The Summoner Guild (On Hold)

Travel

"Your golems are amazing Mr. Noyal." Kyle said as he looked out of a small opening to see the nearby pine forest passing by them quickly. The 'golem' that they were currently travelling in didn't seem like a golem at all, but rather a horseless covered wagon that moved by itself thanks to the monster actually being alive.

"My thanks for your kind words." Guisen laughed slightly to himself. "I thought of this idea years ago when I was travelling all over the kingdom, and because of a golem's basic nature, I can freely manipulate which kind of golem I summon. It's perfect for hauling supplies and moves just as fast as horses without the need to stop for it to rest."

"Yes, very impressive!" Morgan proclaimed. "I'll have you make many of these for my armies when I become the dark lord!"

"You really don't care that I'm your competition, do you Mr. Crenshaw." Guisen laughed. "Perhaps during our travels sometime, we can spar and I can show you a little of what to expect from your future battles. But for now, I'd prefer we got your parental visits out of the way so that we aren't late at arriving Facility Three. The punishments for disobeying a headmaster are quite harsh, even for an instructor like me."

"Fine, perhaps after we visit my home then!" Morgan said enthusiastically. 

"Perhaps." Guisen laughed again before the interior of the golem grew quiet as everyone preferred to look out of the openings of the golem and watch the landscape pass by them rather than continue any conversations. Krunnel's pine forest was soon lost as they headed down a dirt path that led to the south, revealing a wide and windy plains area in which they traveled in for hours until the sun finally lowered itself in the sky and they made a camp alongside the edge of the path. That night, Morgan 'entertained' everyone by telling of the fierce battles between himself and his family members. Though as Kyle listened, it didn't sound any different from his own situation where he'd been running for his life from his own siblings and parents.

When they finally went to bed, Livana slept inside of the golem while the men slept in the open around the extinguished campfire. Guisen had several golems watch over them close to the campsite, and Kyle summoned his own minions as well before sending them farther away as goblins seemed to be excessively noisy at night. And as he did this, he noticed that the number of gremlins that he was summoning was diminishing in number even more than they had been previously, being replaced by the stronger goblins and making him wonder when he would be able to summon anything new like Livana's green slimes soon. While thinking about the possible creatures that he could summon, Kyle eventually managed to sleep despite Morgan's snoring until morning finally came along with the rising sun and they started travelling again.

When hungry, the four ate dried provisions that Guisen provided, and while they were stopped Kyle sent his minions out into the wilderness to hopefully capture fresh meat. However, he soon began to wonder just how wild goblins survived at all as they always came back empty handed. Though as he thought about it, he most likely didn't want to know as goblins were more known for attacking the mortal races than any other monster. Perhaps now he knew why...

On the second day of travel, clouds gathered in the sky, blocking the sun and making the air extremely damp before it finally started raining in full. The dirt path became a mud pit, making the golem prefer to travelling next to the road in the grass so that it could have some traction underneath it's wheels before it finally had to stop in full as a low depression in the road in front of them was completely flooded. The depression stretched on for as far as the hilly area would allow them to see, making the flooded area seem more like a lake before the golem finally started going around the mass of water until it eventually found the path once more on the other side. Though by the time it did, the day was already almost over.

"That costed us some time." Geisen sighed, looking out across the landscape as the rain only seemed to be intensifying. "The storm doesn't seem like it will relent anytime soon either."

"Tsk." Morgan moodily bundled up in his cloak and laid down on the floor of the golem to sleep. There wouldn't be any campfire tonight as all of the wood that they'd gathered was completely soaked thanks to the moisture in the air, and so the four spent a freezing night inside of the golem before they awoke the next morning to see that the weather had cleared somewhat. There was still a light sprinkle of rain falling from the sky, but nothing compared to what it was the day before.

"I'd planned to arrive at the Elven Forest by noon today, but thanks to our detour yesterday, we should arrive there at nightfall." Guisen said. "I'll be happy to finally be out of the cold. My body is far to old to be doing this kind of travelling anymore."

"Yeah, I'll use that as excuse to." Kyle agreed, and Guisen gave him a quick resentful look, most likely preferring not to bring up the issue of his age again or the difference between his and Kyle's.

"If we can just get into the forest then we should be able to progress faster. The trees there absorb an incredible amount of water, so the roads should still be dry." Livana explained.

"Good, I'm tired of getting water out of my ears!" Morgan said angrily, reaching up to squeeze his wolf-like ears as water seemed to collect the moisture in the air.

"Just one more day... hopefully." Kyle sighed. While travelling through the plains was fun and all, he was already getting tired of seeing the same empty grass fields whenever he looked outside. Though, that problem was solved later that afternoon as the clouds cleared only for new shadows to fall over the golem as they started passing underneath enormous trees that were covered in giant leaves. The bases of the trunks were at least five time's as thick as the golem with a mixture of brown and green colored bark swirling up the tree until the high branches above them where they turned into a straight lime-green color.

Thousands of leaves that Kyle guessed were at least half as large as the golem resided on each massive branch, and Kyle found that what Livana had said was true as the the ground was entirely dry even despite the recent storm. There was almost no underbrush at all, which was a result of no sunlight being able to get past the tree canopy either. However, there was some type low growing grass-like plant that covered the forest floor, and Kyle was enchanted as he looked over it now. All of the grass seemed to be different colors and glowed in the low light provided by the trees, making the forest floor look as if it was some sort of solid rainbow as hundreds of strange-looking fireflies hovering in the air just above it. As they got deeper into the woods and the light was blocked even more, several creatures which looked like giant snails clung to the sides of each of the trees, shining like bright-blue torches as their shells radiated light which thankfully provided enough illumination so that they could all still see the path in front of them.

"Welcome to the Elven Forest." Livana said happily as she looked out of the same opening Kyle was. "Despite going to meet my family, it's good to be home!"