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This is the second installment of the fanfiction, for those looking for action in this one, that will have to wait for later. This sets up some keys parts to the story. So without further adu, the second chapter!
Chapter Two: Past, Present, and…Past?
Birds were chirping outside John’s window as rays of light inched onto his body. He opened his eyes to one big blur. He rubbed them to get rid of the film in his eyes and sat up in the soft bed. He was in a small room that had a large wooden door to his left and a small window to his right. It looked like something out of a medieval movie, yet had a semi-modern look to it. He looked down at himself and saw that he was in a white nightgown and brown tattered pants. The bed itself looked and felt very nice, even though it lacked sheets. He looked on the left side of his bed to see a long sword, a hard leather chest guard, studded leather chaps and steel boots resting beside him. On the nightstand was a small helmet, a dagger, a shirt, pants, and black robe, and a mug filled with water. Suddenly as John reached for the mug, there was a knock at the door. “Yes?” John said sheepishly. The door opened to the wolf-man that John saw in the forest. He was holding a tray with some meat on it and a couple eggs. “Good morning.” he said as he stood in the doorway. “I brought some food for you if you are hungry. When you are ready, my master would like to have a word with you.”
“Um…sure.” said John as he got off of the bed. Where the hell am I? he thought to himself as he stood there motionless. The creature walked towards the nightstand and put the tray down.
“I’m sure you have many questions to ask, do you not?” it asked him. John nodded quickly, eager to know what was going on here.
“Could you tell me what happened?” John asked.
“I believe that should be saved for my master, I was behind him and did not see what had taken place.” It paused as John stood there confused. “I think you should change into something a bit more…appropriate…before you do however. I took the liberty of placing a new change of clothes next to you while you slept.” it said as it pointed to the nightstand. “Anything else?”
“Yes.” he said nervously. “Er…please don’t hold this against me, but may I ask what you are?” The creature looked utterly perplexed. John felt his stomach sink as he thought he had said something offensive. “I’m sorry if I upset you, I just don’t quite know what is going on.”
It nodded in understanding as it said calmly, “Well, I am called a Keidran. We are a race that is split into different factions. For example, I am a Wolf Keidran. There are other types too, like Tiger Keidrans, Leopard Keidrans, and so on. Is that answer sufficient?”
Again, John nodded. He felt awkward as the Keidran said, ‘Is that answer sufficient?’ It was very proper and polite, perhaps too much so.
“So what’s your name?” John asked
“Mark. I believe your name is John, am I correct?”
Stunned, John said, “Yeah, how did you know that?”
Mark laughed and pointed to the backpack at the foot of the bed. “It was written on the flap of your bag and on the handle of your sword.”
“So...this stuff is mine?” John asked, now baffled.
“Yes, I believe so. We found it near you when we picked you up. We thought you had been in some type of battle, what with the blood all over the ground.”
“Blood!?!?” John exclaimed. “There was blood?”
“Yes, but we didn’t find any wounds on you…” Mark opened his mouth to say more but stopped. He sighed and said, “Come, get dressed and eat if you like. Then we must see my master.” Mark then turned around and closed the door behind him, leaving John alone. A bead of nervous sweat formed on John’s head as he reached for the clothes and put them on. What on earth is going on here!?!? Am I even on Earth? What are Keidrans, why was there blood, and who is this ‘Master’ that Mark keeps talking about? he thought to himself as he finally put the robe on. The aroma of the food Mark had lain out for him seemed to lure him away from his anxieties. He took the meat off the tray and eyed it carefully. It looked like ham, yet it smelled like steak. He took a small bite out of it and swallowed. It tasted delicious, just like a perfectly cooked pork chop. He took a large chunk out of it and washed it down with the mug of water. Inhaling the eggs on the plate, he walked out of the room and into a luxurious abode. There was a large bookcase a couple of yards in front of him, filled to the brim with books. To the right was a doorway, which led to a room that resembled a kitchen and a roaring fireplace. To his left, Mark was sitting in a chair beside a man and was reading a book. The man looked over the top of his book and said with enthusiasm, “You’re up! It’s about ruddy time! I thought you’d like a nice change of clothes, so I had Mark bring you some.” The man now put his book on a table next to his chair and looked John over closely. “It fits you well. Did you like the stralinbran I cooked up?”
“The what?"asked John.
“Stralinbran! The meat on the tray! How’d you like it?”
“Amazing!” John admitted. “Never had anything quite like it. What’s it called again?”
“Stralinbran, got it off of the finest merchant. That stuff is expensive as anything, but it’s well worth the price.” the man said. “So, my friend here says you don’t remember all too much…can you remember anything before we picked you up?”
“Yeah…uh…” John paused to get the mans name. Apparently, he didn’t quite get the reason behind the pause, so John asked, “What’s your name?”
“Sabol.” he replied quickly.
“Oh, okay, Sabol, I was at the Dover Fair when this lady was foretelling my future…” John paused as Sabols’ eyebrows rose. Mark perked his ears up and listened in as he lowered his book.
“At the what?” Sabol asked.
“The Dover Fair. It’s held in Dover every year, it’s really fun.”
Now Mark joined in on the conversation, “Where is Dover?”
John stood there dumbfounded. How could they not know where it was? Now questions began to flood his mind as stood there silently. “Come to think of it…” John started, “Where am I?”
“Well, you are in Altaraz. It’s a Templar stronghold near the Keidran border...you do know what a Keidran is don’t you?” Sabol replied.
John nodded then paused for a moment, Altaraz? he thought to himself. Well, that would explain why they don’t know about Dover… “So what is this ‘Templar’ thing?”
“Man! You really must have lost your memories! You’re telling me that you’ve never heard of the Templar?” Sabol asked in disbelief.
“No, I can’t say that I have. I can’t even say that I know what planet I’m on! I don’t even know how I got here. One minute, I am sitting in front of a midget woman, then her hand glows brown, then mine green, then…” John stopped as he remembered the pacemaker. Quickly, he checked his neck for the button and searched to no avail. Oh, crap. he thought to himself. He remembered the woman’s warning about mana and technology and everything made sense. “Quickly! What year is it!?!?” John shouted.
Mark and Sabol looked at each other quizzically and Mark replied, “It is the year 477 of the Fifteenth Age. Are you quite sure you are alright?”
John didn’t answer. Shock had overwhelmed him to the point of speechlessness. Now the phrase from the fortune teller reverberated inside his head, “In rare cases, it can do great things, it can change you, or your world…or even time itself.”
Oh my god…I’ve traveled back in time! he thought. Everything he knew was gone…Laura, his parents, his home, everything. Tremors ran throughout his body as he stood there. “No…this can’t be happening…” he said. Mark had hastily grabbed a chair and set it behind John saying, “Sit down, tell us what happened.” He plopped into the chair and put his head in between his hands. If I have really traveled back in time…I can’t tell them anything about the future. It could destroy my world! “Well…” he started. He had to think up of a good lie that would explain why he didn’t remember anything. “I…uh…” Then it hit him, amnesia. He could easily play it off as amnesia and not have to worry about anything. “To tell you the truth…I can’t remember anything before waking up here…Maybe that whole fortune telling and Dover was just a dream?”
Sabol rubbed his chin as Mark leaned forward in his chair. “Perhaps I should bring you to the Templar Barracks today…That way we can see if we can get your memories back.” he suggested.
“But sir.” Mark interjected, “The counsel has a meeting today that demands your presence.”
“True.” Sabol replied, “Hmm…Mark, would you be a sport and bring him there for me today?”
“Of course master!” Mark said enthusiastically.
“You know, I wish you would stop calling me that. You know I don’t treat you like a slave. In fact, I think of you as a brother!”
Mark sighed heavily and said, “Yes, I know. It’s such a hard habit to break though.”
John looked at the two, utterly bewildered. “Wait, hold on a second here. You’re his slave?” he said as he pointed to Mark, then to Sabol.
“Well, technically, I am. I was assigned to him after the Grand Master Templar gave him this house, and me along with it.” said Mark. “Truth be told, I have never met such a good person like Sabol here.”
Sabol blushed slightly and said to Mark, “Then again, I am the second ‘master’ that you’ve had! There are plenty of nice people around here…like, uh…” He paused a moment to think it over as Mark smiled knowing he proved him wrong. “Blast, I can’t think of anyone. Well I am sure John here isn’t that bad of a person! He doesn’t even seem alarmed in being here! More or less that I am even talking to you.” Sabol now looked in his direction and said, “You see John, there is a tension between Humans and Keidrans…we don’t get along all to well.”
“What do you mean?” John inquired.
Sabol sighed and said, “This is a real touchy-and lengthy-subject, just keep in mind that this may take a long time as I explain this to you.” John nodded as Sabol took in a large breath as he said, “Before the First Age, which was about twenty-three millennia ago, there was a large scale battle that enveloped Mekkan.”
“Mech…what?” John interrupted.
“Mekkan! This planet! I see everything has escaped you. Anyway, we call this battle “The Great War” since nearly every living thing was wiped out. Legend tells us of a grand civilization before the war broke out, however, it was corrupt. The leaders of each region became greedy and hard-heartened. Complete chaos broke out between the nations as they sent armies of millions at each other. Once one saw that its’ defeat was near, they unleashed a weapon so terrible, that it caused literally entire nations to crumble and fall within seconds. Others had this weapon too and sent them to the other nations and made a chain reaction of destruction and carnage in its wake. After it was all over, only a sparse population was left. A great period of ice proceeded after the war as everyone, including animals, tried to survive. This was the period where different races were discovered and the period where the ice melted away. As the earth began to re-populate itself, each race began to spread out to limited areas. Now legend also tells us that some places were so consumed with evil that no one could live there, or even stay for a long period of time. This, we think, was where Gaia made her presence known. Knowledge of Mana began to spread to combat these areas of evil, which were eventually conquered. All of this took place over a period of around four millennia. This was the beginning of the Second Age. Do you follow me so far?” Sabol said longwindedly.
John nodded and said, “Yes, I think I do. Before the First Age, there was a corrupt people who destroyed each other. After its’ destruction, new people appeared and destroyed the places of evil…what I don’t get is what this has to do with Keidran.”
Mark laughed and said, “All within good time. Just pay attention, it may answer more questions than you think.”
“Quite so Mark. Now before I continue, would any of you like something to drink? My mouth is parched from the talking.” he asked them as he got up from his chair.
“No, I’m fine, thank you.” John replied. He slouched in his chair as he ran his fingers through his long black hair.
“Mark? What about you?”
John noticed a slight change in Marks’ demeanor as Sabol asked him. He seemed to become sheepish as he said, “Oh, just a glass of water.” He had never fully gotten over being asked for things. He was usually the one that asked others what they wanted.
“Are you okay?” John asked him.
Mark let out a sigh as he said, “It’s just so different being asked if you want something when all of your life you’ve asked others. My past master wasn’t as…friendly…as this one is.” His voice became louder as he continued, “I would lay down my life for him. Sabol is the closest thing that I have to a family…if it weren’t for him, I would probably still hate you Humans.”
John had opened his mouth to say something to Mark, but was interrupted by Sabol, who had walked in with two mugs.
“ ‘Ere you go.” he said as he gave Mark his mug. He collapsed back into his chair and began another long speech. “Okay, now as I was saying, the knowledge of Mana started the Second Age. Unified in their attempt to conquer the unconquerable, all four races, Human, Basitin, Keidran, and a smaller race that called themselves the Resinam, allied with each other. They began to try to rebuild themselves with each others help and flourished for a time. They cohabitated together quite nicely until they reached the Sixth Age. Relationships between the Resinam and Basitin deteriorated rapidly until in the Seventh Age war broke out between the two. The Resinam believed that the Basitinians were conspiring against them in an attempt to gain control of their land and vied that they would destroy them. The Basitin were nearly overwhelmed when the Humans and Keidran came to their aid. They believed that the Resinam had found something and were going to use it for total domination of the world. The war raged on for two centuries until the Resinam were completely wiped out, ending the threat and strengthening the relationship between the three races. This was the first time that Mana had been used in an offensive way against enemies and as such, they gained even more knowledge through Human creativity, Keidran devotion, and Basitinian application. In short, the Humans thought of ways to apply Mana, the Keidran researched it and found a way to complete it, and the information was transferred to the Basitin for them to carry out. Now, with the Resinam completely wiped out, the three formed the closest thing to a Utopia that any civilization had ever seen. Peace reigned untill the Thirteenth Age, that is, until Humans had learned a new way of obtaining Mana.” Sabol stopped his speech and looked to Mark. “Er, I may have missed a few pieces and parts in that little story there. My memory isn’t what it used to be. What did I leave out?”
Mark took a large chug out of his mug and said, “Ahhh.” as it soothed his throat. “Well, for one, you forgot to tell him that the Basitin didn’t really rely on Mana in the war. You see John, the Basitin didn’t have the resources to use Mana effectively. As you may, or may not know, for the most part, Mana is stored in special stones. We call these runes. Now, the Basitin just weren’t in a location rich in natural runes. Of course, you can use mages to charge these stones, but during times of war, mages are in short supply since a lot of them are used to heal those wounded in battle. Those who are not on the lines healing soldiers, many others are used for clairvoyance, that is, the ability to see far distances without actually being there. The higher-ups use the information used from these mages to make appropriate battle plans to achieve victory. So with the mages on the lines, and the other mages being used for strategy, having them charge stones just isn’t practical. So, naturally, they must be found in nature in the ground. The Resinam, however, were very advanced in their knowledge of Mana and therefore had the excess stones to wage war and nearly destroy the Basitin.” Mark took a deep breath and he lifted his mug up again.
Sabol was sitting in his chair nodding in agreement to Marks’ correction. Mark wiped his chin and began again. “It was a tragedy that they had to demolish the Resinam, but if they didn’t do anything, we might have been in just as much trouble as the Basitin. After the war however, they found that their fears were just speculations and theories. The Resinam had no secrets or weapons that could have threatened the Humans or Keidrans. For the rest of the Thirteenth Age, the three races lived in relative peace and tried to rebuild what was destroyed.” He ended.
John was starting to see a pattern, a war breaks out, then a time of peace, war, peace, war, peace. It seemed to be juggling back and forth between the two. “Well, this is the Fifteenth Age right? So that war was fairly recent right?” he asked.
“Comparatively, yes. That war was about three thousand years ago.” Sabol replied. “But as I was saying, the start of the Fourteenth Age began with us, and by us I mean Humans, learning a new way of using Mana. You see, some Humans can call upon Mana just by contact with the earth itself. Also, in very rare cases, Mana absorption can be taught to another person. This is an extremely helpful little technique when Mana runes aren’t that readily available.”
“This is the part where you should listen carefully.” Mark said to John, who was completely immersed into the story. “This is why Humans and Keidrans aren’t getting along to well right now.” Mark interjected.
“Quite right.” Sabol said agreeably. “Now, as you heard, I have said that Humans have control over this new power. Keidrans, however, do not. They must rely on rune stones even to this day. At first, the Humans and Keidran rejoiced in the discovery. They believed that this would be a cornerstone to a great new Age. Well they were right in some respects, but the Keidrans became jealous of our power while we became arrogant. Throughout the Fourteenth Age, miraculous advances occurred in Mana usage, mostly because of the newfound power. We Humans began to think of Keidran as our inferiors. Near the beginning of that Age, Humans began to sell Keidran into slavery. This quickly diminished our relationship between the Keidran and Basitin races. Today, there is a huge tension between the two of us. The Basitin have kept quiet over the past millennia, remaining neutral. You see, the Basitin are a military type people, they like to keep to themselves. Very strict they are. However, their military might is beyond anything that we could hold out against on our own. Of course, since they are neutral, we don’t have to worry about them.” Sabol scratched his chin as he looked down at the floor. He chuckled as he said, “Come to think of it, some fools even think that they have died out!”
John now understood the connection between this long speech and the reasoning behind the hatred towards Keidrans. “Well, why didn’t we teach the Keidran how to absorb Mana from the earth? I mean, we were on good terms with each other at the discovery, right?”
“They tried.” Mark said with a hint of depression in his voice. “They tried everything in their power to teach us. I guess us Keidran just don’t have Gaia’s gift. But, we also have a power that Humans don’t.”
“What’s that?” John inquired. This is so fascinating! Who knew that these people from the past had so much knowledge? he thought to himself.
Mark straightened up in his chair as he said with pride, “Well, for one, we can make rune stones extremely efficiently. A well trained Keidran could probably make three runes in a week, whereas it would take a Human or Basitin maybe two weeks or more to produce that many. Secondly, a well charged Keidran rune can sometimes be used twice, and rarely three times. Lastly, we can make runes smaller than Humans can which makes them easier to handle. The drawback to that is that if you hold two or more runes close enough for a long time, the Mana mixes and can cause some undesirable effects.”
“So why are we so arrogant about Mana when you have so many advantages over us?” John asked, now utterly confused.
Now Sabol spoke up. “Well, since Humans can suck Mana directly out of the ground, we can make high quality, high power spells on the spot. Again, there is also a downside to this.” His voice became extremely serious as he leaned forward in his chair. “Mana is the governing life force, if you will excuse the crude terminology, of all living and non-living things. To use up the natural Mana in a certain place, nothing will happen. However, Mana needs time to regenerate itself, if you don’t give it time to do so, you will suck the life energy out of everything near you. Grass will die, trees will wither. Thankfully, it doesn’t have a large effect on the living things around the area. To suck the life energy out of the plants and dirt can cause extreme disturbances within you. Some have gone crazy, others have even died from absorbing too much Mana. To cause so much death to your surroundings causes great evil to well up inside you. If you have a strong will, you can do it in moderation, if not, then most likely, you will become evil yourself.” He stopped as he saw the terrified look in John’s eyes. “It is quite literally everywhere. Here, let me show you.” He slowly got up out of his chair and walked towards a wall with a large log jutting out of it. From what John could guess, he used it as a shelf. Sabol took all of the odds and ends off of the log and put his hand a mere inch away from it. Tiny glowing orbs of light transmitted from the dead log to Sabols’ hand as the log became more and more withered. These orbs gathered around his hand and covered it in a gentle white glow. He retracted his hand as orbs began to fly out of the wall. His hand was still glowing brightly as he walked over to John. John’s eyes were fixed on Sabols’ hand and his jaw dropped in awe.
“Hmm…I wonder…” Sabol wondered aloud as he looked John over. “Stand up lad.” he said.
John promptly responded by jumping down onto the floor. Sabol put his hand up in front of him, palm first, as the aura transferred from Sabol to John. The instant that the light touched Johns’ body, he felt euphoric. Nothing he had ever experienced came close to the happiness that the Mana bestowed upon him. He felt as if he could do anything, go anywhere, and do it all at once. John looked at his body to find a green aura surrounding him.
“Ah, green, the color of life.” Mark said. “You definitely have the power John.” Mark looked at Sabol, who seemed to be deep in thought. “What are you thinking master?”
Sabol snorted as he said, “I’m thinking…that I just may have found my new apprentice.”
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