Moona had been watching him the entire time when she was not sleeping herself. During his slumber he grew to the equivalent of a sprat of ten harvests. Moona was just amazed and frightened by this sweet yet powerful boy.
“Up until now I had my doubts this child was the one of prophecy,” Codger told Moona. “But there can be no doubt.”
“My belly hurts!” Shuran mumbled as he struggled to wake.
“Don’ just stand there, get the boy some food you old fart!” Moona smiled at Codger while she said it.
Shuran sat up and smiled as he reached out to hug Moona and told her he was hungry.
She took Shuran topside where codger and Mally were setting about getting a spread set out for them to all break their fast.
Shuran tore into the food on his plate as though he had not eaten in a long time talking around the food. In reality he had grown several harvests in age in just thirty hours. The power from the stone fueled the growth but he still needed a large amount of food before he was satisfied. After he had his fill, Shuran ran about the deck pointing to things and inquiring about their name and purpose. He was a sponge soaking up information.
The next few days of travel were spent with Shuran taking in every bit of information he could glean from his caretakers. They taught him about the sea, the ship and its workings. He took lessons on reading and writing from Codger. Moona taught him about the herbs she carried and their uses. Mally did not have a proper education and felt a bit useless with his education. He only played games with Shuran and told him stories.
“I wish I could teach him things,” Mally said one night to Moona.
Shuran was fast asleep after another long day of non-stop questions and lessons.
“You are teaching him my boy,” Codger replied. “Your games teach him strategy and thinking out problems. Your stories, as you tell them, are from your own experiences,” Codger continued. “You just keep that up and you’ll be teachin’ him more than you know.”
Mally’s spirits were lifted by Codger’s encouragement and had suddenly developed an idea in his head.
The next morning Codger and Moona awoke to a screaming and pounding of running feet on the upper deck of the ship. Together they ran in a tangled mess above deck to find Shuran and Mally pouring buckets of water onto the deck. They approached to find a smoldering smudge mark on the wooden deck and partway up the mast of the main sail.
“What happened here boys?” Codger and Moona asked in unison.
“Um, well you see, Um. I was just t-teaching Shuran stuff I know,” Mally stuttered out. “He made fire!” Mally exclaimed.
“You taught him to spell fire?” Codger inquired with shock and wonderment.
“Not exactly,” Shuran replied meekly. “He never said the words and he did not wave his hands or anything. We just started when I told him to imagine fire in his mind and the WHOOSH! Flames just appeared in front of us and leapt down on the deck from out of nowhere.”
“He created fire from thin air not the wood.”
“No he didn’ create the fire, he called it,” Codger marveled. Shuran had used the elemental magic of fire. “That be elemental magic comes from the blood of the Drakkian race,” Codger exclaimed.
The Drakkians he explained to them were not actually the fire breathing flying lizards of myth called dragons. They were and possibly may still be, a human like race of people who, through breeding programs, developed a flying beast of burden called the drakkon. It was in actuality, the rider’s bond that created the fire ability in the drakkon. A un-bonded drakkon has no abilities.
This information sparked more questions from not only Shuran but Mally as well. Codger now found himself educating them both on all he knew of the seven separate races of Aurderia.
He finished sharing the limited knowledge he had on the Drakkians with how they departed soon after the Lalli Mah. No trace of where they went was left. All that is known for sure is they destroyed everything they left behind in what is now known as Drakkfoth.
The Giants were a race that were a stronger, and taller version of humans that kept to a hidden valley that has been lost to time. The giants could control the elemental force of metal and ore. Much of the famed weapons of lore were said to have been giant made, as their work on ore with Essence made them unbreakable. They were also said to stand against the passage of time that would rust ordinary tools and weapons.
The third of elusive races are known as Wind Walkers who called themselves the Lil’Du. Codger had even less information on them other then their control over elemental air.
Badurlu were people that long ago took to the seas. They live somewhere in massive cities built in the depths. The only written record of them is that their cities are built into seamounts. Badurlu control the element of water and are able to separate breathable air into their bodies while submerged.
The humans are the youngest of the seven races according to record both written and recorded. The stories of where human origins begin differ depending on the storyteller. All accounts though refer to children of the Telukukal.
It is told that humans were the last evolution of those left behind when the First People vanished from Ersetu. The significance of this has never been explained and the Great Council banned study of the origins soon after the first ANZILLU.
Some humans have the ability to weave spells. Those who show no talent in the Essence are considered Mundanes. Spell weaving is the art of using words of power to focus thought into existence. This is the raw form of Essence within every thing. Where elemental magic manipulates the Essence within inanimate objects and forces, humans can alter their own Essence and move it outside themselves.
The use of all Essence takes a toll on the user, as they need to have energy equal to or greater than the result of their efforts. Many a weaver has destroyed himself or herself attempting spells far beyond the energy they had to draw on. Spell weaving is dangerous when not done in an exact manner; it must be prepared and practiced until perfected.
For these reasons Codger made the boys promise not to try more magics without instruction and definitely not on his boat.
The Dwarves on rare occasions can be found in Northern cities trading ore and metal craft with smithies. They have the ability to manipulate elemental earth into them making them stronger and unchanged by the passage of use and time. They live in the Orenthal Mountains deep within caverns both natural and dwarf excavated.
Elves are also seen on rare occasions when they allow traders into one of their settlements in Tarangale. They control the element of electricity and can manipulate the electricity that runs through the body and mind. This ability allows them to influence people’s thoughts and movements. Most people are leery about getting fair trades with Elves for fear of being manipulated.
By the time Codger had completed answering a barrage of questions from both boys, the sun was high in the sky and hunger was again knocking on each of their stomachs.
Moona set out a blanket on the floor of the pilot deck and set it with plates of cheese, hard bread, dried fruits and meat. They were in relatively calm water and sailing against a steady and straight current so Codger was able to continue while letting Shuran and Mally took turns learning to take the helm.
Codger decided he would teach them what he knew of the Telukukal after lunch. “Any actual lessons on reading or speaking the ancient tongue will have to wait until we get home,” Codger said. “I can tell you about some history of what I know and perhaps some words I can remember easily enough.”
Codger told them of his trip into the ruins of an old Northern outpost built before the Lalli Mah. He found beneath the ruins, another structure. The ancient keep had been built on top of an even older structure. Below the foundation was a labyrinth of halls and rooms. Most rooms contained nothing of value, but it was in one of the rooms he found the remains of a sealed up library and work room. There he found the information used to build his ship as well as the now dead crystal that powered its flight. He spent months there in the ruins gathering knowledge and copying down what was not destroyed by the ravages of time and the elements. The journals, he told them, were back at the cabin hidden in a special place on the surrounding grounds.
Codger is a sanctioned spell weaver, and a long time ago was an instructor of the art. That was another lifetime, before the Essence Academy was started he recalled, and changed the subject. Codger is much older than Moona and therefor lived through more of what has led up to the events of the prophecy.
Codger did not speak much of his time before Moona came into his life, not even with his wife. Codger continued on, telling the boys about ogres, trolls, imps, and other creates.
Moona grumbled most of the time about being treated like a serving wench and cook. Secretly she enjoyed looking after her boys as she was beginning to think of them.
Over the next few days of their trip up the coast, the boys spent time fishing and helping Codger taking care of the boat.
Once in a while, Moona would continue lessons for the boys on herbs and concoctions. Some of the mixtures she made were the foundation of potions. She of course left out the instructions on how they were to have been activated, telling them that would wait until they were safely back to Birchshire, and her isolated cabin in the woods.
“Mind you I wouldn’ object to the laugh we’d get out o’ Old Codger there throwing a fiddle fit over magic working on the boat,” Moona smiled.
The boys continued to absorb every bit of information provided by Codger and Moona. Mallick and Shuran had become thick as thieves like an older brother and younger. It was hard for Moona to comprehend how only a few weeks ago she had helped birth this sprat, who was now as old as any of seven harvests. It was as though now only five harvests separated the two boys before her, yet they were not effected by the strangeness of it all.
Late on the last day of travel north, Moona and Codger found themselves alone in the pilot deck for the first time since this journey began.
“It feels like fate has brought us back together for a reason Moony,” Codger smiled as he talked. “I know we ain’ had the best o’ times of late, but maybe we have a second chance with these two lads.”
Moona turned to Codger and began jabbing him with her pipe. “Just you get this first in your addled thinker Codge, we ain’ on the mends and I ain’ ‘bout to forget nothing’ what happened back then,” Moona screeched.
“Why you hard skulled, temper driven, harpy of a wench!” Codger retorted. “I ain’ askin’ you to forget nothin’ nor forgive. What is done is done.” Their raised voices drew the attention of the boys who were now heading over to the pilot deck.
“Is something wrong?” Mally asked.
“No dear you and Shuran run along and practice your lessons. Just me and Old Coder agreein’ not to agree is all.” Moona glared at Codger as she turned to follow the boys back out on deck.
“Moona, how long have you and Codger been wed?” Mally asked.
“Oh my, that be a very long time ago. We were married when I was but a woman new, over two hundred and twenty harvests past,” Moona replied reminiscently.
Moona continued telling the boys of how she and Codger met in her twenty-third harvest. Moona had an herb shop in Rivenwood and was working one day when a then younger Codger of Dravenport, came into her shop looking for particularly rare and dangerous ingredients.
Never one to get involved in another’s business, Moona naturally inquired as to why anyone in their proper brain would be looking for such things. She of course, butt right into his business and after finally agreeing to acquire what he asked, told him to return in one cycles time. Moona being the self-professed expert in herb work and base mixing set about figuring out what he wanted them for. Moona actually had the requested items in her stock, but being both nosey and smitten had to keep this fine asipu around.
At cycles end, Codger returned to her cluttered shop with high hopes. She gave him the ingredients but told him that if he was looking for it to work it would not. He was after a love potion and she explained that business of the romantic could not be created to last. They argued into the late day and before long the spark between them was ignited.
“If you are wed so-o long, then where are your sprats now?” Mally asked.
“We were only ever to have one sprat, a boy,” Moona said blankly. “He was young and handsome, but only mildly talented in the Essence.”
“Where is he now?” Inquired Shuran.
Moona stood staring at them for several moments before Codger interrupted.
“He was taken from us before his twentieth harvest.” He left no indication that there was anything more to discuss.
Moona quickly changed the subject. “Now boys, we’ll be reachin’ home by this time on the morrow. There are some things we need to set down as rule before then,” Moona said.
She told them about the need to keep to themselves and not draw attention. The Land’s Guard will be still looking for an old woman and they mustn’ be caught weaving or using the Essence. It is against the laws set by the Great Meddlin’ Council, to practice without sanction and any under age of fifteen would be taken by the Council for testing and either trained or hobbled as they saw fit.