-Break-
Φ Taking a step outside my door, I take a deep breath; Don't mess this up, Captivant. This is your chance to impress this young, elegant goddess.
I turn to Valda behind me. "Zaad Ziener has many beauties, first of which is!"
Location: Zaad Ziener; Grasslands
Φ Walking around in a lush field of grass with a series of giant dancing sunflowers moving around all around him, Captivant turns to Valda, who walks behind him, and he says, "The field of dancing suns. As you can see, the flowers all around me constantly move and turn as rapidly and together with the beautiful green grass, it all comes together forming an elegant sight to say the least for a village like this. It's so lush and fresh that anyone who walks on it can feel the power of nature surge through their very souls."
Clapping her hand, she says, "I've never seen anything like this before. How amazing."
Smiling, Captivant moves closer to her and says, "But that's not all, there is quite a story attached to it as well. You see, these sunflowers are said to have been taken from Victoria and planted here millennia ago, making it one of the only surviving flora from Victoria."
"Really, I can't believe that! How awesome, how amazing!"
"Though the flowers around here can be a bit of a pain in the butt to deal with, since they're extremely sensitive to words."
"Huh?" Turning her head, Valda looks at the flowers, and there she sees one of them winding up one of their leaves before whipping it along with its body over to strike Valda.
Quickly stepping in front of her, Captivant says, "Are you okay?"
Falling onto her back, she stares up at Captivant in shock and says, "What happened? I wasn't mean to them."
"Ahh, the flowers here are spoiled rotten, so only calling them awesome and amazing, instead of the greatest things to ever exist on this planet by the Messiah, they will take it as an insult, but don't worry, I will protect yo-."
Φ Grabbing my face, she brings her close and examines my head with pancik in her eyes. The fear and precision in her eyes isn't that of a young girl; it's what I expect from someone who has seen horrors beyond what any normal human should ever see, it's the look of fear from someone who has lost too much. It would be heartbreaking for anyone to see, but for me, the closeness between our two faces is too much for my mind to handle.
Φ With his nose gushing blood, Captivant falls onto his back, which causes more fear to arise in Valda, who says, "Adrian! Are you okay!"
Sticking up his finger, he says, "Yeah, I am doing fine. No big deal, now let's get moving to the next location."
-Break-
Location: Zaad Ziener; St. Mika's Church
Standing in front of a church that looks far more elegant than anything with 100's of meters radius, Valda, with her mouth open, says, "I can't believe it."
Smiling, Captivant says, "Yeah, it's probably up there as one of the most beautiful buildings in the entire country. It is said to be built in honour of St. Mika, an ancestor of mine who fought to protect this land from the invasion of Beastkin at the end of the 2nd cycle."
"That's amazing, I can't believe you showed me something like this." Grabbing his hand and bringing herself closer, she says, "Thank you so, so much."
Blushing, Captivant blushes intensely and says, "No problem."
"Is that you, Adrian?" A voice says, directed at both of them.
Captivant freezes for a moment before turning his head, where he sees a man dressed in the robes of a priest. The man runs up to both of them and says, "Adrian, it's been a long time since I have seen you; you haven't been coming to church."
Rubbing the back of his head, the boy says, "Well, I have just been oversleeping; my studies have been rather intense."
"You've been sending times studying? That's not what I have been hearing."
Φ You goddamned nosy priest! You really think you can just barge into my date with Valda and start embarrassing me? I am going to burn your stupid church down.
Can't you see how she is fidgeting and nervous? She looks as if someone questioned her enough, she would explode, I am going to slaughter you and chop up your body into pieces!
Φ Turning to Valda, he says, "Though it seems you still have a heart of charity despite such actions. Hi, my name is Zackery, the faith leader of this village."
"My name is Valda, my father and I fled here after the most recent war."
"I see that must be incredibly tiring. If you have any problems with integration or anything else in this village, just come and report it to me, it's the job of us leaders to make sure all the people who live in the village are able to see each other as children of god, loving each other as brother and sister."
Adrian places his arm in front of Zackery and says, "You sure about that? Or do you just want more members of your church? You'll get more tithe for such actions."
Laughing, he says, "Now that would be nice, I could probably buy one of those adorable canine Wonderbeasts as a pet. But money isn't really the be-all and end-all."
Taking off his cross, he holds it in front of Valda, and says, "I am sure you haven't seen one of these before, or only in passing. It's one of our faith's crosses, a straight sword-like line downwards with a curving arc moving through the upper part forming a U pointing upwards. It represents that the stationary deterministic world can only be interrupted by a divine power, by the power of the Messiah itself. It separates us from the cold logic and predetermined faith of a numeral world, it allows us to take a bet on goodness, having faith that God will guide us through it, and to me it seems like you need to break free from the world."
Adrian moves in front of Zackery and says, "Preach to someone else, we have things to go to."
Moving behind, Valda starts moving her away from Zackery as she turns her head and waves towards Zackery.
"Don't forget to read your daily scriptures, Adrian!"
-Break-
Location: Zaad Ziener; St. Mika's Windmills
Pointing towards a giant windmill that looks like four different trees spiralling together over a large lake, Adrian says, "And for the highlight of our land, this is the St. Mika Windmills, the collective name for the large group of windmills you can find throughout all of Varage. They blow a special dust that is produced by the tree that makes up its body, which has the power to ward off man eating parasites."
"Man eating parasites?"
"What we call the family of parasites that infects fauna, turning them into mutated monsters that feed on human flesh for nutrition. They tend to love giant sprawling fields like you'd find all across Varage, so these windmills were invented to put a stop to them, and give power back to the people by St. Mika generations ago. So I guess you could loosely call them a family heirloom, though Mika only designed them; they were built by everyone collectively on the land. So I guess it's a country-wide heirloom."
Clapping her hands incisively, she says, "How utterly, stupendously, amazing. I never knew my eyes could lie upon such a sight." Gently turning her head towards his gaze, she places a gentle smile on her face, then says, "Thank you, Adrian."
With his face turning bright red, Captivant says, "No problem."
Grabbing her hands, she says, "What are we going to see next?"
-Break-
Location: Zaad Ziener; Captivant's home
Standing in front of his house, Valda looks to him and says, "We're back to your home?"
"Yeah, despite its size, Zaad Ziener isn't that impressive; it isn't filled with any more notable sights than what I told you, so I saved the best for last."
Grabbing her arm, Captivant leads Valda towards the back of his house, and there they both see that down the hill from where his home lies is a giant village sprawled out all in front of them.
With her eyes open wide open, she says, "Whoa," as she falls to her knees at the sight.
Sitting beside her, Captivant says, "When you actually look through it all, it seems rather normal, but at least from up here it looks like a giant dungeon. Kind of gives me the same feelings as staring at the stars in the sky, makes my soul feel full despite how basic it all is."
"My village wasn't even half the size of all of this. Do you really not enjoy it?"
Looking up towards the sky, Captivant says, "Varage is a weird country. Despite how big and how long its history is, almost everything about it is unimpressive. We have had no legendary heroes emerge from this land, any folktales or myths born from this land, any major battles throughout this land or the like. Even if you look around, you won't find any remnants of the other races in this land; it's always been inhabited by humans. When you compare it to the breathtaking landscapes across the world, or the harsh hellish planes that some people are born into, you, it's just average."
Placing her head on top of her knees, she says, "Is there anything wrong with average?"
Passionately turning to her, he says, "OF COURSE!" making her jump up in fear.
Moving ever closer to her, he says, "In this world, there are many heroes, Charles of the 2nd cycle, the Peers of Charles, most famous of which was Roland, the slayer of the Demons, not to forget the Twelve Divine Generals of Dá as well. In the Calamitous Era of the 3rd cycle, you had the Dragon Slayer Siegfried, who pushed back an invasion from Avesta. In the Recovery Era, we have the Giant Slayer Dumitra and the inventor of Spirit Arts, Sousei. In the Era of Levav, Three Saints of annihilation who pushed back the Demon Plague, as well as the Twin Celestial Saviours who carried on the Three Saints' job, banishing the ever-growing Demon infection. During the Tempestuous Era, there was King Pendragon of Avalon, and then the Four Flames led by Behíque, who put an end to the Tyrant Pendragon. All these heroes grew up during times of great change and upheaval and etched their names into history as great heroes, yet none have been born in our current era, none have been born to paint this era in their colour to become the defining trait of it, one who will change this era of Legacies into an era of their own."
His smiling face gleams and glows as it rests in front of Valda, yet that light soon fades as he says, "But as it stands, the chances of the hero coming from this land are almost impossible. There are no chances, no barriers, no motivation to push oneself forward. A hero like those etched into my storybooks will never meet my sight as long as I stay here."
She brings her hand towards his back and rubs it, saying, "Don't be sad, I am sure everything is going to be okay."
His face burns bright red as he looks at her, and he nods in agreement with her words. Standing up, he says, "Well, it doesn't matter anyway. When I inherit all this land, I am going to sell part of it and use it to fund my adventures out of here. I have no intention of swallowing the opium of this existence for the rest of my life. I'll see lots of amazing sights day after day, and meet amazing existences like the strong and beautiful warriors Queen herself, Dumitra. And I will bring back a great legend to this land."
Standing up, Valda brings herself closer to Captivant and says, "Then are you going to forget about me, Adrian?"
"Huh? Of course not."
Smiling, she says, "That's good, but how can I be sure of that? Maybe if you shared a secret with me, I'll be able to believe you."
A slight smile appears on Valda's face as she moves closer and closer to Captivant. "Come on, or is it non-negotiable?"
"Of course it isn't, I would be happy to show you. I have something secret in the forest over there."
Grabbing his arm, she drags him forcibly and says, "Let's go see it then."
Φ Feeling my body dragged through the field, I can only manifest one though it my mind at her sudden, forceful behaviour; She must like me!