The Secret Plains

12

Narrator's POV

The night was dark, with dozens of stars lighting up the sky, like dimly lit candles in a black room. Kay was awake, staring at the ceiling as Ilkesi lightly snored in the bed beside her. She was thinking, and she was doing it hard. School was next week, Ilkesi's cousin was coming back tomorrow, and there was something evil in Velvimr.

Not to mention the voices, which added ten times more problems to her plate.

Kay left the human realm that day promising both her mother and Faeya to visit soon, though she wasn't sure that she'd be able to fulfill that promise with all the drama that was going on in her life. She had a theory that the people who planted the fake body in the forest were the same people that made those humans go crazy and it was likely that these people wanted to make the humans fear them for some reason or the other. Kay was confused. What did she have to do in this? She ended up in Velvimr because of Lucas and Ilkesi and unwillingly gave those evil velai an advantage to strike fear into the hearts of humans.

But she couldn't help but think back to Ilkesi's theory.

"I think the person that planted that body there wants you to stay here."

If it was true, then why?

Kay's POV

"So you're the famous human Kesi has told me so much about," the tall, brunette woman looked me over.

Greta arrived a few hours ago, and we were all sitting in the living room talking to her.

"Yeah, my name is McKayla, and I'm not a human because I can understand Flaren," I say.

Greta tilts her head, "Huh. That's interesting." She looked me over quizzically, and I felt like I was being judged for all my past wrongdoings. "You have learned some things before I came, right?"

I nod, "Yes, I have loosely learned aspects from Level 1."

"From who?"

Ilkesi breaks in, "I got Lucas to teach her, don't worry, she's really good, I've seen her do things and she caught on fast."

Greta hums, "You never lie." She turns back to me, "Starting tomorrow, I'll teach you Level 2 explorer lessons, and maybe during the semester I can squeeze in some extra lessons for higher levels."

"Really?" I stare at her in disbelief. "Wouldn't you be busy with school and work?"

"I'm never too busy for an apprentice," she stands up and runs her hands down her shirt, then she pauses, "Unless you don't want to?"

"Oh, I want to, I could use the lessons, thank you so much!" I beamed, going to Ilkesi's side as Greta left the room. I whisper to Ilkesi, "She's so cool."

Ilkesi smirked, "Trust me, she's going to get cooler."

Narrator's POV

The next morning, Kay found herself knee-deep in an encyclopedia of explorers' journals, as well as some of Greta's journals, depicting some beautiful places around Velvimr. One of Kay's tasks was to go through said journals. Greta was sitting nearby, also going through some journals. Ilkesi was also there, but she was practicing for Level 3.

"Woah, are those dragons?" Kay suddenly exclaimed, pointing to a specific drawing of a cluster of dragons atop a mountain.

Greta glanced at the book in Kay's hand, "Oh, that's (TBO) mountains, home of the dragons. I remember my trip there."

"Where is it? I thought there were only 8 species and provinces?"

She raised a curious eyebrow, "Only 8? Who told you that?" She glanced at Ilkesi, then back at Kay, "Please don't tell me Kesi told you that."

"No one told me, I just assumed, I guess" Kay scratched the back of her head and blushed in embarrassment.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about, I thought so too," she got a bit more comfortable and started to explain.

"While yes, there are 8 main provinces and species, there are subspecies are well. Take dragons, and dragon tamers, for example."

Kay's eyes widened, "They have tamers?"

"Well, of course, if they didn't, we would have been destroyed a long time ago." Greta cleared her throat. "Dragons are a type of species, and they live in the Fiiriel mountains, which are found in the Windmere Forest, that separates Mermain from Elvia."

"What's Kobolde?"

"Land of goblins. Anyway, dragon tamers also qualify as a species because dragon taming isn't something you learn, unlike the rest of the aspects of studying. Dragon taming is something you're born into. It doesn't matter what species, or what province, everyone born into the dragon tamers is a dragon tamer, that's their species. Dragon tamers go back a long way, to ancient times, and they live at the foot of the Fiiriel mountains, and the dragons conquer the high ground. Their culture is basically: Dragons top, humans bottom."

"That's a really interesting culture, I wish I could go." Kay flipped to the next page and saw different drawings of different-sized dragons with different labels. "There are different types?"

"There are different variations of everything. There's a fire dragon, an ice dragon, a water dragon...just get all the elements you can think of. There's a dragon for each one."

"Impossible," Kay gaped. "Tell me you're joking."

"Joking? I don't joke. Just look at other people's journals. I was not the first person to reach Fiiriel mountains, and I wouldn't be the last."

Kay flipped to the next page, and on it was something...strange. She saw a word, hastily scribbled next to a drawing of a cave.

"Il'Homan? What's that?" Kay inquired, turning to Greta, seeing her visibly stiffen.

"Nowhere," Greta replied stiffly.

Kay snorted, amused. "The first thing you taught me was that somewhere is never nowhere." She looked back at the name, Il'Homan. She recognized that name.

"Homan? As in, Tal'Homan? Isn't that a curse from witches that makes the inflicted hear voices? What does Tal'Homan have to do with Il'Homan?"

"Nothing, read something else."

Kay raised an eyebrow at her obvious secrecy but decided to not push it any further, as she continued to flip through the journals.