CHAPTER 1 - The Traveling Writer

Despite the big number of residents that reside in the Tower of Heroes, there would always be a member on a lookout to recruit more heroes. It was just a regular day in a port town called Setondale, located in the western continent, as a dark blue grey cougar with orange Eyes sits on a couple of boxes, writing with a holographic pen and notebook as he faces the endless seas.

The name of this cougar is Dwight Carter, born with the orange Writer’s Eyes, but a heart of a traveler. He’s wearing a blue tank top alongside black cargo pants with white pockets on the side being held up with a brown belt and two white straps. On the left of his hip is a knife that is sheathed in an attached-holstered while the right hip has a leather hip box that has a lightning symbol etched on it. Wrapped around his forehead, is a white and light blue headband with three glowing blue gemstones stacked on top of each other in the middle of the headband.

“My stay on this continent surely was an experience,” the cougar laments as he continues to write, “stumbling into dangerous ruins from an old world, getting caught in a civil war between the flaming reptilians, and worst of all, waking up a giant, aggressive mythos in the mountains.” After writing for a couple of minutes, he taps on the middle gemstone on his headband, stopping its glow as the holographic writing utensils fade away. Leaning on the box on the right of him, he stares at the coastline, watching ships come and go as he ponders his life. “Every year, my luck seems to be getting worse too,” the cougar complains, “I don’t mind it though, it makes my travels a lot more interesting, but I wish someone was here to keep me alive.”

As if on cue, a burly, gray rhinoceros loudly lands behind the boxes, startling the feline off the boxes. After taking a moment to quickly calm himself down, the cougar peeks over to see the rhino. The man was wearing a brown cowboy hat that hides a bit of his black scruffy hair while a yellow neckerchief is tied neatly around his neck. Peeking more, Dwight sees the rhino wearing a dusty brown jacket that covers a dirtied black v-neck t-shirt and some black jeans. On his hip is a black metallic rod that rests in a holster. “You can come out now if you want,” the rhino exclaimed as he looked towards Dwight’s direction with his brown Eyes, “I already saw you when I was dropping here. You don’t need to fear me either, I’m just a simple mailman working with Winged Packages.”

“Aren’t you guys supposed to have mail on you,” Dwight blurted out as he emerged from the boxes, “I don’t mean to pry, but I had gotten packages from you guys before and most of their guys have some sort of sack with them.”

“It should be coming soon,” the rhino answered while crossing his arms, “I just need to signal my coworker to drop them off.” He takes out a white, metallic device with a red gem on it before the rhino presses on it. With a press of a button, the small device changes into a small metal critter shaped like a bird before it takes off into the sky. After a minute passes by, a leather sack falls from the sky with the metallic device lying on top of a stack of mail and packages. The rhino removes the device and picks up the sack as he says, “well no time to waste, got to deliver these before the day ends. Sorry for giving you a scare earlier, but take care and have a good day.” He begins to walk towards the town with the sack slung over his shoulder.

“Hey,” Dwight interrupted, “mind if I come along and help you out? It’s dangerous if you’re heading out of town.”

“Alright,” the rhino answers, “but are you sure? I assumed you were here to catch a boat to get out of here.”

“I did plan on leaving, but I can’t let someone go out by themselves. I’ve almost died exploring this continent, so let me help guide you around.”

“If you say so,” the rhino replies, “we’ve been talking for a while and we haven’t even introduced ourselves to each other.” He tips his hat, tilting his head before continuing, “the name’s Lewis Lamort, a simple mailman, but also an explorer when given the time.”

“Dwight Carter,” the cougar replies back as he formally bows, “just a traveling writer.”

“Ah so your Eyes are a writer’s,” the rhino responds, “but you sure you can fight out there?”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t carry a knife if I didn't know how to use it.” The cougar takes out his knife from its holster, with the blade shining with orichalum as the hand-painted handle depicts a tree under moonlight. “What about you though, you use your fists or something? Those lovely muscles of yours aren’t just for show is it?”

“Well if you want to know, you can check it yourself,” Lewis responded as he flexed his right arm, “but I do have a weapon on me.” He takes out the black metallic rod out of its holster before swinging it towards the air. With a quick transformation, the rod splits into eight different ends as it elongates itself, turning into a metallic whip. “I’m not quite used to this new replacement I bought, but a whip is a whip.”

“That’s good,” Dwight said as he crossed his arms behind his head, “let’s start going then. If we have to fight, I’ll protect you as best I can.”

“Same with you, I wouldn't want you to scar that nice face of yours.” He puts away the mechanical whip as he marches onward towards his destination. “Though we’ll start with this town so we can split up.” Dropping the sack, Lewis hands Dwight a couple of letters and boxes. “Don’t worry about where you need to go, the parcels will give you the coordinates. When you’re done, we can meet up at the entrance.” With that, the rhino parts away, quickly leaving the cougar by themselves.

“This shouldn’t be bad,” the cougar says out loud as he looks at the load he was given, “Just a simple enhancement will make this quick.” He takes out his holographic writing set, writing in it while saying, “with the strength of a rhino, the writer lightly walks with the swift breeze blowing his way.” The set fades away immediately as he begins his delivery while holding all the packages he was given under one arm.

When he is done with his side job, the cougar meets up with the rhino, who stands near the gates of the port town with an open pocket watch in his right hand. “That was quick,” Lewis notes as he closes the pocket watch, “though I should’ve expected that if you know your Eyes well.” Putting away the pocket watch, he gives the cougar a smile before taking his sack of packages and continuing, “don’t worry about carrying anything. I can handle it, all we need to do now is follow the coordinates and deliver the ones left in the sack.”

“Hold it,” Dwight commands as he takes out a black marker from his pockets, “let me write something on that sack real quick.” The rhino nods as the cougar goes behind the brown sack, writing while speaking, “the bag that holds endless gifts will forever remain out of everyone’s sight except the eyes of the rhino and cougar.” He backs off as nothing seems to happen to the bag, continuing, “done. We can get going now.”

“So you’re more of an enchanter aren’t you,” Lewis asks as Dwight moves forward, “I thought guys with your Eyes would summon magic or something out of your words.”

“Well everyone’s Eyes work differently to each other,” the black cougar answers, “mine is just a bit more tedious for it to work, but I’m used to it.” He looks back at the rhino, asking back, “you want a speed enchantment? It’ll be written on your skin, but the marker takes a bit to wash off.”

The two begin their expedition, traveling around the western continent, the pair deliver the gifts as Dwight guides Lewis away from dangerous landmarks and ruins. Their last stop would be the fiery remains of a reptilian town, Obsidian, where civilization fell from a civil war of the kingdom called Ashen De Aire. As they arrive at the ruins, mutations of mutilated corpses endlessly roam the kingdom as fires continue to burn everlasting.

“You sure there’s a delivery here Lewis,” Dwight asks as he scouts around the area, “last time I was here, I couldn’t find a living soul to tell me their tale here.”

“The package says so,” the rhino answers back, “it’s a pretty recent order too, so someone has to be around here. If we look around, they might come to us.” Before the two take their first step of their search, a loud roar emits nearby, forcing the two to check it out as the sounds of metal clash loudly.

Turning around a corner, the two spot a crocodile wielding a pike as blood vials rests on his waist, walking towards a red lizard clutching on his injured right arm as many corpses lay around the two. Without much thought, Dwight immediately charged at the crocodile, knife drawn. Upon hearing the footsteps, the crocodile happily turns around, only to be lightly slashed by the cougar. “The FUCK are you doing,” the croc angrily scolded as he kicks the cougar away, “I thought I was finally gonna get some help out here, not get assaulted!”

“Dwight,” Lewis speaks out as the cougar gets back to his senses, “you just assaulted my last client.”

“Oh shit,” Dwight cries out loud, “I’m really sorry! I wasn’t thinking, I thought you were going to kill that guy.” He puts away the knife immediately as he looks through his things for first aid.

“You better be,” the croc replies angrily, “good thing you only scratched my arm and not one of my blood vials.” As he steps forward, the crinkling of broken glass emits below his feet. “Well,” he looked down momentarily as he spots a pool of blood from his broken vial, “fuck. You are so dead.”

Within a matter of seconds, the croc’s eyes become bloodshot as an aura of a blood thirsty predator exudes from him. The crocodile immediately charges straight toward the cougar, ready to pierce through the feline with his pike. “Just my luck huh. Hey Lewis,” Dwight meekly asked as he took out his knife again, “mind backing me up here?”

“Of course,” the rhino replies while pulling out his metallic whip, “I can’t deliver the package if he’s insane. Need me to hold him down for your enchantments?”

“Yes please,” the cougar pleaded, “you don’t have to hold him too long, just enough for me to make a quick carving. It’ll hurt a bit for him, but at least my Eyes will see it clearly.” He reaches inside the box with the lightning symbol, taking out a handful of marbles before scattering them between them and the berserk crocodile. As soon as the marbles stopped in their tracks, a field of electricity forms between each one as the crocodile slowly pushes through, slipping and falling into the electric barriers. The cougar rushes towards Lewis with a marker, writing “strength of a dragon,” on his arm before saying, “just in case, keep him down for me will you?”

“Of course,” Lewis happily replies, “my partner.” The rhino stabs the ground with his whip as his brown Eyes glowed brightly. “Get ready Dwight, once I get him entangled, go rush in and do your thing.” After making sure the cougar was ready, roots sprouted beneath the crocodile, wrapping themselves on each limb as Lewis pulled back his whip hard. With the strength of the rhino, the roots pull the crocodile down to the ground, exposing his back as Dwight quickly rushes to hop onto.

With no time to spare, Dwight starts lightly cutting and carving runic symbols into the crocodile’s scaly right shoulder. “With a heart of the gentle beast, the raging croc will be pacified,” Dwight chants as he continues carving, “Or at least calm down at least. Also I’m sorry.” He quickly gets off as he signals Lewis to get rid of the vines while watching the crocodile cautiously. “Oh Lewis, take care of the injured guy,” the cougar commands, “I’ll take care of the croc here. Don’t worry about the marbles, they should have already lost their charge by now.”

He watches as Lewis rushes to the injured red lizard as the rhino quickly pulls out the same metallic device from earlier before tossing it high into the air. Within a matter of seconds, medical supplies fell from the sky, letting Lewis apply first aid immediately. “What exactly did you do to me,” the croc groans as he gets up to sit up, “I feel calm, but not in a good way either, especially when my back is stinging.” He glares at the cougar, who immediately grabs some supplies and patches up the croc immediately. “Is it because of those Eyes? I’m not as familiar with them as much compared to some of the other guys.”

“Yeah,” the cougar answers as he carefully rubs antibiotics on the carvings, “though what exactly happened to you?”

“It’s just a side effect of a curse,” the reptilian answers back, “a pretty bad one too, I have to make sure I’m drinking blood to keep living. Though I’ve recently developed an addiction to it to the point my mind goes berserk when I lose one of my vials. Like what you did earlier.” He glares at the cougar before taking a swing of his blood vial and refilling it from a nearby corpse.

“Sorry,” the cougar apologized, “I’ll give you the money to get another one.” He continued tending the wounds as he watched the rhino going through his sack. “So you ordered something right? Let me grab it for you before we forget.” He quickly goes over to Lewis, grabbing the last package as he waltzes back to the crocodile and hands it to him. “Here you go,” Dwight happily blurts out as he looks at the name on the box, “Draven. My name is Dwight.”

“Thanks cat,” the big reptilian replies, “well despite what you did to me, you guys sure are efficient on delivery. Wish I knew about your services long ago.”

“Oh I don’t work for them,” the cougar admits as he sits next to him, “I’m just a guide to keep the guy safe, but I’ll let him know, I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear. So what was in the package anyway?” The sounds of ripping and tearing emit as the bloodthirsty crocodile opens the box, revealing a small, round communicator device.

“A friend of mine ordered it for me,” the crocodile reveals as he attaches it to his belt, “told me it’s the best way for us to contact each other, so I was ready for it to come the whole day. He’s taking care of someone and I had to make sure he’s ok.”

“Is he your kid,” Dwight asks as he takes out his holographic notebook and begins writing.

“In a way, he is,” Draven answers, “even if we were together for a couple of weeks, I want to protect him from harm and teach him all the things I know.”

“So why are you out here,” the cougar asks as he sees Lewis striking a conversation on his end, “you probably could’ve traveled with him or something.”

“My gang found something that needed my attention,” the croc sadly replied, “and I can’t bring him along, he’s not ready to come back there.” He gets up immediately before continuing, “but enough about me, I should probably get going with that guy I found. He and I are on the way to a shelter nearby, we should be fine on the way there.” He looks over to the rhino and the lizard, shouting at them, “hey Volc, you ready to leave? The shelter shouldn’t be that far so we can head over there to rest.”

The lizard immediately gets up, thanking the rhino before going to the croc’s side. “If you want, we can escort you on the way there,” Lewis offers as he holds the empty sack, “I’m already done with my deliveries for today so we have time to help you two out.”

The crocodile simply smiles at the rhino, replying, “sure, the more people the safer we are. Thanks, you two.” The four travel onward, talking amongst each other until arriving quickly to their destination, a packed shelter filled with other red reptilians taking refuge. “Take care, you two,” Draven lets out as he eggs his red lizard companion to go inside, “may we meet again, hopefully when this place isn’t a mess. I don’t know how far you guys are from, but don’t get yourself killed out there.”

Saying the rest of their farewells, the rhino and cougar part ways with the crocodile, eventually heading back to the port town of where they first met. “Thank you for helping me out today Dwight,” Lewis thanked as he put away the sack and equipment, “it was nice to have some company this time around.”

“Yeah, no problem Lewis,” the cougar replies, “it was nice to travel with you while it lasted. Maybe we can do this again in the future.”

“About that,” the rhino says as he takes out his small metallic device, “we can do more of that if you like, if you would like to join this group I’m in anyway.”

“Oh, is it not your company,” Dwight asks as he leans on the wall, “I wouldn’t mind joining either way, but what group is it?”

“Well, I’m not sure what we actually call ourselves,” Lewis unconfidently answers, “but we’re some organization that lives in this place called the Tower of Heroes. No money needed to join, just need a recommendation from one of the higher members.”

“Strange, but whatever,” Dwight replies back, “you heading there right now or something? I can hop along with you to see what the place is like.”

“Alright, get ready for a ride my friend.” The rhino hugs the cougar tight as he presses the button on his device. Within a matter of seconds, the two teleport away from the port, crossing the continent before reaching the entrance of a big tower filled with patrons that come from different places. “Let’s head in my friend,” Lewis happily says while patting the cougar’s back, “I’ll give you a tour around the place and get you situated.” The two goes into the fateful building, spending the rest of their day exploring the tower as the cougar meets up with other heroes while getting familiar with the surroundings. By the end of the day, Dwight would receive his key to his room in the tower, immediately storing it away as he finds himself writing the night away with the noise around him.