Spectacular World

A Talk

"T—Thanks for helping us out," the older boy said through shivering gasps as they walked up the mountain. They had to go slow due to the downpour, which made the stone slippery. "We would have gotten lost in the dark or attacked by beasts if you hadn't come when you did. You saved my sister's life."

"It's what I do." Hope stayed in the front, keeping a hand on the donkey as she led it forward. The two siblings remained closer to the back of the wagon where the unconscious body of Druid remained. "There's a cave up ahead we can get you all into."

"Thank you, mage!" The girl chirped out.

Hope frowned slightly. "You called me that earlier? What do you mean by mage? Are you talking about Supers?"

The boy shrugged awkwardly. "Soup what? I don't know what that means, miss, but you're a mage, aren't you? Your kind always wears strange clothes and can do things normal people can't."

"Have you seen many mages before?" Hope asked casually, though her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts, trying to process everything she was hearing. There was so much about this that just didn't make sense. Like why were there two normal humans here? They didn't seem to be players. In fact, with the way they were acting, it almost seemed as if they lived here...

The sister was the one to speak up next. "Of course, we've seen some mages. A bunch of your kind have been appearing all over the place recently. We were told you guys are here to help us."

"Who told you that?"

"Another mage did."

"And you just believed him?"

"Well, yeah?" The brother said a bit sheepishly. "We haven't met a bad mage yet? Your people are the ones who helped us build our lands up from nothing. Our queen is a mage as well.

Hope raised an eyebrow and looked back at the two siblings. "Queen? And you say she's a Super as well? She couldn't have been in charge for very long, right?"

The sister shrugged awkwardly and looked away for some reason. "I mean, the Queen has been in charge before I was born."

"What? That's not right; you're not that young, right? Chrysanthemum has only been like this for two years at the most. Don't either of you remember anything about the outside world?"

"We are outside, though, aren't we?" The brother questioned. "I never heard of this Chrismum place, but my sister and I were born in Pine-Tree Village. We've known these woods and mountainsides for most of our lives."

"You were born here?" Hope asked nervously.

"Yeah? My father was as well, and the same for his father. You're not from around here, are you, mage?" The brother hummed.

Hope felt a shiver crawl up her spine. Chrysanthemum was only destroyed two years ago. She, like everyone else, had assumed its people were a lost cause, having long been taken over by Legend's plague. Yet here, two people from this weird city stood, claiming they had been here for years. That meant either they were changed by Legend's power, and the man could alter the memories of humans, or the world around them was very much real, and time had moved on within this realm. A lot of time... She was walking through history. History that no one outside of Chrysanthemum had any way of knowing.

"You said you lived here your entire life. Is that true?" She asked quietly. "You were born here? And there are entire villages?"

The sister nodded. "That's right. The mages helped us build our villages, all directed by the Queen. She's been in charge since forever, I think, constantly helping to improve the lands. She taught our ancestors how to fish, how to hunt, and so many other things. I was a little shocked when I first saw you because you-"