Founding of Deania 1 (Patreon)

Forward: This is the Sam and Dean short story, by popular request. Sam and Dean are both true mages in this short story and in the very early stages of founding/exploring the pre-Deania nation. Despite calling it a short story, I'm aiming for about 15k words total, novlette length. So longer than a short story but shorter than a novela.

Approximately four hundred years ago.

Five figures stood at the edge of a very different Hearthwood Forest. Three of them were elves, and two were humans.

One human was particularly boisterous as the small group left the forest.

"That place always gives me the heeby-jeebies." Dean said, jumping from foot to foot as he glanced over his shoulder. "I swear, someday I'm going to take every one of those critters and lock them in a box where they can't ever screech at me again!"

"It was a disappointing journey." Sam agreed. "Theo's still the same as before, trapped in that mysterious contraption that brought us here."

"You're just disappointed you couldn't figure out anything more about it, even with that fancy new aura fragment of yours that tells you about an object's past." Dean said.

"You're one to talk. Practically every tree we passed suffered your practice shots. We're lucky we had the girls with us otherwise we might have really been in trouble, considering all the monsters you lured your way."

"We've gotten used to cleaning up after Dean." An elf said. She rubbed at her eyes wearily. Babysitting Dean was a difficult job, even for a wizard. "Besides, now that the two of you are true mages you can't run wild. We can only protect you from so much." She was the shortest one present, but she held her chin up with pride even as she tried to rub out the bags from under her eyes.

"Some day Dean will grow up, Erula." One of the other elves gave Erula an encouraging pat on the back. Like Erlua, she stood close to Dean, as though afraid a monster would attack him at any moment just for standing there. Her hair was swept back in a bun and she held a weapon in her hands as she glared into the forest warily.

Erula sighed. "Thank you Yonda. I'm just glad we're finally out the the forest. And thanks to Dean's antics luring all those true mage and lesser wizard realm monsters we've got quite a few spellhearts and crafting components. As soon as we get to a city we'll be living large!"

"Except we're out in the middle of nowhere." Yonda said. She too looked haggard from the journey and kept her eyes to the treeline behind her. While taller than Erula, she was still shorter than Dean, Sam, and his elfin companion. Her hair was unkempt from a recent battle and it hadn't yet had the time to naturally fall straight again.

"Don't be such poison slugs!" A much more cheerful elf by Sam's side said. Her hair was neat and her clothes unruffled by their travel. "I don't know what the two of you are complaining about! We're out of the forest and the plains south of us are just a barren wasteland. Sam and Dean can't get into much trouble here."

Yonda and Erula glanced at each other warily.

"We will need to think about setting up camp again." Sam said back to the elves. "Also, Dean is using his magic to cut grass again."

"I'm afraid of ticks!" Dean shouted back as he waved his arms in front of him, severing the tops of the waist-high wild grass that littered the outside of the forest. "What if they bite me before I spot them?"

"That's how you attracted the Golden-Shell Locus Swarm we had to fight off!" Erula complained. "If you're worried about ticks, you should be doubly worried about flesh-eating bugs the size of your fist."

"Don't bother Erula." Yonda said with a sigh. She shot an envious glance at the cheerful elf. She'd linked her arm with Sam's and was busy teaching him the rudiments of cultivation as a true mage. "I envy Anyatara sometimes."

The group settled in for the night. Erula, Yonda, and Dean all spent a sleepless night inside a terribly gaudy tent with colors that would make a clown feel under dressed. Dean had received it as a gift a few months ago and had fallen in love with it, much to Erula and Yonda's dismay. Sam and Anyatara stayed in a much more humble structure of pain linen. While their tent had no space dilation enchantments, it had the advantage of not offending everyone who looked in its direction.

After a passionate night between elves and humans, with only two monster attacks to fend off in the meantime, the group awoke and gathered by the morning campfire to determine their next destination.

"Our wisps are with my clan, being tended to by their older sisters. Want to see them again?" Erula asked.

"We're always heading to your clan." Yonda pouted. "Why don't we fly one continent over and visit mine?"

"No boats!" Dean shouted, shivering at a recent memory.

"Now that you're a true mage, we can use the teleportation array network, assuming Yonda has the coordinates to an array that will receive us." Erula explained. "We don't have to cross the Myriad Monster Sea by air or ship. That was a bad idea to attempt before the wizard realm."

"A teleportation array! Sounds fun! I want to try one." Dean jumped to his feet. He flicked his wrist and his tent collapsed in on itself into a tiny little box, which he stuffed in Erula's bag of holding.

"Maybe we can tour this area a bit." Sam suggested. "The tribes around here might not be as barbaric as they look. Besides, I'd like to know what challenges Theo will be facing when he wakes up. Maybe one of the tribes here hates humans."

"I doubt that very much, Sam." Anyatara said, wrapped around Sam's arm.

Since Erula wanted to go east and Yonda wanted to go west, exploring the place they were right now was a good compromise.

"I wish we still had those pegasi to ride." Dean complained "Remember how cool an entrance we made when we showed up with those?"

Sam groaned. "Don't remind me."

The last time their group had stumbled across a small wilderness school of cultivators, under attack by a group of monsters, Dean insisted on showing up in a suit of golden glowing armor while riding a pegasus and holding a giant sword to save the day. After the attacking monsters were all slain, the elves they rescued did their best to pretend to be most impressed by his heroic entrance.

"I think I'll go with something a little simpler this time." Dean said. "Do you still have that eye patch and pegleg you made Sam?"

Yonda extracted an extra large flying sword from her bag of holding. Erula hopped on it with her and the two of them kept a firm grip on Dean as they flew. 

<scene break>

"I don't like these mountains." Dean said as they flew. "They're ruining my view."

"Sorry, let me move them for you." Sam laughed. "They do look a little weird though. Why are they so scattered and separated? Shouldn't they be clumped together in a mountain range?"

"They probably aren't natural." Anyatara explained. "Many cultivators, particularly those of the earth aspect, like to cultivate underground. Other times they simply churn up enough debris while digging for valuable artifacts or gemstones that they end up accidentally making a mountain. In either case, you can end up with what you see before us. It's not particularly good for the land I'm afraid. It makes agriculture terribly difficult."

"Some day I'm going to move them over there to make a proper mountain range." Dean grumbled. "I'm thinking of turning the ground down there into wide green meadows as far as the eye can see!"

"You'd need water for that." Sam argued. "Not to mention a seriously powerful cultivation base. We've seen projects of that magnitude on the other continents, but they were almost always run by sorcerers or stronger."

"The two of you reached true mage in less than thirty years." Anyatara said comfortingly. "As long as you don't get yourselves killed, you'll make it to sorcerer eventually."

"And I'm sure we'll have Theo with us by then!" Dean said. "Man, when he wakes, up I want to have a big castle and an entire harem to rub in his face!"

"It looks like there's a settlement down by the side of that mountain." Yonda said as she pointed off the edge of the flying sword she was riding with Erula and Dean.

"Sam! Pirate or ninja? Quick, help me decide!" Dean said anxiously as he dug around in Erula's bag of holding.

"We're at least an hour's flight from any body of water large enough to host pirates." Sam protested. "And I don't think your costume has any resemblance to the pirates of this world."

"Pirate it is!" Dean declared as he withdrew an eyepatch, a fake peg leg, a beard, and a loose-fitting white tunic. He nimbly dressed himself while the group descended. Below, a few elves in the settlement they were approaching had their eyes and fingers pointed to the sky.

"It doesn't look like they have anyone stronger than a mage acolyte down there." Anyatara said. "I doubt they'll know the location of a teleportation array we can use."

"It will be good to meet the locals regardless. I'd like to see how they react to humans." Sam said.

The settlement was well built and surrounded by high walls, which suggested the elves living here focused on earth cultivation. They had no shortage of space and everyone seemed to enjoy a sizable home and yard within the outer walls.

Walls did not keep out flying guests however, so Anyatara and Erula flew down into a large courtyard in the center of the settlement. It looked like a number of mage acolytes had gathered to wait for them there so they figured they had already gathered to welcome them.

The elves that greeted them had dirty blonde hair and were a bit taller than average. They were impressively well-endowed on both their tops and bottoms and Dean whistled appreciatively, as he did when he met virtually any elf. Erula and Yonda seemed unimpressed.

One of the mage acolytes standing below bowed as they approached. Strands of silver hair streaked her head, suggesting she was an elder of this family of elves.

"Greetings esteemed and revered visitors!" She fidgeted nervously in place. "We are the Songstone Clan, and have called this place our home for the last hundred years. To what do we owe the honor of your visit?"

Erula and Anyatara parked their flying swords until they were hovering a meter off the ground. Sam was about to speak and address the group of Songstone Clan elders when Dean jumped of his flying sword in his pirate costume, wobbling as he struggled to stand straight on his fake peg leg.

"Argh! Avast ye landlubbers!" Dean waved a wooden sword in the air. "Hand over all ye gold or we be plunderin' this vessel!"

He glanced back over his shoulder at Sam, Anyatara l, Erula, and Yonda. Out of the corner of his mouth he whispered, "Psst, guys! Get your pirate costumes on!"

Several of the Songstone Clan elders glanced at each other. The silver-streaked elder nodded to one of her subordinates and they brought forward a chest of treasures.

"We anticipated a request for tribute when we saw you approaching from afar. If your esteemed self requires it, we will provide you with all the gold in our treasure vault."

The Songstone Clanswomen brought six chests forward. Each was carried by two mage acolytes and clearly weighed an immense amount. The mage acolytes gently placed the chests at Dean the Pirate's feet and bowed before opening the chests to reveal bars upon bars of gold.

"I'm afraid we're only a small clan, and this is all the gold we have." The silver-streaked elder said somberly. "But please, enjoy our hospitality! We have plenty of food and my kinswomen would be happy to provide nightly entertainment to experts as skilled as the five of you." Her eyes darted between Dean and three wizards behind them. She'd known her clan was entirely outmatched the moment she sensed such power and had chosen the path of complete subservience.

It was the logical reaction to being greeting by cultivators many times more powerful. It was a strategy that had saved many a clan from complete destruction, and was the best way to turn disaster in to fortune.

Dean looked at the gold bars, picked one up, and sighed. "This always happens when you girls are around. They just hand everything over immediately." Dean tossed the gold bar back in the box and removed his eye patch. "Go ahead and take your gold back." He sighed and hung his head as he ambled back to the flying sword he'd just jumped off of.

The silver-streaked Songstone Elder looked suddenly worried. "Is our tribute insufficient for the esteemed true mage?"

Dean grumbled while Sam eased the Songstone Clanswoman's fears. He returned to Erula and Yonda, crossed his arms and heaved a dramatic sigh. "You guys are no fun."

"We're here for information actually, and to interview all the peoples south of the forest." Yonda explained

"Do you mean the Devilbeast Wilds? That dark and terrible place?" The Songstone elder shivered. "You truly must be strong to survive going there. My kinswomen are forbidden from every venturing within sight of that forest."

"The very same. We have quite a few spellhearts from the monsters there. If you answer our questions about the region truthfully and honestly we will ensure you are well rewarded." Yonda replied.

The Songstone elder's eyes lit up at that. "Please! Stay with my clan for a few days. I'll have my kinswomen draw maps while I line my sisters up. Each of us can tell you everything we know."

"It has been awhile since we've had fresh food." Sam said.

Anyatara nodded along as she clung to Sam's waist and soon the whole group had accepted the hospitality of this Songstone Clan.

Note:

So I see Amisra Copperguard's ability is tied evenly between the lightning aspect and the blood aspect. I was debating how to break the tie when I remembered I could just have her have both. So now it's official. Amisra cultivates both blood and lightning aspects. I'm going to make lightning her primary aspect just because I feel like that's what she'd want to present publically, but we'll also be picking blood aspect spells and techniques.

It does mean I'll have to rethink the options I'll give you while having that in mind, so I'll postpone the next poll until Friday. I'm going to do a bit more brainstorming, but if you have any spell ideas for either of those aspects feel free to post them in the comments below and I'll think about including them with the next poll.

Hopefully that poll will be accompanied by the next part of this short story instead of being either/or. It really depends on how much of my writing time editing takes up.