[Jean] Chapter 6: The Wind Temples of Velothia

[Throndir]

"Normally, the hero can do whatever he pleases, but..." Dalina blushed as she glanced at your naked splendour. "You don't really inspire that all that much... And you really should put the chicken down, everyone's starting to look at us even more!"

"Co-workers? I understand the meaning of the words, but not how you're using it... Working together?" She watched as you took a bite into the fruit.

"Was your world full of torment? You can talk about it then head straight to eating food like it was nothing. If you ask me, that's pretty villainous!"

The fruit you bit into was orange on the outside. The skin itself was edible, and it looked like a rounder apple from your own world. The actual flesh of the fruit however, was the same color and consistency as a melon, though you realized, was softer than the one you were familiar with, and also had more liquid to them. It tasted good.

"I have a sneaking suspicion that even if it was poisonous, you'd still be fine... But that fruit is called an avnoka apple." You noticed that when she called the name of the fruit, the translation in your head didn't trigger. The word 'apple' was translated however, along with 'Moonlight Dew Drop' from before.

There was a man who came out of the house nearest to the chicken you had picked up. But Dalina shouted at him.

"It's fine! He's the hero!"

"Hero? Why's he naked?" The man asked, though you noticed he was blushing, and couldn't look at Dalina.

"He was... summoned without a lot of clothing!" Dalina responded. It wasn't a complete lie, you did only have one thing you had been wearing.

"Also, priestess... why are you...?"

"Right after the summoning, we had to give up our clothes too... So please tell the others not to be alarmed by our head priests and priestesses who should be coming behind us..."

The man was silent, but only nodded as he went back into his home.

[pringerbeam]

     "Actually my world was pretty chill.  Didn't really have the kinds of problems your world seems to face.  Sure war and poverty were a thing but no demons eviscerating people on the sidewalk.  Actually no demons at all as far as I know.  No, the torment came from...  well I'm not sure where it was.  Not sure you would call it a world.  Don't really know if anything existed beyond the darkness.  Anyways, long and short of it is I'm dead a few times over and I owe some debts to some very scary... 'people'"  He emphasized this last word with finger quotes in his free hand. 
     Jean continued to walk along, heading for the castle-like structure atop the island.  "Safe to assume that's important."  He said as he strolled along, pointing the chicken towards the keep.  "Any idea where I could get something to write with? Oh!  Is there a library somewhere?  I have some studying to do.  Things to... see."   He said looking at the chicken in his arms, his mind filled with possibility.

[Throndir]

"That's our temple." She said pointed towards the castle-like structure sitting on top of the highest point of the mountain. "It's where I live, along with the other head priests... And it's where you will live too if you so choose. We have a place to meditate and pray. We also have a place to train your body. We have libraries that we've kept for hundreds of years, along with many writings from our priests too."

"We'll find you a pen and an inkwell once we're there if you'd like... And..." She glanced at you. "Since I'm the Priestess of the Hero, you'll be staying with me... but I'm not sure if that's a good idea. You're hardly a hero. But I guess you're the best we have."

"We can make our way there first, so I can show you where you'll be sleeping, then I can call forth for your minion... I'm not sure why you thought it was  good idea to strip everyone, including our elders, so while you're getting situated, I'll probably have to calm the rest of them! Oh, boy, fun."

[pringerbeam]

     "Interesting."  Jean murmured as they continued their ascent to the temple.  "It looks like a castle or keep.  Not the kind of temple we had back in my world.  Even the monasteries of my world's warrior monks were not built in such a way.  You say there is a library and training area?  Quite the center of your island.  And we're going to be roommates!  I'll have you know I'm absolutely terrible with those.  Haven't had one since my freshman year."  He jumped up onto one of the stone walls framing the stairs they were walking up, sticking his free arm out for balance.  "The clothes were a necessity by the way.  The creature I had with me feeds on clothing.  Or maybe it feeds on non-living organic matter like the slime molds of my native realm? But that wouldn't account for it being able to consume my trunks...  I mean the polymer is technically carbon based...  Regardless, what's the big deal?  We come into the world naked kicking and screaming and we only went two for three on those!   He taps the head of the chicken against his chin and then looks down at it.  "Chickens... and horses...  He turns around and looks over to the fields below.  "But not cows...  what are those?"

[Throndir]

The 'cow' if it could be called as one, was large and barrel shaped, much like a normal cow. However, it seemed to grow what looked like a long and flowing beard. It's horns curled back and spiraled like a ram's back in your own world. But the most prominent feature seemed to be the fact that on the beasts were shrubs and plants that grew from its back.

"I can't say... It's said thousands of years ago there used to be hundreds of these Wind Temples that roamed the skies. You know of what happened to our other sister temple... So this one is the last. I haven't seen how the temples of the land-dwellers look like, but from what I know, each country that appeared have different styles to them."

"They are similar to cows of the land-dwellers. Those are called telma. Their meat is tougher... but they are also hardier creatures. They produce milk, but we also gather the telma plants that grow on them."

As you climbed the stairs upwards, the cleaner and more tidy things became. Up here in the temple, there was a lot of maintenance done, even though you noticed that there weren't as many people either. There were less stares at your naked form, and at Dalina as well. Many of them up here were in the middle of meditation or prayers. Eventually, Dalina lead the two of you to a small house, situated nearer the edge of the temple so that it overlooked much of the island beneath it.

The girl pointed at it.

"There's my home." Dalina said. "There's my home. My little sister lives with me, and now... I guess you will be to." She then turned her gaze towards you.

"You're not allowed to do anything weird to her! Got that!?"

Leading the way inside, you realized that it was small. Humble in size, it consisted of three rooms, an outdoors bathroom, and the yard around it. The fact that it was situated at the edge meant that wind blew often, and that it had a full view of the sun's rays. One of the rooms looked to be a dining room, or the common living room. The second room was bare and empty, though, there were unlit candles to the side. Dalina described this as a meditation room. And the last room in the house had 2 bunk beds, one on either side of the room, totaling 4 beds altogether.

"My younger sister and I use one of them. The other two were my mother's, and my older sister's, though, they both are no longer here. That meditation room was going to be the hero's room, but we never got around to preparing it properly..."

[pringerbeam]

     "Last of the Wind Temples you say..."  Jean looked at the temple.  "What happened to the others?  Did they all fall to the land dwellers?  If they all had libraries...  The knowledge of flying islands would be invaluable, maybe still recoverable...  Libraries!  That reminds me!  You said we were going someplace.  Mount Velothia?  Where is that?  Is it near the academy?  I need to go to the academy city."  They arrived at Dalina's home and Jean looked around.  "Huh, I thought you lived inside the actual temple but this is...  shelter?"  Jean walked through the simple home, ending on the bedroom.  "When you said you were the priestess of the hero and were going to live with me, I envisioned something...  more grand, less barracksy."  Jean peaked his head around the corner to the barren meditation room.  "This place needs some renovation.  Does everyone live like this?"  Turning back to the bedroom he poked at the bunk beds.  "Or I guess the better question would be who has nicer stuff that I can go and acquire for my own use."

[Throndir]

Dalina began rummaging through some of her closest, and you noticed that there was plenty of spare robes and clothing. She still had a hint of a blush on her features, but surprisingly, she seemed to have gotten more used to walking around with nothing but her underwear.

She began pulling out clothing and putting them on as she answered your questions.

"Mount Velothia is the only place that we land these days ever since our sister temple fell to the land-dwellers. That was the second to the last temple, that happened during my grandmother's time, the Priestess of the Hero before my mother. I was told there used to be many more temples like ours. In fact, some of the inner chambers of our temple deep in our island are said to be hundreds of years old. Overtime though, one thing or another would happen to the temples. They would either fall, or the inhabitants would choose to live with the land-dwellers, and there were some cases where temples would merge too. I'm not sure how much knowledge the other temples had with them, but ours has a lot." She said with a hint of pride in her voice.

"We're more at peace with the inhabitants of Mount Velothia. The Velothian dragons live there. They are a wise, just, and generous race, with an elder dragon that governs each generation for a few thousand years. They have aligned themselves primarily with the Antwarch Dragonknight Kingdom, though, our bonds with the dragons stretch for just as long as their bonds with that human country. It's true that we're the last of us, but the dragons have always honored our pact."

"They are free from the vileness that the land-dwellers have, even if they mask it..."

"You want a bigger place? That's one of the things wrong with land-dwellers, their greed. But I suppose its expected from our resident villain..."

"But everyone lives in homes like these. Some are larger than the others, simply because they either need room for storage, or have more people living with them. But you noticed how even the head priests back there wore the same clothes as everyone else right? We give and provide everything we need for each other, and things like worldly possessions aren't things that we strive for."

"If you're talking about the nicest things... I guess we're all about equal? Mine and my mother's position as priestess of the hero gives us the same ranking as the other head priests though... But that said, no one really makes demands of others, it's more like everyone is willing to provide for each other."

[pringerbeam]

     Jean continued to look at the bare meditation room.  "Ew...  Everyone lives like this?  What about luxury?  If I am such a villainous beast then surely I will need a lair befitting one such as myself."  He swept into Dalina's room and began rummaging through her clothing while she was trying to get clothes out of the closet.  "What kind of fabric do you use?"  He asked as he rubbed some of the articles together, getting a feel for the texture. "Do you have anything silk-like?  Something soft and flowing...  And what about something with some real cushiness?  Something like down or cotton for pillows and mattresses."  He casually tosses the undergarments he was inspecting into the air over his shoulder.  "I'll need to accumulate these materials.  Is there a weaver or a...  I don't know...  feather person?"
     Jean looked out the window, hand on his chin.  "Some of your people abandoned their temples to live on the land...  What happened to the temples after that?  Did they just get left behind?  You said they could be merged together.  If we recovered the lost temples, could they be added to this one in a similar fashion?"  He watched the wind sweep through some of the grass outside.  "With a greater landmass, you could support a larger population.  A good start to the army of thralls a villain like me would need for his nefarious ends."  He turned around to Dalina.  "Speaking of thralls for nefarious ends.  Where's this sister you were talking about?"

[Throndir]

Dalina stared at you in shock when you began rummaging through her clothes. She was blushing, and the moment you began forcefully grabbing the various panties and bras in there along with unceremoniously tossing them over your shoulder, Dalina yelled.

"What are you doing! You don't just go through a girl's clothing a-and... p-panties like it was nothing!"

Most of the clothing she had were made out of cloth, the fibers were mostly wools. Though they were rough, and didn't feel that smooth or silken. It was actually her panties and bras that were the smoothest and most comfortable. They were silken, though, not at the quality that you were used to or expected back on Earth. Most of the robes she had however, were made out of coarser material such as hemp.

"I can't believe you..."

She eventually sighed when she realized you would continue what you were doing anyways.

"The clothes are made out of telma wool, and fibers from plants that we grow on our island, there are also silkworms that some of us maintain, though most of that kind of material we get from the dragons. There's plenty of weavers.. we don't just pray every single hour in our day, you know? There are those who tend to the livestock and farms, and those who weave, and those who practice stone and metalworking whenever we get new materials, or if we have to do repairs."

"If we found more of the temples, we'd have to see if the core is still in-tact, then even if it is, we need to make sure to have priest tend to it to ensure the islands can still lift. If we found other temples, then perhaps... but this sort of thing was only written and recorded, it's been a very long time since the last time two temples were merged into one."

Dalina frowned when you mentioned thralls, but rolled her eyes.

"Though that reminds me... Gust, call for our villain's tentacle companion, show her the way back here." The little bird that had been fluttering either nearby, or on Dalina's shoulder made a chirping noise. Though, the translation in your head kicked in.

"Sure!" It called out as it began flying back towards the first island. Dalina nodded as she answered your final question.

"Right now she's with her mentor, learning various teachings, and the writings of our goddess, along with practical skills. Once she becomes of age, she has a choice in how she would like to help the community the most. Though, if I had left too, then it would fall to her to become the next Priestess of the Hero. It's an important role where our temple will always have a Priestess of the Hero at all times. She should be back for dinner though."

[pringerbeam]

    "Well, we'll just need to have everyone pool together and produce enough fine cloth to adorn me a bed, some pillows, and cushions."  Jean strolled out of the home and stood out in front. "Speaking of mentors, what kind of military might do your people have?  Do you have any standing forces or is it just a militia?  Anyone dedicated to the martial arts?  I'll need someone to instruct me in combat."  He watched a flock of chickens scurry across the grass.  "Oh right!  That bird you have.  it talks?  How did you teach it to do that?  Or is the species itself capable of speech?" He set out walking towards the temple proper, finished with inspecting Dalina's home.

[Throndir]

"As expected of the villain!"

Dalina sighed, but it was more out of resignation.

"I guess I can bring it up in the next council meeting... We are stocking up on more supplies one we land on Mount Velothia. You're our hero-who-is-actually-a-villain after all. They probably will agree to it. We were supposed to have a council later this evening. But you did kinda just strip all the head priests and priestesses back there..."

"We don't really have a militia, there are some who have mastered older martial techniques, but not everyone has learned it though. However, everyone in this temple is able to use Wind Magic - the Velothian dragons always praise us for our use of it. If you're talking about military might... the idea was to teach our summoned hero our ways and our magic through our goddess. Once you were ready, we would have used our island to help out the countries that needed our help the most."

Dalina nodded when you asked about her bird.

"I'm surprised you noticed that he 'speaks'. Its true that most other animals make sounds to communicate with each other. All animals speak, though, in their own ways after all. But Gust, and the other birds, have their own language. They understand human speech as well. It is said that language wouldn't be an issue with the summoned hero, and I wonder if this is what it was talking about?"

"Gust is a special type of bird that are native to these wind temples. Each temple carries and takes care of them. There's some nests at the very peak of our central island mountain, but we also have another island that has many of them flying around. Each priest forms a bond with one of them at birth, in that way, they bond with us too, and due to that, or the blessing of our goddess, the birds take up some aspect of their chosen companion. It's usually a life-time pairing. I raised Gust ever since he was just an egg."

As you went back towards the temple, Dalina followed suite.

"I probably need to meet up with the head priests soon, you're welcome to come, and normally you should... But with what happened... ehhh, I'll leave it up to you. You can always meet the rest of them properly later tonight. But I can show you around to a few more places before that. You need the library to concoct your evil plans, right?"

[pringerbeam]

     "Hmmm...  I'll pass.  If there is no benefit to me, then I'm not going to waste my time with your elders.  They have to bow to my might regardless right?  I'd rather go to the library.  There are things I need to learn and the human mind is too fragile a thing to rely on your geriatric priests' minds for instruction, better to use the written record."  Jean continued the hike up to the main temple.  "Besides, what I truly need is instruction in the martial arts.  Magic is a useful ability, but I have a finite pool of power from which to draw.  My body, on the other hand, has been endowed with superior endurance and innate prowess and I should be taking advantage of it.  Surely someone on your island can put up a fight?  If not then, no offense but your magical powers must not be that great to have fallen to some peasants in the past.  I'll need to put together a real militia.  Let your elders know that I will need to levy your able bodied for this purpose as well."

[Throndir]

"Then I'll show you the library, and after that I'll head to the meeting myself." Dalina said walking with you towards the main temple. Once the two of you got there she began leading the way deeper into the building. How the temple was created, you realized that many parts of the temple itself was carved into the mountainside it sat upon. There seemed to be many wide hallways and prayer rooms, with some priests in quiet meditation or study.

"We have an instructor in the martial arts as well, she's gotten a surge of other initiates wanting to learn from her, ever since we decided as a group to summon you and help fight against the demons. After the meeting with the head priests, I'll come back and find you so you can meet them if you'd like? That lady's sense of justice will surely put a villain like you back into being a normal hero..."

Dalina shook her head when you mentioned the sister temple.

"There were powerful casters on the other temple as well, but whatever happened, we only found out much later from traders. I remember grandmother saying that we took our temple back towards the site where our sister temple was helping the land-dwellers, but the place was already overrun by demons. Some years after that, a new country sprung up in its place - the Idorian Magic Kingdom."

She paused as her features lighted up.

"I was wondering what you meant when you said 'Academy city', I figured you were talking about your own world or something. But you don't mean, the Idorian Academy City? How do you even know of it?"

[pringerbeam]

     "That is a excellent question.  One with a rather depressing answer.  Long and short is blah blah blah met a wizard from there blah blah shuffle off the mortal coil blah blah eternal damnation blah blah not so eternal after all.  This summoning is pretty fucked if you haven't realized yet."  He said, avoiding a direct answer.  "It sure sounds like a nidus of knowledge, the kind of place I need to go to for my research.  Tell me: what have you heard of the place?  Come to think of it...  How do you hear anything while you're in flight?  It's not like travelers can carry messages to and from this place.  How do you know your destination isn't burned to the ground by the time you get there."  Jean inquired.

[Throndir]

"We don't, once a year we land on Mount Velothia, and its there that we trade with the dragons. Some merchants and traders that the dragons recommend meet us there too. It's a way for us to check-in with them, replenish what supplies we need, and to also get information on how the war has been going."

"I don't actually understand your explanation... but the Idorian Magic Kingdom is no more... You see... That city, their old capital, the Magic Academy?" She paused.

"It was destroyed almost a decade ago."