Chapter 34: Uncle

Grelin pushed in a massive amount of his power into Trip. Trip could barely handle the power being put into him. He had to release it. He breathed heavily and concentrated on making ice. Trip had to freeze Alex immediately. If he was too slow then the poison would spread too far. The ice also had to freeze Alex immediately. If it took Trip too long then Alex’s body could shut down, which wasn’t what Trip wanted.

Trip had his hands on where Alex’s wound was. He felt Alex’s pulse speed up a lot. Trip knew that he had to freeze him immediately. After a millisecond he released all of his power. A thin layer of impenetrably cold ice appeared on Alex’s body. His face was frozen, his blood was frozen, and the poison was frozen. The procedure had been completed, but this did not make Trip any happier. He could not feel Grelin’s existence anymore. However Grelin did say that he was going into a deep sleep so Trip put down the lack of existence down to that. Trip also wasn’t exactly happy with having saved Alex, but rather he just felt relieved. Alex was now frozen and half dead, and Trip did not have a way to solve this. There was only one option at the moment. That was to find his uncle and have him save Alex.

Trip looked around and saw the two eggs that Alex had accidentally broken. He approached them and he felt angry. If these eggs had never existed then none of this would have happened. He almost broke them in anger, but what stopped him was a sound. The sound was a hiss, even though it was very quiet there seemed to be intelligence behind the hiss. Trip looked around and found that while one of the baby snakes in the eggs had died the other was alive, and looked confused and scared. Trip was amazed by the intelligent emotion displayed by a mere animal.

Feeling guilty for having killed its mother, Trip picked up the little snake and attempted to reassure it. Saying things like “It’s okay now.” And “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.” Trip considered this the only positive thing that had happened during the day. Having seen how powerful the mother was, this child could become just as strong and could prove to be a useful ally. The little snake could also be used to create an antidote for Alex.

Upon further inspection Trip saw that the little snake was slightly different from its mother. Of course its size was much smaller, with it only being half a meter long and a couple centimetres in diameter, but there were some other things as well. The mother of the little snake was purple, but this one was green with a large white spot on its head. The mother had green eyes, but the little snake had red eyes. It also looked more intelligent, even though it was still a new-born. Trip also gave the little snake a name, “Emer” Which was short for emerald, which was the same colour as the little snake’s skin. Trip was quite pleased with this new nickname.

Trip looked up at the sky and realised that it was already morning. He knew that it would be best to move as fast as possible. Emer had already gotten quite comfortable with Trip and wrapped itself around Trip’s arm. Trip then grabbed Alex and all the stuff he had and slowly started to walk. It felt rather nostalgic, carrying Alex around and all, but it was actually very depressing. At this point Trip was very alone, with no one to talk to. Grelin was gone for the moment, Alex was frozen, and Emer wasn’t exactly great in a conversation. A lonely empty feeling grew inside Trip’s heart, but he was driven forward by the prospects of finding his uncle. Everything would be fixed by then.

Two months passed, and Trip finally reached the area where his uncle was. It had taken him much longer than initially planned, but with Alex frozen it was quite difficult to continue at a decent pace. Emer had also grown a lot, with him now being 60 cm long. This made Emer also a heavy thing to carry around.

The area that Trip had now reached was supposedly where his uncle was. However Trip found it very strange. It was as if there was a massive light barrier around it, and the moment that he broke through he felt an immense amount of pressure which made it very difficult to walk. Trip also found that his light magic could not travel far in the environment. This made it almost impossible for him to find his uncle at all.

After walking around blindly for several days he finally found something. It looked like a temple. It was made out of marble and had dark red wood accentuating all its corners. It was rather sinister looking, but Trip felt a warm feeling being emitted from it. He approached the temple and set Alex down on the outside. Emer seemed slightly afraid of the building and he decided to stay back with Alex as well.

Trip walked to the entrance and shouted “Hello? Uncle, are you there?”

However when Trip shouted he felt that the sound of his voice did not even get past the entrance. Trip became rather afraid of the temple. After a couple seconds of calming down Trip decided to man up and he stepped inside the temple. The second he did he fell to the ground. He was held under by an inconceivable amount of pressure. A voice came from the temple, which said “A real man from the Levis family could easily stand in this pressure.”

Trip heard this and was shocked. He immediately knew it was his uncle. In incomparable joy and motivation he crawled over to where he heard the voice from. After a couple seconds his body started to forcefully adjust to the pressure and he stood up. Trip slowly walked until he reached a large room. In the centre of the room stood a shadow. Trip came closer and closer until he touched the shadow, breaking it apart. Underneath the shadow was a tall handsome man. He had blue eyes, which were filled with tears. There was a large smile on his face as he looked lovingly at Trip.

Trip couldn’t help but choke a little bit as he said “U… Uncle?”

The man immediately hugged him and said “Trip… It’s been a long time.”

After a couple seconds Trip’s uncle lightened the pressure in the temple and he immediately walked outside. He looked at Alex and touched his frozen forehead. In a flurry of light the ice broke immediately and the poison retracted almost immediately.

Trip’s Uncle turned to Trip and said “The poison is powerful, but I can repress it for now. Your friend will be fine unless if there is something which breaks the seal on the poison. He’ll wake up tomorrow.” He then turned to Emer and his eyes widened “Haha, now that is a pet worthy of the Levis name.”

Trip looked at Emer and asked “What is he?”

Trip’s uncle laughed and said “All I can say is that he is a Fäver snake, but it seems to have experienced some type of mutation. Fäver snakes are naturally already one of the strongest types of snakes, but it is said that those that have experienced mutations could match even powerful light and dark mages.”

Trip looked at Emer in amazement. He seemed to have been quite lucky this time.

Trip’s uncle then said “Hmmm, you’ve worked hard to get here. You should rest for a while.”

“But I want to talk to you more.” Trip pleaded

“We’ll talk tomorrow.” Trip’s uncle said as he put a single finger on Trip’s forehead. Causing him to fall asleep immediately.

The next morning Trip woke up in a cave. He looked around and found Emer, who was lying in a ray of sun which had made it into the cave, but Alex was nowhere to be seen. Trip grabbed Emer and walked out of the cave. He saw that the cave he was in was inside a mountain right next to the temple.

When he walked down to the temple he saw his uncle sitting outside drinking some water with Alex. They were talking with each other and they seemed to be smiling.

Trip ran down to the temple with a big smile on his face and screamed “ALEX! UNCLE!”

Alex immediately ran to Trip and thanked him for saving his life. They then started to discuss what was going to happen next.

“Trip.” Trip’s uncle said “I will train you for the next 4 years.”

Trip expected this and then asked “What about Alex? Will you train him as well?”

“Unfortunately I have no knowledge over fire magic, and he might hinder your progress if he were to stay here.” Trip’s uncle said

Alex then spoke and said “We were speaking about this before, and we agreed that in an attempt to become more powerful I will leave for the next 4 years. I will come back then and then we can be together again.”

Trip’s uncle then said “You have a week to say your goodbyes. After the four years you two will be attending a school far away from here. So then you can be together again. Remember that if you guys will be friends for life a small four years away from each other means nothing.”

Trip had a sneaking suspicion that something like this would happen. It made sense, but he felt uncomfortable knowing that Alex would be alone in the wild. He almost died a couple days ago. How could Trip possible feel comfortable with this situation?

Trip’s uncle had a dry smile on his face as he knew that Trip wouldn’t be comfortable with this. That is why he gave them a week to make sure that Trip and Alex understood that this was necessary.