Sorry, no drawing this chapter, I can't do them every chapter. I will get another one out when I can, it'll either be Ian or Adam.
Don't forget to comment your theories, I'd love to see what you think will happen as time goes on. Plus it gives me ideas on what you guys expect, in case of a writer's block these theories may prove to be very helpful.
Falling to Rise
Chapter 3
"Only a genius can play the fool."
Seto shuffled behind the angry man, he kept his his eyes trained on the ground as they walked. Ty kept his eyes to the sky as he walked with a slight jump in his step, he whistled this strange upbeat tune that Seto assumed came from Vragan.
They came to an abrupt stop and Seto looked up to see they were standing in front of this dark grey tent. All the tents here were light grey, this one was darker and much larger, already Seto could assume this was a tent for one of the higher ups of this place, perhaps a Major or a Lieutenant. Beside it was a tent about the same size, also dark grey, but was probably the most colorful thing around here. On top of it being dark grey the canvas also had this brilliant yellow fabric, he was sure someone important worked in there.
The man pushed aside the flap of the less colorful tent and walked in, Seto followed Ty as he walked in after.
The inside of the tent was neat, everything organized. There was a large sheet of canvas hanging near the back, he assumed it worked as a wall, probably a bed behind it.
"What made you think it was ok to start your year here breaking one of the rules!" He hissed as he turned to face Seto, Seto flinched at his stern tone.
"We're sorry sir," Seto was a good guy. He almost never got in trouble, save for a few mistakes and the incident where he was forced to prank the baker. Seto was honest, humble and respectful, but here that reputation didn't matter, what mattered was that Seto got out of here in one piece.
"Sorry? Do you think your enemies are going to feel sorry for you when you give them something easy to grab. Do you want to die?" He was definitely yelling but the man remained well poised and his face didn't show any amount of strain or anger. Seto was a little taken aback by how one could be radiating with such fierce anger but remain so calm looking.
"Do you!"
"N-no!" Seto blurted.
He turned to face Ty who still had not let his smile fall, "And you! Wipe that silly grin off your face, don't think I can't have you arrested or thrown out. You're just a traitorous boy from Vragan, here you mean nothing!" Still Ty did not flinch as he was yelled at by the man.
He turned once more and looked down at Seto, "And as a member of the Vesuvius family I expected more from their descendant. Here we don't tolerate trouble makers, so hand in your cloak or your family will hear of your disgrace."
Seto nodded fiercely, his hands shook as he unclipped the clasp and shakily handed him the cloak. Seto couldn't hurt his family's name, he didn't want to be the cause of such disgrace. So he had no choice but to give up his father's cloak and hope he could retrieve it when his year was over.
"You! Hand in your headphones or I'll send you back to Vragan as a trait--" something behind the canvas wall in the tent crashed to the floor. Ty looked over curiously and the man looked in that direction.
Seto heard a very quiet groan and then saw the fabric of the wall get scrunched as if someone had grabbed on to it. The wall seemed to stretch as it was pulled then snapped from the top of the tent. It came sailing down on top of the figure that was behind it.
"Shoot!" The mysterious person yelled, there was a series of struggling under the canvas and finally it was tossed off. It revealed a man underneath with messy brown hair, he looked confused as he looked over at the three of them.
"Ian, what's with all the noise? I was trying to sleep," he yawned and scratched his head lazily. He looked around deliriously, "Where are my sunglasses?"
Ignoring the question, the man that had been yelling at them whose name is apparently Ian looked back at the other guy and said, "Adam what are you doing here, you're supposed to be out there training people!"
"I was asleep," he yawned again, "Man, I have a really bad headache... You seen my sunglasses?"
Ian held his head in his hands, "No, I haven't seen your d@mn glasses! For once, I thought you woke up yourself, but here I find you in my tent!"
The guy shrugged then said, " Ian, you didn't sleep?"
"If I did I would've found you in my tent, why are you in my tent!"
He shrugged again then glanced behind him and grinned, "Found them! Thanks Ian!" He reached over and grabbed his weird pair of tinted glasses, similar to Ian's, and placed them over his eyes, "Oh, as for why I was here, I probably just thought it was my tent or something, I was drunk.... I'm pretty sure." He shrugged again and pulled up the chair besides the desk and sat in it. He glanced over at Seto and Ty.
"Hey, who are they? Don't think I've seen them around."
"H-hello," Seto stuttered, Seto was slightly taken aback by the carefree attitude this guy had, especially in front of this scary, stern guy.
"Nice to meet you! You must be new as of yesterday... or today. I'm not entirely sure." He held out his hand for Seto and Seto cautiously walked forward. He shook the strange man's hand very lightly.
"Don't worry, I don't bite, name's Adam! I'm the general of this facility," Seto's eyes widened. This guy?! The general, that has to be some kind of joke, right? The Ian fellow acts more like a general than this guy.
"The g-general!" Seto gasped amazed, Adam nodded with a goofy grin, then he looked behind Seto to Ty.
"Hey, what about you?" Adam pointed to Ty behind Ian, "Are you new too?"
"Sure am!" Ty grinned and walked over to Adam, but was pulled back by Ian.
"Not so fast, hand over the headphones, now," Ian's voice sounded forced, like he was trying to remain calm, Ty looked back over to Ian and frowned.
To Seto Ty looked like he was contemplating something but was soon interrupted by Adam once more. He seemed to do a lot of that, "Leave it be Ian, let him keep it, it's not like it is going to kill anyone."
Ian faltered, "He's breaking the rules, the protocol."
"It's fine, I'm the general, right?" Ian nodded, "Then I override the rules, I say let him keep it, oh and if you took anything from this guy," the general patted Seto on his shoulder and grinned, "give it back."
Adam let go of Seto and rubbed his head, he sighed happily and left towards the exit, Ian stumbled and chased after him, "Adam! Wait we still have more to discuss!" Ty yanked out Seto's cloak from Ian's grip as he passed.
"You won't be needing this anymore," he smirked. When the two had cleared the room he handed it back to Seto.
"Thank you again! I can't thank you enough for once again giving this back to me," Seto clutched his cloak tightly as he slipped it back on.
"Come on, let's go before we get in more trouble," Seto nodded in agreement and followed quickly behind Ty. He felt his stomach growl but knew there would be no breakfast, the sun had risen well over the horizon and everyone was surely done eating.
"Do you even know where we're going?" Seto asked, Ty merely shrugged and kept walking, the rest of the camp was deserted and quiet. He could only hope that whoever is in charge would be a lot more understanding than Ian.
~~~~~
Seto was having a tough time navigating through the caves. He wasn't at all comfortable in the dark with only a single torch to guide him. And unfortunately he managed to screw up and get separated from his group. And should he think to turn back and leave that would spell certain failure for he and his group.
Seto couldn't do that, especially if it meant he'd be the cause of that failure. Seto heaved a sigh and clutched the torch in his right hand and his wooden sword in his left. He still found it hard to believe that the first exercise was to navigate through the caves and bring back a drop from every mob that existed in the overworld. No training on how to use a sword or even how to be stealthy, though if Seto learned anything about Emedo's history, they pride themselves in their majority of numbers in battle. But...Seto was all alone and had no advantage.
"Great!" he hissed quietly to himself, "Here I am concerned about keeping a secret that could get me killed, when now I'm lost in the caves that could get me killed, how am I supposed to defend myself here?"
Seto heard the strained hiss of a creeper behind him and gasped, he spun around only to trip on the rocks behind him. He stumbled back and landed with a resounding thump against the wall, his torch slipped out of his grasp and rolled to the ground. It flickered but stayed lit and made the caves seem far more scarier as the light illuminated the bottom of the green four legged creature as it edged closer and closer to Seto.
Seto squeezed his eyes tight and and swung his sword madly in front of him hoping in vain it would do something. "H-help! Help!" He screamed though he was sure in this vast cave system no one was around to hear him, and even if someone was the echo would be too great to pinpoint where he was.
He was cornered, and doomed, he opened one eye slightly as heard the creeper hiss in pain. Seto saw his chance to run and made a mad dash past the creeper. His heart thumped against his chest, forcing its way out of its confines. He was running blindly in the dark , smashing into walls and tripping over rocks. Now he could hear the growls and clanks of several other mobs behind him.
Eight glowing red eyes jumped out in front of him and caused him to skid to a stop, Seto panicked wildly and looked around. At the last minute Seto thought he saw the faintest glimmer of a light. He slashed at the spiders in front of him and ducked, narrowly missing the arrow that soared above him.
"Help! Help" He called out as he ran towards the light he was sure was getting brighter. Seto's running led him straight into the tall reaches of a ravine, his feet barely stopped in time as he neared the ravine's edge. Across from him was the source of the light he had seen, a mineshaft, with a single torch placed upon its walls.
He was surely doomed! He had nothing to build over with, and now he was trapped at a dead end. He looked back and immediately was faced with an oncoming arrow. Seto ducked and it flew over his head, without a second thought he turned back to the edge of the ravine and jumped.
Seto's eyes remained scrunched and closed, he wasn't sure what he was hoping for, and honestly he wasn't even sure why he had jumped. Now that he thought about it, his decision was completely reckless and stupid, and he was probably falling to his death now.
It didn't take Seto too long to realize he should've gone splat on the ground by now. He took a quick peek and realized he was on solid ground, and the soles of two red boots were in his sights. Seto gasped and looked up; there in front of him was the general grinning at him.
"Welcome back," he held out his hand to Seto and Seto took it.
The general pulled him up and Seto stumbled at the speed he was pulled to his feet, "G-general! W-what are you doing here!" Seto wasn't expecting at all to find the strange and goofy leader of Emedo's armed forces here in the cave systems with him.
The general rubbed the back of his head and laughed nervously, "Aha ha... about that, I just decided to pop in and watch the recruits progress in their first exercise. I thought since it's different than how we usually do things it might be a good idea to make sure things go smoothly...," his voice trailed off and muttered, "Yea, that sound legit, right?"
Seto wasn't sure what was really going on but decided against asking any questions, "Oh, w-well thank yo--"
The general jumped up abruptly, interrupting Seto and started to shout more explanations, "A-and it's a good thing I did, right! Ha, yea, if I hadn't been here you would have fallen and landed with some nasty injuries." He waved his torch around for added effect then dropped it as he noticed Seto staring at him with a surprised expression.
He waved his hands in front of his face frantically, "And don't get me wrong! It's not like I'm hiding in the caves to escape the grueling paperwork waiting for me back in my tent--Oh! Shoot! Well you caught me..."
This whole time Seto had stayed silent in quiet admiration for the man in front of him, not only was he the general, he was also oddly irresponsible, someone of his status would normally be more in charge. N-not that Seto was judging he, he didn't mind in the slightest just found it unusually abnormal.
Though Seto had his fair share of abnormalities back home, nothing he couldn't reminisce later about. "O-oh, I see General, I'm sorry to have gotten in your way. I'll be sure to be more carefu--"
"Please," the general whipped out a silly grin and added, "Just call me Adam, all the formalities aren't needed out here."
"Ok, A-Adam, thank y-you," the feeling of calling the general by his first name felt foreign on his tongue, after all the years growing up learning proper etiquette and manners were being thrown out the window. Or rather over the side of the ravine.
"Hey!" Adam's voice boomed into his ears, "I just realized, you're the one who was with Ian and that tall guy, right? You're the timid one; nice to see you again, what was your name again. Sorry for not remembering, I'm still learning the other 600 names."
"N-no worries, I don't mind, It's Seto, Seto Magi of the Keuta Capital."
"Right, Seto, I think Ian was grumbling about you, something about Vesuvus, or something..." Adam pondered with his brow bunched up in a concentrated look.
"Vesuvius, it's my mother's maiden name."
"Right! Sorry, Vesuvius, I meant that. Hmm... I think I've heard of that name before..." He trailed off in more thought.
Seto laughed shyly and took a step back, "Don't worry about it, it's not important anyway, it's of the past.
"If, you say so, hey, we should actually get moving. Just realized that we're still in these caves and standing around just makes us an easy target"
Seto nodded in agreement, he watched as Adam bent down to grab his torch and followed after him as he took the lead.
~~~~~
It wasn't long after he and Adam had left the dangers of the ravine that he and Adam found themselves out into the open air and the spacious skies. He could see a mass crowd all gathered around the area, chatting and huddled in their individual groups.
Seto felt himself relieve a sigh at finally being out of those horrid caves. The Major that had sent him and his group out on their task was waiting by the exit, "General!" He saluted loudly. Chatter died down as eyes turned to him and Adam, "You found our last recruit! We apologize for causing you unneeded trouble, I'll be sure to teach the recruit a--"
"No need, it's fine," Adam brushed it off with ease, "It was no trouble at all."
"Seto!" Seto heard Ty's familiar voice and turned to see him running over. Seto was overcome with relief and happiness, to see his friend, he was about to run over when Adam placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Oh, Seto wait. I wanted to apologize to you for how Ian was acting this morning, he's normally a nice guy."
"It's fine!" Seto's face turned red, he felt uncomfortable with all the people staring and watching as this powerful man apologized to him.
"No, seriously, I want you to stop by my tent later tonight, the big grey and yellow one. Should be easy to find, bring your friend with you, since I want to apologize to him too. Come after recruit curfew, and don't worry, you won't get in trouble for that."
Adam waved to him and hurried off. He left without another word and left Seto dazed and confused. Maybe Seto was just a magnet for bad luck, not that he was going to refuse, but he just wasn't sure what could happen later on. He only wanted to stay as insignificant as possible here, that way he wouldn't attract too much attention. He just had to remember to control his emotions or there might be an accident with his magic. This seal won't hold forever; he was sure of that. But it had to hold at least until the year's end.
At least then, he could finally go home and confront his father more about the matter.
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~WrittenDarkness