Elevation of Mana Chapter 43 Return to the Cave

The four of us gathered up in the morning preparing to go.  Four because of course the girl Isha was bringing had to bring her boyfriend along.  I really should have thought of that possibility, being that her current squeeze was Rindal.

The dating pool in a village our size was pretty limited, to the point that many young men would travel to other villages to find a wife.  Almost everyone was directly related, sometimes on both sides, and with the fact that many places restricted who'd they allow to join such things were sometimes a real difficulty for young men.

There were exceptions of course, those with magic, particularly those with very strong abilities were allowed to join almost anywhere.  If I left the village today and sought to join another I would have no big issues save my age.  I was still clearly too young to be considered an adult, but that would be the only hangup.

Cala and Rindal were currently making eyes at each other while packing up the last of their things.  We weren't bringing along all that much for this, a few snacks, a couple of leather bottles of water, and our day to day items likes spears and knives.  Between myself and Isha even an extended trip would be easy.

“So where exactly are we going?  The girls were a bit unclear as to that,” Rindal said when they'd finished up.

“You know the old cave we stayed in when the twilight beasts attacked?  It goes deeper, but nobody knows what's down there,” I explained, already tired of having to deal with him.  “I plan to find out.”

“Why?” the other young man asked.

“Because I want to know.  If you don't want to come, then don't.”

“If he doesn't come, I don't come, and if I don't come, Isha can't go,” Cala said defensively.  It was clear she planned to take his side on any argument we had.

I was tired of these two already.  “Fine, I want to go because there's something strange about it, and I'm curious, who knows what we'll find down there.  Maybe something valuable, maybe something interesting.  I doubt it's too dangerous, but I plan to go slow.”

“Okay, it's silly, but with all of us here there's no real danger right?  Nothing has ever come out of there that's hurt anyone, and mysteries are cool.”

I might be an elf, but I still found my people a bit odd sometimes.  They didn't mind exploiting new things, and when they found them would sometimes obsess over them and work towards perfection, but they seemed to have almost no interest in exploration.  I knew that new villages were built sometimes in empty areas of land, but not because people wanted to see what was there, but because they wanted to be free from their previous homes.

We began to walk briskly through the forest.  The cave was a good ways away, but unlike other times I'd gone there we didn't have anyone small or weak with us, and we were in a very small group, so we could cover the distance in quite a lot less time.  It still took a couple of hours, but we'd make it by noon with ease.

“Don't look so glum,” Isha said to me about an hour in.

“I wanted to do this for fun, not to deal with him,” I responded, we'd pulled a bit away from Rindal and Cala, as they too wanted some privacy.

“And I'm sure he feels the same, but you're the one who decides if you're going to have fun or not, not anyone else.”  She poked me as she spoke, teasing a bit.

“Maybe, but still, the guy has never liked me, and I'm just done with him.”

“Do you know why?  Sometimes if you know why you can make things right.”

“As far as I can tell it's simply the fact that I”m good at things and have a powerful light,” I shrugged, I really couldn't think of anything other than jealousy for it.

“Maybe you'll find out on this trip.  At least try to get along, please.”

“Fine, fine.”

I felt her hand hook around mine and we walked, her humming as the birds and small animals flitted by.  There wasn't much to it, just a nice afternoon stroll through the woods, but it was nice, peaceful, and I had one of my few friends by my side.

“Mind if I ask what's so special about this cave anyway?” Isha said as we rested briefly by a small creek, Cala and Rindal not far away.

“You didn't see last time we were there did you?  No, that was before you got your light.  I'll leave it for a surprise then,” I chuckled, we weren't far at any rate, this creek being the same one that eventually fed the pool near the opening in question.

They all looked my way with a mixture of expressions.  Rindal seemed unhappy, as always, while Cala and Isha were both quite curious.  I picked up on a few more of those looks as we approached the maw that we'd come here to explore.

Someone, my guess was Elaya, had blocked the entrance again.  It didn't do much to hide it, as the location stuck out like a sore thumb, and it wouldn't even slow us down much.  With a wave of my hand the offending piece of stone pulled away and rolled off to the side.

“Show off,” Rindal muttered.

“He's kind of right you know, you could have at least looked like you thought it was hard.”  Isha poked me in the arm, we both knew she'd struggle to do that particular feat.

As I'd grown, so had my magic, by leaps and bounds.  The fact that I was constantly using it seemed to help, as did a certain quantity of my knowledge about the world.  The more I considered things, the easier they were, and I was slowly training myself to think of what I was doing in physics terms.  I wasn't lighting a fire, I was causing an oxidation reaction in the carbon in a given piece of wood.  I wasn't moving things, I was adding forces to them in a certain direction.  It was odd, but it really helped.

“Come on, that wasn't big and flashy or anything, and we needed it moved,” I replied, rolling my eyes.  “There's another one inside we'll have to get once we get there.  If you three want to move it instead...”

“No, since you seem determined to do this, you can,” the girl at my side said, scoffing playfully.

Isha and I both sent up small lights as we padded softly into the darkness.  It was cool, and a bit damp, but also oddly quiet s we made our way forward.

By the time we reached the second rock blocking the cave the small glowing plants that littered the walls were bright enough to see by.  It wasn't that deep, a few hundred feet at best, and we'd all been here when we'd evacuated the village, so there were no surprises.

Isha got one when I moved the boulder though.  It was perfectly in time for a little bubble to float gently forwards, before touching a wall and popping, sending a wave of energy outwards.

“What, what is that!” she asked, eyes going wide.

“I don't know, isn't it exciting?” I couldn't hide my grin, this was sure to be fun.