Everyone stood still around the well without a word. The voice of their Master had stated that they needed to jump inside the well, but something about it didn't seem right. No, Erik didn't seem right, standing at the side without a care.
Is someone going to go in?
Probably not, looking at Ludwigs' and Liams' faces, it was painfully obvious that they waited for Erik to make a move as the oldest one. Who was Zephyr to judge, though? He, just like them, waited for someone to start going inside.
"Aren't you going to go in?"
Erik said to Liam, his eyes were barely open as he gave a disinterested look to everyone.
"Are you?" He asked back, the trembling in his voice was now gone as he freely moved around Erik.
"You seem awfully calm about this. You even knew that she would give us some sort of task." He asked warily, even with his droopy eyes and frail body, he was someone to be feared as the only one who knew how to use magic.
Hearing his ridiculous reasoning, he slapped his face out of shame for his childhood friend, whom he once deemed smart.
"She wouldn't bring us here for no reason, and as I said earlier, if it had been training, then we would be behind Zephyr's hut, right?" He turned to Zephyr all of a sudden, and an expectant look appeared in his eyes for a moment.
But it was put out as quickly as splashing a bucket of water on a singular lit match.
"Y-yea." Not expecting to be spoken to, his mind was focused on the well that Master fell into.
It reminded him of something, but he couldn't quite piece together what made him act like this. He stammered through his words, leaving both of them disappointed and displeased that there wasn't a single person who-
"Hup!"
All three heads snapped towards where the sound came from, the well, which was like a test paper, something they needed to study before deciding what to do. Well, three people shared this kind of way of thinking.
"What?" He asked them as if it wasn't obvious enough by their glaring stares that asked, 'What do you think you're doing?'
Ludwig sat on the well's edge, his chubby legs could barely jump over its ledge as one of them was already inside, while the other pressed onto the ground, ready to push himself inside the well.
"I really don't think it's a good idea to jump inside... for you," Liam spoke up, walking up to the well and grabbing onto its walls. "Look how tight it is!" He showed it with his arms, measuring it with his arms, and comparing the size with Ludwig's body. "You need to lose half of your weight just to fit one of your legs inside it-"
"You jerk!" Red vein popped on his forehead, barely visible through the fattened skin.
"AH!" A high-pitched scream, like that of a little scared girl, came from Liam's mouth as he was pulled by his hair. With both of his hands grabbing Ludwig, he tried to pull himself away from the well.
They started to tug at themself like animals, their gritted teeth could be seen from the side as Zephyr and Erik stood quietly, watching them as if they were nothing but a pair of two zoo monkeys.
"Huh?" Ludwig blurted out as he felt something pull him. It wasn't Liam who stood in front of him, his weak hands trying to break free from his palm's grip.
He looked down into the well, cold sweat forming on his back.
"Ah-" a gasp of realisation couldn't even finish to appear as he vanished.
Just like that, only three of them were left.
...
The Great Hero of the West
Chapter 1
In a distant land of the west was a small village.
A village that no one knew about.
A place that none dared to approach.
Some spoke of it as a fairytale made to scare the North from attacking the South regions.
Others, the people who were branded as insane, said that they had come from the said village, telling stories about the life lived in the great pine forest below the jagged, frosty mountains.
There were no beasts, no dangers, and no worry about food or aging. It was said to be a paradise on earth, forgotten by the gods and left behind as a gift to those who set out on pilgrimage.
One day, during their yearly ceremony, a sudden storm broke out in the sky, three lightning strikes boomed across the entire mountains like explosions of pure, condensed light.
On the very day, three children were born to women who had never gotten pregnant in the first place; it was a miracle that no one else could foresee...
That was, until a mysterious person came into the village, offering to teach the three about the outside world.
Years passed, and they started to grow older and stronger. All of the villagers were stunned, watching from behind their aged windows as the three broke past limits they never even reached.
A small, petite girl stood out from the rest. As one of the three children, she spent her time mastering the sword rather than reading about history.
The others slowly started to mock her efforts.
"How would a weapon help you live comfortably? Being a country-bumkin will only hold you back."
She tried to ignore their words, secluding herself deep inside a forest where no one would find her and stop her from chasing the beauty of her blade. At least, she thought it would.
"Why is it that you're not staying in the village like the rest of them?" The stranger appearing from the shadows spoke in a caring tone, his body drifted along the forest's grass without making any sound of footsteps.
"Because they hate me." She replied, continuing to swing her sword wildly at the air.
The man didn't say a thing, just watched her from behind as she carelessly injured both herself and the nature that surrounded her.
Days passed just like that. She ran back to the forest, the stranger would appear and watch silently, she would stop at dusk and go back.
It started to become a routine; she got used to his presence, even feeling a sense of ease when his hidden eyes peered from underneath a cloak he never dropped.
Her swings became clearer, just like her mind; it was as if something had taken over her body and showed her the path that she should follow.
On the day before the lightning struck, after a year of the man's teachings, they all gathered in the middle of the village.
Three of them stood facing each other, the girl and the two boys who spent their lives learning under the village's protection.
The girl held a sword and wore a leather armor that came from her prey.
One boy wore deep, dark robes that dragged across the ground, and a pair of glasses sat on his sharp nose.
The third one was like a mix of both, a sword hung on his waist while he wore his casual clothes just like always.
While they were giving each other hostile glares, the stranger who had taught them everything appeared from within a forest. His mysterious demeanor didn't change, just like his clothes and body, which didn't seem to age since the day they were toddlers.
He didn't speak in riddles like he always seemed to, just a shaky hand stretched out forward.
"Who takes my hand, will have one of their questions answered truthfully."