Dark Valley: a land that flowed with blood and reeked of death. It was located in the furthest part of the wilderness and was said to be a place protected by the gods. There were many legends about the place, but perhaps the most famous of them all was the Legend of the Fruit of Immortality. It was believed that Dark Valley was a land that grew the mythical fruits called Fruits of Immortality. It was believed that when this world was created, an Immortal Tree was born with it. And this tree bore Immortal Fruits every 200 years. It was also believed that anyone who ate of these fruits would live forever. It was said that the reason why Dark Valley was so dangerous was because there were powerful beasts christened by the Creator of this world to guard the tree. Apparently these powerful beasts were the ones that dealt with every person who entered Dark Valley.
As for how such a legend came about, it was likely because of the fact that even from far away, people could see a towering tree that extended to the clouds from within Dark Valley. This tree had been around for as long as anyone could remember, and that was why people thought it was an immortal tree. It wasn't the soundest of logic, for trees generally lived very long lives. But the legend was loved by kids and adults alike.
Dark Valley was a dangerous place. And because of how dangerous it was, there was no sane person in the world who was willing to go there. Even if one was told that their souls had been tossed into that land forsaken by nature and they had to go retrieve them, they wouldn't be willing to go there. And that was because no one knew what exactly was there. And fear of the unknown was a phobia for everyone. Of course there were people who still visited Dark Valley. In fact, there were three kinds of people who visited Dark Valley.
The Insane
The Foolishly Greedy
And the Overconfident Warriors.
The insane ones were those that were so curious about that dangerous land that they were willing to risk their lives just to see what exactly was in the place. Of course they never made it out so whatever they found out, lived with them – no, died with them rather.
The foolishly greedy ones were those who had heard of legend of the Immortal Tree and the Fruits of Immortality and dreamed of getting their hands on these fabled fruits. Needless to say, none of those idiots made it out alive. The knowledge of whether or not they discovered the Fruits of Immortality died with them. And so did their lineage – hopefully. For the world didn't need any more fools, only scholars and sages.
The last category of people who went looking for the Dark Valley were the overconfident warriors. These were men and women who believed that they had reached the peak of this world's existences, and assumed that they were too strong to fail. Seeking for new challenges and hoping to create their own legends by becoming the ones who survived Dark Valley, they went looking for the forbidden land, found it, and made their homes in it.
Actually, there was a fourth category. There was another kind of people who went into Dark Valley. They could be described simply as the people of the Three Great Races. Unlike the humans of this world who could only speculate and make assumptions on what was really in the Dark Valley, the members of the Three Great Races had been to the land that was meant to house the Immortal Tree and had explored it. And because they had explored the Dark Valley, they knew that there were no Immortal Fruits. But there were several precious herbs and ores to be found in the valley.
Because it was seldom visited by humans due to how dangerous the place was, it was rich in several resources that had gone extinct over the several years that man had ruled the world. One of these precious herbs was a flower called the Revival Grass.
Revival Grass was an unassuming plant with the ability to wake anyone up. It didn't matter if the person was asleep, in a coma or had literally just died, the Revival Grass was able to wake them all up! Of course its effects differed depending on the condition of a person. If a person was asleep, using a Revival Grass was a huge waste since that person could just be slapped awake. If the person was in a coma, using the Revival Grass would wake him or her up without any problems. And it didn't matter how long the person had been stuck in the coma. As long as one used a Revival Grass, that person would wake up. Now to the dead. If a Revival Grass was used on someone who had only just recently passed, it wouldn't be able to save his/her life. The awakening was only temporary, and only if there was another miraculous herb with insanely effective healing abilities would this person be truly saved. But that alone was a huge boost.
There were two people who technically belonged to the fourth category travelling to the Dark Valley. Their goal? The Revival Grass. Of the two was a Princess of the Elemental Race. It wasn't like she knew this though. The other was a being that transcended the three Great races and had the right to look arrogantly upon this world. For he was the one destined to rule the Universe – although not this one. He was the Supreme.
Supreme and Princess; young man and young woman; children with exceptional backgrounds and great talent that allowed them to disregard everything, were riding their mounts speedily. Their mounts were Red Maned Horses, and they rode them so swiftly that the creatures moved with the speed of the wind. Their blurry figures were all that could be seen as they raced towards the land that every sane person raced away from.
They rode for several minutes, almost half an hour, before stopping. Red Maned Horses didn't have the capability to travel at such speed for such a long period of time. But that was only under normal conditions. Provide these lovely beasts with Edict and they would run to the every ends of the earth for you. As long as you could constantly feed their enormous appetite for the energy that was a building block for many planets.
Why did they stop then? Why did their riders halt their charge? Were they out of Edict? Certainly not. It would take more than thirty minutes to drain a Profound Wielder of all his/her energy, and it was even less likely for an Earth Wielder. So why did they stop?
"We are here," the man looked at the pitch black valley before him and said. From his position he could see the trunk of a huge tree which seemed to be rooted within this valley, reaching into the clouds. His blue eyes gazed emotionlessly at the strange scenery before him. His golden yellow hair fluttered in the wind and tugged at his slightly rugged beard. He was a handsome youth with an aura of nobility. He wore a leather coat, with two heavy swords strapped to his back. The sheaths of the swords were pitch black, just like the valley before them and there was a Dragon Insignia on the handles of both swords.
"Was it a good idea to reject their help?" the woman next to him asked. Her green eyes only briefly took in the image of Dark Valley before she turned to face the one whom she was travelling with. She was beautiful, and the green robe she wore brought out the green in her eyes by a notch. Her majestic aura was in no way inferior to the young man's. She had a light sword strapped to her waist. Just like her robes and her eyes, the sheath of the sword was nature green, and so was the handle that poked out.
"They would have slowed us down. They don't have inner energy like we do, so travelling with them would have taken much longer. And I'd rather that we don't lose more time." The handsome youth shook his head and said. The beautiful lady nodded her head. She knew that he was right, and honestly she would have rejected them too if he hadn't.
"Why do you think they wanted to come with us though – the Orange Team?" the lady asked. The two were – as you would have guessed by now – Mane and Lily. They were travelling to one of the most dangerous places in the world, so it didn't make sense that a people they had just met were willing to accompany them on their predictably arduous task. And she didn't believe that they did it because of guilt either.
"I don't know," Mane confessed. He too was baffled by the decision of the Orange Team. When Black Hand came to him and told him that they were willing to travel with him, he was stunned. He tried to understand just what it was that they wanted, but he never could reach a viable conclusion.
Anyway, he had rejected their request and although they insisted they would tag along, Mane and Lily had left them behind by injecting Edict into their Red Maned Horses and travelling so quickly that no one could possibly keep up.
"We should get going," Hildegarde who was seated on Mane's shoulder said, and Mane nodded his head.
"Let's go. And be careful" Mane said and lightly nudged Roxanne. The uneasy beast followed Mane's command and moved towards Dark Valley.
Lily nodded her head and rode beside Mane. Slowly, both of their figures were lost in the darkness.