Yumeshi's diary

27th April, 2011

I had a dream, so clear and realistic that I thought I was living the scene myself. My body felt so light and the wind was hitting me on the face really fast, but I wasn’t bothered by it. I could see the ground below me, but I wasn’t afraid from the height, it just felt natural for me. I saw endless forests filled with life, vast seas so deep that nothing could reach the end of it and mountains that looked as though they were touching the stars. A world I never saw before.

                But then a strong orange light came from my front, and I felt a strong pain on my side, as if it was burning. In the last image I saw, there were two dragons, covered by a prideful aura and heading to where I was. Theirs colors complemented each other if I have to say: red and blue, fire and ice. Then I fell, fell in the darkness that seemed infinite to me, I no longer felt neither the pain, nor the calmness while I was in the air. I just… didn’t felt anything anymore...

                I was wandering a long time in the darkness; not knowing where was up or down. But how much “a long time” is, you may be asking. I can’t tell you, because to me it looked like I was there forever and, at the same time, just a second. A sound then was heard through the nothingness; like bird’s chirpings, flowing wind and people’s voice. My eyes started reacting, and a soft light entered though my eyelids, sending me back to reality.

                I was looking, again, at the ceiling I saw when I first “arrived” at this village. One of these days I should give my thanks to the elf that carried me both times. Erestor was talking with Eres, looks like they were arguing at first, because their faces were a bit reddish. When the elder noticed that I was awake, took a chair and sit in front of the bed, looking at me with a serious expression on his face.

I didn’t understand what was happening, after the light explosion I didn’t remember anything. Wait, there was something; my shoulder got stabbed really deep, but when I took a look at it, there was neither bandage, blood… nor scar. But I’m pretty sure that I was wounded, I still remember the excruciating pain I felt. I started touching the place where there should be a cut with curiosity at first, fascination later and fear about the unknown lastly.

Erestor started to explain me what happened after I calmed down. The place we visited these past two days was the castle of a long forgotten kingdom, buried underground by a whole forest. The chamber where the egg was laid on was the room where the ancient wizards hold their ceremonies and the altar where they made their sacrifices; some of them humans, in other words, black magic. I asked Erestor what make this magic any different than the magic from the elves. He took that question as an offense, since his face showed a hint of disdain.

He then tried to explain me how magic works. Taking the letter opener from my desk, he showed me his hand, and then made a small cut on the skin. Blood started dripping from it, but not for a long time, because a greenish light covered the wound, closing it in a few seconds.  This, as he explained to me in the first days, was healing magic. I could imitate him, but just instinctively, that’s why my learning was so slow. He said that this was the first branch of magic, direct manipulation magic (green magic); it was basically used for healing and treatments, but it is said that a few wizards could change their bodies using this magic.

Then he held the small knife in front of me. After saying a few words, the blade started glowing with a whitish light, carving runes on it slowly. This was the second branch, infusing magic (red magic). The wizard shares his energy with an inanimate object, giving it special characteristics, moving or altering them and, at special circumstances, creating something from two or more different things.

And finally – he started saying – the black magic, a magic art created just to kill. The green is life. The red is change. And the black is stealing. They would steal the life energy from you and use it, probably to make their rituals; rituals that brought more blood than they used on them.

                I listened to his explanation, but still didn’t get it. A room to practice black magic? Does it mean the egg we found there was created by one of those rituals? I can’t remember what happened there, but Erestor was trying to kill whatever appeared from the egg. Now I understood the reason behind his irritation, he wasn’t someone that takes pleasure in stealing another life.

                He confirmed my doubts after his explanation: the egg was the last trace of the rituals that were hold there. He knew about it a long time ago, but preferred to keep it in secret. He didn’t destroy the egg either, afraid of awakening whatever was inside. The day he guided me there, Erestor wanted me to be aware of this secret, in case that when he wasn’t alive anymore, I could take of it. But when we arrived there, there was a crack on the egg, meaning that it was awakening. The next day he took me with him to destroy it, thinking that two swords would be better than one.

                That didn’t solve the sword mystery, why did he hide those things there? I was about to ask about it, but then a more important question came to my mind. Just what happened there!? – I shouted. Eres, still in the room, almost jumped at my yelling. She was already worried with all the things his father was keeping from her, coming back hurt and with me on his back didn’t calm her down.

                The moment that followed my shout was one of the most ridiculous ones I ever had, if you don’t want to believe me, I won’t blame you. The elder touched my forehead and recite a few words. Just after that, my head started hurting and I felt like something was opening inside me. Then a dark light illuminated the room, for a second it looked like night arrived. And finally the main dish, a small black dragon appeared from nowhere in front of me.

                At first I jumped back instinctively, but the little critter followed me with a funny sound. He was floating in the air, but his wings were almost still, doesn’t look to me like it is using them… wait… that isn’t important, a real dragon is standing just in front of me… well and at my back, and inside my shirt… he is a playful little boy I have to admit it…

                I then looked at the elder with questioning eyes. He just let out a loudly sigh and started explaining what happened. When the egg broke, all the magic inside was set free without control; he charged at the magic nucleus, trying to seal him with his life energy; but my shouting made him looked back at me, losing focus on his sealing ritual. He said that a symbol was glowing on my forehead and that, before the light covered everything, a third red eye opened at the center of the drawing.

                Looks like the magic was absorbed by it, without giving any resistance. The eye then gave a shape to all that wild magic, turning it into a physical body that, according to Erestor’s words, reflected something important on my mind. And like that, the black dragon baby appeared, turning into light again and entering at the eye, closing it after that.

                I heard at his story and then looked at the dragon that was playing with my pillow… I won’t be able to use it anymore. So this is something important for me, a dragon that likes to destroy my things? Yeah, is the most important thing in my whole life, I surely hope it isn’t… Erestor told me that, in short, the dragon was a magical creature attached to my life energy. He then pointed at my shoulder and explained that, because the massive magic was dwelled deep inside my own life, my body underwent a raise in its capacities. More strength, speed, enhanced regeneration; those were the direct advantages I was having.

                I looked at my hands, just seeing the ones I always had… well not always, the once I had since a week ago… still they look the same, my body feel the same. I thought it was a joke… I hoped it was a joke. I already lived too many changes in these seven days; can’t I have a day for myself, to rest just a little?

                Seeing how bad I was assimilating this, Erestor just told me to rest the whole day. According to his words, my body didn’t assimilate yet the magic entirely; if I were to hold this much magic inside of me without a proper control, my body would surely break down. Looks like yesterday I wasn’t able to write on my journey, I wasn’t even awake after all, so today I’m writing two entries. That way I will make time until the night arrive. I took an herb tea, following the elder’s advice, he told me I would need it to bear with the pain… how encouraging… if I’m still alive tomorrow, I will write how I spent the night.

It’s already been 6 days since the book was open for the first time, I wonder how are you feeling about the characters so far. About Yumeshi, Erestor, Eres and all the ones that will appear in the future, including the mysterious egg (shall I call it a character?) I wonder how you would feel if any one of them suddenly disappears… But do not have pessimist thoughts, because another page of the diary is now written for you.

April 26th, 2011

The first thing I saw at the morning was the pouting face of Eres. At first I was too sleepy to know what was happening, but soon after I started laughing at her, it was at these few times that she makes cute expressions, when I think of her as the child she looks like. Eres just could answer my sudden laughing with a mother like sigh. She then pointed at the broken jar that was still at the floor and lectured me about being careful with the things.  Anyone that looks at this situation would be thinking that an adult is being scolded by a child, but the truth is she is already a grown up woman, while I am, in elven culture, a young boy.

            While I was dressing up for my usual training routine, Eres got close to the broken jar at the floor. I was looking at her with the shirt still on my hands, when I noticed a sudden glow. I could already notice when an elf was using magic, even far away, because I would feel a subtle tingling over my chest; I didn’t asked the elder about this, but I think is a common elf ability. When I got all dressed, I took a look at the magic she was doing. Small roots were emerging from the jar pieces, and looked for each other, entangling together and putting the pieces back in place, with slow but precise movements. When I asked her why repairing an object was slower than healing an injury, she told me that inanimate bodies don’t have energy on their own, so we have to infuse a little of our own on them.

            Once the jar was back at place, Eres left the room, probably waiting for me outside. I was already dressed up and was about to leave the room too, but then I remembered the stone Erestor gave me, and so I took it with me. Once out, I could see Eres looking at a group of children playing a few meters from here. They looked like 2 years old boys, but they were already walking with easy despite their short legs. 2 years here is like 10 in my world if I remember right… this is kind of confusing… I poked finger her at the shoulder, startling her a little from the surprise. My shoulder still hurt from the punch she gave me, but I know that she wasn’t angry for that, otherwise she would had launch me a fireball…

            We began walking to Erestor house, was it the second or the third time we went through these same steps? They are becoming a natural event for me. It wasn’t like it was hard for me to talk with the other villagers, but they didn’t know my origins. They think of me as nothing more than an amnesiac common guy. But Erestor and Eres know, or at least believe, the past I talked them about; even so, Erestor was a quiet man, he was interesting and easy to talk to, I won’t deny it, but his work keep him busy almost all the day. That’s why I got used to talking to Eres, she often would ask me about my people’s culture; the things we eat, the animals we live with, the stories we relate, but there was a question I couldn’t answered her: the things we love. I first thought of the family, but then realize that most of them weren’t as close as here; later I thought about the power, but we don’t love the power, we once we get it, we don’t have anything to use it for; I thought about the nature too, but discharged that idea almost a second later, if we really love it, we wouldn’t live in a world where most of it was destroyed. Then… what are the things that we love?

            Seeing that I was in deep thoughts, Eres waited until I looked at her again and just gesticulate with her hand, saying that it wasn’t that important. The rest of the travel, she was telling me about the villagers; about how the wife of the horse’s breeder gave birth to her third son; about the forest explorer group that were attacked by a bunch of bees, turning their faces really “pretty”; and about the small tremor that the whole village felt yesterday. Wait, a tremor? Was it because Erestor opened the way to the subway? Big underground caves and now tremors, I hope I’m not here when the whole floor breaks down…

            Finally we arrived at the tree house, I just can’t get accustomed to that view, I don’t know what magic is cast on it, but the tree is still alive with so many holes inside. Once at the door, Eres invite me to open it; it would be the first time I entered another house without proper permission, I think it was a way to show me that I was already one villager, at least at Eres’s eyes. When I crossed the door, i went to the stairs going up and climbed it up. I already knew that the door at the right was the elder’s study, but because I was alone, my curiosity made me take a look at the room at the left. When I opened the door a little, I looked through the empty space it left, but the only things I could saw were the same as my room: just a desk and a humble bed. While wondering from whom would be that room, I opened the study and entered it. Erestor was reading one page after another; he looked worried at first glance and didn’t have the care at the pages that I saw in him the first time.

            Once he noticed that I was there, a few minutes after I entered, he left the pages chaotically over the desk. Looks like something was indeed worrying him, but I just couldn’t find out what it was. One of the papers that was disperse through the desk catch my attention, the drawing of a dark red eye, was surround by a bunch of stylish letters. With Erestor’s teachings I was able already to identify most of the elfish letters, but they were too different from what I saw, probably another abecedary. Erestor took my attention back with a loud and short clapping and told me to follow him.

            He guided down the stairs and down again, through the stairs that lead to the “basement”. At first everything was too dark, but after a few words from Erestor, a golden ball appear from nowhere, illuminating the place. The place wasn’t anything that special; I thought I would find some treasures or magical extravagancies, like glowing roots coming from the ceiling, but nothing like that. Just a few dusty items were spread all over the place, not even worth mentioning it. But there was a thing, only one, which stood out from the rest; a golden chest, at the end of the room, almost hidden by junk. The elder removed the junk with a movement of his hands, throwing them at the sides like it was nothing; his levitation magic was something to be afraid of…

            The thing that he took out from the chest didn’t make any sense. Swords? I thought this was a pacific village, I can understand bow and arrows to hunt animals, or small knives to do daily chores. But those were warrior swords, longer than a child and sharp enough to cut through meat like if it were jelly. He gave me one to me and then took another for himself, then closed the chest and made his way to the exit. I was out of words, the weight of the sword was less than I thought when I looked at it the first time, what is this made from? Doesn’t look like steel to me…

            I followed Erestor in a hurry, while trying to hide the sword between my arms in vain. He was waiting me at the back of the house, the same place we took yesterday to arrive at the waterfall. I’m not going to repeat the things we did to reach the waterfall again, it was exactly the same. Once we were at the waterfall, the hole opened again after “hearing” Erestor’s words. This time I could sense the tremor under my feet, no wonder the village felt it too…

            The way was boring just like yesterday; if the elder knew that he had to do this walking again, it was understandable that he was so irritated, I would be too. Once again we stood up in front of the big door, guarded by two big pillars. Again I couldn’t see what was at the top, but I could recognize something at the base of it; a claw. After Erestor’s words, we entered at the room illuminated by phantoms lights. The egg was covered on cracks and the shell, completely black, was shining with ebony light. When I got close to it, a big white eye appears on the egg and my head started hurting. Erestor was surprised at first, but immediately he took the sword with both hands and faced the egg.

            My memories from the following moments are really hazy. A bright explosion came from the egg, the shell was flying everywhere and one piece of it hit me on the shoulder, sinking onto it. While blood was coming out, my head began spinning and I sited down on the floor, watching what happened. The elder charged against the light that was emanating from the altar that the egg was resting on before, while chanting more words without meaning to me. Honestly all this was pissing me off and my head was about to explode, I began mumbling to myself: he takes me here without telling me anything and then just leave me alone while heading to a light? Just what is he trying? I can’t take this anymore… daaaaamn…. STOP IT ALREADY!!!

            A big explosion of light covered the whole room, and I felt at easy once again. My head stopped hurting and my shoulder didn’t sting anymore, no blood was flowing from it. After the light, the darkness followed the light, looks like I fainted. This was becoming an habit, damn…

Edited by Yumeshi - 27 Apr 2011 at 02:36

/me loves the images incorparated

As usual, the end of the day was acompanied by the colourfull glow from the misterious diary. The egg that appeared the last time was still there, but a small crack, small enough to being ignore at first glance, was showing at the middle of the egg. Would this be the start of something, or just a joke from the writer to grab the peoples interest? Whatever it is, you wont discover it untill you continue through this pages. Go on then, and read the black words full of meanings.

25th april, 2011
Today I awoke with a small pain in the legs, probably from walking around the town, looks like Im not getting acostumed to this daily life yet. But... ey, I just have to concentrate a little on the pain and touch them with my hands, the pain was almost gone in a few seconds. This magic thing sure is handy, I wonder how it would be used on my world, well no meaning in thinking about it...

       While I was still sitting on the bed looking at my legs fascinated, a small sound came from the door and withouth waiting too much, the elder's daughter entered the room with her usual smile. Eress�, that was her name, got used to coming to my house; to check how I was doing, if I were having any problems and to guide me to Erestor's house. Her company through the long way was a rather pleasent entertainment, so I was glad she took the effort to do it.

         On the way to our destination, Eresse told me about a few histories from the village. The first one was about an evil witch, that would take the bad childrens to the inner of the forest and use them as food to her hungry wolves. Of course I laught while hearing the story, it was clearly used to make the problematic brats to listen to their fathers. Eres (this was how I usually called her) smile with me, saying that she too used that story when the little childrens were playing pranks on her.

         The stories she told me after that one, were almost the same; some evil guy trying to attack the village and steal the wood, tasting defeat at the hands of a powerfull wizard; some horror stories from the unknown place from the forest, i doubt it will be ever explored completely; some romantic stories with good endings, contrasting with tragedies that would steal a tear from a few people; but the story that got my atention talked about a great knight, that saved the kingdom of the old tales with a crimsom red dragon. A red dragon... wasnt one of the dragons in Erestor papers red too? must be just a coincidence... stories are just that, stories to ease the boredom.

          When we arrived at the elders house, it surprised me that he was already outside, waiting for us. While I was wandering what would be the reason for that, Eres left with a small reverence at her father, meaning that we would talk about something related to the elder duty. It was kind of weird that, even the daughter of the elder, couldn't hear about the secrets that Erestor was telling me. I didnt understand that, after all the secrets werent nothing more than a bunch of paper, saying what everyone already knew, but still im not in place to say anything... not now at least...

         When Eres finally left and the elder and me were alone on the front of the house, he told me to follow him. Not inside the house, but to the deep of the forest is where he lead me. At first i wasnt sure if it was okay to follow him, after all we were entering the forest withouth any road to guide us and withouth a fix direction. Sometimes, Erestor would stop and touch some trees, it was the fourth time when i noticed what he was doing. Small symbols were carved on the trees that he was touching, looks like it was a way he already did before.

After a few turns, and some fallings that ended with nothing more than a scratched knee, we arrived at a waterfall born from a high stone wall. I didnt saw any river coming here, so the what i had in front of me catch me by surprise.

Erestor made me a sign with his hand to wait there for a moment. He then walked to the end of the waterfall and pronounced a few words i couldnt understand not even with the language magic i had on me. Inmediately after he finish talking, the waterfall stopped, the land started to move and the water at the end dissapeared, giving place to a hole on the ground, big enough for someone to pass through it. I couldnt close my mouth while watching this spectacle, so magic can even change the terrain around it, eh? i have to ask the elder to teach me that trick one of this days... I could see Erestor image vanishing inside of the hole when i went back to reality, looks like he found funny my dreaming face and didnt bother to woke me up. I hurried to where he dissapeared and, with a reasonable fear, entered the hole.

         The cave inside was narrow at first, but then it got wide... too wide... what the..? it is wider than my house! is like the hall of a palace and it keeps going on in the distance, i couldnt see the end of it. Just as I was looking around the place amaze, I found a small light far away. I doubt at first, but the elder wouldnt take me here if it was dangerous, so i follow the light direction. Erestor was there, waiting for me while looking at an old paper, he looked like he was trying to remember something. Not a lot time later, he took the paper and puted it back at his bag, then pointed at a direction and started walking.

         We were walking for a while, just how big is this place? is all the forest underground like this? I hope it isnt, it wouldnt be funny if the ground just broke down some day... the elder was too quiet all the time, it looks like he was in deep thoughts, I wonder what he would be thinking. Finally he stopped at the side of a giant pillar, I couldnt see the top of it because it was too dark, but im sure there was something there... Erestor then pronounced new words i couldnt understand, just how many magic words there are? will i have to learn every one of them...? A loud noise resonate through the cave after the elder finished chanting and then a big metal door was lifted. So much mistery, so many twisted ways to arrive here and so much security, this must be something impressive, somethin epic, something... there was just one thing on the room, standing pridefull at an altar, lights coming magically from nowhere illuminating it and a picture carved on the stone wall at his back. Everything to maximise the glory of this thing... this.... egg.
Seriously... all this just for a damn egg? what were the people who built this thinking..?

         The stress that was building up on the elders face dissapeared, it was replaced by surprise, hope and what I think it was fear, its hard to remember his expresion exactly. He hurried to where the egg was and watch closely a part of it, looks like there was a small crack on the egg. Now that I look at the elder just at the side of the egg, i can see is actually really big, just what animal is supposed to lay eggs so big...

         I waited a long time, probably hours, while Erestor was examinating that damn egg, muttering some words from time to time that i couldnt hear. Once he finished with it, he just took a look at me, while thinking something that only he know about over and over. He just told me one thing after heading back to the village: "It looks like its reacting to your arrival, lets just hope is something good..."

         Once we were in the village again, the moon was already up and just a few elves were in the streets, most of them were back on their houses. Before going back to his house, the elder gave me a small red stone, he said that it was a material that helped magic aprentices to use magic on the outside. He was giving it to me to apologize for today, because he wouldnt be able to teach me anything. Looks like he was gonna say me something about the egg from the underground cave, but the surprise he got there took his mind completely.

         Im back at my home, late night as usual; today was really boring, truth be told. But well, at least i got a nice artifact for my magic training, its really easy to make it levitate and it changes the colour when using healing magic on it, the headache when using magic now isnt so hard, maybe some day it will dissappear completely. I spent a few minutes, maybe an hour, playing with the stone, some jars got broken when my levitation magic made the stone to go wild. I will have to learn some control on that... but tomorrow, today im really tired.

quite a good read. looking forward to the next one :D