Mavi felt his whole body was sinking into some kind of warmth. It felt like he was surrounded by the gentle spring sunshine. He knew he was dreaming. He could see nothing, though. He had his eyes closed even in the dream. But he knew it was a dream. He felt it. His magic had nowhere to go. It was settling comfortably inside him. Condensing into an energy, ready to burst at any time at the slightest sense of danger.
Mavi felt warmth. But he could slightly sense that his heart was starting to freeze over. The warmth was comfortable. But his heart was cold. So cold. The cold started to spread. From his heart, all the way to the tips of his fingers. His spine tingled from it. His toes curled up, trying to seek the warmth that was slowly diminishing.
Mavi could feel his entire body lose its strength as it was plunged deeper into the surrounding warmth. But the warmth was something that didn't give him any comfort at all. The warmth felt like it was a giant yellow light bulb which was pretending to be the sun. It was foreign. Uncomfortable. Fake.
Shivers ran down his spine as his consciousness slowly came back. Mavi opened his eyes slowly to adjust to the bright light of the sun shining through the crack on the walls inside the temple mass hall. His surroundings were loud. Noisy. It was another day of struggle.
They had been in that little village for five days now without any sign of reinforcement Mairin promised whatsoever. He had exhausted all of his magic building and strengthening the barrier so he could not perform the resonance spell to call out to Mairin again. Even with the help of the crystal, it was still not enough.
So, they had been holed up inside the temple for the past five days, defending it from within and trying as best as they could to not let anyone slip inside. Which turned out to be easier said than done.
The temple curb was so big it took them half a day patrolling its entirety. Not to mention the hidden and beaten path as well as the tunnels and underground shelters which were very intricate. Even though they were mostly closed-off, they were still a variable to be taken note of.
"Drink this," Allerick approached Mavi who was still sitting in a daze on his cot in the middle of the altar in the mass hall. He handed Mavi a warm cup of tea. On another hand Allerick had what looked like charred meat on a stick. It looked edible at least even though Mavi wouldn't want to know what kind of meat it was. And since he could opt to not eat, he, well, chose not to.
Allerick grinned at Mavi's look of clear disgust as he sat down beside his lover and devoured the meat in one bite. Mavi rolled his eyes at his lover's childish behavior and asked instead, "How's the situation?"
Sitting down beside Mavi, Allerick looked up to the other side of the room where the other members of the team were busy with their own stuff.
"We almost ran out of food," Allerick told Mavi. "The magic users are all on edge, the warriors are not better after last night's taunting from the people outside the barrier," Allerick told him truthfully.
"They're still outside?" Mavi asked and Allerick nodded. "Even now? They sure are persistent," Mavi grumbled.
"What about you? How are you feeling?" Allerick asked back. Worriedly, he looked Mavi up and down. Knowing how much magic and energy Mavi had spent the last few days, Allerick was worried that Mavi would strain himself and ended up getting sick from lack of magic since this place was far from any magic veins. Even if he was made of magic and could replenish it from any natural objects, the amount he spent was far greater than the amount he got back lately.
"I'm much better," Mavi smiled warmly at Allerick, knowing whatever he said would not lessen Allerick's worry. Mavi went silent after saying that, thinking back on the dream he just had before waking up. He had been feeling weird ever since he woke up from that dream. He looked up at his beloved who was still staring at him with worry in his eyes, born from deep love. It was heartwarming, but also heartwrenching. Mavi decided not to tell him about the dream. At least not until he could decipher it.
"What's the plan for today?" Mavi, instead, got up and stretched his body.
"The barrier is still good. The team last night finished mapping the entire tunnel system below the temple," Allerick told Mavi.
"That's good news," Mavi said and started a series of stretches. His body felt sore and stiff after having to sleep on the hard floor these past few nights.
He felt ridiculous thinking like that, to be honest, when they were so used to sleeping outside in the forest with nothing but their backs against the earth. Now here he was, complaining about the hard and cold floor. Immortality sure had made him spoiled.
"It was indeed good news," Allerick said as he stood in front of Mavi as the younger one casted a cleaning spell for the both of them.
Bathing was surely out of the question.
"For today, one team will try to scavenge for food farther into the back of the temple grounds. We found a plot of farm land yesterday. If there were still seeds available, we could grow them with magic, so there's that," Allerick started explaining to Mavi about the plan for the day.
"Should I make a lure to catch some game?" Mavi asked, playing with his dagger and cleaning it at the same time. It was his beloved dagger. His mentor gave it to him for his coming-of-age ceremony all those years ago.
"Can you do that?" Allerick asked, already feeling grateful.
"I'm not sure how effective it would be since there's a barrier, but I'll try making some," Mavi said, thinking. He put the dagger away and took out a small blue crystal and played with it instead as he started designing the lure in his mind.
"Please work on that," Allerick, sensing his lover had immersed himself in work, smiled and planted a soft kiss on his cheek before leaving to talk to other team members regarding their plan for the day. He had many things to do. They all did.
Mavi's fingers tingled when the magic was released and he formed a small ball in his hands. He carefully moved his fingers and kneaded the ball to shape it into a delicate small golem and poured his magic into it to animate the little golem. The small creature opened its eyes and blinked its big eyes at Mavi who chuckled. He really couldn't help but to create cute golems as opposed to those terrifying and hideous looking golems. He just thought that no creatures, natural or otherwise, wanted to look hideous if they could help it.
Mavi bopped the golem's forehead and whispered his instructions. The golem, having limited intelligence, stared at Mavi with its too-big eyes before slowly nodding its head and then leapt down from Mavi's palms before hopping and tripping away as it made its way outside the building.
The golem, made of magic as it was, was undetected even by the most sensitive of the magic users. Not only because it was Mabvi who made it, but also because the amount of magic needed to create such a small and simple golem was very little. Even if it were to come across a magic user, even the most sensitive of them would only feel a slight pulsating magic that resembles the magic of the earth itself. Very convenient, Mavi thought to himself, almost proudly.
It wasn't long before the golem found itself beyond the barrier. Mavi was very careful when he poked a little hole in the barrier so the golem could pass through. And luckily, none of the people outside the barrier realized the golem came out of the barrier. It wandered slowly along the beaten path leading towards the forest.
Allerick, seeing Mavi closed his eyes after the little creature disappeared into the wall, knew that his lover must have connected a string of his consciousness to the little thing to gauge the situation outside and made sure the golem came back with at least something for them to eat. Allerick sighed heavily at that. Indeed, the spell was quite convenient for Mavi to be able to do those things. However, it required a significant amount of magic and energy. Not to mention the uninterrupted attention it required.
Allerick was worried.
Mavi, on the other hand, was quite relaxed as he roamed the outside through the golem.
It was early in the day, and the sun was shining gently. The tall trees behind the temple were swaying along with the breeze. Mavi could almost feel the refreshing scent of the earth. But of course he couldn't.
Feeling slightly pitiful, Mavi patiently guided the golem farther into the woods behind the temple and tried to gather some mushroom, at least, so they could eat. Even if they were poisonous mushrooms, it didn't matter, he could just purify them. What the team needed most right now, aside from some moral encouragement, was a full meal. It had been days since they ate an actual meal, and not some charred meat. He really didn't want to know where they got meat at all.
The golem put all the mushrooms into an enchanted bag Mavi made for it and scavenge for more food in the woods. Mavi also had the golem fill the bag with some edible insects. They were nutritious after all. The golem also brought some edible greens.
On the other hand, Allerick and the rest of the members were busy figuring out a course of action. Allerick realized, food wasn't the only problem. Staying here in defense solved nothing. But blindly confronting those people was also not a great idea.
One of the protectors, Jana, had been tinkering alone in a small room since a few days ago, saying she should at least try and make something that could help them, whatever that was.
Allerick and Rigel had been keeping the members up with combat training in case they needed to fight their way out. Magic or no magic.
But other than that, they really didn't know what else to do. Allerick, being their King, their leader, was under so much pressure. He was debating whether to stay put and wait for the reinforcement which, by the way, they had no idea when it would come; or they could just guerilla it and take those people outside by surprise and attack. Those were kinda stupid, to be honest. Or so Allerick thought.
He was really stumped. He had never been cornered like this before. Not even during the great war. And the war was the worst of a battle he had ever been in.
But this? This is next level.
The taunting, the unknown force behind those people is what made Allerick unsure.