Chapter 2
Thaddaeus began to drift back into consciousness as he warmed up. His eyes flickered open and he was immediately greeted by the presence of the five white-haired strangers he was so sure were dead.
"Wh-who are you?" He asked, startled.
One was knelt down in front of him, "I am called Lux. These are my best friends and most loyal soldiers. This ethereal princess by my side is my Life Socis, Telucani. Some call her Telu." He gestured to the big guy behind him who had spiky hair and a mean looking face, "He is Ignis." Then motioning with his arm in the other direction toward a guy leaning on a rock, he said, "The funny one with the messy hair is Solis. The young lady glaring at him is Luna," Lux smiled, "She is his Life Socis."
"I actually was not glaring at him this time, Lux." The small girl named Luna said, apparently trying to defend herself.
Thaddaeus just stared at him as if his introductions produced more questions than answers. He felt a little overwhelmed. He had never heard of a 'Life Socis', but context clues led him to believe it just meant husband or wife. The thing that actually worried him, though, was not the words but the people. The one he called Solis had a massive sword on his back, and the other one, Ignis, looked really dangerous.
"When The Tempestas addresses you, you should respond unless you wish to know pain." Ignis threatened.
Lux laughingly explained to Thaddaeus, "I am not Tempestas, yet." Then, he turned to the others, "All is well, he is not yet familiar with our language and customs." As his back was turned, Thaddaeus was able to see the full length of his hair. That can't be real, he marveled, It looks like this guy has never had a haircut, it would probably be even longer if it wasn't all in braids and woven together. I bet he's an Elven prince of legend.
Finally, Thaddaeus spoke up, shaking his head as if trying to get back to reality, "I apologize for any rudeness, but I do have some questions I would like to ask if you would be willing to humor me."
"Of course we would!" The one leaning on the rock exclaimed with a sudden burst of energy, throwing his hands in the air. Thaddaeus remembered that his name was Solis and that Lux called him "funny".
Now I see, he thought, "funny" is code for crazy. If this leader, Lux, is a prince, then this guy is probably his servant or something.
Luna immediately punched Solis in the back. "Um, if it is your wish, Lux." Solis corrected himself. Clearly amused, Lux nodded to allow Thaddaeus to begin.
"Well, first, did you see me when I stealthily tracked you from Snow Rock?"
"I did not see you, I smelled you. Although it would not have been difficult to see you as you stumbled around." Lux explained.
"...Yeah, that was probably just beginner's luck for you bec- wait a second," Thaddaeus interrupted himself, "You're saying you could smell me from so far away?!"
"Yes, that is very simple for us. I was tracking you to ascertain your intentions."
Wait a second, Thaddaeus began connecting the dots in his head, If he is actually capable of that then maybe I'm not crazy! "You guys were fighting some sort of ice monster earlier weren't you?"
"They are not monsters," Luna cut in, "They are unfortunate beings."
"Luna empathizes with the unfortunate," Telu started as she slid closer to Lux, "However, those beings are not just unfortunate, they have completely lost control. Our people call them 'Damna'. They were human, then learned to entangle their own energy with the energy of nature, but they were unstable and ultimately lost themselves. As humans, they chose to dedicate years of their lives to attain that one goal only to eventually lose everything."
"So where is this Damna now?" Thaddaeus inquired.
Giggling to himself, Solis said, "No, Damna is plural. He was a Damnum." As he pointed past the fire, there was a normal looking man laying on the ground to the side of it.
"How difficult is it to kill them?" He asked, looking intently at the man.
"Any Damnum will completely lose all nature energy if a large portion of its Pseudo-body is destroyed," Ignis rejoined the conversation, "The difficulty depends on the type. Even at your level, if you take caution, you could incapacitate the first kind. This man was the second type, deadly for you, but a child's plaything for us. The third could feasibly do us harm under certain conditions, but it would still be unlikely."
Indignant, Thaddaeus responded, "I believe I've been underestimated. How dare you sir! I happen to be a master of combat!" He jumped up as if suddenly energized by his frustration. As he did, Lux rose to meet him and placed a hand on his shoulder in order to calm him.
Thaddaeus, realizing that he overreacted a bit returned to the original topic, "How was it that you guys managed to destroy part of his giant body?" He asked with an inquisitive look. In response, Lux simply lifted his hand midway between himself and the wide eyed questioner. Vibrant blue sparks of lightning flashed from his palm and danced back and forth from the air to the whole surface of his hand. The boy's reaction was only a wide smile of astonishment.
As Lux lowered his hand, he concluded, "The night has grown dark, it is time to rest. These introductions have been enjoyable, but we will have plenty of time to learn about one another as we journey together." Thaddaeus seemed a little surprised with that statement, but then Lux continued. "We have many things to accomplish tomorrow and Thaddaeus will help us." Shocked with this new revelation, Thaddaeus wanted to question him on why he was going to help. Eventually, he decided against it as he was inwardly very pleased. He never had a group of people involve him so quickly and insist that he join them. He was thrilled with the new trajectory his journey had taken, and for some reason, he was sure this was going to be his chance for greatness that he had sought for so long.
When Lux finished giving orders, he disappeared in a flash of light. Thaddaeus jumped at the sudden burst nearly falling over. He almost couldn't believe what he had just witnessed. He had figured fairly early on that this group was different, and seeing the flashes of light in the storm led him to even more extreme conclusions. However, this was on a totally different level than he had even dared to venture. As Thaddaeus watched the sparks manifest in various parts of the camp simultaneously, he noticed the campfire growing. Then a pile of wood showed up next to it. Suddenly Lux appeared in front of him again, "Do not puzzle excessively tonight, Thaddaeus, we will begin again tomorrow. I have collected enough firewood so we may now rest." With those words Lux turned to walk away from the bewildered young man, and joined his friends on the opposite side of the fire.
Thaddaeus settled in for the night and watched the strange foreigners all gather together closely to sleep in the one improvised bed they had. They only had a single blanket to share, but they appeared perfectly happy with this arrangement as if it was the most normal thing in the world. With Lux and Telu seemingly crushed in the middle of the bed, it reminded him of seeing small puppies do a very similar thing.