The quiet coffee shop of the small farming town of Littlecreek on Applewood island stayed mostly uneventful for most of the year, the occasional visit from a sailor with an interesting story of the outside world; Stories of beasts and monsters, kings and royal feuds, fantastical technologies. Dragons attacking towns, great heroes saving kingdoms, and an organization of wizards only known as Ygdrasil’s cloak.
These were the stories that young Lazarus Valor grew up on. While his father and mother tended to the farm, he would wander off into town and be told elaborate tales. He was a young boy, son to a human father, who spent his days as a lumberjack and carpenter, making most of the furniture in Littlecreek; His mother was an elven farmer, she tended to the flower fields of Littlecreek, she was well known for her life as a bard in the Castletown of Applewood before she settled in the quiet fields of Littlecreek. The fantastical adventures he had heard from the men and women that visited the island lit a spark in him, from that point he dedicated himself to writing about his own island findings, wanting to one day share it with the world, and see the wonders the rest of the world had in store.
His island was wondrous in its own right, brimming with a myriad of migrated beings from all over the world. Its ecosystem was unique and ever-changing. The residents of Applewood island were diverse people, coming from all walks of life to settle. Though the island was not particularly well known, it was seen as a hidden gem, the marketplace bustled with stray vendors from The constantly warring Whimpering Isles, and the tropical archipelago of Ahi’ Nuvo.
One blustery summer day, a young Lazarus draws a recruitment sign with his charcoal crayon, and on the back of a sheet from a library book he borrowed he wrote a recruitment note; Inspired by the stories of valiant, daring groups of adventurers, who would go on grand odysseys, slaying dragons, crawling through dungeons for loot, and saving princesses.
***
LOOKING FOR ADVENTURERS!
MUST BE SUPER POWERFUL
HAVE A LOT OF MAGIC OR COOL SORD
NEEDS TO BE FUNNY OR YOU HAVE A CUTE DOG
MUST BE READY TO MEET PRETTY LADIES AND KILL DRAGONS!
MEET ME AT GREENS COFFEE SHOP!
10 AM TO 6 PM
***
Lazarus waited for weeks in the coffee shop, writing the stories of the sailors and pirates that dropped by to talk to him. Laz built up a bit of a reputation of being a quirky little kid that people would drop by and see specifically to one day be documented in the island’s official history books. The old elven lady that owned the shop, Ms.Tinfelt didn’t mind all the extra traffic through her shop, but sometimes he did annoy her a little too much. He would ask her questions about her days as an adventurer, and how it felt to use a spell. She was secretive about her youthful adventuring days, much to Laz’s chagrin. He was always fascinated by the large oak staff that she kept suspended on the wall at the back of her shop. It was a beautiful varnished oak rod, with Azurite in the shape of a claw, and strange circular patterns on all the azurite rings that adorned the top, middle, and bottom of the magical staff.
After about a month of waiting to no avail for his group of companions, the young boy decided to hand out multiple handmade flyers around Littlecreek. The farmers mostly used them as napkins and the rest of the townspeople smiled and nodded along with him, but really had no interest in adventuring.
One day, while Lazarus continued his routine of writing his notes down, suddenly a taller, dark-skinned human boy bursts through the door. “Hey hey hey hey hey HEY!” he strides in with a certain enhanced bravado “I heard one of you is looking for a super-strong adventurer who’s ready to meet pretty ladies and kill dragons!” He says, standing on one of the bar-stools, looking around the coffee shop. Ms.Tinfelt grabbed the staff she had kept hung at the back of the shop. “You two youngsters cause nothing but trouble!” She flares up with magical energy, with a magical focus she could forego an incantation, she picked Lazarus and the human boy up with the spell Mage Hand and threw them out of the shop.
“AND STAY OUT!” She yelled, the boys rubbing their bottoms from the impact.
“Ow...Why’s she gotta be such a grump all the time...I’m Lazarus by the way! I made the sign.” He extends his hand sitting up on the grass, as the sun starts to set. “Man I thought you were going to be some cool wizard or something, you’re a half-elf, you don’t have any mana! How can you lead an adventurers group...and you’re 8!” He says crossing his arms and slumping down in disappointment. Lazarus grumpily stares at the taller boy.
“Well, you’re not exactly a big strong adventurer either! And so what, I'm a half-elf! Once I leave this island I'll find a way to do magic! Even if I don’t have much mana…” He says holding back tears, trying to be heroic in his tone. “And I’m not 8 I'm 9 and a bit!”
The other boy stares at Lazarus for a bit, then smiles. “I like you! Maybe I will follow you! My name’s Axel Blitztod!” He gets up and extends his hand forward. “Let’s be friends!” They shake hands and smile at each other. Mrs.Tinfelt watches them from a window and chuckles, bringing out a batch of cookies for the boys and apologizing.
Throughout the next couple of years, the boys became almost inseparable. They did most of their adventuring in the Silverpoint Forest, large woodland sprawling acres and acres of land, with variations in vegetation that you couldn’t see anywhere else on the island. Lazarus’ incredible memory and bank of information helped them carefully pick their adventures around the island. Axel provided the muscle for most missions and kept Lazarus focused, as he tended to trail off in thought and mumble to himself.
They learned to hunt small fowl for food on their quests and learned which fruits were safe to eat. Lazarus taught Axel magic through the lessons he’d written down from the previous interviews he had done with the sailors and adventurers. By the age of 10, they were well regarded as trouble makers, often skipping school to find monsters in the forests or ponds and lakes. They were living a perfect childhood, on this beautiful, serene, incredible island.
***
One day, when the boys were Twelve years old. They woke up to a sudden influx of people running into their town. They had most of their clothes and personal items with them. Soon, out of the blue, the small town of Littlecreek became a much more crowded place. These new refugees were people from the very center of the island, hailing from the large city of Aspen. The adults yelled at each other, fighting for space at the inns. Soon Laz’s dad became flooded with huge requests to build houses for the new residents of Littlecreek.
From what Laz could gather, most of the richer folk from Aspen were comfortably given accommodations in the castle town, while the less wealthy residents were forced to move anywhere they could.
“The hell is going on?! Why would people living in the greatest city on the island suddenly come here to the countryside...just makes no sense…” Lazarus paced the floor of the coffee shop, from which he had been unbanned. “I don’t know, but you’re right it is fishy… Oh!” Laz looks over at Axel in excitement “We should go catch some fish! My dad just sharpened some spears!” He said, his stomach growling on time. Laz sighs and looks back at his notes, finding some about Aspen, seeing if an event or something was coming up. Eventually, Ms.Tinfelt came back out of the kitchen. “I shouldn’t be tellin’ you two this, but I know you’ll get yourselves hurt tryn’ ta figure it out on yer own...The town’s gone. Laz and Axel fall silent, trying to process the full gravity of the statement. “What do you mean it’s gone? Like GONE gone?” He says, grabbing his books and stuffing them in his bags. “Now don’t go over there trying to look for yourself… The king called it ‘A necessary step towards progress.’ He evacuated the town by force and destroyed it with magic...some contraption is being built there to they can mine out some precious mineral” Lazarus is shaken, clenching his fists as tight as he can, and grits his teeth.
“Let’s just calm down here…” Axel says soothingly
“No, we can’t just calm down! They just removed the biggest city on the island...do you know how much land- how many houses we’re losing!” he slams his fist on the table.
It was faint, but Axel could feel Laz’s magical energy surging higher than ever before. “There’s nothing we can do about it, let’s just relax here.” He was also shaken but was trying his best to level the playing field and not feed into Laz’s overly emotional decisions. “Can’t we blast em’ with a spell or something?!” he says, grabbing Axel’s training wand from his bag. “I’m not going to try and kill the king?!” While normally on board with such antics, Axel could tell Laz would only get the two of them in more trouble. “Fine, I’ll do it myself!” He grabs the wand from Axel and takes off running towards Aspen.
He swiftly approaches the city. Axel trails behind him “Don’t be an idiot! We don’t even know how bad it is, it’s probably temporary! I doubt they just destroyed the whole town!”
They are both floored as they go over the hill, looking down at where Aspen once stood. In place of the metropolis, there was a completely leveled circle of black stone. There were towers on 4 sides of the circle, and multiple people in Navy suits working on some sort of building that spanned the circumference of what used to be the town center. At the core of everything, stood the king, and a tall broad man. Lazarus stares in awe, and rage. He looks over to the man standing next to the king, focusing all his hate into a spell. He cast a fireball in their direction. The magical energy he summons swirls wildly around his palm, sparks fly everywhere, his cast is almost complete. He had already summoned, not he needed to visualize, then release. He stares down the man next to the king, and just when Lazarus is ready to fire the man looks over, his bright yellow pupils somehow visible through his goggles. This startles Lazarus enough to have to redirect his cast upwards, which causes a small explosion of fire in the air.
“How the heck did you do that?” Asks Axel, appalled. “I don’t know…”. The guards that lined the outer rim of the large mechanism that replaced the town take notice of the explosion. Some start to move forward. “Let’s get out of here…” Says axel, helping Laz up and starting to run, Laz looks down at his hand. The fire had left a black burn on the back of his hand, he grabs some tape from his red leather bag and wraps it around his hand.
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