The Legend of Caelestella

Snap. A twig broke beneath the foot of the charmadine. 

Astar awoke, he'd fallen asleep during their trek through the canyon. He blinked his eyes open, it was almost dawn at this point, and he could see the faint line of the rising sun on the horizon.

'Morning.' A resonant voice said from above him.

Astar looked up and found Haruki's face relatively close to his own. Astar jumped with a start and bashed his forehead against Haruki's.

'Ouch.' Astar said quietly as he curled over, clutching his forehead. 'Why is your head so hard.'

'I'll take that as a compliment.' Haruki said, gingerly rubbing the red mark on his forehead.

The group had been travelling for around six hours, everyone was starting to get sick of sitting down for such a prolonged period.

'Let's stop here.' Eldrin said when they reached the skeletal base of a dead yellow pine tree.

'What are we even looking for in here, Eldrin?' Aiden asked as he slid off the back of a brown mare and collapsed on the ground in exhaustion.

'You'll know when you see it.' Eldrin said.

'We are looking for a dungeon portal.' Galvan told the group. 'I'm sure you've heard of them, and it will be obvious when we find it. Just in case, dungeon portals are large, cobbled archways with a semi-translucent film in the arch, they lead to netherworld dungeons or aetherworld dungeons.'

'A dungeon portal?' Aiden asked incredulity. 'Why would Caelestella be in a dungeon?'

'He's not. His compass is.' Galvan said.

'What? I'm confused.' Elva stated. 'Are we not looking for Caelestella?'

Eldrin sighed. 'This was bad communication on my part. We're currently looking for a dungeon, we need to beat the dungeon as the trophy is Caelestella's compass, also known as his heart.'

'The heart of Caelestella...' Astar echoed. 'How will we know that the portal is the right one?'

'There is only one dungeon in this part of Aidoth, and we know this is the correct dungeon, because no team has beaten it before, therefore the trophy has remained the same for the past six thousand years.' Dock said quietly.

'Very good, someone has been doing their research.' Eldrin said.

'Not really, I just come from Aidoth, we hear this fabled bedtime story often as children.'

Eldrin rubbed his masked chin cautiously. 'I see.'

'Hey, I didn't know flowers grew here.' Milli called. Behind the bones of the yellow pine tree in the cool shade it provided from the blistering sun, a small patch of delicate white flowers grew.

'What are those, I've never seen such flowers before.' Ellie said, bending down to inspect the flowers.

'Wait, is that-' Phyre started.

'Don't touch those!' Dock yelled. Too late.

Roots burst through the rust-colour soil, quickly wrapping their tendrils around Milli's ankles. Milli smirked, and then a burst of pale green mana shot out from the ground around her feet, tearing at the threads of the roots as they disintegrated from the shock. Milli leapt off the ground she stood on, landing on a higher rocky platform. A muffled scream, a missing person.

'Eli!' Milli cried.

Milli launched forward, taking her grimoire from the pocket on her belt and it began to glow as it flicked through its thousands of thin pages.

'No.' Dock interrupted, slamming Milli's grimoire closed behind her.

'Dock, stop! What are you doing?' Milli asked furiously.

'You'll hurt Ellie more with your type of magic.'

'What?'

'These are vultures tear flowers, an carnivorous plant native to Aidoth. They use the Baslan mana in the soil around them and the Rasdai mana found in their roots. If you use any more Rasdai magic you'll only be feeding it, making it stronger and helping it to consume Eli.'

Milli froze. 'What mana weakens them then?'

'Funny story, I can't remember that part.' Dock said quietly.

'What?!' Milli yelled. 'Of all times, Dock! Rack your brain, what weakens them?'

'Calm down, Milli.' Ashr said, grabbing her arm that had grabbed Dock by the collar.

'Use your brains, you two. Honestly.' Phyre sighed. 'Plant is weak to air magic.'

'But what about its earth control?' Milli asked.

'That can't control the plant, the Baslan mana is just to carve out easier paths for the delicate roots underground.' Phyre explained.

'How do you know that?' Astar asked from off to the side.

'I'm a flowr magic user, am I not?' Phyre questioned.

Astar remembered how Phyre had used her purple wisteria flowers against him that time he'd nearly accidentally hurt Elva. He gulped and stepped back a little, away from the scene.

'Ashr.' Eldrin said.

'Yes?' Ashr asked nervously.

'This is up to you, you're the only one with air magic.' Eldrin said as he casually leaned against the yellow pine.

Why were Galvan and Eldrin so calm about this? Eli's life was in danger at the moment. Astar clenched his fist and furrowed his brow.

'Oh, okay. I can do this!' Ashr said, encouraging himself. He grabbed the flower by the base of its stem and tore it out, revealing some roots. The plant made an awful, screeching sound and Astar caught a glimpse of a rooted cage beneath the ground and saw some strands of purple hair caught in the tightly woven roots. A root began to wrap around Ashr's wrist and pulled his arm beneath the earth.

'Ashr!' Dock called, landing next to him on his knees.

'It's okay, Dock. I need to get my hand down by the mass of its roots. I'm not a very strong mage so I need to hit it at its weakest point for this to work.'

Ashr took a deep breath as the roots dragged him into the soil. Dock stood up and backed away. He nervously chewed at his nails as he paced back and forth near the patch of flowers and the disturbed soil around it. The soil shifted slowly and then suddenly Ellie burst out of the soil, sending small stones flying out with her. Eli's black sleeveless turtleneck and her denim shorts were torn. The base of her plait had been sliced by something sharp and had come undone. Her hair flowed loosely behind her.

She stumbled on the ground and Milli quickly helped her to her feet. Dock ran up and knelt down beside the carnage of roots, leaves and petals in the large hole in the soil. He grabbed something and quickly hurled Ashr out of the hole in the soil. Ashr had fainted from overloading the plant with his mana, but in the end, had succeeded in killing the vultures tear flowers.

Astar heard a loud sigh emerge from behind him, turning around he saw Eldrin leaning on the tree, wiping a small bead of sweat from his brow.

'Ashr? Ashr!' Dock said, shaking Ashr softly by the shoulders.

'He's fainted Dock, take him back to your chimera and look after him, we need to start moving again, this canyon is over a thousand kilometres long and the last known record of the portal is uncertain, so we need to search every square centimetre.' Galvan said.

'Galvan, can you check him quickly, please? You're the doctor, I want to make sure he's okay.' Dock pleaded.

'Dock, I can tell from here. He's just overexerted himself and fainted, he'll wake up within ten minutes.'

Dock nodded slowly and gently lifted Ashr, carrying him over to the chimera they had been riding and placed him in the saddle then sat behind him to brace him. For such a tall, muscular man, Dock was surprisingly gentle and caring. At least what Astar had seen of him so far.

They mounted their equines again and began to walk through the canyon again. The sun was high in the sky now and Astar was sweating profusely. He shifted in his seat, turning around to grab the drink bottle from the saddle bag. He leaned over Haruki's leg and strained his arm, grasping his fingers around thin air. He couldn't quite reach the bottle, so he leaned slightly more to the right and grabbed the bottle. He went to sit back up but felt Haruki rest his elbow at the base of Astar's back.

'Haruki.' Astar said.

'Mm?'

'Can I get up please?'

'Nope.'

'Haruki, why?' Astar whined. 'This is uncomfortable.'

'Fine.' Haruki complied.

Haruki took his arm off of Astar's back and Astar sat up in the saddle, stretching his arms. Haruki wrapped his right arm around Astar's chest, pulling him back in the saddle.

'Haruki, it's hot.' Astar sighed.

'I want a headrest.' Haruki said as he rested his chin on Astar's shoulder.

Astar sighed and took a sip of the water in the thermal drink bottle.

'Can I have some water?' Haruki asked through a yawn.

Astar looked over his shoulder at Haruki.

'Fine.'

He brought the bottle to Haruki's lips and let him have a drink, the Astar smirked and tipped the bottle a little too high, letting the water spill on Haruki's face.

'Really?' Haruki coughed. He tried to sound annoyed but was betrayed by the faint smile on his face.

Astar leaned back into Haruki and closed his eyes again. He reopened his eyes as he got a strange feeling. He looked to his left up on the steep, rocky wall of the canyon. Nothing was there. Perhaps Astar was going crazy from his lack of sleep.

'Did you see that?' Haruki asked.

'I didn't see it, but I felt like I was being watched, what was it?'

'A figure.' Haruki said. 'A figure dressed in black, they disappeared when you opened your eyes.'

'That's weird.' Astar said as he got chills.

'Stay close to me, we're being followed.' Haruki told him.

'Do you think it's someone from The Knights of Kezran?' Astar asked sheepishly.

'Perhaps.' Haruki said.

Astar shifted uncomfortably. 'Why does this have to get even more difficult?' He complained.

Haruki didn't say anything, he just patted Astar's leg and continued to guide the charmadine along the dusty canyon floor. The sun was still high in the sky, but the environment around them was now eerie and chilly. Astar shivered and sunk back further into Haruki.