Goals and Desires

Chapter 3 - The Great Travel (no puns intended)

The Lady told me that even though I have recovered, "I am still merely human", which means that if I push myself too hard, my injuries will most likely reappear. I guess magic has its limits too. I stayed at her place for a whole week (yes, a WHOLE week). I offered to help her out a few times, but she insisted that even though it looks like I'm healed doesn't mean I'm healed. She made me lay down in bed but kept making me "exercise" every once in a while because otherwise my muscles would get lazy and won't function as intended blah blah blah. Honestly, just laying in bed is boring and that's the only reason I took her up on her offer. 

Anyway, After a whole week of doing quite literally nothing yet going through all those painful yet kind of relieving rituals, I was finally told I can start doing stuff on my own now. The fact that she let me stay at her place, and not only that, looked after me was insane to me. After all, we were strangers who had nothing to do with each other. But I guess people like her is why I still have faith in humanity. Well, she did prepare me a bag for my journey so that was pretty cool. She put a map that includes the whole world AND marked paths for me to reach the Elf Kingdom on top of it. She also put other stuff like clothes, food, water and stuff like that. She also put a lot of stuff that "she doesn't use anymore" so that I can sell them there. But she said that that's all she can do for me and that I'm all alone if I decide to go on this journey. I thanked her as much as I could but I don't think I could've done much for her other than leaving her alone. And that's the backstory of how I started travelling to the Elf Kingdom. On my way there, I met a lot of different and amazing people (and some other creatures too)! It seems like a lot of different creatures (this feels weird to say, but it is extremely accurate, trust me) go there to learn magic, just like I am! Though, that does make me wonder, wouldn't that mean there would be competition? I guess there is only one way to figure it out... 

12 hours after I started travelling, it was nighttime. I've been walking for 12 hours straight and I felt like I was about to die. My body was aching so much it felt like hell. Though, luck was by my side for once. There was a camp set up in this place which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty big too. I was pretty tired so I couldn't run. I didn't even know if I was just seeing things or not. I knew I'd eventually reach the camp even though I was walking rather slow so all I was worrying was whether they'd let me in or not. So I kept walking. I walked, and walked, and walked even more. But I couldn't hold on for much longer and collapsed somewhere nearby the camp. The last thing I remember was people running towards me. 

When I woke up, it was dawn and people were already clearing the camp up. When one of them saw I was waking up, he started shouting "Hey everyone, she woke up! She finally woke up!" And just like that, a crowd was formed around me. After a few minutes of people awkwardly staring at me later, a man came in. People formed a path for him to pass through. I thought, is he their leader or something? Also, aren't those muscles a bit overkill? I thought he would beat me up or something. But instead, he sat down next to me and asked, "Are you okay?"
I was quite stunned but I managed to get myself together fast. "Yes, I am, thanks to all of you. I've been travelling for 12 hours straight, so that's probably why—"
 I got interrupted because one of the people who were standing next to him spat his coffee at me. Or I would like to think it was coffee, at least.
"12 hours straight? Travelling? Are you insane?" He did sound kind of scary but it was obvious that he was concerned.
 "Yes, I want to reach the Elf Kingdom as fast as possible," I answered him.
"I know we just met and all but it seems we're going to the same place so how about you join us? It'll be safer this way, AND we can prevent that from happening again. On top of that, we have enough supplies for everyone, so that won't be a problem either," he said before running out of breath and starting to breathe in and out. "So, what do you say?" he finally said.
"Well, I do have enough supplies to reach there, though travelling alone is boring. So, I guess I can tag along," I replied.
"Well then. We packed up almost everything and since you're awake now, mind helping out?"
I nodded and helped them.

At around 10 am, we set off. I was right, it was way better than travelling alone. I got to learn a lot of stuff about the Elves. It was a lot they talked about so I'll just sum it up for you: They basically said "Don't piss off an Elf or you'll pay 'the ultimate price'". But the best part of joining these people was making friends. Or getting to know them at least, but I'd still say I made some friends there. Though, there was a girl called Miya who stood out to me the most. She said she was going there to learn magic, just like me! Unlike me though, she somewhat knew about magic and was able to cast some of the easier ones. She was pretty shy and since I went ahead and did the first move, she followed me pretty much everywhere for the rest of the trip. It was kind of fun having her company, though. She doesn't look like it, but she knows quite a lot about magic. She even taught me some basic spells like fireballs (really small ones though), slowing somebody down, closing up wounds and stuff like that. However, they were all "Tier 1 Spells" which means that they're basically for newbies like us. She also explained to me how these 'tiers' work. Our conversation went something like this:
"There are eleven tiers of spells, believe it or not. Though using eleventh tier spells are illegal almost everywhere throughout the world so they'll probably teach us the first ten tiers," she said. 
"Surely there must be a reason why these 'eleventh tier spells' are illegal? Are they considered Dark Magic or something like that?"
"Yes, actually. Eleventh tier spells are a whole different branch of magic called 'Dark Arts'. These spells are so powerful that some of them can destroy whole civilizations. That's why using them is prohibited pretty much everywhere." 
"What would happen if you were to get caught using it?"
She gazed at me. It was clear from her face that she was surprised by that question. She quickly got herself together and asked, "Are you trying to imply something?"
We looked at each other for a few seconds. It seemed like she was genuinely concerned.
"No, no, not at all! I'm just asking out of curiosity!"
She sighed. "Well, that's relieving." She paused for a moment before continuing. She looked around and whispered, "I haven't really researched Dark Arts but I heard that there is a prison set up somewhere near Earth's core. I heard the guards there are all masters at magic. That should be where they put those people using Dark Arts."
"But isn't the Earth's core hot?" I was kind of stunned by what she just told me. I was expecting something like Alcatraz but didn't know they went that far. But again, this is a world extremely different from my own. "How can anyone survive down there?"
"I don't know how either," she looked around again before continuing, "but either way, these are all gossip and nothing more. There is a chance they might not even be true, you know?"

We chatted throughout the whole thing. It took us three days (we set up camp at night so we lose a little bit of time because of that) but we finally arrived at the Elf Kingdom. At the main gates, they used some sort of magic to identify us. It was like those things they'd scan your ID with and access all your information, except... it was magic. Strangely enough, the spell didn't work on five people from the camp. Two of those five were me and Miya. It turns out the spell didn't work on us because we're all aliens to this world. Or in other words, they figured out we were from another world. They let most people in (they arrested some of the people with criminal records, wow so this world also has that) but didn't let us in because 'since they couldn't see our information they can't determine if it's safe to let us in'. All five of us made a plan and went up to the guards. After a little bit of bargaining (let's just say that much) they finally agreed on letting us in with one condition. They said that 'we'll always be followed' and if we 'did anything suspicious' we'll get kicked out immediately. We all agreed so they let us in. Though, with what happened back there in mind, I don't think that they'll be able to kick us out as easily as they imagine it to be...