newly appointed

Power of the Chosen

My head was throbbing and my body felt like it went through a grinder. I placed my hand on my forehead, moaning in discomfort. ‘Man, I feel like sh#t.’ I tried to push myself up, but there was nothing beneath me. ‘Wha- what the… oh not this again.’ Just like before, I opened my eyes to see the blackness of the void. Looking around, I noticed that I was alone this time. Maneuvering myself upright, I began to feel irritated by my current state.

“What was his name… uh, Cortez; yeah. Cortez!” I yelled out, looking around for him.

“Yes.” My head whipped in the other direction to see Cortez’s helmet right in front of me.
I jerked away in surprise, almost losing my balance.

“Don’t do that!” I said in frustration.

“What? You called for me and I answered.” He said puzzlingly.

“Well don’t just appear right in front of my face…” I griped, “And can you please let me down.”

“As you wish.” He complied, waving his hand.

I landed on whatever ground he was standing on, but my body still felt sore; so I winced a bit after I landed. Regaining myself, I looked back at Cortez to see him waiting patiently.

“Why is it that, when I get here, I’m levitating?” I asked.

“I thought it would be more comfortable that way.” He responded.

“Well, for now on, let us wake up on the ground; alright?”

“Very well…” he said, agreeing to my request, “I am sure you have a lot of questions for me.”

“Heh, you think…” I responded brashly, “you practically threw us in a whole other world with nothing but a map and a brief explanation that didn’t make any since.”

He began to chuckle a bit toward my antics.

“I suppose I would be upset as well if I were in those circumstances to, but all will be explained in due time. Right now, you are here because you were able to use the power of the chosen.”

I’m now conflicted with more questions than answers. ‘Great here he goes again about the chosen ones.’

“Look you’re not making this any easier to understand. Why are you calling us the chosen ones, and for what?” he simply looked at me, after I asked those questions.

I couldn’t tell his expression with his face hidden behind the mask.

“(Sigh) you must understand. I truly wish to tell you everything, but I am limited on what I can tell you. I can only explain what you have discovered.” He said, sounding sincere.
I couldn’t really argue any further with him on the matter; so I decided to hear what he had to say.

“When God created man, he used the elements of the earth to bind him.” when he said this, images began to form from his words.

A picture of earth was shown, and then the many ecosystems it contains. Afterwards the dirt of the earth began to rise, forming an image of a man.

“No other creature was more in tune with the earth than man. We could manipulate it, mold it to fit our needs.” the one man became two, then four; they kept multiplying until there were hundreds of them.

They began to do things like construction, agriculture, science, and engineering.

“In this world, magic seems to be the key element that binds all the others. The inhabitants of this world are all connected to this magic, but are limited in its use weather working the soil to grow and harvest, or manipulating the very element of magic to their will.” The humans soon disappeared, being replaced by images of other creatures such as griffons, ponies, dragons, Minotaur, and dogs.

They were doing some of the same things the humans did, but some were using magic to complete their tasks.

“The chosen ones are humans who are gifted the ability to control this magic and all other elements in ways you can only dream of.” A human came into view radiating a light in his hand.

He then began to manipulate the four elements in ways that can only be considered supernatural.

“However, there is a price. Whatever you take, you must give back. The human body is comprised of natural energy from the earth; magic is an unfamiliar energy to our bodies. Therefore, it is considered unnatural. When combined, the body is filled with unspeakable power that can be used.” The outline of the human body appeared, filled with a blue stream that resembles its veins. Then a purplish mist began to flow within the body, merging with the blue. Once combined, the veins becomes an intense white hue.

“When expelled, the body loses its natural energy, leaving it empty. If you lose too much, the body will stop functioning and you will die.” When the white hue leaves the body, the veins slowly turns grey.

As the process continues, the grey soon turns to a deep black, leaving the body hollow. The images then ceased, indicating that Cortez was done with his explanation.

I stood there taking in all that he said. ‘So that explains what happened in the arena.’ His words answered a few questions, but there was one that I still wanted answered.

“Ok, so how does this necklace fit into all this?” I asked, showing him my amulet, “I noticed that, whenever something unnatural happens, it glows.”

“Ah, the amulet. The chosen are capable to do magic, but, because magic is nonexistent in the human world, it is difficult for them to harness it. The amulet acts like a bridge between the natural and magical energy. It will glow when needed.” Understanding its true purpose, I looked at my necklace with wide eyes.

All of a sudden a white light begins to pierce the blackness of the void. It grew larger and larger, becoming blinding to my eyes.

“It appears our time is up.” Cortez said.

He then turned towards the light and moves to it.

“Wait! I still have questions!” I pleaded.

The light was consuming the void, and it was getting harder to see.

“Then follow the map. It will lead you to your answers.” He ended.

The light was too much for my eyes to bare; so I closed them, feeling myself fade into the blackness once more.

(BEEP) I begin to feel myself come to again.
(BEEP) my body still felt sore, but the headache was no more.
(BEEP) getting tired of the darkness, I slowly opened my eyes.
(BEEP) my vision was a bit blurry, while my eyes were trying to adjust. I felt that I was on a bed, with blankets draped over me.
(BEEP) once I could see clearly, I noticed that I was in a white room with medical equipment.
(BEEP)

Magic is dangerous

“What do you mean you don’t know what’s wrong with him!” I yelled in annoyance.

“Forgive me princess, but we couldn’t find any reasons for his spontaneous illness. His conditions seemed to have gone back to normal, but he’s still unconscious.” The griffon nurse pleaded, looking a bit nervous towards my mood.

I groaned in disapproval of her answer. ‘How could he be ok? He barely had a heart beat when we brought him in.’ I was going to continue my protests, but Jordan stopped me, placing his hand on my shoulder. He had a blank expression on his face, but I knew he wanted me to let it go. I sighed and looked down, accepting her answer.

“Thank you mam; please let us know if anything turns up.” He said,

The nurse simply bowed in response and left towards Daniel’s room. Once she was gone, Jordan went back to the waiting room, and sat next to Taphy, who was covering his face with his hands. They both looked quite exhausted. After all, they did just come from a fight, and now their friend is lying unconscious on a medical bed.

“How could you guys be so calm?” I asked.

“(Sigh) if there’s one thing I learned is that panicking won’t solve anything. It would only lead to more problems.” Jordan said in a mildly sad tone, “however, I think we all know what the real question we should be asking.”

I knew Jordan was talking about the fight and how Daniel was able to use elemental magic to win it.

“Is it rare for humans to do magic?” I asked, thinking that humans’ use of magic is similar to griffons.

“Ha! Rare, more like impossible.” Taphy blurted out.

“What he means to say is that magic doesn’t exist back where we come from. Yeah, we have those who could do tricks and illusions, but that’s all they were.” Jordan said, explaining the significance of what Daniel did.

So many questions began to fill my head. ‘magic doesn’t exist where there from, but how was he able to do it; could it be the cause of his illness, will he be able to do it again, if he does, will the effect be worse…’

Before anything else was said, the nurse from before rushed into the room. We all gave her our undivided attention, thinking that something happened to Daniel. Breathing heavily, she looked at us and smiled.

“He’s awake.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Daniel

Apparently, I was in the castle’s infirmary. The griffon doctors examined me and asked a couple of questions about my health. I was told that, after the fight, I completely passed out and became ill fevered. However, after a while the fever disappeared. They didn’t know the cause of my sudden illness, but I did. In my unconscious state, Cortez explained to me what happened. ‘So I’m able to do magic… neat, but that catch. I’m going to have to be careful using it… how did I use it anyway?’ I didn’t really ask Cortez on how to use magic. It just happened. ‘Hmm I guess I could figure that out later.’ I was snapped out of my thoughts as my friends and Gilda came in the room.

"Well hey guys; I was wondering when you’ll come around." I said jokingly.

They just looked at me, as if I was going to do something drastic.

"You alright Daniel?" Taphy asked, cautiously.

I was completely set back by his question.

"Umm, yeah." I replied, looking at him confusingly.

"You sure... you’re not going to self-combust, are you?" he asked, continuing with his antics.

"Self-combu- oh come on! I had one incredible moment and now you look at me like I’m going to explode in any second." I said, completely flabbergasted.

"You shot fireballs out of your hand! How did you think we're going to take it, because that aint natural." Taphy reasoned.

I begin to understand their concerns; so I thought it would be best to tell them what I learned.

"Alright alright, I’m sure your all wondering what happened out there." they all shook their heads yes in response, "well get this, when I was out, I met with Cortez again. You know that guy who sent us here in the first place."

My friends exactly knew who I was talking about and began to listen intently. However, Gilda wasn’t with us when we met Cortez; so she looked at me confusedly.

"He told me that humans can do literal magic in this world." my friends just briefly looked at each other, unsure on how to take that news, "with these necklaces, we can harness this world's magic and use it at will. There’s a catch though, using magic will be draining, leaving us weak. If we're not careful, it could kill us."

My friends just looked at me blankly, making me wonder if they were listening or not.

"Ok backup, one did you hit your head at some point, two what the heck are you talking about, and three did you say using magic can kill us?" Taphy asked, obviously lost within my explanation.

I took a deep breath before I decided to start over, trying to explain in more detail this time. They continued to stare blankly at me, while Gilda was completely lost from it all. after a while, Taphy looked at me as if I were going crazy and Jordan just pondered on what I said.

"So what is our limit?" Jordan asked curiously.

"Not really sure. I’m certain we'll get some sort of early warning when we're reaching our limit." Jordan just looked away, obviously pondering about the risks magic imposes. "I don’t think we would be using it often; maybe for emergencies."

Jordan began to nod in agreement, but Taphy was still lost for words.

"Jordan you can’t be serious. Magic; am I the only one who hasn’t gone completely insane here." I didn’t really blame Taphy for his outburst; God knows he's been through a lot already.

However, crazy or not, magic could come useful for us in the future.

"Ok you completely lost me here. Who’s this Cortez guy?" Gilda asked, wanting to be filled in on the loop.

"Well I can’t really tell you much because we don’t know either." I answered, "as far as we know, he’s a human knight who's actually familiar with this world and sent us here to do something. I think it was to stop an evil force or something."

We were still unsure of the details of us being here, in a world that should not exist.

"Uh huh...so what else did he say?"

"Well I wasn’t able to ask him many questions, but he said that the map will lead us to the answers. Speaking of maps, where’s ours?"

"It’s still in our room." Jordan replied.

"Well I think we should have a look at it when I get out." I was sure something happened to it, and I was eager to find out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
King Feran

I looked out the window of my study chamber, pondering on the recent events. (Knock, knock knock)

"Come in." I said to whoever is at the door.

As the door creped open, I decided it was best to get started.

"It has been a while old friend. I know that you are retired, but I am in need of your services once more." I turned around to see my guest eye to eye, "what can you tell me about these humans?"

"I’ll tell you all I know, my king."

Newly appointed

It took a while for the infirmary to let me go. If it wasn’t for Gilda, I probably would have been stuck there. They gave me the spiel of, if you get sick again that I should come back. Before we got out, we ran into Nova, organizing her medical pack. She looked very relieved that I was ok. We said our thanks for her assistance in the tournament. She returned it for the experience. Then we parted our separate ways. As we were headed towards our room, the guards stood at attention after noticing us and the servants bowed as we walked by them.

"Hey Gilda, why is everyone treating us so differently?" I asked in curiosity.

"They’re just being respectful; after all, you guys are my personal guards." she said amusingly.

"Oh yeah, that's right." I almost forgotten our new job assignment of protecting royalty.

As we got to the room, I entered and quickly looked into my bag for the map. To my surprise, something was glowing in my backpack. Digging through, I found out that the glow came from the map. 'Ha, called it.’ I laid it on a table and opened it. Gilda and my friends gathered around to see. The light exploded out but it simmered down, leaving a small glowing dot on the map.

"Gilda, do you know where that is on the map?" I asked pointing at the dot.

She looked closely inspecting the area around the dot.

"Yeah that’s Mukpud Forest." she replied.

"So what are we going to find there?" Jordan asked.

"Hopefully some answers." I replied, rolling up the map.

"Leaving so soon?" I looked up to see Hans at the door.

"Hans, where have you been? We missed you at the tournament."

"Ah well, sorry about that. I had to do some errands," he replied, rubbing the back of his head, "but I heard it was quite exciting."

"I guess you can say that." I said, putting the map back in the bag.

We began to gather our belongings, making sure we didn’t leave anything.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" he asked.

"Mukpud forest."

"Mukpud?" he looked at us with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, there's something there that requires our attention." I tried to keep things brief; I didn’t want them to know the truth just yet.

"Well I don’t want to dampen ones thirst for adventure, but I think yall should see the king first." Hans suggested, "Don’t want to miss the ceremony."

I stopped and looked at him, showing him my confusion. 'I wasn’t told of any ceremony. Then again, we're going to be personal royal guards.'

"He’ll be waiting for ya at the throne room. Oh, and a wee suggestion; wash up before ya get there." with that said, he left us alone.
I gave myself a once over, seeing scruff marks and dust stains, and I don’t exactly smell like a pot of roses either. I’m sure my friends were in the same condition.

"Well, I’ll see you guys over there, and Hans right. You guys need a bath. I don’t want my new guards looking like they came from a homeless institute." Gilda pestered while heading towards the door.

Once she left, I thought it was best that we all take a shower. Afterwards, we'll use the wet towels to try to wash off the grime on our cloths. We made sure that everything was packed up and ready; so, once the ceremony was over, we could head out. When everything was packed and we cleaned ourselves as best we could, we made our way out towards the throne room. After getting lost for some time and asking for directions, we finally stood in front of the throne room doors. Two guards were posted there, holding their spears at attention.

"The king is waiting for you inside." one of the guards said. They both opened the doors for us, letting us in.

The throne room was what you expect from traditional middle age setting, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a spectacular sight. The room was grand in size, leaving a descent path from the entrance to the actual throne. There was a red carpet that starts at the entrance leading to the throne, and there were griffon elites posted on the sides of the room. The walls were decorated with drapes containing emblems on them. Some I recognize from the arena; the others were unfamiliar to me. The throne itself was made of wood carved to perfection. There were two other thrones on the sides. They weren’t as grand as the main, but were authentic enough to symbolize its status. Above the throne were two balconies on each side, and there was a guard on each. In-between was a larger drape with Gryphonia's symbol on it. 'Now this is legit.'

The king was sitting patiently on the throne with Gilda and the queen, keeping his posture sharp. The room also had other guests which included the captain and some other griffons who probably are of high status. We made our way towards the throne, trying to look regale as possible. There were murmurs between the other griffons, but I ignored them for the task at hand. When we felt we were close enough, we stopped and bowed.

"It is good to see you well, sir Daniel." the king said.

"Thank you king, what happened to me was a minor setback." I replied.

He smiled and nodded in response. His demeanor soon returned to him and got up from his throne. We all bowed at this.

"For years Gryphonia had come across many worthy warriors who had proven themselves in combat of all fields. now, for the first time in Gryphonia’s history, a group of human warriors had proven themselves before all of us." the king then looked down upon us, earning a lower bow from us, "before I bestow the title of royal guard of the elite, will you vow to protect my daughter from any kind of threat that seeks to do her harm?"

"With our lives." I said without hesitation.

"Then let it be known throughout all the kingdom, you are now royal guards of Gryphonia. May celestia’s sun shine bright upon you, as you serve with dignity and pride."

One of the griffon elites came to us and gave us each a cloak with Gryphonia’s symbol on it.

"Please take these as my gift to you. Let it be a symbol, that no matter how difficult your road may be or how alone you may feel, Gryphonia will always be with you." he said, while we were putting it on.

They reached all the way down above our ankles, easily capable of obscuring anything we held. The fabric felt soft and cool in the inside, while the outer layer was made to be resistant to harsh climates. 'Hmm not bad.'

"All hail to Gryphonia’s newest guards." the king commanded.

The room boomed in acceptance, and, before we knew it, the ceremony was over. The king wished us to go to the castles library, saying that someone was wanting to meet us there. Still being new to this castle's layout, I didn’t wish to walk around without a guide; so we waited for Gilda to meet us.

"So, what do you think?" I asked her, posing to show off the new cloak.

"I think you still look like a dweeb with new cloths." she said jokingly.

I just playfully scowled at her, then waved off her comment.

"I’m just kidding. You guys look pretty good for a bunch of humans." she said, walking right passed us, "well come on. I remember my dad wanting you guys at the library, and I know you still don’t know your way around; so don’t worry. I’m willing to hold your claw so you don’t get lost."

I rolled my eyes at her, while we followed behind. The trip there wasn’t long, and every soldier or servant we passed either bowed or saluted.
"Well it’s about time I got some respect around here." Taphy exclaimed, enjoying the extra attention.

"Don’t let it go over your head." Jordan suggested.

"Hey it’s good to feel appreciated once and a while." Taphy protested.

“Hey we appreciate you. I mean who's going to take my petty jokes." I said teasingly.

"Or be the guy to collect our supplies." Jordan added in.

"Or, most importantly, be the guy we can depend on." I said with utmost sarcasm.

We began to laugh after that, except for Taphy.

"Tsk man." Taphy groaned.

Author's Note:

well back from deployment, and god am I glad to be back in the states.

anyway, yeah next chapter yay, it looks like we're building some national relationship here... but it seems there are some strings here. im sure they can make it work.

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