Murciel and Logan ran to training at a pace that would've made Professor Switch proud of his endurance building style of punishment.
The verdant and stone world of Center-Earth was always at it's most active during mid-day when the sun was highest. But the mornings were a close second.
As the two ran down log roads and dirt paths that spun through treehouse districts and stone cities, life bloomed.
Shopkeepers set up storefronts. Gardening patrols of young Silverhenge Druids, tended to guardian flowers outside shops and crops of food near childcare centers.
Packs of dogs followed in their wake, chasing after Logan and his alpha's essence.
The only thing that kept them from catching up completely was Murciel. The living royal enigma.
Speaking of enigma's.
"Logan, how did you find out where I live?" Murciel asked as they slid down a moss ramp and jumped across a river.
"A portion of your cloak was stuck between Sandmaw's teeth. Actually a few portions were.... That cloak is terrible quality. Anyways, I used it to track your scent. Many would struggle to do so, but I understand you travel like a monkey. Or a bird without wings."
"Birds without wings?"
"You hop around in the trees. Less experienced trackers would lose your scent on the ground and think you just disappeared, fool. I've seen you fight. I know you favor high grounds. Why is that? Do you come from a family of talented archers? It would explain your lanky build." Logan asked. The sun shined powerfully onto his braided head.
"No. But my mother is one of the strongest Druids of our time." Murciel smiled.
"That would make sense. Only the spawn of exceptional druidry could best a god in combat. But if that's the case, why are you in an unknown city such as Seersgrave?" Logan asked.
"Why are you?" Murciel returned the question.
Logan went somehow more serious for a moment as he rode Sandmaw, "Since the day I've been able to understand High-Earth tongue, I've been told I'm the bane of Low-Earth and heir to the twin thrones. My mixed heritage makes me a trump card. I wield the sun without succumbing to the cold magics of Low as harshly as my full-blooded relatives. But my mother was also a strong Druid. Strong, but corrupted by rage and a need for vengeance. They feared I inherited her traits."
"Did you?" Murciel asked, completely enthralled in his story.
Logan shrugged, "Only time will tell. My father sent me here on a journey of growth and discovery. To stop me from becoming a mad-god."
"....cool."
"Not cool, you cannibal! This is deadly serious.
"Oh yea!... Serious. Deadly serious." Murciel corrected himself.
The two were silent as they closed in on the well hidden structuring of Bronzehenge.
As the large evergreen stood in the distance, Logan turned to Murciel who now walked casually behind the cloud of other early-bird junior initiates.
"What about you? Do you have a mission, Murciel?"
"I do. I'm going to bring the next world."
***
Logan didn't seem as amazed as Murciel was when he first heard of his rare planetary mission. He assumed it was because he didn't lay out the details or have that same aura of power as his mother that made everything sound deadly serious.
Either way, the demigod nodded in understanding and they entered Bronzehenge.
Training started as it usually did.
Murciel ran his laps-- faster again than before, and joined his classmates in the clearing at late morning.
Something was wrong. Professor Switch wore cleaner clothing and was flanked by a team of Druids in the form of blue eyed wild-cats wearing collars with silver emblems of oak-trees.
"Those are high-honor members of Silverhenge!" Olivander commented from beside him as they stood at the back of the crowd of students.
"High-honor?" Murciel asked.
"They're the top performers. Highest cultivation stage, mastery of the most techniques..... And more things of that nature. So now they get their first high stakes mission. At least that's how my sister explained it."
"You have a sister, Roan?" Murciel asked the girl with curly pigtails standing beside him. She wore poorly sized bark armor over her form fitting leather pants and curiass and had dirt streaks on her tan skinned face.
Roan nodded, "Yep. She's right there." She pointed at the middle cat of the group beside Professor Switch.
The cat was larger than the rest and almost resembled the saber-cats of the northern jungles due to her black stripes. Only she was brown furred and smaller. She hissed at her sister.
"Screw you too, ya weed!" Roan spat.
"Why are you enemies?" Murciel asked.
"She's an arrogant kiss up."
"And you are.... A talented young lady with a spine. Don't let her ascent to power make you feel any weaker, Roan. Especially since you're among the failures of Bronzehenge. It means nothing. Only coincidence." Olivander explained.
"Speak for yourself. I'm no failure." Logan said.
"Who said I felt weaker because of her!?" Roan asked Olivander, clearly appalled.
The balding Druid in training swallowed, "uhhhh... Haha, nobody. I uhh...."
Murciel looked up at his friend and sniffed, "It sounds like you're losing an internal battle with a beast similar to anxiety. Fight harder. If you win it'll make us stronger and Roan will be among one less failure and two more warriors."
"Your math is wrong." Logan commented.
"No. Any man who defeats his inner beasts is twice the man he would've been if he lost. This is good math." Murciel explained.
Logan nodded, "I see."
Roan sighed and rolled her eyes, "You guys are idiots!"
"Alright, everyone shut it!" Professor Switch snapped as the last of the junior initiates joined them in the clearing.
He cleared his throat and the loose skin there jiggled, "Today is a special day. The next step in your journey as Cultivators of the Green starts shortly. We've taught you how to absorb and transform Ambient-Mana into Inner-Mana. We've trained you in the way of gardening and foraging. Now you must combine the two disciplines and begin creating your Sacred-Diets. This is the final step you'll take before ascending to Silverhenge. With me are three initiates on the fast track to gold. They'll keep us protected should anything go south on our Field-Expedition."
A student raised their hand.
"Yes, Brutus."
"Aren't the items used to build a Druids Sacred-Diet rare and hard to find?"
Professor Switch nodded, "They are. Which is why we're preparing for an arduous journey towards the Bounty-grove in the island-city of Mirage's End. The journey is four-days and three nights."
The students gasped in shock.
Murciel was still stuck on Sacred-Diet.
"Mirage's End was the first city of Center-Earth I traveled through. As is the case for most High-Earth travelers. It's less than two days travel from the Sun-Line." Logan explained.
Finally, Murciel gasped. He'd never been so close to it.
"The Sun-Line. The border that splits Center-Earth from High-Earth. They say the sun's rays are so strong there, oceans of fire contain draconic fish and blaze-sharks as big as trees...I wonder what their blood tastes like."
He felt for his scroll and a smiled, hoping he'd discover a new technique or aspect of his Vampire abilities on the challenging field trip. This is exactly what his mother told him to do.
A fire was lit again within him-- no pun intended, as Professor Switch laid out more details he couldn't care to listen to.
His own mission details were simpler and more important.
"Find the biggest beast and drink it dry while mastering this sacred diet stuff. Simple. One-step closer to my mother. One step closer to the next world."