A New World

Chapter 3: Crystals

"Up there!" Robin shouted as he pointed at the hill in front of us.

I continued running and held the arrow in front of me. I hid behind a large tree when I saw the deer that we were chasing. It was magnificent, large and its antlers were quite small indicating that it could be a young one.

Robin and Arabel let me come in hunting our food for tonight in exchange for me staying in the village. Of course, I gotta keep my keep. Arabel also insisted that I taught her the act of 'calling'.

The forest we are currently at is outside the village. I remember them telling me that the Death Forest is in the North while the village and this forest is in the South.

The forest became silent and the only thing I could hear was my heartbeat from all the running earlier. I noticed that Robin was silently sneaking in the back of the animal. His movement implied that he was used to doing this kind of thing. He must be the one hunting food for Arabel and Elder Mang.

I aimed my arrow at the deer when I saw that Robin was running towards it. Though, I was confused for a bit when the deer didn't notice him even though he was literally running towards it. I realized that he was not making any noise. I couldn't hear his footsteps.

I immediately released the arrow before the deer could notice Robin. It hit its chest and before it could run, Robin appeared in its back and stabbed it in the heart with his short spear. The animal died not long after.

I walked toward it and noticed that Robin was clasping his hand together and muttering something.

"From nature, we live. To nature, we die" he repeated it three times. I imitate him in respect to the deer that we killed for our food. Though I asked myself what does chant even mean.

*beep*

I immediately look around and find where the sound came from. "Did you hear that"

He shook his head and looked at me like I was losing it. I'm sure I heard something. I examined myself and felt like something was going on.

I dismissed it when Robin didn't show any care at all.

He got up and loudly whistled. After a few seconds, I could hear a loud sound coming to us. It was the footsteps of an animal which Arabel was riding. She smiles and waves to us as she gets closer. The animal that she was riding is stunning because of its large horn..or antlers?

She noticed that I was staring at it and she smiled proudly. "She's Lila. She's from the species of deer but her kind is much more agile, faster and they are tamable too. I got her when I was 15."

It has the body of a deer but its antlers are different. It looks like a horn but it is longer and pointy. It's where the reins are tied at. Its eyes are also vertical and golden. It looks at me innocently.

I helped Robin clean the carcass and dried out the blood. It was then carried by Lila. The three of us walked slowly because Lila cannot run because of the large body of the deer.

"Will you teach me later? It will help materialize my crystal more." Arabel excitedly asked me.

"Well, I don't really know what to teach you. I only know 'Heal' and the fire thing that Elder Mang did." I explained. Can I trigger it whenever I want to? Or do I need to know a specific chant to invoke it?

"I could help too" Robin shrugged. I looked at his forehead and noticed that he doesn't have any crystal there. Is his crystal not yet materialized? But he looks the same age as Arabel. Maybe even older.

"I'm not a medium if you're looking for a crystal. But I used something called "Crystallized equipment" or for short 'crsyt'. It's something like an item embedded with a crystal so that normal people could use them. Though not all people could invoke its power. We called those people who can use cryst – "Invoker." Robin explained.