The Summoner Guild (On Hold)

Crayasil

"Ah, it's good to be home!" Livana let out a glad sigh, stretching from their inactive journey as the golem rolled through the high wooden walls of the elven city of Crayasil, which Kyle couldn't believe existed in the first place. All round him was the most elves that he'd ever seen before each as good-looking as the next. Though, that wasn't what was amazed him. As they'd traveled farther into the Elven Forest, the trees grew larger and larger until Kyle couldn't even compare the trunks to the golem he was riding in anymore. Now, the path was having to take detours just because of the roots travelling on the ground from the massive plants, and when looking up, all of the shining slugs seemed like stars as they shined in the distance above them. However, they weren't the only things that shined now as what looked like massive beehives clung to the bottom of the tree's behemoth lower branches. These bee hives, which looked exactly like the smaller versions in Kyle's home town of Krunnel, seemed to now be populated by elves as  the structures had been hollowed out with both walkways and hundreds of lights visible on the outside of each of the hives.

"Hmm... fire would work best. There's no way that an army would be able to reach them." Morgan said thoughtfully from beside Kyle, and he sighed as he knew that his friendly neighborhood warlord was already thinking about how he would besiege the trees.

"Even that wouldn't work. We have mages of our own, and any fires that started would immediately be extinguished." Livana stated with a sly smile.

"Halt! Stay where you- Ah! Welcome back, Lady Livana!" What sounded like a guard in front of them spoke until they neared close enough that he'd managed to see Livana through the golem's openings. Though, Livana didn't reply as Kyle looked out of the golem to see that they were passing in between a giant pair of roots that seemed more like a solid wooden wall than anything until he figured out that it was exactly what they were. Past the gap, thousands of large, upside down cone-like structures. All of them appeared to have multiple stories with bright lights being produced from the tops, making the city itself seem like it was full of nothing but torches. Though, when the grew closer, Kyle was even more amazed to see that the cones didn't seem to have foundations at all and were simply some kind of plants that had grown from the ground before being hollowed out and turned into both homes and business building.

"Ah, Cryasil always warms my heart when I see it." Guisen sighed happily. "You'll not see a more beautiful city anywhere in Enmit, save for perhaps the sea folk city of Wayshue."

"Not bad I guess." Morgan agreed as even he seemed to be memorized by the sights.

"Is that magic on the tops of the buildings?" Kyle asked, finding the glowing lights on tops of the cones a rather pretty but pointless feature.

"Yes, it's so that the Tapi can see that ground and not crash into it accidentally." Livana explained.

"Tapi?" Kyle asked curiously.

"They're a type of giant honey bee that the elves use for transportation here in the forest." Guisen explained.

"You'll see them soon enough, we're all going to have to get on one in order to get the the sky castle." Livana explained.

"Sky castle?" Kyle asked again, feeling as he if knew absolutely nothing about this place.

"It's the minister's home on the top of the tallest tree in the forest." Livana explained. "My home."

"Then lets get there and be done with this already. I'm already tired with this place." Morgan stated with a harrumph as they passed by a group of young elven children that all pointed at him and laughed.

"You're just as much an oddity to them as this place is to you." Guisen laughed slightly. "Don't mind it to much."

"The little insects don't even know how easily I could crush them..." Morgan said moodily, though he wasn't the only one getting noticed. The golem moving down Cryasil's main road was gathering a lot of attention from many people, including even the other carts that seemed to be pulled by massive beetles that Kyle thought could probably eat him whole.

"Tasty!" Gobby jumped up and down enthusiastically when she saw him, and Kyle slowly shook his head in exasperation at his familiar before noticing that everyone that looked at him slightly shied away from the golem. And while he was puzzled at this at first, he soon realized that it was most likely because of his new mask. It had been very intimidating when Tiril had worn it, so Kyle guessed that the fact that it was frightening hadn't changed despite having changed owners.

For another half an hour, the golem continued down the streets and the amount of traffic around them seemed to get heavier until Guisen finally stopped the golem entirely  as he deemed that it would be faster to walk instead of having to wait for the carriages and wagons in front of them to move. When he did this, both Livana and Morgan sighed to themselves as the stood and dawned their own summoners robes, which they normally didn't wear but had to in public as it was against the guild's rules not to. Inside of the facility or the golem they could wear whatever they wanted to, but now, they had to represent the guild as apprentice summoners. And even Guisen followed their example, covering the tan pants and leather vest that he'd been wearing before.

"Try to land on your feet." Guisen gave them all a proper warning this time as the golem disappeared around them and Kyle fell the few feet to the ground where the thankfully managed to land safely this time. And while the golem disappearing did cause some interest from those around them, the group soon left the scene while following Livana as she led them down the street and towards and incredibly wide and fenced off structure at the very end of it. This building didn't appear to be a cone like all the others were and seemed almost human-made by it's design before they all entered it and Livana spoke to the woman stationed at the front desk.

With only a few words spoken between the two, Livana soon led them outside of the back of the building where Kyle was met with what seemed like a hundred giant bees that were as large horses. All of them, for some reason, made Kyle weary. Something about their eyes just sent shivers down his spine, though when he spotted Livana speaking happily towards one of the giant insects, he supposed that there was nothing to fear as she climbed onto a saddle on it's rear that he hadn't see before. And now that he looked, all of the creatures seemed to have similar equipment.

"Just tell them that you want to go to the Sky Castle and the bees will take it from there!" Livana instructed, and just as soon as she was finished, the bee started flapping it's translucent wings in a blur until it lifted off of the ground and was soon gone from sight in the dark atmosphere.

"That all there is to it. I'll see you all at the Sky Castle." Guisen said immediately after, hopping onto a bee of his own before disappearing into the air as well.

"The day I ride a bug..." Morgan grumbled to himself before looking in Kyle's direction. "Come, Kyle! There's no way that I'm allowing myself to fall behind here!"

"Y-yeah... sure." Kyle said uneasily as he started approaching one of the bees. He's been stung by the Tapi's smaller cousins before, and with a sudden flash of horror, he knew that he'd literally be impaled if a creature of this size decided that he was worth stinging.

"Tasty!" Gobby commented from his back when she saw the Tapi.

"Don't even think about it!" Kyle shot at his familiar before walking around the Tapi and climbing onto it's wooden saddle. The saddle itself seemed to be tied onto the creature with what looked like hardened vines, which Kyle made sure to test the durability of before he reluctantly climbed onto the Tapi.

"U-umm..." Kyle said hesitantly. "Can you take me to the sky castle? Please?"

As soon as the name was out of his mouth, Kyle let out a short involuntary scream as the Tapi underneath him leapt up into the air and started flying away from the ground. For someone who'd never flown on any creature before, seeing the ground get farther and farther away was terrifying for him as he watched the lights get smaller and smaller beneath hi. The shining snails on the trees flew by as the Tapi flew higher and higher into the air with Kyle tried desperately not to let go, though that was difficult as he was keeping his left hand on a small handle on the top of the saddle with his other tightly gripping the staff that Livana had given him. Unfortunately, while the saddle also had slots where a rider could secure their feet, Kyle had only managed to get his left foot securely into position before the Tapi had taken off, and he felt as if he was dangling from it now as the creature rose higher into the trees before they finally reached the lower branches.