My Keep Story [Chapters Five & Six!]

[PaleoMage]

Introduction

So, a while ago I decided I wanted to write a Keep story... but that when ended up getting scrapped after I fell too far behind, what with all the new creature releases and the fact that it had been many months since the timeframe of the story. Kinda stupid, but... I just really wanted to scrap it for some reason; it just felt awkward.
Aaaanyway. I'm now writing a new, hopefully improved Keep story independent of the events of the site. I hope you enjoy it and that the plot will not end up being too stereotypical...

It's finally back now that I'm cleaning up the old pages. Next chapter will start as soon as I plan the storyline.
...And the stuff in quote tags is just in quote tags because it's old and it's been a while since I actually said it. What I'm saying now in this post is the stuff in this customary green color.

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Chapter One

Mathias grunted and pulled his head beneath the covers as rays of sunlight lanced in through the open window.
Well… On the bright side, it IS Friday. No lessons tomorrow.
After a few seconds more of lying in bed, he pulled off the covers and, scratching his brown-haired head, went to find his day clothes. After dressing, he left his dormitory room and began the long walk down the stairs to the great hall.

Most of the other students were already there when he arrived, and, seeing that servants bearing trays of food had begun to arrive, hastily found a seat. Breakfast turned out to be toasted bread with butter, two thick slices of bacon, and a glass of milk. After he’d eaten, he went to see to see to his creatures, accompanied by a few other students who’d finished breakfast and were traveling in the same direction. Exiting the great castle, he heard happy squawks coming from above him, and looked up to see a flock of Emerald Wyverns dive down towards him. As soon as they landed they began eagerly searching him for treats.
“Whoa, hold up, guys! I don’t have anything on me,” Mathias said, laughing. “Now shoo. If you’re still hungry, find some more rodents, or whatever you’ve been feasting on until now.”
As the Wyverns departed, chirping in disappointment, Mathias was able to take in his surroundings. It was a bright, sunny day, but it was still cool. A few clouds lazily drifted across the sky, one even being bold enough to pass over the bottom half of the sun. A strange, rumbling purr of sorts off to his right notified him that more of his creatures had tracked him down. He turned to see a pair of Amphipteres slowly slithering up to him.
“’Morning, guys,” he said. “Gotten much work done on your nest?” One of the Amphipteres thought for a minute and then nodded.
“Good to hear.” Patting the two dragons’ heads, he meandered off to see if any of his other companions were around the grounds at the moment.

Mathias sat underneath a tree, making a list of who was accounted for and who wasn’t. He’d seen his Wyvern flock, the Amphipteres, and found Sonata and Cantata, his Mountain Tylluans, asleep in a tree at the edge of the castle grounds. He brushed a hair out of his face as he finished his mental list, ending, somewhat bitterly, with his unruly Amphista hatchling, who was tucked away in a corner in his quarters. Only Paradox the Raznak was unaccounted for, and Mathias figured that the raptor was still in Silva Forest; that was where he had been last time Mathias saw him.
Removing his school bag from his shoulder, he opened it and carefully removed two eggs- one gray with red spikes, the other darker gray with blue spikes. He sighed as he looked at the latter; he probably wouldn’t have grabbed it from the Stream if Amphistas weren’t so rare and if he had known about their bad tempers beforehand.
As he looked up at the sun, his brown eyes widened in shock as he realized that his first class would be starting soon- a little too soon. Quickly putting the eggs back in his bag, he got up and hastily walked back to the Keep, his green robe flapping behind him.


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Comments? Criticism? I need your input to improve, so always remember that.
ALWAYSSSS.

[PaleoMage]

Chapter Two

“Today,” the old mage said over the clamor of the students, “you will be learning the incantations required to grow medicinal herbs, as well as what the herbs are for.”
As the room began to fall silent, the teacher motioned to a flower pot on his desk. “You will all have noticed that each of you has a similar pot on his or her desk- provided you haven’t already broken it while trying to find a seat before the class started.” A few titters emanated from the gathered pupils. Mathias grinned as one of the young magi near him pantomimed knocking his pot off his desk, looking aghast as he stared down at the empty floor below.
“Now. The first herb we will try growing is feverfew. Feverfew, as some of you may know, helps relieve severe headaches and, not surprisingly, fevers.” The teacher pointed at his pot and quickly spoke a couple words, and a flower burst from the soil, grew a bud, and bloomed- in under thirty seconds. A few claps were heard from around the room, and the teacher smiled before speaking again.
“Here is the spell you will be using. By now I am sure you have learned to pronounce most growth spells, though if you have any questions, feel free to ask.” As he finished, he produced a bundle of paper slips from a pouch around his waste. He walked toward a potted shrub in the corner of the room and held out the papers. To the amusement of the students, a group of leaf-like creatures known as Farir detached themselves from the shrub and carried the slips off to the students.

*****

Mathias yawned. The herb-growing had been surprisingly taxing of his energy, and it didn’t help that there had been several other classes to attend to. He smiled as he noticed a Vasant beetle larva chomping away at a fallen leaf. A little farther away from the tree he and the beetle were sitting under, Mathias could see his Wyvern flock darting around on the cool breeze, sunlight glittering off their scales. He got up, stretched, and walked out from under the tree, noting that the sun was sinking low in the sky. Moving off towards the Keep, he took a deep breath of the spring air and exhaled. It was one of those perfect days where the sun poured its heat down on the earth at the same time the wind puffed a cool breeze down from the sky to soothe the inhabitants of the earth.
As Mathias arrived at the castle, he noted that the grounds were all but abandoned; he figured that the other magi were inside finishing homework or studying old tomes while they awaited dinner. He was almost to the great doors of the Keep- which were propped open- when a screech above him notified the young magi that some creature or other had a message for him.
Turning around, he saw Leafwing spiraling down towards him. The Wyvern landed, folded its wings, and looked up at Mathias expectantly, a scroll held in his jaws. Mathias took the scroll and recoiled in shock as he saw the seal holding the scroll shut.
A message from Thane?
Mathias hastily thanked Leafwing and hurried inside the Keep and up the stairs to his room. Snatching a letter opener from a drawer in his desk, he sat down and swiftly slit the seal. Opening the parchment, he quickly read through the message and shook his head in wonderment.
“I’m being sent on a quest to inspect a group of Ebbene sharks that has been suffering an odd number of casualties. Why me? Shouldn’t an older magi be sent?”
Mathias thought for a minute, and finally decided that if he was just checking up on them things would be fine. Besides, he wouldn’t be sent on this kind of quest unless the higher-ups thought he could accomplish it. And on top of that, it wouldn’t involve actually going in the water... right?
Suddenly realizing that it had to be about time for dinner, Mathias jumped up from the desk and swiftly exited the room.

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Bwahahah, a cliffhanger! ...I think. Oh well. How was the chapter? I cut it off when I did because, while it felt like chapters should be longer, I didn't want to eat peoples' time too much by making it a nice wall of text.

[freakazoid]

NOOO I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.

[Chuckeh]

More Please goes wild!

[PaleoMage]

Haha. Sure thing, you two. Dunno if I'll get to it today, though; most of my time will be devoted to pygmy phoenix collecting.

[PaleoMage]

Chapter Three

Mathias laughed as a happy chirp emanated from the ball of fuzz on his head.
He had put off the quest for a little bit when one of the other magi dashed through the halls of the Keep shouting something about pygmy phoenixes. Swiftly moving to the stream, he saw a sign with notes and sketches concerning the creatures, which turned out to be a type of extremely adorable phoenix. Soon after, he had a growing flock of the creatures. The one sitting on his head was a gray by the name of Soot, and several other phoenixes waddled around Mathias’ feet.
“Alright, guys, back into my quarters,” he said, removing Soot from his head and shooing the rather unhappy phoenixes inside. Closing the door, he sighed and produced a notebook from a pocket on the inside of his robe. Though he hadn’t yet left to complete the quest, he hadn’t been idle in planning; he had figured out how much food he would need to bring and what other supplies he might need. However, he was having trouble deciding on who his traveling companions would be; he couldn’t be sure which he could need. Worse, none of his flying companions were big enough for him to ride, so he would likely need to walk. Unless…

***
Mathias held tight to the sides of the cart as he thundered along the dry savannah. While creating a cart and persuading a brontotherium to pull it had seemed a good idea at the time, it was very, very uncomfortable.
Squinting up at the sky, he could see Leafwing, one of his Wyverns, and Paradox, his Raznak, following him in the sky above. As one of the two wheels of the cart hit a rock and the vehicle creaked unnervingly, Mathias could only comfort himself with the knowledge that the end of this first half of the journey was in sight.
As the he and his companions reached the crest of a hill, he reached for the reigns sitting in the front of the cart and tugged on them firmly. The brontotherium slowed down and the cart rumbled to a stop.
“We’re finally here,” Mathias said, relieved. “Thanks for pulling the cart, Tonad.”
The brontotherium grunted and, once Mathias had unharnessed him, left to munch on the sparse grass that surrounded them. Leafwing and Paradox spiraled down from the sky and landed not too far from Mathias. Patting the creatures on their heads, he dug through the bags in the back of the cart and produced a couple slabs of dried meat, tossing them to the two reptiles. Assuming Paradox was a reptile, that is; Mathias was never quite sure if the creature was a reptile or a bird.

As the day progressed, Mathias became increasingly worried. He couldn’t see any activity by the shore, and going into the water was not an option- the salt wouldn’t be kind to his eyes, and he hadn’t brought any powerful marine creatures to aid him if things got hairy.
Walking farther down the coast, however, he happened upon a sheltered bay- and what he saw both shocked him and put his fears to rest. The carcass of a whale was floating in the water; obviously the Ebbene sharks were in the area. Mathias decided that the sharks must have eaten their fill and then decided to save what was left, though that only seemed possible if the shark pack had shrunk to an amazingly small number.
Now that he’d found evidence of the sharks, he noticed that the sun was hanging low in the sky. He meandered back to the cart that he had arrived in and tugged some wooden poles and a large canvas blanket of sorts from the vehicle.
Now all he had to do was hope he could arrange them to create a structure somewhat reminiscent of a tent.

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OK, first of all, a disclaimer: I know of no sharks that would rest near the shore, let alone drag a kill back to said shore, but I sorta had to bend the rules for this. Besides, how would he charter a boat? He's just a student, and I don't think many mariners would like to go looking for killer sharks.
Second... Well, I hope this wasn't a lame chapter or anything. :tard:

[freakazoid]

I liked it. :3

[PaleoMage]

I liked it. :3

Thanks.
Also, I'm gonna be editing part of the first chapter soon, because I accidentally gave Mathias a class to go to on the weekend.

[platedlizard]

Great story! I'm looking forward to the next chapter

[PaleoMage]

Chapter Four

Mathias yawned, and shifted in his makeshift bed. Since it was little more than a few blankets- a couple underneath him and two on top of him- it wasn’t very comfortable.
Groggily, the young mage dragged himself up from the pile of blankets and, with a good deal of satisfaction, noticed that the tent he’d assembled hadn’t collapsed in the night.
He headed back to the bay and sat by the edge of the water, watching as a few seabirds squabbled over the whale carcass. Absentmindedly, Mathias noted that there was a little less meat on the whale carcass than before- undoubtedly the work of the birds.
Suddenly, a pale shape shot up from the bay, scattering the birds and catching one in its jaws. The bird managed to emit a last cry of terror as the monster fish smashed back beneath the waves. Leaping to his feet, Mathias realized that the creature was one of the sharks. He quickly moved back to camp, and nudged Leafwing, who was still dozing, with his foot. The wyvern woke with a small hiss of protest.
“Alright,” the boy said, “I need you to come back to the bay with me and see if you can count the sharks. One just broke the surface, so if we’re lucky we may be able to count them as they wake up, assuming they’re all as sleepy as you.”
Flicking his tail irritably, the wyvern got up and, to his magi’s amusement, proceeded to wake Paradox and inform him of the situation, before taking to the skies. Chuckling, Mathias turned and made his way back to the bay, hoping they would be lucky- and wondering whether or not Paradox would be inclined to follow him and Leafwing.

****

Downing the bird in one gulp, the Ebbene shark dove down to the bottom of the bay to wake its pack.
As it nudged one of the sharks, it contemplated yet again the predicament its pack was in. As alpha female, she held the responsibility of getting the pack out of such a predicament. However, nothing short of seeking help from the magi would save them, but that would be too dangerous- not only was her pack’s territory closely guarded, but she could not be sure if the magi would aid her, considering what had transpired recently.
The shark paused for a minute to drink in the cool at the bottom of the bay. It was much nicer down here; the sunlight didn’t feel good on her skin. No, she was much more accustomed to the deeper waters to be found outside the bay... But it was too dangerous out there. This was the only place in her pack’s territory the enemy had not found yet.
Well. All that mattered now was waking the pack and consuming the rest of the kill before the birds took it all.

A cry from one of the creatures circling above brought Mathias out of his daydreams. Glancing back at the water of the bay, Mathias grinned as he saw long, eel-like shapes rising from the depths. However, rather than exiting the bay or devouring the whale carcass, the shapes moved towards him.
It was then, as the smile vanished from his lips, that he remembered the sharks’ visions.

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Ohhh, so that's why the sharks were in such shallow water. Yup. I totally planned that there was actually a reason for them to be in the bay. Mhm. Also, I edited the first chapter. Now the beginning and end don't conflict.
Oh, and Mathias, you should probably run while you still have both legs.