Chapter 396

Cain hands over the book, which the clerics take a moment to admire before the acolyte reads it and learns the skill. The first thing she uses it for is to take a page from Cain’s desk and recreate the scene currently in the garden, with all her friends happily celebrating and the flowers in full bloom.

The result is a small but beautiful painting on a cheap sheet of paper. To Cain, it is more like a print, with the image lying smoothly on the sheet, but it is not quite photo-realistic, having the style and slight blurriness of an oil painting. That’s more than enough to impress the other acolytes though, and now she doesn’t need to fear for her future in the clergy. She has the perfect skill for her newly assigned role.

“Thank you so much. What did you want to see next? I can show you around all day if you like. But I can’t leave the temple grounds, so maybe it won’t take all day.” The acolyte stops halfway through her excited monologue when she realizes that she is rather limited in places she is actually allowed to go.

“Why don’t we start with a name? If you’re going to show us all the amazing things in the temple, I can’t keep calling you acolyte, and calling you Bunny doesn’t really narrow down who I am talking to.” Cain jokes, making the youngsters laugh.

“Until we take our vows, we’re all Acolyte though. It stops us from using family connections to try to get ahead of the others during training. Since our parents are all clergy of the Great Bunny, they all hold positions here, which could give a big advantage if they played favorites.” One of the others explains.

That makes a lot of sense, it would turn into a nightmare of nepotism if parents in senior positions could nominate their own children for jobs.

“So you don’t know who your parents are?” Vala asks, a bit confused.

“Not until later. I mean, sometimes you can just guess, like the bright white-eared priestess with the purple eyes. Her mom has just the same coloration, but nobody else does, so it was pretty obvious. But for most of us, it doesn’t matter. We’re servants of the Great Bunny before anything else.” Their tour guide explains.

“Once we finish our training, we are given a name by the head of the first department that we work in, as well as information about our parents. If we don’t like the name we can ask for a better one from the high Priestess.” Strange, but fair, Cain supposes.

“I am Jack, and that is Jill, my twin. On the far side are Lara and Leera.” The gardener explains, pointing to a few of the nearest adults.

“Most of the names start with L for some reason. I am not sure why, but the clerics all like names that start with L.” Jill points out, and the acolytes all nod in agreement.

“Since we’re here and the weather is good, how about story time? We would love to know about the area. Things like the story of the mystic healing pond by the waterfall, or any other local legends or attractions that might not be on our guide map. I think it’s a pretty good map, but I’ll bet you all know way more stories than this simple map does.” Evangeline asks, using her wing to stroke the head of an acolyte, who is enraptured with her feathers.

As if she said the magic word, everyone gathers in a semi-circle by a tree and takes a seat, leading Cain’s group to places of honor front and center. More and more adults come out over the next few minutes, all freshly showered and ready to start their tasks for the afternoon, until they realize that it’s story time.

“We will start today’s lesson with the story of the healing pond. From the beginning, since we have visitors.” The cleric begins.

“Legends tell us that the Dragons weren’t always on this world. According to the oldest of stories, they came to us to assist the Ancients during the war between the Gods, using their mighty magic to travel from the world known to us as the Green Star, when the two planets were at their closest. Once every three hundred years, the two worlds pass so close that the mightiest of Dragons can pass between the two with a portal, and that is what they did, coming to aid the Ancients in their fight. But they didn’t come alone, their arrival brought monsters with them. 

The dragons did not mind, for to them the monsters are merely food. But to the weaker species of this world, it was terror. Not all the dragons were uncaring though, and after the war, many helped the people keep the monsters under control and away from the cities until the mortal species learned to defend themselves.

One such friendly dragon was said to be a mighty green forest dragon, who made his home in the caverns under our very feet. He saw that the people struggled as he slept through the ages, recovering from a mighty blow taken from the invading gods. So he blessed the cave with his aura, soaking the healing of the Forest Dragons into the very stone of the cavern and the waters that have poured across them.

The dragon is long gone now, perhaps traveling, and perhaps gone home to the Green Star, but the magic of the Cavern remains, giving off a healing aura that we can rely upon to heal weary bones and rest our souls should they need it.”

To Cain that sounds like the dragon left an artifact or a piece of a divine being behind in the Cavern, perhaps hidden deep in the rock. Seraphim feathers have a similar effect on a much smaller scale. But to remove it would remove the effect, and it sounds like a lot of the locals rely on the cavern.

“Can you get to the cavern itself without having to fly back out?” Laura asks, enjoying the story.

“Indeed you can. It is a long walk, over two kilometers from the nearest surface entrance that isn’t the waterfall, but the whole region is riddled with caverns and the route to the healing pond is well marked. There are guards hidden near the cavern to make sure nobody tampers with it, but the Pixies don’t come out often unless there is a problem.” The storyteller explains.

“They might like you a lot.” One of the acolytes giggles, and Laura gives them a questioning look.

“On account of the fact you’re half pixie and the other half dragon of course.” The acolyte says as if it is the most obvious thing in the world.

“A common misconception. She is a full-blooded Opal Prismatic Dragon, but she loves sweet things so much, she made herself pixie-sized so that she could spend more time enjoying them without running out.” Nemu explains, and the acolytes drag her up to the speaker’s position. 

No way are they letting her just drop a bit of information like that and not tell the whole story. A Pixie-sized dragon is a wondrous thing, and the story of her adventures and deeds would be a great tale to add to their lessons. Which lesson depends on how the story goes, but the elders are thinking something along the lines of working to make yourself into what will make your life better.