Infinite Fantasia: The Guertena Malice (Book One)

Chapter Three: The Quicksilver

By SiroccoReader (G. C. Vicaldo)

"Home sweet home." I said as I enter my humble cabin.

It was as simple as you could find in a cabin: small, plain, rustic but it's home to me, and I'm really grateful for it.

The cabin only had one floor and you have to climb a ladder to the second floor, hidden inside the roof and  is primarily my bedroom. The first floor only has a sitting room with a nice chair and a small bookshelf and a large hearth for a fire, a kitchenette with a small pantry full of food to last, a little dining area where I eat, and a study with a desk and chair, a lamp, more bookshelves, and an easel. I love to paint, and it's mostly landscapes and animals. I don't have the ability to paint people, maybe because I haven't seen much of them ever since Master Terrence took me in. I've been quite a few places in Master's trips, like the Eidolon Woods somewhere in the west and the Azul Caves far in the south.  Those places I have painted and hung on the walls of my cabin to make it look warm and lively.

I went to the kitchen where I made myself some chamomile tea. It wasn't that much complicated, making tea. It tasted so good and felt so refreshing after taking the fear simulation, and it helped me fall asleep faster. After I finished my tea  I climbed up to my bedroom where I curled up to sleep. I didn't bother changing into my sleeping clothes; I just felt so tired.

...

I was awakened by someone shaking me and calling my name.

"Winona, it's time." said someone, shaking my slowly-waking body. I groaned in annoyance and I want to bat away whoever's trying to wake me up, but he grabbed my hand and I felt the familiar calluses on his fingers.

"Winona, please." said Master Terrence. "Have you forgotten what time it is?"

"Hm? Wh-wha...?"

"Master Armity will be here shortly. Rouse yourself up and dress up, young lady. Your Graduation Test is almost upon you." he said before he left my cabin.

"My... Gardation Test?" I must have sounded pretty stupid in front of my Master. It took me a minute to realize what he had just said to me that I started waking up with a jolt as if I was suddenly injected with some powerful coffee. "Oh gods! My Graduation Test! I need to hurry!"

My Encanteon clothes I had on me were wrinkled during my long nap so I have to change into clean ones, which consisted of a white cotton shirt under a brown vest, tough leather armguards and fingerless gloves, a pair of dark green trousers, held by a leather belt, and leather boots. I also put on a forest green cloak over my gear, just to look presentable in front of Master Armity.

After fixing up my appearance, I went outside to meet up with Master Terrence with two strong horses at his side, Raheem the Black Beauty and Selwyn the Handsome Palomino. I climbed over Raheem's saddle, held the reins and urged him to gallop as fast as he could. I love horseback riding as much as I love painting, and Master Terrence said it's an important for an Encanteon to know his or her horse and how to ride them.

"Winona, wait for your master!" shouted my master, annoyed that I left him behind. I just smiled at him.

"Sorry, master!" I shouted back. "We don't want Master Armity waiting, so pick up the pace, old man!" I laughed as my long black hair, held in a single long braided ponytail, flew behind my head. After that tiring fear simulation and a good nap, a nice fast ride with dear Raheem was just what the healer ordered. Not too long, Master Terrence and Selwyn decided to catch up to us. He looked miffed, which made his wrinkled face look even more stern and scary.

"Was that really necessary?" he said to me. We slowed down from a gallop to a leisure trot on the path. "You are seventeen years old. You'll become a fully-fledged adult in a few months time - and an Encanteon at that - yet you insist on behaving so carefree and headstrong. When will you learn to accept responsibility and grow up?"

"Hey, it's not my fault that I don't have a happy childhood." I said to him. "I've spent five years out there, surviving on my own for scraps and the charity of strangers. Those weren't happy times. I want to enjoy being young and foolish as much as possible before that. I promise I'll change when that time comes."

"Hmm..." he hummed glumly. "I hope you hold true to that promise, because-"

"Hey, there's Faye!" I said as I spot the little hamlet in the distance. "C'mon, boy! Let's go!"

Raheem answered my call for speed and he moved from a leisure trot to a mad gallop down the path, leaving Master Terrence and Selwyn in our dust. He tried to call me, but I could only hear the black horse's hoofs pounding the earth at great speed. The guards at the village entrance gate saw us and recognized us. They opened the gate and we trotted past them. "Good day." I greeted them. They nodded in return. I dismounted from Raheem near the gate. This was where I would meet Master Armity from the Encanteon Council, but I didn't see him. Shortly Master Terrence arrived and dismounted from Selwyn.

"Where's Master Armity?" I asked, looking around the village. Faye is a quaint little town in the middle of a quiet valley of Amarella. How quaint you asked? Faye looks like one of those small villages you'd expect to hear in children's stories and fairy tales: colorful pastel cottages, lush gardens of trees and flowers, tall towers of stone and brick, and a sky so clear and blue, you wouldn't think this village had any rainy days. Of course the town had its fair share of wet climate, but that was beside the point.

Master Terrence didn't answer me, and he needn't to, because someone else answered it for me.

"I'm right here, Miss Guertena," said a very husky voice. I turned towards the source, a narrow alley, and from the shadows emerged a tall man in his mid-40s, with pale blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, intense golden hazel eyes in a permanent serious, almost humorless, expression, and a long straight horizontal scar over the bridge of his slightly hooked nose. He wore a long dark cloak with gold trimming, but beneath it would be either a formal suit or Encanteon gear. Two others also emerged from the alley, both adults around their mid-20s, a large man with dark skin and pointy goatee and a thin woman with long fiery hair, and they wore blue cloaks with silver trimming. They all nodded towards Master Terrence, whom he returned the gesture, and then to me, their eyes regarding me as if . I nodded back.

"Good day to you, Master Terrence the Whistler and Miss Winona Anneliza Guertena." said the tall man in black. "I'm Master Armity the Quicksilver of the Encanteon Council. We are here to conduct Miss Guertena's Graduation Test to see if she has the makings of a great Encanteon or not."