The Life of a Rune Scribe

Chapter 2

Yuric Eldrick, Rune Scribe of Incineration

The Problem Child that literally fell into my Life

     "Falling. I'm falling to my death. The last thing I remember was the wind rushing around me. Then, I blacked out. But I remember a face. Blonde hair, blue eyes. A beautiful face. It's a shame that I'm dead now," Yuric dreams, the images of last night's fall still fresh in his mind.

     Still on edge from the fall, he wakes up just as the sun rises over the tall towers of the strange city he saw from above. Not fully noticing his surroundings, Yuric thinks that he's still in The Vale, waking up with the sun on another day of studying, researching, and practicing runes. With a few pranks on the side. His image of The Vale is quickly shattered by the sight of a strange black surface on a desk at one end of the room. Squinting his eyes, he walks towards it, wondering what the heck it is.

     "Heaven looks a lot different than I imagined." He walks away from the hard black surface, scratching his flame red hair, his sleeveless jacket reflecting the sunlight. "I kind of expected it to look a bit more white and cloudy. But this. . . . . This place is a little shabby for it to be Heaven."

     He starts looking around the strange, unfamiliar room. He sees all kinds of different things: circles with numbers on them, white buttons on the walls that call upon the power of the sun to light up the room, a small corridor barely big enough for three people to walk abreast, and small doors that fit into doorways barely seven feet tall.

     Yuric continues to explore the room when a sound interrupts him. The sound of running water flows through his ears, reminding him of a smaller version of the Seraph River that cuts through the continent Aelora. He walks cautiously towards the sound, its source coming from behind a wooden door marked with strange symbols.

     "B-A-T-H-R-O-O-M?" Yuric spells out, remembering a class about studying the languages of The Vale. "What the crap is a bathroom?" Curiosity taking over, he reaches for what appears to be a brass sphere. He turns the sphere, almost knowing how it works, and pushes the door.

     Yuric walks through the door, only to see a blonde haired girl with a piece of cloth wrapped around her body.

     "It's the same girl that I saw in my dream," Yuric thinks, not paying attention to the girl's attire.

     He takes a step forward when his common sense comes back to him. Yuric stops dead, not such a complete idiot to continue on towards the girl.

     "Heh heh heh . . . uh, hi?" Yuric says, several drops of sweat condensing on his face, his eyes closed. The girl just stares at him for a while, a look of disbelief on her face. Suddenly, her face reddens, the blush showing her embarrassment. She squeezes her hand, balling her palm into a fist.

     "Hey, now, wait. Don't do anything that you might regret later!" Yuric says, his hands protecting his face from what he knows is bound to come.

     "GET OUT!!" The girl draws her fist back, and punches Yuric in the face with the force of an explosion rune. He gets sent flying, his head breaking through the wall on the other side. The door gets slammed shut and Yuric drifts into a forced sleep, spirals in the place where his eyes should be.

     "I-I-I'm sorry."

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     The warmth of the sun on his face forces Yuric to come back to reality, his forced, dreamless sleep washing away from his body. He tries to move, his body not able to comply. He looks down, curious about the reason he can't move, and sees . . . .