10 Common sense

The six returned by dinner time and none of them uttered a word or commented about anything until they settled down at the same positions back in the boy's room, after munching down a heavy dinner.

"..."

"Leo, why don't you start talking as usual." Sai had a face with mixed emotions and an enthusiastic tone, which was in contrast to the rest of the group, who had a terrified and blank face with lifeless, glassy eyes.

"Let's pool in all the stories then. Erina, tell us what you got first." Leo's face was more composed than the rest of the five.

"This world has something called 'Qi'. Lily said everyone has it even little plants, puppies, kitties and...." Erina was about to continue her list but was interrupted by Reeva who signalled her to get on to the next point.

"Well, the people of this world have learnt how to use it and create magic or something like that, I am not so sure. They use it for many things but not everyone has powerful qi. But Lily mentioned in one of the stories for children that creatures can be summoned from different realms to this world. That's all I understood." Erina concluded as she tapped a finger on her forehead trying to remember if she forgot anything."

"That's the basic idea which I thinkeveryone already got." Leo looked around the room and after witnessing everyone nod, he dragged a chair towards the window and sat down by it.

"Let's put together all the different pieces of information we gathered now." Leo's eyes were just as serious as they were before heading out.

The group talked about various things they found out and tried to piece together the information they obtained into one complete piece.

"I'll sum it up then." Ian leaned forward as he started summing up the so-called Common Sense of this world.

"We are in the city of Ostinia from the Kingdom of Arcadia. They have 'Qi' which is a kind of internal energy residing within all the living beings. Qi was actually mentioned in Indian and Chinese histories as well. Everyone isn't strong enough to use it but those who can use it normally train themselves to defend and develop the kingdom. The ratio of people who can't use Qi to those who can is around 7:3. There are schools all around the kingdom that teach how to use Qi." Ian said everything that he had grasped in one go and was immediately picked up by another as soon as he finished.

"And Qi can be used to generate and manipulate all the great, basic elements that make up any world. Air, water, fire, earth, lightning, nature, divinity, darkness and the list goes on. The people in this world can sense spirits and even summon them. And the people who have learnt how to use them are called 'Elementors'. Simply put, Aethists, who don't believe in this kind of stuff would love to take a bullet to their head, rather than see this world." Aiko picked up from where Ian started and tried to add more information to it.

"Let's not forget the different ecosystems, demons, man-eating plants, animals and monsters." Clint added slight details once Aiko was done stating things.

"Why the long face? It is going to be hard, but look at the bright side. This world is straight out of a fantasy anime! C'mon!" Sai slowly showed his true colours. As soon as Sai discovered the ways of the new world, his heart was flying high in the sky.

"But first, don't forget the fact that we are not from this planet and we might not be able to use those powers. Second, we don't know how we got here, after knowing all this, there is a chance that we were summoned accidentally cause none of the stories ever mentioned humans being summoned. Third, we don't know if we will be able to go back even if we do find a way, who knows if we will survive till then, Sai." Leo nonchalantly as if he was saying how stupid it was to push all the important stuff aside.

"Sorry, I am such a huge fan of fantasy and magic animes, that I just forgot to think about all these things." Sai said slowly, as he sighed taking in all the hits he got from Leo.

"What now?" Reeva asked in a stern manner.

"What do you think brought us here?" Leo asked ever so casually as he got up to lean out of the window looking towards the two moons.

"Summoning, I guess?" Reeva was not sure what to reply, so she decided to say whatever came into her mind.

"And who do you think can summon anything?"

"Elementors, right?" Clint answered confidently, trying to figure out where Leo was leading them.

"Then, if we want to know how we were summoned or find a way back to earth, we have to understand and learn how to control Qi." As soon as Leo completed his statement, the first to react was Sai.

"So, we are going to train and become an elementor?!" Anyone in the room could easily understand that Sai was overly interested in training to be an elementor.

"We don't have any choice. We have to learn it. Any objections?" Leo turned back from the night sky towards the six with folded hands, only to see the other five in deep thought with conflicted emotions.

"I won't say, 'Don't rush to take a decision' but you can take a night to think about it. Tell me your decision in the morning. Just don't forget that our future depends on it."

"Let's conclude the meeting with this." Leo turned back to face the dual, pale white moons in the sky. Gentle gusts of air from the window swept past the faces of the seven, as the girls slowly got up to head back to their own rooms.

"Where will end up in this world? And if the person who summoned us didn't do so by accident, then for what purpose did he summon us? What does he want from seven normal teens?" Leo was racking his brains for answers to many questions that he didn't put before the other six, trying to avoid creating any new kind of doubts for the six, who already look stressed out.