Galen - The Untold Tales of Frelanna Forest

Chap 14: Meet Saeza

Galen eye contacted Saeza as if he was trying to discover what was the true color of that mysterious guy standing in front of him. For a reason, Galen didn’t understand why he couldn’t trust this guy.

“Yare, just relax, I would be sad if you are too cautious of me.” Saeza patted Galen’s hair “Or you are jealous because your girlfriend is too close with me?”

Hearing that, Galen blushed, he immediately argued back.

“It’s not like that!”

“Hahaha you are still too childish, my boy. Your face has already told me all, so don’t lie on me.”

Galen swore if he hadn’t been tortured by the headache, he would give a punch on this guy’s face to keep roasting him in front of Liana.

However, there was an important question that he needed the answer: Where is Frank currently?

“Frank is sleeping over here, Galen.”

Galen’s eyes followed Liana’s finger. Just behind him, Frank was sleeping on the tiny adorable pet on the working desk. His body curled up, covered his face from being dazzled by the light from the lamp up above, looking like a sleeping kitten.

Galen didn’t know if it was a coincidence or not, as his name was called, Frank slowly opened his eyes and woke up.

“Yawn… You called me, Liana?” His eyes then looked at Galen “Oh hey Galen, finally you have woken up! You have been sleeping for three days straight you know?”

“Not gonna lie, this is my first time seeing a pure Faerin in this such era, where every Faerin had been extinct and turn to Dark Faerins,… especially, he seems to be so close with a human.” Saeza said with admiration “Galen, do you mind if I can borrow your friend do to experiment…”

Without letting Saeza finish his line, Galen’s hand grabbed Frank tightly, as if a child didn’t want to give his toy to other people.

“I won’t secure your life if you dare to hurt my friend, you weirdo.” Galen threw to Saeza a threatening glance “I appreciate that you saved our lives, but my apology if I have to say that you need to know some limits too.”

“Aye Galen, calm down.” Liana panicky intervened “Actually, Mr.Saeza asked you to borrow Frank was because…”

Liana and Saeza together explained Galen everything to prevent misunderstanding: Despite being a weredragon, Saeza’s intelligence and knowledge were at an outstanding level to the point where his reputation used to be widely spread. 10 years ago, his published book “The mechanics of aura energy” had been well known and was used as the source of knowledge, a reference for all magic academies within Tenica Continent.

However, no one knew who actually the real author of this book since there wasn’t an author name in the original version. His, or her identity remained a mystery and used to become a hot topic for the High Mages of the Continent. But time by time, this topic had been cooled and no one cared about it anymore.

This book was so famous that even an adventurer like Liana could even read it once at a town’s library as well. But she never expected, Saeza was the one who wrote it and she could meet this person on this such dead island!

Eh?

Ehhh?!

Wait, for real?!!

Hearing this, Galen tried to recall in his memory… YES! He also used to read that book too: The mechanics of aura energy. The writing style was easy to understand and very interesting, suitable to everyone, from the normal civilian to the academic students and the high mages. Also, thanks to that book, Galen could understand well how to use magic spells!

“Ah… so… you were the one who wrote that book??” Galen opened roundly his eyes, couldn’t believe what he just heard.

“Yare yare, this is the secret between three of us, ok?” Saeza blinked.

“Hey, old man!! You forgot counting me!” Frank screamed when being pushed outside.

“Oh my bad, four of us, hehe. I have been living too long that I didn’t notice how old I am.”

Saeza scratched his hair and smiled in front of Frank. Meanwhile to Galen, there were so many questions popping from his head that he didn’t know where to start. But he just wanted to say one thing…

“This… this is my honor to see you in person like this!” Galen suffered standing up from the bed to bow up in front of Saeza “Introducing you again, my name is Galen Lucianna Anderton, and an adventurer.

I used to read your book The mechanics of Aura Energy and really love it. I never expected that I can meet the author of this book in person like this!”

“Oh, Anderton. Let me guess, you are the descendant of the king from Tredia Kingdom right?”

“How do you know…”

“I used to have a travel at that kingdom, long time ago. Indeed, this kingdom was one of the biggest, richest countries I have ever seen. I admire how king Anderton led that country from zero to the power and prosperity of the present.”

Saeza closed his eyes and recalled from his memory. According to what Saeza said, Galen just knew he was tricked by Saeza’s current look. In reality, he was aged even so far older than Galen could imagine. ‘Saeza witnessed the foundation of Tredia Kingdom… From what I know, Tredia Kingdom had been founded 300 years ago, so Saeza’s real age could be around that…?!”

That thought gave Galen the shivered feeling to his spine. He wondered, what is the normal age of the weredragon actually?!

“Let’s head back to the main topic.” Saeza’s speech dragged Galen’s mind back to the reality “I want to borrow your friend Frank was for my research. Please don’t worry, you can see how I’m going to do with him too.”

“Mr. Seaza.” Seaza’s dragon ears moved as he heard Liana’s voice “What are you going to research?”

“The thing is, I want to research how I can revive this dead island. In order to do that, I have to find a way to allow the plants to connect with this island’s source of life.

This place is very intoxicated to the point that Dark Faerins were spawned everywhere and they produced the toxic miasma cloud, threated all the living beings on this island. Not only me, I think you two would like to do it too right?”

Saeza was right, Galen thought. This island needed to be fixed and purified. It was also his wish to set his homeland – Frelanna Kingdom to its peace, not being haunted by the dead people and this destroyed kingdom needed to be buried in oblivion.

Galen and Frank agreed to Saeza’s request. During this moment, Galen didn’t know everything wasn’t as simple as he was thinking.

***

After days of recovering Galen’s health, Saeza guided everyone to the dead forest and began the research progress.

In front of them, it was the same as the place that they used to step their foot on and almost lose their life just because of the Dark Faerins being spawned there.

“Er… guys?” Frank hid behind Galen, trembled “You are telling me to ENTER it again?!”

“Don’t worry, little friend. Let me take care of all of them.

Anyway, Liana, change to your dragon form first.”

“…yes?”

Liana transformed into dragon. Frank, Galen and she looked at Saeza with confused facial expressions, until they witnessed what happened afterward.

Saeza concentrated the environment’s aura energy, gathered them and surrounded his body. Liana and Galen were stunned, the aura energy currently was so thick that could be visible by mortal eyes, forming the cyan colored-cloud around Saeza.

Galen could feel the atmosphere near Saeza being colder and colder. Under Saeza’s foot, the ground was frozen, forming a layer of thin ice stuck on his shoes. But Saeza seemed to not care about it. He rose his hand forward, a sphere of aura energy was created in front of his hand, directed to the sea of thick miasma cloud.

“Blizzard…”

With a simple spell, the magic sphere in front of Saeza’s hand exploded, blew a storm of snow to the miasma cloud with extremely powerful power. Due to the overwhelming impact, Galen had covered his face, lowered his body center down to keep him standing against the blow of the blizzard. Meanwhile, in dragon, she relied on her own weight to keep herself not being blown away, protecting Galen and Frank at the same time by letting them hide behind her giant dragon body.

At this moment, Galen just understood why Saeza intentionally left his foot frozen and stuck on the ground!

When the temperature became warmer, Galen could be sure that Saeza had finished his magic. And the scenery was so unbelievable that Galen had to open his eyes widely and drop his mouth.

Due to the massive wind power from Saeza’s blizzard, the miasma cloud had been cut into two pieces, opened a solid straight route to deeper in the forest, where Galen couldn’t see by his eyes due to the spooky darkness.

“Dark Faerins won’t attack us anymore as they got their lesson from me. If they do, I’ll kill them immediately.” Saeza said, while fixing his own black coat which had been frozen by his magic attack.

“Wait, I just know Dark Faerins also has intelligence??”

“Of course. Although they have been dead and acted like zombie, they are still very smart and know how to teamwork with each other. I have just warned them to not touch us, so we will be fine.”

“Thank you, Mr.Saeza.”

The route deep into the forest was very dark, also impossible to see since it had been covered by the miasma as thick as the mist. At this place, the sunlight had never been shined for hundred of years. The environment around them was moist and Galen could feel his body getting shivered due to the cold.

The current vision of Galen now was limited in that it only allowed him to see Saeza in front of him and Liana, who was walking next to him in human form. At this moment, Galen just noticed… Liana had been so silent since they walked into the forest area. Her eyes kept being determined and looked at the front. What a serious girl, Galen thought while admiring her.

“Liana, you don’t have to be nervous. We have Saeza here so you can relax.”

But Liana didn’t answer Galen and just kept going.

“Liana, are you ok?” Galen found out something wrong to her.

“I… I…” Liana’s voice trembled “Uhm…”

“Liana, you… you are scared of the darkness?”

Things then being swallowed in the awkward silence…

Liana didn’t answer, Galen guessed he was right?

“Hehehe what are you waiting for?” Frank whispered beside Galen’s ear and smirked “Just hold her hand.”

“Wait, what are you talking about? How can I…”

“Are you stupid? This is your chance to be close with her. Go go go! I’ll pretend to not see anything hehehe.”

Well, there was no other choice then…

“Liana.” Galen called Liana.

“Yes?”

“You can hold my hand. So you won’t be scared anymore.”

Without hesitation, Liana straightforward held Galen’s hand immediately. Galen was surprised by this girl’s sudden and eventual act. He then felt so bad and wanted to blame himself for being so insensitive… Liana probably wanted to hold his hand from the start…

***

“Everyone, we arrived.”

In front of Galen was a giant big tree, that he couldn’t see where its top was since its image was swallowed in the infinity darkness. The trunk part of the tree was very large, requiring at least thirty adults to stand around and completely hug it.

The surface of the tree was unfamiliar to Galen, since it was so smooth as if it had been professionally honed by someone. Another possibility to assume too, it was a completely new type of plant that Galen had never seen before in any document.

Standing steadily at the root of the giant tree, there was a severely damaged statue with three meters in height. With curiosity, Galen rose his lamp forward. It had a white color, so it might be craved by limestone. But his conclusion immediately got kicked away as he looked closer. Same as that giant tree behind the statue, its surface was so smooth too, that Galen could even see his own reflected image by looking at it.   

Galen looked up above, the statue had a shape of a beautiful woman, standing elegantly dedicatedly on the statue’s base. She closed her eyes, clasped her hands like she was praying. It was just Galen’s assumption, because, in front of his eyes, the statue was damaged that it lost half of the woman’s face. Half of her body, from the shoulder part to her waist had been broken and gone, but he could still see both her hands resting on her chest.

Whose statue is that? Galen was curious.

“According to my knowledge, this place is the beginning of this island’s life resource.” Saeza said, he then looked at the statue “The statue we are seeing is Goddess Galadriel.”

“Goddess Galadriel… Mother of Nature…?”

That was what Galen and Liana had known so far. Normally, people in this world only knew Galadriel as a fictional character in the legend story. So, it was not surprising if Galen and Liana looked at the statue with widely opened eyes.

“My idea is to confirm if we can revive this tree, by supplying just a small amount of the energy from this little guy on my hands.” Saeza mentioned the little plant on his flower pot “We need Frank as the bridge to connect the plant and the giant tree together. From what I understand, Frank is Faerin – the spirit of the forest, so I hope my theory is true.”

“Oh! I understand!”

This is a possible idea too. If it could purify the island and revive the nature of this dead forest, even Galen would like to do it too.

“Hehe finally I can be useful eh?” Frank said with excitement “Okie, let me do it.”

“Good luck, Frank!”

Saeza chose the moistest spot and plant the little tree near the root of the giant one. Frank flew to the little tree, concentrated his aura energy and tried to connect the two trees together.

Everyone looked at Frank doing his job. The result was… nothing happened.

“Guys, I cannot call the aura energy from the big tree.” Frank said.

“It meant the big tree had been dead.” Saeza concluded with disappointment “Still thank you so much little Frank for helping me test my theory.”

“I can do it if the tree is still alive. I’m sorry for cannot help you, Saeza.”

“That’s ok, you have tried your best. I think our experiment is done, it’s impossible to purify this island so let’s go back to our shelter.”

“Sure about it.”

Galen stood up and was going to pick the lamp on the ground. Suddenly…

Bam! Galen’s feet tripped over the giant tree’s root and tumbled on the statue.

“Galen! Are you ok??”

“Ouch ouch ouch… it’s hurt…” Galen covered his forehead, which was as red as a tomato “But hey I just noticed guys, this statue is made by something quite soft. I thought it was made by a type of mineral, so I thought I was going to die if my head hit on it…”

DING!

Something just caused the noise to sound like a giant bell. It suddenly echoed, that jump scared everyone and shook the surrounding dead trees around.

How mysterious… that sound came from the statue.

“What is happening?” Liana asked.

“This is out of my calculation.” Saeza bit his lips. He told Liana standing next to him “Liana, we may need to fight if this is the alert trap of the enemies. Let’s transform to the dragon and defend.”

“Got it!”

Both Liana and Saeza’s bodies sparkled a ray of white light. When the light was gone, their human image had disappeared. Replaced on the place where they were standing, were two dragons. If Liana was a Flamerus with a beautiful red scale, Saeza was completely different than her: His size was bigger than Liana’s, but his scale had ash’s color and being broken at most of his body part as if he just returned from terrible combat. The atmosphere around Saeza began colder and colder, it was his unleashed aura energy from his own ice element.

What Galen noticed the most was at Saeza’s chest, there was a hole piercing through his body. Unlike Liana who had Dragna crystal sparking at her nape, Galen didn’t see where Saeza’s Dragna crystal is on his body. So that hole could be…

“They are coming!” Saeza’s voice echoed inside Galen’s head. The mist of icy air was exhaled from Saeza’s dragon head after each of his breaths pulses.

“Aye, my Aura Sensation ability tells me that there are hundreds… no, thousands of enemies coming here.”

“Dark Faerins…” Saeza said with a deep tone “But it was strange, I already warned them to get away. Maybe that sound of the bell triggered them.

Liana, the trees within this area are very dense, we cannot spread our wings to fly away. So let’s fight!”

As Saeza’s guess, the Dark Faerins were coming nearer and nearer. They completely ignored Saeza’s warning earlier and approached this place.

“ROAR!!”

Liana and Saeza together cast magic from their dragon mouth. Boom! Fire and Ice, mixed together and destroyed the Dark Faerins. But they kept coming, more and more crowding.

In the middle of the chaos, Galen couldn’t believe when he just heard someone calling him…

Different from the angered voice before, he heard the voice of the persons who were crying in desperation…

And they were seeking help…

…

No! I can’t be…

Those Dark Faerins…

…they are coming here for another purpose!!

“Guys! Stop!!!”

Galen rushed in front of Saeza and Liana who were going to launch the second attack.

“Roar! Galen! Step out! This is dangerous!” Liana’s voice screamed in his head.

“I HEARD THEM! I heard their voice calling us!!”

“What?”

Saeza and Liana rose their caution when the Dark Faerins came closer and closer until they distanced from Galen less than two meters. The two dragons were going to kill all of them, but in a sudden, a miraculous, unbelievable scenery showed in front of their eyes.

Those Dark Faerins, when they were just distanced from Galen by one footstep…

…from the creepy form succumbed in the darkness…

…they slowly changed their form and turned into white color.

Thousands of them got purified at the same time and colored the dead island with a white of purity. Each of them looked like Frank that confused him: “Why… Why are there other thousands of other Frank?!”

They stopped in front of Galen and kneeled down.

“Finally, after 200 years…

…we have been waiting for you so long time…

Welcome back, Almighty Galadriel.”