Being a guardsmen for 15 years has been fulfilling. Protecting those within the village, keeping beasts away, capturing various criminals, and even breaking up silly arguments before they get violent. I like my job.
Today…today…I am scared. I have met my share of elemental or essence beasts. Huge creatures, banging on the walls of the village like they are paper. Watching as each of my fellow guardsmen reinforce the walls, attack the beasts, heal the injured, there is a rhythm to battle here. It’s not like the warfronts or expeditions. This is a known area. The battles are expected, and we have some of the best scouts in the region to predict what beasts are making their way here. We have weeks and weeks of time before a truly powerful beast will even make it to the walls.
How did this bear make it here without notice? Even now I can feel the air essence swirl and dance around him. Oh, he may look like a light bear, but he is so much more. I am an air and earth influencer. The air tells me of beasts moving towards the village with hours of warning. This bear…the air doesn’t see him. The air seems to play around him like children on a holiday at the lake. The lake is there, and the children run around him, swim through him, and float on him.
The earth essence doesn’t feel his weight. I can feel the child, but not the bear. And when I focus, really concentrate only on my connections, he is still not there.
Strongs, when they approach the village, it’s like a hurricane in the domain they associate with. The domain seems to bend and warp to their individual presence. Usually, this disturbance is so great, that other essences are also influenced. For an influencer, seeing a single strong is almost like going blind, there is too much. You could track a strong clear across the continent if you wanted to, they distort the domains to such an extent. This bear, though…this bear seems to be the essence. I remember from training in the army that avatars are easily identified by their lack of presence…their lack of existence within their own domain.
Could this be an avatar bear? An avatar of earth, light, and air? This village, this entire continent would fall from just its whisper into the domains it controls.
As I look into the field below me, I begin to notice it. The child is sitting cross-legged from the bear, but his head is down…like he is asleep or contemplating something. There is light however…growing around the two beings in the field…like two candles in dark room. Even without a light domain, I can see the subtle waves.
“Sergeant!” My mind snaps back and I turn around to see my troop commander looking at me suspiciously.
“Yes, sir! Sorry, sir! I was watching the bear sir.”
“Something going on then?” The commander comes up and looks over the battlements himself. Many moments later he is still looking, the look of awe on my commander growing. Mumbling to himself, I hear his words through the air, “What in the 18 domains are those two?”
“Sir, I don’t know sir.”
“Sergeant, it’s bad luck to ease-drop…but considering what is going on down there, I will ignore it this time.”
“Yes, sir, thank you sir.” I pipe back to him. I turn my head back to the field and stare alongside my commander.
“Should we call up reinforcements, sir?”
“No. No, I don’t think having 50 more people here would do anything if that bear decided to wipe out the village.” The commander, a parity earth, just looks down at the field defeated, without a single essence worked. He looks to me and commands, “Sergeant, run down the tower to the village defense office. Have an emergency transport authorized. Send word back to the King via the Duke. Keep it simple. Light, earth bear outside the village. Bonded.”
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“Sir, the bear is air as well.” The commander’s eyes open and then recede. “Light, air, and earth bear…bonded, yes sir, got it.” With that I turn to run down the stairs, when I take a quick glance at the bear below…his eyes are now squarely on both of us. The eyes glow like tiny suns as they track both of us. The spike of fear breaks my eye contact and I run down the stairs like the entire world is going to dissolve into dust.
By the time I reach the bottom of the stairs, I am drenched in sweat. The clamorous sounds of village life echoing off the interior walls. Yelling at the top of my lungs, “Guard business, make way, or get push out of the way! Now!” I can’t say that I have done this before, but maybe it’s the panic showing on my face, or my voice, but the crowds being to part.
Ten minutes later, I am barreling through the village defense office. “Sandy, I need an emergency transport message yesterday…straight from the commander, none of your bullshit.” Sandy, my off-again, on-again “friend”, turns with the air of pissed off ex…which she has the right to be, honestly…and then freezes. I guess she sees whatever the people in the village saw when they parted the roads for me, but she quickly recovers…and goes full official…cold woman that she can be at times.
“Wording?” She asks me it that tone…the tone that tells me I am not going to be forgiven even if the world is dissolving.
“Light, earth, and air bear outside village. Bonded. Possible avatar.” At the last words, Sandy’s head snaps up and she looks at me…she seems to recognize the cause of my fear now.
Quickly, she folds the paper up, stamps it, and places it in a red, paper carrier. She then stamps the carrier and marches out through the side door. Following, I watch as she places a pedestal in the center of a large, obsidian stone circle. The carrier is placed gently on top. She then goes to the far side of the circle…a raised platform, surrounded with plants in potters…phasing in and out of existence.
Taking a quick seat, I see her take a deep breath, and then the whole circle structure flashes and disappears. Once my sight recovers, I notice that two of the plants have shifted completely transparent.
“Two plants for that one?” I asked with a heavy question in my voice.
“Idiot, it’s a red. I have to force a transport, with means I have to check the location and make sure they are not shifting.” Her voice, a little flustered, shows the strain. Space domains are rare, and weak ones are super important for the world. No village can be without several dedicated space domains…and there are just not enough for more villages to be built. My old general essence teacher used to say that this is the balance of the world…never too much or too little.
“You staying here or do you have some place more important to be?” That’s my Sandy, right to the point.
“I don’t know really. The commander is in the tower…I should get back, send a runner to the tower if there is a response.” With that I quickly exit the transport area and run back to the tower.
Several quips from the locals about “where’s the fire?”, “Did Sandy finally beat some sense into you?”, etc. I think I should have picked a larger village.
By the time I get back to the tower, the commander is at the base of the tower with a squad, forming up responsibilities.
“Good, Sergeant, you made it back in time. Get back to the tower. Don’t do anything to piss off the bear or the kid. If something happens, run down here…probably safer and faster…and tell either Jones or Balla whats going on. They will get to me.”
“Gate Guardsmen, open the gates. Get things back to normal. If that bear attacks, those gates are nothing.”
“Outside patrols, normal schedule. Just keep clear of the bear. Remember we are looking for an elemental earth boar sighted 4 days. It was heading near this direction, but the Sergeant here hasn’t picked it up yet…so it maybe just stay on the outside of the forest, or it may start working its way in.”
“That reminds me Sergeant, don’t get distracted by the kid and his bear, take a look outside their range. See if that boar is following the bear in.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Inside patrols, keep the peace…this includes any gossip. No need to start riots. If you get questions, just state that the bear is bonded and doesn’t seem to be a threat. We are keeping it outside the village walls. Ok, any questions?”
One of the new guardsmen, probably 20 or so, fresh from scouting for the military…”Sir, the bear is bonded? I thought bonds could only be small animals, birds, mice, rabbits…isn’t a bear too big?”
“Entry Billings, yes, it’s an outside case…but from what I saw up there…it’s a bonded…a deep bonded…possibly a soul bonded. Bonds themselves are rare, so it’s possible that the small animal theory is just because we don’t have enough bonds to form a good theory. In either case, we can hope that the theory that bonds keep their bonded sane holds true here. Ok, anything else?” With the obvious shortened response, it was sure that the commander wanted us out and about…keep the peace…etc, etc.
I spun out of the gathering and headed back up the tower stairs. At the top was Entry Fungle carrying the same expression I had 30 mins ago.
“Entry Fungle, you are relieved to your normal duties. I believe you should head down and resume your normal duties.”
“Yes, sir! Sir, the bear…he is not just a bear…he…”
“Yes Entry. I know…most, from the king down will probably now in an hour or two, but its not a threat, just a novelty. Head on down.”
“Yes, sir!”
With that, Entry Fungle disappears down the stairs…leaving me alone at the top of the tower watching a bear that could end my world.