eating we will be trying to salvage any of these buildings for sleeping arrangements. You all have had a long few years. Eat all you can, fill your bellies, then rest your souls.”
At first, everyone seemed nervous until Serenia said the same thing in whatever language they spoke. Levi wondered why he couldn’t understand them, but he had far too much to do to think about that. Anna and Willow worked together to create warm water for those who were to shower. The showers went quickly as the prospect of food was too alluring. In a few minutes, the entire village was bustling with people showering, chatting, and eating. It made Levi smile as they all looked like they had finally found hope.