Finally catching up to the children, Elder August called out to them.
Luckily, Aspen heard and turned back upon hearing their names. He was surprised to see their village Elder running towards them and wanted to go to them, but before he did, he signalled the others to stop walking away and come back; by then, Elder August had already come to a halt in front of him, slightly out of breath.
A brief moment of silence followed, with the only sound being Elder August’s wheezing as he tried to catch his breath. He handed them the pouch after he had finally caught his breath, and explained exactly what I had told him to them. Upon hearing the details of the seemingly uninteresting brown leather pouch in their Elder’s hand, their faces bore an equal amount of scepticism at the unassuming nature of the pouch and the unbelievability of the information Elder August had just disclosed to them.
"Would you mind if I tested it?" Freya’s voice, melodious yet chilling, rang out, and she waited for their elder to either approve or decline her request. And to her surprise, he did. Upon collecting the pouch from Elder August, Freya placed the pouch on the ground, gathering ice-type mana in her palm, creating a construct of ice, a massive cylinder twice Igris’ size in width and 3 times Elder August’s height, that blocked out the sun, causing the temperature to plummet several degrees within the shadow of the construct. Attempting to fill the pouch with ice to test if it was truly... limitless... she let the construct ’fall’ towards the opening of the bag. To her surprise, the mouth of the bag actually ’swallowed’ the construct that initially appeared to be infinitely larger than the pouch; and, almost insultingly, the pouch was still as weightless as it was before she started.
"I apologise for doubting your words, Elder", she said, as she attempted to hand it back to him.
"No worries, little one. To be young is to be curious; as for the pouch, it’s yours to keep. Lord Astrael provided it for your forthcoming expedition. Pack as you need, prepare to be unprepared, infact you should be preparing for as we speak. Run along now; 2 nights is a really short time to prepare for a 4-month assignment. I’ll inform Slyva to prepare food that will last your trio for over 4 months, and don’t worry, I’ll have people helping her out in the kitchen, so focus on preparing other items."
With their Elder gone, Aspen turned to address the others. "Okay! This is our first task, given to us by the Great One; we can’t mess this up. Freya, you’re going to..." he suddenly paused, realising something. "What are we going to pack, actually? I mean, think of it: Kazel can heal any injuries we get, and also help to start fires. And as far as wood or herbs go, I could grow those without any issues even if the soil out there is cursed, and I mean, who needs rope when you have a thick vine? So aside from water and food—which Elder August is already working on—what do we actually need?"
Kazel, ever the voice of reason, spoke up, "For starters, a map, or items needed to create a map, charcoal, parchment, paper... Seriously, the cursed lands are uncharted territory beyond the Authority of Astrael. We need to know where we are at all times, and if we do find human gatherings, which is the major purpose of this expedition, in case you forgot. We need to be able to know where exactly we found them and trace our way back home"
"Kazel’s right," Freya inputted, "We also need containers, not just for water, but to store anything interesting or useful that we might find. And also, a tent; you could grow shelters, but the soil there might resist. There’s a difference between growing an herb and instantly harvesting it, and growing a bunch of plants and leaving them in cursed soil, where they could either grow a mind of their own and attack us, or just wilt in a couple of minutes. We also need tools for processing beasts, since Elder August mentioned that we might encounter magical beasts."
"Oh, that’s right", Aspen said with a sheepish chuckle. "Now, I feel kinda stupid"
"You are stupid", Freya cut in as if stating a well-known fact, though he words lacked any real worlds
"He’s not stupid, just... acts faster than his brain thinks", Kazel added; as for whether he was trying to be funny or diffuse the situation, that was uncertain.
Over the next 2 days, word spread in the village about the trio’s expedition. The three who initially concluded on a few items ended up packing a lot more than planned: parchment, charcoal, rope, a few weapons Igris provided, a mountainous amount of food, and some things they didn’t really need, increasing their gratitude for the limitless storage space I provided them with. "Although I wonder how Slyva managed to cook this much food by herself, poor girl, she must be so overworked", Freya said with a sigh. "Don’t be like that, Freya, you know the girl enjoys being in the kitchen, if she were overworked, she probably would not have cooked so much food unless she forgot we were just 3 people, plus Elder August said she had people helping her out, and considering how much of an angel she is, she probably cooked a little extra for us and for the people we might potentially find" Aspen replied, patting the pouch strapped to his belt "Honestly, if not for this little thing how would we have carried so much, Lord Astrael truly is benevolent"
"Alright, guys, we’re here", Kazel’s voice cut in, signalling that they had reached the edge of the Shelter domain "Reminds me of our village a couple of months ago", he added, solemnly looking out across the barren, ashy soil and grey sky that lay beyond the border, a sight that poked a little too close to a recently closed wound.
"Forget about the scenery, what is that!" Aspen called out, watching something approach the barrier. It was unlike anything he had ever read or seen in tomes and books; it looked a bit like a wolf, no, a dog- its frame, although large, was too small to be that of a wolf. Its body looked stretched out and elongated, its skin thin over its bones, with ribs sticking out through its chest and black tar-like ooze dripping from its mangled mouth; it lunged at the children, but the barrier stopped it dead in its tracks and repelled it backwards.
The moment Freya saw the beast, she visibly recoiled in utter disgust, almost retching at the sight "Ice spear", she cast as ice appeared above her, growing and compacting into a projectile the diameter of a human skull, without giving the beast a chance to recover from the stun cause by the barrier, she launched the ice spear at it, impaling the head of the beast turning it into a grostesque black rotten pulp, upon seeing the cursed beast, or at least what remained of it, slump to the ground, the trio let out a breath they didn’t know they were holding, that fact now solidified that the moment they stepped out of the shelter, safety was indeed not guaranteed.
"So, shall we get going?" Kazel said, breaking the silence. After a brief moment of silent agreement, they all stepped forward, temporarily leaving the haven they knew behind.