Chapter 33: A Connection

A shadow sat in a large building. Light was surrounding it, but the shadow was not touched by the light. It was as if there was an absence of light in the area where the shadow was. The large building looked like a temple; it was made out of marble and had dark red wood accentuating all its corners. It looked peaceful and yet at the same time it seemed intimidating. It emitted a pressure in which most people could not even stand in. It was surrounded by forests and mountains and there was beautiful scenery around the entire area. There was no civilisation for many kilometres.

In this isolated place the shadow lived. It lived surrounded by light, and yet it did not allow the light to touch it. When the shadow sat it was almost as if the light was trying to force its way into the darkness. After a while the shadow could no longer handle the constant barrage of light and it shattered. The shadow shattered and revealed a man. Tall, muscular, and handsome. The man was incredibly impressive. He had light brown hair and blue eyes. His skin was rough and his face was unshaven, however, this seemed to add to the charm of the man. He appeared calm and angry at the same time, his rough skin and unshaven face clashed with his beautiful blue eyes; it was as if his entire being was clashing with itself.

The man sat with his legs crossed in the centre of the temple. He breathed in the clean air and then grabbed a large notebook where he began to write something down. ’29 hours, 45 minutes, 10 seconds.’ he wrote. Above this note were hundreds of other times. The further one looked down the list the greater the time became. The man smiled as he was clearly pleased with this time. He threw the notebook in the corner of the room and began to lie down while looking at the ceiling of the temple. He counted all the discrepancies in the quartz. The man’s expression turned sad as he continued to lie and count. There was clearly something on his mind.

Suddenly a tiny invisible stream of light scanned across the lands surrounding the temple. The man immediately sat up as a shocked expression was on his face. The man felt warmth he had not felt for years. Tears streamed down as his face.

The man croaked out a single word, nay not a word, but a name. A name which he knew all too well, a name which he had been waiting to call for years. This name was Trip.

At this point Trip felt the same way. Tears streamed down his face as he finally felt something significant. He felt his uncle. He felt the warmth of a familial bond. Trip was currently sitting on a rock in the mountain range. After they had left Cuvin Trip had spent a lot of time training light magic, or more specifically, his ability to locate his uncle. He trained for a long time in order to try and find the exact location of his uncle. Today was the day when he finally felt it. He felt the location and he felt his uncle. After he had sent the light stream he felt a connection build. There was now a direct connection with his uncle, which meant that even when he was not using light magic he was able to feel where his uncle was.

Alex saw Trip crying and he immediately knew something significant had happened, either good or bad. “What happened?” he asked.

Trip smiled and started to laugh. “I just found my uncle.” He said

Alex smiled brightly. Trip had found exactly where his uncle was, this meant that not only was their adventure slowly coming to an end, it also meant that soon Trip would have access to a powerful teacher who could help him develop into a truly powerful entity. Alex was slightly nervous, as he did not know whether Trip’s uncle will allow him to stay with Trip during the time that he is there.

Alex did not mention this worry of his; of course he wouldn’t want his best friend to be worried about him at this point. If Trip heard of Alex’s concern then he might be afraid of going to his uncle. Since Alex did not say anything and they instead celebrated the entire night by eating a massive mountain goat which they found. It tasted quite badly, but it was strong and tough meat, which would make them grow more, this made them enjoy the meal more than they would have if they were only focusing on the taste.

With Trip having found the exact location of his uncle they realised that they actually should be heading south-east, rather than just going east. This was a good thing for them, as barren mountains were a lot more boring than a large vibrant ecosystem in forests and other less barren terrain. Trip estimated that they were approximately a month away from the location of his uncle.

After two days they exited the mountain range and they were greeted by a massive amount of large green trees, crystal clear lakes, and the sounds of countless birds singing. It was a beautiful and wonderful sight. It was much easier to breathe as well. In the mountain range the altitude affected their ability to breather, which in turn affected their movement speed and their ability to think clearly. There were several times when the altitude really affected Alex, with him almost becoming delusional at the top of a really high mountain, causing him to almost fall and hurt himself. Now there were no more worries such as that. They could focus on moving happily in the area around them. Trip was also excited because of the book that he got from Jacob, because there was a lot more plants and flora around, meaning that he could actually test out a lot of the things he learned in the book.

Two more days passed and their situation seemed to be perfect. They were almost at the end of their journey and they were still learning a lot. However Trip seemed to notice something about the area. A lot of the animals in the area had some sort of injury. It was not a bite mark, nor was it a scratch, but instead it was like a dark purple mark on the skin of the animal. It was like a burn, but it looked even more terrifying. Trip searched through his book and he could not find any plant that emitted or contained this type of poison. From this he immediately knew that it had to be an animal. Luckily the two of them were incredibly powerful compared to the other animals in this forest and Trip was not worried that either of them would get hurt.

He simply told Alex to be careful and that was that. Neither of them were so stupid to be unable to take care of themselves so this wasn’t a big issue. That night Trip went out to study a plant called Lumnight, which was a type of plant which would look like any other until it turned night, when it would shine brightly. Trip really wanted to see this so he left the little camp they had set up for the night.

Several hours later he was walking back to the camp when he suddenly heard a scream. A scream none other than his best friend, Alex Oyak. Trip immediately ran over to the source of the scream and saw a terrifying monster. It was 20 metres long and looked like a massive snake. The width of the snake’s body was a meter. Trip looked at the snake and wondered what happened to cause this. He studied that snakes were not often aggressive at night, due to them having cold blood. That was when Trip saw 2 broken eggs on the ground. It was clear that Alex might have accidently of purposely broken those eggs, causing the mother to be incredibly angry. Trip looked at Alex and saw that he had a massive wound in his side, the skin was turning purple and it looked exactly like what he saw on the animals, except this was at a much higher level. Even without any medical training Trip could tell that this snake was much stronger than whatever had fought the animals.

Trip immediately attacked in order to help Alex. He did not want to kill the snake, but instead he hoped to only scare it off. Unfortunately after having sent 10 water bullets and several water vortexes it was clear that the snake was not backing down. Realising that there was no other way Trip immediately grabbed the snake and sucked the light soul out of it. After a lot of squirming and fighting the snake eventually died. It slumped to the ground. Trip jumped off of the body and ran over to Alex.

When he reached Alex he saw that what had happened was much worse than he expected. Half of Alex’s body was covered in purple skin. Trip was normally calm, but seeing his friend in this state he did not know what to do. Alex’s body was shaking and there was black blood coming out of his mouth. Alex’s eyes turned white and Trip could feel that he was slowly dying.

Trip’s only hope was Grelin. “WHAT DO I DO!?” He asked

“Ok, the poison has spread incredibly far throughout his body and we really only have one option.” Grelin said

“WHAT IS IT?!” Trip screamed

“I can give you some of my soul to make you powerful enough to use ice magic. If you can use ice magic then you should be able to freeze him and while he won’t wake up until you unfreeze him it will also stop the poison from spreading.”

“What… What effect would this have on you?” Trip asked reluctantly

“I will have to go into a deep sleep until, but I will recuperate.” Grelin said

Trip sighed and said “I’m sorry. Let’s begin the procedure.”