It’s been one month and two weeks now

And I’ve finally come to a decision

I’ve decided on earth

Thinking that, feeling it, really deciding on it.

A flash of light hit my eye.

Invisible to everyone but me

Something that surprised me

Yet, felt normal.

‘Element of EARTH has been chosen’

‘Resitances to EARTH type magic serverly increased’

‘EARTH type magic Unlocked’

‘Profficiensies with EARTH type magic increased’

‘Unlocked Basic Earth manipulation’

‘Basic Earth manipulation Upgraded too Advanced Earth manipulation’

Wow

That’s a lot of information to process

Holy

How long was it since I did the dragon ritual?

One month?

Less?

This is too fast.

This feels too fast.

Looking up to the human

I see her jump-skipping.

Merrily whistling to a tune that I’ve never heard.

Something changed

She seems more

Confident about herself.

As if

She has resolved a hard decision that’s been bugging her.

A burden lifted from her chest.

Whatever it was, I’m just happy that she is herself again.

I got worried when we sat by that tree.

“Hey! I decided on Earth!”

“YOU DID?! Congrats Mister Butler!”

She yelled, turning around and running up to me.

Jump-hugging me.

Taking me by surprise as we both fell to the ground, limp in a laughing pile.

“Hahaha. Well, show me something then!”

Sitting up, she excitedly said

Looking towards me with large kitten like eyes.

“Okay, okay, wait a second”

Sitting myself up

I closed my eyes, trying to feel the energy that should be within me.

Knowing from previous knowledge that I would instinctively know how to wield the magic

Something that I had a hard time really believing.

Until now, that is.

Now, it just feels like.

A part of nature.

“I-I think I got it. Wait, a sec.”

I said, with still closed eyes.

Deep inside, I could feel something

Something solid, hard, and unyielding.

Something that I’d never felt before

But it still felt perfectly natural, as if it had always been there.

A new muscle, never used but always there

I reached within

Feeling a light shine up

Making the surrounding earth beam brightly like the sun.

Giving me an instinctive feeling of what I could move and what not I could move

And I flexed

Feeling the magical muscle being used

And quickly failing.

“Ooooooh, did you just make the ground vibrate?!”

A high voice asked me

My cheeks turned a shade redder.

Shuffling around, letting her eyes rest on my back

Ahem

Trying again.

Feeling the ground

Seeing the light

Flexing my muscle

And then I felt it

A solitary boulder trapped within the ground.

I reached for it, muscle flexing down

Clutching the boulder in my magic

Caressing it, telling it, pleading with it

Please move.

And so it did.

Shaking itself from its solitary prison

Moving up through the ground, like water through stone

Like a knife through butter.

And as it flew upwards

It quickly breached the ground, floating up to the air.

A loud squeal of joy was heard.

“Oh haha! Congrats mister Butler! That’s freaking huge!”

Huge?

I opened my eyes, looking up where my magical muscles held the bould-

...

Yeah.

That’s fricking huge.

Infront of me floated a ten by ten meter big boulder, round.

Casting a pleasing shadow over us

Quickly noting one important detail

Making me sweat profusely

It was hovering above us.

Swallowing down saliva

I desperately moved it

Using my muscle to push and pull

As it slowly

Slowly

Moved away.

She just stared in childish delight as the sudden death boulder floated above.

And as I felt it far enough away

I dropped it.

Making us shake a bit from the impact.

That

That could have gone bad.

Feeling a light slap on my shoulder, I turned around

“That was amazing! I did not know you had such talent for Earth magic!”

Hehe

Neither did I.

“Yeah, I’m hailed as the great one in our city.”

“Oohoo, humble bragging, I can dig that.”

A smug smile meeting mine.

“But you know, it makes you less cool if you still use it.”

“Still use it?”

“Yeah, your making the ground vibrate again.”

I am doing what?

Giving her a confused look

Being met with one of her own.

“So... you're not making the ground shake?”

I shook my head.

Closing my eyes as I used my magical muscle

And feeling it myself

The vibrations travelling through the ground

Making pebbles rattle around.

Pointing towards the origins of the vibrations

“It’s coming from there.”

She looked up, peering to the horizon, hand above her eyes shielding the sun.

Not seeing anything, she quickly climbed the boulder.

Turning around, peering over the horizon

Then they opened wide.

“Eeeeh, I think we should run.”

Uuh

Quickly going up to my feet, I also climbed the tall boulder.

Peering where the vibrations were coming from

And was met with the sight of an army of horses

Riders on top.

From one end of the horizon to the other

The horses ran

Still a few kilometers from us, but gaining speed fast.

I...

That does not look good

“Yeah, we should.”

And we sped off

Running away at a normally unattainable speed

Running away from something that we did not know.

We ran for a few minutes.

Feeling tired

Muscles aching.

Glancing back, the far away silhouettes of horses and riders seemed to have gotten closer.

Way closer

And I realised something very quickly.

They were so many

Too many to make out.

Giving her a sideways glance, she also looked back

Eying the riding horsemen

But suddenly

She stopped.

Mouth wide open.

I stopped too, jogging up to her, tugging at her arm

“What are you doing?”

But she remained silent and standing still.

Looking.

Shocked?

Darn.

Why now of all times?

I looked around, searching for somewhere to hide

Only to be met with grassland

Grassland

And more, grassland.

Nothing as far as the eye could see.

I closed my eyes.

Hoping for, something

Maybe I could dig us a hole into the ground?

I can at least try.

The ground shined to my closed eyes

Giving me instinctive feel for what I could move and not.

Then I noticed something

Something below us

As if calling me

I reached down, and without really thinking about it

I tried to scoop out the ground.

And as I did so, I felt my body starting to move.

But put it out of my mind, as the task of scooping the ground felt weirdly hard

Moving the boulder was a hundred times easier than this.

But I continued.

It felt as if; The ground was calling for me

Asking me too

Take it out.

A few seconds later, the feeling dissipated as I had grabbed enough earth.

Okay, perfect

Next part

Moving it to the side

Using my Earth magic

Feeling wind brush against my head

The magic took form

Moving the pile of earth.

A few seconds later, it felt like I had moved the ground far enough to the side.

So I let the magic go.

A sense of weightlessness overcame me

Hearing a loud, screaming laughter.

“OOOOAAAAHAHAHAHA”

Opening my eyes in confusion

I saw the sky

Looking down, I saw the ground

But I still felt weightless

What

Is happening-

Then it stopped.

Pushing me down hard to the ground

Hitting my head against it

Sight going dark, head spinning.

“Woohoo hahaha, that was fun! Can you do it again?”

A mumbled yell, or scream?

Thoughts muddled.

Minutes passed before I could orientate myself.

Feeling my back against the earth, staring up at the sky.

Asking a simple question.

“What happened?”

“Haha, oh I dont know what the hell you did. But you suddenly started lifting the ground, The ground! Then we floated like really far up, I could not really see over the side, but I think we were far up. Then you just dropped us. Ooohhahaha, that was a really weird feeling.”

She said in a rapid fire

Letting her arms do half of the talking, wildly swinging around.

I did-

“What?”

“Yeah, it was really fun! But you seemed to lose control or something, cuz you hit your head pretty hard. Anyway, whatever you did seems to not have worked. They are a lot closer now.”

Pointing at the army of horse riders.

I quickly got to my feet, looking towards that direction.

But felt myself staring at something else

Not the riders

But at the massive hole in front of me

The size of a big boat

Maybe even bigger

Looking like a crater from an epic battle

From a meteor

What is...

Was that me?

How, but, what

I thought I had just taken out a small scoop?

Shaking myself from thoughts.

Remembering our situation

I looked up to her

Seeing her bright smile, staring towards the army of horses.

Looking to where she was staring, I realised why.

The army of riders had stopped

And from them, a group of maybe ten riders where coming

Maybe a kilometer away from us.

But what shocked me most

Was that they were not riders at all, but fused together with their horse half

A human upper body, and a horse’s lower body.

I think, I think they are called minotaurs?

“It’s centaurs!”

Looking down on me with a beaming smile

Oh, yeah.

And gave her back an awkward smile.

“What should we do?”

I asked, feeling that I’ve wasted too much time with my stupid earth magic

I might have doomed us.

But

If it comes to it

I’ll glady sacrifice myself for her.

“Let’s wait and see, it does not seem like they are here to kill us. Otherwise they would bring the entire herd”

Huh, that sound pretty logical.

Maybe.

But the massive swords that are hanging by their side do not instill confidence in that theory.

Nor how armored they look

Especially the one in the front.

Being the only one with a glimmering armour that looks silvery in nature

But seems to sparkle a little too much to be non-magical.

A minute passed as they trotted their way towards us

Their hands resting on swords, and weirdly enough

At a pouch by their side.

As they neared

We made sure that they saw us holding our hands far from our bows.

Looking as non-threatening as possible.

They stopped at the edge of the scooped out hole

Looking up towards us on our heightened elevation

And the silver armoured centaur spoke.

And I had no idea what she was saying.

“Uuuh, I don’t understand you”

She yelled back

A few uncertain looks was shared amongst the centaurs

And silence came upon us.

Both sides staring at one another

Then the silver one spoke up.

“Why would the common language be brought so far from the south?”

Hmm, odd question

Giving my friend a sideways glance, I searched her face for an expression.

Being met by her honesty

As she looked stupefied.

“Duuuuuuh... I dont know”

She answered, making me unconsciously hit my face.

Why must you be so unpolitical at times?

We are obviously in a tricky situation.

And you sound like your-

“This be unfortunate. Who amongst you are Earth builder?”

The centaur responded, seemingly ignoring her ignorance.

“Earth builder?... Oh you mean Earth magic! Yeah, it’s mister Butler here.”

Pointing at me with a big smile

Getting met by one of horror.

Why do you have to be so honest?

What if they are angry that we are.. Like

Destroying their sacred breeding grounds or something?

But my fears were for nothing

As the centaur rose up on its hind legs

Squeling in

Glee?

“Oh great Earth builder, please, by the honor of the great field. Please help us.”

I-

-Uuuuuh

“Yeah of course we will help! Right, mister Butler?”

An excited yelp

Looking at me with pleading eyes and a wide smile.

But I stopped myself

Feeling unwilling to go along without questioning.

“Waitwaitwait... Before I--we help. What do you need help with?”

The Silver centaur looked up to us, a big smile on its face.

Or maybe her face? It looked pretty feminine.

And answered, sounding stupidly honest.

“We want you to build us a city. We saw your great magic from a distance and realised that our prophecy was about to be fulfilled”

“Build a... City?”

Feeling as if I heard wrong

But no.

No, I heard right

“Yes, a city. To save our people”

“To save?”

“Yes, from the great locust”

“The locust?”

“Yes, the big swarm of something that will swallow our lands and kill us all.”

“A big sw-“

But before I could ask my question

The human stepped in front of me, hands pushing me back a bit.

“Sorrysorry! He’s a bit skeptical about people, but we will absolutely help!”

Then looking at me

“Hey, they obviously need help, why so skeptical?”

I let out a small sigh.

Gazing into her beautiful eyes.

“You know. Dont take this in a bad way, but you're not the best at talking in a dicey situation.”

“Hey, I’m totally good... Okay, yeah I get your point, but they are obviously friendly. What’s the harm?”

“Weeell. What if it’s just a ruse to get us down from here? We have the high ground.”

“Truuue, but it’s a fricking centaurs! Do you know how cool this is! I’m soooo totally gonna ask her if I can ride her.”

...

Sometimes I forget how simple she can be

Something I wish for myself.

“Hehe, okay, yeah let’s help them”

Getting a big smile in response

And a tight hug.

“Let’s Goooooo!”

She screamed out, jumping down into the big hole.

Getting a loud and joyous response from the ten centaurs.

Going up on their hind legs, thrusting the swords up into the air

And far, far into the distance.

A echoing from loud screams.

Sounding like a loud battle cry.

Emanating from thousands upon thousands of voices

And looking up-

...

Yes

Yes, that’s exactly what it was.

As the army of centaurs that were once far away

Had closed in, being less than a kilometer away

All with their swords high in the air

All screaming loud

All looking very

Very happy

Oh god.

What have we gotten ourselves into now?