The Secret Plains

6

"So, what do you know exactly?"

Ilkesi and Kay arrived at the fields just as the sun peeked over the horizon, exactly as Lucas had requested. Ilkesi was practicing her spells to help Lucas skip class next semester.

"What do you mean, what do I know? I don't know anything," Kay replied, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"Great, this is going to be eventful," Lucas muttered, rolling his eyes.

They spent the entire morning learning, starting with basic navigation and moving on to a lengthy history lesson about the origin of explorers.

"Remind me why I have to know this again?" Kay asked after enduring about fifteen minutes of Lucas's seemingly endless monologue.

"If you don't know the origin, they'll figure out you're not from here. Velvimr parents tell their kids the origin of every class from birth. They'll assume you didn't grow up here if you don't know it. Now, where was I?" Lucas explained, exasperation creeping into his voice.

"Lucas, just tell her the short version of it all," Ilkesi yelled from across the field. "You're boring her!"

"Fine then! Okay, so once upon a time, there was a group of children living in Velvimr. They were elves, which further supports the fact that explorers originated from Elvia, the land of the elves. These elves' names are unimportant except for one, Arwen. Other versions of the story state that Arwen was the only elf in the group, and the rest came from other provinces, but we will stick to the version of the story that states they were all elves. Arwen was an outcast in the land of the elves. He befriended the remaining five elves, who all had one goal in common: to leave Elvia. These elves had never stepped out of Elvia, but they knew all about the other lands. Their ultimate goal was to travel everywhere. So they combined their skills and, one night, left Elvia. They became the first explorers. On their trip, they noted down all the important things they found and added it to the information they already had."

"So what was the significance of Arwen?" Kay asked, her interest piqued.

"Arwen is considered the father of explorers. When the group of elves had explored everywhere, they all got partners, married, and had kids. They didn't want to explore anymore. Arwen never stopped. He published the group's findings, and most people who read them wanted to find these unique places and artifacts. They went to Arwen—creatures of all kinds, from all provinces—and requested him to take them to all these places. He agreed, and when they returned, that batch had new findings to share and new people eager to go on explorations on their own. Arwen tutored creatures and taught them how to explore. He raised the next generation of those kids who just wanted to leave Elvia. And that's how the explorers came to be."

"And that's it?" Kay asked, sounding both relieved and amazed.

"That's it," Lucas confirmed with a nod.

"Wow, I thought it was going to be longer."

"Oh, it is very long. Pages long. There's an entire book on the full history of explorers. I left out a lot of key details. For example, it states the names of every single elf that was part of the group, lists all the findings, and even includes a sample, a very long one, of the explorer diary they took with them."

"And you're telling me that parents read this to their kids in childhood?"

"Yep," Lucas said with a smirk.

"Wow, you guys are weird," Kay remarked, shaking her head.

They spent the rest of the day practicing, learning, and occasionally annoying Ilkesi, completely unaware that someone was spying on them.

"Sir? The girl, she's back. She's back home," a voice whispered into the darkness.