Odyssey of the Guardian Emperor

Alaric's eyes fluttered open the next morning as though he'd been awake the whole night. There was no initial stretching, no turning in bed to find that comfortable, cool spot that usually brought him an extra five minutes of tranquillity, no lonely mutters in the wake of a nightmare, just a kind, gentle slumber.

He knew this wasn't normal for anyone the instant his eyes were open. There was a comforting wing tucking him close to Dara'k's soft body. The feather-filled space was blessed with a constant stream of soothing air, a spell Alaric was certain Dara'k had maintained through the night to keep the boy as comfortable as possible.

It had worked.

Alaric felt lighter and more refreshed than he had in days. It didn't even occur to him that he'd slept sitting upright. His mind was clear again, and he was deeply grateful.

"Awake so soon?" the eagle rumbled next to him, eyes still closed.

Alaric looked up at the Eagle resting at his side. Dara'k's head had settled on his back, sinking into his luscious feathers in a posture that made it look like nature was playing favourites.

"Thank you," Alaric's tongue naturally switched to the Old Tongue. "I doubt I would have slept this well without your magic."

The bird merely shrugged, "Every race has a unique way to get through rough nights. It's part of culture. Where the Rune-branded Medusas apply venomous tonics, we use the wind and aether."

"You have something against the Rune-branded Medusa clan?" Alaric found himself chuckling.

Dara'k tilted his head away, "Not necessarily. Those serpents get on my nerves every time they visit."

Alaric wasn't about to ask what an entirely different kind of Aether Beast would be doing in their territory. A few days ago, he came to the cruel understanding that Aether Beasts were a lot more sentient than he'd initially given them credit for. Now, however, Dara'k suggested a whole network of civilisation. What were the serpents doing here? Trading, Studying… He was not ready for this conversation.

The boy shook his head, gently tugging on the bird's wing so he could be let out. The sun was still a few hours from rising, and the wind blowing through the mountains had a chilly bite to it.

The fire from last night had long since gone out, and everyone else was still asleep.

[ Give them some more time to sleep. ] Alia whispered gently into his mind. The boy casually acknowledged her advice as he yawned.

[ I didn't train yesterday. ] Alaric finally noticed.

[ You needed the rest more. Do some stretches till your body can move on instinct. You cannot spare even a fraction of a second during the battles that might arise today. Also, practice the Spatial Ability you've gained. It will be useful. ]

Alaric nodded, then started stretching his body, first gently, before starting to perform poses far too dramatic for his kind. Dara'k continued to sleep, only peeking from time to time to watch the boy. When Alaric started contorting his body in unusual ways, however, the bird got concerned.

"Are all humans as peculiar as you are?" Dara'k stared at the boy with a mix of awe and shock.

Alaric shook his head amidst an acrobatic dance he'd invented as a lighter version of the Dance of the Sword. This one was meant to test his flexibility and sometimes improve it before the main event. He made a cartwheel, then quickly followed it with three more that had him spinning high into the air like a gymnast before he landed on the ground, panting lightly.

He pulled off parts of his armour and allowed the vapour to roll off his body. The cold wind felt great, and the dense aether in the Barren Mountains only made him want to circulate his own.

Now that he was refreshed, it was time to test out Aslan's ability. As soon as he focused on the power, however, he lost his balance and staggered. His pupils dilated, and suddenly he felt like he was falling, completely overwhelmed by the peculiar sensation of shattered space.

It was like he was everywhere at once and not, at the same time. It was like movement was useless, like a single step could easily land him in a thousand different places. He was both stepping on the ground and falling through the air.

The boy gritted his teeth. Unlike SwiftWind's abilities, Aslan's Spatial ability was going to take some getting used to. He stared ahead and tried to filter through the information in his mind for the right place to get him where he was going, and then, he vanished.

A fraction of a second later, he was shooting out of a random spot in space several meters away from his intended location. The only aspect of this attempted jump was the line of sight. It's like he'd missed his stop by several meters.

'Not precise enough,' he frowned, then vanished yet again. This time, he appeared in the air a few meters away from Dara'k, then crashed onto the ground with a heavy thud.

"You okay, human?" the bird asked.

Alaric stood, holding onto his hip with a firm expression, "Yeah… I'm fine."

"I think you're trying too hard," the bird spoke up.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Alaric grunted.

"When fledglings are learning how to fly, they always make the mistake of flapping their wings too hard. It leaves them tired within their first few wingbeats. The wind won't listen to them, and they can't steer properly."

"Your point, Dara'k," Alaric asked between breaths. He was still feeling everything around him, trying to understand why space felt so weird. The concept of distance had just shattered, and his senses were trying to catch up.

"My point is that you shouldn't fight the wind or, in your case, this power you're trying to master. Don't try to control the aether. Be one with it. Tilt as it tilts, rise as it rises, breathe in and out, then let your instincts do the rest for you," the Eagle explained.

Alaric stared at Dara'k for a moment, wondering when it was he switched between giving a flying lesson and talking about his spatial ability. In truth, the Eagle had it all mixed up. He was relating flying as a Heaven-Crested Eagle to teleportation and the two were different subjects. Fortunately, it allowed Alaric some perspective.

At the core of this whole Teleportation ability, the fundamentals weren't so different, or at least, that's what Alaric understood from Dara'k's explanation. The boy was trying to shut out all the noise of having space distorted and his perception warped by these infinite possibilities, instead of letting all that flow through him.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

That's not to say Aslan hadn't left him a manual like SwiftWind had. It's just that the whole Spatial ability was so disorienting that it wasn't enough to have a manual. Alaric opened his mind to the chaos of Aslan's ability and gritted his teeth almost instantly.

Without limiting himself, the possibilities only kept piling onto each other in a never-ending feed of information. This ability was more disorienting than it was painful, tasking his mind to its absolute limits.

Then, there was nothing. Alaric's mind went still, like his mind was done adjusting. The world, however, didn't feel the same anymore. He was no longer bound to its restricting Spatial rules.

"There you go," the Eagle chuckled deeply before taking to the sky, "See if you can catch me, Protector."

One moment, Alaric was staring at Dara'k, and the next he was airborne. He put his hands out and barely grabbed a tail feather, 'I mistimed,' he grunted, then vanished again.

This time, he appeared in front of the eagle and shielded his face. To his surprise, Dara'k simply vaulted over him, and his voice rumbled, "Almost there, Protector! Try again."

Alaric was falling, but for the first time in his life, he wasn't afraid of hitting the ground. Even this high in the air, space curved around him, reminding him of the shackles broken by this ability. He could vanish and reappear on the ground or at another point in the air.

It was all up to him. He could even simulate hovering if he continuously teleported to the same spot in the air. The boy chuckled at his thoughts, 'Yeah, right! Like I have the kind of focus to pull off such madness."

Darak stopped circling his falling form and hovered above, "Don't get lost in thought! You'll fall."

As soon as he said that, the boy vanished and reappeared right below the clouds, much, much higher than where he'd intended. His heart sank, "Wait, what?!!! I was aiming for Dara'k's back."

[ You couldn't estimate distance properly when looking at his back from that angle, so you placed yourself among the clouds. ] Alia polished his thought process for him.

Alaric let go of the ability and engaged that of a more familiar stingray, allowing him to slowly glide back to the ground. Dara'k met him on the way down. "What happened?"

"Well… Right above you were the clouds. I don't know how that happened," Alaric tried to explain.

It was hard to make sense of any of this. He could still remember how effortless Aslan made this ability seem back in the woods as they battled the demons with his clone. The lion was everywhere at once, making the cramped woods appear spacious for a beast of his size as he ripped demons limb from limb with his jaws and claws.

Alaric was nowhere near close to the grace with which Aslan handled himself. He was at a loss.

"Let's try this again a few times so you can get a better feel for it. Remember, let it come naturally. Don't try to calculate too much. You need to allow yourself to figure things out," Dara'k assured him.

Alaric could tell one thing for sure. Dara'k was speaking from a different angle of experience. Everything he said felt slightly skewed towards a similar spatial ability that just wasn't teleportation, and yet, his advice fit perfectly. If not, then it just made sense.

'Don't Heaven-Crested Eagles fly like normal birds, though?' Alaric wondered.

The Keeper's Almanac hummed from within the Storage Bracelet.

{

Query: 'Don't Heaven-Crested Eagles fly like normal birds?'

Answer: No. According to One with the Wind, it has been discovered that Heaven-Crested Eagles, unlike normal birds, have control over the wind under their wings, granting them the ability to generate lift without flapping their wings.

This also allows them to overcome weight and bone-marrowless requirements met by other birds in order to stay airborne. This unique quality makes it so that they can achieve extreme speeds and stay airborne despite their large sizes.

}

[ There you have it, I guess. ] Alia sighed, her curiosity spilling into Alaric.

Alaric nodded, acknowledging his guardian's words, the Keeper's Almanac and agreeing to keep practising with Dara'k at the same time. The Almanac's information was invaluable, but if he hadn't been able to split his mind between two tasks, this interruption would have been detrimental.

He let go of his hold on SwiftWind's power before grabbing onto the lion's power. One moment he was gliding perfectly, and the next, he was falling.

He vanished, then appeared a meter above Dara'k. The Eagle dove out of the way and started descending, "That's not good enough. Get closer."

Alaric gritted his teeth, then vanished. This time, he appeared off to the right as though he'd just shot by the Eagle. He furrowed his eyebrows, 'This is getting irritating.'

He vanished.

BOOM

The mountains shuddered as Alaric's body slammed head-first into the rock-face. Pain shot through his forehead, and for a moment, he felt like he would faint. Alas, he was Wood Rank Level Five.

He would live.

Dizzy, Alaric swayed, tipping backwards and off the steep slope. Dara'k caught him immediately, bringing him right back to the camp.

The whole party emerged from their tents to see the cause of the noise. LionHeart stormed over, his murderous look betrayed by the worry in his eyes, while Sariah panicked to retrieve their healing potions. Before any of them could reach,t though, a green glow covered the boy's body and his wounds vanished, including the blood that had started flowing out of a cut on his head.

"What in the Thirteen Constellations happened?" the burly Slayer yelled.

"They were training," the High Sentinel jumped in. Dara'k, who couldn't speak the Human Tongue, stayed out of it, nudging Alaric to wake up. The boy groaned, touching his head and attempted to get up. He was still dizzy, but the pain was gone, and his mind was spinning

"I'm… fine," Alaric responded.

"I think your party needs time to prepare for what awaits you beyond the mountains," the High Sentinel spoke at last, "The Protector is anxious, and from what I've seen, he's nowhere near ready for battle."

"We're not going into battle," LionHeart yelled.

"Makes no difference. The boy has a Spatial Ability he doesn't know how to control, and for your whole escape plan to hinge on that would be foolish. Stay here in the Mountains and give him time to learn how to control his abilities," the large eagle yelled. The feathers around the eagle's neck stood, and aether cackled around the two arguing individuals.

"We can't just sit here and do nothing," LionHeart yelled back.

"While he trains, the rest of you can be honing your skills and improving your Temper Ranks. The Barren Mountains are rich in aether, you could even call it a small Aether Pool," the High Sentinel's voice thundered, "Help me out here, Soren."

Alaric felt a shiver run down his spine and instantly replied, "The big guy's right."

"WHAT BIG GUY?!" the two yelled at Alaric in unison.

Alaric burst out laughing, a reaction that made the rest worry. Normally, someone would be startled by the anger going around, but instead, the boy was laughing. His laughter was melodic, too, like the carefree giggles of a child having fun with their siblings.

The High Sentinel, whose form had grown animated, relaxed to pay attention to the boy, "Is something funny, Alaric?"

Alaric tried to stop laughing but couldn't do it right away. This whole situation was ridiculous. Both the High Sentinel and LionHeart wanted to protect him, but their differences were getting in the way of them working together.

Such a problem could easily escalate, but Alaric wasn't about to let that happen on his watch. Noticing this, along with a powerful sense of nostalgia, just made him laugh so much. He could easily see Darla and Finn getting into a fight like this.

"I just couldn't help but think you guys were acting childish," the boy said through the last of his laughing fit.

"What's childish about protecting you?" LionHeart growled.

"Nothing at all. Fighting about how to protect me is what makes it childish," Alaric grinned. "The High Sentinel's right. Last night, all I could think about was marching into Melbourne, fists flying until I brought Lucy out with me. I even crafted various plans and scenarios in my head… I was going to do it."

"What changed?" the High Sentinel asked.

Alaric sighed, "I had a really good sleep. While I slept, I calmed down, and this morning, I realised something during my training. We don't have to storm Melbourne today. We can storm Melbourne in a few days… even a week from now. The point is that right now is when they are most ready for our arrival. They will be waiting for us to arrive. That's how traps work."

"You want to wait for them to get anxious and let down their defences?" LionHeart ground his teeth in thought, "What makes you think they won't wait?"

"They've shown impatience. Over the last few days, I've been monitoring them. The Emperor's Men were sent on what should have been a simple Search and Find mission. They were supposed to find a boy who fled from the Tower of Seekers. During that time, they got more and more anxious the longer they searched for me. It was taking too long, and whoever they are working for hates both failure and tardiness. Let's give it a few days. It should be enough for them to even consider giving chase," Alaric explained.

"What about Lucy?" Scarlett pitched in, "A hostage's only as good as they are useful."

Alaric had thought of this as well. If the men realised Lucy wasn't enough bait to lure him in, there was no telling what they would do to her.

"Lucy is under the protection of the Matriarch. She's far more valuable to them alive."

[ I just hope she won't hate us if things get… uncomfortable. ] Alia added, her voice heavy with uneasiness.