Chief Ground makes his way back over to the fire, from his position by the entrance. He sits down, and motions to the fur cushion across from him. I move to join him by the fire. “So what does all this mean?” I ask. He replies “Hold that thought, TERRANCE!” I hear Terrance running up to the tent, and then I see his head poke through “Yes, Father?” he asks. “Go get the standard testing materials that we use for the young people. Garrett shouldn’t give you any trouble, but if he does, tell him it’s for our young friend here.” “Yes sir.”

  “While we’re waiting on that, mind telling me where you come from? I imagine the Tier 5 fire affinity came from Zadarhin’s blessing, but the air and necro affinities didn’t. That means you already had them to begin with. So, mind telling me where you come from? While you’re at it, fill me in on why Zadarhin chose to bless you instead of eating you.”

  “Well for starters, i’m not from here. Arcadia, I mean; I’m from a planet called Earth. Have you heard of it, cause Zadarhin seemed pretty confident that he knew what it was.”

  “Earth?” The Chief scrunches his eyebrows like he’s thinking really hard.”AHAH! Yes, I have heard of it. It’s part of the creation story of Arcadia! You see long ago, the one Arcadians simply know as ‘God’ was presiding over a planet he created called ‘Earth’. But the humans he created to populate this planet created a weapon so powerful that it could destroy entire cities! They called this weapon The New Clear Bomb!” For a second i’m confused. ‘You mean “Nuclear’ Bomb?” The Chief seems a little taken aback at my correction. “Arcadians have told this story for thousands of years! I know what it’s called! Anyway, after the humans created the New Clear Bomb, God decided that he should have a back-up world so he created Arcadia! Because his primary focus was still Earth he created 23 lesser gods to rule over it in his stead. They didn’t get along, had a big war, yadda yadda yadda. Anyway, yes i’ve heard of Earth.”

  “… Well, i’m from Earth. So I don’t know anything about magic, and Arck crystals, or essence, or even affinities for that matter. I mean up until a few hours ago, I thought dragons and gnolls didn’t exist! I’d never even heard of a gnoll.”

  “Really, there’s no magic on Earth? You don’t have carriages propelled by magic instead of horses, or Mintia stones that let you communicate with people far away? Or Arck crystals that let you pay someone just by tapping your crystals together?”

  “Well, we do have those things. Kind of, but they run on electricity and microchips not magic and essence.” I say, wow I guess Arcadia’s similar to Earth, just a different font. “Electricity? Oh so your world just has Electromancers then?” Chief Ground asks, I figure there’s no point explaining so I just shrug and hope he moves on.

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  “Well in Arcadia there’s a lot more than just Electromancy! There’s all kinds of magic, everything from Hemomancy and Callimancy to Marblemancy and Floramancy! Terrance oughta be back in just a moment, and we can find out if you have any other affinities. Speaking of, where is that boy?” Just then, Terrance finally stumbles through the doorway with a small sack that has a metal ring around the mouth. “Sorry it took so long we had to catch another fly, Blythe let the old one go too long with raising it, so it was practically gone.”

  “It’s alright we were just getting to that part, take it over to the table. Come on Alex, let’s see what you got.” I follow him to the table, when we get there Terrance dumps the sack out. By the time the sack is empty, the table is full of stuff, and it’s my turn to stare at Terrance like HE’S the sideshow attraction. The Chief looks at me with a smile “Guess they didn’t have spatial storage on Earth either huh?” I shake my head “No, we sure didn’t”

  “Alright, Let’s get started. Alex I want you to look at the table and tell me if you see anything coming off of any of the items. Like what you saw going from the gnoll to the Arck crystal earlier. Do you see anything?” I turn to look at the table, “Are you kidding, are you meaning to ask if I see anything that doesn’t have those things coming off of it?” As I look at the stuff on the table, literally everything has those little particles coming off of it. From the chunk of what I assume is slate, to the candle that Terrance lit while I was distracted. Even the dead fly, and the piece of grass have particles coming off of them.

  “Everything? Can you tell me what all colors you see?”Chief asks while Terrance stand there looking confused, and a little excited. I start naming off what colors I see. “Well I see red, blue, light gray as well as dark gray. I also see green and silver, gold, and kind of a rust color…” I say while pointing to the various items on the table. “Ok, ok I believe you, Jeez it’s hard to believe he has affinities for everything we put on the table, but he got all of the colors right. He either can actually see them or he just knows what color they’re supposed to be.” The Chief says whispering under his breath “But if he really is from Earth, then there’s no way he knew what color the different motes were supposed to be.”

  “Say kid, did Zadarhin happen to say why he blessed you with dragonfire?” He asks. “Oh, yeah he said I have ‘Heroes Blood’ and that I ‘m supposed to save everyone from some great evil. Why?”

  “…Let me get this straight, Zadarhin told you that you have Heroes Blood and that you’re one of the five prophecied heroes. AND YOU’RE JUST NOW TELLING US!?!”

  “Yes?”

  “… Terrance, call the village together, and make SURE Garrett’s there.”

  “So what now?” I ask.

  “Now we see if we can get you some help, because it’s a long way to Sarconia, and you’re not gonna make it there on your own.”

  “What’s in Sarconia that it’s so important I go there, shouldn’t I be venturing off to face this ‘Great evil’?”

  “HAHAHAHA, Son you’re not even ready to fight my grandmother, and she’s DEAD!” He wipes a tear from his eye, I personally don’t see what’s so funny, I mean I did takedown ‘2’ of those gnolls that were attacking his village. “No you need some proper training on how to use the power that the Gods and Zadarhin saw fit to give you, and the place for that, is Sarconia. Now come on let’s see what we can pry out of old Garrett’s hands for you.” I follow him out of the tent to see all of the villagers standing around the tent, and off to the side I see Terrance running up, with Garrett following behind him looking annoyed to be disturbed from his work.