Setting
The largest desert on the entire planet and on the Rosetta Continent, this place is known to be frequented not only by nomad clans but also strange monster patterns. There are plenty of safe areas, but also plenty of dangers.
However, the towns and cities built inside have been able to last thanks to the protection of the soldiers based in the cities to the south, particularly thanks to the Dragon Knights of Questrios City.
"Mhhmmm....mhm! Right! It's morning!" he said, jumping up as he immediately ran over to a set of supplies. There was a bag set up with all sorts of preserved foodstuffs, medical supplies, some spare clothes, and a few other things. There was also two sets of clothes laid out for the morning, so he could put it right on. After that, he turned back and started to try and wake up his friend.
"Alt-shu! Alt-shu! Its morning! Its today! Its time! Let's go on an adventure!" Emerin said, as the heat poured in with the sun. As one would expect from a desert region, the moment that morning came and the sun went full blast, the heat started to kick up as well. After all, Emerin was suggesting they just go out and start an adventure without even taking a bath or a shower in the morning, or eating properly. And given how much Emerin liked to eat, that was extremely unusual.
But that was because Emerin loved stories of adventures, and heroes, and wanted to have his own. No, that would be wrong. He wanted to have them with his best friend, Altian. It was a wonder he did not grab Altian's hand and charge out into the world without doing anything else at all, but thankfully he was very much aware of his friend's existence and would not be so heartless as to leave him behind. That was why he invited Altian for a sleepover, and why he was to sleepybrain to be aware of his surroundings at the moment, including the fact his foot got caught on the strap of the bag and so when he walked closer to the bed, he tripped and went face first into the floor.
Strange...
When Emerin finally got up from the faceplant he just took, he looked around and noticed Altian was not there. This made him get rather concerned for a moment, but when he thought about it maybe he had started preparations first. He immediately ran downstairs to see if his father knew anything, only to run into his father.
"Emry".
"Papa?"
"Where are you going?"
"To find Alt-shu! Did you see him?! I wanna go on an adventure! I really do wanna!"
"Emry. First off, you should get dressed first. YOu got too excited again".
"Oh, right!" Emerin said, as he got a bit embarrassed. "What else?"
"Did you wake up, get super excited, get everything together, and possibly forget to actually talk to Alt-shu about setting out on an adventure today?"
Emerin looked at his father a bit...and then considered something.
"Oh...I think I did?"
"...you should probably make sure of that. You know how energetic you can get".
Emerin quickly ran back upstairs as he acknowledged his father's words, and unless he immediately spotted Altian would head back upstairs to get dressed and...
"And, you are not going to forget to take a bath either right? And did you make sure he was not on the roof reading, or eating breakfast, or maybe getting a bath ready for you two?"
Emerin then began to search all over, and on top of, the house first before he would get his stuff and search for Altian. Hopefully he found him before he caused a bunch of chaos.
Very strange and unusual...
And then, Emerin would hear it...a small giggle trying to be muffled. It seemed to come from behind him, yet it wasn't directly behind him. Almost as if it was placed back a few feet.
"Why is there a floating set of clothes?"
"Oh, hey Emry. I got the invisibility potion to work!"
"But...your clothes are still invisible..."
"Thats because the clothes dont ingest the poison. Why are you here anyways?"
"Have you seen Alt-shu?"
"Not today".
He searched all over, but he still could not find him. After awhile, Emerin started to worry a little.
"I wonder if he is okay? Did he go and get kidnapped?! Did those bandits do it?! I should go and search the...huh?"
At that point, he thought he heard some giggling, and it sounded like it could be Altian, so he spun around in a 360 to look for the source, and yet did not find anything.
"...is this that 'panic hallucinations" Alt-shu once told me about? Oh, right! I should go find some bandits and smash them up to see if Alt-shu was there!"
It seemed even with the prior incident, Emerin was thinking in a rather extreme...and somewhat illogical...method. But that was partly because he had failed to find Altian in the rational, reasonable places.
And it was why he was directly in front of Emerin, casually booping him on the nose before regaining his visibility and collapsing on the floor laughing. His long, chestnut-brown hair was always unkempt, as if he didn't want to tidy it or didn't really care about tidying it. His usually calm blue eyes were brighter and livelier at the prank he'd just pulled, probably because it wasn't something he did that often. Like any other kid his age, he wore a T-Shirt and baggy shorts. Unlike any other kid, his childish attire and appearance was a front for the wicked smarts he held within his mind.
Picking himself up, he hugged his best friend, the biggest grin across his face, "So, guess what I just learned how to do?" he said coyly, knowing full well Emerin would know he hadn't learned how to turn invisible yet.
As Emerin let out a voice of surprise...though the way he sounded might surprise others as well, he also ended up falling to the ground in shock. His white shorts and blue vest-shirt like thing collected a bit of sand. That said, it was not shock or surprise of fear or concern, but instead his eyes were full of wonder and amazement as he stood back up and recieved the hug from Altian.
And then when he asked him to guess while grinning in a way that made Emerin even more excited, the boy was practically jumping out of his clothes...and possibly the atmosphere itself...as he came up with all sorts of theories.
"Oh! Oh! You...you...you phased into another reality! Or turned invisible! Or maybe you teleported! Or or...I dunno! But I am guessing! Oh, thats it! You found a way to temporarily phase out of existence and then return, right?!"
In Emerin's mind, Altian was pretty much a genius who was far superior at him in magic. Although Emerin did hold large amounts of magic power, he fully believed Altian was better at using what magic he had, and therefore better at him in magic.
Of course, it might also be because he just thought really highly of his friend.
"Or maybe...you learned how to...turn into a small person and hid somewhere! Did I get it? Did I figure it out?"
It was questionable if Emerin even believed half the stuff he thought of normally, but it seemed he got so excited that he himself would believe anything at this point.
But once Emerin got a ball rolling, he simply couldn't be stopped. Altian laughed again at Emerin's excitement. It was one of the reasons he was so happy to be friends with him. He had this undying, ungodly amount of energy and he was constantly in a chipper mood. He was the early bird and the night owl. More so, he was the most spirited person he'd ever met. He could make light of any situation, something that couldn't be said about many person period.
In Altian's mind, Emerin was also a valued competitor in regards to magic. While he had the smarts to use an absurd amount of magical abilities, it was Emerin who held the massive capacity to use them. His power supply never waned, and therefore could never be exhausted. As a result, Altian truly believed Emerin was better than he was at magic.
Of course, it might also be because he just thought really highly of his friend.
Finally Altian held a hand out, trying to hold in his laughter, "Stop, stop. You already got it. I can turn invisible now." To demonstrate, he snapped his fingers. At once, his body began shimmering, then fading into the background behind him, and finally was gone all together.
"See? I'm still here because you can hear me, right?" he explained, "You wouldn't be able to hear me if I moved to another reality or teleported."
As Emerin said that, it was likely that Altian knew the serious flaw with invisibility potions...mainly, they only make the person, and not the equipment they are wearing, invisible. Which was why invisibility potions were just silly.
"Well, I mean...ghosts have that spirit dimensionally world thing right? So couldn't it be possible to hear you if you were in another reality? But...I guess the other ones are kinda silly...though, you could have just teleported nearby and used ventroliqusim".
Emerin didn't get the word right at all, but it was probably clear what he meant.
"SO, so! I was thinking! We should go on an adventure today! Wait, didn't I already say that? Maybe I did? Well, you know! It will be super fun! Going on adventures, seeing new things, meeting interesting people! Dad said that if I do go on an adventure, I have to remember to bathe regularly. Then I think he mentioned something about you probably remembering...something. Maybe it was that? Well, its an adventure, so I think its alright to get a little dirty anyways! Oh oh! Maybe we will end up becoming like legendary heroes! Oh, with that invisibility, you could be really great on saving people and sneak attacks! Ahhhh...have you had breakfast yet by the way? I am hungry again! We should eat!"
As he said that, his stomach let out what might be the loudest growl a stomach could possibly make.
"Oh oh! I just realized something! I didn't even think of a direction to go when starting an adventure! Oh, I almost forgot! How did you do it?! How did you learn to turn invisible?! Can you turn me invisible too? Can you specify on what you want to be invisible and what you don't want? Could you make an entire building invisible?!"
Emerin was an extremely energetic person, and right now it was compounded with his curiosity. He liked Altian's good and honest nature, and he was also always interested with how he did things and the way he was able to learn so much.
Plus, Emerin just liked being friends with Altian. After all, friendship didn't need to be complicated or have reasons.
As they started walking towards the main market where the shops and good restaurants were located, he explained the process of invisibility, "So invisibility is a complicated spell to learn and an even harder one to apply. I'm sure you know that pronouncing the words perfectly and performing the gestures accurately are pretty difficult in their own right. But why people don't like to utilize it is that doing so only makes the caster of the spell invisible, not the fabric around them or the other inanimate objects. So doing the spell by itself will make you invisible, but not your clothes or your sword or whatever you happen to be carrying or wearing."
"But here's the trick to that not many figure out. If you study the language it was written in, you can manually cast enchantments on whatever you want to make invisible when you activate the spell. You just specify what you want to enchant in that language. However, it's hard to find books on it since it's written in an old Ancient text that isn't spoken that much anymore. Luckily I found one in that underground library we found in the desert that one time."
The adventure he was referring to was a few months ago, when he and Emerin went exploring the southern part of the desert. After decimating the Giant Scorpion because Emerin had never tried fried Scorpion meat, the resulting holes from their battle unearthed a hidden palace that was lost to time. They had spent three days walking around in the underground magnificence, taking in the musty atmosphere, the crumbling architecture, dodging the carefully placed traps, avoiding palace wall cave-ins, and even putting a tortured Pharaoh King to peaceful rest by mummifying him, placing him into a Sarcophagus, and placing it where the throne had once stood. Emerin still had the golden staff he grabbed, causing the Pharaoh to awaken. When he asked why he'd grabbed it, Emerin simply protested, "Well, it was shiny! Of course I'm going to grab the shiny staff in the hidden palace!"
Which was as good enough a reason as any.
Rounding a corner, the two young boys came across the busiest part of the desert town called Azma. The main market was always bustling with life and energy, people selling the goods they crafted or obtained through various methods of their own that stretched all the way down the main strip. Altian could easily distinguish the legitimate vendors from the shady ones, given the latter typically didn't have stands and usually had an odd end of assorted items, varying in rarity. He figured both kinds of vendors had their merits. With practiced vendors, they were more trustworthy and he knew hat he was getting more often than not. With shady dealers, they had a lot less credibility, but their scale of items ranged from practically worthless to extremely interesting and one-of-a-kind.
Among the stands were buildings that sold their own merchandise and varying kinds of restaurants for people to rest their feet and get some good grub. Altian pointed out a smaller building on the corner that sold mostly pastries, but had a few breakfast and lunch items. It was one of his favorite places to go.
"I've already eaten, but if you didn't get a chance to have food, we can go there. It's around brunch time, so they'll have more options. I can pay for it. I'm thinking about getting a Hesh Cake anyway."
Hesh Cakes were simple and sweet: bread covered in a strange sauce that tasted like a local brand of coffee mixed with cinnamon. Despite it's three ingredients, no one could replicate the pastry's bitter-sweet taste nor it's perfect moisture. It was the owner's secret recipe, but Altian was determined this time around to figure out what made it so special.
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