In Aetheris, a convergence of multiple worlds and multiple races, there lived a boy—or rather, a young man, settled in a small, peaceful, unpopular town named Edensville. It was a rather insignificant place in comparison to the great cities in the Human World, as it had nothing noteworthy, and nothing of attraction. There were no tales, or legends, or myths tied to this place, nor lores to any of its inhabitants.
On this fruitful morning, Aiden was fetching some water from a stony well next to his habitation, whistling tunes to himself, and basking in the graceful glow of the sunlight, when a much known friend of his visited.
"Good morning," the friend greeted, with the usual cheerful smile on his face.
"Morning," Aiden replied, in a flat, dull tone.
As usual, Alex began to walk about, entering his abode without permission, and scanning every nook and cranny before returning to him. His black irises were as chaotic as his spiky, dark hair.
"What is it this time?" Aiden asked, for he knew that anytime he visited so early, then he had stayed up all night to tell him something. The bags under his eyes, and the marks on his freckless face said the same thing.
"Well…I heard something," he replied.
"Is it that you heard something, or that you started something?"
"Ah..I'm not as troublesome as you think," He stated in his defence. "But, I guess you're right. I might have started it myself."
"Well, who else would go around feeding the kids with nonsense in this peaceful town?" Aiden muttered to himself, filling another bucket as he let the bag down into the well.
"What do you think about returning to Earth?" Alex asked, stopping by his doorpost.
Now, there was a quite long pause in their conversation. Aiden continued with his task, his black hair bound to a lock at the back of his head, and his sleeves rolled up to avoid getting wet.
"Why?" Aiden asked, staring at him with two crimson eyes. "You know someone there?"
"Well, it is our home. Is it not?" Alex argued.
"This. This building you see here," Aiden replied. "is my home."
"Come oonn…" Alex slapped his head. "It's been a week since Lady Sabrinna of the Orphanage died. The Old Witch will be coming any time soon to take these lands. You know that she's been eyeing it for a long time."
"I'll first kiss Marlo's ass before she takes it from me."
Now, Marlo was a renowned nasty pig of the town. If there was an utterly disgusting pig you knew, then Marlo the Carrier of A Thousand Diseases was ten times worse.
"It's still a small town," argued the unyielding dark-haired teen. "The Old Witch owns most of the area, and we both know that the only reason she couldn't take it was because of her fear of Sabrinna. What do you think will happen now that she's dead?"
Aiden closed the well. Alex was being reasonable, which was a very rare thing to see.
"What do you think I should do?" he asked, half-interested.
"Abandon it," Alex suggested, playing with his non-existent beard. "Everyone agrees with it."
"When you say 'everyone', you mean kids that can't count to a hundred…"
"No! Not at all," said Alex. "Even Goliath the Dwarf thinks it's a wise thing to do. All we have to do is go back to our home planet. To Earth. I've heard the Soul Walkers speak of it. They say it's an advanced civilization. An utopia!"
Aiden hissed. "Who's feeding you with all this nonsense? Have you been speaking with the fairies again? Cause I know you haven't met any Soul Walker except myself."
Alex went silent.
"Ah so you have been!" Aiden realised. "Need I remind you how mischievous those three little brats are? How they would loiter about in the woods and travel for tens and hundreds of kilometres, only to meet random passerbys, feed them lies of them being some 'chosen one' and lead them on a journey of no return?"
"But-!" Alex tried to argue but he was silenced.
"Have you forgotten that you were nearly ensnared by their tomfoolery? Knowing your personality, you'd probably have travelled miles into the woods in search of some 'hidden treasure', or some 'ancient magic', only to starve and rot away."
Alex sighed. "You're the same as my older brother. Boring lads. The both of you."
"Your brother," said Aiden. "is one of the few people with a working brain in this town."
"I'ld argue the opposite," protested Alex, who was much certain that Aiden was the wrong person here. "My old man once told me that to learn is to explore. And those who don't learn are the real fools."
"Your old man? Have you forgotten that we are both orphans?"
"Uhh.." Alex scratched his head. "Doesn't 'my old man' mean..an old man?"
"I see. You're as dim as they say."
"Anyways," Alex clapped, ignoring Aiden's harsh words. "I did meet a Soul Walker. Yesterday, to be precise."
"Is that what he told you?" Aiden asked, being very sceptical as always.
"No…an actual Soul Walker." he replied. "And he did say quite a lot about cities in the Human World. Not Earth, but the one that we live in, here in Aetheris."
"Go on," Aiden urged, walking past Alex into his building. "I might be listening."
"There's talk of a layered dungeon showing up in the Unexplored Lands," said Alex, scuttling behind Aiden past the door and into the corridor. "and of clashes between Houses."
Now, Aiden was a kind of person that was somewhat interested in political talk. Living in Edensville meant being disconnected from everything: adventurers, dungeons, trades, and many other pleasures of the city. But, it also brought a sense of peace and comfort. And if that wasn't enough, the insignificance of this small town shielded him from the reach of the barbaric Holy Legion, as well as the ever-expanding Holy City.
"Now what business does a meagre Soul Walker have with the Unexplored Lands?" Aiden asked with one lift of an eyebrow. "Those lands are far from our reach. Tell me more about the Houses."
But Alex had hit a wall—both physically and metaphorically, and could not talk.
"This way," said Aiden, seeing that Alex had been so absorbed in his talk that he bumped his head onto wood. "With that spatial awareness, you are not surviving ten seconds in a dungeon."
"Well I was hoping you would be more interested in the layered dungeons," said Alex, rubbing his head with faint teary eyes. "I didn't really ask about the Houses."
Aiden sighed, plopping on a chair in the spacious cabin. "Of course, you didn't."
And then, he began to make tea with some herbs, some jugs, and a kettle. There was some mesmerising fragrance in the air, that wafted up and out the window. The scent soothed Alex, and he forgot the pain.
Pouring out tea into two cups was an invite from Aiden to some tea-time, however small it was. Alex helped himself to some biscuits as well, gobbling it all up with the elegance of a rascal.
Seeing this childish behaviour, Aiden cracked a smile…which didn't go unnoticed.
"Hey..what's so funny?" Alex asked with two stuffed cheeks.
"Oh. Nothing," Aiden pretended. "I was just wondering about those adventures that you spoke of in times past."
The worst, possible lie he could have come up with.
Now, Alex would go on and on for hours on end.
"Well, you see…" Alex stretched out both hands with some adventurous glint in his eyes. "It's a much larger world out there than this little, old cabin. There are elves, dragons, phoenixes, mermaids, werewolves, giants, goblins, trolls, spirit beasts and many, many other kinds of things and people to see. No matter how you see it, it's an experience stacked upon another!"
"An experience, you say.." Aiden reclined in his seat. "Well I've had experience alright. Remember my first raid? When all my comrades were abused by goblins? Oh! What about that 'golden experience' that we both had when we tried crossing Palmers Sea, and nearly got drowned by sirens? What a wondrous library of experiences indeed!"
"Uhh…"
"Look, I'll be frank with you, Alex. The only way I'm going back to that life of madness is if that Old Witch somehow finds a way to sink her nasty, gross claws into my land. This land was given to me by Lady Sabrinna before her passing, just as she did to many others of the Orphanage. And I'll do anything to protect it."
"Uhh.." repeated Alex, who was seeing something in the window behind Aiden. Something approaching from the distance, not from the woods—for that was behind the cabin, but from the low, green, sloped hills.
"You know little of this world, Alex," Aiden continued. "It's a nasty life as a Transcender. Risking your life, having to sleep with an eye open in dungeons or die of deprivation, eat monsters, hide and all. And develop resistance to many poisons. Let's not even talk about the enchanted and cursed places like the Deadlands on Earth. It's just a terrible idea, really, to go on an adventure."
"Uh…I think the Old-"
"It's actually somewhat better off on Earth, in civilised society rather than Deadlands, of course. But, our life here is much more peaceful. Even you should be glad."
"The Old Witch is here!" Alex screamed with unmistakable fright in his eyes.
"Ah, let's not-!" Aiden paused at once. "The what now?!"
At once, the two hurried from their seats, squeezing through the corridor, and bolting out the door.
Indeed, the talk of her presence was true.
Descending from the hills, where the sun smiled upon the land, was a woman in a chariot that did not smile at all. She was an old woman with bright red lipstick, eyelashes, and eyebrows. She also had a pretty pale, white face, smeared with lots of make-up that still failed at hiding her wrinkles. The woman in a red dress and brown exotic jacket, led by a non-human charioteer and three horses, glared from the distance, and the duo—Aiden and Alex could feel it stab into their souls.
She was the Old Witch, 'graced' by her haters
The horses neighed and halted before the two. At once, the chariot—made of some shiny wood, and painted grey, wheeled to a stop.
The first thing Aiden saw was the little, red-skinned charioteer, with two big ears, and some flappy humanoid skin littered with cracks and darker patches. It was an Erc—nicknamed by many as Red Goblins
"Greetings," he said in a cranky voice. "I presume you are Aiden, yes?"
"Indeed I am," said Aiden.
Then, a voice came from the chariot. "Was it you? Or the silly Alex?"
"I beg your pardon?"
The Old Witch spoke again. "My husband here told me that he had heard someone speak of me as an Old Witch. Was it you? Or was it Alex?"
Alex glanced at the Erc's big ears, and nodded to himself. "Of course, he heard.."
"So it was you, after all!" She said, pointing fingers. Her neck was riddled with veins, just as her eyes were reddened with fury.
"Who are you calling a Witch? And who are you calling Old? I'll have you know that I am still in my young sixties!"
"Pfft!" Alex covered his mouth.
"Did you laugh?"
"I would never," he lied.
"I am Snow White, fairest, youngest, and most beautiful!" declared the Old Witch. "Is that not so, Tumnus?"
"Indeed you are," replied the Erc, "prettiest of al-! *cough!* ahem! most powerful, most graceful, and most beauti-! *cough*"
"Is there a problem with your throat, Tumnus?!"
Alex laughed again.
"Did you laugh?"
"I would never," Alex lied, twice in a row.
"And you, Tumnus!" yelled the old witch, now looking like she would explode. "Isn't winter over? That you should still suffer from a cough?!"
"I'm afraid my lungs are quite…special," answered Mr Tumnus, whose wife was the Old Witch. "We Ercs have different anatomy, you see…"
At this point, the Old Witch stormed out the carriage, and stood before the two.
"I thought it formal to come down here, enstrangle myself to what little hospitality you may have to offer, before saying what I came for!" she bellowed. "But now! I shall be blunt!"
But, she then turned towards the chariot, for she had strained her voice and was starting to cough.
"Tell them, Tumnus!" she commanded. "And no more coughs, or you shall sleep with the rats!"
Tumnus got down from the chariot, while her wife and master went into it. And then, he pointed to the west.
"From that lamppost," he said, hinting at the junction before the main road. Then, he pointed east, towards the area with more settlements. "to the fifth house away. There would be some…changes."
"What changes?" Aiden furrowed his brows.
"Some change of ownership," he said with an unsteady gaze. "I'm afraid to tell you that this land will now belong to Mrs Snow White. You have three days to-!"
"I'm afraid that wouldn't be happening!" Alex chirped in, despite the fact that it was Aiden's land, not his. "We tiled, built, and watered this soil while your rich, comfortable self sat all relaxed and comfortable in your stupidly expensive mansions. I'm not going to watch you take our hard work away from us."
"These lands belonged to Mrs Sabrinna," Aiden added, bringing up verifiable claims. "On what account are you able to seize it from us?"
"There has been a tussle of ownership even during that time. I have documents from the jury to back up my claims. With the current legal tides, we may end up in court, and I presume you know that you can't win there. I'm afraid my madam will only get what she wants."
"Nonsense!" screamed Alex. "Give me those documents and watch them burn!"
"I don't see why I should do that, then," argued the Erc, noting that he wasn't very intelligent. "There will be talk about reclamation of more lands in the future. In the meantime, you can either ready your documents for court, or take the less futile route of vacating these areas. Have a good day."
And with that, Mr Tumnus turned and left, climbing up into his chariot and riding away from the duo's sight.
"...."
"....."
The two were silent for a while.
"What now?" Alex broke the quiet. "We can't win in court. They're rich. They'll get a much better lawyer than us."
Aiden laughed a defeated laugh. "We can't even afford a lawyer, Alex. Not one who will be competent enough to protect such a vast expanse of land. Even if we do, the Old Witch will most definitely bribe him like she did with Sabrinna's third lawyer."
"Seems we have no choice, after all…" said Alex. "The children of the Orphanage will be homeless at this rate. We have to take them to Earth."
"What about Goliath the Dwarf?" Aiden asked. "He's not human so he won't be able to cross over to our world."
"Well…he's an adult. He'll be fine!"
"And the money? You'll need a Traveller's Stone to open any of the Six Gates to Earth." Aiden added. "And it costs ten thousand dells."
"Ten thousand!" Alex covered his mouth as he screamed. "What's with that price?!"
"You see…" Aiden bit his lip, returning to his abode. "We don't even have enough money to go with your idea. The most we can do is lengthen the time allocated for our leave."
"Then, let's do that," Alex suggested, not following him this time.
Aiden paused by the doorpost. "Are you thinking of that?"
"It's the only way. We have to buy the land officially. All of it. Either that or we go to Earth."
"And for either, we'll need money…" Aiden's eyes wandered into the valley of thoughts and despair. "It's at least a hundred thousand for these lands. But only ten thousand for a stone."
The choice he would make was obvious.
"We can make money through our adventures," Alex concluded. "And we use that money to delay the case while saving up for a stone."
"Hmm…" Aiden pondered for a while, with one hand on his chin, and the other by his waist.
Going back to that life…
It's stressful, very stressful…and we'll even have to cross the Palmers Sea again.
Sigh…
The kids. I can't leave them homeless. Sabrinna left them in my care.
….
"Fine. Let's do it."