Waking up, Sydra noticed he was in the back of a moving carriage surrounded by five elves. Sitting up, he glanced at Erich who was laying beside him being healed by one of the elves. All the elves were wearing light green armor with different weapons strapped to their backs and in their hands.
"Ah, you're finally awake. I'm surprised to see that you were able to heal so quickly," said the elf that had saved their lives with a spear. "My name is Nate, how may I address you?" Nate asked, helping Sydra to stand up and sit down on the bench that the elves were sitting on.
"My name is Sydra, and this is my companion, Erich. May I know what happened after you saved us?" Sydra asked, looking over Erich to see how the healing was going. It seemed he was mostly fixed, and they had reattached his arm as well. 'That's good, I was worried he would have had to take some pills to regrow his arm. It wouldn't have been on the same level as his other arm, and would have affected his fighting skills.' Sydra thought, impressed with the healing arts the elves used, as not many could reattach missing limbs.
"Sure, my group is from the Lunarmoon Kingdom and we are part of the first group sent to a town called Emerald Pine Valley to explore the Emerald Sea Forest that is near there. While passing through the mountains we noticed the two of you in a battle against that turtle, and when we saw you guys go down I decided to help out. After defeating the turtle and collecting its parts for the two of you, we brought the two of you back to the carriage to heal you and take you to the town we were headed to. I hope you don't mind that we did this," Nate said, looking slightly guilty at the idea of possibly kidnapping two adventures and taking them to some random town.
"Haha, not at all, we are actually from that town. How can we repay you for your kindness?" Sydra asked, glad that they weren't headed to some other town. If they had, they would have to travel a few days just to get back to the town and would have worried Robert and Cidre.
"Well, I have a younger brother who needs a shield, so how about we take the shell of the turtle as thanks," Nate said, taking out a space pouch that held the turtle's shell within it.
"Sure, you killed the turtle anyway so we have no right to that shell if you want it," Sydra said, happy it was something he could easily give up.
"Urgh..." Erich said as he slowly opened his eyes and looked around. Seeing all the female elves with their hands on him, his face went slightly red and he tried sitting up.
"Whoa, don't sit up yet, you need to lay still and let the elves finish healing you," Sydra told Erich as he pushed him slowly back down. "We're on our way back to town with the elves that helped us out when we were about to be killed by the turtle. I gave them the shell of it as thanks for saving us and taking us back to town." Sydra explained as Erich laid back down and nodded in agreement.
"Makes sense to me, thank you," Erich said glancing at Nate, who was smiling as he sat back against the bench.
"No problem, we should reach the town in about half an hour from now, so until then just rest," Nate said, as he closed his eyes and started to nap. As everyone went quiet, Sydra decided to see if he had managed to obtain the aura of the turtle after that long and tedious battle. Entering a meditation state, Sydra entered his Arbor Sanctum and floated over to his tree.
'Let's see here.' Sydra thought as he called forth his roots. Looking at them he was pleased to see a new red sphere on the third root. Floating over, Sydra began to inspect the red sphere to see what power he had gained. 'Oh? It seems I gained the ability to manipulate heat, and when it gets strong enough I can control fire with it. However, I can only control heat that is above thirty degrees and below two hundred degrees which gives me some flexibility but won't be helpful if I travel to places that go beyond that level. When my power increases it will allow me to control hotter temperatures, but it will never go below thirty degrees. That means in the future I will have to acquire the power to control temperatures below thirty degrees.'
Sending the roots away, Sydra wondered what would happen when he gained his first five powers. He was still slightly unsure about how this whole thing worked, and he wasn't certain about all the logistics of his power. Leaving his Arbor Sanctum, Sydra looked back down at Erich, who was finished healing.
"Hey, what power was that you used to flip the turtle? It seemed you used strength that is above your level there?" Sydra asked, thinking back to how Erich had flipped the turtle over onto its back.
"That was called Kinetic Reversal, and it works by storing all the kinetic force that hits my body and sending it back out when I want. Of course, I can only store power up to a certain limit and I have to release it before thirty minutes or it would be released inside my body." Erich explained, as he lifted up his head and sat up. This time no one stopped him, since he was done healing.
"So the explosion at the end released too much kinetic energy for your body to contain then?" Sydra asked.
"Yeah, I was able to store some of it and release what I had stored when I hit the ground, but my body still took a lot of the explosion," Erich said, opening the back flap of the carriage to see where they were. Looking past him, Sydra saw that they were on the same path he had taken the first time he came to the village.
"Hmm, looks like we are almost back to the town. Where are you elves going to spend your time here?" Sydra asked one of the elves that had been helping heal Erich. She was a young elf, with golden hair and light skin. She had a cute face, with a small button nose.
"We are going to set up tents on the outside of the town, around halfway between the town and the ruins. Once we have checked out the ruins and gone to the library to see the books that have been found inside, we plan on starting our search through the Emerald Sea Forest. Have you been to the ruins?" she asked in a silky voice while fluttering her eyes at Sydra. He was unaffected by the sight, but he still answered her question.
"Yes, I was one of the first people to enter the ruins and ended up finding a temporal zone inside one of the buildings. I was inside it for half a day, but a week had passed in the rest of the world. It was an interesting experience." Sydra said, gathering the attention of the other elves.
"Wow, I've only heard of temporal zones, but I've never been in one myself. It would be crazy if you had come out and years had passed by while you were inside." Another elf said, with the rest nodding in agreement.
"I know, by the way, if I was you guys I wouldn't spend much time in the ruins looking for things. Most of it had already been excavated the last time I was there and that was before the dwarves showed up. Instead, you guys should begin searching the Emerald Sea Forest as soon as possible. If you guys get a head start on the forest, you might be able to uncover some secrets it holds before everyone else." Sydra advised, not overly worried that they would uncover the ruins before his group had. He held the map of the area after all.
"That makes a lot of sense, we will probably only have a small look inside the ruins and then continue into the forest in that case." Said the elf that was in charge of this expedition. He had years of experience in leading this group of elves through different missions, and his thoughts lined up closely with Sydra's.
A few minutes later the carriage came to a stop outside of the town, and the elves got out to begin setting up their tents. Erich and Sydra bid their farewell to the elves and began heading into the town to meet up with Robert and Cidre, and also turn in their quest.
"Wait, Sydra you forgot the materials that came from the King rank turtle," Nate said as he caught up and handed over the space pouch with everything from the turtle except the shell inside. "By the way, if you ever go to the Lunarmoon Kingdom stop by the Lunar Guildhall and ask for me. I'll show you around the Kingdom." he said, as he started walking away.
"For sure, and hey if you want to get the shell turned into a shield while you are here in town, then you should stop by the forge and have the blacksmith Echo forge you one. She may not be a Dwarf, but she is a master blacksmith." Sydra respond, before catching up with Erich and heading to the Guildhall.