《Ishval》 Chapter 01: Ishval Chapter 01: Ishval This story begins on the smallest planet in its solar system. Although extremely small, its inhabitants, having no comparison, named her Ishval meaning the giant green planet. Its size was not the only inaccuracy since Ishval is mainly made up of arid land. Water is a very rare resource. Only 200,000 km2 of its 100 million km2 contains living beings, vegetation and fresh water. When such a crucial ressource is limited, it is not far-fetched to imagine war would be constant there. Which is not far from the truth. The Ishvalians adopted a less chaotic but equally cruel system. After many calculations, the inhabitants of the giant green planet decided that only a thousand of them could have access to water per year. Including, of course, the births and deaths of that year as well as children under 8 years old. For an Ishvalian, nothing matters more than his ability to survive. That''s why the thousand ishavalians that would get water and survive would be decided through fist fights. At the beginning of the year, two ceremonies are organized at the same time. One with children aged from 8 to 14 and the other with adults that were older than 14 years old. Before 8 years old, children are not considered fit to fight or hunt. There is no physical difference between the sexes among the Ishvalians since the hunters are at the same time gatherers. Which explains why there is no distinction between male and female in the ceremonies. The poor souls who do not manage to win one of the thousand places, are presented with two possibilities. The first one, try your luck outside of the city or the second one kill yourself.As you may have guessed, the Ishvalians are a primitive group of people who have evolved very little in as much time it would have taken for others to reach the Iron Age. Nevertheless, they still discovered fire and crafted simple tools manly used to craft weapons and furs.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Their physique on the other hand has greatly evolved from generation to generation.The inhabitants of Ishval, are of average size between 1.70 m and 1.80 m. They have slim bodies and bony faces.They are endowed with an incredible number of bones since they have more than 500. Which perhaps explains their incredible flexibility. They are just as agile as they are flexible and that''s why they are great climbers. However, this is not their most fascinating feature. Their eyes in addition to being gold-colored have the particularity to see in the dark and adjust any high-speed movement to a visible speed. Such characteristics could be explained by greater peripheral vision or higher than average optokinetic reflexes. Of course, for this system to work it must be controlled by an iron fist. And that''s the role of the Queen of Ishval, Atae Elendral. The Elendral family, never reigned using strength or power. The family that has reigned since the beginning of time, as the people of Ishval like to call them, has kept the way to extract water from the soil a secret. Thus, if anyone opposed them, it would sentence all the Ishvalians to a certain death. Atae Elendral has a son, Rahn Elendral but no husband. Indeed, only an Elendral could reign. That is why he or she who shares the bed of the king or queen has no power and can sometimes only be used to provide an heir.Nevertheless, it remained one of the greatest honors that could be attained. Only the one that won the ceremony the most for the past decade could be chosen for that task. Tannyl Kelralei had never lost a ceremony in the past decade. He was chosen to conceive an heir and was not dismissed at Rahn¡¯s birth and participated in his martial education.Rahn is now eight years old and preparing to participate in his first ceremony. Chapter 02: Baba Chapter 02: Baba As if they were not already good enough hunters, Ishvalians have a genetic and physical capacity allowing them to copy any living being form and then transform into them. however, this ability does not come without any risk. If you take a form for too long, you might forget forever your original appearance. Even worse some Ishvaliens claim that some hunters took beast¡¯s forms and lost themselves forever. Even if those are just rumors, it is true that Ishvaliens use this skill to mingle with hordes of beasts and wait for some of them to move apart from the group in order to have an easier time killing them. Obviously, being able to copy the form and mimic a beast without it noticing the trickery requires a lot of training. For Rahn who is trying to escape from his intensive training that has lasted for more than a month and keeps going until now, this ability is of no help to him. He only needs to get up early and block his master¡¯s door. Even if, on his way, he was stopped by two or three Ishvalians that he could have driven away with his master¡¯s usual grunt, he would only gain a few seconds. Rahn knew that Tannyl would know where he had gone. Ishvalians trade very little, everyone provides for their own need. Nonetheless some members of the village have developed some techniques or products that are good enough to be traded with the most precious of liquids : water. The old Baba invented a cream from a variety of plants. When mixed with water this cream becomes some kind of milk that they call the babane.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Rhan is currently heading to Baba¡¯s hut with a small jar in his hand. Although babane is one of his favorite thing, it is not the only reason he is taking all of these risks to come and see her. Nobody knows how long Baba has lived for but if she has been around for even half of the stories she has been telling him she must be immortal. Undoubtedly, she is not but she is a never ending well of stories. Rahn is crazy for her tales and the few times he skipped training, he went to Baba¡¯s hut right away. After an insane run, he quickly reached Baba''s hut, entered like a gust of wind to try and surprise the old woman and maybe even get her to jump with fright but before he even put a foot inside, she told him: ? Don¡¯t even try, you little fool, sit down, i¡¯m going to prepare some babane ? Rahn seemed a little annoyed by this remark and replied : ? How come that never works ! You¡¯re blind ! ? ? How do you think i gather the correct plants to prepare some babane ? ? she answered Rhan laughed ? I always pictured you on all fours, sniffing the ground for hours ? Baba chuckled. Then a huge grin appeared on her face and she retaliated : ? You¡¯re not far from truth, I use smell and touch to gather the plants needed.But In your case, considering your smell, it¡¯s never hard to know your coming ? Rahn pouted for a second and said ? You do not smell like flowers either grandma ? Baba bursted into a laugh, approached the table to pour them both some cream-like liquid. Rhan quickly added some water and after they had silenltly drunk a few sips, Rahn put down the divine concoction and eagerly stared at Baba. As usual she only needed a few seconds to understand what the boy was waiting for. She stopped drinking, took a deep breath, and started telling him one of the few stories she still had not told him. Chapter 03: Manil Elendral Chapter 03: Manil Elendral There was a time when exploration gave hope to the ishvalians. The first Elendral that wanted to transform this hope into reality was Manil Elendral, son of Rohir Elendral. Rohir died from a hunting accident when Manil was just a child. A death like this one, futile and without a cause might explain why Manil wanted to leave and explore the wilderness to find water. However, he would not be allowed to just leave and risk his life without giving an heir to the Elendral. That¡¯s why, he had to wait a few years till he was old enough to choose a concubine and then a few more years for his daughter to be born. Therefore it did not surprise anyone that a few months after she was born, he left. After long years of relentless expeditions, he finally reached the end of the wilderness and the beginning of the desert we today call ? the deserted land ?. He still could not find any external water but identified a lot of plants and beasts. He theorized that an external water source would incur a change in the beasts'' appearance. Every beast he had met since today needed very little water to survive. This fact resulted in their appearance being quite similar to eachothers.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. They had a hard skin and no visible sensory and reproductive organs. He deducted that if he happened to meet beasts with soft skin as well as visible sensory and reproductive organs that will probably mean they had access to water. After this realization, he now had a clearer objective in mind : Find this new type of beasts. Today, we have to admit that most of our knowledge on plants and animals are thanks to him. However, to his daughter and the ishvalians at the time, this did not make any difference. After 30 years he had found nothing. His daughter he had barely seen hated him and the ishvalians now beleived they needed to have more realistic objectives that could give them short term benefit or at least some benefits in their life time. However, this outrage did not change anything for Manil who did not listen. He gathered his last loyal subjets and took the direction of ¡­? The door opened before baba could end her sentence and Rahn almost fell from his seat. He had been lost in the story as if space and time had stopped existing altogether. Tannyl Kelralei stepped into the room, took Rahn under his arm and said ? Manil took the direction of the deserted land and never came back. Nobody knows what happened to him or his men. The moral of the story is that there is nothing more important than your people and your family. That¡¯s why you need to train early in the morning so you don¡¯t disappoint your mother and the ishvalians that expect a good performance from you in the ceremony tomorrow. ? Then, with Rahn, making a half amused and half disappointed face waving Baba goodbye, still under his arm, he left the hut. Chapter 04 : The fight Chapter 04: The fight Atae Elendral looked at her son¡¯s ashamed face. For the past hour, she had been scolding him. To be truthfull she loved her son¡¯s mischevious side but sometimes to teach a long lasting lesson, you need to be harsh. One day Rahn would be the new leader that¡¯s why he needed to learn to be responsible. However, watching the tears driping from her son''s face she could not help but caress his white hair. " You know i love you rahn but you need to grow up fast for the good of our people. You might not understand now and think i¡¯m being unfair but one day you will understand that no matter the talent you possess at birth only great determination and mental fortitude will take you far on the path you take. " "yes mom" Rahn said while wipping the tears of his face. Atae smiled " You need to show your people your the strongest of your generation. You not only need to win but you need to look invicible." Rahn noded. Atae could never stay mad at her son. She kissed his forehead, stroked his hair one last time and left. As soon as she left the room, Tannyl came in. He did not comment on what happened and started talking about the fight right away. ? The boy you¡¯re going to face is not an easy opponent. He is taller and has greater reach. He will not give you room to breath. He knows your more technical than him thats why he will try pressure you and knock you out right away. I have already taught you all you need to beat this kind of opponent you know what to do right ? ? ? Yes sir ! ? Rahn said. When he saw the determined look on Rahn''s face he smiled and could not help stroke his hair as well . ------------------------------------------------- On a small space ship standing still above ishval ? We should kill the men we can still find a buyer later. ? ? We already have huge demands for young male why would we waste time finding a buyer you just want to have fun with the merchandise before you sell them ? ? Don¡¯t make it sound like you never did it and you know it sells way better ? ? Maybe but you should know we have a good opportunity here if we find a good talent i have a contact that would pay a heifty bonus." ?Shit why can''t we take both ?" ?Its the federation rule and you know breaking this one would entail death upon all of us. The bonus is 20 gold that should put a stop to all that moaning and bitching" Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.The taller man stopped pestering right away. ? You should have told me that right away ? ? Well we still need to find such a talent and you know that not easy to find. Anyway we are there. Let''s get this over quick." -------------------------------------------------- Rahn walked toward the small earth plateau where the fight would take place, feeling a thrill coming down his spine from the ishvaliens shouting and screaming. The crowd was hungry for a good fight. While he had semi long white hair, was of average height and had a feminine shaped face while his opponent was the exact opposite. He was a huge build for his age with short black hair and a square face. Despite his violent outer appearence his opponent greeted him quite politely. When they finished greeting eachothers the square faced kid pounced toward Rhan throwing a few jabs. Rahn did not block but retreated right away with his guard covering his face but as soon as his opponent tried to chase after him. he stopped and kicked the leg the tall 8 years old used as a support to chase after him. The knee turned slightly and the kid almost fell. However he knew falling would mean the end for him. He used his hand as a support jumped toward Rhan once again. Rahn did not flinch, he backed up once again and did the same thing. He stopped and tried to low kick. His opponent was ready and did not fall for the same trick twice. He stopped moving and watched the low kick miss by a large margin. However Rahn used the rotation of his hip to transform the low kick into a spinning back heel which hit the kid in the face and knocked him out cold. Tanyl smiled which was an unusual thing on his always frowning face. The crowd cheered for a few seconds but it brutally stopped. A small spaceship was hovering over them. The crowd was stunned. Some of them muttered " The gods !" Not knowing if they should be afraid and kneel or be happy and cheer. The weirdly shaped metallic structure landed and a panel fell on the ground. 10 men walked out and spoke an unknown langage. The one that seemed to lead the others pointed toward Rahn and some other kids . In a few seconds, the whole scene looked like hell. The 10 men had begun killing and grabbing some kids. The ishvalians had always been proud of their strengh but one man was a match for hundreds of them. Rahn watched the scene. He was frozen still. Fear and horror could be seen on his face. Suddendly he felt his hair being pulled. He had been grabbed by one of the men and was being pulled toward the spaceship. He scrached the man''s arm trying to free himself but the man did not even bother looking back at him. He stopped when he saw Tannyl and his mother fighting the leader. If it could even be called fighting. Tannyl was vomiting blood on the ground. A bloody hole in his chest. His mother was pale like a ghost, her right arm was drenched in her own blood. The leader must have been toying with her and got bored because he disapeard from the spot he had been in the blink of an eye and reappeared behind his mother.She gasped when she saw the sword piercing her chest. She noticed Rahn and must have been trying to say something but only blood came out of her mouth. Rahn felt like the veins on his forehead might pop out. He screamed but did not hear his own scream but he must have been very loud because the man smashed his head into the ground knocking him out cold.