Chapter 170: Chapter 170 The Six Heroes
Aella sat before King Elalar, holding a still wet kitten wrapped inside a towel, while her magical bag dried by the fire. She didn't fear it catching fire, as she had already had an understanding with the flames who danced for her amusement. The fire in her wanted to dry every thing quickly, but she wasn't willing to give away all of her abilities in front of the elves.
"You should have seen her!" said Daefina softly to her brother on the other side of the room.
Aella could hear everything they said perfectly, but only because of her air abilities.
"She dove through the water almost like the water hero!" whispered Daefina, fighting to glance at her.
"Sister, if she were the water hero, we would have discovered it a long time ago," said Elalar. "Did she find the magical item?"
"I believe so," muttered Daefina, sounding defeated that her brother didn't believe her.
Aella was amused at her guess. It was wrong, but far closer than either of them knew. Her kitten was not amused by anything, and sat in her lap growling at her. Aella pretended it was a purr, and warmed the towel so the lion cub would dry faster. The growl grew quieter, but didn't go away. She would have to do something to make up for getting him all wet.
"Aella, my sister says you found the magical artifact?" said Elalar, moving towards her from the other side of the room.
"I did. It was at the very bottom of the pool under the waterfalls," said Aella, holding up the bracelet.
He stepped forward to take it, but the moment his hand came into contact with it, he gasped and jumped back, his hands going to his swords.
"What's wrong?" asked Aella, glancing around quickly. She didn't think there was anyone else in the room, other than Alfred and Frederik, but the way the king acted made her think otherwise.
"What kind of trick is this?" he asked in a deep voice.
"What do you mean?" asked Aella, her voice also going deep in anger. The kitten on her lap mewed in surprise and sunk its claws into her leg. She felt the magical cloth pulling the claws away from her skin and her healing kicked in.
"The moment I touched that thing, you seemed to erupt into black flames. The smoke the flames gave off were thick and seemed to be reaching for me. I thought you were casting an evil spell or something."
Aella raised an eyebrow, and turned to look at Alfred. Alfred shrugged.
"Maybe he saw the demon in you, Your Majesty," said Frederik. "King Aella is more gargoyle than demon."
The king stood there for a moment, looking at all of them, before leaning down to pick up the bracelet that had fallen to the floor. Looking up at her again, he carefully studied her for a moment.
"Your eyes glow red, instead of being completely black, when I hold this," he said.
"I am not sure what color my eyes were before I became king, but an incident occurred that threatened a number of children in my kingdom. In the process of saving them, my eyes changed to the pure black. I do not know why you would see them as the red with that item," she said carefully.
He nodded and turned his attention to the others in the room.
"It would seem this allows me to see the magical aura's around each person," Elalar said finally. "Your magical appearance is the most confusing, King Aella. Forgive me for my reaction, but I honestly was not expecting it. The stories about the item were obviously wrong."
"Or there's another magical item, but I doubt it. Perhaps the item grants different abilities to each person who holds it, or bestows different effects with each person," she said, calming down now that she knew what was going on.
The kitten had nestled deep into the warm towel, and had finally fallen asleep. Being careful to not bother it, Aella stood from her chair and moved towards the fire. The bag was about to be dry, whether it was or not. She didn't like the way the conversation was going, and was ready to leave.
"Then I guess my debt to you is now complete. Where is the stone carving, I am due?"
Elalar nodded, moving to the door, and giving a few orders to someone who was there. A few minutes later, two elves carried the large stone slab into the room. Aella studied it for a moment. The carving had a gathering of six obviously different races all meeting together in a circle. Aella scrunched her brow trying to figure out the symbols around each person, and what race they could possibly represent. They weren't in the ancient language her father had taught her. It almost looked like some of those elven runes Bridgette had shown her. Alfred could probably read them, but she knew the elven king definitely could.
"My understanding of these runes is limited, could you explain them to me?" Aella asked the king.
"I do not know what it means, as it almost seems that each race is represented by an element, or hero type, but that doesn't make sense, because all of the heroes have always been human," said Elalar.
"Could you explain to me, what the symbols are, and the races?" asked Aella, motioning towards the symbols on the carving.
"These are the demons, or gargoyles I guess, because they have wings," said Elalar, pointing to the only winged figure. "And this symbol represents night, or dark."
Aella nodded. That went with what her father had told her.
"This is an elven figure, as you can see the plants around its feet, and the pointed ears. The symbol near it is water. This is a dwarf, because it's short and fat, and the symbol is that of earth, or underground. This is a human, and it has the light symbol. These two are easy to get confused," he added, pointing to the two short figures. "One is a gnome and the other is a halfling. The way I tell them apart is that the halfling is always barefoot. The symbol next to the halfling is fire and the gnome is air."
"That's interesting," said Frederik, "I would have thought that the demons would get the air because we can fly."
"The demons came last," said Aella. "They air was already given to someone when we were brought here."
Did this mean she had gnome in her? Was that why she was so much shorter than the others? Or did it mean she wouldn't grow any taller? She had always thought she was shorter because her mother was human… And the elves didn't have a plant hero, they were originally water, which she supposed, would help plants a lot.
"Wait, you know the secret history?" asked Elalar in excitement.
"I've got a Sage that enjoys reading. It's interesting some of the things she tells me," said Aella, not wanting to tell him about the realm liking her. What would the elves think of her then? She didn't need more favors at the moment.
"What sorts of things? We have two different groups of scholars who are debating the origins of our people. One group claims we formed from the oceans and our plant magic gave root to all of the great trees in the forest. The other group believes that we were brought to this realm, and given powers to protect it, but lost them from some unknown reason."
Aella could answer his questions so easily, but should she? No.
"Does it matter where you came from?" she finally asked, after a moment of thought.
"I guess not," he finally said, deflating some. "It would just be nice to end some of the arguments they have."
"So, then they have to come up with different things to argue about?" she said, waving her hand at the absurd thought. "People who argue, are going to argue about something. This topic is safe and doesn't hurt anyone. If you give them an answer to this argument, one side will claim dominance over the other, and that will cause other problems."
King Elalar gaped at her for a moment, then nodded and stood up straight. "I see your point. You are correct, of course. I would ask you to stay for an official sending off, as my people enjoy doing, but I believe I have held you in my kingdom for long enough. If you intend to head south, I would recommend seeing the gnomes first. They tend to protect the area the two races live in, far more than the halflings do. If you befriend them first, then you shouldn't have as many issues moving through the area to meet with the other race."
"Thank you for the advice," said Aella, touching the carving and putting it into her pouch. It was interesting to her that the pouch didn't seem to have any limitations anymore. She hoped she didn't forget what all she put into it.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Sdrawkcab
Sdrawkcab Got it done! So, here's some more interesting info on the heroes. Ask me questions!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone