Chapter 19
Lysaria felt her heart race wildly, turning to Dakar and Hectar she noticed their pale faces. Light take her what was going on, She felt the flow of essence coming from outside and Thana appeared standing in the same spot she had been before a smile splitting her face.
Thana tossed her hands into the air and shouted" I did it! I knew it might work." Hectar said," you didn't know it would work and you still tried it?" Thana said," dont be so pessimistic, i knew how to do it but that was the first time i have tried it for real." Hectar shook his head, He said," I am glad I chose the builder path, playing with space like that looks dangerous."
Dakar said," Don't worry about it Hectar, She did good, nothing bad would have happened." He smiled at Thana whose smile faltered. She looks at the ground and mumbled, Well I could get trapped in the in-between if I messed it up, or get split in half." Clearing her throat she blushed in embarrassment Thana said," It worked this time but ill be more careful next time, i promise."
Thana said," it is fine now, The temporal shift is weak and very short range soo it was the easiest one I can make, If it were long-range I would need a lot more preparation." Lysaria walked up to the engraved stone she held her hand over it and said," how do I use it?" somewhat dejected Thana said," simply say the command phrase," touch the essence engraving and say SHIFT!"
Lyarias hair rustled her short dark hair swirling as she touched the engraving and said," Shift" One moment she was in the dark of the room and the next she was squinting as her eyes burned from the light reflecting off the stone in front of her. stepping away she walks back looking over the three massive boulders, the boulders looked oddly shaped more like a single dark rock now and seemed to absorb the light.
The tall grass swirled around her feet as her friends appeared, each time creating a wave of air. First Thana, followed by Dekar and Hectar. Dakar turn back and laughed, He said." that is amazing!" Thanas face flushed, she said," well if you want to go back inside come back to the engraving and say the command word 'shift'."
Thana asked," why didn't we get essence from building our new house?" Lysaria glanced at each of her friends and especially Hectar, Hectar frowned, He said," the building wont give us essence unless we finish it.
Lysaria glanced over the black and brown rock and said," well it isn't pretty but it looks finished" Dakar replied," I think we didn't, we made two of the walls the glass stone and the third we left normal stone." Lysaria strolled around the huge stone and noticed the lighter shade of stone separate from the rest of the stone sticking out like a globe of light in the darkness.
Lysaria said," Thana, will it break your shift thing if we break this wall and finish our building." Thana looked over the building, She replied," it won't affect the engraving at all, The pattern is tied to that one space and only affects those two points of space. If you be stupid and break the engraving, we may find a massive hole where the two engravings are."
Lysaria smiled and channels her essence the haze of darkness shrouding the lighter wall, in seconds the wall turned to sand, the wall fell apart in a shower of sand showing a huge opening, She willed the essence to melt the sand and it began bubbling, the stench of stone melting filling the bright noonday air. After she pulled back her corruptive essence All three of her friend began to glow channelling their essence, the molten rock changing and covering the gap. The wall snapped into place after a long moment essence swirled at their feet and forced itself into their bodies.
The rush of essence entered Lysarias's body as she absorbed the essence, Her vessel filled and she grinned ear to ear, Her vessel moving from 1305, up to 1705. Hectar gasped and a blinding light swirled around him, she had to look away and essence flowed into him glowing so intensely it burned her eyes even as she was looking away.
Hectar must be ascending she thought, her breath caught in her throat as the light faded, leaving Hectar changed, his skin radiating light before settling to a muted glow. Lysaria said," well I didn't expect that to happen. Hectar said," I can't believe how much essence that gave me, we should build more of these." Lysaria replied," It doesn't work like that, We only gain essence if we challenge ourselves, and since we figured out how to do that because I made a mistake I say we got lucky to create something soo unique.
Hectar sighed with relief, He said," much better, I feel like I was carrying around 50 pounds on my back and now i only am carrying 30. Do any of you know why it's so much different here than during the ceremony?" silence fell over the group, Lysaria glance back and forth noticing the shruggs.
Lysaria dug into her pack, she said, "I want to figure out what we should look for to fight so we have a chance of winning." grasping the leather-bound book she gripped the smooth surface and flipped open to the first page of the book.
A mischievous grin crossed her face as Lysaria read aloud, "Among the three continents of Antuar, Seventir or the volcanic wasteland continent has very pleasant weather. Don't let the volcanoes lava and poisonous airborne gas deceive you, it is actually a very lovely place, just imagine dying of toxic gas while being torn apart by a vicious reptile."
Lysaria smiled up at her friends from behind the book, their shocked expressions caused her to continue. She Read " Ferdia, is the frost continent laden with cold misery and death, ravaged by blizzards and avalanches. That's just the weather, any mortal would last but minutes in that kind of cold before freezing solid. When you add in the monsters that fight to gain power, no wonder the giants who live there are so frosty all of the time."
Glancing up at Her unimpressed friends she couldn't help but laugh, Dakar smirked as he said, you are making that up, There is no way that is what it actually says." She said," what! don't look at me with those sour expressions, I am reading what it says." Hectar said," it sounds like you are trying to be silly and funny on purpose." lysaria smirked trying to hold back laughter. She said," fine, you have no sense of humour," Hectar said," isn't there three continents?" Lysaria flipped through the book but couldn't find any pages for the third continent Geldar.
Lysaria said," the end of the book is torn out, after the section on Ferdia and Seventir, the last pages were torn out." pulling open her bag she found nothing, no pages not even one piece of paper describing this place. Grumbling she flips through the book looking for anything on The continent of Geldar. During her inspection of the book, she sat down on the soft grass and was surrounded by her friends who waited patiently for her to find anything about the green continent.
Lysaria tossed the book down in disappointment, She said," Why did my guardian remove the section on Geldar?" The only thing I could find out about the monsters here is they generally travel in herds." Dakar said," that's not so bad, it should be easy to find them." Hectar said," what will we do when we find these herds of monsters? they are not going to let us just attack one of them or even lure one at a time, that only happens in the stories."
Thana said," With Hectars attitude we at least have a voice of doubt for everything." Lysaria said," Hectar you will have to deal with it, you are outvoted, we can find a monster that is as weak as we can find." Hectar grumbled looking away," you might change you mind after getting your guts torn out." Now with a plan, Lysaria felt a tug on her mind an urging to walk towards the vast rolling hills of the south towards two large peaks into the rolling grasslands.
hours later She crested a rise her legs burning and lungs heaving to carry her, up and down the vast rolling plains they walked. The tall grass reaching her chest clacking together whipping back and forth in the wind. Her arms felt ragged, who new it could be so annoying to get hit repeatedly by grass, she was beginning to think the grass was alive.
Lysaria felt she should have already arrived at the towering mountains in the distance, but they still seemed just as far away. Turning around she looks back and could see the tree line as a dark shadow that rose above the ground. Hectar said," are you sure this is the right direction, he gasped holding his knees looking up at her. Lysaria ignored him, she was beginning to feel the irritation of a long trip, Lysaria said," if you want to lead, I wouldn't mind, that way if we get attacked you can be the first to be its snack."
Her frustration looking for an outlet she jogged over the peak of the rise ignoring her burning legs and stare down into a ravine cut by a river. Gasping she grasped the sword as it slipped in her belt for the 100th time, she propped her hand on the hilt readjusting the weapon. For the first time in hours she was left stunned, the twisting river cut a crater in the grassland unnoticed until she was right on top of it.
The different layers on the walls of the river showed the buildup that must have happened over time, she heard a slight grunting sound and look down noticing something scurrying along by the river a dark mass of bodies. Her breath left her she had thought they were some sort of trees, not believing her eyes she turn to her friends who walked down after her, She could tell when they realized what it was passing through the valley. Dakar said," amazing, what are they, there is 100s of them." Lysaria could only gaze down in amazement at the long line of monsters crossing the river in a seemingly endless flow of bodies, the line didn't have an end as she watched unable to wrap her head around the sheer mass of monsters.