Following behind Nali, we took the path down the moutain. While we were going down, the ground became softer, but most of all, we didn’t have to worry about the fog anymore! With Nali with us, she made the fog in front of us pouf out!
‘Take that stupid fog!’
Nali led us to a big tree that had its roots out of the ground. Sitting down, the roots felt warmer and softer than any other place we’ve been so far. She took out a bag with water, badages, and other things inside, but where did she have the bag? She didn’t have it with her all this time. It appeared out of nowhere!
She first treated Cain. She took a small towel, put water in it, and cleaned Cain’s hands. Cain would grit his teeth in pain, making funny weird sounds as he breathed. Then, after taking a cream out and placing it over his wounds, she put a badage over.
Then it was my turn.
Taking a different towel, she cleaned me from head to toe. It was painful like a sting and I let out a funny sound once or twice, but other than that, it wasn’t bad. The worst was my leg. After it was cleaned, she put on the same cream. It was cold but made my foot feel better immediately. Finally, she wrapped a new badage over my leg, and unlike what Cain did yesterday, it didn’t hurt.
“All patched up.” She smiled at me. “Now, would you like to tell me how the two of you ended up looking for Gentian?”
Looking at Cain, he shrugged his shulders. I almost forgot I was the one who knew what had happened. Well, he did know what happened, but I was the one who told him so...
Taking a big breath, I explained everything—how we wanted to go to the vocano, the Emerfangs, how I found the Gentian in the book, and how we ended up lost in the moutain.
Nali remained silent while I was talking. It was only after I mentioned the Emerfangs and Papa’s battle with them she frowned a little, but other than that, her expression remained the same.
“I see. You went through a lot this past week. You mentioned your other brother, Lyon. What happened to him?”
“After we came back from the vocano, Lyon is not Lyon. He—”
“Enough about him.” Cain butted in. “You said father was your teacher. How did you meet him?”
Nali raised a brow. Of course, she couldn’t know how Cain felt about Lyon. She stayed silent for a moment, looking deep into the fog before answering.
“Well, let me think... The first time I saw him was when I was a little girl, about the same age as you. But it wouldn’t be until a few years later that I would meet him face to face.”
“Why?” I asked.
Nali chuckled. “Back then, the old man was a famous Ranger going by the name Twinlight, known for his double affinity to fire and water.”
“Afi... what?”
“Affinity. It means that he is very good at using the elements of fire and water.” She answered me and then turned to Cain. “I’m guessing he hasn’t explained it to you yet, being still in your early stages, but to put it simply, every Elemancer can use any of the four basic elements. However, that doesn’t mean they can perform them equally. Usually, one has a single element they understand much better than the rest, with rare cases being for multiple. In the early ages, people tried adapting all four, but as we evolved, we realized it’s better and more suited to stick to what we do best.
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“Wow! Nali you know so many things!”
Her smile grew bigger. “Thank you, Theodore, but that’s just general knowledge. Besides, what sort of academy professor would I be if I didn’t know this much?
“You are a pofessor!?”
“Mhm, in one of the best academies in the whole continent at that, but...” She poked my nose, making me giggle, “Let’s first answer the question of the gloomy guy over there before he explodes in another round of yelling.
“Who is yelling!?” Cain… yelled, making Nali and I laugh. Realizing his mistake, Cain crossed his arms and grumbled to himself.
“Like I was saying, Zephyr, more commonly known as Twinlight, was a very famous Ranger, known for his double affinity to fire and water. I, on the other hand, lived a different life.”
She took a small pause.
“My family is known for the generations of fire Elemancers and so I waited patiently for my awakening. Nine, ten, eleven, twelve.
The years passed, yet no trace of Quint near me, let alone awakening. My family lost hope in me ever becoming an Elemancer. Then, a few days after my thirteenth birthday, while we were having dinner, it happened. Plates flew, drinks spilled and half the table was destroyed by my sudden awakening. Everyone immediately came to check on me, ecstatic at my awakening, especially my father.
“You did all that, but they were ec... what?”
“They were very happy because... hmm how should I say this... Alright, think of it like this: The bigger the explosion one makes when awakens, the better. Since I made such a mess it was great news. For a couple of hours that is...”
I felt my brows coming closer.
“One day, while meditating under a tree, a stranger started barking me to leave. That stranger was none other than Zephyr. At first, I went there daily, just to annoy the grumpy old man. Later, however, seeing him train every day, I tried imitating him, and he didn’t like that one bit. Eventually, though, with a little convincing, he ended up becoming my master.
It was all good and well, but just as I was about to take the Ranger exams and become a Ranger just like him, he disappeared.”
“Disappeared? But he is here.”
Nali chuckled. “I now know that, Theodore. But back then, the last time I saw him, or anyone else for that matter, was before he went into a dungeon. No one heard him ever since... Well... they...” Nali lowered her voice to the point I couldn’t hear what she said. “Anyway, recently a colleague of mine informed me of him and I wanted to check for myself.”
“Wait... How long was that ago?” Cain asked.
“Around fifteen years ago? Why?”
His face dropped. “You are that old!?”
There was a pause until a loud smack echoed in the fog, followed by Cain’s yelp.
‘Yeah! Now a second one for me!’
Clap!
Nali clapped her hands, and her previously happy and pretty expression returned. “Now, we’ve wasted enough time. If we start now, you’ll be back in the village by sunset.”
After some yelling by Cain, and after some more laughing by Nali and I, we began. I have to say that being able to see where you are going is a lot easier to travel. There were many rocks everywhere, and it would have been easy to slip over them, but the idea of sliding in them was a lot more fun than scary. Speaking of scary, the fog got scarier. A lot scarier.
At one point I even thought of it as someone that is staying with us, but now that I could see past my nose, it was very, very scary. The grey color was darker than I thought, but most of all, it looked like there was no end to it. Like it was telling that we couldn’t leave without it letting us go.
Some shadows got bigger and smaller in the mist. And there were these very small black lines, like... like tree branches, and, and they looked like they were beating and like, and like...
I held Nali’s hand tighter, and she played with my hair again. It made me feel better, but I didn’t look at the fog again. Instead, I looked down at our feet and noticed we were going faster than when we started.
I knew it because I liked walking on the same foot as Papa, so I was doing the same with Nali. Every minute or two, I had to restart because we weren’t on the same foot. I had to restart many, many times.
Before I knew it, we were already close to the base of the moutain with more and more grass and trees around us, making the mist even more... misty. It was weird how it flew with the trees. And scary.
Nali suddenly stopped.
I almost dropped to the ground at the sudden move, but Nali pulled me closer to her in time. Cain was the one who blushed, not me, I swear!
“What happened, why did we stop?” Cain asked.
Nali looked serious. “I’m afraid this is as far as I can lead you. You’ll have to go from here on your own.”
“What!? Why!?” I yelled, squeezing her hand. Nali cuddled it with her finger before looking back in the fog.
“Because it’s here.”