The library was quiet, as usual; muted light filtered through the large window overhead as several students pushed their way through the doors in an effort to get out of the penetrating winter chill. Outside it was snowing, and the temperatures had dropped greatly overnight; many a magi had fire companions with them, the creatures warming them up as they walked through the Keep.
Two such boys walked up the path to the library, each clutching on to a pile of books; a hellhound walked beside one, trotting in circles around his feet, and on the shoulder of the other perched a phoenix. "But jeez, it's really cold today, isn't it?" the boy with the hellhound said, blowing out a breath to see it fog the air in front of him. The other boy rolled his eyes.
"Yes, it is, Renn. I don't know how you didn't manage to notice this earlier, considering the fact that it is very much snowing," he said flatly. Renn chuckled, pushing his hat further down to cover his dark hair.
"Well, that's true. You should lighten up, though. It's not like we have to always be as serious as you are, Alba," he said, laughing as he teased his friend. "Well, let's hurry up, then, before we freeze for real." His hellhound was already balking at the idea of spending so long in a cold climate, Renn noticed, and he sped up slightly so that he outpaced Alba. His boots made muted crunching sounds on the snow as it clumped onto the soles, and he shook his foot a little to get it off.
Alba sped up too, coming up behind him until they reached the library doors. Both boys opened the doors and then made a beeline for the fireplace; sometimes, even fire creatures just weren't enough to warm someone up. In front of the fire, the air was a bit warmer than the temperature of the library as a whole, and it was quite toasty and comfortable, if Renn were to say himself.
"So... uh, what did we come here for again?" he asked, bewildered. In the span of a short walk across a courtyard, Renn had already completely forgotten the reason they'd taken the trek in the first place.
Alba blew out a breath in exasperation. "To look up Keep legends," he said, then stood up and walked off between the stacks, leaving Renn to look at his back, still at a loss about exactly what Keep legend they were looking up.
Shortly afterward, Alba returned, an entire stack of books in his arms, tall enough to completely block his sight. Renn jumped up from where he was getting cozy by the fire to help, and his hellhound whined as his muzzle was removed from his Magi's lap. Renn took half the books into his own arms and plopped them down close to where he'd been sitting before. "Man, that's a lot of books," he said appreciatively, glancing over them. Once in particular caught his eye; a simply bound tome, an unremarkable thickness, with a cover of black leather. A silver edging snaked its way around the edges of the book - literally, since the small metallic-looking threads twined together at the bottom of the front cover to form a rough depiction of a Nareaun Quetzalcoatl.
In the middle of the cover, in small silver script, were the words Islin Lute.
"Hey, Alba," Renn said, picking it up with a mischievous grin, "Let's read this one first!" Without waiting for a reply from the other boy, Renn opened the book to the first page and sat down on the warm cushions in front of the fire, his hellhound curled around his back. Alba sighed and lowered himself to the library carpet next to him, and the boy's phoenix followed, hopping off a table top to land on the mantle of the fireplace and preen.
Surrounded by warmth from friends and companions alike, Renn turned the page and began to read...
Once, there roamed a Magi through these lands who was named Islin Lute.
Lute, said to be fair-featured and flaxen-haired, grew up in Synara City, a bright child who would eventually grow up to travel to the Keep. While still in his home region, he learned of many magics - the spells of Mages who had traveled from the Keep, looking to find a path into Arkene; the tricks of the peddlers, rendering children in awe; and the magic of the few creatures that lurked within the city.
When he was fifteen years of age, Lute travelled to the Keep to learn of magic in more detail; as a young adult, his curiosity could not be sated by anything that was found in his home. The new magi quickly bonded with his creatures, raising as many as he could from an egg and developing a deep friendship with them. Although he never specialized, exactly, in a certain type of magic, Lute seemed to have more flying creatures than anything else.
In his time at the Keep, Lute raised two creatures that became his lifelong companions. A white Pegasus named Nara, presumably after the place he came from, and a Gold Pearl Wyrm, given as a small hatchling to him by a close friend, whom he named Rei. Of course, as with other Keep magi, he kept many other companions, but without a doubt, when he was traveling, at his side would be the pearly-haired equine and his gold wyrm.
However, soon, Lute began experiencing extreme wanderlust; he would often rise in the middle of the night when all was silent, taking his two closest companions with him, and wander the Keep. (It is said that, in this way, he scared many a Magi.) Though he was still only young, he one day decided he could no longer stay at the Keep and learn about the places and creatures he yearned to travel and meet.
Instead, he wanted to travel himself.
As there had been cases of young Magi - perhaps even younger than Lute was at that time - obtaining permission from the Archmages wasn't all that hard. He set off on a journey, taking a pack of supplies, and left accompanied by his Pegasus and Wyrm.
Lute traveled the land for several years - he visited islands to the south, bathed in warm sunlight the whole year round; he visited fog-shrouded forests to the west, traveling along the stream until it was no longer the one we knew. He crossed mountain ranges and even returned to his home, Synara city, at one point.
Having reached the end of the book and turned the last page, Renn closed it softly, as if he were holding a relic. The fire popped; Alba's phoenix chirped, blinking. Apart from the soft sounds of boots on snow outside and the crackling of the burning logs, not a sound could be heard, and that seemed fitting for Islin Lute's ending.
Finally, Renn broke the silence. "You know... that's kind of sad. He did all that to help his creatures and find the Quetzalcoatls and everything, and here he is only left in some dusty old book." He sighed, his hands turning the book around so that he could once again see the front cover. The silver creature on the front glinted as the leather shifted, the firelight reflecting off of it. His fingers touched the cold edging, and he shivered. Perhaps not only from the chilly feeling, but also at the thought of maybe being forgotten this way as well.
Alba was silent, his light hair hanging around his face as he, too, looked down at the book's cover. His phoenix cooed, fluttering from the fireplace to land softly on the floor next to him. He bit his lip, taking the book from Renn and holding it with some sort of reverence.
Maybe he felt a little of that fear, too; he couldn't deny it. Didn't everyone feel afraid that they would be lost to the ages sometimes? He swallowed. Tracing the name Islin Lute on the cover, Alba felt a sort of kinship with the man who had existed years and years before him. Reading his story, it felt as though he had gotten to know him, traveled the world with him, and become his comrade.
And then left him behind, and returned safe to his own world. His own Keep.
The boy sighed, a quivering breath escaping his mouth and tousling his hair as he finally spoke. "Yeah. I guess it kind of is."
"But maybe... one day, everyone will remember him again."
[I've been procrastinating like no other on this - due to various school projects and other demands, I'll have to drop this entry for now. Maybe Islin Lute will see you all around later!]
