37 The Fiv... Three Great Calamities (1/2)
”Are you sure it is the Five Great Calamities and not the Three Great Cala… ”
THOMP
The moment he started talking, all could see the old lady preparing a small snowball that was instantly launched on the forehead of Leodagan. Truth to be told, he did seek that punishment since all the noble children knew about the Three Great Calamities. Pointing the fact that this teacher was messing around with the number three and five was a deadly mistake and the son of magus ended up paying the price. He nearly knocked his head backward but his two friends managed to catch him before that potential accident. None dared to laugh at that sight and they were more and more convinced to get the hell out of this class as soon as possible.
”Besides the arrogant brat, anyone wants to try his luck?” She created more and more projectiles, from the same snowball that would only hurt a bit to a true ice shard that will be extremely painful to the receiver. The back of many kids was filled with cold sweats and a major part of the seated students tried to appear as small as possible. Seeing this, Owen had no choice but to step up before the fourth calamity arrived for them.
”From the dawn of mankind, numerous threats plagued the different nations and sometimes even brought the ruin and the destruction of the latter. But only three events were so important that the entire world was riddled with war and death. The main issue with those three terrible events is the fact that the memories and the writings about the most ancient calamity are nearly gone. The second and potentially most important of the three was spread enough thanks to the bards and musicians but numerous names and locations during those dark times are still missing from the archives. That's why it is difficult to really tell what happened.”
His calm and collected voice manage to reassure the different children in the room. Even the teacher was visibly less angry and began to sit down at her desk, not blatantly threatening her students.
”Good voice sweet boy, you can continue your tale. At least you are better than your friend.”
Talking about Leodagan, he had a huge red mark on his face, proof that the snowball was not as light as it seemed. Owen tried to search in his memory for a short time what happened thousands of years ago but only found a few things. Since it was the case, he didn't dwindle any longer and start his story.
”The most ancient Great Calamity was called the Age of Fire. It was at the beginning of our society and the humans were not yet divided into multiple nations. There was no war in the same sense that it has today but sometimes, the human tribes fought for water, food, women. The existence of magician was not even really known and those capable of manipulating the elements were often seen as gods. It is hard to know, but it is speculated that we already knew about numerous non-human races like the dwarves, the elves, the djinns, the vampires and such. However, like us, they were very few in numbers and the world was in a sense of relative peace.”
The more Leilade listen, the more she knew it was entirely true. She was the only one in this room that understood what this planet was, a world entirely designed by the Ancients. All of them always served a purpose, whether it was to try a new species in a controlled environment or another experiment like that. Most of the time, the smartest beings of the universe started at a very small scale, to not disturb the created environment. The less their actions have a repercussion of the world, the better it was. As for the First Calamity Owen will talk about, she was certain it was the test the Ancients wanted to conduct.
”But everything changed when the mana suddenly run amok. It was not immediately known by the humans, but soon, the plants and the animals changed in a drastic way. Previously harmless rabbits turned into true killing machines, with sharp teeth and pointy ears. They could leap about … great distances. I don't know why one of the few texts still conserved detailed those mutated rabbits so much, but apparently, they were deadly foes. In the end, however, the previous preys turned into ferocious predators and the magical beasts were born. After all those years, we managed to reduce their numbers but there are still some regions totally under the control of such monsters. It was, in that regard, called the Age of Monsters.”
The youngest descendant of a magus stopped talking for a bit and looked at the old woman Ella Romba. She harbored a huge smile and seemed quite happy by what he told to the class. But she still complained a bit about some part. It was still impressive for such a young boy to have learned so much about ancient times and since it was the case, she decided to change the tale-teller.
”Ok, the sweet boy was fine, who will talk about the next calamity? Arrogant boy? Or the dwarf next to him?”
The dwarf that was called like that was Jorien that was fuming internally.She knew she was small, but not that small to be called a dwarf. She was ten but even smaller than Leilade, but she knew that everyone grew up at a different pace, hers was just a little slower. After that insult, she still stood up and angrily describe the Second Great Calamity.