"But, Mom! I'm not a full warrior yet."
"No excuses. Dive into the fountain now."
Two streams trickled down Wyna's cheeks as her mother pressed a kiss to her forehead and forced her daughter to let go.
Wyna finally fell backwards into the Mirror Fountain and her adventure was about to begin.
In what seemed like a deep sea, Wyna opened her eyes. It was dimly lit and devoid of any trace of life.
The young warrior tried to swim to the surface, but only went further and further down into the sea.
From her great effort to return to her mother, she had no strength left to look around.
At an unknown time, Wyna was brought back to her senses by a mysterious voice that perhaps came as a whisper to her ears at first.
"Nap time's over, young lady," warned a rough, exhausted voice.
Though the voice was louder than before, Wyna still made a great effort to understand what was going on. With sleepy eyes she made out an expansive bluish grassland crowned with tiny golden glowing creatures fluttering all around.
"Welcome to Pangaea, Wyna. I am your guide, Mur Li.
"My mother lied to me. You don't look like a prince, you look like a muddy boar," claimed Wyna who could finally stand upright in the bright grass.
"Oh, I've never been given such a tender compliment before."
"Yeah, look, do you have any idea why my compass went haywire? I need to find the Great Sphere of Pangaea."
"Hehe, in Pangaea none of the things of your world will work, except for that sword glowing on your back."
"Grrr! Mom you must have a nose like Pinocchio by now."
"Easy there, Wyna. Your mother is wise. She warned me to guide you on your game-changing adventure."
"I don't know, you hairy little pig, you..."
"Hush! Here is the path to your destination, warrior," Mur Li said in a loud, stern voice as he spread out on the grass a map showing a huge land mass and three big red X's on it.
As never before in her life, Wyna found herself in a jungle bathed in a subtle mist. It was a very strange place for her because she had never seen so much vegetation in one place.
To guide herself through so many leaves and a sky that always looked like a sunrise, Mur suggested Wyna draw her sword, the Double Bright.
Forged by the first members of the Ofdenk clan, the Double Bright sword was considered by many warriors to be a super sword of inestimable value.
Out of the ten warriors in the clan's history who were ever able to use it, only Wyna managed to manipulate it in its ordinary conditions in less than a year. However, she was still unaware of the true potential that lay in the edge of the weapon that covered her back.
Confident both, Wyna and Mur walked the Zonä jungle under the glow of the Ofdenk sword. But, from one moment to the next, their journey through the vegetation was abruptly interrupted.
The same bushes that hindered their walk partially withdrew as if someone was controlling them.
Wyna wanted to continue as if nothing, but Mur warned him to stop, Wyna continued with a firm step challenging his old guide. For this one could say that experience won out over youth again.
For there where it seemed the end of the Zonä jungle, several anthropomorphic jaguar-headed beings appeared. Each of them with purple spears.
"Interesting. Your predecessors seem to have trained you well," Mur said, scratching his beard as he spoke.
"What say you, sir boar?" questioned Wyna at once.
"The Jazks have not decided to hunt as usual, hiding in the jungle. Instead, they have wanted to confront you face to face because they feel you are powerful."
Until that moment Mur had been old and reserved, but he stood on guard by the time the first spear was thrown.
Wyna began to attack the Jazks viciously, just as any other Ofdenk would. To her surprise, her guide Mur was also accompanying her with a display of martial arts.
Beyond their highly poisonous spears, the Jazks did not seem to be much of a threat. However, the last of them grinned wickedly before multiplying into a hundred.
Mur himself didn't know the Jazks could do this.
"Hey, girl, you'd better use Double Bright now for real," Mur shouted urgently.
"I took out almost every one of them before by using it for real!" retorted Wyna in frustration.
"No! Activate the strength that great sword hides now."
And yet Wyna without understanding her guide, he had to direct one of his hands and place it on its wide edge. As if by magic, Ofdenk's sword became two. One began to float and attack the Jazks, spinning on its own, while the other one crushed the ground and opened a huge crack into which all one hundred Jazks fell.
This annihilating power left the Double Bright warrior totally speechless and so Wyna understood at that moment that it was not only called that way because of its dual glow.
Although interesting, Wyna didn't have much time to analyze what happened, since Mur took her quickly to where the next big red X was.
The place was all huge coppery sand dunes. Each one seemed to reach up to the sky. In Wyna's original world, there were deserts, but none like the one her boots now trod.
"What kind of thing are we up against here, Mur?" alert Wyna asked with her Double Bright bipartite weapon around her.
"Does it matter?" and what if we'd better get married now that you've finally uttered my name for the first time?" suggested an excited Mur who had even pulled a tin ring out of some pocket.
"Ok, Mur, I think..."
Wyna tried to tease her guide, but first something made her frown.
"What's wrong? Age is just a number when there's love in between, sweet Wyna."
"No, boar, don't you feel a tremor here?"
"Sorry, I'm just so nervous," Mur chuckled.
It was shaking harder and harder. Something was coming or maybe not? The shaking and rumbling growing in the Aksah desert disappeared in a second.
This happened thanks to the fact that, without even perceiving it, the Double Bright was thrust with unusual force several dunes ahead of where Wyna and Mur were.
A few minutes later, the warrior was both relieved and surprised to find her weapon piercing the skull of a giant skeleton that Mur later identified as "The Camel Eating Spirit".
Thus, the unusual duo retraced their steps to a very remote area that no one would dare to even visit.
It was a place in Pangaea so icy that the mere air could turn you into a block of ice in a couple of seconds. This place was called Arcbris by many; "The Snowy Goodbye" by Mur.
"Hey, young lady, this trip has been pleasant, but even I, who have lived, close to a millennium, don't know how to get out of Arcbris alive."
"Come on, I know you must have a trick hidden over there," Wyna said confidently.
"At this point I don't know if even your sword can help us."
And as if the great bipartite sword had heard him, it began to dance around the two travelers as if drawing wavy strokes in the air.
Neither understood what was happening, but something inside Wyna made her fear of Arcbris disappear.
The young warrior and her millenarian guide then entered the infamous territory that remained to be traversed to reach the Great Sphere of Pangaea.
They walked for miles under a snowstorm and then found themselves facing an extensive chain of jagged white peaks that seemed to challenge the two travelers.
They feared that some terrible enemy might appear at any moment. However, only the impossibly cold Arcbris was still happening.
Wyna was excited as she had never been in her life. She had almost reached the Great Sphere and the salvation of her people thanks to the new world.
After the peaks, in the middle of a vast white surface, shone in the center, somewhat covered by snow, the Great Sphere of Pangaea. Its intense golden glow generated an ecstasy in Wyna, who, running, bravely grabbed the handle of the sword and destined to plunge it into the last hope of the Ofdenks.
Only an instant before she lunged to deliver the final blow, Wyna felt something strange. She felt a void. Mur had disappeared.
The once determined warrior had become in the blink of an eye a sad disarmament of emotions that no Ofdenk had ever been before. Wyna was in grave danger, her bipartite sword no longer offered protection as its owner was fading away. The extreme cold would be the end.
About to succumb in the most unexpected way, Wyna heard a voice like a whisper:
"This is no time for a nap, young lady."
"M-m-mur, is that you?"
"Rise and divide the Great Sphere with the Double Bright. A new world awaits you."
"Where-e-e you-havee-e gone?"
"I have passed away. You didn't know it, but the sword could only care for a single person in the extreme Arcbris."
"You stu-tupid boar."
"I didn't tell you before because, even if you denied it, I knew you loved me and weren't going to leave me behind to fulfill your mission."
"You can't..."
"It's okay. The love thing is a joke, haha. Just go and finish your task, brave Wyna. You've passed all the tests."
Wyna slowly came back to herself and the Double Bright began to generate the spinning shield again to get her nearly frozen body walking again.
Two bright streams trickled down her cheeks as the light from the Great Sphere reflected off her face with increasing intensity.
The leap that culminated this heroic deed was made and Wyna, perhaps with the strength of all the Ofdenks before her pushing forward, thrust the graceful sword right down the center to initiate the splitting of Pangaea that brought forth life again.
What a beautiful story, @gabmr. You've done a beautiful job of mixing humor, adventure, character development, scene setting, world building, action, dialog, and great narrative. It's rare that a story combines all these elements so seamlessly. We haven't seen you for a while. So glad to have you back.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful story in The Ink Well, and for reading and commenting on the work of other community members.
Gosh, your kind words always cheer me up! I am really greatful for all your support, and pleased for being able to write a story having all the elements mentioned above. Thanks a million :)
I love this story, @gabmr. Wyna's coming of age, and Mur's wisdom and sense of humor captured my heart. I absolutely loved how he won her over. You have great talent. Please bring us more!
Hello, @jayna! I tried this duo to be something memorable by remarking how well their personalities could complement each other. It's great you liked them. Thanks for reading. And, sure, I will!
I second the comments from Inkwell and @jayna, and I add to them.
You have more than met the prompt/skill challenge this week. What a great hook:
And so we are off as the charming boar leads our heroine through an epic adventure that has the goal of saving the world. It is evident you 'see' this adventure as it unfolds. That takes imagination, not talent. The talent comes in allowing us to see.
This was my first curated story today. Quite rewarding. Thank you!
I'm honored you estimate my story this way. Let us just say imagination and talent could go hand in hand this time as Wyna and Mur went.
Thanks for stopping by and supporting me. Have a good day!
Wonderful story full of fantasy, I loved how you describe the worlds and characters and very good ending.
Greetings @ gabmr
Thank you. I'm really glad you enjoyed my story so far!
Congratulations! This story was chosen for our weekly highlights magazine: https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@theinkwell/the-ink-well-highlights-magazine-60.
Such an honor!!! Thanks.