Reverse Chronicles

Tale of Laion

Mysinda is a small country sandwiched between Caldia to the east, the Sarcen empire to the north and west, and the Caldiac ocean to the south. Its capital is the only city in the country. On its borders are towns and villages that keep contact with the outside world. It has a chain of volcanoes that surround the country, providing a natural protection against any invasion.

At the Caldia-Mysinda border is a volcano named Laion. A local town uses the geothermal heat produced around the area as a source of income. The town is called Yalba and its main source of income are hot spring resorts. Yalba has a direct road from Toulse and is a popular destination for Caldians who want to relax in the hot springs.

“I can’t believe we get to visit a hot springs town,” Keith says, floating on the lead. “I’m so excited!”

“Well, we deserve a break.” I answer.

“We saved and helped a lot of people during our travels,” Franz enters the conversation. “I hope we have done enough to bring justice.”

“We have,” I smile, as I turn to Franz, “and you deserve this break.”

The road to Yalba is quiet and deserted. It is summer and many people do not spend much time on the hot springs during the heat of summer. When autumn appears to color the leaves and the vegetation, the hot springs will be full of guests and the roads that lead to the hot springs will become a waterfall.

Zealle sleeps half the trip. He seems to understand that we are going to a place that will not be comfortable for him. He has done a lot of flying, perching on my shoulder to take rests. He has grown bigger and his scales and some horns have become distinguishable.

We take a quick break near a river. The sun is high up in the air, the winds blow faintly, and the humidity is very uncomfortable. The winds that blew on the Eastern Breath hills are absent in this part of Caldia.

Franz takes a quick dip in the river. He distanced himself and made sure that I was not able to see what he was doing. His effort failed him, though, as Keith drew my attention towards him. He is like a Greek god, Adonis, as he bathed. His perfectly sculpted muscles and those beautifully chiseled abs should be displayed in a museum. His blonde hair and his blue eyes complimented his oblivious face as he looks on a distance, not noticing my gaze directed towards his presence.

“Hey, Josh! What are you looking at?” Keith shouted, ruining the mood.

Franz notices me peeking. I quickly look away, pretending to pet Zealle. I never looked again. I concentrate my focus on a tome that I borrowed from Keith. It contains spells that should be useful in battle.

Trap the enemy in a water sphere and render them immobile or summon a flood that will douse the enemy. Deluge is a water-element spell that takes the form of your imagination. Magic control is the key.

“The water-element has plenty of spells that can improve your magic control,” Keith says, demonstrating Deluge. First, he created a water sphere, then he made the water level in the river increase. “Creating a sphere is harder, than making it flood. You should first practice flooding then creating.”

I stand in front of the river and focus my magic at the palm of my hands. I can feel the flow of the water as it moves slowly on the riverbank. I followed the instructions written on the tome and visualized the water getting higher. At my first attempt, the river overflowed. I had to cancel my spell to return it to normal.

“What was that?” Keith wonders. “You have a lot of magic power. I never noticed it before, but the amount of magic power that you have is above average.”

Now I try to create a water sphere. I did as what Keith told me. I first made small water spheres and progressively made larger ones. Zealle joins in the fun and freezes the spheres that I make with his Freezing Breath. I focused and try to create a water sphere large enough to fit the three of us inside. I close my eyes and visualize.

“Josh, stop!” Keith shouts. I open my eyes and witness a big water sphere that I created. I dispelled the spell, but Zealle froze it using his breath. The water sphere became an ice sphere and it blocked the flow of the river.

Keith cast Fireball and melted the ice. He smiles and gives me words of encouragement. The one word that stuck on my head is “interesting.”

“Guys, what were you doing?” Franz arrives with every inch of his body, even his armor wet.

I was so caught up with learning a new spell that I forgot that he was bathing.

“We should continue on our way,” Franz suggests.

Meters away from the river is a hill. We went over the hill and on top of it is Laion. It looked majestic. Its peak is hidden by clouds as white as Zealle’s wings. At the foot of Laion, green vegetation and a town is seen. Yalba is close.

“We should hurry,” Franz says, “I feel really soggy.”

“Sorry about that,” I bow my head and apologize.

“No apologies necessary,” Franz answers. “You were practicing your magic and that is a commendable act. Don’t be sorry.”

“While you two love birds are talking,” Keith butts in the conversation. “I will fly all of us there!” He cast Levitate and flew us directly to Yalba.

The town became lively when we arrived. They handed pamphlets and talked about packages and discounts, if we stayed at their resort. We want to be together, so we chose a package for three people. The resort that accommodated us is called Koimizu. It has a direct breathtaking view of the volcano and its location in town provided the peace and quiet that we needed.

The resort is Japanese-themed, which truly shocked me. I have only seen hot spring resorts in movies. The furniture, the detail, everything is like similar to Japanese culture. A resort maid takes us to our room and gives us an itinerary during our stay. There is free dinner and breakfast and complete access to their facilities.

We thank the maid and made ourselves comfortable in our room. I bathed in the hot springs, leaving Zealle behind as she is uncomfortable with water. I am in the women’s bath, while the men were on the other side in their own bath. The two baths are separated by a bamboo wall and I could hear Keith splashing the water around.

Suddenly, a middle-aged woman walks in the women’s bath. She had dark hair, which hang up to her lower back. She bathed with me and let all her worries go away.

“Do you like Josh, Franz?” I can hear Keith murmuring.

“Love, eh?” the woman speaks. “Are you in love, young lady?”

“Well, I…”

“No matter, the springs will make you fall in love,” she answers. “Do you know the tale of Laion? It is a folktale in this town.”

“No,” I begin to listen attentively to the woman. She begins narrating the tale of Laion.

                There was once a princess of the land named Laion. She was brave, strong, beautiful, and kind. Many suitors from all over the land came here to ask her hand in marriage. She told them that she will only marry a man who can defeat her in a duel. However, she defeated them all and no suitor was successful.

                Makisig, the prince of the skies, admired Laion and wanted to marry her. However, the kings of the land and sky were bitter enemies and a war between the two kingdoms have lasted for generations. Makisig pleaded with his father to end the war, but his father called him delusional. Makisig all did he can to stop the war, but his actions ended in his banishment. He fell on the kingdom of the land, where he met Laion, who was on a quest to defeat Manakawu, an evil monster of the sea.

                Laion, however, was not a great swimmer and her life was in great peril. Makisig saw her and saved her. Together they defeated the Manakawu and fell in love.

                When Laion was not busy, she would visit Makisig on the place where he fell and their love would make the birds sing, the flowers bloom, and the trees smile. Laion’s father, however, found out about their secret love and vowed to bring her daughter back to sanity.

                In a night raid, the king of the land took Makisig’s life. When Laion found out about the death of her love, she was outraged. She rebelled against her father and defeated his armies. She travelled to the kingdom on the skies to bury Makisig. She, however, was not welcomed and was blamed for Makisig’s death.

                Makisig’s father called his son a disappointment, which brought anger to Laion’s heart. She flattened the kingdom on the sky. However, Yalba, Makisig’s friend shot her with an arrow and she fell down back to the land. She died. From her burial place grew a volcano that was named after her.

“Every day, you will notice,” the woman continues, “the clouds kisses with the volcano, showing Laion and Makisig’s eternal love.”

“That is a great tale, ma’am.” I look at the volcano. It is touching the clouds even now. “A love that transcends death.” The woman disappeared. She is nowhere to be found.

I called it a night and returned to our room. I look at the beautiful moon that shone. The peace and the quite is immaculate.

“So that was the tale of Laion,” Franz approaches, “that is a very beautiful tale,” he sits beside me, and we gaze together at the moon.

“You heard that?”

“Well, yes, and I am glad that I heard it.”