Mages of the North: The Adventure Begins

Chapter 34 (Floris' Journal)

Entry: 1

My name is Floris Fetcher; I found this journal down in the basement while brewing some potions and researching some new ingredients. All the pages were blank, and there was a pile of other journals in the room. I assume this was free to take, I doubt anyone will care if a blank book went missing.


Where do I begin? There's been so much activity for the past several weeks that it's hard to find a starting place. I guess I might as well start from the beginning just to recap all the madness that's happened.


Approximately four or five weeks ago, myself and my best friend, Alvis Era, left our old lives behind after fleeing from our home village of Two Creeks. Alvis had discovered something...I don't know how else to put it other than otherworldly. It was unlike anything we had ever seen before. There was some sort of a black substance that suddenly filled the nearby river, killing the land as it slowly made its way upstream...against the current.


The blackness killed everything it came into contact with. Any animal that tried drinking from the water died almost on the spot and the land itself decayed as the blackness moved onward. The trees, the grass, the swamp itself was dying. I was able to collect a sample and did what I could to stop it, but it was beyond my comprehension.


One-by-one I lost my Swamp Rats, my most important tools to learn what this stuff was. The wildlife that had once been so plentiful near our village vanished, seemingly into thin air, making it impossible to restock my supply.


As the swamp died, so too did our village. One-by-one our numbers fell, and there was nothing I could do to stop it from happening. None of my potions, even my strongest that I had kept in reserve did anything to negate the effects of the darkness that was slowly taking over the land. Eventually, Ajenna, my grandmother and the only family I had left succumbed and her soul departed to the next life.


With no choice, Alvis and I left our home behind and began our quest for the outside world. We had only ever heard stories of the outside world from the trader that came to our village every so often. Even though he told us all those wonderous stories, nothing could have prepared us for what we actually found!


This new world is so different compared to what we were used to. There were more people in our first few towns than either of us knew existed, roads and buildings made of stone, massive ships sailing across massive bodies of water, and not to mention the over abundance of food! To say the least, its been a real culture shock.


Luckily, however, I seem to be adapting at a reasonable rate. Alvis, on the other hand, is still having trouble leaving the world he once knew behind.


We travelled to a settlement called Mist City in search of the Mages Guild, which was my grandmother's final bit of advice to Alvis and myself. It was a bit much to take in all at once, but the guild has welcomed us with open arms and even sent a team to the swamps to learn more about what destroyed our village.


Everyone here has been so helpful to us. Etrix, the superior ranking here was one of the first to greet us and welcome us to the guild. However, the most helpful person here has been Elizabeth. She's a gorgeous young woman who has done what she can to help us with whatever needs to be done. She taught me about bartering a few days ago, and has even helped Alvis learn how to read a little. He's struggling, but she says he's making progress.


That being said, though, we met our third teammate as well. Her name is Kathrina, and she's extremely beautiful! She uses healing magic and was kind enough to demonstrate it to us. Her magic soothed and relaxed me and Alvis, taking away all of our aches and pains after our travels. She's very kind and has explained things to us in great detail. She's apparently supposed to be a historian, so she'll be very useful during our travels.


We've also met who will be our teacher or mentor. He goes by the name of "Flare" and is a member of the Elemental Guard. He wants us to meet tomorrow morning East of town, so I should probably wrap this entry up.


I will say one thing, though. I can't speak for Alvis, but despite how amazing this new world is...I do miss home. And I do still feel a little homesick.