Beatitudes

A Fae.

“Halt!!”

A voice that sounded firm and compelling entered their ears as it echoed through the forest.

Forced to a standstill, only Adam had an unperturbed expression on his face, while the others looked surprised and disoriented. After the voice rang through the forest, silence descended for a quick moment before a slight breeze was felt coming from ahead of their way, the sound of air being displaced could barely be heard.

The four raised their heads as they gazed upon a descending figure. Watching a figure suddenly descend had made them focused on the unexpected guest. As they focused on him and were about to discern his features, a peculiar aspect of him caught their attention, leaving the three escapees now trainees wide eyed with their mouths open.

The voice that rang out in the forest just now should have come from no other one but the person in front of them, watching as he descended spellbound they couldn’t hide their emotions. He had beautiful features, a face that was made well with a chiseled jaw and a pointed nose accompanied his lithe and fit figure.

Witnessing someone actually flying was something that made them intrigued, after all Adam who seemed so cool and mysterious had actually never flown or done so much as levitated in their presence so for someone who could actually fly to appear before them was definitely a shocker… but that wasn’t the reason why the expressions mirroring their emotions seemed so exaggerated , the man had landed on the ground gracefully amidst their persistent focus on him as they peered at what was behind him, his eyebrows furrowed imperceptibly and they watched closely as the transparent wings dabbed with a few fine line patterns withdrew slowly, whether into his body or somewhere else, they couldn’t be sure.

H*ck! This guy was a fae!!

Creatures of nature born from life’s aura and essence. Bestowed with lithe and beautiful figures and faces, adorned with a pair of wings resembling different patterns with none being ugly.

This was the basic knowledge that every intelligent being in a human settlement had regarding these beings of another race. Their race along with a few other races were regarded as ancient mystical races, rarely sighted they lived deep within places that weren’t accessible to others not of their race….so how were they seeing one right in front of them.

Although the wings that had been flapping behind his back was a clear statement to his identity, it was still incredibly hard for them to believe their eyes, the eyes could be deceiving like some people say anyways.

Seeing the emotions bursting out of them, an odd look crept into the fae’s eyes, the thoughts in his head was unknown. His gaze turned to the one who looked to be their leader as he changed the words he was about to utter.

“What do you seek Human?”

Adam who had been mostly quiet all this while, had his lips curve up as his expression remained mostly unchanged. “I wonder how I may address you?”, he said as brushed the question posed by the fae away.

A glint moved through the fae’s eye as he looked closer at Adam.

“Names are unnecessary between us, we’ve only met each other a while ago, you know”

Adam’s expression didn’t change as he looked at the fae with a seemingly casual expression yet some would notice the look deep in his eyes now, he spoke again with a smile

“That’s sad, I was hoping to be on first name terms when we departed from each other… that aside I do have a request I hope you can help with.”

“What is it that you need human, be careful with your requests…”

At this point I think all four of us had realized something, or maybe three if the fact that Adam didn’t act surprised by the appearance of the fae was added… this fae guy was incredibly blown up and hostile, I wonder if it’s something personal or a general characteristic of the fae. He didn’t even bother to hide his hostility, at this point after the few weeks we spent fighting beasts, our dull senses had gotten stronger and I could sense it pretty well. It seemed like we were almost not welcome here.

Adam acting like he didn’t take note of the warning kept his casual expression as he spoke “You see we’ve been walking through this forest for a few weeks now, the reason being that we came to ask for a warp platform to Sarang.”

Hearing what Adam said, confusion filled the other three’s eyes, a glint of light of light passed through her eyes as she thought, ‘warp platform, where are we going to teleport to… Sarang? wait… could that be…’

As the man in front heard those words his brows furrowed together, a bit of suspicion creeping onto his face, “You need a warp platform to Sarang. Might I ask you why you needed to come all the way here for that.”

“Well you see, the human settlements only possess warp platforms to Sarang at the various head capitals, while we’re just a group of people situated on the edge of the Human lands next to the Jade forest. Since moving to another racial settlement on foot is a tough feat, I figured I might just test out the rumors and head to Sarang from here, you see, we’re sort of like adventurers who are looking to explore the vast world.”

Hearing the slightly long answer that Adam gave only made for more suspicion to creep on to his features but once the fae confirmed a certain thing, his expression eased up slowly.

“Alright, if it’s a warp platform you need then you shall get one. I reckon that’s the only thing need correct?”

“Mn.”

Although he had kept his expression mostly neutral, hearing the words he wanted to hear, he still let out a slight exhale from his nostrils. they couldn’t afford complications.

Taking another glance at the group, the fae eased up a bit on his expressions as he stated and turned around, “Follow me”

As they heard what he said, the two young men were about to take a step forward when a hand stopped them from moving, they followed the arm up to its owner and saw Hiya who opened her mouth and uttered two words, “Don’t move”

Isaac was about to utter a ‘What’s wrong’ when suddenly the fae brought a stone the size of an egg, there were tiny lines of strange light swirling within making it look beautiful and eye catching. The fae didn’t waste his time or movements as he suddenly clamped down on the stone, crushing it. They only had a chance to notice the appearance of the stone before a whitish-grey circle with interwoven lines appeared around them and then a tug was felt and after a quick darkening and lightening up of the surrounding light, a wave of dizziness hit them as their eyes had to readjust itself. Although only a second had passed after the whole sudden incident, they felt like they had spent a day battling monsters non-stop, Hiya wasn’t excluded as she blinked twice to fight back the daze. The strain actually felt more like an inner strain, a strain on their souls, it was a situation Isaac had never encountered before, a very odd one.

Five seconds later as their heads gradually got clearer, Hiya looked around as she took in their surroundings, around them were a few constructs here and there looking medium in size, but what really stood out were the trees which seemed to be just as wide as the houses, some even slightly wider, these trees spanned across the distance perceivable to the eyes equally spaced, in the distance a few flying figures could be seen, there was actually more fae in this place. Those fae in the distance seemed to be moving all about the place while some turned their heads in the direction of their presence, their human auras were sticking out like a thumb.

They were actually still in the forest yet the whole setting reminded them of a city, or a village perhaps. At this point the Isaac and Harry had also regained focus as they looked around them in odd shock. Until a voice rang out bringing them back to focus, it was Adam. He stared as they realized the fae guy walking forward, they had been taken in by their sights so they didn’t hear when the fae asked them to follow him again. They smiled sheepishly as Adam had a look of helplessness on his face, they got so carried away in a place unfamiliar to them, although he hadn’t exactly been giving them pointers, he couldn’t help the exasperation he felt, so he shook his head with a faint smile and turned around, walking towards their fae.

Moving forward, no one said a word as they all walked quickly with Isaac and the others still clueless… the damn guy could have been kiting them around and now teaming up with a fae to kidnap them, that’s what they would have thought as odd as it sounded if they weren’t just only ‘adventurers’ who had just recently burst out of confinement. Looking ahead they could see a big tree, it was about three times the size of the other trees. There were a few figures standing around it, obviously fae, which showed the fact that it was an unusual place.

After a quick stroll down they reached the tree. The fae around it only gesturing with a salute at our arrival, no it was at the fae leading us, they took no note of us as it seemed they acknowledged who brought us. We stood in front of the tree and as I looked around it and high up to the top, I couldn’t see anything else about it, what’s going to happen now I wonder. And then like he was responding to my thoughts the fae raised his arm and swiped across the space himself and the tree, like magic immediately after, a hole sort of carved itself out on the tree, there was now a hole seemingly big enough for all of us to move through.

My shock was cut short as the other moved through the hole, I glanced around and saw the same shock that had been on our faces ever since we met the fae on Harry as well but none on Hiya’s and although I couldn’t see Adam ’s face, I knew he was also unperturbed. I realized then that we were probably seemingly like young country bumpkins to the other two. I felt embarrassed as I quickly fixed my expression and left Harry ’s alone and followed after them. The passage was extremely short as after a few steps I had reached another doorway and moved through it, I immediately saw a bare space, nothing in sight as I looked around, but then a light caught my eye and I looked to the ground. A wide floor space that was also completely bare, I could see countless symbols and circles like the one I just experienced a short while ago, as I looked all over the floor down to the farthest distance I could see of the space, I saw the same symbols all around as they all crawled with light. I paused again as I took in the whole view, until Harry bumped me in the shoulder and I looked up to see them looking at me as they stood at a distance away. The fae was standing to our side as he gave me an odd look, I could faintly guess what was going through his mind

Moving away from the unnerving gaze, I walked towards the other two, Adam with a faint smile on his face and Hiya with an indifferent look. I stood to the right of the group with Harry between me and the others and waited.

It was then Adam looked to the fae and gave a nod as he said, “Thanks for the ride”

The fae looked him in the eye and said, “It’s nothing more than an obligation”, and with that he waved his hand in the air as a circle appeared and then drew a symbol within the circle, and then gave a faint tap.

Like that my vision went topsy-turvy again as everything went from bright to dark to bright again all in two seconds. A dizzy spell threatened to topple me over and I stumbled back and forth before I could control myself, I heard Adam ’s voice as I was rubbing my eyes,

“We’re here.”