The Land and The Trees

SPLASH!

THUD!

Ryne woke up with a splash of water on his face. Panicking quickly, he fell on the floor, rubbing his newly bruised forehead,

"Ugh… why, master?" His voice revealed his angst.

"Since you reached Grade-2 already and have already healed your injuries, your sleeping time is now reduced to 6 hours."

Hearing the laid back voice of his master, Ryne panicked even more,

"But master, didn't you say that I would be allowed to sleep 8 hours as long as I don't take any long rests during the day?"

"...no," Golver said in a playful voice, making Ryne feel even more miserable,

'Harder, I need to train harder. My determination is still so weak that only a lack of sleep is making me cry. My training as a warrior still doesn't yield any results, if I don't train even harder, I'll be left behind.' Ryne internally filled himself up with every motivational reason he could think of while his hands lazily rubbed his eyes,

'...but only 15 more minutes of sleep would've made my spirit soar even higher throughout the day… never mind.' As soon as the thought of sleeping again crossed his mind, he felt the kind gaze of his master piercing on his back,

"Get ready quickly kid, I'm taking you to a fun place today."

Soon, Ryne freshened up, donning a plain brown loose robe that reached his ankles, secretly hating the color but unable to say as always whenever he remembered his master's gracious favors.

Golver held him by his shoulders as he started levitating again, soaring a little higher after a few minutes. Ryne kept looking around as he noticed the height of the trees increasing in the direction they were flying towards.

The scattered white clouds hiding the visage of the blue sky make it look like a prisoner behind the bars made of clouds. 

Hundreds of unknown birds, some small, some as big as houses passing him by, and with the increasing height of trees, he was afraid that one of them would soon hit his Master in the face.

"Master most of the trees here look the same but they differ so much in height. Why is it so?"

Golver also looked around as he replied,

"These tall and pointed trees are the specialty of the forest of calamity since they don't grow elsewhere. They don't have much use except for being stronger than usual so they aren't targeted by adventurers and merchants as well. Their size basically depends upon the environmental mana present within the region, therefore, acting as indicators of the danger level of the area they are in." Realizing that he should've told such important information to his disciple long ago, he compensated by telling him the various secrets he came to know of much later in his age.

"You see kid, the people over at the western region of the forest believe that they're the center of the world while the forest of calamity lies at the easternmost end according to them."

"Isn't the Leer kingdom over there?" Ryne looked towards where his master was looking, believing it to be the so-called 'east', after all, he wasn't that well versed in directions.

"Yes, there's no way we wouldn't know of an entire Kingdom even though we live deep within the forest if it really existed somewhere in the west. Therefore, only east could be your home."

Ryne nodded his head and encouraged Golver to continue his geography lesson,

"We only emphasize the east and west because the continent is shaped like an elongated finger and we are now at its tip according to the known map of the western world. Therefore, naming either north or south doesn't really matter, since you'll only reach the mana less ocean there. The place within the tribe where our mages live and train have trees as large as 100 meters piercing the clouds, can you imagine the grand spectacle made possible with mana." Golver's tone was colored in nostalgia and appreciation when he mentioned the place where mages live.

After soaring for 3 hours and taking 2 little breaks, they reached the place Golver planned to show Ryne, a small and dark cave with the walls of a mountain.

Ryne was looking around curiously as usual when he suddenly 'slipped' out of his master's grasp around 10 feet up in the air and came crashing down near the cave.

"WHY did you do that?" Ryne screamed in shock and rage, finding it hard to believe that it could be an accident.

"It is meant to be a lesson this time, you weren't focused on what was happening with you at all, only looking around as if it were a sightseeing trip," Golver explained his reason for dropping his disciple from the sky like a maniac.

"You could've just TOLD me that." Ryne was still enraged.

'He's right. After acting kindly for so long, my 'tendencies' were released. I need to make sure this doesn't happen again, otherwise, my image will be ruined.' Although, he thought that his words reflected no such understanding, 

"Alright, now don't make a mountain out of a molehill, look at the cave behind you. Walk inside, there's a surprise there. You should be prepared for it."

It was a narrow hole, perhaps only enough for kids of Ryne's age to fit in,

"What's this?"

"Go ahead, it's a surprise,"

"In… there?"

Golver merely nodded his head and jabbed his disciple in the back, prompting him to take a step within the cave.

Ryne had his thoughts running wild imagining what surprises his master could have prepared.

Soaring in the open skies for so long, Ryne was feeling fresh and clean. This suffocating cave seemed to him like the throat of a beast that had swallowed him entirely.

The air around him smelled of dust accumulated over an untold number of days and he often found his sight obscured by cobwebs that tangled against his body in a dark and tight atmosphere.

Each step of his was strenuous and the light coming from behind had already stopped showing its effects, leaving him wondering if he should take a step back.

He touched the walls around, they were harder than usual, condensed further than normal rocks with earth elemental mana.

The pieces of the puzzle finally fitted perfect as Ryne concluded,

'A beast! This was the surprise,"

As soon as he thought up to this, a brown shadow pounced at him behind his back.

….

Outside, Golver had already started a fire as he made a long metal rod with magic almost instantaneously, waiting for his disciple to bring the corpse of the beast residing in.

'Hmm, there shouldn't be a problem, right? Nah, that's impossible, it's just a Grade-1 beast.'