A World of Our Own ~[Reborn]~

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Lyra took the rock with thankful expression and smiled. "Thank you." She headed towards the edge of camp, books tucked under her arm. She looked back once, and then shrugged. She finally found a tree as she reached a place out of earshot of camp. It was a long way from camp and she tucked the rock in her pocket, hoping they would find her before they moved on.
 
Vaid walked further and further into the forest. The more he walked the more strength he could feel returning to his body. He stopped in a small clearing to soak in some sunlight. After standing there for a few minutes Vaid decided that this would be as good as any place. Using his magic he coaxed the grass to lay flat so Vaid could find a rock to sit on. Once Vaid had his chosen rock in the sun he sat down on it and cross his legs. He closed his eyes and began to chant lightly under his breath. Vaid slowly began drawing energy into his body and shivered at the sensation. The energy around him began to slowly swirl around him as if he was the center of a whirlpool. Then Vaid began to draw in energy more quickly, the trees that bordered the clearing began to move in the breeze that was being created by the flowing of energy in the space. Once Vaid had all he needed he cut the flow off and began to meditate. He dove into himself and began to sort the raw energies inside of him, taking some from areas with too much energy and putting them where they were needed or purifying malicious raw energy or converting small amounts of elemental energy that had found their way into the flow of energy Vaid had been absorbing.
 
Lyra wondered how she would be able to climb the tree with three books tucked under one arm. Inspiration suddenly hit her and she reached one arm upwards, closing her eyes and trying to coax her low reserve of magic to help her. The magic rebelled for several minutes before she willed it to help her. It finally relented, sending raw magic out like a rope to wrap against an upper branch. The branch bent downwards and scooped her up. Before she realized it, she was seated safely in the branch. She sighed, opening the book on her magic and beginning to read.
 
After a while Vaid could feel his energy reserves reach their expected amount. He was happy to find that his reserved energy had actually increased from the stress of being used rapidly. Vaid slowly let the pull of energy ease until he was no longer absorbing raw energy. Once that was done he stood up and brushed grass and other remnants of the forest off his pants. He looked around and realized that several hours had passed since he sat down. Vaid's stomach growled loudly to remind him that it was time to go and get some food. Vaid pushed his hands into the pockets of his pants and began to slowly walk. The day was rather warm so Vaid sighed in relief as he stepped into the shade of the forest. Vaid let his mind wander as he walked back towards the camp.
 
Lyra read the book with intense concentration. The first chapter was about a test to see if she had magic. She rolled her eyes and snorted. "Obviously I do..." she flipped the pages until she reached the second chapter. It appeared the second chapter discussed how to slowly build up magic reserves for green mages. Her interest piqued now that she knew she could grow magic reserves, her concentration deepened. Gardening, herb identification, and remedy making were among the top options and she wrinkled her nose. "Remedy making? That sounds like something for more of a hedge witch..." she scoffed. Although, she silently pondered, it could prove to be useful. She yawned, not even aware that the forest around her was growing dark as it prepared for the rest that the night offered. Soon, her lids were drooping and falling shut as her breathing evened out and she drifted to sleep.
 
Marri returned to the camp with Lyra, sleeping soundly, in his arm. He laid her down on her bed and covered her with a blanket. Marri turned his head slightly and looked at Vaid, who nodded in answer to the unspoken question.

Lyra's eyes suddenly snapped open, she was laying on her side and couldn't make much of anything out, though she was positive she wasn't in the same forest. As her eyes adjusted to the heavy darkness she realized that she was staring at grass and there were trees nearby. Lyra rolled over onto her back to stare up at the sky, but when she did she saw nothing. If she stared hard enough she could tell there was some kind of light source there but it was being obscured by a thick black fog. Lyra decided that she should probably figure out what was going on. She stood and started slowly turning in a circle. She turned three or four times and then suddenly there was a man standing about teen feet away from her under a tree. She couldn't quite make out his face because of all the shadow, "Hello, Lyra." The man's voice seemed to move like the fog itself, slowly creeping over her body and leaving goose bumps in its wake. "Who are you? And where am I?" Lyra demanded of the man cloaked in shadow. "You are in your mind Lyra. I am a construct of your subconscious. I was created to help you cope with the situation that you have been forced into. That and help you find order to your chaotic mind," everything the man said felt as if it was true to Lyra, but that still didn't help with the stranger's dark and shadowy presence.
 
Lyra stood there, hearing the man wrapped in shadow tell her these things. She tried to take a step away, realizing no matter how many steps she took, she was always in the same spot and with the presence of the man in front of her. "How do I know you speak the truth? How do I know this isn't a nightmare?" She crouched down in place, eyes wide and hands moving to cover her ears. She had to wonder if it was some enchantment and if the college mages had caught her. The last thing she remembered was being in her tree with a book. Did she fall asleep reading again? Was Marri unable to find her and that was why she was here in this pit of darkness. Tears started coursing down her face and she wondered how she tried to keep from screaming. Too many thtoughts raced through her mind and she tried to slow them down. In her panicked condition it was next to impossible.
 
"A dream or a nightmare, what is the difference? In a dream your mind tried to speak to you in a whisper, hoping that you'll hear it's call. All a nightmare is, is when your mind is screaming to get your attention. However, this is both a dream and a nightmare, just as it is neither a dream nor a nightmare," The man's voice was flat the entire time he talked. He began to take a few steps forward and as he did the black fog seemed to first be attracted to his very presence and then would part before him, as though it feared to be in the man's way. "As for if this is or isn't the truth, that will be up to you to decide." The man walked away from Lyra and towards a nearby cliff. Lyra blinked in surprise, realizing that the environment had lightened slightly. Though the amount of black fog hadn't lessened at all. The man beckoned Lyra to come and stand next to him and look out at the state of her mind. The majority of her mind seemed to be covered in forests though there were several areas where one could only make out a dark mass. The entirety of the realm was blanketed in the the thick dark fog.
 
Lyra blinked as she stood at the edge of the cliff. Part of her had no idea how she had gotten there. One moment she was sitting in fear and the next she was standing and gazing out at an odd landscape. It was as if chaos had played a role in the way the landscape was formed. She could see parts of forests reaching towards a sky painted in a dull aurora. The rest of the landscape was difficult to make outM either covered in fog or dark and dim. It all seemed lifeless and full of fear and she gasped. "This can't be my mind...its so...boring." she grimaced, hating how vain she sounded to her own ears.
 
"It is indeed your mind. You see your mind has begun preparing for the trails that are ahead of you. It's begun to form room for what you must learn," the man pointed to several spots where it seemed as though there was a void. Nothing existed in these spots except darkness, though this darkness had no feeling to it, it was simply just darkness. The dark fog and mist though seemed to carry a variety of smells from fear, to doubt, to anger. "Your unconscious mind knows that you will have to learn to control the remaining elements, raw magical energy, and combine all of them and create a new style of magic. So in response your mind made room. This is the only part of your mind functioning properly. Everything else is wrong. A forest that was once greener than anything that can be found in the reality is now filled with petrified trees. The sky which once used to sing songs to all that reside here is obscured by a thick fog. We have much work to do, Lyra." The man turned and looked first at her, even at such a close proximity the man's face was still hidden by darkness. He then glanced up at the sky and nodded his head, as though in response to an unheard command. "Well this is all the time we have today. You haven't yet mastered this world so time moves differently here. Though it seems we have been here for half an hour at the most it has been closer to seven hours in reality. It's time to wake up," and with that last phrase Lyra's eyes shot open. The sun was just barely peaking over the tree line. Lyra was lying in her bed in camp. Vaid and Marri spoke in soft voices as they cooked the morning's breakfast. Marri whistled a reply to some bird song which only brought about a reply of a chorus of bird song. Vaid smiled and closed his eyes, letting the song seep into his skin and settle on his bones. Today would be the first day of their journey.
 
Lyra could only lay in her bedroll, closing her eyes once again as she fought of a feeling of being overwhelmed. She felt rested and safe, but more hesitant as to how her emotiions fared. Was it relief she felt over the dream or simply confusion. Perhaps a mixture of both. She sat up very slowly, refusing to meet either male's gaze as she did so. She did not understand how she made it back to camp and at the moment she did not much care. Goosebumps formed along her skin and she blinked several times. She wished she had absorbed all there was to learn of meditation from her mother, knowing it would do her well right then.

Lyra stood and began to pack together what she had with her, wondering how to carry them with her. The world felt wrong to her as she struggled to maintain her balance. Her stomach lurched and she instinctively knew it was a result of whatever had resulted from her dream. She looked around intil she found the books she had borrowed before joining the males around the fire.
 
"Good morning, Lyra." Marri said flashing a quick smile at her. He then turned back to the eggs and bacon he was cooking over the camp fire but he continued to chat. "You know you shouldn't fall asleep in trees. If you weren't an earth mage you probably would have fallen. When Vaid returned and you hadn't went out to find you. Found you asleep in a tree so I brought you back to camp." Vaid stood up and smiled at Lyra before walking over to the interdimenisonal door and open it. He went inside and quickly came back out with some plates and forks. He helped Marri hand out the food and then he and Marri took a seat on a fallen tree to enjoy their breakfast. "You excited to finally be on our way, Lyra?" Vaid asked Lyra in between bites of his eggs.
 
Lyra smiled, the easy conversation between the two other mages setting her at ease. "I'm sorry I put you through trouble finding me. I hadn't realized I fell asleep reading again." She decided against mentioning her regular habit of doing just that. Her bed was constantly littered with books and reading material. She took the plate with a polite thank you and began to slowly eat, her stomach attempting a fit of rebellion. "Not...not too excited. I just want to learn about different types of plants." She remembered she had a pouch and vials for collecting seed specimens and she blushed with controlled excitement.
 
"Well Vaid and I are going to get things cleaned up and packed away so we can get headed out," Marri gave Lyra a smile and then practically dragged Vaid into their interdimensional portal. The two of them put away the assortment of things they had brought in with them and then quickly hurried back out. The two of them were visibly excited to be on their way. After a short while the camp was packed up and Vaid was performing a cleansing incant to purge their presence from the area. This was done for two reasons: to make it harder to track them and so their residual energies wouldn't affect the ecosystem of the area.
 
Lyra finished eating and then moved to join the men. She watched in hardly concealed interest as Vaid cleansed the area before she reached into her pocket and tied her pouch with the vials inside to her waist. The pouch had a long leather cord that wrapped around her waist until it was secured. She used to have a vine that did the same thing but she found she hated the way it would "hug" her at the worst moments, effectively stealing her breath. Lyra looked at the men, excitement growing at the possibility for adventure.
 
Once the camp was cleansed and each person had their packs on their shoulders the three began to walk. For now the three of them headed northwards, "So we do have a first destination, though after that we won't know for sure where we are going." The sunlight was finally peaking up over the mountains and the three tops, warming their bones and promising another beautiful day. They slowly made their way along the trail, bird song keeping them company. "After your initial training you will be guiding us. You will have to feel where we are to be going next," Vaid told Lyra in a very calm and even voice. Though he sounded calm you could see the torrent of thought behind his eyes, trying to calculate as much as possible to reduce risk to Lyra.

((Sorry this post took me so long! I've been really stressed out with work and school.))
 
((You're okay. I understand.))

Lyra nodded, too enchanted wiith the plants around her to pay much attention to the calculating look in Vaid's eyes. She paused every so often to oohh and aaahhh over a new plant. She made sure to ask nicely for extra seeds before putting the seeds in a spare vial she had in her pouch. Then, she would skip until she had caught up with the rest of the group. Her eyes shone and she smiled over at Vaid. "I can do that now if you wanted?"
 
"Actually, you can't yet. We have to train your body and your mind to be able to begin feeling the other elements. Once you are able to feel their presence on the fringes of your mind you'll be able let them guide you. Most likely you'll be guided to an area where that element is the dominant force," Vaid said to Lyra while looking up at the sky. They had been walking for a few hours now and he could feel them nearing their next destination. The sun was still high in the sky and the birds had taken to relaxing in the shade to stay out of the sun. As they walked Vaid and Marri made small talk; it was as if the events with the Council hadn't occurred at all.
 
Lyra frowned at the fact she could not yet do something of that magnitude and she sighed. The day continued to pass and she gathered even more seeds and walked along behind the men. A few thoughts srang to her mind of what she could do until she finally brought out the book she had been reading earlier. As she walked, she read...absorbing as much knowsledge as she possibly could on her craft.
 
It wasn't very long before the group arrived at a small town. The town was small enough that their fires couldn't be seen off in the distance. People walked about the few streets going about their daily business, hardly paying any attention the new comers to the town. A few kids played hide and seek along the fringes of the town, their laughter filled the air. "This is one of the several small villages throughout the Elf Kingdom. They're small enough that they aren't affected by the Capital but still fall under its protection. Villages of this size don't normally have powerful magic users and as such we always try to provide some kind of assistance as we pass though," Vaid said as he slowly steered the group towards one of the largest buildings in the village.
 
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