Chapter Two

Igneous follows Yasevl out of the doorway and into the early morning light. The warmth from the Sun’s rays penetrating his fiery skin to make its way to his core. This dawn, as Yasevl had called it, felt amazing, it felt right. Igneous basked in the golden rays, wiggling his stubby arms and legs with pleasure. He liked dawn. He could have stayed like that forever, but Yasevl cleared his throat, which sounded like a tree cracking under the wind of a strong storm, and with a smile said, “The Sun is pretty great feeling, but we have other things to do.”.

Igneous felt embarrassed that he had lost himself in this new sensation, and if a flame sprite could he would’ve blushed. Sheepishly Igneous looked up to his brother with an apologetic smile, “Sorry Yasevl. It just felt nice and everything is so new.”. This prompted a hissing fit of laughter from Yasevl, “Ha Ha Ha , it’s quite alright. I remember when I first got my body and I know it’s difficult to control yourself at first.”, giving an understanding smile he adds, “But if you get overwhelmed every time you experience something new you may miss out on other amazing things.”. With a nod Igneous took another look at the world that was so new. His smile grew wide when he saw past the Sun’s golden rays. Igneous found himself standing, floating, on a small hill overlooking a green valley that stretched for what looked like miles. Emerald grass, with flowers that showed a rainbow intermixed, reached to the sky as if trying to caress the Sun, humongous hardwood trees on the edges of the valley that even from a distance obscured the view of the outside world, a stream of water as clear as glass ran down the middle of the valley before disappearing into the great trees, and at the base of the hill were small mounds that looked to be made of intertwining trees. On closer inspection he could see figures moving in the glow of the early morning at the base of the hill. Taken in by the beauty of the valley Igneous is speechless. Smiling, Yasevl breaks the silence that had overcome the two, “It is quite beautiful,

In a tiny cave on the side of a small mountain, five goblins awake to a cold and dark cave, the only light coming from the rays of a new dawn. The largest of the five stands and looks around and begins to yell, “WHAT HAPPENED TO ME FIRE!!!!”. He stomps over to one of the shorter and weaker goblins and grabs him by his dirty brown robe, “YOU LIED SHAMAN! YOU SAID IT WOULD SERVE ME!”.

The much smaller and much older goblin looks up at his leader with fear in his milky eyes, “Kexel, I don’t know what happened. I casted all the right spells. I, I…”, before he could finish his sentence Kexel, the large goblin leader, punches him in the face, breaking his nose. Kexel drops the wailing shaman and looks around, he sees two of the goblins cowering in a corner not daring to look at him. Good, he thought, they should fear me. He looks to the mouth of the cave to see another one of his lessers looking out. Stomping up behind the distracted goblin, Kexel raises a fist, and is ready to hit the other goblin, when she speaks up, “They went north, my chief.”.

This halts Kexels fist inches from the goblins head, “Who?”. The goblin looks back at Kexel without fear and states, “The fire thieves.”.

A crooked, gapped, sinister grin stretches over Kexel’s face, “Can you track them hunter?”. The hunter gives a simple nod before turning back to the caves opening, a frown makes its way across her face.

“Good! Then let’s GO HUNTING!”, Kexel roars. His voice echoes in the cave causing the other three goblins behind him to quake and the trees below the cave rustle as flocks of birds flee from the sound of the angry goblin.

At the foot of the hill Yasevl and Igneous are met by a man with skin the color of bark, hair like grass, and with eyes that resembled freshly cut wood. Kneeling the man says, “ My lord, you grace us with your presence. How may we serve you?”. Behind him another dozen elves follow suit.

With a sigh Yasevl tells the man, “Nevil please stand up, all of you please stand.”.

The man looks up at Yasevl, “But, my lord you ar-“.

Cutting him off, Yasevl pulls the man up by his shoulders, “telling you to stand.”.

Nevil nods his head deeply, “Yes, my lord. As you wish.”. When his head comes back up, he notices Igneous for the first time and jumps back causing the others to behind him to do the same in surprise, some of them fumbling and landing on their behinds.

Pointing at Igneous, Nevil says with alarm, “My lord, watch out there is a flame creature beside you.”, Nevil turns to the other elves gather and yells, “GO GRAB BUCKETS OF WATER BEFORE HE CONSUMES LORD YA-“.

Once again Yasevl interrupts, addressing the whole group, “NO NO NO! THAT WILL NOT BE NECESSARY!”, turning his attention back to Nevil he adds, “This is Igneous, he is to be treated as my brother from this day forward.”.

Nevil’s eyes go wide, and doubt makes its way across his face, but he dares not say anything openly, instead he simply nods and say, “Yes my lord.”, he then turns to Igneous, “Welcome Master Igneous.”.

During the whole interaction Igneous simply stood there with fascination on his face at all the new things he was seeing, and it wasn’t until Nevil directly addressed him that Igneous broke from his state of wonder.

“Oh, um. Hi. It’s very nice to meet you, Master Nevil. I promise not to eat too much of brother”, Igneous says after a moment of silence, but by the end feels confident that he is quite the conversationalist. Nevil just looks at the little sprite in confusion, not sure what to say. Yasevl breaks the awkward silence with a hardy and full laugh that only a tree could give, which startles everyone with its suddenness which only causes Yasevl to laugh harder, but soon the other wood elves begin to laugh and soon even Nevil’s lip break into a smile and begins to laugh. The only one not laughing is Igneous, not quite sure what he said was so funny.

After everyone had settles down and Yasevl explains what had been so funny to Igneous. Yasevl then introduces Igneous to the village, after explaining what a village was. As it stands Nevil turned out to be what was called a chieftain, as well as the high priest for Yasevl. The other wood elves that Igneous met that morning were a mix of hunters getting ready to leave and guards that were getting ready to go home after night watch. Everyone there that morning was told to inform everyone else of Igneous’ presence and to treat him as a member of the village. After everyone agreed to do so Yasevl told Igneous he had to take care of a few things with Nevil and that he should feel free to explore the valley, but not to wander past the borders. Left to his own devices Igneous wandered around the village looking at all the huts, and on closers inspection he could tell they were made of living trees that had been woven together until the trunks created walls and the branches a ceiling with the leaves on top. Igneous took a quick look around to make sure no one was watching and when he couldn’t see anyone, he broke off a small twig from one of the bigger huts and began to munch on it, each bite making a hissing noise, and he was about to break off another when he heard a small high-pitched voice call out, “Hey! Don’t do that!”.

Igneous whirled around in shock at the voice and came face to face with a small chubby brown face. Startled by the closeness of the face, Igneous flew up and away from the little face and saw who it was that startled him. Standing below him was a small wood elf, the elf had long green hair that wove together like vines, its small brown form covered by a deerskin dress, with a vine tied at the waist. The chubby elf had its hands balled up, placed on its hip, with its chubby cheeks puffed out and a stern look on its face. Igneous was surprised most of all by the elf’s short stature. Yasevl stood as tall as most of the huts, if not taller, and Nevil had come up to Yasevl’s chest, but this elf looks to be no taller that three feet tall, barely reaching the height of Yasevl’s knees.

“Are you alright, what happened to the rest of you?”, Igneous asks with worry in his voice.

This caused the little elf’s eyes to grow wide then very narrow, taking in a deep breath it yells. “IS THAT A SHORT JOKE!? THAT’S FUNNY COMING FROM A PIPSQUEAK LIKE YOU!”. Once again, this startles Igneous, for such a little elf it sure could make a huge noise. When Igneous didn’t answer, the elf let out a frustrated huff of breath and looked at Igneous, “Come down here, so I can introduce myself.”.

Igneous, not wishing to anger this little elf more, does as asked of him but stays at arms length just in case he needed to escape quickly. The scowl on the elf’s face was replaced by a toothy smile, “I am Nelly, daughter of Nevil, and future chieftain of this village. Nice to meetcha’.”.

The elf stuck out her arm at Igneous causing him to flinch. When she didn’t strike him Igneous looked at her outstretched arm and then at her with confusion and a silence question on his face. The elf sighs and looks at Igneous like a tired mother would at a dull-witted child, “You’re supposed to tell me your name and then extend your hand towards mine.”.

This was news to him, but he didn’t wish to anger her again and did as she said, “I am Igneous, brother of Yasevl.”, and placed his tiny hand on her index finger and moved it up and down.

When he did this there was a sizzling and the elf jerked back her hand with a yelp. Where Igneous had touched her hand was burnt and raw. Igneous saw this and instantly felt horrible. He began to fly forward to see if he could adsorb it like he did with Yasevl, but Nelly holds up her not injured hand to stop him. Nelly takes her uninjured hand and holds it over the burn and begins to whisper in a language that Igneous could neither understand nor remember after she was done. Her eyes glow bright green and a white light engulfs her hand. From this light small white orbs trickle down on to the burn, and soon the burn glows white as well. Suddenly before his eyes Igneous watches the burn heal and return to its previous shade of brown. Igneous’ mouth drops open and he gapes at the little elf, “What was that!?”.

Nelly smirks and fixes her gaze on Igneous, “That was me fixing your mistake with magic.”.

Igneous first shrinks back, “Sorry, I forget that others get hurt by fire.”, but then he quickly recovers with wide eyes, “What’s magic?”.

Nelly just blinks at Igneous for a few moments before rolling her eyes, “It’s fine just be careful next time. And to answer your other question, follow me.”.

Nelly then turns sharply and begins walking at a brisk pace towards the edge of the village. Igneous quickly follows and begs Nelly to tell him now, but his pleads fall on deaf pointy ears. After leaving the village, Igneous follows Nelly down a stone path towards the stream. The path stops short of the stream and in front of the two sits a hut much like the ones in the village except, from the windows and doorway plants hung out to dry and extending from the leafy roof of the hut a stone chimney billows out grey smoke. Nelly walks up to the doorway, knocks on the wall and softly yells, “Hello! Witch, are you home?”.

Out of the hut a wooden staff darts out and knocks Nelly on the head, that earns a yelp and a lot of head-rubbing from Nelly, “That hurt you mean old witch.”.

A hunched over figure leaning on a wooden staff and wrapped in white robes steps out of the hut. A wood elf with a grey undertone to her wrinkly brown skin, her once green hair now as white as cotton, and her eyes a dull dark green. She fixes these green eyes on Nelly and says, “How many times have I warned you about calling me a witch.”, this was not a question, then she adds, “I am a Druid.”.

“You don’t have to hit me you know.”, Nelly whines with a pout.

“And besides, as your magic teacher and grandmother it is my right to discipline you.”, The old druid adds with a smirk. She then fixes her eyes on Igneous, “And you must be the fire wisp that our lord Yasevl brought back last night.”, she says with a knowing smile before adding, “Well, sprite now.”.

Not wishing to be hit like Nelly, Igneous quickly extended his hand like Nelly taught him, “Hello. I am Igneous, brother to Yasevl. It is my pleasure to meet you.”.

This earned him a short chuckle form the old elf and a smile, “I am Corma, mother of Nevil, the druid of this village. It is nice to meet such a well-mannered sprite.”, still smiling she adds, “I am afraid I do not wish to burn my finger, so I will not be shaking your hand.”

Igneous remembered what happened when he had shaken hands with Nelly, and quickly retracts his hand, smiling weakly. Having recovered from the hit she took to her head Nelly interjects, “Igneous here doesn’t know what magic is.”, she says gesturing toward Igneous with a sweeping motion, “And I was thinking you could tell him better than I could.”.

Corma looks from Igneous to Nelly, “You don’t remember. Do you?”, She asks causing Nelly to shift nervously, “Alright, come inside and I’ll explain to both of you what magic is.”.

Corma walks into the hut with Nelly and Igneous following in behind her. Inside the hut were more plants hanging and shelves filled with bowls and jugs brimming with different kinds of powders and liquids. In the back of the hut was a stony fireplace with a fire roaring and a lithic pot sitting above it with a light brown liquid simmering inside. In one corner sat a bed made of animal furs. Opposite of the bed was a small wooden table with two cushioned chairs. Corma walked over to the stone pot and took a deep whiff, ”Not quite ready yet,”.

She then walks over to the table and lays her staff against the wall before taking a seat on the chair against the wall. She looks to Nelly and says, “Nelly, grab a stone cup from the shelf and place it on the table, so our little friend can sit without burning down my home.” .

Nelly does as she was asked and walks over to one of the many shelves in the hut and takes a small shallow cup that was made of a stone that had been carved out and polished and places it on the table before taking a seat opposite of Corma.

“Please take a seat little sprite, it’s alright, you will not burn the stone.”, Corma says, giving Igneous a reassuring smile. Igneous slowly makes his way over to the two sitting women and attentively touches the stone cup. When it doesn’t catch fire from his touch, Igneous sits down on the rim of the cup with his feet dangling inside the cup. Corma wets her lips and smacks them before saying, “So you want to know what magic is.”, the druid ponders this for a moment before asking, “Before I tell you I must know, do you know what mana is?”.

Igneous looks up at her with shameless ignorance, “Not a clue.”

Corma nods at this, “That’s what I expected. Alright, I’ll explain that too.”, Corma places her hands on the table with her palms facing up and whispers in a language similar to the one Nelly had used when she healed her hand. When she had finished a glowing picture of a tree sitting on a hill forms. This causes Igneous and Nelly to lean forward in unison and say, “Wow!”.

Corma continues to speak again in a language Igneous couldn’t understand before saying, “Everything is made up of two types of energy. There is natural energy known as ki. Ki is the body of all things.”, as she says this the tree begins to move and sways before it begins to become transparent and the inside of the tree begins to glow blue, “Mana is the energy of the mind. All things living and nonliving have it. It is what connects all things to all other things in the world.”.

The image of the tree disappears and is replaced by the outline of an elf, “Sentient beings, such as elves, sprites, and spirits, have an additional energy. It is called spiritual energy, it is the energy of the soul.”, the elf in begins to glow with blue energy with white at the center, “Magic is the alteration of these energies in their normal form. This is commonly done though spells.”.

The elf kneels to the ground and plants a seed and begins to chant silently and the blue energy in its body begins to flow into the elf’s hands and spread out toward the seed till it begins to sprout and grow into a sapling. Corma continues, “Spells use mana to alter the state of energy around it. Spells are active through the use of a magic language. Spellcasters are born knowing how to cast a single spell and through time can learn more through the study of that spell or from other spellcasters.”.

The image dissolves from Corma’s hands and the glow with it. Corma smiles and places her hands on her lap, “Any questions?”.

Both Igneous and Nelly nod, Nelly blurts out, “What spell was that? You’ve never shown me that before.”.

Corma laughs and says, “That was a basic illusion spell, and I’ll teach it to you when you’re ready.”, she then turns her focus to Igneous, “And your question little sprite?”

“Can you teach me magic too?”, Igneous asks with hope in his voice and wonder in his eyes. Corma stops smiling and wrinkles her forehead, “Well I could possibly, but I have never taught a sprite magic. And I am not quite sure how it’ll work.”.

This causes Igneous to hang his head low, “Oh, Okay.”, the disappointment heavy in his voice.

Corma uses the tip of her finger to lift his chin before quickly pulling it back before it could be burnt, “I didn’t say it was impossible. We’ll have to talk to lord Yasevl and see if he has any ideas about it.”.

This causes Igneous to look up, hope filling his eyes again. Before Igneous can say anything, a scream reaches the hut, followed by a single word that fills both Nelly and Corma with visible fear, “GOOOBLINS!”.