While on the road, Rusty tells me all about how he retired from the Ascensori. Apparently, there are 2 ways to do so, by living long enough or by dying. One way, which I wouldn't even call retiring, is the Ascension Tournament, a competition whose winner reserves the right to challenge any of the current Ascensori in a fight to the death. Given that becoming an Ascensori is the dream of many Handlers, there are numerous new challengers every year. Luckily, only the last fight, between the Challenger and the Ascensori, is to the death. If not there wouldn't be very many Handlers left.
The other way is by serving as an Ascensori for 30 years. Not many survive long enough to retire like this, there are currently only 5 retired Ascensori alive. Two of those, my dad included, now live a happy and secluded life. The third I know nothing about and it seems neither does Rusty.
After about three hours on the road, we arrive at the town of Vinyar. Looking old and worn down, most of the buildings around the edge of town have vines that go up the walls and dark green, moss-covered roofs. The houses have long been abandoned. The deeper we get into town, the more people we see and the better the houses start to look. It's like Vinyar is slowly being abandoned by its people and retaken by nature.
In the middle of the town center something immediately catches my attention. There is a beautiful, very large fountain, glistening blue water flowing from the top of the fountain, passing by stone Beasts that sit atop a flat rock, filling the basin at the bottom. Once there, Rusty stops the cart and looks around. To his left, he sees a large building that looks like a town hall of sorts, and starts walking towards it.
"Stay here while I go find the next student." He says.
I nod as Rusty walks towards the town hall.
The townspeople going about their day give me weird looks when passing by. I don't know why but I get the feeling that it's not just that they don't trust me, they seem uneasy, frightened almost.
My legs are stiff from the long ride, so I decide to get off the cart and go take a look at the fountain. At the center of the fountain stands a Cyclops, water cascading out of its one eye, tracing its big, round nose before flowing down its chin onto the mane of a proud Lion, making it shimmer in the sunlight. The flow continues down the Lion's tail, falling down and twisting around a Basilisk's coiled form, defying the creature's petrifying gaze and enveloping it in a beautiful light. The water, carving its own path with grace, surging past a Bear, mirroring the strength and vitality in its powerful stance, before delicately skimming over the intricate web spun by the Aranha, each droplet glistening like morning dew.
Finally, the water gathered in the basin below, submerging the carvings of Mermen and Nixies.
I dip my hands in the water and splash my face, locals studying my every move, waiting to see what I do.
The doors of town hall open and out walks Rusty, talking to an older man with white crazy hair that looks like it exploded to every side. They seem very friendly towards each other.
Behind them is a red-haired girl who, surprisingly, resembles Rusty a little bit.
The three approach the cart and the old man starts introducing himself.
"Hello there young fella, you must be Eli."
"Actually it's Elliott." I give Rusty a dirty look. He shrugs and tries to act like he has nothing to do with it, but I can tell he's hiding a smile.
"Oh, I must have misunderstood, I'm getting quite old you see. My apologies, Elliott."
"Not a problem, and may I ask what your name is?"
"My name is Lowell. Lowell Whitlock. I hear you're leaving for the Beast Handler academy? So is Lysandra." He points to the girl behind him.
"Would you please look out for her while you are both there, she might act cold but on the inside she's as soft as a Griffin's feathers."
"There goes my reputation, thanks gramps." Lysandra says.
"Stop worrying about your reputation and start worrying about making friends."
"Well you're my friend, aren't you? Why would I need any more, other people are stupid."
"No offense." She says to me.
"None taken." Well she's not getting interested in getting off on the right foot.
"If your only friend is a seventy-five year old man, you need to get out more. Besides, just because you're good at basic magic, doesn't mean others are stupid or that you're better than them. I bet Elliott here knows all the same spells you do." Lowell says.
"Oh yeah? Hey Eli, can you use Illuminate?"
Without saying a word, I roll up the sleeves of my black sweater, extending my left arm and putting my palm face-up. I let my magic flow through my body, into my left arm and into the palm of my hand. "Illuminate."
A bright orb appears in my hand and I stretch my arm further, as if to ask if she's satisfied or not.
"Okay okay, how about Fireball?"
"Sure." I close my hand as if to cut off the flow of magic. I open it back up and, just as I did before, I let magic flow through my body into the palm of my hand. This time, instead of a white glowing orb, I imagine a hovering ball surrounded by flames in my hand. I calmly say "Fireball."
Just as I imagined it, the fireball appears in my hand, enveloping everyone around me in a soothing warmth.
"Guess you're pretty decent after all, but I bet you can't throw i-"
The moment I hear her being dismissive of the spells I just cast, I get annoyed by her arrogant tone and start throwing the fireball from one hand to the other, as if tossing around a baseball I just picked up. Focused on maintaining my spell, I look up and see her face. She's completely in awe of what I'm doing.
"So did I pass your test?" I say with a smile on my face, the fireball dissipating as I speak.
She walks up to me and taps my shoulder. "Dude, you HAVE to tell me how to do that. I'm Lysandra by the way but you can call me Lysa."
"Nice to meet you, Lysa. I'm Elliott."
Rusty steps forward and clears his throat. "Well Lowell, guess these two are going to get along just fine."
"Good, I do worry about her you know. Ever since we found her near the fountain as a kid, I've been quite fond of her."
"I know. I'll look after her, don't worry. Just make sure you live long enough to see her come back with a badass Beast."
"Speaking of Beasts, where is yours Russell?" Lowell asks.
"Oh Aello? He's around. Probably."
"As headstrong as ever is he?"
"You don't know the half of it." Rusty says.
I still don't know what Beast he bonded, although knowing him its probably something as stupid as he is. I still don't understand how someone as careless and irresponsible as Rusty retired from being an Ascensori.
"What Beast dó you have Rusty?" I ask.
"You haven't seen Aello?" Lysa interjects.
As if on cue, a winged creature rushes past behind us, a gust of wind hitting us in the neck. I lose my footing and drop my right knee down to the floor, my left hand holding on to the other. I get back up and see a creature flying around the fountain. With the wings of an eagle, it soars gracefully through the air. As it casts a large shadow over us, I realize its wingspan must be longer than its body. The Beast starts hovering above Rusty's head, and only then do I realize what it is.
A Harpy.
The powerful wingbeats stirring strong gusts of wind, blowing sand and dirt in my and Lysandra's faces as it lands in between Lowell and Rusty.
"Hey there Aello, how have you been? I hope Russell gives you enough breaks."
Lowell pulls a bit of meat out of his pocket and feeds it to the Harpy, who quickly chuffs it down and starts smelling his pockets to see of he has any more. While the Harpy smells Lowell, he puts his hand on his head and starts rubbing his feathers, which Aello doesn't mind. He actually seems to enjoy it, which is very unusual behavior for them. Normally, Harpies are very asocial creatures, choosing to spend their time away from other Beasts, Harpies included. The fact that anyone other than Rusty is allowed to touch Aello is amazing.
As I stand there, perplexed by Aello's atypical behavior, Lysandra rushes towards the Harpy and jumps up, swinging her arms around the Beasts neck and falling down on impact. Aello really doesn't seem to mind physical contact with others.
"You know if you want to you can touch his feathers, he loves to get his wings rubbed." Rusty says to me. He must have noticed the perplexed look in my face.
I walk up to Aello, remembering what was written in the Beast manuscript that I used to read every night as a kid.
'The Harpy is an honorable creature. It prefers not to have any physical or emotional contact with any other form of life, only allowing its immediate offspring to get close. When confronted by a Harpy, it is best to bow down as a sign of respect towards it. If the Harpy bows back, you may pass alongside it but you may NEVER touch it.'
I walk towards it and stop about 10 feet away from it. I close my eyes and bow down towards it. Suddenly I feel someone's hand on my back, pushing me forward.
"There's no need for all that, don't worry." Rusty says, and I realize he's the one pushing me.
I lose my balance and fall down right at the Harpy's feet. I look up at Aello's face and he looks down at me, making eye-contact. He places my shirt in its beak and pulls me up to my feet, after which he smells me. I carefully try to put my hand closer to its wings, my hand shaking terribly. In a quick motion, the Harpy juts its wing out towards my hand. The shock of the sudden movement quickly dissipates when I notice nothing bad is happening, and I start to realize how amazingly soft its feathers are.
"Hi there Aello. I'm Elliott, nice to meet you."
In response, he makes a clicking sound which, according to the Beast manuscript, is a sound of approval or agreement.
"Damn, you really are a little scaredy-cat huh Elliot." Lysandra mocks.
"Shut up." I say, embarrassed by how frightened I was earlier.
"Aello is a one-of-a-kind Beast Lysa. Usually, Harpies don't like any physical contact, so I believe Elliot's careful behavior was quite justified." Lowell says to Lysandra.
"Yeah yeah." she waves his comment away.
"Alright, it's time we get going guys. If we leave now we should get to the academy by nightfall. Lysa, load your stuff onto the cart will you."
"You guys must know each other well for Rusty to call you Lysa."
"Well yeah Elliot, he's my dad."